The Magical Bookstore

I found magic!

For those of you that have seen "A midnight in Paris" movie, remember how Owen Wilson's character felt when he found the secret society? How magical it felt?

Well, I found that. In my town. My new town...(I recently moved).

My new city now is known every where to the nation to be "The Christmas City", if that gives you any clue. The city alone is very, very, very magical, culturally fun, and very artistic. I have been astronomically impressed every time I venture outside my bubble here, and new (and old!) friends have been so kind as to not only show me these new magical experiences, but to experience them for the first time themselves as well. It's been kinda pretty awesome.

Anyway, tonight's adventure was out to dinner, but this was no ordinary restaurant! First of all, it was called "the bookstore". Now, any of you that know me personally know that I was already in love with any restaurant called "the bookstore" without having stepped foot in it.

We had trouble finding it at first. The location our gps brought us to...well, it didn't exist. The magic of this place I guess is that it wants you to discover it on your own. Without technology. To open your eyes.

It was finally found in a little alcove in the city- a tiny black door labeled "the bookstore". We hesitantly went for it and walked in anyway. And it was amazing.


The restaurant was truly...just, out of this world. It looked like a 1920s bookstore. Piano, with 1920s music (of course), a bar with 1920s drinks...and the tables were set up so you could actually have a conversation.

They gave you a rule book, with some cute rules, and some serious, some funny, including how to actually pretend you're in the 1920s with them.

We ordered drinks from the era, and ordered off a menu that was literally taped inside an existing book. Adorable.

The atmosphere was just, jolly. It was happy. It's what I've needed.

A previous restaurant near and deaf to my heart will always have that first place, the "favorite memorable restaurant"category, but I can no longer go there. But it will always own a chip in my heart and memory. But this restaurant, this is a pretty wicked, and different- replacement. I can't wait to go again. Magical.


Some pictures to enjoy....(it was pretty dark so I only have a couple) :-)

We are Not Generic

So I graduated today.

I have this weird thing about me that it's hard for me to actually realize....the magnitude of what is going on. Like, I should be walking on cloud nine because I graduated college today with a BSN in nursing. I mean, this is huge. It was the hardest academic program I've ever been through. It was the most rigorous three years of my life...

But it actually just feels like any other day, strangely enough. Kind of like when its your birthday and people ask you, "So How does it feel to be...[insert age here]?"  And your response is usually...."It feels the same as yesterday."  

I guess what I'm trying to say is walking across a field and accepting a piece of paper doesn't make me a nurse. I don't even think passing my NCLEX will make me a nurse. I don't truly think I can call myself a nurse til I've been on the job for 50 years and even then I will still feel like I'm learning.

From this day on, this blog will change. It will no longer have tags, "Student Nursing" because that chapter of my life is finally over. No more anxiety-driven clinicals, no more posts about feeling too nervous that I can't go on, no more tears after a test....

There will be no more making a second back-up plan for my entire life because I am positive I will never graduate this program. I actually made it through! Although I did come up with some pretty good back up plans.....

So this blog will change into posts about nursing...(BSN nursing, not aide nursing!) ... My first job, the terrors of that, the highlights, the dreams, everything I learn...

Because I will never stop learning. Life is not worth living if you can't continue to learn every single day. If the day comes that you stop learning, that you think you know everything, then that is the day you know nothing.

I got an honorary award today at graduation for having an outstanding performance and interest in community health nursing. Which is AWESOME and probably was truly the highlight of my day.  I highly respect, honor and cherish two professors at that school very, very, very much and think they are the smartest two women I have ever met in my life--And they chose me for this honor. Which is incredible. So this confirms a couple things in my life. Being that I received an award for having an interest in community health nursing, I want to actually follow through with that. I still want to gain my "typical" nursing experience in the hospital, but then I plan to get my masters degree in International Nursing, and specialize in Field Epidemiology, which is a division of community health. Basically what this will enable me to do is do what I love most--Travel and Nursing. When a huge outbreak occurs, field epidemiologists get "sent in" and figure out whats causing the illness. They sort of get to play detective...get to the very bottom of where it all started. Trace it all back to the source. Figure out its path. The symptoms. How to control it. How to prevent the rest of the public from acquiring this disease. Also, they get to do lots of math, which, I love very much. I miss math terribly from grade school, high school and community college--and when we got to do a little bit of math again in epidemiology--I realized how much I would love for math (and nursing) to be my job again.

So, for the first time in my life, I feel comfortable with whats going to happen. Of course, we can never be sure of whats going to happen and my plan is *probably* going to change, but--Its at least nice to have a plan, even if it is a little tentative and bound to change.

To explain the title of my post, it was from one of my graduation speakers at todays "school-wide" ceremony (as opposed to the department of Nursing ceremony). We had two amazing speakers, the first being our senior class president. She gave this phenomenal speech--starting it off by saying she didn't know what to say, so she googled it--but didn't like what she was seeing-it was too generic and cliche. So she went with this awesome speech of how we at my school are definitely not generic and definitely don't fit any cliche. She went on to describe specific (funny) examples of how we are different from your typical college population, and overall it was a speech that actually kept my attention. Then we had another great speaker--one of my school's English professor's, and she gave this awesome inspiring speech that ended with a really special poem I wanted to share with all you. It is the typical perfect poem I would love  and sounds like something I could only hope to write one day.

“Do You Have Any Advice For Those of Us Just Starting Out?"

Ron Koertge

Give up sitting dutifully at your desk. Leave

your house or apartment. Go out into the world.

It's all right to carry a notebook but a cheap

one is best, with pages the color of weak tea

and on the front a kitten or a space ship.

Avoid any enclosed space where more than

three people are wearing turtlenecks. Beware

any snow-covered chalet with deer tracks

across the muffled tennis courts.

Not surprisingly, libraries are a good place to write.

And the perfect place in a library is near an aisle

where a child a year or two old is playing as his

mother browses the ranks of the dead.

Often he will pull books from the bottom shelf.

The title, the author's name, the brooding photo

on the flap mean nothing. Red book on black, gray

book on brown, he builds a tower. And the higher

it gets, the wider he grins.

You who asked for advice, listen: When the tower

falls, be like that child. Laugh so loud everybody

in the world frowns and says, "Shhhh."

Then start again.

I think the end is the best piece of wisdom I have ever heard, and will be with me in really difficult moments in the next years to come. So, I will leave you tonight with some pictures of my special day:

Crazy cool picture of all the crowds in the stands. We have a big school and lots of family came, as expected :-)

Thanks to my addiction to my new Hipstamatic app, this picture looks like its a graduation from the 70s and I love it! We walked under this little balloon archway and It was just so perfect for the day. It was adorable.

Last but certainly not least, we went to dinner to P.F. Changs to celebrate- And this was my fortune cookie. It says, "Endurance and Persistence will be rewarded" Which is SO fitting for today and making it through this program. Yay for unexpected perfect fortunes! :-) Love when life works out like that...

Yay!

~ A Writer in a Nurse's Body

My Inventions

So I have two inventions. Well, not really inventions. Because it isn't something you can hold in your hand. Rather, its an idea to help promote a better world. I just need someone to take charge of it...Let's see what you think of it!

I have two nursing inventions, but those two are two actual "things" that might actually be inventable....maybe one day I'll share them with you. :-)

Anyway, back to the "abstract idea inventions"...

1)   This relates back to my post, "It's a Social Thing", when I was frustrated with how hard it is to avoid restaurants, not because of the food- but because well, its a social thing.
Scenario: Boy meets girl. Boy asks girl out. Somewhere they can just talk. Movies? No, can't talk in a movie. Bowling? No,  you can't talk while you bowl because someone is always bowling. Shop around in the mall? No, thats incredibly awkward. Oh, Hey- Lets go out to eat! Thats a good place to talk. It gives you something to do with your hands when the conversation pauses. You can awkwardly stare at other people, play with your straw, drink 4 glasses of water, eat every last crumb on your plate and then stare at them.....(Ok, maybe thats just what I do- But still). Thats my point. People use restaurants as a place to just talk, catch up, whatever, and eating just comes along with it. And then the food all contributes to America's Obesity epidemic. But what else do we have?

So, heres my wild abstract thought: Why not create some sort of.....place...where people can go just to talk?  It would be a big building, a huge center. There would be lots of different "areas" that you can go to, with tables, or couches....In the winter, there would be areas with real fireplaces going. Maybe you could reserve a room for you and a friend, or group of friends to just have a good time with....

There would be places to get tea/coffee, too. Because thats a must. In my world. Maybe there will be a bookstore. (Okay this is turning into B&N).  Maybe there can be a recreation center, where you can rent a tennis court with a friend, or racquetball or something. There could be a pool. There could be a club, where you ballroom dance in by day and nightclub dance in by night....All things with no food!

I wonder if it would actually work. Probably not. I'm forgetting that not everyone in this universe hates the food industry as much as me. And that usually, people aren't looking to talk. And, normal people like food.  SO tell me -- do you think this would fail? Would people go to a place like this on a date, or with friends, just to talk, as opposed to eating out? Or would they eat out AND go to this place?

I guess you can't stop America from eating out unless you shut down all the chain restaurants. That would never happen.

I'm also forgetting that you could always invite a date or a group of friends to your home to talk, but that doesn't always work out.  It's hard to be a host and not everyone actively enjoys that.



Invention Two:

This invention stemmed from the recent article, "The Hot Spotters" by Atul Gawande  in the New Yorker. The article was about how we can map out where the most expensive patients are coming from, by state, by city, by building in the city....And by finding where they are coming from, we can actively seek out to help that particular population. Atul Gawande points out that If we see a particular apartment complex in Camden, NJ is housing a significantly large amount of ER visits or chronic conditions, perhaps thats a good place to place a doctor's office or Nurse Practitioner, to target them before they get to the ER or get to be a chronic condition.

So, keeping that in mind, keep this in mind:

There are a lot of homeless people in America. What if we mapped out where the high incidences of homeless people were, and acted there first? And its not always just the big cities that have high populations of homeless people, sometimes its the little towns.

So how do we act? Well, what if we had big homeless shelters (again with the big idea, big center thing), to house homeless people? There would be qualifications to enter, of course. No drugs or alcohol on premise whatsoever. This center would help you find a job, they would have a thrift store on campus, to buy cheap clothes and business suits for work...

I know some people are against spending tax dollars to house homeless people, because the stereotype is that these people are homeless because they spent all their money on drugs, or alcohol, or gambled it all, or whatever. But think about the people that did nothing wrong. Think about the single mothers. Think about the children, the teenagers. Think about people that just lost their home. What about them? Do we really want them on the streets? By keeping them on the streets, they become a risk to themselves. They are predisposing themselves to more health problems (malnutrition, infections, hypothermia), violence, and a life of continued homelessness. Without help they don't know how to get an education (or finish one), how to get a job, how to find a bed to sleep in that night.

So this place, (there would be many throughout the nation in the "hot spots"), would be a safe haven for these people. A way to get them off the streets. A warm place. With showers, and food. Blankets. Clothes. It wouldn't be luxury, it wouldn't be long-term, and it wouldn't be meant for people to want to stay there instead of getting there life turned around and finding somewhere better.

I know that in a lot of homeless shelters today there becomes a problem where women are not the dominant resident type, and therefore they are outnumbered, and are at risk for harassment or sexual abuse. So my new type of homeless shelter would have divisions. Like 50 beds for the men, 30 for teens, 40 for adult women, 10 "rooms" for each homeless family. Maybe this place could even have a school of its own. Like a GED diploma program on campus. Maybe the residents could work at the center, in the food area, or in the school, or in the thrift store...

I don't know. Just some ideas. I like to think big. Usually when I'm supposed to be paying attention in class. I wonder if any of these ideas could ever work....

It's a Social Thing?

So I gave up restaurants for Lent. Specifically, chain restaurants.

I'm not normally a religious person. I used to feel guilty about this, but I have learned a lot more about the world now. I go to church for Christmas and Easter, but it's for making my family happy and celebrating our blessings together as a family.

I do believe in a higher power that kind of "knows whats going on" and I am one of those people that believes everything happens for a reason, even terrible terrible things and that if one door closes, a window or door or crack in the wall is opening at the same time. So when terrible things are happening, I try and just ride it out and wait....things can only be horrible for so long. And sometimes it just takes looking at it a different way. Or sometimes, you can't just wait for "things to happen" and you have to go out there and make a change yourself. So its a mixture, I guess. But the impetus that caused you to snap and "go out and make your own change"....was that your choice, or was that impetus placed so that you could make a change in your life? Did the chicken or the egg come first?

So thats my schpeel (sp?) on religion.

So, thinking about all that, I did Lent not-so-much just for religious reasons. I chose it because I wanted a challenge. My father and I were chatting right at the beginning of Lent, and he had mentioned briefly how someone he knew was giving up Facebook (Apparently a lot of people do this!). And I thought.....man, no way. That is really hard to do. I can't even imagine. There is no way I am at a point of maturity in my life where I can think about separating from Facebook right now. That is really, really hard.

So (I'm sorry I start every paragraph with "so") then I thought about it....what else in this world could I give up, that I love, that would be hard, yet do-able? Facebook I love, and would be hard, but not-doable. It would probably teach me a lot and be life-changing....but...no. Could I give up meat? No...what would I eat? I unfortunately rely on chicken a lot...especially at restaurants. Oh, wait- RESTAURANTS. I'm giving up restaurants, I thought. So then I narrowed it down to chain restaurants. Why? Well, It goes along with my feelings on how ridiculous this food industry is and how these large chains are getting unhealthier and unhealthier. So since I knew it would be hard to give up restaurants completely, I made it so that I could eat out if It were a non-chain, and preferably family-run, home-cooked style type food.

Well, I have slipped....twice so far. The first, was in NYC when I was with a friend and her family to see a Broadway show....we went over the span of dinner time and were out until really late. So even if I ate a huge lunch, I wouldn't make it til 1 am because I die quickly if I don't eat. So....What else am I supposed to do? So that day, I made another exception- I can eat out if I am travelling. So that allowed me to eat out when I recently attended my state nursing convention last night- we stayed overnight. So....I had to eat, and well- (we were in Atlantic City), that is not a city to be wandering around looking for a non-chain restaurant..even if we were with military personnel. SO that all worked out, AND I ended up finding a fantastic restaurant (See Yesterday's Post).

But......but now my first unavoidable difficulty arises. What happens when you get an invite to go out to eat with some really good friends, that you haven't seen in a long time because they all live out of town....and they will be in for one night...and they want to go out to eat....in your hometown....So technically, this doesn't apply to any of my already existing "exceptions". I could make another exception and say screw it- I can go out to eat when I'm with friends I haven't seen in forever....Or I could eat before hand, and just drink water with them at the restaurant. But then that rises weird suspicions that I am "Anorexic" or something now, (even though trust me- I do not look anorexic). So....that leaves me with.....nada.

What I'm going to do (to be polite) is to just eat with them. Even though its Lent, and you're really supposed to stick to what you say......or else...( I don't know what actually happens if you don't), sometimes its really hard not to.

I guess this reflects what I have known all along. I can deny eating out when its convenient. I can cook at home then. I can deny eating out with my family, because although they think I am insane, they understand. Because they have to. But social situations.......that's hard. Because what else is there to do in a small town, when friends want to get together and talk? Its like, automatic that you just go out to eat. I can't decide if this is a good thing or not. It certainly is promoting our obesity epidemic...and it isn't helping our sinking food industry. But it gives a place for friends to meet...laugh, talk, catch up, remind you of old times. We don't have anywhere else, in this town, or really- in this country- to do so. Unless you want to go bowling.

I haven't lost any weight from not eating out....which I thought I would...but it still helps a lot. It helps me feel better because it helps me stay away from Milk a lot better...and even if I haven't lost weight, it still is just a healthier lifestyle. Don't get me wrong, I love going out to eat. I really do. I have like...a problem with it. A food problem. I have noticed this in myself since my early teenage years. I associate working hard all day with friends, family or yourself to going out to eat together to celebrate working hard all day. I guess that's just how I've been raised. You work hard, you get to go out to eat. So I'm trying to break that association within myself. How about- you work hard, you get to come home and cook a delicious meal at home! Yeah? Yeah? YEah! Ok well, we'll work on that. So giving up restaurants isn't easy. They taste yummy, they are easy, you dont have to cook, clean, you can order anything you want...meet with friends. So, its not easy.

So...thoughts? Is it ok to make exceptions when it comes to Lent? I guess it's gonna have to be....I really want to continue this challenge even after Lent. I want to be a little more lenient after Lent, but I really want to really cut down on restaurants.


~A Writer in a Nurse's Body

Finally, Someone Important is on the Boat

Restaurant Nutrition

Ok so, my reading of the NYT daily....well, that's not exactly possible. Unless you have countless hours in your day and take no naps, and have unlimited amounts of time to just sit there and learn things, then maybe, just maybe do you have time to actually finish reading the New York Times.

Usually, on a good day I will read 85% of international news and 95% of National news. But reading it every day has grown to become a very unlikely goal. But I am trying, very hard. I have also picked up the enjoyable habit of reading "The New Yorker" which I find to be very easy to read but also very interesting.

Cool moment of the week:
My professor that I have that I mentioned previously that inspired me to read the NYT- well she was lecturing about environmental health and mentioned a key piece of information and quoted WORDFORWORD articles of information that she could only have learned from a particular article in the NYT that i specifically remember reading a couple of days ago. I had the *OVERWHELMING* urge to act like Hermione and raise my hand and be like, "I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT!! YAY!!!" or, "I READ THAT ARTICLE TOO!! LETS TALK ABOUT IT AFTER  CLASS!!!'.

But I didn't. Because really, where would that get me? As much as I want my teacher to know she inspired me to be smart, I can't just raise my hand and tell her that I'm smart now. It doesn't work like that. And plus, no one likes Hermione when she acts like that.

Anyway, lets get to the real purpose of this blog. Oh my god, on a side note, I have so much so say that has happened since Tuesday. Maybe I'll make a separate blog all about that. Do you want to read about that or do you not really care? I think you care. Don't lie.

Anyway, lets really get to the purpose. Upon stumbling upon (bad wording-sorry) the National news in NYT on February 7, a certain article instantly caught my attention and I love when that happens! It was titled "Restaurant Nutrition Draws Focus of First Lady- Expanding the Push for Healthier Eating."

Can we all take a moment of silence to jump up and down and say YAYY!??

*moment*

Ok! Good! This is FABULOUS! I was not aware that Michelle Obama was involved in all these nutrition campaigns. If I were ever a First Lady, this would definitely be the kinds of great things I would do. This is how we are going to reach the people. She has so much power, she is the person to do it. I am so glad she is making the move to do so.

"A team of advisers to Mrs. Obama has been holding private talks over the past year with the National Restaurant Association, a trade group, in a bid to get restaurants to adopt her goals of smaller portions and childrens meals that include healthy offerings like carrots, apple slices and milk instead of French Fries and Soda."

Obama, (M), Also has magnificent plans to lower prices at Walmart for fruits and veggies and to reduce the amount of fat, sugar and salt in all Walmart products. This is also fantastic. Sad as it is, but through Walmart is how to reach a large percentage Americans in this economy. If I had to make up a percentage I would say 60%. That is a lot. Walmart is cheaper and even the middle class is sensibly choosing Walmart over higher retailers, especially with the multitude of Super walmarts and their ability to carry groceries. Have you ever noticed that the chips and unhealthy foods are always cheaper than the fruits? A bag of cheetos is cheaper than a carton of strawberries. You can see how its easier for families to choose the cheetos. If Mrs. Obama can effectively lower prices on the right items, we can help families choose healthier foods...even if just the the cheaper cost.

ALso on Mrs. Obama's agenda:

• design soda cans with calorie counts
• redesign the food pyramid
• require restaurants to print nutritional information on menus
• design clear "front-of-package" labels to warm consumers about ingredients like salt, sugar and fat

So, all good things.

Now, for my feelings on the restaurant nation:

...Where to even start? First of all, I love to eat out, as do many, many other people. It is a good social thing, when your town has nothing to do (like mine) other than eat out all the time or go to the movies. It tastes Yummy. Its nice to see other people that live in your town. Its nice to eat food that you didn't have to make or clean up. It's nice to be waited on.

But is it nice to feel guilty and fatter the next day? What if you knew exactly how many calories you consumed during that meal, or grams of fat? I can definitely say that going out to eat a lot has put on the pounds.

If we as a country, if Mrs Obama, can figure out how to make restaurants healthy, it has to happen all at once. All restaurants have to do it together or they will all fail. If one chain restaurant "goes healthy" the people will notice a change in food, perhaps, and will shun that restaurant (A) and go to another one (B).  A will take the financial cut pretty hard and B will love all the extra customers, and see no good reason to "go healthy". Soon enough, restaurant A will have to return to its "good" food if it wants to survive. But if restaurants did this change together, if it was mandated by law (which is impossible because this country cant agree on anything in congress), then all restaurants would be equal in the healthy eating boat.

If all restaurants fail, or restaurants overall notice a decrease in business, then we still succeeded. People will have to eat at home and therefore, most likely a little healthier. At least, if anything, they will know what is in their food.  Now by restaurant, I mean chain big restaurants, that you sit in and they bring you food after ordering. Don't even get me started on Fast food. I don't even know what to do about fast foods....But I do know that if we regulate laws on standards of cooking foods in restaurants, we surely have to either wipe out the fast food kings or get them to adapt these new laws as well.

If I ran the country and was involved in this campaign, I would fight to make soda illegal in restaurants.

Okay, everybody gasp. No soda??? What??? I LIVE off soda!!!!

I know, I know. Hence why this is unrealistic. Just because I believe soda is a BIG factor in this country's obesity and I haven't had a soda in over 5-6 years, doesn't mean everyone else is going to agree with me. But think about it. In restaurants, you drink socially...you get refills, you may even drink 2-3 glasses of soda. And diet soda? Worthless. Its still atrocious. If we could get rid of soda in restaurants, think of how much it would help kids, help combat diabetes, and obesity. With the rate of how much people eat out, we could target a big population with this change. And its not like you would be stuck drinking water...you could still have ice tea combinations available (still high in sugar, but better), hot tea's, juice's (for kids)...and, the almighty...water. And Water is free, too. Big incentive. OH! That just dawned on me. What if Ice tea were made free? And soda made more expensive? Is that more of a hassle than making soda illegal in restaurants? THink about it..

I just wish people could be healthier. In my mind there are three groups of people:

• People who eat healthy
• People who know how to eat healthy but choose not to
• People that would like to eat healthy, but do not know how to
• (okay there are 4)- people that really don't care/ want to eat un-healthy

IF we could target that third group....educate America and help those people that want to eat healthy but don't have an education or were never taught how to eat healthy, then this is how we can reach them. By making changes in their lifestyle. By lowering fruit/veggie prices at Walmart, but abolishing soda in restaurants...by taking less saturated fat out of restaurant food...

On a side note- My dining hall at school has been trying recently to put nutrition labels on foods throughout the hall. Well, in my mind, I am even more turned off...For looking at the label for a muffin which I would have guess to be healthy since it was the "Balanced Way- Healthy" muffin of the day, it still had 8 g of Saturated Fat in it...so, needless to say, no more muffins. I think i would have been better off not knowing. How can they call it healthy when it still has that much crap in it?

So thats the end of my ranting....I promise. Sorry for the unnecessary amounts of food ranting.  I hope you found it interesting and maybe helpful.

Do you want to see a separate blog on an update on my life? If you have read this far, you get a major vote. so vote. Because I can write a whole other blog, on many other things that are not so boring. But you let me know. ;)

With Immense Amounts of Love,

A Writer in a Nurse's Body