My family puts the "func" in dysfunctional!!!

Not the fun (although sometimes we are that too). Or as my ex-Aunt's twin sister (yes, you read that right) said, "Well sometimes family is the 'f' word." I've decided that every family is a little bit dysfunctional. I'm not always talking immediate families, but if you include extended families then we all have some element of dysfunction in our families. My family (extended) are pros at dysfunction. I love them to death, but at times they drive me crazy. This story is in no way meant to be demeaning or derogatory towards my family or my family name because I'm still a part of this family at the end of the day and I still claim them as my own dysfunctional as they (and I) may be. Yes, I am part of the dysfunction too. :) I love them to death and of course I'd do anything for them which is why I can say we're a bit dysfunctional. Anyways, on with the story...

My beloved Grandmother after 99 wonderful years of life passed away at the end of last year (2007). So less than two months after I visited New Hampshire on vacation this fall, I flew to New Hampshire again, the weekend before finals. But family comes first, so you do what you have to do. My Uncle is a pretty opinionated person (must run in the family), love him to death, but it's always his way or the highway. I'm one of the few people who dare to talk back to him. Anyways, he wanted one of my brothers and I to be pal-bearers at the funeral. I'd never heard of a female being a pal-bearer before but it was ok with me as long as I wasn't the only female doing it. My Grandmother's cousin was one as well (actually I don't really know what she is, I just know she's related, oops). Anyways, I was picking my battles with my Uncle at this point so I accepted his request. However, his next request is NOT one that I was willing to do. He was making the funeral into a freaking huge production. Kind of ridiculous. As much as I love my Grandmother and Uncle it was a little bit out of control. He decided that he wanted all of the pal-bearers to wear matching purple neck ties that match the sweater that my Grandmother was wearing. Uh, pause one minute there please....matching neck ties?! This isn't a wedding and I'm sorry but that's a little morbid. Yes I do know how to tie a tie, I have 3 older brothers. However, I am still a girl I will NOT wear a tie in public (unless it's for a good reason, this did not qualify). When my Uncle told my mother this she was like "Uh, Jennie will NOT wear a tie for you." My Uncle's response, "she won't? Really? Huh....Are you SURE she won't wear a tie." Mom: "Yes, I'm sure. She's a girl. She doesn't wear ties" (those may not be direct quotes, but they're pretty darn close). When my Mom told me this I was like, "uh Mom, I'm not wearing a tie. I may be a tomboy at times, but I'm still a girl." So my Uncle's next proposition was "well, will she wear a purple scarf then?" "Yes, she'll probably wear a scarf." If it'll make my Uncle happy I'll wear the darn scarf. Good grief. A tie. Honestly. The funeral went well and we (me and the other lady pal-bearer) did not end up wearing purple scarves, but the guys all wore the purple ties. I won't go into the rest of the details of the weekend, but it was definitely an experience. Needless to say I did not get a lot of studying done and my finals didn't go so well, but I passed all my classes and I didn't even get any C's so I'm ok with that considering everything that happened this semester. Yes, my family is still very dysfunctional. With everything that happened that weekend, it definitely reaffirmed that, but I still love them unconditionally. It was still worth it to go. A tie. *SNORT* Wow.

A review of 2007

I stole this survey from someone else :)
[X] Became single
[X] got kissed
[X] kissed someone new
[ ] kissed in the snow
[ ] kissed in the rain
[ ] kissed on the beach
[ ] 'fell in love'
[ ] 'fell in love' with a fool
[X] had my heart broken
[X] broke someone else's heart
[X] had a stalker
[X] lost a friend
[X] had a good relationship with someone
[ ] came out of my closet
[ ] got married
[ ] had a divorce
[X] kissed someone of the same sex (on the cheek)
[X] dated someone that you will never forget
[X] did something I regret
[X] lost faith in love
[ ] kissed under mistletoe
[ ] got a promotion
[ ] got a pay raise
[ ] changed jobs
[ ] quit my job
[ ] dated a co-worker
[ ] dated my boss
[ ] dated my boss's son/ daughter
[ ] got fired from my job
[ ] got straight A's
[X] met a teacher who I became friends with
[X] met a teacher who I really hate
[X] found the subject I love
[X] failed a class (since a 78% is now failing for me. Booo)
[X] cut class
[X] skipped school
[ ] got in a fight with a classmate
[X] did something I was proud of
[X] discovered a new talent
[X] proved myself that I'm an idiot
[X] embarrassed myself in front of the class
[ ] fell in love with a teacher
[ ] got the lead/minor lead role in the school play
[ ] made a team
[X] was involved in something that I will never forget
[ ] painted a picture
[ ] wrote a poem
[ ] ran a mile
[X] listened to music I couldn't stand
[X] double dipped
[X] went to a sleepover
[ ] went to camp
[ ] threw a surprise party
[X] laughed till I cried
[X] flirted shamelessly
[ ] visited a foreign country
[X]visited a state
[ ] cooked a disastrous meal
[X] lost something important to me
[X] got a gift I love
[X] realized something new about myself
[ ] went on a diet
[ ] tried to gain weight
[ ] dyed my hair
[ ] came close to losing my life
[X] someone/thing close to me died
[ ] got arrested
[X] read a great book
[X] saw a great movie
[ ] saw a movie so scary that it made me cry
[ ] saw a favorite band live
[X] did something that I wanted to tell everyone
[X] experienced something new
[X] made new friends
[X] found out who your real friends are
[X] lied to your parents
[ ] snuck out
[ ] got in trouble with the po-po
[ ] kissed in a pool
[X] kissed under the stars
[X] had the time of your life
[X] danced
[ ] fell out of love
[X] had a crush on someone
[X] swam in a pool
[ ] made a snowman
[ ] went snowboarding
[ ] went sledding
[X] slept in past 2pm
[X] held someone’s hand that you care about
[ ] got wasted in a public place
[X] told someone you like them as more than a friend
[X] gone on vacation
[X] gone on vacation with a friend
[X] driven a car
[ ] danced in the rain
[X] got in a car accident
[X] seen someone get in a car accident
[ ] got in a fist fight
[X] laughed until you couldn't breathe
[X] missed someone
[ ] sent someone to the hospital
[ ] got a new pet

A YEAR-END SURVEY1.) Who was your best friend at the beginning of this year? The end?
At the beginning- friends from home and Utah, End- Still friends from home and lots of new friends from Va and DC.
2.) What was your status by Valentine's Day? Single.
3.) Were you in school (anytime this year)? Yes, the whole year.
4.) How did you earn your keep? Ha. Doing homework and more homework and more homework and going to clinicals. Did I mention doing homework?!
5.) Did you ever have to go to the hospital? hahahahaha all the time....for clinicals.
6.) Have you encountered the police this year? :)
7.) Where did you go on vacation? Utah, Colorado, NYC, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts
8.) What did you purchase that was over $500? Tuition, books
9.) Did you know anybody who got married? Of course
10.) Did you know anybody who passed away? My Grandma died :(
11.)How many times did you go on facebook/myspace? many many times
12.) Did you move anywhere? To Virginia
13.) What sporting events did you go to? Caps, Nationals (is that it?! Ugh. That sucks)
14.) What concerts did you go to? Harry and the Potters is the only one I can remember. Lamesauce.
15) Are you registered to vote? In Colorado
16.) If so, did you do your patriotic duty on Nov. 6? I didn't get my absentee ballot. I suck.
17.) Where do you live now? Arlington, VA
18.) Describe your birthday. I sent all of my friends and family an email describing what they could and couldn't talk to me about (see in one of my previous blogs) and CRD brought me DP (he is awesome!!). Then my roommies took me to dinner at P.F. Chang's (the only Chinese food I like- not really Chinese, but very good). It was fabulous!!
19.) What's the one thing you thought you would never do but did in 2007? make it through my first year of nursing school (I knew I'd do it, it's just amazing it's done)
20.) What is one thing you regretted this year? Don't really want to rehash bad memories, thank you
21.) What's something you learned about yourself? That I'm a different person on the East Coast than I am at home
22.) Any new additions to your family? Not yet...unless you count the nephew in my sister-in-law's belly
23.) What was your best month? Do people have "best months?"
24.) How would you rate this year with a scale from 1 (crappy) to 10 (amazing)? I dunno. 7 maybe

Narcotics Anonymous

I have been horribly sick for the past week and a half while I have been on vacation in Colorado and Utah. I finally went to the Dr. and he gave me some meds, so here is my disclaimer for the past few days and for the remaining time that I am taking said medication,

To whom it may concern:
I, Jennie, cannot be held responsible for anything I say or do while I am on narcotics. Thank You.
(If you don't believe me, read my appendicitis blog)

Now I am feeling slightly woozy and should go to bed before I pass out or throw up, whichever comes first. Good night.

"Did you know that if you squeeze a chipmunk, it'll pop??"

I LOVE this song. It makes me happy. :D Yay!! They're just so cute, you could squeeze them, but if you squeeze a chipmunk it'll pop!! Actually back at home in Colorado we call them "chipchunks" cuz they're so chubby. You can bet that I'll be at the movie on opening night this Friday, bouncing up and down in my seat like a little kid. Yes, I'm still a little kid at heart. But hey, if you don't make too much fun of me, I might even sing the song for you sometime (chipmunk voice takes some real bribery though)!! I used to love this show though, I grew up on it, give me a break. This is my new favorite Christmas song. Besides, you know that deep down you like it too. Just admit it and you can sing with me!!

Worst Music Video Ever??

This is possibly the worst music video ever!! Don't worry, after my friend Megan introduced us to it, we then proceeded to go around NYC singing it for the next two days (we did part of her oh so cool dance too, it was priceless. I have no shame, seriously). The only problem with that is the only words I could remember were "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, and 10," which made it a short song. Poor New Yorkers who have to put up with stupid tourists like me. I'll write another blog on our trip later, but I had to share this little piece of art now. I hope you don't get any dumber for watching it. :) Enjoy!!

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 :)).

This isn't Celebrity Death Match

So clinicals were a little out of control tonight. They were loooong and at points kind of boring. Other points were cool. I won't give you details on seeing a circumcision done or feeling a fundus, cuz I'm pretty sure that just made some of you puke, but it wasn't all bad. There were some interesting moments. The problem moments were between my instructor and a certain individual (who will remain un-named although you could probably figure it out), they had somewhat of a disagreement. In other words, they despise each other. Basically they spent the entire shift venting about each other and we vented about this particular individual too. He irritates the staff, offends the patients, and pisses off our instructor, along with annoying all of our clinical group. We just dread all shift what's going to go wrong next with him...aka what he's going to do to piss someone else off and then my instructor has to try to fix it. Don't get me wrong, this individual is very nice and probably has good intentions he just goes about them all the wrong way. When he doesn't get his way he appeals to the person above the person he asked and so on until someone gets so irritated they just say yes to get him to just shut up and leave them alone. He thinks he's entitled to everything whenever he wants it. Lamesauce. Then he throws a hissy fit when he doesn't get his way. Good grief, we're not in grade school anymore, kids. These are our second degrees. Grow up!!

Anyways, my clinical instructor happens to be a very outspoken person (sound familiar?!). Except, unlike me, she uses very, um, filthy language when talking, especially when she's mad. Boy was she mad today....and at a student, even worse. She went off on this particular student to us several times while he was in another part of the hospital observing, then she came to "save us" from him during dinner, then when this particular student didn't show up for our presentations on time (like half an hour late) I thought she was going to blow a gasket. The cuss words flying around that room were a bit shocking. That's not the worst of it though...the worst is what he was calling her. He literally pulled my friend out of her patient's room (where her patient was giving birth) and started spouting off about our instructor and then decided that he was going to disregard our instructor's instructions anyways and go watch a C-Section that he wanted to see, just because he felt like it. He hates our instructor so he was complaining about her in the hallway to my poor friend. #1 Totally inappropriate place for that conversation (patients and families are all around and can hear everything you're saying), #2 Very unprofessional, #3 If you have a problem talk to the person you have the problem with, not everyone else, #4 Wow, I won't repeat the word he used to describe our instructor, but it's possibly THE most offensive word you can use to describe a female (no, I'm not kidding) and he said this is the hallway of the Labor/ Delivery floor. So needless to say, it was an unpleasant atmosphere in our post-conference tonight. Our instructor was confronting him as we were leaving....we bailed, we practically ran out of the building. Don't get me wrong, I don't usually back down from fights, but when you start resorting to name calling like we're 12 years old again and I think fists might actually get involved between 2 sober adults, I'm sorry I'm outta there. Good grief, buddy, grow up. Buck up and do your school work. She's the instructor with a Bachelor's and Master's and years of experience in this stuff why can't you just follow her instructions for once?? This isn't Celebrity Death Match, I didn't sign up for this.