Road Rage

Turns out it’s Christmas Eve. Hooray!

I just got done working my 24hour weekend so I’m a zombie.

Iowa had a storm this week. Winter storm Draco was his name. Ankeny got 13.5 inches, Des Moines got 12 inches and the Quad Cities got like 8.

Anywho, it was bad. Like shut down all the highways because there were jackknifed semis everywhere kind of bad.

I was supposed to work Friday at 6:30am but the storm hit the Quad Cities where I was Thursday morning and the roads got TERRIBLE so I had to call-in.

Finally on Friday the DOT website said the roads were clearing up and there were no accidents so I decided to head back to Ankeny at 2:40pm.

The backroads getting the highway were rough, as I expected them to be, but I had no trouble.

As soon as I hit got on I80 in Davenport though, I was stuck in traffic.

I checked the DOT website again and they reported no accidents or reasons for the roads to be slow which pissed me off even more.

It took me 90 minutes to go 20 miles to discover a semi was having trouble getting up and off-ramp so everyone was slowing down to 10mph of some freaking reason.

I would get to drive like 40mph for a mile and then have to slam on my brakes because there was an accident from yesterday and everyone decided to slow down and look at it.

This went on for the whole trip.

It should have taken me 2.5 hours to get from Camanche to Des Moines…..it took me 5.5

The most frustrating part is the roads weren’t even bad!

The DOT site Des Moines roads were the best in the state and still covered but drivable so I new once I got past Newton, I would be in the home stretch. Wrong.

As soon as I got to Altoona, it was like driving on roads from a fresh snow storm, not roads from a storm that had happened almost two days ago.

I80 and I35 cross each in Des Moines and one would think with the busy holiday weekend and Des Moines being a busy epicenter of travel for the midwest, they would have the roads plowed but one would be wrong.

I was completely stopped on the interstate and when I was able to drive it was like off-roading. The roads were covered in at least two inches of packed snow/ice mixture but there were big patches missing which made giant potholes. Not optimal.

My car was shaking so violently my back door came unlatched some how and Carver of course decided to look out that particular window. So I’m screaming at him to get down so he doesn't open the door and fall out onto the interstate and trying to get him in the from seat all while driving through the mix-master of I80 and I35 and narrowly missing being hit by a semi. Good times.

I would normally take I35 North to my apartment but the exit was stand still and I could see and accident from I80 so I decided against it and took Ankeny Boulevard instead. Probably an equally bad idea but at least I eliminated semis, dark interstates and fast speed. Once I got to Des Moines it took me about an hour to get 30 miles to my apartment in Ankeny.

Ankeny’s roads were bad but since we got the most snow in the state I’m was as mad. I just wanted to be home. Door to door this trip which normally takes me 3 hours took me 6.5 hours.

I’m pissed at Polk county as a whole for their lack of effort on clearing the roads. I passed 4 plow trucks in Des Moines and not one of them was actually plowing.  You'd think since the Governor works in this county we could get some shit done in a timely manner. He must be on vacation.

Our roads were much better by Sunday but I feel bad for the unsuspecting travelers that had to drive through Des Moines on our shitty roads this weekend. I hope they all made it to their destination, if not might I suggest they send their complaint letter to building with the big gold dome.

Safe travels and enjoy the holiday!

~Marissa

Silence and Support

Today is a blogger day of silence for all those that have been affected by this tragedy. 

God bless those that have been lost and those that will keep their memories in their hearts. 

And God bless you all. Hold your loved ones close and tell them how much you love them. 

~Marissa

12/12/12- The Day no more shits shall be given

Today at 11:44 I finished my last final of the semester. It was my only final of the semester because I had hell week last week and turned in 3 massive papers and projects. #nursingschoolsucks

Right now, at 11:30 I am waiting to see one of my nursing professors to find out my final grade.

I have to do this again tomorrow morning again at 10am.

What happened to posting them online so I can cry in the comfort of my apartment and start drinking immediately?

Now I’ll have to walk through the whole nursing department if I didn’t get the grade I need, drive home 20 minutes, stop at Fareway to get wine and start drinking then.

And do it all again tomorrow. They’re setting us up for disaster.

But I don’t care. I gave this semester my all. Maybe not that Chemistry class because even the teacher was confused but I gave it 85%. I did get an A+ in lab so that makes up for my lack of effort in lecture.

The semester is over and no one had to commit me.

Cheers to that.

I will be spending the rest of the day in front of the TV doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

It will be glorious.

Everyone who is carpe diem-ing 12/12/12, enjoy your day. I have a date with Gossip Girl season 2.

See you all on the flip side.

~Marissa

Migraine Inducing Centerpiece

Anyone who knows me can verify that I love making projects from Pinterest. Well I like taking an idea from pinterest, researching at least 5 other versions of how it is made and a few other variations of it and THEN I make it.

And of course I can’t find either of the pins where I got my ideas from They are probably on some random board. I shouldn’t drink and pin.

Since I survived hell week and finished all my papers and projects in amazing fashion and only one all nighter this week I treated myself with new something for the apartment from TJ Maxx.

I got one of their AWESOME and massive glass pieces for $12.99 and knew I had three matching candles that were collecting dust and needed to be used pronto. I spent WAY too much on coffee beans that I’m using for decoration but they look great and support the candles perfectly.

One of the pinterest posts showed coffee beans and tea lights set on top and the author said the smell was amazing! Sounded good enough to me.

What a great glow!

It looks perfect on my coffee table and I was enjoying it for a few hours but then I started to develop a headache because boy are those beans STRONG. Very strong. Actions had to be taken. 

Foil on top of centerpiece to hold in smell. 

Hopefully the smell will fade a little, otherwise I’ll only take the foil off when we leave. But it looks pretty cute if you ask me! 

Happy Saturday! I’m going to bed early to try and get my sleep schedule back to normal. 

~Marissa

A Little Christmas Spirit

I love Christmas as much as the next person but one I do hate is spending a ton of money on decorations that sit in a box in a closet for 11 months. That’s valuable closet space around these parts.

My mom has 9 totes of Christmas decorations. I think we use two of them each year. The rest of them sit in the garage and wait to be put away because it’s too cold for us to sort through it and decide what to get rid of. It’s a tragic cycle. I’m trying to avoid it. She has some fantastic stuff but it’s from when we lived in Colorado and had a house twice the size of our current house and she used to go ALL out and even use special snowman dishes. She’s still a holiday baller but she doesn’t have room for it all.

Anyway back to me, I said I wasn’t going to decorate but the Christmas gene runs deep and I gave in. I’m keeping it simple. I really wanted to go buy a big tree but I’m going to way until next year. My Charlie Brown wannabe tree will do for now.

On the left is our ‘big’ tree. Good joke, right? On the right is my barbie tree. My mom has been buying me a barbie ornament since 1994 and this year we decided I should take the ornaments after her dog ripped the veil off bridal barbie. He’s an asshole.

                            

 

Sean’s vase arrangement 

My vase arrangement

               

Kitchen island display

My hurricanes filled with inexpensive beaded garland 

Cube wine. Why have a never heard of this? Everyone should go find some (I got mine at Super Target) and try it. I like it and recommend. 

I love my floor vases. And Tinsel is dirt cheap. Ta-da.  

I’m not sorry for the following pictures. I feed him, water him, buy him treats and toys, lets him outside and share more than of the bed than I should with him so he can sit through a few harmless picture. Not sorry in any way. He at another dog’s poo last week and then threw-up on my carpet and I had to clean it up, he had this coming. 

So much for our cute Christmas card :(

For those of you who don’t live in Iowa, we have been experiencing some wicked fog lately. I had to stop in Iowa City on my way home from Des Moines for Thanksgiving break because it was so bad.

This is what we experienced Sunday here in the metro area:

9am

1pm

The weather lady in Des Moines said it would clear up my noon. Lies. I drove through fog on my way home at 8 that night. And today it is 70 degrees. There is no such thing as a winter or summer wardrobe  in this state, it all stay out all year round because crap like this happens.

Exit 94

I don’t know about you, but I am pretty damn happy right now. Why?

Not because of the ever growing pile of work I have to complete by next week. I don’t want to effing talk about that.

But we can talk about my new love. Exit 94. For the past 11 months that I have lived in Ankeny, I have had to drive through town 10 minutes to get to the highway. This is usually fine unless everyone is heading to work or school, coming home or if I’m late.

BUT NOW…. NO MORE! They have finally finished the new exit just a few blocks from my apartment! Apparently Santa was listening.

It’s shiny and new and I’ve been waiting for it so long I just can’t describe eke excitement about it. It’s the best damn thing. Now my friends have no excuse to not come and visit because it takes 10 less minutes to get here from Des Moines and you can take the highways from Ames.

I don’t want to tell you this new interchange has made my entire life better but it pretty much has. Did I mention the new gas station and other building that looks like it could be a fast food place? Seriously all we have up by my apartment is a Casey’s and the Fareway unless you drive like half a mile so this is huge for us.

The next two weeks are going to be hell for me but I promise I will return. Pinky promise. Until then take satisfaction in knowing each day my commute is glorious thanks to exit 94.

~Marissa

I need to have a purpose

I love blogging. I love it as much as I love talking. And oh my Chod that’s a lot.

I am a talker. Ask any of my friends or anyone who has ever talked to me, I love to talk.

But on thing I will never be described as is quick on the draw. I am terrible with come backs. I think most of my surfing can be traced back to my lack of come back skills. “umm…..well you’re an a**hole”. Story of my life.

But lately I feel like my whole blog life is just link ups. It does not reflect my actual life. I want my blog to be an outlet. Sure I love link ups but they take away from homework time during the week. I want to start utilizing my blog to reflect on what I learn in nursing school and relate it to the real world….plus some fun stuff here and there. I hope everyone stays with me.

My defining moment-

This week in my caring class we learning about the Pan Am 103 flight from London to New York which was overtaken and bombed in 1988 and how the citizens of Lockerbie, Scotland cared for each and every soul who departed after the plan crashed and claimed 270 lives (Wikipideia). It was an amazing story and I cried several times.

The people of Lockerbie had such compassion for these strangers, a great lesson for this soon-to-be nurse. I meet strangers everyday as a CNA and care for them for over 8 hours. In just 5 minutes when I first meet my patient I try to establish a relationship and do my best to make sure all my walls are down so my patients can trust me, not always an easy task. The people of Lockerbie placed flowers on caskets, washed ‘contaminated’ laundry and mailed it to the family members, and welcomed families from all over the world. After watching the love the people of Lockerbie showed all these strangers, I certainly want to visit Scotland as soon as possible.

During the video it was said several times how the people of the US would never have responded this if the situation had occurred in the US rather than Scotland.  Perhaps in some parts of the country but I live in Iowa and we are nice here. Your friend’s parents make say please and thank you, your neighbor forces you to try her fresh baked cookies, we don’t have the real kind of road rage where people honk, we just smile and wave. Whenever someone is ill or a family member passes away, you can bet your ass the rest of the community already has a benefit and 27 casseroles ready for them. At least in my town we do. My town would wash the laundry. And pick flowers. And bake casseroles. Because we’re effing nice, we just don’t have sweet accents. So I’m a little ticked whats his face on that documentary had the nerve to say we wouldn’t.

Watching this movie in class made me want to share this with my 10 whole followers. Maybe someone cares what I have to say about what I’m paying 20k a year to learn about. If not, whatever. Btw, I might be one of the few people who actually talks in class because no one else does and I hate sitting in silence while the professor tries to force us all to talk. So yes, I raise my hand at least 15 times a class period and speak multiple times to a single topic. Judge away. I just want to talk. :)

Now if you’ll excuse me, this 10 page paper that isn’t going to write itself.

~Marissa

I promise I’m still alive.

I’m still here under a pile of text books, an organic biochemistry project, a nursing resolution, and 32 different photos of eggs, I promise. I’d like to give you some great reason as to why I haven’t been blogging…

It can all be traced back to nursing school.  I’m exhausted, a major bitch, eat nothing but junk food and miss my old life. I do however dream about a life where I’m successful, that’s a good sign I hope.

Or maybe days like today at work when I didn’t get to sit or even post up against anything for over 6 hours. 6 hours of solid power walking from one end of the unit to another to help people go to the bathroom, turn patients, take vitals, check blood sugars, and admit patients. I love my job, I love my job, I love my job.

I have a good story to share about my GENIUS of a brother but that will have to wait until after class tomorrow when I am home in the comfort of my mom’s house with a beer in my hand.

~Marissa

I LOVE Fridays

My Fridays are a joke. Once I leave my nursing 215 class at 10:50, I am pretty well checked out even though I still have to make it through Organic biochemistry for health professions.

Would you be able to pay attention in a class with that title on Friday? 

What if you had a Hulu queue full of your favorite shows to catch up on? 

And a nap with your favorite furry friend to get to? 

Fridays once I get home from class, as long as I’m not traveling home or to Ames, I usually do laundry, clean and catch up on my shows via Hulu and Netflix. I’m working my way through the seasons of Bones currently. 

Today I decided I have finally had it with Sean’s two mountains of clothes. One is in his closet and the other in our room. I’m tired of looking at them so I told him to pile everything that is clean on the bed and that I was going to organize it all the afternoon. 

I told him we’re adults now (he claims I’m an adult and he’s just awesome) and he is a business owner starting next week so we need to keep our apartment looking nice and organized. BOOM. Perfect excuse to get him to start cleaning up after himself. I’m sure it won’t work though. I should start charging him for cleaning up after him so much. 

Carver makes folding much harder. 

 Sean had THREE baskets of assorted clothes I had to deal with. Carver, who loves to dig in baskets, made the entire process much more difficult.

This is not even all of his socks. I folded through all of Grey’s. 

Maybe it’s a good thing I don’t have much of a social life because nothing would ever get done around my apartment if I did. 

~Marissa

Oh How Pinteresting!

Yes it is! It is Wednesday already! Hooray! (I don’t pronounce it whore-a, I prefer who-ray!)

I seriously do not remember being on Pinterest that much this past week but my activity feed told me otherwise….I suppose I’ll go with it since I did also consume moderate amounts of alcohol on multiple occasions. But I’m linking up with Michelle for OHP regardless! 

Match Storage

Christmas Ornament Tree

‘Sea glass’ ornaments

Mirror Ornaments

 Check out these AWESOME wedding crafts from my friend Katelyn!

Wedding Invitation Ornament

Honeymoon Sand Ornament

Wedding Shadow Bow! 

DIY Chalkboard

Recycled Glass Stacking Bottles

He’s so ridiculous 

Coffee Stirrer DIY Wal Art

Manicure Jar

Happy Wednesday!

~Marissa

4 More Years

What a night.

I’m Sorry if you don’t like my man Obama, I love him. He’s done a pretty damn good job so far.

Did I do homework? No.

Did I drink beer? Of course.

Did I cheers my roommate and cheer like my high school football team just got the ball every time Obama took control of a state or won an electoral vote a state? Yes.

Are we out of hard alcohol and beer in my apartment? No but we put a huge dent in the supply and will need to get more before our celebration tomorrow. DRINK ALL THE BEERS! 4 MORE YEARS! (I LIKE RYHMES!)

I talked with my blog friend and real life friend Katelyn during the election results and boy were we a mess! Katelyn was crying WAY early! :)

I cannot describe how excited I am to see Obama win. I grew up an army child, I’m obviously a female who wants to make her own choices, and I am still in college so of course I wanted Obama to win! Plus my mom is a teacher and I plan on going into the health care field so I feel Obama is the best choice for our country in the education and medical field for the next four years( just my 22 year-old opinion though) .

I’m hope you’re as excited as I am or at least haven’t hated the last 4 years of your life. Mine have been pretty great!

No matter what, we can all be grateful that political ads, mail and phone calls are done! Yay!

Thank goodness for post-election Wednesday!

~Marissa

Tell me about it Tuesday- Puerto Rico can suck it

Sorry I’ve been gone for a bit…It’s been a LONG, yucky weekend.

BUT

It’s time for TMAT! I’m linking up with Emily, Helene, and Kathleen and their co-host Sarah!

So here’s the sitch-

Sean is on vacation in Puerto Rico for work at the owner’s R&R. Sounds relaxing right? He sounds like such a baller right? Technically Sean JUST got promoted and doesn’t start his new position until next week when he gets back but he still go to go on the trip because he earned it and has been working 7 days a week for months.

Regardless, Sean is in Puerto Rico and I’m in Iowa so PR can suck it because I can’t tell him to. I’m just a little bitter about it. I should have gotten to go but my college budget didn’t seem to have room for a plane ticket in it plus I can’t miss 3 days of nursing school and live to tell about it.

He posted this picture on Facebook today:

It’s okay to hate him

Did I mention this trip was totally free except the plane ticket?

And that I’ve been sick with a reaction to my flu shot all weekend? It looked like a breast cancer awareness softball was glued to my arm, no lie.

He keeps texting me what they are doing and asking me what he should wear. I replied “get so drunk you don’t care”. I’m good with advice.

He will be back on Wednesday and then the chaos of the new job will begin. Oh joy! :)

Happy Tuesday!

~Marissa

It’s OK Thursday

I had a long day yesterday and wasn’t able to post for OHP… :(

I had class, went to the art museum with Sean for a project due Friday, had to take my laptop in to be fixed, visit a friend in the hospital, thought I had to work, rushed home, rushed my homework to class before work and then got called off work!

SO

It’s OK…

That I worried my laptop would need surgery as if it was my dog or a family member. I have papers to write and social media to keep up with!

To hate shopping with Sean sometimes. He’s so picky and has to look at every item and stuck in this ‘I’m holding on to college but want some grown-up perks’ style mode that I HATE. He bought swim trunks with a pattern on them over a pair of solid ones on clearance for his work trip to Puerto Rico. I don’t get him

To question if our shopping roles are reserved in the relationship. He likes to wander and I wanted to get in and get out most of the time. Or maybe I can just tell when the store doesn’t have a good vibe and we need to move on?

To do a happy dance after finishing homework early

To be jealous my friend Callie got to take Jax out for Halloween and I was stuck quilt-eating mini twix bars and coors light. At least her candy was free. But I had beer. I guess it was a draw.

To want to sleep ALL the time. I’m in bed by 11 most nights and asleep by 12.

To miss my friends and having them nearby or in my apartment for late-night rants.

That I packed up my Halloween decorations tonight and replaced them with Thanksgiving decor.

To call my mom three times in one day and be counting down the hours until I’m home on Friday.

Have a great Thursday! I’ll be in class and then at work!

~Marissa

Tell me about it Tuesday!

I’m linking up with the Helene, Emily, and Kathleen for their new weekly link-up: Tell me about it Tuesday! TMAT is our chance to vent and honestly who doesn’t need that?! I know I do after the day I had yesterday! This can be a story, an idea, new craft, fashions, design, photos of your dog (guilty) etc, etc! 

The rules:

1. Follow the 3 hosts Helene, Emily and Kathleen

2. Copy the button and link back to the hosts

3. Please check out at least 2 other link ups!

My tell me about it moment-

Yesterday I was at the State of Iowa NSA (Nursing Student Association) Convention all day from 6:45am until 5pm at the old Veteran’s Memorial Auditorium which is now the ‘Community Choice Community Credit Union Convention Center’. No one could think of a shorter name? Anyway it was bitter sweet for me because they converted the old auditorium into the MASSIVE convention center and I remember attending state wrestling in Vets my first year as a wrestling cheerleader before we were allowed to travel. My mom drove my friend and I out just to watch for a bit and shop. Ahh the memories. 

Vets then during state wresting and now the top part serves as a banquet hall. 

Anyway, so at convention each school is allowed to bring as many members as they like and are allotted a certain number of delegates based on their schools attendance and membership. We are also encouraged to create resolutions that may help improve the health care field. As delegates, it is our job to make sure these resolutions are up to the highest standard at the state level and challenge not only each other but ask the author questions to make sure we all understand the resolution before voting on whether to pass the resolution to the house to be considered to nationals. 

Being my first year at convention, my teachers had encouraged me to observe but made sure my classmates and I were prepared if we had something to contribute. Parliamentary procedure is tricky my friends and let me tell you some of the other colleges had no idea what they were doing and 

~Marissa

Five for Five

1. Don’t buy anything I don’t need this week.  FAIL. 
2. Cut back on my sugar intake. I did pretty good at cutting back my sugar, until I went to Ames for the weekend and tailgated. 
3. Cut Carver’s hair. Just did that today. I’m still not good at it. 
4. CLEAN my apartment. Fail. 
5. Get my oil changed and low tired checked out. CHECK! 

New goals for the week:
1. Clean my apartment
2. Take Carver for at least two long walks this week
3. Work on my many projects BEFORE they are due. NO PROCRASTINATING! 
4. Take my laptop to the Apple store to see what is wrong with the battery. 
5. Take at least one photo everyday. I’m loving my photography class so I want to keep improving my skills. 

I’ll be spending my day in Hy-Vee Hall in Downtown Des Moines at the NSA conference with my entire nursing program and nursing students from all over the state. Should be a very educational day! Have a great Monday!

~Marissa

High Five for Friday!

I’m linking up with Lauren for my FAVORITE day of the week. FRIDAY FRIDAY! 

After classes I get to catch up on Grey’s, Vampire Diaries and Glee (it wasn’t on this week though) and just relax!  I accomplished a lot with my crafts this week and posted a lot on here so I’m going to give myself a high five since Carver won’t. 

Here’s the recap:

1. I was a crafting fool this week!

I made this!

And this (same post)

2. I have HOMEWORK to take photos of my favorite things!

Photography class is going great! Carver is a great model!

3. I voted!

I voted for the 2nd time in my life and
voted early for the 1st time in my life. 

4. It’s almost Halloween!

Someone does NOT love his costume. 

5.  Boy do I love thirty one and any excuse to use my bags. I did a lot of reorganizing (not shown in this old photo) with some new bags and had tons of fun!

My collection in August. I’ll update the photo next week. 

I know what I’m getting for Christmas from my mom and I am so excited! I don’t know specifics but let’s just say my bag collection is going to get much bigger. :) We are obsessed with bags and since my mom became a bag consultant our problem has only gotten worse. BUT I am SO organized. 

I think I’m going to pack a little bag and take my dog to the park. Enjoy your Friday and the rest of your weekend if I don’t blog until Sunday or Monday. 

~Marissa