blog post interrupted

This is the season for exams! I think I've had two a week for the past two weeks - and I'm only taking three classes. Lab is still pretty fun. We learned to put in foley catheters. Nothing to it, really. Just keep it sterile. But I'm thinking that the meatuses on real people are a lot smaller and harder to find than the gaping holes on our mannequins. I think it would be so fun to try it on a person. I'm getting very anxious for clinicals to start.

And soon they will! I got my schedule for my first "mini" clinical at a nursing home, where we will take lots of vitals and administer hygiene (yes, that means sponge baths). The first real clinical has also been scheduled, for my Adult 1 class starting mid July. That one's in a real hospital. I'm gonna refrain from writing where I'm going to keep things confidential online. I'm happy to talk about it outside of the blog though.

I made date pinwheel cookies just like Mom used to make. Now I understand why she always made so many - it's a huge batch! We're going to enjoy them while watching Zatoichi tonight



OKAY. whoa. While writing the above Jem escaped. Ben was out moving our cars (our carport spots were blocked by construction all day) and Jem was on the porch. Apparently when Brian opened the back gate Jem ran out. Ben called me and said "Jem ran away." I panicked, hung up the phone, and ran outside. Brian came running up the parking lot, saying he lost them in the apartment complex next door. I tried to call Ben back but couldn't reach him, so I just started running around the neighborhood looking, calling her name, no idea where she or Ben were. (Might I mention that at this same moment a thunderstorm started, making it unusually humid.) After circling a few blocks of the neighborhood I came home. Brian met me at the gate to say someone phoned who had found Jem, Ben and Justin were driving to pick her up. By then everyone had arrived for movie club. Miranda plopped Azalea in my lap and commanded her to make me feel better. They came back with a thrilled beagle, panting hard. Do you know why? She RAN TO 26th AND KIPLING! That's 1 1/2 miles away. She had to cross two major roads to get there. She was caught at the gas station across the street from Crown Hill. We think that was her destination since it's her favorite place and she definitely knows the way there. I'm glad she didn't try to cross Kipling.

Damn dog. Doesn't feel the least bit sorry for what she did either. Let this be another lesson to everyone with pets: even if they are microchipped it's important to have your phone number on their tag.

So the evening turned out great. We got our dog back. Zatoichi came from Netflix and the disk was cracked. Brian brought alternative choices, Nate picked Monster Squad. Funny, terrible 80s kids movie, apparently making a big cult come-back. Some new folks came to the club, hopefully we can continue to expand our little circle of friends. They said they would come next month too.

Egads. I'm all wound up. Between destroying my knitting (tangling four skeins, two needles chewed to splinters, row counter demolished), chewing up the basement phone this afternoon, and running away, Jem is really trying my patience. We should have named her Demolisher instead of the cat (that's Molly's namesake).

Where is Matt?

The dancing Matt has produced another beautiful video of his travel. This is so lovely and inspiring.



This guy made his first video (below). Then he put it online and started a little website to supplement it. Pretty soon he caught the eye of Stride gum, who gave him the money to continue traveling and dancing. What a lucky guy!

First video

Arvada Center video

The Arvada Center where I take ballet classes put up a little video promoting their art programs. Starting at about 1:40 in the video below you can see the students I take class with (the very same girls I choreographed a couple years ago), the studio where we have class, and of course my wonderful ballet instructor, Christina. Now you can see what I've been talking about!

One ticket to London, please.

Oh man, oh man, oh MAN! If only I could see the RSC's Hamlet this summer, starring my new TV crush David Tennant. And who is playing Claudius? Only Patrick Stewart!

favorite Shakespeare play + new favorite actor + Professor X = me nerding out

When I'm not in school

Despite the flurry of schoolwork I've been doing a lot of the things I like doing this summer. I haven't been taking as many pictures, but here are a few from the past month.

We hiked up Apex trail in Golden with our friends and our dogs.

We go for walks at Crown Hill about every other day. I caught this cute goose family crossing the walk to take a dip.

Last weekend we visited Neil's home in the mountains. Seriously. Mountains. He lives outside of Idaho Springs. The last 5 miles to his house is up steep dirt roads. You can see several peaks on the Continental Divide from his house. We had a sweet little barbecue, laid back, and watched the clouds roll by.

Here's a picture of the Rockies game I think I mentioned earlier. I went as part of my volunteer work for school. On another day we went to Golden for rhubarb, but the farmer's market hadn't opened yet for the season. Instead we went for a quick walk along Clear Creek, where they had these statues that scared Jem.

I'm still cooking! Most nights, in fact. Our gas grill is awesome. I use it a couple times each week. I love not getting the house hot. It turns outs grilled pizza is easy and delicious. Much better than oven pizza. I also make some cookies. I tried substituting whole wheat pastry flour for half the flour. I had heard this works well, but apparently not. My cookies were flat as pancakes. I added some more all-purpose between batches and they turned out sturdier. I made some peanut butter jelly bars that were ok, but I was expecting greatness. Disappointing. Then just last night I made a raspberry tart with vanilla pudding. We devoured it while watching BSG and SYTYCD with friends.

This afternoon we went to the Highlands Street Fair to watch Paper Bird play a free concert. It was blistering hot! We met our friends there and took Jem. It seemed like everyone wanted to stop and pet the her. I think since the beagle won the dog show this year they've become more popular. The band was good but I was eager to get out of there for a $1 shake from Sonic. We got home and collapsed for a nap. Then I grilled some brats. Now Brian is patiently waiting for me to stop blogging so we can play a game of some sort. Maybe we'll watch some more Doctor Who tonight. I borrowed his set for this latest incarnation and it's pretty fun.

Dogs are Awesome

Summer 5 Week two

We entered our second block of 5 week classes with a whoosh. Today I had lecture and lab for Nursing Foundations. We discussed hygiene and bathing patients. In lab we learned 3 skills: hand washing, gowning up for infectious patients, and how to put on sterile gloves. I can tell that I'm really going to like this skills class. In between in the afternoon I had a meeting that was supposed to be an info session for clinicals - but they didn't have time to answer many of our questions and didn't really tell us anything new. Then I met with my group to review a presentation we're doing tomorrow.

I actually had school from 8 am until 5 pm, with just a 30 minute break between group work and lab. Then when I got home I studied madly for a pharm exam tomorrow (GI drugs, antimicrobials, antivirals) and put the finishing touches on our group presentation. This is the kind of work load I was expecting from this program, so I'm ready to handle it. Nevertheless, I'm quite tired and ready to fall into bed.

Threadless sale

Woohoo! The wonderful Threadless is having another $10 sale. If only I had $10!*

*ok. I have 10 dollars. But there's the shipping fee, so you might as well order a few shirts. So I should have said "If only I had $40."

nerves

Time for a test. I'll list them from memory:

I Olfactory - sensory
II Optic - sensory
III Oculomotor - motor
IV Trochler - motor
V Trigeminal - both
VI Abducens - motor
VII Facial - both
VIII Acoustic - sensory
XI Glossopharyngeal - both
X Vagus - both
XI Spinal - motor
XII Hypoglossal - motor

How did I do?

SMB Villains

Super Mario Bros. Villain or Obscure Dinosaur?



Score: 73% (11 out of 15)

Harder than it looks. Can you beat my score?