after many years of hard work, my best friend is going to MEDICAL SCHOOL!
christian dameff: i am SO proud of you and cannot wait to start this journey with you.
i think we just may need to celebrate...party anyone??? :)

there is no excuse for myself, lately. no excuse. but i feel like i'm at the end of my rope. i need a push in the right direction. i'm just so very close. i don't know if i even deserve it.

nothing good can come from my attitude right now.

i'm so glad you were born. happy 23rd, honey.

i'm already procrastinating on my first paper. grrr. i told myself not to do this to myself this semester. however, i'm NOT starting it the night before it's due. i'm starting it the night BEFORE the night before it's due. yeah. i have time tomorrow.

i've spent the last two weeks on the inpatient psychiatric units of university physician's hospital (@ kino campus, for those who knew it as kino). it has been TRULY an experience. i have the utmost empathy for the patients who stay there for any length of time. the nurses and behavioral health techs are truly wonderful and work towards healing and recovery. mental disease is something very different and abstract compared to the other things we've been exposed to throughout nursing school. i like it (when i didn't think i would.) i was really nervous at first, but now feel strangely comfortable engaging the patients and talking with them about what brought them there. the learning process for the class (papers/assignments) are actually well integrated with the textbook and i feel like they will really help me learn about mental health nursing (however daunting they are and however long i put them off). it's been a great experience. let's just say, i spent the end of tuesday listening to ziggy marley, making a pinch pot, and talking about positive qualities of myself and others. i can't complain, it's been a dang positive experience. i spend tomorrow in the psych emergency department at kino. should be sweet.

miss lindsay graciously invited me to tag along on her wedding dress shopping adventures today. she picked a beautiful gown that is absolutely perfect for her. i'm so glad she was able to get it. i would LOVE to post a picture of it, however her super cool fiancé (Toby) may be lurking around the internet somewhere...and i would hate to ruin the surprise. wedding dress shopping is dang hard. there are a million choices, EVERYONE has an opinion, and everything is really very expensive. holy cow. what a task. however, she did it. and she looks beautiful in it.

conan o'brien is soooo tall. late show tonight: tom arnold and tim meadows, musical guest: reba mcintyre? i thought she was done, but i guess not. want to hear a creepy reba song? google the lyrics to 'fancy.' wow.


goodnight friends.
xoxo

first days always feel the same to me. whether it's kindergarten or senior year (again) of college.
hope everyone has a great first day. go college.

everyone seems kind of angry lately.
don't be angry.


happy monday.
<3

i'm enjoying my summer so much and it's only getting better. i'm working two 12 hour shifts a week, leaving me with five days off a week. no summer school. nada. i'm looking for a positive place to channel some spare time. i was talking to some folks at the birth and women's health center, however, i think i might head more in the teen pregnancy/crisis pregnancy/sex education direction. i haven't decided.
i got a gym membership and it feels really good to be doing something with my body other than filling it with shitty foods and sitting around all the time. i got an okay deal and so far i really like it. i'm trying to get in some regular spin classes. those murder my buns and thighs and are great cardio. i have high hopes.
i spent the last two days in phoenix. one wonderful thing about my family is that we are super close to everyone. including some way extended family to the point where we all wonder how exactly we're related. my mom's dad's sister, all her kids, and all their families were in town for the 4th of july so we went up to hang out. we all went out on monday night and had a party of 25! my aunt joanne kept insisting we ride this 'trolley' to an art display downtown, so we got all excited about some old-town phoenix trolley and art gallery downtown. turned out, by trolley, she meant the new metro system that phoenix recently got, and by art display, she meant some weird huge sculpture at the asu downtown campus. needless to say, we spent 4 hours riding the metro with phoenix's finest public transportation users and it was hysterical. i love my family and i love that we can all live hundreds of miles apart and the minute we see each other it's like we were just together days ago.
i moved back home to live with my parents. my lease is up in july and my parents offered to let me live at home for free and save everything i make during my last year at school (hear that, folks?! last year at school!!!) i think it's a good idea. i got my stuff to my house about a week ago, but between working and going to phoenix i have barely had time to put stuff away and it's a disaster area. i got a lot done tonight though. christian came over and chatted with me while i worked, bought me dinner, and we watched this cool documentary about these guys battling over the world record high score in donkey kong ('the king of kong'). i like it a lot. i've been on a documentary kick for two weeks now and there are unholy amounds of documentaries that can be viewed immediately on the computer through netflix. i love netflix. anyway, that was a good one. if you also enjoy documentaries, i have also recently viewed 'dear zachary: a letter to a son about his father' and 'the business of being born'. dear zachary is awesome and crazy. the business of being born is really cool, and about the medicalization and commercialization of the birthing process in the united states (as many of you know, i want to be a midwife, and there are some kick ass midwives in this documentary!)
so.....christian is sleeping next to me, my family is safe and happy after a lovely few days of cousins, aunts, and uncles, and i'm getting ready to go to bed. life is good! we're getting ready to spend the 4th of july weekend in the white mountains with my cousins in show low. christian has never been up with me before so i'm really looking forward to it. cooler weather and great company.

i hope everyone else's summer is shaping up just as nicely.

we should hang out.

<3

If you could read my mind
You'd say baby you're right
And I don't wanna fight anymore
You're usually righter than I am
And I'm not a very good fighter
Am I, well neither are you.

i love you christian dameff. i hope you're having sweet dreams, buddy.


<3


home from san diego tomorrow.
:(
san diego rules.


LOVE.

ATTENTION EVERYONE!

graduation party for christian (and beginning of the summer party for everyone else!)
Saturday, May 16th, 2009: Christian, Clinton, Tony, and Tim's Place
7:30 PM -- Bring your own meat.

BBQ, veggie grill and meat grill.
Drinks and snacks will be provided.
Bring your swimsuits if you want to swim.


SEE YOU THERE.


p.s. could a few, more popular people re-post this to their friends list? i don't want to miss anybody!

despite the loads of fun, i don't think i'll volunteer to be a DD again.

i'll drive my roomies, but in general...no thanks. once was enough. christian and i are out of the DD business.





plus, i got pink eye. what a crazy party.

for you, my friend.

anyone going to club crawl tonight?

my computer has wireless internet!!!!! wooohooooo! it has such a temper and a mind of its own. it chooses when it wants to work and when it doesn't. which makes it really hard to fix. !!!
the key now is not to shut it off.


i need a nap. and my tax refund.

i read back through my lj a little bit today. i was pretty darn happy and carefree....not that long ago. whew. i mean, i have no true complaints today. my family is together, i'm healthy, i love my boyfriend very much, and i'm on my way to a career that i really enjoy and care about. i just feel drained. i don't take care of myself anymore. i feel like i'm so tired all the time from work and school that i don't do anything else. it feels crappy. of all the people that know the importance of taking care of oneself, i have no excuses. i graduate in a year and i don't want to graduate feeling like this. i'm hoping that this summer i can shuffle my priorities around and take care of myself for a change. we should all take care of ourselves for a change!

dear professor ********* MSN, RN, OCN:
20 page papers about end stage renal disease are NOT necessary. not really helpful to anyone. i mean, i hate to write it, you hate to grade it. let's be real and do ourselves a favor and SKIP THE BULLSHIT PAPER. PLEASE. PLEASE. I'M TIRED AND I DON'T HAVE IT IN ME. I JUST WANT TO GO TO BED. did you really expect me to write it over spring break? because that's so not the case. please don't tell me we had more time than everyone else because spring break is just that, a BREAK and i didn't want to spend it writing a 20 page paper. no one did. that's why we're all scrambling. what's that? it's due Friday at noon? were you aware that we're the only clinical group that has class on friday from 7AM-3PM???? what? you want it thursday night? oh wait...we have an entire care plan due before friday clinicals that we have to start on thursday afternoon. still think that's very fair, cheri? is that fair that everyone else only has to go to the hospital one afternoon and we have to go 2 afternoons on top of clinicals? so tell me when the hell you want me to write this paper. some of us crazy bastards hold a JOB and we work this week as well. let's take, for example, my 12 hour shift i have tomorrow. how much paper writing do you think will happen tomorrow? the answer is NONE. ZERO. so, sometime between wednesday night (which is LOST night, by the way) and thursday afternoon, i'll pull this paper out of my ass, turn it into your LAME anti-plagerism sofware and get it in your hot little hand by thursday evening. if it's a piece of crap?? oh well. if it takes you 2 hours to grade, don't say i didn't offer to NOT DO THE DAMN THING IN THE FIRST PLACE.
have a lovely evening,
ashley allen

spring break is over. it was so quick, it came and went without much consequence, but i enjoyed not having any assignments to do for a week. that was nice. i guess now it's best to move forward because this semester is more than halfway done and i'm ready for it to be over.

hope everyone else had an enjoyable spring break.

happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear keith, happy birthday to you.


happy birthday, keith!!!!

<3
<3
<3


i hope you won a million dollars last night.