More race and running news:

Here is a link to the article in today's Missoulian about the race. There were over 3,000 participants this year. That's not too shabby in a town of less than 60,000. It's great to live in a place that has so many fit, active people.

I was number 128 out of the 208 female 10k finishers. I'm really proud of that. Not in the top 50%, but close enough to that I will be next year. :)

I run 30 to 45 minutes a few times a week, (or as often as my school schedule allows), but I've never done any actual "training". But, this week Luis is going to help me personalize a training schedule, so that I can be injury-free and prepared for the half marathon in July. I've started reading Jeff Galloway's "Marathon," and the schedules he suggests aren't that much more than what I'm doing - I just need to start increasing the distance on one of my runs each week to start preparing for a longer distance race. Time to recalibrate my nike + ipod kit! (I haven't had time to get to a track to recalibrate it since I got new running shoes a while back, but it's going to make my training so much easier to track and record...) Since I have plenty of spare time this summer (no summer classes - woohoo!), I'm going to go all out - speed work, hills, all of it.

I'm psyched.

Booyah!

I ran my first 10k today.

I finished in 1:02.

I rule.

______________________________

I figured on twelve minute miles plus some cushion for walking and water, which I estimated would put me at the finish in just under 1:20. Instead I averaged ten minute miles. And I did the first one in :09:15. Pretty respectable numbers for my first race. I'm not breaking any records, but I'm not last either. :) I'll post a link to the times when they're available.

I was waiting until after this race to decide for sure, but now it's official. I'm going to run the Missoula half marathon in July!

Feeling the crunch.

I'm in the throes of end-of-semester madness. This is without a doubt the most pressure I've felt ever at the end of a semester. I have several projects and papers that came due at the same time, and poor planning on my part has me scrambling to finish some independent clinical hours that I need for a class. Ick. Time management has never been my strong suit, but I'm working on it. Better luck next semester, I guess...

On a much more exciting note, tomorrow is my first ever road race! I'm running 10k in the Riverbank Run. I'm not fast, but I'm enthusiastic. The weather is supposed to be sunny and 75°. It's going to be a great day. :)

Last day.

last day of med/surg clinicals, originally uploaded by mandapanda191.

Today was my last day of medical/surgical clinicals for this semester.
It's amazing, how far we've come in just a few short months. We showed up on the first day with no idea how to care for patients in the hospital. Books and lectures and skills labs can only get you so far, and the rest you have to learn by doing. By today, we could all manage total care for two patients.
I have wonderful classmates (two-thirds of them are pictured here), and great clinical instructors as well. It's been an awesome experience. I can't wait for next semester.

Name my blog!

When I first set myself up here at blogger, I was stumped for an appropriate title for my blog. I typed in the first thing that came to mind (Hi, my name is Mandi), and left it at that. Over the years I’ve often bemoaned the lackluster title, but I just can’t get my brain to crank out anything better.

This, dear reader, is where you come in.

Most of you are far cleverer than me. As such, I would love suggestions from any and all for a title befitting my little collection of embarrassing stories, venting, and other random brain runoff. The only rules are as follows:

1. Leave your name with your suggestion so I can give credit where credit is due.
2. Profanity, while appreciated for its rightful place in humor, will likely not be seriously considered. (My mom reads my blog.)
3. Be nice.


Ready… set… GO!



(Winner gets a puppy. Or perhaps some lavish praise. Something of that nature.)

Two skinned knees and one bruised ego.

As I was walking to my car after work this evening, I misstepped at the curb... and fell down.
I haven't fallen completely over (without the assistance of snow or ice, at least) for a long time. It's scarier than it was as a child. When I was little, I had skinned bruised knees more often than not. But these days, it's a longer way to fall (oh, shut it - I am taller than I was at eight, thanks very much), and it's a strange, unfamiliar feeling. It's a good thing I don't embarass easily. I sat on the ground for a minute and had a good laugh before trying to right myself.
Now I'm sitting at home with ice packs on my knees.

It was a fitting end to the week. I had a good laugh, and I'm ready start fresh on Monday.

Imagine, if you will...

...a crampy, teary, hormonal woman, self medicating with chocolate ice cream while reading an article about death and dying.

Yep.


(I linked to the page of frequently asked questions about death and dying, by David Kessler, because you should read it. Death is an important part of life that we as a society don't talk about enough, and I'm a firm believer in celebrating and honoring the dying. Beautiful things can happen, clear until the last moment of a person's life. Love. Forgiveness. Beauty. Peace. I hope that in my life, I'm able to help some people to connect with their dying loved ones, and help through their journey those who are dying.)

That was a long parenthesis. Someday I'll try to address my thoughts on dying in a post dedicated to the subject.

It finally happened.

Tonight I had my first "oh, no, I can't do this" moment. (This, of course, being nursing.) I've heard about these from fellow students as well as practicing nurses, but I never thought I'd feel that way myself. Silly me. It's funny - you'd think that type of moment would happen when I was giving an IV medication that could kill someone if I did it wrong. Or maybe I'd have that moment when I was cleaning up poo for the third time in an hour. Or when I was observing in the OR, watching as the surgeon lifted someone's intestines out of their rightful place in the abdomen.

Nope. It happened while I was lying in bed, thinking of my friends and family. I know some stuff now. In a year and a half I'll know more. After a few years of practicing as a nurse, I'll know a lot. But what if something happens before then? What if I'm with a diabetic friend, and they're going into diabetic ketoacidosis, and somehow I don't recognize it? What if I'm with a relative, and they have a heart attack? What if I can't save them? What if I should have been able to?

It scares the hell out of me.


That being said, I'm happy to report that my moment passed, and I'm feeling much better. But I now understand why, a few years ago, my friend's husband felt so much guilt for not recognizing her abdominal pain symptoms as cholecystitis. He's a nurse. It's an easy job to bring home. Unfortunately, shy of making everyone I care about wear helmets and face masks daily, stop riding in vehicles, and switch to a lean, low sodium, fish-fruits-and-veggies diet, I'm not sure I can prevent the possibility of things happening to them. I'll have to do the best I can with the situations I find myself in, and trust that the knowledge I'm gaining now will serve me when I need it the most.

Busy, busy.

I got home from Anaheim Sunday afternoon, and after a short nap I began last minute studying for a pharmacology test. I took the test Monday morning, went to a couple of classes and then proceeded into two days of clinicals. It's been a whirlwind past few days.

Today was my first day handling two patients, effectively doubling my patient load. I'm beat.

But, one of the nurses I worked with said that I'm amazing. That made my day.

Sunshine, here I come!

Here in Missoula it's 32 degrees with a forecast for snow. It's 65 and sunny in Anaheim.

Yes, please.

This afternoon some friends and I are heading to California for the NSNA convention. It'll be a great learning experience, and a lot of fun to boot. I'm ready for some sun!

Literary memory?

This is a fun little quiz about books with famous opening lines. How well do you remember the classics?

I didn't do so hot - I only scored 9 out of 13. Time to get back to my "books I should have already read" list...

Heeeere, sleepy, sleepy!

Seriously, my circadian rhythm is all messed up. I suppose that's what I get for staying up until 4:15 Sunday night/Monday morning to write a paper. Oh, and a cold. I got a head cold, too. (Apparently twenty-seven is officially too old for that sort of nonsense.)

Have I learned my lesson? In theory, yes. In practice? ...we'll see.

I'm ready for this semester to be over. I have a test tomorrow, work over the weekend, and another test on Monday - and then I leave for California for the NSNA convention. I'm pretty excited about it, mostly because it's a change from the same ol'. And the weather promises to be much more agreeable than the 40 degree rainy days we're having around here.

I'm considering another camera upgrade. I love my Powershot SD500, but the limited zoom is starting to get me down. When I bought it, I desperately wanted a super compact camera that I could wedge in the back pocket of even the tightest jeans, and the SD500 certainly fit the bill. But after shooting with it for about a year and a half, I really began to miss the creative liberties available with a longer focal length lens (which in the point and shoot world means more zoom). I've been looking around, and I think a good compromise is the Canon Powershot A710 IS. It has a 6x optical zoom, but is still fairly compact. I hate to spend too much money, because one of the purchases I intend to make upon graduating (and procuring a real job) is a Nikon digital SLR. However, that's out of reach at the moment, and mostly I need myself a zoomier point and shoot to get me by for another year.

This week, upon walking into our chapter meeting for MSNA (Montana Student Nurses Association), I was immediately bombarded with, "Mandi, want to run for chapter president for next year?" Since no one else was keen on taking the position, I (slightly grudgingly) agreed. I already hold a position on the MSNA state board, but I figured, eh, why not? I'm actually pretty excited about it now, though. All the other newly elected local officers are friends from my class, so I think we'll have a great time. Back when I was a music major, I was the president of our local chapter of Sigma Alpha Iota, so I've got a little experience that might come in handy.

Okay, time to give sleep another go. Wish me luck!

Ick.

I'm at an all-time procrastinating low: I have a paper due tomorrow morning, and it's after 1am now. Am I just finishing it up? No, no... scarcely halfway done. I think I've been avoiding writing this one because it's an unpleasant topic. For my psychosocial nursing class we had to interview someone who has suffered a loss, and write a paper analyzing their grieving process using one of the grief framework theories we covered in class. Cheery stuff. I interviewed my aunt about my uncle's death, without thinking through the fact that I, too suffered a loss from that event. It's been emotionally draining trying to write it. So instead, I've been aimlessly surfing the internet, wasting colossal amounts of time. Fortunately, I only have classes tomorrow from 8-12, so I fully intend to come back home and have a nap in the afternoon.

We're supposed to get an inch of snow tonight, and the forecast is calling for snow showers tomorrow too. WTF? It's April.

Have you ever bitten the inside of your cheek, and then because it's all swollen and sore you keep accidentally rebiting it every day or so, and it just never gets to heal? Yep, that sucks.

Another assignment I finished this weekend was a series of postings in an online discussion forum for my community health nursing class. We read the book Nickel and Dimed, by Barbara Ehrenreich, and had to address different issues the book touches on. It was good fun - I got to let loose about the vile, evil empire that is Walmart. (If you haven't read the book, I highly recommend it. It's an easy read, but with some really good commentary on the working poor in America.)

Okay, enough diddle-dallying. I'm off to finish this thing, and maybe I can still score at least a few hours of sleep before pharmacotheraputics. 8am classes suck, but at least there's still parking available on campus.