The Intensive Art

It’s a cold, winter day here. Snow fell overnight and stuck nicely to the ground. The dog won’t stop barking every time the snowblower drives past our apartment window. As a nice tribute to this weather, I have changed to a nice winter theme on my blog.I’m having a great week that has involved many exciting new things. Thanks to my new twelve-hour shift rotation, I frequently have several days off in a row. Right now, I’m smack dab in the middle of seven days off.

I have taken this time to work on many projects. First of all, of course, I’ve been continuing on with my critical care nursing certificate. I’m still on the physiology course, and have two more tests to go. I got over the two biggest challenges: the massive and complex cardiac unit, and the (in my own opinion) dull and difficult to learn neurology unit. Now I’m onto renal physiology; I’m enjoying reading a unit that interests me and is much more straight forward. Then I just have a unit on the body’s defense systems and I’m done!

The next course is critical care assessment–I’m looking forward to the change. It’s apparently a much easier course and takes up less time.

I have also spent a lot of time updating my technology. Yes, I’m a big tech geek and love to spend hours upon hours playing with new technologies and gadgets. Firstly, I got myself an iPod touch. This thing is incredible! The iPhone isn’t yet available in Canada, and due to carrier restrictions, I may never actually get one. The iPod touch is the next best thing. I can’t gush enough about how great this thing is! Anyone who doesn’t have an iPod touch/iPhone MUST get one right away.

I also updated my operating system to Leopard, and upgraded to iLife 08. I just can’t express how much macs are better than anything else out there. I used a mac back in the 90s, then a PC in the early 2000s before moving back to Macs. I really don’t think I will ever go back to Microsoft PCs: there just isn’t a good reason to.

I have decided to learn a little Cantonese. We have a large population of patients that speak Cantonese and I would love to be able to communicate basic ideas. As expected, it isn’t going so well. I’m still on the first three or four phrases and just can’t seem to get the hang of it. I’m determined to keep working at it though.

So, that’s how I’m spending my time off. I am so much happier with work now that I have switched to twelve-hour shifts. I feel much more relaxed and calm; I’m starting to love work again. Of course, my first shift back will probably be horrible and ruin that!

We’ll see…..

I have a new best friend….

I am in love with my new Stiletto 100 portable Sirius radio. I have been wanting to buy one for awhile now, but didn’t have the money for it. So! I decided that it would be a present to myself for writing my RN licensing exam. I don’t even care that I haven’t written the exam yet! That would be occuring on Wednesday.

I was doing some pediatric practice questions yesterday. I got almost all of them wrong. Unfortunately, I just don’t have all that much time to go back and learn more about peds. Instead, I need to focus on practicing the written questions. I will also be spending some time on cardiology since previous exam writers stated that there was a heavy focus on the good old heart.

Ugh! I just want to pass the test and move on with my life.

Anyway! Back to the Stiletto 100. Could there be a greater invention than satellite radio? I spent a couple hours this morning listening to the OutQ morning radio show which I instantly loved. I listened to the Broadway channel as I walked home today…which I love. Other favorites are CBC radio one (of course) and Alt Nation who did a 90s music weekend.

*swoon*

The greatest part is that when a song I like comes on, I hit the “love button” and it instantly records the song to memory so I can listen whenever I desire. I can also program it to record chunks of time. For example, I’ve set it to record the Broadway station every Monday because they play an entire musical start to finish.

Anyway…back to the studying…*cries*