Dropping like flies

We are midway through the semester and almost 25% of my class has dropped out! We started out with almost 90 second-year students and we are supposedly down to 70-something. Some of them have completely abandoned the field, while others have merely spread out their class load over 5 years instead of 4. Honestly, I don’t blame them. I can’t imagine doing this undergrad as a 19 year-old. It’s quite the workload and very demanding. I was talking to some of the “kids” I study with and they are already burnt out. Most of them haven’t gone out all semester. I haven’t gone out either, but I’m 32 and have lots of going out years under my belt! I find it sad that there isn’t more support for second-year students. You really only skim the surface of nursing in your first year and the second year can be quite a shock for many of them! I fear more are going to drop out. :-(

The nursing shortage is scary, therefore we need as many graduates as possible. I wish there was something I could do to encourage them. I know I want to be here. I know what I want out of life so my decision to stay is an easy one... I can't say it would be the same if I were 19.

Coffee first. Haircut Second.

There should be a Surgeon General’s Warning posted at the hairdresser’s door:

Getting your haircut before your morning coffee can be harmful to your hair and lead fits of swearing.

As you can guess, I got my haircut this morning. Since I was running late I didn’t have time for coffee and sat sleepily in the chair. I get my haircut at the University Salon because it’s cheap… however, I don’t, always get the same hairdresser. The request was a simple one: just a trim, but please accentuate the angle going from the back to the front. It’s essentially the cut I currently have, but I wanted slightly shorter in back. Think Katie Holmes last years.

As I flipped through a magazine, I could barely stay awake. Damn you coffee addiction! I wasn’t paying much attention because it was just supposed to be a trim! I looked up to see huge bits of hair falling to the floor. What the? She had trimmed it shorter in the back, alright... or should I say shaved. Ugh.

My hair before the haircut was almost shoulder length and now the shortest part is an inch... the longest part? Maybe 3 inches. Frack. Frack. Frack! I was so pissed off at myself for not paying attention. Now I can’t tie my hair back when I’m working in the hospital. Grrrr.

Two years ago I went to a hairdresser and had a similar mishap only she cut the front part super short. It’s taken me this long to even it out... now I’ve gone bald in the back.

Don’t even get me started on the bangs! I’m not 5 years old and therefore should not have bangs that go from one ear to the other.

Mid-Terms: 5 down, 2 to go

I’m almost done with my mid-terms… although some of them are 1/3 terms I guess. I’ve done five so far and still have 2 left. I’ve received my score on three of them; Lab: B (I was a little disappointed but still very good), Intro to nursing: A (super easy!), Therapeutic Communication: another A and Biology: C+ (I was actually really happy with this one given that it’s a class that I’ve really been neglecting and not keeping up with my readings). Yesterday I had an exam in Principles of Nursing (I’m thinking A or B). I still have the two most difficult exams to do: Adult Health which requires us to assess, identify, analyse and identify the steps needed to care for several diseases and/or health issues and Health Impairment (roughly translated). The second one is tough because is mostly philosophy-based and quite vague.

I’m loving it so far! I mean; I’m REALLY loving it! It’s tough and requires a ton of work, but it really is awesome. I feel like I’ve found my place.

Well, back to studying!

Thank God for ID tags!

I have three big exams early next week so I’ve been studying non-stop. Pacha tends to sit on the couch with me when I study. In the evening we go for a walk, but during the day I’ll just let her out a few times to go play outside a while. I have a fenced-in yard so I don’t tie her. When she gets bored, cold, tired, etc. she barks and I let her in. She gets cold pretty quickly so if I don’t hear her barking within a 15 minutes I go check on her. Sometimes she’s just sitting on the patio watching over the neighbourhood, other times she’s walking around with her bone looking for a new hiding place or at the fence staring down Blackout the evil neighbourhood cat.

Today I was absorbed in my studies so I don’t know if she had been out there more than 15 minutes but when I went to check she was nowhere to be found. It’s happened before, but she is usually just in an area I can’t quite see or she somehow got through the fence and is sitting on the other side trying to figure out how to get back in. I thought I had blocked all the holes in the fence, but I guess not!

I ran around the house desperately looking for her. She was nowhere! I ran inside, grabbed my phone and some shoes and started to walk down the street. My heart was racing a mile a minute and I thought I was going to cry. Why hadn’t I checked sooner?! I was 4 houses from my house and was about to call someone; anyone, to come help me look for her when my phone rang. It was my vet! Pacha has a rabies ID tag with my vet’s phone number and her ID number. The vet was calling to let me know someone had found her.

Turns out she was at the house right behind mind. She had somehow gotten through the fence to the other side and was pacing back and forth trying to get back in when the neighbour saw her and picked her up. She had her wrapped up in a blanket because she was shivering (probably more from stress, than anything).

I was so happy to hear she hadn’t actually run away! My stomach is still doing flip-flops over the situation! I consider myself a really calm person, but I sure wasn’t calm when I thought I had lost her. Gah! I can’t imagine how emotional and crazed I’ll be when I have kids!

Now I need a new tag that says: Hi, my name is Pacha please call my Mommy before she has a heart attack at 123-4567.

Today, My Dog is a Real Dog

I am so proud of Pacha! She actually did a dog-like thing. I gave her a bone (I think it was a cow hip or something like that). Anyway, she was so excited and gnawed on it most of the day. Later on she went outside and brought her bone with her. When I went outside a little later on I was shocked when she showed me she had buried it! Ok, she actually shoved it under a tree and put a few leaves over it, but it was very dog like.

Finally. Pics!

Finally. Here are some pictures of my most recent projects (laminate floor and headboard).

The old floor. This is actually the floor in the hallway because I forgot a before shot of my room. It was painted soft wood. Eventually I'll do the rest of the house.


The new floor! I hadn't planned on installing laminate, but my sister had extra and gave it to me so i figured why not?

To create the headboard I took an old wooden door, cut it to size, framed it with 2 x 4 and painted it. Then i attached it to the wall. Here are the results:


The door looked like this before the construction:


Close-up. It's too bad you can't see much.


I'll be hangning some B&W photos I've taken, but for now I just placed them above the headboard.


I also made the bedskirt and all the cushions as well as the night table cover which you can see in an earlier picture






Finally, I took an old wicker laundry hamper I had since I was 14, fixed it up and repainted it to match. The bottom had fallen out so I "sewed" it back on with twine.

... $1,319 later

That’s how much I’ve spent in books and school material so far this semester! Yikes! It’s pretty much because I have to buy the big 1st year books and the even bigger 2nd year books at the same time.

I’ve been back to school for two weeks now and it’s crazy busy! Therefore, it’s going to be another point form post for now. Hopefully, once I get into the groove, I’ll be able to post more frequently.

- As I’ve mentioned before, I’m taking 7 classes. 5 classes is pretty much the norm; 6 classes is considered a heavy semester. For 7 classes you need special permission! It’s intense and doesn’t leave me much time for anything but reading and homework. There is A LOT of reading and prep work to do! I mean, I have $1,300 worth of reading! Hah!

- My classes are all very interesting with the exception of biology. The ironic thing is, biology would normally be my favourite class, but now I’ve been introduced to better things. :-)

- I’ll be starting my hospital clinicals in just two weeks. Things progress quickly in this program. I’ll be in the hospital 2 days a week, every two weeks. In the beginning it was quite overwhelmed. It seemed like I had just decided to study nursing and would already have my first client before the end of the month! EEEK! I’m getting used to the idea, though. There is no doubt that I will know by the end of the semester if I like this career path or not.

- I had read this summer that the average age for a first year student in nursing was 32. That was obviously a US statistic because I’m definitely the oldest one there! There is one more girl who is an LPN and now studying to be a BN/RN and she looks close to my age. Other then that, everybody seems pretty young. Even some of my profs are younger!

- I bought a stethoscope this week. Now I really feel like a nursing student. I sat on the couch and listened to my heartbeat for 15 minutes. Hah! Then I listened to Pacha’s heart. I already know that any nurse out there will be frowning on my listening to my dog’s heartbeat. Yeah; I’m pretty sure it’s a no-no. Her heartbeat was all whack! It was completely irregular. I checked online thinking it was a dog thing, but apparently dogs should have a rhythmic heartbeat somewhat like ours. Hmmm... I’m going to have to check that again.

- I'm back to work at the restaurant and am really happy I'm working one day a week. It's nice to have the cash and do something other than study. It's also nice to only have one day, though!

- I’m done my headboard and finished installing laminate flooring in my room, but don’t have any pictures yet. Soon – I promise! I really need to clean my room first.

- I have new pictures of Pacha, though!

This is her "Rub Mah Bell-eh" pose


When you stop rubbing her belly she does the wiggle dance which means, hey! Don't stop rubbing my belly!


"I go on couch now?"

Earlier this week my nephew came over to cut my lawn and he brought Gabi with him. Gabi and Pacha go nuts when they are together. They ran around the yard while Alex cut the lawn. After a while they came inside for a drink of water and I discovered two alien-pawed dogs!