Day 11-15 Summary

Oops. So I lost a lot of motivation to write after taking that first anatomy exam last Thursday. Kind of killed my good mood for a bit!

But I digress. Lots has been going on in the past week! Let me see if I can pick it up a bit...

Thursday I took the exam. Thursday night I watched the rerun of last season's Grey's Anatomy finale (which, thank goodness, a new season begins tomorrow night!) and Friday was rainy and tiring. I had my 8 a.m. anatomy lab (did much better on that quiz!), did work study, and went to growth and development. Boyfriend, in the meantime, hung out at my apartment and rested all day; was very jealous of him! That day, I also got the Bare Minerals makeup I ordered from Sephora, which has been repairing my skin since I got it. Definitely a believer in the product! That night, we ordered in Chinese food and watched movies with Ashton Kutcher in them for whatever random reason - The Killers, Just Married, and The Butterfly Effect.

Saturday we got up and headed over to the boat to move it from the wall to a new space on the dock. Of course alarms started going off when we wanted to take the boat out into the lake and run the engines for a few minutes. We took a break to watch some college football (I enjoy sporting my jersey on Saturdays), took a nap on the boat, and headed back to my apartment because we wanted to see The Town. (Found out there are only two movie theaters within a half-hour radius of where the boat is docked!) After going to the movie, where we had to sit in the front row because it was opening weekend, we watched Gone Baby Gone to complete the Ben Affleck directorial themed evening. Ate a pizza too, of course!

Sunday, we had a friend from college come over and visit fairly early after we managed to sleep in. After that, it was full on laundry and cleaning day in the apartment and NFL Sunday everywhere else! Had chicken wings for breakfast (technically), which I'm still not sure was the best nutritional idea (the entire weekend had gone to pot in that area by this point) but they were so, so delicious. It was really fun to hang out with nowhere to be! Lots of good company and laughs. Also got a lot done, which made the day even better!

Monday I had to get up a little early to go into the retirement home and fill out my new hire paperwork, about which I was very excited! I got my picture taken for my ID badge, another TB test (that's 3 in a month...new record?), scheduled for a physical assessment at the occupational health center for a local hospital, and paperwork to take to the state police barracks for fingerprinting and a background check. Wow! Got to spend more time with boyfriend before he left then we parted ways to go to class. I also had to rehearse the students because Saturday night is the homecoming performance at main campus!

Tuesday I went and got my fingerprinting done at the state police, which was slightly humiliating when the supervising officer made it a point to tell me my drivers license picture looks nothing like me. I have had problems with it over the past year since I lost the college weight and thankfully renew as soon as I can get home!

Also had a delightful surprise Tuesday night when best friend came to stay the night en route to school in the morning. Unfortunately, it wasn't under the best of circumstances, as her grandmother recently passed away. However we did make the best of keeping each other in good humor while we did homework. She is coming back Saturday for homecoming weekend so we will get to spend more time together, which is super exciting!

I also got a huge surprising report last night from my high school friend who had come up to go out in the city the weekend we were all there. One of my boyfriend's high school friends got a hold of her via Facebook and asked her to dinner! Neither my boyfriend nor I knew this was going on and we were both really glad it did. Sounds like they had a great time and I'm glad I could be a portal for them to meet each other, even if just a date was the end product. I take it as a compliment that one of boyfriend's friends think highly enough of me to consider my friends as people with which they would want to spend extra time. Was really cool to discover.

Today I went to my physical assessment, back to the retirement home to turn in paperwork and have my TB test read, then over to school for work and class. After that, back to the dance department to rehearse. I also made lots of orzo salad tonight and put in way too much onion, so my tongue is burning a bit. Really nothing exciting - I need to study and can't bring myself to just yet!

Also this week my dad ended up in the emergency room because his stomach was making him very uncomfortable. He had an ablation done for a cardiac arrhythmia a few years ago and has been on an aspirin regiment ever since, which appears to be taking a toll on his digestive system. Waiting to see what the final diagnosis is and whether or not he can be relieved with a basic protein pump inhibitor.

All right, I think that's a good summary of what's been going on lately. I need to not let myself fall behind with that for so many days! So much to remember. Hopefully I can remember enough information to do well on the 3 quizzes and one exam I have in the next two days!

Day 10

Today I achieved a few small victories, which I feel are worth mentioning. I took ballet class this morning up at the dance department and managed to make it through the entire class without having to baby my ankle. (Turning was a very good experience!) Then I did lots of filing at work study (the worst of that was getting a paper cut!) and went to my human growth class. Not bad.

After human growth, I went to the bookstore to see if they'd take back the note handouts from the biology section I ended up not attending. They were kind enough to refund me even though it was past the date for returns and the notes were open! So I definitely lucked out. Then, I stopped by the grocery store to get some hot chocolate on the way into run rehearsal (there is a Tim Horton's Express inside the store). The cashier couldn't find the bar code to scan for hot chocolate so he charged me for a medium coffee instead, which was cheaper. Yes!

Then I got to talk to my best friend and made what I think qualifies as a legitimately delicious pizza. After that, I started studying for my anatomy test but have been interrupted by good calls from boyfriend, dad, and my former boss.

The only thing that is bothering me is I don't feel like I'm being appreciated for the hard work I put out during the week so I can spend my weekend making other people a priority and trying to plan fun activities. I feel like no one thinks activities I suggest or want to do are very fun, and it hurts my feelings a bit. I'm a bit sensitive is all; should probably toughen up!

Oh, well. Until tomorrow.

Day 9

Ugh. Writing this after I finished doing all my anatomy pre-lab exercises for Friday. A bit sleepy!

Got up to read and journal for human growth around 8. Went to school early today so I could study for my second anatomy lecture quiz (got another 100 percent) and to spend some quality time with the human skull model for my second anatomy lab quiz on Friday. Both were successful ventures! This time in anatomy, people were feeling impending doom about the contents of our quiz, which was all chemistry-related. I tried to go into the room as late as I could to avoid the heightened stress.

Social problems was pretty standard. Today was definitely a work-filled, nothing else going on kind of day. I found myself freezing in the main building, especially in the library. Lots of 2nd year RN students were around in their uniforms (lab coats, polo shirts, scrub pants) and I found myself feeling envy toward them - I definitely won't be freezing next year!

Tomorrow I get to do work study and go back to the dance department. That will liven things up a bit. Guess there will be some monotonous days interspersed among all the interesting ones!

Day 8

Slept in with boyfriend a bit today after a very fun (and exhausting) weekend! I drove out to the boat Friday night and met him when he was done with work, we drove into Cleveland on Saturday to watch college football and to rendezvous for my best friend's impromptu birthday celebration (which brought out a ton of awesome people!), and Sunday we watched the NFL kickoff and drove back to my apartment. Very busy but so worth it!

Was very glad I worked ahead on my journal entries for human growth, which meant no homework for me this weekend! However, today I started work study in the nursing department and had to rehearse up at main campus after class. I decided that it will take at least a year to do all the filing the department needs me to do at school! I also got a call from the nursing home and will head in to fill out all my employment paperwork next Monday morning. So everything is progressing in a smooth and orderly fashion with that. Fantastic.

I also got tapped to guest lecture for the dance senior seminar course this Thursday morning, which I'm very excited about, although I don't know how excited the seniors are! I want them to have up-to-date information about the job market into which they're heading. All of them are talented enough to find work in the field in one capacity or another and they need to know the anxiety they will feel is totally normal. I have to get some information ready to present to them.

That's about all that's going on. I'm thinking I will head over to campus early tomorrow to spend some quality time with the human skull, since we are going to be quizzed on it early morning Friday. Probably a good idea to study up.

Day 7

It was a bit of a struggle to get up for my 8 a.m. lab today but I survived nonetheless! And I also ended up acing my lab quiz, so it was definitely a productive morning. Was very excited to start on the bones of the skull/facial and neck muscles today because it confirmed that I learned a ton more in high school anatomy and college functional biology than I will need to get through A&P I and II. Makes the studying a little enjoyable and a lot less stressful!

Also talked more to my best friend on my 4 hour break in between classes today; she was loaded down with a ton of work. Her 25th birthday is Sunday! I had my mom send her a present I chose for her from home since it would be cheaper to ship and would get there faster. Of course it arrived at her apartment yesterday but she won't open it until the 12th. So standard.

I did get good news about my work study position on campus, which will be in the nursing department. I went in and talked to the secretary and she was so nice. It sounds like I'll be doing general clerical work, getting the mail, and some laundry as it comes out of the labs. I can also take in my homework to do on that job, which is excellent!

After human growth, I headed over to the dance department to rehearse the students again. We only have rehearsal on Monday and Wednesday next week, which is awesome! (Love Fridays off in any capacity!) Just continued to clarify choreography and gave notes; we have made huge strides in just a couple hours together. I'm really excited to see how it progresses by the time of the performance.

Since I also managed to get ahead by a couple days on all my homework and readings, looks like a great fall weekend to head toward the boat and a bit toward home. Am going to relax and enjoy a break from a work-filled week!

Day 6

I was a productive soul starting as soon as I got up today, finishing my reading from the night before I even made breakfast! I also had to make it a point to call my dad and wish him a happy birthday and had a nice chat with my best friend after she got out of her morning classes.

Took my first of two anatomy quizzes over these two days (lecture today, lab tomorrow) and aced the first one. Everyone was freaking out before this 10-question, multiple choice quiz and I had to tune out the entire class. It reminded me of situations I've been in prior to going onstage and having other dancers either go through all of the choreography or start asking me questions. It drives me crazy! I need to have peace of mind and confidence in my abilities before any kind of performance; insecurities make me want to start smacking people upside the head. Just calm down.

In my second class we had a guest speaker. Our professor had talked about the possibility of having guests in to lecture and I was impressed with his ability to deliver on that promise right off the bat. It did give a real world application to the theory we read about in our first assignment, which was extremely dry, so I was very happy to sit and listen!

Other than that, activities were standard. There was a surprisingly beautiful, mostly cloudy sky over the lake during sunset on my drive home. It is definitely starting to feel like autumn outside! The seasons are changing.

Day 5

Today was very enjoyable, as I got to kick it off in a ballet class up the street in the dance department. It was the first time I have tried to take class since July, which felt better than I predicted it would! Funny enough, I was inspired to get moving after waking up sore Tuesday morning. We did some biking over the long weekend when I was visiting my boyfriends family's boat, which is a hobby I'd like to pursue more. Just need to acquire a bike!

I managed to squeeze in a trip to the grocery store in between ballet class and actual class. In addition to biking, another interest I have developed, particularly in the last two weeks since living alone, is cooking! I have found I feel a lot better when I make my food and know exactly what the ingredients are. We made a ton of food to take the boat, which was all reasonably healthy, and today I tried a recipe for quinoa (a whole grain) and made a pizza for dinner. It's nice to have leftovers to last throughout the week! I also seem to have enough Tupperware/Pyrex containers to store everything, so the fridge is nice and neat.

My human growth and development class today was a breeze compared to sitting through the 2 hour classes from yesterday. (My hand definitely hurt from taking way too many notes when I came home last night!) Nothing new there, other than my professor making ridiculous comments out of nowhere. I had to stop myself from laughing thinking about how badly I wanted to tell my best friend about one of them!

After class, I headed back to the dance department to help with the restaging of a piece I worked on with a renowned choreographer this summer. They are going to perform it on the program for Homecoming/Parents' Weekend, which is in less than a month! The cast has learned the entire 9-minute piece in two hours, which is a very impressive feat. Now, we just have to focus on making it performance ready and clean, clean, clean. The students are very talented and it helps that half the cast was present when it was originally set.

So back to reading and studying for the next two days of anatomy quizzes in lecture and lab! Great fun. Lots of flashcards, coloring diagrams, and review questions in the book. I'm already nerding out and it hasn't even been a 5-day week yet. Yikes.

Day 4

After a very fun-filled Labor Day weekend, I came back to the apartment last night to laundry, studying, and a couple dishes. While in the middle of tackling all of those duties, I received a phone call from the retirement home where I had put in my application a couple weeks ago for a position as a part-time dietary aide. The woman on the other end sounded a bit brash, and I jumped at the opportunity to set up an interview today at noon.

However, I got along great with her as soon as I realized she was excited to have an educated employee/nursing student (me!) join her team. She was looking for someone to specifically fill a 7-10:30 a.m. shift, with which my schedule coordinates. I will get to work alongside dietitians and nurses to learn about long-term care, which is great since I won't start nursing clinicals until the spring.

I am very glad I took my last couple weeks at home to get all my tests done for those clinicals, i.e. be a human pincushion for my family physician. It looks like that is going to expedite the hiring process and get me working ASAP! My degree and current nursing student status doesn't exactly hurt either.

So a job. Check. Things are looking up! Time for an afternoon/evening at school.

Day 3

Happy Friday!

Today I had to tap back into a senior-year style class schedule, as I had my only 8 a.m. class this term, my lab for anatomy and physiology I. It was a little tough waking up, as boyfriend was here with me (asleep because of his 4-day week law school class schedule), but coffee in the travel Dunkin Donuts mug really helped.

I am finding the material in anatomy to be a review of topics I studied from back in high school, which isn't a new realization. (I discovered that college was much easier after I persevered through one of the toughest and most competitive public high schools in Ohio.) Ironically enough, as the professor reviews the directional anatomy terms, I see them written onto a diagram by one of my best friends from home, who is now in her 3rd year of medical school. On some level, that knowledge comforts me, and I feel like this is the right place for me to be taking my education.

On another good note, I am letting my guard down and making new friends from all different kinds of backgrounds as I begin this new journey. I do not want to seem like I think I'm above my peers in this program because I have a bachelor's degree. I really appreciate all the new perspectives I've gained, even though it's only been a couple days, and am excited to continue getting to know everyone in my class.

So it's definitely relaxing time, which is a lot different than any kind of true undergraduate Friday I've ever had! And time for a happy holiday weekend - no class until Tuesday.

Day 2

As I haven't been to any classes yet today, I thought I would take the chance to give credit to the people who have made this transition back into school a worthwhile venture. My parents have been incredibly supportive and I really can't thank them enough for everything they have helped me out with financially, from health care to a car, cell phone to my beautiful apartment and everything in it.

However, another person who has made a huge impact by helping me through this process is my best friend. We met in the dance department in college and it was immediately evident we were going to have a wonderful friendship. (We even had the same S.A.T. score!) And it has been nothing but that - we have seen each other through academics, dance struggles and accomplishments, guys, confrontations with our mothers, and have had an absolute riot of a time together the whole way.

The first year out of college, when I moved 11 hours west to dance with the company, she was at home in rural Pennsylvania with no cell phone reception. I went over a year without seeing her, almost without speaking to her on any kind of regular basis, and I believe that was part of the reason why the first year was so hard.

She is now in law school and dancing near my home in Ohio. We both laughed this morning on the phone about how awful the separation was because we now see each other at least once a month, if not more frequently, and we speak almost every day.

Today we got on the topic of other girls (specifically exes, past hook-ups, and randoms at the bar) trying to affect our relationships with our boyfriends with their unnecessary drama. They just don't seem to grasp that the guys aren't interested in them, but don't want to be mean about it.

Don't all females develop some kind of embarrassment filter? Or pride? Honey, if he doesn't show up where you think he will after you've made the effort to get there, he obviously doesn't care about you or your time. You can get mad at yourself, think he's as distraught as you are, and call him months later for two hours to play "Remember When?" with the belief you're entwined souls that lost each other along the way.

News flash: He hasn't given you 20 seconds of thought in those couple months. Get over it.

Also, we understand 21-year-olds flaunting around their barely legal business, trying to chase after 25, 26, 27-year-old guys. We were there, just as stupid, and we learned too. If he has a girlfriend, and you have to initiate every conversation...

...More breaking news: He doesn't want you. Again, get over it.

Yes, my best friend and I recognized we have both behaved as such in the past but took the hint and moved on because, let's face it, it's embarrassing not to do so! You're only giving ammunition to the current girlfriend to laugh at you and your absurd behavior.

Or, better yet, mock you in writing.

Here's to best friends! More tomorrow on what happens in class.

Day 1

I left for class a bit early so I could drop off my rent, hand in my physical/immunization forms to the nursing secretary, and print out syllabi for my anatomy and anatomy lab classes that will meet tomorrow and Friday, respectively. At the second apartment complex I lived at in Missouri, rent HAD to be turned in on the 1st of the month with no grace period. Even though my new rental agency graciously grants the extra few days, I am now very aware of the 1st of the month because I still feel like a late fee could be looming!

But I digress. After handing in my paperwork and successfully finding the printing station in the library, I enjoyed free coffee from the cafe and waited for 2 p.m. to roll around.

It wasn't hard to get back into the swing of entering a new class, surveying my classmates, and waiting for the new professor to distribute papers and call roll. The only aspect that made me uncomfortable were the number of desks in the room. All very small and close together in rows, I felt like I was in coach on a full flight. I can only imagine how my large male classmates were feeling!

Right at 2, a kind-looking, older man came into the room, told us he was 77, and keeps teaching because he believes in why he is there.

Then he said, "Today is when we find out where the bear shits in the buckwheat," and walked among us to distribute our syllabi. He also asked who in the room were nursing students because he liked them best. I was happy to be among those raising their hands!

Of course right when he walked by my desk, he clipped his foot on the front leg (Wasn't I worried about how close together the rows were?) and went lurching forward, grabbing at my classmate sitting in front of me and to the left for support. After which, he announced he had a hip replacement the previous year and felt like he may have dislocated it. Great.

After going through the syllabus in its entirety, we started making name plates out of note cards to sit on our desks and writing information about ourselves and our education on the inside. He asked about everyone's class level and who had already finished college, because it was noted on his roster. I told him I had graduated from main campus in 2008.

We were free to go after completing our note cards. On my way out, he asked what my major was and I told him, "Dance," to which he replied, "Couldn't make a living out of it, could you?"

I showed him my ankle and was glad I had written my professional dance background on the inside of the index card. Why do I feel like I spend my life proving to people their first impressions about me are wrong? I should have told him I received one of the college's highest graduation honors.

Guess he'll have to make do with the excellent work I plan on turning in for him.

Until tomorrow! Up next: anatomy and physiology I and contemporary social problems.