Study break, anyone?

I'm guessing the blog has been slow lately because everyone is studying oh-so-hard for finals and whatnot. Anyhoo, to brighten your day, here's a funny video that my boss sent me. Let's just say it's very timely for gentlemen who might be choosing Christmas gifts for the ladies in their lives. :)

http://bewareofthedoghouse.com/VideoPage.aspx

Hey Julie!

So...

The Mrs. and I were talking the other day and I have a box full of my old NU marching band t-shirts sitting in the other room and always thought it would be cool to make those into a quilt for my Man's basement. Anyway, there are a handful of local quilters that make them, but I figured we would ask if you were interested to give you something to do on cold Winter nights. If you're interested, we could talk all sorts of details and woudl even pay you for your time, either in fiancial planning advice (avoid Asian markets right now) or in cold hard cash!

Thoughts???

My New Year's resolution -- resolved!

The fine folks on the Runner's World message boards warned me that once I finished my race, I'd have the itch to compete again.

Well, they're right. Five minutes after I finished my race on Saturday, I told Andy that I'd had so much fun that I couldn't wait to try another one. My final time was 32:42. That put me in the bottom half of my age group, but considering the relatively short amount of time I've been training, I'm really happy. Now I have a time to beat.

I was worried about my adrenaline getting the best of me and starting out too fast. I think I overcompensated almost too much and ran the first mile at the tail end of the pack. I picked up my pace significantly around 1.5 miles and cruised the rest of the way. I was super proud of my performance in mile 2. That part of the course had a steep hill. The hill training I'd done in the 2-3 weeks prior to the race really helped. I actually passed three people on the HILL! That was a huge psychological boost going into the final stretch.

Andy took some nice photos. They're on my Facebook page, if you're interested.

Other stats:
Weather: 30 degrees, with a light breeze and a few flurries.
Number of runners: 50-75, maybe? I'm glad I chose a small race for my first one.
Swag: A cute Turkey Trot t-shirt and a water bottle.
What's next: Replacing my shoes, for sure. More strength training. I'll also start increasing my distance to improve my conditioning. AND I'm recruiting Hayley to run the next one with me. :)

Hibernation season is here.

I put my garden to bed today. I cut most of the coneflowers, daylilies, phlox, and sedum to the ground, but I left a few seed heads for the birds to snack on. The ornamental grass looks really pretty with a dusting of snow, so that stayed, too. I also raked leaves and put away the deck furniture.

I was a huge slacker in the garden department this year, but this little yearly ritual made me feel better, like everything was coming full circle. In reality, this was one of my worst gardening years yet. All the tomatoes and peppers died -- meanwhile, Grandpa harvested 250 tomatoes from only two plants -- and my basil plant was rather sparse. By mid-June, I was already tired of battling our heavy clay soil and the neighbors' weeds that invade our yard every year. Dealing with the same problems every year aggravates me. So, I just stopped trying. I did the bare minimum to get by, but I did not lovingly tend to my plants like I usually do. Poor plants. (On the bright side, most of the flowers survived despite my neglect.)

It's hibernation season indoors, too. I'm cleaning, baking, burning candles, and wearing sweatpants most evenings. Even Blue senses winter is coming. He's been sleeping in the warmest corners of the house and begging for cuddles, a rare thing for him.

I'm a summer-lover at heart, but I do appreciate the ritual of preparing for winter. For now, until the winter malaise sets in, I'll savor my soft sweatpants, fuzzy blankets, hot soup, giant mugs of hot cocoa, and cuddly husband & cat.

P.S. Mary, how is your awesome loungewear treating you?

Not much new

I'm living in the north woods. There's not much to say about that. Activities are at a minimum. I don't even have a sewing project in the works!

Today I posted my resume for the first time, in search of a job in the Denver area post-graduation. That's kind of exciting I guess.

What am I saying... I miss Madison (and my Paul)! And I miss my Mary and my dear Nebraska cousins.

Meanwhile I'm watching Meet Me in St. Louis. Cute movie, but I'm getting tired of sitting on the couch.

OAR song

if you hadn't heard it before.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2vY-6V8Nv8

Outrigger canoeing

I'm in seat 3, Mary's in 5. We had a super time with the coach (in back, red shirt).

Check out my regular facebook profile pic updates for more great images. Latest have been surfing and a great snorkeling one.

New Semester, New Trials

I realize that I am behind in this post. After all, it is already halfway through the semester. I am beginning to see the end since I have only a little over a year left. This semester has gone really well academically. I've completed my OB rotation which I was set on hating and ended up loving. I've seen three births, one circumcision, and countless new babies. I found this rotation uplifting and more rewarding than my clinicals on the Med/Surg floors. I'm in my Peds rotation now, but since our hospital has a crappy pediatric floor, we haven't had any patients yet, so I've been going to asthma clinics and other random areas unrelated to Peds. So, for the first time in quite a while, I feel that I have my school focus where it should be and I'm happy with the results!

When I got back from Costa Rica I knew there would be new changes when I came back to Scottsbluff. Sure enough people changed, our lives changed. Ever since the semester has begun many of my friends have been distant, dramatic, and the tension is high. I think a lot of it has to do with many of them are near graduation and are nervous about life changes. Also, the typical professional school drama has intensified since last semester. I find it annoying and have started to distance myself as much as possible. The scary truth to all this madness is that three couples have split within the last two weeks. I find it sad that the strain of school has drove apart some of my favorite couples. I just hope they can get together. Unfortunately, I've had a rough relationship and breakup of my own, so even though I have fellow heartachers, we aren't an upbeat bunch.

It's interesting because in the nursing profession they stress that you must take care of yourself before you can take care of others. I really need to work on this because I use helping others to keep from helping myself. After I went home last weekend and had the best time I've had in a long time I had a little breakdown. It seems to me that when I'm at home things fall in a more positive place. That's because my major support system are my family and close friends at home. But, I finally figured out how to help myself a little bit here in Scottsbluff. I've signed up for fitness and spinning classes at the Y.

I started Monday and have attended three spinning classes, two pilates classes, and one aerobics class. I LOVE THEM! I had been running and biking a lot all summer and when I got to school, but I got all my friends to sign up with me and now we are helping each other physically and emotionally through a great sweat in class. I love my spinning class the most because I finally feel that I have the strength and endurance needed to have a rewarding workout. Exercise has always been a great stress release for me, and these classes have continued to help me. I try my hardest and all the results are because something I did. After feeling beat down for long enough, it is nice to have something I'm doing for myself that I can feel good about!

Thoughts on treadmill running

With the days getting shorter and winter approaching, I'm rethinking my running program. Because yesterday was cold and rainy, I figured it was the perfect time to use my trial membership at a fitness center nearby and decide whether that'll be my home gym this winter. A few observations about treadmill running:

• I knew I wasn't setting any world records, but the monitor thingy confirmed that I'm really slow. My confidence definitely took a hit yesterday.
  
• I've been running for time rather than distance. My actual mileage isn't nearly as impressive as I thought.
• My hip flexors hurt today because I set the incline too high. I'm also fairly certain that my gait wasn't the same since treadmills limit motion to some extent.
  
• It's boring. Where am I supposed to look? The monitor? The TV? The sweaty guy next to me? The mirror three feet in front of my face? Pass.
  
• I must make sure that my iPod is fully charged BEFORE I get to the gym. Music would surely take away some of those "hamster on a wheel" thoughts going through my head.

Bottom line, I'm not sold on the treadmill concept but I'll have to use it if I want to keep up my training through the winter. I'm a bit of a wimp when it comes to cold-weather running. I'm okay once I get started, but I dread getting bundled up and facing the wind and cold.

Luckily, the rain has stopped and it's nice and sunny today. After a good amount of stretching, I'll go on a 30-minute recovery walk before sunset.

Many happy birthdays, Jules.

Julie, I realized last night that I neglected to get your Hawaiian address so I could send you a card. A blog shout-out is a poor substitute for the real thing, but I wanted you to know that we were all thinking of you yesterday. :)

visita

Quick question. Are you guys getting a hotel room when you come to visit, or do you want to stay at my apartment? You are more than welcome to stay...I just may be getting up early and using my bathroom off the bedroom while you lovely people sleep. I'm also not sure logistically-wise how we'd share the key to lock the front door. Let me know...

I have found the tool for getting in touch with old friends

Hint: It's not Facebook.

Answer: Change your e-mail address. Within 2 hours of sending everyone a note to update their address books, I got a message from an old friend that I haven't talked to in at least 18 months. We're calling each other on Sunday.

Points to Ponder

When asked who the president is, why do all my delirious patients say Barack Obama? They can never remember Bush's name...

Call me crazy, but I like working with the old guys at the VA Hospital. When I was assessing the activities of daily living on one of my patients and asked if he helped with shopping, he said, "Yeah, I need to make sure my wife gets all the goodies." It totally reminded me of Grandpa Meyer and his secret drawer of candy!

surfing update

This will be a quickish post, because I'm at work (it's slow here), but I'm super proud of my progress on the board.

I've had 4 private lessons so far here (2 to go) and am capable of choosing a wave, knowing when to paddle, adjusting my body on the board for variability in the wave, standing, surfing suavely, and even walking forward on the board mid-wave.

This is one activity I'm definitely going to miss when I leave. At least I already have 2 coworkers who have offered their homes to stay whenever I want to come back. I'm pretty good friends with one of them. We go outrigger canoe paddling twice a week. It's fun, but tiring.

Yep. Another update later this week maybe, new topic.

A recommendation for the crafty ladies out there

Wal-Mart recently started carrying the Martha Stewart line of crafting products. I hate to contribute to that crazy lady's fortune, but I really like them. I bought one of her stamp pads, which I think are just as nice as the Colorbox brand, and a few stamps. She has a lot of cool ribbons, stamps, and doodads for cards and paper projects. I especially like her wedding and botanical motifs. Most of her colors are muted brights -- kinda like Real Simple magazine.

I've been slacking in the card-making department lately. I'm sort of looking forward to cooler weather that forces me to stay inside and work on stuff like that. On a related note, I'm feeling unbalanced these days. Not unbalanced as in depressed ... just that I feel pulled in too many directions right now. I turned down a social event Tuesday night so I could stay home and get my chores done. Pathetic? Maybe. But I sure felt a lot calmer after I knew that cards for my in-laws were in the mail (a week late, unfortunately), we'd cooked a nice meal instead of eating hot wings at said social event, and massive amounts of laundry were clean and put away.

Fall in Nebraska

Saturday was one of those rare perfect days in Nebraska: sunny, 75 degrees, and just a slight breeze. Since Andy is out of town, I recruited Hayley and my friends Ellie and Erin to join me at the AppleJack festival in Nebraska City, which is about 55 miles from Lincoln. (Note: Andy would never consent to going to AppleJack, even if he were around!) AppleJack is a fairly typical small-town festival, but the setting is a lot nicer. Nebraska City is rather picturesque and has lots of rolling hills and orchards and trees -- hence, the annual apple-picking festival. I have a lot of fun memories of marching in the AppleJack parade in high school. Ellie was involved in most of those shenanigans, so it was only appropriate that I asked her to come. :)

Our first stop was the Kimmel Orchard, where we picked apples and loaded up on fresh cider (best juice on Earth, I swear) and caramel apples. I had high hopes for finding apple donuts, but I gave up because they were located in the most inconvenient spot in a very crowded narrow building.

Maybe Hayley can post a picture of us picking apples. Andy had our camera, so I wasn't able to document this little outing.

After the apple picking, we went to the Arbor Day Tree Farm for a picnic lunch. I brought sausage and cheese from UNL's Dairy Store, and Erin brought asiago cheese bread from Panera. We spent a good chunk of the afternoon just hanging out and relaxing.

Our friend Melissa's parents had a fall festival at their gorgeous house tonight. I got home about 45 minutes ago, and frankly, I'm surprised that I'm still awake. After such a long, social day, my mind is on overload and won't shut down even though I'm tired. I'm not minding, though. I'm just enjoying my peaceful, quiet house and the wide-eyed kitty sitting next to me. I love my friends, but I'm an introvert at heart and spending 14 hours with the same group of people is really challenging for me.

On that note, I'm going to attempt to sleep again. Tomorrow's another big day, and so is Monday. I need all the rest I can get.

mini life updates

do any of you use twitter?

Hayley, are you back in Scottsbluff yet?

Mr Andy

Sorry for ignoring you post. Haven't been on here in forever!

Enter Hawaii

Well, this is what the sidewalks of downtown Honolulu looks like on a beautiful afternoon of shopping. It's hard to sum up my entire past week - I've been super busy. I started private surf lessons; that way I'll get as good as I can in as safe an environment as possible in the short time I'm here. Water is gorgeous and warm and now that I think about it, I haven't spend time just swimming and splashing in it yet. It's been pretty much just surfing. Shopping is amazing and intimidating at the same time. I'm not a great shopper - my endurance is not impressive. I've mostly been spending money on activities so far. And food. Food's not cheap. The cheapest gallon of milk I've found is $6. Cereal is at least $6.50... and that's not for the large family-sized box. But whatever. A girl's gotta eat. I did invest in a lovely pair of tahitian pearl earrings. The clothing here is all beautiful, but not practical for Wisconsin... so I'm not really going to buy any.

Today I went up to the north shore region of the island, to a small town called Haleiwa. I had a mango shaved ice there... according to the locals, it's the best shaved ice on the island. It's pretty much the best (and largest) snow cone you've ever tasted... in dozens of flavors (not colors) and just doused with sugary flavor goodness.

Work is also great. If this site was in Wisconsin, I still would have liked to go. The other day, I took a prescription over the phone for a sea lion! We do a lot of compounded prescriptions, primarily for animals but also some bioidentical hormones and a few pediatric doses and unique dosage forms (i.e. drug-infused lollipops). We dispense the classic blood pressure and cholesterol meds as well, but the compounding is definitely what gets me excited. Vets and physicians actually call asking for help for dosing difficult patients. It's quite fulfilling. And all the people I work with are great. This one's going to be hard to leave at the end of the block.

I will be working 4 Saturday mornings aside from my normal weekday 8:30-5 so I can take a couple week days off when Mary comes. Considering how much I've experienced in my first week, I can only hope Mary is able to have half as much fun. And I plan on doing as much of it with her as I can. Mary, I think I'm going to take a short bodyboarding lesson next weekend just to have general technique down before you all come. I'm thinking on that first Sunday we'll do the arizona memorial, bodyboarding, beachside lunch, beach relaxing, then roy's for dinner. Don't worry, I won't plan every moment of your trip here, but I want to make sure your first day is filled with amazingment (plus it's my birthday, so I get at least some say).

Anyway, it's time for me to be getting ready for bed. I try to get to sleep around 9-9:30 so I can get a morning workout in before going to the pharmacy. And speaking of workouts, tomorrow night is my first pole dancing class! From the email sent out to the six signed up for the lesson series, it looks like at least 2 are students at the university in honolulu... perfect opportunity to meet girls for weekend dancing nights. =)