First Day Jitters and Happy Extras

I slipped into a green wrap around dress and brown gator skin heels, pinned up my curled hair, painted my eyes and lips in full pin up and put on my black framed glasses. With a lengthy commute, full of traffic, I was on my way to nursing orientation. Once I arrived (15 minutes late), I entered the classroom and put my name on the list for student IDs. A woman took my picture and I scanned the room for a seat the take. To my surprise, I recognized a guy I had been in drama with in high school. He was a AJHS graduate of 2004. We briefly caught up. Since high school, he had served in the Navy and had been married and divorced. He mentioned he had attended Brookline in the past for the Medical Assistant program. I was so relieved to have found someone I know and can be my buddy through this experience. The teachers and instructors introduced themselves, went over policies and procedures, and gave a brief overview of what our lives would be like over the next 2.5 years. It was meant to be straightforward and intimidating. Boom- it all felt so real! After the classroom portion, the rest of the class went on a tour of the campus. Since Chance and I already had a tour, we traded contact info. and parted ways.

My first day of school was yesterday! I woke up and got ready with the business casual outfit I had laid out the night before and left an hour and a half early to ensure I would get there on time. On the way, I noticed the new Starbucks drive thru ibuilt right next to the freeway. I spun through and treated myself to an everything bagel with cream cheese and a tall passion tea. I arrived 45 minutes early and thought I should familiarize myself with the campus. After walking around for some time, I went to the nursing office to sign my student ID and wound up sitting in the student lounge (kinda like a mini cafeteria) to kill time. I noticed a refrigerator for the lunch I brought and a microwave. After a while, I put my ear buds in and worked on a search-a-word I had found in one of my old bags when preparing my backpack the day before. I observed as waves of students came in and quickly found their fellow classmates. It all seemed like such a small world community. PCT students, BSN students, Pharmacy Tech students and etc. all hanging out with their own small groups. I envisioned what my class my be like later on down the road. When I entered the classroom, I noticed the 8 other students in the class were all from orientation. I noticed the friend I had gone the high school with and we buddied up. The college mathematics teacher was laid back and seemed to teach with an informal method. He hand wrote the in class assignment as well as the homework we did in class. The work consisted of mostly fractions, decimals, order of operations... and all things I had done before. I must admit- I was super nervous taking a math class since it had been 6 years. However, I felt that I caught on to what was happening pretty quickly. That seemed to subside the anxiety of diving into my first day. Not to mention, Chance is awesome at math and he sits right next to me :). After class, I picked up my laminated student ID and we were fitted for our nursing uniforms. It didn't take long for us to get through the fitting portion. Although some of the other classmates seemed to think it was a fashion show with how long it took them with a body mirror in all. After the fitting, my school day was over. I wished my friend luck in his biology class and went home. 

Once home, I took a huge nap with my puppies and woke up with a text from my Momma. Good thing too! I would have over slept and would have never made it to our first country dance lesson. I quickly got ready and headed to Denim and Diamonds. I was amazed at how many people had come to the lesson. The dance floor was packed! The lesson was West Coast Swing. It was confusing during the step-by-step portion but I caught on when I watched the instructors throw it all together. I was trying to catch my mom up on the first couple steps during most of the lesson. Fortunately, there was a guy who offered to help me and another woman on our steps after the class was over. It was nice of him. Mom and I left shortly after sipping a coke and water with lemon. We talked in the parking lot for about a half an hour about various odds and ends. I finally left for home about 8:30pm and arriving about 9pm. Boy was happy to see me. He hoped I would be canceled today.

Turns out- I was canceled today! We have had today off together and it's been nice. We've stayed in our bum clothes all day- made breakfast, watched Netflix movies, took the puppy mutts for a walk, and absolutely nothing else. Just a whole day together :). Nice!