Kapachino

Thirteen Things

1. My day in the ICU yesterday was kind of boring. Both of my patients had brain aneurysms. They were awake, alert, mobile, and for the most part independent. That means there wasn’t a whole lot for us to do for them.

2. One of the patients was a woman from Baton Rouge, a really sweet lady, and I loved her Cajun accent. She hugged me when I said goodbye to her.

3. The other was a nice man who would have talked to me all day long if I’d let him. Once he found out that I majored in Christian ministry for my first degree, he told me his whole life story. It was very interesting, but for the sake of time I will just say that he was the founder of this ministry.

4. There was a job fair at my school today, where I talked to four different hospitals. I was then inspired and went ahead and applied for the graduate nursing program at all four places. The application for the one I really want, though, is a little more extensive than the others and thus I am not finished with it.

5. Luckily I know a woman who worked at that hospital for most of her life who agreed to write me a letter of recommendation.

6. I have decided that I am mostly interested in working in the areas of critical care and oncology.

7. I am really proud of my indoor soccer team, because we had an awesome come-from-behind win tonight.

8. However, I do not appreciate the fact that there were no female subs, meaning I had to play the whole game, and thus I am utterly exhausted. (It is a coed team and three girls are required to play at all times - six players on the field total.)

9. Tomorrow I have a clinical for my community health class. I make home visits to senior citizens for the Meals on Wheels program. I don’t like it a whole lot, but it’s not too bad.

10. My birthday is next week. I will be 26 years old. The celebration begins this Saturday and ends a week later.

11. I am giving up sugar for Lent this year. Lent begins right in the middle of birthday week, so I am going to stuff myself with cookies, cake, ice cream, brownies, and every kind of chocolate I can get my hands on before then.

12. I need to shower in a bad way. Sometimes showering is such a chore, like when I’m tired and just want to go to sleep. When I was younger I used to skip it if I didn’t feel like it, even if I had played a soccer game that night. I guess sleep has always been my priority.

13. But I don’t do that anymore!

I Heart Weekends

Whew. I am ex.haus.ted. It has been some week! It has been awhile since I looked forward to the weekend this much. I feel like I’ve been gone all week, driving all over the city from place to place, never home for more than 30 minutes at a time unless it’s to sleep. I have about two hours now before I have to leave again, and I am just loving it. Even though I surely have schoolwork that I need to do, I am instead going to begin working on the anniversary present I’m making for David, spend some quality time with Cleo, and maybe even get a tiny nap in. Ahh.

I should mention that my friend and I reconciled, which took a lot of stress off me. Although I am still worried about her, at least there isn’t the tension between us that there was before, and since I see her a LOT that makes a huge difference in my life.

Also, we were able to sell our entry for the Texas Independence Relay to another team. So even though we don’t get to run it, at least we will get our money back. I am disappointed that it didn’t work out like I wanted it to from the beginning, but we had so many team members drop out recently that I just wasn’t going to be able to put a full team together and manage it with only a month to go until the race. So this solution is really the best one given the circumstances. (Thanks, Katy, for pulling this off! I hope that we can do another race together in the future…something not quite so stressful!) I’m going to try to keep running, but for now at my leisure. It does make me feel good, and I hope to run some interesting races in the future, but maybe once I get out of school and have more time to train.

Anyway, my point is that I’m in a lot better mood now than I was at the beginning of the week. Now it’s time to relax!

I’m Not That Crazy

So I heard on the radio the other day about this guy who ran 63 marathons in 63 days to raise awareness for a rare childhood disease. My first thought was, “That is insane.” My second thought was, “This makes my training for the Texas Independence Relay look so weak.” But then my next thought was, “That is insane.” And I feel perfectly fine about my running aspirations.

I’m OK, You’re OK!

I apologize for my last post, which I admit was utterly depressing. I really have been going through something lately, and I think I can honestly say that last week was one of the worst weeks of my life. That post basically summarized how I felt up to that point.

But! I have wonderful people in my life who have been there for me, and I have received many words of encouragement and much support. I do believe that I am loved by a mighty God through whom all things are possible. I now have complete hope and confidence in my situation, and although it remains difficult, I know I can make it through to the other side. Not only that, but I know that the other side holds a better life for me and those involved in this ordeal.

So, let me talk about some random, completely unrelated things to distract me and to make this a happier place to be. First of all, I went to see the movie The Jane Austen Book Club with my roommates, and I loved it. I’ve only read two of Jane Austen’s books, and now I’d really like to read the rest. A long time ago my grandmother gave me the complete set, so I have them all. But that’s beside the point; the movie was really cute and funny, so if you like that kind of thing you should see it.

Secondly, I have now witnessed a C-section and a vaginal birth. Both were fascinating, but I have to say that when I have kids I really don’t want a C-section if I can help it. Also regarding school, I have the rest of this week off, which is quite nice, but then next week I have a test in both classes so I need to hit the books.

On Saturday I ran the Race For The Cure. I think I did pretty well, considering the pack of people I was hindered by. Not that I was trying to win any awards or anything, I was just hoping to have a decent personal time. Also on Saturday I went to see the David Crowder Band in concert. It was pretty good, but not one of the best concerts I’ve seen. The place was pretty big, and we weren’t very close. Also, I was extremely exhausted and I think I actually dozed off during one of the songs. Oops. However, the opening band, The Myriad, was really good, and the whole experience was worth it just to see the people around us dancing and getting into the music. Sometimes Christian rock concerts are just hilarious.

In conclusion, I hope everyone has a great week. I know mine will be better than the last. To quote Mandy Moore, “I’m looking forward to looking back on these days.”

Got Guts?

Over the weekend I went to Austin to run in the Got Guts 5K, which benefited celiac disease awareness. Conveniently, one of my best friends and ex-roommate Carmen now lives in Austin so I got to stay with her. Also, she ran the race with me which made it a lot more fun.

Here we are just afterwards (see the finish line in the background):

Here we are showing that we got guts:

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