kapachino

Category: thoughts

  • my return to normal life

    So I’ve been out of town the past three weekends, and this past week I was house-sitting for half the week. In the meantime life went on, including work and school, and all of it put together left me quite frazzled. No more, my friends! I am back home and settled. Here are the things that I am most excited about right now, approximately in order:

    1. Being able to spend more time with my wonderful boyfriend.
    2. Getting to see my family and my boyfriend’s family regularly again.
    3. Spending more time with my dog Cleo and taking care of her again.
    4. The full apartment deep clean that my roommate Amanda and I did yesterday.
    5. The $100 worth of groceries (MOST of which are fairly healthy) that I bought today.
    6. Getting back to a normal life schedule.
    7. Being able to return to church next week.
    8. Running again, and our relay team coming together.
    9. The manicure/pedicure I scheduled for tomorrow.
    10. The fact that my checkbook is balanced.
    11. At this point I have school somewhat under control.
    12. Starting to ride the bus again tomorrow (and thus save money on gas, tolls, and parking).

    Sometimes small things make me happy. Right now I’m just glad to be home!

  • tidbits

    Seriously, everyone should get a dog like Cleo. She usually sleeps on my bed at my feet, which I love. But last night in the middle of the night she came up to my head and worked her way under the covers with me and cuddled right up next to me. It was the sweetest thing in the world, and I only wish I had been more awake to appreciate it.

    In other news, I am trying to figure out how to make extra money. I decided not to get one of the $10,000 loans that I got last year since school ends in May. I think I can make it, but I will be cutting it close. Besides my part-time job, I am pet-sitting and looking for more clinical trials to participate in. My newest endeavor is signing up with an online company that refers me to other companies that pay me to take surveys, do interviews, and focus groups. I’m going to give it a good try and then report back to say whether or not it really works.

  • one of the only reasons i don’t like living in the south

    Last night I stayed at my brother’s house, as I do every Wednesday night because of my early Thursday clinical in the medical center, and as I was lying in the dark, trying to get to sleep, a roach crawled up my arm. I flipped out. I tore the room apart trying to find it because there was no way I was getting back in the bed without having killed it first. When I couldn’t find it for awhile I started to despair of getting any sleep that night at all. But as I was standing in the hallway searching, my brother (who was sleeping on the couch) abruptly jumped up and started dazedly looking around. I knew what that was: the roach had left me and went and crawled on him! It was out to get us. This time, with my brother’s help, we tracked it down and killed it. We stood talking for a little while afterwards when another roach scurried across the floor. This one was quicker and harder to track down, but track it down we did. We destroyed it twice over: first with Raid and then with a shoe. I told my brother, “I don’t think I’m going to be able to stay over here anymore.” He laughed, but I was serious. Maybe I do have a phobia of roaches after all.

  • “church parking only: violaters will be baptized”

    When I lived with my parents, there was a church that we would frequently drive by which had a sign out front and its contents were constantly changing. My brothers and I loved it because the sayings were always something funny, witty, or weird. The signs were so creative that my brother David and his friend decided to start naming their songs after it. That’s how they ended up with a song called, “Sticks And Stones May Break My Bones But Words Form Sentences.”

    I was extremely pleased to discover that my new apartment complex (which I have lived in for a few months now) is situated right next to a church with a sign out front which changes weekly. The sayings aren’t quite as funny as the last church–in fact they’re sometimes plain cheesy–but it works for me. So I have diligently recorded the last two months of sayings for you, just in case you ever need something to fill up the space on your own church sign:

    “‘In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity’ –Albert Einstein”

    “A liar needs a good memory.”

    “It’s not your aptitude but your attitude that determines your altitude.”

    “Truth is heavy, so few men can carry it!”

    “Only those who are willing to fail greatly can ever succeed greatly.”

    “Smooth seas do not make a skilled sailor.”

    “Average people don’t want others to go beyond average.”

    “A man wrapped up in himself makes a pretty small package.”

  • a “disastrous” day

    Today at lunch I had a fortune cookie, and the fortune read, “Today is a disastrous day. If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.”

    Now I ask you: what is up with that?

    Today was NOT a disastrous day. Today was actually a very good day! I woke up at 5:30 a.m. at my brother’s place because that is where I stay on Wednesday nights now in order to get to my 6:45 a.m. clinical in the med center without having to wake up at an ungodly hour (as if 5:30 a.m. isn’t bad enough). At clinical today I was doing an OR observation. I LOVE the OR, and am seriously considering working in that area when I graduate. I was able to put a Foley catheter in a woman for the first time, which is invaluable experience. And it was great because the woman was knocked out so I didn’t have to worry about hurting her or making her uncomfortable. Lunch was free, and our post-clinical conference with our instructor was really good. I like my instructor a lot. For dinner I met a friend at Escalante’s and had a couple really good enchiladas. When I came home Cleo was as excited as I’ve ever seen her, and I like to think that it’s because she missed me and not because she knew I would take her on a walk. Now I’m settling into a quiet evening at home, hopefully to get some studying done.

    Does that sound disastrous to you?

    In my opinion this fortune cookie company needs to re-evaluate their marketing strategy. I am a completely un-paranoid, un-superstitious, anti-conspiracy kind of person, but I still didn’t like getting that fortune. It could have disastrous effects on a different personality type.