Rise and Shine

This morning I woke up at 6am... ready to tackle the world. I didn't wake up because I had to or because I had too much on my mind but my body was rested and ready to start the day. I thank lymph drainage for that.
Lymph drainage is definitely a unique creature. After the first day I felt exhausted, after the second I felt energized, after the 3rd I felt exhausted again and had a bit of an emotional reaction and after the fourth, and last I felt energized again and even stayed up until 11pm (which is a big deal for someone who's usually in bed before 9 on school days). The throat ow that I woke up with disappeared throughout the day and my body settled in to a general feeling of well being. This work is quite amazing. Looking at the case studies that we did, the work is also very powerful and yields great results. It's definitely something that I want to continue to work with and I am looking forward to taking the therapy 1, 2 and 3 classes. However this modality does not come easy.
I don't think I've ever felt so incompetent with a massage technique. Sure it's always a bit tricky to get into the groove of things when you first get started but even after 4 days of this stuff, I still have to think it through and go very slowly! Anyways I see that this work is worth the time and effort that I put in to it so I am still going to keep working at it.
Well since I am up this early, I am going to get started on writing the medical legal report... and then I'll work on A&P and then on lymph drainage (studying theory and hands on), then off to the library to work on pain and stress. The carrot at the end of stick is meeting Maja for Thai this evening and then spending the rest of the weekend with her studying and becoming smarter. It'll be great to have someone here that I can practice my hands on stuff with and they can practice it to. We can also work on the multitude of other assignments and tests that are due next week as well.
17 days until winter break/study break begins!

Maybe I shouldn't have fallen asleep...

After a not particularly stressful day, I decided to swing by metrotown to pick up a couple of things for the OnSite Christmas. Things like window decals of snow flakes, wrapping paper and ornament hangers shouldn't have been hard to find... but they were. I sped walk through a mall that kept shouting BUY BUY BUY out at me and even though I only spent $1.14 for ornament hooks, I had an anxiety attack in the mall. Not surprising but still frustrating. Not having the courage to go buy paper I went home, defeated and exhausted. Mom and Dad were total heroes and went to Ikea to pick up the Christmas tree for OnSite while I was given time to go to sleep early... again at 7pm.
After lunch I felt a prickle in my throat. It kind of felt like a hair was stuck. After trying to remove it and almost making me throw up, I decided to leave it be and hope that it would travel during night time and I would wake and I would be all better. But that wasn't the case. After crying myself to sleep and sleeping a solid 9 hours, I woke up feeling like that little hair had transformed itself into many little razor blades. *sigh*
On the up side, I no longer feel like an emotional mess this morning... which is good. I also feel ready to tackle our last day of lymph drainage. There will be no extra class on Saturday because of the lack of interest (we need 6 in order to have a full class, 2 are interested, one of which is me). This is quite the good news because it allows me more then half a day to get ready for exams and such. It also looks like we'll be able to take this class in January in order to get the basic certification for manual lymph drainage. Many of the other girls are interested, however with our work load they don't really want to use this time to get the basic MLD certification. So I am gearing up for a full day at school, a shift at work and then a weekend filled with sleep and studying.
Can it be Christmas time yet?

An Ikea Birthday?!

It's no secret... I love Ikea. It's a great place to get cheap stuff for the home. It also doesn't look super cheap which is also a good thing. Anyways I was on their website today looking for a coupon for the $20 x-mas tree which I will pick up shortly for the Christmas at OnSite that I am preparing for. Next week is tree drop off and decorating. I am looking forward to it but it is also a source of stress because of everything else that is going on next week.
While snooping on their website I found that you can have your birthday at Ikea! Now that's pretty cool! Unfortunately I am not between the ages of 5 and 12 so I don't qualify but still... cool! It sure beats McDonald's!

Crunch Time!

Recipe for a stressful next week*:

1 lymph drainage written
1 lymph drainage final
1 PD assignment worth 5% of final mark
1 A&P mid quarter worth 15% of final mark
1 Pain and Stress assignment worth 30% of final mark
1 Systemic Pathology mid term worth 20% of final mark
3 work days

Mix all together in a 5 day span and you will get a lovely stressed out, overly sensitive Janelle. Yeah I almost burst into tears today while performing lymph drainage on a class mates leg. But I reasoned that I didn't have time to cry because they I might miss something that might be on either the final written or OP. When reason wore thin, I turned into a goof and imitated the announcer from Iron Chef "Today's special ingredient is CORN STAARRCCCHHHH." (yeah there was cornstarch everywhere, we use it on our hands so that they are not tacky and glide nicely on the skin.... works wonders, makes a mess and entertains the crap out of me).

Just two and half weeks then it's break time. I've promised myself that I would spend an entire day watching House and cuddling with Justin. Hopefully he agrees.

*This is all I have to do next week... this week we have lymph drainage all week and if I fail this, I will have to do it over in level 600 when I should be reviewing and prepping for boards.

Wine please?

There's an open bottle upstairs with my name on it... I also feel like I am not going to be able to sleep tonight... so that bottle seems really quite appealing right now. But I am being good. I am not going to drink because I have my first class of lymph drainage tomorrow. I am looking forward to it and think it will be very interesting. So why can't I drink? Well I've noticed that when I have wine (or any alcohol for that matter) or caffeine I become less aware and patient with my therapeutic modalities. And being lymph drainage is one that requires a lot of patience and focus drinking wine is not really an option. Same goes for craniosacral therapy (which are all day Friday...). Really, I just want to go out for a drink sometime, catch up with friends and do the December thing of eat, drink and be merry. But that will have to wait until after the 23rd...

Like I said...

DO NOT PROCRASTINATE!

Just 5 short days after my last blog post about not procrastinating, I've done it again. I have to present a systemic pathology assignment on hypothyroidism this morning and I am still working on the class hand out.
Sure I already know what material I am going to present and I even made up a hypothyroidism bingo as a review but I am still working on the darn thing a couple of hours before I have to leave home. Slick.
Anyways I feel good about this project and am really quite happy. Justin came by despite me trying to be all studious n stuff (I gave him the green light... I don't like weekends where we just get to see each other for 24 hours... now we get to see each other for 48 hours with a school day thrown in there). It was great to have him here... especially because we had the place to ourselves. ;)

What are the chances?

That I'd message someone on CraigsList about a Christmas tree stand and they would happen to be engaged to someone who works with someone on the Strathcona Mental Health Team who also works at InSite who can drop off the Christmas tree stand on Monday?! Oh and they're so awesome that they want to donate the stand!? Not very likely! But it happened and I am so amazed by the kindness and fantasticness of people (and of flukey coincidences).
I've had quite good feedback about this whole X-mas at OnSite thing and I am feeling quite positive. It makes me smile inside. Anyways it's late, I was up early, time for bed. Good Night :D