both a blessing AND a curse...

I've been tagged. Sigh. Though I'm tired and broken, I know I have to do this. People are relying on me to uphold my end of the nonexistent bargain.

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet and current street)
Winston Lewis. .....Hmmm.

2. YOUR MOVIE STAR NAME: (grandfather/grandmother on your mother's side, your favorite candy)
Flora Halva

3. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color,favorite animal)
Purple Sparrow. Yikes. Not that sparrows are my favorite, but I had one as a pet once. It met a tragic end and I cried for days. Literally.

4. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, town you grew up in)
Anne-Felicity Nampa

5. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (first 3 letters of your last name, last 3 letters of mother's maiden name, first 3 letters of your pet's name)
Nelrey Oth (Tough to choose which pet's name. We've got heaps. Decided to go with the name of one of our three goats: "Other One." Of course, there's always Cheerio the rooster, Kim and Nellie Olsen the goats, Francine, Malibu, Kenya, Love, Bart, Dewey, Malcolm, and Reese the chickens [there are more and my sis could name them ALL], Buddy the dog, Offspring the turtle [who is most likely dead somewhere in our house - he somehow escaped Wed night] and others. Tough call.)

6. JEDI NAME: (middle name spelled backwards, your mom's maiden name spelled backwards)
Yticilef Enna I think that's enough. Plus, it conveniently allows me to avoid posting Mum's maiden name :o) Only because there's the odd chance that I'll someday use it as a confirmation password for some online account. You know "What is your mother's maiden name?"

7. SUPERHERO NAME: ("The", your favorite color, the automobile you drive)
The Purple Sentra

And, compliments of Heidi:
Your Elven Name: (One of the scientific names of your favorite flower, your youngest sibling's middle name or that of the youngest person in your family)
Sylvestris Michelle. Sounds slightly masculine. Especially when Sarah doesn't want to be called Sarah Michelle, but Sarah Michael.

Your Dwarf Name: (Your least favorite vegetable, the first element you find on a periodic table)
Brussel Sprouts Chromium.

Well, I'm going to bed. Update on my amazingly fast-paced life later! (Boy, how much I miss not having a car in Dunedin...it was so much easier)

nickel creek

lonely the life that once i led.
strange the paths on which we tread
led me to you, unlikely but true.
Sabra girl, clouding my view.

rainy the day the first time we met.
deep was the talk and forever my debt.
it didn't seem wrong to sing a sad song.
Sabra girl, soon you'd be gone.

early the morning and sad the goodbye.
with a wave of your hand and a smile of your eye.
so lately did meet no sooner to part.
Sabra girl, homeward must start.

rosy the lines that you wrote with your hand.
reading between them to misunderstand,
made the mistake you said not to make.

yes reading your letters conviction did grow.
i thought it a chance and i knew i must go.
its hard to believe i could be so naive.
Sabra girl, flattered but deceived.

now you just told me that friendship is all.
i'm forced to repair the breach in my wall.
illusions and dreams as usual it seems.
Sabra girl, they've been my downfall.

lonely the life and dismal the view.
closed is the road that leads to you.
since better can't be as friends we'll agree.
Sabra girl, time will cure me.

I'm wearing my "I heart New Zealand" shirt.

I just wanted to prove to myself that it's possible for me to write a post that can be read without scrolling down. Cool.

Thanks for all the encouragement, guys. I turned in my assignment today and, boy, do I feel ecstatic!

Crying makes everything better. And people give you chocolate.

Who knew the last few weeks before graduation would be so amazingly...um...tearful?
We last left Liz as she was supposed to be studying for her Pathophysiology exam that she had accidentally misdated on her calendars...

"Doot-de-doo! I have all the time in the world!" Liz thinks as she twirls the stem of a daisy between her fingers, plucking petals off one at a time. "Do homework? Don't do homework! Do homework? Don't do homework! Hooray!"

Well, so Sunday I had my first glorious shadowing experience in the ED. The day started off with a nosebleed (epistaxis) patient. Very disgusting, yet I couldn't tear myself away. Ever heard of a "rhino rocket"? It's about 3.5 inches long and they doctor crams one a piece in each nostril (and consequently all the way up into your sinuses). It's sort of a last resort for nosebleeds (which can be very dangerous in elderly patients - they bleed out quickly), expanding as it absorbs. I honestly kept expecting it to pop out the back of the patient's head. Starts out looking somewhat like a shortish, white tongue depressor but, I'm guessing, ends up resembling a tampon. Eww. I didn't mean for that to be so gross an example. Moving on.

Sunday night I started the actual writing work of my end-of-semester research review paper, due today. Already had accomplished heaps of research, just needed to bring it all together. Decided that the Patho test was going to be my "drop" test for the semester - choosing research study over patho study (it was a good decision, by the way. There wasn't any possible way I was going to understand that quantity of material in a day or two).

Working on my paper last night I stayed up pretty late and got up stinking early; 1:30am and 3:00am, to be exact. Ouch, my eyes twitch and refuse to focus, remembering that. But, hallelujah! I finished the paper - 19 pages - in time to get to uni, wrap up the PowerPoint presentation that accompanied the paper, and head to class...or so I thought. I had asked classmate Zach if he wouldn't mind giving me a ride home from class as I'm in no condition to drive; I can barely walk straight. Feels like I'm invincible, actually. This has gotta be SO much better than being drunk!

Mom dropped me off at uni and I mechanically made my way to the computer lab to finish the work. Alas. My memory stick didn't work. So I did what any girl in her right mind running on 1.5 hours of sleep would do: I cried. Right there in the lab. Sobbing. Poor Anne and Zach. Hugs. Chocolate. Offers of another memory stick. They wanted to make me feel better. But I couldn't stop crying long enough to explain that really, I'm just tired.

Our lecturer let Zach and I leave early. She said (because it was student presentation day again) it would depress my classmates if I was going to be a wreck the entire time. So off we went to seek IT advice. By this time I'd resigned myself to another night of typing, so when the news came, "someone might be able to physically retrieve the memory, but otherwise it's hopeless..." I was prepared. Zach shouted hamburgers, fries and milkshakes as a consolation before mentioning, "I feel like I should get you a piece of cake or something, uh, with a flower on it - you know - 'Sorry about your paper...sucks to be you!'" After inhaling the burger I felt a little better (why do guys understand this and we're clueless??), plus I'd gotten out of class early.

And then I walked in the door and told my sister what had happened. What makes the entire event all-the-more tragic is that it was my last big assignment of the semester. I was supposed to be "home free" after submitting it. Sigh. Tearing up ensued while searching for a saved copy; I didn't find anything. What I did find was better. A pre-edited hard copy of the near-final edition. And my professor had emailed - "Sounds like my luck. Take your time. I trust you."
My life's not officially over.