It seems to me that taking care of the elderly and sick is one of the hardest jobs on the planet.  Especially for the certified nurses assistants (CNA) who bare the brunt of the physically difficult part of the job.  It's back braking work of turning and cleaning and head to toe caring for those who can no longer do these things for themselves.  If you know a CNA but very, very nice to them. It's also heartbreaking work.  It's not pretty watching illness and death up close.  Aside from the physical messiness of it all, there is also the emotional mess.  And the abuse.  News flash:  not all patients are good and kind.  I'd even say a shocking number of them are not.  It's not hard to understand why.  We are not at our best when we are ill or in pain, when we have lost physical abilities or independence.  There are those who are aggravated or aggressive due to confusion or dementia.  And let's face it, some peopl...

Hard to get out of the car today.  I'm here for my first day of summer class.  I've been taking an on line class this past month - more on that later.  But this is my first time back on campus since the end of spring semester.  I just had a flash back as I sit here in my car realizing I am hesitating, not wanting to get out of the car.  Geesh, here we go again.  Just like last January on my first day of class.  I admit it, I feel scared.  Is this feeling ever going to go away?   I'm perhaps less scared then I was last January as I know the layout of the campus now and a thing or two about being a student - being that I have  just successfully completed my first semester after decades of not being a student.  And I'll toot my own horn here and say for the first time in my life I have a 4.0 GPA!  I probably shouldn't mention the fact that I went part time and took study skills and choir.  But...

Turns out, most things in college are on line now including my final project in English 102.  At Boise State it's found in a format called Digication.  Presumably my future professors can jump online and see what I have been up to in previous classes.  I have also heard claims that it is the resume of the future (present? Don't know if they are using it yet in the big world out there).  Instead of the one page resumes we now send out, prospective employers can see what we have been doing - in great detail.  Honestly, it was all pretty daunting to me.  But as I figured out the logistics of it all, I found myself having fun.  I love pulling out the creativity card when ever possible.  Don't know if it will count against me, but I also decided to let some of my personality show.  All in all, I'm quite pleased with the finished project.  Though I just read through it and found a couple of minor changes I would make, but it's submitted now an...

(Map of my semester long research paper) Today's Schedule 0900 - English 102, Final Draft due on research paper we have been working on ALL semester. Then during class lecture realizing I may have done the whole thing wrong.  OK, maybe a slight exaggeration.  But let's just say, I made an appointment for tomorrow morning with the teacher to see if I can salvage something. 1015  - Library to ask very helpful librarian to show me where the color printer is so I can print out homework assignment for my 1200 class today. (assignment - map I used from another class. See pic) 1030  - Favorite study spot on the 4th floor of the library to do reading assignment for today's 1200 class. 1130  - Multiple phone calls to the math department trying to figure out what math class I should take in the fall.  (Fall registration opens on April 10th for me and I want to have everything ready in my shopping cart so all I have to do is transfer over the cl...

I'm having less moments of sudden panic where my mind is racing and all I can think is, "where am I and what the hell am I doing here?".  And I am definitely less lost.  I no longer leave a building debating whether to pull out my map to see if I should turn left or right to get to my next destination.  Life is so much easier when I know which way to head.  How is that for a life analogy.  ;)

How I love being able to eat in the library!  Pass the wasabi please.

I've been so sick the last two weeks with bronchitis and asthma flare up.  It's tough doing homework when I can hardly remember my name.  That's all the whine I get.  There are deadlines to make.