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Thursday, July 28, 2005

 

I must be getting soft.

This week's class was actually not that painful. I don't know if I'm getting accustomed to being annoyed, or if this week's subject material (Social Policy) was more interesting to me, or what. I hate to say it, but I think the fact that the prof has noticed that I'm one of the "smart kids" smoothed my feathers a little.

Tidbit I learned from lecture: Lyndon B. Johnson was influenced to stay involved in the Vietnam conflict by two of his Texan political backers, who had an oil company named after them called Brown & Root. Brown & Root went on to merge with Kellogg Oil and became Kellogg Brown & Root, or KBR for short. KBR is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Halliburton. I have twisted this around inside my head so that I can blame Dick Cheney for the Vietnam War. I know that's factually inaccurate, but I like dumping them all in the same bucket.

I went to the gym last night with R* and when I got there I realized I had forgotten to put any socks in my gym bag. Another woman in the locker said to her friend, "I forgot my shoes!" and I said, "I forgot my socks!" and she said, "I can help you, I've got socks to spare!" and gave me a pair. It was a really nice thing. Oh, and this may not impress anyone much, but I was able to jog on the treadmill for 12 of the 20 minutes I treadmilled. Usually when I jog for more than 2 or 3 minutes in a row, my heart rate shoots up over 170 and I start gasping like a fish. But last night I was able to jog for 7 minutes, take a walk break, and jog another 5 minutes with my heart rate in the 160s. Yay!

Monday, July 25, 2005

 

when it's time for me to find my next job

I've been thinking about how I will go about finding a CNA job after I take CNA training and get licensed. I've assembled this list of resources, but would welcome input from other nursing assistants et al out there! At this point, I'm thinking that I want to try to find a hospital CNA job rather than a nursing home job... not because I have any problem with working in a nursing home, but because I think it would be more useful to my future nursing career to get some hospital experience.

Washington Health Care Careers
Seattle Children's Hospital
Evergreen Health Care
Group Health
UW Medical Center
Northwest Hospital
Overlake Hospital
Polyclinic
Providence
Stevens Healthcare
Virginia Mason
Swedish Hospitals
PacMed
Valley Medical Center
Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center
Highline Medical Center

Friday, July 22, 2005

 

book thirty-four

The Stone Book
by Alan Garner

I read this book after Zinnia mentioned it in the book meme (which Quev tagged me for and I still haven't done!). It's completely charming and adorable. It's about a little girl in 19th century England who is the daughter of a stonemason. Her father sends her on a journey into a cave to make a discovery. That's all that really happens - but it's somehow more than that.

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Thursday, July 21, 2005

 

teastick

Teastick

What a neat thing!

Monday, July 18, 2005

 

we need more pirates

http://www.venganza.org/

This is extremely funny. You too can irritate the fundies on the Kansas Board of Education. Arrrrrrrrr!

Friday, July 15, 2005

 

don't know what to say

I really don't know what to write about lately. It's not because nothing is happening - it's just that I'm not sure what to express. Here's a short overview of what's been happening with me:

Weight loss - I am 1.5 pounds away from hitting the 30-pounds-gone mark. It's getting more and more noticeable that my clothes are getting too big - in fact, I'm going to have to buy some smaller bras. I hate bra shopping, incidentally. Especially when I'm not even sure at this point what size I am!

School - The multicultural class is driving me batty. I'm sure you already know that from my collection of mean-spirited haiku. But! It's half over already!

Work - Aw, hell, I can't talk about work on my blog. It's the same as always. I do have to admit that I like my new cubicle better than my old desk in the open area, but I'm still offended by the whole no-office debacle.

Nursing stuff - I've made a decision about how to proceed. I'm going to take night courses to work toward getting licensed at a CNA. At a point in the future (which I am not disclosing publically since I need to hang on to my job for the time being!), I will quit my day job, finish the clinical portion of the CNA training, and look for an aide job. I'll apply to the RN degree program in January, and if I'm accepted, I'll start RN school fulltime in March.

Cats - The most emotionally exhausting thing I'm dealing with right now is caring for our two elderly cats. Neither of them are at death's door or anything, but they're both getting more fragile and need more care. The black cat needs 3 pills a day. That's fun, let me tell you.

GTD - I've been doing a little reading about "Getting Things Done" - I suspect that becoming more organized with my tasks would decrease my anxiety level, but I haven't yet figured out the best way to attack it.

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

 

brussels

R* and I have been watching this show. So far, we've seen episodes about London, Madrid, Florence, and Brussels. I wholeheartedly want to visit Brussels now. I don't have any deep reasons for it - just this modest list:

beer
chocolate
waffles
mussels
frites
Smurfs (aka Stroumfs)
and comics museum.

Also, everyone apparently speaks 4 languages, which is just impressive.

 

book thirty-three

The Wall of the Sky, the Wall of the Eye: Stories
by Jonathan Lethem

I think I've mentioned before that I have a hard time knowing what to write about short story collections. I thought the quality of the work in this collection varied wildly. The first story, "The Happy Man," was haunting and scary in an icky way, and I can still recall it nearly word for word even though I read it nearly a month ago. But I thought the later stories, like "Five Fucks" (or was it only four fucks?) were not as tightly crafted. Lethem has some unusual ideas, like the story about the hardened criminals who are literally hardened into bricks and used to build prisons... but it seems like his execution on those ideas varies.

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book thirty-two

Walk on Water: Inside an Elite Pediatric Surgical Unit
by Michael Ruhlman

The author of this book specializes in writing about people who are masters of their craft. Subjects of his previous books include builders of wooden boats and world-class chefs. I was prepared to be a little let down since the writer is not a medical professional, but I wasn't disappointed at all.

The book follows the practice of a renowned pediatric heart surgeon in a clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. Along the way, we learn a great deal about the history of heart surgery and the differences between congenital (birth defect) heart disease and acquired heart disease. I had never considered this before, but apparently doctors and hospital units who concentrate solely on congenital heart surgery have much more success that doctors who do both congenital and acquired.

The descriptions of the actual surgeries were quite technical - I was able to follow along because I've had classes in anatomy and physiology, but I imagine that a reader who didn't have an background in the subject would be completely lost.

The title refers to the giant-size egos that most cardiac surgeons reportedly have. After reading about what they do - holding life and death in their hands every day - I think perhaps they deserve to have high self-opinions!

Fascinating read.

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haiku of frustration

Last night's class was beyond frustrating. I was inspired to write a new crop of nasty haiku... plus one from a guest artist. (Cat, I'm sorry I hung up on you last night, my phone blipped out!)

***************

why on earth would you
use mean word choice like "guilty" -
do you want a fight?

i have a degree!
in english literature!
these marks are just crap.

people who think they
know everything about
everything suck.

are you really a
professor if you don't have
a damn doctorate?

And from guest artist Cat:

I don't hate you 'cause
you are a transsexual -
it's 'cause you're a dick.

****************

Class is halfway over, though, and that means only four more long agonizing sessions!

Friday, July 08, 2005

 

update on CNA training

I previously posted about places to get training as a CNA or an RN. Since then, my friend C* and I have done some research on the CNA training options, and here's what we discovered:

BELLEVUE COMMUNITY COLLEGE - BCC does teach a CNA certification course for $695 through the continuing education department. Go to this page and scroll down to "Nursing Assistant Certified".

LAKE WASHINGTON TECHNICAL COLLEGE - teaches RN, LPN, and CNA programs.

RENTON TECHNICAL COLLEGE - Has a half-quarter CNA program.

SEATTLE VOCATIONAL INSTITUTE - Nursing Assistant Certified program.

SOUTH SEATTLE COMMUNITY COLLEGE - 1-quarter CNA program, gives you a head start on the LPN program if you want to continue on.

SEATTLE CENTRAL COMMUNITY COLLEGE - Offers CNA training, but only to Virginia Mason employees through some weird contract.

GREEN RIVER COMMUNITY COLLEGE - It appears that only WorkFirst students are eligible for the CNA program here.

CASCADE VISTA CONVALESCENT CENTER - Redmond - didn't call.

KINDRED HEALTHCARE CORPORATION - C* called three different locations and none of them are offering CNA training at this time.

WHITTIER CARE & REHABILITATION CENTER - Not offering CNA training at this time.

FOSS HOME AND VILLAGE - Not offering CNA training at this time.

FRANCISCAN HEALTH CARE - BOTHELL. Didn't call.

LIFE CARE CENTER OF FEDERAL WAY - Didn't call.

MERCER ISLAND CARE & REHABILITATION - Didn't call.

MOUNT SI TRANSITIONAL HEALTH CENTER - North Bend. Didn't call.

PROVIDENCE MT ST VINCENT - only offer CNA training to current employees.

QUEEN ANN HEALTH CARE - Not offering CNA training at this time.

KAMANGA CNA TRAINING - Des Moines. Didn't call.

SEATTLE NURSING ASSISTANT ACADEMY - C* called them and discoverd the cost of the training is in the thousands of dollars. Screw that!

NURSING ASSISTANT TRAINING INSTITUTE - Offers CNA classesfor $495 for about 6 weeks. Classes alternate between day and evening sessions, although all clinical hours are during the day.

NURSING ASSISTANT TRAINING SCHOOL - Tukwila. Didn't call.

So there you have it. Hope someone finds this helpful!

Wednesday, July 06, 2005

 

cranky

I am unrelently cranky today.

I've been cranky to my husband (got irritated because the oatmeal he was cooking me for breakfast boiled over).

I've been cranky to my cat (tripped over him while I was going to the pantry and he was going to his food bowl).

I've been cranky to all of my coworkers except maybe A. No, come to think of it, him too.

If I'd chatted with my mom for one more minute I would've been cranky to her.

I'm sitting in my cube instead of going to catch the bus because I'm going to be cranky at least on the inside to the other people on the bus.

Clearly I need to quit my job, no?

 

haiku of boredom

I didn't feel compelled to write any haiku of boredom in class last night - we had a guest professor who was concise, conversational, and also cute as a button. And we also watched a video about advertising and how it shapes the perception of women in society. That was infuriating and entertaining. (Interested? Here's a resource.)

But the week before, egad, I thought I would die of boredom. So without further ado, here are my Haiku of Boredom:

after two hours
"level of analysis"
falls to my stomach

are you boy or girl?
evidence suggests either
but - giant man feet.

connie chung's makup
wow, that is from the eighties
got a new film yet?

clearly i am old
this sincere college race stuff
just makes me tired

could time pass slower?
my legs are too short to touch
my butt goes to sleep

better than i thought
i guess i've figured stuff out
done finding myself

ooh, look at me now
the sincerity rubs off!
self analyzing

white guys from Texas
who is surprised they're racist?
they live in Texas!

Friday, July 01, 2005

 

don't I wish

Road Rage Cards :: Sample Sayings

I wouldn't use all of these. Honestly, I wouldn't use any of them. But several do mirror my thoughts when I make the mistake of driving in Seattle traffic.

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