A Cry for Normalcy

Just when I thought my life couldn't get any more awkward than the past week has been, I was proven wrong once again. So tonight was Freshman Follies, which I attended in support of my little brother and company. My parents, grandparents, and brother and sister-in-law also came for the event. Practically the whole night I was bombarded by questions about Ryan and why he wasn't there. I was thinking that after subjecting him to much awkwardness on Sunday with meeting all my friends, I should hold off on the familial introductions for a while. All was going well until I managed to break free of my family to go hang out with Ryan for a bit. I told him about the interrogations and harassment I had suffered all night because of him. And what does he do? He tells me he wants to meet my family. Fabulous. So he did. I once again subjected him to a roomful of complete strangers who were overly-eager to make his acquaintance. I don't know if everyone feels this way or not, but I was completely freaked out about introducing him to my family. Most people start dating someone and eventually introduce the parents, but the extended family introductions don't occur until much later. But here we were, after about a week and a half of "official" dating, chatting it up with 7 members of my family. Wow. I've just about decided that at the rate we're going, we're going to run out of potentially awkward situations to get ourselves into before a month is up. Of course, knowing my luck, unheard of awkward situations will somehow find me. But I must give Ryan credit. He handled the whole situation quite well, and he still wants to date me, even after meeting my family. I finally just decided that the awkwardness had to occur sooner or later, so I guess it was just as well to get it over with sooner rather than later. Wow, sometimes I almost miss the days when my life was boring and uneventful.

Procrastination at its best...

Wow. I have so much stuff I need to be doing right now. And what am I doing with my life? Reading blogs. Yes, the life I lead is a sad one, and I am absolutely ok with that.

Tonight I attended HIP at Southern Hills with Julie and Natalie. I have come to love our weekly sing along in my car as we make the trek across the vast city of Abilene. *sigh* And can I just say how much I love HIP itself? At first I was a little taken aback by the seemingly excessive size of the praise team, but I have gotten accustomed to it now. The worship is fabulous. I really enjoy the opportunity to take an hour out of my crazy week and refocus on what really matters in life. God is good.

And now I must force myself out of procrastination mode and into studious student mode. Alas.

Bring on the Sappiness!!

I would like to take a moment to embrace my girliness. Normally, I'm not what I would consider a "girly girl." I just don't care all that much. But these past few days have been a time when the sappy girl within has made her presence known. It started the night Michelle and I ordered pizza and watched Laws of Attraction. Cheesy? Yes. But wow, Pierce Brosnan. Need I say more? Then last night it was Love Actually. Hugh Grant brings joy to my soul. Ryan was present for that public display of sappiness. Fortunately, he still seems to want to be around me. Tonight was the season premiere of Gilmore Girls. What a great show. How did I miss out on such quality television for so long? Michelle and Julie and I were absolutely engrossed. It was fabulous. I feel that my sappiness quota for the week has been sufficiently met.

(Insert Awkard Silence Here)

So my life really is one big, awkward moment. But I'm learning to accept that and move on. Tonight was the much-anticipated night of introducing the boy to the friends. I think he was slightly overwhelmed, but that's to be expected, I suppose. I can only imagine how intimidating it must be to walk into a room full of complete strangers who all seem to have heard about you, and even ask about you in your presence...(wink wink, I love you Erin!!) But despite the general awkwardness of the whole evening, I think it was good. He told me he really enjoyed the devo (the part he experienced, anyway) and wants to come again. So yay for that. As payback, I've given him permission to subject me to a huge crowd of his friends and let me take the heat. Should be good times.

Happy Ending

And then the boy kissed the girl, and the girl giggled with delight. :)
The end.

A word from the long, lost friend...

Hooray for Friday!! I have a new-found love for Friday now because Thursday has recently become the day of Satan, so if I get to experience Friday, I know I have come through alive. I am definately starting to experience the great stress of trying to balance school, work, studying, and social life. Not that I've never struggled with it before, but nursing school seems to multiply the stress factor by like 800.

On the up side, Ryan and I are now officially dating. The DTR occured Wednesday night. I've never been one for DTRs, personally, but I guess it is nice to know where we stand. I know he still remains the ever elusive, mysterious boy in my life to many of my friends, and I am hoping to remedy that soon. Hopefully he can come with me to the Sullivan's this week. He was planning to last week, but it fell through at the last minute. Sad day. Until then, just know that he is fabulous and puts a smile on my face. The end.

Quotes that make me laugh

"Reproduction: Any process by which new individuals (people) are produced"
~Clinical Applications of Nursing Diagnosis

"I was born with, like, a pound of hair. But I grew into it."
~Paul Bryan

Carnies of the world Unite!!

Hooray for the fair!! I've gone to the fair every year that I've been in Abilene, and every experience has been so different. When I went freshman year it was in the company of Julie and Chuck, along with Chuck's 2 roommates and one other girl. A sort of triple date, if you will. That was the beginning of a very short-lived and very awkward something between me and JT, one of Chuck's roommates. I say "something" because the word relationship doesn't seem to apply to whatever it was we had. I barely knew the guy. Still barely know the guy. That should explain a lot.
Last when I went it was with a random mix of people. I can't remember exactly who all was there, but I do remember Whitney, Michelle, Cassie, Tracy, Roommate Phil, and Aaron Winn. All we did was walk around and look at everything and marvel at how expensive it was to ride the rides. We also got sent away from a matress display and a knife display because we had no intent to purchase the items. It was a very sad day.
This year's fair experience was my favorite thus far. I went in the company of Whitney and Aaron and Ryan. I guess this one was a double date. We had such a fun time. This year we actually splurged a bit and rode some of the rides. It was good times. Of course, everything is insanely expensive, so we were only able to ride 3 of the rides. Oh well. We spent the rest of the time walking around trying our hands at the impossible, money-eating games and marveling at the sheer strangeness being exuded by the fair workers. It really takes a special kind of person to be a carnie. I don't know what else to say about the matter.

Completely Out of It

My brain feels like mush. I just spent the last 3 hours or so of my life reading about pharmacology. And I don't really feel like I'm all that more knowledgeable about it than I was when I started. Sad day. This is the story of my life lately.

Yesterday I learned how to insert a catheter. Wow. I really think I could have gone my whole life without knowing how to do that and been ok with it. But, unpleasant as it was, I got through it. I'm quickly learning that a big part of learning to be a nurse is going to be me learning to step out of my comfort zone and do what needs to be done. I'm sure there will be plenty of times when I'm required to do something I'd rather not do, but someone will be counting on me for their well-being, which is so much more important than my comfort. I am having to learn how to be selfless, which, unfortunately, is not one of my strongest traits.

The little bit of my life spent away from school-related activities is going pretty well. I miss my friends though. People I saw multiple times a day last year I now see maybe once a week. This makes me sad on the inside. Although I do have to admit I am partially to blame. Much of the free time I do find I spend with a certain boy I know. I'm hoping to find an opprotunity to introduce him to everyone in the near future, because I think that would be fun. Until then I suppose he will remain the mysterious boy who has captured my fancy, if you will...as it were...be that as it may.

True story

Ok. So I've always known I was the biggest klutz on the face of the earth, but today it was proven once and for all. So I'm at work waiting on the one and only table in the whole place, taking out their drinks. On my tray there is a glass of iced tea, a glass of ice, a bottle of diet coke, and 2 glasses of red wine. As I'm reaching over to place the glass of tea on the table, the bottle of diet coke decides to fall over and knock over one of the glasses of wine on its way down. An unfortunate incident in and of itself, made worse by the fact that the wine splattered all over the people I was serving!! It seemed to focus itself mainly on one man in particular, splashing almost entirely on his face and head. (Fortunately, he was bald, so he didn't have to worry about sticky wine-hair.) I frantically grabbed napkins from neighboring tables to help clean the mess and had to bring 2 new chairs to the table because the others were soaked. As I type out the details of the scene, I can't help at laugh out loud at how funny it all must have looked, but I was far from laughing as the events were taking place. I must have apologized at least a thousand times, but I don't think I've ever been more embarrassed in all my life. Luckily, the people were really nice about the whole thing. They didn't blame me for it and kept telling me I'd have a funny story to tell my grandkids someday. Wow. I guess the only perk was that I got to leave work early because my crisp, white shirt had a huge red stain all down the right side and I reeked of alcohol. Not exactly the professional appearance they're going for. So yes, there's my humiliating story for the day. Enjoy a chuckle on me.

You learn something new every day...

Things I discovered today:

1) I don't have to go to school again until 1pm on Monday. It's Thursday. This makes me smile.

2) Boys are confusing. I don't get them, and it is futile to try.

3) I have an abnormally long thoracic cavity.

4) Phyllis wants to try out for Shades. Way to represent the white people!!

5) If you go to Chicken Express right at noon, be prepared to wait...and wait...and wait.

6) According to VH1, "Achy Breaky Heart" is the 2nd most awesomely bad song ever. I'm sure it had something to do with Billy Ray's awesomely bad mullet.