One of those days..

I guess it's just been one of those days....

interpret it however you want, as long as Im not fat!

Hair

Crazy post, I know, but it's been something I have thought about recently. Several times, I have thought about what to do differently with my long hair and all its kinky, frizzy, sometimes curly texture! I mean, some things have changed a little bit... but not enough to be satisfied.

I guess I just get bored having hair put back in a braid day in and day out... and it takes too long to straighten it most days. I pretty much never wear it down, but wouldnt mind starting to more. It's just that working everyday, on the go the whole shift, leaves my hair getting in the way, even if pulled back. Maybe I'm just too picky, or maybe there are some other issues I need to get over with...

I hate barretts holding my upper portion of my hair due to strands breaking off, but I like a little part on my left side, twists seem too much for an everyday look, and french braids.. well for years growing up, thats how things were. I'm done with that look too! Yea, its a useless topic with me... one that I'll always struggle with.

It's called "Albany Aqua Ducks....."

Such a gorgorous day to spend in Albany touring the city and learning about the history of different places. I've wanted to do this for some time, but just hadn't found the right time. Suprisingly, I learned and saw things I've never seen or knew before... even after living here my whole life. I know... sad! It's better to learn something new everyday, than to not though!

So.. anyways...We had a tour guide for the city. At the beginning, we were all handed duck calls to use during the trip, either to Quack at people on the streets, to "quack" down something stupid the guide said or that wasn't true... to see if we were on our toes or not, etc. I decided just to hang on to mine.... and let everyone else do the quacking. I meant to snap a pic of the green duck calls.. but forgot.

Here's our ride for the streets.....

...... and also our ride in the Hudson River.....

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Another fun activity.

ADK

Adirondack 46ers...

I'm not one yet, but my goal is to become one years down the road.

It is hiking season for me once again this year. I had been planning and looking forward to this trip for some time now. One of my main purchases for this trip was to own some of my very own hiking boots, after last year's experience. I realized very quickly that you can't go in snickers, and don't know how I came back from that trip without a sprained ankle or something. Anyways.. God is good.. and kept us safe.

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There are 46 high peaks in the Adirondacks that people hike! These mountains are very challenging and tiresome, especially if you are out of shape. Believe me, you don't have to hike for very long to find out if you are in shape or not. =) Last year's hike was a living nightmare, to say the least. At that time, I hadn't started my membership at the gym yet. It wasn't until I had this experience that a gym membership was absolutley necessary. I was bound and determined that my next experience would be more enjoyable.

(This is a closeup of Dix Mountain. )

Dix Mountain is the sixth highest peak in the High Peaks of the Adirondack Mountains at 4,840 ft and 13.2 miles in length. My best friend & I started early in the morning enjoying the cool breeze. I was pumped as we started out down the path with our far away goal in mind. I had already noticed a big difference in my physical condition, so much that I wasn't stopping to catch my breath. During the first 3-5 miles of our trip, the path was pretty much mud/water with many rocks to step on. Along the way we'd come to these interesting bridges that crossed these creeks/rivers. Some of them were a bit unsteady to say the least.

The bugs were definitely out. We fought them for awhile until we gave in with some "OFF" bug spray. Continuing on...There were several locations (3 maybe) where shelters were located that we'd stop at for a little break and snack. We came to one where people had left their belongings under tarp until their return that night. For lunch, we ate at one of them... setting up the little heating device we had to cook our food. We brought several snacks along-fruit, protein bars, trail mix (2 kinds) crackers etc. which was a very good thing because for the main course of the meal, we had prepackaged hiking meals where all you have to do is heat water and pour it into this bag of food, let it soften, then devour. Needless to say, we tried a brand new kind.. and we did all we could to get it down.... so then we decided to feed the fish... shhhh!
After lunch, we needed to make some good time since we spent more time than planned for lunch. The problem was... from there on, it was an upward climb. I still felt pumped physically. It didnt take too long aftwards though for me to start to feel worn! It was ok though. I hadn't complained until that point... so was very proud of myself as this was several hours into the trip.

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Ahead of us... continued to be an upward climb... then flatten out for a short distance.. and upward again. Peering through the trees, once we felt we were at a decent elevation, we'd stop to enjoy the scenery a bit. What a gorgorous view every step we took. The problem was, I'd also be looking for the top, and when I thought I had a glimpse of the top... it became discouarging at times knowing how much farther we had to go. Getting to the top is such a reward though. Such breath taking views that dont even compare to how pictures portray them! You have to be there yourself to understand.

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About 3/4 the way up, we entered a zone that had flowers/creatures in which we were strickly instructed(by a sign) not to touch, pick, step on etc... because of the rarety(sp?) of them. This was a random picture on that path.

Here is just a slight glimpse of rock that we climbed heading up the mountain. There were times in which I did all I could to force myself to go up it, holding on to branches of nearby shrub/ trees. This here was also where I noticed a big difference from last time having my hiking boots. I was able to rely on the grip they gave.

Here is some more rock along the way....

Below are some scenic pics taken during our little breaks, and then some once we arrived on top. Im not sure which ones are which.

HORRAY!!! We found the marker on the summit that proves we made it to the top! What a wonderful feeling. Mind you, this is now 6pm when we arrived after starting 9 something that morning. Now the trick was to make REAL good time and get out before dark. One of our previous hikes, we managed to by dusk.. but wasn't so lucky this time. Flashlights were pulled out... as we made our way through the woods. Luckily, we had at least made it back to more flat paths rather than still trying to get down the rock. By this point, I was burnt out, exhausted beyond words... and just didnt want to do it anymore for that night. The path continued on and on and on......... The darker it got, the less we were able to see (obviously), which ultimately made the trip seem even longer yet. All the while, we were looking for our path marker signs to tell us how many more miles we had to go... YES MILES. Pitch dark, and still had MILES... like 3.8 miles.

There was no cell phone coverage to make a call home... so we just had to continue to walk. All I wanted to see was the car... thats all I wanted. One of the flashlights used... kinda bit the dust.. so we were down to 2 for the rest of the time. If Im honest, I was a bit worried, not about being in the dark WITH flashlights, but in the dark WITHOUT them. I found myself several times whispering prayers about asking God to continue to give us the light we needed to get out safe.

This is a picture of the summit I believe looking back, before heading on down.

So, anyways... I'll spare you anymore details... and sum it all up by saying... we exited the woods at 11:30pm that night, safe! Overall, what a much better experience we had. I'm already looking forward to conquering another one possibly before the summer is over.

Nursing Comics etc.

Ive just come through one of the worst times ever in my nursing history, so the nursing topic seems to have been forfront on my mind today. I thought I would try to look at it from a different perspective- a lighter note/brighter side... and came across these little comics that I thought I would share=)

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You KNOW you are a nurse when.......

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You believe that all bleeding stops ... eventually.

You find humor in other people's stupidity.

Your idea of fine dining is anywhere you can sit down to eat.

You get an almost irresistible urge to stand and wolf your food even in the nicest restaurants.

Your diet consists of food that has gone through more processing than most computers.

You believe chocolate is a food group.

You have the bladder capacity of five people.
You disbelieve 90% of what you are told and 75% of what you see.
You have your weekends off planned for a year in advance.
You encourage an obnoxious patient to sign a self discharge form so you don't have to deal with them any longer.
You believe that "shallow gene pool" should be a recognized diagnosis.
You believe that unspeakable evils will befall anyone who utters the phrase "Wow, it's really quiet isn't it".
You threaten to strangle anyone who even starts to say the "q" word when it is even remotely calm.
You say to yourself "great veins" when looking at complete strangers at the grocery store.
You have ever referred to someone's death as a transfer to the "Eternal Care Unit".
You have ever had a patient look you straight in the eye and say "I have no idea how that got stuck in there".
You have ever had to leave a patient's room before you begin to laugh uncontrollably.
Your favorite hallucinogen is exhaustion.
You think that caffeine should be available in I/V form.
You believe the waiting room should be equipped with a Valium fountain.
You play poker by betting ectopics on ECG strips.

You believe that waiting room time should be proportional to length of time from symptom onset.
Your most common assessment question is "what changed tonight to make it an emergency after 6 hours / days / weeks / months / years)?".
You have ever had a patient control his seizures when offered some food.

You shock someone with an unrecognizable rhythm ... until you get one you DO recognize.
You have ever referred to someone's death as a 'transfer to part 3 accomodation'.
You call subcutaneous emphysema "Rice Krispies".

The Mobile Home... =)

Conference is always a time in which I enjoy being at, mainly for the reason of seeing friends that live far enough away that I'm doing good seeing them once a year, if that. This is why cell phones are such a blessing=) Anyways, due to starting my full time position within the past month, I was not planning on being at conference, figuring I wouldn't get lucky enough for it to land on my 1 day off in a given week. To my suprise, I had tuesday off, which of course is the MAIN day of conference.
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After working the night before, I didnt get around to getting over there til about noon. This was fine though. Ginny's family, Nevells and myself.. grabbed some lunch out, and then wasted a bunch of time trying to plan our day. It was as if... one person was to make all the decisions.. but there wasn't one person that wanted to do this, so we went back to camp to see what was going on, sat in conference and listened to the voting for a while... while it stormed out. Boy, did it downpour! After the rain stopped for a bit, we decided to wander around the grounds... and found this.... by the dining hall. I had to smile....

"MYERS RETIREMENT MOBILE HOME"

This is their motor car...and behind it is their sidewalk of toilet paper

At present, my Grandparents have retired as "Conference President" and are to be moving soon, but havent found a place that suites their fancy yet. The young people took it upon themselves to help them out a little bit. At break time, they both came walking though... and smiled at everyones creativity. So.... if nothing else, they have a place to live. HAHAHA!!

Laser Tag

A group from Rockwood & Schenecaty (mainly) had made plans to go play laser tag after dinner. Some planned on heading over about 6pm, while some of us wanted to go out for dinner first, so we decided to meet at 7pm. Trying to come up with a place everyone was in agreeance with to eat at was very hard to say the least!!! Some of us wanted a sit down restaurant, while others were a bit short on cash, so in the end we ended up grabbing fast food...to balance things out. By the time we had decided, too much time had passed to really relax & enjoy a sit down place to eat at.

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At dinner, Bethany was suppose to meet up with Ginny & myself (along with EVERYONE else), but didnt, then were suppose to play this tag. I have never played laser tag before in my life, but have been curious as to what it was all about for some time now. Ginny was having some dizzy spells at the time (which get worse in darkness) and Bethany just didnt show up and went shopping instead. When I do something for the first time, I need/want people to be there and go through it with me. Needless to say, my support wasn't there. Yes, there were plenty of people there - church people, but still.... most everyone else had played before & that wasn't a comforting thought to me.

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Overall, I absolutely loved playing!!! It took me a bit to figure out exactly when I was hitting someone vs. not and someone hitting me, but when the time came for the game to end.. I wasn't ready for it to. It definitely was an experience... and enjoyed every moment.

*****

*I was the terminator*

Miniature Golfing 1

This is just one of the MANY teams that played a Miniature golf game on tuesday evening. As you can see, this was my team! I love miniature golfing, even though most times I absolutley stink at it. I've learned that in order to have fun, sometimes you just have to laugh at yourself. =)

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Our team was the last to make it through the course, obviously due to starting last. As the night grew on, one of the employees came over to ask if we were planning on riding the go carts. Personally, I thought he hoped we werent, so he could close that part down, as it was after 10pm. Us girls took our time.... I would have loved to ride the carts, as others from the big group had, but by the time we finished our game... it really would have been pushing it.. and I felt like they were just staying open because of our group.

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Soooo... I was the winner of our wonderful game that night.

(Bethany, Me, Ginny & her youngest sister Ashley)

Waiting their turns....
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Miniature Golf 2

Ash had decided not to play Miniature golf, and had her heart set on the go carts! While she waited for everyone to finish, she decided to be a score keeper. Of course, not for my team!

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This was a new teammate that decided to join us for part of a game!
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VGC1

VGC

*****

Presently, camp is in session, and it doesn't seem possible that it's almost over with either. Not that I've been there much.. but thats besides the point. Today was my only day off, so I thought I better spend a little time over on the grounds. I met up with different friends, one of which just had her 3rd baby. Somehow I never got a shot of the little one, but have a few of their other children!
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This is John & Trisha Mincer's oldest daughter, Sarah Lynn. I was made aware today that she has 3 baby dolls and that each of their names are Aimee! You ask.. "What's this baby's name ( as you point) and she says..Aimee. What about this one here.. Aimee too, and this one? Aimee too!
She's such a cutie! Children's talk always intrigues me! =)
Get this.... Katie, on the right is Sarah's Aunt! You dont see that too

often, now do you?

This is Trish and her middle daughter, Jessica Elizabeth( the tomboy!)
Camp isn't camp without it's famous mud puddles.. and here, Jessica has found them!