7 Quick Takes Friday

1. It has been a long week and it isn't over yet. My sleep schedule has been way off and it has really made this week exhausting. I have said it before and I will say it again... working night shift is tough. People often times are inconsiderate of your sleep schedule and you feel jet-lagged 24/7. Most people don't seem to understand that waking up in the middle of the day is the equivalent of you waking up at 2am and not being able to go back to sleep... and then having to go work a 12 hour shift in the ICU. Yeah... not fun. Luckily I have only one more 8 hour shift left and then I can hopefully catch up a bit on some Z's. :)

2. This past Tuesday it was my birthday and that unfortunately has contributed to my lack of sleep. I hate working on my birthday so I asked for that day off that way I could go to dinner with some close work friends instead of getting spit on like previous years. In order to get my full amount of work in though I had to work night shift the days before and after my birthday. Having one day off in between a stretch of work is horrible being a night shifter because if you mess your sleep patterns up you are basically screwed the whole week.... but that also means you spend your one day off being up all night while everyone else is sleeping. :/

3. I promise that I won't talk about sleep anymore during this post.

4. My birthday was incredibly fun and the celebrating isn't over yet. This weekend I will be heading to Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk with some of my favorite people in this world. We will spend the day on fun rides and rollercoasters and will also enjoy the oh-so-yummy junk food the boardwalk has to share. It should be fun. Hopefully I'll have some pictures to post after. :)

Image Credit

5. This past weekend I ran my first half marathon since becoming a marathon maniac. It was held in San Francisco and was a charity race sponsored by The SF Giant's for Project Open Hand. The course was along the same road that the SF marathon began on, The Embarcadero. Best part of the race had to be meeting Brian Wilson and running it with some of my favorite running buddies. Actually I almost dropped down to the 10k distance but luckily my running buddies convinced me to stick with them and finish the full 13.1 mile distance. So glad I did too. Good times indeed.

6. I have been getting back into yoga lately. I bought a groupon for 25 yoga classes in my area and I'm excited to get back into practice. I have been fascinated with a form of yoga called Ashtanga Yoga. It's really cool and people who are really good at it can do things like this...

Image Credit

7. One of the reasons I decided to run multiple marathons this summer was because the more events you do with the Rock n' Roll Marathon Series, the more medals you get. This week I got my "Rock Encore" medal in the mail for running the RnR Seattle and San Diego marathon! This thing is heavy and large and super sparkly and I totally debated on wearing it to work that day. Don't worry... I didn't :)

Happy Friday Friends! Have a great weekend!

7 Quick Takes Friday

1. I DID IT! Marathon #2 is in the books friends! It was much harder than San Diego in many ways. My time showed it as I was a 8 minutes slower in this race. Can we says hills, hills, and more hills?! Parts of the course we're beautiful though and I loved the cool weather of Seattle.

 

2. Had a complete and utter melt down around mile 23 of the Seattle marathon and called my friend Tim to inform him that I would NOT be doing anymore marathons. He bet me ten bucks that in a few days or so I'd suck it up and decide to do the final marathon in SF on July 31st. "I feel like you're just intense like that Andi" haha thanks Tim... and he was right btw. I'm still planning on doing the SF marathon. This time I'll be doing some serious hill training before.... that includes a somewhat hilly half marathon race this weekend. Yay for having two marathons under my belt though! Isn't my medal pretty?

3. These past two months have been insane... between marathons and work and life in general I haven't had much time do anything... let alone blog. Today though has been good and I feel like for the first time in a really really long time I am pretty much caught up on stuff. I even spent the day editing Seattle photos... (all of which I love!) I will do a whole other post of them and the trip itself soon. :) sneak peek for now.

4. I have decided that July is officially the worst month in the ICU (at a teaching hospital). Mainly because everyone and their mom is on vacation = we are always short staffed. Also because medical school ends in June and residency starts up in July = folks who were medical students yesterday are now interns taking overnight call in the ICU the next. It's a scary time people... makes a nurse's job a lot more difficult when you deal with doctors who don't know anything but think they know everything. Luckily they aren't all like that but I have already had my fair share of run ins with people gettin' crazy. Post soon to come: How to survive July in a teaching hospital. haha

5. This week Chris had surgery. Somewhat an emergent one too. He's okay thank goodness but he tore the meniscus in his knee and hasn't been able to walk since Sunday. So that means this week has been full of doctor's visits, MRI scans, surgery and recovery time. I have been nurse at home and nurse at work. Truly "on call RN" is so fitting. I love being able to offer help and comfort in that way though. Now its just 3 weeks on crutches and a bit of physical therapy and he should be good as new.

6. Had my annual performance review at work this week and it went really well! Yay for that. My manager wants me to take the charge nurse class this fall and she also wants me to start precepting nursing students. I'm willing to try it... even though I honestly don't think I'd be that good of a teacher. I try to be an encouraging person but I know I am also crazily Type-A and I have a tendency to be a micro-manager/control freak. Don't know how well those two things will go together. I guess stay tuned and we shall find out? haha

7. Happy belated 4th of July to my American readers! I spent it at work again. (dumb dumb here forgot to ask for it off even though it's one of my favorite holidays) Did anyone get to see any great fireworks? Even though I was stuck at work, I was thankful to be serving our veteran's on a day that celebrates our nation's freedom. One of my favorite photos from Seattle... part of the war memorial garden in downtown. 

Incredibly moving.

Have a good weekend friends!! Anyone have anything fun planned?

7 Quick Takes Friday... a little late

1. There are certain shows that just make me happy. I don't know what it is but there is just something completely comforting about them. What's funny about it though, is that they are really random ones... Just a few I can think of... Gilmore Girls, Friday Night Lights, Drop Dead Diva (a lifetime tv show... I can't believe I'm admitting I watch that) Deadliest Catch... I have no explanation but on nights when I am up late and suffering from insomnia and the rest of the world is peacefully resting and I feel completely mad cause I can't sleep... these shows give me comfort. Yay for the little things.

2. Speaking of the little things. My BFF Kelly found this awesome tumblr that totally made my day.

One of my faves: #357. Changing into sweatpants. SO true.... one of the best feelings ever. Especially if you've been dressed up all day! Check it out. I'm sure it will make you smile. :)

http://justlittlethings.tumblr.com/

3. The interns and residents at work crack me up sometimes. I can't tell you how many places I have found lines of surgical sutures attached to things. The most recent one was a phone cord. lol Obviously a teaching moment. Other fun places I've had to cut practice sutures from... chairs, blankets... the list goes on. Good times.

4. I recently started going to the Chiropractor and it has been time consuming (3 times a week I have to go for now) but it has been helping! I've been noticing some funny issues with my running form and I pretty consistently have neck, shoulder and back pain so when I found a deal at a local art and wine festival (random!) I decided to sign up for a consultation. So far, so good. When I ran my SD marathon my usual back and knee pain didn't flare up until mile 20ish which is amazing.

5. Just to give you an idea of how completely jacked up my spine is. Here is a picture of my x-ray. Your neck is supposed to have a very clear C-shape to it, with the rounded part of the C going toward your jaw line. My neck is so out of whack that its S-shaped and is basically going the opposite way it's supposed to go. Not good times.

6. I recently finished reading the novel that Kelly wrote. I have read a few different revisions of the book and I have to say that this was hands down my favorite. I am a difficult reader to catch. I don't read novels very often mainly because I don't find many of them interesting enough to spend the time reading them.... but this book was amazing. I may be biased because she is one of my best friends but seriously it was good. So good that when it was over I felt a sense of loss because I became so attached to the characters. It was filled with such insight and depth and compassion. It was beautifully written and had me in tears at points. She recently acquired an agent and is in the process of finding an editor. I can't wait to go buy her book someday and turn to the person next to me in the store and say "The girl who wrote this is one of my best friends!" Truly amazing!

7. I am slightly on the verge of burn out. This week I work 6 days in a row and then I have one day off and then I come back for 3 more days, then I leave right after to go to Seattle to run my second marathon. I don't have enough time to do anything. Time to clean my house properly, time to go to church, time to sleep, time to run enough, time to stop and have some "me time", time to study for the CCRN exam, time to actually see my friends more than once a month. I feel like I've had this issue for a while now and I'm starting to sound like a broken record. Don't really know how to fix it because my schedule doesn't look like it will be changing for a while.... but something's gotta give or I'm gonna have a melt down. Anyone have any ideas?

7 Quick Takes Friday

1. I am a master at getting sick this year. Earlier this week I came down with food poisoning and proceeded to puke my guts up for the last hour and a half of work. I had to have Chris come pick me up from work and the poor guy had to hold my hair back as I proceeded to hurl up everything I had eaten in the past 12 hours. It was disgusting and awful on many levels. Thankfully I am better now but that was really crappy. At least I have a wonderful boyfriend who can take over the nurse role when the nurse in the house is sick.

2. I did Bay to Breakers for the first time last Sunday! B2B is a very famous race ran in San Fran. every year. Full of runners and non-runners who all come together and throw tortillas (totally random) and dress up in costume and run a 12k across the city. There is also a tradition of people running it in their birthday suits... can we say awkward? It was fun to see everyone come out and party in my favorite city. I also got a small taste of what the SF marathon is going to be like. HILLS :(

 Definitely one of my favorite costumes. A family ran together with shark fins on their heads and whenever they saw a group of people standing together they would run around them and circle them like sharks haha.

3. San Francisco is gorgeous! I love living in California... specifically norcal because it is so darn pretty. After B2B, Chris and I went out to lunch with Chris' little brother and his friend who just moved to the area. We had lunch practically on the water and it was an awesome day for it. That's Alcatraz over in the distance. :) I <3 SF.

4. In a little over two weeks I will be running my first marathon race! I am super excited too because one of my work BFF's Bethany will be coming with me.

She recently ran the Santa Cruz half marathon with me and we had a blast so I feel incredibly lucky to have her as a road trip buddy and cheerleader as I embark on one of the most crazy/exciting things I've ever done. :)

5.  A few months ago one of my very closest friends and co-workers was deployed to Iraq with the Army National Guard. I have been keeping in pretty good contact with her and I've been keeping watch over her house while she's been gone. It's been scary hearing her stories of the bombings that happen sometimes daily at the base there. Ever since Osama was killed she said it's been much worse. She dealt with her first trauma and death the other day too. Seriously, hearing her stories from a standpoint of someone so close to me.... its harrowing to say the least. I have a whole new respect for our soldiers and veterans. Especially those who have served in war zones. If you know one yourself... give them a big hug or an honest thank you. I'm sure they'd appreciate it.

6. I've really really really been wanting a puppy lately. Sadly I am allergic to dogs and cats so it probably won't ever happen... but seriously.... if this isn't one of the cutest things you've ever seen.. you have no soul.

SO CUTE!

7. I realized today that I never finished posting pictures of Lebanon and I never posted any of Ireland. Okay maybe a few but Ireland deserves a few of it's own posts. I will start working on that. Marathon training and life in general has really taken away time for picture editing and when you have 3,000+ photos to go through..... it's a little daunting. I'm not gonna lie I haven't even really started on the Ireland photos but I do have Lebanon pics to post and they will be coming soon :)

For now a sneak peek...

 Happy Friday Friends!

7 Quick Takes Friday

1. First things first. TGIF! I think that statement is sufficient in and of itself.  :)

2. This weekend I am running a race in Big Sur! It will be a 9-miler, training race. I am really excited because this is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful places in the world and I will most definitely try and take a ton of photos along the way. Just as an example for you... a photo I found on flickr of the Big Sur coastline. Gorgeous, right?!

Big Sur, California, originally uploaded by ` TheDreamSky.

3.  Two weeks ago I did a 23 mile run. I could probably do an entire post just on that run because it was so. flippin. hard. BUT I will spare you all the torturous details of the 5 1/2 hour endeavor. (Yes, I ran for 5.5 hours) What I will share with you though, are the photos of what happens when you decide to run for 5.5 hours without sunscreen.

This is right in the middle of the peeling stages. It was so awful I had to sleep with ice packs on my shoulders for days and couldn't lift my arms above my head. I also have lovely burn lines on my calves from the capri pants I was wearing. Not cute. Moral of the story: wear sunscreen.

4. I might get to meet a fellow blogger next week from one of my favorite blogs Be Still and Know! This will be a first for me and I am very excited. She feels like a bit of a kindred spirit with her journey into becoming a missionary in Africa and it will be awesome to meet her and her husband if it all works out :)

5. One of the perks of working night shift is that you get to catch things like the royal wedding on TV because I am essentially on Europe time. Even though I am not a wedding person at all, this wedding was actually pretty amazing and fun to watch. Kate was absolutely stunning with such poise and beauty and grace. Didn't expect to care at all but when I watched it I ended up feeling incredibly nostalgic and happy for the two of them. Best part was definitely her dress. Just gorgeous.

 

Image credit

6. Next week I will be running 26 miles. It is my last long training before my first marathon. This is essentially a marathon actually since a marathon is just .2 miles longer and I'll probably just end up running the extra .2 miles so I can say "I ran a marathon!" Especially since I have to work the next day and I'm pretty sure I am going to be incredibly miserable and sore.

7. Funniest thing I heard this week at work. Actually I didn't hear it but someone told me about it and I was dying of laughter. Ok... picture a guy who looks like he came straight out of the 1970's with slightly shaggy hair and a crazy thick mustache who is just in general a pretty goofy/funny guy. This is one of our ICU fellows and during rounds after apologizing for his phone ringing he says, "I take that back. Never apologize for White Snake." hahaha  That is just awesome.


Happy Friday Friends! Yay for the weekend!!!

7 Quick Takes Friday!

1. I finally finished editing Lebanon photos! Yay! There will be a Lebanon post (or two... or three) coming up in the next week or so. Stay tuned!:)
2. Is it a full moon or is it just me? The way this night has been going I swear more than half the patients on our unit are completely off their rocker. Seriously, what is up with all the crazies man?! It's starting to make me go a little nutty myself! I just keep telling myself... "one more night... just make it through one more night."
3. This week I almost had a complete melt down while cleaning out my fridge. Ok... I am an ICU nurse and I know I come in contact with all kinds of disgusting germs all the time but I can't help it... I am a complete germaphobic neat freak. ESPECIALLY when it comes to my kitchen and bathroom. Earlier this week, I pulled out a whole chicken I had in the freezer and moved it to the fridge to de-frost.... only to come back the next day to find an ENTIRE shelf covered in bloody, disgusting, chicken juice. All of the food on that shelf was covered and I was so mortified I basically threw out everything on that shelf and proceeded to freak out as I vigorously scrubbed down my entire fridge. Few things scares me more than bacteria from raw meat. Yuck. Yuck. Yuck.
4. I am running my third half marathon this weekend! Technically I'm only supposed to be running 6 miles for my training so I plan on taking this suuuuuuper easy... mainly because I have a 22-23 mile run next weekend but it will be a pretty course along the coast so hopefully I'll get some fun pictures.
5. I AM SO OVER MARATHON TRAINING. I cannot emphasize this enough. I am not physically overtrained because I am doing hardly any running these days but I am so SO mentally drained. I'm pretty much down to only doing my long runs on the weekend with an occasional mid-week run because I know that it would be a disaster and a half to skip those long runs but seriously what I used to love about running has some how vanished. I think after I am done with my marathons this summer I will take a break from races. I'm signed up for one or two, half marathons this fall but those are nothing compared to marathon training. I also think I need to get back to trail running... just hitting the trail and running until I get tired and calling it a day. No running for distance or speed.... just running to feel good.
6. This week I got training to do CVVH or Continuous Veno-Venous Hemodialysis. It was pretty cool. These patients are usually pretty sick and since they are so unstable and cannot tolerate regular dialysis we put them on a machine like this one pictured and we dialize them continuously for a small yet steady effect. It definitely felt good to be challenged in my work again. :)   

    

7. Last but not least a sneak peak of Lebanon photos for you...

Happy Friday Friends!!

7 Quick Takes Friday

1. Having the flu sucks but whats even worse is waking up a week later with a sore throat and a possible relapse around the corner. Yuck :( I will be spending most of my day off in bed probably.

2. This week at work was absolutely insane! Apparently, I underestiamted the craziness that a full moon brings around here. The unit is the busiest its been in months... which I guess is good because we've been dealing with major budget cuts and all of our nurses have been floating to other floors... even the med-surg floors which really stinks. Definitely no nursing shortage here.

3. We have had no Internet or TV in our house for over a week now and its been pretty strange. I feel very disconnected from the world. As a matter of fact I've had about 4 blog posts I've started writing but haven't been able to finish because I have no Internet. When our roommate Katie moved out the cable/Internet was under her name and it just got canceled this week. The TV won't be coming back but we will definitely have to get Internet replaced very soon.

4. I got my hair straightened yesterday! Took 5 hours and I had to stay up after work to get it done = up for over 24 hours :( but it was totally worth it. Pictures of that will soon come hopefully. The before/after pictures are kind of amazing. Hopefully I can find a good example of my before  Hermione Granger-esque hair.

5. In less than 20 days I will be leaving for Ireland and Lebanon to visit two of my BFF's!!! I AM SO EXCITED! It's been years since I've been out of the country and I miss them both a ton. Plus I can't wait to get some seriously amazing photos of both countries. :D

6. Chris got to meet my mom yesterday and it was really great actually. My mom and I have had our issues in the past but I could tell she was incredibly happy for me and she really liked Chris a lot. It definitely made my heart smile to realize how much he is becoming such an important part of my life and also to know how much he wants to be.

7. Finally getting back into some serious marathon training and it feels great! (minus the soreness and the fact that I realize how much the holidays hurt my training) Did 3 days of running this week.. two of which included sprint intervals for up to 30 minutes! Also finally added in some upper body strength training. Next up is my 11 mile run on Sunday! :D

Happy Friday Friends! What do you all have planned for the weekend?!

7 Quick Takes Friday

It's been 7 days since I last posted and since I have a ton of things to write about and absolutely no time to write them... I've decided to join in on Conversion Diary's 7 Quick Takes Friday!

-1-

Last Saturday I ran my first trail race! It was a 10k which was perfect because for my long run that weekend I was supposed to do 6 miles... why not throw in an extra 0.2 miles right?! Well, unless you are dumb like me and you decide to follow people off trail and make it 7 miles instead of 6.2... not so fun then. It was by far the hardest run I have ever done... possibly harder than my half marathon because it was UPHILL the entire first half. I survived though and I even got a cool medal for it!

-2-

The following two days after my first trail race I could barely walk because every muscle from my waist down was screaming at me and punishing me for being so cruel. It was so bad I had to call in sick to work the day after.  Don't think I will be doing that race again next year... 

 

-3-

I was lucky enough to meet a good portion of Chris' family last week (he has 8 brothers and sisters... 6 boys and 3 girls in the family!) I was expecting to feel incredibly overwhelmed because I'm so introverted and I come from such a small and not-so-close family but it was actually really, really great and I absolutely love them all already. They were all so welcoming and I was so thankful for that. I've always wished I had a bigger family that I was close to and I'm excited to get to know them all more. 

-4-

Despite the fact that I feel like I have no time to catch up on anything... blog writing, cleaning, sleeping, running, seeing friends... I have been able to keep up with my marathon training... I think signing up for regular races has helped with this and it has paid off! I officially made a record for my mile time this morning on the treadmill. When I started running 7 months ago I ran a 13 minute mile and today I ran an 8:45 minute mile! Woohoo!!

-5-

This week at work was absolutely INSANE. I got to see a man's chest opened up at the bedside by our CT fellow because he went into cardiac tamponade. The only way to fix it was to crack open his chest right then and there. Literally I stood a foot away from a man's open chest and beating heart. By far one of the most amazing things I have EVER seen in my entire life.

-6-

I was able to take care of this same patient the day after they opened his chest up and it was incredibly terrifying for the first four hours because he had an intra-aortic balloon pump. It was my first time working with one of these and within minutes of me getting report on him he crashed his blood pressure and went into a heart arrhythmia called SVT (supraventricular tachycardia) = not good.

It has been a very long time since I  have been scared at work and let me tell you.... I was TERRIFIED. It all ended up being okay though and it actually gave me a great shot of life in terms of being excited about work again.... I mean how many times do you get to see a person's heart beating in their chest?!

-7-

 I have yet to do any Christmas decorating... yes... it is the 17th of December and I just started my Christmas shopping last night and I have not hung a single Christmas decoration and my fake tree is still sitting in it's box... hopefully I will fix this problem today and hopefully I can take some pictures and post them soon... haha might be an ambitious goal.... wish me luck.

On that note  I think I am going to get started.... time to be productive. :)

Yay for the weekend being near! Happy Friday Friends!