being stuck in the house for two days should have made me more productive. i think it just made me lazier. i wrote a paper and prepared a presentation I'm giving to my class, and studied a bit, but because of all the snow days my two exams got pushed off a week, so I've pushed off my studying. it was a double feature in the Family Sitcom. in yesterday's episode, Teenaged Girl slept till 12:30 until she was woken up by Thirteen Year Old Boy complaining loudly that he was starving and didn't know it was a fast yesterday. thankfully the musical instruments didn't make their appearance until later that evening, after Accountant had given up her attempts at working from home. This morning things were slightly less intense, as The Whole Family cooked together for shabbos (not as beautiful as it sounds, trust me) and finished Purim baking.

now G6 may have been first to hang up her Haman men, but i one-upped her; i hung up twenty. ten in the living room and ten in the dining room. that's what happens when there is lots of time and not much to do. and since there's been no sign of my dad's friend with his plow, it looks like we'll be here for a bit longer. a Brooklyn Cousin was supposed to be coming for Shabbos and Purim but i don't know how's she's getting here since we are all housebound.

this year it is our turn in the Purim Meal Rotation, and my mom's been trying to figure out if she can fit everyone in our house without having to take the couches out of the living room. a certain rebbe will be gracing us with his (pantless) presence as always, but this year he is coming with a slightly smaller entourage, as his gabbai and shamash are both away, opening their own branches of his chassidus in other towns.

i did not have ample time to create a costume this year, so i will be dressing up as a nursing student with a diamond ring. very original. next year i will be forcing Mr. FCG to dress up with me (only he doesn't know that yet. I'm going to wait to break the news to him) as far as mishloach manos goes, i baked cake for everyone else, but this year i will just be giving two minim to one person-just enough to fulfill my obligation. if you are looking for me on Purim morning, just look for me in the college library desperately trying to find another article on Hindu culture and health care beliefs to hand in to my clinical instructor on Monday morning.

oh the joys of being a student.

wishing all a happy and safe Purim.

with all that's been going on lately, i almost forgot my blogiversary! even though i don't have class on Fridays, they usually end up being my busiest day ever. i reserve Friday morning for practicing my nursing skills, and this morning i got tested on my last two med-surg skills for the semester, and probably the least fun of the skills; catheterization. i didn't have a lot of practice with this skill, but thanks to a friend of mine who had extra time to patiently sit with me and demonstrate the skill on the mannequins, over and over until i mastered it, i passed, and I've got a few weeks until i have to start the second set of skills, IV and enteral feeding.

so i haven't had much time to reflect in the last year of blogging, but i know that a lot of things have happened since then, some good and some bad.

to anyone who's been reading since i first started, i hope i haven't been too disappointing with all my slacking off lately.

and to my family who i know reads this, thanks for supporting me through everything

and I'd like to thank the academy for....

No matter how many times i explain the shidduch system to my non-Jewish classmates, they still don't get it.

I've known Erin for about a year. i took Microbiology and two nursing classes with her. i explained the way Orthodox Jews date and get married, and although she found it bizarre, she got the hang of it. or so i thought.

then i got engaged.

and she said "so like, did you go out with him or your parents just told him you're marrying him?"

i don't think she'll ever get it.

and i passed the first three skills of the semester!

stump wrapping was pretty easy, i practiced on the mannequins in school and then on sister2 at home. my aunt offered her kids to practice on, but thankfully they couldn't be of much help.

the other two skills were pouching a urostomy bag and irrigating a colostomy. and no, it's not as gross as everyone thinks it is. last semester i helped an LPN change a colostomy bag. it could have been the patient (who was very friendly and cheerful) but the experience wasn't as bad as I'd heard it would be.

so now I'm down three skills and I've got three more parts to go

overheard on my way to class

Student: you didn't catch me with a cigarette in my hand, so you can't give me a ticket for smoking!

Campus Security: ma'am, were you just smoking?

Student: yes, but-no! you didn't catch me smoking, so i was not smoking! you can't give me a ticket! right now, there are like at least fifteen other people out there smoking who you can ticket!

Dear fellow students at __________College,

i know that your schedule is every bit as demanding as mine. and i know that it's probably very stressful to have to be in school every morning as early as eleven am. and i know that you have a full load, balancing your math class with Intro to Literature and Sociology of Family and Marriage, especially since you're also taking four gym credits. and i know that feeling when you're running late, and everything is going wrong, and you have to go back into your house three times because you forgot your notebook, your phone charger, and your calculator. i know this because only last week it took me fifteen minutes to get from my room to my car because i had to keep turning around to get things I'd forgotten.

so you're already in a foul mood, and you know it's going to get worse because you didn't get a chance to have a smoke yet, and you don't want to smoke in your car because that is just revolting and disgusting, and you know you can't smoke on campus because the security has been extra vigilant about handing out tickets lately, so you zoom into the parking lot and start frantically looking for a spot. but I'm begging you, PLEASE don't take up two spots, just because you can't be bothered to take an extra second to straighten out your car. you have no idea how frustrating it is to see spot after spot that's not parkable because there's a car taking up two spots.