Updatalicious.

I've been a busy bee recently. Here's what has hijacked me from my already sporadic blogging:

Wedding

It sounds silly to say, but I'm anxious to get back into the swing of school so I can stop thinking about wedding stuff. Luis and I spent the past few weeks working on wedding arrangements, as this looks to be a particularly busy semester for both of us and we won't have much time for wedding planning as classes get underway.

A few years ago, I worked as an appointment scheduler for a different office in our clinic. My desk was between two girls who were both getting married the following summer, and I could not for the life of me figure out how they had wedding stuff to discuss every day. Seriously - every day. But (I'm embarrassed to admit), I get it now. Flowers, invites, favors, photos, and all the little details that etiquette dictates I should worry about, but that guests just won't even notice. So to my girlfriends (and the few unfortunate guy friends who I have trapped into wedding talk), I'm sorry. Really sorry. Your regularly scheduled Mandi will return no later than August 10th, but hopefully far sooner.

In terms of planning, we have much more done than I did a couple of months ago. We've got an officiant, a (wonderful) photographer, a place to party, invitations, and a wedding gown. Oh, and I still have those vases. :) The girls have started picking out bridesmaid attire, and we're working on finding blocks of hotel rooms (no easy task when one lives in a small-ish tourist town, and when one is getting married in the height of tourism season). We still need food, liquor, flowers, tuxes, and music, but we're on our way.

School

School started again this week at MSU. On Tuesday we had orientation, where the college verifies our TB status, checks our proof of CPR certification, and show us the same universal precautions and HIPAA training videos we watch every semester.
This semester is an improvement - I'm only about five chapters behind on reading, as opposed to the usual eleven or so. It's a mean trick they pull on us - at orientation we are given a finalized course schedule, and it includes brief notes from each of our professors. Usually the note reads something like, "Hi, welcome to 'Nursing Care of [some subset of the population]'. Our first class will meet Thursday, January 17th in Corbin 142, and please read chapters 1-9 of [big giant textbook] and chapters 2,3,4 and 7 of [even bigger textbook] before coming to class."
Definitely not fair.

On the upside, my classes are interesting; Urgent and Palliative Care, Psychiatric Nursing, and Care Management. I'll have clinicals in higher acuity settings like the ICU and Cardiac unit, and for psych nursing we'll be caring for patients at an inpatient psychiatric facility. The ante has been upped, and I'm excited about the new challenges. And... I'm finally a SENIOR nursing student! Woohoo!

Friends

I mentioned last month that my best friend and her husband were going to be Missoula residents for a few months. Well, they're here now, and it's awesome having them in town! I've gotten to see Erica almost every day since they got to Missoula, and I'm trying hard not to think about how much it will suck when they leave. I just have to remind myself that this is a rare and special opportunity to spend time with one of my lifelong friends, and to enjoy it while I can.


I've missed blogging, and now that I'm back to my regular school routine, I should have more time for writing [read: time for squandering away on the internet]. More soon!