SATC 2

The intern team is planning on getting a bite to eat and watching Sex and the City 2 tomorrow night after work. I'm really looking forward to it. My co-intern and I have yet to officially "welcome" our junior interns and we've been waiting for the perfect time to do it. Well, now is the time. I haven't heard one way or the other about SATC 2...thoughts? Let's hope we can get tickets.



This week was great. Although I was stressing about several additional sessions I had to plan for, everything went smoothly. Today at MTCCA (my senior placement for children with autism 1:1), I led every session bc my supervisor was out of town. The kids are so wonderful to work with and they teach me a lot. Barbara said once you are no longer learning from your clients then it is time to quit/retire. Definitely not there yet (haha). I learn at least 1 new thing a day but usually more like 5-10 new things everyday. It's really crazy.

I had a fantastic hospice experience on Tuesday. Due to the fact that we had a gig this Thursday morning, I volunteered to go to hospice on Tues (mainly bc it is right near E's house in Carlsbad) and bc I love going to hospice. Census was high 10/12 beds full. Lately, there have been about 5 pts. One of the clients I saw was sitting out in the family room area by himself. Mr. S was sitting there and I went up to him and started playing some music for him. He asked for his wife...I said she would be there shortly (not knowing if he had a wife, his wife had passed, was divorced, etc). I could tell he was mildly disoriented due to his inability to answer questions, his talking about topics unrelated to what we were talking about, etc. However, he was able to sing with me once I started a song. During the middle of Tennessee Waltz, a lovely older woman walked up. I hoped and prayed it was his wife. She came up to him and said, "Honey, it's F. It's me" and kissed him. YES! It was his wife! (phew!) She told me to keep singing and she started singing to him, holding him, comforting him. He said, "I remember, I remember". We sang for a while more and then I went on my merry way. Later, Mr. S's wife came up to me and said, "He is asking for more music. He loves the music". Simply wonderful.

All is well in my world. T has his first official major performance this weekend. His parents, grand parents, and aunt are in Cincy to witness it! Wish I could be there... however, I have to work on Monday (Memorial Day). No worries. 2 weeks until I see my hubby.

xoxo

As Time Goes By

These next 6 weeks are going to be insane. I'm trying to mentally prepare myself. Yikes. This week I already have to plan for 4 additional sessions (that I didn't have last week), will be driving to Ramona (again), and I already had to work today. I am starting to get into the "senior" mode that my senior intern told me about. It hit. Hard. I have so much left to do and it seems like time is starting to run out. I keep telling myself that "I will get everything done". Yes. And...I work better under pressure anyway.

I had a fabulous weekend. I got to reunite with some wonderful Phi Sigs and Chapman friends. It was graduation. Can you possibly believe that I graduated one year ago from today? Crazy jive (wow I sound like Teren). It was just a great time catching up with friends, eating, and drinking wonderful Sangria. mmmm.

Here's a peek of Friday night.



Notice Dracula. I met him for the first time. EOB has a blog dedicated to stories about Dracula. Presh.

I am awfully tired. Will try to update this again sooner rather than later.

My new favorite placement: Rady's Children Hospital..working on the hematology/oncology unit! Cutest kids ever.


xoxo

7 Weeks to Go!

You probably thought I forgot about this little thing called a blog. Well...I haven't completely forgotten about it, it has just been on the back burner. I have been completely swamped at work. In a good way. Busy makes the weeks go by faster.

I'll start with my mini vaca to Cincy. It was ahhh-mazing. I loved seeing my hubby and spending quality time with him. We didn't do anything out of the ordinary. Mostly relaxed and enjoyed each other's company. The weather was beautiful and the trees are green and the flowers are starting to bloom. I didn't want to leave on Sunday night, and apparently, neither did Delta. My initial flight was from Cincy to Salt Lake to Orange County. Flight 1 was delayed an hour meaning I would have to spend the night in Salt Lake because I would have missed my connection. Nope. Not an option. I was able to get on a direct flight from Cincy to LAX, but then my poor daddy had to come all the way to LA to get me. Of course he did (bc he is the best dad ever), but then my bag didn't arrive. It didn't get the memo I wasn't getting on the flight to Salt Lake :( Nonetheless, I got home at 1:30 am, slept a few hours, drove to Carlsbad at 5:45am and got to work at 7:30am.

The rest of the week has seemed like catch-up. Trying to catch up on sleep that I missed, work that I didn't get done, etc. Overall, the week was rather successful. I got a lot accomplished in regards to my Senior project. Soon I will announce the changes on my blog (but not until I get the okay from Barbara).

I'm pretty tired now, so I won't go into detail about my week. I do have some patient highlights I would like to share so I may blog over the weekend. All is well.

xoxo

9 more weeks...

...until internship is done! Not that I'm counting or anything.

Time continues to fly by. Wednesday morning I will by flying to Cincy to visit T! What a nice little trip and reunion that will be. I have been having a great time with my new placements. With the new placements comes more responsibility and more planning, but as the weeks go on, it becomes easier and easier. My new placements are Rady's children hospital (oncology and hematology unit), MTCCA (kids ages 3-8 diagnosed with autism), Del Cerro Manor (elderly with dementia), a group for women who were homeless and violently/domestically abused, and Sound Minds (a program for teen moms and their babies).

This weekend was busy--I worked all day on Saturday! The team had a conference to present for--Scripps Integrative Nursing Conference. It was quite an experience having between 50-75 nurses in two back-to-back sessions which included, active music making, drumming, humming, and toning. They sure were enthusiastic! Saturday evening provided me a unique experience. Resounding Joy, Inc. had their first ever benefit concert. Veronica May performed. Wow. She is amazing. A former intern, Veronica now works as a music therapist and is currently recording her second album. She sings, song writes, and plays percussive guitar. Did I already say "amazing"?! All proceeds from the concert went to Resounding Joy.

On Sunday I went up to Chapman to Phi Sig's Senior/Alum brunch. It was great to see some of the gals I have missed so much. It seems like just yesterday when I was at the same brunch last year, but as a graduate. I remember it vividly. It's been a whirlwind of a year.

Here is my latest time line:

1.5 days until Cincy
6 weeks until T comes home (to OC)
8 weeks until mom retires (woot)
9 weeks until my internship is completed!
10 weeks until NY/PA for C&L's wedding!
12-13 weeks until CBMT exam (cross your fingers)
14 weeks until Sedona, AZ with fam
15 weeks until Italy to visit T at Spoletto

Busy Busy Bri! ;)