Wow, suddenly I'm a guest blogger! on the Cakespy. Laurel, Miranda, and I wrote out our reviews of the Denver cupcake shops and the Cakespy blog posted them for all to see. Check it out here!

I posted photos from my Grand Junction getaway on flickr. Here are a few of my favorite photos.

One reason I was looking forward to this downtime between NCLEX and job was to take care of a little project. I was sick of the upstairs smelling like a cat box. Molly had peed all around her litter box in the closet. It grosses me out knowing that I can't ever get the carpet clean enough. (BTW, I want to poke needles in all the house designers who put carpet where the dining table goes. ARGH!)

I got it in my head that I should replace the closet carpet with linoleum. Brian had done his bathroom earlier this month and inspired me. With his help I now have a beautiful, wipe-able floor!

I have to take a moment to thank all my readers for your thoughts and congratulations! I have the nicest friends. It was nice having some time to breathe this week. I feel like school is finally done and I can switch my lifestyle from student to employee.

My job at SDC (small dialysis company) is as solid as can be without peeing in a cup. We're still waiting on my official license, but they're sending me things I can fill out and work on in the meantime. In case you haven't waded through my recent, vague posts about my job, here's the facts:

• I wanted to specialize and get off a hospital floor asap
• When I had a rotation at this hospital (let's call it BH for big hospital), I loved the building and location but didn't like the work atmosphere. I wished I could work there but not for BH. Well, that's what this job is!
• I will be an acute care dialysis nurse working at BH on our unit with an unbelievable city view, and down in their ICU.
• I will work daytime 12 hour shifts. Three a week.
  
• Once I'm trained, I'll be on call for one night per week and one weekend every month or so.
• They have a thorough 10 week training and orientation.
• The starting pay is about 20% more than the average new grad salary. They already approved my pay increase after I'm done with orientation.
  
• They really truly want me. I didn't have to "prove" myself.
• They're already talking about my growth in the company, saying I would be an excellent charge nurse, that I'm "apheresis material," and eventually could move into managment.
  
• It's a small company. I do well in small companies, where everyone knows everyone.

So what's not to like? Seriously, this job is perfect in so many ways. They were a little nervous that I was just grasping at any job opportunity. Smart of them to watch out for that. I went into nursing thinking there were a lot of jobs. I was told that 90% of regis grads get a job offer during their practicum to work there. In my class 2 out of 54 students got a job at their practicum. I hear that 188 nurses applied to 8 openings for new grads at St. Joe's. It's tough this year. But I wouldn't take a job that I didn't really want to do. I hope I can make a home for myself at SDC.

Oh, one thing I wanted to journal about before I forget this transition period is how grateful I am for the NCLEX studying I did. I might have passed without doing the daily hours of studying, my test scores predicted it. But going over all of what we covered in school coalesced all that knowledge into a useful form. All the bits and pieces gelled. I was able to look at how much I had learned in one year and say to myself "You know this stuff. See? You're a nurse now." It was worth the time just to gain that confidence and sense of accomplishment.

The most nerve-wracking credit card information entering experience you can ever have. I'm so so happy to see a good result (though I wish it gave more performance details). I guess I can finally say with confidence I'M A NURSE!

The NCLEX was just as bad as I expected. Like my classmates and previous grads have said, you can't help but think you failed and want to throw up and cry right afterwards. To sum up, I got 75 questions - the minimum you can get. That means the computer quickly decided wtih 95% certainty that I either passed or failed. I don't *think* I bombed it. Some of the questions I definitely knew the answer to. But the vast majority were a total toss up between 2 good options. And there were a smattering where I had no idea and no technique to help me, so I just guessed. I think the test was harder than the practice tests Kaplan provide. I'm choosing to interpret that to mean that I was doing well, because for every question you get right, they give you a harder question. So maybe I was performing in the upper range.

GArblaMAALAMALA. blerg.

I wish I had my results.

I'm in GJ, visiting my folks. My plan is to unwind with Tivo, knitting, and a hot tub. Here's hoping it works.

Spring has been rainy in Colorado. This allows me to indulge in baking so long as the house is cool. The other day I was debating between pretzels or cookies when I found 2 pound blueberry packs on sale. Decision made. (I made pretzels today instead, and they are delicious).

I planted a catnip plant in my herb garden. It took Molly a couple days to find it. There's only one leaf on it now.


Before and After