Tiiiiiiiiiiiired.

My life can be summed up in three words: I. AM. EXHAUSTED.

Let's see... Since the last time I wrote here all I've been doing is working and going to school. My favorite class so far is the lab class. We use dummy patients that look like this:

Photograph of nursing dummy with oxygen tubing.

It's hilarious and kind of nerve wrecking since there are more students than there are dummy patients so when you are the one treating the dummy patient everyone else is there watching you.

Meme of Homer Simpson at a control panel trying to figure out which button to push while a bunch of people watch from the door. The meme says "Where is the alarm silencer? Quiet, he's about to do something stupid."

I'm also taking ASL and Haitian Creole classes. Because I'm ridiculous and apparently my overbooked schedule wasn't overbooked enough.

ASL is going ok since I've taken an ASL class before. I also still vaguely remember some signs from that and from my childhood. When I was in kindergarten they started to teach me ASL along with my speech therapy but they stopped and decided to just keep me in mainstreamed classes. Anyway, my class is mostly women and there are a couple of other visible queers and I kind of want to be like "OMG be my friend!" but that would be weird and socially awkward. So instead I will have itty bitty ASL conversations with them (since we're not allowed to use our voices in class).

Meme of a man making the "shhhh" gesture that says "When you talk in ASL."

So far Creole class is interesting but the language feels a bit odd to me. A lot of Creole is very similar to French so it feels like I can almost understand it even though I don't speak it. The class is a mix of folks who want to learn creole for their work and folks who are Haitian and never learned for one reason or another. Here's the one Haitian phrase I knew coming into the class.

Meme of a smiling man that says "Hey girl! Sak pase?"

Update

How was my week so far? Well, I am taking Creole and learning a lot. I'm trying to enjoy my last few weeks with Waldo and Morning. And I'm learning a lot about the joys of nursing simulation labs. 

Meme that says "Warning Everyone! The SIM lab dummies are anatomically correct!!!"

Waldo at the park.

Cool graffiti I found that says "Let's be better humans."

At any rate, I've decided that if all else fails and I can't keep it together for the remainder of the month that I still have the option of becoming an axe murderer. Not a bad job, right?

Me at the Halloween store with a fake axe.

Jordan's Furniture

Before I met Waldo I had never gone to Jordan's furniture. Why would I? I wasn't shopping for furniture. Well it turns out it has all kinds of other stuff like a water/lights/music display, a ropes course, an ice cream store, a candy store, and a burger joint. Random, huh?

Waldo in front of the water display.

And right now, they even have a sweepstakes of these cars that Waldo was excited to sit in...

Waldo sits in a fancy car.

Life Goes On

Well, I can tell you one thing - working and being in nursing school at the same time is very tiring!

Meme of exhausted looking person trying to use a stethoscope on their head.
The meme text says "Go to nursing school, they said. It won't be that bad, they said."

The good news is that I still feel like I'm on the right career path for me. The bad news is that there is no way I can keep up my current pace of working three jobs and going to school. So I'm quitting my Waldo and Morning jobs and just keeping the pediatric CNA job. Fortunately by now I'm friends with Waldo and Morning so I know we'll stay in touch even if I'm not working with them.

Photo of a white toddler/baby using a stethoscope on a teddy bear.

And now just because she's adorable, I present a photograph of my cat Mayim cuddling with my pink t-shirt.

Mayim is in love with my shirt.

This week has been pretty busy.

It started off with the carnivorous plant show on Sunday, followed by work.

On Monday it was Dolphin's birthday so I sent her a whatsapp video of me singing Happy Birthday, then it was the LGBT Asylum Task Force meeting. On Tuesday I had a phone appointment with the guidance counselor, a study date with Belle, Waldo, my first Haitian Creole class, and Morning.

Today is Tuesday. It's also the anniversary of 9/11. I had a Nursing lab, which went poorly because none of us felt ready to be there. But at least I got to try on this "Gay AF" hat.

Happy Pride!

It's LGBTQ+ pride in Worcester! Woohoo! I went with my Birthday Twin.

Me and Birthday Twin at pride.

Birthday Twin with planned parenthood's giant condom mascot.

Zoo Day

Today Waldo and I went to the zoo and then out to eat Indian food. Here are some zoo photos:

Me with a peacock.

Waldo with zebras.

Prairie Dogs.

How cute is this baby?!?!

Giraffes look funny when they run - and they can run FAST!

Waldo greets the goats.

Waldo is surprised by the goats.

Lemurs.

Gorilla looking stately.

Waldo compares his head size to a gorilla's head size.

First Day Of Nursing School!!!!

I survived!

Me in my nursing uniform.

My classmates were basically a sea of twenty-something year old white women. I expected the class to be mostly women since nursing is very much a female-dominated profession, but I was kind of surprised at how young everyone was since it's an accelerated second degree program. I figured more of the students would be on their second careers but it seems most just graduated college a year or two before. I also figured that there would be more students of color. Oh well. My first class went well and everyone seems friendly even if I'm clearly not in the same demographic as them.

Meme of nursing school with text that says "First day of nursing school 'I'm going on an adventure!'"

I Voted!

Back from PA and back to normal life. I worked this weekend at the pediatric CNA job and today with Waldo and Morning. I also voted! Yay voting!

Me with my voting sticker.

Tomorrow is the first day of nursing school. I'm excited and nervous, especially since I had to miss the orientation because of everything that was going on with Mom.