Recap of things other than mean old thieves

Hi everyone (aka: those of you who read this blog whose number I can count with one 5-digit extremity. As opposed to all my six-digit ones of course.)
I had one of the best weekends in a long time at Harding. I got to see so many wonderful people that I love!!!!! The only problem was that I didn't get to see any of them long enough and I wanted to cry when I said goodbye to them all. It was really nice to be in my old bubble for a little while. I miss my little comfort zone in Searcy, AR. Mostly I miss the amazing people I like to call my family and friends.
I got to be there on Friday for classes and so got to visit a couple of College of Nursing classes and see everyone. I got to speak in the Leadership class (senior second semseters) and at the Harding Nursing Student Association meeting. Those who are leading this organization by the way are doing such a fantabulous job and wowing me, bye the way. In this meeting it was such an amazing feeling of being home. I loved to talking to all my friends and trying to convey my love of nursing. I laughed, I cried, I wandered of endlessly, and they were so kind to listen to me. Sometimes I think I want to be a public speaker. I love encouraging moral and sharing my love.
I have my first few days with multiple patients since the last time I wrote on this blog. They didn't all go well, but they were all learning expereinces. Hopefully I will get my really bad days out of the way on orientation. Nice wish huh? Here's hoping. :) We got our new schedule for the next 5 weeks today and I almost started feeling sick and thought about hyperventilating. :) Because after the first 3 weeks on that schedule I start my own schedule independant of my preceptor. AHHHHH!!!!!!! (breathe). It is nervewracking but actually very exciting. Today I pulled femoral cathaters in the cath lab. That was exciting for me. One that I observed actally had retroperitoneal bleeding and that was a really good learning expereince. Kind of not good for her though. :) (That means that instead of the blood flowing through the artery like it did before the introduction of the cathetar, the blood was pooling in the stomach cavity. You could feel it and it was really painful for her. The one I pulled myself had no complications thank goodness.) We have to pull the sheaths at night on my unit so I need to know how to do them when the cath lab is closed. These are the caths that are done to explore the heart function and output to determine blockages in the coronary arteries and perform interventions to help open up blood flow. It is pretty much one of my favorite things to watch because when the MD injects dye into the cathetar it flows through the arteries, out lines the heart, and you can watch it beating on an x-ray screen. God is amazing and artistic is all I can say. It is breathtaking. Well, enough about that. I guess if you had really cared you could have googled it, huh. :) Sorry. I think I will stop for now. When I think of more I will add it later.
I had a breakthrough last night thought and slept soundly in my room. I wasn't sure how well I would sleep because I had been falling asleep on the couch and staying there all night every night since the break-in. I think sub-consciously I didn't want to sleep in the room where the thieves broke in. But I finished cleaning up the room and slept soundly in it. I am fine about it know. I mean, I guess it happens to thousands of people. Our landlord really wants us to get a dog though.
I hope you all have a lovely day. I wish I could see you all. I will just have to content myself with thinking about you. If you have time, I would appreciate your prayers for learning at work and for understanding for the lesson to be found in our recent break in.

Thievery and the dramatic effects thereof.

Tonight I heard a beautiful African song in Swahili and I cried. I cried because it was beautiful and because a wave of homesickness for Africa crashed over me. I think that God may have Africa in my future. I am so strongly drawn to the countries and the people. I am amazed by how I can be homesick for different places, places other than those I have lived for long periods of time. I can be homesick for any place where I have left a piece of my heart. The homesickness that overwhelmed me for Africa tonight is the same that I feel when I really want to go to Calico Rock to see my family and house, and the same as that which overwhelms me when I am longing for the beautiful city of Firenze. I think homesickness can be magnified by a burden. I know there is definitely a burden in my heart for the people I saw in my travels in Tanzania. There is also a burden in my heart for the people in inner-city _____. Hmmm. I wonder what is in store for me? Where will God place me next?
The phrase ‘inner city’ reminds me of my own recent experience with life in the ghetto – life entirely different from that in Calico, where we don’t even worry about locking up so much of the time. When I came home from my weekend at Harding, which was a wonderful one, I walked into my house feeling like something might not be right. Rachel and I both had a kind of joking uneasiness driving home, but thought we were just a little too scary. We got home about 12.45, looked over the house and saw that all our electronics were still in place and so proceeded to bring our stuff into the house. When I walked into my room and noticed that my printer (which sits on a trunk below a bedroom window) was on the floor, my brain then registered that my curtain rod had fallen down and the curtains were hanging from one corner. I then realized that my blinds were pushed to one side of the window and that they were broken. It then hit me that my drawers were all opened and there was jewelry spilled all over my dresser. I called my cousin into the room and then stated that I thought someone had been in here. We looked at each other wide-eyed and I could feel the chill-bumps rising. I pulled back the blinds a little more and saw that the glass was broken out of my bedroom window. I was shocked. It wouldn’t register. I felt scared. I felt violated. Who had come into my room by breaking my window? Why would they have done that? How could they wait until they knew for sure we were all gone and then break our trust in humanity like this? I reached out to touch my drawers and then pulled back my hand because I realized that they would probably need to fingerprint them. I looked in one drawer and noticed that my jewelry box was gone. I kicked my bottom drawer back in and almost started crying. I was so angry and upset. I kept thinking “why would someone do this”?
We looked in Claire’s room and saw all the drawers opened and a few things on the floor. Rachel looked in her room and noticed some things gone and messy. We called our landlord and he said he would be right over. We tried to call Claire but she didn’t answer. We tried to call some people from church but they didn’t answer. Rachel called some people from school so we could talk to sane people. Our landlord said he would call the police because we couldn’t find the non-emergency number and he knew it. They said they would be there within two hours. All the sudden I realized I was missing spots of vision. I hadn’t gotten a migraine in 2 years but of course I had to get one now when I needed my faculties. Bulent whistled for his dog, put some insulation over the window and then sat with us. Rachel made tea. I couldn’t drink it because I was feeling sick. Rested in the dark for a while. Threw up and then felt much better. All I can say is thank you Lord for medicine. The policeman came. He filed a report, told us who to contact, how to get with our detective, listed things stolen we remembered so far. He told us we really should get a dog and we should check the pawn shops tomorrow. He also said that CSI would be there after a little while, he thought before 6.30am. Rachel and I looked at each other – never thought we would have a CSI agent visit our place of residence. But hey … if the FBI can carry out a sting in Searcy, AR, I guess anything can happen. The policeman was really nice but then he left. Rachel and I piled blankets on the couch and snuggled in there together to wait for the policeman. Bulent cut a new piece of glass for my window and put it in. We told him to go home, that we would be fine waiting for CSI. We were a little high-strung, and couldn’t really sleep. We put on Mighty Joe Young for background noise. CSI agent came about 4.30am or so. Interviewed us again, dusted my whole room with lead-based fingerprinting dust and took tons of pictures. Told us to wipe up dust with dry cloth and then wet cloth, it would make a mess with wet first. Put on Shrek 2 because Mighty Joe Young is really sad – wasn’t helping the mood. Don’t really remember anything else. I floated in and out of alert consciousness for the next hour and a half. Shrek 2 makes for some weird dreams and waking memories. The alarm went off at 7 and we left for school/work at 8. Thank goodness it was a class day and not a floor day. I was a walking zombie I think.