the INVASION has landed

I'm always a bit taken aback when everybody shows up for school in the fall. I used to wait with eager anticipation for it but now, I'm not so sure. Over the last week Collegedale traffic has gone up by about 200%, and not just at 8 AM and 3 PM. You are guaranteed to see at least 10 SAU students at Walmart at any given time of the day and at least one student in any store you walk into. There is NOWHERE to park or sit for that matter. And people are so RUDE at convocation, they will not be quiet so we can get started. Poor Mrs. Glass is playing the prelude into a sea of voices, what's the point? And church was already packed last weekend, what is going to happen with all these students here? I think I must have helped about 10 people find things today just walking from Wright Hall to Wood Hall. I've even been involved with the music dept long enough to answer questions about their classes.

Which leads me to another confession: I'm feeling a bit old, maybe more just a bit odd. Most of you graduated people have moved away and left me here with a sea of undergrads! Thankfully, Hollie is still around to give me a little sympathy about the postgrad life. It's just such a different stage in life, getting a house, a job, paying lots of bills, making a different set of decisions. Maybe I'll feel more normal after my classes start next week.

However, I will say the energy level has definitely kicked up over there. You can feel it as soon as you walk on campus. I'm enjoying being around Stephanie and Ryan and all their friends who will probably become my friends (since mine have all left me) and keeping some of that college spirit alive. But at the same time, it's going to be nice to have a house to come home to (and have people over too) where it's quiet and relaxed and I have my own couch and TV (YAHOO!), even if I can't always find the remote... I have to say, I have the best of every world possible. Life is good!

Sitting very still while I wait for the medicine to kick in

Carrie's here visiting for the weekend since her parents are coming down to help bring Grant back to Southern this weekend.







Amy and Jeremy came down for a surprise visit too!








For any of you that know Carrie, this is pretty much torture for her... but she did start it (with some help from Jeremy). I was quietly resting on the floor...



Apparently this is the weekend for injuries for me. I burnt my hand on Friday night cooking. Then when we went to Ocoee for the afternoon I slipped on a pointy rock in the first 5 minutes and fell directly on my hip and ribs. It's a very strange feeling to have the wind knocked out of you only on one side. This morning I have an evolving bruise on my hip and my rib cage feels like somebody is tightening it with a wrench. But luckily ibuprofen helps quite nicely. I can definitely tell when it's in my system. Last night I woke up every time I moved in bed though.

Surveying the damage... it's much more colorful this morning...

Stephanie, please do not knock me over because I don't think I could get back up...

Carrie and Randy catching crayfish. Carrie got a yellow jacket sting too. Mary Jane also took a fall right as we were leaving. Apparently Ocoee isn't a good place to go if you don't want to get hurt.

The selected self portrait of the weekend.

We played a variation of Rook called... well, apparently you can call it about 6 different things... I'm sure the others had about as much fun watching me try not to laugh at them while holding my side as they did laughing at the 500 funny things that happened while we played the game.

If the shirt fits...

In view of my last post... Carrie found this shirt...

If you only knew...

Sometimes I wonder what you all would think if you knew what I do all day at work... No offense but I bet I do things you wouldn't even imagine could be done to another human being, all in the name of medicine of course. My work is so different from what most of the world does. My self-esteem gets a boost when I put in a catheter somebody else couldn't get in a little old fat lady. How strange is that? (God did not intend for people to get enormously fat for a good reason...) I think nurses have to have each other to talk to because... well... you can't come home to just anybody who asks you the question "So, what'd you do today?" and answer "Well, I stuck a tube about the size of your index finger down somebody's nose and got back this gross brownish green stuff but it really made the guy feel better..." People in the medical profession build up a tolerance for what we do so we can talk about just about anything in a matter-of-fact way and laugh at horrific things like terminal cancer and death. We really aren't horrible callous people, it's just what we have to do to cope.

Sometimes the patients you come across have so much going on in their lives you just want to hug them and cry with them. Sometimes you wonder if your patients are even human, how God could make someone that mean and nasty, or someone who is quite literally that insane. Yesterday in the midst of my crazy day with patients with tubes in every possible place, a patient who needed some psychiatric medication, and some who were looking at death in the next year or so I decided that nursing has to be one of the strangest most varied professions. If you only knew the things I do all day at work...

A rainy Sabbath afternoon

A few of Stephanie's friends came over for haystacks.

After Ryan got done with RA potluck, he came to visit too. He's going to be gone most of the week on RA retreat so it was nice to spend some time together. Feels like we're seeing each other in spurts. Ryan took this picture, he's catching on to the self-portrait skills.

An attempt at gymnastics. Ryan wanted me to try a handstand, ha ha...


Ted was down for the weekend so I went over to Kari's to visit a bit. Here's Mama in the kitchen making supper.


The biggest family group gathered for awhile. Dave got a belly rub at the end of this but I'll be nice and not post that picture... Maybe Nick won't be so kind. ;-)

Birthday presents!

Mom and Dad helped me buy a new TV! Here is my $5 furniture purchase. Nick brought me this DVD player but we're not sure if it works yet. And you can see part of Lindsey's package laying on top: Pride and Prejudice. They also got me a 6 Qt pot to round out my Farberware set, a puzzle, and a really neat painted bowl.

Carrie sent me Crocs! I really like this style.

These came from Lindsey. She has to be one of the best people at finding things I would like without me asking for that thing specifically or showing it to me. She sent a really neat package and I really really like every single thing that was in the box! Here's the contents: Pride & Prejudice, these shakers, a bookmark, a notepad for my fridge, and B&BW vanilla smelly stuff.

One of the best birthdays on record

Yesterday has to be one of the best birthdays on record in the last few years. I got up in the morning at 6:45 (not on purpose) and went to play the organ, had waffles for breakfast made with my present from last year (thanks girls!), Mom and Dad were here until noon, then went shopping and watched The Greatest Game Ever Played with Ryan and Stephanie. (This is a really good movie, you should all watch it!) Last night we went to Kari Shultz house for the party part. I knew we were going but wasn't exactly sure what was going to go on. So here's a few snapshots...

Yes, they put 23 candles on there and it took me 3 tries to get them all out cause I was laughing. But who cares, I already got what I would have wished for so...

Playing with the wrapping from Hollie's gift

Hollie got me Uno Attack for my birthday. While Ryan and I were making a quick roadtrip for batteries, they were taking strange pictures...


Hey Carrie, I think you too need to apply your self portrait skills and get a picture of you and another Ryan on your blog!

Dave awaits his fate from the mighty Uno card spitter, will it be 0? will it be 6?


Nick made us VERY nervous by removing the object of hours of work from Kari's dining room table.

Weekend fun

Ready for church


Before we all fell asleep...


No Sabbath would be complete without a little organ playing. I pulled out every stop on the organ while Dad was playing. WOW! We all sang hymns to close the Sabbath too, but we toned down the organ a bit for that part. ;-)


Then we went to the bottom of the church for a small party, partially to celebrate my birthday, surprise surprise. The Heilmans brought Mexican Train dominoes. Good job Randy, thanks for keeping MJ and mom honest.


Dad, Stephanie, and I taught Ryan to play the Ford version of Sorry (5 card hand). Everybody was concentrating on taking me out since I was winning. Ryan had been stuck in Start forever so we weren't even paying attention when he quietly won the game! Then we played partners, Stephanie and I vs. Ryan and Dad. Unfortunately it ended up, as dad said, "Men rule, girls drool." In this picture we're trying to teach Ryan how to play Dutch Blitz but... I think he got his piles mixed up. Dutch Blitz takes too much concentration for that hour of the night anyway.


Dad and I boogie with a little Heart & Soul (even in the church, shame on us!)

Pics from Gulf Shores trip

We stayed in the leftmost building. These are all condos, 10 to a floor. Think of how much money they could make in 1 day!

The view from the balcony. Seems like one big wave would take out those beach houses.

The main living area. There were also 3 bedrooms: queen bed, king bed, and two doubles.

Sunset


The meeting room


The gang. All of us are Nursing Education graduate students except the 3rd from the left, she's a new faculty member teaching pediatrics in the AS program next year.

Sigh...

I don't know when I've ever looked forward to a weekend with more anticipation. I've even been losing sleep over it which I hardly ever do.

It's kind of interesting that I should have written that last post because the last day of the conference we graduate students got involved in teaching the teachers how to use technology. I whipped out my thumb drive with my power point from Tech & Ed this summer and was demonstrating to all the people I'd been feeling so young with. I suppose there are some advantages to being young and to taking summer classes with a horrible amount of homework. ;-)

We got back at midnight on Wed. night and I was welcomed by a parking ticket on my car in the VM parking lot. SAU thinks I still live in SV but either way, I wasn't going to walk anywhere with my stuff at 12 AM. So now I have to deal with appealing that. Ryan beat me on the late night trip though. He got back after 3 AM from home in Charlotte. We were both thankful he didn't get put on a case during jury duty.

Thursday & Friday I worked. Needless to say, I stopped at the VM on the way and got a Mello Yellow. That's rare for me. I drank half of it the first morning and half the second. I've had so much on my mind with my parents coming and Stephanie going to live with me for 2 weeks and Ryan being back that I've just felt crazy the last two days. Plus I've been orienting Emily, a new grad RN that I did clinical for in her nursing program. She's really learning a lot and I'm enjoying teaching her how to be a good nurse. (Plus it's nice that I can just guide her and not do the work myself ;-) It's a little scary that I'm teaching someone how to do this when I've only done it for two years!

So last night we had a HUGE storm and when my parents got here my power was out... How wonderful... Luckily my mom found the candles and matches easily. We ended up staying over at the Heilmans last night and here I sit at their computer writing this. Somehow no matter how much you think about something it never quite turns out the way you expected. I was so tired last night I could hardly keep my eyes open. But it's like the peace after the flurry of this week. My parents & Stephanie are here, Ryan is back, I have 6 days off, it's Sabbath, and my birthday is next week. What more could I ask for? Remind me start going to bed at a decent hour and stop being super Jaclyn for a few days...