It's that time of year again

I’ve come to the conclusion that I date once a year… usually in November/December. In the last 5 years I’ve always had someone I was “seeing” during those months.

Anyway, as you might have guessed, I’m dating someone. Actually, I’m not sure if we’re dating, but we’ve been out three times. Believe it or not, I actually don’t have any issues with this guy! Can you believe it? He doesn’t live with his parents, has a job, isn’t a virgin, has been in a long-term relationship in the past, isn’t a sex-crazed maniac and hasn’t been snipped. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you’ll have to read my previous posts because I’ve dated guys with every one of those “issues”. Ugh.

We went to high school together, although we didn’t know each other at the time. We have taken eerily similar paths in life: both were in 8 year relationships that ended in 2004, both engaged, both returned to school for a career change in recent years, both bought our house in 2007 (two streets from each other), both haven’t had too many long term relationships since 2004.

So what’s the problem? You knew it was coming… didn’t you? Three dates and still no kiss. I’m not really sure he’s into me. For our second date we went bowling and after, came to my place for a drink. We ended up watching a movie I had rented. After he left without even a “is he going to kiss me” moment, I figure we wouldn’t see each other again. But then he suggested we go see a movie last night. Same thing last night. We went to his place after the movie and sat on his couch listening to music, talking and still nothing. There was the momentary knee-to-knee touch, which my friend Kevin says is about as meaningful as having someone step on your toe. So I’m really not sure what to make of it. Sure, I’ve had dates where we didn’t kiss, but there was always a sort of high schoolish tension going on… like both parties are wondering when to make their move. But with this guy, it’s like he’s my buddy I should be giving him a high five at the end of the night.

Bah Humbug

I hate Christmas. I was reminded of these feelings while aimlessly wandering the mall today. The crowds of nasty, stressed-out shoppers made me nauseous. Ugh. Everybody ends up going mad trying to get everything done, you buy stuff for people who don't need it, just because it's what you do, and you'll inevitably gain a good 5 to 10 pounds.

The only good thing about the Holiday is that I get time off from school.

So. Umm. Merry Christmas.

Pacha stole my sock

Pacha is obsessed with one of my socks. She has already stolen it three times this week. Here she is with her prized possession:

It Turns Out I Was Right!

Remember that whole practical exam fiasco where I had no idea what I did wrong? Well, after meeting with the course director and the nurse evaluating me, it turns out she had not evaluated me properly. My score went from a 65% to an 85% - quite the difference.

Essentially, what happened was, I contaminated an instrument without realising it at the beginning of the procedure and lost a point there. However, since I kept using the instrument, she kept deducting points every time I used it. Now, if this were the real world, then yes, using a contaminated instrument on a patient would be a BIG no-no, but since this was an exam, I did not make 10 errors, but only one.

Her reaction and meanness was still very much uncalled for, but that's another issue. I’m just happy to know that I didn’t make a ton of errors without realising it. It had seriously shaken my confidence. I mean, when you get blasted like that when you think you did quite well, you start to wonder if anything you are doing is right. But it’s all good now.

How Could I Be Mad at a Face Like This?

While I was cleaning my house from top to bottom, Pacha was excitedly playing with her new bone. She kept roaming near the door with it so I knew she wanted to head outside to bury it. I reluctantly let her out in the rain… knowing she might come back muddy. I never imagined she would come back this dirty!!





In the picture I have her wrapped in a towel in my attempt to keep the mud contained to the bathtub! As you can see, she uses her nose to push the dirt around. Of course, this was when I was about 3/4 done my major house cleaning! Hah! Needless to say, the bathtub got cleaned twice.

Ugh

I had a horrible exam on Friday. It was a practical exam and I still don’t understand what I did wrong. The nurse who was evaluating started yelling at me saying she had never seen such incompetence. I was completely caught off guard because I had been practicing and didn’t even know I was doing anything wrong. :-( Every time I would ask her why such and such was wrong she would say it wasn’t done in the order on her sheet. When I answered, yes, I understand that isn’t the order on your sheet, but I would like to understand the justification behind the order… then she would get even more pissed. It was horrible and I was crying when I left. Turns out almost everybody cries when they get her.

What I find particularly upsetting is the way she berated me. There was no need for it. Nursing students are quitting left and right because of the stress, they don’t need any more reason to leave… especially with the nursing shortage

Only 16 days left. Only 16 days left.

That’s what I keep saying about my accident-prone roommate. She says her ADD gets worse when she is stressed and I can attest to that. Of course, I can just let go of the weird/funny stuff like finding her teaching assignment in the fridge or discovering a pair of dirty socks on the food cabinet (ewwwww), but last night I was pissed.

It was around 11:45 pm and I was sleeping. I usually go to bed early, but last night I wanted to get a good night’s sleep because this morning I had an exam for which the passing grade was 90%. I was awoken by a huge bang! For a moment I panicked wondering what she had broken now. I resisted the temptation to go check... I figured, no matter what it was I wasn’t going to fix it tonight.

12:45 am: Knock on my door. Ugh. Ummm, Changa? I don’t know how I did it, but I was using your computer (at this point I’m thinking Oh God! Oh God!) and I broke the tray that holds the keyboard. (phew. It wasn’t actually the computer). I tell her it’s ok and go back to bed. I’m fuming. Not only did she wake me up on a very important night, she was also using my computer, again! Now, I have let her use my computer in the past, but I precisely said it was for emergencies. Checking facebook is not an emergency. How do I know she was using facebook? Because she never logs out, never closes the internet browser and never turns the computer off.

At this point I can’t sleep so I stomp downstairs to assess the damage. Keyboard tray AND keyboard on the floor, half drunken glass on milk on my desk, computer is still on (facebook, as predicted) and my notes for my exam (which I had placed on my chair for easy access are pilled up with some other notes. Roommate has gone to bed. Grrr. I immediately change the security access code. Just like with a kid, you have to remove privileges for bad behaviour. Now she will only be able to use my computer with my permission.

The super scary thing is... the next roommate could EASILY be 200 times worse. :-S

PS: I'm about 90% sure I got at least a 90% on my exam this morning. :-)

My emotions got the better of me...

I always thought I was able to keep my emotions in check. Movies, TV Shows, books, music rarely makes me cry. Even when my brother passed away I barely shed a tear. Believe me, it’s not because it didn’t hurt! I’ve just always been the strong, serious one. Then today, almost out of nowhere, I get sideswiped by my emotions!

I was in class watching an educational video on head injuries and comas. I’ve seen many videos this year that dealt with a variety of difficult issues and I’ve always been fine. Most of them dealt with real people who witnessed real loss and I was ok… but today… ugh. There was a mother with her 7-month old baby who had a traumatic head injury in a car accident. The baby was essentially brain dead and the family decided to stop all forms of life support… but the little guy kept fighting for a whole 2 weeks. There was a scene where the mother was rocking the baby and telling him, “It’s ok, you can go now, I’ll always love you”… and I lost it. Even now as I reflect on it I’m crying. At the end of class I had to head to the washroom to try to compose myself before my next class.

This really took me by surprise. I still can't shake the image out of my head. I thought I would be ok working in pediatrics, but maybe I’ll have to revise that idea. :-(