Life has been soo busy recently, I feel like I haven't had much time to sit back and catch my breath. School is getting to be overwhelming. This morning I took an exam that covered more than 700 pages, 15 chapters and a variety of subjects. This week was going to be a week off.... So much for that. I've also taken it upon myself for reasons unknown to design a class t-shirt.
This week has also been one of the craziest weeks of my life. It started off with back to back clinicals at the University of Utah Medical Center Emergency Department. Sunday I went in at 1300 and left at 0100 Monday morning and had to be back up there to follow Salt Lake City Fire Department's Medical Director around at 0900. Sunday's night shift was crazy busy! We had trauma after trauma come in. I had the opportunity to talk to a handful of nurses and techs and learn some valuable information that I have a feeling will help me out in the months to come. I was very successful with my IV starts and have become more confident in my abilities to choose a site and hit my mark. Monday's shift was one full of firsts and crazies. I experienced things that I hope never to see smell or come in contact with in any way, ever again. I'll just leave the description at decontamination for feces, yeast infection, and maggots, oh and a poorly cared for gastrostomy bag... I definitely needed something to take my mind off of medical things even just for a little while.
I've been looking at rodeo kayaks for a few weeks now and have contacted heaven only knows how many people about their posts on KSL. There were a few boats that I called to go look at and they had been sold just hours before. I feel this was a blessing in disguise. I found a little yellow 6.5' Dagger Ultrafuge for sale by a college kid living in Provo and decided to go have a look and see if it was one that might work. I sat in it and the padding was just where it needed to be and fit like a glove. Needless to say, I'm now the happy owner of said kayak. Haval made the trip with me and we had the brilliant idea to see if Jared would let us come use his pool to learn to Eskimo Roll in. He said yes, so I called my dad up and asked if he would come and talk us through how to execute one. I struggled with it for a while and needed a break. Haval hopped into a kayak for his first time ever and on his third try, managed to right himself. Me, being the fierce competitor I am had to try and try and try again until I could do it for myself. Best investment I've made in a while :D I can't wait to play with it more this spring as the weather gets better.
Wednesday was my study day. I read and reread and tested myself until my mind turned to mush, and then I went and picked out a new set of whitewater paddles and a rafting life vest!
Thursday I just had to go out and play with my new toys and try the significantly shorter paddles out. They took some getting used to but are much easier to maneuver in the tiny kayak. It was a lovely way to start my morning and destress a bit. I then retreated back to Sugarhouse coffee to do my last stent of studying before the big test Friday morning. I felt confident in how the pretests were going and the information I had covered. Logan text me and said he was done with his last final and we decided to go out and celebrate so we went shooting. I love going out to shoot with that kid, we always have a good time. We had a good chance to catch up on life and how things were going with old friends we used to hang out with over dinner at the Pie Pizzaria. I'm amazed with how fast time flies and how good friends can be apart for various reasons for long periods of time and get back together and it seems like you were never apart! One can never have too many friends and I'm lucky to have some of the best to be had!
Hopefully the results of this test prove that my hard work and concentration have paid off and that I'm showing enough progress and improvement that my teachers will be happy with my performance. I'm looking forward to the weeks to come and the warm weather that summer will hopefully bring!
