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Stream of consciousness

It’s a Wednesday morning, and I don’t have any posts ready to go.

And you know that that means: STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS TIME. 😉

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I am trying to decide if I want to hire someone to do some yard clean-up for me or not. I think it would probably cost around $300.

Another option is to borrow my neighbor’s lawn tractor/leaf collector and do the work myself.

lawn tractor.

A third option (leaving all the leaves and branches on the ground) is not actually an option because my lease says I am responsible for keeping the yard presentable and maintained.

Soo, what to do, what to do?

Part of me is thinking, “Just spend the money; you have a lot on your plate and you don’t even enjoy yard work. Also, you’d be hiring your neighbor’s landscaping company and supporting a small business. $300 isn’t the end of the world.”

And another part of me is like, “Oh geez, don’t be so soft. You can find a few hours to go out there and get it done, and then you’ll still have that $300 in your bank account.”

Stay tuned. 😉

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I had orientation yesterday at the hospital where I will be doing my OB rotation and oh man, I am so excited for this. Everything about it made me feel happy.

baby feet

Not from yesterday; from my files!

It was a very different feeling than being oriented for the med-surg and assisted living rotations.

I am still trying to hold my future plans loosely, because who knows, perhaps there is some type of nursing that is going to catch my eye in future semesters.

But right now, I’m still feeling a pull to OB. We’ll see what I think of it once I actually try it!

(If you’re new here: one of the things that first made me think that I might want to be a nurse was walking through the stillbirth of my niece and the subsequent joyful birth of her sister), so OB has my heart.)

Kristen and a baby.

2012 me with my niece (who is now 12 years old)

Mannn, I love babies.

They showed us an area where sometimes nurses are assigned to hold babies who are coming off of drug addictions, and I guess my face must have betrayed me because one of my classmates looked over at me and was like, “Kristen REALLY wants to hold babies.”

She is not wrong. 😉

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I had an almost five-hour zoom orientation yesterday (before the in-person orientation).

I have NEVER been in a zoom of that length, even at the height of the pandemic. Thank goodness this is not the norm.

Chiquita joined me for part of the meeting.

cat by computer.

She couldn’t manage the whole five hours, though. Understandable.

cat on bed.

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Sometimes I make mistakes that are slightly embarrassing, and then almost every time, I tell people about said mistakes.

In labor and delivery monitoring, we have this mnemonic to help us remember how to read fetal heart rates in conjunction with maternal contractions.

So, I was doing a practice test and I wrote it down: PORK CHOP.  I tried to use it to help me answer the question, but I was stuck.

pork chop.

And then I realized my mistake…it’s VEAL CHOP, not pork chop. Ha.

(Here’s a link explaining it, in case you are intrigued.)

I immediately texted my school group chat to tell them about my mistake. And hey, maybe now that I made that error, we will all remember that it’s veal, not pork.

(This has nothing to do with meat.)

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In the past two years since I left my marriage, I have done a lot of processing.

I’ve written about that quite a bit, and about my way of rolling with the memories and their attached feelings, letting them move on through.

I always visualize these feelings as waves; large and full of energy, but temporary

Last semester was just so NUTS on so many levels, though, I think the processing took sort of a pause.

This semester, I’ve had a little more space and time, and interestingly enough, the processing has become unpaused.

For a while, a prominent emotion I felt was anger but right now, it’s more sadness as I look back at my past self and my past experiences.

I’ve been writing small, stand-alone essays about these feelings here and there.

I don’t know what I will do with them; they don’t really belong here, but perhaps they would be helpful to someone else in similar circumstances. So, I have considered publishing them on a Patreon at some point.

For now, though, writing them is helpful to me. Sometimes I figure things out by writing, and this is no exception.

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I came across some sweet little piano tracks, by a 20-year-old guy from Mexico, Gibran Alcocer.

They’re mostly waltzy sounds, and since they’re really simple, I paid for the downloadable sheet music from his site, and I’ve been having fun playing them.

Sometimes it’s nice to have something so easy that you can just sightread it and be good at it right away.

And if you want something peaceful to listen to, you might enjoy his music.

Alrighty; that’s enough of a peek into my brain for today.

Want to join me? Share a little stream-of-consciousness comment if you’d like!

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Colleen

Sunday 25th of February 2024

Thank you for sharing the piano music! I love it - so relaxing!

Stream of thought: Today I am back and forth about my church outfit as it is currently 18 degrees outside and I have a 1.5mile walk each way (and then a disproportionately warm 1 hr church inside time). I settled on capri yoga pants, a navy wool mini skirt that twirls (I am tall so it would be too short without layers), a pink short sleeve shirt, a white cotton chunky sweater for the walk, an insulated vest “dress” & cashmere gray scarf - outer layers for walk only.

I am absolutely overwhelmed by menu plans for next 2 weeks. We have visitors and they are plant based & semi-keto. My husband is low calorie high protein. I am semi gluten free & love dairy.

In cleaning out my pen pal letter collection I am hesitant to discard letters from many although it has been months since I’ve heard from them. Is it the mail taking a long time? Or is it the slow fade of waning friendship?

——end thoughts——

I think your Patreon idea is fantastic. Unrelatedly I wondered if you had tried somatic yoga, and if so had any suggestions of who to learn from on YouTube or elsewhere

Kristen

Sunday 25th of February 2024

Sheesh that is a lot of dietary restrictions to work around!

I have never tried somatic yoga, no.

Colleen

Sunday 25th of February 2024

What about hiring local students or college students to do yard landscaping for fraction of the cost?

Daisy

Friday 23rd of February 2024

Oh, OB nurses are fantastic people! I worked in a hospital child care center when my son was born, and my labor nurses were both moms with kids in my room! They were wonderful, and the familiarity made the difficult aspects much easier and less scary.

Shelley

Thursday 22nd of February 2024

Re: Holding babies ... our oldest kid had surgery to repair a hernia when he was ~18 months old. My heart still remembers going into recovery and seeing a nurse holding our (super, robust!) boy as he came out of anesthesia. She looked like she was older, towards the end of her career and I was filled with such gratitude for the love and care she showed.

Whatever niche you find, you're gonna be amazing.

Sylvia

Thursday 22nd of February 2024

I can't stop listening to that piece..so good!

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