Hello March.

February really is the shortest month. Duh, I get that it's only 28 days, but it just flew by. Who knew that two or three fewer days could really make a difference. There was a lot going on this month with me, a lot of cooking and soup making, but a lot of stuff that I didn't write about as well. And I am good with that. I've been juggling my schedule and I'm happy to report that starting on St. Paddy's day I will officially be a DAY SHIFTER! :) YAY!  This means having a normal sleep schedule again. It means being home every night. It means adjusting to being new to something all over again, but I am OK with that. It does mean that I'll miss all my fabulous night shift nurses, but I will never forget the amazing things they've taught me, and I promise not to snub them the way they all think I will. ;)

March is bringing a lot of excitement already. It will be so different for E and I to be home together every night... it hasn't been like that since our honeymoon. That will take some getting used to as well, but we'll work through it.  We have more soups to cook, and more time to spend together, even if it's just falling asleep on the couch watching TV together. It will be good. 

I will post separately about this month's intentions for CHOOSE, but being the first of the month, and a fresh start, I choose to start a challenge for the month.  I am going to participate in Fat Mum Slim's photo-a-day for March.   I tried this out back in July and it was a way to get me posting more.  I want to share my photos via this blog (hopefully) every day, even just as quick little blurbs sent from my phone. Of course, I am leaving town this weekend and camping where there may not be cell service, so the start may be a bit delayed, but I will be snapping away. I'm excited to start this challenge today and already brainstorming ideas for today's shot.  Here's the complete list for this month.

So here we go. March, I'm excited. Let's do this!

XO

Hello 2013

So far, you've been pretty fantastic. Happy new year to you and yours. Wishing you all the best this year! 
XO

Early morning

I know that I usually post on here about how I am so tired and sleep in late and can't seem to catch enough ZZZ's because of my work schedule. I'm sure it gets old (hey, it's old for me, and it's my life), and some of you may even think I'm a lazy bum because of it.  Well today I'm changing it up.  

I don't know what's up, but I came home from work yesterday and couldn't get right to sleep. Sure, I drank some coffee at around 6:00am, but really, that never keeps me up like this.  I finally dozed off at about 9:30 and I slept till 2:30pm, which is about normal for me. But usually, if there's nothing else to do, I sleep longer, and waking up is terrible. I'm groggy and achy and I zone out doing whatever it is that I try to do. But not this time. Yesterday I woke up fairly alert and ready to go. I got dressed and took care of some things around the house and went on with business as usual.  It was nice. E got home and we got to check out the Holiday in the Park in Burbank where my Dad and Step-Mom's gallery (Towns Burr Gallery - check it out!) was hosting the "Artist's Alley" with lots of fun  vendors selling their wares, including my Mom's shop Pomegranate and Eye (check that one out too - new listings are coming soon!).  It was a really nice night with a good turn out from the city, and super great to see my parents doing their artsy thing (and just getting the chance to see them and catch up!). 

I digress. So we had a fabulous night, got home and I had a bit of a hard time falling asleep but was asleep before midnight. Around 3:30 I woke up to get some water, and, well... I've been awake ever since. It's now almost 8 am now. The cable guy is coming to hook everything up sometime in the next 4 hours, so I have to be awake. I'm feeling a little tired but not really sleepy. It's been kinda nice, actually. I made breakfast for E when he got up for work. Made breakfast for myself. Got to browse the web a bit (I'm looking for a Christmas Stocking sewing pattern...anyone know where I can find a good one?), and now I am dressed and ready to tackle the day. 

So just to make myself a little more productive, and accountable. Here's today's to do list:

1. Do the dishes

2. Clean stove and counters

3. Write 'Thank You' cards

4. Figure out what we still need to get from our registry

5. Organize returns that need to be made
6. Find Thanksgiving recipes 
7. Organize dining room table
8. Get rid of boxes in living room (since we will probably all be sitting in there for Turkey day). 

9. Spend time doing something sort of lazy, like crocheting or drawing, just because it's relaxing and you need to do that a little bit. 

10. Read up more about blogging and ways to make this space even more fabulous ;)

And these are in no particular order (I think I might start with 9 or 10, since I've already had such a productive morning!). 

So there you have it. Hopefully cable man comes sooner rather than later in case I totally crash and need to nap. But in the mean time, I'm going to get started.

XO

Tuesday night: cancelled!

Say what?!?  That's right. I've officially been cancelled as a nurse! Just for the night though! When staffing is good and the hospital doesn't need us anywhere else, there's no space, and so someone's gotta stay home for the night. Despite having slept 7 hours today in preparation for heading back in tonight after working last night, I suddenly have the whole night ahead of me. Not only the whole night, but this means that my  morning tomorrow isn't full of sleep. That when E and I go out tomorrow, our day can start in the morning, not in the afternoon after I've managed to sneak in a few hours of sleep after work. 

I'm not planning anything big for my night off. Even though I slept, I'm still somewhat recovering from being sick (it's been lingering for, like, ever...), and so I relish the time I have to just rest and get things done at home.  And I'm definitely relishing in the time I have at home before the wedding.  

So for all of you who are back to work tonight - I hope you're having a fabulous night! I'll be back on Friday. And for all of you enjoying a night off tonight as well - ENJOY!

XO

photo-a-day/4+5

Day 4: FUN!  

I'm hoping you all had a fabulous 4th of July! Mine was quite relaxing for the most part - at least until I had to work at night. I slept in late and we took our time getting ready that morning. Then off to my aunt and uncle's house for a feast! It was all delish. It was all over too soon before I had to leave, but I was able to dip my toes into the cool pool and work on my "tan" a little bit (I keep telling myself, these things take time!). 

What I really wish I had a picture of to show you is the fireworks I got to see from on of our patient's rooms that night. Honestly, it was such a fabulous  view of all of LA - you could see Dodger Stadium, downtown, clear out to the beach. It's amazing how many fire works go off all over our city. It was really beautiful!

Day 5 - ON THE FLOOR

Ok, so I cheated a little bit. I was at work on the fifth, which means I spend the rest of the day sleeping. It's been a crazy two nights in the hospital, so I didn't even really know what the photo of the day was supposed to be. But when I got home this morning, I realized this all actually worked out perfectly.  Last night as I was flipping these vial tops off, I thought I'd start saving them. I've seen a few photos that other nurse/artists have done with these and thought, why not? These caps get popped off all night long, and in the rush of the night, if you have bad aim, they always end up ON THE FLOOR! So this is my new little collection. Gray=Benadryl; light pink and small = heparin; bigger light pink = saline; big dark pink = sterile water; green= ampicillin. Not that you really cared to know that, but I think it's cool....let me know if you can think of a cool project to incorporate these in to. 

These photos were taken with my new "lomo" app on my HTC inspire, both using the LOMO filter, and then doctored up on Picasa 

Productivity

Night shift has really been throwing me a curve ball.  Just when I think I'm getting used to it, I get completely exhausted, which leads to feeling defeated, like I'm never going to feel energized again. I've been feeling so tired lately, not getting to do the things I really want, and feeling like endless hours of sleep was never enough.  

Last night was my one night off after working two shifts in a row, and I'm back at it tonight. So after sleeping most of the day yesterday, I woke up to meet up with my mom at the gym. Even after a good work out, I was pooped (I usually feel fab after working out!), after dinner and after my head stopped throbbing, I finally started to perk up. So much so that I was up super late.  By 12:30 am I wasn't tired, so I started watching a movie, that ended and I shut the lights, finally thinking sleep would be in my near future. But I tossed and turned until well after 3am. 

But in all of my wakefullness I decided that maybe I'm just getting too much sleep. I decided that today would not be wasted in bed feeling icky, and that I would get up early enough and get things done!  I made a list full of small tasks that I could get done.  

Here it is. I'm proud to say that every one of these things got checked off. I even got my butt out the door and went for a walk ... to the market to buy the disposable camera! Killing two birds with one stone! 

HA! Beat that sleep! Well, I shouldn't be one to talk, since I'm going to go shower and then take a nap. But still. So proud of myself for getting my act together and actually getting things done!

On another note, I'm thinking about making some changes here in the blog world... all good ones, no worries. But brainstorming ideas about possible weekly posts to keep up with the consistency of it all. 

Until later, good night, wish me luck tonight (hopefully this all worked out and I'm not exhausted for my whole shift!). More soon!

xo

Since I've been gone

It's been a while since I've blogged on and on about my life. Things have just been crazy busy.  Since my last post, I've gotten older (HELLO 25!), fallen in love with The Beatles all over again (went to see "Love" at the Mirage in Vegas!), worked like crazy, enjoyed my first Nurse's Week, celebrated my fabulous mama and all the mommies in my life on Mother's day, and then worked some more.

I've been lurking around in the blog world, but I've barely had the energy to do laundry (I actually had a nightmare last night about laundry taking over my room and I was tripping over piles and piles of it!), let alone think through what's been going on enough to write it out on here.

 But here are some pics of my life in the last few weeks to share with you all. Excuse the blur, some shots were taken from the car, others were taken after a drink or two. :)

 Driving up to the Mandalay Bay...over and over, we couldn't find the parking area...

 Best part of being born on Cinco de Mayo - $5 Margaritas and yummy food every year! @ Border Grill

 Mandalay Bay at night

 Pre-Show drink: Strawberry Fields. We couldn't take pictures of our massive Beatles drinks in the show, but they were fabbity.

 I love you MAMA! :)

Celebrating nurse's week at CHLA - this is a board full of thank you notes to all the nurses from all the patients and families!

It's been pretty busy, and there's so much more not documented here - but I've been keeping track of it all on my "paper blog" - my Smash Book of 2012. I'm thinking I'll take some pics and post them on here sometime soon.

In the mean time, I wanted to post this video up here from Seattle Children's Hospital. I don't work on a Hemonc unit, but I do work with some fabulous kids, and some awesome nurses. This video made me smile, and shows you how awesome it really is to be a peds nurse!!

Learning to sail

Texas was such a great experience, and in many ways I really feel like this conference was something I need to go to. Yes, presenting our poster was a great experience and an honor, and it was so exciting when we tied for first place (with our other manager's poster!) for the People's Choice Awards. There were so many nurses interested in our poster because moving to a new unit or facility and maintaining teamwork was something that they were faced with too. It made me realize that in this world of sick kids, and hospital buildings, we were totally not alone. I needed to know that, but more so, I needed to see it.

I needed the inspiration behind it all. It's not that I was feeling frustrated or tired of my job, not at all, but there are times when I've needed that little extra push, that little, "hey, remember, this is why you do this!" When you're in a room with a whole bunch of nurses from across the country and spanning generations and you hear them talk about working with pediatric nursing students to help them grow more, or how to stay motivated when days get rough, or how to prevent injuries and mistakes, I realized that every single person in that room knows exactly how I feel when I go into work. They know about the nerves, and the excitement, the confusion, frustration, happiness, anxiety, all of it. And they survived. 

When I go into work every night, I try to remember to not panic about anything, that there are other nurses there to help me out, and if I need them, they will be a resource. I try to remind myself that every night is a learning experience and that no matter what happens, it will help me become a better nurse.   There was a lady selling jewelry at the conference, each pendant has an image and a saying on it. I looked through so many without feeling a connection to any of them, until I saw this one, and then it all clicked. 

Don't mess with Texas!

Sending love and bacheegs from Houston, Texas! I'm here for the Society of Pediatric Nursing conference. 
Long ago last year, when I was still a wee nursing student dreaming of working on such a fabulous nursing unit at a fabulous hospital, I wrote a paper.  I was working as a nursing assistant on the unit of our dreams, but our close family at work was facing some troubling times and big changes, so I wrote about how I might change it if I were my boss. It was way intimidating, but close to my heart. Low and behold, my bosses liked it, and started taking steps to make it into a project to help boost the morale of our fabbity staff. 
Flash forward a year and a half later, and here I am in Houston, presenting this concept on a poster! These are the kinds of things we heard about doing in nursing school, but never thought possible until we were seasoned nurses.  But here I am and I'm loving it!  The atmosphere, being with nurses who know what it's like, who are interested in what you have to say, and who have some pretty amazing things to say themselves! And it's only just begun!
I'm heading off to start the day, but there will be more to come! 

What's the buzz...Tell me what's happening...

Where have I been?!?

It's been too long since I've posted - I can feel it in me. The one thing I've noticed about blogging and getting back to my crafty roots is that it really, REALLY, helps me balance my life. It helps me de-stress and feel productive. I'm so fortunately to have a work schedule that allows me enough time to do the things I love on my days off. It's learning how to fill that time up with what makes me happy - crafts, family, etc - that make it so worth while. It even makes the days that I do go back to work that much better.

So where have I been this week? Last Monday started off with a marathon of 3-days in a row at work. If you're not a nurse, or you're not a shift-worker, this might not seem like a big deal. But three nights of 12 hours of running around, and in the case of my assignment for those three nights, a 12 hour feeding schedule for 4 babies. By 5am on my first night it was, "If I have to feed ONE MORE BABY!"....

I love my job, I do. I just don't love smelling like formula. So if there's no burping, spitting up, or spilling, it's all good. But it never happens like that. It's a good thing babies are so darn cute.

But I digress. So after three days, I spent most of Thursday (my first day off) asleep. I felt like I was getting sick, so I really spent time trying to rest. But I really needed fresh air too. So I got up for a 6 mile training walk at the Rose Bowl. My mama and I are training with a group of family and friends for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer this September (click the link to visit my walk site and find out more about why I walk and how you can help!). I'll be posting more on this throughout the next few weeks and months as we start getting heavy into the training for our 39.3 mile journey. We also did a training walk on Saturday in Santa Barbara. I decided to try out some motion settings on my PuddingCamera app.

I got to spend Friday with Eric, catching up with him and getting wedding-stuff taken care of. It was great just spending time with him - it's hard when you only get to see each other maybe once a week. And then throw planning a wedding on top of that! It's all part of the balancing game.

Then yesterday was Palm Sunday. Church was packed with people and vibrating with the energy of the day. We had family over after dinner, and then I was FINALLY able to watch Jesus Christ Superstar... because I'm the only one in the family who'd never seen it (now you get the title of this blog). And if you know  my family, you'll know this is very odd. So now I feel like part of the group, in with the in-crowd. What a great movie - and fantastic soundtrack. If you've never seen it - this is the week to watch it!

So that brings me to today. Monday. April 2. And the first day of "The M," an online photography class I am taking by Kara Haupt. I don't have a DSLR camera (yet!) but I'm excited to be learning more about the manual settings and what they mean, and especially about how to take some fabulous pictures. I think it might be a few days before I've gotten to absorb the info, but I'll be posting my stuff on here, so keep checking back.

That's it. I've rambled enough. I know it's been more of a journal entry than a blog, and you probably didn't need to know (and prolly didn't care to know) about my whole week, but whatever. Deal with it. :)

Off to go play with the camera.

Peace -
xox
Ani

This is me after work

I'm exhausted.

And to think I was going to stay over until 1500 today. I guess it would have been different if I was at work, working. But now that I'm home, and have manage to devour a lovely breakfast burrito, my tummy is full, and my brain is shutting down. It's back to the grind again tonight. Hopefully, it will be just as good a shift as last night was.

This is me after work. Hair all a-frizz, and eyes drooping a bit, until I fall asleep.

There are so many things I want to do to day, books I'd like to read, and crafty projects calling my name. But not today. This is my night time. This is almost 9pm for me, not morning. Time for bed. And it's the perfect kind of sleepy weather for it too.

So for now, World. I bid the sweet dreams.

xox Ani

My messed up sleep schedule, the Hunger Games, and my lovely imagination

I'm really sorry it's been so long since I last posted. Sorry that there isn't more inspiring things going on to share with you all, but also sorry that I haven't made the time for it. The last few weeks that I have been posting on here, I felt more complete, and more in-tune with my whole self rather than just the half of myself that connects with work. '

Speaking of work. I now know how messed up sleep gets when you work night shift. When I first started on nights during my training, I was drained all the time, but I was also switching back and forth from days to nights because I had day time classes and night time work hours. Now that training is over, and I'm on my own, I'm all nights. And it was good for a while. I'm still adjusting, so I can't say that it's not good any more. I love the pace of the night shift, and I love the people. But MAN OH MAN do I feel like I've been hit by a bus a lot.  Some days you sleep fine, but when you try to switch back to a day schedule on your days off, it's almost impossible for me to wake up when I need to. Then there are the nights that I am up til 4:00am with a second wind (or a good book....or both, which makes it more deadly). And then there are nights like last night when I went to bed early (10:20) and crashed out, waking up numerous times at night, happy that I was sleeping when it was dark and that I still had many hours to go until my alarm went off at 8.  Only, my alarm went off, and in my sleep-induced state, I turned it off and fell asleep  - AGAIN! - and didn't wake up until 11am.

This picture was taken on vacation a few years ago, but just goes to show you the ridiculous state in which I sleep... i.e. my nest.

This is why I am not very productive any more. I just can't get up! Even waking at 11 this morning, my eyes felt glued shut and I couldn't muster the strength to get out of the cozy nest of my bed.

So take my ridiculously destroyed sleeping patterns and throw in a ridiculously good book series, and you get...what?  An even more ridiculously destroyed sleep pattern, but one that's totally worth it because it's just SOOOOO GOOD!

Enter: The Hunger Games.

Image from jodysparks.com - thank you!

Ever since I can remember, I have had a very vivid imagination. Whether reading a book or watching a movie, or just playing on my own, I could always transform myself into another character (totally all in my head, because, really it was disappointing when I'd look in the mirror and realized I still looked like my self, not like Pocahontas or Gina Davis in "A League of Their Own"). But this is what was so exciting about books and movies, and that's what their supposed to do, transform you, take you someplace you've never been before, escape reality.

The problem lies in the fact that I HAVEN'T CHANGED! I'm nearly 25 years old, and I'm sitting up at 3am, sleep deprived and gripping my Nook to read just one more chapter of The Hunger Games. Trying to figure out each character as if they were my friend. And what's worse - honestly, I can't believe I am confessing this here - is that when I do fall asleep, my mind is riddled with this half-story of actually being a part of the hunger games. Yes, I totally had a dream last night that I was Katniss. Ok, I said it. Laugh and move on.

Needless to say, I loved the series. It's definitely not the type of book I would have picked up, and another thing I hate to admit, but I started reading it because the movie trailer looked so enticing. Even through the first couple chapters of the first book, I kept telling myself to stop and find something else, something about weddings or something that I could relate to a little more. And I thought the whole plot was a little twisted. But something kept pulling me in, and forcing me to keep going, until I was hooked and sacrificing a few hours of sleep. It was something I could relate to, in a very different way, and Suzanne Collins has worked some literary magic that brought out the imaginative side of me once again.

There is definitely more I could say about this book. And maybe I will... if I can bring myself to be that analytic about something, or maybe after I go see the movie. But for now, it's stuck in my head. I'm in that post-book sadness when you start to realize that it was just a story, and that the characters weren't people you really knew, even though it felt like you did. And OK, so I am 25 and still pretending in some way that 

I am a character in a book. SO?! I'm taking this moment to say that I think that's A-OK, because there are far worse things I could do, and far less-imaginitive ways to live my life.

And I choose to live imaginatively.

Feel the love

If you've got to be at work all night long, it's pretty fantastic to get to spend it with people who go all out to celebrate and make life fabulous.  I love my co-workers.

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