Have you heard?  I'm starting school tomorrow.  Ok, ok, I know, I've mentioned it a few times already.  Forgive me for being excited.  I know the grass is always greener on the other side.  I am sure that in the coming days, you will find me wishing that I weren't so busy, that I had less to think about, and that I could just sit around and do nothing, or perhaps you won't find me at all, but today, I am ready to move forward with this.  It seems unreal almost, like I will just wake up tomorrow like normal, and do nothing, like normal.  Instead, my alarm clock will be going off at 6:30 or 6:45 (I haven't seen that time of morning in months) and I will be off to school, like a real college student again.  A year from now, I will be a nurse- a real, live grown up able (at least in theory) to get a grown up job.  I swear, I was 17 just yesterday.  When did all this sneak up on me?

In other news.... hmmm.... I can't really think of any other news.  Zack says his news is that he has a stupid professor.  She is an adjunct and does not understand that some students actually have other classes besides hers.  She assigns lots and lots of work, sometimes springing things on them at the last minute.  Her latest thing is that for this week, she wants to move class from its regular time on Thursday night to sometime Thursday morning.  This is a 3 hour class.  It's like it never occurred to her that many (dare I say most) of the students in her class probably already have classes at various times throughout the day on Thursday, and even if they only have a couple, they probably don't just have a random 3 hour chunk of time sitting around, waiting to be filled.  Even in the event that one or a couple students do have said vortex of nothingness in during that particular day, the chances that even those few people's empty time would correspond with one another's is next to nothing.  I do not know where she gets these ideas of hers.  She should just cancel class and give her students a week to regain a measure of their sanity.

Well, I'm off.  Wish me luck.

Since my days of reading for leisure are numbered, I decided to take up the delightful little read that is Jane Austen's Persuasion over the past couple days.  Yes, I am a girl, and therefore a sucker for Jane Austen, and since her novels are generally happy face, and relatively quick and easy to read, it seemed the perfect candidate.  I was not as familiar with this novel as I am with some of the others also, so it was fun to get to know it a little better.  It is a sweet story about forgiveness and second chances.  I do not really have a whole lot to say about it.  It's not even very interesting that I read it, I know, but since my husband is pretty much the only one reading my blog, I am at liberty to discuss whatever little trifles I feel like and he will be (or at least act) interested.  What a sweetie.

We are now in the thick of our hunt for a new apartment.  It is unclear at the moment exactly when we will be moving, but it could be as early as mid-May so it's time for us to keep an eye out.  We have discussed over and over the pros and cons of various locations.  We are finding it very difficult to pick one as each has good things and bad things about it.  We are tempted to go a little west, as the apartment prices go down that direction, and there are actually some very pretty and nice neighborhoods.  Yet going west would increase the commute time to school (as well as the many, many potential clinical sights in this vicinity and eastward) for both of us.  We have considered staying in the same building, but we long for a dishwasher.  It has become a small obsession of mine.  I just think of how much time I spend doing dishes (who would've thought that 2 people could make so many), and how I could probably really use that time for other endeavors once I'm in school.  It's not a necessity, to be sure, but it's a luxury I would really enjoy.  Also, parking would be no picnic around here if we end up with a car.  The remaining option is to go east.  There are many advantages to that.  While it would increase Zack's commute time (going anywhere but here would as we're living on campus right now), it wouldn't be by much and we would be very close to public transportation.  It would move me closer to school.  There are so many fun areas downtown, including areas around Rittenhouse Square, which is a lovely park surrounded by a lot of shopping; the museum area (pretty self-explanatory); and Old City, which is the area right in the vicinity of Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell.  I personally like the latter best.  It is marked in part by narrow cobblestone streets where it is easy to feel tucked away from everything, despite that you are actually in the middle of a huge city.  But the prices for apartments can be very high in the city, as is common most places I imagine, and the parking would potentially be even worse of a nightmare than here in the area surrounding the university.  Even more scary- I have no idea how to parallel park.  I have honestly never done it in my life.  Not really even in drivers' ed.  So here we are after days of contemplating, researching, and hunting, unresolved about anything.  What's most important?  A dishwasher?  Finding a parking space with ease?  Commute time?  Is it extremely important that we remain in the same ward or stake?  Is there something out there that offers the best of everything we are looking for? And how do we find it?  

I have to say though, despite that this has caused me more than a little anxiety, it's really kind of fun.  We get the opportunity to explore many parts of the city.  We get to anticipate the excitement that is finding a place and making it our own, at least as much as is possible in a rented apartment.

If anyone has great apartment hunting skills and would like to share, feel free to enlighten us.  

A Cheesy Post

Exactly 1 week from now, I will be sitting in my Ethics, Advocacy, and Professionalism in Nursing class for the very first time.  I will be on day 2 of my journey toward a new career.  

Last night, I went out for a walk while Zack was still in class.  I was just enjoying the weather and reflecting.  I thought about the path I've already taken.  When I was nearing the end of high school, I was sure that I wanted to do Pharmacy.  For some unknown reason, just months later, when I started college, I was a pre-nursing major.  The seemingly arbitrary decision to choose Nursing over Pharmacy turned out to be a great blessing when I discovered my intense dislike of Chemistry.  After just 1 semester as a pre-nursing major, I found myself discouraged with the rigidity of the program and the fact that I would actually get to choose only 3 or 4 classes for the entirety of my college career.  I found myself longing for the things I had enjoyed so much before- English, music, and History.  At that time, I spent many hours deciding what would be the best decision for me.  I prayed over and over.  I fasted several times.  I wanted so much to do what was right in my life.  During the last 4 or 5 years of my life, I have noticed a trend, a theme, a lesson that I have been pounded with over and over.  It is that the Lord has provided many tools that can guide me in my decisions, and that He also gives me personal inspiration, but many times, I just get to choose.  Sometimes, there is not exactly a right answer or a wrong answer.  Or even if there is, sometimes I have to take a step in one direction or the other to know which is which.  This was one such decision.  Over and over I got the feeling, the answer, that it was really just my call this time, and that either way, things would work out.  I just needed to figure out what would make me happy.  I resisted that answer.  I didn't want it.  I wanted a clear cut "choose _____" kind of answer.  No such luck.  So I worked out a plan- a compromise of sorts.  My second semester of college, I was a History/pre-nursing double major with a seemingly flawless plan of action.  I would finish my History major and graduate with my degree after 3 and a half years of college (including the one I had spent solely as a pre-nursing major).  During that time, I would also complete all prerequisites for the U's Nursing program.  I would enter their accelerated program 3 months after graduation with my first degree and come out with a second bachelor's degree just 16 months later.  My first degree was completely paid for by scholarship, and I would be able to pay for almost all of the second degree on my own with money saved by working.  When all was finished, I would have been a 22 year old with 2 bachelor's degrees, and very little debt, which I would easily pay off within my first year of working.

Obviously, my plan did not quite work out as well as I had hoped.  My last semester before graduating with my first degree, Zack came home from his mission.  3 months later, I graduated, and 3 months after that, just about 2 weeks before I was supposed to start the nursing program at the U, I got engaged.  I knew at the time (and still do) that marrying Zack was the right thing for me so that left 3 options really: 1- put off the wedding for 16 months until I finished school (many of those months would have been spent apart, with him attending school at Penn), 2- have him leave Penn, his job, his entire life, and make him move back to Utah while I finished my program, 3- find alternative arrangements for myself.

I have sometimes regretted my initial decision to change my major to History.  If I had not changed, I would have been 2 months from being a nurse when I got engaged.  I would have been able to work full time and support us while Zack finished school.  I probably would have never had great difficulty finding a job when we moved here.  And I wouldn't be standing where I am now, faced with trying to balance an extremely rigorous school program, married life, and helping to maintain a household- not to mention the enormous cost of this program, which is more than 5 times what the program at the U would have been.  In spite of all this, I cannot really regret it.  I loved college.  I took classes about architecture, art history, music, and all different types of history that have impacted me deeply, changed the way I look at things, and given me greater appreciation and understanding of life.  Sure, I would have had other insights and opportunities had I done it the other way, but I would have missed these.  

The current situation is not really that dire either.  I will finish this program only about 7 months after I would have finished the other.  So I will be 23 with 2 bachelor's degrees.  Yes, I will have some debt, and no, I will not be able to pay it off in one year.  I do think that making that kind of financial sacrifice has given me a greater understanding of how important education is though.  It is worth what we are paying for it, and then some.  The return, financially and otherwise, will be much greater.  There will be difficult times.  It's not always about taking the easiest path though.

So, 1 week from now, and for 50-something weeks after that, I will give it my all.  I will keep on pushing forward in the face of discomfort, exhaustion, frustration.  I will find satisfaction, a sense of accomplishment, and fulfillment.  I am nervous.  I have strong anxieties and qualms.  Yet I remember that time at the beginning of my time in college when the answer came to me that no matter which of the 2 paths I chose at that time, things would work out.

We're baaa-aaack.

It has been a crazy week or so for Zack and me.  We started out sightseeing with my cousin and her husband last Thursday.  We were very impressed with our Independence Hall tour guide.  We have had a couple of not so great ones in the past so it was really nice to have someone who was really on target.  Also, one fun thing about sightseeing with other people is that Zack and I actually got a picture with us both in it.  Totally cute!

The day after sightseeing with my cousin, I attended my nursing school orientation, which was enlightening and also scary.  I am so excited to get started.  Looks like this term I'll be doing mostly book work, with one day of practice clinicals, which involves going to a lab and practicing the things we learn on dummies and each other.  For the remaining 3 terms, I will have 3 separate clinicals each week.  Each clinical will center around some aspect of nursing (pediatric, geriatric, psych, etc).  That sounds very exciting, and I am anxious to get started.  There is one down side to it though.  They want us to have a variety of clinical experiences including hospitals, urban settings, more rural settings, clinics, and so forth.  That means that they can (and will) assign me clinical locations all over the place, across several counties in Pennsylvania, and also in Delaware and New Jersey.  I get no say in where they assign me to go.  Some of the locations are not accessible by public transportation.  That means getting to and from clinicals could become a very, very complicated, difficult, and time-consuming process.  We are considering buying a car to deal with this situation.  We still have a couple of months to  think about it since the real clinical rotations won't start until second term.  It's a hard call though.  First, buying a car means paying for it, which is not exactly the easiest thing for poor students such as ourselves.  There's also the high insurance rates and parking hassles that come with living in Philly.  We had planned to just skip the car thing for at least another year to avoid those issues.  No matter what we decide, we'll make it work out.  We both believe very strongly that education should be a priority for us at this point in our lives, and we feel that the benefits of our decision to invest in education will far outweigh any costs we incur at this time.  It will be good to get a variety of clinical experiences also, despite the hassles.

Jumping to the next topic, we just got back from our vacation to Florida.  We couldn't have asked for a better trip.  The weather was amazing, the company was nice, and we had plenty to keep us busy.  The first day we were there, Zack and I got to go to the Magic Kingdom alone while his parents went to a spring training game.  We had a blast.  I have always loved the Haunted Mansion and this trip was no exception.  What an awesome ride.  I also rode Space Mountain (without crying.  In my defense, I was like 8 years old last time I had the chance to ride it and I didn't learn to enjoy rollercoasters until I was probably 12 or 13).  We were pretty tired by early evening since we flew into Florida after midnight the night before so we called it a day at like 8 PM.  We got to enjoy it plenty more though because we went back to 

the Magic Kingdom on Monday with Zack's parents and sisters.  That day, we discovered the Buzz Lightyear ride, which is really fun.  Don't skip it if you go to Disneyworld because it's easy to miss but it's really cute and fun.

We also hit Hollywood Studios (wow, the Tower of Terror was even more awesome than I remembered).  The Rockin' Rollercoaster was fun too, but I think Tower of Terror takes the cake for funnest ride at Disneyworld.  For our last day of vacation, we were going to go to Epcot, but changed our minds at the last minute and decided to go to the Animal Kingdom (thanks for the correction honey).  Boy were we glad we did!  We LOVED it.  The Everest ride is our second favorite after Tower of Terror.  They also have this Dinosaur ride that we're crazy about.  Plus they have one of those safari rides where you ride around in a truck and look at animals... who wouldn't love that?  So, 3

 days at Disneyworld, a day at the beach, and a couple of delayed flights later, here we are, home    again, and looking forward to having Zack's mom over for Easter.  

There is something about Lucky Charms.  I'm not a General Mills marketing rep or anything like that but I can't resist pointing out how amazing they are.  So the grocery store had this huge box (I'm talking 24 oz here- that's a pound and a half of sheer cereal bliss) on sale for like $3, which is amazing since the little box regularly costs over $4.  Naturally, I bought a box.  I had to resist the urge to buy 2, because I knew I would eat almost nothing else until both of those boxes were gone.  That was Monday night.  Today is Wednesday.  I am sure the box is more than half gone.  Maybe Zack ate some too....  In any case, it has been magically delicious.  Somehow they find just the right blend of marshmallows and the other pieces (do those pieces have a name?  I'll just call them grain pieces).  I have experimented extensively throughout my life with various Lucky Charms eating techniques, including consuming all the grain pieces first and then eating the marshmallows all together at the end, and vice versa.  I actually prefer the latter because eating all the marshmallows at once creates that sugar burn feeling in my throat.  If I eat them first, I still have all the grain pieces to help that feeling to dissipate.  But the truth is that the best way to eat it is all together.  The way the grain plays off the marshmallows leaves me wanting more and more.  This is not one of those tastes I savor slowly.  No, this is one of those tastes that makes me choose the bigger spoon from the drawer so as to allow me to shovel more into my mouth at once.  This is the kind of taste that makes me wish I could fit the entire bowl or even the entire box in my mouth at once.  This is the kind of taste that leaves me scolding myself, "No, you may not have Lucky Charms for dinner.  You already had them for breakfast and lunch."  Also, as a side note, Lucky is really cute.  If someone got rid of the dorky hat, gave him some normal clothes (enough with the green) and maybe an eyebrow wax, it'd be even better.  He can never achieve handsome status though, since he looks like a little kid.  I guess Dimitri from Anastasia will maintain his place as most handsome cartoon character.

Speaking of things besides Lucky Charms, Zack is on spring break this week, which just means that he spends all day in work instead of some days in class.  He has still been doing lots of homework in order to be ready for when he is not on spring break anymore.  

My cousin and her husband are coming to visit us tomorrow, which I am so excited about.  It's kind of ironic that they are going to get to see our apartment in Philadelphia before I see their house in Utah.  We'll probably take them to see the usual Philly sights- Independence Hall, Liberty Bell, Reading Terminal Market- and we might have a cheesesteak.  Maybe not though since I don't like them.  We'll definitely introduce them to water ice though- the Mango flavor is to die for.

The day after that I have my nursing school orientation (the time for me to start my program is drawing closer and closer), and that night we fly out to FLORIDA!  Zack's family is taking us for a little spring break excursion to Disney World.  Isn't that amazing of them?  I am psyched.  I'll write about it when we get back.  Until then, get yourself some Lucky Charms and enjoy.

I mentioned before that I work at a daycare center for old people.  It really is a cushy job, especially as CNA jobs go.  My hours are 10 AM to 3 PM.  Isn't that just the greatest?  And even if I did work more hours, it would still basically be a regular 9-to-5 kind of deal.  I think many CNAs would agree that jobs like that in this field are few and far between.  So I really lucked out there.  

An average day goes something like this: When I arrive at 10 AM, most of the people have already arrived, and had coffee and a muffin.  They are usually in a big circle watching one of those morning news shows full of cooking demonstrations, tips about what to wear and how to stop being fat, and just about no news.  Soon after I arrive, I either help people to the bathroom, or turn off the crappy TV and lead a group discussion and old people exercise session.  I definitely prefer toileting.  Seriously, helping a bunch of sweet old people deal with their normal bodily functions is much easier for me than sitting in front of a whole group of 80-something black people that grew up in a big city.  My white Mormon Utah suburbanite upbringing just shines through as I struggle to find one thing to talk about that they can relate to.  I usually skip right to exercise after making sure they know what the date is and what the weather is like outside.  Conversing with them one at a time is not such a challenge for me.  I think some of them actually take to me because I am a little different from the others that work there.  Maybe they just think my accent or some of the words that I use are funny (no one carries a purse here.  It's always a "pocketbook").  But when I get up in front of the group, they all just sit and stare at me like I am from a different planet.  Not my favorite thing about work.

Today we played stick ball after our exercises, which is basically hitting a ball around on the floor with sticks covered in foam.  I have to laugh at that game.  It always seems like a bunch of the people who won't play (usually because they have Alzheimers and don't know what's going on) end up right by each other in the circle, so any time the ball goes to their little section, it just sits there.  I have to keep getting up and getting the game moving again.  Then there's the sections where a whole bunch of fairly aggressive players end up sitting, and they're always trying to beat each other out at the number of times they hit the ball.  Finally, there's always those couple of people who want to play, but they are maybe not so quick with the reflexes, or they are sitting next to one of those pretty aggressive players, so they just sit there, getting excited every time the ball comes near, only to be beat out by their neighbor.  Today, I watched all this while the man next to me asked, "Are you Polish?"  "No, I'm not Polish."  "I've been to Poland," he said.  "That's so great", I replied, getting up to get the game moving again.  Every couple of minutes, we would repeat this conversation.  "Are you Polish?"  "Nope, my ancestors are mostly from England."  "I've been to Poland"... and so forth.  Very cute.  After all that there's lunch, more toileting, and more activities.  I think I already went on too long about my job so I'll just stop there and leave it at that.

Old people are so cute.   

I've decided that it's time for us to jump on the bandwagon and start blogging.  Who wouldn't want to sit in front of a computer and type about themselves?  C'mon.  So here we are.  Frankly I don't really know how excited Zack is about this.  He's the better writer but I think this'll mostly be full of my writing so my apologies in advance for that.

I think I'll just start with a little summary about what's going on with us, in case you aren't already aware.  We're living in Philadelphia.  Zack is attending the University of Pennsylvania, which keeps him plenty busy, and he's also playing in the band, working, and writing a weekly column for the school newspaper.  Needless to say, his free time is limited.  He does an amazing job of making time for me though.

I am currently working at a daycare center for old people.  I will start my nursing program on March 31, which I am very excited about.

So that's us.