Month: April 2015

princess and the pea

I’ve been complaining for QUITE some time now about the state of our mattress, and the state of my back.  I’m just way too young to be in so much pain every morning.  Unfortunately, my husband can sleep on just about any surface with no trouble at all, so my cries fell on deaf ears for months.  He told me in no uncertain terms that our seven-year-old mattress was ‘just fine’ and that any trouble I was having was clearly in my head.  Humph.

Well, one week ago, the man did the unthinkable: he bought a mattress.  After visiting only TWO stores on our first outing to try out mattresses.  SO out of character, right?! We’d gone to church, popped into a store, ran some errands, popped into another mattress store, and just when we should have turned right to go home, he turned LEFT!  When he looked at me and said, ‘Should we just go order it now?’ I thought I was hearing things.

 Turns out, I like super soft mattresses.  I want that ‘sink in’ feeling.  Our old mattress was ‘super firm, which we saw on the label after moving it off the bed.  Go figure.

Andrew came home to receive our new mattress just a few days after we ordered it, and decided to start enjoying it right away.

  It’s almost DOUBLE the height of our old mattress, which is taking some getting used to.  It comes to almost the top of our footboard and I have to hoist myself up each night, but it’s wonderful.  I feel like I have to pinch myself each night as I sink into the bed because it’s too good to be true.  I know my husband, and I thought this purchase was MONTHS away.

Of course, the man who bought a new mattress (relatively unexpectedly) couldn’t possibly pony up another $20 for the delivery guys to take our other one away…so it’s still sitting downstairs, providing hours of entertainment for the animals.

 Between locking the kitties out of the room when we sleep and the new mattress, I’ve been sleeping better than I have in what seems like years, and just in time for my Buffalo General rotation.  5:30 a.m. comes early, folks.

two down, ONE to go!

We were on campus again today, which marks the start of our FINAL rotations before we’re finished. T minus 38 days until graduation…it’s getting real, folks. Seriously.

I am, however, seriously dreading my 5:30 a.m. wake-up for the next 4.5 weeks to be at Buffalo General Hispital at 7, but at least it will be the warmest and brightest (well, if spring will ever arrive) of my rotations.

I spent the last 5 weeks learning the ropes at a long-term care facility (a.k.a. nursing home), and doing what felt like never-ending projects. I researched freelance writing opportunities, wrote blog posts, got involved in the Western NY Dietetics Association, wrote a script for a couple food-related segments for the campus television station (we film next week), made a plan to revamp the blog (more on that later), and wrote a 23-page business plan. And I’m sure I’m forgetting some others. I also had a job at the campus health center and provided nutritional counseling to students on Wednesday afternoons; now that I’ll be at the hospital all day, another student is taking over. We got paid as ‘student assistants,’ but this could lead to an actual part-part time counseling position this fall when we’re actually RD’s. We’ll see.

I think my favorite project this past rotation was my business plan, despite it also having been the most work. I designed a business in which I provide nutritional counseling at a local wellness center and can accept insurance reimbursement. It’s something I could definitely see myself doing. Again, we’ll see.

Hittin’ the hay early tonight, 5:30 comes early…especially when you stayed up the night before watching the season finale of The Walking Dead!