Sunday, November 13, 2011

House meets RN

Many months ago I was considering looking into a backup plan for my future career.  I currently hold a Bachelor's in Criminal Justice, but that field is slowly looking less and less realistic for me.  For starters, MOST of the jobs in that field you need previous experience...I have none.  This means I have to start from the bottom and work my way up.  This would be fine, except from all the job hunting I've been doing, it seems I have 2 ways to start at the bottom and both seem pretty unrealistic.

The first one is doing something like security work, but that would involve me taking a HUGE pay cut because security pays dick at a majority of places.  I just can't afford a pay cut right now.  I have a lot of bills to pay, I'm saving to move out with the love of my life, and I'm finally slowly getting my past credit card debt to disappear.  Taking a pay cut just isn't going to happen, at least not a significant one.  The other option is police work and starting as a basic patrol officer.  I'm all for this, except that I'm out of shape and physical test is mandatory in order to move onto the next part of the application process.  I was getting myself in shape, but even when running became easier for me, the upper body strength portion just didn't seem to be working for me.  If I did continue to try to work on my upper body strength (which MOST women have very little of) it's going to take A LOT of work (as if all of my fat glory won't take a lot of work to fix).  The cut off age for new police officers is 35.  I'm going to be 30 in 5 months.  Each process to get into law enforcement can take years.  The last test I took for a law enforcement agency congradulated me on passing the written test and that the next step was the physical, which I will hear back from them to take this within 4 years at the most.  WHAT?!?!?  4 YEARS!?!?  Not realistic when my age is going to be so close to that cut off point.  So, with that reality kicking in, I realized I need a backup plan with my life.  That's when it hit me....I can get into nursing!

I feel this would be a great choice for me.  Not just because I feel I can handle it, but because it's a job in high demand with a lot of job security.  I have the stomach for the stuff they have to do and I honestly feel that I can enjoy it.  Then I was thinking about it and schooling would be totally realistic for me.  The community colleges around here offer the program, so I don't have to go to an overpriced University.  I can apply for grants at the beginning of the new year, which will help pay for school.  There are also lots of scholarships that are offered at the community college I'm looking into that I would qualify for, so if I could get any of those my schooling would be even cheaper for me.  Then last, but not least, my job offers educational assistance if your going to school in a field of study that benefits them.  Since I work in the healthcare field, nursing would be covered in the educational assistance program.  So, overall, my schooling would be significantly cheaper for me and I can still work towards a degree that I know would be a great step in the right direction for my future career.

One thing I do find humorous about me getting into nursing is that I'm a tough cookie.  I'm caring and sensitive, don't get me wrong, but I'm also very straight forward and can be quite sarcastic.  I've been told that if I go in this direction, I may be the House of the RN world.  LOL!  I could ever be as cold as House, but I can see that little bit of a streak in me when it comes to the sarcasm.

I totally see this being a great step for me.  Now it's just a matter of figuring out what kind of hours are available for the classes.  Almost all the hours I see posted may bump heads with my new job position, but I think if I get my Gen. Eds. out of the way first (which you have to do to start the RN program)  and just take the classes here and there as available I can still work my normal hours and work in the beginning portion of schooling.  I mean, since I have a Bachelor's degree already, I'm sure most of my Gen. Eds. will be already out of the way with from my transferrable credits, except there are a decent amount of Biology classes to take and those I don't have previous credits to cover.  So, I'm thinking that this Spring, I will either start those Biology classes or work to get the CNA certificate if this college requires it (it's not posted as a requirement, but most colleges do require it).  My goal is to start my next step with schooling this Spring.  Let's hope this all works out.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

It's been awhile since I've updated and I must say I've been busy.  It seems like all my time lately, both at work and outside of work, has been hectic.  Some good busy situations, some bad, some that I don't know how to catagorize.  So, here's a rundown of my life since the last time my fingers touched my keyboard for a blog post.

I got a promotion at work.  Yay!  I won't have to deal with that witch of a boss anymore and I'll finally be happier at work.  I know, that's hard to believe since my job has made me so miserable for such a long time, but I'm going to have a boss that I really like, I'm going to be getting paid much better, I'll have a job that will keep me more busy, and I'll have more vacation days. So, all around a positive change that I'm looking forward to starting.  I haven't officially started the new job yet, but very soon.  Until then, I'm juggling trying to tie up loose ends in my current job and keep in touch with my new manager on when all the changes will start to go into effect.  I can't wait!  The only down side is that I will be working every other weekend and I've gotten spoiled to having my weekends completely open, but I think it will all be worth it.

My boyfriend and I have been continuing to house hunt.  Granted, it's sort of on hold right now, but only because there was one tiny thing that needed to be worked on with the bank in order to get the loan.  That has now been taken care of and in about 2 months we can go back to looking for a house again.  2 months might seem kind of long, but it will all be worth it.  Until this weekend when those loose ends were being worked on, it seems like all our free time has been dealing with banks and looking for houses in our price range, talking to people for additional information, and just all sorts of stuff like that.  Finally some breathing room for a couple months.

Then there is my health.  I believe I previously posted about the abdominal pain that I had, well this weekend I finally had my appointment for my abdominal ultrasound and it seems that I have gallstones.  Yikes!  The only thing to fix that is to have my gallbladder removed.  So, I have to wait to hear from the surgeon that my doctor will be sending a referral to and I will be scheduling yet another surgery  (I've had 2 surgeries in the past for non-related things).  It's a good thing you don't need a gallbladder, otherwise I would be royally freaking out.  The good news is that since I'm young, getting this done now will keep me from getting anything severe from this problem when I'm older.  Most gallstone issues are more severe when your more up there in age, so getting this taken care of now will avoid any problems later in life.  The one thing that sucks is that I'm being told no greasy or fried food and I should avoid chocolate and spicy stuff.  OMG!  Me avoid spicy!?!?!??!  How the hell am I supposed to do that?!?!?  I guess it's only until I have this removed, but still.  For anyone that knows me, spicy is my obsession.  I will put hot sauce on almost anything, except things meant to be sweet.  Ewww!  If I look at the bright side though, this will force me to get back on the healthy eating track, because lord knows I haven't been as good with that as I should be lately.

So, overall, mostly good news to update, but then some bad/ugly news.  Overall though, life has been busy and I must say that with the exception of having to schedule a surgery, it's been hectic for good reasons.  Now to try to get back on track with a normal life again.  Lord knows I need the breathing room.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Bring on the positive vibes!

As many people either know, or have noticed, I have often been quite negative.  I don't like to be by any means, but it seems like that's the direction my overall views have been going for too long for me to even keep track of anymore.  As of lately though, I've found that I've been the opposite...most of the time.  I've been trying to be more optimistic and less of a negative nelly.

I've noticed on Facebook, in my blog posts, and just my overall conversations with people, I've been either neutral or positive and this is a jump in the right direction.  For people who have known me for more years than they can remember, I used to me this obnoxious happy-go-lucky positive-vibe type of person.  Then life happens (I'm talking about the bad and negative aspects of life) and over time it's like my mentality just did a complete 180 and was the total opposite of what it used to be.  I've been working on getting back to the old me mentally and I'm on the right track.

Today is a perfect example, which is what got me thinking about this to begin with.  I feel like hell (sick if you've read my previous post) and I had to come into work because my job frowns upon calling off more than any job I've ever had.  Instead of being pissy all day and being a jerk to people, which is how I found myself typically reacting in this sort of situation previously, I instead smiled stayed in a good mood, didn't let the small stuff set me off, and I even was nice to people who normally make steam come from my ears.  I stayed in a good mood all day regardless of how shitty I felt.

I just couldn't help notice the changes I'm slowly making to my overall mental state of mind and I'm glad to see I'm becoming my old self again.  VERY slowly, but still some progress nevertheless.  It's change in the right direction and I'm pretty proud of it.

The Effects of Stress

We don't realize how much stress effects us, but your body can really take a toll with stress.  I've been under A LOT of stress lately.  Between work, my boyfriend's sister moving back to the city and into his parent's place (looooong story behind this, but trust me this is a VERY negative effect on my boyfriend and I), and my boyfriend and I trying to buy a house, I'm seriously at the stressful peak.

You always hear that being stressed can make you sick, and with the exception of serious conditions like heart attack and stroke and hypertension, I didn't think anything of it.  The fact of the matter is that our bodies are effected by stress more than we think.  In the past few weeks since I've had many more things get added onto my list of things stressing me out and coincidently my body has felt the effects of it.  I've had a bad cold 3 times (yes, 3 seperate times in about 3 weeks) and then last week on Tuesday I was suffering a great deal with abdominal pain and discomfort to the point where my mom almost took me to the ER.  Since ER bills are no joke, I vouched to be stubborn and deal with it that night and just made a doctor's appointment for the next day.  When I explained all my health problems to my doctor, the first thing she asked me "Are you under a lot of stress?".  Wow!  Yes...yes I am.  She immediately told me that I need to find ways to relax and find methods of stress relieving that work for me because my body is really paying the price.  The colds (all 3), those are just because my body has so much going on that it's struggling to fight off something as simple as the common cold.  As for the abdominal pain, well my doctor is thinking it's either an ulcer or something with my gallbladder.  I have an abdominal ultrasound scheduled for later this month to find out more.

I really need to find a good stress reliever.  I thought having my down time after work and just reading a book or playing video games was enough, but it's obviously not at all.  What I need to do is get myself back into working out.  It's going to take a hell of a push, but that used to always be an awesome stress reliever for me, whether it was doing a workout video or going for a run.  Just getting my body going always relaxed me.  I'm just struggling so much to find that push I need to get me back into a routine.  Not to mention it's hard when I feel like people working out is being rubbed in my face a lot lately.  I feel like if I'm not doing it, I'm not up to par with them and it's making me feel small.  I don't like feeling like that, but I can't help it.  I get brought down and then I mentally push the thought of working out on the back burner.  I can't do that anymore because now it's not just for weightloss like it originally was in the past, now it's also to get me healthy again and get my stress reduced.  I unfortunately might have to wait until next week to get started though, because as long as this cold is still kicking my ass (I'm currently fighting that 3rd cold I mentioned above), I don't have the energy for much of anything.  Not to mention, I don't seem to fight off colds well unless I do a lot of relaxing and sleeping.  So, until this cold is gone, I have to take it easy.  Once it's gone though, I have to push myself back into a workout routine, whether I like it or not.

Friday, September 30, 2011

The Bug That's Going Around

It seems like lately everyone is getting sick.  The usual cold, sore throat, cough, achy body, etc.  I'm pretty sure this drastic change in Chicago weather has a lot to do with it.  It seems to go from warm to cold to rainy and then that rotations restarts, but not necessarily in that order.

It seems I'm the next one to be getting struck with this damned cold/throat thing.  I woke up this morning and I blew my nose more times than I could tell you.  I was coughing left and right and my throat had that imfamous cold-coming-on feeling.  That slimy meets scratchy feeling.  You know what I mean.  Anyways, here I am at work counting down for the weekend to begin and instead of looking forward to the weekend, here I am dreading it because I'm pretty sure my time away from work is going to consist of cold meds and sleeping.  Ugh!

Being sick sucks!  What sucks even more is when your sick on a weekend.  I'm not saying I enjoy being sick when I have to come into work, but at least you know that your not missing much when you feel like hell on a work day.  It's like you either call in and dope yourself up on cold meds while you alternate between napping and watching crappy daytime TV or you go into work and just work very half-assed while you daydream about being in bed.  You know everyone you'd rather be spending time with is more than likely also at work and couldn't hangout anyways so you're not losing much being sick on a weekday.  On the weekend; however, being sick means you miss out on fun and getting things done that you want to get done.  It's like those 2 days off go to waste.

I'm hoping that making a Walgreens run after work to get myself some cold meds and start taking them tonight will help me avoid the worst of this wretched cold.  It doesn't always seem to work that way, but once in awhile I get lucky.  Let's hope this is one of those times.

Friday, September 23, 2011

Vi's Gamer Types

I've been thinking about this a lot since I got back into gaming more regularly and I've realized that I have my own catagories of the types of gamers that are out there.  Granted, I've based these gamer types mostly on the kind of people I come across while playing WoW; however, when I was thinking about it, these are pretty much fitting for the type of gamers that exist in any game you can play (mostly online since you interact with other players).

I've broken the list down to the 4 types of gamers and here they are:

~ The Know-It-All Gamers (aka Elitists):  These are those gamers that you come across that pretty much tell everyone what to do, what not to know, how to do everything, and pretty much try to lead the group of people regardless of whether or not the game consists of an actual group/raid leader.  These are the people that will try to run the show  and be the best of the best even when it's a group effort and everyone has the ability to shine.  They are the ones that insist on doing things their way or not at all.  I find many of these people are probably bringing this pushy playing style into the gaming world to make up for a lack of control in the real world.  I also refer to these gamer types as "Elitists" because they have to have everything go 100% perfect, otherwise they have a fit, start swearing up a storm, or leave everyone else in the group high and dry because they can't deal with imperfection.  Regardless of what makes these players the way they are, they are often the people that everyone else in the group hates.

~ The Dumb Shit Gamers:  These are the people that regardless of how long they've been playing a particular game, they still continue to ask a thousand questions that are either self explanatoy or are learned so early on into the game that there's no reason they shouldn't know this by now.  The other people that fall under this catagory are those people that ruin the fun of gaming for everyone else because they either screw the whole group over and cause deaths/wipes or they do stupid things "for fun" when it's not something that's fun for anyone other than themselves.  These are the people that I find often get kicked from groups because of the lack of patience everyone else in the group has for them.  If the game doesn't allow a kicking from group ability, these are the people that cause the other gamers to step out of the group in order to keep their own sanity.  These are also the gamers that almost everyone else in the group hates.

~ The Just-For-Fun Gamers (aka Casual Gamers):  These are those laid back gamers that often could care less whether they win or lose as long as they are having fun doing it.  They are the people that try to be the median between the other gamer types.  They try to make sure everyone is just enjoying themselves and not fighting or ruining the game for others.  Although these guys are fun to play with because they won't yell at you when perfection isn't achieved, they can sometimes be annoying when that competitive streak kicks in and you lose because they are brutally laid back.  I'm not saying games are only fun when you win, but they aren't fun when you always lose.  So, it's nice to be able to have at least a hair of competitive nature.  Overall though, these are fun people to play with because at least you know everything will be civil.

~ The Cry Baby Gamers:  These gamer types are different from the Elitist gamers to an extent, but also have some similar qualities.  Like the Elitists, they want perfection, but the difference is that instead of being assholes when they don't get what they want, the get pissy and whiny when things don't work out in their favor.  So, they don't they don't want perfection for the group, they only want perfection for themselves.  They bitch and moan until they get their way.  If a piece of armor drops that they want and they aren't the ones that win it or their overall DPS (Damage Per Second) isn't where they want it to be, they will make a scene until they either get what they way or things work in their favor.  Often they are removed from group due to everyone being sick of the childish behavior.  These are often children...literally.  They act like kids because far too often they are children.  They bring their temper tantrums into the gaming world when things aren't the way they want it to be.  I can speak from experience, but I HATE gaming with kids.  Sometimes you have no control over it because you don't always get to choose your groups in many games.  Some groups are just randomly thrown together via an online grouping system (such as in WoW and many online XBox Live games).  How do you know they are children?  Well, either people ask and they answer honestly or you can verbally hear them over Ventrilo, TeamSpeak, the XBox Live chat feature, etc.  You can hear that they're balls haven't dropped yet.  Gaming with kids or cry baby gamers is a nightmare!  It's like the gaming version of birth control.

Personally, I find myself falling under the "Just For Fun" gamer type, but I can honestly say that I have been known to be a bit more competitive than I describe these type of gamers to be, so there may be a streak of the "Elitist" gamer in me too.  Overall though, I think I'm more in the "Just For Fun" since more often than not, I'm happy with just playing for fun than achieving an overall goal with the hope for as close to perfection as possible.  It's called a game because it's meant to be played for the purpose of fun.  Why some people take these games so seriously is beyond me.  Regardless of why these people are they way they are, I thought it would be fun for me to throw together my own little list of gamer types based on the usual gaming styles I've come across.  Hope you enjoyed my list!  =)

Monday, September 19, 2011

Positive changes need to happen

It seems like for months now, I've been in this perma-down-in-the-dumps mood.  Yeah, that's a mouth full.  It seem like no matter what I do or what I try to do for myself, that mood doesn't seem to be changing.  I know a lot of those negative feelings and that sour mood would change with a new job, but since that doesn't seem to be happening yet, I need to find things that will bring my mood up in other ways.  I really want to make some changes that won't just be temporary, but things that can get me out of this funk and keep me going continually.

For starters, I need to get back into working out more than once a week.  When I workout regularly, I notice that my overall mood is improved significantly.  I don't plan on being a workout nazi to the point when I make that my life and force others into that lifestyle, but I know for me I need to get back into my 4-day a week routine.  Those 4-days a week used to keep my mood pretty damn good for the week and it also was a stress reliever for me, which I know I very much need.

I also want to do some things that are just good for the soul, like donating blood every so often (or other type of charity based events) or just getting together with friends for a night of laughs.  I've been a little distant with people lately, but it's because I'm trying to get myself to a happier place and I really needed some "ME" time.  Not to mention I know what it feels like to hangout with someone when they are in a funk and it results to the whole group kind of being down, quiet, or distant.  I didn't want to be the cause of that weird feeling or mood.  The problem is, that even that ME time hasn't helped, so I'm considering doing the exact opposite.  Maybe surrounding myself with friends and laughs every so often would help.  I read an article recently about things that just naturally can bring happiness to people and being surrounded by positivity and good friends was one of the things on that list.  So, I may have to do just that.

Another thing I need to do is try to push the negativity from my life.  I know I can't control negative people and feelings all the time, no one can, but I can definitely distance myself from it.  Work is a big place for me to be surrounded by negativity, which I obviously can't avoid.  What I can do though is just breath and walk away as needed when something that's bringing on high stress levels or bitching from the people I have to deal with.  I do this already on occasion, but definitely not nearly enough.  Usually I sit there, bitch a fit to someone, and remain angry and frustrated over whatever the situation or person that caused it.  If you read my previous post, I've dealt with a lot of backstabbing at work lately and this has brought me to the point of wanting to find a new way of handling my aggravation and stress at work.  I have to find a better way to deal with it for now.  Eventually I'll be free of this place, but as long as I'm stuck here, I need to find a way to handle the things that have been breaking me down lately.  So, this is why I'm trying to find positive ways to deal with the negatives around here.  Outside of work though, I can't say I deal with much negativity, at least on a regular enough basis to where changes need to be worked on.  The main negatives outside of work have to deal with myself and that's what I've been working on and will continue to work on.

All around, I have to surround myself with as much positivity as I can to get me in a better overall mood.  I'm tired of feeling depressed, down, unappreciated, stressed, etc.  I need to find ways to deal with all these things and more to get me back in a mood I'm happy with.  I hate being in these kind of moods and I know it affects those around me, which I hate more.  I don't like affecting other around me negatively.  So, changes have to start to happen for the better, not just to help myself, but to help the relationships around me.