Bizarre Week and OFF

To my wonderful readers:

It's been a weird week. I was sick last night while trying to study for my test at 8:30am.

Short note: got an 80 on the exam (5.5 points above the class average!). Plus, we got our paper grades back, and I got a 96! This means my new average is an 81! This is exceptionally low for me; after all, I graduated cum laude from Miami University, but this is an accelerated nursing program, and people are now dropping like flies.

"There's something to be said for just surviving," my dad said on the phone this morning. True statement.

I'm feeling better, and my stressors are lightened (for right now -- I have 36 hours of work in a row from Saturday night into Monday morning). Thus, I'm off to Columbus for the night for a great night out with Kurtis, Leslie, Brian, and Chris! No blogs out of me for the next day or so... sorry 'bout that, yo! Check out my friends on my blogroll to your right.

For now, I'm out for fun and adventure! No doubt there will be a story for you.

Much love,

Barry Floore

QueerCincinnati.com

Bomb Threats/Etc.

To make my day fabulous, on top of the flu and not getting a necessary nap this morning, we had a bomb threat dead in the middle of my lab midterm. Evacuated the whole school and gave us the news: we might be out for two hours.

Rather than saying, "Well, guess we'll reschedule the test," my A&P and lab profs got together and said, "Technically, we have them all until 2:30pm, so we'll just make them stick around until the midterms are done." I had totally wanted to leave right after the test so I could get to bed. 

I spent an hour sitting in the lobby of Christ Hospital while they went over the entire school. 

These are my two twitpics from the debaucle:

Anyways, an hour later they called everyone back, and I got my test done despite the first alarm going off like three more times -- NO WORRIES! JUST RESETTING IT! -- and left without a single explosion.

Which, I think, always makes for a most excellent day.

In all reality, I thought it was going to be kinda fun, livetweeting real news. Sadly, it was just a bomb threat and the place was clear... the bomb squad wasn't even called in. @Local12 picked it up for a moment on Twitter, and @WLWT responded to it, but, again, nothing fun to report today :-).

On a side note, did you realize you have to link back to Twitpic if you use a picture that you uploaded to that website? Yea. Neither did I. Here's the statement:

Remember! Twitpic Community Guidelines specify that if you post a Twitpic photo on an external website, the photo must link back to its photo page.

Hrm. Google, what?

I have a life you know :-)

Sorry I've been on a two-day hiatus, but I'm more tired than alive right now... having auditory hallucinations.

Failed a test at school today, along with the rest of my class. My profs have no sympathy -- try harder, they say. My apartment reeks -- it hasn't been cleaned in weeks -- and I can't find the smelly stuff to at least pretend that it smells like lavendar blossoms everyday. I'm going to bed now, and I'll try to update myself on the world tomorrow.

And, in pennance, I give you, a cute boy lip synching one of my favorite songs...

We have a new mantra at school: 76 is an RN. (76=passing grade, which, for the record, I have a 74... first I have ever in my life been failing a class) It's gotten to that point.

On the bright side, I received word that I should be getting a juicy and exciting thing in the mail from, of all places, Equality Ohio.

Oh jesus, watching this video... go on, psychoanalyze it, bitches. LOL. It's all true, it's all true.

Support me Heart Mini-Marathon

So I'm doing another walk, this time for the heart.

Every year, Cincinnati has the Heart Mini-Marathon and Walk to support people living with chronic heart disease, raising money that goes into services, care, and medication. This year, Christ Hospital is "hosting" the event, and I wanted to play along, since I've been such an avid participant in the past of other disease walks in the city -- specifically, the WALK TO STOP AIDS.

I won't be running in the Mini-Marathon (5K or 10K). I will, however, be walking, thank you very much.

I'm asking for your kind and generous donation at this link to help support me in my goal of raising money for a great cause. Unlike the AIDS Walk, I'm only trying to reach $150*, and I put in $35 towards the goal.

So throw me $10 or $20. I promise it will make you feel good about yourself today.

Your heart -- well, mine, actually -- will thank you!

You will all be hearing a lot about this, and you can track my process on the right side of your screen with the little thermometer. You can also choose to do the walk/run with us; I hear it's a pretty nifty event. This will be my first year, so we'll see.

SnOMG!!!!!

After yesterday's craptastic day, Christ College canceled classes today!!! Watching WLWT because they are my friend on Twitter. Seriously.

This is fun too: this is live streaming video of one of their reporters driving around so you can see what the roads look like. Quality is questionable based on the signal, but it's neat when it works. 

Update: I've been debating this this morning. The nurses are at work, they have to go in. Sure, some people will not be able to make it in, but pt census will be down, especially in the ED. What does it tell us, as nursing students, about snow? Maybe they shouldn't have cancelled classes... especially clinicals. Nurses go in regardless of weather. The administration, though, wants to sit inside at home. I guess that's what matters.

The Finger on No-Smoking Policies

Christ Hospital has a disgusting smoking policy -- no smoking on the grounds. I get it. All the hospitals are doing it, and there is a shortage of fresh air in the world so it is necessary to make sure smokers don't take up the last of it.

But today we get an email from the medical director of my program saying that the church, which is just off property, is off limits... that they had received complaints about students smoking off property in front of the church. They reinforced that anyone caught smoking "on grounds" (mind you the security guards have said in the past that "Christ doesn't own this church" -- ha!) would have Christ Hospital (not Christ College) disciplinary action taken against them.

Um, I think your arguments about the health of patients would be a little more believable if there wasn't a Wendy's right in front of your doors.

Sorry. You fail. And, for that:


I mean, I know how much fun it is to pick on smokers these days -- we are, after all, single handedly degrading the health care system, destroying the environment, and generally contributing to the overal moral decay of the country -- but don't you think it's funny that we can so easily pick on us...

...when you, at the same time, write about the parking issues on campus without mention of how great it would be if more people walked/took the bus?

...when you have a fast food restaurant in your building that "offers more healthy options than any other fast food restaurant?"

...when you have coke machines on every corner?

...when you don't even have an appropriate gym for people who work/go to school here to access?

...when you don't offer employee assistance for quitting smoking?

I just think its funny that we harp on and on and on about the public health concerns that are caused by smokers, whereas we seem to have no problems with the public health concerns caused by any other vice.

Oh, and to the naysayers who say "you're affecting my health too," all right, I'll give you that. But what's wrong with a designated, a little off the beaten path smoking section? Trust me, the environmental toxins caused by the very busy Auburn Avenue in front of the hospital are 10X worse than any thing my little smoke will do.

Cardiovascular Step Down!!!!

(image from the Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Association)

I just found out my clinical floor for next semester -- yea! Cardiovascular Step-Down!!!!

That's exciting because, as I've talked briefly about before, I have a heart problem known as "Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy" -- HCM, for short -- which was first described to me as the symptom described as Left Ventricular Hypertrophy -- LVH, which I thought was a disease for a long time until I started in nursing school and they were like "no" and then I started asking better questions. (If you look at the picture above, my heart is kinda like the picture on the right... note the blockage of the aorta? If I ever pass out, please don't grab the AED... thank you, Urban Active ... LOL)

I'm working on a post about it and how it affects my life.

Anyways, the point of this post is just to share my excitement -- I GET TO WORK ON THE HEART FLOOR!!!! :-) I get to learn about the HEART!

...unlike the freakin' orthopedic floor I was on last semester... if I had to give another 90 year old with dementia but with a full hip replacement another full bed bath, I was going to scream.

Bless the souls of the people that can do that.

(Plus I get to learn about a lot of really cool diseases of the heart -- cardiovascular diseases tend to be very hard to conceptualize because there are so many variations on a theme. CV diseases have such wild side affects and affect such a huge segment of the population ... and a blockage in the aorta has such different affects than one in a radial artery... anyways... I'm just really siked :-))

GENERAL STUFF: How to undermine pharmaceutical reps' jobs

"Hey, you guys are pharmacy people?"


"Well, yea, pharmaceutical company."


"Do you have, like, any free stuff?"


"Ummm... yea."


"Can I have some?"


"We have some pens." (Reaches into pouch, grabs some pens, hands them over.)


"Great! I don't know what I'd do without all the free stuff you guys give. I'm constantly in need of new pens." (Walks out of elevator and away.)

RELIGION: El universitas de christo

From the security guy at Christ Hospital today when I asked him if I could smoke here in front of the church:

"Of course. I don't see why not. Christ doesn't own this church."

LOL. I giggled a little.

PS School is going well, for inquiring minds.

PERSONAL: Quick update...

Just an FYI for anyone who wants to know what's going on...

I went through orientation this week for nursing school!!!! YEA! I start classes on Monday!!!!!

So, after $1300 for books and supplies, reading through a small pile of paper (it's about 3 inches thick on my desk), freaking out a few times, being told "Barry, you're gonna need to get organized and fast," being placed in the "special group" with my advisor, a boat ride, tons of new people I got to meet, having to retake my CPR class because it wasn't "the right type of CPR class" (I didn't know either), signing away my life for five years...

It's finally beginning.

PERSONAL: All this stuff going on

It has just begun to hit me that... I start school in exactly 7 weeks.

And I didn't realize that there was so much going on in my head about it. The whole thing feels like a balancing act of my real life and school life. And that juxtaposition had made one seem silly and nonsensical by comparison.

I graduated from Miami University (Oxford, OH, folks) in 2004 with two degrees -- B.A.'s in Urban/Regional Planning and Public Administration. Somewhere in 2002 and 2003 I interned at Wilbur-Smith Associates and, though the first summer was cool, it became tiresome the second and I realized I just had no interest in the field.

I mean, I guess I still do in a way, but it wasn't the kind of interest that would drive me to keep on, keepin' on.

Thus, I went to a career counsellor my senior year and said "I hate my life, what do I do." It was one of the few times in my life (or in anyone's life, I'm gathering) that an advising session was fruitful. After ticking off my interests, she reacted to the word "feminist" by saying -- "Why don't you go volunteer at Planned Parenthood?"

In Oxford, and with my liberal sentiments, it was one of the few outlets that could really connect with me and actually potentially lead to a job.

Which it did, and I had on-and-off employment with Planned Parenthood starting in 2003, ending officially in 2005, but beginning again through an HIV-testing contract I put together between a new employer (AVOC/STOP AIDS) and Planned Parenthood in 2006. That relationship still exists.

And it led me to be interested in healthcare, which is strange because nursing was always pretty much bottom on my list of interests.

To be fair, nursing in a clinical setting has very little interest to me still. In my head, it still will just be something to do on the side... picking up a few shifts here and there, or maybe as a full-time position for a few years.

But I have a bigger goal in mind this time: I want my Master's.

I got accepted to three grad schools while I was a senior at Miami -- Master's of Community Planning Programs. But, again, they held no interest, and I knew I was doing it out of momentum rather than actual interest.

I want to get my Master's of Public Health. And that's my goal this time around. The nursing thing is a means to an end, and it will allow me the flexibility and mobility to move and to work anywhere I want in the world.

And that's what excites me.

But back to the final seven weeks.

A lot of shit is happening in my personal life, and that's important to know because it's stirring things up, and I'm getting scared. Because this time I have a plan, and this time I have a real life that does not center on school, and this time I'm not just a student but a person too...

All the dates and times and stuff are spinning in my head.

And I just hope I can do it.

I've been out of school for four years... and I'm worried I won't be able to do it.

Seven weeks.

CINCY GAY SCENE: Christ Hospital

I went into my preregistration meeting this morning with my preadvisor -- it's only May, so there's a lot of pre- involved -- and I mentioned my "gay work" in the past.

Woman gets EXCITED. Really excited. Apparently, Christ Hospital (and the associated college, to which I am becoming a part) is sadly lacking in LGBT influence -- and the fact that I have professional healthcare experience is quite exciting because I'm going to be able to "open eyes and shed light" on issues that are often not discussed in the school. She went on for a while, and then in the back of my head, two thoughts came up:

1) I get to be the token queer.

2) Was this a subtle way for me to get excited and get involved in my school as the token queer?

TY over at the Vinyl Polis, as well as LM, both say that I'm born to cause problems and be the torch bearer. But I wonder how much can be done at Christ Hospital.

PERSONAL: A student again

Just a personal note.

I got accepted to The Christ College of Nursing today.

I'm going to nursing school in the fall :-)

Yea me.