Happy Hour

Today I am sipping on water during Happy Hour, in a sad attempt to pre-hydrate myself because in less than 4 hours, we are off for a fun-filled weekend in ARIZONA!

This is the marina in the neighborhood where my parents' house is!

My parents have a sweet little vacation home (seriously, Gardening Mom has decorated it so cute!) in Willow Valley, Arizona and they are gracious enough to allow Handsome Husband and I to take some friends out for a weekend during the hot Arizona summer.

We have been going annually with a group of friends for 4 summers now (okay, we missed last summer), and it is so fun!  

I have been looking forward to this trip for months, but especially the last week.  I am excited to spend some time with girlfriends that I rarely get to see due to our busy lives (I hate being a grown-up sometimes), and just relax in the heat and float in the river!

Posting will be pretty non-existant this weekend - I think it will be the first time I've gone more than one day without posting since I started Stress Case!

What are you doing for the holiday weekend?

Happy Hour

I am sipping on lemonade during Happy Hour today (but looking forward to sipping on cocktails at real-live Happy Hour later tonight!).

Lately, I have been having some down days at work - you know how it is, there are ups and downs with everything.  So, because I am really making an effort to be more positive lately (I may or may not be known to be a bit of a whiner), I'd like to talk about some of the things I love about my job at the Pediatrician's Office.

I love new babies.  They have that new baby smell (way better than new car), and are so so so small.  And until you make Mommy and Daddy undress them, they look so peaceful and adorable.  It's also so sweet to see both parents at the appointments, as it is not very common past the first few months.

I love the continuity, and watching the kids grow and change with each appointment.

I love getting pictures that the little ones have drawn for me, stickers that they want to share, when the ones just learning to talk say my name, and hugs from our miniature patients.

I love looking out the window and seeing an ocean view.

I love meeting parents who are so friendly, and interested in my life - there are really people out there who care about what you have to say and who you are even if you are in a service position for them.

I don't love giving shots, but to be honest I don't really mind it.  And I love knowing that a few seconds of pain and a couple tears is all it takes for me to help to protect children from some really awful diseases.

I love doing lab-work - it makes me feel like a little scientist girl!

So that's what I'm thinking about and loving during Happy Hour today.

Happy Hour

I am sipping on lemonade during Happy Hour today.

Last night, I had the pleasure of watching Sister Singer sing her pretty little heart out at her high school's annual Talent Show.

There was a lot of talent there, but she stood out for me - and I think she did for others as well!  Not only did look totally ADORBS, but she just sounded beautiful!  She sang a Taylor Swift song, and I wish I could figure out how to post the video on here to share with all of her - she totally killed it!

I love watching Sister Singer perform, especially when she can sing her choice of song.  I don't know if she will end up with a career in music, but if she does choose to go that route, I think she will be abundantly successful!

I wish I had a better quality photo, but I only had my phone :(

That's what I'm thinking about at Happy Hour today!

Happy Hour and a Little Boob Tube Babble

I am (shamefully) sipping on coca-cola at 10:30pm on a Friday night, while sitting on my couch doing homework and watching Friday Night Lights - wild life I live over here (try not to be jealous).

This week for Happy Hour, I'd like to also link up to A Complete Waste of Makeup's Boob Tube Babble.  I can't believe I missed their first week, because if I haven't mentioned it yet here, I am a total TV addict.  Like - it's a problem.  If I didn't have a DVR, I would have a hard time leaving the house.  I get invested in my shows, no matter how cheesy or ridiculous their story lines might get.

I am really into reality TV, but one drama that I am a die-hard for (even after many fans - Cute Apartment included! - have jumped ship is Grey's Anatomy.  I started watching a couple seasons in and had to backtrack a bit, but ever since them, I've been hooked.  It's one of the rare shows I have been known to get emotional during, and no matter how tired I am on Thursday nights, I rarely miss watching the episode before bed.

This week, two of the characters on the show got married - in Grey's first ever lesbian wedding!  It was beautiful, and so well done, I thought.

Is it weird that I totally feel like I know these characters, and was like inordinately happy for Callie and Arizona?  Also, though I totally don't think Handsome Husband would be on board, I adore the name 'Arizona'!

Also, how totally rude was it that these two thunder-stealers skipped the wedding to finally make their stupid post-it legal?  I was so flabbergasted that they did this!  As Gardening Mom so succinctly said - "couldn't they have, like, done that tomorrow?" - weird!

That's what I'm thinking about during my (late-night) happy hour.

If you're popping over from Happy Hour or Boob Tube Babble, please feel free to take a look around!  You can catch up on my wedding recaps, find out how I met Handsome Husband, or learn a little bit more about me.  If you like what you see - please consider following me!

Happy Hour

I am sipping on water during happy hour today - my new beverage of choice thanks to all my running with Tutor Girl!

I am going to the Stagecoach Music Festival this weekend with Gardening Mom and I am so so so excited!  I'm excited for the music, but to be honest I think I'm more excited to get a weekend to myself with Gardening Mom!  I love spending time with my mom, and lately we've both been so busy that we haven't gotten to spend much time together!  This weekend we'll have two whole days to reconnect, and I couldn't be happier!

That's what I'm thinking about at Happy Hour today!

Happy Hour

Today I am sipping on water thanks to my exhausting run with Tutor Girl for our C25K training.

Not too much going on during happy hour today, but I am rushing around a bit to get ready for go to LA for Best Friend Swagger's birthday celebration!  I am so excited to see some of our amazing friends that we don't get to see nearly as often as I'd like.

Handsome Husband is off to a Galaxy soccer game tomorrow with YouTube Star, thanks to me managing to stumble into some free tickets.  You're welcome, boys!

I'm watching the Real Housewives New York right now (instead of getting things done - such a procrastinator!), and as entertaining as it is (I'm a HUGE housewives fan) - someone please slap me if I am that catty and dramatic in my 40s-50s.

That's what I'm thinking about at Happy Hour today.

Happy Hour

So I’m a day late for happy hour, but not to worry – I’m sippin’ on some Simply Lemonade this afternoon getting ready to drive down to San Diego for a fun weekend!

Handsome Husband and I lived in San Diego, and that is where I went to LVN nursing school and HH got his Bachelor’s.  We made some fabulous friends (a huge majority of which Handsome Husband got to know through soccer). 

We are so excited to get to see some of our favorite people that we haven’t gotten to see much of since we moved away! 

Today, we will get to have dinner and dessert with Twin Oh Yeah and his lovely girlfriend, Future Dr. Babies.  Afterwards, we are hoping to enjoy a real (meaning alcoholic) happy hour at their fun house with some more friends!

Tomorrow, we are having lunch with Nurse Sarcasm, and her husband, Secret Agent.  After that, we will go by and watch some soccer games in the blazing heat, and HH will (inevitably) get sunburned. 

It should be a fun weekend, and although I am very happy HH and I moved back up to Orange County (OC born and raised, what what!), I love that we can down to San Diego so easily to see some of our dear friends!

That’s what I’m thinking about during my own personal afternoon happy hour. 

Happy Hour

This week I am doing happy hour from my couch bundled up drinking hot water with lemon, because I am a sick girl!  I thought I must have caught something from the little sickies at work, but Gardening Mom was sick earlier this week, so I think I’ve figured out where this nasty cold came from.

Yesterday was a rough day – I was feeling sick all day long (congestion, runny rose, coughing, sore throat, you know the drill) and had a Physiology exam from Professor All Over The Place. 

This class is one of the hardest classes I’ve ever taken.  I think the material on it’s own is incredibly difficult (sodium/potassium pump – will I ever understand you?), but coupled with a professor that is all over the place and doesn’t really take the time to teach, it makes it nearly impossible.

I was hoping to get an ‘A’ in this class, because the RN programs use your grades in these important pre-requisite classes to rank you, and therefore your grades decide whether or not you get in the program.  While I would love to ace this class, I have to start just hoping to pass! 

Its classes like this that make me a stress-case – thanks for nothing, Professor All Over the Place! 

That’s what I’m thinking about during Happy Hour this week.

Happy Hour

This week I started my very first job as Nurse Stress Case.

I am working for a pediatrician, and have only worked two days so far, but I absolutely love the work.  It is so exactly what I wanted to do as an LVN, and feel so incredibly fortunate to get to work somewhere I enjoy.  Unfortunately there are not many options for LVNs (especially in Orange County), and to get to work in a beautiful office (with an ocean view, I might add) with children is so great!

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about people I went to school with, and what they’re doing now.  I keep in touch with a few of them, but to be quite honest, I didn’t make a whole lot of friends during school.  I went into the program for a reason (to get my license), and tried to put on blinders the majority of the time.  I am curious mainly in a statistical fashion, in that I wonder who all has taken their NCLEX and passed, who has a job, who is struggling, who is doing something the love, etc. more than anything.  There were a few people I genuinely connected with at The School That Won’t Be Named, but no one as much as my dear friend, Nurse Sarcasm.

(I was lucky enough to be graced with a visit from Nurse S this week, in fact!  We drove around Orange County [where Nurse S commented that she felt like she was “in a different country”] and had lunch at a fabulous restaurant in the heart of the OC Housewives.)

I’d like to say that when I go into the RN program I will approach it differently – be a social butterfly and leave with lots of friends that I adore as much as I adore Nurse Sarcasm.  But I don’t know that that will be the case to be honest.  The majority of nursing students are female, and groups of females (especially ones competing for recognition and praise) are so catty, that it is often easier just to alienate yourself.  I am not excluding myself from this generalization by any means – anyone who knows me knows I have my moments.  I just know myself and I know the effort I need to put in to get through these grueling nursing programs cannot be bogged down by fighting and petty drama.  I also graduated high school 5 years ago, and don’t like feeling like I’m back there again (except for when I’m surrounded by my friends from high school – love that feeling).

This what I’m thinking about during Happy Hour, sipping on watered down Pepsi (PS don’t judge me – I’m a total Coke girl).