on my own Posted on Friday, November 20, 2009 | 0 comments

Just had my first day off of orientation at the hospital on wednesday. Absolutely terrifying, but I managed to get through it and get off right on time. To shoulder the responsibility of taking care of four patients with all decisions made by me was daunting, but I know it will get easier. My biggest hurdle that slows me down is computer charting; every four hours, charting medication, assessments, treatments, checking labs, checking doctor's orders; tiring and taxing but it's started to become part of a routine. The reward though, was an awesome concert by Peter Bjorn and John, a band from Sweden who Amy introduced me to; they are like kinda electronic-y sounding yet at the concert, they so ROCKED out. I put one of their songs in the "top songs" box above.

sunsets :)

This past weekend, Amy's parents visited. They were an absolute pleasure to host and we got to go the San Diego Zoo. Totally awesome experience where I felt five years old again at the DC Zoo with my mom. It was a whirlwind of animals, walking, and absorbing the atmosphere. Also, the gift shop was sick!! so if you want a christmas card from amy and i, send your address asap because we have an amazing picture and hilarious card to send you.

Today, we hosted another person from UVA interviewing with Sharp, actually at my hospital. It was cool to show her around where I have been working around for the past 2 months. It felt good to be the tour guide and show her the places that I love in San Diego. I also hung out with my cousin who recently just moved here; we watched the sunset at Torrey Pines State Park and tried to see the Green Flash, with no success. If you want to see all of my pictures from my recent adventures (taken by my new camera!) go here.

Thanksgiving is coming up soon, and I am so pumped for turkey and mashed potatoes. Talk to you all soon (or please email me!!)

keep on keeping on...

Tijuana again. Posted on Monday, November 9, 2009 | 0 comments

Hey ya.

So I went to Tijuana to build a house for a needy family again with Amy and people from our church. It was again a very humbling experience filled with great conversation and good fun. Before the build began, the director of the mission, Eddie, emphasized to the group the importance of seeing what God wanted us to learn during the day while still having fun. To not repeat my last entry about Tijuana, i will let the pictures do the talking. Although not taken with my new camera, I feel that the meaning is still there (even if the clarity is not).

another day, another week, a new camera (!) Posted on Monday, November 2, 2009 | 0 comments

long time, no post.

after flying in from dc about a week ago, life has been busy with work and especially halloween. san diegians go crazy for halloween, with costumes full of detail and time and effort. super creative, fun, and more humorously a wide range from the scantily clad to the overtly complicated to the downright impressive and/or mind blowing. amy and i ventured to Hillcrest, the notoriously gay neighborhood, for the "Nightmare on Normal Street" party. it was, to say the least, eye opening with creativity that i cannot even begin to put into words. unfortunatley, my camera had little clout documenting the sights, there were just too many costumes to take in. but here are some highlights:

bloody, scandalous nurses

H1N1-super creative

the economy...in so many words

the roommates: disco ball and the swine flu

also, in more exciting news, i finally put my new camera to good use: some highlights from the weekend of taking nature/scenic/landscape photos:

i am just practicing; this is what i want to do more of on my off days. there are so many accessories and gadgets and settings that i need to figure out, but the clarity of images is what excites me the most. next mission is also to take a class-however i have to really get in the groove of work. more on that in the future (i need to thinking about the right words to convey my feelings to give an honest but not too honest depiction).

A good man and a great family Posted on Friday, October 23, 2009 | 0 comments

I received the rather sad news one week ago that my grandfather passed away in his sleep. A wonderful man, endlessly humble, and a great role model for all, I will truly miss him. A testament to his great life, so many people turned out for the wake, funeral, and the customary "Irish wake" post-funeral. So many thanks to all of my family members for making the trip home so warm and welcoming filled with great times and stories.

My uncle Joe commented that my blog makes him laugh because it reads like I talk. True to form, i will faithfully keep on in this voice for my maybe 10 readers out there in the inter-web or whatever. The one thing I really enjoyed about the whole weekend home was how much older everyone gets and how much better then conversation is now that we're older. It's like now that I have graduated college, I've joined some special "real world adult" club where I talk on the same plane as everyone else. In addition to the better conversation with my aunts and uncles, I love getting to know my older and younger cousins better. There are 16 of us now, and its almost half who are in high school and above. We can all talk about more interesting and different things, like music and movies and TV and such. It's a little tough to talk about new music with cousins who think new music is Miley Cyrus but now we talk about mash ups and such. On a side note, I feel like everyone I talk to now about music I try to sell mash ups on (but seriously...check out hathbanger above, it's so worth it).

Ok, enough of this baring my soul to the blog-o-sphere. Here are some highlights from my brief visit to the East Coast.

the first night of family time

impromptu visit to jmu--culture shock with fall color on 66

continuing shock with rain clouds--haven't seen them in two months

more clouds-i think this is on 81

finally arrived at jmu, obligatory sign photo op

this is real fall color

school pride. go dukes.

the donohoe kids. all grown up.

the grandkids=16 + grandma. from 25 all the way down to 2.

the crazy awesome sunset on the way home from the wake. god was definitely celebrating that ray donohoe joined him in heaven.

so returning to normal life has been a little daunting, even overwhelming. i am super fortunate to have an amazing roommate, a great church to go to, and a new hobby. I have made the recent decision to forego buying a surfboard at this moment in lieu of a kick ass new camera. I haven't played around with it yet, but now that my only responsibility is work, my days off need some excitement. I am committing to a hobby, and am very excited about it. so san diego, watch out, my new nikon is coming for ya.

Busy Busy Bees Posted on Sunday, October 11, 2009 | 1 comments

Yep, working as a full time RN plus classes plus normal errands has completely flooded my schedule the past week. As of now, I have worked two full 12 hour shifts (soon to be three tomorrow) as an RN and almost completed my new grad classes. All I have left for now is an EKG competency class on friday and finishing an online certification for stroke specific assessments. It's still daunting for me to be fully aware of my nursing license and responsibility associated with that. My preceptor (the nurse who is my teacher/guide/lifeline on my unit until she deems I am ready to practice on my own) had been so "confidence-building" for me lately and keeps reminding me that I have a license & can make necessary decisions in my nursing practice. I know she will be a big part of my life for the next couple of weeks, preparing me for my first days without her.

When I first learned that my hospital was almost 20 miles away from my apartment, I cringed and worried about timeliness and how it would affect my sleep. Fortunately, the 25 minute commute so far has been a great way to drain my large coffee, rock out to some sweet jams and really get pumped up for the 12 hour day ahead. Plus because my hospital lies east of my home, the sun has just started to rise as I drive on the I-8 at 6:15 in the morning. It's really great having that time to really wake up and feel (hopefully) mentally prepared for the long day ahead.

While not at work or in class, I have been going on very long runs recently. At least an hour and even up to an hour and a half like today; I can't really put into words how calming and stress relieving these runs have been for me lately, except I really feel the endorphin rush soon after I get home (it's sooooo great). A goal I have been seriously considering lately is running a half marathon in January (13.1 miles!). I ran the Charlottesville 10 miler in April and had the time of my life, so I am looking for a new challenge to work towards in the coming months. The half marathon I have been researching is in Carlsbad, about 30 minutes north of me, and the home of Legoland, Tony Hawk, and some excellent outlet shopping.

Today has been an excellent day to cap off the weekend. Amy and I have been connecting with the UVA Club of San Diego recently and they had an event at the Bernardo Winery connecting all the alums out here. Apparently there are at least 2000 (!) alums living in the southern california region; this was so shocking because as far as I know, Amy and I are one of the few people from the class of 2009 who moved out here. Who knows though, there are probably a ton others that we have yet to meet. What was really neat was the CEO of my hospital is a UVA alum, and meeting her in person was so great in such an informal setting. With all of the wineries in Charlottesville, you would think that I would be an expert on wine tasting, however today was my first real tasting experience. I absolutely loved it; it made it even better talking with alums and future events.

This week should be pretty mellow, with working tomorrow and then trying to studying for my EKG test on friday/finagling my schedule...yeah that's actually tough. anyways, hopefully I'll get some more photos up soon!

Officially Legit Posted on Sunday, October 4, 2009 | 0 comments

Got my RN card and certificate in the mail. It's all happening.

Weekend has been a little slow, but I did manage a swim in the ocean yesterday. You the know the feeling when you drink really cold water or submerge in freezing water: your chest tightens, heaves even and almost paralyzes you. Almost had this reaction but the water where I dove in was less than 2 feet deep, so standing right back up quickly quelled this feeling. Plus, having a sweatshirt, sun, and a 10 minute walk home help raise my core body temp right back to normal.
When I am not risking hypothermia, I am attempting to explore neighborhoods of San Diego one week at a time. Why not start with my own, Pacific Beach? A brief sampling of one day of exploring (not nearly done yet)

Breakfest Burrito at Kono's. Plus a great book and people watching on the pier. Almost as good, if not better than Bodo's on the Corner.

the mural is right near my bank. it's nice to know john lennon inspires others.

obligatory beach scene

a lonely chair.

this is only the tip of the iceberg of PB, more endeavors to be documented soon.