I Need a Laptop!

Ok, so I have a new obsession and it's driving me crazy. I really, really want to get a laptop. At first I just wanted a portable DVD player. Then I thought, why stop there? Why not get a laptop that can also be a DVD player? Right?! I've been sitting here at work looking at Best Buy, Dell, and Circuit City. Yes, I'm obsessed.

So anyway, I've asked my brother to help me with this little project. I need to find a good one that won't totally break me. I mean, I have money to spend on one, I do... but I still don't want to spend that much. I thought it would be handy to have while in nursing school .... there will be a few days that I have to stay in Scottsdale during the week and it would be nice to have with me to do my homework. However... I'm a little worried about the wireless internet thing. I don't necessarily want to get wireless service... just a computer with the card built in. But how many places really have wireless internet access? I don't even think I can use it at my hospital... but can I plug it in to our computers that have access? I don't know anything about anything.

Anyway, if you know anything, please fill me in. Is it a good investment? What do I do about the internet? Where should I buy one from? Can I hook it up to any printer? What else, what else?! Thanks! :)

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Today is my wonderful mother's birthday! Unfortunately, I've had to work the weekend so I didn't get to do much with her, but her, my dad, and their friend from Michigan went out last night (and are going out again tonight, of course) to the casino. At 5 minutes til midnight, she hit for $1250! Happy Birthday to her. :)

I wish I could explain how great she is. She's one of my best friends, and I don't know where I would be without her in my life. I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful relationship with her; I've seen other people who barely even speak to their mothers anymore over stupid, petty arguments or what have you, and I'm so lucky that we have such a strong bond that can never be broken. So, happy birthday to my mom... she deserves the best! :)

Quote of the Day

" I have said nothing because there is nothing I can say
to describe the way I feel as perfectly as you deserve it. "

What doe this quote mean to you?

I Can't Think of Anymore Titles!

So I'm back from Scottsdale. I got an 18/20 (90% for the math wizzes) on my first Pharmacology test. I'm not at all impressed. Not because I'm crazy, because yes, 90% is a good score. However, one of the answers I got wrong, I initially had right. I changed my answer in the middle of the test. That is always, always a bad idea! Another 5% would have made a big difference, but nothing I can do about it now, right? I'm just such a perfectionist. I want to make sure that I'm not struggling. We need to have an average of 76% overall, which I believe means I have to get an average of about 15.2 on every test...? Which ok, I have a good start. But I don't want to be stressing out at the end because I'm right on the edge, you know? That would drive me crazy. I get a 75.9%? I fail. That's a scary thought... but I know I won't fail. Don't get me wrong here, I'm very excited about nursing school!! It's just stressful.

Anywho, I don't have a whole lot to say ... I'm just kind of in a blah mood. I guess partly because I have to work three nights in a row, which I'm really not looking forward to. At least I'll have some time to get some studying done ! Also in part because I'm not at all impressed with my writing skills. I never really have anything overly exciting or meaningful to say. Believe it or not, I used to write all the time, whether it be short stories, poems, etc. Maybe I should start posting more poetry and things and I'll get inspired or something!

Well folks, that's all for now! I'm off to hopefully get a lot of sleep and get up early to run some errands. We'll see about that. :)

This Week's To-Do List

It's not that I have a lot to do this week, but it's nice to just kind of go over what's in store. So, for those of you who like to know(and I know all of you do...) here is this week's to-do's!

Tuesday(Today) - Study. I've been studying most of the day... this includes re-reading each chapter and making outlines to study from. I have chapters 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 covered. This is what Test #1 will include, so I should be good to go... I just have to actually go over the information. Also, tonight is American Idol night, so I will be watching that around 7:00! I'd also like to stop at Target to pick up some jeans that are on sale for $18. Important stuff, I know.

Wednesday - Last lecture in Pharmacology before Test #1 from 7-9:30am. This lecture should cover chapters 4 and 5, which I've already reviewed and outlined! Afterwards, studying with Kathleen before our 1:30-3:30 class. We have an online quiz due before this class, but of course, I've got that done, too. ;) The rest of the night will include... dinner and studying overnight in Scottsdale. Sounds like a fun day!

Thursday - Test #1 at 7 am(cross your fingers for me!). Then I'm sure we'll still have lecture afterwards til about 9:30. In between, home to do whatever I feel like until 1:30! And after that class? Home! Our good friend Betty is coming in from Michigan around noon ... I'm always excited to see her.

Friday - Whatever I feel like, until my nap around 1 or 2... I've got a great 3 nights in a row to look forward to from here.

So, ladies and gentlemen, that is what this week's schedule entails. Besides studying for the test and the actual test, it's looking pretty good. I've actually been really good about using my planner to keep track of everything, too. It's helping a lot.

I would love to hear from anyone who's actually gone through nursing school... are there any of you out there? Maybe I should start a "Nursing Student Blog" club. ;) I can guarantee you... that's what most of my entries are going to be about from here on out, sadly enough! Oh well, it'll be like therapy.

Pssst...

Note to blogrollers! If you have a blogroll, that's great... but so many times have I been to a site that I've loved, looked at the blogroll list, only to see they don't have a "Blogroll me!" link. Now one might think, OK lazy, go into your blogroll and manually put their blog on your list. Well guess what, folks? That's just not the way I roll! (Wasn't that clever? ;)). I've been to so many sites that I've liked and immediately forgotten the URL because I couldn't add it to my blogroll with a click. Sorry, but it's true. I just don't take the time to do it. But the question remains... if you have a blogroll, why wouldn't you have a blogroll me link? It just seems simple. Anywho, this little rant came to me last night when I realized.... I never visit the sites on my blogroll list. And the sites I would want to visit aren't there because I couldn't blogroll them immediately. So anyway, I revamped my list. I am hoping that through my blog travels when I find that special site, I will see that beautiful little link and voila! Add it to my site. :) Please?!

Books !

I was just over at Elizabeth's blog, and was immediately inspired. First of all... I want you guys to check out her portfolio... and if you ever need any work done, she is awesome, so keep that in mind, ok? :) Second of all... she reviewed the movie In Her Shoes and it reminded me of how great the book was... and how great a lot of other books I've read have been. In light of that, I'd like to make a small list of some books I've read recently that I would recommend, in no particular order. Some of them I remember the authors, some of them I don't... so bare with me!

• In Her Shoes, Jennifer Weiner
• Good In Bed, Jennifer Weiner
• The Notebook, Nicholas Sparks
• A Child Called It, Dave Pelzer
• Perfect Match, Jodi Picoult (unbelievable)
  
• My Sister's Keeper, Jodi Picoult
• The Pact, Jodi Picoult
• Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
• The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold(*I* didn't particular enjoy this one that much, but it was worth reading, and a lot of other people have loved it)
  
• To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
• A Cry in the Night, Mary Higgins Clark

Ok, so I remembered all of the authors. These are some great books... as you can see, I particularly like Jodi Picoult, and I am really anxious to get started on another one of hers. However, for now I'm slowly reading Dive from Clausen's Pier, but I haven't had much time to spend on it. Anywho, there's my 2 cents! If you guys have read any, let me know what you thought... and if you are gonna read them in the future, let me know as well! :) The other books I want to read eventually are A Million Little Pieces(I've heard great things about this one) and White Oleander, I believe it's called... ? I'll get around to it eventually.

Happy Birthday To You

I'm going to go ahead and assume everyone's doing great, the weekend was fantastic, and nobody can wait to get back to work tomorrow! ;)

Last night was a disaster. It was our friend Lisa's birthday, so I called my good friend Jon (also her boyfriend...) to ask him what he had planned, since we have this crazy tradition of actually doing something for everyone's birthday. ;) However... he had nothing, but added, "I'm sure she wants to hang out with everyone after dinner..." So ok, being the great friend that I am, I try and put a little something together (which of course, I later regretted). It was already about 5:00pm or so, so I got in touch with my fabulous friend Jen and we decided for everyone to meet at BJ's brewery around 9:30 for dessert(which later was pushed back until 10pm, since everyone was working). I ended up not even wanting to go... but I did anyway. Needless to say, Jon and Lisa claimed they "could not get ahold of anyone", and when I called Jen at around 10:20 to see if everyone was there- well, let's just say...they weren't. It was her, Kayce, Stacey and Nick waiting around for everyone. Keith, Bear and Nick had not gotten off of work yet, Jon and Lisa "were late"(and I say it like that only because they're always "late"), and Trevor wasn't coming. Anyway, to make a very long story just a little bit long, I got there, the four of them ordered, and Jon and Lisa showed up about 20 minutes later... fighting. Obviously, Lisa was pissed because Jon didn't plan anything for her birthday. Very understandable. So, we ate in awkwardness and said our goodbye's around 12am. Needless to say, I won't be planning anymore last minute birthday get-togethers.

What an exciting story, no? Oh well. I just felt crappy because Lisa had such a terrible birthday... but what can ya do? We'll make it up sometime I'm sure. In the meantime I'll be busy helping plan get-togethers for my mom, Stacey, Keith, and Trevor. Don't you just love birthdays?

Get A Rhythm

Howdy! How's everyone? I hope your weekends are going great so far. :) I've spent most of this afternoon studying or Pharmacology and doing our online quizzes for Heatlh Assessment. The quizzes are pretty easy... 10 questions, 1/2 point each, straight from the text Physical Examination and Health Assessment, Jarvis. Needless to say, I got 100%... not a bad start! ;) I did most of my study guide for Pharmacology, which covers course competencies I, II, and III. I also put a bunch of notecards together to study from... mainly definitions. We have our first test Thursday and I want to be prepared. The stuff we've been talking about so far has been pretty straight forward. The absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion of drugs... stuff like that. I think I'll be ready... I've got a lot of time to study between now and Thursday since I'm off. Thankfully I've hit it off with a couple of girls in my classes(there's the same 40 or so people in every class... we're here together from beginning til graduation!). It will be good to know people so we can study together... that's always great.

Although this is off topic... have you all seen Walk the Line? If not, I *definitely* recommend it... I saw it awhile ago(I'm not sure if I've posted about this before...) and I really loved it, so I got the soundtrack! It's awesome. Mostly Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon, and just a couple others. My favorite song is Track #1, Get a Rhythm... it puts me in a great mood! If any of you get it, let me know what you think! :)

I Will Survive

DunDunDun... I survived my first week of Nursing School, minus one class (MLK Day). Surprisingly... it was a lot better than I expected. I'm not quite so nervous anymore. At 7-9:30 on Wednesday and Thursday I had Pharmacology. Luckily we don't have to memorize a million drugs... just about 10-15 of some common ones (aspirin, etc). We have to know what it does, when/why you give it, what happens when you give it, the trade names, generic names, etc. That shouldn't be too bad. Of course, there's much more to the class... but as long as I study and read regularly, I should be fine. :) My first test in there is Thursday... eek. From 1:30-3:30 on Wednesday and Thursday I had my Health Assessment class. Basically we are learning about doing patient interviews, doing head to toe assessments, collecting patient history, etc. etc. Not too bad, either. Yes, it's just the first week... but at least my instructors aren't hardasses!

Other than that, I am ready to relax for the weekend. I've been staying in Scottsdale since Tuesday with no Internet access(God forbid!), and I worked last night... time to sit around and watch a movie. :)

Visit Life My Way

Ok, I haven't had a chance to say much about her, but you should all go check her out. Life My Way is a beautiful blog... she's renting mine this week(and I think that the time is almost up already!).

So go visit! :) Let me know what you think. Thanks!

I've Been Tagged!

Oh my gosh. I just realized I was tagged for a meme and I didn't even know it, so I'm a few days late! I'm very excited... I've never been "tagged" before! ;)

So this meme is to write five weird habits about yourself. Apparentely, I have to choose 5 new people to "tag" as well and link to their blogs. So ladies and gentlemen, here we go...

1) I am a serious perfectionist, but I'm not ashamed of it... OCD runs in my family, so to speak. I have to have everything done my way, because if it's not....well, it's just not right. I wish I could help it, but I don't really think it's a terrible quality. Why settle for anything less than the best, right? Sometimes I go a little overboard, though, so I'm working on that.

2) I don't feel clean after I've taken a shower unless I shave my legs. You might say I'm a compulsive shaver. I don't know what it is, but that silky smoothe feeling just does it for me. Maybe this isn't considered "weird", necessarily, but most people think I'm crazy when I tell them I shave every day.

3) I am severely annoyed with people who chew with their mouth open and make all kinds of noise. Why is that weird, you ask? Like I said, I get severely annoyed. I try to keep myself away from that kind of situation as much as possible... even the tiniest sounds bother me.

4) I can hear you clipping your fingernails from a mile away. (This kind of goes in synch with the previous, I guess). I hate that sound, and if someone's doing it at the opposite end of the house in a small bathroom with the door closed... I will hear them. Believe me, I really wish I didn't have this problem!

5) I'm extremely indecisive. About everything. I cannot for the life of me settle for anything. I am always wondering what the other choice would have been like. If I'm with another person and there is a decision to be made, you can bet they'll be making it. Although... it's usually with petty things. I'm better at making the decisions. I never really thought that much about it, but this is probably something I'm really going to have to work on before I become a nurse!

Ok, there you have it. The weird and not so weird habits of yours truly. Let's see... I think I will tag her, her, her, this old tenant, and her! Enjoy :)

It Ain't Pretty

I'm at work and I desperately felt the need to be blogging... however, blogger is blocked. Grr! So I'm testing the "email your post" thing that Elizabeth reminded me of. I guess we'll see how that turns out. :) I don't really even have anything in particular to write about, I just felt the urge.

I currently am on the floor that we call "3D" that we each have to take turns working on. To sum it up, it sucks. There's nothing going on, so it's 12 hours of studying, searching the internet, playing whatever games that aren't blocked... doing whatever you can to keep yourself busy.

I just heard that new song from INXS(is that right?) on the radio, "It Ain't Pretty". I watched a couple episodes of their little reality show/competition. I really like the sound of that new guys voice ... I think I would actually buy that album.... possibly.

I've decided I need to take more time to visit blogs daily. There are a very select few that I actually keep up with... mainly because I don't have the time. But yes, I need to make time! I was also recently reminded of meme's. I miss doing that. It is actually fun, and better yet... gives me something to write about, what a concept. ;)

Ok, enough of the randomness. I hope everyone had a great weekend (better than me, anyway! Sleep..work..sleep...work... you get the picture). Oh, and please don't forget to check out my new tenant... I always forget to mention them! :)

People

Howdy. Have I ever mentioned how completed addicted I am to things like People and Us Weekly? Well, I am. And although this is old news, do you realize that Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are having a baby? This is serious stuff, people... so we'll start with that.

I never really liked Angelina and Brad together. Let's face it, most people don't. I almost refused to see Mr. and Mrs. Smith after I heard about it. Never the less, though, I had to go see it... and as ashamed as I am, I actually liked the freaking movie. I do not, however, like the idea of Brad and Angelina having a baby together. I'm not that bitter about the break up, OK? If two people aren't happy together, then there's nothing you can do about it. But to be seen with Angelina immediately after, pampering her and her children, adopting them, and then having a baby with the homewrecker? Not the ideal situation. I would like to add, though, that I absolutely love Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston. If they had a baby, I'd probably be OK with it. So you have my blessing, guys.

Secondly, I'd like to talk about Britney Spears and Kevin Federline. Actually, I wouldn't like to talk about them. I'd like to say that Kevin Federline is the biggest piece of white trash I've ever seen... and Britney is borderline for marrying him, and 100% moron.

I think that's about it. I know this isn't the most intelligent piece I've ever written, but I needed to get that off my chest, OK? ;)

Juuust Bored

I am so ready for this break to be over. Being out of school sounded so great for awhile... but when I think back on last semester when I was only taking one class online, and I think about the things I accomplished... nothing really comes to mind, and that kills me! I had so much free time and I didn't do anything with it. I'm ready to be busy again, you know? I'm sure I'll be singing a different tune once I'm back in nursing school, busy as can be... but at a time like this when I'm everything but busy, I realize the life of always having something to do is a little more suitable for me. I suppose I did get a few things done... I learned a little CSS, read a lot of great books, saw a lot of movies, made new friends, passed a statistics class at ASU towards my Bachelors degree... but nothing life-altering. I hate sitting around just waiting to go back to work. It's like every day's purpose is just to be over so we can move one day closer to work or school! I really don't mean to complain... it was a fun semester, I guess. Christmas was fun, New Year's... Las Vegas, my birthday... I guess it was better that I wasn't tied up so I could be there for all of that. But regardless, all I'm waiting for now is school! Who'd have thought?

Nursing School

So I had my "general orientation" for nursing school on Monday. I came home very, very stressed out! The meeting itself was okay... and yes, I'm looking forward to starting. But I'm also scared. Being a student who is in charge of medications, IV's, shots, and in some cases, a person's life... that is a lot of pressure, don't you think?! Not to mention the books. Ohhh the books. We had to gather all of our books in cardboard boxes and have someone help us with a dolly to take them to our cars. At the moment, I have 12 large books sitting in my room waiting to be used, one on the way from Amazon.com. I have chapters to read before school even starts, which I expected... but first I'd like to finish up my Human Development class at ASU! Ahhh.

Anywho, besides that, life is good. I've had about a week off and I have to go back to work on Friday. I start my new schedule where I work three in a row- Friday, Saturday, Sunday, have 3 off, and go back Thursday. The three in a row might be tough at first, but it'll still be nice to have a week off after that Thursday shift.

What an exciting post! Ok, maybe not so much... but I'm trying! :)

It's off subject, but here's a little something to leave you with.

Whom do you admire most? In what way does that person inspire you? -From The Book of Questions by Gregory Stock, PH.D.

Happy New Year!

Eeek! I'm back, I swear! How was everyone's Christmas and New Year's Eve? Mine was fantastic!! Happy 2006!! :) I made a few resolutions, but who knows how they will go. I want to lose 5-10 lbs. Just because I put on a little "holiday weight", as they call it. I also want to be a little less...well, cheap. I've saved up a lot of money and I don't want to waste my years worrying about spending it! I stress way too much about stupid things, and I'm a teency weency uptight... so I'd like to stop that. :) What are your guys' New Year's Resolutions?

Other than that, I've been working a little here and there... I picked up an extra shift the other night because everybody called off. I had a wonderful Christmas, got wonderful things, and everybody loved the things I got them! My best present? I couldn't say. I got a cute little blanket/cow named Gracie(it sounds weird, I know, but I've been wanting it!), lots of clothes, candles, bath and body works stuff, a scrapbook, jewelry, purses, gift cards... it was great! I finally put everything away yesterday and cleaned up my room... it was ridiculous!

Today, the girls and I headed over to Tortilla Flats... this little podunk(is that a word?) town on the way to Canyon and Apache lake. It just has a few buildings. A restaurant, a couple of little shops, and an icecream parlor. It was a fun little outing...we had lunch and looked around. We should do stuff like that more often.

I also started my Winter Intercession class at ASU, Human Development. It just runs for 13 days, so it will be over in no time and I'll start nursing school! I better get reading, though, I have about 4 more long chapters to read this week!

Have a wonderful day, and I promise, I'll be writing more often!! :)