Fall Back = Work More

Ah yes, the joys of Daylight Savings time for most individuals involves "falling back" and gaining and extra hour of sleep. Unfortunately for those of us in the healthcare field it means more work. Yep. Instead of 8, 12 or 16 hour days we're subjected to 9, 13, 0r 17 hour days. It's not that bad, but I've never been so excited for daylight savings time to end because then you "lose an hour of work." Whoo...I love my job, but sleep sounds really good right now. Wait...Still have an hour and a 1/2 of work instead of only 30 minutes. Who thought up daylight savings time anyways. Wished I could be in Arizona right now where they don't fall into the whole "Daylight Savings Time" craze. I believe it's a craze now. Back to work.

Scheduling Conflict...

So when I registered for my last quarter of nurisng school I was scheduled to have class on Mondays and clinicals Tuesday-Wednesday. Now, due to changes in scheduling we have class on Mondays and clinicals on Thursday and Friday. How inconvenient is that? Talk about eliminating the chance to take any "mini-trips" during the quarter and trying to schedule work time around that hideous schedule. It's kinda bad. Oh well, I guess life goes on and there's little time left to endure this craziness. Here's a little something that made me feel better.

Just In Case...

Now that my Scotland "buddies" have left the state, and the country for that matter the stellar newspaper the Houston Chronicle has decided to publish a story about us. No pictures, but I have to give them more credit than the Scotland newspapers b/c at least they put our names in there. In scotland we were, "two American students." "LOVELY...."

Here's the link:

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/thisweek/zone13/news/3413758

4 Months....4 Months...4 months...4 months

Yep...the OMEGA cohort graduates four months from today. Can you tell we're more than a little excited about it? I think the 16 of us that are left have every right to be excited about it considering we started out with 40 and only the strong survived. Well, not to put the "cart" before the "horse," but I'm guessing that all 16 of us will make it through to Feburary 25th. Speaking of, since it's only 4 months until graduation...that means it's only 2 months until Christmas. Ah yes, I love the holidays.

Fly me to the moon...

One of the requests from my "scotland girls" as I now choose to call them, was to visit NASA. Now, to the ordinary Houstonian this seems like a mundane request, because we've all been there right. Interestingly enough I actually learned some new information. It was a pretty awesome trip despite the fact we didn't get to see the big water tank and despite the mystery that there really is no "zero gravity" room. It'd be pretty cool if there was though. I'm not sure if that's gramatically correct, but I don't even care. Sorry I couldn't find them a real "astronaut" to give them the tour, but they had a great time anyways. Here's a picture of them enjoying all NASA has to offer.

Galveston, OH Galveston...

Karen, this one is for you. Yep, that's right one of my favorite residents of Scotland had this song stuck in her head for the entire trip. I think that's probably one of the main reasons that when we went to Galveston, TX it was so absolutely beautiful. As a resident of Houston most people expect the galveston water to be muddy and brown and not that gorgeous, but when we went on Friday the 21st it was absolutely gorgeous. The water was blue, there was a nice breeze coming off the water and you couldn't ask for a more serene setting. Here's a picture for all of you naysayers who like myself, don't actually believe galveston ever has gorgeous weather. Yes, that is a crazy scottish lass running across the beach in Galveston. She's been watching too much BAYWATCH...

BIG FAT NAP...

So I'm going to be working backwards here for a few days, because for the past two weeks I've been entertaining our exchange students from Scotland. Fun times were had by all, and I was very sad to see them go. So sad, that we had "technical difficulties" getting them to the airport. Normally we get to the airport with hours to spare, but this one time they decided to do construction on the freeway and cut it down to one lane. I realize it's Saturday and everything but that is just madness. UTTER MADNESS. Mili's cookies and I had a blast getting them there and we laughed and laughed as the profanities hit the air. Pretty good experience. I hope the Scotland Girls weren't too traumatized.

Here's a picture from when we were in Scotland. Hope the ladies had an excellent flight back to the "motherland" and are ready to return to university. Man, I'm already typing like them. Oh, before I forget now that they're gone I'm taking a BIG FAT NAP because I'm really, really tired. As much fun as we had...I might need two big fat naps just to make up for it all....Big hugs to my Scotland Girls from Suz and the Mil'ster.

Spam Spam Everywhere...

No, I'm not talking about the "meat in a can." There is literally spam all over our electronic lives. It permeates everything. I got a text message yesterday on my cell phone that was SPAM....Now of all places to get spam that one hurts the most b/c while I don't pay for a certain number of text messages per month those individuals who do are robbed of one of their "included messages." I understand about it flooding our email inboxes, and perhaps I just have too many inboxes so that makes me even more jaded towards it. The latest spot for spam that annoys me the most is right here on my "lovely" blog. Now, why is it that they can SPAM me when I'm ranting and raving? I don't care though, I will continue to rant and rave as long as I can about it. It's MADNESS. It's more madness than psychiatric nursing in a handbasket. I mean, seriously is there no end to spam. As much as we try to thwart it, nothing ever seems to work. The spam monster rears it's ugly head and continues to tell us about penile enhancement, erectile dysfunction, prescription medications you can get for free, and everyone's favorite...Porn.

Who do these people think we are? Do they actually think I know anyone named "big tool?" Hello, I didn't fall off the turnip truck yesterday. By far the most disconcerting part of the whole spam issue is when they send you an email using your own email address as the "sender." Come on...I am not senile yet, and I think I know when I don't send myself something. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that it's not something you would want. I have yet to find anything good to come out of SPAM, but perhaps one day it will replace internet dating sites. Some spammer will hook up with someone he/she spammed and it will be "spam" at first sight. Imagine telling that story. How did you meet ?? Oh he sent me an email about erectile dysfunction and I just had to respond. RIGHT...WHATEVER...Enough is enough. I'm with BJ on this one. STOP THE MADNESS and let me spam the spammers for a while.

NSA....SCHMAY....

I've decided that the NSA was specifically designed to make our lives hell while in nursing school. Why would you make an organization mandatory for graduaton and put in place "points requirements" if not to punish people ??? I think it's some secret society and the secret is that no one understands the need behind it. Okay, I get the whole professional organization thing, but t-shirts and meetings where one of the officers is YELLING at everyone else is not what I consider "professional." Don't even mention the fact that I was supposed to do a presentation today and if I hadn't said something they would've totally forgotten about it. Sheesh.

Plus we're nearing graduation...134 more days and they're yelling at us about points and blah, blah, blah. WHATEVER...these people need to get lives. Seriously...I realize they get off on being "leadership" of a student organization, but what in the heck. Why are they yelling at us ?? It's pointless. Can't wait until some overbearing charge nurse slaps this girl and puts her in her place. Okay, that was mean, but I am just writing what others are thinking. Anyways, soon enough the madness will be over and there will be no more NSA to deal with and then I'll be faced with the ENA or some other equivalent organization. Does the madness ever end ???

Days off and stuff...

141...The count is down to 141. How does it seem that the days you have off from both work and school always seem to go by the fastest? Clinicals, despite the fact they're essentially "training missions," are still less than thrilling. The days move slowly and we are only there 1/2 a day. Then when I work the days either drag by or fly by. The good days are the ones that "fly by." The good thing is the more I work...the more I feel like I can actually do this nursing thing. With 141 days left I suppose that is a 'very good thing.'

143

The countdown continues 'til the end of nursing school. Today was our "graduating level checkpoint" meeting. It's getting closer and the majority of us are very excited, but today seemed to evoke panic in others. It is a bit nerve wracking to think about all the changes that come with graduating, but after a clinical day from HELL it makes graduation a sweeter option. One of my fellow classmates and I were on the same unit today, and my experience wasn't all bad but her preceptor was a total witch.

Seriously I stayed away because I was afraid that a house might fall on her at any moment because she was so rude. It's one thing to not want to have a student and voice that, but it's quite another to take on two students and just be a resentful hater while having the students. It's not cute at all. Hmmmm, wish I could take tomorrow off.

Driving us Nutso...

Argh...nursing school is driving all of us nutso. 144 days left 'til graduation. Yep, that's right I'm so desperate to graduate that I've counted down exactly how much time is left to live life as a student. Don't get me wrong, I fully intend to enjoy my time as a student during the holidays when the new nurses are having to pull horrendous shifts on Christmas and New Year's Eve, but I'll be glad for all the paperwork and all the madness to be gone. I am sure my classmates are "right there" with me. Anyways, picking patients was full of joy today as I realized that the unit we're on is not quite what we expected it to be. Thankfully I managed to carefully select a patient that meets all the criteria and won't keep me from going nuts with boredom. Aight...enough whining. Back to that paperwork I was less than thrilled to have to keep doing.