Seattle is putting on a pretty good summer these past few days.  I put on my sunshine attitude and went to a bbq where people were playing yard games (I know..fun!), went jogging in the park and almost passed out from heat exhaustion, then took a blanket to another park and studied for the NClex while sunning my legs.  I'm a little pink today, but proud of myself for not hiding away from the heat.  I love hot weather when I'm on vacation, but if there aren't palm trees around I quickly lose my tolerance.  It's only fun to be hot and sweaty if all there is to do is be hot and sweaty.  I don't like it when I have to work, or run errands, or be social.  That's why I live in the NW!

I might study more in the park today, or I might find a cool, dark, cave-like place to sit and drink coffee, and pretend like it's not ninety degrees outside. 

Working the night shift seems to be very agreeable with me.  Kind of unexpected, but nice.  Let's see how I pull off bbq with grandma on 4 hours of sleep :). 

I'm starting to wonder if I should just give up on the idea of studying and doing well on my two exams next week???  Can't seem to get myself to do anything constructive. Just been daydreaming about how wonderful and free my life is going to be after next Thursday.  I can feel a tinge of anxiety hovering in the "i really should be studying" part of my consciousness that  has been controlling my brain for the past two years.  Wake up in the morning, "i should be studying",  eating lunch, "i should be studying", driving my car, "i should be studying", grocery shopping, "i should be studying".  And from what I've heard from friends who have completed the program ahead of me, it takes a while for that little voice to go away, and there are lots of , "shouldn't I be reading something?" moments for months after graduation.  I have an exam on Monday over WBC disorders, burns, and trauma.  Then my final exam on Wednesday.  Out of the 116 points available between the two I only need 57 to pass the class.  And even though I wouldn't be all that thrilled with just passing, it hasn't done much for my motivation to figure that out that I could basically continue to do nothing and still end up at graduation.  Bad Nikki. 

On the other hand, Good Nikki completed her management class with a 4.0.  Yes, in theory, I can effectively make others do what I want.  Yippee. 

Happy Wednesday.  2.5 days of clinical left. 

It's cold! What the hell? And I'm sick of school.  Two weeks left.  I have to force myself to study over the weekend.  I am soooooo far behind.  Mostly because I'm too excited about graduation to focus.  But there will be no graduation if I don't start the reading for my finals.  Clinical is great.  I took care of 3 complex patients last night with dressing changes and IV meds and felt fairly competent.  They all survived anyways :).  This rotation is on an HIV/oncology unit and the patients have some pretty interesting history and treatments.  My brain is happy with all the new nursing stuff I'm learning.  Ok now, no more blogging, FOCUS, focus, FOCUS. 

Two days later... still not one page of management reading done.  This means I'm going to the library today for study time.  It's the one place I can count on for productivity. 

And the laptop is staying home.

So much studying.  66 days until graduation.  Today's topic:  renal failure.  Note to self:  drink more water, pray for a lifetime of healthy kidneys. 

Weekend was pretty much lots of reading, a round of storage space tetris, and a visit to Scott's grandma.  Oh, and back to back episodes of Manor House.  Liked it so much I added Colonial House, Frontier House, 1940s House, and 1900 House to my netflix queue.  Go PBS!  

Happy Thanksgivin'. Hope everyone gets to relax and enjoy a day off today.  I'll be at the hospital, working, until this afternoon, then I'm off to the boyfriend's mama's house for dinner. 

All Seattle schools are closed today, including mine.  I'm going to stay in my pjs, drink coffee and write my end of quarter self evaluation I've  been putting off.  Anyone get stuck in the snow?  osbick_bird: how was the drive to spo-vegas? 

9 hours of consecutive textbook reading is just wrong.  And unfortunately I'm not even half done. 

Wow. School is intense. On the agenda for next week: start clinicals at assisted living facility, read 24 chapters & complete outcomes, watch 1 video, read a few journal articles, 1 oral presentation of a journal article, SCCANS breakfast on Wednesday morning, learn how to take vital signs, find time to eat, sleep and breathe.

People are freakin' out. Everyone looks a little different than they did just a week and a half ago; wrinkled forheads, tired eyes, clenched teeth. And bonding has happened so fast, there's been this intuitive knowing that we really need eachother if we're going to make it without falling apart. All these people that are used to being the best students are experiencing what it feels like to fall behind on studies, fail a quiz and have no idea what's going on. It's almost like we've been dropped into some weird social experiment. And I guess that's the point. We're supposed to experience all this stuff in order to learn a process - that's a word we keep hearing over and over and over again.  So, I'm just going with the flow and trying not to let it get the best of me.

Tonight I'm eating Pho and watching Survivor, taking a break, and looking forward to lots of study time this weekend. 

Week 1 of nursing school complete.  I'm alive, and hopefully can stay this way the rest of the quarter.  TONS of group work (bleh).  But I guess it's about time I became socialized.  osbick_bird, I'm slightly envious of your distance learning. 

Details of my adventures here.

Scott & I are going to the Puyallup Fair today with 3 of our friends.  There are a few special things about the fair.  First of all it just reminds me of growing up in the country.  Going to the Tillamook County Fair every summer was a really big deal for my family.  Everyone would meet up there, friends, cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents.  And the kids would run around and go on rides and the adults would hang out in the beer garden or watch the pig and ford races.  If you haven't heard of the pig and ford races you should look it up, it's pretty hilarious.  I love seeing all the farm animals and the craft exhibits.  Scott is obsessed with riding the zipper and we'll probably do that a few times, but my favorite is the big wooden rollercoaster.  And this is the only day every year that I eat a corndog.  And an elephant ear. 

I'm so happy because I get to bake something today.  It's been a long time and I miss it so much, but because of the whole eating healthier thing I've been good to not keep big batches of baked goods around the house.  But today is a special occasion, Ramona's birthday, and I have the privilege of baking her cake.  She requested a yellow cake filled with chocolate pudding and iced in chocolate.  I found a yellow cake recipe on epicurious that has sour cream in it, I added some fresh orange zest just because and it's in the oven right now smelling really good.  The frosting is chocolate sour cream.  I think it'll be a nice take on the Duncan Hines version we grew up on.   I am taking a shortcut on the filling though.  I had to make huge batches of custard at the bakery and just don't like doing it.  I'm going to indulge my guilty pleasure of chocolate jell-o pudding that we used to eat when we were kids.  Now hopefully I can make it look as good as it smells. 

Exactly 1 week before school starts and I've only read about 3 of the 20 assigned chapters, and need to get to the school library to watch the 5 videos on reserve.  Procrastination is not an option anymore, there's just too much to do.  Falling behind could be fatal.  After reviewing my syllabi it looks like I'll be reading a lot (10-15 chapters), 3-5 articles and watching 3-5 videos each week that have to be viewed at the campus library.  It would be nice if these videos were available on-line.  I have to make a conscious decision not to complain too much about all of this.  I totally signed up and knew what I was getting myself into, and am very excited to be starting the program.  That said, it does seem like some things could be made more accessible, efficient and convenient, especially when our work load is so huge. 

My uniform came in the mail this week, and it fits.  I had to buy it without trying it on because I was in Costa Rica when the reps came to town for fittings.  They're out of Portland... once again not so convenient.  My lab jacket was back-ordered.  Hope it gets here before clinicals start.  And, I look like a big smurf.  Blue scrubs head to toe with white shoes.  I'm going to pick up my stethoscope and pen light this week, then I'll be ready to assess with the best.  I pranced around in my uniform this morning asking Scott if I looked cute.  I don't think he's as into the whole scrub look as I am.  I'll admit that I probably have a slight hospital fetish, because I love the way everyone looks in their scrubs.  Especially the surgeons.  And they are very comfortable.  Not a bad thing to put on for work everyday. 

It looks like the rain has decided to stay.  I'm enjoying being able to cozy up in my apartment with my boyfriend, books and coffee.  Fall is my favorite time of year.  I need to get some Ella Fitzgerald for my MP3 player, and some good scented candles and my nest will be complete. 

Scott comes home from his 5 day family camping trip today. Yay!  This was my weekend to work, so I couldn't go, and that totally bummed me out.  But I made some money, and that's very important right now.  I'm buying my enormous stack of school books tomorrow... about 20 of them.  Medical books are not cheap.  Good news is I got my grant, and they're setting up an account at my school bookstore which should cover about 3/4 of the cost.  Bad news is I can only use that money at the school bookstore, and if I could use the money to order my books from elsewhere I could probably get all of them with the grant money.  Ah well, beggars can't be choosers.  I'm EXTREMELY GRATEFUL that I'm getting this kind of financial assistance at all.  The kind I don't have to start paying back in two years. 

After reading osbick_bird's post, I came to the conclusion that I need to organize a study space for myself. Our dining room table is the only logical/available space in our teeny tiny apartment, and I can probably clear off one of the shelves of cookbooks for school books.  I think I need some sort of filing system too.  There's no space for a filing cabinet, so I'll have to figure something out.  Last quarter I had a laundry basket full of paper.  Not the best way to keep track of thing. 

I started knitting my first beanie this weekend.  At first the circular needles were hard to get used to, but it's going ok now.  I only tore it apart and started over about five times.  I'm using black wool with a brown and white stripe, for Scott.  I already told him that he's not obligated to wear it.  We'll just have to see the final product. 

Choose 1:

a. time
b. money

When I have nothing to do, nothing gets done. 

Went to Grandma Johnson's birthday party in Centralia yesterday and had really amazing macaroni salad and baked beans.  Yummmm.  Love eating at Grandma's house.  Anyone's Grandma's house.  Scott's aunt Marnie was there.  She's a retired public health nurse and it's always fun talking to her about nursing stuff.  And went to the Mariner's game on Saturday with Scott, my step-dad and step-sister.  My step-dad's cousin is an umpire, so we had seats right behind home plate.    I love going to baseball games, they make me giddy.  Well, I've only been to three games, ever, but have decided that I really like them.   People can keep giving me their extra tickets.  :)  Other than the family outings, I've mostly been practicing the art of restlessness.  Guess it's about time for school to start again. 

I can't believe I WANT to go back to work when I don't have to.  And even harder to believe is that I volunteered to work tomorrow morning at 7am.  Love my job, sometimes hate my work ethic.  Or hate my mom for being such a workaholic role model.  Anyways, back to the hospital tomorrow for a guest appearance on my home floor. *YAY* I stopped by the staffing office today just to check in and check the schedule, since I had no idea when I was working again or what my schedule/floor assignment would be.  And it was all good news.  Not only was my buddy working in the office, but my new schedule is everything I requested before I left, and she gave the me opportunity to spend the day with my work friends tomorrow.  If I don't think of it as work I guess it doesn't seem so bad to go back.  It's just the idea of working after not working so long that seems unappealing to me, not the job, work place or coworkers.  I don't officially start working until the 19th of this month, and I'm only scheduled 19 hours a week.  This is my first non-working summer since I was probably 14 and old enough to get an Oregon worker's permit... Figaro's Pizza... the memories.  Also took care of my 2nd in a series of 3 Hep-B shots needed for nursing school, set up a meeting to get some more money for school, and went running at the park with Scott. 

Back in Seattle... a few days now... and I feel a little disconnected and unorganized and have been running around trying to take care of necessities, like new car tabs, groceries and meeting up with some friends.  The kitties are happy to see us, even though every time we leave I'm sure they think we're never coming back.  It feels good to be here, but there are things I miss about CR, like our morning swim, and the overall friendliness of the Ticos.  Good things about home are friends, no bedbugs, warm showers and the excessive conveniences we have here.  Even though I'm feeling a little disturbed with myself for coming back and falling back into my routine without a hitch.  I thought I might experience a little more culture shock coming back to modern city life... but... nope.  Just happy to have every little thing that I don't really need right around the corner. Today Scott's family is having a birthday barbeque for him at the beach.  Seattle beach should be interesting to revisit.  I can hardly wait to put my foot in the water, maybe that will be a shock, hehe. 

Guess it's been a while.... let's see.... still in Puerto Viejo, have about 23 days left and I'm not ready to come home. Since we got back from Panama we've ran into the official rainy season. The temperature's still warm, it's just wet more often, about 50% of the time. Seems like we get two days of sun and then a day or two of rain. Not Seattle rain, REAL rain, downpours with LOUD thunder and lightening and blackouts. I like the rain here. Rainy days give us a vacation from our vacation. When it's sunny we're usually riding our bikes into town or to different beaches, swimming, and other outdoor stuff that really wipes a girl out when it's hot like it is here. On rainy days we rest, cuddle up in the bungalow and play video crack (we're addicted to jewel quest right now), read, and watch hours and hours of sci-fi on the laptop. So far we've made it through Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, and The 4400. We brought a nice library of movies and TV series that we've been wanting to watch because we knew we'd have many rainy days to enjoy them. Think we'll probably start 6 Feet Under today. And the power goes out, every time it storms, usually just flashing off now and then, except at night when it goes out for hours at a time. We keep plenty of candles around, and we have a gas stove top so we can still make food when we don't have electricity. I made peanut chicken curry by candlelight a few nights ago, and enjoyed it. It's all part of the adventure. We got caught in a blackout late one night while we were drinking and dancing in town at Baba Yaga's. Very interesting. Of course, everyone that lives here is used to it, so when everything went dark the candles came out and we waited to see if it was temporary, and it wasn't, and it was raining really hard, and a group of people from the bar, probably 25 or so of us went out to the street and blindly walked around to see if any of the other bars had generators going (or “the electricity machines” as everyone here calls them), but the whole town was black. Scott & I had to find our bikes that were locked up at EZ Times, where we'd started our night, then the mile along the beach and through the jungle back to the bungalow with our little flashlights. It was fine, very wet, and only one of us rode off the road once :).

Yesterday we rented a scooter and rode North to Cahuita, where there's a national park with nice trails that go for miles through the jungle. We got there a little too late to explore much, and planned on going back early this morning, but it's stormy today so we'll have to go next time there's sun. I'll have to say that renting scooters is at the top of my list of good things to do while on vacation. I like scooters in general, but exploring a new place on one is top notch fun.

And, anyone wanting to see more pics can go here:
http://www.truthaboutlies.com