you know the feeling you get after you eat a big meal? when you're so full that you almost can't move? that's the feeling i get in my brain after I've spent any substantial amount of time studying. i feel like my brain is full, and talking about anything other than what I've been studying will take up extra gray matter that i need to memorize all the information. not only that, once i start studying different disorders, i'm convinced I've got them all. since i'm studying neuro i'm positive that the twitch in my eye is going to become full-blown trigeminal neuralgia. not only that, i spent the entire weekend diagnosing everyone i came across with various personality disorders.

so i'd advise you to stay away from me until the end of the week. i might start listing the lobes of the brain and their functions. or the twelve cranial nerves. or i might try to convince you that you've got borderline personality disorder.

nobody likes an overachiever.

one of the projects i'm currently working on for school, is researching and doing a presentation on the abuse of heroin. everyone in my class was assigned a different drug, and we started presentations this week. i had all my work written out, and i created flyers to hand out to the class with pictures on them. but the woman who presented first went all out and created a colossal poster, with tons of pictures and facts. now we all have to go back and add more stuff to our presentation so we don't look bad.

we should have made her go last

stupid lady

first med-surg exam of the semester...

my stomach butterflies are having quite a lively game of volleyball right now. i don't why i always have small panic attacks before my nursing tests. they say that mild anxiety is good because it helps you stay focused and allows you to block out any distractors. but right now the last thing i want to do is study. I've read and reread my drug cards and now i can't look at them anymore. I've taken and retaken the online quizzes until i know all the questions and answers by heart. now I've got about 35 minutes to kill before i can go take the exam.

and it's not helping that my study partner is telling me about how this professor loves to ask obscure questions on material that hasn't' really been covered...

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