Sunday, December 17

Type-A Tricks, Graduation, and a Series of Unfortunate Events

Well, well. I'm home. Home is pleasant; it might be more so if my brothers decided to stick around a little more often. But, alas, they have lives. And I suppose it might be slightly more enjoyable if I could feel my feet too.
So really, this blog is just another one of those random ones to tell people what has happened the past few days in the world of Kristin. Oh, and to tell an unfortunate story; however, the unfortunate story will come a little bit later (hint: it has to do with my ever-present, clumsy luck and the fact that I am a proud founder and member of the Klutz Club. I miss Emily.... we'll have to have an excursion when you get back). Anyway! On with the blog.

I have been characterized by most as a person with a Type-A personality (honestly, where did they get that idea?), and perhaps I do lean more towards that than their relaxed, phlegmatic Type-B counterparts in society. One thing that I have learned about Type-A people is that their bodies have this amazingly tricky and un-useful talent (ok, maybe it is slightly useful, but not terribly fun) of being able to ward off sickness when they know they can't afford to be sick, only to have said illness attack with vengeance at a more convenient time- when the Type-A person is resting and recovering from stressful situations like school or work. However, I'm not a determined and driven Type-A child for nothing. Shall I sit idly by and allow this threatening cold to ruin my Christmas break? Of course not. Since it is not a full blown cold yet, and only the beginnings of one, I say, pass another orange please :) Hmm, and maybe I should put some socks on...
Now that that intriguing informative is over, here is a short update on life. Nursing Dedication (aka Pinning) and graduation are over! Hurrah! I'm almost, sort of, officially a nurse. Only one silly NCLEX test left to pass ;) Pinning was really neat, I had never been to one before, and seeing how unique my class is/was, it was bound to be good. There were some truly amazing people in my class who I admire a great deal, and it's a little bit sad that we are no longer going to be sitting in classrooms together listening to teachers thrill us with details of LAD myocardial infarctions, every cancer imaginable, diabetes mellitus, and my personal favorite, chronic renal failure. I was thrilled to have my aunt pin me, and was very touched by the messages of our speakers. People sang beautiful songs, and we dedicated ourselves to service; service of people, and service of God. It was wonderful. Whenever something has been accomplished or overcome, people like to ask the question, looking back, would you do it again? The usual response is some form of yes. Thinking about this has made me very grateful for something that I never ever thought I would be thankful for. I am so glad that I can't see what lies ahead of me. I think that with many events or situations in life, if I could foresee everything that would happen along the way, I'm not sure that I would have the courage or strength to choose to press on. If I had known everything that would happen to me during clinicals, or how difficult the program would be at the very beginning when I was first accepted into Southern's nursing program, would I have chosen to accept the challenge? I don't know; maybe, maybe not. And that is why I'm so glad that God leaves life a mystery to be discovered along the way.
The last part of my update on life before I tell the unfortunate story, is about my drive home. Sometimes I wonder about the wisdom of my family's decisions, and my own stubbornness. My parents decided that we would all drive home as soon as graduation was over with. Graduation ended at about 9 pm (we didn't leave until around 10:30) and from Southern to my house the drive is approximately 8 to 8 1/2 hours. Wise? Perhaps not. Christy rode with me to begin with, and Stephen joined us a bit later in the night, or rather, earlier in the morning. The original plan was for me to drive until we parted ways with my grandmother, at which point Stephen would drive my car because he had napped all afternoon and I hadn't. However, I ended up driving most of the way home, much to Stephen's and Christy's chagrin. Stubborn? Perhaps. In any case, it was a nice ride home because of the company, which was highly amusing at times, and rather dull at others (when they wouldn't speak to me...), and also because there were shooting stars!!! I should have counted, but I didn't. I'm almost positive that I saw over 20 shooting stars that night, and it was absolutely amazing :D The most I had seen in one night previous to this drive was two when I slept outside on a tarp with my friend Natasha at the farm.
And now for the Klutz Club Gazette feature publication; a short story on closed head injuries. Saturday night, I had the pleasure of attending my church's Christmas party and babysitting all the little children with another girl. It was indeed an adventurous night, and I got to know a lot of the kids at church a lot better, whether I wanted to or not (alright, it wasn't that bad :) but it sure does make the story sound more interesting). There were Christmas movies about Jesus playing, but some of the children decided that other things were much more entertaining. The girls were playing catch with a rather large, fuzzy, neon green ball, complete with sound effects, or playing with fairy dolls and butterfly vehicles. Some of the boys were watching the movie, while the majority were doing various other activities, such as throwing packages of gum up in the air to catch with a small cardboard box, bouncing little rubber bouncy balls to me and the other babysitter, and an array of acrobatic stunts. One boy, the one throwing packages of gum in the air, decided that he wanted to display his tricks for me. "Hey, watch this!" the boy yelled toward me in an attempt to get my attention. I obeyed and watched as he flung his package of gum up at the ceiling. I, being very observant and good at judging the path gravity chooses to draw objects toward the ground, noticed that the gum was headed straight for my head. So, naturally, I moved my head out of the path of doom. Unfortunately, the avoidance of one path of doom only led straight into one of much worse consequence.
Despite my observant nature, I hadn't noticed how close my chair was to the corner of a wall, and as I dodged the now despised gum, my head came into full contact with the corner of a wall. (Insert funny tangent: Due to recent studies of closed head injuries, my nursing skills took over and I took quick inventory as I questioned myself: How hard did I hit that? Will I pass out? If so... will I get a concussion? Will I have a coup or contracoup injury? Did I break skin? Yes, sadly those questions did go through my head, despite the fact that I knew I couldn't possibly have hit my head hard enough to produce those kinds of outcomes) Thankfully, the injury was very minor and I survived with only a bump and slight headache. Lesson I learned: sometimes the natural instinct to dodge objects coming at your head should be ignored, like when harder objects are in close proximity.
I apologize to those who could not quiet curiosity and actually read this entire blog. It turned out to be lengthier than I originally intended.

15 comments:

Christy Joy said...

Kristin, I wish I had known that little tidbit of advice (concerning the head thing) when I was confronted with my brother on a tricycle. Yes, my fun hospital story when I was 8 years old could have been totally avoided if I had just known earlier the principle of the "greater evil" and of the true definition of a 'delima'

Joel said...

Wow, from nurse to babysitter...doesn't that progression usually go the other way? ;) I'm glad to hear that you've been utilizing your spare time wisely, reviewing for your nclex. I'm told that if you can associate an experience with otherwise dry facts, it helps you remember them better, although I must say I can think of less extreme ways of doing so than contracting a scalp hematoma!

I'm glad you got to see the Geminids. I read about them and was looking forward to seeing them. I considered going out to see them, even going so far as to get up early, but when I awakened at the odd hour of 4:36 AM, I noticed a discouragingly thick blanket of fog. However, rather than becoming disheartened, I promptly decided to do my laundry instead.

Socks sounds like a good idea, especially if one is on the verge of being sick. I'm generally a big advocate of sock-wearing (except when one is playing ultimate frisbee-somehow it's better in barefeet.) In fact, if I wasn't going to bed soon, I would heed my own advice and put some on myself:)

Have a wonderful time with your family and congrats on your graduation! Goodnight.

Joel said...

Oh, and christy, it was a Scooter, not a tricycle, thank you very much. And I rather think you got the better end of the deal. I a bit peeved for quite sometime that you got to ride in a helicopter and eat lots of ice cream and all I got, conversely, was a severe talking-to. Oh well, life isn't fair...

Christy Joy said...

oh, i'm sorry :( Why did Mom and Dad give you a "severe talking-to" when you didn't do anything wrong? Heehee, yeah, the helicopter ride was fun though I was mad that they didn't let me sit up to see out the windows. haha.

Kristin said...

Christy: Apparently some lessons in life must be learned the hard way. And... you know what my first thought was when I read your last comment? I thought, I bet Christy would be one of those difficult patients... Well, most definitely when you were younger...
Joel: Everyone needs a break from hard work once in a while. So, really I don't see it as a reversed progression, I see it as taking a break; a temporarily less challenging job ;) And lets just hope that my "review" for NCLEX didn't cause any memory loss :P
Meanwhile, 4:36? That would drive me crazy, why not 4:35, or 4:40? And the thick blanket of fog must have been a rather long one, because fog is just about all we saw for about half our trip.

Christy Joy said...

I do believe the fog was present for more than half the trip, probably more like three-fourths. But wasn't it nice how God created little openings so we could see the shooting stars?

Paul said...

woah. you certainly covered some ground in this post. I'm still trying to figure out what hit me...
It is a bit autobiographical with a emphasis on personality.
I certainly understand your feelings on late night drives. I drove to Maine the night after finals. My friend's BMW made the trip fly, and the Mass police let me off with a warning, but it was still tough 9 hours...

Kristin said...

Well Paul, the police must be feeling rather generous in this holiday season. I had the misfortune of being pulled over (don't ask...) but was kindly let off with a warning as well...
And just think of this "autobiographical" blog as a large puzzle piece ;)
I'm glad you made it home safely :)
Oh, and Christy, you're probably right, I just didn't want people to think I was overexaggerating on how foggy the trip was :)

Jonathan Gerrans said...

very interesting stories
I especially like that pictoral rendition of you with your sore head... :)

Paul said...

I echo Jon's comment. Your posts are setting a high standard--at least in the illustrative department!

So the smokies gave you a break too? you asked me not to ask, but...

Personally, I feel limited by A and B personality types. Are you familiar with the Myers-Briggs personality indicator? I think it's a bit more accurate, but, as Joel pointed out, we're all unique...

Kristin said...

Let's just say that at 2 am my eyes apparently aren't as keen as they are at other times of the day and I quite nearly had a collision...
And yes, I'm familiar with Myers-Briggs personality tests. We had to take one of their tests in high school for one of our classes. Occasionally I like to retake it to see how I've changed. Apparently now I'm an INFJ.
Here's a link to the test if anyone has some free time :) http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes1.htm and here's a good analysis site http://typelogic.com/

Christy Joy said...

Paul, kristin wasn't very descriptive with her little description of what happened. I'll tell you the real story, since I was sitting right next to her. lol.

We were driving out of the gas station where our caravan had stopped for gas and a bathroom stop. As we approached the stoplight, Kristin saw the nice green circle light up and therefore turned confidently to the left. Christy (that's me) was opening her most beautiful Macintosh laptop to start some Holiday music up when pretty blue lights started flashing in the background. Kristin: "uh oh" Christy: "wha? Do you not like this song? I can change it" (I hadn't noticed the lights yet because I had a much prettier light to look at [Yay macs!])
Anyway, the policement pulled us over and asked for Kristin's license and registration. I do believe he looked extra hard at the age part of the license. haha. He informed us that we had pulled out right in front of him. Apparently, we didn't wait for the green ARROW. whoops. anyway, he was nice and let us off with a warning. "You just be careful now, it's very late." Oh yes, and he did ask us whether the whole entourage of cars that had pulled over behind him belonged to us. Lol, that was funny. So, a quite shaken Kristin and an amused Christy drove off and reentered the highway. Christy's mind quickly moved on to what song they should play next and the drive continued in an uneventful fashion. (well, there are lots more fun stories to tell but I won't. lol)

So that's the REAL story of the early morning pullover. By Christy Joy Kurtz!

Paul said...

I'm ENTP. I think .04% of the population follows suit--I'm rather rare:-)
My story is much more boring. Let's just say that the law was merciful unto me a speeder.

Amen for Mac books!

Kristin said...

Thanks Christy. One detail that you missed (since you can't read my mind) is that I was racking my brain to figure out what on earth I had done wrong.
Paul, I guess that means that you and Petra are both lucky. Congratulations if I haven't said it before :)

Christy Joy said...

Kristin: lol, one other detail that I missed was that I was racking my brain as well. lol, we're just such little angels, what could we ever do wrong?