birthdays – Imaginary Sunshine

Twenty-seven

Michelle — Mon, 07 Nov 2016 08:05:22 +0000

I wrote this a couple a days ago, as I wanted to reflect a little bit on the whole turning “twenty-seven” thing. That and I have to work a day shift on my actual birthday – which means waking up early and then going to sleep early because I’ve got a day shift the next day too (lame).

This will be the first year that I have a permanent full time job, which is pretty exciting. A lot has changed in the last year. I changed jobs (casual to full time, different hospitals), I bought a car (and now have a lovely monthly car payment), I moved out of my parents’ house, and I’m doing okay. It’s weird having a job and an income now because it means that I have money that I can use to buy things, and can afford (in theory) to go places. Or something like that.

Over the next year, I’d love to do a few things:

Continue with the saving for what I’m very generically referring to as The Future. This is primarily Future Home/Real Estate Purchasing. Because apparently that costs money $$.
Finish funding my emergency fund. I started this earlier this year, my goal is to reach 6mos of expenses and I’m currently halfway there.
Go on vacation. I have one trip planned (not booked) for New York City next October, and I want to include seeing a Broadway play in that as well.

Still have some growing up to do (although apparently I’m an adult now, who knew?), but we’ll see what the future holds. I do have some goals/things that I would like to do before I turn thirty, but I think I’ll save that for another post.

Twenty-six

Michelle — Sun, 08 Nov 2015 23:30:36 +0000

I turned 26 yesterday and had a wonderful day! It’s my first birthday since I started school of any sort that I’m not in school, the first birthday in a long time where I’m not juggling studying for midterms and prepping for clinical. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like I’ve accomplished a lot in my life, but in the last year I successfully completed two preceptorships, graduated from nursing school “with distinction”, wrote and passed the NCLEX, and got my foot into the door with a casual RN position. So I’d say I accomplished something over the last year!

With my family, we went to Denny’s for breakfast. I opted for a breakfast with blueberry pancakes and got my eggs sunny side up. With my friends, we went to afternoon tea at a lovely little tea salon. There was a mix of savoury and sweet food items that were a delight. It was a great atmosphere with beautiful decor and even more wonderful company. It was fun to catch up with friends. Some haven’t seen each other since my last birthday party. Many of the gifts I received were tea relate, as my friends probably could deduce that I must really like tea if I a) wanted to have my birthday celebration at a tea salon and b) have a tea blog.

The day was capped off with a great seafood (prawns!) feast with my family, and cake – because cake is the best!

I’m glad that my schedule worked out the way it did so I could celebrate my birthday on my birthday – and that others weren’t busy too!

This week on Monday & Tuesday, I have orientation (still) – but I will hopefully get my schedule for when I get my mentorship hours/shifts! My hope is that I get my mentorship hours done before too far into December so I can get placed onto the call list for the winter/holiday/flu season.

Twenty-five.

Michelle — Fri, 07 Nov 2014 08:01:33 +0000

25. 25. 25.

4 more clinical days.

2 written finals. 1 simulated lab final.

Approximately (provided my friend’s countdown app on her phone isn’t off) 184 days until my last day of next term.

And then graduation a month later.

I’m so close. So, so, so close. Pay a bunch of money, write an expensive test, (pass!) get licensed, work. Excitement will be had at the end of the tunnel.

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!

About a bruised knee, a tease and a slight change in holiday plans

Michelle — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 05:54:20 +0000

I went curling yesterday because it was K’s birthday thing. It was pretty fun, although I did accuse K of wanting to publicly humiliate me because the guy who was teaching us how to curl was telling us about how it was all in the ass and core muscles so we had to learn how to thrust our bodies forward with our ass (i.e. up in the air and then forward slide). It was fun though. I’m kinda really bad at sliding forward and kept on hitting my knee against the ice, which means that today I have a lovely orange-sized deep purple bruise on my right knee. It’s very attractive, let me assure you. But it was fun!

My favourite part is when I threw the rock down the sheet of ice and knocked the opposing team’s rock out of the way, or when it got close to the middle.

My least favourite part was the whole knee-hitting-the-ice bit.

Overall, curling was a nice experience. It was fun, it was painful. I like throwing the rocks more than sweeping because that involves running when it goes too fast for me to keep up with. If curling was ever something on my bucket list (not that I have one), I’d be able to cross it off now.

I’d been teasing Clay that I had a surprise for him since last week and today it kinda just got revealed in a lackluster kind of way. See, last week (I finished exams, whoot) I found out that the company that I work for during the summers needed some extra help doing data entry. And, you know, they thought of me. Probably because I am: inexpensive, quick, efficient, high level of accuracy (if I do say so myself!) and because I don’t require any training because I wrote the manual on how to edit, filter and do things in the program. So I’m working over my winter break. Which is fine, really, since it’s so short to begin with (I know someone who got a whole three and a half weeks off between terms, I have 2 more days of holiday more than public grade school students do). And work keeps me out of trouble (not that I really get into it) and I get to make a bit of money which will be going towards a trip in 2011 – first vacation since middle school, go me.

So that’s what I have planned for my winter holidays now: work.

I also want to get some baking done (shortbread, sugar cookies, cupcakes), which I will probably start tomorrow. And then there’s the whole getting together with friends and seeing people and waiting impatiently for mail to arrive (I have 3 packages coming to me from 3 different companies, plus 1 package that still needs to ship due to being backordered). I’m clearly celebrating Christmas to myself. In my defense, one was ordered late November and they have a week processing time (slow, I know) plus it’s by regular mail. I don’t see a point in paying for express post when I can wait (and I ordered t-shirts, it’s not exactly t-shirt weather right now anyways). And everything else… well, at least one package is scheduled to arrive 2 days before the new year!

twenty + one = twenty-one

Michelle — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 03:31:12 +0000

So uhh, I turned twenty-one years old recently. I can now legally drink in the United States of America… Not that I’m in the States very often. But I could legally drink in the States. Although I’ve been able to legally drink in Canada since I was 19. Oh, and now I’m sure you’re all concerned about my pending alcoholism. I can reassure you that I don’t drink very often. Generally it’s a social thing, or just a glass of wine while knitting or crocheting.

But yay, I’m older. *throws confetti*

I had a few of my friends over, I made dinner without burning the house down (whoot!)… although I did manage to burn the popcorn? Even though I stopped the microwave when it told me to stop it (when there’s more than 1-2 seconds between pops) but it still got burnt. Boo. But we did watch one of my favourite movies of all time – Casablanca! Complete with a lot of junk food and me biting the heads off of gummi bears. Because, you know, it’s what I do when I get a year older.

I’ve recently gotten all of the midterms back that I did mid-to-late October. I did well in ecology and entomology and good in animal mechanics and an ‘ehhhh’ in oceanography. Luckily (for me!) they adjusted the total a little bit, so my grade was bumped up a whole 8%. But I have one more oceanography midterm to deal with (I’m aware that there is only one middle-of-term, my oceanography professors are unaware that there is only one middle to something) so I’m going to be studying a lot for that, seeing as it’s the last midterm and it’s only one midterm – not one surrounded by a million (read: three) other tests.

I’m doing some baking tonight… Lava cakes with raspberries and white chocolate sauce… Yum.

Happy birthday to me?

Belated birthday gifts!

Michelle — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 20:51:57 +0000

(From my parents, whoot!)
Blythe notebook

New purse (which happens to fit Blythes…?) – it’s pretty roomy, I could fit my entire old purse into this one and still have a lot of room left over

My dad picked this one out. When you slide it open, there’s a surprise inside.

And last, but certainly not least, a new Blythe doll! Stock name is Simply Peppermint, I have no clue what I’m going to be naming this little beauty though.

Name suggestions would be awesome.

Birthday smasharoonies!

Michelle — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 03:00:05 +0000

(Yes, I make up words for the hell of it. It’s fun sometimes, but I do still have a great appreciation for the English language.)

So last night was my birthday party. People were fashionably (and not-so fashionably) late as well as being super early (while thinking that they were late, haha). But it was so nice to see everyone again. Some of my friends, I hadn’t seen since the summer and others I hadn’t seen since September (October was definitely an anti-social month for me, for reasons that shall not be disclosed at this time). So it’d been a while since I’ve seen a lot of people.

We watched a movie (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – I hadn’t seen it before and thought the kitty plates are kind of charming… if there had only been one) and had an awesome dinner (friends C and K helped out with the cooking, because I’m fairly hopeless when it comes to cooking anything beyond breakfast foods) and we had some form of pasta that was not spaghetti (my sister can’t read names on packaging, apparently) with very yummy sauce that required an impromptu shopping trip for an onion and realizing exactly how much pasta was made with one package (the family and I will be eating pasta every day for like… ever). But it was so nice seeing everyone again…

Even if my friend K was awfully mean with wrapping my present. It was a super light-weight box that had shredded paper inside with little taped folded pieces of paper. And she told me that I had to find 20 pennies in the wrapped up pieces of paper. I found 19. And then she starts giggling and laughing and hands me another penny and says that there was only 19 there. Then she goes out to her car and gets the real present, which also had duct tape… Oy. I hope her family owns stock in a company that makes duct tape, given how much she uses on me every year, haha.

My friends had gotten so good at getting me doubles of things. When I was 16, I got three copies of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares, when I was 17, I got two copies of P.S. I love you… by Cecelia Ahern and for my 18th and 19th birthday, there were no doubles/triples (I was impressed!). Heh, this year, I got two copies of Story of O by Pauline Réage and the strangest thing that I found was that the racier looking cover was given by my friend who generally wouldn’t even given a book like that the time of day. And this morning my sister sees the two copies of the book (with different covers – one is plain white with black lettering, the other has the image of a woman sitting in lingerie, not truly modern lingerie) and asks me what the book is about. First thing that came out of my mouth? “It’s a story about BDSM from a woman’s point of view.” That was an incredibly awkward conversation to say the least.

My sister J and friend K put the candles on my cake… 20 candles is a lot and the cake was so full of holes after, so glad I wasn’t turning 50 or something, then the entire thing could have been lit with a torch or something and gotten all the candles in one go. But yeah, the candles were lit, and everyone was just sitting there kind of staring at me and someone went (I think) “Made a wish yet?” or something like that, and then someone else went “Shouldn’t we sing first?” and then everyone starts singing.

All in all, it was an excellent time with my friends. I had an awkward time fielding some questions (because when someone asks you, more than once, if someone is showing up, it gets a little awkward after a while), but overall it was a fun time. A lot of time was spent just catching up with everyone and that was fun. K managed to summarize her life from the last 1-2 months in about less than 5 minutes. A record? I think so!

Went out shopping with the sister today. We went grocery shopping for the week (marshmallows was the number one thing on our shopping list), and then did some other shopping at the mall. I bought season 1 of Pushing Daisies for her, along with season 2 of Pushing Daisies (but she’s paying me back for that) and season 5 of Grey’s Anatomy. And then we happened to go wandering into Jacob’s. Whoops? Ahh well, I hadn’t bought new clothes in a while, and it’s always nice to wear nice lingerie, right? I’ve seriously gained a new appreciation for nice underthings over the last year, and learned to like handwashing clothes as well. But yeah, lots of shopping and ended up with new things to wear and season 5 of Grey’s.

It feels like it’s a Sunday even though it’s a Saturday, such a weird feeling.

Anyways, hope everyone had an awesome Friday and an even better Saturday!

I wish it were another lazy Sunday

Michelle — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 04:14:21 +0000

My sister’s friends left after singing their little hearts out to karaoke at around 2am. It is not cool to be kept up that late listening to people sing. However, my sister did have the decency to turn down the volume. But when it’s already the next day, in the early am, the last thing I want to hear is her friends singing “Barbie Girl” (it was the only one I recognized/was loud enough).

So I went to sleep at around 2am, woke up a little bit past 8am. Had breakfast and then studied some biology. Took a mid-morning nap (because I desperately needed it) and then worked on my reference sheet for my biology midterm tomorrow and then ate lunch. I finished my shabby reference sheet, went grocery shopping (because apparently my sister’s friends eat a lot…) and then came home to clean, snack and watch a movie.

Oh, also started on a biology project that is due this Friday. Hah. Yeah… This is going to be an excellent week. Two midterms, 1 evening (organic chem) review session, volunteering (yay!), one biology project and it all ends off with my birthday party for Friday/Saturday. Every girl who turns 20 should have a sleepover, seriously. (That’s what I thought when I turned 19, as well!) So this week should be interesting, to say the least. Very packed with things to do.

After Friday’s awesome mishap with the chocolate cake incident that may or may not have involved food, I went for a run today… for an hour. What the fudge was I thinking? Legs are totally hating me right now, to say the least, and it was a few hours ago when I got home. My body is not impressed with me… I generally only go for a run when I’m upset/angry… Eating an entire chocolate cake counts as something to be upset about, yes? And other things, of course, that are going on, that shall also not be named (it’s like the Voldemort of my personal life, yay? Whoot for lame Harry Potter references!), led to me running for an hour (not the entire hour was spent running. I run it bursts… there were a few segments of 5 minutes spent walking and breathing – yay for oxygen). However, no matter what the reason of why I went for a run… My calves are looking a little bit better. Or maybe it’s just my imagination.

Anyways, hope you all had a wonderful, exercise-free Sunday!

What comes after 19?

Michelle — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 03:03:49 +0000

I’m getting old.

However, the good thing is that I’m aging linearly, rather than exponentially (because that would really suck!). Today has been going fairly well, I did some grocery shopping and driving around with the sisters and a whole lot of cleaning. Overall, it has been a kind of long day (boo), but it’s fine.

And here’s a little something that Kristi made for me (yay, thanks Kristi!)