Trees and Exercise

I have no desire to focus on studying for my Dosage Exam - math and conversions make my brain spin round and round - I figured I would post instead.

So it has come to my attention I have some issues with trees and exercise. I love working, exercising, etc outside - especially love biking, running, horseback riding, etc. on trails. Now as most of you know trails typically have trees and lots of them. About two years ago I was biking on one of the many trails around the area - it was a fabulous warm afternoon for early spring. I had just gotten back into town and needed to do something. I hopped onto the bike and took off - thinking I was just like Lance Armstrong. Needless to say my foot came off the peddle, my balance went way off, and I crashed into a tree. Awesome. Real talent on this end. I ended up breaking my elbow and wrist - super awesome. My boyfriend at the time was just simply in aw of what I had managed to do to myself. One moment on the path - the next in the woods.
After my biking disaster it of course was the joke to not let me anywhere near a bike again. Well apparently biking is not my problem as I found out early Saturday morning.
Saturday morning I decided to get up with Ms Goose and go for a 3 plus mile run at the lake. It is a new trail we started running just a week ago. Well Saturday morning circa 7:30 am it was a bit chilly and I had a baseball cap on plus my ear warmers over the top. Just call me hottness. Okay so I had just finished the first mile and started to settle into a nice pace. I saw the base of a tree to the left of me but did not see any of the trunk past my upper thigh and BAM! My shoulder slammed into the tree. I did not know what end of the world was up and what was down I was in such shock. Since I was wearing my baseball cap my peripheral vision was a bit limited. Needless to say I felt like a huge dork - looked around to make sure no one saw me - checked to make sure my shoulder was okay and I took off to finish my run. Unfortunately my run was not as successful as I had hoped since my shoulder was throbbing. My time was terrible. By the time I got home the whole thing is black and blue. I must say it is a pretty awesome looking bruise. One of those that when you show people they wince and look all gross out. When I informed my roomie of what I had done to myself she told me I was not allowed outside without supervision. Super.

My Friday Night in Pictures

Okay so we have these

(because who doesn't love doing school work on a Friday night?)...

+

showing this

(oh yes - I think this might make #98 for times watched)

while laying in this

with my one and only snuggle buddy

Ms Goose

and of course while drinking a glass of this

So maybe that school work might not really be accomplished after all...eh its Friday night.

God, Its Pav...

I am not sure how many of you are religious but I am in need of some direction. My relationship with God has had its ups and downs. Growing up we were tight. Then came college and well for awhile there I never bothered to say hello and I really felt like my life was missing something..then one day I realized how I really let our relationship go. I allowed another relationship to take priority...so when that one ended I knew I needed to get myself back on track again. For awhile things have been great, but once again I have started slacking and I am struggling to find that connection I had several months ago. I am allowing myself to get pulled down with emotions that should not even exist, rather than focus on one's that pull me up. I need to stop being a bottom dweller and start focusing on all the good around me. So last night I opened up my Bible and started searching for some encouraging verses and well I just can not find the one. You know when you have that moment and you are just like - YES! This is what I was looking for. So I am asking y'all - what words do you find encouragement from and gives you strength?

My patients name is Lucy - how fantastic is that? I was going to tell her my dog's name is Lucy but I figured I would save that for next time. She is cute as a button and still kicking it at 92. I will definitely settle for Ms Lucy vs some crazy patient - I can wait till we work with the pysch patients in the hospital.

Clinicals

All dressed up and ready to go! My scrubs have been ironed and laces are tied. It is my first day of clinicals and I am off to a nursing home in triangle area. Wish me luck! I am hoping for some fantastic (crazy) patients. (This way I have some great stories to share.)

Valentine Funny

This is what I received via Gmail this morning from a dear friend of mine:

It's Official

We are moving! ! !

The roomie is an official home owner and we are moving out April 28th.

Lucy pack up your kennel and bones we are moving on up!

Now who would like to help me pack?

Celeb Monday

Today started with me freaking out as perusal. I have a huge physical assessment check off exam thing tomorrow and well I as of 6:30 this morning I was not feeling nearly as prepared as I needed to be. After class finished up this morning I went over to my lab partners house and we practiced for um close to 3 hours. Driving home I started feeling a little bit better but of course my nerves are all over the dang place. Okay moving on to the point of my post ...

The roomie is apart of the Cystic Fibrosis Society of North Carolina and tonight they were having a pizza tasting contest at our favorite local bar and restaurant. There were five pizzas to sample and then everyone voted. The pizza that wins the contest will be added to the Point's menu for the next year and every time someone orders the pizza the Point will donate a percentage to the Foundation. Pretty cool, huh? Okay so what is even better is who was there. Heba Salama and her husband Ed Brantley. Not sure who they are well maybe this will help...

Heba and Ed were on season 6 of the Biggest Loser. Heba voted off by America but actually ended up winning at the final weigh in. They look absolutely amazing now. I can not find a decent picture. None the less they started the competition weighing 360 (Ed) and 300 (Heba). Amazing. So the roomie and I were beside ourselves that they were um like two tables away from us and of course we just had to go up an introduce ourselves. Heba was a darling talkative peach. Her hubby - not so much of the talker. That was fine because for like 10 mins. I just drilled them with questions. What is was like living at the ranch (cameras everywhere and you sleep in a twin bed); What is Bob like and Jillian (Bob amazing - Jillian not so much); Were you not starving from your restricted diet (not really because we were throwing up/however they had a 1200 calorie diet and were burning off between 5-6000 calories a day); How many hours a day did you work out (12!). And well the list goes on. We just sat there and chatted away. She was so nice! They are also looking at opening up a frozen ice cream shop in the 5 points area. And as a side note her ring is GORGEOUS! Couldn't stop looking at it. I have a current diamond obsession. I need to get over that - that ship ain't no where in sight.

Once I got all of my crazy stalker questions out we said our goodbyes, and we introduced ourselves to one of the WRAL anchormen, Chris Corchiani, and the NC State Baseball Coach. All who were really nice. The roomie and I headed over to the townhouses she has been looking at to decide between two of them. And we have a winner!! Whoot whoot - we might be moving come the end of April...

Eating and What Nots

I had a great weekend filled with laughs and food! It started on Thursday when the Virginian took me out on a date. I had not been out of the house for a social evening in well over a week since Nursing School has taken over my life. I was in much need of getting out of my house and enjoying a tasty beer.

We went to Tobacco Road, a new restaurant that opened up at the beginning of this year. Let me tell y'all why I am in love with this place. One - no smoking allowed - anywhere. Two - delicious beers on tap. Three - YUMMY food. What did I order? The mac and cheese. Now I do not - repeat do not ever - order something like mac and cheese from a restaurant. Just not my thing - BUT - I was told it was super fantastic and oh my goodness my mouth is drooling just thinking about it. I recommend this yummy classic home cookin' dish as a must must try.

Friday I worked all day at the Stationery store - I was only blinded by one woman's gigantic diamond ring. Seriously - I do not even know what it looked like because her whole left side of her body was blocked by the ray's coming off her left hand. I grabbed some sushi from Harris Teeter and headed off to the movies with six girlfriends to see ....

Um - yeah way to sum up my life in an hour twenty mins...after the movie I headed home and curled up in my comfy bed with my dog. Moving on...

Saturday I woke up early to work out with the trainer and head to work for round two. After getting off of work I promptly drove myself to Total Wine where I purchased one giant size bottle of Pinot and a twelve pack of Michelob Light. (The weight conscious beer.) I arrived home to find the roomie in full summer mode (it was 68 degrees on Saturday and 74 on Sunday!) ... she was making hamburgers! It was lovely. I changed into some comfy clothes and uncorked my bottle of wine. Um so side note - I have not really been drinking lately so after two glasses of wine I was drunk. Sweet - its 8:30pm. Needless to say I was unable to make it out like I had planned because one - I could not dress myself and two - no operating a motor vehicle in my condition. We still had a lovely time just hanging out at home.

Sunday I woke up and started cleaning. Washed all my sheets, comforter, vacuumed, etc. Watched Greys and Private Practice ... was a bad child skipped Church and headed too...

Can we say DELICIOUS?! Yes we sure can. This place is fantastic. I did not even eat breakfast food - I opted for the chicken salad which was amazing. It had blue cheese crumbles and came with heavenly rosemary dusted potatoes wedges. (Don't worry I had a biscuit too - super fantastic with apple butter.) Not only is the food great but the atmosphere is wonderful. Following this great meal the roomie and I headed over to look at townhouses that she is thinking about purchasing. Super cute and in a great location...so lets keep our fingers cross! We then picked up Ms Lucy and headed over to a local field to play flag football with our neighbors. Lucy had a ball - she played for both teams. She would even line up with everyone and then take off running when the ball was thrown.

Now I am sitting here trying to get my butt motivated to study for my next exam on Tuesday. I have to complete a full body assessment on my lab partner. Thankfully I love my lab partner and she has great hygiene because I will be getting all up close and personal.

Posting

I am having a posting block. Not sure what I would like to write about or what I have time to at the moment to write about. I think I still need to find a general direction to take this blog in. Some blog friends discuss travel, others are very good at writing down their thoughts, some lead interesting lives, and others are just down right witty. Me - well I am so all over the place it is hard for me to sit down and write about just one thing. I have ideas popping up all over the place but do not have the time to do something with them. Once again - more hours in a day - I need to find more.
I could blog about excellent deals and shopping (one of my favorite past times.) Today's subject JCrew and their supposedly amazing sales ... tomorrow How I got screwed on sale items, shipping, etc. by supposed JCrew sale. Perhaps I will just be Random Randal and just blog about everything and anything. Eh-you know what having the personality that I do, I am never going to be able to find a rhythm to this blog thing. You are just going to have to deal with mediocrity when it comes to these things. I am working on my perfection.

Stressing Out

I am starting realize that perhaps I am bit stressed out...and by a bit I mean a lot. Nursing School is in full swing and this is not some undergrad walk in the park - now do not get all bent out of shape and think that I'm saying undergrad was easy. We all pulled an all-nighter and stressed about making the grades, etc. HOWEVER I always saw the silver lining while taking Inorganic Chemistry and Physics because I would not have to use these things for my job on a daily basis. No patient is going to ask me to recite the alkaline metals - you get where I am going? Right now I am in job training for the next 24 months for my life career. For some reason when you put it like that it gets me in a tizzy. I want to excel at my job - I do not want to be some half-ass nurse who does you a disservice. This is your life and that should be taken seriously. With this being said - I do not want to just breeze through this material and forget it the moment I am tested. Retaining is just as important. Therefore studying has taken over my life and I feel as though I am just no fun to be around. I can not talk about anything except nursing stuff and even when I do I feel as though no one will understand what I am talking about nor will they want to listen to how I now know how to palpate your abdomen or test for blood in your urine. (yah see you just cringed) If just a month in I am feeling a disconnection from my friends - Lord help me 12 months down the road.
With all this being said - I love school. I love being there, I love learning, and I love hanging out with my nursing school buddies. The friends I have made are really wonderful and are my saving grace as of right now (and that big ol bottle of chardonnay in my frig...). I know that in the grand scheme of things this is short term - I just do not want to loose touch with my friends. I feel like I can not give them the attention/time they deserve then I should not even try. Bad attitude I know. I need a crash course on how to make more hours in a day.