The end is near

Today I took [and passed] the HESI exit exam. I am now one step closer to graduation.

The closer May 8th comes, the more my excitement over being done is melting away into that bitter sweet nostalgia. I begin to think about all the wonderful people I've met that I won't get to see every week.

Since I am staying here in Houston for work, I will get to spend time with those who are also staying. That is if we can all find time every once and a while to have lunch or something together.

So this post is dedicated to all the wonderful people I have the honor of getting to know over the past two years. Over the last two years I have met people who can always make me laugh or brighten my day; people who are great sounding boards full of wonderful advice; people who accept me for all my silly eccentricities; and people who genuinely care for the world. I have been lucky enough to make some of the best friends in the world, without whom I would be lost.

These past few years have been far from easy for me, and thanks to a few of you, I'm still here today, enjoying the sweet sensation of near victory.

Jobless no more!

I just got the phone call from HR, and they are offering me a job!!!

Starting June 15, I will be working as a RN intern in the ICU at St. Joseph Medical Center!!!

I am so excited!!!

Alyse and I have been talking today, and we've decided that every once and a while (like once a month or so), we're going to try to get every classmate of ours that does night shifts to come out for "breakfast" in the morning! We could be our own version of the breakfast club or something!

Now that I have a job, I best be getting motivated to finish this semester. I have so much left to do. HESI, finish clinicals, finish projects, study for finals, study for NCLEX.....oi!

nervous wreck

Tomorrow I have my first "real" job interview!

I'm torn between being excited and nervous.

So everyone that prays, please say a little prayer for me tomorrow morning that I might wow them in my interview.

comedic genious or just a dumbass?

I'm on my way out to celebrate St. Patty's day with some friends. We had just left the SIC party at the SON since they ran out of beer, and I was heading over to pick Matt up (I was going to be DD for the night). I pull into the Valero to get some gas, not wanting to hit that dreadful E in the middle of the night.

I manually unlock my door by pushing up the lock button, grab my credit card, and get out. I get the gas pumping and turn back to my door to grab my cell phone. The damned door is locked!

That's right-L-O-C-K-E-D. With my cell phone and car keys sitting inside the cup holder. damn

So I'm sitting there at the gas station, looking around, thinking to myself how stupid can one girl get?

My spare keys to my car are in my apartment, and the only person with a spare key to my apartment is Matt. So I run up to the pay phone, trying desperately to remember someone's phone number who can get in touch with him for me.

I make a collect call to my parent's house phone. No one answers [I found out today that my mom decided not to answer since she did not recognize the number]. Okay, now what? I can't remember ANYONE's number.

I start to cry. I finally realize that I *think* I know Deanne's cell number since I had just given it to Tara. But you can't make collect calls to cell phones (or that's my impression anyways). So now I've got to start begging for quarters to make a phone call.

I go into the Valero and try to use the ATM, thinking I'll get cash and then get some change from cash register by buying something. The ATM is "out of order".

SHIT

Now I'm starting to cry. I walk up to the only person in the place, aside from the workers, and ask for some spare change. The kindly police officer gave me a dollar and wished me luck. I got change from the cash register and go to make my phone call.

I get a call in to Deanne and told her where I was, what was going on, and asked her to tell Matt so he could bring me my spare keys.

About 30 minutes later, Matt came rolling in on his white steed (aka his truck) and gracefully handed me my spare keys to my car. He was even kind enough to not make fun of me.

Spring break is a myth.

I am convinced that Spring Break is a myth, created by some over-worked nursing student years ago, to give themselves something to look forward to each spring.

I've been more busy this week than I have all semester.

Over the weekend I was sick and spent a lot of my time resting, and when I wasn't resting I was running around doing errands, trying to get info on Vannary and the baby, and get ready for the upcoming week. Tuesday through Friday I was at the Hurst Review.

Grant it, the review has [so far] seemed to be very useful and a good use of my time, but it did take up my entire break. Of course, listening to Aunt Marlene crack jokes about Depressed and Manic over there was worth it. Not to mention, [now slap on your most thick southern drawl with this one] "look at my patient, laying here all dead, but he ain't go no infection!" I really did learn a lot about how to think NCLEX-y and got a great review of the core content. I'm glad I dragged my exhausted butt out of bed every day for it.

Today I spent the whole day chasing after little kids at the Children's Museum. I was working in the PowerPlay area, in the Power Science Lab. We had a bunch of stuff on the heart; some games to give the kids an idea of how hard your heart works. I really had a ton of fun. I also climbed the Power Tower with my sister, that while adults can go in, it is definitely best suited for people under 5 feet. For a while there I was convinced they were going to have to cut me out of that thing! [think the climbing tubes at Chuck E. Cheese's, it was very similar] After this, Alyse, Rachel, and I got roped into leading the kids for the dance party. I think I sweated off a full dress size.

Now all I want to do is sleep for the next 10 years.

Too bad I have school work to do. Stupid spring break.

an irish jig

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Welcome to the world!

Welcome to the world Damien Achilles Castro!

Born 3/08/09 (not sure the exact time, somewhere around 7pm) in Houston, Texas.

The little guy was only a 29-weeker so all of you guys that pray, please pray for lots of healthy growing for him. He was 3lb 1oz at birth.

Vannary ruptured Sunday morning (around 6am). They tried to slow the progression as best they could while they gave her antibiotics and steroids. Around 6pm she was fully dilated, and when the nurse went to check her, she saw a foot coming! So they whisked Van off to the OR and little Damien was born via c-section.

Mom is sore but doing good. Joking around like her usual self.

Baby is doing alright considering how little he is.

the SON flu

Ladies and gentleman, I'd like to take a moment to inform all of you that I have caught the dreaded SON flu!

That's right, that bloody plague has finally reached my doorstep.

I'm currently taking bets on who will come down with it next. My guess: someone in my community clinical group (so all of you start chugging your vitamin C!).

I highly recommend bringing your own N95 respirator with you to the Hurst review Tuesday, if you haven't gotten sick yet.

Goodnight, and good luck.

banished to customer service hell

I feel as if I've been banished to hell. And not just any hell, but the 7th circle: telephone customer service!

It started last weekend when I attempted to get a new power cord for my computer. After a month and half of use, my power cord decided to break. I have to hold it just right for it to work, and it stopped charging the battery. I tried returning it to Circuit City, but since they are going out of business they wouldn't help me.

So last Friday I called HP. My power cord is still under warranty, so I'm not about to spend another $100 replacing it, AGAIN. After getting transferred 4 times, I was finally put on with Rajit. After explaining my problem, Rajit told me that I had to take it back to where I purchased it. I told him Circuit City wouldn't let me return it since they are closing, so what can HP do to help me? I proceeded to repeat my schpeal about it still being under warranty. Rajit proceeds to tell me that I need to return it to Circuit City. We go in circles for 20 minutes. Finally, so angry and frustrated that I'm starting to cry, I hang up on Rajit.

I gave up on that project, passing it off to my father, and we're still trying to find someone at HP willing to help us. Stupid HP.

Today, my internet wouldn't work, so I set out on the long ardous task of calling AT&T. Of course, I've already tried the "unplug it, replug it" tricks, nothing. "Steve" [whose real name I'm sure is so far from Steve] told me to unplug the router. After 30 minutes of him telling me various "tricks" and me telling him it isn't working, I finally [and angerily I might add] blurted out "I've had this problem before. I've done everything on my end. It's something with the line. I can't fix it from here. You need to do something to fix it, or connect me with someone else."

I was put on hold for 5 minutes.

Finally, I was put on with another guy. I couldn't understand his name. After listening to my problem, in full details (plus what I told Rajit about unplugging it not helping), he told me to move my router to the phone line in the kitchen. If this didn't fix it, he was going to send out a technician. What do you know, but it worked! Turns out the line in my bedroom is bad. After nearly a year of service with them, calling them over a dozen times with problems, someone finally tells me to move my router and it fixes the bloody problem!

Oh, and fyi, I broke down and bought ANOTHER power cord from MicroCenter today for my computer. FUCK HP.

I have been poisoned!!! (maybe)

*Some names have been changed to protect the identities of those involved

I [may] have been poisoned!

After spending 5 hours in a small car, making the long drive back from Fort Worth (and having to battle an old lady for the bathroom-seriously, it was like gladiators and the prize was getting to use the toilet before I peed myself), I was asked to do a good friend a favor. [let's call this friend Bob] Bob's truck is dead, for the umpteenth time. So Bob is in desperate need of a battery jump. Being the kind person that I am, or perhaps just delaying the oppressive love of my little kitten (did I say oppressive? I meant wonderful, beautiful, caring, adorable, unconditional love), I drove over to Bob's apartment.

I arrived just in time for dinner. Normally I love when Bob cooks, as I rarely cook myself and living off of potato chips and frozen TV dinners all the time is hardly healthy, but tonight I wanted none of it. In Fort Worth, I was trapped in the Land of Too Much Food (seriously, Katie's family kept feeding me). By now, all I really wanted was a shower and bed, not dinner.

I patiently waited for Bob to finish his dinner (don't ask me what it was, cause I have no idea), and then sat through Bob checking his email, Facebook, and Myspace. Finally, after all of this, I thought we were going to brave the frozen tundra outside and go fix his battery. But of course Bob has to [offer] me some cheesecake-and by offer I mean he said something along the lines of "I'm sick of this last piece being in the fridge, you and I are going to finish it off tonight before you leave". Loving cheesecake as I do, and being fearful of bodily harm if I should refuse, I accepted the cheesecake.

The first bite tasted a little funny to me.

Me: Uh, yeah that tasted a little funny. Are you sure this cheesecake hasn't gone bad?
Bob: (smelling the cake) No, it smells fine; looks fine. And my piece tastes just fine. Must be you. Try another.
Me: (after staring at my piece weighing the odds of how likely I am to get food poisoning verses my desire to eat cheesecake for a few moments) Okay.
*I try another piece*
Me: Mmm. Good. Okay, guess it was just me.
*We proceed to eat almost all of our pieces*
Bob: Uh, yeah that piece right there didn't taste so good. I see what you mean about it tasting funny.
Me: Yuck, yeah mine isn't tasting so good either. And the top looks a little funny.
Bob: Let me try one...yeah no, not good either.
Me: ....not sure I want to finish this.
Bob: me either.
Me: okay, let's throw it away.
Bob: yeah, chuck it all.

Now I'm just waiting to see if I come down with food poisoning or not.

How long until I'm in the clear? Surely a few hours of feeling alright should be enough?? Sadly, it's barely been one hour. Damn.

Of course, I still stand by the theory that Bob did it on purpose. I realized after I ate most of my piece that this is the same cheesecake that Bob made like 3 weeks ago, and it's just been sitting in the fridge ever since. That's probably WAY too long for cheesecake, isn't it?!? Not to mention the fact that a mutual friend of ours [let's call her Jill] reminded me how Bob has been eyeing my Boeing 757 for some time now.

And who wouldn't want my car?? Not only is it awesome, it only has 70,000 miles (did I mention it's a 1991), it doubles as a private jet, it has kick-ass California plates, and it has sweet cowboy hats sitting in the back window. Hello, can you say most awesome car ever??


**edit** starting to feel a little queasy. Could be purely psychological, could be the ten thousand pounds of food I've eaten in the last 72 hours, could be the cheesecake.