So, my midterm from The Depths of Hell. You think I lie. It wasn't hard, at least not per se. I took it, finished in about 20 minutes, threw it at her, she did a quick glance at it (didn't actually grade it, you see) and said "93% ish, good job, Krystina!" and off I went. Then the teacher went on vacation for a goddamn week and two days and came back and handed out the graded versions of our midterms. I had an 85. What the FUCK happened, you ask? Yeah, me too... in that exact manner too. Turns out the sheet she used to grade our exams doesn't care what the textbook and the teacher taught us all semester - as long as it says what the Illinois Department Of Public Health's board test says, we're good. Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for knowing what is on the IDPH board. But everyone in the class was doing that test according to what we learned in class, not what we didn't even know would be presented to us in the board. Example:

A doctor uses a term that you do not understand, do you:

A.) Pretend to know what it means.

B.) Look it up in a medical dictionary.

C.) Ask an R.N. what it means.

D.) Ask a co-work what it means.

Now, all throughout this course it's been taught that if you don't know something, ask your superior (for LPN's, CNA's and so forth, it's the RN). So going with that, I went ahead and chose B. Being the anal retentive twat that I am, I even went and looked up the mock version of the test that is IN OUR BOOKS and saw that I had picked the correct answer. So when I saw that the teacher had marked it wrong and circled B instead, I was the first one at her desk with the textbook shoved in her face. "Oh, ha! Yes, I know, but these are based on what will be presented to you on the IDPH board!". Needless to say she was equally sympathetic when I pointed out that the apical/radial pulse question was "wrong" too. Apparently the IDPH doesn't want you to take them alone because the health care works of Illinois are so damned incompetent they may "mix them up" so the correct answer isn't "take them at the same time" like we were taught, it's "get a partner to assist you". Please, what fucking hospital have they worked in? It's hard enough to even get yourself together enough to help the patients, let alone find someone else to "assist" you. So yeah, I'm a tad pissed about the 85 that should've been a 93 but either way, I don't think I should take that final today. When we had to take quizzes while the broad was on vacation, I never scored below a 96 and that was 14 quizzes. I think that proves my ability, damnit. That and the fact that I'm one of three people in the class (29 people in the class) that can actually take a blood pressure without fucking it up. But of course, I guess I have an advantage, my mother is a PCT, my grandmother was a RN and my great-great-grandfather was a doctor. Maybe it's in the blood. That or maybe I am just that damn good.

It's almost 7:40. If I have to go, I really should go, huh? I won tickets to a Sherri Austin concert in the city yesterday. If you don't know who that is, join the ranks. I only knew she sang that annoying "On the Streets of Heaven" country song but hey, I was calling up to request something and whaddayaknow, the DJ and Sherri answered the phone and asked my name. Mom says later on the air the DJ stated that she would "love to announce all our Sherri Austin winner's but I can't pronounce half their names!". Yeah, god bless my 12 letter last name. She had me spell it out and next thing you know, I have yet another celebrity asking me how the hell I live with a last name. Like my mother has said 8 million times, The S.O.'s last name is so much simpler than mine, 7 letters simpler, in fact... and 40 billion times more common. He has one of those nice plain (Ha. I love him, he knows it, I can call his last name plain, damnit... I'll make brownies tonight to make up for it, I suppose) short last names and I'm stuck with the last name of a semi-famous lesbian playwright that is most likely related to my grandfather's parents who lived in Canada and an even less famous wrestling referee. Aren't I the lucky girl?

Anyway, we didn't go to the concert cause I have school (in like half an hour, bah!) and The S.O. has training and it didn't start until 9:30 so fuck it. I tried to give them away to friends and family but no one knew who she was and so finally, I ended up calling the radio station to give them back. I was kinda sorta secretly wishing they would've given me something else for being so damned nice to call BACK and tell them I couldn't go and they could give them to someone else. But nope. However, the DJ did say I was a rare breed and most people wouldn't have called back and then proceeded to wish me luck on my final and the S.O. luck on his training. Hey, it's all about the karma, right? Well, that and being a good person. In spite of my misanthropic tendencies, I usually like to do the "right" thing and yeah, I do like to believe that if I continue to do the "right" thing, I will one day reap the benefits. Alas, it may not be in this lifetime but one day...

Ooh, I'm getting Toto. Mom and Dad say she's too sick (she has arthritic hips - she can join me now) and they actually (prepare to be shocked) discussed putting her down. Yeah, okay, maybe I got a tad more dramatic than most but sweet jesus, this is MY dog. This is the dog I like more than most people. This is the sweetest, prettiest, smartest dog I've ever had the pleasure of encountering, let alone owning. I'd have to kill my parents if they killed her, it's as simple as that. So they said that if The S.O. and I were considering moving to TX, we should take the dog with us. Well, we had been discussing it but nothing was final so she asked if we still wanted the dog. Well, there is no way I'm letting them put down my dog so of course, I told her yes. Honestly, the best Valentine's Day present I got from him was being told "yes, we can take the dog in". But the huge bouquet of flowers and cookies didn't hurt anybody, of course. We have a friggin garden going on around here these days. I got him a bouquet and then he got me a huge thing of different flowers (mums, some white flowers, carnations, some lily of the valleys, something else I don't know, etc) and then Dad gave me a plant he'd started growing last year in a pot. It's all fine and dandy except I hope the cat doesn't eat them. Well, the cat pretty much stays in the spare bedroom while we're away anyway. He has everything he could ever want in there and he's content. Once Toto arrives that may be a different story though. Ah, and Mom and Dad's house. They are moving once Henry graduates high school... and once they do, they've decided they would like to sell it to us. That was actually pretty damn good news cause I'm pretty sure they have the house paid off or almost paid off and they bought the house fairly cheap (74,000) and now it's estimated that they can sell it for over 200,000 if they wanted to. They've put a lot of time and money into it, getting new siding, new fencing, new flooring in the bathroom, new water pipes, new carpet in the hallway, new chimney for the fireplace. And it's just a nice house in general. Except for their bedroom. Their bedroom has mirrors all over the wall from the seventies. Kinky, sure, but not what I want for my master bedroom. But otherwise, a gas fireplace, a gas range stove, 1/3 of an acre for a backyard, fenced yard, the treehouse I attempted to build, two bedrooms plus the attic which has been converted into a bedroom (where I lived for so many years), two bathrooms (Oh my god, you have no idea how much I want this, apparently our bladders are in sync with each other and whenever one of us has to relieve them self, the other has to at the SAME EXACT TIME which leads to the lovely I-Have-To-Pee Dance which includes jumping up and down on your feet, knocking repeatedly on the door while the other is attempting to do their business, offering to pee in the sink/tub/toothbrush holder if they will just let you in, and cursing them out once they finally do get the hell out of the bathroom) and two patio doors which is nice. I'm talking about the house as if I'm writing a real estate ad, christ. But it's a nice house and it's really nice of them to do that and I'm glad because with our credit not being the world's greatest, it's nice to know I'll do the mortgaging through my parents and not a bank. So, all around, fairly good news, I'll go take this final and hopefully have more good news later. Now I must fly my ass to school.

before & after