NCLEX

In just a few days I will be taking THE BIGGEST EXAM OF MY LIFE.

I feel like I have done all I can to prepare for this and I know when I walk out of the exam, I'll feel as if I could have never prepared enough. It's a frustrating feeling but someway, somehow I've managed to go deep within the bowels of my soul to a calm place that is unfamilar to me.

A year ago, if I felt like I do today, I would have been worrying about my lack of worry. I would have said, "Self! Stop this. You are too confident and calm about this. You'll jinx it!" But after crawling my way through nursing school, I've learned a thing or two or hundred about myself. One being, I am a better test taker when I am calm and not freaking out. And right now, I need to be the BEST test taker I can be.

To prepare for THE BIGGEST EXAM OF MY LIFE, I have done nothing but practice practice practice....and read the book pictured above.

I pray it's enough to pass...the first time.

It Might Come In Handy One Day

I took my kids to Chik Fil A for a quick dinner. I didn't get around to making the chicken artichoke dish I had planned. Hubster left early for a meeting and I wasn't going to go through all that trouble for myself and the kids would have hated it anyway.

When we got to Chik Fil A, it was utter mayhem. It was....Kids Night. I wouldn't have stayed but we got 2 kids meals for free. I'm cheap. That and my children spotted a clown. As we were waiting for the balloon twisting Bojangles to make his way over to our table, I contemplated a career in clowning. I figure if I don't pass the biggest exam of my life, it would be a flexible career to fall back on. I'd just need a good clown name...like Stretch (because I'm tall)....and some mad balloon twisting skills. I could pick that up in no time.

When I was working at a children's hospital during nursing school, I had wished I knew how to make animals from twisting and folding towels. Weird, I know. But I thought it would be fun for the kids. Like being on a cruise, except not really. When we set up rooms for new admits, the patients got 3 washcloths and 3 bath towels. We'd leave a pile of towels sitting on the counter next to a tiny pink box of kleenex and a yellow puke basin. I always thought it would be cute to have a frog or a swan or an elephant sitting there instead. I could hear the parents' "awwws" as I envisioned the kids smiling and pointing with excitement.

Unfortunately, the only thing I know how to make with a towel is a penis. Classy I know. It was a skill I picked up working in a bar for 6 years as a waitress. I can't remember the joke that accompanied folding the towel....but the ability to make the penis still lingers.

I don't think the parents would have appreciated that.