Monthly Archives: May 2012

they are all so young!

it was an amazing night at elysium.  lots of new wave on the dance floor.  my outfit, and general style, was quite a hit.  though it is VERY flattering to be complimented on my look, as often as i am (by both male and female), it is getting sort of surreal AND i would rather have someone that loved me. (besides my cats…who are wondering at my feet as i post this).  if i am so awesome, why can’t i find a job?  and why can’t i find someone to love me?  ok, i have been in nursing school for 2 years and not really looking.  but it seems like it should be easier considering all the people i meet.  whatever.  it was a WONDERFUL night on the dance floor even if the 2 boys, who graduated high school in 2009, referred to the music as “oldies” (“uh, if i graduated in 1987, what does that make me?”, “a beautiful and mature woman?”, “good answer boys!”)

tomorrow i study for the NCLEX with sarah, get a graduation massage from my friend Kathy, and go to movie night at sarah j’s house!  hurrah for graduating from nursing school and having my life back!

i learned to weld yesterday

arc welding, that is.

and to shoot a pellet rifle. i was 5/7 on the rifle. not bad. see damage here:

shooting_bottles

but welding was the coolest! ross taught me. showed me the basics, gave me a disk break to practice on and set me to it.

welding_disk

fear not! i was properly attired:

welding_mask

here is some detail of what i did. as the afternoon went on, i improved greatly.
welds_example

basically, you have to be aware of and respond to 3 different things while you are welding:
1. your arc – need to keep it small
2. your bubble of molten metal – move it forward slowly, while moving back over it slightly as you move along the seam
3. your rod tip – continue to move it closer to the surface you are welding, or the arc will get bigger, because the rod is melting down

it is almost as if there are 3 dimensions you need to be simultaneously aware of. it is seriously cool though. i probably went through 30 rods. now i am planning to sign-up for a course at ACC. that way i can just practice a bunch. that seems to be the best way to learn. i wish i had the “touch”, like i do with baking (cookies, pies and cinnamon rolls, at least…did buy a new cake cookbook), but this will have to be a skilled learned with time and sweat.

why am i learning to weld, you ask? well, i have always wanted to learn to weld. i want to swap welding for scooter work. and i just want to be able to say, ‘yeah, i weld. i speak farsi too.” (farsi is still pretty far down the road though….)

heather, NURSE heather….

well, i did it. i graduated from nursing school. the pinning and graduation ceremonies are later this week, but today i found out that i completed the program. wow. just wow! it is unbelievable, really. sure, you all were sure i could do it. but no one really knows the hurdles i had to over come. it was harder than ANYTHING i have EVER done in my life. teachers were discouraging (not all). tests were sometimes completely baffling when i thought i knew what i was doing. the hours were ludicrous. but now, i can say, i have Graduate Nurse Heather. i’ll be just plain ol’Nurse Heather once i take the NCLEX in june. i am so proud of myself. this is just THE proudest moment of my life ever. it feels so good. and next…doing some real nursing!!!

good and weird

med surg final today. i feel i passed. that is all that matters. the more interesting thing is what i did after the test. i went to scott and white (the hospital in temple) and introduced myself to the nurse manager that i have been playing phone tag with regarding a GN position on her floor. now she has a name and face. she said she would pull my stuff today and call me to set up a peer interview. she wants to be sure her team works well together. i totally respect that! i then went to another floor. i had sent this nurse director a message but received no reply. thought i would try anyway. and i ended up with an impromptu interview and a nurse shadow set up for may 17th! woohoo! seems like a good sign. still going to follow up on those 4 positions i called about last week, but this was encouraging.

my stalker is back. and at this point, he (or she) is getting weird. let’s recap…in the first message the stalker expressed the following:

“to the mistress: who would you wish there weren’t unspoken barriers you could get past, who you have real feelings for, in a world full of otherwise disposables?

i would be unwise to place trust without protecting the question first. the heather i know would agree with this philosophy as she puts to practice.

and you need to be protected from the possibility that who you’re replying to is not gettting your answer without actually being that person.

so you can be assured that the answer can only be figured out by that person, instead of replying with a name, reply with something you’re reasonably sure only that person would know (and exclusive enough the reader knows it couldn’t be anyone else you meant).

this way, if the person you write to here isn’t who you’d hoped it was, it’s nobody’s loss. nobody has to continue beyond the answer.”

what does this sound like to you readers? does this sound like someone who is just looking for a friend? not to me. this sounds like someone who is afraid to express their love (or that thing we get into when we first have feelings for someone). as you may remember, readers, i told q. doe to leave me alone if they weren’t going to be honest with me and tell me who they were. and then, a couple of days ago, i received another message. only this one is about job advice:

“maybe it’s possible that most of the hiring processes so far have at least someone involved whom, either from their own conservative tendencies, or from their perceptions of other teammate’s tendencies, have made pre-judgments about you based on information they have seen about you in your internet presences and blog writings. they most of the time won’t give you constructive negative feedback for too many reasons to list: liability concerns, hiring practices controversies, mere awkwardness and/or messiness in the face of unknown or feared reactions to their feedback, etc, etc, etc. unfortunately it is my experience that no one of a sizeable employer wants to take even the slightest risk in telling you really really why they didn’t hire you. so in this case it probably is just the case, perhaps more for you than you’d wish for, that you have to just fight harder, keep getting up from each soul-draining rejection, and be a billion times more tenacious than your peers in never ceasing in your efforts to find a yes amidst a sea of nos. surely you will eventually find the hiring person out there who’ll be willing to place the bet that is choosing to hire you that the real you is the person that will meet and exceed their needs. or you won’t, if the person(s) that would take the chance on the real you doesn’t/don’t exist out there, within the scope and stamina of your sales of yourself efforts. life really sucks oftentimes, and our only weapon to meet the suckitude truly is sheer grit and constitution. and getting by with a little help from our friends. although past a certain point we can’t eat and sleep on grit and our own constitution, in which case we compromise, fold, and/or cry/lament our predicament(s). some people deal with 99%+ of their seeking approval from others efforts met with cold, careless, unfeeling rejection. for this, “courage wolf” was invented. if you do not know about courage wolf, there’s a googling in your near future.”

notice the different writing style? anyhow, i sent a reply, then a provocative email. this was part of his/her reply:

“you didn’t want to receive emails from anonymous. heh.

i’d rather not feel the weight of identity confining my ability to say what i really think.

you are the opposite of this kind of personality – i know and understand that.

that’s why i really haven’t intended to communicate anymore, because I acknowledge the incompatibility. i only communicated because i felt like i was bursting with a want to say something. because you seem to be really struggling, and that situation you’re struggling with blows. this is the only way i know how to express the kind of truthful empathy without the self-censorship i would otherwise apply as identified. like when there’s a box one can put written comments/feedback to management who wants a way for people to say what they really want to (or even see if people actually care at all, not just pretend they care out of feeling obligated to do so).”

“i acknowledge the incompatibility”. ok. still sounds like more than friends. and really, you want to be friends but you can’t tell me who you are until i tell you that you are the person i dream of having a special relationship with? so i send back the following (just a piece of it, the rest of the email explains how my friends are more concerned than i am):

“how on earth could we ever date if you won’t be honest with me if i know who you are? do you really feel, if you’re “the one” that it will magically keep insecurities and problems with relationship communication at bay? i feel that makes no sense what so ever. it isn’t who they are, it is what you are afraid to lose.”

and THIS is what i get in reply…

“heather, what makes you think i want to date you?

i’ve never said a thing that says i wish to date you. is it just unfathomable to you that this person might just care about you witthout an interest to be involved with you in that way? just because a person is attractive doesn’t mean others must an inability to not be interested in that dimension. we are animals, yet we are also different than animals. a person matured to master their own passions i feel can participate in richer involvement with the world. things can be more genuine, more clear.

i truly must stop writing you, if you continue to conceive this is a feeling out towards a date or even a “hookup” (i hate that term, but its descriptive here).

i care, but that’s just it. care.

anyway, take it easy, and keep on trucking'”

seriously?! you, who is too cowardly to admit who you are, are getting mad at me for assuming that no one would remain such a mystery and require such proof of my thinking you’re special (see first email from q. doe) to simply talk to me as a caring friend, but actually be looking for something more?! what are “real feelings” (first email) exactly? seems a little heavy for something that happens just in friendships? NOW i am concerned, because this is NOT rational behavior in my book. this is changing attitudes after the fact. this is panicked word play. wow, just wow. now i really do want you to leave me alone q. doe, because you are starting to scare me. and i hope that you find a way to be yourself to people when you are with them. generally, it means better, stronger, more satisfying relationships.

oh, and p.s. q. doe….if you know me well enough, you know i don’t go for “hook-ups” so it is rather telling, that you don’t know me very well at all, to suggest so.

this week in "heather looks for a job…"

the nurse manager at st davids said he would call either way. said he had wanted to make decisions mid of last week. didn’t get a call. more disappointing professionalism.

called 4 nurse managers this week about positions. left 3 messages and didn’t get a single call back. the fourth said she was waiting to hear back from HR whether she had another rec or not. she didn’t want to bring people in for interviews then have to say “i would love to hire you, but i don’t have a rec”. i told her i greatly appreciated that. she said to keep calling back. she didn’t mind me following up regularly. that was very nice of her.

so, at this time tuesday (~72 hours from now), i will be done with nursing school but still not have a job. a number of my classmates have called me to talk about why i can’t find anything. offering support and advice. we think it is because 1) i wasn’t a student tech nurse and 2) my “impressive” background makes nurse managers think i won’t stay long, that my intro floor is just stepping stone. HA! i was asking to join the mgmt track at HP. i said no. i don’t want to go up, i want to be a nurse. i want to be a floor nurse. if i could only get in and get the chance to tell them that.

perfect score

i received a perfect score on my research paper for clinicals. this from, whom i think is, the toughest grader of the bunch. but i had sort of expected this, or close to. i mean, i was an analyst for 12 years. this was analysis. but even my grammar passed muster. i am delighted and it means an A in my clinicals course. that’s nice.