Busy Bee, part 2

Continuing from my previous post...

11/1: It was a pretty lazy morning for the girls. We were slow waking up and getting ready, then made a mad dash to the post office (so that I could mail my FACS 498 assignments) and the bank (so Kim could deposit my rent check) before they closed. The closest post office was closed so we attempted to find the one in Hyde Park (hippie district near downtown, heh) before it closed too. We barely made it, thank goodness, but by the time we got to the bank, it was closed. Fooey. I am super proud of myself, though, because I totally knew where I was going (on the way back anyways), and am fairly good at navigating the city--which, you know, is huge for me!

That afternoon, Joey, Stew, and Nathan (Bosian who moved to Seattle in between our July visit and my September return) came over to watch the BSU game and play Wii. I helped Kim with some of her projects for school, and we just all enjoyed relaxing together. Once Jesse got off of work at 10:30 p.m., we met he and some friends at Old Chicago, a restaurant downtown. Afterwards, we girls and Nathan came back to our apartment to watch Little Miss Sunshine, and the other guys went home to play WOW (computer game). It was a late night, but there were plenty of good times...

11/2: Tessa and I went to 11 a.m. Mass and then rushed home in an attempt to make it to Fantasy Breakfast (at the boys' house) before all the food was gone. There was a pretty decent turnout despite the fact that it was arranged very last-minute. After breakfast, everyone kind of retreated to do their own thing--some of us napped, others did homework or cleaned the house, and still others had the best fun of all...playing Blokus!!! Yep, we basically had a Blokus tournament in the PB (ask) Room all day long. Mike, Ashley, Jason, Sharla, Tessa, Nathan, and I played over and over again. It was great. Once we got tired of Blokus, we played a card game called Golf for a while, too. Then everyone went off again doing their own things such as homework and computer games until it was time for Kim and Joey to go to church and Nathan to go home (yes, 8-hour drive back to Seattle, starting at 8 p.m., eek!). Derek had arrived to play computer games with the boys, so Tessa and I decided it was time to go home and retire for the night. Gosh, I soo love weekends in Boise!

11/3: My first "official" day on a peds rotation, and my supervisor was sick so I was on my own...what a way to start, ay? lol. The idea of running a one-woman show was somewhat overwhelming, but it wasn't very hard to do. However, there was a strong potential for disaster, considering we lost a young girl in intensive care as the result of a severe motor vehicle accident, and the accredidation agency arrived unexpectedly...all on the day that Child Life was absent. lol. All in all, I felt very accomplished at the end of this work day. ...Shenanigans soccer game in the evening and then spent some time hanging out at the boys' house was a great way to end the day.

11/4: Don't remember much of anything from this day, except I have noted on my calendar that the new Brad Paisley cd came out. (I bought it a few days later and was highly disappointed. Ask if you'd like to know more.)

11/5: It seems as though I'll be mostly independent on my peds from this point forward, which is quite alright with me. Nothing overly exciting happened at work, but Dr. Kirkley arrived in Boise this afternoon and met me at the hospital in her rental car. I gave her a quick tour and introduced her to some of the Child Life staff before heading downtown for dinner. We ate at Bardenay, per Jesse's wonderful suggestion. It was yummmy, and a great way to kick off the next few days of Cajun visitors I had ahead of me. We turned in early, as Dr. Kirkley had been up since the wee hours of the morning, and I had to be at work very early the next morning.

11/6: I began my OR rotation not-so-bright and early at 6:30 a.m. For the most part, I observed my supervisor throughout the busy morning. Oddly enough, most of the pediatric surgeries were complete by 11 a.m., so we went up to the office to oranize ourselves and prepare for Dr. K's arrival just before noon. She met us for lunch and we chatted for a while before going through my evlauation. The two hit it off quite well and it was a rather pleasant lunch. After the meeting, Dr. K and I headed out to explore Boise. We went up to Table Rock (my favorite place in all of Boise), drove down Harrison (my favorite street--gorgeous!) Street, past Simplot Hill, attempted to get up to Bogus Basin Ski Resort (but turned around once we were surrounded by snow and potentially icy roads), and briefly hit up the North End, Hyde Park, and downtown, before heading back up "the bench" to meet Tessa for dinner at Rockie's Diner. To close out the night, the three of us played a quick game of Blokus and then we went to sleep rather early again, for Dr. K had an early flight the next day, and I was scheduled for the OR, once again.

11/7: Dr. K left for the airport around 5:30 a.m. In the OR, I was thrust into the Child Life role, doing some work with patients after only a day of observation. Talk about scary. I spent the afternoon talking with Gina, the other intern about our experiences, and practicing for a puppet show we're doing as a part of a school presentation on November 20th. My mom arrived in the late afternoon, and met me at the hospital in her rental car. I gave her a quick tour and introduced her to some of the Child Life staff before heading downtown for dinner. We ate at Old Chicago because we happened upon it by accident, I was too hungry to keep looking, and we'd had a great experience there the weekend before. Again, we turned in early, because Momma had an early morning flight and, of course, I'd been working early mornings lately.

11/8: Momma and I spent the day exploring Boise, trying to take in as much as we could before the rain arrived. We went up to Table Rock drove down Harrison Street, past Simplot Hill (at which point she refused to go any further), and briefly hit up the North End. We parked and "got down" (Yes, I'm being Cajun here) to walk around in the Hyde Park area. There were some pretty cool treasures there, I discovered. Then we headed downtown to explore some more. The market happened to be going on, which was a sweet surprise. For lunch, we ate at the Brick Oven Bistro, which has the bestttt cheddar vegetable soup. Yummy. Then, we stopped in at the Boise Visitors Center, Taters (my favorite Boise gift shop), the Bronco Shop, and a few other random shops in the area. By this time, it was starting to rain (ahem--drizzle, in typical Boise fashion) and we were a bit tired, so we decided to head back toward home. On the way, we stopped at the Boise Depot to check out the great view and take some photos. Afterwards, we headed home to rest up for a bit and read some of the brochures we'd grabbed along the way. A quick trip to Wal-Mart resulted in me owning a warm new coat (yay!) and the latest Brad Paisley cd (boo--highly disappointed). We stopped for Panda Express (our first time) on the way home, and then called it an early night, yet again.

11/9: It was a lazier day, thanks to the disgusting rain that decided to arrange itself right over Boise. (Go figure, it never rains in Boise...except when visitors are here. Grr.) Momma and I slept in and then chose to explore the Discovery Center that afternoon. Basically, it was lame. But, we made the best of things and I just kept reminding myself that it was a fairly creative way to, as a 21-year-old soon to be college grad, spend a Sunday afternoon bonding with my mother. When thinking about it that way, things weren't so bad. That night, Momma, Tessa, and I went to mass at the cathedral downtown. I'm not typically one for ornate churches, but this one was really nice. I liked it for some reason...despite the fact that they completely butchered Chris Tomlin and Matt Maher songs. (boo!) I think this was the most closely-similar-to-home mass I'd attended since I got here. (Then again, maybe some of that had to do with the fact that my mother was with me, lol.) In any case, the three of us enjoyed a relaxing meal at Rockie's Diner before returning home to pack and sleep.

11/10: I got up to say goodbye to Momma when she left for the airport at 5 a.m. I knew it was going to be a hard day, as it would be the first time in almost a week that I didn't have a Cajun visitor. Work wasn't bad; it was actually fairly calm despite the busy census on peds. Emotions didn't really hit me until after I got home and we all headed out to the boys' soccer game. I wasn't in the best of moods, but managed to cheer on the boys as they claimed their second consecutive win. Woot.

11/11: This day was much better, emotion-wise. I'm not particularly fond of the 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday schedules, but what can ya do? They're especially annoying whenever something comes up right before we're leaving and we end up having to stay for an extra hour or something. However, I know this comes with the professional territory, and am just using this blog as a mini-vent session. ;-)

11/12: And finally, today. It was a good day...nothing to exciting. The social worker gave a presentation on professional boundaries, with the assistant of a parent volunteer. It was pretty interesting, and very relevant. She soooo reminds me of one of my teachers back at Nicholls... What else? Oh. Did I mention I'm addicted to the Twilight book? Yeah, if you haven't heard of the series, let me know...but once you get started, you're hooked. It's nuts. I don't even care about much other than reading these days. (Then again, it's easier to forget that I have a lot to do, including some important decisions to make, whenever enthralled with this alternate world.) Yeah so, I spent the afternoon reading, and evening writing this while watching the CMA's (Country Music Awards). On that note, I must say that it was sooooo nice to finally indulge with some country music. I haven't been able to listen to much of anything since I've been here, so I feel totally out of the loop. It was very much a creature comfort to see everyone (on TV, of course, lol) and hear my very favorite music tonight. Mmmm.

Alas, I am done. I think you all have plenty of reading now, and hopefully that makes up for my extended absence from writing. As always, I promise to try to write more frequently in the future. You should know, though, that I have a lot of schoolwork due soon, and my dearest friend Chris from Georgia is coming to visit Jeff and I next weekend. Shortly after that, it will be Thanksgiving and then time to finish up the internship stuff. In other words, no promises.

;-)
-Lauren