November again...

This last Thursday I had my psych clinical on the local Alzheimer’s unit. Now I understand that this is a very sad disease, and causes a lot of people a lot of emotional pain. That said, I had a blast. Because these weren’t my grandparents who didn’t remember who I was, we were able to just sit and shoot the shit together, talking about everything from Halloween candy to motherhood and boys. Tracy, one of my friends, and I spent most of the morning laughing and a couple of times were driven to tears. We weren’t laughing at the fact that we’d heard the same stories over and over again, but more at how frank these old women were being. The first part of the brain that this disease attacks is the frontal lobe which is responsible for more advanced thinking, including inhibitions. Therefore, these women said whatever they were thinking, whether or not it was appropriate. Clearly, this led to some rather entertaining conversation, including the fact that our clinical instructor is a “rather attractive young man” and we should consider dating him because he would be a “great catch.” Every time he walked by a comment was made about this, and as time went on, Tracy and I had a really hard time keeping it together. (perhaps it is necessary to know what Prof. DeMartinis looks like, and the best visual I can give you is that of Coach Chappell about 15 years ago- it is clear that he works out his upper body much more than his lower.) I’ve never been inclined to work with the geriatric population, but perhaps it’s something I should look into.

Otherwise, life is good. I can’t believe we only have 6 weeks left of the semester, and the next three weeks before Thanksgiving are so busy that I’m sure the time will fly by. In two weeks I head to Reno for the National Student Nurses’ Association midyear conference, which I’m sure will be completely overwhelming and lots of fun. I really like the other people on the executive council, so it should be a good time. Plus, who can turn down a free weekend trip to Reno? Not this girl, that’s for sure. Then I’m back for a week of hell before I head to Santa Barbara county for Thanksgiving week. I’m looking forward to seeing the family and having one of those big multifamily thanksgiving dinners that I’ve never really experienced. Two more weeks of school before finals, and I’m on the airplane yet again to fly home. Including Vegas, I think I figured out I’ll be making 9 cross country flights in a two month span. Crazy!

Love and miss-