Known Knowns

I was shocked to find out about Tim Russert’s sudden death today, Friday the 13th. I am really stunned, as I’m sure everyone else is, as well. On my new Ipod, I have recently loved watching Meet the Press podcasts, but my clearest memory of Tim was in the 2000 Presidential Election. I had a world history test the very next morning (as I was a senior in high school,) but instead of studying, I stayed up all night and watch Tim and his Magic Slate. I think I even popped in a video and recorded parts of the broadcast. The Magic Slate later went on to the Smithsonian and someday I’ll get there and pay tribute to my very favorite political junkie. We have lost a fantastic soul.

For the last year, I’ve been struggling with different MP3 players, having gone through three since last June. And I’m really nice to my players, too. I don’t drop them all the time like I do with my cell phone. I keep them in special cases or in my pocket and am continually aware of their presence. I feed them expensive food. I’m really nice to my MP3 players, but they just kept breaking, either completely or partially. It was starting to tick me off.

So, I finally did the dirty deed and bought a freaking Ipod. The Ipod Touch, by the way. No small purchase. I had been holding out because I just never felt quite trendy enough to have one. It’s sorta like voting for Barack Obama. I wasn’t sure I was cool enough…(I’ve determined that I am, by the way.)

I was looking for something that would, first and foremost, not break all the time. I also wanted more space for my music, and a bigger screen so I could play videos (during my lengthy bus commute to and from the hospital and school.) I had started looking at Wifi players, although there are very few on the market right now so I wasn’t terribly concerned with it. I had thought I would get the newest Ipod Nano, which pretty much had the qualities I wanted, although I was concerned about giving myself a brain aneurysm if I watched too many videos on a screen the size of my thumbnail. (Just kidding. I know, it’s slightly bigger but you know what I’m saying.) I was willing to make a decent monetary investment because I’m making decent money at my internship this summer, and like I said, I didn’t want something that was going to break all the time. So a Nano it was, and I was all ready to buy it after selling my other MP3 player on Amazon.com.

Until my technophile husband stepped in.

I just love him. He keeps me wired. He keeps me hip (as much as it’s possible.) We always have the latest gadgets. I don’t know what I’d do without it.

“Why not just get an Ipod Touch?” he said.

I couldn’t think of a reason, except that I wasn’t looking forward to the ultimate sticker shock because those little beasts are expensive. Then again, I was planning on spending enough money to get what I wanted and make it last. So yeah, why not?

The following day, after my last final, we went to the Apple Store and came home with a brand new Ipod Touch.

It was an immediate dose of trendiness. I almost couldn’t handle it. I thought about returning the damn thing.

I’m over that. And I love my new toy.

Yes, the price is really ridiculous but at the same time, I almost think it’s worth it for the feeling, alone. I feel like I’m cutting edge, and standing on the brink of something that is going to be huge. I read an article today that the next Windows version will be some kind of touch screen. Right now, portable media players with wifi are pretty limited but soon enough they are going to be the thing, and there won’t be many places you can go where you can’t get a wifi signal. Hell, even some airplanes are going to start allowing wifi. So, it makes me feel exceedingly special to know that I was kind of an early adopter. Usually I consider that a bad thing.

The other thing I love about my new Ipod is that it’s got enough space that I’m able to store my entire collection of CD’s on there, and still have plenty of room left over. Granted, my CD collection is small compared to many others. However, now I understand the joy of having every CD at my fingertips, no matter where I am. I have spent the last week re-introducing myself to music that I haven’t listened to in ages. I love it. I’m remembering all the songs that used to give me goosebumps. Many of them still do. I’m reminded how much I love music, and how much I love the variety.

I haven’t yet tested the video features beyond watching a couple Youtube videos, which were not bad at all. I’m going to Indiana this weekend, and plan on loading up a couple movies for the plane right. I’ll be traveling without my laptop since this little bugger has everything I need; the ability to check my email, play music, watch videos, take notes, and anything I need to entertain myself. It will be nice not to have to haul 10 extra pounds around the airport. And I can’t wait to see how my pod performs.

There is one thing I dislike, and that is Itunes. I used the program several years ago with the first generation nano, and it was terrible. I thought by now, they’d have de-bugged it a little better. Well, it still runs like crap, bugs out frequently, and slows my computer down. I’m willing to tolerate it because I like my Ipod, and with all my other Mp3 players, I was never able to find a better piece of software to aggregate my podcasts and music, sadly enough. Someday something will come along. Until then, I merely tolerate Itunes. Bah.

In the meantime, I will enjoy my trendy, trend-setting self while it lasts. Give it a week.

It’s been a long time, I know. I was actually thinking about deleting knownknowns but Mom convinced me otherwise, and told me that I just needed to write a quick message letting people know that I’m here but not as often as I used to be. So, there. That.

I am currently preparing for my med surg II final on Friday, and I’ve already lost a significant amount of sleep over it, not to imagine the inordinate amount of karma I’ve been trying to bank. For example, a kid came to my door trying to sell me a newspaper subscription for some college fund he’s a part of. I don’t need the newspaper, so I wrote the kid a personal check for half the amount that I would have paid for the newspaper. Normally, I slam the door on these people. (Not literally, but I don’t have any problem telling anyone “no,” especially with an 80 lb. German Shepherd standing behind me.) Anyway, I guess it’s not really karma if you tell people. Oh well. I feel kind of weird about it anyway because the kid begged me to take back the check and sign up for a newspaper instead. It was strange. I even told him that I didn’t care if he just bought beer ( don’t…I just told him he needed to “pay it forward.) Not sure why I feel weird about it. Oh well.
What else has been going on in my life?

I’ve been watching the primaries with feigned interest. Okay, real, true interest. Okay, I stay up until 1:30am watching to find out who won Indiana a couple weeks ago. Okay, I tried to convince my Mom to name her new cat “Barack.”

I’ve been going to school, and I’m down to 212 days which means I’ve reached the “final six months.”

Roland is good. He’s been eating poop tonight. I can smell it on his breath. Some things never change. Including my lazy ass cats.

And finally, I’m the team leader for a team in the WOMAN challenge, which encourages women to make healthy lifestyle changes including being more physically active. This doesn’t mean you have to run a friggin’ marathon. It just means you park your car father away from work, or take the stairs instead of the elevator one day. Seriously. It’s way low key. You set your own goal (and if you’re me, the goal is nice and low) and try to make it on 5/7 days. I even got a pedometer for ten bucks at target. If you want to join, let me know. We’re Team Ranch Dressing, and we’re taking over the world.

That’s all from now. I can’t promise how much I’ll post. I’ve got a big internship starting in June that is going to be very, very time consuming for most of the summer (especially since I have a class on top of the full 40 hour a week thing.) But I’m definitely still reading, and commenting when I can, and I’m definitely still posting on my nursing school blog, too. So please keep in touch.

Boys, beware. You are hereby warned.

That diva cup is f’ing awesome. Awesome.

Besides the fact that at approximately 7:58am, my ovary decided to due a fancy figure skating move while still connected to my  fallopian tube, I would have had no reason to suspect that my period had started.

All day! No leaks! No nasty, stinky, sweaty pad. No moisture-sucking tampon. Nothing to worry about changing, and not one second spent worrying if I was staining or leaking through. I took my cup out this evening and dumped it out, and there was Aunt Flow, kept safely and secretly where she belongs: in my vajay. (To steal a phrase from this blog…)

I am definitely sold on this diva cup and will be donating the rest of my unused boxes of pads and tampons to a local charity.

By the way, after a couple weeks of working with it, I finally cut the stem completely off. As of now, I can’t even feel the thing inside me. When I first looked at it, I thought, “really? That’s supposed to go up there?” Then I realized that as a general rule, we ladies are built to birth baby heads, so a little silicone cup ain’t really gonna hurt much.

I know I’m probably the last person on earth to make the switch, but if there are any more of you hanging around, go buy this thing now.

Yesterday, a woman stopped me at the grocery store and asked me how I remember to bring my own bags when I go shopping.

I wish I could say my answer was more interesting, but I simply told her that my bags are just so cute that I love to shop with them. It’s true. Me, the queen of Untrendy, actually has something so cute that it motivates me.  And you thought it would never happen.

Before I received my Envirosax for Christmas last year, I, too, constantly forgot to bring my own bags to the grocery store. My first idea was to just bring the old plastic bags with me each trip. That didn’t work. Then, I decided that I would start purchasing the $0.99 Store Brand bags; one per trip. Well, that didn’t work either. The bottom line is, those bags, while Earth-friendly, are ugly and boring. There is no incentive to bring them with you. Why would anyone remember to bring a boring, brown bag with them when they went shopping? Not me. Despite my best efforts, I never remembered to bring my own bags even once before I got my Christmas present. I would always remember sometime around the bananas that I forgot again.

Then I got my Envirosax for Christmas from my sister-in-law. And they are just so damn cute that I can’t help but want to show them off. I even admit that I feel slightly smug when I carry my groceries out, slung over my shoulder in super cute, trendy, re-usable bags. (All this trendiness pulled off by a person who goes shopping in her pajamas.) And really, besides feeling smug and better than the average grocery shopper, I really like my bags. They never break or get holes punched in them. They hold a lot of stuff. (For example, I have six bags, and only yesterday did I finally use all of them at the same time, but that was about $100 in groceries and there was still more room.) The strap is big enough that I can throw the bags over my shoulders, which allows me to carry a lot more at a time. I freakin’ love these things. I guess the only thing I dislike is that I can’t use them for cat poop, which is what I did with my plastic grocery bags. Oh well.

So, that’s how I remember to bring my bags with me when I go to the grocery store. I have bags that I love.

And on a side note but also sticking with the environmental theme, in case anyone is wondering…I have been, ahem, practicing with my diva cup and have finally gotten to the point where I can’t feel it at all. It was the stem that was bugging me; and I first cut a tiny piece off, then learned how to maneuver the thing without the stem at all. Yesterday I went balls out and cut the rest of the stem off, so all I basically have is the cup. I swear it’s like nothing is up there. I am also confident that I have the suction technique down, but only time will tell. If you’re planning on getting one of these things, I definitely recommend practicing for a few weeks before the mess begins. I’m almost a pro and feel pretty confident that I could remove and insert it with no problems in a public restroom.

**Note: I actually wrote this post on New Year’s Eve. Then, my computer ate it. Three days later, after much mourning and even after writing half of a new post, WordPress coughed up the original out of nowhere. Happy New Year to you, too! (I am going to backdate the timestamp.)**

I have actually been thinking about writing my 2008 Goals for several weeks; it is now five hours until 2008 so here goes nothing. The first thing I’d like to do is re-evaluate my goals from last year to see how I did.

Goal: Expand my food palate and, in particular, eat more fish.

Outcome: Good! I now consider salmon to be one of my favorite foods and try to eat it at least once a week. I even order it at restaurants where I can’t watch how it’s prepared. I also like other fish: halibut, swordfish, tilapia, and mahi mahi. So, great progress there. However, I still hate onions, so no progress there (but I wasn’t really trying.)

Goal: Do the Pike’s Peak Ascent again.

Outcome: Yes, I did it again, and you can read all about it here. All I have to say is that at one point, I seriously wished someone would just shoot me in the face. I did NOT train for it, but I did complete it. So there.

Goal: Get Roland his Canine Good Citizen certification.

Outcome: Not even close. He’s not even in any formal training right now due to my weird schedule. Also, mentally he is very much a puppy (even though he’s one year old) and very silly and nowhere near mature enough to be certified. I don’t mind though; he’s still doing really well and this is just going to be more of a long term goal.

Goal: An unstated GPA goal for nursing school.

Outcome: Well, I got all A’s, so I guess I did okay. I’m still not so good at letting the pressure off myself, especially now that I’m two semesters in and still doing so well, academically.

Goal: Improve bowling score from a 56.

Outcome: Rocked it. I bowled a 62 a few weeks ago. Boo y’all.

So, all in all, I’d say I did really well on these resolutions. In fact, 4 out of 5 ain’t too shabby at all, and I have to say I’m proud of myself. What do I have in store for 2008, you ask?

• Exercise. I know, I hate to be one of the one gazillion people vowing to go back to the gym in 2008 but maybe if I do it now, I can just maintain it and never have to use it as a resolution again. The truth is I’ve already started, so it’s not quite as cliche since I won’t be officially starting on January 1, 2008. I’m trying out this new program called CrossFit and plan to re-evaluate in three months. If I hate it, I’ll try something else, but I want to really focus on staying active.
• I’d like to make a gift to Harlaxton College, where I studied abroad and had the most amazing semester of my life, bar none. I don’t know when I’ll make that gift, and I don’t know how much, but this year I’ll do it.
• I would like to start composting. Also, I’m not going all hippie, but I did get some reusable grocery bags for Christmas, and I think I should be using the bus a little more. I’ll work on that.
• I’d like to continue the success I’ve had in nursing school in several ways: keep my mind open to things that may not initially seem appealing (like pediatrics) and refrain from gossiping.
• I will make a real effort to clean the litterbox once a week at least. I plan on doing it when I do my own laundry,which is every weekend almost without fail.

Brian over at Inrepair.net tagged me in this post that includes seven things about him; a post which I shall now emulate. But before I do, can I just say that I LOVE being tagged? I do. So, thanks again, Brian! Also, Brian tagged me, like, 2,000 years ago so forgive me for taking so long.

Without further ado…

1. I’m terribly afraid of the dark, which is one (of the many) reasons why I got a German Shepherd.

2. Lately, I’ve been thinking that when I die, there won’t be a god to judge me, but instead, it will be all of the patients I ever cared for.

3. I was my high school’s sophomore class president.

4. I like the smell of gasoline. I wish it came in a Yankee Candle.

5. I’ve been a Stage Eater since before I can remember, and people frequently point out my habit. When I eat Captain Crunch Berries (a disgustingly sweet, sugar cereal primarily marketed at nine-year-olds) for breakfast, I eat all the squares first, then all the berries, which leaves the milk a nice purple color. I do the same thing with Skittles. I typically eat the colors that I dislike the most, first. If I have a meal that involves french fries, however, I always eat my fries before anything else on the plate. No exceptions. Fries are best consumed hot and greasy.

6. I wrote an opinion column in college. I once wrote something negative about a fraternity event and soon after, started receiving threats. It got to the point that I wouldn’t walk on campus alone. I continued to write nasty things about said fraternity until I graduated.

7. I have been saving my mail since I was in elementary school. I have several shoeboxes full of all the notes and cards I’ve received, including notes I passed during class. I have ever wedding card we ever received. I also printed and saved special emails.

I had kind of a long night last night. I was generally uncomfortable, sleeping on the couch on my back, with some pain in my knee, and I had also napped during the day so I sometimes found myself wide awake despite the pain meds.

Speaking of pain meds, I’m having a great time. Normally they make me sick to my stomach but this time around I’m tolerating them really well (at least so far.) I haven’t had one bout of nausea or vomiting. My original plan was to stay as far from the narcs as possible but last night I changed my mind due to the pain. (I view it like a labor plan; you can go into labor thinking you won’t have an epidural, but the best outcome is one in which you allow yourself to be flexible if necessary. Sorry, I have my OB clinical up soon so I’m switching mindsets.) I was nervous that I would spend the night in the puker, but apparently the anesthesiologist loaded me up with enough anti-nausea meds that she saved me from a different world of hurt. I hope it continues that way.

I felt good this morning despite sleeping poorly, so I took a pseudo, and incredibly acrobatic bath (can’t take a shower or get the dressing wet till Saturday) and changed all my clothes. This in and of itself made me feel like a new human being. Since starting clinicals at the hospital, I always try to encourage my patients to get cleaned up every morning even if it just meant letting me give them a bed bath (most of them don’t protest but a few did.) It just makes you feel so much better, even when all you’re going to do is lay around like a slug all day. Anyway, I am now laying on the couch waiting for my body to tell me I over did it, but it was so worth it for the shower.

A word about my husband: he is a real gem. He has been keeping me on a regular pain med schedule as well as diligently checking the circulation and pulse in my operative leg. It’s incredibly endearing. Most ladies would kill for someone to take care of them as well as Josh does to me. As well they should, too. I’m a lucky girl to have him.

With all that, here are a few pictures (for you, Jim!) I only have two right now because I can’t take off my dressing until Saturday but they’re kind of fun, anyway. I have never documented (at least not thoroughly) my 2 previous knee surgeries but I think now that I’m in nursing school, it’ll be a little different. Here ya go…one of the leg and one of my most amazing hair.

All done!

I’m sitting here on the couch with my knee propped up, still orange from the surgical scrub. Everything went remarkably well. Surgery was at 9:45am and I was home by 12:30pm. Not bad! The anesthesiologist was one of the best I’ve ever had. I had no nausea and was awake and cracking jokes within about 45 minutes. I feel slightly tired now, and I might take a nap, but it’s not the incredible exhaustion that one associates with surgery.

As for the knee, Doc found three more tears in my lateral meniscus. He took about 75% of it out, but because I have some funky birth anomoly, that still leaves me with about 75% of what a “normal” person has. He also took out what appeared to be either more plica bands or some scar tissue that had developed from the last surgery. He said that the last surgeon took hardly anything, and he also told Josh that he doesn’t think it will ever lock up again (like it did last month.) Woot!

I have some pretty arthroscopic photos to post on here as soon as I get my hands on a scanner.

Anyway, now begins the road to recovery!

(Thanks, Brian…I’m stealing from you again.)

• I’m ready to go. Yesterday I bought two puzzles at Target, so next week’s minor knee surgery is on. I’m more nervous than I have ever been, I think, since now I know what goes on in the OR and all the stuff that can go wrong. (I just did my OR rotation on Tuesday.) This is a minor, teeny-tiny surgery, but still. Now that I’m in nursing school, I occasionally scare myself.
• After multiple failures at consistant exercise attempts, I’m still thinking about buying an annual pass to our rec center for 2008. I am officially giving up running (see bullet point #1) and I’ve started swimming again. I find that if I don’t rush myself, and take time for the hot tub and sauna afterwards, then I actually kind of enjoy it. With an annual pass, I can “pause” it during the summer if I decide I want to play outside, instead. Also, because I have days off in the middle of the week, I can avoid all the screaming children that do cannonballs into my lap lane. I’m also thinking it would be healthy to start lifting weights once a week again. At the beginning, I would be shooting for one visit a week. And if I get my pass in December or January, it’s 10% off. We’ll see. Here I go again. Anyone have any idea how NOT to set myself up for failure this time around?
• Roland’s girlfriend, Lena, is coming over to play this afternoon. We wanted to introduce her to our house so that Roland can still get some exercise when I’m on crutches next week. Lena’s owner, Terese, is going to help me do some work on Roland’s leash training, which at this point is annoying to the point of not walking him (he goes to the park where he can run, instead.) Since I’m giving up running, if would be nice to have a dog who heels with me. We’ll see. I generally lose my temper and quit halfway through.
• It’s about time for me to come up with some new resolutions and to examine the ones I made last year. That’s a post I look forward to writing, because I know of at least one resolution that I totally blew out of the water.
• I’m down to one class left! Nursing research is done and so is pharmacology. All I have left is a small paper and an online test in med surg, and then I’m officially a senior. (Somehow, it was more exciting the first time around.)

Peace out, y’all.