A very long day indeed

I thought I'd put a little in this post about Dreamwidth. I haven't been here long but already I have higher hopes and expectations for it than I've had any other Livejoural-based service. The userbase thus far seems dedicated and focused. The staff seems competent. Really it just seems more STABLE here. Plus, there's a small, personal feel to it yet. This could be because...it's still small & personal. IMAGINE THAT.

I really like some of the changes I see already--my favorite thing is the dual-level "friends list". I like the change in terminology, and I like the difference between "someone I read" and "someone who has access to my locked stuff". I have often wished the 2 did not go hand in hand on Livejournal, and I am happy to see that division here.

Haven't found any bugs yet, but I am poking into the site as much as I can. I very much enjoy mobile posting, so I imagine I'll be inspecting everything they have toward that end. I wish there was some way to post photos, but that's a feature and not a bug.

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Today was certainly one of the more hectic days I've had during school, and we didn't expect it to be that way at the outset!

We had an exam first thing this morning. Expecting around 70 questions...and it ended up being more like 85. o_O!!! The exam covered extremely diverse topics as well: pediatric shock & emergencies, neonatal critical care situations, intraortic balloon pumping (with NO more cardiac content than that!) and triage. It was just WEIRD how it was a random mishmash of things. That made it very difficult to study for, as did the fact that yesterday was both Bryan's birthday & Daddy's, and I had a baptism to attend last night. All of this combined gave me a raw score of 77% on the exam. BOOOO. However, I would not have missed the other things, so I'll take it. We also saw some questions we feel should be thrown out; if just a couple of questions don't make the cut then that will bump me up to a B instead of a C.

Taking such a long test took much longer than usual, and I still had Healthy Ager at the same time as usual. Unfortunately I also needed to print out the educational materials to give them and also EAT FOODZ. So we ran to the cafeteria, bolted down our lunches, and then ran back to print things. Those of my classmates who had to meet Healthy Agers at 12:30 instead of 1:30 didn't even get to eat lunch at all. T_T

After Healthy Ager, as usual, we headed to the hospital to pick patients for tomorrow. I am now in the 3 North rotation, which is technically the neuro floor. However, I do not have a neuro patient. As usual. I never seem to find a patient who is actually on the floor which is intended for his/her condition.

Now that I write it all out it doesn't sound that exhausting, but I suppose after an 85 question exam, having to do ANYTHING seems exhausting. >_< I'm much happier tonight than on previous Thursday nights, however, because tomorrow we stop doing the "pre-plan" form and begin doing an "SBAR" (situation, background, assessment, recommendation) form. SBAR forms contain the same level of information as a pre-plan, but they are much more concise and easy to deal with. SBAR is the format used by most nurses in the "real world" upon shift change, when they give report to the next nurse who will be caring for that particular patient. That means tonight I just have to familiarize myself with the patient's condition and medications! Schweet.

Right now I'm relaxing. I've made myself the First Smoothie of the Year (this one was with bananas & blueberries, which is basically what I had in the kitchen). I made some Annie's mac & cheese (so good) and got a rotisserie chicken from Kroger, so supper was easy. Tonight is for catching up on real life things, like laundry and dishes.

Who I am...

Well. Given that DW is something of a new beginning regardless of how long I think I'll ride this train, I'm going to follow in the footsteps of others and do a "Here's who I am" post. My user info gives you an idea, but not a very clear picture.

Things About Me
I am an optimistic realist. I believe in the essential goodness of people when they can just think a little outside themselves. It doesn't happen often, but I believe that potential is inside every human being. I love life and I believe it is to be LIVED, not just allowed to happen passively. I have no urge to remain anonymous online. I have been told that to get to know me online is to know me IRL, because my online presentation prepares one perfectly for meeting me IRL. If you expect to meet a short redheaded lady who acts and thinks like she's 10 feet tall and bulletproof, then you're probably right on target. I'm introverted, but I have an absurd amount of self-confidence and am at ease interacting with other people, so most people are surprised to find that out.

I am a doctor of nursing and a nurse practitioner. A friend of mine paid me the highest compliment, once upon a time. She told me that some people choose nursing as a profession, but that some people are chosen by nursing. She believes I was chosen by nursing, and I was completely honored to hear her say that. I hope it's true. I have a passion for helping people in some of their darkest moments, and honestly I'm not an organizer of big groups. I don't work on a large scale; my abilities are much better used on an interpersonal basis.

I am good at & with people. Most times, I know what to say and how to say it to get the response I want or need out of someone. If I was evil, this would be called "manipulative" but as I am largely a good person, this is called "working well with others." :)

I am quite good at seeing my own flaws. Sometimes I see flaws that other people tell me aren't there. Mostly my biggest flaws are absentmindedness and distraction. I compensate for those things by being obsessively organized in things where it's important, such as work. In the past, though, my caregiver personality has itself been manipulated to get something out of me. Quite dramatically & for a very lengthy period of time. I suppose if the worst that can be said about me is that I gave too much, well then, I feel all right about that.

My circumstances
I am currently an emergency department nurse practitioner. As a nurse, I'd always wanted to be in the emergency department. What I knew about myself combined with what I knew about emergency seemed to indicate it was a perfect fit, but I didn't KNOW that for sure. As an RN, it just never seemed to work out--when I was looking, the ER didn't have openings & when they had openings I wasn't looking. However, when I graduated as an APRN, I was looking and they were looking, so I jumped right in. Now that I'm in emergency, several long-time emergency RNs have told me that the ER is "my place." One of them, Jody, has my highest respect and she specifically said in ACLS "I know you worked in step-down as an RN, but honestly having worked with you in the ER, I just can't picture you doing ANYTHING except emergency." This will be one of my favorite compliments FOREVER.

My husband, Bryan, is a high school math and programming teacher. He started out his 2nd degree in computer science, switched to math, and began teaching...then this year took the PRAXIS for programming and certified to teach it. He's all about that full circle kinda thing. Bryan's interesting quirk is that he's probably a math genius and didn't find this out until he was 26 years old. We got married in 2000, so it's way easy to keep up with how many years we've been married. The DMB song "Crush" is my favorite song because of the way it reminds me of Bryan.

We have one son, Ganon, who was born in 2006. We named him after the bad guy in the Legend of Zelda videogames, not just because we're fans, but because it's really a very beautiful, masculine name. With the 2017 release of Breath of the Wild, he's a big fan of the LoZ franchise now, and wants to cosplay link at DragonCon this year. Like his parents, he's an introvert, and when he's had enough he will tell us "my bubble is popped." He likes memes, Pokemon, drones, traveling in our motorhome, and playing online games like Fortnite & Roblox with his friends.

I grew up on a farm in Weiner, Arkansas. Seriously, I'm not joking. <3

That's about it for the basic, really important stuff. I'm looking forward to getting to know everyone here on DW and seeing where the site goes!