Catching you up to speed

So I really have been a bad blogger. In my defense, a lot has been going on with my personal life. (Haha -- a personal life!? Graduate nursing students can have one of those? *sarcasm*) Beloved and I ended our almost 5 year relationship shortly after my last post. It was a completely mutual and no-nonense break up. We still live together with our dogs but are working through the process of separating out 5 years together. I'm fine with it. She's a wonderful person but we just weren't happy together.

And with the end of that relationship, I am now dating a new person. Hmmm...I hadn't thought of a blog name for her --- Blondie works. I've known her for over 8 years and we just reconnected when I was home. She's from my hometown and currently lives in NC. I never thought I'd date someone who lived away from me but it works. We see each other as frequently as possible but my life here is so hectic that it doesn't seem too impossible to do. Also, I love my space and freedom to do what I want -- hang out with my friends, etc. I'm comfortable with my life here alone. My feelings for Blondie snuck up on me out of nowhere. I've never thought of her as someone I'd date. But I am happy and that's what's important.

School is still not in session. We have a very long winter break. I spent the majority of it between NC & VA with my family & Blondie. School starts next Tuesday after MLK day. I'm taking Nurse-midwifery II, Advanced Pharmacology, Women & Health Policy, and Embryology. Sounds like fun, right? This semester is when I will catch my first (and hopefully second/third/fourth/etc) baby. We'll start our call hours in February. For the rest of the program, we will do 24hr call shifts every week and two clinic days a month. I am so excited about it! We're having a skills lab when we first start back to learn episiotomies, nerve blocks, suturing, etc. Yay! I'm feeling more and more like a real midwife every day.

Of course it wouldn't be school without some drama. Here it is --- I'm betting my pharmacology class is going to be utterly and absolutely useless. I've heard a lot of negative stuff about this class. This new professor has been teaching the class for a year but she's not a pharmacist. She lacks clinical experience in advising patients, nurses, practitioners about drugs. She's a pharmacologist --- knows how the drugs work but can't apply it. Our last pharm instructor was a pharmacist who still worked in the clinical setting as well as a pharmacy. He provided a lot of invaluable information to us. I have *all* of his notes so I'm hoping that will make up for this other professor. Maybe I should go into it with an open mind. But I'm skeptical.

I will try to be more on top of the blog posts. I should be chronicling my most important firsts throughout this year. 2010 is the year I become a midwife. Exciting.