annoyances – Imaginary Sunshine

Life right now

Michelle — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 06:02:56 +0000

Life post-NCLEX is interesting. I’m currently unemployed, but according to the CRNBC[1. College of Registered Nurses of British Columbia] I am licensed as a registered nurse – so that’s something. I’ve put in many, many, many job applications. It does not help that I live in one of the top three most saturated areas when it comes to nursing jobs. Many of my classmates have taken to posting on Facebook when they’ve gotten jobs. Some got them straightaway and I could not be more jealous. Others have been going on extravagant adventures overseas and have gotten jobs. Even more jealous of them, because I have wanderlust right now and would love to go on a trip to Europe.

So there’s me. Unemployed, but an RN. I have a dwindling bank account, I have gone on a pretty strict budget where I spend very little (it helps that I live at home, still rent and board free). And I’ve spent time with the boyfriend, friends, and I’ve gotten to the point where I realize that I should actually embrace the state of unemployment as free time to do things besides mope around at home. And then I also remember that doing fun things does often also involve spending money, which I can’t afford to do. So stay-cation activities it is, but not everyone wants to do activities like that because being a miser is (according to my sisters) boring.

But… that’s my life right now. Struggling to find a job, very broke, and trying to find the bright side of things.

Nose bleeds are appropriately named

Michelle — Thu, 03 Jul 2014 06:49:03 +0000

So I’m sitting in bed, in front of my laptop, and I would be asleep right now if not for the fact that there seems to be a fountain of blood coming from my nose. That’s probably a bit of a hyperbole because if it were a fountain, I probably would be asleep, or at least unconscious. But I’m awake (and typing! coherently!) so clearly a fountain is an overstatement. But I digress. Holding tissues to my nose in hopes that eventually it will stop bleeding is great. I’m currently typing with one hand – what a great time to decide to blog, eh?

Yesterday was Canada Day – Happy 147th to my favourite country in the whole wide world.

Life in the World of Michelle is going well. I’m still taking 3 online classes, one of them is ending soonish, which means that I really need to be studying for that (maybe in the morning?). High acuity is going very well. I’ve gotten 100% on all 3 of my papers for that class (two were group papers, one was all me). Super pleased with that. I’m secretly brilliant? Mastermind of essay writing? Is my instructor uber-lax on the marking scheme? All of the above? My other two classes are not going as well. I’m just not that found of reading a million journal articles every week, I’m not going to lie. A million is also a hyperbole, much like fountain was earlier. It’s more like 4-6 for one class and 5-7 for the other. It really sucks. Really, really, really sucks.

But lately for me, life has been okay. I worked for 5 weeks, earned some money. I’ve been doing some odd projects here and there, working on planning a convention for next summer (super stoked about that!). I started knitting a lot more lately, even though it’s been very hot out lately. Summer temperatures are here, what I wouldn’t give right now for those horrible stereotypes about how Canadians have snow year-round to be true, just for a few hours. I’m melting here, you guys. Melting[1. Not literally.].

I got my clinical placement for the fall term. We had a choice of 13 different locations/types (choices between various cities/locations and between home health and public health). So I ranked them all – choose public health over home health, but location also placed a roll into it as well. And I got my number one choice. Of course, this means that I will be driving twice a week for my clinical placement because I picked one that I am a) unable to take public transit to and b) we are are not allowed to take public transit due to the possibility of having to travel between sites with patient files. Which means driving! In a city that I’m not that familiar with! But it’ll be okay, because I have Google Maps on my phone, and I got myself a car charger so my phone won’t die on me whilst trying to navigate myself around.

So, so, so excited for things coming soon! So excited. More on that later, after things have happened. Exciting things! Yarny things! And doll-related things!

And hey, my nose has stopped bleeding!

I need a blanket fort

Michelle — Sun, 29 Dec 2013 08:07:32 +0000

Sometimes it makes me sad that I don’t blog more. Blogging used to be my passion and I’d come up with a new theme nearly every month. Pretty sure that this one has been up for forever by now… And yet, I really cannot bring myself to care that I haven’t changed from the pixel girl with the heart-shaped balloon. It’s a bit fitting, since I had modeled the image after my favicon image that I had made much earlier than this theme. But blogging as a whole? I didn’t realize that I had pretty much dropped off the face of the planet in terms of the internet. Or maybe I had, and just didn’t notice?

I, for one, had an alright Christmas. The thing about Christmas is that it is a very family-oriented holiday. The unfortunate thing about Christmas is that it is a very family-oriented holiday. Some gems that I’ve been asked this holiday season by relatives (immediate and extended) include:

Why aren’t you done school yet?

Why didn’t you go to medical school?

How much weight have you gained? (Which was followed by: How much do you weigh now?)

The answers: because I’m not, because I don’t want to become a doctor (medical or otherwise), none of your business, see previous answer.

Oh family. What would I do without them? (Answer: Probably be a lot more sane, and non-existent.)

I’m already looking forward to going back to school – primarily so I won’t need to spend so much time with the members of my family that are driving me crazy with their repetitive questions. That and I want to learn ALL THE THINGS! I’ve been doing a bit of winter break reading and just finished the Hyperbole and a Half book by Allie Brosh. It has delightfully thick pages and full-colour illustrations. What else would a girl want in a book full of fun stories? I still have a few more books in my pile to read. Now that my familial holiday obligations have been met and there are no more family gatherings in the near future (as far as I know, anyways), I’m happy to really get to enjoy my time off and spend time with the people that I choose to spend time with. (A.k.a. not the crazy relatives, or the select individuals that I live with who are driving me crazy.)

Reasons Not to Move to Hong Kong

Michelle — Wed, 03 Jul 2013 03:42:59 +0000

I haven’t blogged in a while, but I swear I have a good reason for it! Since I last blogged, I was busy with:

Packing for a four week trip overseas
Spending a week in China
Spending three weeks in Hong Kong
Spending a week as a ‘vacation from my vacation’ at home doing absolutely nothing (mostly sleeping)
And working on my online courses (mandatory for the nursing program I’m in)

Online classes are very different at this school than my last one. I only had one online course at my old school (Human Sexuality – still one of the most interesting classes I’ve ever taken!). These ones are more structured in a way that requires more deadlines. The other one only had deadlines for the midterm and final (all online). These ones, if they have finals, are on campus. But the midterms were online, so it was alright (I guess…).

Hong Kong was great in the sense that I got to see relatives and meet them for the first time (I do not count the time when I was under the age of two). But on the other hand, visiting Hong Kong reinforced the decision that I had made to never move there permanently. Ever. I couldn’t handle it, for so many reasons. The weather is awful – the day I arrived was mid-30s (Celsius!) and 85% humidity. It’s like having someone slap you in the face with a hot wet towel when you leave the airport. It was difficult to breathe properly at first because it was so much like being in a sauna and I didn’t like that at all. A lot of indoor places have air conditioning, which I took advantage of and it made things barely. July and August are supposed to be even hotter (!) with the same level of humidity or higher. I’ll stick to my milder weather at home, thank you.

Nurses in Hong Kong are greatly under-appreciated. They are expected to have higher education (post-secondary), but they make a third of what I would make in Canada in an equivalent currency for entry level (here). My aunt has friends who work as nurses and and they make ~$12,000-15,000HKD/month – which is less than or around $2000CDN. They also have no over-time. They are expected to work over-time and are not monetarily compensated for their work. Also, I visited an elderly aunt in a convalescence home (recovering from a stroke) and the nurses there were very old-fashioned looking dress uniforms. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, think about the Halloween “nurse” costumes that you seen (white dress, buttoned down the front, with pockets, etc.). It’s like that, only the dress isn’t low cut and it ends at below the knees. I didn’t go to a hospital in Hong Kong, so I’m unsure if nurses there wear similar uniforms, but it’s a possibility. I like my scrub pants and tops just fine, thank you.

Lastly – body image. They have a very specific body image that they like in Hong Kong and clearly I do not fit it. I was told (multiple times, by various people who are related to me) that I’m very pretty girl (thanks!) but I’m too fat (oh…). Yes, the size of my body was brought up. Many, many, many times. I was beginning to understand where my parents got the idea that I’m fat from[1. Yes, my parents have told me in the past that I’m fat or overweight, ever since I was a preteen.]. Keep in mind that I am 5’1″ and weigh around 110-115lbs (last I checked). And this is considered to be fat. I tried on tops and I was still a “small” there, but my legs were (apparently) an issue. I’m not short compared to the average height of women there, but my width was an issue for my relatives. They’d tsk their tongues and mention how I’d just look so much better if I dropped maybe 10-15lbs…

Additionally, I was inappropriately spoken to (and grabbed!) on public transit while I was in Hong Kong. Because apparently if you wear short shorts (by Hong Kong standards, lets not discuss how prudish their clothing is) it is an open invitation for skeevy grown men to grab your ass on public transit. And they tell you that it’s okay because you’re asking for it.

I’ll be posting more about the fun and adventure of traveling ~ and with more pictures!

Protected: One step at a time

Michelle — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 04:06:01 +0000

Vista and 8

Michelle — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 23:02:12 +0000

For Christmas, I got a lovely gift from my parents. They asked me what I wanted (another Blythe), but they refused to buy me another one as I have “enough” (says them). So instead my parents offered to buy me another laptop as my current laptop (HP Pavilion dv6000-series laptop) is now 5+ years old and it thinks that gifting me a Blue Screen of Death once every week (or so) is funny. So I got this lovely machine as it was on sale for Boxing Week (but the store had the sale start on the 24th, go figure):

My HP runs Windows Vista, I got it in 2007 and that was the available Windows OS at the time. The one the left is my new baby, an Asus ultrabook running Windows 8. For some reason, I was (and still am) the only person in my family with a computer running Vista. Now I’m the only one running Win 8. Everyone else has a different OS than me (one sister has XP, the other sister and my dad run Windows 7 on their laptops, the desktops run XP).

I never had the issues that people had with Windows Vista. I really didn’t. I ran programs that were available for Vista, I had enough memory to handle the resource hog. I just never had the issues that everyone else seemed to have. After all, the most memory intensive thing that I do is run Photoshop. Other programs I run are Office (Word, Excel, Powerpoint) and then the internet, email and messaging programs. It’s not like I’m running several resources hogs at one go.

And then there’s Windows 8. My new laptop is not a touch screen so I’m not actually that found of their start menu. I’m also not fond of the fact that they hid the shut down options. The start button was removed, they have a weird blocky colourful menu instead and it takes several mouse swipes to get to the shut down options (charm menu > settings > power > shut down). Why it’s under settings, I don’t know. I’m also not fond of the charm menu and I prefer staying on my desktop at all times, which was difficult because it’s hard to actually find programs unless you’re on the stupid start menu.

So Clay turned me onto the idea of downloading a start button and it works. I can easily access my regular options (including shutting things down….) and I can get to my programs list a lot easier, as well as the control panel. All in all, ‘reverting’ Windows 8 to look more familiar to me is the good way to go. At least it makes finding things a lot easier for me!

One day at a time

Michelle — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 01:57:47 +0000

The new design is coming along slowly as I haven’t had much time at all to work on it. Since the last time that I blogged, I have:

Written a patho midterm (and gotten the mark back – 90%)
Did a presentation (hemiplegia) and did fairly okay
Had some great patients!
Learned alot in school
Wrote a med math test (100%)
Had more clinical ‘firsts’ (bed baths, disposable brief changes)
Written a lot of notes
Fell asleep in one of my patho seminars (and I was doing so well too!)

As for non-school things, I had Clay over last night. He came over for dinner with my sisters and me, which went well. They think he’s nice, everyone was awkwardly quiet and shy. It was nice to have him over though! He’s been super busy since he started school (only three more weeks in his course for him!), and I’ve been super busy too (hello, nursing school). I loved getting to catch up with him as we don’t get to spend a lot of time with one another normally. It’s been getting better though, which has been fantastic. Lots of cuddling occurred, I got him all caught up on my dolls and bug happenings, he caught me up with school and work and other ‘fun’ things like that.

Up next for me is a lot of things. This upcoming week is going to be one of the busiest that I’ve had so far. Not only do I have the usual amounts of readings, I also have two midterms (Monday – Communications and Friday – Clinical Skills Lab), another presentation (Thursday – Hematology), clinical (Tuesday & Wednesday) and a paper endorsement to write (Thursday – shouldn’t be that difficult… I hope). Trying to keep my head above water, I’m really looking forward to this week being over though as the upcoming weekend is a long one! Canadian Thanksgiving is on Monday October 8th, something that I’m quite looking forward to. A four day week? Don’t mind if I do! Except for the fact that I receive my patient assignment on Mondays so I’ll still have research to do – but I won’t have to do readings for my Monday classes that week!

Lots to do this week, here’s to the upcoming weekend where I will hopefully not be spending every waking moment with my nose in a textbook!

Four Years & Nursing School Happenings

Michelle — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 03:31:42 +0000

Friday was my four year anniversary with Clay! Gold stars for him for putting up with me for so long, hah! I joke, of course. It was pretty non-eventful. We both had school things to do that day (I had a library orientation to go to – they took attendance…). He started school last week (!) and I’m super proud of him, and he’s probably sick and tired of me saying that, but I am! I am very, very proud of him for going back to school. He’s doing an apprenticeship program that work is paying for, and ultimately it’s for work, but also for him as it’s a nationally recognized certification, which is pretty damn cool. I’m super proud of him. I’m going to be done school before him, but I’m going to be in school for 3 years straight for this program while he does a class, then works and logs hours and then goes back to school again for another class. But four years, you guys! This is the longest relationship that either of us have been in.

As for nursing school happenings… I’ve gotten into a bit of a groove. My goal right now is to front-load as much as humanly possible without going insane. Front-loading, which may not be a term used elsewhere besides my school, is to work ahead of schedule and do readings in advance. Right now, I’m starting Week 4 tomorrow and I finished all of the readings for it yesterday. I’m going to be starting on Week 5 readings soon, but I’m also going to be working on a (short) paper and a presentation (great…) for Week 5. So there’s quite a bit to get done! I have to talk in front of people for 20-30 minutes. In front of the room. By myself. Let’s talk about how much this scares me: it does. A lot. I’m actually really annoyed that I need to do three presentations this term in that class alone. All by my lonesome, all in front of the same group of people. Mind you, the group isn’t huge (maybe 8-10 people?), but I’m being evaluated and stared at and people are looking at me all the time…

Anyways. In other news, I spent a lot of time studying this reading, as evidenced by my Instagram photos. I also did some math problems today with my handy-dandy book.

My Clinical Nursing Skills & Techniques textbook that has become well-flagged in the last three weeks!

My new ‘BFF’, Math for Nurses (8th edition, for anyone who cares). Super handy for practice problems!

Catching up doesn’t need to be hard to do

Michelle — Sun, 08 Jul 2012 05:12:22 +0000

What’s new with Michelle these days?

Well, apparently I managed to avoid posting for most of June.

I’ve been working since mid-June. Which means that I get to see Clay on a mostly regular/weekday-daily basis. Which is fantastic. He works a lot… He’s always worked a lot. But now I’m working too. And hey, once I’m in nursing school, we’ll both be incredibly busy (and that makes me quite sad). Work was going pretty well – there was a bit of a thing and… yeah. More on that later – probably in a private/password protected post. I’m a temporary full-time employee (as per usual) and I’m working in customer service again, but I do go from department to department as the need pops up. I’m not the biggest fan of answering calls, but I’m always cheerful when chatting with people on the phone.

My volunteering supervisors (the always lovely L, J and M!) sent me a thank you card (!) for my nearly 4 years of volunteering with them. It was a super cute card that I ended up putting on my bulletin board – it also included a gift certificate for a date night at the movies (!) which I thought was super generous. 2 regular adult admissions, 2 regular soft drinks and 1 regular popcorn. Nom nom. Now I just need a certain someone to not work long enough for us to take in a movie!

In my continuous preparation for nursing school, I’ve renewed my CPR certificate. It’s a clinical/school requirement, but it’s also something that I’ve kept up since 2009 and it’s a great skill to have. The HCP [1. Health Care Provider] version of CPR is the one for nurses, care aides, firefighters, doctors and other health care providers. Learning CPR is a fantastic skill. Everyone should know how to do it, along with standard first aid (or emergent first aid) training. There’s a whole host of different kinds of CPR classes – for care givers (of infants, children), for pet owners (not joking!) and for people who just want to learn. Even if you never use the skills that you learn, at least you’ll have it in case of emergencies. And that ends that PSA!

Last night I ordered my stethoscope! I’m getting the Littmann Classic II S.E. in orange (ORANGE!) with my name laser engraved onto the bell. I also ordered 3 more books for school (including the 2013 Delmar Nurse’s Drug Handbook that is on backorder). For fun things, I ordered seasons 3 and 4 of The Big Bang Theory ($20/ea!) to add to the first two seasons that I already own. The only things I have left to buy for nursing school is a penlight and a watch with a second hand. Oh, and $5 to go to my school to get 2 official name tags. They somehow couldn’t find $5 out of our tuition and assorted fees to go towards the name tags (seriously?). I did manage to off-set the costs a bit with gift cards for Amazon that I had redeemed for from Swag Bucks (search engine where you randomly get points for using it, you redeem points for gift cards and tangible goods). Dear Nursing School, why are you so expensive?

Today I went out, it was a nice summery day but omfg – I hate being in the car because my dad’s a horrible driver and anti-air conditioning for some stupid reason. My mom is at least more reasonable and will turn on the AC when the situation calls or it, or at least doesn’t yell at you for opening the windows. I went thrift store shopping with my sister! I found a lion bookend for her (it was a yellow Zuny bookend – matches one that she already had!) for $5. I also found a first edition copy of The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, a whole bunch of buttons/badges/pins from the 2008 Olympic games and two fantastic pieces of vintage Pyrex for my collection:

Say what now?

Michelle — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 06:40:59 +0000

I’ve been getting a lot of mail lately. Some of it was solicited (TEXTBOOKS!!#$%!) and others was not (dear playhouse that I purchased musical tickets from you 2 years ago, you’d think because I haven’t bought tickets in 2 years, that would be a hint to stop wasting paper). Unfortunately, I’m still unable to intercept the mail so my dad always sees it first.

Dad: Why are you getting mail from [insert name of local community college]?
Me: I applied there.
D: long pause. What program?
M: Their 4 year nursing program.
D: longer pause, I can practically see the wheels churning inside of his head. Is it the same program as at [insert name of big university/the one that I attend]?
M: Yes.
D: hands over the envelope, finally. Okay.

Because even nearly 5 years after I graduated from high school and even after he even admitted that trades was an “appropriate” career choice, he still has a problem with smaller schools, or not internationally recognized institutions, even if they’re public, government funded & approved schools.

My sister J started school this week. She graduated from said Big University in either 2006 and is just going back to school now for a trades program. Granted, it’s a medical-relate program, so it’s not like she’s becoming a mechanic. But J is the Golden Child and can never do anything wrong. So because she applied (and was accepted into) a trades program, suddenly trades is the Best Thing Ever.

And my father had the nerve to ask me:

D: Why didn’t you go into trades as well?

Well, dad, maybe it’s because you spent the first 17 years of my life telling me that I need to go to university and get a degree because it’s what I’m fucking supposed to do. That and I get to live rent-free at home provided I stay in school, so it was kind of no brainer. But I have friends who graduated on time (unlike me) and are woefully unemployed. A friend of my sister’s has been out of university since 2006 and just got a full-time job in her field (she has an education degree and spent 5 years being a substitute teacher, filling in when people were sick or on maternity leave and having very uncertain employment). Having a Bachelors, regardless of what it is in doesn’t mean a whole lot these days. Mostly because a lot of people have a Bachelors degree. Which is really depressing to think about, considering I’ll be graduating with one at the end of May. And it’s going to be fantastic. The word “Science” will be mentioned on that piece of paper 4 times in my degree title. Not because I wanted them to emphasize how much I love science, but because of what my program was. (A lot of science.)

But really. Having my dad tell me when I’m 9 credits away from finishing my BSc that I should have gone into some sort of trades instead? Like a knife through the heart. Maybe he should have been pushing that for the first 17 years of my life instead. Or maybe he should just keep his opinions to himself.