Wanna ask me open ended questions?

Autumn. Fall. It's usually my favorite season. But not this year.

In the aftermath of Ike, the schedule for this semester is as messy and scrambled as Paul McCartney and Heather Mills' divorce. It's got the hospitals involved, the required clinical hours involved, the lectures and exams involved. There are hospitals that don't want to deal with us just yet, leading us in the dark as to when we can come in for orientation and to actually start clinical, there are a week worth of materials need to be lectured, there are postponed exams need to be taken. So far, for my clinical section, we have settled 2 orientations out of 3 this week, 2 exams next week, 1 exam the week after, and that's it. It's just this mammoth of uncertainty at the moment.

Also, this week is known as the Brother #2's wedding week, also known as the week my studying time will be cut down due to family related event in which I will put pageant like smiles on my face as I greet the soon to be in-laws of Brother #2 with higher than usual pitch voice to convey as much as glee as I can squeeze out of my current frustrated, anxious, dark, and gloomy state. I should put a name tag that says "Hello my name is Cee, yes I am the sister, and I'm also a nursing student, so forgive the less than bright and cheery appearance, I'm trying my best to think of rainbows and roses for this occasion that I truly am happy about, but it's just that nursing school is kicking my ass and Ike just ruined what was a bearable semester into one that will undo me. So if I have a faraway look on my face when you're talking to me, it's not that you're boring or I don't like you, I'm just trying to recall the materials for my exams next week."

The thing is, the sufficient study time to pass me is there but I'm just feeling I'm going to be so damn exhausted all week, I already am. This week will be the death of me.

Please send fluffy cotton candies, ponies, chocolates, rainbows, pots of gold, and fairy dusts to the newly opened Things to Keep Cee From Pulling Out Her Hair and Headdesking Too Much donation box, I greatly appreciate it.

Back to school.

After a week off school post Hurricane Ike, we are back on tomorrow. I don't feel like going back to be honest with you, I'm dreading how crazy our schedule is going to be since we have lectures, exams, and clinical orientations (and clinicals itself because we postponed the orientation). Psych test #1 on Tuesday has been canceled, which is such a relief for me since I didn't get much studying done all week. It's difficult to concentrate on studying during all this chaos, plus my mom arrived on Thursday, so I've been taking her around, making good of my time off.

*sighs* Back to regular programming tomorrow.

List.

There is much to be told since the last post, so I'm going to make a list. My brain is a little scattered so this is in no particular order.

1. I've been in orientation all this week from 0800-1630 and next Monday is the last day.

2. Orientation SUCKS.

3. There were lectures of things we've already learned in school such as infection control and pressure ulcer, yadda yadda yadda....

4. It is so boring I had to force myself to drink coffee this morning to keep me awake. Coffee does not make me happy....

5. Oh and we practiced blood draw on fake arms, then they told us we're going to be checked off drawing blood on EACH OTHER.

6. WTH?! I thought we are well past the days of poking fellow students with needles! Heh.

6. Speaking of needles, I've been stuck with needles more time than I would like ever since I arrived in New York: One blood draw from employee service, one blood draw from the check off, and one shot from employee service.

7. Being stuck by needles does not make me happy either.

8. Wednesday has been the most interesting orientation day thus far.

9. I mean, they took us down to the morgue for crying out loud!

10. So of course I saw a dead body being pulled out of the refrigerator and caught a glimpse of an autopsy.

11. Then we went back to the skill lab and drew blood on each other.

12. I thank my new friend J for offering his arm. He is very gentleman-ly like that.

13. J has many a gorgeous vein that I was successful on first try.

14. Also, if you stick a needle in a person and see no flashback in the butterfly, do not--I repeat--DO NOT wiggle the needle trying to get into the person's vein!!!! It hurts, dammit!

15. I received a crash course on Jewish traditions (due to the large population at the hospital), which was interesting because I've never had this situation in Texas.

16. I miss Chick-fill-a and its sweet tea. And chicken fried steak with mash 'tatoes and biscuit.

17. I do not miss my car and driving.

18. I walk a lot here. A LOT.

19. My roommate's cats shed like there is no tomorrow.

20. Hence, the lint roller has become my new bestfriend.

21. I got a laptop. FINALLY.

22. So stay tune for more stories.

Toodles!

So, this is New York, eh?

My first week in New York has been good. I had nothing to do except having to go to the hospital to get health paperworks done--an x-ray and blood draw while we were at it--and I was done. After that day I sat in the apartment thinking oookkaaay, what do I do now? I am not used to having all of this free time on my hands (see a few posts below), and it's like, I have no purpose in life, someone, help me! And let it be said that with free time comes spending money. A lot of money. 'Tis no good.... Need. to. stop. shopping. now.

So living arrangement wise, I'm getting used to it and liking it more and more each day. I live outside of Manhattan with a roommate, who has very kindly welcomed me into her cool apartment in a building with no elevator (*sighs*), who has two cats who are adorable and fluffy and cuddly and can be very weird a lot of times. I've lived with a roommate before, back when I went to Baylor University for a short while, but I've known said roommate before (we're good friends from high school). This time, it's a completely unknown person to me, a friend of an acquaintance, who I've only heard good things about. So this is something new--along with a lot of other new things I have to adapt to, but it's working out well. The roomie is super nice, and I like nice people, yes, I do.

Orientation for the internship starts bright and early on Monday at 8 am. Heh. 8 am is way to early for my brain to function, we'll see how that goes.... I'm getting anxious, wondering if I remember what they taught us in school. All kind of things are running through my head now that orientation is a few days away and actual work (on the Peds floor) is a week away. Do I remember how to take vitals manually? What are the baseline for pediatrics? Do I remember how to assess and know what to look for? Do I remember how to start IV? Draw blood? Give injections? Hang IV's? Holy crap, I am going to make a fool of myself aplenty! They're going to ship me back to Texas!!!

Wish me luck, I have a feeling this is going to be a very interesting 10 weeks. Very interesting....

Hi, I'm your mentor and I'm a little bit crazy.

I have just received the official list of advisers and mentors for the incoming Junior I class. It is official that I am on the rosters as one of the mentors, woo! This mentoring program in my school is designed to help the incoming nursing students who undoubtedly have a lot of questions and fears and in need of a support system, so as mentors we are available to answer their questions, advice, listen, and encourage the best we could. I'm just so excited to be one because this program has helped me so much before I even began last semester, just knowing from the beginning that I have 2 mentors that I could go to for help was a great reliever, so I'm hoping that I could do the same for the new kids.

I'm meeting my group of 4 mentees this Friday during their orientation, yay! And I'm so glad to have find that I am actually co-mentoring with a friend who was in the same clinical group as me last semester and the adviser for our group of mentees is one of our Pharmacology professors, who is one of the nicest-I'm not kidding-NICEST instructors on campus.

However, come to think of it, I'm a little nervous about saying the wrong things to these mentees, because that would be um, bad. "Yeah, I didn't really read the assigned chapters for that class, nah, that's too much, oh oops, not suppose to say that...." or "Yeah, I skipped her lectures sometimes, 'cuz ya know, didn't get anything out of her, I'd rather read the chapter later. Oh oooops...." So yeah, bad. It's like Joey on Friends when he didn't want to say the wrong things on a magazine interview so he invited everyone to stop him just in case, and he did good until the very end when he blew it, except that I'll be on my own on Friday and hopefully my friend doesn't say the wrong things either because having been in the same group, we kind of did these "bad" things together.....

So either we'd be the worst mentors, or we'd be the coolest mentors ever. I'm pulling for the latter.

Productive

Oh, look who's being productive today:

1. Loan application - check. Okay, almost check because the stupid security system locked me out when I was thisclose to finishing. Bah! Now I have to call them on Monday....

2. Preliminary online applications two 2 internship programs - check.

3. Letters of recommendation request to two faculties - check.

4. Look up required textbooks - check.

5. Order required textbooks - check. I cringed at the cost....

6. Find out my schedule - check.

7. Choose 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choices for clinical days - check.

I still have agibizziliion things to do this coming week in preparation for the upcoming semester. I am excited and nervous at the same time, though it's a different kind of excitement and fear than that when I was about to start my first semester. This time, it's more...excited for what is more and scared because I know it will be harder and busier and more than likely more chaotic. Oh, and getting back to the swing of things after a month of vacation isn't exactly easy. A month of time off have rendered me quite lazy and useless, hah! Not complaining though, it was good to relax and veg, vegging is necessary every once in a while, I promote the vegging.

Now it's time to get this ride back on the road again, and as a result I have signed up to volunteer at the new students orientations. Yes, i know I've mentioned I did that already, but my school holds this series of orientations every semester, it's a bit too much but hey, anything to help out the new kids, right?

So that's that. New year is here and I'm gearing up for the new semester. There is a lot of exciting things that I'm working on happening this year, so I'm hopeful. For now, I'm going to rummage to the fridge for food. Food is good.

Not so brandnew anymore.

I just volunteered at the school's new students orientation today, and it's minboggling to realize that three months ago I was one of those newbies, nervous and confused about what is to come.

Today, I gave the incoming newbies information about the scrubs they need (all hail the elastic pants! Drawstrings hate me, they keep falling off on me!), which sthetoscope is good (Littman is your friend, your expensive friend that is), what supplies they really need to get (blood pressure cuff? Won't need it until 3rd semester Community class; clipboard? Good for something to write on, a hassle to carry around), and answered questions about the classes & professors (Concepts sucks, and yes, it's OK to skip lectures as long as you know which one, and you'll love your Patho and Pharm instructors).

It is a very strange feeling to realize how clueless I really was and to see how much I've gained in just three months. It's crazy! And those newbies, they're so fresh and unassuming, and all I can say to them is "Buckle up because it's going to be one hell of a ride!"

DUNZO!

I am D to the O, the N the E with summer school with a B to boot!

Now I have been doing little to nothing ever since school is done (have about a week of break before a string of orientations and eventually the semester) and was actually quite confused of what to do with this oh so much free time. But fear no more for I have made a to do list, which consist of:

1. Get my car an alignment service and get it inspected.

2. Clean my room, it looks like my closet flew in and exploded there. Not pretty. This brings me to number 3.

3. Fold the clean clothes, it's been in the basket for...hrrmm a week? I think....

4. Pick up a new book to read, probably My Sister's Keeper.

5. Get my friend her long overdue birthday present, which brings me to number 6.

6. Wish my other friend a belated 'Happy Birthday' (what? I was busy studying...), which brings me to number 7.

7. Get Dad's birthday present. Don't worry, I actually remembered calling him on the day. This brings me to number 8.

8. Figured out where to have a my birthday dinner--a proper one--before we go clubbing and get trashed for the night....

9. Get up early tomorrow morning to take the newly-arrived-to-the-U.S. of A cousin to see the counselor at his school. Thing reminds me of number 10.

10. Call the student life office and demand them of my I-20. Damn, I would've been rich if I had a dolla' for everytime they said "It'll be ready soon, I'll call you." Apparently their standard of 'soon' is different than mine, I thought 'soon' meant within a week or two and they thought 'soon' is 3 months and going. Bah.

11. Figured out the time and dates for my three orientations and the CPR class. Yes, they're making me go to three, go figure. One for International Students, One for new Undergraduate Nursing Students, one is for something else I couldn't remember which is why this is on the to do list. Bah Bah.

12. Pay Fall Semester tuition. BAH BAH BAH!

That is all.