ow.

still burnt. applying aloe liberally. wincing each time I reflexively swing my backpack onto my shoulder. today, i managed to pull off the cute swingy shirt with crocheted sandals, but the sandals made little blisters on the inside of my heel and by the end of the day, I was carrying my shoes in my lunch bag and both of my bookbags in the other hand.

These blisters were invisible compared to what my marathon-running friend showed me yesterday. She said that the first aid stands were pitifully stocked and six miles apart. (I'm thinking to myself that I haven't walked six miles in years, if ever!) She said, "When it burst, I screamed out loud. But after a while, it just sort of went numb." She finished the race, within her time category. I stopped whining about my bra straps cutting into my sunburn for a while after she told the story.

Developmental exam yesterday seemed super easy - and stayed relatively on the surface of the EIGHT CHAPTERS of material it covered. I love the affect of the prof for that class, but she told us that to prepare for the test, which covered material with only one corresponding lecture, we should 'focus on the text'. No. the word you're looking for there is 'read'. When one focuses, one often has a shorter list than 250 pages to attend to. shrug. I thought I blew Health Assessment out of the water last Thursday and pulled a half-hearted 89. shake shake shake and roll.

I have a Fundamentals test tomorrow that is so difficult to study for - not because I've finished Barack's book, or because I had dinner with friends last night and tonight, or because I spent all weekend at a CPR class, getting a sneaky sunburn, and 'focusing' on eight chapters of developmental psych. It's hard to study for, because it's the mamby-pambiest material stuff of the class that already seems to slip out of my fingers each time I study it. I can't remember a bit of the last test, only that what I studied for that one was not on this one. The material we're covering is Stress, Sex, Aging, and Med Administration. I just don't trust that it's as easy as it seems. here's my study guide:

• Be prepared to be directive when patients are exhibiting signs of sensory overload or ineffective coping.
  
• Patients should use alternate positioning after hip surgery (though we never elaborated on this, and I felt I had pushed the boundaries of appropriate class discussion far enough when I asked if sex was considered to be an Activity of Daily Living by most texts).
• Old people are useful, and you shouldn't use baby talk when addressing them.
• If you need to give someone 50 mg of a PO med, and the tablets are 25 mg, then give the patient two.
  

I need to make a list of the random nursing questions I have. My addition today would be - why no more than three tablets at a time? Is this as random as provide patient care from the right side of the bed?

Speaking of stupid questions, let me leave you, gentle reader, with this gem. We had an information session about next semester today regarding how to register for the section of clinicals you want, and how it's not uncommon for 100 students to register in 3 minutes, so set your flipping alarms, and pay that parking ticket by Friday. After most everyone had left, Another Student asks if I know what exactly we'll be doing in clinicals. I have the same question, so AS and I trot up the Dr. Undergrad Dean. After a brief lead-in by AS, I say, "I mean, will I ever be alone in the room with the patient this summer?" Dr. UD looked at me carefully and said, "Yes."

I am going to have to be a bit more careful about what I say, lest I become the talk of the faculty lounge. Who is that short-haired sunburnt woman? Why is she always asking such ridiculous questions? Oh, don't worry, she came from a community college, and those students always have a difficult time transitioning.