good news! go through my first full week of clinicals. it was awesome. i can totally do this. we aren’t suppose to talk about clients at all. let’s just say, i got to do a bunch of stuff to help residents with their health and it was totally awesome!

my new flat is complete! (all most). katie and randy came up and did some small maintenance for me. they put my tv on the wall (AWESOME! i can bake and watch tv!) they put up my curtains (which are humorously long since my windows were so big in austin). hung my chandelier! it is over the dining table. it looks fabulous. lastly, randy put up my cat shrine shelf (katie didn’t need to help with this one). now my cat shrine, complete with cat books, both fiction and none, my cat puzzle and my cat-kitchen-utensile glasses, are as they should be.

the not so go news…the Capo is lost. he was playing around the building, and then i couldn’t find him. i have put up signs, a craigslist ad, walked the complex calling his name. i have encountered other people’s cats. but not mine. optimus prime and i miss him very much. i worry he is hungry and cold and wonders why his mom hasn’t come to help him. this is silly thinking, as far as we know, animals don’t think this way, but i still feel like this. it was my responsibility to take care of him and i blew it. i lost him. i suck.

lastly, i confirmed today my cobra goes up to ~$450, from $170, starting in december. then in february it is over completely. this is a topic i really want to stick my head in the sand about. i have made some overtures to deal with it (some crazy). it is a subject so terrifying to me, i just try not to think about it. until i go to the pharmacy and pick up my VERY expensive birth control pills (no generic). then i can’t deny it. what am i suppose to do? do i not deserve to get the medications that keep me health (i am not talking about the birth control)? aren’t i a more productive member of society healthy? it really scares me. and i don’t want to deal with it.

still a good week overall, oh, well, i did fail my second exam of my collegiate career (pharm). the first was my first in college (poly sci essay). i just suck at straight memorization. memorizing drug side effects simply doesn’t stick with me. learning how drugs work? application of understanding? i kick butt at that. regurgitating facts, not so much. just have to do well on the next 2 exam and final (which is cumulative). but i really enjoyed my clinicals. and learning about NG tubes. the program is so stimulating. and andreas liked my shoes today. that made me smile. and i am baking a pie with my new roomy, mo. so i can’t complain, really.

i think marriage should be something you do in church. that all “state recognized” couple unions (hetero- and homo-sexual) should be civil unions. cause that is what they are to the state. in england, they have civil unions for homosexual couples and marriage for heterosexual couples. there is an article on the beeb today about a group of heterosexual couples who are going to apply for civil unions, knowing they will be turned down, so they can challenge the law. i look forward to the case. in france, 95% of those applying for civil partnerships are heterosexual and the number of those getting married has shrunk. to me, this is how it should be. if marriage is between a man and a woman, under god, let it happen in a church. the state isn’t under god, so that argument doesn’t work. i hope more people come around to this truth. but it will be a long road.

Why would a straight couple want a civil partnership?

this was so exciting! i hope they ask me to write again. what should i write about?

Commuting Pros and Cons (the Pros have it!)

check out the entire site! it is totally awesome!

helmethairmagazine.com

lily of the valley is: (from her blog homepage)
i’m Karin, I’m 23 and live in Goeteborg in Sweden. (grew up in Joenkoeping.) I run an online vintage shop called Lily of the Valley

1. What is your favorite fashion accessory?
huh. i am not sure. a great coat? which is mostly irrelevant in texas. pink hair and cool glasses *sniff*

2. Who is your favorite fashion role model?
i don’t think there is one. vivienne westward. elle macpherson. siouxsie sioux. donna reed.

3. What do you always carry with you?
everything. ask my classmates and my best friend

4. How would you describe your style?
oh, this is easy…the gothic donna reed!

5. What is your favorite? Jeans, sunglasses, or heels?
heels, duh.

6. What inspired you to blog about fashion?
well, heathershair.com started because my friends in the US wanted to see what colour my hair was when i moved to europe. i added the clothing, because, well, i had so much fun finding it and putting together the outfits i wanted to share. i dress in themes. i like to see how the themes work. i also believe we can ALL be incredibly beautiful and sexy all the time. i figure, by sharing my tricks, my friends and anyone that stumbles upon the site might catch the bug too!

7. What is your favorite fabric in clothing?
a good heavy cotton in a dress from the 50s is great. always hangs beautifully. i have some wonderful raw silks too. i like fur, though realize it is evil. patrick taught me to insist on natural fibers. he was right about that for sure. polyester and nylon make my skin crawl.

8. Who or what inspires your style
i think a little bit of everyone inspires my style. i like 50s in black, but i love vivienne westward necklines. and 16th century ball gowns. i prefer symmetrical lines, but unique looking pieces. i can’t say there is one thing. if i see it and like it, i integrate it. i hate sportswear.

9. Would you choose to buy something high quality or make it yourself if you could?
deity! i wish i could sew. or craft. but i can’t sew or glue a straight line. so, if i have the money, i’ll buy it.

andreas and i went to the ren faire this weekend. it was nice in that we just hung out. oh, i did get my hair braided, which i love. friday night was animalesque. it went MUCH more smoothly this year. i’d love to do that every year. i wore my cougar outfit and it was well received. thursday was “bedpost confessions”. that was really fun. the speakers covered:
1. how to give a good blow job/cunnilingus (which, the reader pointed out, doesn’t have anything but the dumb latin name)
2. 3 stories…a sexy letter to a french gentleman, a threesome between dr phil, oprah and martha stewart, and a sexy reworking of hamlet’s soliloquy.
3. sexy beat poetry
4. sexy hip hop
5. an awesome story of taking one for Smith (college)
6. a story of punishment after making a snarky comment to the mistress who knits
the dumb bondage clowns amused us in-between. it was a great event and i shall be reading my anatomically incorrect porn that i wrote when i was 14 at next month’s event! *mom, you should really fly in for this. it is hysterical. i talk about how the family use to watch porn together **don’t worry, i explain there was nothing funny going on**

at 4:45am on Thursday morning, my neighbor above me in belton (this is why i always want to live on the top floor) decided to run on her treadmill. really? REALLY?! i got up, walked outside, checked the windows (her’s was lit), and then knocked on her door. no answer. probably couldn’t hear me. so i left a note. she ran until 5:05 and then took a shower. i couldn’t get back to sleep until 6, alarm at 6:30. i was a basket case the rest of the day. her reply said she had no idea the noise would travel through (REALLY?! you are RUNNING ON MY CEILING!), that she USUALLY ran outside and it SHOULDN’T happen again. really? it better not EVERY happen again. run at 10am, 4pm, 8pm, sure, fine. but not before 8 in the morning. anyhow…i took the note to the office as a paper trail. told them i didn’t need them to talk to her, just wanted them to be aware. i like my new office. i like my new flat, with the exception of running neighbors.

why must i have these constant irritations in life? why can’t things just go smoothly?

i did get to have a wonderful bitch session with two different sets of classmates this week. it made me feel much better. it made me feel i am not alone in my annoyance of some of our classmates. i am not perfect, and i know i annoy people sometimes. but really, some of this behaviour…we aren’t going to bother with some of these people anymore.

had an annoying incident in class on thursday where several people came to my defense. i appreciated it. i think one of the reasons people support me is because i ask the questions others want to hear. some people are afraid to ask questions, i really don’t understand why, but they do. i ask questions. i challenge things that don’t seem quite right. this both annoys and pleases my instructors. they like students who want to learn, but sometimes i am just too much. i try to know the line.

packing day.

well, i have a flat in belton now. it is a cookie cutter one-bedroom but it has awesome storage in the kitchen. i can organize my baking ingredients like never before! i have decided hip and cool apartments sacrifice looking unique for efficient use of space. my internet will be up and running tonight, ATT willing, so it is feeling like home. i have a mattress, half a dresser, a printer, a cow hide rug, a full kitchen and bath so far. it’s weird. part of me doesn’t want to bring much else up. i don’t miss my stuff, so it seems a waste to bring it. don’t want to rush at throwing it all out though, so i suppose i will have to. perhaps i will par down over time.

got 95 on my clinical test. got 88 on my pharm test. 86 on my skills test. 96 on my intro test. 98 on my comprehensive math exam. so, yeah, things are going well. have clinical and skills test next week. pharm the week after. we start our clinical rotations at the retirement home in two weeks. today the gentleman that runs the respiratory therapy program came in and introduced us to that topic. he was so awesome we gave him applause at the end of class. did a review of drug commercials last week. one of the drugs i picked was lunesta, a sleep aid. it is the drug with the butterfly in the commercial. there are a lot of really funny spoofs of the butterfly. here is a particularly funny one:

going to the ren faire this weekend. cleaning up after naked people for animalesque 2 on friday night. between school and my weekends, i am still really lacking in sleep. and updating my blog. can’t say i have had an inspiring internal debate lately either. mostly i think of drug side effects and which parts of the body i have to check during a client assessment. and what is due tomorrow (nothing, thus i am blogging). i need to update my fashion photo. i think i’ll do that before turning to my clinical objectives.

i hate going to wal-mart. it is full of misleading marketing and jumbo sized products with tons of preservatives. but it was on my way home and all i needed was heavy cream. my belton HEB (only slightly better spirit wise but a lot less product…the veggie sections is embarrassing) is a mile or so past my flat. so i stopped at my local wal-mart. never again. they didn’t have my brand of greek yogurt. they have a lot of just a few things, i have started to notice. then, when i got to the self check-out, i had a woman step around me to stand in-front of one register, waiting for the person using the register to finish, instead of waiting in the “this line for next available” line. as fate would have it, i got my register first anyway. not that it helped. see, once i got my register, the self-check monitor decided to restock bags, causing the machine to freak out because my product wasn’t wighting the right amount in the bag area. after she finished, i scanned my yogurt of a brand i didn’t want, and two small cartons of heavy whipped cream (no plain heavy cream). i picked cash but the machine would NOT take my cash. when i looked at the self-check monitor she said “i asked someone to bring me a new $5 for you”. i showed her i was holding a $10. she just stood there and looked around as though someone would show up any moment and save her. getting tired of waiting, i asked if i could use my credit card. i had already put in $.04. she said she didn’t know. REALLY? isn’t you job to make this self-check thing work smoothly? grrr. sick of waiting on someone that was making no effort to make it work, i tried my card. it worked and i got the hell outta dodge. not going back. no way.

dinner with old HP boss tonight. in austin. math test and client assessment check-off tomorrow. SO busy. moved some stuff to new flat this last weekend (thanks andreas and ross!). kitties are running around. will catch up blog, maybe even update the photo, on wednesday!

in a way, it is good that my salad-o roommate is moving to CA. i am not getting enough sleep in that house. so many times a night i get woken up by her and her dog. she can sleep through anything, most people can’t. i woke up at 1:30, 4, 5 and 5:30. so exhausted. don’t think i will go to pharm today so i can take a nap. dull, i realize. but very big in my life right now!

had an intro exam yesterday. i think it is highly likely i got 100%. it was crazy easy. sort of disturbingly so. i had a classmate ask me why i don’t go to med school instead of becoming a nurse. she suggested i was smarter than nursing. very flattering, but i have no interest in med school. too much straight memorization. i am a little worried about wanting to get more involved in the medical diagnosis than i am suppose to. but, i suppose, it depends on the area i work in.

just practiced assisted falls. wrong day to wear a dress and pumps.

got 84 on my skills exam, 88 on pharm. totally satisfied with that. still think i got 100% on intro. finished my drug commercial review for pharm. everything takes longer than i estimate it will. i had planned to have the commercials done last night, but the skills quiz took me longer than planned. tonight i had wanted to finish my client care plan due tuesday. nope. at least i will sleep well tonight.

found a better flat to move into. won’t be able to paint the walls, as i am on the ground floor and it would be too easy for mgmt to notice, but, it is a much brighter, happier flat. down the street from my coffee shop too. HEB near by. dry cleaner. perhaps i will let the kitties out! and this is a done deal. signed the lease today. i still haven’t gotten the final ok from the place i had talked to last week. i am hoping they will continue to drag their feet and i can tell them that they waited too long and get my deposit back (only $200, but still, that is a nice pair of shoes). regardless, i am delighted to have everything squared away and have a place that doesn’t completely suck.

got my clinical location today. we start in like 2 weeks. very exciting, but sort of nerve wracking too. i don’t have “you know who” so that is really all that matters. man, stuff is moving so fast.