First Week of School

I've finished the first week of classes and so far, it's close to expectations. I can see that I'm going to get to know this corner of the UT campus very, very well. And it is a corner (southeast) - the nursing building is pretty new, right across from the Erwin Center (pic below). There's a nice parking garage behind it, convenient but pricey. So different from when I was a student. UT seems to have invested quite a bit in parking garages in the intervening 30 years -- well, just in buildings, period. I haven't been to palatial Gregory Gym yet, but I hear it's better than Lake Austin Spa.

I actually spent a lot of time in the basement of Gregory back in the 1980's. I was just learning how to lift weights and they had a decent weight room and a pool. But I'd never call it palatial - I think some of us called it dirty. It was. The summer that Shawna came to Austin & we lived together (1983), we would routinely walk from our little west campus apartment over to Gregory, lift weights together then hit the pool. I can remember vividly that we were singing together some of the songs off The Police's Synchronicity album as we walked some days. When I went to get my official UT ID card, I actually parked on the spot where our apartment used to be (yep, it's a parking garage now), walked along the drag, then crossed over to the Academic Center and stood in line with 18 year olds to get my card. And the ID looks awful (but my school of nursing ID looks great - and that's one I'll wear every day in clinicals). It was an intense deja vu experience - I had not repeated that walk, one I did countless times, since 1984 when I first graduated. I expect to feel that way again.

My Advanced Pathophysiology class is the hard one. Some say it's the very hardest class of the entire 2 years. I am taking it pass/fail, but it's still going to require lots of study. I feel a bit disadvantaged in that I've only been a nurse for 4 years, and then pretty much out of the med/surg milieu for over a year, but wah, wah! -- some people haven't been in school in decades and some folks (the "Alternate Entry" students, accelerated second-degree) haven't even practiced as nurses yet. So I'm not feeling sorry for myself. I liked the professor, she displayed a little humor and personality and seems to be smart. I just hope her test questions are fair. Yes, I know that's an entirely subjective evaluation, but I found in the first go-round of nursing school that was a critical item. Is your purpose to see if we can apply knowledge or just to show how tricky and clever you think you are? Anyway, I'll find out in a couple of weeks. And typical of a nursing class, the assigned readings for the first day included 5 chapters and some extra pages beyond that, too. And there were 5 powerpoints to go with them, but she only covered two of them. We just have to know the other three. Good thing I like to read. And yes, about diseases, especially gross ones. You should see some of the pictures in this book.

The other two classes feel more do-able. One class is really a two-fer, it's Advanced Health Assessment with a large clinical component. I'll be doing 4 hours of lab and 4 hours of clinical per week for that class, and have separate written work for the labs. But this is so cool - I got my 3/4 length white lab coat. I feel soooo much like an APN now (Advanced Practice Nurse). In healthcare, only docs and APN's wear this distinguished looking lab coat. I was fearing they would expect us to wear scrubs to clinical - something I really don't like - but no, we get to wear the lab coat over "professional dress". This will be a time-consuming, important class that basically teaches us to take in a patient off the street, perform a thorough history and exam and then do a differential diagnosis. Now think about that. People come in with a wide mix of issues - and even though I'll be a psych nurse, they will present with medical as well as psych problems. I have to parse those out and refer them to another provider when it's necessary. And it's my decision about whether it's necessary (& I can hear the other nurses chime in....."and it's your license on the line").

The last class is Intro Psychosocial Nursing, focusing on cultural diversity. It will be interesting, certainly a topic I've been exposed to before, and I don't expect this class to kill me. A gift from the professor - we don't have a textbook. She posts PDF's of articles for us to read for each week. Also, she's a New Yorker. I could listen to her all day, just reminds me fondly of Jersey.

Something cool that coincided with the first week of class was Austin Fashion Week. Dani and I were invited to a show at Anthropologie and it was really pretty neat. We saw about 20 new outfits on the models and then we were let loose to shop. I liked that they used "real" models -- many of them were saleswomen from the store. It's easier to judge how something will really look when a woman is not a size 00. Dani bought some J Brand jeans that she has decided she is in love with. They served cookies and champagne. And yes, we're decked out head to toe in Anthro, even bought our purses and shoes there. See why we were invited? ha.

Dallas Weekend

We spent the weekend in Dallas. Saturday night we saw Death Cab for Cutie and it was excellent. The band sounded so good. Our seats weren't the best, but they were close to the exit and we were able to get out of there quickly -- basically get back to the hotel in 15 minutes -- so it was worth it. Especially when it's after 11:00 and waaaaaaay past my bedtime. They opened with "I Will Possess Your Heart" -- one of my favorites and it was all good from that point on. Some other high points were "Kath" and "Soul Meets Body" (of course). I really wanted to hear Marching Bands of Manhattan - that's my favorite song of theirs - but no dice. They did play a lot from Narrow Stairs, one of my favorite albums. The opening act wasn't bad either, silly name: Frightened Rabbit. And yes, we were some of the real oldies there - their audience is quite a bit younger than the band - every concert of theirs may not be like that, could be it's just the proximity of UT-Arlington to the venue. But hey, I'd rather be mentally younger than older. You won't see me at a Crosby, Stills and Nash revival. Although, I must say that some of the rock acts from the 1960's are really timeless. I mean, who wouldn't have wanted to see the Beatles or the Stones back then?

On Sunday, we went to the Kimbell museum. They have a Picasso and Braque exhibit on their collaboration and creation of cubism in about 1910 and I was impressed with it. Well put-together and informative. They displayed lots of prints first and then a separate room of oils. It was a nice way to do it, like the warm-up and then the full flowering. I learned a lot more about the artists and about cubism. One of the sad things to me was that Braque sustained a severe head wound in WWI after all this creativity and he was never the same again, as an artist or a man. Fits with my experience of head-wound patients, it's one of the things that you basically never want to see happen.

I hadn't been to the Kimbell in about 30 years and this was interesting: I had one of those childhood-remembrance things. It was so much smaller than I remembered. The last time I was there, I went with a college boyfriend who was (& I hope still is) an artist and I was seeing it through his eyes and under his tutelage. The gorgeous lighting is still there; they have such an impressive, innovative system of natural lighting though out the entire gallery. Here's a shot of how that system looks up on the ceiling. But it certainly was quite different than all my memories.

We saw the strangest mix of the sacred and profane on the billboards between Austin and Dallas. There was one that said "Suicidal? Call Jesus." With no phone number; helpful. And then one with a big busty gal in a bikini advertising truck alignment. Hmmm, wonder if she's crawling under the rigs in that get-up. A big picture of Obama with the word "Socialist" in huge red letters. And then the weirdest one of all....a nervous-looking sweating cucumber, big words that said Stop Vegetable Abuse and in much smaller letters at the bottom, a recommendation to use condoms. Um......OK there.....message received. I still can't quite believe I really saw that last one, but Ken saw it too. Really. I'm not kidding. No, really, I mean it.

Two other things I'll mention quickly and certainly elaborate on in subsequent posts. We got a new kitten to keep Gary company. We got her at the Town Lake Animal Shelter and she is 3 months old. We've named her Mrs. Crabs (goes with Gary - get it?) but we call her Crabby. She is the opposite of that name however - super affectionate and sweet, basically Gary's opposite. So far they are getting along well.

The tone of this blog will change in the next week. I am going back to school to become a psychiatric nurse practitioner and it's going to be a really interesting two years. I'm returning to my alma mater almost exactly 30 years later and what could be more interesting than psych...I mean you should see some of the names of the classes I'll be taking...well, you will because I will certainly be talking about them. I'm not changing my blog's name, but the focus will definitely be different. So dear reader, you are forewarned.

Way Cool and Way Hot

I had an absolutely great three days. I went to Cathe Friedrich's shrine in Glassboro, NJ (my workout guru -- I've been doing her home exercise DVDs since 1999) for her annual road trip weekend and then on Monday I received word that I have been accepted into graduate school. I'll be going to the "the university" as they say here in Texas (UT) to become an FPMHNP. What a mouthful. That stands for Family Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner. It's an advanced practice nurse that works with a psychiatrist but performs many of the same functions that the doctor does - I will assess patients, manage their treatment, do brief therapy, and (ta dah)....I have prescriptive power. The psychiatrist I work with may want a pretty close working relationship where he/she is involved in a lot of decisions or it may be very hands-off -- just a resource that I use when needed. Well, I couldn't be more excited. Yes, and very scared. It's a two year program, very intense, many clinical hours. But I love this field - it's truly my life's work - and I'm ready. I realized I'm going back to UT almost exactly 30 years after I was first there and got my business degree -- is that weird or what? How many people can say that? And ...gulp.... I start August 24th. Yes, in 3 weeks. WOW.



The Cathe trip was actually a tad disappointing. She had just finished filming a new series and I could tell she was fatigued. She skipped some of the interactions that usually took place and all the events started late. Now, if you know me, that's a pet peeve of mine. Standing in the workout room under those big-ass fans, shivering for ten minutes or more just wasn't fun. I also took time to talk to Chris, her business manager, like I do every year and he sounded tired as well. I asked what were the next road trips planned (she did one in Texas last October) and he basically said none....they're too darned expensive. And I asked what was next for productions and his response was "oh, nothing special, more of the same". Not what he usually says. Anyway, it's all OK - I've bought every series she's made since 1999 and don't plan to stop that -- she's absolutely the gold standard of home workout queens. Maybe too, I'm just jaded. This is my sixth road trip, after all. But Cathe still inspires me and I greatly admire her. She's so warm & real, a true anti-diva. Here's a pic of us together.



The kids are happy and having a good summer. Nile is the camping fool. He's done sculpture, ceramics and dog camp (2 weeks with the dog). Karate camp is next week. Whew. Dani is back from New York and is out with her friends or with my parents, it seems like all the time (which is fine -- she is 17, after all). Last night she went to the Kesha concert. She said, "goodness what can I wear?" I looked at her like she had three heads....I mean, we shop together at Anthro and you could arguably say that we both have a clothes-buying problem. I mean, her closet is full. Ah, but I'm such an old lady....apparently one must dress just like Kesha to attend her concert. And Kesha dresses rather, um, interestingly. Let me give you idea -- here's how they looked at they left (ha). You can't see her nails but they alone took an hour to do -- three different ghetto-fab colors with the crackle effect. It did look pretty cool, I must admit. Dani is such a girly-girl, she loves that stuff. Hmmmm, wonder where that came from?





And next weekend, Ken and I go see Death Cab for Cutie in Dallas. I'm really excited about that. Their video You Are a Tourist is nominated for an MTV award this year. A lot of their songs really speak to me, I think it's the existentialist thing. It was interesting to hear them explain where that comes from on "Storytellers" on VH1 (a great show, BTW, and yes it's still around after all these years) -- it's from Catholic school. Yes, even when one grows up and learns to reject dogma and superstition, there are remnants. And interesting ones, too. Who'd have thunk it? We're going to stay in Dallas an extra day and visit the Kimbell. I haven't been there since the 80's -- which is kind of embarrassing. I think it has the best natural lighting display of artwork that I've ever seen. And this hot, bright Texas sun should really be good for that now. Good lord, I like it hot but 107? I was out in that heat and it just takes your breath away. But you know what's good about that -- pretty soon I can wear shorts and flip-flops every single day! Cause I'm a student! HA!