Brunch!

Saving me from studying, one bloody mary at a time.

National Nurse Anesthetists Week

January 23rd-29th is National Nurse Anesthetists Week 2011! We had a pizza party at school on Monday to celebrate and here is a picture of the Class of 2012:

Raising Cain

I called Jess, my Kappa Delta 'little sister' to catch-up over Christmas break and she had some exciting news! There must be something in the water. As with Kacy, the link that says 'Jess and Seth' now links to her baby blog :)

Sim Lab

Since we don't start clincials (going to the OR) until this summer, we are practicing the skills that we learn in a simulation lab at school. Right now we are learning how to put in central lines (they are like IVs but instead of going in a peripheral vein on your arm or your hand they go into a much larger, more central, vein in your neck) and arterial lines (these go in arteries instead of veins and they are used to monitor blood pressure instead of to give medication). These first two pictures are of me putting in a central line. This is a sterile procedure meaning that we have to wear a sterile gown, sterile gloves and cover the patient in a sterile drape in an effort to minimize the risk of infection since the tip of this IV will be sitting right next to the patient's heart and we do not want that to get infected! The hat and mask are required for everyone in the operating room to wear at all times (again, to minimize the infection risk) so when I'm not putting in a sterile line, I will normally just be wearing those, gloves and scrubs.












In the picture on the left I am feeling for the patient's artery (which will be pulsatile, this is what they are feeling for in the movies when they go to "check a pulse") so that I can be sure not to hit it as I insert the needle into the vein. In the picture on the right I have successfully found the vein with the needle, I then threaded a wire into the vein (through the needle), removed the needle and I am now putting the catheter into the vein over the wire. In this last picture I am putting an arterial line into the dummy's wrist (it was too hot to keep wearing my gown). This time I was feeling for the pulsatile artery and aiming for it, this is the same pulse the nurse uses to count your heart rate when you have a check-up.I made it on the AANA website!

Close Call

Sheldon, Cheuk (Sheldon's dad) and I were in a car accident today. Everyone was OK, just a few bruises, thank goodness for airbags, seatbelts, and insurance! The lady that hit us was trying to speed away from the scene of the accident behind her where she had just hit another car. She tried to drive off after hitting us too but her car was too damaged to keep running. She was OK too, might have been something to do with all the drugs she was clearly on when she got out of the car, YIKES!

Dropbox

I have been trying, in vain, to upload a video of my apartment to youtube that does not violate copyright laws (and therefore get stripped of its audio). As an alternative, I have uploaded my video with a file sharing program called Dropbox which should allow you to download and watch the video in all of its glory. Here is the link. For anyone without the patience to download the file, here is the silent version via youtube:As always, click through to youtube to see the video without the right side cut off (you can do this by double clicking on the video which will open youtube in a new window). You also get bonus footage of Chuck's apartment at the end since I spent so much time there during my winter break and because it is starting to look a little more lived in now!

Hartford Hawks

Chuck's family sponsors the local college basketball team, the Hartford Hawks, and have a promotion with ShopRite gift certificates which are used as prizes for fans during games. In return for their generosity they get season tickets so Chuck and I went to watch the Lady Hawks take on (and dominate) Maine! Here is a picture of me and Howie the Hawk spending some quality time together:

Friday Night Pizza Night

Liz (Chuck's sister) and I both start school again next week. She is leaving for Boston University this weekend and I am leaving to go back to NY this evening, so Chuck and I had his parents and Liz over to make some pizza before we all disbanded. We have been gushing about this pizza all break and since the cook book, pizza stone and pizza peel all came from his parents we thought that it was only fair to share the wealth! Liz made an Oliver pizza (named after the author's son) topped with homemade tomato sauce, mozzarella and basil.
Mr. Joseph made a pizza with porabello, porcini and button mushrooms, topped with fontina cheese.
Mrs. Joseph went with a roasted red potato, toasted almond pesto and fontina cheese pizza.
We ate our feast at Chuck's new dining room table and topped it off with some Spritz cookies.

Baby Bladergroen

Kacy and Brett are having a baby! What could be more exciting than having a baby? Having a baby and making a blog about it! Obviously.I made the 'Kacy and Brett' link in the 'links' sidebar link to the Baby Bladergroen blog :)

We're definitely not in California anymore.

We had a snow storm come through yesterday. Luckily, Chuck had the day off from work so we had no need to venture out. 12 hours and 1.5 feet of snow later we went out to unearth the car:

Stamp!

So for xmas Paige got us a stamp of the monogram we made for our wedding, but sadly it hadn't shown up by present-opening-time. Well it just arrived in the mail today and it is awesome!!

Thanks Paige!

Pizza

Chuck got a cookbook called The Figs Table from his parents for his birthday in October. We have made a couple recipes out of it which have all been really good but the main section of the cookbook is all about how to make your own pizza which we have been unable to do because we didn't have the proper equipment (a mixer, pizza stone and pizza peel). I brought my mixer back with me from Dad and Julie's house (where it has been stored/neglected since I started school) and Chuck got a pizza stone and peel for Christmas so last night was our inaugural pizza making event and it came out pretty darn good. We started by making the dough which then had to rise for about two hours so we decided to go see a movie. After we got back we rolled out some of the dough (never trust a perfectly round pizza) and prepared our toppings: olive oil, caramelized onions, asparagus, ham, shredded mozzarella, salt and pepper. The stone had to heat up in the 500 degree oven for about an hour and the onions took nearly that long to caramelize so this was no quick meal, but it was well worth the wait.

2010 Wrap-Up

I survived semester two (out of seven) but, as it did last summer, school consumed my life to the point that the blog was pretty much silent for the last month so we are in need of a re-cap. I last left you after mom's visit for Thanksgiving (after which I remained full for approximately two weeks). The following week we had an end-of-the-year phone-a-thon to remind Columbia alumni that they used to be poor students and "Would you like to contribute to the School of Nursing scholarship fund this year?" It turns out that it is just as painful to make those calls as it is to receive them but look what showed up in the Columbia University School of Nursing E-Newsletter this month:So famous. The first weekend in December I took the train up to Hartford to visit Chuck. During my visit his mom and I went to the 'Holiday Stroll' in Blue Back Square. Blue Back is an outdoor shopping center within walking distance from Chuck's apartment (very similar to Hyde Park for you Tampa folk... and since pretty much everyone who reads this grew up with me in Tampa, that should be sufficient explanation). The Holiday Stroll included displays from local businesses (I won a pair of tickets to the local theatre!), performances by local middle and high school chorus/jazz/band/tap groups, horse-drawn carriage rides, etc. It was all very festive and there we were snacking on some hot chocolate and commenting on how we were happy to be all bundled up (as opposed to some of the performers who did not have temperature-appropriate costumes) when we got to witness a Flash Mob. I had no idea what this was, but all of the sudden a specific song came on and a bunch of people in the crowd started doing a choreographed routine! It was like being on TV! At first Chuck's mom and I thought they were just dancing because they liked the song (we didn't know it was an actual dance they were doing) and then it became obvious that they weren't just free-styling so we thought that they must play this song every year and do this same dance, but it turns out that it was a surprise that most of the people in the crowd (aside from the dancers) didn't know was coming. I'm still not sure how everyone learned the dance but it was AWESOME. After getting back to NYC I found myself in full-on finals mode so all outside communication basically stopped. I did take a small break Saturday the 18th to go to the Columbia SRNA Christmas Party and I convinced Katherine and Sheldon to go as well but alas, I have no photos from that evening because MY DIGITAL CAMERA BROKE. I know, WTF. So until I go about replacing that you will have to be happy with iPhone photos only. Finals did eventually come to an end. Here is a picture of me with some of the other students after one of our tests (not the last one, that is why we are not in a bar). We were trying to show off the nice lights up on the main campus...
My last final got out around noon on the 21st and then I caught a train up to Dad and Julie's to begin my winter break! They were both working on the 22nd and 23rd so I had a few days to catch up on sleep, finish up my course evaluations and play with the dogs. Here is a picture of some trees that Rob (their friend/gardener) put up in the driveway circle. Katherine and Sheldon took a train up late afternoon on Christmas eve after getting out of work. Katherine unfortunately arrived with a hacking cough and a nasty head cold so they went to bed early while Dad, Julie and I headed over to a neighbor's house for dinner. We woke up Christmas morning to some cinnamon rolls and a ridiculous amount of presents!











After opening all of our great stuff (thanks for the boots guys!) we sent Sheldon and the sickly back to the city (she really didn't look/sound too good) and began party prep for a Christmas/Hanukah party that afternoon. Dan (Julie's brother), Nancy (his wife), Ben, Nate and Claire (their kids) came up along with about 10 of Dad and Julie's neighbors. Chuck arrived just in time for dinner and we continued the party until everyone collapsed from sugar and excitement overload. Chuck and I left around noon the next day to try and beat a big snowstorm back to Connecticut. We woke up the next morning to about a foot of snow:We were nice and cozy in Chuck's apartment though because he got us some Snuggies for Christmas! For the uninitiated, Snuggies are basically blankets with sleeves and they are quite comfortable for loafing about during your winter break.I have been at Chuck's apartment in Connecticut for about a week now and I am finally catching up on sleep, emails and pleasure reading. We have also gone to a Phish concert and we met up with Kim (one of my CA roommates) and Tim (one of Chuck's CA roommates) who were in town for the holiday (they both grew up in CT). Chuck had to work on New Year's Eve, when he got home we cooked him a steak and me a lobster which we ate in front of the iYule and washed down with a bottle of champagne, things were very rowdy (as I'm sure you can imagine) Classes start again for me on January 17th so until then I will be enjoying this restful start to 2011!