Running
I completed my first 5K race this past Friday. I finished in 4052nd place with a time of 57:33. Yes, that’s nearly an hour for a measly 3.1 miles. Not great, but not too shabby considering I didn’t run at all. The course was somewhat hilly, but overall not too bad. My goals were to 1) finish, 2) not finish last, 3) complete it in less than an hour. So I achieved those goals. ‘ I’m continuing my ‘training’ for the 10k next spring, and I’m also thinking about doing a trail run in the fall. We’ll see how that goes, but I prefer running on surfaces other than pavement. I even got new running shoes and they happen to be trail runners, but mainly because I feel clumsy running. It doesn’t help that I’m tall, have relatively small feet, and am about 50 pounds overweight.
relaxing pre-race
…now I need to actually run some trails
Nursing
My final exam in patient assessment is tomorrow. We have to perform one of four demonstrations on a classmate. To make it more challenging, we won’t know until about 15 minutes before hand which system we have but the choices are Neuro, Musco-skeletal/Skin, Pulmonary/Abdomen, and Cardiac/Peripheral Vasculature. We don’t to choose what we want, but instead have to draw blindly from a hat–so to speak… I’d prefer Neuro if I had my choice. It has the most things on it, but the least amount of touching. It sound weird, but I don’t really like touching people especially my classmates. [that’s part of the reason I am leaning towards psych or peds].
Honestly, I’ve put very little study time into this semester [I usually review my notes the night before a test and that’s about it] and I have around a 90 average so most likely I’ll end up with my second B of nursing school. I think that’s OK considering the minimal effort I’ve put into these classes. Working full time and going to school is hard, but not having a job or income would be that much harder. I do learn a lot at work so I think that helps somewhat. I’d like my nursing GPA to be in the range of 3.3-3.6 [Making an A in 3 of the next 5 classes will get me 3.44 and in 4 of the 5 classes will get me a 3.6] when I’m finished so I need to make a couple A’s mixed in with the B’s. I think it will help the grad school application process. Yes, my bachelor’s in business GPA was 2.13, but my bachelor’s in microbiology GPA was 3.5 and my nursing GPA is 3.5 ish. Microbiology and Nursing GPA should be a better indicator of grad school success than a silly business degree from 10 years ago.
Summer plans
My adviser still hasn’t registered me for summer class yet so I am seriously considering not taking the next required class until August. This will put me graduating in July of next year instead of May. That’s not that big of a difference since all the grad programs I am interested in has the deadline of October 15. And I get to have this summer off. which would be kinda nice before gearing up to tackle the “real nursing classes’. I’m considering taking a dysarrhythmia class for 6 weeks during the summer. It would allow me to become telemetry certified and then I could fill in for the secretary at work. Options are great. Also if I don’t have class this summer, I’m going to go somewhere. My feet are starting to itch, and I’ve been grounded too long.
The second point in favor of not taking classes is I already have my work schedule, and if nothing changing 3 of the 4 weeks on the schedule, I’d be awake for 56 hours straight [school, work, clinical, work, class… then sleep] I know myself well enough to know that can’t happen… bad things will happen to someone.
so there it is… today will be spent studying outside in the 85 degree weather, a trail run at some point, a nap, and hopefully breakfast/lunch with the boyfriend… and that counts as study time too since I’ll use him as a ‘patient.’ [I don’t mind touching him :0]
New Kitties
the new kitties are settling in nicely… little girl is teething, has a URI and sneezes a lot, but otherwise in good health. She’s gained about 1.5 pounds in the two months, but needs to grow a little more. Mr. Kitty is still shy, but is coming out more. He sits on the couch, lies on the bed, looks out the window, and occasionally goes down the stairs. Christopher still hides from everyone except me, but he’s getting better. He needs to lose a pound or two. I’m guessing he belonged to an old lady because he is so fat and lovable and squishy. I still miss my boy, but I love my two new babies too. It’s a little bit of an adjustment taking care of two [trying to feed one extra, and have one on a diet in almost impossible]
Requisite kitty pics:
All that to say the the finish line is near and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. It was a feat to finish my first 5k. I really do not enjoy running, but I do need the weight to come off and that is one of the ways to do it. So I’ll keep running. Until I can’t. And I’ll finish nursing school whenever I can. It’s only the first step in that career path anyway. And Lucy and Christopher–well, we don’t want to finish them; our time is just getting started.
