Thursday, April 30, 2015

Pre-Blogging

I do a lot of pre-blogging. I have topics that I want to write about and I try to get posts written (or at least started) on the weekends so I don't have to cram time in to blog during the week. And it's been working out nicely- except for when it's not.

Most of the time it's great, but sometimes something happens- happy, emotional, or otherwise- that I would love to write about and share all the real emotions, but I don't. And then days later, the emotion has worn off and it's not really worth writing about. Hmm...

Monday, April 27, 2015

A Few Last Things

I saw this on another blog a while ago, but I can't remember where and now I can't find it. Oops!

But without further ado, here are a few last things...

Last really delicious meal I enjoyed:
Honestly, I can't even remember and that means that it has been far too long since I have had a really delicious meal. Anyone want to take me out?  I'm thinking Flight. Or Second Line. I'm not picky!

Last time I felt nervous:
I'm sure there are lots of these to choose from, but I am going to say going to therapy. My nervousness was not from what I would think about her or how she would feel about me or even how the actual therapy session would go. I was nervous that I would be too much in my head and that I wouldn't say what I actually needed to say (That's why I wrote it down). And it actually went better than I thought it would.

Last big thing I splurged on:
Seriously, I don't even know. Little splurge? Probably my bimonthly manicures, but I just love the relaxation and pampering. My last big splurge? Maybe my solo trip to the beach because I just needed to get away. Speaking of, that was amazing! I need to do it again!


Last family vacation I took:
My family usually takes a trip to the beach every summer. Last year, we went down to Florida for a week and did a whole lot of nothing! There was lots of relaxing and reading and swimming and talking and eating and drinking. And daily workouts. Because that's what my family does!


Last time I was moved to tears:
2 weeks ago, one of the pastors at my church unexpectedly passed away. He was 32, with a wife and 3 young children. Last Sunday at church, there was a memorial service for him. We sang some of his favorite songs and then someone spoke about his last few tweets (which focused on Philippians 1:21 "To live is Christ; to die is gain" and that "For those who don't know Jesus this life is the best it will ever get. But those who do know Him this life is the worst it will ever get!") and then opened up the floor for people to share stories. I cried. A lot. Then his wife stood up to speak. Wow! It was powerful. His legacy is amazing! She reminded us to make much of Jesus. Because God is good. Always. No matter what.

Last time I was wrong:
Wrong? What's that? Just kidding! I'm wrong all the time. About directions. And times. And everything in between.

Last person I missed:
No comment ;)

Last blog/IG account I really fell in love with:
I wrote a while ago about some of my favorite bloggers. The list has changed some. Some of them don't blog anymore and some I just don't read anymore. I have also added some more to the list. But if I had to list narrow it down to one true love... well I just couldn't do it. I'll go with 2. Jeannett Gibson blogs at LifeRearranged and posts pics of her precious kiddos @jeannettg. I wrote about her in the last post, but she is a supermom! The other is Glennon Melton, aka Momastery. She's on IG with the same name. You may have read her book or seen her TED talk. She is hilarious and encouraging! I think the thing that I love about both of these women that keeps me coming back is how real they are. They don't only show the perfectly polished life on the internet. They show the real stuff- the messy, hard, brutiful life.


Sunday, April 26, 2015

Sunday Smiles


My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
-Psalm 73:26

Friday, April 24, 2015

InstaFriday


Last weekend, I went to the first annual Food Truck Fest. They said it was supposed to rain, but the weather was perfect! And I was able to walk over from my house which makes it even better. There were food trucks from all over and lots of delicious food choices! I hope they make this an annual event!


We were talking about coffee. Obviously.

And that's all I have. I was apparently pretty boring this week...

Thursday, April 23, 2015

Six Month Challenge, Revisited

No, I am not doing another six month challenge! But you may have noticed that I added some pages at the top of the page and one of those pages is about the six month challenge. As I was setting up the page, I was reading back on the posts. I was surprised by a couple things. 1. I wasn't a very good writer. Hopefully I have gotten better. 2. I still know what was going on at the time, but I didn't give a lot of information or details and 3. I shared a lot of emotions and pure rawness. It was all super emo and angst-y.

I read through them thinking about how much I have changed and other times thinking, "Why the hell do you still do that?" If I were going to write my memoir, it would be called My Life on Repeat, so I don't know why I'm so surprised, but it's still frustrating sometimes.

So I went to my first therapy session on Tuesday. It was actually really good. It went a lot better than I expected. She made me feel comfortable and I actually opened up more than I thought I would. So cheers to growth!

Monday, April 20, 2015

Resolution Fail

I am doing fairly well at all my resolutions but there are 2 that have been epic failures so far... Being selfish and being a good friend. I decided that I had to do something about it. Both of them. So I made an appointment with a therapist. It's tomorrow actually. Wish me luck! I have already written out on an index card what I want to say to her because I know that once I get there I will mentally freak out and try to talk myself out of everything that I need to say. So instead I'll be the nerd that reads from a card! Ha!

So therapy is my initial attempt at being selfish. I am also failing miserably at being a good friend. I get so trapped in my own head and my own routine and then all of the sudden, I take a moment to breathe and look around and realize that I'm kind of sucking! I'm thinking about planning a fun girls night to just get some friends together and eat and talk and laugh and just be girls. I need that!

In another attempt to improve, I have started random acts of kindness. It is a way to not only say, "Hey. I'm thinking about you!" but it takes my mind off me! I decided to do 2 random acts of kindness each week. One for a friend and one for a stranger.

Sometimes the friend gift is just a card to let them know I'm thinking about them and I appreciate their friendship even if I suck at showing it sometimes. Other times it is a small gift that reminds me of them or that I think will make them smile. I went on a mini shopping spree one day for some fun basics...


Like baskets.


And candy. Candy makes great filler.


Then I got out some stationary to write cards. 

really like Sharpies. Don't judge!

I have delivered a few...



But still have some some odds and ends ready to go that I can't show. Don't want to spoil the surprise! I have also been shopping some more and maybe ordered an item or 2 off Etsy! Can't wait to deliver some more!

For the stranger random acts, I like to switch it up. Some of my favorites are to go through the drive-through and pay for the person behind me or pick up some gift cards at Kroger and leave them in random locations (Bus stops are always a good go-to spot)


Anyone else ever done any fun random acts of kindness? What did you do? How did it go?

Sunday, April 19, 2015

Sunday Smiles


He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
- Psalm 147:3

Friday, April 17, 2015

InstaFriday


National Sibling Day was last week so I had to show a little sibling love to my sister and brother. They're alright! :)


Hillary and I spent another fabulous evening at the zoo for the Wild World of Wine and Beer. We tried some great wines and ate some delicious food. At the beginning of the night, they give you a cup to carry around with you all night. Each station pours about 2 ounces to sample. That doesn't seem like much until you think about the fact that there were 10 stations. And we went to some more than once to try some different wines...


My nieces FaceTime'd me while I was at the zoo. I was right in the middle of looking through the silent auction that featured a lot of artwork done by the animals! I walked around and talked to the girls and showed them how talented the elephants, sea lions, and orangutans were!


The next morning was a little rough and I spent some time being super lazy! Then I forced myself to get up and go to the gym. I tried a TRX class for the first time. If you've never tried it, it is a suspension training workout that uses your body weight. And it is intense! If side planks with hip dips weren't enough for you, stick your feet in some ropes and add the element of balance to it. My obliques were sore for days after that! #hurtsogood

Last night, I went to the Young Life Taste of Memphis event. It is a fundraiser for Memphis Urban Young Life. They had delicious food from restaurants all around Memphis as well as a silent auction. All the food was small bites so I didn't realize how much I had eaten until I was so full! And then I still sampled the Tennessee Whiskey gelato! Things I did not do: take any pictures. Oops!

Thursday, April 16, 2015

Confessions of a Closet Nerd

If you've read this for any period of time, you already know that I'm pretty nerdy. And I'm totally okay with it. So I'm about to let you in on a nerdy secret. Perhaps more so than my obsession with NPR.

Ready...

I miss school. Like a lot. So much so that I may have taken a standardized test for fun. I cannot confirm or deny that. :) But I need to do something about it. My mind is craving some sort of stimulation that it apparently is not getting. I've been looking into continuing education classes. I was thinking about maybe taking one class a semester. Nothing stressful, just something fun that will stretch my brain. My mom and my aunt tried to suggest something like calligraphy or drawing, but to my logical, number-oriented brain that sounds super daunting and stressful. I'm leaning more towards accounting or an intro engineering class. Or maybe a foreign language. But probably math.

What do you think? Am I totally crazy? Which classes should I take?

Monday, April 13, 2015

DiTL

I don't usually do this, (and by usually, I mean ever) but Julia over at My Life in Transition posted about linking up for a Day in the Life post and I thought I would go for it!

If you got here from Julia's blog, welcome! I am probably not the average reader/blogger, but I love it and I have a long list of mommy blogs on my feed. Anyway, let me introduce myself. I'm Jillian. I'm 28 (28.69 to be exact) I am single and live with roommates and work as a Nurse Practitioner with an amazing group of hospitalists.


Date: Tuesday, April 7, 2015

First of all, I am not a great sleeper. I used to be and then something happened. I don't remember the last time that I slept through the night. Yes, I am 28, not 8 months old. I don't know what to do about it. It has gotten better though. Monday night I went to bed around 10:30. I was awake from 11:30-11:45, 3:10-3:35, and 4:15-4:30ish. No fun!

5:00 am| Alarm goes off. Waking up is not my favorite thing, but if I have to choose between getting things done in the morning and trying to be productive after a long day at work, I pick morning. Hands down. Every single time. Also, coffee. :)


I should warn you before we go any further that I am totally a creature of habit. I like routine. My roommates make fun of me for it sometimes. Anyway, after staring at my phone willing the time to magically change back to midnight, I roll out of bed. Head to the bathroom, brush my teeth, and weigh. I weigh every morning. I'm neurotic like that. Then I go back to my room and make my bed. Every day.

Stella, the Titans panda, started off as a joke but somehow she has remained on my bed...

5:10 am| Go downstairs to make coffee and breakfast. Check my email while my coffee is brewing. Also check my bank account. Another thing that I do everyday. Put away some dishes while making breakfast.


5:25 am| Sit down for breakfast, coffee, and some time with Jesus. Realize there is no green in my breakfast this morning. Oh well, I'll make up for it later today.



Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day!
6:00 am| My 6am alarm goes off. Time to go back upstairs to get ready for work, but I really want to finish up a blog post for this week so I stay and work on that.

6:15 am| Can't hold off any longer. Back upstairs. Good thing my clothes are all laid out! I lay out all my clothes for the week on Sunday. Takes the guess work out of things. Also, I'm neurotic. I get dressed and throw my workout clothes in a bag.


6:30 am| Back to the bathroom for hair and makeup. That makes it sound fancy like I have a team to get me ready for work. Really it's just me, straightening my hair so that I can then curl it and putting on enough makeup to look presentable. Julia said to take selfies, so I'm doing it. But I am notoriously bad at pictures and don't smile or look normal so be prepared for faces...


7:00 am| Walking downstairs as my 7am alarm goes off. Perfect timing! Make another cup of coffee to go. Note to self: Clean the Keurig! Sheesh! Check my Pacer app to make sure I have taken at least 1000 steps before I leave for work.



7:05 am| Leave for work. Sometimes I think about wearing heels to work. Then I think about walking around the hospital all day and going up and down 11 flights of stairs and I decide against it. Ignore my messy room. And dirty mirror. Yuck!


7:14 am| Pull into the parking garage. Nine minute commute. And that includes driving through 2 school zones. I love living close to work.

7:20 am| Get into the office. Look over the patient list. Only 8 patients thanks to the Easter holiday and the weather. Change in weather is always a good way to slow things down. It's finally getting warm and people are enjoying the weather. No one wants to come to the hospital unless they're actually sick.
I look over the patients. Check on labs and vitals, put in some orders, and see who might be going home today. I am precepting a student this semester and he isn't here yet so I sign some notes that have been transcribed and are sitting in my inbox.

8:00 am| My student is here. We go meet with the case manager and social worker to run the list with them. Sometimes it's to talk about small things like a patient that is ready to go home but doesn't have insurance and we have to make sure all his meds are on the $4 list. Other times it's a patient that physical therapy says needs to go to rehab, but she doesn't have any rehab benefits with her insurance and she isn't safe to go home. Ugh! So frustrating! Insurance companies make me crazy!

8:15 am| Meet with the doctor that I'm working with this week. The doctors in our group work 7 days on/7 days off from Tuesday to Monday so this is his first day on service. I run the list with him and fill him in on what's going on with the patients.

8:30 am| See the first patient who I think can go home. She's in her 90s and when I get to her room she is up cleaning things up. A good sign that she's feeling better and can go home! I talk to her about the plan and then get her discharge paperwork ready.

9:00 am| See patient number 2 and discharge him. I don't think any other people should go home today so I stop and do notes on them.

9:45 am| See 3 more patients and write notes on them. Talk through some teaching points with my student.

11:00 am| 2 more patients seen and notes written.

11:45 am| Remember that I am supposed to schedule an appointment with a therapist. I've been meaning to do it for a while and keep forgetting. I know that if I don't do it now, I'll forget again, so I call. I have to leave a message which is super awkward because my student is right beside me and I'm trying to be evasive!

11:50 am| I have 1 patient left to see but she's in surgery so I take some time to dictate some discharge summaries from yesterday so they aren't hanging over my head.

12:30 am| Patient still isn't out of surgery and I totally forget about our group meeting. Run down to the cafe and grab lunch, drop my student off at my office, and then head to our conference room. We have a monthly meeting with all 11 docs and the 2 nurse practitioners to talk about business stuff and the residents and where things are going.

1:45 pm| Finally out of the meeting! It was long, but we are never all together so after we finished the actual business stuff we just sat around and talked before everyone decided that they still had patients to see and we should get back to work.

2:00 pm| After the meeting, I go back out to the floor. The patient is out of surgery so I see my final patient and write that note. Short patient lists make for great days! Last week there were days I didn't leave until around 6. Blah!

2:45 pm| Send my student home and head back to my office. The 2 patients that I discharged today have already left so I decide to go ahead and dictate their summaries since it's still early and I love being all caught up. Then I clean up my desk a little. If you made it through all that, congrats! My work day is pretty boring to write about. You know, HIPAA and all that...


3:30 pm| Leave work and head for the River! I have a 4pm appointment to get my nails done. I have been going every 2-3 weeks for the past 2 years or so. Yes, it's a luxury but I now go with one of my friends and it's become a standing date with us. I haven't seen her in a couple weeks so I'm excited to get to catch up.

3:50 pm| Make it to the nailbar early. It's quiet here. They are having a party tonight so we are one of the last appointments of the day. Love coming here to relax after work. I grab my box (They give you a box when you come with your own nail file and stuff so that you're not sharing with other people). They also serve wine and play a movie. I rarely go to the movies so this is the way I usually keep up with the new releases. We watched This Voice this week.


Before and after of my nails. The first picture looks awful. That was after 3 weeks!

5:10 pm| The day is gorgeous when I leave the nailbar, so I decide to walk on the River. I changed clothes and went for a walk (when I wasn't admiring the sunset) I was not the only one to have this idea. There were tons of people out- running, biking, rollerblading, walking dogs... I  didn't take a screenshot of the weather, but I think my car said it was 76 while I was driving and I had my windows down. I love Spring!


Another awkward face

6:00 pm| I leave the River and it's still gorgeous outside. I'm enjoying the weather so I decide to run some errands. A couple weeks ago I decide to do weekly random acts of kindness and drop off little goodies. It has been a lot of fun, so I made my way to one of my favorite bookstores to pick up a few things. It was a minor mistake because I love bookstores and can get lost there for hours! Which I did!

6:40 pm| The therapist I called this morning calls back. I pull out my calendar and sit down on a couch to talk to her. A couch that is ironically in the self-help section. I make the appointment for her fist available slot which is like 2 weeks away. Way too much time to think! Oh well.

6:50 pm| I realize what time it is and that I haven't gotten any gifts for random acts of kindness so I finally choose a few books and some fun stuff from the gift section up front. I can't take any pictures of my purchases because that would ruin the surprise, but I'm excited about them!


7:20 pm| While I'm out, I decide to run to the grocery store. I need a couple of things so I might as well get them now. I keep an ongoing grocery list on my phone so that I always know what I need. Makes things super easy. I don't have my reusable bags with me though. Ugh! Guess paper will have to work this time.


They don't have the quinoa bars that I want. They only have the chocolate ones, but are out of the fruit and nut. Will have to keep that on the list until next time.


Swing by the gift cards on my way to checkout. These make fun random acts of kindness gifts as well so I decide to pick up a couple.


7:45 pm| Leave the Krosher and go to a different Kroger to get gas. I have a system, I promise. And even though I didn't get a ton of groceries tonight, it paid off. I had enough points and got 10 cents off. Yes please!


Now I am really hungry and the thought of going home and cooking sounds miserable right now so I give in and call Pei Wei. They have some creepy phone number recognition thing so when I call they ask if I want the same thing I got last time and put it in. Super easy, but also a little Big Brother-esque...

8:00 pm| I make it to Pei Wei and my food isn't ready yet. Play a little Trivia Crack while I wait.

8:15 pm| Food's ready. Pay and go home. Put away groceries and then decide to curl up on the couch while I eat, because I just decided that I'm getting tired. Flip through DVR and choose New Girl. Then, because I'm a slow eater, I watch an episode of Big Bang Theory too.

9:10 pm| To spare me from eating out tomorrow, I throw some chicken in the crockpot. I am going to make chicken pot pie soup. Tomorrow morning when I wake up, I'll add a bag of frozen veggies and let it cook for another 30 minutes. Easy as that!


9:20 pm| Jump in the shower. I am a notoriously long shower-er. I get lost in my thoughts and the warm water. It's so relaxing!

9:45 pm| Straighten up my room some because I realized how bad it looked in pictures this morning.

10:00 pm| Dry my hair as quickly as possible so that it is one less thing to do in the morning.

10:20 pm| Read some fluff, pointless, mindless, wonderful book. Tonight it is Wedding Night by Sophie Kinsella. Reading is a perfect way to wind down at the end of the day!

11:08 pm| Finish the book and realize what time it is. Time to get some sleep!


And that's it. You made it! I made it through writing all that! Next time, I'll try to be better about taking more pictures. And maybe some more pictures of people. And me. Maybe even smiling. Probably not...

Sunday, April 12, 2015

Sunday Smiles


Call to me and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things which you do not know.
-Jeremiah 33:3

Friday, April 10, 2015

InstaFriday


Nature fascinates me. Everything about it. I just love it! Apparently my run interfered with the bison naptime...


And speaking of nature, clouds are beautiful! So is Shelby Farms. Have I mentioned that it's my happy place?


The other night, I was sitting in the den watching TV and all of the sudden I see flashing red lights through the window. I walk outside and see 2 fire trucks pulling up to the house across the street. The medically side of me wanted to know what was going on. But instead I sat on the porch and prayed. Prayed for the family. And then prayed for Jilly. Man, life is hard.


Saturday, there was an Eco Eggstravaganza at Shelby Farms so I met my cousin and niece to hang out. There was an Easter egg hunt, a petting zoo, music, food trucks, fishing, LARPing, arts and crafts and more. And the weather was perfect! Also, I may want a pet pig.


Shout out to Lil Sebastian!!!


Llamas are funny. They also roll in the dirt and are not very clean. After a fun day at Shelby Farms, we met my brother and my mom on a patio in Midtown for lunch. And beer. Beer on the patio in the Spring is pretty much the best thing ever!


I did a Day in the Life post this week. I'm hoping to sit down this weekend and actually write it all out, but one of the things I did was hang out by the River. Here's a sneak peak! (Did I mention that I love nature?)


This is my new favorite ritual. For the past 2 weeks after work, I have been coming home and sitting outside in the backyard and reading. It has been glorious! Sometimes I send my friends selfies. I'm not good at smiling...


Dear BuzzFeed, this is my life.