Growth

New Haven is growing finally. The weather is warming, and flowers and trees are responding accordingly. The trees lining the edge of Wooster Square are currently in full bloom; the’re completely covered in white petals, a few in pink. I think the’re apple, but they could be plum, cherry, pear, or something of that nature.  

We found a relatively narrow side street off the square lined on both sides with these trees creating the effect of a natural latice-like overhang. I felt the whole scenario was a bit surreal, just because of how different it was too me.  There were handfuls of people out today gawking at the flowers and the white domed tunnel up and down the street. There were many people taking photographs of the event, including us. Here are a couple I took with my phone.

Hurray! Plants!

We decided to add a little bit of plant life to the corner nearest the house in the backyard. We’ll eventually get some lawn furniture to put back there once the tag sale kick in next month as the student population flees for the summer.

Before:

After:

Elizabeth = Registered Nurse

That much closer to the school year being over. I am a happy girl.

It should be in the high 70’s today. Off I go to look for a patio table at a tag sale (ie garage sale), finish a paper and then to fix up the garden plot with Adam this afternoon 🙂

The studying blurrrrr

I am deep into my NCLEX (Nursing board exam) funk. I am on my final study countdown and can’t wait to be done with this and finally be an RN… That is if my test date goes well.

I am tired of looking at questions like these:

1)”A nurse is assessing a client with a suspected diagnosis of hypocalcemia. Which of the following clinical manifestations are not associated with this diagnosis?

A) hypoactive bowel sounds

B) Parasthesias

C) Hyperactive deep tendon reflexes

D)Positive Trousseau’s sign

Mean while I ask myself:

2)A nurse is assessing the change of season. After drop kicking her NCLEX book out the front door and finished her prospectus (translation: big chunk of thesis) which patient will the RN attend to first?

A) The subaru who has been wanting to leave Connecticut all spring and complains of muscle stiffness

B) The community garden plot with a low serum albumin with a TPN infusion running

C) The wedding planning that has been put on the back burner and is complaining of shorness of breath

D) The kitchen floor awaiting a bed bath

(Answer to be decided, but chances are I will go with the Respiratory compromise.)

A few confessions I hate how in medical lingo they name everything after someone… Why? It makes everything so much more complex. Graves disease, Murphy sign, McBurney point, Trousseau’s sign, Brudinski sign, Finklestien etc….. blah. I guess if there were a Stoffers’ sign or a Causey’s sign I wouldn’t be complaining, in the meantime it makes memorization a pain in the @**.

I did NOT shriek like a little girl

Upon entering the shower I shrieked like a teenage girl and you would too. I quickly recovered and composed myself in a more dignified fashion. I made peace with the foriegn invader, moving it to a safehouse (a.k.a. a can with a piece of cardboard over it), and released in back into the wild. I figure it’s wisest to attempt peace on first contact with a new species, but if that species shows itself again though there is no telling what I’ll have to get Ellie to do.

This bug was huge! The body was at least 2 inches long, 5 inches including antenae. The legs weren’t like normal centiped legs, they were long, thick, jointed things that propelled it along the floor at speeds only acquired through dealings with unsavory characters.

Things shouldn’t have more than four legs…

 Anybody know what this thing is? Early money is on the 1st horseman of the apocolypse.

Vermont

The New England Wildflower Society (N.E.W.F.S.) has a Plant Conservation volunteer program I will be participating in through the summer. It’s a way for me to get outside and participate no matter where I end up working. They do a lot of rare plant monitoring, invasive control, habitat management, and general botanical surveys. The latter is the most interesting to me at this moment in time, since I don’t know any of the common species, much less the rare species.

Anyways I went to Vermont early yesterday morning for the introductionary/training day for new volunteers. It was quite a pleasant drive, it’s a pretty state.

Birthday Tacos

Well… I am finally writing my first blog posting. Last Tuesday we celebrated my 25th birthday. Adam made yummy tacos- during which we found we disagreed on how to “properly” fry the taco shells. None the less the meal was great regardless of how ones mother prepared the taco shells. We had a few friends over for dinner. Then Susan (roomate) made my favorite and traditional birthday cake of angel food with whip cream and strawberries.

A delightful meal indeed.

Here are some photos a friend took.

School has hit a bit of a lul over the next several weeks. Meanwhile I am revving up for the Nursing exam I take in about 2 weeks.

🙂 Elizabeth

It’s the most wonderful time of the year

Today is the most wonderful time of the year. Today is a day for everybody to start fresh, a day when everybody sits atop the leaderboard. Today is a day of spring and hope. That’s right I’m blogging about baseball. 

Then it rained all day on the east coast and I found out Barry Zito was the Giants opening day starter, Brian Bocock, who has never played above A ball (there is A, AA, and AAA baseball in the minors – AAA being the closest to the majors) was the starting Shortstop, and so on and so forth.

Then we lost to the Dodgers 5-0. Hope was fun while it lasted.

“I would never write a blog about baseball” -Elizabeth