We shall not cease from exploration.

 School starts tomorrow! Ack!! Brandon will be a junior! Ack!! Isn't that just crazy???

He's whining about going to school tomorrow. LOL.

I'm whining about having to leave earlier since I go through three different school zones and that's even before I leave the county. Tomorrow will be the trial run to see how many I can avoid by leaving early

I'm kinda glad he's going back because I might see him more. Teenage boy plus girlfriend plus job plus car = a mom who has to schedule an appointment. I told him I feel like his landlord except I'm not getting a nice, fat rent check every month.

I still LOVE my job! The added bonus is that I feel as though I am really helping people even more so than usual because, let's face it, it sure does suck to be uninsured and I feel really bad for these people. It's practicing medicine with one hand tied behind your back.

It's strange. Kindred spirits are hard to come by in "real life". It hardly ever happens. At the moment, three of my fellow NP's are watching and loving Merlin. Go Figure?

I think it's gonna take longer to get used to how short the weekends are, now. I may whinge indefinitely.

But, hey, my exercise regimen has improved since I usually walk for 30 minutes during lunch. I walk outside and, because it's been pretty hot for quite a while, I have had people stop in the middle of a really busy street to ask me if I need a ride. Maybe they are just super nice. Maybe they think Fat girl's gonna fall out. IDK.

Today I really started looking forward to D*C and fun times with friends. Hooray!! But I am lamenting my overall lack of comfortable fannish T-shirts. I say comfortable because I'm not really a fan of the typical T-shirt that almost feels like a turtleneck and long sleeves and that I hardly ever want to wear no matter how much I am fangirling it. Still wish I had something Merlin related.......

I bought a new camera! For years, I've been considering purchasing an SLR but they are sooooo expensive. And cumbersome. And heavy. And there's the general inability to record video. Well, thanks to archaeologist_d  ,and all her beautiful travel photos (and I'm not just talking about the wonderful boyz pics from filming), I was a total copycat and bought a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35. It's so light!!! I suspect it weighs about half what my old Canon S3 IS weighs. And certainly less than an SLR would have. That means a lot when you are shlepping all over downtown Atlanta! I am hoping it will be the best compromise of portability and function.

I finally installed MAGIX. And that is about as far as I got. It might be as far as I ever get. The interface is very pretty. Your source material is automatically in the library and easy to find, also very pretty. Having to ask the program to scene detect (clip) and then watch it take an age to do so, not so much. Then you end up with a bazillion "takes" (clips). (Well, not a bazillion, really....my coworker says that I am the absolute Queen of hyperbole...but 400 plus!) Maybe that is actually related to my source material and how I acquired it, as opposed to ripping the episodes from DVD myself. Which also takes an age. On second thought........

 
I have worked some extra hours this week so I haven't been about. I can tell from my f-list that I have missed loads of cool, fun things, including birthdays, travel news, wonderful new fic recs, and scads of drool-worthy photos. Perhaps I can remedy that this weekend at some point.

Yesterday's brutal workday has bled into this one, even though I am off. There didn't seem to be enough coffee on the planet to get me motivated. However, after checking my e-mail, I saw that I had received a notice from the ANCC and OMG!!!! I now have an actual, bona fide test date.

***is now in full-blown panic mode***

One of my all time favorite quotes from Red Dwarf (and also my e-mail tagline) has never been more appropriate.

Lister: "Hey, it hasn't happened, has it? It has `will have going to have happened' happened, but it hasn't actually `happened' happened yet, actually."
Rimmer: "Poppycock! It will be happened.It shall be going to be happening. It will be was an event that could will have been taken place in the future. Simple as that. Your bucket's been kicked, baby."

ETA:

GULP!! But in an entirely different way. Oh, how the THUNK can take your mind off things....

 ( Waffles, anyone? )
( Go, Brandon!! )
( SGU )

( Merlin )
( Sanctuary )

( Sherlock )

Three post in as many days. What is up with that? It's likely more of a side effect of sitting the summer out to save money. However, that means that what I have to say can't be too terribly interesting. Usually, that is enough to stop me from posting. Not this summer, it seems.

Brandon is off to church camp. I might have gone with except that I work tomorrow. That's the way it usually works out. How is it that I can work every other Saturday and somehow manage to hit the fun times? But, I probably could use a break from him since I frequently want to smack him upside the head. Though, not so much this week. Either he has been less annoying or I have been less likely to be annoyed.

After I dropped him off I headed to Paris Landing to prove to myself that I would actually go without him. Since it is a little bit out of the way, I figure that if it's just me it isn't really worth the trip. Well, it was worth it.  It was another scorcher (high of 96 but heat index of 105..or so the weather report said it would be) but the water was perfect. When it is this hot, I typically get wet first before trekking around the park. Still, it was pretty hot and I was sweating buckets by the end and giving thanks for anti-diuretic hormone for keeping the balance. Handy hormone, that.  (see what happens when you study!).

Still, the workout has taken a hit these past couple of weeks. It could all be remedied by me being able to just get out and go early in the morning. But, I am not really a morning person though I can fake it pretty well. I don't think I could really drag a pot of coffee and a bottle water on an early morning trek....LOL. No, my optimal exercise time is midday which isn't very handy. And I wonder again at equivalencies. Are two days with an hour or more each day the same as four days with 30 minutes each day? See how I begin to rationalize. And it's partially for naught since I am such a pig. Sure, I have disassociated weight loss from exercise but it would still be nice.

That reminds me of shift report the other day when we were talking about an 80 year old patient who just would not eat and we were discussing strategies. It dawned on me, and  then I had to say it,  that I am going to be royally pissed if, after trying not to eat my entire life,  I finally lose my appetite when I am 80! Of course that degenerated into jokes of me calling the nurses station at 5am, reminding them that it was time for my am weight and to hurry up about it. (Seriously, I know it serves a real, medical purpose but who wants to be awakened at 5am and be told that it is time to be weighed!)

Leverage continues to entertain and I am still loving Hardison the mostest even if Eliot is a total hottie. I lurve all his fight scenes!

I escaped my strange, ongoing hermitude today in order to head to Clarksville to see Toy Story 3. It was good and I even shed a few tears during the film. Thankfully, the 3D glasses hid them well..LOL. I had invited a friend in my choir group to come with because I have observed how infrequently I make an actual effort to make new friends other than coworker friends.  She is my age and I do believe she is a genre girl, too, so that was a pleasant surprise. Afterwards, we perused the bookstore and I bought two Terry Pratchett books. People have been telling me for ages that I would like the Discworld books. However, are they to be read in order? There wasn't any definitive way to tell because when I looked at the inside covers of various books, I would see two different listing orders? Is it one of those things where it doesn't really matter? Anyway, I decided on Making Money and Mort. Not sure why other than Making Money was listed first on most of the inside covers and Mort just sounded interesting. Have I totally messed up with regard to chronology?

When I got home, I discovered in my mailbox the CD's and handbook for an NP review course. I have a very generous friend and fellow student because this set would have cost me $289 had I purchased it on my own. What a totally nice thing to do! She recently took her certification exam and passed and she tells me that this review course really helped her. So, for the next 6-8 months, my plan is to listen to them on the way to and from work and when school starts for Brandon (and the pool closes) I am going to set aside one or two days a week to head to the library and study. I had intended this to be my summer of study but have now revised it to my August of study because I am literally eat up with the lazy...LOL.

I am back into Burn Notice. Like Lost, my interest in this show waxes and wanes and it was one of those times where I had left last season's finale on my DVR forever and was able to watch finale and premiere episodes back to back. That works pretty well for me sometimes. It can be such an exciting show and I wonder why I let them pile up. Probably too much going on at the time.

Still Merlin obsessed and looking forward to being able to see The Last Dragonlord on 42 ince widescreen...LOL (Since I have only watched it on the computer a half dozen times). I haven't mentioned some of the great episodes over the past few weeks because, well, even though this is my own journal for chronicling the yawnfest that is my life and the very word journal should imply that I would write about these things whether anyone was interested or not,  it seems silly to post about something for which no one else has the least modicum of interest or will want to read. Yet, still I post. That's where obsession comes in, you see. And it is an obsession of Stargate SG-1 proportions even if I don't quite understand exactly why my fanzeal has reached that level.

( Merlin stuff for the (hopefully) interested. )

And, of course, I have to post the facebook recap of The Fires of Idirsholas.

Favorite bit of the recap

Gaius: You didn't have a choice, Merlin. You saw how dark her eyeliner was getting. Once she moved from charcoal to black onyx, it was only a matter of time before she axe-murdered us all.

Heeeee!

BTW, de23  I have Netflixed season one of Leverage.

( Rain and reality )Of course, some may wonder how I have found time for my second topic...fantasy, namely The SHOWS! I can only say that as I have become older, I have been unable to study after 8pm. Seriously, nothing puts me out faster than reading a textbook after 8! So, I spent that time with my favorite forms of escape. And with regard to my beloved fantasy forms, it really has been all about poignancy and heartbreak.

( Fantasy (somewhat spoily for Fringe/SGU/Merlin )SGU and now Merlin raise an issue I have been internally debating. The casts for these shows are, for the most part, twenty somethings. As a woman in her 40's, at what point does fannish devotion to younger characters, even if they aren't teenagers, become sort of pervy and pathetic? (Assuming that previous or existing fannish devotions weren't already pathetic...LOL)  As we grow older, it is only going to get worse, I think. Any thoughts?