The semester is going by rather quickly now. Next week we start our clinical rotations and I'm sure that will be an interesting experience. We have all been somewhat busy with the various tests and reading that not too many of my class have focused on how busy we will be once we don't have Monday and Wednesday free anymore. I tried to make that point yesterday with a few people in my class, but I don't know how successful I was.
I think I have accumulated a new friend. Her name is Emma and she is an incredibly nice woman. A fact that I need to keep in mind when talking with her. My sarcastic wit is at times I think hurtful to her - she isn't used to it. We have put together a study group with another woman and two of the three guys in our class. We'll see how it goes with that. Most of the time study groups break into social chattering...and not always once the work is done.
My Dad's birthday is on Monday. I haven't gotten anything for him because 1)we're sending him and Karen to California and 2) I'm making his birthday cake...which will be a feat in and of itself. He wants this monstrous concoction of two layers of chocolate cake with strawberries and cream filling and chocolate mousse frosting. To me, it sounds rather horrific, but it is what he would like.
Now. Knowing my father and his penchant for sweets and chocolate, and knowing that my siblings have similar tastes, I'm working on where I can cut a few corners on the sugar and fat content. Of course this is what I normally do, but it can be tricky with cakes. If you're not careful you can end up with a crater in the center, unlike with cookies where they are just a little poofier than you expected. To make it even more interesting, I need to make the cake big enough to feed an army. Fortunately for him, I don't have school on Monday during the day, so I can actually get this done. Otherwise, they were going to buy a cake which has a bunch of gross preservatives and who knows what else.
Patrick seems to be doing well with his second semester. He is busier than he was last semester with the amount of paperwork he has, but I think he is getting more out of it.
He is worried about me right now. I don't get paid a whole lot for the work I do and since I can only work two days a week, I'm pretty much killing myself while I do it. Unfortunately, I HAVE to work because of the debts I accrued during college and then subsequently afterwards (during the summer after Patrick got back, I didn't work, wanting to spend as much time with him as possible, and then our move to Michigan took my rather low debt amount to new heights). It's my debt, I take responsibility for it. But I need to keep on top of the payments so that my credit doesn't suck ass when we go to buy a house.
I have tried applying for other positions within the hospital with no success and was told by HR that the hiring manager had to actually review the applications. So, now I'm on the job hunt...again. I'm a little sick of job hunting honestly. It's not fun having to work at impressing people you normally wouldn't have anything to do with. BUT! If it will pay better while I'm in nursing school, that is what matters.
I'm playing fantasy football this season with some friends from high school. And true to form I suck at it. During week 1, I got 43 points. For those of you not experienced in the fantasy football lingo, this is not all that great.
Lois and I went to a Trauma Update Conference last week which was interesting for the most part. The legal issues topic was of particular interest to me, as was the talk on battlefield surgery by a doctor who served in Iraq. There was one talk on rectal injury which looked promising, but ended up being rather disappointing. UNMH hosted the conference and they also announced that Grand Rounds are offered every Friday during the academic year. The topics should be interesting if they are anything like last year. I sent out an email to my class to tell them about the opportunity, but I never heard back from any of them, so I guess they aren't all that interested. I can't say that I blame them, especially those of us living in Santa Fe, when the talks are only an hour long and they start at 7 am. But if the topic is worth it, I can't see that being a issue. Maybe that is the difference. I look for opportunities to explore extracurricular education and for the most part they are happy to just get through the semester. This is going to be an interesting two years.
