Internet?

...aannnd I still don't have internet. Hopefully by tomorrow, though!! Note to everyone: do NOT get Brighthouse cable!

Once again, my life seems to consist mostly of working lately. I've rediscovered how awesome it is to get a regular paycheck. I had this past weekend off, which was really relaxing because I finally had a chance to just do nothing for a while.

I think I might actually be mostly an adult by now because it's no longer possible for me to sleep past about 8:30am. If it's daylight, you can bet I'm awake. How weird is that?

So, with these few free days I've had, I've spent some time in Carmel with my parents (who are now I guess actually considered "empty nesters" since Anne's 3 hours away and I'm all grownup-ish now), and checking out some more stuff downtown and in Broad Ripple. I really enjoy going to Luna Music and listening to some of the tunes there. They have your everyday stuff, but then a lot of indie stuff that I really like.

School seems to be my little on-the-side project - for now, at least. Since I only have 3 classes that meet twice a week with very minimal outside work, I really don't think too much about them when I'm not in them. I've got an exam this week and one next week, but that's not bad. It's just so much less than I'm used to. I guess I should enjoy it now because, if all goes well, I'll be back to getting my ass kicked by school in January. And I'll be very glad about that. :)

So yeah, that's been my life lately....busy, but low key....if that makes any sense.

Back To School!?

So today was the first day of the fall semester for me. It was definitely the weirdest first day I've had so far.

Right off the bat, and then constantly throughout the day, I've been reminded of how old I am. Just about everyone around me all day has been and/or looked at least 3 years younger than I am. Part of this is because of the classes I have to take....sociology, psychology, and history - all 100 level, and all pre-reqs so I can start with the clinicals in January pending IUSON's approval of my previous grades.
There seem to be a couple of people in soc and psych that are doing the same thing I am, but otherwise it's a lot of brand new college freshmen, just out of high school. Weird.

Another thing I noticed today is that traffic is exponentially worse during the actual school year. It now takes me about 5x longer just to drive the 1.5 mile from my place to campus.
I took the people mover from the IU Hospital (on campus) to Methodist between classes to meet Jon for lunch. I love that people mover, plus you don't have to sit in traffic.

I also got a new volunteer position at the IUSON shiny new simulation lab. I'm pretty excited about it, and it works out that they need me on my prescheduled day off work. Perfect!

The rest of today will consist of laundry and other boring crap. Tomorrow: back to work and trying to remember to turn in my criminal background check to IUSON.

Also tomorrow: GETTING PAID. Holla.

Yay!!

Good Times

So it's been a week since I last posted, and it would be crazy of me to try to go through all that has happened in those past 7 days, because it's a lot. The short version is that life is good and I really need to start bringing my camera to things. The longer version is:

I've spent most of the past week at work. 6-8 hours a day on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Since I have to get up so early to get there, I'm always tired early, too. This is a strange feeling, and must be what being a grown up feels like.

To combat this, I spent the rest of the weekend (while I wasn't at work) partying. On Friday night, I got about two hours of sleep, and on Saturday about four. Both parties, one of which was my housewarming party, were a great success (high five!). I was ridiculously tired at work, but I survived.

Friday was the housewarming-type party for Jon, who I work with, and his roommate. My housewarming party on Saturday was great - lots of fun with great people. We spent a while at my place, with some beer, food, and the Olympics, then went to Tiki Bob's on S. Meridian for dancing and a few more drinks.

Monday night I went to another housewarming party (it must be moving season) out on the eastside suburbs where some of Jon's friends live. Then last night a few of us went out to see Tropic Thunder.

Today I got to sleep in, then drove up to Carmel for some quality time with my dear Vickilea. We walked the Monon for a while, stopping at random places along the way (random mystery bookstore, chocolate shop, museum of something, Bub's where we spent about 5 hours while waiting for change), then we went to the pool, which is something I seriously haven't done in years. I've discovered that I like going to the pool. To top off the quality time, Vicki read my tarot cards, which was awesome.

Tomorrow I start my 8,527th semester. It's such a habit now that if I wasn't going to school, I would feel weird. I suppose one day I won't be in school, but who knows when that will be. Maybe like 5 years from now? I just need some more letters after my name.

Friday I finally get my first grown up paycheck! I'll be straight up ballin'. (I live in a city now, so I can say "ballin'".)

This weekend is going to be awesome because not only is Crystal coming to visit, but I get to go to the Colts game on Sunday!!! I am SO excited and you'd better believe I'll finally bring a camera.

After that, it's back to work and school.

I can't complain though; life is good.

Day Off?

Today is supposedly my day off, although it doesn't really feel like it because I have to do everything that I can't do while I'm at work every other day of the week.

I started off this past weekend house/pet sitting for one of my parents' neighbors here in Carmel, which means I have to commute to and from work during rush hour. Yesterday while trying to get back I-465 was completely stopped both ways for about half a mile, all because of one guy getting pulled over by four cop cars. Seriously? I'm not a fan of commuting.

This week, I'm working every day except today, including the weekend. I don't mind it because not only am I making good money, but I actually really like the job too. But with the hours, I basically can't do much else with the rest of my day. My free time is mostly spent taking care of the plants and animals here, and sleeping.

Friday I have to get everything together here before work, and then that evening Jason is coming to visit! I'm so excited! :) It kind of sucks that I have to work all day and then go to work early the next morning, but I'm sure we'll still have fun.
Then Saturday is my housewarming party! I'm going to try to get out of work around 2 so that I can actually get set up for that and all. Then work at 7am on Sunday. :'( I really hope it all works out OK this weekend, because it's a lot of stuff to cram into 48 hours.

Anyway, that's what's been going on here lately. Insanely busy!

I'm Gonna Make It After Aaaallll!

According to my sister, I'm like Mary Tyler Moore.

I started my new job this morning, but not without a bunch of ridiculousness first. I woke up in time to see the sunrise, which was weird, and was about to leave when my toilet started pouring water out of the tank. (When I was at work, the maintenance people came and fixed it, but there was still water everywhere.)

I eventually made it to work. The Boss introduced me to everyone around the lab (including one Purdue grad who I actually had met before through mutual friends), and they all seem really nice. I had to go over to Methodist to get my ID, parking pass, etc. I got an impromptu little tour of the hospital, which is so big that the hallways have street names and there are multiple buildings. The rest of the day I spent getting through forms and SOPs, taking a little break to have lunch with another new lab assistant, Gina.
So far I really like it. I'm getting a lot of hours, everyone's been really nice, and nothing beats working in a hospital setting. I'm addicted to it. And I get to wear scrubs, which is still new enough to me that it makes me feel happy.

Yay!


Now I just need a hat that I can throw joyfully into the sky while twirling around Monument Circle.

More Awesomeness!

This past 24 hours has been great!

Crystal, my dear friend since the days of yore (May 7, when anatomy started and we happened to sit next to each other....) needed a place to stay for the night since her apartment lease is up, so I told her she could stay at mine. We went to Bourbon Street Distillery for dinner and had some delicious salads while being extremely nerdy and whipping out study guides in the middle of the loud restaurant.

After dinner, we resisted the extremely strong urge to drive to Cheesecake Factory ($1.50/slice cheesecake yesterday!!! wtf?!?!), and instead opted for Dunkin' Donuts down the street (closer, and also delicious). We brought our donuts back to my place and started the marathon studying...of course taking a break somewhere around 11pm to watch some Grey's Anatomy DVD and eat the donuts. We got up pretty early this morning for even more studying (in between dozing off and getting ready to leave). So much learning.

We got to the exam pretty early, did some more cramming, and then finally took the damn thing. I was sort of nervous because, even though I'd studied a lot and had always done well in the past, sometimes you just never know what's going to be thrown at you and I needed to do well to keep my A in the class.

Well.... I DID!!

Anatomy = *OWNED*, Physiology = *OWNED*, IUPUI GPA so far = 4.0

After the exam, Crystal, Maresa, Heather, and I went to PF Chang's for lunch. Even just walking through the mall to get to the restaurant was fun...we were all in such good moods after finally finishing both classes over the past two months.
The food was delicious, of course, and we even got some of those cute little $2 dessert cups (highly recommended). After lunch, we walked back through the mall and very actively resisted buying things, and then went to check our grades on campus.

After saying goodbye to my three favorite classmates, I met up with Vicki! We hung out at my place, then strolled Mass Ave for a while. I finally went into Silver In The City and Luna Music, two places that I will definitely be returning to. I love that I live just down the street from all that. Then, we went back to my place and listened to a tape (yes, like a cassette tape) of the two of us from freshman year in high school. We're talking 8 years ago. Back then, we went on a kick where we'd take this little tape recorder with us sometimes when we'd hang out at each other's houses or once when we went to school. We were very...um....interesting....young women. We couldn't really understand all of what we were saying, but our lives back then seemed to consist mostly of lauging with a lot of loud, high pitched talking and Offspring/Sublime/random semi-popular music of the day playing in the background.

After we'd exhausted the entertainment we could get from the tape (which, by the way, used to be an educational Spanish tape from elementary school), she went back to the land of Carmel and I ended up here, in the computer room of my apartment complex, finally getting connected to the internet again.

Ya know, even though it's sometimes (OK, usually) annoying that I don't have a regular (not to mention secure) internet connection in my apartment, it's sort of nice to have to do other things instead of being attached to my computer. I think I'll go a little longer without ordering cable and see what happens.

Tomorrow I'm off to WL to clean out my apartment for the last time (not really excited about all of the cleaning), turn in the keys, and then I'm officially moved out of WL and Purdue for good. Sort of a weird feeling since I've lived there for the past four years, but it's the way life goes, I guess.

And life....is awesome. I love it. I have a healthcare job, got A's in both of my summer classes, awesome family and friends, great new apartment in a wonderful city, I've been going out a lot lately, and meeting more new people all of the time.

Awesomeness!!

I GOT A JOB! :D

I'm now a lab assistant at the blood bank, serving three of the biggest and best known hospitals in the state. Good times!!

In related news, I got an email from an awesome professor in nursing who's been helping me out and I might have another job and volunteer opportunity with the nursing school. That will DEFINITELY be awesome, too! The nursing school here is my top priority, so getting a chance to work there would be the best.

Lots of jeorbs!

It's so nice to be able to have an income again!

I'm excited!! :)

In other news, things have been going GREAT here. I love this city and my life here. My apartment is almost all done and, after finally getting my bed and couch last weekend, it's been a lot of fun decorating and getting ideas of what to do.

Indy is such a great city because there are so many places to go and things to do on any given day. If something's not going on, then there's always a new restaurant or something to check out. I have a growing list of places both here and in Broad Ripple that I've heard of and want to try out, and have been checking things off lately. Not to mention how awesome it is that I can walk to so many places.

I've also been meeting and hanging out with so many new people over these past couple of weeks. I'm learning not to pass up any opportunity where I could possibly meet people, even if it doesn't seem logical that I'd talk to or become friends with anyone there, because you can meet people just about anywhere. I've even met people at the Starbucks near campus and the study rooms at my apartment complex. It's great.

School is going well, too. Only one week left of summer classes and I'm hoping to escape the summer sessions with a 4.0. Today's exam didn't go as well as I'd hoped it would, but I still have a pretty good chance for an A in the class so all is not lost.
After classes are over, I've got a couple of weeks without class, so I'll be working and housesitting in Carmel (more money!). Hopefully I'll hear from the nursing school soon and be doing that, too. AND if I have time, some more Red Cross stuff.

My life is an exciting adventure.

Not Grumpy Anymore!!

The job search is finlly paying off!!!

:D

Tired

Wow, it's been a week since I last posted!

It's been a really busy week! Last weekend, I mostly studied for my Monday exam. My dad came up on Sunday to put together some of the IKEA furniture (I have lamps and a table with chairs now!!).

I also spent a good amount of time this week getting to know some more about the area. I've been up and down Mass Ave a few times with some new friends, stopping in some of the shops there. They have a lot of little random, artsy places (and a Starbucks). One interesting little store, Global Gifts, has exclusively free trade stuff and everyone who works there is a volunteer. Best Chocolate In Town is a tiny place that has some really weird but amazing truffles. And there's also a toy store I went into that's a lot of fun.
This morning after my interview, I went over to the new Dunkin' Donuts on Penn & Washington. Thank God for that place. While on that trip, I also tried to further understand downtown parking. So far, I think it's best to just drive around the block a few times to see if there's a spot open until you get annoyed enough to park in the mall garages.

There are of course about a million places on my list of things I still want to try here.

In other news, I had that job interview this morning. I can't tell how it went, which is bothering me. I was interviewed by three people (two interviewed me together). Sometimes I thought they liked me, but sometimes I wasn't sure what they were thinking. Maybe that's how they do things, though. Every other time I've been up for a position, it's been with a place small enough to be able to tell me yes or no right away. I don't know how common that is, though.
I dunno, I'm hoping for the best but the ambiguity of it put me in sort of a bad mood. So now I'm grumpy.

Plus tired, since last night I was out at the concert at White River. Sam and Laura came down from WL and my sister came to visit. Parking was crazy because of everything that's going on here this week, so yay for my IUPUI parking pass. Anne and I went to Buca for dinner before the show (AMAZING chocolate cake. Amazing.), then we met up with Sam and Laura at the park. It was a good time. :) But not a lot of sleep since I had to wake up early this morning.

So yeah, I'm grumpy right now. :

Another thing I've noticed about not having cable is that there's a crazy amount of those cheesy judge shows on TV. Is the market really that big that they need 3+ of them?

Anyway, time for a nap.

Jeorb?!

I have a job interview next week!!

It's not the same job I've been talking about, but is still a very awesome one.

I may soon be employed once again! YAY!

I Found The Internet (For Now)!

So, I'm officially a resident of downtown Indianapolis!

The suburbs are for squares. ;)

I spent pretty much the entire weekend moving stuff back and forth from Carmel to here, with my parents' help. We got most of the small stuff moved in, except of course for those things that you only remember when you realize you need it.

Last night I piled up the car again and drove down here for my first night here. I couldn't find any wireless connections (I don't have cable/internet yet) and I am just barely hanging onto a signal right now.

One thing I've learned about myself is that I can't live without the internet for too long.

But this apartment is beautiful! I know it's going to look even better when I get it all set up and decorated. The view is the best, especially at night. I can see the lights from the hospitals and watch the LifeLine helicopters flying overhead.

Picture time!:

The picture doesn't really do it justice, but this is sundown over some of the view.

Trying to get a picture of the lights outside at night.

Nighttime lights. Again, doesn't do it justice. You guys are just going to have to come see for yourselves! :)

This morning, it was great to wake up at the same time I've always been, but to get an extra hour that I don't have to spend commuting. 5 minute drive to campus!!

So I love this place.

Aside from that, the job search is still going on. I'm still hoping that all works out. Hoping...a lot.

Other than that, things have been ok. Sort of lonely, but I guess that's how it goes sometimes. Just gotta stay positive that everything else will fall into place.

Technically, It's Thursday

Class was relatively painless today, although I'm pretty sure I drove around every street that is remotely near campus trying to find the elusive third bookstore where my lab manual was hiding.

I think I gave a lot of people road rage today.

I'm still job searching like it's my....job....
I've become increasingly aware that I not only want, but more like need a hospital job here. I just keep thinking about how good last summer was for me up at the hospitals in Lafayette, and I know I need that sort of thing again here for several reasons, not the least of which is to get my mind off of less fun things.

In other news, I came up with some good ideas for the new place today. I think it's not going to take much for it to be a really great looking place. I'm excited to start the redecorating process. :)

In more news, I found a new favorite non-alcoholic beverage - white hot chocolate from the Caribou Coffee in the campus center. Delicious!! I don't even care that it's summer, I'm going to drink it anyway. It's amazing.

Lazy Sunday

Ahh, second post of the day. Well, like the title says, I've been pretty lazy today.

Rohit left to get back to Cleveland this morning. It was nice to have him here for the weekend. I wonder when I'll get to see him and my other out of state/country friends again, since we're all moving on pretty soon. At least there's always Facebook. :)

Other than that, I haven't done too much. Sat around outside, chatted with my parents, showered.....nothing that could really be considered productive. I might actually get so bored that I start studying. It's just as well, though, considering I have those two final exams on Wednesday. Then no class on Thursday and anatomy is OVER! Onto the next class on Monday, though.

I got a call from the Red Cross today. Apparently they need nurses and EMTs to go around with their case workers and sort of translate some of the medical lingo and take care of basic medical-related needs. It sounds pretty interesting, so I'm going to stop by sometime this week and take care of the paperwork. Unfortunately, it's not a paid position, which I am still slightly desperately looking for. I just need to be making some more money, and preferably as soon as possible. I've applied so many places already....hopefully at least one of them will work out! I'm also planning on stopping by Riley and University Hospitals after class this week to talk with them. I think that would probably be the best possible place I could work, plus I know I'd really like it. But anyway, like I've said, we'll see.

OK, on to try to be somewhat productive....let's see if I'll end up with a third post of the day or not. :P

Should've Brought The Camera....

Even though all I really do is eat, sleep, go to class, and study Monday-Thursday, having that 3 day weekend every week really makes it all not so bad. :)

Friday I spent the afternoon at home, and around 7pm (just 2.5 hours late! but due to some crazy traffic) Rohit arrived from the far away land of Cleveland! We had dinner at Mudsocks Grill, a nice little local place just a couple of minutes from my parents' house.
After that, we went to The Cheesecake Factory for (what else??) cheesecake. As always, it was Amazing. God, I love that cheesecake. I really don't care how "unhealthy" it is. Something that good can't be entirely unhealthy. It's at least emotionally/psychologically healthy due to the happiness it brings me. But I digress.
After the cheesecake, we went to Blu Martini (no idea why the word "blu" is so popular at Indianapolis establishments....). I'd never been before but I heard it was a pretty good place. We both liked the atmosphere....Rohit said it reminded him of one of those martini bars you see on TV....but the crowd was a little odd; there were a lot of people in their 20s/30s, but then the addition of a noticeable amount of people who were probably too old to be in a place like that. Like guys with gray hair sitting by themselves, watching who knows who. Sorta weird. But other than that, seems like a place to go with a group of friends if you don't feel like driving out to Broad Ripple or downtown. Could do better in terms of a regular hangout or something though.

Saturday (today, but technically yesterday) we drove to downtown. It was definitely a day of street fairs in the area. In Carmel, they had the Artomobilia on Main Street, which seemed pretty cool although we didn't stop by. Downtown, there was the Talbot St. Art Fair, Italian Fest, the Pride Festival, and the Jazz Fest (lots of fests....).
I showed Rohit around campus a bit and then we walked along the canal for a while. Unfortunately those paddle boats you can rent are like $20 each and we were sort of hungry, so after some more walking around we got some food at a cafe and ate outside to the sounds of the bands warming up at the Jazz Fest not too far away. Perfect weather today!!
After that, we went to the mall and met up with Tripti for the whole reason for the weekend....the Sex and the City movie! :P (It's a long running joke for those of you who don't know...) The movie was....well, it was a Sex and the City movie....it's like the show, only longer. I liked it for what it was. :)
After the movie, we went to Rock Bottom for dinner and then walked around the city some more and I showed them my new building and neighborhood area.
Then Rohit and I went back to my parents' place to play Wii and watch Scrubs. :D

So, it's been a really fun and busy weekend. It's not over yet, but basically the rest of it is going to be spent studying for my final exams in anatomy on Wednesday! Two in one day! There just might be another Thursday night repeat after that....

On the job front, I'm hoping and praying to get something in a hospital soon. We'll see how things pan out!

Hope everyone else is having a nice weekend as well. Leave some comments so I know you stopped by! :)