Hey All!

Just thought I'd check in and see what's new with everyone...it's been awhile!

Tracy - I'm glad your test went okay, and I hope your placement is going well too! That must be a bit nerve wracking! At least you get some hands on experience - I never had that opportunity as my course didn't have placements or co-ops. I see we have another Twilight fan!! I just read the series this summer (bought them all!) and absolutely loved them!

Lesli - Living in Canada isn't really that bad when it comes to cost of living...sure, some things are a little pricey, but it's all relative to income. And Tracy's right - teachers don't do too bad up here! Plus they have the best pension plan ever...you might want to reconsider your location! Plus...a country where you can hold an entire election in just two months seems alright to me!!

My life is moving along as per usual...work is keeping me as busy as ever. It's been a crazy field season!! I'm taking a weeks holiday right after Thanksgiving (the Canadian version...in just over a week) and heading up to the cottage to do...nothing!! I can't wait to relax...it will be my first actual vacation this year...how sad is that?!

Take care everyone!
Abs

I am moving to either Canada (likely) or England (less likely, but I want it more), depending on a certain November condition and how it pans out.

I've studied what's needed to move to Canada. It's not too bad, what with the points system and the different categories. I think the education system is better up there, isn't it? The young Canadians I've met via the 'net are really into school, as in, they don't get lax, they are always working to stay on top of it. College kids here seem to have plenty of time for partying. My son seems to, anyhow!

The scary thing about Canada is that it's economy is so tied to that of the US. If we go under (also likely), So will Canada. That would suck.

Um...I thought the UK economy was linked to the US one too....well seems that way to me! You go gah gah, we go gah gah!!

I think I'll move to outer Mongolia. Perhaps they won't have the internet if I go remote enough and then I won't get bugged by asinine remarks that people make my way!

Perhaps the economy of the world won't matter much and I can ride a donkey! I'll wear sack cloth for clothes and learn martial arts from some strange guy who was an extra in Crouching Tiger...or something.

Tomorrow of course is another day and I will prbbably feel better about things, but today, right now, things suck big time!

Things aren't allowed to suck in England. Unless, of course, you are Lady Jane Grey. And I supposed they sucked a bit for Charles II and his Divine Right. And then it kinda sucked to be Prince Charles with that comment about Camilla's feminine hygiene, so OK, yeah, it can suck in England.

What if we both moved to Belize? It's warm, they speak English...

Canadian kids can find plenty of time to party!! I only have half a university degree!
I think that I will move to Austrailia! They have lots of sun, oceans and a very cool accent! Eh just isn't sexy!
I started to read Twilight the second week in September and i have finished all of them now!!!! i loved them! Thanks for the info!
Abs i hope you have a great vacation! Ms husband made our turkey! It turned out great! I had to be at my placement!
My preceptor ( teacher ) called me last night with terrible pain in his back, so I'm home today. Now I have to clean and finish up my essays, YUCK! I'd rather be working!
If we all decide to make up a secret society of HP/ literature fan's we really should make our island some where nice!, Turks and Cacos , instead of paper sacs we could where fig leaves and vines! And worship the sun gods with crazy pagan rituals!
Tracy

Things aren't allowed to suck in England. Unless, of course, you are Lady Jane Grey. And I supposed they sucked a bit for Charles II and his Divine Right. And then it kinda sucked to be Prince Charles with that comment about Camilla's feminine hygiene, so OK, yeah, it can suck in England.

What if we both moved to Belize? It's warm, they speak English...

Thats too funny Darcy I didn't know you were planning on moving? Best of luck if you do...I'm sorry but cold weather and all I'd move to England if I could afford to live there that is! It is so expensive! Alas I would just like a change of scenery sometime..

Unfortunately the bit about the U.S./Canadian economy being tied closely together is scary (if ours goes under it could affect the other's as well) If only all of this economy stuff would straighten up, ya know times are getting sticky

happy Day to all and everyone have a wonderful week

You know whats funny!? We had our national election a couple of weeks ago, the bad guys won!!! Conservatives hate'em. We announced it and had the election all within 3-4 months. Why do American elections take over a year to complete? People are bored and just want it over with!!!! Maybe Canadians all have ADD. We want things short and sweet.

By the way" I love the quote Edward is a 108 year old virgin, he obviously has issues!" Love it!

I have handed in my final paper for my program!!!!!! Nursing theorists are not exactly exciting but it was fairly informative. I feel completely unprepared for the future! Good thing I still have 6 weeks of placement to learn as much as I can! Everyone keeps telling me you learn more on the job than in the classroom! We are dealing with peoples lives here, I don't think any patient wants on the job training!!!!!!

Does anyone know how much American nurses get paid Registered Practical nurses or Licensed practical nurses? It would be interesting to compare.
Talk to ya later ladies!
Tracy

Since no one's posted in here for forever, I thought I would.

I'm visiting my friend Steph for the holidays. It's wonderful. Except for one thing. Her cat Newo. I'm allergic to cats. Horribly allergic to cats. My boyfriend told me I should take Zyrtec every day and that's helping but after a week living with the cat, my allergy is coming back full force. *sighs* Like tonight...I was coughing uncontrollably until I thought I would throw up, my throat felt (and still kind of feels) like it's packed full of broken glass, and all I could hear with every breath I took was a crackly sound. I felt like a bowl of Rice Krispies! So I got Steph to take me out to Wal-Mart so I could get Popsicles and cough drops and things like that.

And of course, in addition to all that, my eyes are itchy and my nose constantly runs. The prices ya pay when you visit your best friends!

So how were everyone else's holidays?

That sucks, Eisa! Elaine (etphonehome) has the same problem. She said if I had a pet when she came next to visit me, she wouldn't be able to enter my house! My weird allergy is for down. If the pillows are down, I can't breathe! Which sucks when I'm in a hotel with down pillows and have none of my own!

How's everyone? It's cold here! I thought when I was young that I would resign myself to winter, but I only despise it more with each passing year. It is simply a season to be endured, not enjoyed.

Tracy, your elections are over that quick? Whoa, that's cool. I suppose our elections do take forever. Like everything. But the government was set up to be inefficient and slow, with good reason. When you have to ask everyone before you make a change, it takes more time. Dictators and kings get stuff done quickly, they say a word and it gets done. So the Founding Fathers made this laborious, time-consuming system so that everyone gets a say. From 2001-2005, the president had a Congress with a Republican majority, which meant it was a lot less like a real democracy in that he could basically slide any bill through that he wanted and the opposing side didn't have enough votes to stop it. So he got to do pretty much anything he wanted. Of course, Republican House and Senate members had the right to vote against his measures, but they never really did. Now the Republicans are nervous about the Democrats gaining a majority. So it goes, round and round.

Sorry for the impromptu history lesson. I just find all that stuff interesting.

Marcey, I was really surprised to find that, not only is Canada's economy tied to ours, but the whole world's! Elaine was right, sadly. And I feel really bad about that. Britain is hard-hit, too. I checked the exchange rates yesterday. A year ago they were pretty much 2 dollars for every pound. Now it is about $1.45 to every pound. I'm glad Elaine could come visit me when she did! The advantage in the money rates being closer, of course, is that someday I might be able to afford to visit her!

Tracy, congrats on your schooling! I know that registered nurses get paid much better than LPNs, but that's all I know.

Clinton had a Dem majority his first two years and nothing really got done. Bush had a few controversial terror related laws and his Medicare drug plan pass but they had support from both parties. Other than that I do not see where he accomplished much in eight years. Senate rules make it almost impossible to do anything one sided. I think FDR was the last President to have big enough margins to make sweeping changes.

I do to and have found I can not read enough about our founding. My latest kick is reading some of the books by Joseph Ellis. If you have not read any of his work I would recommend it. His books were in my Library so they should be available most places. I like that his books are broken up into six or so segments that each stand on their own. You can jump around if you choose. Instead of just telling the standard history he examines all the sub-issues that were going on at specific moments in time. So far I think my favorite part was the chapter in Founding Brothers called "The Silence". It was about the Constitutional Settlement of making the slavery issue silent in the final document. It goes into the detail of Franklin trying to get Congress to address the issue during Washington's terms. Most of the Founders thought it was an evil but thought it was a problem without a solution. They seem to agree that it was headed to its end on its own and it would be best to let it die a slow death. It was the one time the collective majority really got it wrong.

Not here. I had to turn my AC back on around Christmas and I really wished it would get cold again. I like my electric bill when the AC is off.

I am not sure but I believe a RN can make aound $45K a year depending on location and overtime. I know the LPN's make less and I would guess around $30K. I checked into that several years ago when my wife was considering nursing. Wages are a lot lower here in Florida as opposed to places like New York or California so our wages are on the bottom end of the scale.


I could go for a 3-4 month election cycle. We had not even counted the ballots for the 2008 election and the campaigns for the 2010 elections had already begun. Our politicians first order of business is to get re-elected. Everything else is secondary on their agenda.


Edit: I know Bush made some short term impact like Iraq but I was thinking more long term. We will pull out of there sometime. I was meaning long term changes to our country.

I haven't been on this thread in "like, forever", so thought I'd pop back in and see what I missed. From what I gather, living in Canada can be expensive but on the flip side you only have to deal with elections for 1/6 the time we have to deal with it (4 months vs. 24 months). And the down side to that, is by the time our elections FINALLY roll around most of us are tired of listening to all the spin.

Given the economy we should all move to some deserted island. I could live with that. Darcy can sew our clothes so we don't have to wear sack cloth, or if that's all that's available she can make it look good , "Mother" can make sure we all stay well, and if we don't she can make us better (we all know nurses do more than doctors ) and the rest of us can make sure we have food and shelter (I'll help with the shelter part as I've never grown anything and can only cook with a recipe).

Hubby and I would like to live in England. It is on the expensive side, but I didn't realize the pound had dropped to $1.45 to the dollar. Is that the lowest it's been in a while? It seems that it had been right at 2-to-1 for a long time (I know it was the last time I was there which was 1998, and from what I had heard since then, that's where it seemed to stay).

I, too, read the Twilight series thanks to Elaine (etphonehome). I believe she started a Twilight thread with the warning not to read it if you hadn't read the books, so of course I had to read the books so I could see what all the fuss was about ! I enjoyed the series, but am definitely not a crazed fan (ie, no tattoos or hanging out in Portland to see RPatz). I do like discussing the books with "older" fans as opposed to some of the younger ones. One of my son's friends is one of those "younger" fans (she's 12) and it's amusing to listen to her gush!

I'll stop for now and will be more diligent in checking back!
Kathleen

Yeah, Aethonon, I'm home now, and I can't decide whether I like being home or not, just because it's so nice not to feel so rotten! Although I still have some of the cough left. Not fun.

*waves at everyone* Hi!

Of course, now I'm feeling kind of disappointed and mad all at the same time because of what my grandmother did. Or, more importantly, what my grandmother said. 'Kay, my sister is 19 years old now, unmarried, in college, and pregnant. She plans on getting married to the boy who did it as soon as the baby is born and she will either keep the baby or give it up for adoption. She didn't tell my mom for 2 months (although I told her to). My mom was disappointed, especially that she had lied to her because my sister said that she and her fiance were "being good," but my mom has accepted the fact that she's going to be a grandma if my sister keeps the baby and all of that, so she's being fairly supportive.

So my mom tells the rest of the extended family. And what does my grandmother do? My sister's birthday was last Friday. For her birthday, my grandmother sent her a card that said: "I'm disappointed in you. Happy birthday." What?! Who does that to their grandchild? On their birthday? That is pointlessly malicious and unnecessary. If you're disappointed, fine, don't tell it to her in a birthday card, actually call her and say it or something! And honestly...what right does my grandmother have to be disappointed? She's not having an abortion. She has graduated high school. And she's engaged to the guy, soon to be married. It's not like she's a 14-year-old drug addict who's dropping out of 9th grade to have this baby. And even then, it wouldn't be right for Nana to be so blatantly mean in a birthday card.

Therefore, at the moment I would love to live on some deserted island. Just me and my boyfriend and no one else...wait, we might like that too much.

And I have read at least Twilight now, but I don't know if I should put my real opinion on it, so...

Eisa - Wow. I take it that you are being supportive of your sister right now. It sounds like she can use it.
I hope your allergies clear up soon. I get hay fever in the spring, so can "sorta" relate to your cat allergies, but certainly not to the extent you had to endure. Are you unsure about being back because you miss your friend? How far apart do y'all live?

ChannelingGinny~Thanks. Yeah, I'm being supportive of her. I tease her all the time about looking like a beached whale, but I still support her LOL

Hay fever can be pretty bad, too, I imagine, so it would still be pretty bad! It's just if I'm around cats a lot that I get really bad.

And yeah, I miss my friend a lot. She's my best friend who I'm half in love with, too, which makes things...interesting, shall we say? I live in Idaho and she lives in Illinois, so we have almost 2000 miles between us. It's a pretty long distance away, which sucks.

Eisa - That's great that you're supporting your sis... and giving her a hard time! I hope she is enjoying her pregnancy... I know I didn't really have a field day with my first pregnancy and wonder if it's because I didn't have any real girlfriends to share/commiserate with. I lived in MN at the time, and I did have friends, but no-one I could really go to. When we moved back to NC (and where my 2nd child was born) it was a much easier time and I think it was because I had such a good support system here.

I'm not sure I can compare my hay fever with your cat allergies, as your allergies sound so much worse! My husband and mom are both allergic to cats (my mom's allergy sounds more like yours than my hubby's does). I had 2 cats when I met my husband, and told him "love me, love my cats"! He put up with the cats and took allergy medicine since they were indoor/outdoor cats. When we moved back to NC the cats became outdoor/garage cats mainly due to my mom's allergies (she'd never come to visit if the cats were indoor, and since we had her grandbabies I thought that would be selfish). Since the NC winters are a bit milder than the MN winters I didn't feel too guilty about making the cats stay outdoors or in the garage. Of course, our weather is supposed to be in the 20s for highs and single digits for lows for the next couple of days, I do feel kind of bad for the cat!

I do hope you can visit your friend more often. IL and ID are pretty far apart, but maybe you can find a way! My best friend is in OR, so I can relate!

I think it's really nice for older fans to like Harry Potter - adults are allowed imagination too! My partner is 41 and she is only just getting into Potter. I was still a kid when I got into them, there were a few crazes flying around at that time such as yo-yos and Pokemon. I still like Pokemon (blush ) but of all the crazes I took part in back them it's Potter that stuck with me most. It's really lovely to see a lot of older people on here. I'm only 20 (only! pffft) but it's nice to have conversations about Harry Potter with other fans who are older than me and can, perhaps help me understand things I was unsure about before. My mum is an avid Harry Potter fan and it's thanks to her I was able to get a lot of my Harry Potter collection as also is thanks to my sister whose wonderful taste acquired me some of my most beloved Potterania. It's also thanks to my mum for a lot of my most memorable Potter moments and also my dad who isn't a fan but likes to watch the films.
So it's really good too when your parents are as dotty as you about Potter - they understand the need to see the films 20 times each in the cinema!!! ^^

ChannelingGinny~Well...she's still having morning sickness even though she's in her second trimester, so she's not having too much fun with that. And I'm getting annoyed at her because she still hasn't made it to the doctor. Still! She's over 5 months pregnant! Sheesh! She does have a little support network, though, and I bet it helps at least a little...she still doesn't really want to admit that she's pregnant, though, you know? I guess because her and her fiance aren't actually married yet (they're waiting until after the baby is born so she'll fit into a wedding dress lol), and she's not dealing too well with the "beached whale" aspect. I'm glad the second time around was easier for you...maybe that's what will happen with her if she ever has another child! She still doesn't know if she's keeping this one. She doesn't think she's really fit to be a mom right now...not patient or mature enough. And the money aspect is hard, too.

Well, if my boyfriend had cats, I would put up with them for him! *giggle* But he has the same problem of being allergic...and his allergies are even worse than mine! Eeep...poor cat! That is kind of cold to have to stay out in...but hey, isn't that what that fur coat is for?

Yeah...I know I'm visiting her for her birthday in March, but that's just over a weekend! There should be a way to fold the U.S. over so that places are closer.

harryjpotter - I think it's great that your mom was as in to Harry Potter as you were. My nephews are like that. Their parents (my husband's sister and her husband) were both really in to the books and I think that helped my nephews with their reading it. Since then there have been several books and series that they have read "together" (or one would read it after the other on a recommendation). Whatever helps kids read more is good! My oldest son is almost 9 and he's really in to non-fiction (airplanes, battleships, science and nature) so we supplement what he reads by letting him watch things on the History Channel or the Discovery Channel (or similar). We were watching something on the Trojan Horse the other night (about how it could have been more fact than myth) and he was so interested in it. That indicated to me that when he has to read The Odyssey and study mythology in middle school he may have more of a vested interest in it since he's learned about the "real" background.

I have been the same way in studying the Old Testament. I took a Bible study course at church that focused more on the historical aspect of what happened in the Old Testament and the actual historical events that were happening at the time, using modern-day maps and maps of the same region during the Old Testament dates. To me it brought everything in to perspective and things just made more sense. Unfortunately, I had child-care issues when we got to the New Testament, so I missed that part but think it would have been just as beneficial.

Eisa - your sister REALLY needs to get to a doctor, especially now that she's in her 2nd trimester. I think I went once a month for the first 2 trimesters and then twice a month for the 7th and 8th months and every other week until I got to 36 weeks then once a week until they were born. Prenatal care is essential and really not all that time consuming! Yes, you're going to the doctor more often, but the visits are pretty short. They weigh you and test your urine to make sure nothing abnormal is there and see if you have any questions and that's it Usually your doctor (or the practice) will get you information on birthing classes and tours of the hospital so you know what to expect before you actually get to the birth. If she's thinking about adoption, that should certainly be addressed sooner rather than later. Wow. She has so much going on right now - her hormones, her studies, her worries. Again, wow. I'm so glad you're there for her, as I know this isn't easy on you, either!

I am glad you're going to get to see your BFF in March... just a few more weeks. I'm sure y'all will have a blast!