42 days and counting!

I can't believe how fast this summer is going. First, it seemed like summer would never start, thanks to some lovely rainy/cold weather. All of a sudden, the end of July and 100+ degree temps arrived. That's when I realized "YIKES! It's pretty much August already!" 2011, which has been a very good year, is going by way too fast for my liking.

Anyway, a lot has changed in the 30ish days since the last post. First, I am now a resident of 02171 and I am LOVING it. The location is perfect, the neighborhood is quiet and the apartment is amazingly awesome. I have a feeling the only downside to this place will be my commute to school. We'll see in the fall!

Another big thing that happened is I joined a gym. I hate gyms. This is a big step for me. Granted, I have yet to visit said gym... but signing up is a start! Mama has a half marathon to run on October 9!

The BAA Half Marathon is the race I signed up for. I ran it once before and it was a good race. I'm excited to do it again. I am also determined to run it in under 2 hours. I think I can, I know I can... Anyway, for updates on how my training is going, visit run-rachmezz@tumblr.com

Finally, more school information has arrived! WOOHOO! The Regis College bookstore finally displays Fall 2011 as an option in the drop down for textbooks. I was able to look up my three classes and see what texts we will use... and then order them on amazon.com. Most of the books have already arrived. I love Amazon Prime's free 2-day shipping! I ordered all of my books on a Thursday, was told they would arrive on Saturday, but came home on Friday night to a pleasant textbook surprise on my doorstep! Amazing! My pharmacology book wasn't supposed to arrive until August 10 or so (I think it was back ordered), but it's actually being delivered today. These books are soooo heavy and there are so many of them for each class! Luckily, most of the books have an access code on the inside cover that gives me access to an electronic version of the text. I think this gives me a reason to finally get an iPad :)




The nursing kits are still unavailable. Once I noticed that the textbooks were up on the Regis College bookstore website, I called the store and was told the kits will hopefully be available in August. I think that's the last thing I need to purchase for school! I went to Staples a couple of weeks ago and had a field day in the school supplies aisles. Notebooks, paper, binders, pens, you name it - I bought it. I love feeling so organized and ready to go!

My uniform also arrived, after being on back order for 2.5 months. I was getting worried that it wouldn't arrive before school started and even had a nightmare that I showed up to the first day of class without it, wearing normal clothes. Frightening. Anyway, the uniform is HOT. The pants are "flared" but a little too long. The scrub top is also a little long, as is the lab jacket. It's good enough though - I guess I should have opted for petite sizes. I figured I'd be safe with regular sizes, since I'm really in between petite and regular - I'd rather have everything a little too long than a little too short! The package also had my scissors, Kelly clamp, penlight, Regis emblem patches and NAME TAGS!





I love looking at my name tag, where my name is spelled CORRECTLY, and seeing "student nurse." It makes it all seem so real! It's finally happening!

Regis sent information on graduate student orientation. I was really excited before... but now it doesn't seem as exciting! I think there is one session where the Accelerated BSN/MSN students meet together but the rest of it seems boring. We can chat with representatives from various departments (such as Financial Aid), we have to go to an IT session... and that's it. Oh well. Hopefully I'll leave with some good information and a few new friends/classmates!

Other than that, nothing else is new. I did go and get the PPD and the reading of the PPD. I don't have tuberculosis, yay! I personally dropped the doctor's health forms in the mail after my PPD reading - I needed to have them in by July 15 and since my PPD reading was July 7, I was worried my doctor would forget to send the forms! I also noticed that my financial aid award has posted to my account. So far, I haven't been charged for the fall semester so it looks like I have a massive credit on my account. I shouldn't get used to that though - see you later, money!

I think those are all of the updates for now... I can't wait! My change to part-time has been approved so September 2 is my last official day as a full-time employee in corporate America!

September 6 will be here before I know it!

It's been a loooooong time, Blogger

I am not good at keeping up with this blog. In fact, I actually forgot that I had this. I tried to change it to my running blog - that didn't work. Instead, I started a blog with tumblr that chronicled my journey from Hopkinton to Boston in April (PS I finished!). I also, at the same time, forgot about that day zero list. I think it's a lost cause - we'll see.

The big news in my life is that nursing school officially begins in 76 days! I'm super excited. After receiving an acceptance letter on January 5, I basically didn't hear back from the school (except for when they wanted my money) until about a month ago. That's when information started to trickle in. We had a uniform fitting in May. I ordered my scrubs, lab jacket, name tag, patches, penlight and Kelly clamp. I also picked up my student ID while I was there. Apparently the size small pants are back-ordered so my order hasn't shipped out yet - hopefully I'll have everything in the next few weeks! I also ordered my stethoscope and shoes. The shoes are... special. You really can't make white nursing shoes look good. My stethoscope, however, is awesome. I ordered on with hot pink tubing (obviously) so it's very me. I can't wait to use it! I also picked up a name plate for the stethoscope - I don't want mine getting lost in class. I took my BLS for the Healthcare Provider class (CPR), which was exciting because it was my first nursing "event." My official log in name/password and my college email address were set up. The day I received the letter from IT with this information, I ran to my iPhone and set up my email so that I could begin to stalk my school email without any problems (I couldn't help it - I've been anxious for information for MONTHS).

I also recently received a book list for one of my courses, Professional Nursing. This course has many parts to it - a nursing lab, clinical, and lecture. I haven't heard about my clinical placement yet but I did get the list of textbooks I will need. I ordered those immediately because I have homework to do this summer. I don't know why I was so surprised to have homework before classes - it's an intense nursing program! However, I was still surprised when the assignments came through. I had to purchase two textbooks - "Math for Clinical Practice" and "Fundamentals of Nursing." The latter is SO heavy - I couldn't believe the size of it when I opened the box from amazon.com! I have to read a bunch of chapters in it before school starts. The email we got didn't specifically say that but it listed about 6 different chapters with the textbook ISBN info - I'm assuming that means we will cover that for day 1. I'd rather not start the semester off behind so I'll do the reading regardless. I also have to do the first 4 chapters of the other textbook, "Math for Clinical Practice." I've gone through chapters 1-3. It is really really easy. It's basically a review of very basic math (think elementary school style math) - I had to do addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions, decimals and then basic equations. Nothing too hard. The thing I keep having a "hard" time with is the number of decimal places it rounds to. I'm used to keeping significant figures, thanks to years of science courses, but the book typically rounds to one decimal place. Regardless, it's pretty simple math but so necessary for calculation dosages of drugs, etc. Good times!

I also had to purchase a few other items for this course. One is a handbook of nursing skills and one is a video guide for nursing skills. These are both supplements of the "Fundamentals of Nursing" text. I have a few assignments with these as well. I'm hoping to get all of this work done in July. For clinicals, we have to use a PDA with specific software loaded on it. Luckily I have an iPhone so I will use that as my PDA, since ti meets the specifications. I had to download the app Skyscape from the App Store. Through Skyscape, we purchase various guides and texts to use throughout nursing. For Professional Nursing, I was told to purchase Davis' Drug Guide for NUrses, Taber's Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary, Nurse's Pocket Guide and Nurses's Manual of Laboratory and Diagnostic Tests. I also received a bunch of free apps when I purchased these - very fun! I can't wait to start using them. I've played around a bit but it doens't make much sense to me.

I haven't heard from my other courses yet (Pharmacology and Health Assessment) but I'm assuming I will have summer reading to do for them as well. I'd rather start the semester off on an organized, prepared note. There is nothing worse than falling behind from the start - you can never catch up!

Other than that, nothing else is new. I have my financial aid stuff all set. The graduate department set up a group on Facebook for my class - it's been really awesome. Everyone seems really nice and helpful - we've all been asking questions and it's been super helpful.

That's about it! I have one last immunization in the next couple of weeks and then all of my health forms will be ready to be submitted. Orientation is about 2 months away - that will be pretty exciting! I can't wait to get going - hurry up, 76 days!

The gym is a great location for people watching

I've never liked the gym. I hate treadmills, I hate working out with other people around me. I would much rather go for a run outside or do a workout video in the privacy of my own home. Unfortunately, as this is not possible in my new home (as much as I hate treadmills, I definitely liked having one in my old basement, as a last resort), I have to suck it up and visit the dreaded place.

I have to say, I definitely prefer the 5 am crowd to the 6 pm one. Waking up at the crack of dawn is horrible, but there are a)fewer people in my gym and b)only people who actually care about working out present. The brave souls out there at 5 am are there to have a serious workout and simply go about their business and leave.

The 6 pm crew? Now this is a different story. The people watching was definitely much more intersting at this time but I found myself extremely annoyed at the majority of the people there "working out."

Last week, I went to the gym after work, determined to get my cross-training workout in before ruining all my hard work with a Mexican date with my fiance. Actually, I think I was more motivated by the promised margarita/tacos than the desire to work out. I grabbed my handy-dandy Kindle and iPod and off I was. I walked in to quite a scene. There was a woman on the treadmill, working hard and struggling to finish her workout - I wanted to applaud her for her effort. The other treadmills were occupied by people who probably made "working out" their New Year's resolution and they were putting in about 30-50% worth of effort. You could just tell that these people were just there to say they went but didn't really care about it. There were also about 3-4 people just walking around, putting in about 5 minutes worth of exercise before finding their friends and chit-chatting. What's the point of going to the gym if you aren't going to work out? It reminded me of when I was in college, training for my first DFMC in 2005. I would go to BU's brand new gym to either get in an extensive cross-training workout or hit the treadmills when the Boston weather was less than ideal for outdoor running. While I was there, sweating up a storm, I would see fellow students, mostly women, sitting on the exercise bikes or on treadmills/ellipticals with magazines, barely moving. Now, it's one thing to read a magazine while working out - there are plenty of people who can do both. These people were NOT working out - sometimes I would look over adn they wouldn't even be moving! I could never understand these people and always wanted to yell "Hey! If you're not going to use the machine, kindly step aside so someone else who needs it more can use it. You can read your magazine at the Starbucks across the street and burn just as many calories."

Anyway, I digress. Luckily, I didn't need the treadmills this night or else I would have been really frustrated. I put my Kindle and water bottle on a free elliptical machine and got to work. About 5 minutes after I started feelin' the burn, I noticed that this kid had entered the gym and decided to stretch right in front of my machine. It reminded me of the Seinfeld epidosde where Elaine was trying to stretch in front of a guy she thought was cute. He looked like, as Snooki would descrbie, a "juicehead gorilla guido." I affectionately call him the "bro." He was the kind of man who thinks he's all muscle but his muscles are covered by fat. I think he might also be on steroids. He reminded me of the Teresa's husband on "The Real Housewives of NJ" because he was fat and fake-muscular but she thought he was "juicy." After spending about 5 minutes in front of me, he moved on to a treadmill and I was happy to not have anything except machines in my line of sight.

I hate the elliptical in my gym for one reason - it only lets me do an 18 minute workout at a time. I wanted to put in at least 30 minutes and there was no way to make this happen. Instead, I had to do two 18 minute sessions. At that point, I decided to make my way over to one of the exercise bikes. Within 5 minutes of sitting down, Mr. Gorilla Juicehead Guido showed up on the bike to my immediate right. I could feel him trying to make eye contact but luckily I was so engrossed in my book that I didn't have time to do anything other than workout and read. I was a woman on a mission - I still had to get in 35 minutes on the bike before I could leave, shower and eat my heart out. The dude left at some point and went over to lift some weights or something. This is when I found it hard not to notice him. I have never heard anyone make half as much noise as this guy was making. Holy moly, it was beyond annoying. I had to turn my iPod up just to try to drown him out. He reminded me of the guy from the Planet Fitness commercials:



I was beyond excited that it was almost time to leave because I couldn't drown him out! I wanted to tell him "Dude, you're lifting, no one is impressed. In fact, no one cares because we are all doing our own thing."

After a successful 60+ minutes of cross-training, I decided it was time to leave and get ready for dinner. I can't wait to see who I come across at the gym next!

Waking up at 5 am isn't THAT bad...

Today started off better than most mornings: my alarm went off at 5 and I actually was able to get myself out of bed to get to the gym! As I am not a morning person, this was a huge thing for me. I rolled out of bed, chugged some water, had some coffee, grabbed my Kindle and iPod and was out the door by 5:30. I was pretty motivated and excited to hop on the treadmill. I don't want to admit this but I have been EXTREMELY lazy when it comes to marathon training. I've had a really hard time finding the motivation I needed to get my butt going - this shouldn't be an issue, since I'm running for Dana-Farber. Thinking about the patients should be MORE than enough motivation. Unfortunately, my brain has hidden the "if those patients can deal with cancer, you can run a few miles" thoughts with "you're lazy, sit on the couch and nap." I'm not proud to admit that but hey, I was able to take a pivotal first step in the right direction today!

Anyway... I hopped on the treadmill and cranked out a decent 5 miles (decent for someone who has gained a lot of weight and not trained nearly as hard as she should have). I hate treadmills but it was a much safer than trying to run outdoors in the snow/ice storm that decided to invade MA today. Typically I am bored after 5 minutes on a treadmill and quit, convincing myself that I'm "sick" or that I "hurt something." However, today I brought my Kindle and was able to keep myself entertained the entire time. I've never been someone who could read on a treadmill - I tried it once before and it was frustrating and annoying. I never understood how people could prop up a book and read while running. However, I did not have any issues today! I guess if you have a thin Kindle and change the font to make it bigger, it's not hard to crank out both a few miles as well as a couple of chapters. Thank you, Dennis Lehane, for distracting me with your entertaining books - I didn't even have time to remember that I despises treadmills!

That's all for now. Now that pre-req classes are done and over with (hooray for some time off before grad school officially starts), running/training is going to be my life. Hopefully I'll have the energy to keep updating this thing!

New motivation

It's been a pretty long time since I've updated this. It's hard to keep up a blog when you don't have a good, focused topic! Two days ago, I had a great idea (thanks to the DFMC message board)- why not use this blog to write about training for the Boston Marathon? I will continue to track my "progress" on accomplishing items on my Day Zero list (I've really been slacking on that thing!) but the main focus will be everything and anything RUNNING. The next 5ish months are going to be really challenging but I can't wait! Boston Marathon 2011 here I come!

Stay tuned for more- week one of pre-training officially starts tomorrow!


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Baby steps lead to progress!

This list will be the death of me. I'm DETERMINED to complete it; I just also have to remember that baby steps are better than nothing!

8. Send a letter or card via snail mail to 5 friends I don't talk to nearly as often as I should (1/5)

Today I was sitting at work and decided to write out a card and send to a friend that I don't get to talk to/see a whole lot. Everyone loves getting mail, especially when it isn't a stack of bills. I didn't realize it at the time but I was also starting another one of the items on my list.

10. Get through 50 movies on my Netflix queue (2/50)

OK, I'm not good at watching movies. There, I said it. It takes me forever - I usually fall asleep and end up watching the same movie multiple times until I actually see it from start to finish. I continually add items to my Netflix queue but have made NO progress on it. Slowly but surely, I'm starting to knock some movies off. First, I watched "Confessions of a Shopaholic" which was pretty cute and entertaining. I didn't think I'd enjoy it as much as I did. The next movie I received was "Up." OMG! It was the cutest and saddest movie ever. Pixar movies always kill me - I end up teary eyed at some point. I highly recommend it - "Up" was awesome!

62. Take the GREs if necessary

Last night, I realized that time is flying by and application time is rapidly approaching. About 2/3 of the schools I am applying to require the GREs so I said "Crap, I better register to take that test ASAP." So, on September 10, I will officially take the GREs! That gives me a month to prepare - I really don't want to have to take it more than once (it's $160, eek!) so I'm super motivated to get moving and start getting ready. This is also one of the first steps I've taken toward actually applying to schools. It's feeling real now and now just a dream! I hope I get in somewhere!

I love eating... Trying new restaurants is really easy!

A couple of weeks ago, I got home from work (after a ridiculously scary storm) and there was no power at my house. A new Asian restaurant, Typhoon, opened downtown at the Shipyard. Since we couldn't do anything at home, we used the opportunity to try a new place and help me get closer to completing item 7 on my list, "Try 10 new restaurants in 2010!"

It was delicious! I heard good things about the Back Bay location- I was not disappointed. I ordered the Thai chicken curry.




I could only eat half of my food- the servings are huge! I loved the curry- the spicy flavor kicked in after you took a bite and surprised you. That's the way spicy food should be done! It was a great experience and I can't wait to go back!


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