Leavin' on a Jet Plane...

in January.

I'll be going to Cape Town, South Africa for almost three weeks! I'll be traveling with my Epidemics class, and we'll be working hard while we're there.

I don't know how much I'll be able to share here, but of course y'all will be the first to know (after me, duh.)

So, any tips? Recommendations? Advice? I'm NOT going to be doing sight-seeing, etc. We're there to work.

In other news, school is kicking my ass (but what else is new?) I feel like I'm barely treading water, and it's only been four weeks since the semester started. I will eventually have some kind of routine going, but the extra class (epidemics) requires a TON of reading and a journal for each lecture (which is twice weekly), and that's on top of all my nursing stuff. Of course, it was my decision to take this class (which was by invitation/interview only), so I only have myself to "blame".

I KNOW it will all be worth it in the end, but right now I feel like whining, and if I can't whine on my on blog, WHERE CAN I?!

Well, I guess I should get back to work...

Seen on campus

A waifish young lady with Easter-Egg PINK hair, pixie cut, wearing a purple bowler hat.

Adorable!

Conversations from Clinical*

Me: So, you know the patient who sings to drown out the voices? Are you ever tempted to sing along with her?

Instructor: *blink blink*

Me: Not that I DID, but I was tempted! C'mon, she was singing "Wind Beneath my Wings"!

Instructor: You made a wise choice.



I had that song stuck in my head for the rest of the day.

*mental health clinical

So much material...

...so little time or motivation.

Things keep happening, or I see something, or somebody says something, and I think, "Wow, that would make GREAT blogfodder!" But by the time I get to a computer, I don't have the time or inclination to actually WRITE anything.

Oh, wait!  I will share this: My newborn nursing/labor and delivery/maternity clinical instructor met with us at the lab on Friday for a training session. She also handed us some lovely material pertaining to our clinical site and clinical experience, including a list of do's and don't's. At the very bottom of the list, she had handwritten ALL IN CAPS:

WEAR DEODORANT!!!

We all snickered as we read it, but quickly sobered as she went on to explain to us how awkward and mortifying it had been, for both her and the student, to have to have the discussion about body odor and hygiene with said student last semester. One thing that one must keep in mind is that pregnant women have a VERY sensitive sense of smell and cannot tolerate nasty odors. The last thing you want is to make the lady you are assisting during labor have to vomit because you STINK.

*snerk*

I also wanted to give y'all a quick update on Silver's situation. She is still sleeping on a friend's couch in Fargo, but in GOOD news, she managed to land a full-time programming gig at the university despite her non-student status. This was through some kind of manipulation/mojo/legerdemain on the part of the graduate student who worked behind the scenes to get her the initial summer gig. Apparently he feels responsible for how that turned out. Go figure. She tells me that with careful budgeting and thanks to your generosity, she'll be able to pay her outstanding balance within a few months and enroll in classes for the spring semester (yes, at UND...her options are pretty limited when it comes to school, she's so close to graduating that attempting to transfer all of her credits would likely be futile and expensive.)

So, that's that. And actually, writing this blogpost is enabling me to procrastinate, as I have some group notes from a lecture to work on and post to the class wikispace. Damn, at procrastination I'm a GENIUS, I tell you!

Three. More. Semesters.

School started today. It was actually entertaining, but to be honest, I'm feeling kinda burnt out. I want to have sleep learning like in a SF novel, where they hook me up to a machine, I go to sleep, and wake up with all the necessary knowledge. Or to get it all uploaded directly into my brain, like Neo learning kung-fu in the Matrix movie.

I love learning but I don't want to do the work.

Sigh.

The most "entertaining" thing was one of my classmates in my Epidemics class asking me for permission to date my twins. Yes, both of them. At the same time. And he wasn't joking, either.

Sigh.

I mean, at least he's not a total creeper. He was honest. He's 21, extremely bright, and extremely cute. Maybe I should ask TallyAngel if she's interested. After all, Chaos is in North Dakota anyway, and therefore my classmate's fantasies are destined to remain just that...

Well, I'm tired and off to bed. I have a paper due tomorrow afternoon (yes, ALREADY), but I guess I'll write it in between my two lectures tomorrow.

Let the Procrastination Games begin!