March 31, 2003
Home again. In my opinion, the week went by a little too quickly. I am a little bit sad that it is over. But we had some fun.
Stopped at the Galleria on our trip down to see Matt. Went to TWO candle parties within a 24 hour period over the weekend (it was two candle parties too many, but hey, we were on vacation).
We went out to eat a ton and spent every free moment with Ryan, Mandy, and sweet little Macy. She entertained us by rolling over, smiling, and much squealing. Adorable.
We went to San Diego on Tuesday the 26th for Mandy's 22nd birthday. We ate at Old Town and then went to Seaport Village. San Diego is beautiful. I love it.
We got together with a lot of old friends and family and had a good time. We stayed up late and slept in (and slept at night). Now it is back to real life. Back to work and school. But the countdown has started...two and a half months till graduation. 10 weeks (or maybe it's 11 with finals). That's not very long, is it?
March 21, 2003
By the way, if you haven't seen Monsters, Inc, you totally need to get down to Blockbuster (or your movie rental store of choice) and rent it. It was so very cool.
Well, I passed my ACLS class yesterday, so I am ready to go. That means if a code blue were to occur, I am supposed to be able to get things going, tell what the person's heart is or is not doing, and treat them accordingly. I hope I don't have to do any of that any time soon, but I feel a sense of accomplishment in having taken and passed the course. I am also very glad it is over...I was kind of stressed out about it.
So, today we head down for Vista. Good old Vista. To see good old Ryan, Mandy, and Macy. And many others. I am really looking forward to the time off and to the time away. This might be our last trip before we move. Wow. Well, I have stuff to do.
March 16, 2003
Back to work tonight for three more in a row. The last three weeks or so have been really crazy at work. I am just hoping for three good nights, not too busy, not too slow, with a nice sized patient load and no problems. Is that too much to ask?
March 15, 2003
I just woke up from 13 hours of dead sleep. I slept like a rock. Nice.
Yesterday morning, when I got home from work, I had to got to this workshop. You see, I am going to be a preceptor. I am going to have a student nurse come work with me for 5 shifts. Apparently, I am supposed to help her begin her journey from the "novice nurse" into the "expert nurse." I think it will be fine and all will go well, but I really do not consider myself an expert nurse. I am not necessarily novice, but I am kind of hanging out more on the novice side than the expert side. I guess I fooled them.
So, I got home, ran some errands and then spent the rest of the day trying to stay awake. It was lame. I should have just gone and taken a nap.
I work again tomorrow night, then Monday and Tuesday. After that, I take an ACLS (Advanced Cardiac Life Support) class on Thursday, then we are on our way to sweet little Vista, California. My mom and dad left for Europe yesterday. They are either in England, awaiting their flight to the Czech Republic or in the air somewhere. They will be over there until April 22nd. I can't wait to be retired!
March 12, 2003
I am longing for a job in the day time. I will keep the twelve hour shifts. Heck, I will work four twelve hour days a week. I just want to sleep at night. With my lovie. And to feel normal.
March 10, 2003
Boy oh Boy! We just bought this. Impulsive? Us? Never.
So, I got clocked in the nose last night. We were going to sleep. I sat up a little bit just as Shane rolled over and his head connected with my nose. He said he has never heard me cry like that before. He heard my nose make a noise as it got cranked. Oh, it hurt so very bad. Luckily, there was no blood. Not that I have a problem with blood, really, but I would be worried that it was broken or something if there was blood. It just hurt. Shane said he was sorry a million times (he is still saying it). It was totally an accident. I put some ice on it, then went to sleep. It is sore this morning, but it looks okay.
You must understand that my husband has a thing for noses. Not for bonking them, but he likes them. Well, not all of them. He likes cute noses. Some guys like butts. Mine likes noses. He likes mine quite a bit. It would be a sad thing if he were to have broken my nose and disfigured it, adding a bump or a ridge or making it a little crooked. His wife's perfectly sweet button nose would be destroyed and he would be devastated. I know he would still love me, but it would be a very sad day and I think he might mourn for the nose he was so fond of. Lucky for him.
I hope everything is okay. I can breath through it and as long as I don't move it around, it doesn't hurt. It's just a little sore.
March 9, 2003
Boy, did I have three crazy nights...
Night one, confused little man in restraints, calling out every few minutes, trying to be an escape artist, leaving his restraints behind and booking it out of bed so he could go down the street and pick up some Canadian Mist. Early in the morning, I have a patient "go bad." She ends up in the ICU, intubated with a brain hemorrhage. Very stressful and sad.
Night two, I have the demon patient. Let me tell you, she was a demon. Pure evil and she was out to make my life a living hell. She was just a little bitter, sick old woman who wanted to die and anything we did was a problem. It was a serious test of my patience.
Night three, I am the only nurse on the floor. The only one! Never seen that happen there. It was really weird. I had a nurse's assistant, and four patients to myself. Luckily, little miss troublemaker from the night before was on her way home when I came on. The family had asked how the night had been and the nurse told them that she had been a little feisty with me, so they bought me a little monkey beanie baby with a balloon. His name is Zig Zag. (And yes, I think it is because he rolls his own cigarettes.) It had a note attached that said, "Erika, from room 216-3. Sorry!" I felt kind of bad, but it was very sweet of them and they obviously were very aware of her tendencies toward evil. I was very happy to see her go. At about 4 in the morning, I had an admission, which made the last few hours go by fast. When I got his info, I thought, "Oh, this will be easy...he's a 43 year old guy with pneumonia," but he was a little bit confused and had to constantly be reminded to get back in bed and to keep his oxygen on. He kept wanting to take the sheets of the bed and stuff. A little strange. The night went okay and I have a few days off to recuperate.
March 6, 2003
I don't know anything about the game, but I think the Dark Cloud 2 commercial is very cool. It's a Playstation 2 game, but I have a hard time believing that the commercial has anything to do with the game. The commercial starts with this broken down house and then in fast forward (or fast rewind), it goes back in time, to where the house is nice and new and there is this big tree in the front yard that had been chopped down in the future. It keeps going back and you see the house being built and then just an empty lot and the tree is just a little sprout and then a seed. And then the seed flies up into the air into an old pioneer guy's mouth. It's very cool. You should see it. I doubt the game is that cool.
March 4, 2003
I'm curious... I have been having a debate with my husband. We have been discussing the average amount of time one spends taking a shower. I take about 10 minutes, including shaving. Shane averages about 30 minutes. 30 minutes! I think 30 minutes is a long shower. He disagrees. He does shave in the shower, so it takes a little longer, but still, minus the shaving, he is in there over 20 minutes.
I am interested in knowing how long you, dear reader, spend in the shower. Am I crazy? Is 30 minutes average? I always thought my 10 minute showers were a little long. My dad, the speed showerer, can shower in like, 3 minutes. And in my teenage years, when water in California was really scarce during the water shortage, we had to turn the water off when we were soaping up and stuff. Oh, and there was a bucket in the shower under the spigot to collect the water that dripped out that my dad would use to flush the toilet or to water some plants. So, maybe I am wrong. Enlighten me. Please.
So I got my passport photos taken today. I guess they are okay. I look much better than I did in my last one. I wish they could take a couple and let you choose from them. The guy who took the picture was really old. I don't think he really knew what he was doing. I have this problem of smiling too big when I get my picture taken. And when I smile really big, my smile is crooked. It looks kind of funny. If I could just smile normal, even just fake it, it would look normal. I just have to smile with all my might and there is the crooked smile. Anyway, it doesn't really matter. So, I guess tomorrow I will take my application in and send it on it's way. I have been looking for airplane tickets on the internet. My parents are going to Europe next week and they bought there tickets from Bestfares.com. They have this deal, which looks really good, but you have to become a member to get it all set up and I am thinking that maybe there is a catch. We could fly to Europe from LA or from San Diego for about $600 and get a "free" stop in London. I want it to be true! Everywhere else I look, it's like $750 and up for a flight to Paris (which is the cheapest city I have found to fly into). So, it sounds great.
March 3, 2003
We made it to church yesterday. A couple from the bible study group we used to go to was there and we found out that they just bought a house around the corner from us. We couldn't believe it. We walked over there yesterday and saw the house. They invited us over to help fix it up this week if we wanted to. It would be a great opportunity for us to get together with them and start a friendship. We both like them a lot. I hope it works out. It probably will, since we are just about out of here. We will undoubtedly make tons of friends in the next few months, right before we move. Isn't that the way it always is?
My Mary Kay party was yesterday and it was a lot of fun. Lots of people came and they bought lots of stuff. Shane went with me over to Lori and Kevin's house fro dinner afterwards. They live in Pismo Beach in this huge house right next to the beach. I couldn't believe how cool there house was. It was beautiful. They have super nice furniture and they painted the rooms really cool colors. It is a nice place. We had a good time over there. The food was good and they had three dogs there that were fun to play with.
The big Mardi Gras celebration was yesterday downtown. We didn't go. I don't get what the big deal is. We live in little podunk San Luis Obispo. It was supposed to be a family thing too. I thought the whole idea of Mardi Gras was girls showing off their boobies for beads and drinking as much alcohol as humanly possible. The year before last, the celebrating got a little out of hand, so they didn't have it last year. They had these commercials on promoting a safe Mardi Gras for this years celebration. I just can't imagine it being a very good time. I mean, how fun could it be, minus the booze and boobies?
