A JOB!!!!!!!!!

Okay, so I've been slogging through the last 51 months of school with a clear goal in mind: get a job! All those late nights. All those stupid care plans. All those papers.... 9 chapter tests..... pop quizzes.... CPR classes.... 5:00 a.m. mornings and 4:00 a.m. bedtimes.... today, it finally paid off! MWHAAAAHAAAAHAAAA!!!

I was offered a job! Starting January 19 at NMRH in the OR. WHOPPEE!! More money than I've ever made in my life. Enough to pay off my student loans. Enough to pay for Thing 1's tuition in CASH next year. Thing 2 got a full ride (Thing 1 did too, but turned it down for a Big 10 school) so we paid his $750 for books and tuition each year so far... Enough money that my kids may be turned down for some financial aid next year, but it'll all be worth it.

I'm fully aware of the people out there who have lost jobs, fortunes, or nest eggs recently. I don't mean to rub it in anyone's face. I'm just glad that at 43 years old, I finally will have a job I LOVE and be paid accordingly. I have a nephew that lost his job on Halloween. I know that at 28, it's not a good thing to be looking for a job when you'd rather be looking for an engagement ring... or a house... or just food on the table. I have struggled before - working 3 jobs as a single mom with 2 kids and making less than $25k for the 3 jobs put together... The end is near. I just can't get too comfortable... Please, God, make me worthy...

The Last Week of Summer

One week from today is Labor Day weekend. Really? Where the heck did my summer go? I've worked so much this summer that I don't even feel like I had any time off. I know I went to PA for 5 days, but still - that was months ago. Maybe I'll feel like I've had a vacation when I get back to school.

Ahh, school. This is my LAST semester. Bittersweet, since I SHOULD have been done in May except for a nasty run-in with melted snow and a nasty professor... casts and clinicals just don't mix. I've worked three 12-hour shifts a week, taken a class online, and also done a 135-hour internship class at the same hospital I've worked. I feel like I'm ALWAYS at the hospital! But, in just 3-1/2 short months, I'll have my BSN and a minor in Healthcare Administration.

My husband and I talked last night and I said how bummed I am - the best GPA I can get is 3.48. Just .02 short of Cum Laude. Hubby, who meant well, said that it's a better GPA than "most people like you" could get. "Most people?" I asked with a hint of anger in my voice. "Yeah. You know, people who are full-time students, full-time moms, volunteer way to much at the kids' school and generally have a life other than school. Somebody who's not 22 years old and all they have to do at night is study." Hmm - he redeemed himself with that one.

So how come that .02 sticks in my craw? Why is it that I'd be thrilled for any of my friends to achieve that grade but I'm annoyed with myself? Because I know all the times I didn't give 100% (because I'd given so much of myself elsewhere that I couldn't) and my grades reflected that. Because I didn't try as hard with my business classes as I do with my nursing classes because they're "not as important?" Yeah, all that and more.

Sometimes I've just got to learn to let it go and look at the big picture - I'll be a REAL nurse. I'll have a great job to support my family. I'll have more time at home. We're going to Hawaii. We're not losing our house and no one I love has died recently. Get over yourself! But still, .02...

Again.. 3 months!

Okay, so three months have gone by since my last post - again. It's probably because I'm reading Dawn's Because I Said So blog... What a riot. I only wish I could write with her sense of humor! I do have one...

The other day at work, I was telling the other nurses about a story I read in the newspaper. I read that there was a study about some researchers using baby's first stool (otherwise known as meconium) as a facial mask because of the high protein concentration. I said it was really good for the skin because it would draw out all the impurities (you know how hard it is to get off a baby's butt and how smooth they end up feeling.) All around the nurse's station I see them making faces of varying stages of disbelief, shock, horror and nausea. One nurse is falling for it hook, line and sinker.

Then I say, "the only problem is when you have it on, people tell you that you look like $h1t!" They lost it. Sometimes I can pull it off.

Not Dawn. Daily, the girl does. I toss my hat to you.