28 days, 38 classes, 4 tests, and 5 finals from now…

I'll be a college junior. But really, who's counting?

I’ve never gotten out of school so early, and I’m having a really hard time grasping the fact that I’ll be completely done in less than a month. The fact that it’s only like 40 degrees outside probably helps because I feel like summer means warmer weather, and that’s obviously not happening right now. It’s supposed to be around 60 when Brett and I go watch the A’s play the White Sox on Tuesday, so hopefully that will actually be the case. It snowed last night, so I feel like anything is game.

I should be doing my clinical paperwork, or studying for my child development test, but of course that’s not going to happen until later. I started working in the hospital with real patients about two weeks ago, and after my first week, I feel like I’m ready for anything. My very first patient was a bilateral above knee amputee who didn’t speak English and was disoriented. Apparently we don’t believe in easing into the real world out here. I felt completely over my head and overwhelmed that day, but the good news is that now everything seems easy comparatively. My patient for tomorrow is a 45 year old woman with abdominal pain who can take complete care of herself. I met her tonight when I went in to get the preclinical paperwork done and it’s going to be cake. I really like nursing and enjoy getting to work with real people, even if it means getting up at 6am. Luckily, I only have to do that once a week.

I’m ready for summer. The weather, not having classes, not being stressed out or studying for a never-ending number of tests- I’m ready for it all. This summer is going to be an absolute blast. I’m working with the Junior High Ministry at Rolling Hills 30 hours a week, and actually getting paid for it. I’ve been working with them for as long a I can remember as a volunteer and this year when the paid positioned opened up, they offered it to me for the summer. I’ll be working with people I respect and admire, while doing something that I absolutely love and getting to go to camp- it really doesn’t get much better than that. A week road-tripping around Southern California and a week in Central Washington and it’s all a part of the job description. I’m spoiled.

Brett’s also flying out for a week at the beginning of July and I’m really looking forward to that. He’s only been to the West Coast once, and never to the Northwest, so I think he’s in for a bit of a shock when he sees how beautiful the landscape is. My friends have all been dying to meet him for months, so it’ll be interesting to see how that goes. Knowing some of them, it could be really amusing.

Other than that, not a whole lot is happening here in the good ole Po. Just trying to survive and motivate myself to go to class for the next three weeks. (Tuesday for baseball will be the first classes I’ve skipped all semester, thank you very much. I decided it was more than worth it to watch the A’s play.) I’m headed up to Wisconsin this weekend for the Sigma Chi Formal since one of my friends couldn’t find a date, and I’m hoping it’ll be fun. I don’t know as many people as I did last year, but I think I’ll survive. I can be a pretty social person when I want to be.

I’m looking forward to spending some time with Liz and Billy in Baltimore, watching Dad graduate and catching a game in Fenway next month, and I’m hoping the time passes quickly until then.

Love and miss-