Oh my gosh. Stuff is happening, people. For starters, I graduated. After a longish boring ceremony, they finally announced, “You may now move your tassels from the right to the left,” and a shiver went down my spine. It was a very special moment. Then we sang “The Eyes of Texas,” and it was over. Yay me!
Only one more hurdle to jump before I am an official RN. I have to pass the NCLEX, the state board exam. I scheduled it for June 11 at 8 a.m. I am nervous, and really need to kick the studying up a notch. To that end I am taking another review course this week. In fact, it is going on right this moment. Perhaps I should be paying attention instead of blogging?
Our save-the-date magnets arrived in the mail, and I do like them except that I wish the brown was darker. I spent some time addressing them last night and I hope to have them out by the end of the week. But what I am most excited about is that we actually booked our honeymoon to Kauai, airfare, hotel, car rental and all. So really, the most important part is taken care of, right?
The pinning ceremony is a nursing tradition. Nurses wear pins (usually on their name badge at work) to identify what school they graduated from. These pins were presented to us at the ceremony last night and we were able to choose someone to pin us. I chose David, as my husband-to-be.
But before all of that happened, my parents, David, and I all arrived waaaay early because we didn’t know how the traffic would be. So we decided to get some picture-taking out of the way:
And for some reason I find this very amusing: my mom trying to take a picture of David and me without realizing that the camera was set to record. Obviously I don’t have much patience for this, but David just laughs.
Soon enough my brothers arrived. At this point we were also sharing the table with another family, a family much quieter than ours. As we were waiting for our food, we had the following conversation.
***
Dad: So Uncle David is getting another Ridgeback. They got a good deal on it because it doesn’t have the show-quality ridge. They’re naming it Rigby.
Dad (even more shocked): Kat! It’s a song by The Beatles!
Brothers (in unison): AHHHH LOOK AT ALL THE LONELY PEOPLE
Me: I have never heard of it. [This is true. I listened to it later.]
Dad: I can’t believe this.
Me: Listen, I am not a Beatles fan. I don’t dislike them, I will listen to them, but there are so many other things that I would rather hear.
***
My future mother-in-law will be devastated when she reads this, but there it is. My confession.
Continuing with the evening, we waited quite a long time for our food. In fact, David and I were finished with the whole pinning ordeal before we even took a bite. Ah, what the heck, here’s a little video of me being pinned.
So by the time we got to eat we were all ravenous. We promptly cleaned our plates, and my brother Barry asked for seconds, which I don’t think was part of the deal. After he got his request, though, we discovered that we could all just go help ourselves to seconds, even though no one else was doing so. One woman that we were sitting with offered Barry her roll, but he politely declined. A minute or two later, this happened.
***
Dad (to stranger woman): My wife would like your roll.
Mom: Chris! (She hides her face in her hands.) I am SO embarrassed. You were not supposed to say that!
Dad: What? You wanted it!
Stranger woman: I did offer.
***
I like how my family is the noisy one that eats all the food along with other people’s. I think we have more fun.
So, I’m finished with school now. For real this time, I think. Of course, I do still have to pass the board exam, but no matter what, I will have my bachelor’s of science in nursing! Most of my classmates were going to Rice Village to celebrate, but me? Nah. I had a brownie, cleaned my room, read a magazine, and I plan to use the rest of the day writing to my pen pal, researching new cars, and of course watching “Dancing with the Stars.” I like my way of celebrating much better.
So to keep it light, because this is how I’m feeling right now, I have decided to share with you some snapshots of phrases people have used in search engines that have led them to this website. Probably my posts for the rest of the week will be similarly mindless because hello? I have been in college for eight years and I’m NOT anymore! I need at least a week to recover.
So here you go:
“My brother is hot” – Mine are too! Especially here and here.
“Cracked and injured toenail coming off” – It has been over a year since I wrote about my toenail coming off, and I am still getting constant hits from that post. Maybe I should start a support group.
“i am broke and i can’t pay my bills and i can’t eat” – I know how you feel, friend. My suggestion? Find yourself some clinical trials for healthy volunteers to participate in.
“would breathing in bad smell harm unborn baby” – I don’t know but if so, be sure not to come anywhere close to the house where I pet-sit because those dogs have some serious intestinal hyperactivity.
There has been a lot I’ve wanted to write about this week, but the reason I haven’t is because it seems I’ve been gone from morning till night every day since Tuesday. And I’m not the type of person who can or will sacrifice sleep for much of anything. Thus, all of my blogging thoughts are swimming around in my head, and if I don’t put them down NOW, they just might be lost forever. So this may seem somewhat unorganized and random, and that’s because it is.
I’ll start with the big news in my little family circle, which is that my fiance David’s older brother Chris proposed to his girlfriend Kim on Wednesday evening. We are all so excited that they have made it official! They plan to elope to the west coast in June, and I won’t deny that I am somewhat jealous of that decision as I figure out who gets to stay on our guest list and exactly how many dollars we are going to pay for a photographer. But really, I want the whole shabang and I guess I always have, so I’ll just try to enjoy the process. Anyway, the point is: congratulations, Chris and Kim, I’m so excited to be your sister (in-law)!
Speaking of them, David is currently living in a house that Chris owns, and the four of us have decided that we will all live together there once we’re married. I know that may sound crazy to some people, but we get along great, have already spent a lot of time there together, and it will save us a lot of money for awhile. It does mean that I will have to cut back on the amount of “stuff” that I bring into the marriage (i.e. furniture), and I still don’t know what to do with some things that I can’t get rid of, like all my books. Also, my lease ends in July and for the few months after that until we get married I’ll be moving in with my parents. So I’ll need to be getting rid of my bed, desk, bedside table, and dresser pretty soon.
While we’re on the subject of life-changing events, I picked up my cap and gown the other day. Two weeks until I’m wearing it! My last final exam is on Monday!
I’ve been working a lot lately, and since I am the queen of busy work at the office it tends to get boring. That is why I am forever grateful to David for procuring me a satellite radio. Now I can listen to NPR all day! Just kidding, only about half the day. I admit I do enjoy the occasional E! Channel program. That is how I came to learn all about FHM’s sexiest woman alive list that was just released. I normally wouldn’t comment on this, but I feel obligated because two of the dancers from Dancing with the Stars made the list (Cheryl Burke at no. 40 and Karina Smirnoff at no. 78) but my favorite, Julianne Hough, did not. My roommates and I all totally have a girl crush on her, and I just don’t understand her getting passed over. So here’s to you, Julianne!
And I will leave you with this happy thing: a very short video of my brothers’ puppy’s latest trick:
So I passed my test! With a very high score, actually, and I have no idea how I managed to do that because there were so many questions I was unsure of. Anyway, remember how I said that the coming weeks will probably be stressful? Well scratch that. I defy stress! I’m tired of it. Finals aren’t for a couple of weeks and there’s really nothing for me to worry about until then. And let’s be honest, I’m not really worried about finals either. Nothing can keep me from graduating, and I already have a job.
Last night I set the tone by renting myself a movie, something I hardly ever do anymore. Since David couldn’t be with me I made sure it was one he would never want to see – Stardust (he doesn’t do fantasy). I loved it. Then I finished off the evening with some ice cream and “Dancing With the Stars.” A good night’s sleep later, and I am unwound. Ahhh.
I apologize in advance if you get tired of hearing about how great it is that I’m graduating. I’ve been in college now for eight years, and I’m just really excited.
