What to write?

Ever since graduation, my life has been pretty simple. I have great parents that are letting me live at their house until job plans pan out and I can get a place of my own. I have spent the last 2 weeks or so studying for the NCLEX and now that I have passed it I'm getting ready for my next adventure...Two weeks in the Caribbean!! :)

As for the job plans - I don't currently have any. I've applied to a handful of hospitals but I haven't heard back. But then again, I'm not seriously looking until after I get back from my vacation. Right now, I'm just happy with being able to say I'm a nurse.

The other thing I've been working on is getting back in shape. I got a Nike Plus chip that fits in my shoe and communicates with a receiver that I plug into my iPod. It tells me how fast I'm going, how far I go, and the calories I burn when I run. And after each run I sync my iPod to the internet and it keeps track of everything and allows me to compete with people on an international level. It's pretty sweet. It has kept me motivated to run on a consistent basis.

So yeah, that's life as I know it.

Deserving of a Post

I took my NCLEX (state licensing exam) on Thursday. Long story short - I PASSED!! The letters RN, BSN now appear after my name!!!

(I also realize I haven't updated the blog in over a month...sorry. A post with more substance will be coming soon.)

The Day Finally Arrived

I think I've been counting down since I had 300 days left and today was the day! I graduated!! It was a great day. Pretty dang hot, but really fun. Just a couple pictures...

The diploma!!

If you want to see more check them out here. I will be posting more on this link once I get a cord for my camera. I have a lot more to upload.

Can't stop watching...

...this video from the new TV show Glee!

Awesome Weekend

I'm done with class so I got to enjoy Portland this weekend without the looming stress of papers or tests or anything school related. Carina got off early on Friday so that's when the fun began. The Rose Festival started this weekend, so we went down to the waterfront to walk around, walk through the fair (which was free on Friday - I like free), and see the fireworks. We had a really good dinner at Rock Bottom Brewery (really good happy hour, btw) and then just enjoyed the good weather. The fireworks show was amazing. I'm used to the 10 minute 4th of July fireworks "show" that Corvallis puts on every year. This was lots better! We got a good place to stand along the river (because we got there 1 hour early) and watched the 20 minute show. Very cool.

Saturday was just as much fun. We went to the Saturday market and got henna tattoos. I have wanted to get a real tattoo for a while but wanted to get it in henna first to make sure I really liked it - enough to make it permanent. I like the style and the words that were done in henna but they couldn't do it as small as I wanted - so I'll have to find some other way to try it out before making it permanent.

Sunday was pretty easy. Church and then lunch at Carina's with a card game afterwards. Followed by a nap. Wonderful.

And today we went to Cannon Beach! I haven't been to this beach since I was pretty little, but I love it. We got there mid-morning and there were people around but not too many. We headed for the tide pools - got to learn some pretty interesting things about sea anemones (like their natural color isn't green, that's just the algae), but the tide was coming in pretty fast so we didn't stay long. After spending some time downtown for lunch and shopping we headed back to the beach and people were everywhere. I don't think I've seen that many people on a beach. And the tide was completely in. It was very weird to look out and see places you were walking less than 3 hours before completely submerged. We build a sand castle and got some sun. It was a perfect day at the beach. (I have pictures but sadly my camera cord is not with me in Portland so I am not able to share them yet.)

Happy Memorial Day!

Almost There

I finished up my clinical experience over the weekend. And now I'm back in Portland finishing up classes. I have one more class to go to tomorrow, and then a bunch of little online things to do and then I'm done. I'm officially done in 13 days, but by Wednesday I will be done with everything I can do. It still isn't really sinking in. Every once in a while I'll get flashes of reality, but for the most part it just feels like the end to another school year. But I'm going to be done with school - I've been doing school for more than 75% of my life and now I'm done. Wow! What a weird feeling.

Even though I'm done pretty much on Wednesday I'll be in Portland until the end of next week. I'll get to spend (hopefully) lots of time with Carina, and taking some trips down to Canby. And I'll get to celebrate with all of my classmates at Edgefield next week which I think will be pretty dang cool. These next 2 weeks are going to rock!

A healthy serving of update

(I'm not even going to take the time to apologize for my lack of blogging. I know I should but I don't feel like it. Sorry.)

On to the update: I had my interview in Corvallis. I did not get the job. It was a bummer because life in Corvallis was going to be so good. And I had a plan and I was so optimistic that the plan was going to work out. I think that made the let down harder. BUT I've had a lot of supportive people around me and I've discovered what a blessing this is. I don't have any reason that I HAVE to stay in Corvallis. I can literally go anywhere. And while I'm still bummed at the likelihood that I will be living away from my family - I am incredibly excited. I'm starting by applying to jobs in Washington, California, and probably Hawaii too. If God's plans are for somewhere else, I will expand my search to other states. I'm excited for this adventure, which is somewhat amazing because I like having and knowing the plan. I'm comforted by the fact that God has something for me - much better than what I had originally considered for myself.

And as for the fact that I am going to be away from my family - I have realized I can get anywhere in the world in a day.

But in the meantime of all the job stuff - I've been working at Good Sam for my senior practicum. I have a great preceptor and I have loved what I've been doing. Last night I took a full patient load almost all by myself for my first time. I have my preceptor there if I need to ask questions or more than one patient at a time that is needing something. We work well together as team and she seems to anticipate where I am going to need help and steps in, but also lets me be pretty independent in situations that I can handle for myself.

Nursing is incredibly fun. I love my job.

And I like working nights. I work from 11 to 7:30. It's a little weird because I never seem to know what day it is. When I see people in the morning, their yesterday is still my today so it can get confusing. I've learned to identify days by their name (Monday, Tuesday, etc) instead of yesterday, today or tomorrow. It keeps me out of trouble. Anyway - night shift. It stays surprisingly busy considering patients are supposed to be sleeping. But no one can ever sleep really well in a hospital - mostly because you have people like me coming in to wake you up. :) But medications are also given around the clock and some people are being pumped full of IV fluids so they have to pee a lot. But night shift is relatively calm to the storm that arrives at 7 when day shift staff arrives. There are no doctors around at 3 in the morning (unless you call them), or physical/occupational therapists, or very much family. It's mostly nursing staff during night shift. It isn't as overwhelming. Very nice.

And I sleep great during the day. I basically go to my room and pass out for 8 hours. The phone can ring and I won't hear it, or the vacuum can be run and I won't wake up. The only thing so far that has gotten me out of bed was a serious hail storm, and for that I staggered out of my bed to close the window and then I got back into to bed and slept another couple of hours. And I've come up with a effective way to get back on day schedule on my days off, so everything works. When I've worked a lot of nights in a row, I can get a little exhausted but I think I could do this for a good amount of time for a first job. I think it will help that when I start my first job I won't have to worry about homework during my hours of being awake, which is one of the things that can tire me out right now.

And cause I haven't updated y'all in a while - 25 days until graduation!! (12 days until I'm all done with classes!)