Music fest kind of week.

I am blogging again, yay! I am actually not bored because I am watching the Flyers vs. Devils game on TV right now. I am just in the mood to type something up. So... my whole week has been very fulfilling. I saw three of my favorite musicians in a span of 7 days.

Sam Sparro performed at World Cafe Live last Monday (4/23). To most of you who do not know him, he is an Australian singer-songwriter and his music is basically soul and funk with some electro. He is not quite that big, but he certainly has many followers and gay followers.

Shades of Grey & Black and Gold

This guy's voice is very soulful!!! I really enjoyed his singing. He was so lively on stage too including his two back up singers. I love him!

I also saw Death Cab for Cutie on Wednesday (4/25)! What can I say? It makes me happy when a band sings as good in their records as they are live. This band is popular. Their show was sold out and I don't even think they are mainstream yet.

Death Cab for Cutie with Magik*Magik Orchestra

Finally, after months of wishing for Chiddy Bang to perform in Philly, I saw this tweet:

I had a hard time asking my friends to come with me because it was such a short notice. Nobody seemed to be available on a Saturday night lol. plus I realized that I need more friends who can come with me on these shows. I do not have anyone at work to invite to T_T and my friends are all working now so it's difficult when our schedules do not match. :( Good thing the Alvaro sisters were free that night and they came with me yay!

Chiddy Bang is not very known yet. Yes, because I think in a few years, they will be very big. Just like Wale (wah-lay) who also performed that night, their genre is "alternative hiphop," which is uncommon. For me, their music is fresh, new and embodies the music of the young generation. Everything now is a fusion of all kinds of genre.

Mind Your Manners

Opposite of Adults

Ray Charles

Truth

I was ecstatic when I watched the videos because I did not realize he was looking at my camera plenty of times! Oh, a little background about them... Chiddy Bang is a hiphop duo from Philly (more reason to love them).

My work schedule last week was awesome because I was in the PACU, which I absolutely love! That is why I got to attend many shows at night. Do not let this change your opinion about me. I am still that person who enjoys staying at home, watching a game or a movie, chatting with friends on my laptop, but I am a sucker for my favorite bands/artists lol. I just gotta have to see them live. It makes me happy :)

A whole mess of a week!

This week pisses me off. Every worst luck had happened to me and all the bad things just keep adding up everyday. First of all, my laptop broke. How it happened? I do not know. One day I was watching "Gone with the Wind,"  and the next day I can't even get to boot it up. Adding to the dilemma, I wasted nearly $250 buying a spare hard drive (including wires and recovery disks) to replace the old, faulty one. I have never opened my laptop and take out parts before and now I have to do it for the first time. I pray I do not break the laptop even more by trying to fix it. All my files were not backed up, which what pisses me most. I guess it was my fault for not buying an external HD when I had the time, but still...

The timing of my laptop breaking is so great because now I cannot even finish my ECCO (which is the most annoying online class I have ever taken) during my spare time. I have 4 more modules left and I am planning to finish all of them this week (Thank God I have the week off, the only good thing this week). I can't even do it as planned because my hard drive failed on me when I needed it the most! Now, I am using my sister's laptop to at least finish 1 module. I logged onto my class and lo and behold "Healthstream is under maintenance from 8p to 4a." Uggghhhhh! I can't do it tonight, which is why I am blogging right now

This brings me to probably the most annoying thing that happened this week. The reason why I wanted to finish all my ECCO is so that I can start on my ACLS class. Per manager, I have to finish my ECCO first before ACLS, which is such a waste if time. That ECCO probably takes 3 months to finish. Why is it necessary to finish ECCO before ACLS when taking it at the same time is doable?!? Plus, they have never told me I have to be ACLS certified before I can get off orientation. They, and may I stress it more out, THEY were supposed to sign me up for the April initial ACLS and I trusted them to do it. I waited, waited, and waited. Finally, I decided to sign up for the class myself and then I saw the April class is already full and I am left with the May class.

No big deal, I got in the May class, right? Oh heck, no. That means my orientation is being pushed until May when I want to get off orientation already! I may not be ready but I want to be on my own, handling my own patients without the pressure of having my preceptor watch everything I do.

I just hate setting a schedule for myself and nothing goes as planned. I hate wasting so much time when things can be done NOW. I hate this week for not being so kind to me. I am just really pissed.

Happy New Year!

It's 2012!! Two-zero-one-two and the world has not ended like those crazy predictions!

I decided to list my goals for this year. I believe writing down your goals will help you achieve them. Just a custom I have always followed and have always worked! :) So here are my goals for 2012!! I hope this year won't let me down.


1. Finish my critical care course, get my ACLS, finish my orientation in March and be awesome at my job.
2. Be a good active listener (I am guilty of tuning people out.. a lot.)
3. Act more like an adult.
4. Get my driver's license (I keep putting it off.)
5. Play the guitar again.
6. Read more.
7. Travel!
8. Do something extreme for the summer (I did skydiving last summer, so maybe bungee jumping?)
9. Since Sarah is not here in Philly anymore, find a friend MY age. (It sucks being 20 and all my friends are older than me :| )
10. Buy a house (in God's will)
11. Be myself all the time and not let other change me for the worse.

A pretty achievable list, right? What else did I miss? Lol. Hope everyone has their goals set for the new year too. Happy New Year!

Work work work and finally 20!

I miss my free times so much! I have been working for almost a month now and it is making me sick already, literally. I go home, browse the internet, and in the middle of chatting with my friends, I just pass out. There are times when I have NO appetite and I always have a huge headache.That has been my life in the past month. Although during my days off, I actually go out, have fun and sleep sleep sleep like a dog. I still feel sick when I think of the work next day.

Work is ok. Not too bad, not too good... just in the middle. I love it and hate it sometimes. I love the work because it's my dream unit but I hate it because I am new. I am not used to the unit, the people, the workload and it gets overwhelming sometimes. I am usually a good multitasker and I work fast, but learning while doing the work is challenging. Plus, there are moments when I just have a mental block! Sometimes I get really tired and then I space out especially during reports and when someone is talking to me, haha. I look dumb, but it is funny though. I just laugh at myself inside.

Uuuggghhhh... LOL I just want to go on a vacation again.

Anyway, I cannot complain much because a lot of good things have happened this year. I graduated college, went skydiving, passed my NCLEX, went to Europe, and got a job... all before I turned 20. A memorable end to my teenage years. Now, I am starting another decade of my life. Turning 20 feels great though. I used to abhor not being a teen, but I realized we all have to grow up at one point.

I just feel like being 20 means more responsibility and man-ing up. I just need to get used to being an adult and overcome any negative mentality.

Sorry this is a rant post, lol.

▶ ▷ Knit-a-Square!

My friend who is from South Africa got me involved in Knit-a-Square (KAS). It is basically a community of people knitting for charity. We knit squares, hence the name, and ship them to South Africa where the other KAS volunteers knit the squares into blankets! The blankets are then given to kids with HIV to keep them warm. KAS hits two birds in one stone by raising awareness of the kids in need and helping them out through knitting squares.

I thought it was really cool especially because I did not know how to knit before I joined this charity work. It is easier to get into the program when you say "Hey, lets knit a square" than "We have to knit a blanket."  Blankets are also considered "taxable" items because they are categorized as a commodity while squares, well, are just squares. Thus, the cost of shipping squares is cheaper than sending blankets, as what my friend have told me.

So, this was a picture of me knitting my first square during the first get-together.

This was us a month later. And yes! I finally finished a square!

It's hiding in the piles of knitted squares, but if you spot the purple square, that is my work, haha. Yay!

My friends in nursing school. I am happy that we still get to see each other after graduating.

I always have fun going to KAS get-togethers. We decided the recent one to be a tea party/KAS get together so I got to drink all kinds of tea. It is not one of those boring meetings where we knit squares for 5 hours like robots. I met new people and had conversations with them. Plus, I feel accomplished because I finally knitted a square! :)

For more information, visit Knit-a Square's website.

▶ ▷ Fall haul!

I started my orientation classes for my job this week. I realized how my body is not used to waking up at 6AM anymore because I can feel the impending decline in my immune function. I literally feel sick just after three days of going to orientation. Orientation is not that bad though. It is just really boring and draining.

Anyway, back to my quick FALL HAUL post while waiting for the IOS5 update to download on my itouch!

I have been a shopaholic these past few days so here are just some of my fall favorites :)

Blouses from H&M, Forever21 and believe it or not Old Navy and Ebay!

Lately, I am into chiffon, collared blouses, and long-sleeves/ 3/4 sleeves smocked at the cuff. I am not sure how to describe this style, but it is more sophisticated, 70s inspired, professional look than the usual get-up I had. I think entering the "real world" as a work lady corrupted my mind into thinking I should dress-up more adult like. Plus, I need to wear business casual during orientation week. I still look very young though, haha, and I will be only wearing scrubs to work.

So, here I am trying to model my own clothes, lol. This is one of my favorite top from Old Navy, which I wore yesterday at orientation. I wore flats (left) because I had blisters and I am still not used to wearing heels.

Old Navy top, H&M pants, shoes

Excuse the background and my sweaty self, LOL. Thanks!

▶ ▷ Korean Food Trip!

Just a little trip to H-mart with my nursing buddies!

Bulgogi (top) and Gal Bi Tang (bottom). It was soo spicy that I  felt like I could breathe fire.

And the Phillies lost that night! :(