I am thankful for....

So last night, Becca dumped me to go to a party, which left me all alone on a Saturday night. Truth be told, I don't mind, but last night I felt that I should be social and adventurous. Really, all I wanted to do was watch a movie and eat cake, but no, I decided that I should be more fun, more spontaneous, more exciting. So I conned a friend into going to the House of Bounce with me. Picture a huge room full of bouncy toys, those huge blowup bouncy things from the county fairs and the rich kids birthday parties. A whole room full of them. Every kid's dream come true. This is where it is probably important to mention that I am no longer 10. I am 30. And it is high time for me to start acting like a 30-year-old. Because as I heard my ankle snap as I fell off a bouncy maze, I was instantly reminded that my body is no longer 10, no longer as flexible and as bendy and as light and as close to the ground as it used to be. As I fell and my friend and I heard the snap, immediately my thoughts turned to nursing school. They make you quit the semester and hold you back an entire semester if you break anything. And as I fell and as I heard the snap in my ankle, this is about the time when I started going into hysterics over nursing school. Which brings us to the title of this post...things I am thankful for....

I am thankful that Melanie was with me. She is pretty much amazing in every way. Since I could not put any weight on my leg, she figured out how to get us out of the bouncy maze from hell and actually had to pull me out over a large hill. She pulled me out! If she had not been there, I would still be stuck in the depths of bouncy hell. She let me wear her shoes and she wore my horrible uncomfortable heels. She helped me hop out and stood by my side as I eventually decided to crawl out of the place, scaring all the small children. She took me to the ER and waited with me and got me home and into the house and so much more. She is super woman. I am going to make her a cake. And a cape. And Becca thinks I should make her the whole outfit with the underwear on the outside. Though I don't think Melanie would go for that. But she would go for the cake...and the cape.

I am thankful that Lauren answered the phone. Here I am, freaking out. I could move my foot but I could not put any weight on it. I didn't know what to do. Lauren, one of my med school friends, did know what to do and told us to go straight to the ER to get x-rays. She also told me to stop freaking out about nursing school!

I am thankful for the nurses and x-ray techs that got me straight back to the x-ray area so that we would know right away if I had broken myself. No waiting. A pretty impressive feat for a Saturday night in an emergency room.

I am thankful for the x-ray tech who leaned over and whispered in my ear after the x-ray that there was nothing noticeably broken. Which is a huge no-no, but something I needed desperately. I was so freaked out that my blood pressure was through the roof. The bottom number was 123...it should not be above 90.

I am thankful that somehow, even though I don't drink milk or eat dark leafy veggies or take calcium pills, that my bones are super strong and did not break. Let me tell you, I was praying really hard and obviously it worked. My prayers were answered. My bones are amazing. I don't know what we heard crack but it was not my bones.

I am thankful that my sister's friend lives in the basement of our house. My parents are out of town this week and she is able to help me and drive me to school and take care of the dogs and go to the store and buy me cake and make me a cake so that I could still watch a movie and eat cake. Now perhaps it will be an entire cake, but who's keeping track?

I am thankful for Becca for being my personal slave. Bringing me things, plugging my phone in, turning my noise maker on, bringing me breakfast, water, cake, my backpack, my icepack, my drink, and it has only been half of a day!

I am thankful for Adam who just got back into town and is free all next week and has volunteered to shuttle me to and from school all week cuz I can't drive and I HAVE to go to school.

I am thankful for educational leave. And health insurance. And for FMLA. I don't have to work anymore cuz I am on educational leave but the days I did pick up for work, I will be covered by FMLA. And even though I am on educational leave, I work for such an amazing company, I still have full health benefits including ER visits, x-rays and crutches.

I am thankful for Alex for hanging out with me in the basement and bringing me lunch and dinner and ice-cream and more than likely much more ice-cream as the week progresses!

I am thankful for BOTH my ankles. This crutches thing SUCKS. I have a severe sprain and I am not supposed to put any weight on it for at least a week. Not that I can right now cuz it hurts like a mother. I can't believe how hard it is to do things without both legs. I keep looking at my other ankle in awe over how amazing it is. I am sooo glad that this is just a temporary problem and very soon I will be able to have the full use of both my legs again.

Oh, and I am very thankful for drugs. Shout out to ibuprofen and Tylenol both of which do not have any nasty side effects and can help make it all better.

Moral of this story...number 1. House of Bounce=bad. The nurses said it should be burned down due to the huge amount of people who come to the ER injured from there. Number 2: I am 30-years-old. It is high time I start acting like it. From now on, it is movies and cake. No more of this adventurous crap. Number 3: I realized how much I don't want to move somewhere new. I still will but when I do, what am I going to do without my sister and my friends who are all bending over backwards to help me? I am so freaking lucky. Lucky that I have strong bones and even luckier that I have such amazing friends and an amazing little sister. Thank you for taking care of me.

Spinning near death

Today I went to my very first spinning class. I almost died. Really. It was a mix of me crying, cursing and trying not to fall off my bike. How embarrassing would that be?? I did almost fall down the stairs as we were leaving due to my legs giving out. That was embarrassing. I am currently afraid of stairs. I am always afraid of falling down stairs but now I have a credible reason to think I may fall right down them all and knock out my two front teeth...which is another fear of mine. Anywhos...

There was this girl in the class who was wearing a green tank top who had pretty much the perfect body. My friend who dragged me to this class from hell kept telling me to watch the green tank top girl and if I want to look like that, I had to get my butt off the seat. I got my butt off the seat.

I'm going to some sort of rowing class tomorrow. Same friend is dragging me to it. I imagine it will be another near death experience with me crying, cursing and trying not to fall off the machine. Here is to the green tank top girl and her perfect body...thanks for getting my butt off my seat!

Vacuums

I just emptied my mother's bag-less vacuum for the first time today. It went something like this...

Oh crap.....CRAP.....swear word....cough cough....sneeze sneeze....CRAP.....swear word....Oh crap...

Luckily I emptied it in my garage cuz most of the dirt fell around the garbage bag and onto the floor and into my lungs. Oh, and I may or may not have done this all on my dad's car hood. I think I prefer bags for vacuums.

Stark naked travels

This is an emergency.

I must lose weight. Immediately. I am going to start a 'get naked' plan.

One of my friends lost bunches of weight doing her 'get naked' plan before she got married. No one get up in a huff, I am no where near getting married. But soon, I will have to be seen naked. Well, kinda naked. In five months I am going to Ecuador. And to get to that country, one has to board a plane. And now thanks to a crazy man, travelers of the sky variety are being subjected to stark naked travels. Ok, not completely, but the way things are going, come May, I may have to go through security with nothing but me and my naked self. As of right now though, travelers are having to go through a full body scanner. In which the random security people, who may or may not be perverts, get to see us all nice and nakey. All of us. Wrinkles and love handles and sun spots.

Now I am fully aware that by the time I cross the naked threshold of the airport security, these poor security people will have seen many many more naked people before me. But still. I don't want to be yet another overweight American in which my naked picture may or may not be able to be saved and sent over the internet through perverted security people's e-mail accounts. Or at the very least, if me in my naked glory do get sent via e-mail, I would like it to be cuz of my stunning crazy in shape body and not for my much loved love handles.

Today was the first day of the 'get naked' plan. Today I ran. Started my 13 week 'how to become a runner' plan...again. I have started it many many many times. Obviously, not once have I finished. In 13 weeks, I will be able to run a 1/2 marathon. Or so the plan boasts. 13 weeks puts us right into April. Which is perfecto as May comes right after April and May is the naked month. Stark naked travels, here I come!!!

PS- going to Ecuador for a nursing trip. My nursing school friends and I are all going for 2 weeks in May. It is going to be supremely amazing. More to come on that.

Offically 2 semesters to go

Well, I did it. I have officially passed my second semester of nursing school. I only have two left. Two. Just two. In 12 little short months I will graduate with an actual degree that will get me an actual job where I will make actual money. I can not wait. To bide my time until graduation, I have spent many hours debating on where I should go after I graduate. Where to live?? Since I currently live in freaking Antarctica, I am leaning towards someplace where it doesn't snow and there are no such things as 'ice pellets'. Actually wording from today's weather forecast! So disturbing. Anywhos...

I am free of school for three weeks. I am going to read. I can not wait! But now I am faced with the decision of what books to read. Any suggestions? Currently I am thinking I should read some classics that I managed to avoid in high school. Right now I am reading the Scarlett Letter. What a drag that one is.

And since that book is about the most boringest thing ever, second to homework, I have found myself looking for other things to do...such as clean my room. HAHAHAHA!!!! Ok, really, though. Things I want to do over winter break....

1) Throw everything I own away. Seriously. Maybe one of these days after I type those words I will actually do it. But before I move again, my goal is to have two suitcases. Just two. No more junk. Two suitcases. I have not decided if I get two suitcases per season or just two suitcases total?

2) Find decent salad recipes. I mean, seriously peoples. There are salads out there that do not have 'chef' or 'caesar' in the title and I want to learn how to make them. I have had some of them in restaurants. But who can afford a $12 bowl of lettuce? So I need to figure out how to make fancy lettuce at my house. Anyone have some good recipes out there?

3) Organize my pictures. I have hundreds of pictures. One of my friends picked up a random photo album of mine the other day. It had about 6 pictures in it. Lame. It is time to take the many many boxes of pictures that I have and put them somewhere productive. Or at least into photo albums that will fit into my two suitcases.

4) And last but not least, find a book that isn't lame. Any suggestions? In doing that, I will have a perfectly good excuse not to do any of the above things on my list. And reading good books by the fire and pretending I don't live in hell frozen over...perfection.

Really fantastic lemonade

When life hands you lemons, it is all sorts of helpful to have friends that will make the lemonade for you.

I have been reminded this week about how lucky I am. I am amazed at how amazing my friends are. Seriously. Love and more love has come from all corners of my life this week. How do you even begin thanking people who have gone out of their way to make sure that we all survived this week? Words can not express, fruit baskets can not express. Thank you, my friends. Really and truly, thank you.

Humph....

I have nothing to say. Just going along here. Passing school. This is good. I am going to be a full fledged nurse in one year and two months. My parents are very excited for me to move out. I think they will have thrown all of my belongings onto the front lawn by the time I get home from graduation.



I miss my sister, Emily. She is on a church mission in Pocatello, Idaho. She will be home in February. So close. She has informed us that she doesn't think she is going to call home on Christmas. Since she will be home so soon after and all. What a doofus. I still love her...even if she doesn't want to talk to us at Christmas. Though, seriously? No phone call? What a lame-o.



Speaking of sisters, one of mine had a birthday. I sent her a package filled with some of her favorite foods, all wrapped in her favorite color. I even made her HOMEMADE (not even the Nestle cookie dough, really homemade) cookies. You know what she said? "You didn't get me anything from my list." Ungrateful ingrate. But I still love her. May never send her a package again though.



Earlier this week, we lost our dog, Shelby. After searching the neighborhood and yelling her name, we found her...in our house...upstairs...sitting in her kennel.



Our neighbor lady who never leaves her house has the worlds worst lawn service. They cut our tree diagonally so as to not interfere with her tree. Her tree has grown onto our property. Now we have a diagonal tree. It looks stupid.



I am irritated with the whole pig flu thing. If I get the flu, I am just going to call it the regular old fashioned flu...regardless...just to be different.



I fell down the stairs. Dislodged a blood clot in my arm. Or so I have self diagnosed. I also had mouth cancer. Actually it was just a canker sore. But it was a close call.



Had a stupid boy incident. I had just had a conversation with one of my guy friends about how I need to be nicer to guys, how I should not expect so much. The very next day I had the incident. I found irony in that.


I had a 100-year-old patient the other day. He was determined to escape from the hospital. While we were walking, he was scoping out the exit signs. The only way I got him to turn around was to remind him how mad his wife of 75 some years would be at him if he left without her. He turned around. Smart man.