Comment on being seriously disturbed.....

So I haven't been as into movies as I once was, which is no big deal. And by movies, I mean romance movies, some comedies, whatever. Mostly because they aren't real life, and content can be questionable. I've been enjoying more of the blockbuster movies like Ocean's 13 and Bourne Ultimatum-those aren't real either but I can't feel sad about my lack of romance in my life as I'm watching Matt Damon hurdle rooftops in a single bound.


So I try to be more cautious about the movies I see, although sometimes I can be caught off guard, like when I went and saw Fool's Gold which was disturbing in an "I can't believe I spent money on this" kind of way. Which brings me to the most recent movie I saw in the theater which nobody warned me about:


You may be surprised that I would list 'The Other Boleyn Girl' under something I was seriously disturbed about, but I was. I mean I knew what the basic premise of the book was, I had read Shannon's review under her Movie Mavens blog and I thought ok, I'll probably see it eventually. When I came up to Pocatello my sister wanted to see it and so I thought hey, why not. So we went.

I did get into the movie, and I was really enjoying it, as was my sister-who loved the book. We were equally horrified at the audacity of the men in the movie basically whoring out the boleyn sisters (the uncle was especially terrible) for the betterment of the family's social status, and Anne's treatment of her sister-and we made several comments throughout. I was thinking that I really should read the book because it was all quite fascinating-until near the end of the movie-when Anne full-on wants to have sex with her BROTHER, which Jenna informed me actually did happen in the book and possibly happened in real life because Anne produced a deformed child-but anyway I just looked at my sister with this horrified look on my face and told her that I needed to go home and watch a disney movie (it was close, we watched Arrested Development and Biggest Loser). We were going to stop off at the mall so I could get a temple dress on the way home but I didn't feel like that was appropriate after being so disturbed about the idea of incest. I mean seriously-I could have used a little warning team. In fact if anyone goes and sees any movie I would appreciate a heads up. On everything. And needless to say I won't be reading the book anytime soon, or ever. I mean seriously. In fact I came home and went back to reading a safe book, Harry Potter. Much better.....

Comments on Diet Coke and Ambien...

So as I mentioned in a previous post I was scheduled to work this last week for 4 shifts in a row, had a day off, and then worked one more day. My schedule went like this: Tues day, Wed night, Thurs night, Friday night, Sunday day. Yes, I worked on Easter-I don't ever work on Sunday days except Easter and Christmas, no big deal. But I made it through, thanks to my good friends, Diet Coke and Ambien.

When I started nursing school I went off the caffeine because let's be honest, it's probably not that good for you, and I don't run as well when I drink it as I do when well, I don't drink it. So I quit. Then in my senior year with all the driving to SLC and such, I had to get off the wagon-plus I had a preceptor in leadership who told me you can't get through nursing without it-I think she's right :o).

Diet Coke (preferrably cherry, with limes, or even a diet dr. pepper) is something I crave when I walk into the hospital-seriously. I try to hold off and wait and get one at lunch, but on the day shift I'll make a diet coke run before 10 just to have energy to make it through the day. And I must say, there's nothing like a diet coke, in a styrofoam cup, with the little balls of ice (aka balls of fun for your mouth). I mean seriously-I'm craving one right now. On night shifts I find it's also best to nip the tiredness in the bud and get the D.C. before midnight so it's long-lasting energizing action can begin working early and last through 7am, hopefully preventing falling asleep at the wheel on the ride home. In all honesty I do try to keep the caffeine drinking for work only, but that doesn't always happen......

Ambien is a night shift nurse's best friend. I tried not to use it, but the Tylenol PM's stopped working. I switched over to Unisom, which actually gave me a good 8-9 hours of sleep (something I never ever get) but I'd still feel fuzzy when I got to work-which is weird. So I tried the Ambien-and oh sweet heaven.

It's not something I'm addicted to thank goodness. I only use it if I'm in the middle of a 2-3 day night shift run. In fact, I got my prescription in the middle of December and still haven't had to refill it yet. But it's so great-totally puts me to sleep despite the fact that it's daylight outside, doesn't give me psycho dreams (although tylenol PM sure did), I'll sleep my usual 5-6 hours, and be able to go running before I go into work that night, which is why I work more nights-I'm all about the running, and let's be honest, it's practically impossible to get in a decent run after working 12 hours.

And so life as a nurse will continue, all thanks to Diet Coke and Ambien.......

Comments on a year ago....

So last night I was reading New Moon (I read the first few chapters, skip to the last few chapters, and then go back to where I left off in the beginning and read the middle-if I don't read it like this I find this book heart-achingly sad, but reading it this way it's my favorite), when I happened to glance at my bookmark which is the receipt from when i purchased the book-and I noted that the date was March 17, 2007. That would be a year ago today team-so that started me on reflecting....

Last year at this time, this exact day in fact, I had just finished up my spring break from ISU, which I spent down here in SLC doing 4 (12-hour) clinical days in a row at Primary Children's. It was draining. On my last day-March 16th-I had to stop at Apollo Burger for the celebratory hamburger for myself and Steff on my way to Steff's (she was living with Andra at the time-my how things have changed). Anyway on the 17th Lisa and Steff and I embarked on our 2nd apartment hunting trip, Pinnacle Reserve was the 1st one we looked at for the day and ended up being our choice (thanks to Mary the nice office person). Then we went and did a little shopping which is where I purchased Twilight and New Moon. The next day was a Sunday and I drove back to Idaho, did laundry, worked Monday and then drove back down to SLC that night so that I could finish up my last 6 hours at Primary's. I also went over and signed up for Pinnacle, and stopped off at Lisa's work (Stampin' Up!) to get a check from her I think-I can't remember. And I picked up another celebratory hamburger for the ride home.

Thinking about this had me thinking about how much I love my job-not that I didn't think I would love it, but it's amazing how much I've learned and how I'm getting more comfortable in the unit. I love the people I work with (except for the few who don't like to talk to new people-there's a saying that nurses eat their young-only some do but they need to stop), and I love that I was completely freaked out when I was a student at Primary's-some of the stuff I've had to do would have made me run away screaming- and now I'm like huh, my child might be trying to die on me, no big deal-let's just take care of that right now-pull out the bag and mask, call the RT, it's fine, life saved. Maybe we should get some labs, I'd like a chest x-ray-it's all good. I'm totally a nurse.

Anyway my point is simply this-my life is completely different than it was a year ago and I think that's pretty sweet. I like seeing life evolve-I guess it's kind of what it's all about, right?

And just a little P.S.-I have added the music playlist because I think everyone needs a little Blue October in their lives, if you guys find this too annoying let me know-although this is here mostly for me to listen to as I blog. I could open up itunes and just listen to it that way but that's too hard :o).....

Comment on being a 'raving maniac' i.e. "The Walmart Incident"

So I was talking to my mom today and telling her my schedule at work for the next few weeks, which happens to include several 4-day work weeks. This is because I'm selling my body to the hospital for money ie working extras. I like the cash. My mom said I'm actually selling my mind for money. I think I'm just a warm body right now. Anyway next week I'm working 1 day and 3 nights-4 in a row. My mom said not to call them at the end of that stretch-when I inquired why-she said that I'll be a "raving maniac" by the end of the week. Huh....I wonder why she'd say that....

Back at the end of January I worked 3 day shifts in a row (which was taxing), and then to help out the department on a Friday that they were short on I agreed to work an extra half shift (just 7-1, I wanted out of there at 1-no more than 6 hours-they caught me on a weak moment giving a student a tour of the unit). It had been an exhausting week-I picked up a new primary, I had eagles flying around pecking at my poor primary and his mom, and I was trying to advocate for my primary like no other by well, talking to the rooster several times, as well as the bull (that would be code for Dr. Null Jane-I just made that up but I like it). By that last 6 hour shift I was, as I like to put it, NuSkin mad (that's another blog for another day). And then to top it all off the float pool nurse who was taking over for me was late-so I did not work just from 7-1, it was more like 1:30. Whatever.

So I took off with a goal to hit the gym and run my 5 miles, but I had to stop off at Wal-mart first to buy some deodorant-I was out. I called my mom when I left work to tell her about my week (according to my mom I was whining, I guess I get kind of whiney and ornery after working 4 days in a row, or so I've been told) and I was still on the phone with her when I pulled into a parking space of the Wal-Mart parking lot. I was sitting there talking when a woman pulled up next to me. She opened her car door and it hit my car, (my 'new' CR-V). Now keep in mind I was already worked up. So I turn and stare at the woman, she looks right at me and pulls her door closer to her and then opens it again, and it again bangs into my car.

I could not stop myself. I said to my mom 'just a minute'. I got out of my car and went around to the passenger side and said to the woman 'excuse me, did you just hit my car?' She said 'no, I don't think so'. I looked at her and then looked at my car door and saw a green mark on my car door handle, the same color green as her blazer. I said 'yes you did, look at this green mark here on this handle'. So she says, 'oh, I guess I did'. Now at this point I could not hold back on the diarrhea of the mouth that was about to spew forth. I came back with 'well, what are you going to do about it?' (yes, that's right, I actually said that). She said, 'well I guess I can give you my insurance numbers' and I said, 'i guess so'. Meanwhile I was inspecting the spot and realized that the paint was kind of scratching off so I said, 'well, it's coming off, never mind' (this was when I was starting to come to my senses) and she said, 'well i'm sorry' and I told her 'just be more careful next time'. And then she went into Wal-Mart and I got back in my car. My mom was laughing and she said that she couldn't wait to tell my father. Seriously? Then I felt really retarded, and I was scared the lady could really retaliate so I moved my car to a different spot. I really needed to get deodorant so I ran in and out of wal-mart as fast as I could and then I headed to the gym.

**Note the green mark on the car handle**

The point of the story is simply this: 1. Apparently it's not good for me to work more than 3 shifts in a row, especially day shifts, hence me moving to a 2-night-a-week contract. 2. I have, as my dad likes to point out, anger issues. Although I don't think it's anger issues so much as it was tiredness but my dad still calls me every couple of weeks to see if I've had any recent anger management problems. 3. This kind of incident was pretty out of character for me. Hopefully it doesn't happen again.....

Comment on Redeeming Myself

So when it comes to buying tickets, I tend to struggle. It all started back when I was oh, around 13 or 14. Jim and Jill (my aunt and uncle) had come into town and we (the cousins) thought a good idea would be to go to Snowbird to ski. We stopped off at a Smith's to buy discount tickets and we were on our way. I was the one entrusted with the tickets for our car, no big deal-I'm a responsible girl.
So we get to Snowbird and we get out of the car to look at the hill-and we were scared-I was exceptionally scared, but whatever, we'd be fine, right? Well, we parked and we got out and got our gear and I went to get the tickets out of the car-and they weren't there. We searched everywhere-back where we'd stopped, the car, each other, the tickets were gone. So we ended up skiing the free bunny hill. I felt terrible.
Things went from bad to worse when I got home and took off all my ski gear and found the tickets-stuffed up the sleeve of my sweater in between the sweater and the turtleneck. Turns out I was so nervous when I caught sight of the big run that I'd shoved the tickets up my sleeve.

Fast forward to last September. Lisa and I thought a good idea would be to go and see Thriller by the Odyssey Dance Company-and Steff and Em were in on it too. So I was in charge of purchasing the tickets-no big deal. So I kept thinking tickets for Steff, Em and Lisa-so I buy the tickets and email everyone and tell them our seat numbers. That's when Steff emails me back and points out that I only bought 3 tickets. Yes, that's right, I forgot to buy a ticket for myself. So I called and got a seat, which was in the row in front of everyone, not too bad, but still.

Of course we can't forget the NYC airline ticket fiasco last week. Although I think that was a computer error.

Which brings me to the Kenny Chesney tickets. For the last 3 years we have gone to see Kenny when he brings his summer tour to SLC. It's usually around the 1st day of summer and is always a party. Unfortunately it looks as though K-Chez is not coming to SLC this summer, and that's had us pretty stressed out. So we decided that a good idea would be to attend the concert in Vegas-I mean it's K-Chez, it's Vegas, and the Stratosphere has a topless pool (just throwing that out there :o) ). So it turns out that I'm the only one available to purchase tickets since I have the day off, Lisa has a meeting and Steff is well, teaching school. This doesn't make me nervous at all considering my ticket mishaps. So after a phone call to Lisa to go over how I do this-I put on my K-Chez t-shirt and put on some K-Chez toons and get to work.

Luckily Steff had a small break and she was able to be on the phone with me for moral support, which was a good thing. I logged onto the fan club site and was able to get tickets right away, however we thought we could probably get better tickets so I threw those back and got the next set-which was in another section that wasn't bad but we thought hey we can probably get better-so I throw those back. And then for the next 15 minutes I kept being told by the website that they didn't have any tickets available. I was freaking out. What would I tell Lisa? Steff tried to get tickets and couldn't get them either. We started making contingency (sp?) plans to purchase them with the general public on Saturday which is a risk but what could we do. Meanwhile I kept clicking confirm on my 4 ticket purchase-Steff had given up and we were talking ourselves into the saturday purchase and thinking it was over when......ta da! 4 tickets pop up in section U-8. Not a bad section, not completely on the side-but not anything we felt we should throw back-we didn't want to run the risk of not getting tickets. And so with students pounding on Steff's door (Miss Pope let us in!) the tickets were purchased and the receipt was printed. All is well-Vegas here we come!!!

Comment on Codeman's Hero aka Somebody Finally Said It!

So my sister is going through a way fun divorce right now. Her soon-to-be ex, Cody (aka Codeman) has turned out to be a real winner. There were signs of course, but in the whole business of "we're family so we overlook weird quirks" we chose to overlook the aforementioned signs because he was well, Jenna's husband and we love Jenna. Anyway one of the weird quirks that I found to be a huge issue, is that homeboy is anti-higher-education. I can't count the number of discussions we had about why college is good (my point) and why college is a business scheme put out there by 'the man' whose main goal is to keep the Codeman down by force-feeding their thoughts and ideas into his head (Cody's point). I can't really explain why he felt this way -can anyone really explain irrationality? I don't think so. But the fact that Codeman found the attached video clip so great (i.e. I think he felt he found a kindred soul in this prison inmate) should have been an early warning sign that things would spiral out of control in the future. And so-with great aplumb (don't know what that word really means but it sounds appropriate)-I present: Self Smart (I promise, you won't be disappointed)

Comments on things to be thankful for...

I've heard that bloggers do things like top 10 tuesdays or thankful thursdays. I think about doing those things but it hasn't happened yet. But today I think I can do a Thankful Thursday.

1. I'm thankful for my job at Primary Children's that I love and that allows

me to wear scrubs, take care of babies, pretend I'm in real life Grey's Anatomy, and allows me to work extra shifts so that I can afford two cars so that if something bad happens to one car, I have the other one as a standby. (Of course this will all end when my bro comes home and buys the Saturn, but I'll enjoy it while it lasts)

2. I'm grateful to have AAA (that's triple-A as in the car club) so that when I go out and get in my CR-V to meet Marie for lunch, and start driving, and I notice that the car pulls to the right and then I get out and see that my tire is completely flat, I can call AAA and have them come and change the tire for me. I'm also grateful for Big-O Tires, who fixed my tire (which had 2 nails in it by the way) for free and sent me on my way.

3. I am grateful for people that I believe we knew in heaven and promised we would be friends here on earth-Marie is one of those people for me. I met her at the perfect time on my mission-the beginning-and found out she had served a mission when she was my age and she survived! Meeting her and Andy saved me. I just loved being with her and Andy in their home-it was great every time we went. And even though I haven't talked to Marie in forever (my fault), when we got together today it was just like we picked up where we left. Love ya Marie! Side Note: I'm also grateful to have a Cafe Rio down the street from my apartment-**The little guy with Marie is little Noah-he is so cute-you probably can't really tell, but he has his entire fist in Marie's diet coke-I love how kiddoes get mesmerized by the weirdest things :o)

4. I'm grateful for the fun things in life that make me feel girly-like Escada's latest scent-Moon Sparkles (lame name, great scent). I've had a sample of it in my car for the last 2 weeks and I just sit and smell it when I drive-it smells so good! Today I bought it as a gift to myself for just being me. I sprayed it on a sample card in my car so it smells good there-and I sprayed it on myself of course-and dang I smell hot! I would love to date someone who smells as good as me! (I was having a good self esteem day-my hair looked cute for the first time in days)

5. I'm grateful for my sunroof in my CR-V. I drove with it open today (still kept the heat on though because it was kind of chilly). This summer is going to be great!

Comments on attempting to book airline tickets (aka talking to India)

Holy Crap!!

We are going to NYC. Yes, that's right, NYC. So we decided to book the tickets ASAP so that we can get this show on the road what with all of the other little trips we have planned this summer.

We thought this would be an easy venture, but 3 hours later, we're having a whole different experience.....

It all started when Lisa got online at delta.com. I should mention that Lisa's job is organizing travel, which she is quite good at doing. But Delta was thwarting our efforts. Anyway....She found the flights we wanted and she attempted to purchase, but every time she got to the end of the purchase the site went down. Lisa called Delta to find out if there's something wrong with the site.

Call #1 to India-pretty unfruitful, and Lisa had trouble with the language (broken English).

So I decided to try. But first I had to find my Delta Sky Miles card (heaven forbid I miss out on miles). Unfortunately, my card is missing. I had to call Delta.

Call #2 to India-I did pretty good with this one, I was able to make out all the words and I got my sky miles number and all-but communication broke down at the end when they asked if I wanted an american express card. All I understood was american express card and 17,000 free miles. No thank you.

So I got online, and after several failed attempts I was able to book a flight. Yea! Lisa's turn

Lisa gets on and books her flight. No big deal. Then she goes to book Emily's flight. After trying to do that for 20 minutes she looks at her itinerary and realizes that the flight she booked for herself ended up being on May 16th at 12:30 am, not May 15th at 12:30am. What the $@!&? We rechecked those dates every single time we looked them up.

Call #3 to India:

This call lasted 3 hours and 15 minutes between me and Lisa. Some highlights from the call:

** Lisa asks the lady if it would be cheaper to book her and Emily separately (Lisa will be blogging this so look for it to pop up in the next few days)

** Lisa gets told there is a problem with her card (since there were already 2 flights on her card she had hit her limit) I hand over my card (thank goodness I have a large line of credit on there). And frantically search on delta.com to see if it's cheaper for me to cancel there (it's not, it's $20 over the phone, $100 over the internet)

**Lisa asks the lady if I can talk to her

**I can't understand the lady and have to bite my tongue to keep from busting up laughing

**The broken english pronunciation of my email address (jjannoyed@hotmail.com) is hilarious

**The lady says something and all I understand is that I'm going to be charged a $75 cancellation fee because it's after midnight. I said it's 12:05, I booked that flight 30 minutes ago, I am not paying a cancellation fee (Ok ma'am let me verify please hold)

**There is a problem with my card (homegirl didn't understand 2880 Summit) and I'm asked to hold again

**Meanwhile we notice that Emily's original flight (the wrong one) was never cancelled and we get that all straightened out-I mean didn't the lady think that maybe we didn't need overlapping flights?

**We are finally successful in obtaining tickets and it's 12:30A.M. Lisa's taking out her oppressed anger on her tupperware and we both can't stop laughing. At least we find it funny. This trip better be worth it-hopefully this is the last bump in the road.......

Comment on today's guilty pleasure

So I believe guilty pleasures make life enjoyable-and just now I endulged in one. I had Ben and Jerry's before 9am. Now while this might sound disgusting, it's really not. I worked last night, so technically that's what I ate for dinner. I am watching October Road and Ben and Jerry's goes really well with October Road. I happened to have some and I had to give in. I mean the time may come when I won't be able to give in to these things......

In case you were wondering what makes Chubby Hubby so great-it's the fudge covered peanut butter filled pretzels in vanilla ice cream with fudge and peanut butter throughout. And I ate the entire thing, in like 30 minutes. No big deal. I'll run most of it off this afternoon. Until then-I think I feel kind of sick.....

So does anyone else have a guilty pleasure or am I the only one admitting to eating 1200 calorie ice cream before the sun has fully risen for the day?

Comments on the evolution of my pretty cookies.....

So I won't lie, I make a mean chocolate chip cookie. It's my thing. Back in high school my dad used to make me bake cookies every Sunday. It was kind of annoying but I did it because I'm a dutiful daughter. That tradition continued when I moved back home after my mission. Usually my mom or my brother would say they would 'help' but that just consisted of them putting away the ingredients when I was done with them. What I really wanted help with was the actual baking of the cookies which takes forever.

Anyway I am digressing. I started out making the nestle tollhouse cookies which worked ok but sometimes they would be crispy on the edges. I progressed to the recipe in the crisco butter flavored package which wasn't too bad. My former aunt Susan had a good recipe that I started to use, as did my roommate Bev (it was her sister Misty's recipe). I ended up combining Misty and Susan's recipes to come up with my own. My Grandpa Carson deemed my cookie recipe to be better than Susan's, which no one thought Susan appreciated but now we really could care less. Anyway the recipe is top secret, not really one I give out-I don't think it needs to be changed or improved. I'm kind of prideful about my cookie recipe-it may be something I need to work on. Anyway I don't even have it written down, it's just in my head. The secret is in the mixing-I mix for a really long time. And the brown sugar-that adds great taste. I did write the recipe down once for my sister with strict instructions on proper mixing. However, when I tried her attempt I didn't even recognize them as my cookies. Jenna struggles :o) .

Anyway I don't make my cookies as often as I do when I'm at home-but last night I was worked up about work and I decided I needed to do some baking (Izzie from Grey's Anatomy style) and so Lisa and I made an emergency run to Albertson's to get some chocolate chips and the baking began. I ate some dough, ate some cookies, and now I'm working on giving away the cookies-maybe if you're lucky you'll get some :o)..........