..nearly 4 years, to be exact.  4 years since I was last here, 4 years since I blogged here. Some things have changed, some have stayed the same.  I'm still married.  I still have 3 kids.  One just finished her freshman year of college, one is in the juvenile detention facility, and one is in high school and struggling to NOT follow in his brother's footsteps. I live in Kansas now.  I'm somewhat of a local celebrity because I'm renovating a 19t...

Wow. Just wow. I go away from JU for a while and when I come back to visit I find that JU has totally changed.  Most of the bloggers from my heyday (2004-2007-ish) have gone, and some of those that remain seem to have lost their shine and allure.  It seems that the most prolific bloggers are rabid right-wing nutjobs christian conservatives who, if they had their way, would make their faith the state sanctioned one and don't have tolerance for anyone who is different. What the heck...

I was fresh out of school with a brand new registry card sitting proudly in my wallet when I went on this call. It's a difficult thing for me to write about, so please forgive me if this is fractured...and if you have questions, please ask them. This is cheaper than therapy. She said she was 20 weeks pregnant, but she hadn't had any pre-natal care except for a positive pregnancy test. This was baby number 5 for her....and at the age of 22, she was swearing it was going to be her last. She ...

*Disclaimer: HIPAA prevents me from disclosing names and places.  Ergo, this istory s merely a conglomeration of events and calls.....or is it?  Names have been changed to protect the innocent and please the HIPAA gods* It's 2300-ish at night and we have been called to a private residence for a female with what we are told is 'altered mental status'.  That's a slightly alarming thing for us; it can mean anything from ETOH (alcohol) intoxication to drugs to a stroke to low blood...

Hey, y'all.  Long time no see.  Well, that's not entirely true; I've been coming here and seeing you, but I don't think that you've seen me.  I've been lurking; flitting about in the shadows and watching from afar. The more things change, the more they've stayed the same.  Some things are radically different, some not-so-much. I am: Back in Illinois Recovering from a shoulder reconstruction surgery Qualified as a medic. Going to the MEPS station this spring ...

I said I wasn't coming back, and, for a while, I meant it.  Today is the first day I've logged in and commented since the start of March.   It would have been my dad's 80th birthday on Wednesday.  I still miss him like crazy.  I want so much to pick up the phone and tell him how I'm doing.... School is over half way done.  I graduate on May 10th, and take the National and State exams on May 22nd, 2 days after mum arrives for her annual holiday (we're paying for ...

Blogging here just isn't fun for me anymore.  The new format seems to have turned a lot of good bloggers right off, and the only people left are computer geeks and hypochristians.  I've met some great people here, and I'll be in touch with them via email and IM.  I am not, however, going to be posting regularly - if at all - here at JU.  It's just not the same, and I don't care for it.   Goodbye.

[YES ] Are you a good problem solver? Yes.  I don't like to leave problems undone and will persevere until I find a solution for it; often using multiple resources and lots of time to do so. [yes ] Can you concentrate for long periods of time? Yeah!  Apparently, once I get stuck into something, I block out everything else and can stay that way for a long, long time.  One day I was home alone and got stuck into studying for finals and before I knew where I was it was 2pm an...

Apparently I've been a VERY good girl this year, because Santa left me lots of nice things under the tree, My husband collaborated with the Man in Red and they got me a Garmin.  It's going to be a huge benefit when I'm doing stuff for hospice; I won't have to rely on Mapquest or google maps to get me around.  The one I got is a portable one too, so I'll be able to carry it in my pocket should I want to wander around town. My babies got me some perfume and body lotion from the Gap...

I got my college transcript in the mail yesterday. My GPA last semester was a 4.0 . Yeah, I'm bragging.  Yeah, I'm stroking my own ego a little bit.  But you know what? I worked hard to get that score.  I went to school even when I was sick and did some things during clinicals that would have had most people running away screaming in order to get that score. I'm proud of it.  I'm so proud of it that I briefly considered framing it and hanging it on the living room wa...

My daughter is 15 now, meaning that she's eligible for a driver's permit from the state we currently reside in.  She's been talking about driving for a while now, even going so far as to tell her dad that she didn't want him to teach her how to drive because he yells too much and he'd freak her out. (he didn't like that much, btw). I decided that today would be the day to end the talking and start the driving.  When we stopped to check the mail at the communal mail box at the end of...

Things came to a head in my house last night.  The argument that had been brewing for months finally came to the fore of our conversation - heh, like it was anything close to a conversation.  We haven't talked in years. Apparently, his love for me is based on my doing what he wants, when he wants it, how he wants it.  It's like I'm some kind of pet; like I'm on the same level as Gracie.  As long as I do what he says, it's all good.  If I deviate...well, then there are...

The blues are lessening and I'm feeling better today than I have in many weeks.  I don't know if it's the medication; I think that it's too early for it to be that.  I think that it's more that I was forced to get out of the house on Friday and going to that party and mingling with people renewed my self-confidence.  D isn't exactly a sympathetic or even empathic man - actually, he's neither of those.   Some days remembering and thinking about my dad hurts and it brings ...