lawyered

you know what i'm talking about if you have seen how i met your mother.

source

Although this is one of my favorite running jokes on HIMYM, I'm here to talk to you about a different kind of lawyer.


I'm talking about this one: 

That's right. After 3 long, hard years, Sam is finally done with law school! Hooray! 

Shaking hands with the dean of the law school.

After the hooding ceremony, we went out for a delicious dinner with Sam's parents & grandparents, then the next day followed it up with a fun barbeque at his parents' house.

Sam, I'm so proud of you for accomplishing this huge achievement. I know there were days (many days) when it seemed like the end would never come, that it would be easier to find something else to do with life. That being said, I know that choosing any other path would have been a mistake. Many people say this about their significant others, but I really do believe you are one of the most intelligent people I have the privilege of knowing. What I love most about you is that you are so compassionate about the law, and I know the world is gaining a wonderful legal mind :). Congratulations!!! Now all that's left is that little thing called the bar exam. NBD.

#lawyered

dirty laundry

I'm returning from my long absence in the blog world (sorry, Her Bearings...) to voice a concern I have with the world these days.



It's a laundry problem.

source

Sam and I are living/house sitting for one of his relatives this summer in a nice neighborhood. I say nice meaning that it nicer than average, but it is not the ritziest neighborhood you have ever seen in the world. AKA it is not Buckingham Palace, nor is it Versailles. Two places in which I feel a complaint of this nature would be valid.

A little aside before I start this anecdote: I am so grateful to Sam's family for letting us stay here this summer. It's helped out a lot with some unexpected expenses, and I really do love the house and neighborhood we are staying in.

That being said, we have a neighbor. You've had one before: one that mows at 7:00 in the morning on a Saturday, those who have the two dogs that bark at 3 AM (confession, that's me & my parents), or those who have loud parties on a weeknight. Maybe you've also had a neighbor that complains about everything you do.

For an example, say you decide to hang some of your laundry on your back porch. Your back porch that is shielded from side views by privacy fences. Maybe that said neighbor happen to walk directly behind your house, and happens to see some of your laundry on the back porch...which you only put outside for approximately four hours. That neighbor will then call your relatives who are all on vacation and tell them that "it is NOT appropriate to hang your laundry outside, that this is NOT that kind of neighborhood, and if you don't have access to a dryer, you are most welcome to come and use mine." And her reasoning behind all of this? She had "friends in town, and it was unsightly."


Give me a break. I envy her if seeing my scrub pants out on the back porch is her biggest problem.

answering the tough questions

Let's get a little deep on the blog today and answer some tough questions.

Erin over at Living in Yellow (one of my must reads) posted these ten questions yesterday and I decided to take a stab at them. After you read mine, go on over to LIY and check out Erin's ten things and then read the rest of her blog, because it's just that great.

LIY

1. If you could do one thing differently in your life, what would it be?
See yesterday's post about my career choices.  I would have also learned to appreciate my parents & their rules much earlier in life. I would have also never stopped running. 

2. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Hopefully married (right Sammy?! :) ) with hopefully a house and hopefully healthy and hopefully with the thought of a brown haired brown eyed baby. Not to rush things, or anything. 

I imagine that my house will look something like this: 

source

Or maybe like this:

source

I guess I also assume nurses will earn about 5x more in 5 years than we do right now.

3. Do you honestly want kids?
See numero dos. Absolutely.

4. What has been the best moment of your life so far?
The minute my mom called me from Washington D.C. and said to me, "Well, it looks like I'll be dancing at your wedding because my tumors are shrinking." I don't often cry from happiness but this was one day I cried an awful lot of happy tears.

Then

And now.

5. What is your life theme song?

Can I just pick my favorite song? This is so hard. All of my favorite songs are depressing songs, sad songs, the songs that make you want to go for a drive on a summer night with your windows down and just let the wind blow in your hair.  Generally, I'm not a depressed person, so picking a favorite song and correlating it to my life isn't easy.

Anyway, I guess I'd pick Paradise by Coldplay. 

When she was just a girl
She expected the world
But it flew away from her reach so 
She ran away in her sleep
And dreamed of paradise 
...
And so lying underneath those stormy skies
she said "oh oh oh, I know the sun must set to rise." 

Life doesn't happen the way it expects to, but I think what the songwriters are trying to say here is that "when He closes a door He opens a window." That is how I try to live my life--by not counting missed opportunities, but instead focusing on what happened for good instead. 
 

6. What is one thing you have yet to accomplish that you want to do before you die?

I want to learn and know and live the meaning of the words "Forgive and Forget."

source

 
   
7. If you could choose one thing to be known for, what would it be?
Being a loyal friend & daughter.

8. If you could do anything you wanted right in this very moment (no consequences, no fear, etc), what would it be?
Elope and then move to Europe for at least a year. Preferably planting myself right about here and not moving. Okay, I would move to tour all of the Irish castles. Then I would come right back.

Coast of Ireland

 

9. What has been the most challenging moment in your life?

Learning my mom's cancer we thought was in remission was back and not responsive to treatment two weeks after I graduated from college. I will be forever thankful for the doctors at the National Institutes of Health. Say what you want about our government and health care reform, but know that they are developing life changing treatments for a lot of devastating diagnoses in Washington D.C. 

10. Summarize yourself in one word.
Tenacious.  

   

careers & such

If you look at my "school" book (a book of lists that detail everything from my height to who the president was each year and everything in between), my "career choices" from kindergarten to third grade were to be a librarian or a teacher. To be honest with you, I would still be a librarian if I had the choice.

Mostly because I imagine I could sit around and read Harry Potter all day. Don't judge.

Fine you can judge if you want to, but only if you have actually read Harry Potter. If you haven't, I judge you.

Pretty much after 3rd grade, every entry in that book where it says "What I want to be when I grow up," says "A Doctor!", and every single day until I was about 21 years old and 245 days old (this is an estimate) I would have told you "I want to be a doctor." I feel like for my entire life, until I was 21 years and 245 days old, I was a decisive person.

"William Jewell College or University of Missouri?" Mizzou.
"Soccer or track?" Definitely soccer.
"Date this guy or don't?" Don't.
"Study be to a doctor or explore other options?" Study to be a doctor.

In some ways, my blind ambition has hurt me in life. I never explored any other options during college. While most students are taking random classes their freshman year, I was already pigeonholed into biology because I took so many dual credit classes going into college that I was credit-hour wise a sophomore when I got there. So I met everyone on my dorm floor who were all either pre-med or pre-dental and there was no way I was going to explore other options when everyone else only talked about how they were going to be some sort of doctor and I got swept up in that excitement. This continued on until I got the results from this bad boy:

Ugh. Nightmare. I still have PTSD. I sat on my bed and cried and cried and cried because I studied my ass off for six months for this stupid thing and I still did horrible. So then I half-ass studied for two more months and took it again, to gain a measly three more points on my next one. I cried some more and then the next day and called my mom on my 21 year and 246th day of life and told her,

"I don't want to be a doctor."

She told me I was being dramatic and that I could still apply, so I did, and then I didn't get in, and I said again,

"I don't want to be a doctor."


It was scary to say those words. It was scary to admit something I had wanted for so long wasn't something I wanted anymore. It was scary to have people telling me I was making a big mistake, that I was giving up.

source

After I'd been saying this for about nine months, I guess people started to believe me, and I had to decide what I wanted to do with my life. Trust me, this isn't easy after all you've wanted to do for 13 years of your life is be a doctor. After a lot of conversations with Sam, my parents, my friends, strangers on the street, etc, I decided to go back to nursing school. I know what you're thinking..."what a jump from doctoring to nursing" and I get the skepticism. Whatever. I like nursing. I love it, actually. Mostly I love my unit. I get along with my coworkers, I love the babies, etc. It's hard, it's challenging, and mentally and physically exhausting most days.

I suppose the point of this rambling post is that you don't have to know what you want every single day of your life. You're allowed to change your mind, and go for different things, even if it's something that you've wanted for a very long time. It doesn't have to be because you failed (which is only part of the reason I changed my mind), and it doesn't matter what other people think. If I had a dollar for every time I thought someone was disappointed or looked down on me because I changed career paths, I would have at least $200. I don't care. It's not their lives, ya know?

So now you all know why I'm a nurse, and why it was absolutely the right decision for me. Three day work weeks are just an added bonus.

hashtag fail.

Today was full of a lot of fails.


First:

I was in charge of feeding our friend Jim's cat, Brie, today, as he is out of town. I remembered I needed to do it and thought to myself, "you should feed her when you go to Target." Then I went to Target and came home and had my hands full so I didn't go.

This is Brie! Isn't she cute?

 So needless to say, I waited until the sky looked like this:

A little ominous right, but not too terrible?

Oh yeah, by the time I walked downstairs and outside to Jim's apartment, it was raining cats and dogs (which is a stupid expression).

 So needless to say, I looked like this when I came back inside:

#fail.

Speaking of other fails, see this shirt? When I bought it, it was like $8 at Victoria's Secret and I thought, "ooooh it's so soft, what a perfect sleeping shirt!"

Well, it was a romper. You know, a full fledged romper (similar shown below).

Let's just say that it looks about 12304982340 times better on the Victoria's Secret model than on me. I'm pretty sure Sam laughed when I walked out of our bathroom. Needless to say, I cut it off immediately and was left with the nice shirt I thought I'd have. Albeit with a totally jagged edge because of my terrible cutting skills.

#fail.


Last but not least... Remember the Boston Cream Pie I was going to make?

Their version...

My version.

#fail.

procrastination

Tomorrow is my FINAL final exam for the class I'm in. That's right, you  heard me. Three tests for the same class all crammed in to one final's week. Needless to say, I can't stand the thought of studying any longer. We get a 12 day break after tomorrow (HALLELUJAH) and I just need to make myself focus for about 15 more hours. 7 of which will be spent sleeping.

Regardless, for the next 10 minutes, I'm going to write down all of the random thoughts I'm having in hopes that doing so will alleviate my wandering mind of them and I will be able to focus back on diagnosing and treating pancreatitis and UTIs.

• One of my biggest pet peeves is someone telling you that they will call you and then failing to follow up on it. 
• Along those lines, if you DO remember to call me back..please do not talk to your friend, or your friend's pet, or the horrible driver in the next lane. I realize not all of these circumstances are avoidable (my mom is a HUGE fan of waiting until I'm on the phone with someone to ask me how my day was..really mom?) but let's be serious. I didn't call to hear you baby talk an annoying yippy dog. 
• My brother and his girlfriend got a Shih Tzu a few months back. Until they did so I didn't believe that any dog could be as wonderful as my little hot mess Bellsy. Gus is just slightly less cute than her though. And he likes to snuggle with me, whereas Bella does NOT.
• There are like a million and 5 movies I want to see in theaters right now. To name a few: Horrible Bosses, Thirty Minutes or Less, The Help, Crazy Stupid Love, gLee 3D!, One Day... the list goes on and on. I think this calls for a movie a day for the next 12 days. 
• I am officially going to Houston for my fall break! HELLOOOOO ANNA!
• I am still mourning the end of the Harry Potter series. Twilight, it's ugly stepsister, just isn't doing it for me anymore. I did watch the Goblet of Fire several times lately to say what's up to R. Pattz. I don't even know why I find him so attractive.
• A girl from my high school was my waitress at lunch the other day. I remembered my whole "cutting the friend fat" blog post and made very little eye contact. To be fair, we didn't really like each other so it's not like I was being THAT rude..And I did leave her a good tip. 
• Now that it is not 150 degrees outside, I'm resuming my running-outside-to-get-in-shape-for-Allie-and-Cortney's-weddings plan. Tomorrow, that is.
• I am a firm believer that the color purple stimulates your memory. Use purple pencils (not purple lead, people) and/or purple pens EVERY DAY, I say. 
• I get to see Sammy on SUNDAY. Counting down the hoursss!

Well there you have it people. 10 whole minutes of my random thoughts. I'm obviously not as fast of a typer as I thought I was...

Trimming the Friend Fat

One of my wonderful nursing school friends, Brittany, recently (as in like 5 minutes ago, stalker much?) posted this on facebook and I found it very enlightening. This is an opinion piece about trimming the "friend fat" as the writer so eloquently puts it. Side note, the author is from the Houston area, so AL you may wanna look her up and force her to be friends. She seems like our kind of person.

One of my favorite lines from the article is as follows: "At 25, it's time to trim the friend fat, and while you're sloughing off the excess, cherish those who losing would be like losing a limb." I feel as if this particularly calls to me, because I've ALWAYS felt guilty about losing touch with people. The truth is, I think I'm more of a "few friends" kind of person. I don't mean that in a socially isolated, weird way, I just tend to prefer hanging out with fewer people, and usually the same people on a day to day basis. Now, I don't feel so guilty. I know the people I still miss on a daily basis (here's lookin at you, S&J&como crew!) are those that I cherish. I don't have to feel bad about cringing at the thought of attending a 5 year reunion, and I don't have to feel bad about ducking into the baby food aisle at Target to avoid that random club soccer teammate from 10 years ago.


Or maybe I should. Maybe I'm just mean. The point is, I will always cherish those who losing would be like losing a limb.