Rain, Rain, Go Away

I come from a desert. It doesn't rain a whole lot in Utah. And when it does, everybody is very grateful for it. It rains so little, that I went a summer with a broken windshield wiper on my car.

That's not the case here. All it has done is rain and rain and rain and then rain some more. And when it rains, it's not just a nice little pretty rain. It pours! It comes down hard. I think there's some places were it hasn't been dry this entire spring. Definately different than last summer, when it didn't rain at all.

Colleen gave us two of her old bird feeders. She has some new ones and no longer has any place for the these ones. We put them up on Saturday and the birds absolutely love them. We have woods about 20 feet from our backdoor, so we already had a bunch of birds, but now they're everywhere. I don't know the names of them all, but we do get cardinals and mourning doves and bunch of finches. It took them about a day to finish off one feeder.

I had a horrible headache yesterday. It was bothering me at work and felt like it could turn into a migraine. When I got home, I ate some dinner, took my migraine medicine, and laid down on the couch. Well, the head just got worse. I wouldn't notice it that much if I was laying down (or is it lying down?), but when I could up, it hurt so bad I felt like I was going to pass out. Carl called up the pharmacy and asked if I could take some Lortab I had left over from a car accident last year with my migraine medicine and they said I could. So, I took some of that and that knocked me out about a half hour later. However, I woke up at 2 this morning with my still hurting (although not as bad) and wide awake. I never could get back to sleep. I tried everything. Too bad we didn't have any Benadryl. I didn't go into work today because my head still hurt a little and I was so tired!! Not a fun night at all!

For some good news, grades came back and I got all A's. Yippee for me!!

Yay for being done with school!

Yay! I'm all done with finals! This was not a fun week. I only had three finals, one on Wednesday and two on Friday. However, my two on Friday were in my two hardest classes and were one right after the other. Not fun at all. To top it all off, I had a cold this entire week and just exhausted. I had a hard time studying because I couldn't stay awake for long. I kept having to take little naps so that I could get my studying done.

All in all, I think I did well this semester. It was so nice actually being in nursing classes. I enjoyed my school so much more. It was actually things I wanted to learn and do. Carl once made a comment about how I seemed much happier about school now. It's true; I am. It's nice actually learning things that I know I'll use in my career. I'm much more interested in the classes I'm taking and therefore much more interested in studying for them. Except for microbiology. That class sucked.

Bug Identification Quest

With the aid of the ever useful Google, Google images, and Wikipedia, I have successfully identified the insect that so loving frightened my wife. It is commonly known as the "house centipede" and scientifically as "Scutigera coleoptrata." This lovable creature has an average of 15 pairs of legs, but at birth has only 4 pairs. Each time the bug molts it gains 2 pairs of legs. Surprisingly, these bugs can live 3 to 7 years (assuming there aren't any bug-spraying husbands nearby). In addition, this lively critter feeds on cockroaches, spiders, ants, bedbugs, silverfish, and other household pests. Maybe the next time I see one I will offer it a spider or an ant before I spray it with bug spray...

As a side note, the bug is not life threatening and, according to Wikipedia, its fangs cannot usually pierce human skin. However, if it does, the bite is usually no worse than a bee sting and is rarely life threatening (only in extreme allergic reactions). I hope that makes Tiona feel a little better having a house centipede in our bedroom!

On a happier note, these bugs are loved in Japan, and can even be bought from the local pet store for your loved one at home! Luckily, I don't have to buy them!

Pesky Critters

I received a call from Tiona yesterday and she was absolutely distraught. As a good husband always does, I asked her what was wrong. With this little voice--full of terror--she said, "I found a spider in my car!" So I asked her what she did, and she said, "I tried to kill it, but it ran under my chair." After a long pause, I finally asked her if she was able to drive. Her reply was very meek and full of embarassment, "You wouldn't believe how hard it is to drive without putting your feet on the floor." After a few moments of thought, she added, "But it is giving me a great calf workout." She was so worried about having a mad spider below her chair that I finally had to convince her that since a spider's brain is so small it would have a very short memory. I convinced her that the spider had forgotten all about her previous attempt on its life and that she was now safe. I didn't have the heart to tell her that I made that up... Luckily, she got home safely without any spider bites.

This morning she had fully recovered from her agonizing, automobilic, arachnoid adventure. She reported that she had no nightmares of the experience. However, while I was enjoying a magnificient, mouth watering bowl of cereal I hear a scream that made my blood run cold. As I go running into the bathroom, fearing I would find my beautiful wife lying on the floor in a pool of blood, I spot her with eyes fixed on the wall in our bedroom. There, on the wall, peacefully sat an enormous, 28 legged monstrous sight. Shedding all fear, leaving all rational thought behind, I charged to the rescue of my helpless wife. She stood there transfixed, helpless, and frozen with fear. I knew that I could not wrestle the 28 legs without a plan, so I sought the only weapon available: Raid. The glorious bug spray caused my wife's worst nightmare to writhe in pain and agony before falling to the floor. Within seconds, the running bug slowed and curled into a ball. My wife, with a newfound strength, ran into my outstretched arms and breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you," she said, "You truly are the best husband ever." Holding the priceless beauty in my arms I felt time stop. I secretly made a vow that I would never let my dear wife experience such fear again.

Best Husband Ever

I have the best husband ever. I'm sure most wives feel this way, but I really feel like I got the cream of the crop.

On Monday, I really wasn't having the best day. I've been very stressed out lately and overwhelmed with school and work and everything else. I called Carl on my lunch break and complained to him, basically bawling on the phone to him. (Not bawling, but there was some tears.) So, I go home that night, and the house is completely cleaned. (well, except for our spare bedroom. But that needs a full days work!) The laundry was done, the dishes were done, the place was vacuumed. He had gone to the store, cooked dinner, and had a candlelight dinner waiting for me. Even better, he started on it before I called him. Isn't he the best? Sometimes I wonder what I did to deserve somebody like him...

Sleep

Well, I guess it's time to update this again. Clinical was fine on Saturday. I had the same patient, but it was better. I feel like I got to do a little bit more and am a little more comfortable with doing things on my own. My partner was still a little hesitant about doing things on our own, but it was good.

It's kind of sad...this lady doesn't have anybody to come visit her or anything. No family (she's a ward of the state) and it must be incredibly lonely. She's not really "with it", but still. I certainly hope that when I get to be that age, I have some family or friends to come visit me.

On some better news, we got our washer! It's nice...yesterday I threw some clothes in and fell asleep (not on purpose, but it was still nice). Didn't really have to worry about getting it out on time and stuff like that. It was nice.

Hmm...what else? Carl and I live pretty boring lives. Just school and work. Oh! I felt so bad this past weekend. I got hardly any sleep last week. I had 3 tests and was studying for those and then on Friday I was really sick. I didn't get much sleep on Thursday night because my stomach was keeping me up. I just went to class long enough to take my test, then went home and went back to sleep.

Anyway, the night before our clinical, our instructor emails us the information about our client and we have to look up all the information about what disease they have and all the drugs they're on and things like that. So, I was up till about midnight doing that and had to be at the hospital at 7 in the morning.

That night, we were at Colleen's and I was so tired. I laid down on the couch and fell asleep for about 4 HOURS! I didn't mean to at all. I felt so bad because Ken and Michelle were down from Peoria and I did hardly anything with Michelle because I was either doing homework or sleeping. I felt horrible! I told her that I would be better next time they came down. Hopefully, when school's down (1 more month!), I can get more sleep and not be falling asleep all the time.

Bellevue Branch

Yesterday was my first day at my new branch. I guess with the way the economy is going and all that fun stuff, Fifth Third (the bank I work for) is trying to cut costs. One of the ways is to reduce the number of tellers at the branches, so I got transferred to a new branch.

My new branch is in Bellevue, right up by the river. It's a little further away and takes me about 20-25 minutes to get there. It's a slower branch and also gets a little bit more crazy people in it. The crazy people kind of remind me of Wells Fargo.

One of the crappy things is that I'm going to be closing 4 out of 5 nights. That means I'll get off work at about 6:15 and won't get home until about 6:45. Then still have to eat dinner and so probably won't start studying until about 8. I don't know how I'm going to do it...

I guess what it really is is that I'm getting sick of working in banks. I'm hoping that by next semester, I'll have a job in a hospital. (I also won't be able to get my 20 hours in next semester at the bank)

Or maybe I'm just complaining because I only got 4 hours of sleep last night because I was studying for 2 tests today and I have one again on Friday. Blah...