Playing Catch-Up

There’s something to be said about being inside—warm and dry—and listening to a terrific downpour. There is also something to be said about remembering that one lives in a triplex and that the torrential downpour is actually the upstairs neighbor’s evening shower.

Hot damn, I've been keeping a wild list of things I need to write about but I just haven't the time (or the internet connection) to do it. First things first, I'm moved into my new house. It was a rocky relationship in the beginning. I walked in to find a mushroom growing through the ratty pink carpet. Ugh. That was the beginning of a tirade of other problems including sewage leakage into the living room, a spider problem, a grimy bathroom, 40 pounds worth of moldy food in the fridge, a weirdo landlord, and a whiff of weed every time I walk into the house. It's slowly getting better now that the summer leasers have moved out and all my permanent housemates have moved in. I think we'll get by. The carpets are cleaned, the mushroom removed, and the sewage problem fixed. Although we occasionally get rained on when the people upstairs take a shower, it's in much better shape and I'm finally beginning to call it home.

School has begun as well and already people are bouncing off the walls with stress. I try to be as antisocial as possible so I don't catch what seems to be a contagious disease of stick-up-the-arse, but it gets to all of us sometimes. I'm actually really interested in what we're learning. I just started my OB clinical yesterday and was given a patient who didn't speak any English! I had a translator to help me with the assessment and teaching, but she left as I was running to get stuff for my patient. I came back and had to explain how to put on nipple cream...in Spanish! Ha! It was a combination of Spanish sight words and poor acting, but we put it together alright. I think I'm going to like it. I couldn't believe how small the baby was....and how inexperienced I am with babies. Not gonna lie, I teared up when the baby breastfed for the first time. It was a beautiful moment. It's very stressful though. A lot is expected of us, we're blitzed with work, and I feel like there is always so much to do that I can't gather myself together. I feel so discombobulated ALL the time, it's terrible. I would love for a week to just catch up. Unfortunately, no such luck so I'm just keeping my head above water until the weekend. It's good though. I think I might like nursing after all.

Sondre Lerche is a boss, live. I went to Bumbershoot and intended to post about it but free time escaped me and even though I saw a ton of artists he's the only one who really stands out after a month of not thinking about it. I went to see the Flobots but for some reason they were playing in the Exhibition Center and only 500 people got in (not me) so that was pretty disappointing. Deathcab was a little weak compared to the other times I've seen them. They seemed to have this "Oh, Seattle loves us so we don't have to try hard" attitude but they cleaned up their act and delivered a very heartfelt encore. Sondre Lerche though, wow. He incorporated so much of his personality into the performance that the short 20 minutes I saw him was the best part of the whole day.

There's much more to write but unfortunately not a whole lot of spare minutes to this day.

So, till next time,
R-