Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Car curses

Is there a vehicular virus in the air? No sooner do we get the new Vibe, than my car decides not to start this morning. Great. Just what I needed. Luckily I have a great friend who was able to take me to school, so I was only 10 minutes late (thankyouthankyouthankyou Nate). Another classmate (see comments) was able to take me home, sparing Ben a 40 minute detour from his own drive home. The car still wouldn't start tonight, so I quickly arranged for a tow truck to the mechanic and a rental for my classes tomorrow. I wanted to smack my forehead when I saw it was a white PT Cruiser. What is it with these Cruisers and rentals?

Hopefully Paul's recommended mechanic will do a quick, honest, and cheap fix. I'm counting my blessings that this didn't happen the morning of a clinical.

Speaking of clinicals, I'm done with the horrid drugderies of Mental Health! After Med/Surg lecture all day M-Th this week (termed "Hell Week" by former students), I start clinical at a hospital next week which mostly serves the indigent population. I'm looking forward to diving back into the real medical stuff. Already this week we've covered GI, liver, pancreas, urinary, and cardiac systems. This afternoon's lecture was a quick and dirty instruction for reading EKG strips. Really useful stuff that I think should have been covered in Med/Surg I. I hope I get a lot of practice reading strips in clinical. At least I'll be sure to do them in my practicum. Oh, did I not mention? I found out that I landed my ideal location for senior practicum! I'll be in the MICU (medical intensive care unit) at the same hospital where I had my med/surg I rotation. I'm totally stoked about it. I don't have my exact schedule yet, but my preceptor generally works 8 hour night shifts, so I'll most likely have those. The downside is that I won't see Ben except on weekends for a month. The good side is that during the quiet later hours I'll have time to discuss patients and procedures with my preceptor and to do paperwork. My parents say they're going to get me mace or a taser. Or both :-) I found out that there's a lot we can park in, so I don't have to walk as far outside of the hospital as I did when I worked days in the summer. So, you know, being mugged isn't a SURE thing.

Still waiting for the tow truck . . . what else . . .well the vibe is working out great. Jem has taken to her trunk space nicely. It's so comfortable and quiet. We totally love it. My folks stocked my fridge with delicious Whole Foods groceries so even though it's been a stressful week, we've had fresh and healthy home-cooked meals every dinner and lunch. Even tonight, I have some pizzas that I'll pop in the oven after dropping off the car. I made butterscotch bread pudding last night in my new stoneware pots, an early birthday present. This week is New Beginnings for the Young Women. Since class only goes until 4:30, if I can take care of my car business quickly I can actually attend a YW event! Then Friday I'm going to take it easy to celebrate being 27. Some shopping in the morning, lunch with Ben, hanging with Amanda, then binge on good TV shows that Nate recorded while binging on Virgilio's pizza and garlic knots.

Still waiting . . .I should review EKG strips before I forget about prolonged QT intervals and all that jazz.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

So...the person who gave you a ride to school is a "great friend" and the person who gave you a ride home is just "another classmate" eh? Curious... :)

eaumaison said...

Hey now, you're a married man that I'm just becoming friends with. I don't want to get all sugary about you on the webs and raise eyebrows! Let the record show that Paul is a kind, generous classmate and often hilarious friend who not only took me home, but offered to take me back to class tomorrow morning. :-)