Sucks:

• We found out this weekend that Ben's car only has a month or so to live. We've started looking for a new (used) car. Ugh, the hassle, the money, etc. At least we'll have a shiny new and improved vehicle at the end of it.
• I hate my clinical. Seriously. I almost dread going there. The days are so long, there's so little to do. I can't stand my professor and I'm so bored in class (yet I have to study for the tests to get A's). I can't wait to be done with Mental Health.
• I've had to act like a real student lately: doing homework on my Saturday, staying in on week nights, no energy to cook or clean, and the usual money woes.

Not so Sucks:

• Things are not THAT bad. I'm working on a new scarf that I'm in love with.
  
• My folks might be able to come visit the weekend before my birthday.
• I got hooked on Animal Crossing again. Only bad thing is that I can't spend hours on it like I used to.
• I joined a new blog, http://shot-a-day.blogspot.com/
• My new phone is so so sweet. I love having access to email and internet when I have just seconds of time for breaks at clinical. I also love using Zenbe to organize my lists.
  
• I've become decent friends with a lot of my classmates. I'll be sad to part with them at the end of the year.
• Graduation is in sight! We had a short meeting today about the pinning ceremony.
  

Just counting my blessings here, trying to stop myself from being such a whiner. Also procrastinating studying for our exam tomorrow.

Miranda posted a lovely blog entry about our ongoing gym time. She sums up my feelings perfectly.

(Oh my gosh. My mom laughed at me and Kristin in high school because we often dressed alike. This photo is going to make her chuckle again. I never noticed our dark pants, green jackets, and short, dark hair made us look so twinny. At least MY sigg water bottle is black. So there. We don't match :-P )

New Year's Eve was spent with friends playing Scene It on the Xbox. Jem was pooped well before midnight.

My felted owl was dismembered by the beagle. I could piece him together again, if I ever have a stall in my craft queue to-dos.

I wanted to show everyone that for the most part I'm still cooking! Last week I made grilled pork kabobs from MS Everyday Food, they were alarmingly good. The warm weather afforded us a second night of grilling, so I made some pizzas. One has tomatoes, zucchini, and goat cheese, the other is more traditional with artichoke and hearts of palm (from Sunflower's marinated olive bar) with asiago cheese, marinara, and basil.

Last weekend I made angel food cake with lemon curd and blueberries. I made angel food cupcakes the week before for Cooking Club and they didn't quite work out. Probably because I didn't use cake flour, I halved the recipe, I didn't whip the eggs long enough, and I tried to bake them in cupcakes instead of a traditional round. They were still tasty, but not big and fluffy. This one makes up for them.
Saturday was a fantastically relaxing day. It started with a solid work-out with Miranda. I benched 45 pounds with 4 reps of 4! The first time we tried I could hardly do 4 singles. After lunch and Animal Crossing (duh duh duhhhhh, I'm addicted again) we took old Jemmer to the dog park.
Apparently we weren't the only one with that notion. There were so many dogs!

Later we met with the Walkers, Amanda, and Brian for dinner at Zaidy's deli. Zaley was into the sauerkraut hardcore.



Beautiful cakes and pickles...

After dinner we watched Stardust at Amanda's recommendation. FANTASTIC movie. I remember seeing trailers for it a couple years ago, and boy, did they miss the mark with their advertising. If you haven't seen it please go watch it! Between this and Coraline, I might have to start reading Neil Gaiman's stuff.

A recipe for making doughnuts from a patient who clearly uses meth and introduces herself, "Hi, I'm _____. I have bipolar. And I'm suicidal."

Doughnuts
"You take a can of biscuits and cut out the centers with a ketchup bottle cap, you know, to make the little hole. Fry it up in a lot of oil and then roll it in a lot of sugar. Mmmm."

I thought that was a clever little recipe. Seems like something Joy from My Name is Earl would make. On second thought, maybe it's more of a Randy recipe.

Good ideas =
A. Exercising after work
B. Eating ice cream at the end of a long day
C. Calling back the student you agreed to mentor (who left you a panicky voicemail) taking 30+ min to talk

Bad idea = [A + B + C / sleep] + needing to wake up at 5:45 am.

I started my clinical for Mental Health today. I'm working at an inpatient facility that's part of the hospital where I did my OB rotation (but it's in a physically separate building). They have three units, one for severe-moderate psychosis, one for depression and other milder disorders, and one for chemical dependency. I'm working them in that order, so my first three days are with the craziest. Today was mostly orientation. In terms of "work" this will be a breeze. Mostly we talk to the patients, listen to their group sessions, and then watch movies or guest lectures with just us students. We have to do "Process Recordings" and NCPs (nursing care plans) but those are easier than doing prep sheets on patients the night before, like some other clinicals require.

Ok, I typed that first part right when I got home and was motivated to blog. Now it's almost bedtime and I don't want to hash out any more details. Let me sum up the night:

1) I spent 30 minutes coloring pictures at a table with genuine psychotics while we listened to Metallica.
2) Miranda and I made an unusual evening gym visit, squeezing in 15 min on the elliptical and 15 minutes of weights. Better than nothing!
3) ZOMG! I took Jem for a jog when I got home and I ran longer than ever before! I haven't lost any weight yet but I definitely have more energy and stamina.
4) Ugh, I don't want to go back tomorrow.
5) 30 Rock was awesome again. "That's just a white man myth, like Larry Bird and Colorado."

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The school gave us MLK day off, basically our last vacation until we graduation in fourteen weeks (14 weeks!). So far I have accomplished:
1) one hour at the gym with Miranda
2) tracking down a lemon curd recipe using only yolks
3) throwing out old shoes because they were too worn out and/or the cat barfed on them

I’m down to 29 pairs of shoes, not all pictured, and not counting various ballet slippers. You can’t really see but on the top rack at the far right end are my newest acquisition with Christmas money, patent leather black pumps. Here it is online, but mine are shiny.