Two things out of the ordinary happened yesterday.

The first: As I was on the elevator headed down to the lobby yesterday at work, an older woman began handing out Peta pamphlets and started talking about how everyone should be a vegan. This was seriously annoying for me. Peta is annoying.

Back story: On Thursday as I was by the elevators, the same woman was handing out fliers saying things like "veganism leads to better health better sex and better conscience!" I went to security and told them about her. They tried to find her, but I don't think they did.

Back to Friday, this time I got a better description of her when I went to to security. This is a hospital! A crazed woman should not be allowed to bother patients, their families, the Rabbis, or me.

So I told security again. I hope they found her and kicked her out of the hospital.

Second incident:
I decided to walk back to my apartment from the hospital. It took me 35 minutes, entirely too long for me to want to do that in the winter. When I got back to my apartment, the overwhelming odor of gas flooded my nostrils. I figured it wasn't deadly because Blue was still alive and begging for food. I dawdled for a bit, trying to figure out what to do. I called my dad, who told me to call my building manager or Con Ed, so I did. The building manager was not around, so I called Con Ed. I told them what was up, and they told me to get out of my apartment. Huh. I went to the grocery store at the corner, and then waited for the mechanic to come fix my apartment.

Turns out, my pilot light went out. These terms are completely foreign to me, but the nice mechanic, Victor, taught me what to do if it happened again. I'm glad that Blue was still alive. Now that I'm living by myself, he's such a wonderful companion for me. I feel terrible for leaving him by himself for most of the day when I'm gone. :(

Something else: I have to people staying at my apartment for the three days before Thanksgiving. Not sure how we are going to fit.

Happy Thanksgiving! (I will be celebrating with 2 days of 12 hr shift- someone call the WAAHHHHHHmbulance)

Music

Ruth once said that I had "commercial" taste in music. She clarified by saying that the music that I liked was music you would hear in commercials. She's so right.

I've been sick this past week, so I've been spending a lot of time in front of the television (I spend a lot of time in front of the TV regardless of the state of my health). I've decided to give my readers a sampling. If you are my true friends, you will listen to each and every one.

Here are songs that I've liked, which I've later heard in commercials.



1901 (Phoenix)



Mr. Pitiful (Matt Costa)

1901 is right now in a car commercial, and Mr. Pitiful was in an iPod commercial.

Here are songs that I've heard in commercials that I absolutely had to find.



To Build a Home (The Cinematic Orchestra)



Doorway (IO Echo)



My Heart (The Perishers)

I heard "To Build a Home" in a Chivas commercial and I later heard it in an episode of Friday Night Lights (TIM RIGGINS!). "Doorway" was in a Palm Pre commercial. Kind of creepy but I like it. I didn't hear "My Heart" on a commercial but it was on TV and I tracked it down. Eureka!

Here's a song from a movie trailer (American Dreamz) that I have listened to for forever.



I Won't go Hollywood (Bleu)

Here's one commercial that I always get excited about.



Both Matthew and I love the instrumentals in this commercial. It makes me want to pop abilify until I can create music like that.

What I've been up to

A sleepy raccoon in Vancouver

Sunday acquaintances have the tendency to ask me what I've been "up to." I'm not close enough to these people that I keep them updated when things happen in my life, but are "acquainted" enough that they are comfortable asking this difficult to answer question.

I just wish that I had better answers for them.

Depending on the person, I'll focus on the more productive activities. Job finding. Working out. Part-time job. Hoping that these responses will paint a picture of me working diligently despite my jobless state. These are usually friends of my parents-- the older folk. I think to myself, "Have their children found jobs yet?" Not that it matters. Well, it does matter a little to me when as soon as someone finds a job, I hear it from my mother who heard it from her friend who heard it from that someone's mother.

Anyway, if I feel the need for some confession, I'll include the more time-wasting activities, with the hope that my listener will offer some encouragement or motivation to kick my ass into high gear. The hours that I've spent watching the stupidest movie ever (aka "Bride Wars") can never be taken back.

Mostly people want to know if I've found a job yet.

I usually tell them I've job searching, varying my response time by how interested they seem in what I'm really up to.

"Yeah, you know, job searching. How about you?" are my typical short responses.

"Yeah, you know, job searching. I've applied to 7 hospitals. I've slowly gotten rejected by at least two. Job searching is so hard! I am even considering palliative care. Can you believe that? It's gotten to the point where I would take a job where I would have to watch, up close, as people die slow and painful deaths. "

The list of things I've been up to:

Caught up on movies from the past four years.

Ditto with TV. Dang Kyle XY is good. Also repeats from the Beijing Olympics. Michael Phelps won 8 gold medals!

Studied for NCLEX.

Passed the NCLEX. (yesssssssssss)

Hung with my Jr. High girls

Aforementioned part-time job.

I've been feeling like this lately:

That's Blue dealing with the summer heat. We both have a lot to look forward to come October.

On August 5th, I got an email stating that I could call to schedule an interview with a NYC hospital I applied to in March and have been following up on. The email came the day that a two and a half week vacation from my job started and a day after a fabulous day at the beach with a friend who also has been job searching.

Five days later I was headed to my first post-graduation interview. I met with the recruiter (HR rep) who told me about the units with open positions. I told her the ones I was interested in, and she sent me to meet the Nurse manager of one of the units right away.

She ushered me into the steamy bathtub sized office she occupied on the unit and slid the door shut. I've never had a job interview in a closet before. The manager was nice, but disinterested. It was bizarre and short and gave me a bad feeling as I shook her hand and left.

I didn't get the job. I found out about an hour after my interview via an email sent to my blackberry. It was the proverbial band-aid getting ripped off quickly.

Rejection sucks balls.

The email also told me that I should schedule another interview with another manager, so I did that right away. I was a wreck for the next three days. Every 15 minutes for three days anxiety would grip my heart as I felt the pressure of needing to nail this interview.

Come Friday, I met with the manager. The interview lasted an hour. During the course of the interview, the motion-sensor light turned off four times. It was like a reminder to not take myself so seriously as I stood in the dark and waved at the light to turn it back on.

Tuesday, in the morning with friends at my house, I got a call from HR telling me that I got the job.

It starts at the end of October. Time to prepare myself and figure out my and Blue's moving situation. I'm thankful for people who have cared enough to ask after me, for people who have prayed for my success, for people who have supported me and to God, for blessing me in spite of my inadequacies and tendencies to compartmentalize Him.

At Starbucks on Sunday, we decided to sit at the outdoor tables to drink and study. Shortly after sitting down, a man sat down at the table next to us and proceeded to smoke in the loudest and most smoke-inducing fashion I have ever witnessed. It left the air around us filled with a thick carcinogenic haze and as soon as he got up and turned his back to us, I began to fan the air around my nose with my hand. I may have also had a very unpleasant look on my face, and I may have also muttered gross after he left.

As I turned my head while still fanning my grimacing face, I made direct eye contact with a barista who was squatting along the wall and smoking whom I failed to notice was there. Now I am all against smoking, but I was so embarrassed as he proceeded to smoke in a non-obtrusive fashion for the remainder of his break.

Supplements

I don't know why Matt and I aren't stronger, with all those vitamins we eat multiple times a day, every day.

Are we laying down some tracks or did we just shoot some handguns in someone's backyard?

Before you read this, click here

A couple of weeks ago, Ruth asked me if I wanted to go to Georgia with her to attend Mariah's wedding. I really wanted to, but after scouring the interweb for cheap plane tickets and not finding them, we decided (rather last minute) to drive.

Memorial day weekend however, I went to the NEXT conference in Baltimore. My encouragement to any hot Christian guys out there is "JUST DO SOMETHING." Preferably towards me. That was not the point of the conference. I recommend you listen to the messages on the thisisnext.org in order (skip Carolyn McCulley...blegh).

So we left on Wednesday after my work for the 8 hour drive to somewhere in North Carolina. There was nothing to see along the interstate. Ruth has cousins who we stayed with, including 5 yr. old David. We built a fort and I tricked him into thinking that I went to Narnia.

We got to Milledgeville on Thursday night. Ashah and Mariah weren't home because they went to the airport to pick up the photographer. That did not to present as a problem because down in the South, people don't always lock their doors! That was the first of many things I would learn about the south.

Friday was full of riding around town. The highlight was going to the Vietnamese nail salon. Other Asians! Yay!
Mariah just about finished school in May to become a Physician's Assistant. She's smart, gorgeous, and funny, and JW is so lucky to have married her.

This is Ashah. She's also super gorgeous and smart and is a talented wedding photographer. If they weren't the nicest people in the world, I would be jealous. I met them at XL. Their mother taught us how to sew.

I would like to say that Georgia is a wonderful place to be. Everyone is polite beyond reason, and way relaxed.

Saturday we tagged along and helped with things when we could. But we also found the time to go to Sonic, Ruth and my first time. We documented it.


The wedding was short and lovely and romantic. Because Mariah wanted all her brothers to be a part of her wedding, when the minister asked who gave her away, all her 7 brothers got up and gave her a hug and kiss. It was the best wedding give-away ever!

Also the best ever: The sparklers instead of bubbles or rice and the fire truck getaway car



On Sunday we went to Ashah's church, ate at a real southern cooking restaurant, shot some handguns in their backyard with some southern country guys, and then hung out at a lake in someone's backyard. Apparently grits are supposed to be eaten salty, and they kept laughing at Ruth for putting syrup in her grits.

I really like Georgia. This roadtrip was the perfect opportunity to kick back and relax and drive for hours on end. I highly recommend it.

On the way back, we drove past Bob Jones University. For some reason, Ruth did not want to stop and visit.

Finishg school

The last time I used the term "finishing school" I was trying to explain what EXCEL was. Five years later I still hate it.


These have been a peaceful few days. Being finished with school is a load off my mind. Haha. That was the understatement of the year.

I spend the day relaxing with my beautiful cat Blue. Seriously, he is a thing of beauty.


If I want to put myself into a panic I can just read the forums at allnurses.com or my classmate's facebook statuses. I'm slowly plugging away at the things I need to do to become licensed.

Of all the clinical rotations we've had, I think the most fun and the least work intensive was the one I've just finished, Community Health. I've had to travel farther for this clinical but it was completely worth it because the Visiting Nurse Association in Hunterdon was our professor's second job. We had to get there at 9:00 AM instead of 7:00 and often left at 12 or 12:30. SCORE!! We also didn't have to wear the ugly ugly uniform. DOUBLE SCORE!!

The most work we put into this clinical was a presentation for a baby fair at the Hunterdon Medical Center. It was very seventh-grade-esq science fair project about Bisphenol A.


Can you appreciate the silver "HYPE?" Honestly, I didn't know what they hype was about until I did the 45 or so minutes of research necessary for this project.

Other highlights included going to the adult daycare and doing a reminiscence group, going to a center completely dedicated to WOUNDS and staring at the Somerset Patriots while they practiced at the practice field next door during boring meetings.

We had to fill out our Exit Survey in order to get our graduation invitations. I kept thinking about all of the awful experiences I've had including Pathophys, Health Assessment and Geri clinical. However, the survey only had two lines for me to describe my satisfaction with the college of nursing. I decided to leave the whining to those able to fit it into those two lines.

We went to Perkins today to celebrate my finishing school. It was a graduation breakfast. Next week we are doing graduation lunch. I also intend to wrangle a graduation dinner. Graduation cake is a given. I am going to milk this for all that it is worth. Graduation is May 19th 10:00. Come!