So, I promised an update to what was saga-riffic.

Hokay. Long story cut very very short, the Romantic Lead got sick last year. First glandular fever (mono for my American friends), then ???something??? brain related where she ended up at hospital in September after being unable to walk and losing her short-term memory. She rallied enough for us to get married. Then she ended up experiencing long-term lethargy, muscle aches, inability to concentrate, aaaaaaaaaand a whole buncha other stuff which has officially been confirmed as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. She's still super tired most of the time, and anything exciting, stressful, conentrate-y or physically demanding wipes her out pretty quickly (simply_starfish and hidden_relic can attest to this being pretty dramatic at times).

So this is where we're at right now. Michie is spending large chunks of her time with her parents because The Flodge is split-level, and walking up and down stairs is just way too much for her more than once a day. We're working on ways to make living at home more achievable and less taxing on her. We're seeing small improvements over a long period, and expecting that to continue. There's a couple of specialists that are giving us helpful input, and both me and the missus are seeing separate counsellors to help work through what is a fairly drastic upheaval in the course of our lives. There are some aspects of this situation that are frustrating, depressing and aggravating, and we're doing our best to mitigate the stress. But most importantly she is expected to make a complete recovery in the mid- to long-term.

Hi LJ! I've missed you.

Apparently, she will! (shamelessly paraphrased from XKCD)

So. After a saga-riffic three months or so, me and kaefer got married on Sunday. The day was speectacular, Michie was absolutely breathtaking, and we couldn't have asked for a better day all around.

I'll post about the saga part later. Just wanted to share the happy news. :)

Over 'n out,
-- K.

What you ate today

Wow, bad time to do this one, since I'm sick. Ummm. Cereal for breakfast, Vegemite on toast for lunch with Milo, and I'm about to scrounge something up for dinner.

eta: bacon and egg sandwich for dinner. Meal of champions.

Stealing this from the lovely tannymonster! Because I, too, need some motivation to post more often.

Day 1 - Introduce yourself

Hi, I'm Kiah! You already know me, but I'm answering the prompt anyway. So... I'm 30 (eep!), I live in the inner west of Sydney with my beloved partner Michelle and our cat Loki. I'm currently working as a nursing assistant and studying to become a registered nurse, after many years of not having any idea what the heck I wanted to do with my life.

I'm interested in politics, science, religion (more the fascination of an outsider than any deep spiritual urges) and sociology. I love to do things I'm not necessarily brilliant at but that I get satisfaction and enjoyment from, like cooking and singing - I'm not fantastic at either but I have so much fun with them!

I love music, but I think my age is starting to show in that I'm having more trouble in finding new music that excites and interests me. I don't want to become one of those people whose entire musical world resides in one decade, so I'm always on the lookout for new things I might like.

I don't exercise or write as much as I'd like to, and I'm v. slack about maintaining my friendships. My attitude to housework varies by the day. I have a huge sweet tooth. While we're on my faults, I also enjoy the odd spot of professional wrestling. I've recently discovered the awesomeness that is roller derby, and I can see more than a few parallels between the two worlds.

I think that's about it. Not sure how else I'd introduce myself. Anything else you'd ask me in the first conversation?


( 30 days prompts listCollapse )

Idea shamelessly stolen from Briana!

This list will be added to in future.

All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Nursing:

- Palm to palm, palm to dorsum, palm to palm fingers interlaced, backs of fingers to palm, tips of fingers to palm, thumb clasped, tip of thumb, wrists.
- The funniest stories always involve bodily fluids. ( More!Collapse )

Hey movie fans, how's it going? I figure if I'm going to start posting here again on a semi-regular basis, I should commit myself to something I have to maintain weekly. So I'm going to start up with one of my old post creation schemes, the Five and Five!

Five things that made me happy this week:

1) Michie's been overseas for a week, and I've cooked dinner the whole week. With vegetables and everything (most nights). Hooray for grown-up eating and not descending into endless take-out... I predict that'll happen around week four! See, Elly? I'm not completely helpless! :P

2) Joey Junior, where have you been all my life? Don't ever leave. You have been so amazingly helpful to me in the short time we've known one another, and I think every nurse should get to know you.

3) Mario Galaxy 2 rocks my proverbial socks, hard. It's so much fun! Much more varied than the first game, and also harder. But harder in a "Man, I beat the thing, I'm awesome!" kind of way, not the "This is stupidly hard, I'm bored of losing lives on this part" way.

4) Hyperbole and a Half. How can one woman be so funny? Amazingly hilarious and captivating storytelling style, and it's worth trawling the archives for some stellar comedy. It's a bit hit and miss in places, and there's some vanity posting in the history which is tedious, but overall it's made me laugh as hard as anything I've read on the internet. Read it, love it.

5) Starcraft 2 is out! Even though I don't have a computer that can run it yet, I'm still geeking out like a fanboy and planning my future computer purchase around the recommended specs. As much as they've Activisioned it, it still looks pretty true to the spirit of the original, which is great. Unlike the abomination that is Diablo 3 so far. :/

And five things of the bad:

1) Holy crap you guys, I swear this stupid old people subject I'm doing has more reading attached to it than any three other subjects I've had so far. It's ridiculous. Perhaps it just seems like it's so much because all of the articles and readings are soooo dry and boring. *counts* No, there really is a metric shit-ton. This may be part of the reason I failed last year. :/ But I'm gonna kicks its arse this time, because I'm awesome like that.

2) There's a great quote from The West Wing about apathy towards politics, where Leo talks about elections being a choice between "the lesser of who cares" and "setting the bar so low I can barely look at it". This is pretty much how I'm feeling about the upcoming Federal election. I cannot in all conscience vote for Tony Abbott or his party, but I'm certainly completely unenthused about the other side right now. Also, the media seems to be particularly determined to shred Julia Gillard before she can even start to get her bearings as leader. The Herald has been nasty, the Oz has been caustic, and I haven't even been game to look at the Telecrap lately. How's this being portrayed in the other states?

3) Having frequent hospital work is great, for keeping up my clinical skills and for money, but damn the constant shift changes are messing with my body clock.

4) Largely due to 1) and 3) above, I feel like I've hardly had time to do anything creative. I've tried to start writing again, but it's been a bit on and off. Hopefully after this hectic weekend I should have a bit more time when my brain is actually functioning!

5) It's nearly August already?! Where the heck has this year gone?

(Our Hero is studying for a biological sciences exam tomorrow, and is currently reviewing the renal system)

Our Hero: I'm reading about diuretics.
Romantic Lead: (in a faux-perplexed tone) Why are you reading about Scientology?

Yes, that's right! It's that time of year again - Kiah and friends are heading down to Melbourne for the International Comedy Festival! It's gonna rock. The house we're renting this year has a plunge pool and a putting green! And we'll be taking Zone 1 trams EVERYWHERE!

You kids have a fun and safe Easter, or whatever you're doing. I intend to laugh a lot, eat chocolate 'til I feel sick, and possibly whip several people's arses at Mario Kart.

Take care y'all.

Over 'n Out,
-- K.

Hi kids, I'm working on a mix CD for nursing!

I've got 30-odd songs that could work, but I'm trying to cull it down to 20 or so so it'll fit on a CD (I'm old-fashioned like that).

So far, the definites:

Bandages - Hot Hot Heat
Drain The Blood - The Distillers
Casualty - Missy Higgins (aha, see what I did there?)
DOA - Foo Fighters
Hospital Bed - Ben Kweller
Braxton Hicks - Jebediah (for the midwifery types)
Relapse - Little Birdy
Catch My Disease - Ben Lee
Down With The Sickness - Disturbed, or possibly the Richard Cheese version
Give Me Novacaine - Green Day

And a few of the maybes, to give an idea of what I'm aiming for:
Medication - Superjesus or Garbage
Heart It Races - Architecture In Helsinki (V-TAC!)
Your Disease - Saliva
Painkiller - Judas Priest or Freestylers/Pendulum
Nausea - Beck

Any other suggestions?

So, second year nursing.

There's a lot to it. A LOT. We're getting a ton more biological science this semester (two subject's worth crammed into a single unit), a medication management course and a nursing skills unit which is highly useful but I don't think gives us enough time to pick up the skills - we're expected to get the basics at uni and get familiar with them on prac. I really truly hope I'm not catheterising anybody on my prac!

Oh, clinical placement. I'm at RPA for first semester, in the haematology department! This is good placement karma at long last! Second semester is surg at Sydney Hospital, right in the middle of the city and just around the corner from the Romantic Lead's work. And I'll get to go round the City Circle on my train trip in - no matter how long I live here, I still think the view over the Harbour from Circular Quay in the morning is awesome.

Non-uni stuff... hmm. We have four people in the Dulwich Hill house again. Me, Mich and Matt have been joined by Steph, another science nerdy type who is cute but fierce. The household dynamic is still settling down (kitty is weirded out big time) but she's cool enough.

Three and a half years for me and Michie. Whoa.

Iunno, not much else to tell, I don't think. How are you all?

Over 'n out,
-- K.