summer

Done with another semester. I get a week of summer vacation, then start rotations. First blood bank, then micro. I'm in the home stretch. We have 100 days left until we graduate. 100 days of summer that will no doubt drag by.

Got a letter from Chris today. I can't write back because he's in the medical platoon for a case of cellulitis on his foot and he'll get a new address when he's better and back in training. I want to tell him he should have changed his socks like Lt. Dan said in Forrest Gump. Anyway, it was a pretty short letter on official Marine stationery that made him feel SO far away. I've never seen a whole page of his handwriting. It looks like such boy handwriting and invoked all kinds of missing-ness.

So my favorite part of the letter:

HAHAHA nice.

Nap time. For real this time because there is no schoolwork to keep me up! (Actually we have online summer courses and case studies that I have to get done, but I'm choosing not to!) Besides, I'm freaking exhausted.
And, my mom is determined that I shall drink with her on the back porch tonight. Like, she's abnormally excited about it, haha. So Darn, I guess I'll have to have some drinks tonight. ;o)

wish

I want one of these,


One of these,

One of these minus the people,


and a life.

BY they way, do you know how hard it was to find a picture of a chair like that? Apparently they don't make that kind of cheap plastic lawn chair anymore.

15 hours at school yesterday, 5 hours of sleep last night, 3 finals down, 1 to go.

small graces

Today I peeled the wrapper off of a reeses peanut butter cup, and the middle of the bottom didn't stay stuck to the wrapper. I know you know what I'm talking about. It came off perfectly clean. I think that's the first time that's ever happened to me.

Woke up last night with a stomach ache and was up for hours waiting for it to go away. Don't know what I ate.

I was worried about the micro practical today, but by some miracle, I received unknowns that were really freaking easy. Some people were doing 10 tests to identify theirs, but I had to do 3 tops and they were all the same tests. I had really similar samples, and I think it had to do with the fact that they didn't make enough unknowns so they just randomly grabbed some cultures and wrote "Wound" or "Urine" on them. I'm pretty sure mine all came from the Staph aureus pile.

Really tired. Cooking some tilapia, green beans & quinoa for dinner, while studying blood bank. The green tea I drank earlier gave me a little boost, but not much. I predict bedtime before 8:00.

shoes & finals

"I was in a shoe store one afternoon when a mother and her young daughter came in. The child asked what smelled so pretty. Four different women chorused "SHOES" in loving tones. IMMD"

I smelled that smell helping Suzy find shoes for prom. Made me miss wearing real clothes to work/school.

Took a break last night and had a blast at the Bazaar with Akhtavious. Adding something to the list of things I want to do before I die- own a chicken that lays eggs. And I tried, but I did not win a plant. Booo.

I came home exhausted, flopped into bed, and slept like a brick until I woke up this morning. I usually wake up in the middle of the night, but not last night. It was awesome.

Now to prepare for 2 lab practicals and 2 final exams. Can't wait till Thursday afternoon!

While going through my virology notes yesterday I found this forgotten drawing:

kitten guilt

It seems the busier I get, the tireder I get, the grouchier I get, the needier Pumpkin gets. I come home every day tired, and Pumpkin jumps down from her windowsill the second I walk in the door, and meows her hellos. I usually say hello back and keep moving. I can't remember the last time I sat down to scratch her head for a few minutes or played a quick game- Chris usually did that when he'd come over but I haven't really done that lately.

She sits in her box for hours when I study and sleeps with me at night and she'll get a few quick scritches then, but during the day or evening she gets all needy and annoying and I throw her outside. She's not neglected- she gets fresh food and water every day, and I wash her placemat and bowls when they get dirty.

I'm extra-grouchy today and it occurred to me as Pumpkin sat there looking at me and meowing every once in a while, that I have a cat for a reason and it wouldn't kill me to take 5 minutes out and give her some attention. So I sat down and pet her, scratched her head, and she did the whole appreciative purr thing, but you could tell she was like, "Finally!"

I just feel guilty that I've been pretty much ignoring her pleas for attention for a while now. I've been busy and tried but that's really not any excuse.

But, since she's a cat all I have to do is say I'm sorry with some treats and some pets, and maybe a game of "catch the bird attached to this string" and all will be forgiven.

word cloud

*sigh*
To a whole bunch of stuff.
I feel like one of those word clouds walking around with a bunch of *sigh* worthy stuff.

Lots on my mind. I wish it was April 29 at 11am so I could have my one week of summer vacation and have a small amount of that load off of my mind.

This week I have taken 2 exams, finished 1 assignment, completed 2 case studies, written 1 journal review, organized 2 sets of a semester's worth of notes, paid $210 to register for the Board of Certification exam and taken 80 blood pressures. That's just schoolwork, not mentioning dinners made, laundry done, dishes cleaned, lunches packed, on and on. It's only Wednesday?

And this was an easy peasy week compared to last week. I swear I'm superwoman or something because at this point I'd usually be breaking down into a bawling fit or something. But I'm surprisingly emotionally cool.

Time for some pictures.

Suzy's friend checked out my garden and said, "Whose jungle is that?" I take that as a compliment. They're sunflowers, with a few other plants that survived from last year. I think they're going to look pretty cool when they bloom. The package said they're supposed to get pretty tall. I heart sunflowers. Actually, I heart anything that I can manage to grow.

Over in another corner of the yard I've got some carrots, oninos and sweet peas growing quite well.

I've been wanting one of those aluminum water bottle thingies but refuse to pay $10 for one. Today we got them for free because it's National Medical Laboratory Professionals Week. Sweeeet!

Time to study for the blood bank exam on Friday! I can do it... I can do it... holy crap I'm tired... I can do it... I can do it...

noises, deodorant, dishes

Our house has something going on in the pipes, so that when anyone uses the hose, it makes a loud, high-pitched noise that reverberates especially in my room. They started using the hose at 8am this morning and apparently they really need the hose to clean up. Just when I think they're done and it stops, it starts back up again. Fuckkk. Listen. I'm about to have to leave because it's driving me crazy. Disregard the messiness.



I am kind of obsessed with having non-stinky armpits and I am very picky about deodorant. Not exactly a good match. Especially in Houston. I hate the gel kind because it takes too long to dry and it gets sticky. I hate the solid stick kind because it leaves white crap. I was using a soft solid that just wasn't cutting it when my friend suggested Degree. Even though it's a solid, I tried it and I freaking love it. I was outside all day yesterday and I didn't even get stinky. Win.

I don't want to study virology.
I want to cook something, but I don't want to do the dishes. When I finally move out of my parents' garage, a dishwasher will be a requirement.

dance & crawfish

Last night Missy and I went to see the Alief Jazz Ballet perform. I thought it was going to be some crappy little spring show, but we were both pleasantly surprised!

Very creative, with awesome choreography. If it weren't for the timing, you almost forgot you were watching high schoolers. They had a Lady GaGa piece that had both Missy and I absolutely tickled, a very well done Michael Jackson thing, and they had this dance group "Ghost Crew" or something like that, that was on America's Best Dance Crew. Overall, I'm very glad I spent $7 for the ticket! I think Missy's going to get the DVD- it was just THAT neat.

Today = crawfish boil! Time to spend a Saturday NOT studying. (Although the three exams I have next week does make it hard to relax...)

blind people need porn too

ROFL
I'm sorry, this is inappropriate but you HAVE to check this out. It's hilarious.
Porn for the Blind. (NSFW)
Big Sausage Pizza is extra amusing!
There's even a link where you can help out and record an audio play-by-play of some porn. Aww, isn't that nice?

Got out of school early, and I'm assuming that schoolwork will trump my nap again today. 7 (SEVEN) hours of mycology yesterday, didn't even finish what I was working on.

case of the -insert weekday here-

This morning felt like a case of the Mondays- on a Wednesday.

I set my alarm early so I could get to school early and study some more for the exam, but of course I snoozed it for an hour. I also woke up at some point last night with a stomach ache, and layed there wondering why the fuck I ate candy for dinner. Seriously, who does that?? Why did I do that??

Anyway, I got up and figured since we were doing our research project over at the blood bank today that I could at least do my hair instead of walking out of the house looking like a poofy ragamuffin. I managed to burn my face- and not like a little tiny one. A burn-mark appeared on my cheek in the shape of a perfect circle even though I drove to school holding an ice pack to it the whole way there. One of my classmates asked if I had ringworm, and another one seriously asked me who hit me.

Anyway, I popped an english muffin in the toaster while I made coffee and went back to finish my hair when the smoke alarm started going off. The toaster knob had gotten turned all the way up and burned it. So there I was, climbing on top of stuff to try and get the loud-ass smoke alarm to turn off- at 6am. I tried to scrape the burned off of the english muffin, but pretty much gave up and ate it anyway.

While I was choking down my burned breakfast, I started to fix my coffee and dropped the lid to my supercute beehive sugar bowl and broke it. Garr.

At least when I got to school things calmed down and I made a -- wait for it--- 102 on my exam. Hellz yeah! I seriously needed that.

However, the research plans were put on hold because my partner is sick today.
Just as well- I have plenty of other things to work on.
And, I need a nap.

study break

Vincent is a foosball player with a short neck who wears a red jersey and can't play where there is bile on the field.

It's my way of remembering that fusobacterium necrophorum causes Vincent's Angina, is a gram negative rod and is inhibited by bile.

I'm totally imagining (and personifying) this type of guy, who just happens to look asian.


Hey, whatever helps.

Oh, and I totally want a foosball table.

pressure

Today I re-learned how to take someone's blood pressure the old-fashioned way- with a stethoscope and sphygmomanometer. Too bad my stethoscope was broken- or so I thought. Turns out I just can't hear from one of those very well. My ears are small or jacked up or something. Did I feel super-awesome with a stethoscope around my neck? Hell yes.

We have to do a project that involves validating digital blood pressure cuffs that the blood bank purchased to use in the mobile banks. They have to be calibrated/ validated correctly before they can be used. So we have to validate 11 monitors by comparing the reading it gives to a manual reading, and each one needs 20 values from each method. So 40 x 11 = 440 different readings. That's a lot. Then we have to statistically evaluate each one and calculate the standard deviations and make sure all that junk is within acceptable limits.

Then, on the way home I started to call Chris and tell him all about my adventure for the day, then I realized he won't be answering. Sucks!

The project will actually not be that bad, but it's just one more thing to think about on top of everything else.

I made dinner- grilled chicken tenders with green beans & brown rice. Plus I made extra for lunch. Sweet.

I'm tired!

*update*

By the way, half-off peeps and sour cream and cheddar ruffles are great for when you get so frustrated after searching for hours for answers to questions that aren't in the notes OR book. I swear to GOD I'm so sick of this clusterfuck they call CLS school. That's when you say, "fuck a lot of THAT shit," put any old answer, and go eat your emotionals.

back to reality

What a crazy past few days. Certainly out of the ordinary- a break in the normal schedule.

El Paso was fun- went to lectures during the day and partied at night. Got hardly any sleep, and had tons of fun. I needed a little break- we all did.

Now it's back to reality. Just said goodbye to Chris- I'll see him again in July. Major suckage.

Now I have to write a paper that's due tomorrow. This is going to be an insane week. I can't even go into the details because it's just too much.
I guess it's a good thing to be crazy busy this week because it will keep my mind off Chris leaving. The weekdays are okay, but I know it's the weekends that will be weird because he's usually here on the weekends.

Time to get a lot of hobbies! Jogging photography needs to get rolling again.

love it.

Taken by my very talented and creative sister. Doesn't she have fabulous legs?

I must finish packing- I will just barely be able to squeeze everything into the suitcase.

B*witched

OMG who remembers this from way back in the day on the Disney Channel?? I think it was on Smart Guy. It's totally going on my workout mix. Along with Rollercoaster.

wanna dance

Bowl full of colorful Easter eggs. Egg wars comes later. Wonder who will win?

I woke up feeling... surprisingly good today. Still a little congestion, but nothing like it has been.

It may be the peeps that I shoved in my mouth first thing this morning, or the ability to breathe through both nostrils, but I feel motivated. Way more motivated than I have been about anything lately (which isn't saying a WHOLE lot).

I actually want to get crackin' on this schoolwork instead of whining about it and dreading it.
I'm suddenly wanting to go to the gym and pick another location for jogging photography.
I want to cook something fabulous and nutritious.

Don't know what's gotten into me, but I hope it lasts. I'm tired of being tired!

Saturday yayage

Fun fact:
I haven't worn a light-colored top in many months because I don't have any light-colored bras that are comfortable. I ordered 2 last weekend and they came in today. Yay!

I woke up this morning thinking, "Hm, what am I going to do today?" Then mom came in and told me that she had something to return to Whole Foods and if I did it for her I could have the money. So I got some flours I've been needing, some cereal, and some pretzels. Mmm snackage. I'm going to need some for the TACLS trip because I have no idea what gluten free options there are. Should be interesting.

Then, I told her I wanted to go shopping for a cardigan, and she handed me her Kohl's card, a coupon, and strict instructions to buy at least $50 worth of stuff so she could get $10 Kohl's cash. Okay. I could do that.

I found a plain black cardigan, but when I looked at the tag, it was $48. Hell no. I almost left it in the dressing room but I wanted to make sure so I found out where I got it from and it was on sale for $18. Hell yeah!

I also got a purse.

ugh, weird-ass blogger and its sideways pictures.

I was debating for a while about which one to get: this one or a silver one in the same style. I chose this one because it's summery-er. More summery. Whatever. I also got a red wallet. I love the wallet, and I've been needing a new one for a long time. The other one was literally falling apart. I feel so chic with my new bag.

Since I needed the total to be $50 after the coupon, I got a pair of flip flops.

So it was a good morning. Too bad I looked at the assignments due on Monday & Tuesday before we leave, and it's like a shit-ton of stuff. I should get started on that, but first I need a nap. Shopping wore me out.

Oh, when I walked outside this morning, instead of a silver color, my car was a powder green color. Holy crap, no wonder my allergies are going insane. That shit is all over the place.

spring cleaning

I am in serious spring cleaning mode today. It is LONG overdue.

I've bleached every available surface in the kitchen and bathroom, cleaned many cobwebs and dust bunnies, taken down curtains and washed them, changed my bed including the skirt, windows, mirrors, table tops, rugs, lampshades, the air conditioning filter... you name it, it's being cleaned.

I figured the extra dirt, dust and cat hair is not helping this allergy situation that seems to be extra bad this year. I feel like crapola. I even had to sleep on the couch last night because if I laid all the way down, I couldn't breathe. I had to stay kinda propped up.

You know what's extra disgusting? I have one of those clear plastic things that you put under rolling desk chairs, and when I lifted it up to vacuum, I found MOLD growing on the carpet & rug under it. GROSS!! The entire carpet that was underneath it was also damp, as if the plastic kept moisture underneath it when it gets really humid. Needless to say, it has been removed and a copious amount of hydrogen peroxide is now soaking the floor.

I had been moving nonstop for about 3 hours this morning getting a ton of stuff done when I figured I'd better take a lunch break. I scarfed down some leftover potatoes, then kept going. Except then I started to feel queasy so I made myself sit and slow down for a minute. Which is why I'm blogging.

I still have the floors to do, finish the laundry, and replace all the curtains & rugs. My desk is a mess, and I plan to put winter clothes away and bring out summer stuff. There's also the top of the fridge, the bookshelf, the kitchen cabinets, the bathroom cabinets, and underneath the kitchen table to clean/organize, but they might be projects for another day. We'll see how my stamina holds up. I might just nap.