I am a critical care nurse, a travel nurse, a travel lover, a dog lover, a dog mom, an introvert (although at work, you'd guess I am extroverted), an empath, an INFJ, a truth seeker, a dreamer, a deeply serious soul with a wicked sense of humor, an aunt, a friend, a daughter, and a sister. These are my thoughts and experiences about nursing and life. I have changed quite a bit since starting this blog, but to honor where I have been and where I am going I have kept all my entries whether or not they are memories that I want to keep. My goal in life is to obtain inner peace, be the change, and mostly to be a beautiful soul! Namaste, my friends!!

Showing posts with label Horses. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Horses. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

My Superwoman Complex

On my first day of Kindergarten (age 5) I walked in and met the two girls that would become my best friends for the next six years of elementary school. We'll call them Superwoman and Reen. (Superwoman, another best friend, me, another best friend, and Reen- age 8...complete with whipped cream) Superwoman (actually we still call each other this on occasion) and I stayed best friends all the way through high school and are still really close today.
(me and Superwoman- yes I did actually have a Superwoman sign on my graduation cap, haha)
(Superwoman, me, and Reen at our High School Graduation Party) She's one of those friends that no matter how much time has gone by when we get together nothing has changed. Anyways, as kids sometimes we played dress up. I know for me that's really girly, but don't worry that was mixed between our times of playing outside. Reen could also go by "horse enthusiast." So we spent a lot of our time playing (or rather working) with her horses in the dirt (of course), if that makes you feel any better about the girliness. Anyways, when we played dress up we used to run around the house in Superwoman underwear. I guess they made us feel powerful or something. haha Yep, those are great memories. But, I'm thinking that may be where my Superwoman Complex started...

I have these phases in my life where I decide that I must be Superwoman. I know I'm studying Multiple Personality Disorder (actually it's called Dissociative Identity Disorder now), but I think this is taking it a little far. I think I can take on the world. Yeah, unfortunately I am quickly reminded that I am not a superhero and I am only human. Booooo. Last week I spent 3 or 4 days under so much stress I was actually physically shaking. I looked like I had Parkinson's tremors (yes, everything is a medical analogy for me, you'll get used to it). Something major was going on with every member of my immediate family and unfortunately I live in Virginia which is approximately between 1700 and 2400 miles from my different family members. Entirely too far away for me to do much of anything. I have this problem with wanting to take on everyone's problems and take away their pain. Not that this is a bad thing, but unfortunately I've found you can't really solve anyone else's problems and you can't take away their pain. You can be a support (which is hard from this far away) and love them, but you can't things away. Yeah, I'm not a superhero and I am not God. He is the only one who can really do this for us all. Anyways, you add all of this stress plus enough homework to last me into the next century (at least that's what it feels like) and other stresses which I won't get into here...but it turned me into a complete disaster. I wasn't sleeping and when I slept I had nightmares. Plus I was still sick (yeah, for the last month). Unfortunately my family and my best friend got the brunt of this hyperventilating, sick, basket case. Poor things. Bless them for sticking by me. Then it occurred to me that I was trying to be Superwoman again. This has happened many times before (you'd think I'd learn). So I finally had to admit that I can't do it all, I can't fix everyone else's problems single-handedly and I'm not Superwoman. Damn. Hmm...maybe I just need a side-kick. Nope. No. No. Jennie, you're still not Superwoman. Back to reality...until I try to be Superwoman again. "Up in the sky, look! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's....[Yeah, it ain't me, so keep looking]!"

Friday, November 16, 2007

6 things you may not know about me...

So after reading Megan's 6 things list, I thought about it long and hard (or not) and came up with my own. This is my oh so brilliant list:

1. Minus a little jaunt, with 3 gorgeous blond roommates, into Tijuana I've never been out of the United States. Pathetic, huh?! Don't worry, I'm planning on going to Belize (and Guatemala) next May for a month. Still, at 25, that's just sad. My life is boring.

2. I have this weird habit of pulling one of everything that I love (one of my favorites) off of whatever I'm eating and saving it to the end and eating it last. For example, I pull 1 sausage, 1 pepperoni, 1 black olive, and 1 mushroom off of my pizza, or 1 dill pickle slice, 1 piece of bacon off of my hamburger, etc. I do this with almost everything that I eat that it's possible to do so. Hamburgers, Sub-sandwiches, Pizza, Calzones, Salad, etc. I do it unconsciously though. I've done it for as long as I can remember. Why not save a little bit of the best for last though?! Sounds like a great idea to me. Savor what's good in life!! Yes, I know that I'm weird.

3. I grew up horse-back riding. I LOVE horses. I was probably put on my first horse around 3 or 4 years old and fell in love. I spent as much of my child-hood on horse-back as I could. I miss riding horribly. Someday I'm going to own my own ranch and have horses. Gosh, I miss them... :( That made me really nostalgic there, sorry. Moving on....

4. I'm an American and English Literature junkie. (This is probably the only time I'll be serious in this blog, but...) I love Thoreau, Emerson, even Poe, and Faulkner (because you can try to figure out their deeper meanings), etc. I've even been to Emerson's home and Walden Pond (they're near Boston, duh). A.P. English was probably my favorite class my Senior Year of High School (except Athletic Training, of course). I would have been an English Major if Nursing wasn't an option (too bad I have an Exercise Science degree too, funny how that works :P). Anyways...that's a whole different side of me you'll never get to see probably, sorry.

5. Easter is my favorite holiday. It's such a happy time. Obviously it's celebrating the Resurrection of the Savior which is an incredible event in and of itself, but it also means that the Atonement had to happen first. Easter is also happy and full of pastel colors and bunnies. I like bunnies. I know that seems out of character for me, but I do. I used to own rabbits, so don't make fun of me. It's just a sunny, happy, fluffy (yes, I said fluffy- bunnies are fluffy) holiday. Oh, and it's Spring which means that it's relatively warm again after a long cold winter. Yay. :D

6. I HATE hair. Lemme explain. When it's in your head that's fine, but once it leaves your head (or anywhere else for that matter, yes I said that), it completely creeps me out. Gives me the willies. Yuck. I don't like touching it or seeing it, anything. My own hair is bad enough cuz it falls out constantly and I still have plenty on my head, but other people's hair completely grosses me out. I hate hair so much that I actually shave my arms, everyday. No, I'm not kidding. Everyday. I've done it for years. My nursing friends tease me about this because obviously I have lots and lots of hairy patients that I have to get pretty personal with and touch a lot. Yeah, it still totally freaks me out to touch their hairy bodies. Ok I can't think about this anymore, it's gonna give me nightmares.

(Oh, and Megan...this is a bonus #7- I can also touch my nose with my tongue. Honestly I think I have one of the longest tongues on earth. Yes, it's disgusting, I agree. No, I probably won't show it to you. Merry Christmas, hope you enjoyed reading this at work :)).

Thursday, July 19, 2007

My Birthday Rules (or rules for my birthday either one)

(The email I sent to my friends the night before my birthday)....
Ok people here's the deal...I've had a terrible week, no kidding. It started out horribly and got WAY worse from there. My bday is on Friday. I hate birthdays, but since a lot of you already know about it, I'm setting some ground rules. I have a bad track record with birthdays. They do not go well for me, I'd rather just kind of skip over them and I already feel old. My roommate decided I needed to make up this list of approved and unapproved topics and Rules/ Restrictions. If you think I'm kidding then you obviously have not talked to me this week. I've had the week from Hell. This is NO joke. If you bring up one of these restricted topics or break a rule do not think I will just laugh and blow it off and we'll be ok next week. You will be excommunicated from my birthday and probably as a friend too. I'm not feeling very forgiving this week. So read carefully. Ok, have a good rest of the week. Love you all, Jen

Rules/ Restrictions:
No one can wear the color pink in my presence
No one can "pop" their collar in my presence
No cutting onions in my presence

Unapproved topics:
School (don't ask me how it's going)
Nursing
Hospitals
Moving
Black Beauty (or any cars in general)
Papers
Exams
Sleep (or lack thereof)
My week (do NOT ask me about it)
Denver
Babies
Clinicals
My relationship with ANYONE (guy or girl)
The Metro
Rubik cubes (I'm sick of hearing about them, no offense)
Being old
Previous birthdays
Utah
the War
Iraq
Saudi Arabia (or why this is my nickname)
Baltimore
Homework
Harry Potter (I like HP I just don't want to hear about it on my bday)
Your advice on my life
Idaho
Arizona
Booeymongers
Awkward relationships
Dating
Marriage
Mitt Romney
Politics
Winter
Turtles
Humidity/ Heat
the Yankees
missing the baseball game on Monday
Finals
Transformers (I haven't seen it yet, stop rubbing it in)
Pinatas
Honey
Cauterizing
Rook
Sea Food
Grocery shopping
Clowns
Hair
Calories
Weight
Poison Ivy
Langley Ward

Approved Topics:
Baseball
Red Sox
Boston
Moose
Lighthouses
Pickles
Milk Chocolate
UFC (especially if you are a guy and want to try the moves on me- um, a friend said I should say that) :P
Bones (it's a TV show)
the Office
Colorado (but if you make me homesick you get kicked out)
the beach
Winnipesaukee
Ice cream
Dr. Pepper
Motorcycles
Black olives
Hot tubs
Shoulder holsters
Amusement Parks
Good music
Thunder and lightning storms
Painted toenails
Cowboys
Good movies
One liners from 8 Simple rules (that's for you, Lex) :)
Luv Sacs
My blog
Horses
Boats
Bulldozers
Guns
TWSS
Lightning bugs
Verbal vomit moments
Cereal
Bubble gum
Good memories of/ with me
Tree Houses
Swings
Boots
Squirrels

You can always try to bring up another topic but that's pretty risky for you unless you want to be on the hit list. Apparently, 24 would like to go out with a vengeance so my last week of being 24 is one of the worst I've ever had. Either that or 24 hates me. :) I'm past the tears point now, it's almost funny how bad this week has been, so I'm only partly joking here. :P Laters ya'll....