A Proper Introduction

Well hello there! I actually just set this blog up, the last post was written a few days ago. So what to say, what to say, hmm....Well, my name is Kelley. Im 21, I live on a lovely island in Washington and im having my first kid in a few months. I was born in Louisiana, and shortly after I made my debut, Hurricane Andrew wrecked the house my parents were living in and displaced us for a while. My mom later remarried a military man and I can honestly say that I have lived a fairly transient existence my whole life. I honestly don't know if I will ever be comfortable enough in one place now to buy a home, I like changing scenery :)

Im going back to school after an awful attempt 2 years ago. I really wasn't ready and was very depressed, I was going to school because I felt like I had to and I screwed up my GPA badly. I feel much more motivated this year to keep up with my assignments and do my best. I think it is a combination of becoming a parent and needing to provide on a single income (if I screw up myself, thats just myself, now im responsible for another person), being a little older and knowing what I want to do, and having time to decompress from a stifling public school environment.

As evident from my last post, I work as a NAC at a nursing home that deals primarily in Alzheimers/Dementia but also has a few people working on some long-term rehab. I had wanted to work in a nursing home forever, I actually used to volunteer in an Assisted Living home when I was about 14 (I hosted bingo and passed out drinks at happy hour). I learned about what CNAs do, how they make a somewhat decent living (not really, but better than 6.50 an hour), and how it could get me into other health care fields. Since working, I have decided I want to be an RN. I like how I can get a job anywhere, the pay is nice, and I get to take care of someone that isnt me for extremely important reasons. I get that customer service jobs are important and the world needs them, but I hated faking smiles and feeling like I was B.S.ing people all the time. I also HATE HATE HATE!!!! being micro managed. Seriously, I get curt and cold when people treat me like I don't know how to do my job. If im an RN, it will be even less micromanagement.

I wish I had some fun things to list as hobbies, but laying in bed and messing with my tablet is not really anything interesting. I like to make things out of polymer clay sometimes though, I also like to draw on occasion. I wish I knew more cloth-type crafts, like sewing or felting or needle work or even crocheting and knitting (im awful at those two, when I crochet I just make big triangles instead of squares). Ive only lived here a year and I don't have a bustling social life but I would love to learn how to play Settlers of Catan and some other board games and play with some people.

Well, I believe that is all I have to say for now. I have a Reeses Ice Cream bar I am going to eat now, nom. See ya.

First post!

The readings I was assigned ("How I Learned to Program Computers" and "How I Learned to Live Google Free") could be used as models for my essay by a kind of "How to" format and being written in the first person. I think my paper is going to be written about how I became a CNA and the steps to changing an adult diaper (which I know EVERYONE is dying to know how to do). It took a little bit to learn and become comfortable with but its useful in my workplace and will probably come in handy when I have a screaming infant with poop up her back. If you can change a 400 plus lb woman who is screaming obscenities at you and swinging her fists, I think you can change a baby.

The timeline will probably follow finding out about the free CNA classes that Washington state so lovingly provides (they reimburse the facilities offering it, or if you take it at OC, they reimburse you when you work at your first job after working a set amount of time), then my experience with clinicals, and finally training and working on graveyard shift on a locked dementia unit. Between 10 pm and 6 am, not too much fun stuff happens, besides changing people, doing vitals, making people hot chocolate and trying to make sure no one falls or hurts each other. Changing people could probably be executed humorously and slightly more informatively than teaching how to convince a paranoid schizophrenic to stay out of other peoples rooms.

Im not convinced this is the best intro for a new blog, but this is a class assignment. Maybe ill write one for my next assignment, which is "Whatever I want".