I feel like I'm starting, but really only starting, to become a grown-up, with grown-up responsibilities. Every time something "adult-y" that I have to do comes up in my head I find myself singing the Huggies commercial, "I'm a big kid now!"...which is a true sign of maturity. Here's a list of my recent encounters with the real world.
1. I got in a car accident last November and had to deal with insurance companies. This debacle is still not over since the case has gone to an arbitrator to decide who was most at fault.
2. I went to the eye doctor last week because I didn't want my benefits that I'm paying for to go to waste. Learning the lingo of insurance is very grown-upy. And if you think because I went to nursing school, I know stuff about health insurance, you're wrong.
3. Paying bills. Yuck.
4. Taxes! Ok, I'm not actually doing my taxes, since I have someone who loves me a lot that does them for me, thanks Dad :). Also, it's not cool how many taxes comes out of my paycheck every pay period. Not fun.
5. Visiting the DMV to register the car and dealing with all that paperwork.
Ok fun stuff of being a grown-up:
1. I have my own paycheck, of my own money, that I can do what I want with (with what's left after taxes).
2. Since I am a single adult, I don't really have any responsibilities to anyone but myself. Meaning: I don't HAVE to stay home a cook every night. I don't have to keep my room clean. I don't have to go to bed and get up at normal times of day. But of course, I'm perfect and do all these things anyways. Anyone who knows me, knows my room is always impeccably spotless, and am definitely a morning person.
Being a grown-up isn't all that bad. It's just a lot of new information to learn. The moral of the story: Money makes the world go round.
Every time I write a post, it seems like I tell myself I need to be better at blogging....Well I'm really going to actually try, for reals. Even if it's little things. So here's something little that happened today.
This post is about contact lenses. I'm trying to take advantage of my insurance since it's coming out of my paycheck. Well, vision coverage is included and I haven't had my eyes checked in 3 years. So I went in today to update my prescription and give contacts a try. Well, it took me about 15 minutes to get them in in the office. I kept the contacts in for a few hours and them took them out at home. I can't get them back in. :( I'm not really scared of touching my eyes, but eyes are scared of being touched. I can't stop blinking!!! It's frustrating. I know I need to keep trying, but I'm debating if it's worth it.
I'm going to stick with the glasses for tonight :)
I was on call tonight, but there weren't very many patients on the unit so I was let off the hook. Michelle and I seized the evening!!!! We made schniekerpies first. We made these a few months ago and decided to name them that for no apparent reason, just because we were loopy that night. Now they are forever known as schniekerpies: deep fried tortillas with honey and cinnamon-sugar on top :). We sat down to carve pumpkins and watched the ridiculously awesome 80's movie, GHOSTBUSTERS!!!
SCHNIEKER PIES!!! yummmmm
Who you gonna call?!
THE FINAL PRODUCTS:
Michelle's masterpiece
We then proceeded to clean a very untidy apartment while having a awesome dance party :)
YAY FOR STRESS FREE NIGHTS!!!
...yep it's 4am, I'm not tired...night shifts this week, sheesh!!
The girls in this family that have blogs need to be better about updating them, Janelle and I. :) I'm sorry I haven't been better at keeping things posted here's what's happened in the last few weeks. I took a trip down to Zion's National Park with some friends. We have made this fun tradition of going down twice a year in April and August for the last couple years. Here are some pictures from this year's trip. It was a really fun group! We hiked Angel's Landing, watched a meteor shower and splashed around in the narrows :)
Michelle and Heidi and I have moved into a new apartment and it is ALMOST settled. It's going to be super awesome when it is all together and I will post pictures of it :)
My job is going well. I am still learning so much!! Sunday was my first day off of orientation, I had my own patients all by self (cue Huggies commercial, "I'm a big kid now!"). It was an interesting first day. So much happened and it was overwhelming. It brought a whole new meaning to the phrase: "throw them to the wolves" or "out of the pot and into the frying pan." Luckily I work with some super smart people that know a lot more than me and were a great help. I come into work nervous everyday, that I'm going to miss something and something will go wrong. But I work with some really good people that aren't going to leave me high and dry. I do really enjoy working right now and being out of school and on my own.
Other news, football season started!! Even though I'm not a student anymore, I still bought an All-Sports pass and am going to all the games. I'm working a lot of Friday nights so it will be sweet to always have Saturday's off so I won't miss the games. This past Saturday we has some sweet seats on the end-zone in rows 3 and 4. Here's some pics.
The half-time presentation was pretty cool. LaVell Edwards with all of his All-American QBs were there to present a new scholarship fund to BYU for their QBs. Jeffery R. Holland (not a QB but still awesome), Steve Young, Jim McMann, Ty Detmer, Robby Bosco, and a few others were all there. It was pretty neat.
I haven't updated the blog in 3 months. I don't know that anyone even reads it, but in those three months since I wrote, here's what's happened in a nutshell:
April --I finished up the end of my semester, completing my big research paper in capstone, finished my capstone hours at a grand total of 245 over the course of the semester. --I GRADUATED!!! I am now a BYU alumnus and it's totally awesome. Here is a link to pictures if you haven't already seen them on facebook, (click me). As a nursing class, we got together to have a banquet dinner and there was a fun slide show of pictures over the course of nursing school. Then we went up Provo Canyon to burn our old "student nurse" ugly white scrub tops. If you've never burned something "meaningful" before, I highly recommend it. It's very therapeutic. Homework, old scrubs, old pictures of people you would rather forget. May --I was home in Connecticut basically the whole month of May. What did I do you may ask? Sat around on my rear for 4 weeks :) It was so great to relax and just chill. My mom did have surgery while I was at home so helped a lot with that. And by help I did a lot of driving around. Which I don't mind, I like driving. --Janelle and Julie came to visit while I was home and it was so fun to see them. Julie is the funniest little girl ever! Love her :) --While I was home I also managed to land my self an awesome job. After much pestering and multiple emails a week (my mom always taught me, squeaky wheel gets the grease) I finally got the job offer for the place I did my capstone. June --I came back to Provo at the very end of May, study for the NCLEX for two weeks and PASSED!!! While I was home, my dad gave me a blessing that I would be calm and peaceful for the test and that I would pass. That blessing and lots of prayers were a huge comfort to me and I truly was calm going into the test. So much so that I surprised my self. I had no trouble sleeping the night before. I went into the testing center and just dug in. I got 75 questions, which was the minimum and it took me about an hour and half. It crazy how 4 1/2 years of education can come down to a simple 75 questions...well not so simple, but small. :) The next day after the test was really hard, and nerve racking waiting....but when I saw that Registered Nurse next to my name, it was wonderful!!! See my license here :) --I started in my new job on the Thoracic ICU. Wow. It is a crazy intense learning environment. I can feel my brain hurting at the end of the day with how much I learn, but I love it! Hearts are so cool!!!!...and I'm a total nerd but that's ok :) --Also, Wimbledon was on. And it was crazy this year. 11 hour matches, Roger losing so early, Roddick losing to #82?, Serena being the only top 20 left in the semis, Nadal sweeping the final (snore worthy)...hopefully the US Open will be more exciting :) July --I'm 4 weeks into my 12 week orientation. I am learning a ton. I am also enrolled in a Basic ICU class as part of my learning. I love this class because it's basic, but not too basic. Most of the people in the class have been nurses for 2-3 years and are only now starting in an ICU so they approach it in a way that we already know basic nursing, which is really good. Work is busy, but I am loving it. I do a lot of driving but hopefully I will be moving to the hospital sooner so that my 8 hours/week commute will get cut down.
I'm going to try to be better about updating, even though I'm not sure too many terribly exciting things are going to happen...except I am going to be getting the new iphone in a couple weeks. That's exciting :)
