Two plus two is ten

So I'm sitting here printing out a metric fuckton of class material and it looks like I'm going to be so busy this quarter...and yet all I can think is, "I'm so glad to be back at school!!!! Eeeeee!" (Also: "So many trees died for this, oh my GOD," but at least I'm printing everything double-sided?)

Anyway. This quarter marks the first time we're assigned to an actual clinical site, during which we care for real patients during an 8-hour shift one day a week. Next week we're just shadowing a nurse preceptor and observing what s/he does, but after that? Hands. fucking. ON. I'm terribly excited, and also flat-out terrified. This is scary new territory for me.

In other news, I'm trying my very best to wait until October to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas, because some part of my brain insists that I need to wait until then to watch blatantly Halloweenie movies. I'm not sure why my brain insists on this? Also, it's harrrrrrrd. I've been scratching the itch somewhat with a variety of spooky movies, but...it's not the same. Luckily, I only have a few more days to go, and then I can mainline Halloween movies to my heart's content.

...except I'll be spending most of my spare time studying, so LOOKS LIKE THE JOKE'S ON ME. HEY-O.

(I kid, I kid -- movies and tv make for great background noise while I make flashcards, which is how I ended up blasting through six seasons of "Gray's Anatomy" during the lead-up to finals. I regret nothing!)

I miss you, livejournal land. I'm back on facebook again (I rejoined because all of my classmates were there and we have a private group set up for our class and everything), but although it's undeniably handy sometimes, I still don't like it. I've been on lj in some username or another since 2001 -- back during the days when it was invite-only, haha, I'm old -- and even though it has its problems, it's still my social networking site of choice. I know I'm not posting much lately and I rarely comment, but I still read my f-list every freakin' day and love seeing what everyone's up to. So...yes. [/maudlin]

I don't care what anyone says: Pluto will always be a planet to me.

ALWAYS.

So today was my nursing school orientation, and...oh my god, I can't even express how excited and nervous and abso-fucking-lutely terrified I am about this program. I know I'm going to be fine -- everything will work out and I'll meet a bunch of new people and I'm going to learn the sorts of skills that will render me incalculably valuable in a post-apocalyptic world*, and I'm probably going to have a lot of fun amidst all the work and stress...but I barely slept last night because some part of me was convinced that I would arrive at the school and discover that it had all been a mistake and I wasn't really accepted, and that kind of tells you everything you need to know about the way my brain works.

(Honestly, though? I think this is going to be great. Scary and difficult and stressful? Absolutely. But it's also going to be amazing. I feels it in me bones.)

My final day as an admin was last Wednesday, and I'm a little surprised at how much I miss everyone at the office. I need to head back to campus on Tuesday for my new ID badge and to pick up my books, and I think I might swing by to say "hi" if I have time. I mean...they got me a $500 gift certificate to the student bookstore as my going-away present. FIVE. HUNDRED. This pretty much covers my books for the entire quarter and I almost started bawling when I opened the envelope, especially when they told me that (a) everyone in the division had contributed, and (b) that Dr. Z -- "my" doctor -- had contributed about $100 his own self. I just. TEARS. Everyone kept telling me how happy they were, and how proud, and how they hoped I'd come back to work with them in the ICU or trauma research or as a scrub nurse. My last days at the law firm were awful; my last days with trauma were lovely. As frustrated as work made me sometimes, I really do ♥ those folks, truly.

In other news, Nate and I have started watching Battlestar Galactica (EEEEEEE!). We just hit Season 3 last night, but had to go to bed before we finished the premiere episode. It's one of those shows where we're watching it together and agreed not to watch it if the other person isn't around (d'aw), but he's not going to get home for several more hours and the wait is KILLING ME, UGH UGH UGH.

But I will wait, because we've made a pact and he is my geek and I love him. So. I will be streaming The Deadliest Warrior in the meantime, because I am apparently the sort of person who needs to know if the Jesse James gang could beat Al Capone's gang in a fight. I'm not proud of my need to know these things, but there you go.


* Because this, obviously, is the most important thing when choosing a career these days, y/y?