C is for Cookie

So I just got an evite for my neice's 1st birthday party. How fucking ridiculous is that????

The last 12 months have been pretty freaking monumental for me. New neice, new degree, new job, new house. It's been one of those ridiculous years where everything just happens and I have no idea how it's already gone by so fast.

I've been working at the hospital since September. I've been working on my own as a nurse since December give or take a week. When I worked on Thursday night one of the nurses that just got off her orientation asked me a question like I knew the freakin' answer. I'm sorry...I'm still thinking that I'm the new girl and I'm still asking questions quite a bit myself. One the one hand it was flattering because someone thought I would know the answer...on the other hand it's scary as shit because soon I WILL be the experienced one. Every few months a new set of nurses comes up and I will get more and more experienced and then I'll be the "smart one". That is a LOT of pressure. I've had a few outside people asking me for medical advice. My Mom is sending me to change a dressing on my Dad's skin biopsy site because my Mom's Goddaughter ended up in septic shock (infection gone bad wrong) from a little 2 inch scrape she got on her elbow and so my Mom is freaking out. I have people asking me about rashes and hernias. It's weird. Apparently I've been a nurse long enough now that people think I'm smart or something.

Otherwise, all is the same. Kissy face boy never called, which is just about par for the course for me. It seems I'm just not the girl they call. Oh well.

Layla and I started puppy school on Saturday. It went well. She was very well behaved and didn't bark at the other dogs for jump around or anything. She laid down and ate her rawhide thingie a lot and was very good at "sit". Plus, she didn't puke in the car!!!! Although, I did take Mom and Dad's super absorbent super big puke/pee pad from when their dog Ginger had cancer and was peeing all the time. Just in case.

Lots planned for the next few weeks. Mayfest with Motorcars and Reckless Kelly on Friday. Wade at Clubhouse on Sunday. Scentsy party with my friend Marsha from Tech next week.

Sad news...my very first orchestra teacher from the 5th grade, Maryann Driessner was found dead at her house this week. I remember just absolutely loving her. She was a great teacher. I remember being so excited at our first concert thinking I was playing real music when all I was playing were open strings while she played the melody on the piano. She taught me to play in third position (not dirty) before anyone else in my class. She was fabulous. Really fabulous.

Also sad: my high school orchestra director is retiring after this school year. I'm not sure a lot of my "readers" went to high school with me but I was a SERIOUS OrchDork. Serious. I was the concert mistress (not dirty) of the Symphonic (read: best) orchestra my senior year and was an officer for three years and basically devoted my entire high school career to orchestra and Mr. Dockray. Trust me when I say that him retiring is epic. He was just one of those teachers, you know? He always pushed me to do it all, sometimes it felt like too much, but that was good, I learned a lot about being a leader and leading by example and what kind of behavior people expect from a not trashy young lady. Anyway, his last concert is coming up in May and you can bet I'll be there. For sure. I am sure there will be tears. He was a freakin' institution and he made a big impact on a lot of lives, including mine.

I think that's all. Layla and I are playing training games now. She likes those cookies.

Guess who?

So it appears that I suck at posting.

It has been a fairly uneventful month. I believe the last time I wrote was after that awful week I had at work and a lot of general badness. Well, I told my family about one of my patients and what I did to help her and they are just pleased as punch with me. I'll take this as an opportunity to throw out how really awesome my family is. Very supportive. Very Team Nikki. It's nice to know that no matter how much I fuck up...they are Team Nikki and not Team Other Person.

Lets see...I saved lives, then the Aunts came for their yearly shopping/singing competition trip and boy did we shop!! We went to Ikea, took my neice with me and people thought she was my baby. I'm okay with that, she's pretty cute- but she is way more work than a dog. This reminds me that I need to go back by the cheap shoe place to see if they have those black slingbacks in the tan yet...

OOOh, so great Fort Worth discovery that I can't believe I never made before: the patio at Central Market! Amber and I went last Thursday to go see Maren Morris and Central Market has such a cool set up! They have this huge patio with tons of tables and a little playground and I always wondered who used it besides Moms for playdate lunches. Well, apparently, during the summer, they have these night concerts that start in the afternoon and you go into the store and get a sixer and some food from their *awesome* premade food area and they'll give you a bucket and some ice from your beer and you sit on the patio listening to some music that doesn't suck (mostly...Maren Morris far outweighed the opener...far outweighed) and it was great! It certainly didn't hurt that Amber and I went on one of those gorgeous spring/summer evenings where jeans and a tee were absolutely perfect. Plus Maren Morris is sounding pretty great these days.

Also had my housewarming party which turned out to be FUUUUUN. The fam came and brought the baby who was SO sweet the whole time and Layla was a hit. By 2am the puppy was like "um, listen...you guys need to GO" but no one did so she just laid down on the kitchen floor and slept. That's my girl! She slept for pretty much two days straight after that.

Oh!!! And my wonderful BFF Rachel Allene got me a pass to go down on the track for the Pat Green show to kickoff race weekend at TMS this year. I have to say that it has been entirely too long since I have seen Pat. It was great to see familiar faces in the band and to hear some familiar music on (another) gorgeous evening. His show is still high energy and so fun after all this time. I just love Pat. he is it for me...he started this whole thing with the bands and the concerts and the roadtrips (which I am overdue for). Love.

Worked the last two nights...wish I could say that I've done some serious nursing, but it's nice to not be running around crazy all night. Tonight is my last of three and then I'm off until Sunday- trip to the FW Main St Arts Festival if the weather holds and Amber and James' engagement party on Saturday. Yay!!!!!