This is for the Madsens.....

and the rest of you that might happen to know, speak or love all things German.

Mission to Mars

So, in case you didn't know....today the Mars Phoenix Lander landed on Mars. This is a big deal at my house because Ben wants to be a Martian. I'm not kidding. He wants to scrap Earth and go start over on Mars. This was the first step in making his dream a reality. And as I say this out loud....he's saying “no, it's not the first step.” But whatever, here we are watching the NASA channel, which in case you've never had the pleasure of tunning in to the NASA channel, let me set the scene. The “show” on the NASA channel is usually a room full of dudes, sitting in rows, in front of computers, wearing nifty headsets and that's about it.....there's not even really any sound. Today the “show” was a little bit different. The NASA dudes were understandably freaking out (considering something they sent on August 4th of LAST year was about to land) and some were standing around the rows of computers (not just sitting) and then some guy with an accent started doing a countdown of all these things that the lander was doing, like separating from it's “cruise stage” (I don't know what that means) and entering Mars' atmosphere and then of course landing on the surface of Mars. Of course, when the Phoenix actually landed, all the NASA dudes jumped up and cheered and awkwardly hugged each other. I tried to figure out more about what was happening but when I was trying to ask questions, Ben shooshed me because “this is EXCITING!” I guess in a way it is kind of exciting to think about sending something to another planet. The animation of the landing was a little disappointing though. I mean, couldn't they send another “space craft” behind the lander to get actual footage....because that would be cool for sure. Anyways just thought I would let you all know that something crazy cool happened today. Maybe you won't think it's cool because you're totally desensitized to “the next frontier” because of all the horrible space movies and tv shows. But Ben thinks it's cool (we're also DVRing whatever NASA or JPL or the UofA is broadcasting on the Science channel) and I do too. And I'm glad that my boyfriend never makes me watch stupid sports.

You have got to see this!

I never watch reality t.v......in fact I usually hate it. But I just happened to be flipping channels the other night and stopped on the reality show "So You Think You Can Dance." I had never even heard of this crappy show, but just had to see this guy. You have got to see it, it's one of the craziest things I have ever seen!

What I learned today.....

Today was my first Pediatrics Clinical. My class met at 8am for a computer training class to learn the charting system (which was a total snooze) and then at 1pm we went on a tour of the units we will be working on for the next few weeks. It was interesting being at University Medical Center. UMC is the University of Arizona's hospital, so it's weird walking around in my Pima Community College uniform, and on top of that my class is all Carondelet employees. Carondelet is the company that owns a few of the other hospitals in town. UMC is a magnet hospital, it's huge, and it's by far superior to any of the Carondelet hospitals. It might be nice to try and work there after my contract is up.

So anyways, what I learned today is that I can not be a pediatric nurse. Our teacher showed us all the different areas, the playroom, the nurses station, the clinic, the ICU, and all of that was ok. I actually thought, "Oh this will be fun...getting to play with all the kids here." And then she took us into some rooms to see some of the patients. I just couldn't hold back the tears. I was actually surprised by my reaction. Since I've started the Nursing program and working at the hospital, I have seen some very sick people. There have been quite a few times that I have been filled with sadness and compassion, but I haven't cried. It's been pretty easy for me to control myself. For some reason though, it was just too much to see all the little children so sick and hooked up to machines. Anyways, it was kind of a rough day and I'm not looking forward to the next few clinicals.

My First Blog!

It's been rough living here in Tucson these past couple of years. It's dry, it's hot, it's brown, and did I mention it's hot? Mostly it's been rough because I'm too far away from all of you! I thought a blog would be a good way to stay connected to everyone, especially because my school and work schedule is so crazy! This blog isn't going to have a theme or anything, it's just going to be a place where I can write to all of you (instead of talking to myself)! I hope you all will like it! Welcome to my blog!