the struggle is real

ah...nursing school.  such an elusive little thing.

donald has worked on the psych unit at ku med ever since he graduated from sbu. he likes it and he's good at it. [like, really good at it] the trick is that there is really only one position you can hold in a hospital with a psychology degree and he already has it. so in order for it to make sense for him to stay there forever, which he would love, the most logical option is for him to become a nurse.

nursing school was already on our radar when we were engaged, and we knew it would be a future goal for our family. however in my naiveté i thought we'd be wrapping things up in the school department by about year three of our marriage. donald didn't want to jump right into school during our few months of marriage, but i figured he'd just need a year of pre reqs and then a year or so at an accelerated program and we'd call it a day. that was so cute of me.

what i have learned is that attempting to complete nursing school as a non-traditional adult student is like trying to lick your elbow. it's nearly impossible.

here are some examples:

after spending two months incessantly attempting to get ahold of the supervisor of the nursing program to discuss donald's transcript were were finally informed that donald, who has a bachelors degree in psychology and has worked in the psychology field for ten years, needed to take psychology 101 before he could submit his application to the nursing program. this information was very conveniently shared 48 hours after the cutoff for enrolling in summer classes. so that was fun.

and while we're on the subject of silly, freshmen level pre-reqs...we both thought college algebra was going to kill us dead. it did not. but it was close.

then this one is my favorite [so far]. without going into all the specifics, as soon as donald finishes his rn program he'll need to begin a bsn bridge program right away. our track record being what it is, we decided to be as proactive as possible and once he was accepted into an rn program we turned our sights to the bsn bridge to see if we could get a jump on things. 

to back up, going into this whole thing there were two classes donald did not ever want to have to take again...speech and statistics.  the bsn program needed a stats pre-req and there was a question as to whether they would accept the credit he had from sbu.  so there was this exchange:

monday @ 2:12pm : your stats class won't transfer, you'll need to take it again .

[panic. sorrow. gnashing of teeth.]

monday @ 2:18pm : your stats class is fine, you don't need to take it again.

[relief. hesitant celebration.]

wednesday afternoon : we can't accept your stats, you'll need to take it again.

[confusion. defeat.]

later wednesday afternoon: oh, i remember talking to you!  you're fine.  you don't need to take stats again.

[blank stares.]

i'm sure that one day [i'd like to say five years, but i think ten is the safer bet] we will look back, laugh, and think it really didn't take that long after all. today is not that day, but i'm doing my best to just enjoy the ride.

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eat like you mean it

our spring break adventure was a seven day caribbean cruise with my mom, donald and i. while the ports are great and all, i honestly have to say we were mostly there for the 24/7 food [and i was also in it for the sunshine, though not everyone shared that sentiment]. some friends of ours recently went on a 'love like you mean it' marriage cruise, so it obviously made sense for us to name our voyage the 'eat like you mean it' cruise.  our days at sea looked a little something like this:

• wake up
• eat breakfast
• attend trivia activity
• grab a snack
• find a comfy chair/bed in the quiet zone and lay in the sun [one of us did not participate in this activity]
• eat lunch
• attend trivia activity
• grab a snack
• lay in the sun and take a dip in the adult only pool [see note above]
• get ready for dinner
• eat a three [or four or five] course dinner
• go to a show or watch an outdoor movie
• eat second dinner [always heavily revolving around nutella crepes]
• play cards [specifically mastering the art of three handed canasta]
• go to sleep

i’d like to say this list is exaggerated, but that would be lying. we did meander off the ship a bit when we were in port. donald stuck with me for an adventurous climb up dunn’s river falls in jamaica, and he also loving endured a day at the beach in grand cayman…i was in my happy place strolling the beach and floating in my tube, he and my mom were under an umbrella in their beach chairs. 

we spent an extra night in miami on our way back home and i managed to coerce my two compadres into accompanying me on one last outing. we requested our first ever uber, rode over to south beach, ate some delicious burgers from the shake shack and strolled to the beach for one last chance to get my feet in the water and sand between my toes.  [full disclosure: they later both admitted to enjoying the excursion]

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the eateries of raytona beach

while driving down 350 the other day donald decided that as a lifelong resident of his beloved raytona, he should make it his personal mission to visit every dining establishment this fine town has to offer. we figured he must have a pretty good head start from his first thirty eight years, specifically in the pizza and fast food categories.

when we got home we set up shop on the couch and got our google on. first we mapped out the boundaries based on the raytown city limits, and then proceeded to list and categorize all the options. we left no stone unturned and ended up with a total of 54. in the midst of our searching we discovered that las chilis, a long standing mexican restaurant, is actually known for their cheeseburgers. i know. it's weird. but we were pretty excited to check them out and don senior was kind enough to oblige. so the three of us went to a mexican restaurant and we all ordered cheeseburgers. and they were delicious.

honestly we don't eat out much unless it's initiated by friends or family, so it may take us awhile to get through the list. or i may get wild and crazy and create a special envelope just for the eateries of raytona beach.

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