So it Begins

The school year is back in swing! I went ahead and attended the LAP seminar thing on Monday and then we had class on Tuesday and Wednesday. We pretty much jumped right in with a review of IV theory and management of possible fuck-ups. Then, with no segue whatsoever, we leapt headfirst into Maternity care. It was rather surreal.

We met today for our clinical orientation and ended up spending way, way too much time on communication skills as our instructor and a co-student were butting heads in a perfect example of some people "just not freakin' gettin' it." When the student mentioned her background in hard science and engineering the instructor laughingly suggested she might be a... J? Some kind of preference/personality test thing. Anyway, she meant that the student must be analytical and detail oriented (not a bad thing in nursing). Anyway, the student didn't appreciate being pigeonholed and took it waaaaaay personally. Said student also displayed disdain for the communication model theories the instructor had been talking about. I got the feeling she doesn't believe in them. The instructor? Spent several years in her earlier life as a communication specialist and consultant for major corps. Hoo boy. It was interesting and uncomfortable all at the same time.

A single conversation does not a belief change, however. I'm sure the student still thinks those test things are full of shit and I'm sure the instructor is still feeling that tight fist in the gut that comes from someone scoffing at your hard-earned knowledge and specialty.

*shrug* I don't buy totally into those test things either, but I do find them interesting and occasionally revealing. I do know that sometimes it's worth it just to keep my damn mouth shut in the interest of forging ahead with an agenda instead of dragging everyone else down into my attempts to make clinical even freakin' longer.

I'm in a group with the two most question-askin' folks I've ever experienced. I don't begrudge someone the chance to get a question answered on our shared time. At least, I don't begrudge them the first three times in a single lecture. After that all bets are off because it then becomes ridiculous and combative and just plain silly. Maybe they'll settle down after the nerves wear off. I know mine are frazzled and we start with our patients in the morning.

Thoughts

I'm doing laundry at my mother-in-law's place today and I'm rather bored. There's a Monk-a-thon going on, which is cool, but they're playing all the ones I've already seen. Boo. Hiss.

Bodie stayed home with Rusty for once so I'm pup-less and that's just weird. I work overnight tomorrow night so I've either got to sleep this afternoon/evening or stay up until tomorrow day. I'm debating which way I want to go with that. Rusty got a couple of anime DVDs from the library yesterday when we walked up there so I could watch those tonight. It's almost a mile from our place to the library according to Yahoo! Maps and it felt pretty nice. Bodie seemed to enjoy it too.

I love the fact that summer's over here. It's still hot in Texas. I gloat!

Re-Acquaintance

I stopped posting this spring because my beloved Horace died and everytime I thought about writing something about it I'd just get all teary-eyed and weepy. It was rough. I had to put him down because he developed Autoimmune Hemolytic Anemia and nothing we were trying worked to make him better long term. So we put him to sleep and that was the all-time suckiest thing I've ever had to do.

Maybe because he was my last tangible link with Texas and my mom and family is why it hit me so very hard. Whatever the reason, it was horrible.

School starts back up next week and I'm a jellied, terrified mess over it. Second year is supposed to be easier, but the fact is I don't feel like I've held a whole ton of the info from last year in my brain for easy retrieval. I've tried to review the info from last year and end up rubbing my eyes and cussing instead of getting anywhere. I'm going to take advantage of the LAP(Learning Assistance Program) this year as much as I possibly can. I know I said that for a semester or two last year, but this year I MUST do so.

The first half of the first semester I'm going to be on a Med/Surg floor instead of OB for my clinicals, which is kind of a disappointment. I'm not sure what is going to be different about that compared to the Med/Surg floors we were on last year... but I'll find out. The super news about that is that the hospital where I'll be is within five minutes of home. FIVE. That makes a massive difference in my ability to sleep before clinicals. The second half of the semester I'll be back up in Cinci at Christ for OB. Don't get me wrong, I'm excited about both parts of the semester. I'm just tickled to death that I get to sleep in an extra hour for the first half.

Rusty and I adopted a pup from the Boone County Animal Shelter over in Burlington after Horace passed. Since Rusty's gone at night, I feel better having a dog with me while I'm sleeping. She's alert at least and draws my attention to any little noise outside the bedroom. Boudicca is her name and she's a gorgeous girl. We have no idea what her actual lineage is, but I suspect either Smooth or Border Collie with some spaniel of some sort. There could be some shepherd in her also. People always ask what kind of dog she is and I answer, "Animal shelter special!"

Lots of people don't really get it. My humor:often a failure.

Bodie's been to obedience class at Petsmart and I was most pleased with both the teacher, the class structure, and the results. To be honest, the classes were about teaching the owners how to teach the pups more than focusing on the dogs themselves. It was a good thing too. The instructor's dogs were huge and very well trained. One of these days Bodie too will be able to pretend sneeze on demand.