mrs. robinson

There are a couple parts to this post today.

I'll start with work last week. Holy shitake mushrooms Batman. Turns out the hospital doesn't care too much about outrageous nurse-patient ratios when it comes to hiring enough people to staff the floors. Thursday on telemetry each nurse had 8 patients. They are only supposed to have 5 each. Seriously?? We had 7 patients a piece that day with the charge taking a full group. This is getting absurd. Even more absurd is that on the next schedule everyone is going on maternity leave or going to new jobs entirely, so we are even more barebones staffed. And no one is being hired who can replace these positions. A slew of new grads were hired but they all just started orientation and will be on it for the next 2-3 months. Only a couple of experienced nurses were hired. Let's just say the people who are leaving the floor are certainly not regretting it at this point.

The next things for today are much more positive in nature. :)

The past few days I have been off of work and since Corey works 9 hours every day, I am home alone a lot. Which leaves me pretty bored most of the time. I am mostly unmotivated in keeping busy with household chores, so I have to find little projects and things to do to occupy myself.

Yesterday, I went to Ulta Beauty (which I had been planning on doing for a while) to look at nail polish. I had been itching to get some pink or purple glitter polish and maybe another muted pink color. I left with just that. I wanted a solid color polish that was infused with very fine shimmery glitter. I don't like the clear glitter polishes, because I think they look silly. I ended up getting OPI nail lacquer in "It's My Year" from the Miss Universe collection. It is the most perfect shade of royal purple that in the light shines with the finest gold glitter.

I love it especially since it doesn't take 1,000,000 coats to get it to look right. You can do it in one or maybe two to get it a little darker.

The other color, which I haven't worn yet, so I don't have a picture is OPI "Sparrow Me The Drama" from the Pirates of the Caribbean collection, I guess for the new movie. I picked it because it is a muted lighter pink.

So my nail polish adventure came to a close and now I've started another day of general boredom. I have been obsessive with my use of StumbleUpon! (see my Links page) and today I found Nutella Mug Cake. Which really just tastes like chocolate cake.

I think the Nutella just adds more chocolate flavor and some moisture to the cake. Since you make this in the microwave, it is pretty prone to drying out, which I can tell while I'm eating it. It is good, but make sure to put some chocolate sauce swirl or chocolate chips, too to make it more moist. Good for a quick microwave treat.

I have actually found a lot of really cool stuff stumbling, so I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking to find new things on the internet and try them out!


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"heaven holds a place for those who pray"

alright

Corey got his MacBook!! Yes sooner than Friday, but I guess he just couldn't go another day without it :)

I got an incoherent text message and voicemail talking about it while I was at work and found him when I got home giddy as a schoolgirl. Needless to say it's a happy day at our house :)

I mentioned in my last post that work would give me more to talk about. It did today. But I'll wait until after tomorrow's adventures to explain.

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FYI, I added pages to this blog. I have an "About" and a "Links" page. :) Corey made fun of me saying "wow, really advanced work, there..." Well, it's advanced for me.


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"it's all the same to me as long as I'm with you"

yoü and i

This Friday we will have a new addition to the family :)

Corey bought himself a MacBook! We will have it on Friday. So now out little Apple family consists of (and this will show you how much we like to collect):

Corey's list:

iPod video 5th generation black

iPhone 3G

Aiport Extreme Base Station router

MacBook 13" unibody

iPad 2 16GB white

Anna's list:

iPod 4th generation white (no video) (My 1st iPod!!)

iPod classic black

Airport Express

iPhone 4 black (very easily my most prized possession; followed closely by the next item)

MacBook Pro 15" unibody

I suspect the next big computer purchase I personally make will be an iMac.  I'd like a desktop computer and an iMac does everything with zero desk clutter.

I have this strange aspiration to collect older Macs, too. Like I'd really like to have a clamshell iBook in turquoise. And a matching original iMac in the same color. The original Macintosh would be wonderful, also. The crown jewel of my collection would be an Apple II. I would play Oregon Trail on it forever and ever.

I may or may not come up with something more interesting to say later. I have work the next 2 days, so I'm sure some story will come out of that. Or Corey will have a weird dream in the meantime or something.

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"this time I'm not leaving without you"

viva la vida

I've just come off working the worst weekend ever. Like holy crap.

Saturday got to a grand start when we were 2 nurses short on the floor. Meaning the charge nurse, Tina, took a full group of 6 patients and the rest of us took 7 (normal max is 6). And it wasn't a quiet weekend. All the crazy shit that could happen happened and everyone's unnecessarily overbearing family was there, too. Just to add fuel to the flames. They ended up calling in an admit-discharge (unheard of on the weekend) who was a huge blessing. Because of her, everything that needed to be done got done and I got to go home with a sliver of my sanity. Which I lost on Sunday. I got a whole new group where everyone was confused and incontinent. One was even combative and had to be moved to where he could have one on one attention. I got one immediately back (of course another bedrest total care), but she was the sweetest of the bunch and I was glad to have her.

Although, my Sunday ended splendidly. I got a surprise friendly face around 6:40pm. Corey drove up after work to see me and take me out to dinner at Mimi's Cafe. I was so happy to see him there after the weekend I had! My day was suddenly brighter and my patients and their families slightly less horrifying.

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Today has been good so far. I've mostly just been relaxing, but I was productive in getting Abigail a bath. She hated it of course, but at least now she is clean and smells good.

This has clearly tired her out for the time being. After the torture of being de-shedded, bathed, brushed and made to relax outside on the porch to dry off, I guess she deserves a little nap. :)


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"be my vision, my sword and shield"

moves like jagger

I love retail therapy.

I got some toys today courtesy of Corey :) He got me a much needed new screen protector for my phone and some new shoes!! I have wanted the shoes for a while. They are for work: Reebok ZigTech. In fun lime green. The following is just a picture from the website. Mine are silver in the main body of the shoe with lime green on the Reebok logo and the zig zag sole.

I got some obscenely neon socks to match them. Fab, I know. :)

I also had to get a new phone case today. My old one was too soft and didn't fit my phone snugly. It sat on the edge of my screen protector pushing it up off the screen around the edges every time I gripped the phone or really did anything. Thank you Best Buy associate for selling me a crappy case telling me it was a great one. So far the new one fixes the issues I had with the old one. I elected to spend my money at the Verizon store for that.

The new screen protector that I got is a Zagg invisible shield. It's what I had before, but that crappy phone case ruined it. I'm going to have Corey professionally install it so I should have a much better result this time. :)

It was fun both of us having the same day off together! He's back to work tomorrow, but I get a couple more days. Thank goodness. I may need it for when I'm back at the hospital all weekend. I'm afraid my good day being floated to telemetry may owe me some crappy days on med-surg.


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"when you're with me, I'll make you believe"

clocks

Today started out great.

I got that lovely 5am call from work putting me on stand by. I got a few extra hours of sleep and snuggles, and then got called back in at 9:15. The unfortunate thing about coming in late from being on stand by is that you get all the new admissions. Which on day shift can be catastrophic depending on the type of patients you get. Fortunately, the Force was with me and I got a great group of post-op patients that made the day not so bad. I hope to get that same group tomorrow. They are fab.

Yesterday, I went grocery shopping without being budget conscious. It was wonderful. I got a ton of delicious food like black grapes, Nutella, OJ, butternut squash soup, Chai tea, Triscuit crackers, and lots of other yummies. It was my most satisfying shopping trip in quite some time. I'm eating Triscuits with Nutella as I type this. I just had to talk about that. For no particular reason.

I had a little something to talk about, but I'm afraid it's not really appropriate for this outlet. I will only say this: Be careful of sharing financial responsibilities with anyone. Including a close friend. I am talking specifically about sharing a residence and payments for it. If you can afford it, I recommend living alone. And don't be charitable when someone can't hold up their end of the bargain. Never say, "oh it's okay this time," because people will only take advantage of you from then on.

Live and learn, I suppose.

I can't wait for Corey to come home. I think he had an exciting day, too.


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"cursed missed opportunities"

moving to mars

What a long few days at work. I'm hoping this is a good and relaxing weekend. I am back at work Monday and Tuesday, but then I have 3 more days off, so I can hopefully manage that.

This feels like it's going to be a post with several random topics in it.

The next one being Coldplay's announcement of their new album, "Mylo Xyloto." There are a few songs on it that are already available, and I have to say, I'm excited. Although, I am always excited to hear new music from them.

Next small random topic: My parents will be here today to move my sister into her new apartment for the school year! I think I am charged with entertaining Ruby for the day and maybe going swimming. Hard work, I know. Should be a very good day.

Moving right along... Corey is officially back from training for his job. He goes to work today, I think, as a regular employee not on orientation. Exciting! I think he is excited. I think this is a job he will really be good at and enjoy.

Last night to celebrate Corey being back, and for me to wind down after a tough week at work, we ate at the Olive Garden. It's my fake Italian guilty pleasure and I love it. Of course since I was in a post-work-must-enjoy-myself mood, I made sure we had an appetizer, wine, good entrees and dessert. Ran up the bill pretty good, but I thought it was worth it. I'm eating my left over tiramisu right now. Yum! Some breakfast, lol.

I'm sure I'll post something more coherent this weekend when I'm feeling more inspired, but I think that is it for this Saturday morning.


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"one day we'll be living in the stars"

heal the world

This week has been worse than the last time Corey was gone for training. I've been terribly bored and unmotivated to be productive at all.

Part of this may be that I am in a little depression having finished all the episodes of The Tudors (where I cried during the last episode like a fool). I'm looking for something to fill the void, but I'm not sure what that will be yet. Not much could top that as far as suiting my interests perfectly.

In my boredom, I went shopping around yesterday. Surprisingly to me, it was hard for me to even take interest in shopping around, which is NEVER a problem for me usually! I found nothing at TJMaxx. Never happens. Could not find a new phone case I liked at Best Buy. Not shocked on that one. Could not motivate myself to get anything at Victoria's Secret. Rarely happens.

So I settled on a pair of Toms shoes at Warren's. I have wanted a pair for a while, and I must say they are pretty cute and surprisingly comfortable. They feel too light to be as cushy as they are in the soles, and they actually have some attempts at arch support. I got the brown metallic tweed style. I think that is a new-ish style since looking at them on the website.

I will say this about buying Toms shoes: You really need to try on the specific pair you want! I do not recommend buying them off of the website for a few reasons. First they run surprisingly small. Now, you do want them to be a bit tight around the ball of the foot (across the tops of the toes) because the material stretches. I was told by the sales associate that they also stretch a bit at the heel, so if they are hard to get on at first, that is what you want. I would personally size it with the length of your foot to the length of the hard sole with about a quarter inch extra room on each end and that should be the right size.

Back to how small they run on top of that: I generally wear a 6.5 or 7 in all shoes. I own a wide variety of shoe styles, and all of them are one of those two sizes. I had to get a 7.5 to get the length right and still have tightness across the top of the foot and the heel when putting them on (which should resolve the more I wear them and they stretch). I was also told by the sales associate that all materials fit differently, so I would say even more so, based on that, if you are looking into buying this shoe, you should try them on in person!

In any case, I do really like them so far. I wear them without socks, and they are very comfortable. Plus they have a charity cause attached to them, so you'll be doing something nice for someone else in addition to yourself! No complaints there, for sure.

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"there's a place in your heart, and I know that it is love"

bloody mary

It is known by many close to me that I have a have a historical interest and sometimes obsession with the British monarchy, particularly the Tudor era. It has always interested me, and now I have found a tv show on Netflix that satisfies my English history nerd fantasy.

It is as you may have guessed, The Tudors which airs on Showtime. Obviously, I do not have showtime and cannot therefore watch the newest episodes, but I watched all that was available on Netflix, and holy cow, I love that show. Corey picks on me for mucking up his "recommended for Corey" playlist on Netflix with documentaries, and now it's even more filled with history documentaries and historical dramas. I would highly recommend this show for anyone mildly interested in that era of European history. I would even say that it's content is very accurate in addition to having the drama that makes it good television.

Look it up. Watch it. Now excuse me while I watch some documentary on Queen Elizabeth on Netflix. Best $8 I spend every month for sure.


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"je ne veux pas mourir toute seule"

young forever

I am fiddling around with my blog look again. I really like the typewriter style type face. We'll see how long this one lasts.

I took a couple of pictures of the new place to post on here. Note that we are still in the process of sorting things out and moving in, so there is some messy-ness. Do forgive me :)

The first picture is of the office. We have Corey's desk in the front corner, the bed in the back corner, and the loveseat on the wall with the door, though you can't really see that here.

The next picture is taken from the front door looking diagonally toward the other bedroom. It shows the living room and some of the kitchen. Again, sorry for the messy house.

After I took those, I decided to take a couple cute ones. One is of Abigail and the other of some flowers I got at the grocery store the other day.

And lastly, how could I pass up taking a picture of the thermostat? It's a cool 110 here in Fayetteville. And our thermometer sits in the shade. Fab.

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"we live a life like a video; where the sun is always out and you never get old"

shiver

We have internet again! Finally! They came out yesterday to install the fiber optics and the modem/router. It seriously took like 3 hours since they had to install the fiber optic box and the battery backups and rewire the phone jack to make it ethernet. Corey got home and set up our routers to expand the network of the all in one AT&T modem/router. By the time we got in bed, we had fabulous high speed internet thanks to U-verse!

Apartment is basically set up, and I am loving it! The way it is laid out doesn't make me think I live in a box, and seems more like a house inside than an apartment. It has high ceilings and lots of open space. I also like the location. It is set away from the interstate, and away from Wedington, so we don't hear police sirens, cars driving, or people yelling anymore. It is very quiet inside and apparently well insulated. I hardly ever hear anyone in the apartments around us except when I am walking in the hallway outside the apartment.

I will try to take some general pictures of the place and post a couple. For now I have this picture of Abigail's first day hanging out on the balcony. She surprisingly really enjoys it out there!

Another thing to note about recent events is that it is really effing hot outside! I wish I had a picture of when our thermometer was over 110. All I have is this picture of yesterday's mild 101.

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"from the moment I wake, to the moment I sleep, I'll be there by your side"