First Day of School

Okay, so this isn't exactly how I looked going to my first day of school but it is certainly how I felt. Like a little girl in pigtails and glasses, intoxicated by the smell of a new trapper-keeper. The first morning of classes has always been exciting for me. I remember those days growing up and how I would carefully layout my persona-defining outfit and new school supplies. Mom would take my picture in front of whichever bush was flowering at the time and off I would go.

This year, starting at an unknown campus, meant familiarizing myself with the bus routes and painstakingly studying the floor plan of the health science building which continues to baffle me. But despite sleeping through my alarm, I made my bus and found the classroom with two minutes to spare. I took a deep breath, opened the door...and the massive classroom was completely empty! This was seriously like a bad dream. Had they moved the classroom and I missed the memo? It took ten terrifying minutes with my email and course syllabus before I came to the comforting yet embarrassing realization that this class didn't start until Thursday. Well, it was a good dry run.

Go Huskies!

We pause from our regular blogging...

...to bring you a special announcement. For the next few weeks, you can follow my temporary blog here about my time in India.

The Kid

I had a moment today. Let me paint you a picture. I went out to my car and the battery was dead so I hopped on my bike to make it to my hair appointment. My normal shoulder strap purse wasn't exactly bike friendly so I substituted it with my roommate's mini backpack. I knew I also needed to go to the library so I brought my overdue book which happened to be targeted for young adults.

As I was waiting to get my hair cut, the combination of the bike, book, and backpack suddenly struck me and I felt the familiar feeling of a little kid playing grown-up. The only thing that felt out of place was that I was at a hair appointment.

That actually happens to me fairly often. When I'm working at the hospital or paying bills or getting my oil changed, I sometimes think, Am I really old enough to be doing this? When did I turn into an adult? I almost worry that someone is going to find me out and send me back home to my parents.

But with all due modesty, I was kind of a cute kid.

Bike, etc

I took a page from Emily's life and bought this:

I'm so happy to have a bike again! I spent many a joyful hour on a bike as a child and later as a missionary. In fact, I think I fell in love with this bike partly because it reminded me of the bike I rode in Magdeburg.

This actually isn't the bike I was talking about. I looked through all my mission pictures and I couldn't find a good picture of my Magdeburg bike. So I am posting this one instead. This was my first bike in Weimar. It was a mens bike, as you can tell from the high bar. I had some good times making that work with skirts. :)

Okay, back to present day. Naturally, since I bought the bike, we have had an abnormally high number of rainy days, even for Seattle. Yesterday, however, was sunny and beautiful. I rode down to the institute for a concert. It was my test run to see if I could handle riding to campus this fall. It had a few tough spots but overall, not bad. Riding home, along the lake, I just felt so content. As soon as I settle on a name (Ruby? Beulla?), I think we will get along just fine.

The "etc" part of the post is this: I am going to India this summer. Click here to learn more about my trip and if you feel so inclined, the opportunity to donate to a very worthy cause.

Thin Skinned

Tonight at work, a patient yelled at me. I'm sure it was the situation and not our simple misunderstanding that was the catalyst but I got the brunt of it anyway. The next time I went into his room, he apologized. It was sincere and I accepted. "That's okay," I told him, "I have a pretty thick skin." That was a lie. I said it because I feel like that is what nurses are supposed to have. We have to deal with a lot stuff so you have to have a thick skin to deal with it but mine never developed.

I remember one of the first days of my mission in Germany, being rejected for the first time and getting this awful feeling in my stomach. I thought to myself, "It is just because you're new to this. You'll get used to it." But I never did. Eighteen months and I got that feeling every time. Better than apathy, I grant you, but it's heck on the heart.

I can't think of anymore to write so I am going to spend the rest of my lunch break reading Ender's Game which I checked out from the library yesterday. As a Mormon and a bookworm, I feel a sense of obligation to finally read this book.

Oh and P.S- I am going to go to grad school. Pretty sure, anyway.

The thought in my head...

You know how sometimes you think that you have your life figured out because you think you know exactly what you want and so you start making plans and you get really excited about it and then you start telling other people about your plans and they start getting really exctied for you and you feel great about it but then you unexpectedly get into that really competitive graduate program, the one you wanted to get into but thought was off the table and the one that could help you get a job that you would love but the program won't let you defer even for a semester and so now you have to choose between two awesome things and you are having a hard time finding a way to have your cake and eat it too?

You know?

Wanderlust

Isn't German a great language? You know that I desire hiking which is how this word literally translates; "wadern" (to hike) and "lust" (desire). Parenthetically, my first hike of the season last weekend was lovely even if it did rain the whole time. But back to wanderlust. Of course, colloquially, it expresses more of a desire to travel the world than to hike. Now, if I was really speaking German (which I am sorry to say I haven't done in a few years now), I might use the word "fernweh" or loosely, "to ache for something far away", which I think also has a nice sentiment.

Well, I got it bad.

I feel like that sentence deserves its own paragraph because it is true. I love living in Seattle. I really do. I could live here the rest of my life, or in some other city that I would equally enjoy. But I'm not tied down here. Besides my job, I don't have any binding obligations. Nor am I in debt. And that leads me to have a lot of "If I don't do it now, I'll never do it" arguments with myself, thinking of distant lands where I would like to live. Of course, there's that voice that says, "Maybe you'll never get married or have a family and then you'll have 60 years to do that stuff. What's your hurry?" but that voice really bugs me so I pay it no heed. With two years of nursing under my belt, I feel like I have something to offer. So here comes another one-line wonder.

I quit my job.

I wonder if people daydream about being able to write that sentence. I didn't. I actually like my job and was nervous to talk to my nurse manager who, by the way, is awesome. And I actually didn't end up totally quitting. Here's my plan in a nutshell: travel the world for a year (give or take), volunteering with various medical humanitarian organizations. Right now my trips are at all stages of planning from about to buy a plane ticket to haven't even sent in my application. Potential trips include: India, Nicaragua, China and Cameroon. A few less exotic but equally exciting trips may take me to Ensign Ranch (as a girls camp nurse), Glacier National Park and to visit baby girl Hill (aka Lalalalalala). And my boss is awesome because she is letting me stay on per Diem so I can work between trips, setting my own schedule.


What I'm saying, folks, is that this blog might get a heck of a lot more interesting come August. Oh and post script, if anyone has any suggestions for other awesome trips, I still have some time in summer 2011. So if you know of anything...Especially something in Antarctica, per my serve on every continent goal.