From 0 to 60

Alright people.  I know I'm probably the worst contributor to this blog, but it's 12:50 am and I have to stay up for another 7 hours, so I figure why not humor you.  I have a cute little snuggle buddy on my lap, so he's going to help me write.

Basically what my baby friend looks like...same blankets and
 pacifier even! But NOT ACTUALLY because that would be
 breaking HIPAA and would be a bad start to my nursing career.

So, in the past two weeks I've made a lot of life changes!  It all started on August 18 when I woke up to a call coming from the 3-1-3.  I was super excited because this was the call I'd been waiting for for weeks.  It was the HR rep at the DMC calling to offer me an RN position in the NICU!!!!  I was so happy I even told the lady that she was my favorite person ever (which maybe is unprofessional?).

My approximate reaction to "the call"

A little more info about my new job.  Orientation starts September 15, and I get to go to a bunch of boring seminars that week.  Then, I'll start really being a nurse and will be working three 12 hour shifts a week.  Some really awesome things about my job are that a) I get to work day shift so no more nocturnalism for me! and b) I already got a pay raise and haven't even started yet!!  So far I'm really liking this job.  But most of all, I'm excited to take care of babiessss and help them get better so they can go home :)  Also, last night I ordered this super cool badge clip that I'm kind of obsessed with.  

Mine won't say Wendy.  Snapchat of the real
thing comin' at ya in a few days

I'm official!

After I heard the good news about my new job, lots of things happened really fast.  The next big change in my life was that Taylor and I signed the lease for our new apartment.  We moved in last week and are so in love with it!  We each have our own bathroom and walk-in closet, there's an enormous balcony overlooking the pool, and it's 800 million times better than Blakely Court CART house (minus the fact we're missing half of us :/ ).  

This is an actual conversation we
had this afternoon

My room.  Taylor will have
to show you a pic of hers
so you can see how
coordinated we are!

Bathroom...obviously

View of the pool from our balcony.
The sad news is it closes in 4 days :(

Giant balcony where we  sometimes
dine and watch netflix

Super modern couch aka your bed
when you visit us


The next exciting thing that happened was that I bought a car!  Actually, the process of finding a car to buy isn't that fun.  Howie and I probably put about 20 hours into searching that week.  We went to tons of dealerships and had them price out different options, test drove the same three cars about four times each, and finally I made a decision.  On August 25, I bought a brand new Chrysler 200!! It's awesome and I can't wait to take all of you for a ride in it!

To top it all off, my dad
surprised me with this
sweet license plate holder =)

Well that's my life.  Hope you enjoyed!  Excited to hear about yours :)

How all of America Hates Juan Pablo

The Bachelor finale was this Monday night, and although I'm pretty sure it only took 10 minutes to dump one girl and give a rose to the other, this got drawn out into a 3 hour special. Smooth move ABC.

We've been telling you for a while now about the disappointment that is Juan Pablo, and it seems that this week all of America was united in hating him, but I live in Detroit now and we like to be hipsters so now that hating him is popular, I kind of love him all over again. Let me essplain why:

In the final episode, Juan Pablo has to choose between Clare and Nikki. We've liked Nikki from the beginning (because she is a nurse like Ashley!), but in the end it almost feels like she is too smart for this guy who clearly only cares about his daughter, sports, and being attractive. Clare, on the other hand, is super stupid, like, dumb enough to have sex in the ocean on national television, so maybe they could be a perfect match until they break up a month after the final rose? In a fun little plot twist, these two women also hate each other. It's funny how they didn't become best friends in a show that makes dating a competition between women...

Remember that time they had this awkward fight over nothing?

So the episode shows each woman meeting JP's family in St. Lucia (the whole family gets a free trip?? Jealous.), and JP's cousin with braces warns each woman of their boyfriends commitment issues. So that bodes well. Camilla continues to steal the show by being ADORABLE and her little cousin is super cute, too so basically JP for a second has won our hearts again by reminding us that he is a hot Venezuelan single dad. Don't worry though, we'll turn on him soon.

JP shows us a big diamond ring that probably came free from the jeweler, and Clare gets on a boat to go meet him, which seems like a poor idea because we just saw her curling her hair and doing her make-up and boats are usually windy and not conducive to looking like a barbie. She is all smiles and arched eyebrows when she goes to meet him in the middle of some forest on this tropical island and then... HE DUMPS HER. And makes the mistake of trying to hug her, which she rejects. The studio audience cheers for the woman who was previously the most hated contestant as she yells at the man who was previously an adored bachelor because apparently we thought he should have told her earlier he didn't want to marry her, but wouldn't that defeat the purpose of the show? Clare storms away as well as she can in heels in the tropics, and Chris Harrison and the studio audience wonder what will become of JP. Also, Clare is sent away in a boat which is much crappier than the one she rode over in. Just to really make sure she understands that she lost.

When you put your life on TV, it's easy to find ugly shots of you, Clare

Nikki also crosses over on a boat to Juan Pablo and walks carefully toward him in a dress with a really high slit. Like, her whole leg is showing and I'm concerned she might flash us more. When she gets to JP she tells him she loves him again and he doesn't say he loves her back, but instead tells her that he cannot propose because he isn't 100% sure and her dad told him not to. So that big old diamond was just a quick product placement, and instead he just gives her a rose and asks if she'll go out with him in a normal way and she says yes. Kisses are shared. The end.

See that slit?? So high.

Except it's not really the end! Because this episode was shot three (four?) months ago, and now we have to get the opinions of Sean and Catherine, Des and Chris, Sharleen and her buddies, and most importantly Chris Harrison. He interviews Clare in the "After the Final Rose" special and she gets a lot of cheers for being pissed at JP. He should never have led her on, she says. I'm not sure how else he wanted her to act on a dating show where there's one guy and 27 women, because she then tells Chris she doesn't even want to see JP and has nothing else to say. Bye Clare.

Nikki comes out and some people might think she's pregnant but she's probably not and she waves to her BFFs Sharleen and Kelly and then tells Chris and America that life is good and she still loves JP and is excited to see him because I guess for 3/4 months they've had to have a secret long distance relationship. JP joins her on the couch and is immediately asked if he loves her. He won't answer, which, if I'm Nikki, I appreciate, because I haven't seen my boyfriend in 3/4 months and I really don't want him to confess his love in front of a live audience and a million cameras. But Chris Harrison is not Nikki, and he is not OK with this. So he continues to badger JP and force him to say "I Love You" in order to appease the fans of the show. Nikki, for the record, is totally OK with him not saying it yet.

How Chris feels when his questions don't get answered

So here's the part where I'll tell you why I like Juan Pablo and Nikki even better now. They seem actually to recognize how absurd the show is and how it isn't real life and it isn't an accurate way to actually get to know a potential life partner. JP is really pumped to finish recording and have a real life and a real relationship. So while I still think that they will probably break up really soon, I am glad that they aren't pretending to get married in the meantime. Also, I feel like it's not fair that all the women on the show get to talk about how sexy Juan Pablo is and it's OK for them to like him for superficial reasons but he's not allowed to be like, "Hey Clare, I think you're really hot but that's about it." It turns out he is exactly what we all thought he was: a hot Latino with a daughter. He really is just being honest.

This combination of man and baby is weird.

I went to bed around this point, but I hear that at the end of the 3-hour-special they announced the new Bachelorette, and (big surprise), it's Andi. She practically campaigned for it, and I wonder how she ever got through law school if she is dumb enough to put her life on TV. Get ready for people to hate you Andi, because that's what we like to do with famous people.

I'm not really sure what this picture is...

Well, now this blog will go back to being just our real lives. I hope you keep reading it, Amy!

Babies, babies, and more babies!

I FINALLY FIGURED OUT HOW TO LOG ONTO THIS DUMB THING!

Anyway, this is going to be a story about my semester since the rest of you probably don't remember what school is like anymore.  I had my clinical in the NICU (that's the newborn ICU for those of you who are non medically inclined).  It was so. much. fun!  Seriously, I loved it and now it's my new dream job!  The nurses I worked with were super great and when I grow up I want to be like them.  Real personhood is only 142 days away!

Graduation take 2 is on May 3, in case any of you
feel like attending (I went to yours so I really expect
you all to be there with presents...a new car would be ideal)

So back to the NICU.  It's basically my dream come true.  I got to hang out with super teeny adorable babies every day!  The youngest ones I took care of were born at 23 weeks! (normal is 40 weeks).  They were so small, like 1.5lbs, sometimes.  I didn't really get to snuggle those ones because they were in incubators with lots of tubes hooked up.  But I did have to pick them up to assess them and it was like holding nothing.  They were sometimes smaller than the palm of my hand.  It was really cool to watch them grow and require less and less equipment every day.

This is what a 23 week baby looks like

This is a picture of a random child I found who was born
at 23 weeks and this is him at 16 months!

I also got to see those quints that were born in the summer before they went home!  They were all like 3 or 4 pounds which is amazing since there were five of them all sharing their mommy's tummy!

Awwwwwwwwww!  Babiessssss!

There were lots of really sick babies that I took care of, but also there were some that we call "feeder-growers".  These babies are usually born just a little early and so they're just not ready for the world!  They come to the NICU to learn how to eat and get big and strong like me.  These ones are really fun because you can hold them and feed them bottles and they're the perfect little cuddle size :)  On the other side of the spectrum, I saw a GIANT baby who was over 13 lbs when he was born!  He looked like a toddler!  

This is not even how extreme the comparison was between
him and my other babies

I could go on and on with my stories....but I'll save some for when I see you in 29 days!  Anywho, I fell in love with working in the NICU and last weekend I applied for my first real nurse job!!  I can't wait to be a job person like you guys (minus Bobby...but he wins anyways since he's dating me). 

Ok well I would have told you more about my life but I just realized I'm late to hand out MedBuddy tshirts so I'll write again soon!  Love and miss you all xoxo