Small Joys: volume 13
Happy Wednesday, friends! I hope the week is treating you well so far, and if not.. it's almost finished! I woke up a little while ago after sleeping post night shift today and decided to toss another volume of Small Joys your way; it's super gloomy out, and I was planning on venturing out to Wal-mart today for groceries and Frozen, but I think that will all have to wait until tomorrow.
An interesting thing happened this week after work one morning. I was lying in bed trying to fall asleep, but my mind was still going. I decided to check Facebook to see what was happening with my friends, and I discovered that one of my Facebook friends also has started blogging about Small Joys. At first, I was a little taken aback; the style and formatting and even title of them was very similar to how I write my own Small Joys post every week. Then, I decided to be excited about it. A lot of bloggers out there do posts like "High Five for Friday" or some sort of top 5 or 10 list for the week. Small Joys were my way of doing that in a little bit of a different way, and it looks like someone else liked the idea, too! So I've decided to celebrate that someone else out there is finding small moments of joy in the midst of the seemingly mundane.
In any case, I'm rambling now. Onto the celebrating of small joys for the week.
No. 1: The end of orientation. Actually, I have one shift left technically. But last night was my off-orientation meeting at work and I just can't believe that 6 weeks flew by so quickly. I feel like I just walked onto the floor and started learning where things were; now I'm a week away from taking patients on my own. I will say, it's a very different feeling from my last two orientations. My orientation at my last job was the biggest joke in the world and lasted for two weeks; I came off of orientation feeling like I knew nothing. By my second shift in orientation, I was expected to take care of 6 patients, and when I wasn't doing this well, my manager was concerned. That all ended poorly anyways, another story for another day. My previous orientation on 3 West at UNC was fabulous (just as fabulous as my current one), but when I got off of orientation, I was a terrified new grad who has memories of her first day flying solo involving a lot of rapid responses and sending patients to the MICU. I think that day was indicative of what was to come in nursing for me. Since then, I developed a reputation for picking up on minute changes in patient condition that ultimately result in quick transfers to progressive care or ICU and many rapid responses to ensure patient safety. One nurse on 3 West always joked that maybe it all meant I was destined to be an ICU nurse. I don't see ICU nursing in my future anytime soon, but I'm now on a progressive care unit which has been very good learning so far. In any case, I think I'll feel much more prepared after this orientation than I have been in the past, mainly due to a little bit more experience and knowing where to go for resources. I hope I won't have that deer-in-headlights look I did at the end of my first solo shift back in NC, wondering if everyday as a nurse was going to be like my first one there.
No. 2: In sickness and in health. Obviously, Scott and I aren't married yet. But this week gave me a beautiful picture of Scott's heart to serve even when I'm not at my best. I came down with a weird cold or virus or something this week and just felt down for the count. I didn't do my weekly grocery shopping or even think about meal prep for my week of night shift. I called Scott one day to tell him I wasn't feeling well, and a few hours later he showed up at my apartment with a brown paper bag filled with Trader Joes goodies. Everything from soup to orange chicken filled the bag; he then spent time this week helping me to prepare meals when I wasn't feeling well before work and just reminded me that I am marrying a man who lives a selfless life. I am so thankful for him and for his willingness to meet me halfway this week. I take pride in cooking and preparing meals for when he is over at my apartment (and not because he asks this of me, I just seriously love cooking), and it's a hard thing for me to have to ask for help with this. Sometimes you just have no choice, and it's so lovely to have someone who is willing to share the load with you.
No. 3: Gerbera daisies. I call them Gerber daisies. Regardless, my plant just celebrated its one month anniversary of being alive. I've never kept a plant alive for this long, so this is a rather large accomplishment for me! Scott gave me the plant for Valentine's Day this year and I've watched it seemingly die and come back to life about three times in that month. I think I was over-watering it at first. Then, because of that, I stopped watering it so frequently to the point where I forgot entirely about it. Now, it's back to life and has a new flower that bloomed this morning. I don't know if gardening is in my future at all (I don't do well with bugs or snakes), but I think this is a start for now!
No. 4: Frozen. Yep. I'm 5 years old. Frozen came out on DVD today and I was planning on picking it up after work, but after the night we had last night, I was ready to get home and go to sleep! I'll pick it up tomorrow when I do my grocery shopping.
No. 5: Mason jar shot glasses. I'm not one to take shots very often, I much prefer a fruity, girly drink (I think this is an appropriate time to insert one of my favorite New Girl moments about fruity drinks. This is when Nick says he won't make a fruity drink for Winston because he "gets weird" with them. This is him getting weird).
An interesting thing happened this week after work one morning. I was lying in bed trying to fall asleep, but my mind was still going. I decided to check Facebook to see what was happening with my friends, and I discovered that one of my Facebook friends also has started blogging about Small Joys. At first, I was a little taken aback; the style and formatting and even title of them was very similar to how I write my own Small Joys post every week. Then, I decided to be excited about it. A lot of bloggers out there do posts like "High Five for Friday" or some sort of top 5 or 10 list for the week. Small Joys were my way of doing that in a little bit of a different way, and it looks like someone else liked the idea, too! So I've decided to celebrate that someone else out there is finding small moments of joy in the midst of the seemingly mundane.
In any case, I'm rambling now. Onto the celebrating of small joys for the week.
No. 1: The end of orientation. Actually, I have one shift left technically. But last night was my off-orientation meeting at work and I just can't believe that 6 weeks flew by so quickly. I feel like I just walked onto the floor and started learning where things were; now I'm a week away from taking patients on my own. I will say, it's a very different feeling from my last two orientations. My orientation at my last job was the biggest joke in the world and lasted for two weeks; I came off of orientation feeling like I knew nothing. By my second shift in orientation, I was expected to take care of 6 patients, and when I wasn't doing this well, my manager was concerned. That all ended poorly anyways, another story for another day. My previous orientation on 3 West at UNC was fabulous (just as fabulous as my current one), but when I got off of orientation, I was a terrified new grad who has memories of her first day flying solo involving a lot of rapid responses and sending patients to the MICU. I think that day was indicative of what was to come in nursing for me. Since then, I developed a reputation for picking up on minute changes in patient condition that ultimately result in quick transfers to progressive care or ICU and many rapid responses to ensure patient safety. One nurse on 3 West always joked that maybe it all meant I was destined to be an ICU nurse. I don't see ICU nursing in my future anytime soon, but I'm now on a progressive care unit which has been very good learning so far. In any case, I think I'll feel much more prepared after this orientation than I have been in the past, mainly due to a little bit more experience and knowing where to go for resources. I hope I won't have that deer-in-headlights look I did at the end of my first solo shift back in NC, wondering if everyday as a nurse was going to be like my first one there.
No. 2: In sickness and in health. Obviously, Scott and I aren't married yet. But this week gave me a beautiful picture of Scott's heart to serve even when I'm not at my best. I came down with a weird cold or virus or something this week and just felt down for the count. I didn't do my weekly grocery shopping or even think about meal prep for my week of night shift. I called Scott one day to tell him I wasn't feeling well, and a few hours later he showed up at my apartment with a brown paper bag filled with Trader Joes goodies. Everything from soup to orange chicken filled the bag; he then spent time this week helping me to prepare meals when I wasn't feeling well before work and just reminded me that I am marrying a man who lives a selfless life. I am so thankful for him and for his willingness to meet me halfway this week. I take pride in cooking and preparing meals for when he is over at my apartment (and not because he asks this of me, I just seriously love cooking), and it's a hard thing for me to have to ask for help with this. Sometimes you just have no choice, and it's so lovely to have someone who is willing to share the load with you.
No. 3: Gerbera daisies. I call them Gerber daisies. Regardless, my plant just celebrated its one month anniversary of being alive. I've never kept a plant alive for this long, so this is a rather large accomplishment for me! Scott gave me the plant for Valentine's Day this year and I've watched it seemingly die and come back to life about three times in that month. I think I was over-watering it at first. Then, because of that, I stopped watering it so frequently to the point where I forgot entirely about it. Now, it's back to life and has a new flower that bloomed this morning. I don't know if gardening is in my future at all (I don't do well with bugs or snakes), but I think this is a start for now!
No. 4: Frozen. Yep. I'm 5 years old. Frozen came out on DVD today and I was planning on picking it up after work, but after the night we had last night, I was ready to get home and go to sleep! I'll pick it up tomorrow when I do my grocery shopping.
No. 5: Mason jar shot glasses. I'm not one to take shots very often, I much prefer a fruity, girly drink (I think this is an appropriate time to insert one of my favorite New Girl moments about fruity drinks. This is when Nick says he won't make a fruity drink for Winston because he "gets weird" with them. This is him getting weird).
My whole kitchen is filled with southern charm and mason jar madness for drinkware, so these finds at Paper Source in Indy were a treat for the kitchen.
No. 6: Post night shift breakfast dates. Last week when I got off of work I had a text from Scott asking if I wanted to meet him for a breakfast date after my shift; he lives right near the hospital I work at, so I scooped him up and headed to Le Peep for a delicious breakfast and super fun date. We were there for probably an hour and a half chatting about future plans and work and school and honeymooning and everything in between. I hope for more dates like this, I quite enjoyed the spontaneity of it all.
No. 7: More drinkware for the kitchen. Compliments of Emily and Jessica, both former roomies and dear friends. I wasn't expecting anything in the mail but received these last week and was super excited to add them to our bar area.
No. 8: Visits from friends. I think I told you last week that I was expecting a series of visitors. This past weekend, my old high school roommate, Lindsay came to visit. We had a fun day full of Three Wise Men (one of my new favorite restaurants), shopping, the Easley Winery, Monon Food Company (my official favorite restaurant in Indy, ever since the weekend I moved in), shopping at Keystone, and watching Frozen while drinking wine. This week, I'm looking forward to SIX days off and spending 4-5 of those with Susan and Claire. Can't even wait for them to arrive. I'm thinking about taking a day trip to Chicago with them... any tips on where to go in Chi town?
No. 9: Last minute wedding details. I've decided to view these as joys rather than stresses. Let's see what's left on the to-do list, shall we?
☐ Call the caterer with final numbers
☐ Finish wedding programs
☐ Submit song list to the DJ
☐ Pick up wedding dress
☐ Pick up flowers fromTrader Joe's
☐ Pick up wine from Trader Joe's
☐ Finalize numbers with tent rental company
☐ Start wedding diet?? Just kidding. I don't do diets. At this point, what you see
is what you get!
☐ Meet my groom at the end of the aisle on a sunny spring day. Oh, be still, my
heart.
No. 10: Pre-marital counseling. Who knew I would learn new things about Scott through this? You think you know someone after dating for 8 years, but I'd be lying if I said we didn't learn something new about each other through this.
And I think that's it for the week, friends! We are nearing the end of an era-- the end of my singlehood and days of living with girls. I'm quickly approaching the days of being a wife and living with a boy. I wonder what that will look like-- should I expect dirty laundry strewn about the house and toothpaste all over the bathroom counter? Or maybe I can expect more days like I had this week with sharing meals together, cooking together, watching How I Met Your Mother and laughing at Barney's crazy antics. I hope for more of the latter.
Have a great rest of your week :) Hope you can find small joys in the midst of all the crazy.
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