reading

lately, i've been returning to an old hobby: reading. i've theorized that since the advent of the internet, my attention span has dwindled to the point where i can barely read a paragraph before clicking onward to the next page. like so many other things, much of the credit goes to nik, since he's been encouraging me to read and we've been reading books together (we just finished the devil in the white city). now i've begun the ambitious project of compiling a list of books that i've been meaning to read and books that i want to re-read. it's become quite a long list.

i'm going to try to keep up with it. i'm really enjoying this hobby and i think that it taps into a part of my brain which has lay dormant for too long.

working the night shift

anyone who knows me well know that i'm certainly not a night owl. but here i am, 2 in the morning, writing a blog post. i've been working the night shift for a little over a month now. it's been quite an adjustment and i still find myself running out of steam by my last assessments around 4 or 5 in the morning.

you may be wondering about my work and how it's been going (or not). there are good days and bad days. some days i feel like i'm finally getting it: i'm on top of my assessments, my babies are being fed on time, and the night is going smoothly. and then there are the days where everything goes wrong: my meds are late, my babies are all crying, i'm scrambling to catch up on my charting, and my change of shift report is sorely lacking. for now, the bad days are outnumbering the good ones. i'm still feeling the growing pains of being a new nurse and it's been a rough couple of weeks.

however, the nurses on my unit have been wonderful and supportive, helping me out when i'm falling behind, reassuring me, and reminding me to not be so hard on myself. nik has also been wonderful and he usually gets the brunt of my work-related rants as i'm driving to or from work. nik always helps me put my work into perspective, and reminds me that it's only an aspect of my life. on the whole, my life is going great: family, friends, nik.. everything is going so well. also, even though i stress myself out, it's a good job.. after all, who else gets to feed and play with babies while they're working? i'm very lucky, but i think i have a tendency to take it for granted sometimes.

i hope that the work situation gets easier with time. i still feel that there's so much that i need to learn: about neonates, about treatments and therapies, about time management.. i have a long way to go. but i'm going to keep pressing forward and doing my best, and hopefully that'll be good enough.

first!

this'll be the first post of 2008. wow, it's been a while since i've written in here... so what's new? a lot. honestly, i want to write a huge update but it would take forever and i need to work early tomorrow. anyway, i'm sure most people are like me and have short attention spans. so a brief update:

1. spent new year's in houston with nik's friends and family
2. studied like a madwoman for the nclex
3. passed the nclex (yay!)
4. went to thailand, met nik's parents for the first time and had an awesome time
5. started work in the good sam nicu
6. went snowboarding for the first time with nik and his friends (painful, painful..)
   

and that's the basics.. there've been a few visits down to l.a. sprinkled in there, as well as a few visits from nik up north. big thing right now is work, of course... working with teeny-tiny babies has been a completely new experience.. nursing school doesn't give you the specialized knowledge that you need for nicu. also, although i work three days a week, 12-hour days are long.. and those extra four hours make a huge difference. i'm still getting used to being among the ranks of the income earning and employed.. weird transition.

a few projects here and there. i'm still knitting. i finished my first knitting project a little before the snow trip, just in time for nik to have a cozy scarf ready and waiting. i'm working on learning mandarin via pimsleur. there are a total of 90 30-minute lessons.. i'm on number 10. ouch. still running too. actually, i just registered for my first marathon which will be in december. one would assume that i have plenty of time to train, but i'm still trying to figure out how to plan my training runs around work and visits with nik.

ok. so that's my life in a nutshell... also, as you can see, i'm ditching the rest of my web site since it never got updated and facebook's better for that kind of stuff, anyway.