4/2/26

Today I woke up at 5:30 AM to get ready for my adult health clinical. I was still tired when I got up because I only got about five and a half hours of sleep, but I actually didn't wake up at all last night and didn't use any sleep aid, so that's good. So I got up, got ready, ate an apple and a banana, and drank part of a Voodoo Grape Monster. I actually ate breakfast because today I was going to be in the OR at St. Francis, so that's exciting.

I got to clinical and went in a little before 6:30. Everyone else got their patients and lucky me didn't because I wasn't staying in neuro today. So happy about that. I did help Panashe give his bariatric patient a bed bath because I didn't have to be at OR until 8 o'clock. That was pretty interesting, I think the guy had a Staph. lugdunensis infection, which I'd never heard of. So that took a good hour and a half or so. We did the full bath, changed his external catheter, and changed the bed sheets.

Then at 8 AM, Whitney took Kaerynn to the wound clinic and me to OR. She passed me off to a lady named Debbie, and I guess Debbie knew my mom because she was asking about her. And then Whitney started going crazy like, "Who's your mom?" because she thinks she knows everyone. Debbie led me to the breakroom area and showed me where to get scrubs and change in the locker room. So I did that, and then I met back up with her. Unfortunately, there weren't any crazy cool cases today, like no cardiac stuff. I got stuck sitting in a robotic inguinal hernia repair for the first one. There was a nurse in there named Julie or something that was talking to me some about the procedure. That whole thing probably lasted an hour or so and I walked back to the PACU once they were done. Then she told me to wait outside of room 4 for the next case. So I waited for like, twenty minutes until people showed up in there, then I went in. This one was a hemorrhoidectomy, awesome. Just kidding, it was not awesome. I was with Dr. Richmond for all of these cases. So he held the anus open with this speculum thing and I couldn't even really tell what was going on. They sprayed betadine on that whole area and that was kind of terrifying looking because it looked like blood. And there was a lot of blood once he started digging in there. There was a nurse in there named Richard who was talking to me some. I think he was from Texas. After that one, I kind of just wandered around some because I didn't know where I was supposed to go. There wasn't really a specific person I was supposed to be following, and I just kept walking in circles, I was kind of lost. Eventually I found Julie and she said I could go into one in room 5, which was another robotic inguinal hernia. Great. So I saw another one of those. They are kind of cool, and I got to see the entire process this time, I missed the setting up and everything for the first one. There was actually a complication in this one, I think they accidentally made and incision in the stomach or inflated the CO2 in the stomach or something, so it took some extra work. After that, there was a gallbladder removal or something that I started out in, but realized it was almost 12:30 PM, so I went out and Debbie found me and said my instructor was looking for me. So she led me back to the locker room, I got changed, talked to a guy named Alan who said he knew my mom, and went back up to the neuro floor.

We went over post-conference and I wasn't late or anything. We were out before 1 PM, and I texted Janell to see if she'd get me food and she said she'd order me Panda Express to pick up. So I went to the UC and picked that up, I got orange chicken and fried rice. Then I went to Nana's, ate that, and fell asleep for almost two hours. Apparently my dad came over here, but I was asleep so he didn't wake me up. When I woke up I had about an hour or two before I had to go to work, so I got some stuff done and then left for work.

Work started out not busy for the first thirty minutes, and after that it was busy non-stop for the rest of the night. Like crazy busy. There was this one guy on CPC that I had to get twice throughout the night for x-ray and CT, and he was pretty difficult. He was in constant pain and always groaning and cursing, I guess it was abdominal pain. And it always took me forever to find his stupid nurse to disconnect his IV. And he also made me bring the whole telemetry computer with me. Like, we did not need that, he was stable. Then PACU was assigning me stuff like crazy all night, which was unusual. I guess they finally discovered how to put in requests. I had three or four from them. But I kind of like going back to surgery. There were several ultrasound ones and some ER stuff, too. Janell called me when I was almost done asking if there are any more drug tests throughout the semester because she was planning to go smoke with her friends. Ridiculous. Anyways, I had 13 requests done by the end of the shift. That's the most I've had in four hours. I snatched a piece of pizza from the med tele break room and left at 10:30.

After that I went to Nana's, studied some mental health for the exam next week, wrote this, and ended the night.

5/10 day today. At least it felt pretty filling again.

3/31/26

Today is the last day of March and man, this month flew by so quick. I don't even remember anything significant from it. Anyways, today felt pretty full, so I'm choosing to write about it.

I woke up and got ready at around 7 AM and went to my clinical for OB at St. Francis at 8 AM. I was the only one scheduled for OB clinical this week, and it was my diverse day so I was supposed to be at the NICU clinic where I'd never been before, so I was a little scared. I went inside and waited in the lobby area for the Women's and Children Pavilion because I didn't know if an instructor like Kacie Curry would be there or not. And once it was several minutes past 8, I figured she wasn't gonna come get me. So I went into this women's health room and asked someone and they said to go up to the third floor where the NICU was. I wasn't sure about that because I knew that the NICU and the NICU clinic were two different places, but I got on the elevator with a family and kind of followed them, and sure enough, there was the clinic. It wasn't called the NICU clinic, it was called the growth development clinic or something, but they said I was at the right place.

So I went in there and the first lady I saw was someone I knew, it was Christina Dougherty, Riley and Delaney's mom from Nell Holcomb. I went into the room that the family I rode the elevator with was in and got to watch the nurses do everything. These babies were about 13 months old and were twins and were pretty cute. They got measured and then the nurses were doing lots of tests and stuff on them, like seeing their motor skills, can they find what cup the puff is under, can they pull themselves up, stuff like that. So honestly, this seemed like it would be a pretty good nursing job, nothing stressful at all. To bad men don't really work in this field. I followed around a nurse named April, but there was also a nurse practitioner I followed some. There was another baby that I think was around four months old with orange hair and that baby was adorable. She was having trouble pooping though, she'd only go like once a week or something. So they were trying to find fixes for that. They turned out the lights and swaddled her and tried feeding her in a low-stimulation environment I guess. This baby was really hyper-sensitive to everything, like any noise it would look for, if you moved it looked at you. The last baby was nine months I think and the mom was worried because he would sleep for over 18 hours a day and he had a really flat expression. But I guess all of that was pretty normal and he just had low muscle tone. And that was basically it, after that baby they said there wouldn't be another one until 1 PM, so I could go. So I left at around 11:50. So I think that was my easier clinical ever. It felt like it went by super quick and it was pretty fun.

Afterwards I texted Janell and she said she'd get me lunch. So I went to the UC and we walked in with her friend Alyson. She got some kind of sandwich and I got a delicious burrito. And I talked to Candy, the lady who's always working back there. She's always nice. Janell and I didn't talk much because it was around 12:10 when we met and she had to be at Crisp to record her TikTok assignment at 12:30 with her group, so we took our food to-go and talked on the way out.

I left and went to Nana's to eat. I ate out on the porch, and afterwards, I went and laid in the grass with my shirt off. I figured I'd try to get a little sun because it was a UV of 7 then and I'm still pretty pale. So that was nice, I just relaxed and listened to music. My mom called and said she's gonna bring me some food to eat before work, so she got me Taco Bell and showed up after a while with it. Then I kind of had some free time, I played Fortnite, got some homework done, watched some YouTube. I ate some of my Taco Bell and then left for work at 6:15.

I got to work and it was pretty busy because Rylee called in sick so I had to do it all myself. But it didn't really feel that busy, luckily. There were a lot of new people, like employees, I'd never seen, so that was interesting. I embarrassed myself one time because I was bent down doing something in a patient's room and then I stood up and bonked my head on the TV and went "Ow!" And the patient and two nurses were in the room and saw it. Then I embarrassed myself again because I decided to be nice and put the pads on the bed for a tech, and I put them on upside down apparently. So she corrected me. Another time I got a little embarrassed was when I brought a guy up from the ER and he had a wheelchair in his room that I forgot to take up with me. I went back down to return the stretcher he was on and the nurse lady was like, "Did you realize he had a whole wheelchair that you left behind?" in a snarky tone. And I was like, "Whatever, I'm going back up there anyways," so I brought it back up to him. But work wasn't that bad, I did 10 transports in four hours.

Afterwards I went home, ate my cheesy gordita crunch and drank the rest of my Baja Blast, watched Slushy Noobz Patreon video from today, played some Skyrim, brushed my teeth, put my retainer in, and wrote this.

So it wasn't that exciting of a day, but it felt more filling than most. So 6/10.

2/25/26

Not too much happened today. Today was my latest class but I still had to be there at 9 AM. So I got up, got ready, and went to that.

It was the maternal-newborn lecture class, so it was pretty boring. My nose started running out of nowhere, so I checked my bag for some allergy medicine and all I had was Benadryl. I knew it could make you drowsy, but I had part of an Alani this morning, so I figured one pill wouldn't be too bad. Well, about thirty minutes after that I was dozing off. So it was pretty hard to stay awake. I had to get up a couple of times to go to the bathroom and splash some water on my face and stretch. In class we did the APGAR group project and took a quiz over neonates at the end. So I stayed awake for those parts.

I went back to Nana's after that and fell asleep on the couch at around 2 PM. During that nap I had the craziest dream that I guess was Benadryl-induced. Here is the dream that I wrote down right as I woke up because it was so surreal:

First part I was really into horses. There was a place by June’s house with horses and Lou Ann’s house was also near there. I kept driving by to see the horses and one time Lou Ann saw me and stopped me. She had a wad full of cash because she’d just given piano lessons to someone. She was there with someone else and they went out to my car with me in it and started messing with this thing I had on my hood, and it was doing all this stuff. It was like a speedometer on the dashboard of my car that could control a covering on my windshield.

Second part of the dream, our family was on a vacation and had a hotel in Texas. I woke up one day and my family was gone. I went outside and walked along the road in the desert until I got to an intersection with a billboard that said “Massachusetts that way” with an arrow. There were all sorts of metal painted cacti around this intersection and a billboard with a bunch of brochures. I thought about trying to hitchhike with any of the cars that were passing, but then I called my mom and asked what our plan was today and she got kind of mad that I asked that, but what I meant to ask was where they all were.

Third part, I ended up at Sarah’s house by myself somehow, and eventually all of her kids showed up. I remember they were doing some weird stuff to me, like Lydia was braiding my hair into some weird hairstyle or something. Then Johnny showed up and I remember having the hairstyle when he got there. He couldn’t talk very well because he’d just been to some weird religious cult thing where they had to remove some of his bones, and they took some of his teeth. But it was something that he wanted to go to, but he felt ashamed to talk about it.

The fourth part of the dream, I was at the religious place. Janell and my dad were also there. It was in a big room that was kind of like Elk's Lodge with tables and chairs and they started serving food. It was really vibe-based here. In remember Janell was acting a little off and my dad saw that and got mad. You really had to fit in with everyone. There was some phrase they used to indicate when someone wasn’t acting like they should, but I forgot. My dad was kind of into this religion, I was pretending so my vibe wouldn’t be detected. They started serving food and I went to get some. I went to break off a piece of sausage to put on my plate, but ended up putting lettuce instead. I was really struggling to serve my food. But I got it and ate it, and then it got even weirder.

The fifth part involved people from my nursing cohort as well as Adventure Time. I think the food we ate was drugged, because cracks started forming in the room that the religious cult was in, and lot of people escaped. I was one of them, and I started running, along with some other people. Some people from my nursing cohort like Noelle were following me, but we were all being chased by something and they couldn’t keep up. Then I was somehow in Adventure Time, but I was using powers from Terraria, and I started chasing Princess Bubblegum, it was all weird from the drugged food. I eventually made it back to the religious room where they had cots all out on the floor and Jayden and some others from my nursing group were there. They’d also escaped but came back to the room. And that was it.

So that was the dream, it doesn't sound that different than any other crazy dream, but it felt different. It felt like such a long and surreal dream. So I woke up from that at around 4:30 PM and went out on the porch to write it down in my notes app. I didn't really do much else that evening, just watched YouTube, probably played Terraria, then watched some Modern Family, made some red beans and rice and the beans were still hard, so that wasn't too good. Then I took a nice bath and listened to music, then finished my homework after that, brushed my teeth, took some melatonin, and went to bed before midnight on the couch.

So pretty good day I guess, but not really. All I did was go to class and have a trippy dream. 3/10.

2/24/26

Today I had a simulation day for my maternal-newborn clinical, so I got up at 6 AM, got ready, studied for maybe a minute, and left because we had to be there by 7:00.

I got to SEMO and went up to the second floor where they were meeting, and the first thing we did was take a "ticket to class" which was a twelve question quiz that we had to get at least an 8/12 on to participate today. And she also said if we fail this, we fail the whole clinical. So I studied for several hours for this yesterday, so I was kind of confident, but when we got the quiz, I was so scared. I felt like I didn't know any of the questions. I was one of the last people to finish, and I ended up getting a 9/12 somehow. But I had to guess on some. The questions were like, which communication method should you use, what's the breathing pattern for compressions, where should the resuscitation leader stand, and none of this was what I studied. My watch gave me a notification that I had a high resting heartrate while taking it.

But after that was done, we went to the assessment lab, some lady talked to us for a while, she put us into groups (we were group 2), and then we went to the stations. There were three stations, one for delivery, one for NRP after delivery, and one for SBAR. So we did the delivery one first with Dudley, then the NRP one with the other lady. For that one, we practiced listening to a manikin baby's heartrate and there was this duck with a hat IV stand in the room that I was obsessed with. We also had to give breaths to the little baby. Then SBAR was just working on some papers and examples. I started feeling sick in the middle of this and left to go take a dump. Don't know what was up with that. Maybe because we had to do check-offs at the end of the day today and I was nervous. We started check-offs eventually and Paige said she'd do them with me since I didn't have a partner, but then Panashe said he'd be my partner even though he was also Zach's partner. The check-offs took forever, each group took like 20 minutes and there were probably 12 groups. So we were waiting for over an hour. Panashe and Zach went, and I was gonna go after them so Panashe could just go back-to-back, but Tanya said she had work, so I let her go and me and Panashe had to wait another 20 or 30 minutes. So it was around 12:30 by the time we went, and it went pretty good. I was really nervous, but I didn't do that bad. She asked the four pre-birth questions, then we had thirty seconds to set up the room, then the baby was born, and they had this manikin baby all covered in this vernix stuff, Panashe did most of the stuff in this room and I was just standing there. Then we went to the other room and I did the breaths and the MRSOPA stuff while Panashe did the heartrate. And that was basically it, we passed. Then we went and had to fill out some other forms afterwards for a while, and we were out of there before 1 PM.

the only picture of the duck on all the internet

After class, I went to Nana's and slept from 2 to 4:30 on the couch, played Terraria, and then my mom brought some sushi here after calling. So that was yummy. She also brought some McDonald's chicken nuggets from my dad. Then I just played some piano and goofed around a bit until it was time for work, and I left for that at 6:15.

I was surprisingly the only transporter tonight. Usually Rylee would be here or someone who's training. But it was just me, and it luckily wasn't very busy. Just some ER transports, nothing crazy. But this was my first time back on the neuro floor on the fourth floor. I guess they finally got done with the renovations and opened it back up. So that'll be different, they've been working on that probably since October. And it looks basically the same up there, the floors are just more modern. But yeah, for the last couple hours I don't think I had any transports and I ended up just playing Survev.io and Terraria on my laptop. The State of Union Address was playing on the TV behind me, so I listened to that, too. And that was it.

I went home afterwards, watched YouTube, listened to music, ate some sushi, and made green beans on the stove because I was hungry for them. Then I watched an episode of Only Fools and Horses and fell asleep on the couch.

So today was probably a 5. Kind of boring.

2/13/26

Today was kind of eventful, compared to most of my days. I started out by getting up and getting ready for my mental health clinical, which was at Gibson Center today. I also drank a coffee and then took some ibuprofen and a muscle relaxant because my back was still hurting some today, but was not anywhere near what it was yesterday.

So I left for that and got there at 8 AM. It was me, Aastha, Ellie Kate, and Briana there today, so we met up in the parking lot and walked in together. We had to sit in the waiting room for like, 15 minutes before someone came to get us. That lady talked to us some in a small conference room, just telling us the rules and all that, then we got a little tour, and then we went to their morning meeting. This was kind of boring, they were just talking about some of the patients, where they were going, where they're coming from, that kind of stuff. Then we split up and Ellie and Briana went somewhere, while Aastha and I stayed in the meeting room. We got to see some of the people get their meds, so that was kind of interesting, but not really. One patient, Lindsay, had to take Narcan and see if she felt better, so we just sat in this room for half an hour seeing if her symptoms got better. And I think my muscle relaxant was making me tired, I forgot that was a side effect of those. So I kept drifting off to sleep in my chair. Eventually that was over and the lady we were with took us on a more in-depth tour, over to the rehab area. We were over there for a bit, a guy over there gave us a pretty comprehensive tour. The patients were watching some comedians on the TV. Then they got information that we shouldn't be over in this area because one of the patients was a SEMO student and it was a breach of contract or something. So we were evacuated out of there and went to a big group meeting afterwards with all these patients. In this meeting, they were all able to talk about drugs and alcohol and all this stuff. I kind of missed most of it because I was really sleepy during this. Apparently there was one guy at the meeting who hears voices that he thinks are from God, and he's schizophrenic, and was waving his hands around. The people from my class were talking about that in post-conference. I completely missed that. But yeah, after that meeting we were basically done, the lady there signed our paper, and we left.

I went to Kidd's afterwards, filled up with gas, got a sweet tea, and then went to Nana's. I think I probably just played Terraria or watched YouTube there. I've been really into Terraria lately. That's been my game of the month.

Post-conference was at 2:30, so I went to that at SEMO and we talked about our experiences at our clinical sites. Nothing much happened here.

I went home afterwards and didn't do much here either. I think I played more Terraria and laid on the heating pad for my back. We were planning to go out to eat tonight for Janell's birthday since we never celebrated it because mom and dad were sick. I was going to go with my dad back to town, but he was going to the gym beforehand, so I drove myself back to town. I actually stopped at Nana's, dropped my car off, and then my mom picked me up. She also dropped off a ton of groceries that she got, so I'm fully stocked up over there. Thanks mom!

So she picked me up and we went to pick Janell up, who was at her dorm taking a nap. After we got her, we drove to Olive's Pitaria, which is where she decided to go. We got there and my dad met us there soon after.

The restaurant was in a house, so it just looked like we were walking into a house. But it was actually really good. It was mainly Greek food, so there were gyros, falafel, hummus, all that kind of stuff. I ordered something called a "Oh my Shawarma Wrap" which was shawarma chicken, pickles, and garlic sauce in a wrap and a side of fries. And mine was quite delicious. My dad got a gyro, Janell got something called a falafelito, and I think my mom got shish tawook. My dad's took a little longer to come out than everyone else's so he was a little sad. But all of that food was very good. And for a Friday night, it wasn't too slow. There wasn't a wait or anything. My weird acid-reflux thing happened pretty bad when I ate my food to fast and I had to go to the bathroom and digest all of that. Then Janell also ordered a Dubai chocolate cheesecake slice, and she shared a couple of bites with me, and that was delicious, too. I've never had Dubai chocolate before, definitely recommend. So that place was really good. I also took the rest of Janell's burrito thing because she wasn't gonna take it to-go.

After that we went back to drop Janell off and then me. After my mom dropped me off, I was planning to put on Modern Family, just relax, enjoy my solitude like I always do, but then Grant from TKE texted me, asking if I want to go out with them. So I said sure, because I haven't been at TKE since I left. So I cracked open a beer to prepare a bit for this and played Roblox until time to go.

I left to go there at 9:30 and drank almost a whole Four Loko that I had in my fridge once I got there. Then as I was heading in and ran into Nyk in the parking lot and talked to him some. Then I went in and talked to Scott, Owen, Ryker, Grant, and Whitlow who were all in there. Then we went out a little after 10.

I went with Scott and he drove us to Hypno. There was not much at all going on at Hypno. I ordered a vodka lemonade because that's what everyone was ordering. And it was pretty good for 3 dollars. I was pretty awkward at ordering because I wanted to just order and pay for it there and not open a tab, because the last time I forgot to close it and got a 15 dollar charge from The Library. So we sat there a bit and talked, not much happened. Then Scott took us to The Library. There, I talked to Rachel and Abby who were there. Then I went back over to our group and talked to them. I didn't even order any drinks from here, but I was drunk at this point. The Four Loko was kicking in. For some reason, I was really wanting the guys to go talk to this group of girls, because they always say they will, but they don't. So I went up to them and started talking, and Larik came over (he was there too) and he pulled me back over. I don't know what came over me. Literally liquid courage, because why'd I do that. We left eventually and went back to 333. We talked outside for a good while, I talked to Scott and Whitlow for a good bit, a couple of drunk cigarettes were passed around, and Scott was talking about how much he loved Alysa Liu. Then we were winding down and I slept on the couch there, and that was my night.

So today was good. 8/10 maybe. Just because it felt filling.

2/3/26

Today I didn't have class because it was my OB clinical day and it was my off-week. So I slept in till around 11 AM. When I got up, I noticed the cat food I put out last night was gone now, and I actually saw the cat again, but it ran into the barn. I really hope that cat stays. So I didn't do much at all today, I just watched YouTube (quest series), ate my banana bread, cleaned dishes, swept the floor, won a Fortnite match, stuff like that. When my mom got off work, she brought me McDonald's, so I had a double cheeseburger, fries, nuggets, and sweet tea. My mom is sick with something now (hopefully not RSV) so she had on a mask and had a hoarse voice and stuff. Poor girl.

I went to work at 6:30 and it started out a little busy, lots of stuff from ER. I talked to Rylee some, she said she's going to start going to therapy again. There was this one crazy lady I had to move from ER named Kathy and a security guard girl had to come with me. Kathy kept yelling for Brittney and Robbie. She was just shouting at her max volume through the halls at 10 PM at night. And she'd tell me to stop pushing her and that she didn't want to go. It was pretty sad. I only did five transports today so I had some time to get some of my homework done, too.

I went back home afterwards and was going to start on my GDM diet assignment that is due tomorrow, but I fell asleep before I could start it.

So today was boring, but kinda nice just doing nothing. 3/10.

1/30/26

I had my mental health clinical today and it was at the Jackson courthouse, so I got up at 8 AM or so, got ready, put on some business casual clothes that my mom had laid out the night before, grabbed my lunch that my mom made me, said bye to my dad, and left.

We were supposed to meet the judge at the courthouse at around 9:15 and the drug court was supposed to start at 9:30. I got to the place and parked on a street about a block away and went in. I forgot we can't have phones in there, so I had to go put it back in my car and come back, and then security let me through. I went up to the third floor and the other students were already there, waiting in the hall. There were only five of us here today, Tanya, Briana, Abbey, Jayden, and me. We had to wait for a while, and the judge finally came out of his office or whatever at 9:50. We talked to him a bit and he led us into the courtroom with all the people on trial or whatever. We sat in the back of the room and all the other people on trial sat scattered around the room. There were about fifteen people in the room who were there for drug court. The judge would call one of their names, they'd go up to the podium, he'd ask them some questions about how they've been doing, what step of the program they're on, stuff like that. He had to talk to them for at least five minutes or something, so if there was extra time, he asked a lot of them stuff like, "What's your favorite food," "If you could go anywhere, where would you go," stuff like that. It was kind of sad, like one guy said his heat went out and he lost his job and all this stuff, but it is nice that they are trying to get help for him. There was one lady who they brought out of a locked door who had handcuffs and a Cape County Jail uniform on. I think she was there for a DUI. After that whole group was done, another fifteen people came in and they went. In all it took about two hours. At the end, we went up to the judge, he signed our sign-in sheets we brought (I messed mine up because I wrote on the wrong line) and we left.

I went to the Jackson Walmart afterwards at around 12:30 because I was bored and had a bit before I had to go back to SEMO for post-conference today. At Walmart I looked at some plants because they had some nice ones on sale and Legos. I got a little ten dollar Ninjago set because sometimes you just have the urge to buy something. After I checked out and was leaving, a guy outside the sliding doors came up to me and asked me something. I didn't really hear him at first and thought he was asking for money. So I kind of was confused. Then he talked some more and he said he needed a ride to his house, and he sounded kind of desperate. He pulled out his wallet and offered a ten dollar bill. I was a little doubtful but then figured why not, so I took it and led him out to my car. He had several bags of groceries, so he put them in my trunk, I cleaned out my passenger seat, and he got in. He was an older guy, probably in his 70s and I think he had on a veteran hat. I talked to him some on the way to his house at the Jackson Senior Estates and he was pretty nice. His name was Bob, he said his day's been hectic, his wife wouldn't have been able to pick him up until 3:30, he moved to Jackson from Cape in 2014, all sorts of stuff. I told him about my treatment court experience today and about me some. His apartment was only about four minutes away, behind El Torero. So I got there pretty quick, said bye, and that was it. So I'm glad I did that and I kind of wish I wouldn't have taken his money. But that was a nice bonus.

After that I drove back towards Cape and just went to Nana's for an hour. I built my little Lego set, ate some grapes, and then left to go to post-conference at 2:15.

Post-conference lasted about fifty minutes and we just talked about our experiences at the clinical sites today. I guess about half of our cohort was there and the other people went to the Behavioral Hospital, Gibson, and PSD or wherever. Ours at the drug court was probably the most boring, but it was still a cool experience.

After that class was out, I went home and didn't do too much. My mom got home and brought some Taco Bell, so that was yummy. My dad got home later and I talked to him some and told him about Bob. I think he was kind of proud of me for taking him home. Then Janell got home later so I talked to her some. I played some Roblox and met some nice people who were from New York. Janell liked them because they were singing Harry Styles. I actually ended up talking to them for a couple of hours until they got voice chat banned. And then even later that night, I drank some of that apple Fireball and smoked the rest of the cherry cigar, listening to music. It also started snowing for a bit at around 3 AM. I went inside and fell asleep watching Modern Family. So that was a nice little night.

Today was actually pretty good I guess. 6/10.

1/17/26

Today was the start of the weekend, and I really don't think I did much today. All I really remember doing was going outside some with the animals, feeding Orange Man, and putting wood in the wood stove. It was really cold out, so I wasn't out for too long. Janell was at her dorm all day, my mom and dad were butchering a cow I think, so I was home by myself for most of the day. So yeah, I don't think I did too much.

That night I actually did do some stuff, kind of lonely, weird stuff, but stuff. I was going to just drink a bit, play Roblox, talk to some people, have fun, but I didn't really feel like playing Roblox. So I drank some eggnog and apple Fireball and I just watched some YouTube, and then watched some TV, then went and smoked part of that cigar from Christmas outside the sunroom, then ate some spinach ravioli, watched some more TV, and fell asleep on the floor. So a little bit sad that I was just doing all of this by myself, but it was kinda fun.

So that was my day, it sounded bad, but it wasn't really that bad, it was a nice relaxing day. 4/10.

1/16/26

Today was Friday, and was also the day of my mental health clinical, which was at the Southeast Behavioral Hospital. So I woke up at 7:25 or so, got ready, and left at 7:40.

I got to the place at about 7:55 and went in. Luckily there was only one entrance here, so I didn't get completely lost like yesterday. Today everyone from my cohort was actually here because this was an orientation day. So I went in, we had to all sign in, and then turn in our paperwork, sign some more paperwork, and then we went back to a room and sat for a long time. I sat at a table with Corydon, Panashe, and Zach, and we talked quite a bit. I guess Corydon works with Rylee at the autism place, so that was a little connection. We talked about Call of Duty and different games and stuff, it was nice. But we had to sit a long time because they were doing the tours with smaller groups. So they separated the class into three, and we were the last group to go. The tour of the place was pretty interesting. It did kind of feel like a prison, though. The windowless cafeteria, the patient rooms not having any points or anything so they don't hurt themselves, the seclusion rooms, the gym. And we saw some of the adolescent patients here out in the hallway, and they just kind of looked like normal kids. Apparently people don't stay here long, only a week or so before they leave. But it was kind of cool.

We were there for about two hours, before we left and went back to SEMO. At SEMO there were some people from Gibson, a different institution that we'd have clinical at, so we listened to them. Once they left, we listened to Ms. Twidwell lecture for several hours. We got one little break that was for thirty minutes, so I went and got a free cheeseburger from McDonald's with my points. I was also still listening to a lot of Led Zeppelin, because I'm kind of into them right now. Then we went back to class and listened to her some more. Through most of her lectures, I just played Tetris or other flash games. Then some people from substance court or whatever came in and talked to us for a while, because that was going to be another clinical site we went to. I think that might actually be kind of interesting. At the end of class, we had to get into groups that she put us in, and roleplay in front of the class. I was in a group with Paige Wagner and Briona. At least I knew Paige, so that wasn't that weird. Our words that we had to roleplay were "altruism" and "attribute" or something. So it was a little weird. Ours was a little rusty because everyone else was going up there with their phones and reading a script that ChatGPT probably generated, while we improvised. I was a patient with schizophrenia in one of them. But it wasn't that bad, it was kind of fun.

I went home after that, without getting my textbooks like my mom wanted me to. I might still get them, but I never read the textbooks that I rent, so I don't think it'd be worth it. Janell was home and was getting help from my mom with some of her assignments. I played some piano for the first time in forever (like four days) so that was awesome. Then we actually left and went to a fish fry.

I always love these fish fries that they put on in Jackson and Chaffee. We went to the one in Jackson at the Knights of Columbus place. I thought we were just as our family, but June, George, Kyle, Keera, my grandparents, Daryl and Becca, and eventually Pierce were also there. So a lot of family was there. Pierce showed up right as we got our food, and he was wearing an almost identical jacket as me, which was a little weird. Also, this place was poppin' tonight, there was a full line, like, the entire time we were there. I think it may have been the first fish fry night of the year. So we got our food and ate it up, and it was delicious. I had baked beans, macaroni and cheese, hush puppies, lemonade, and of course, tons of fried fish. I only went through the line once, but I ate Janell's and Papa's leftovers. So I was full. An old lady behind me dropped her tartar sauce and it got on my jacket, but she was nice, and I talked to her a bit as we were leaving.

At home, Janell left and went to some parties later that night, I didn't because I'm no longer in TKE. It is a little sad, some of those parties were fun. I actually ended up falling asleep at around 8:30 PM and then waking up at 11:50 and freaking out that I was about to miss an assignment, but I actually didn't have any assignments due tonight. Then I was up for several hours watching Futurama and Modern Family. I started both of those for the first time. Then I somehow fell asleep listening to Jason Becker shred guitar really loudly though my headphones.

So that was my day, it was actually pretty good, even though the lectures were boring. The fish was good and it felt like a pretty filling day. 5.5/10.

1/15/26

Today I was a lost little duckling. We had clinicals at St. Francis today, so I got up at 7:15, got ready, drank part of a Monster, and left.

The only place I saw where it said to go was on the announcements section on the Canvas page, where there were two announcements. One said park at parking lot 7 and go to entrance 7 and the other said meet at the front by the fountain. So I got to St. Francis with 10 minutes to spare and I went to entrance 7. Nobody was there and I asked around and everything, so I went to the front entrance by the fountain, and I parked at Chick-fil-A and ran across the street, because I couldn't find parking. There was also no one there and the people there said they haven't seen any SEMO students. Then I texted the group chat and they said they were at entrance 6, so I drove back around to that side of the hospital, and they weren't there either, but the lady at the front said she thought they were at the learning and development rooms, so I followed the signs to back there, and they weren't there either, but someone back there got in contact with them and she led me up to them. So it was just a whole stupid ordeal, because she led me back through entrance 1, it was just so weird. So I walked into the little conference room with the other six students, and I feel like they were mad at me or thought I was stupid or something.

Once I was there, we started doing this scavenger hunt thing, so we walked around the hospital some, and then we went to this practice lab area, and got all of that over with. That Kate girl was like, "Bronson, scoot over, someone's trying to pass," using her bitchy little voice, I'm not a fan of her. And she was acting like she knew everything be apparently she works here. And then one of the instructors was like, "Does anyone else work in healthcare?" And I was like, "I work at Mercy." And they were like, "Oh, that's okay," like it was a bad thing to work there and not here. I definitely like it better at Mercy than here. I was starting to get a little peeved.

We were done there at around 10 AM, and then we went back to SEMO, where we went over some of the assessment stuff, clinical judgement stuff, that kind of stuff, with Ms. Malahy. That went on for a little bit but we were out before 1 PM.

Janell met me afterwards to go get lunch at Towers, I had her pick me up on Normal Street. We both got Indian food and they gave me a little sample of their new turkey, and that was pretty good, but not as good as their chicken. Janell and I caught up a little though, so that was nice. She had pathophysiology after this and was scared for the anatomy quiz. Like girl, you've got a big storm coming.

Janell offered to drive me but I walked back to my car and she went back to her dorm. I need the exercise a bit. So I walked up Cardiac Hill, down Pacific Street, and to my car, which I didn't realize was up on the curb a bit. Then I went to Nana's, and my mom got there a little after I did, because she had a potluck at work today and was bringing me some of the leftovers. She brought some chicken wings and snickerdoodles that June made. I also put out my bath mats that I had because I didn't realize they were over at the house already. Once she left I played a ton of Miles Morales, beat it, 100 percent it, went outside for a bit, then didn't do much for the next couple of hours.

I got to work at 6:30 PM, and there were even less requests this time that Tuesday. Only two for the whole time. I saw Rylee but didn't even really talk to her. Work didn't feel like it went by as fast as it did a couple of days ago, but it didn't feel slow either.

On the way back to Nana's afterwards, it actually snowed a little bit, just like Grant Dade said it would. It snowed for about my whole way home, which was for about ten minutes. But just the sight of that little bit of snow was awesome, because we've been so deprived of it. But yeah, at home, I think I just watched more Adventure Time and went to bed.

So that was my day. It was alright I guess, it actually ended up feeling kind of long. 5/10 day.

1/14/26

Today I thought I had two classes but I actually only had one - my maternal-newborn class. So I got up and went to that, which was at 9 AM today.

That class was with Ms. Dudley again, and whoa, was she crazy today. I don't even know how to describe her, she was just all over the place. Some of the things she would say were just wild, I really don't know if she's fit to be a teacher. Some of her expectations seem too high. Anyways, she gave us these notebooks because I guess we're gonna have to do a diabetes diet or something. Then later we did this group project where there were signs all around the room and we had to stand under a sign that represents why we are here. So me and all the other guys in the class, plus one girl, stood under the sign that said, "just here so I don't fail," because I don't really want to go into OB. Then we had to make a meme that describes that. So my group (me, CJ, and Corydon) made one where it was the guy with a girl, looking at another girl, I thought ours was pretty good. Then we did notes, and then we took a quiz over GU anatomy and physiology, and that was scary, already having a quiz. I got a 50 something, but it was eventually regraded to a 5/6. And that was that class.

Then I left, listening to The Wall by Pink Floyd. There's always songs from that album stuck in my head. I sat in the Capaha Park parking lot for a bit, because I had an hour before my next class. Then I went and got a 32 oz sweet tea from Kidd's, and went to Teen Challenge, where I didn't find anything.

I thought I had my nursing research class at 1 PM, so I parked, walked up the hill, and only Kaerynn or whoever, was there, and we figured out that this class is actually mainly online. So we left.

I went back to Nana's, played a lot of Miles Morales, almost beating it, my dad came over for a bit because I guess he was checking some stuff, and I just relaxed a bit.

I went to the gym for the first time in forever at around 7 PM, and it was really busy there for some reason. Maybe it's people trying to stick to their new years resolutions, but it used to never be this busy at 7 o'clock. I got a decent workout in though, and even did ten minutes on the stair climber. And it didn't feel like that hard of a workout, for some reason. I took a shower and then left at around 8:50.

After the gym, I got a free ice cream from Culver's because the flavor of the day was caramel turtle, so I couldn't pass that up. Also, it was pretty cold outside tonight, finally. It'll probably only be like this for a couple of days because it keeps warming up for some reason. But yeah it was dropping down to the 20s tonight.

I went home, ate some bread, took some melatonin, and watched Adventure Time (the "Finn the Human" and "Jake the Dog" episodes) until I fell asleep.

So today was kind of boring, but at least I went to the gym and stuff. 4.5/10.

1/13/26

Today was the second day back to class, and I had my Maternal-Newborn Clinical. It was just at SEMO today, not at the clinical site. I did not give myself very much time to get ready this morning, I got up at about 7:40 and left at 7:45. These early classes might actually kill me.

I got to class just in time, and it was in room 101, a new room. And it was with Ms. Dudley, a kind of crazy girl. We learned about Ballard scores, assessing babies, stuff like that. After a couple of hours, I had a phase where I kept drifting off to sleep. Luckily she finally let us have a break and I went and splashed some water on my face. Then we moved rooms up to room 210 and she did a pelvic exam on a manikin. I got chosen to turn on the lights, wow. Then we went over medications, and I think that was about it.

After class I went to Nana's, played some Miles Morales, watched Slushy Noobz Virgin River video, and slept for a couple of hours. I woke up to my mom calling me and telling me that this guy that she works with, Kyle, was going to be coming over here and looking at the floors. I guess he was needing new wood floors and might get some from my dad.

So about 10 minutes after I woke up, this guy shows up and it was a little awkward at first, just because, who is this guy? He looked at the floors, we talked about nursing and stuff, and then eventually my dad showed up and then my mom showed up. So they took over from there. My mom also brought me Taco Bell, yummy. And then my sister showed up because she was dropping off something she got me, a Snoopy badge reel. So that was cute. So the whole family plus Kyle was there for a bit.

nice sunset before Kyle got there

Kyle left after a bit and then we all left at around 6:15, and I went to work. Work was pretty slow tonight, transport wise. Rylee was there and I guess I'm going to be working with her more frequently now, because she said she's working Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. So that'll make it so there's barely any transports on my shifts, which I guess I'm okay with. I can use that time to study. But work went by really really fast, time-wise. I only had four requests the whole night, so you'd think it'd feel like a long time because I wasn't busy, but I felt like I was only there for half an hour, not four. So that was good. Rylee was like, "You aren't very talkative today, you only use four phrases." Like, yeah, I'm tired today, girl.

I went back to Nana's, ate my burrito leftover from Taco Bell, ate some Oreos, wore my retainer for once, and fell asleep watching Adventure Time again.

So that was my day, I guess it was alright, maybe a 4/10.

1/12/26

Today was unfortunately the first day back to class. This felt like the shortest break ever, but whatever. I got up at about 7:50, got ready, and left at about 8:10 to go to my class which was at 8:30.

My first class today was mental health. It was honestly very boring. It was a three hour long class, but it just felt sooo long. The professor was one we hadn't had yet, Dr. Twidwell. It kind of feels like I'm in Harry Potter, where there's a new professor and class every new book. Doesn't help that her name sounds like someone from Harry Potter. But yeah, that class was boring. I thought we were going to be doing two truths and a lie, because she said we would, so I was trying to think of that the whole time, and we didn't even end up doing it. I was going to say, I've had a spinal fusion, I've been to the arctic circle, and I've produced a documentary. The documentary is the lie. I talked to CJ and some of the other guys for a little bit on our ten minute break.

After that class, I went to Nana's, played Miles Morales, ate some jalapeno sour dough bread, made an Americano, started a distilled water, and then left to go to my other class.

My second class today was Adult Health I, which was taught by Ms. Malahy, so she was familiar. We had to say what we did over the break and I said worked and did house renovations at my grandma's old house, how fun. We didn't do much in that class, and we got out about an hour early.

I then went around to some stores because I just rewatched Into the Spiderverse and I wanted to find some more of the Lego Minifigures from that series. So I went to Walmart and realized that the new series was out, so I scanned it and they had the dalmatian one, and that was the main one I wanted, since I was obsessed with dalmatians as a kid. So I got that, then went to Target and didn't get anything, and then went to Barnes and Noble and they had the fish guy, the frog guy, and Spider-Byte, so I got all of them. I also listened to the whole album of Led Zeppelin IV just because I'd never listened to it all the way through. Pretty good album.

I went to Nana's afterwards and kind of relaxed. I made some Philly cheesesteak pasta in a skillet and watched the "White Bear" episode of Black Mirror because I'd heard that one was good, and it was pretty good. Then for some reason, I decided to watch Bones and All and that is not what I thought that movie would be about, it was so creepy. But it was a pretty good movie. I was just a little scared after that, so I took a shower and ended up finishing People We Meet on Vacation that Janell and I started a couple of days ago, and that was more lighthearted. I was going to go to the gym today, but it was pretty late now since I watched so much TV, so I called it a night. I put on Adventure Time to fall asleep to, so I ended up sleeping on the couch downstairs for several hours, until I woke up during the, "Marceline, is it just, you and me in the wreckage of the world," episode, and then I went up and slept in bed upstairs.

So that was my day, I guess it was an alright first day back. I probably should have gone to the gym, but whatever. Today was a 4/10.

1/11/26

Today was the last day of our Christmas break. The end really snuck up on me this year. Anyways, I got up and went to church with my parents this morning. Church actually went by kind of quick today, it was over in 45 minutes.

After church we stayed and took down the Christmas decorations. It literally didn't even feel like Christmas this year. And it felt like we just put these decorations up. Anyways, we did all of that and were there for a few hours. There was also a lunch afterwards and I ate a donut, some barbeque chips, and two pieces of this really good banana cake.

We went home after that and I printed off some paperwork for my classes and started filling some of that out.

Then I went over to Nana's house with my mom and we got a desk assembled and put in living room. My mom also put together a thing for the laundry room and almost poked her eye out or something. I also brought clothes, my movies, and my Xbox over. So I'm ready to move back in over there.

Then we went back home and Janell was there, so she was packing all of her stuff up to go back to the dorm. Janell and I ended up playing Minecraft on her "Couch Cushion Amen" or whatever world, and that was really fun. I was building a really weird house. But she had to leave eventually, so she left and went to her dorm. She forgot her pillow so I had to get that for her when she came back.

That night, I didn't do too much else. I watched some YouTube and played some Roblox, took a shower, took some melatonin, and went to bed after taking some melatonin at about midnight.

So that was my day. Just in general, this is honestly one of the worst Christmas breaks I've had in a long while. It wasn't even that bad, it just felt short. Breaks in the past felt longer and more fulfilling, I always have some memorable stuff happen. This break felt kind of soulless. I didn't have any New Years resolutions, I didn't go anywhere outside of my Elephant Rocks trip, I didn't have a game that I played through, or shows that felt memorable. I just remember last year, I would stay up all night watching The Walking Dead, I went squirrel hunting, I played Metro 2033, I had a big Minecraft phase. And it felt like that stuff went on a while. This was just a rushed break, and I was working a lot this year, so maybe that's why. Another factor was the fact it was so warm. It didn't snow it all, it hasn't since that tiny snow on December 1st. It has been in the 60s and 70s some days. Ugh.

But anyways, that was just a little reflection on my break. Today was good in general I guess, but I didn't do anything, really. 3/10.

1/8/26

Today was luckily the last day I'd be working one of these long shifts. I didn't have that much time this morning again, because I kept falling back asleep every time I woke up. But I got up at 11 AM or so, got a shower, grabbed my food that I didn't eat yesterday, got ready, and left. I actually wore the same shirt that I've worn the past three days, but it's my favorite work shirt, it's the one that fits the best, so I wore it again. Janell got home right before I left because she got up early to get breakfast with Myra or something, so I said hi to her, then left.

Work felt like it was going by really slow at first, the first several hours felt like forever. There kept being requests that I had to cancel or postpone because they were already done, or the patient wasn't ready, all the requests just took a long time. There was another request from OB, so I got to go back there for my second time ever. It was from OB to neurophysiology, fun. My mom got me a soda and an Italian wrap thing, so that was good. Then something really fun happened at around 4 PM. I had a guy from surgical that I was taking to CT scan, who the nurses thought took some drugs while he was in the hospital, and his daughter was on the phone yelling to talk to a nurse, because according to her, no, he did not take any drugs or anything, but he was really acting like he was on drugs. I was the only one moving his bed because they put it in as only needing one person even though it was a bed, and I didn't want to get Nathan Chanley involved, so I just did it myself. It started out not so bad, until we were in the hallway before you get to MRI and he sat up and said he felt sick. There was nothing I could do, there were no vomit bags or anything with me, and like, five seconds after he said that, he projectile vomits all over the side of his bed, the floor, and the wall. And it was nasty stuff, there were jalapenos or something in it. I was about to call housekeeping when that one CT girl, Macie, happened to walk by and she got ahold of someone to clean it up. Then we went to CT and it was smooth sailing from there. I don't think there were any other notable events, really. Rylee showed up at 6 PM or something and Nathan left, but it was nice to talk to Rylee again. I had one thing that was from med tele to ICU and I had to have a nurse come with me, since I was going to the ICU. The guy that came with me was Jimmy, and I got to talk to him some, and it was actually his birthday today. So that was kind of cool. I had a few more ER requests that I think we pretty unremarkable, then I played Survev.io, ate about five cookies that were in the break room and then I left.

On the way home, I listened to some Beach House, and that was a good vibe. "Girl of the Year" was a pretty good song. At home, I didn't do much except finish The Amazing Spider-Man and then I also watched 28 Days Later. And I don't think I did much else.

So today was alright, at least that was my last long shift I'll have to work. 3.5/10.

1/7/26

Today I had work again, great. And I didn't wake up any too early, I woke up around 11 AM, so I really just brushed my teeth, grabbed an Alani from the garage, and left.

Work today wasn't that bad I guess. It at least felt like it went by at a steady pace. I was working with Nathan Chanley for the first time today, and he was definitely a little odd, just like Rylee said. He's nice though, he just says little quips and one-liners to everyone he sees. Like, we got down to dialysis and he was like, "How's the office doing today?" Boy this is not an office. He also does that thing where he kind of walks on his tiptoes. But I like him well enough. I think Kaden was also here for a bit. My mom got me some stuff from the cafeteria when I was free, I got a Baja Blast, some blueberry yogurt, and some of the peanut butter energy bites. I didn't really eat any of that today though, because every department got a ton of pizzas delivered, so I ate about five slices of pizza throughout the day and just saved that other stuff. I'm trying to remember what all even happened today, all these long shifts kind of blend together. I know at around 7 PM, I had to take a guy from surgical to x-ray, and that was a whole ordeal because I got to diagnostic imaging and there was no one there. I tried calling them, but it just called their empty office that I was already at. I looked around the whole imaging floor and there was no one. Finally, I saw another number written on the wall, so I called that and then someone answered. I guess they were down at ER, which I probably should have guessed, but they were gonna come up here. And then this guy had to go to the bathroom because they gave him Lasix so that he'd pee. So I brought him to a bathroom, and then he got pee everywhere, so I got him a new gown and he changed into that in the empty x-ray room. Then I had to clean up a pee puddle. And after about 40 minutes or something, an x-ray tech appeared. But it wasn't that bad, it was a little break. I also saw that one lady who was a cook at Saxony. I think her husband's mom or something was in the ER, but I talked to her some. Several things today just took a long time, like, they should not put in a request unless that person is ready at that moment. I went down to ER, and the person wasn't ready for another 45 minutes because she still had all this paperwork to fill out.

Then I went home, I was going to go to Nana's but didn't, got home, talked to my dad some, talked to Janell some, played piano, started watching The Amazing Spider-Man, didn't finish it, and went to bed. That was really about it.

Janell soaking her ear in salt water

So that was my day, literally just worked all day, 3/10.

1/6/26

Today I was still sick. When I first woke up, I felt really bad and almost called off of work. I still probably should have, but I didn't. Once I took some medicine and got a shower and all that, I was feeling a little better.

I left for work at 11:30 and got there at 12. Work today was not that great, but it felt like it went by kind of fast. Kaden and Cali were there, and Cali was being annoying again. The first thing was that she didn't show up to pick up a bed from ultrasound, so me and some guy down there got it moved up. I tried switching the request to be only me, but it ended up kicking me off and made it only go to her. But me and the guy, Joel, got that person moved. Then the second thing she did was really annoying. We moved some guy from dialysis back to his room, and I pressed "acknowledge" on my end, but she never did on her end. I even moved the guy's stretcher back down to the ER and then got some food with my mom from the cafeteria, and she still never acknowledged it. That meant we both weren't getting any new requests and they were all just piling up. So after I ate some of my chicken wrap thing, I went up to the break room and asked if she'd done it, and she said she was waiting for me to get done. Like what? I actually have no idea what she was talking about. And then she still didn't. It had been like, 50 minutes now, so I just removed myself from it so I could keep getting some done. There were three or four that I went and did, and when I got back to the room, she was still sitting there. I guarantee she never acknowledged it and just had me do all of those. Then she left and I was by myself for the next six hours. I had one request today that was from the Cape Birthing Center and that's the first time I've actually gotten to go back there. I had to take her to the interventional radiology waiting room place, so that was kind of cool. I was feeling pretty good at work up until about 6 o'clock, when I started getting a sore throat again. I guess some of my medicine was wearing off. I did have a pretty stopped up nose all day, though. Then there was this other little incident which was a discharge from surgical, but it was a pretty late discharge, at 7 PM or so. So I got this old lady and brought her down to the lobby, and she had all these bags with her, like damn, how much stuff do you need. We got down to the lobby, and I guess it was her daughter who was there to pick her up, and that girl was mean. She started getting onto her mom about forgetting things, but we had the things, but then we actually did forget something, apparently she had a walker. So I went all the way back up to her room, which is really far from the lobby, to get the walker. I got up there and there's a nurse in the room and there are two walkers, so I ask which one is hers, and she says she thinks it's this one. There was also a charging block, but no cord, that needed to be brought down. The nurse was kind of getting onto me, like, "Make sure you check the room before you take them down," and it's like, I DID, this lady just had a whole Walmart of items in here. So I got down there and of course the lady's daughter is like, "This is the wrong walker, hers has gray on it, not white. And WHERE'S THE CABLE, THAT CABLE WAS 25 DOLLARS." Then I think she went up herself to look, because I had one from ER I had to go do and I wasn't dealing with any more of that. The lady at the front desk in the lobby was telling me about how she needed to label the walkers. Like, yeah.

It slowed down and I went home. At home, I laid down, took some Nyquil, and went to bed after awhile. Janell was at a movie with some friends, that new movie with Sydney Sweeney, but she got home at 11:30 or midnight or something. I didn't really end up going to sleep until 2 AM or something. I played some Fallout 4 on the big screen before going to bed.

So that was my day. I mean, I was sick and working a long shift. It was not that great. But it honestly still didn't feel that bad. 2/10 though.

1/5/26

Today was not great, because I woke up, and I could instantly tell I was sick. I had a pretty bad sore throat and I hate sore throats. Literally five hours ago when I went to bed, I felt fine. I was really hoping I wouldn't get this, my dad has had a cold for the past couple days or so, so I probably got it from him. But whatever. So I didn't do too much in the morning. I was going to make my tourtière that I make every year, but I really didn't feel like that today. So I'll probably make that on Friday. But yeah I didn't do much.

My dad and I went out and shot some guns at around 3 PM or so and that was fun. I started feeling a little better by then, so we got some of his guns that he's been wanting to shoot and went down to his building. I brought my .22 Walther and 9mm Taurus and he brought a couple 9mms, the Taurus .380, a derringer, and the .357 Smith and Wesson and the .454 Casull Ruger. And that was pretty fun, there was a good variety. That .454 was crazy, the recoil was insane. But it's a huge cartridge. It was a fun time.

After that we went up and my mom had gotten home by then. Her and Janell made a little supper, they made stuffing and green beans and then thawed some frozen bacon-wrapped meatloaves. It was pretty tasty.

Then I fell asleep for a bit and woke up around 9 PM. My dad got home from working out and tried talking to me, but my cold was getting worse again and I really couldn't talk to him as much as I wanted because I just felt bad. He made me a hot toddy drink, and that was actually really good, it felt like it cleared my throat some.

Janell got home later and she started a movie, I think called What Lies Beneath, but I ended up falling asleep because I took some Nyquil.

So that was my day. Shooting guns with my dad was fun, but being sick all day was not, so it was a 3/10 because of that.

1/4/26

Today I also don't really remember exactly what I did even though it was just a couple of days ago. I don't remember the morning at all. Is that a problem? It was two days ago. Do I have memory loss? Or did nothing happen and that's why? Anyways, I guess I didn't do anything in the morning.

At around 1 PM, I left with my dad to go over to Nana's, because my mom had been over there all morning, and we were going to go help her. We loaded up the old TV from downstairs to bring over there and then left. We were over there for several hours and we painted another couple of coats onto the wall. I played some more Spider-Man Miles Morales and helped clean some downstairs. My mom was on the aux this time and she was playing some country. And not that great of country. I like some country music, but not really what she was playing. My mom had a meeting at 5 PM, so she left for that and my dad and I left shortly after.

My dad and I stopped at Scriptural church on the way home to see if they'd put Nana's name on her tombstone with her husband. She wasn't buried here, she was buried with Troy, but they were still going to etch her name over here, and they hadn't yet. So I guess my dad will have to call them again because he paid $250 for it to be done 4 months ago. But we were there for a while and he was telling me about how he knew all of these people buried here.

We went home and I'm not sure what all we did. I think we watched more Stranger Things with my mom, we're on season 2 now. I can't remember what I ate at all today, that's odd. Then Janell and I watched two movies tonight. We watched Stand By Me and my mom watched part of that with us before going to bed. That movie was pretty good, I liked it. Then Janell and I watched Pineapple Express and that was also a pretty good movie. Movies don't make me laugh much, but some parts of that one were pretty funny. Then we went to bed, and I slept upstairs tonight.

Today was pretty good, too, even though I didn't do that much. Maybe a 5.5/10.

1/3/26

Today I also don't remember exactly what I did. I may have played Fortnite in the morning, there were a couple of days in a row when I'd wake up and play Fortnite. I think I also made an egg that morning.

At around 2 PM or so, I went with my mom to go over to Nana's because we were going to paint. We went over there a week or so ago with Janell and we got all the tape put around the windows and stuff to paint. We went to Taco Bell first and I got a burrito. Then we went to Nana's and they got to painting. I didn't help too much with painting at first. I went upstairs and did some dusting, hung up my mirror finally, and played Spider-Man Miles Morales on my PS4 for a while. That game's actually really fun. I love the fact that it's set in winter. I also changed my PlayStation ID. That's the first time I've changed it in four years. Then I went down and helped them paint some.

Then we went home, watched more Stranger Things with my mom and sister, made a pepperoni and cheese sandwich, and then Janell and I watched a movie called Zodiac, but I fell asleep right before the end, so I don't really know how it ended. But I still added it to my Letterboxd. And that's all I remember from today. There may have been more, but that was the basis.

Pretty good day I guess. Probably a 5/10.

1/2/26

I don't think I did too much today, I'm trying to think back, it's been a few days. I know this was the day Janell got her wisdom teeth out, but I didn't really do anything with that. My mom's the one who took her to get that done. I think I just played Fallout 4, Fortnite, and did nothing all day. I know that evening I watched Blade Runner 2049, the 4K one I got for Christmas, since I had my Xbox here and that huge new TV we got downstairs is 4K. So that was pretty awesome. We may have also watched some Stranger Things episodes earlier in the evening, my mom has been watching them for the first time with Janell and me. Anyways, I don't remember what else happened today or what I ate.

4/10 I guess. At least I didn't have to work today.

1/1/26

Today was the start of the new year and it was pretty uneventful. I woke up around 8 AM or so at home and didn't do much until around 9 when Janell got home. Janell was out last night for New Years Eve and stayed at her dorm, but she came home so we could watch the Stranger Things finale before I left for work. So she got home and we watched that, and it was alright. It really wasn't that great. The Abyss should have been cooler, it was too empty. It was just average. I didn't even finish the epilogue part because I wanted to take a shower before work. I left for work at around 10:30.

Work wasn't that bad again today. I think I did 19 or so transports. At least it wasn't 30 like Tuesday, that took me out. I had some guy I took to CT scan who was talking about Roblox the whole way and telling me I look like a Roblox YouTuber. Then I asked him about Fortnite and he said it's very cringe. I put in a request for the first time because a nurse didn't know how to, so I put it in, but only had the patient's last name, so I pressed the first person who came up with that name, and soon after I put it in, Cali, called me, bitchin' about how that patient wasn't the right patient, but I just put it in to be in the system. If I didn't do that, they would just be discharged without being in the system, so what difference does it make. So that was kind of a mistake I made. But yeah, most of the transports and stuff I did weren't that interesting. I met my mom a couple of times throughout the day because she was working a 12 hour shift from 7 to 7. She got me some fruit, a Dr. Pepper, and part of her Danish thing for lunch. Then we went down to the cafeteria to get supper at around 5:30, because they had a special New Years Day menu. We got pork chops, black-eyed peas, and sweet potatoes. Towards the end of the shift, I recreated the beginning scene of Stranger Things with the guy in the elevator because I was bored. And that was work.

I went home, and noticed the moon looked cool, there was a big ring around it. Apparently it was a lunar halo, pretty cool. I really can't remember what else I did this night.

Anyways, New Years Day was kind of boring this time around. Does not feel any different than last year unfortunately. 4/10.