Leaving my safety net behind...

I realize that I am being a very bad blog updater. But, at least I am hitting an update a month, yes? It could be worse.

When I posted last, I was just starting my orientation on night shift- here we are, 6 weeks later, and I have officially finished orientation and spent one week on my own. That's right- for the first time I spent 12 hours as the only person directly responsible for two patients. I had no one whose only job for the shift was to look out for me. Unfortunately (or... really fortunately) I don't really have any exciting stories to share from my first week. Well... one of my patients was just amusing... but yes. Everyone was still alive and breathing when I left, so I will count that as a success! I'm definitely starting to feel more at home in the Neuro Unit, and am looking forward to growing and learning more these next several months. Also, I'm getting a lot better at driving the beds- they have a motor in them! It's fairly intense.

The night shift life? I'm getting more used to the hours- in fact, even on days when I don't need to be up late, I still find myself staying awake until at least 1am or later, and it's rare for me to be awake before 10 or 11, if not later. And of course, there are multiple days a week that I spend the whole day in bed- and even if I've only slept for 8 hours, something about sleeping from 8am-4pm is still a little odd. But I'm getting used to it. It's even starting to throw me off when I go to bed when it's still dark out. And it's always funny when I'm literally getting into bed when my roommates are getting out of it; one of them has clinicals for nursing school, so earlier this week when I was getting ready for bed at 5am (I had been put on call for the night, but had slept all day), she was waking up.

The upside to night shift is that I have plenty of time to watch movies or tv shows I've been meaning to... Netflix has become my new friend. And I have tons of time to work on new knitting projects. The downside? well... I'm sitting in a room watching movies and knitting. There's some limitation of human interaction at 3am. Sad but true.

I'm getting ready to leave for church- where I'll stand in front of the congregation and be recognized as a new member! Exciting times! I'm enjoying getting to know people there better, and looking forward to continue building relationships.

Also, I feel the need to admit that living in Nashville has already got me dialing into the country music station a bit more often. Don't tell my sister.

Right now, though, I'm mainly looking forward to the end of the week. Off to Birmingham to see the midnight viewing of Deathly Hallows, part one, spend time with the boyfriend, and go to a wedding of two good friends. Overall, I'm anticipating a very fun weekend. And trying not to think about spending thanksgiving alone... at least we're having a thanksgiving potluck at work, right?