College and My Friend Steph

I had an awesome time with Steph the other night. We went to the Gathering which was awesome. The gospel choir was singing and they are always great. They sang a lot of really good songs. Being there was great but also a little sad because I used to be in gospel choir and I was thinking about how fun it was and then when we sang some of the slower songs I started thinking about college in general and how great it was and how much I wish I could go back and do it again. It's kind of funny because throughout college you have fun but you can't wait to get out but once you get out all you want to do is go back. I felt all nostalgic because it was so good and I miss my time in college when I would go to chapel and the Gathering with all my friends and we would mingle and have so much fun. After the Gathering Steph and I went to visit my brother in his dorm and he had a bunch of friends in there and that made me more sad because I was getting ready to go home to an empty apartment and I missed hanging out at night with lots of people around and friends everywhere. But besides my temporary depression that I am growing up, I had a great time with Steph. I have missed her a lot over the past year since I have seen her. But it was hard because at the end of the night I had to say goodbye to her again for a while because Steph is leaving for the Africa Mercy Ship in Oct. I am excited though because there is a slight possibility that if I raise enough money I could visit her and my other friend Marissa in Africa in May. When I lived in Houston I introduced Steph and Marissa and the three of us went on a couple camping trips and we all got along great and had a great time. Marissa is in Tanzania for 2 years. So if I can raise enough money I can meet the two of them in Tanzania and hang out with Marissa too. Then Steph and I would go to Malawi and work in an orphanage for a week and then the orphanage is setting up a mini-safari. This would only work if I could raise the money so I am going to be trying VERY VERY HARD!! I love those girls and I have a passion for Africa so this would be an awesome trip if possible. I can't wait! :)

the last few weeks

So here is an update of the past couple weeks that I have not written anything. First, I started EMT school. It ROCKS!! I LOVE class. In most classes you look at the clock wishing it would go faster so you could just get home. In my EMT class I look at the clok and pray that it will slow down so that class won't end so soon. The class is 4 hours long. :) So yeah, the class is awesome!

Next, I quit my job at St. Mary's. Yes, I really did. I very much disliked my manager the entire time I worked there but he started getting worse toward the end. I also worked with a horrible old woman who was mean and angry and nasty all the time and needed very much to retire. Between the two of them, I was miserable at work. But the other main reason why I quit is because after I passed my boards I only had 4 days of orientation and they had just changed the budget and staffing grid so there were more patients per nurse. So after my 4 days of orientation I had to take 4 patient who were all in critical condition and over two weeks by myself I felt uncomfortable and scared to go to work because I didn't feel safe. When I worked with that horrible old woman, which was A LOT, she refuses to answer questions so she was not someone who I could go to for help and with the staffing grid change there were only 3 nurses on at night and one would be me, one is the horrible woman, and that left only one person who I could go to for help and if that person was very busy that left me alone. So basically I worked too hard for my license to make a mistake and lose it, let alone make a serious mistake that could cause serious complications to a patient. It just wasn't a safe environment to work in so I left.

Now I work at a Jail. HAHA. No seriously! I'm not kidding! I work at Kent County Correctional Facility in Grand Rapids. It is pretty cool. I applied for some other hospital jobs but did not get any of them. So at the jail I do basic physicals of inmates, I am part of the booking process (everyone needs to be seen by medical in order to finish the booking process- everyone gets booked whether they stay in jail or leave right away), I triage "kites" (when an inmate fills out a request to see the medical staff it is called a kite), I perform STD testing, pelvic exams, TB tests, blood draws, give meds, etc. I have already learned a ton about countraband, and being careful about needles and watching how much medical info I give to make sure they don't use that info to fake things, I have experienced pepper spray because they had to do that to one guy and the pepper spray spread throughout the whole room, I have talked to prostitutes, rapists, armed robbers, drug dealers, meth manufacturers, etc. The whole thing right now just feels sort of crazy. But I like it so far. Don't worry, I'm safe. Anytime I am with an inmate there is a guard and there are guards swarming the place so it's all cool.

So that is the story of my past few weeks. :)

jobs

so...I quit my job today. actually it is kind of a relief because it was miserable and I hated going to work every day and it was just a bad situation. i'm not in a very good mood about it so I will update later.