I took an old sweater and put it on my dog. I haven't tailored it yet to fit him; I've just pinned it so far, but it would be easy to do. What do you think of this look? Does it look stupid or OK? I got the idea from the Martha Stewart pets web site (which is pretty neat, btw).

Smokey gets so cold in the winter on his walks and I'm trying to find cheap ways keep him warm. Custom dog coats can run up to $100, and the ones they sell in chain pet stores never fit right.

You can easily make a sweater for a smaller dog by using a children's sized one. Fun!

There are more pics on my flickr account.

Kevin and I had a great time in Niagara Falls. We stayed in St. Catharines, which was a wise choice because it was much less touristy and there were nice places to eat along Lake Ontario in a section of town called Port Dalhousie. Here are a couple pictures.

I just applied to a couple temporary retail jobs at Kohl's, Babies R Us, and some other random places. Snagajob.com is pretty cool for finding places like that who are hiring.

God, I don't want to work in retail, but I think I could do it a couple times a week. Also, if I got the Babies R Us gig, I could work there part-time for a while, and should I decide to get sperminated perhaps I could furnish a baby room at mad-discount prices.

I find it really funny to fill out applications using my job experience at Pier 1 in 1999/2000 as legit experience, but it was my last retail job.

Meh ...
 

I got a test date!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'll be taking my NCLEX exam on July 6, 2009, in Atlantic City at 2 p.m. It's a Monday. I will take the test and then I'm going to go jump in the ocean, and I'm really happy about that.

I will know as soon as July 8th whether or not I'm officially an RN. This is so freakin' huge! I'm so nervous, excited, and happy to finally be here. My hands are shaking and I kind of want to cry. It's just taken so long to get a test date.

I have plenty of time to study for the test. Plenty. So I should do fine. Also, I don't have to wake up early. I can leave the house at 11 a.m. to give me three hours to get there. That's more than enough time.

Then, in July, I just have to secure a job, which won't be that hard (hopefully) because I'll finally be an RN and I am awesome and good at interviewing and ready to start working.

OK, right now, I just need to breathe.

I'm looking for a job. Any type of job, preferably something flexible. So, if you have any tips, hook me up.

I just applied to the temp agency that I worked for in 1999, when I was 20 years old. Ha! A temp job doing mindless clerical work would be perfect right now.

Since I'm on break and it's a snow day, I've been spending the day cleaning and going through things. I've been neglecting my house because of my school work and my busy life. Sorry little house.

I love this little place and wish I could keep it clean and treat it nicer. But in the end, life gets in the way.

So, I'm on spring break right now. Hahahaha.

I woke up this morning to about a foot of snow. I shoveled the walk and some of the driveway, and I just settled in with a cup of coffee and an egg and cheese sandwich. Yum

Gosh, I have a lot of work to do. I guess I'll just hunker down and hide in my house all day. Poor Smokey dog. I don't think we're going to take a long walk today.

Do I even need another reason to love Neko Case? The woman is posing with my favorite animal, the greyhound.

I need a cute graduation count down ticker. Know where I can get one?

Well, anyway, two weeks until spring break (wish I were going somewhere warm). Two months and and two weeks until classes are over; three months and 2 weeks left of school (the last month is only clinical in the ER).

Life is put-putting along as usual. Today, I took an online psych exam (it's called a HESI [made by Elsevier, btw], which is an NCLEX prep thing that my school does) and passed; thumbs up for me. Tomorrow are my neurology finals, and I'm scared shitless. I've been studying like crazy for these, and I just don't feel that I know enough. Heck, I just want to pass. No sense in fretting over not getting A's ... or B's.

After the test today, around noon, I went over to the Gallery in Philly and bought a sweet light weight jacket for the spring, AKA my favorite fashion accessory. IMO, I can never have enough blazers and light-weight coats.

Wow. Life is fairly boring right now. Not much to report. I'm finishing up the giant maggot research article, and it'll be ready by the due date on Monday. All the text is just about finished. I'm just in the honing and editing stage. After exams on Friday, I'll have Saturday and Sunday to finish it at my leisure. I'm envisioning myself relaxing with coffee on Saturday morning and editing. That's how I roll, yo.

Lost has been pretty exciting lately, no? This season is not disappointing. It's heavy on the sci-fi, just the way I like it. I'm digging the time travel, brain hemorhaging, and donkey-wheel turning.

OK. I've got nothing. Hope you're having a good day, all.

EDIT: YAH! Thanks, cheekybaby .

Kevin and three other artists made commemorative greyhound prints as a fundraiser for Angel's Greyhound, the non-profit organization/rescue where we got Smokey dog. He's selling the prints for various prices $15-$25 ($75 for all four) and all the proceeds go to Angel's Greyhound which recently found their 1000th dog a home. Check out the prints and forward the link if you know any one who'd be interested in a print. ( Read more... )

I wish my kitchen floor would mop itself, my bathroom would clean itself, and my dog would clip his own claws. I wish someone else would make a shopping list for me and the groceries would just arrive on my doorstep. I wish this stupid research project would write itself too. I also wish that I could study for my final exams by sleeping on my textbooks and learning through osmosis.

*sigh*

I still have a lot of work to do, the house is gross, and all I want to do is bake cookies.

The pediatrics department is crazy. There's 2-year-olds on PCP (here's DYFS just in time for the holidays), kids who were hit by cars, concussions galore, and questionable abuse, but most often I saw serious asthma situations and respiratory infections.

So, yeah, that's was Saturday and Sunday.

School is nearly over for the holiday break, only about a week left, and it can't come fast enough. I'll have off from Dec. 24 until Jan. 5. For that reason, I love being a student.

I have so much studying to do this week, but fortunately, not a lot of other work. I still have Christmas shopping to finish and I want to bake cookies this week. Unfortunately, no huge Christmas tree this year. Kevin, however, bought a little fake tree that required no decorating or setting up. It's still very pretty.

Ta da!

The new haircut. I know how excited you all must be.






Also, Josh gave me his pink violin. Woohoo!

After class tomorrow, I have off for 9 days straight. I have no certain plans. I'm really not sure what to do with all this free time, especially because I'm pretty much broke. But, I'm going to try to watch some movies. I'm definitely going to the art museum one afternoon. I'd really like to visit the Mutter Museum too.

I've been a wee bit depressed/moody lately. It's probably a number of things, among them the fact that I can certainly feel that winter is coming, and that bums me out.

Also, my biological clock has been messing with my head lately and I have been having many, many ambivalent feelings about having children. Very often, I think about how wonderful it would be to start a family, and then a voice in my head says, Don't do it, and the other voice says, but babies are so cute. It's crazy. What the heck is wrong with me? Why am I so weird?*

It does not help that I'm wrapping up a whole semester on the topic of babies and pregnancy ... btw, my final exam is on Wednesday and my head has been in a book what feels like forever.

Lastly, one of the main reasons I've been super moody is that I miss having a job ... or better yet ... I miss having money. Since I started school last May, I haven't wanted much. My school loan has gotten me through the year thus far, but I haven't spent money on any extras. Nothing. I haven't bought clothes since May. I haven't cut my hair since May. I don't think I've even bought a new CD since May. And now the holiday season is coming, and I wish I had extra cash for presents, but I'm just about at the end of my student loan, and I won't get a new reimbursement until mid-January. This sucks.

Anyway, my house is drafty and I miss the summer. Here's a pic of me trying to keep warm. This is the only thing that makes me feel warm and snugglely (besides Smokey dog). I am cranky. Blah, I say!




* I have asked myself this question many times.

We're living during a renaissance---new ideas and hope for change. These feelings of contentment with politics don't come around too often. Soak it up. For the first time in years, I feel like the country is moving in the right direction. I have a lot of faith in Barack Obama and his family. I know, he's often compared to Kennedy, but it's rightfully so. In my lifetime, I've never seen a more loved president. Godspeed him and his family.

Hey everybody! Today's an exciting day. It's election day, so you have to go to your polling place and rock the vote.

Also, today is my wedding anniversary. Kevin and I have been married for 2 years. It's the "Cotton Anniversary." I assume I should buy him a pair of socks.

We're going out to a fancy restaurant when he comes home from work, so the goal is to vote early, celebrate late.

I love this picture of the two of us.

Where to start?

The Phillies victory parade on Friday was outrageous. I had class that day, but skipped out around 11:30. I walked to Broad and Elsworth because I wanted a good spot near the front and you couldn't even get near Broad Street on the Center City blocks. The parade was lots of fun, but no mummers, WTF?

After the parade, I met Kevin and his family and we went to the Las Vegas lounge and drank all afternoon. By 4 p.m. I had to sober up because I wanted to get home to give out Halloween treats and I had a paper to write. When I got home, I sat on my porch with a big glass of water. Yes, I was the drunk lady in the neighborhood, giving treats to the kiddies. I doubt anyone noticed.

Saturday and Sunday, I worked in the MICU (maternity intensive care unit), with the pre-term moms in in labor and the post-surgery C-section moms. It was slow, because most of the ladies on the floor were there because their water had broken and their babies weren't old enough to be born yet. A doctor asked me if I wanted to go on rounds with him, so I got a lot of great information about their conditions. There was one lady pregnant with twins. Her water had broken, but her babies were only 23 weeks, too young to survive outside her body. The doctor's suggestion was that she stay in bed for 2 weeks and barely move. Sheesh. Poor lady.

Anyway, I have one more Saturday in maternity and then I'm off to Pediatrics. I can't wait. I think I'm going to really love working with kids.

I can't believe this semester is almost over. I just registered for my spring classes. Holy shit, the end of this program is in site. I also filled out my application for graduation. Wow. Just wow. By June I'll be working again and making sweet cash. In a few weeks I'm going to start applying for jobs and/or externships.

OK. I have about a 1000 things to do. I must get back to work.

I did the small town thing.

I decided to watch the game with my mom at her house. Kevin wasn't feeling well and mom and I wanted to go to the local bar near her house if they won. Kevin went to his brother's house and watched it with his family.

Man, those 3 innings were intense. My mom paced around the whole time, and the top of the 9th inning, I was on my feet. The last out we jumped, hugged, and screamed. Just totally shocked that our team had won. You could hear fire works and car horns going off outside. I think my mom opened her front door and screamed something.

I watched the post game while we kept getting phone calls from all of our relatives and finally my brothers who were both at the game. Then we headed over to the local bar, Brewers, for drinks and good times. The bar was packed and everyone was screaming. We were talking to strangers and catching up with local people we hadn't talked to in forever. It was awesome---like the best New Years Eve party ever.

Kevin and my brothers eventually made it to Brewers and we pretty much partied there until close, just watching the huge crowds of people in Philly on TV. For a moment, earlier in the evening, I thought about taking the train to Philly, but the local thing was cool too.

At 2 a.m. my mom wanted to get cheese steaks. I can't believe she's 30 years older than me. Seriously.

Freakin' awesome night. I can't wait for the parade. It's going to be completely nuts.

I helped deliver a baby girl yesterday, what did you do? Hehe.

I guess you could say my role was left-leg holder, cheerleader, and linen changer. I had a front row seat and wiped up the muck as mom was pushing. All in all, I wasn't grossed out by any of it. I was surprised about that.

After the delivery, one of the nurses called me over and guided me as I gave the baby a vitamin K injection in her thigh and put the antibiotic drops in her eyes.

Later, I showed the father, who was only 17, how to swaddle the baby, feed her a bottle, and burp the baby. I also taught him about skin-to-skin contact and how instinctively the warmth from her parents' body heat will raise her body temperature, lower her blood sugar, and make her feel safe. So awesome.

I was such an awesome experience. I love being a burgeoning nurse.