All the Leaves are Brown

Yesterday marked one year since Nick found out he was accepted into MIT. It is hard to believe that just a few months later we moved to the other side of the country.  The past few days have been one massive rain storm and I have decided that I prefer the snow to the rain. When it snows, it is beautiful and it falls gracefully and typically does not completely drench you. The rain, on the other hand, has been blown in all directions and an umbrella does little to help. Nick forgot his umbrella yesterday, accidentally got on the wrong shuttle, wound up off the normal bus route and had to walk across the Charles River to get to the T station. He said that when he got home nearly every inch of his clothes was completely soaked from the rain. I had to pick a toddler from daycare and walk him home, so the logistics of pushing a huge stroller and holding an umbrella while the wind blows 50mph were ridiculous. I spent most of the day dreaming about being back on the west coast...

I will have worked about 45 hours by the end of the week, and although I have been exhausted, I am so grateful to finally have enough work to pay the bills! My job at the lab is going great and tomorrow I will learn a few more steps in the DNA sequencing process. Yesterday I got an email from the woman training me letting me know that they are happy to have me working there. It felt good to hear that! 

My trip to California is ONE week from today and I can't wait! I would be packing right now if I had any clean clothes, but I'm sure I will still be packed long before I leave. My camera should get some use when I'm there, as I'm taking my cousin's senior pictures. It should be fun to search for photo spots and work on some photography techniques with Rachel, because it is much more difficult with strangers. I am looking forward to resuming my photography experimenting once the weather here in Boston warms up a bit. 

As I am "California dreamin," here is one of my favorite pictures from last year around this time:

DNA Sequencing Lab- Preview

Another week flew by and I did not get an opportunity to blog. I officially started my job at the lab last week and I could not have asked for a better start. The people I work with are friendly and helpful, and my boss is great. I learned to use the autoclave and to prepare media for bacteria growth, and it is mostly straight-forward work. On Saturdays I will be working with one of the DNA sequencers and last weekend she began teaching me to use the sequencer. I learned what seemed like a week's worth of information in a 4-hour shift, but somehow managed to retain quite a bit of what I learned. 

Joan was here for the weekend, and we did get fairly lucky as far as weather goes. We found an amazing little Italian restaurant where we had lunch and then walked around the North End. Trouble has lapsed into his usual state of depression now that Joan is gone. He gets incredibly sad and there isn't much we can do to cheer him up until he just decides to move on. Poor guy. Too bad he won't be able to go to Santa Cruz with us this summer- no beach running for him this year. So sad!

Nick's semester is keeping him busy and this morning he was handed even more work to do, so this may be one of those weeks where we see fairly little of one another. I am not a fan of these weeks, but they do tend to go by quickly when we are both busy. I hope this summer we get a chance to get out of Boston a bit and see some of the nearby states. 

I have a lab practical tomorrow and I am officially tired of looking at my histology slides and bones. The fact that I am studying real human bones really freaks Nick out, so when I went into the anatomy lab last weekend, I made sure to send Nick a picture.

I have not really taken my camera out in the last month, so sadly all of my photos have been taken via my cell phone camera. I decided to take a few pictures of the lab I work in, but I wish I could take my nice camera in to play with some of the cool colors in the lab. 

The bottles with the orange caps are filled with media used to grow bacteria in. (Not the usual "bad" bacteria you hear about.)

Below is the autoclave where we sterilize most of the materials used in the lab:
A shelf with beakers/flasks and other equipment needed for sequencing:
Pipette tip boxes ready for the autoclave:

There are some incredible machines used for the actual DNA sequencing and eventually I will capture some photos of those as well. They have robotic arms, etc and the technology utilized in the lab is impressive! 

Much-needed 3 day weekend

The gigantic storm we were expecting last week turned out to be nothing except maybe an inch of snow. It worked out well, since my school closed and my boss told me not to come into work, so I studied for my anatomy test instead. I should get the test back tomorrow, so we'll see how much the extra day helped.

Saturday night Nick and I went to one of our favorite Italian restaurants on the North End. The food is incredible and it never disappoints us. We hadn't had a date night since New Years Eve, so it was nice to sit and talk over good food. 

I babysat for three families Friday, for a total of 11 hours. It was a long week overall, so this weekend it felt great to sleep in past 7am! The three day weekend came just in time for some much-needed relaxation. We took the dogs for a walk around the reservoir yesterday and they were thrilled! They were both grinning and Nick and I are amused by their dog-smiles. 

It seems that Nick has officially committed to running a half marathon with me, so we are beginning to get back into shape.  For now it looks like we will be training to run in the Boston Athletic Association half marathon in October. I may decide to run one in July if I feel ready for it, but I won't know for sure until around May. I am excited about getting back into shape and running again, especially with Nick. He isn't a huge fan of running, but I think it will be a great accomplishment together!

Nick's mom is coming to Boston this week, so we are hoping the weather will cooperate and we can find some fun things to do! It is always nice having people visit, and the dogs absolutely adore her, so they will be in heaven all weekend! Maybe a warm streak will arrive and it will suddenly be above 40...but that's just wishful thinking. =)

Fellow Passengers

The second day of my orientation went much better than Monday's session. It began at 7am when I had to go through a "health screening." I then headed over to a discussion on HIPAA, which was pretty dry. It is all about patient confidentiality, and there really is no way they could make it interesting. The rest of the day we discussed the importance of patient care. Despite the fact that I am not going to be working with patients, I am still employed by a hospital, so I am bound by all the same guidelines as a nurse would be in terms of "quality care." The speaker emphasized how important it is not to judge those who come into the hospital, because there is no way of knowing what that person has been through. No one wants to be in a hospital as a patient, and caregivers should keep that in mind. She used a term called "fellow passengers" from the novel A Christmas Carol that I thought was a great way to draw a connection between patients and caregivers. Scrooge's nephew is explaining to his Uncle what he thinks about Christmas time. He points out the importance of seeing others as "fellow passengers."

"...and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys."

I was inspired by her speech, and I hope I will be a nurse (and an individual) who lives with that idea in mind. 

I then headed over to meet Doug, my new boss, at the lab. He introduced me to everyone there and proceeded to show me where the free coffee is. As if I weren't already sold on the job, there is free coffee. Wonderful! We discussed when I should come in next and we agreed that I would come in the following morning. We have been anticipating a pretty large snow storm here, so this morning I received an e-mail from Doug letting me know that I should stay home and catch up on school work I missed due to orientation and avoid getting caught in the storm. That was incredibly nice of him, but he also said he would be paying me as if I came in today! 

This morning I went to turn in the remainder of my new-hire paperwork and then came back home to study for my anatomy test. It is almost 4pm and there is still no snow on the ground, because most of it has melted once it hits the ground. My college closed for the entire day, which is funny since there have been no weather problems so far. The news is now saying that the storm should be more active in the next two hours or so. Luckily I don't have anywhere to be.

My new job will be great and the opportunities it could open up once I get my nursing license just might surprise me- I hope! It is an incredible hospital and it would be a great to get hired as an RN there once I am done with my program. I have my official MGH badge and I will start working next week! 

Nick's semester is off to a busy start and he seems to love the classes he is taking. We are discussing the idea of running a half-marathon together this summer in order to keep us both motivated to exercise. I think it would be a great accomplishment to achieve together. I can't even imagine running outside at this point, so we will twalk about it more once the weather improves. Nick may be the one that needs the convincing...

As I walked across the bridge from MIT yesterday I saw a great message on the sidewalk: 

I leave for California in 3 weeks and 2 days!!!!!!!!!! I haven't been there in almost 7 months and I am ready to be back! 

Slightly Overwhelmed

I spent most of the day in orientation for my new job. Of the six or seven tables there, I just happened to sit at the table with 2 women who just graduated from Simmons' nursing school and were just hired at MGH. At first I was thrilled to see that there were new nursing graduates with jobs, and then I quickly found out that they are the only ones in their class with jobs. This is mainly due to hiring freezes on local hospitals, and a flood of new nurses (many of whom are much needed) as well as older nurses making the decision not to retire. This is a scary prospect of the current job market and I hope it changes by the time I graduate. I am grateful for my new job, regardless of the fact that it has nothing to do with nursing!

Early in the day I went to turn in my paperwork, and my mom had faxed me a copy of my social security card, which they would not accept. I called my mom in a panic, and my dad ended up spending a ton of money to over-night my card to me. THANK YOU THANK YOU DAD!!!! He was a life-saver today, and they were right in the middle of a snowstorm in Colorado!

One of the things I was most excited about was the fact that I am eligible for benefits. I waited all day to hear about the details of the health insurance plans and when they began the discussion, I was quickly overwhelmed by the insurance jargon. I felt like I needed to take a class on signing up for benefits! Once they began showing prices, I was shocked by how much it would cost. I had heard to expect roughly $20/week for costs deducted from my paycheck, but it was 5 times that amount at over $100 per WEEK. This means that at the end of every month, more than half of my pay-check would go toward health insurance. This was for a bare-bones health care plan. I am looking into other options, because there is simply no way I can afford that.

I have an anatomy class tomorrow but I have to attend the second day of orientation, including my health screening. This would be fine except that we are having our first test on Thursday. I have to get my vaccines updated tomorrow morning, but that isn't something I am concerned about. I just need to survive the rest of this week so that I can relax this weekend. I keep reminding myself how lucky I am to have this new job, and I need to focus on the positive. I gained a lot of insight from the Simmons graduates, and I plan to take their advice regarding clinical rotations.

Job Perks

I am in the process of getting everything together in order to begin orientation for my new job next week. I have been filling out information for background checks and gathering my vaccination records. I have just learned that I am eligible immediately for benefits-which is great! I have not been covered by Simmons because I am not technically a full-time student until next semester. In addition to benefits, I also receive a discount on my monthly T-pass and up to $2,000 in tuition reimbursement!!!! My new boss has told me that MGH is a fantastic company to work for, so I am looking forward to the opportunities that are opening up.

Nick began his first day of the semester today and this may be the last time he has to take two classes at the same time. Next fall he will be taking one in order to prepare for his phD qualifiers and after he passes (because we all know he will pass), he will take one class and focus on writing his masters thesis. He seems excited about his class schedule and he gets to do a project with his good friend Karan, who he worked with at UCLA.

This is my third week of class and I already have an anatomy test next week! I have a lot of work to do this weekend, but the material isn't as difficult as what I have to know for the lab. My nursing research class is a complete joke thus far, and I have a feeling it won't get any better. I can't figure out how they believe it is a legitimate class, but I am glad I'm taking it now and not when I have clinical rotations.

I am still wrapping my head around the fact that it is FEBRUARY! Once again another month flies by and I can't seem to figure out where it went. The nice thing about these months going by so quickly is that winter will be over in 2 months or so. I am dying to be in a t-shirt and shorts again!! I am the most pale I think I've ever been, so the shorts may be a little scary for a while...oh well, bring on spring and summer!!!