Rants, Recipes, and Running

I have made it to the weekend. Thank. God. Yesterday, I had the most defeating day of clinicals ever. I took 5 patients on my own. But they weren't just your typical patients - they all had like 5 different IV drips going, multiple drains, one of my patients got a leg amputation, one was crazy...... To a veteran nurse - or just a g ood and competent nurse - that probably seems easy. But I feel like quite the "Novice" still.... Let's just say my 12 hour shift turned into a 14 hour shift, and I wanted to hide in a linen closet and cry yesterday. But, I survived!!!!   :-) I can't wait to get adjusted to things. Every night this week -- all I do is have on-going nightmares about hospitals, IV drips, people bleeding to death. I wake up in the middle of the night and think "I don't even want to sleep anyomre!- These Dreams suck!" But this is a learning experience, and I will get my "routine" down and on my feet in no time (I hope....)...

This batch of questions was written by Yours Truly!! 1. How do you take your coffee on an average day? How do you like your coffee if you’re spluging? -I make it a little extra dark, I like 1 packet of Splenda, and a little Fat Free French Vanilla. -If I'm at a coffee shop, I get Iced coffee with skim milk & splenda. -If I'm splurging, I like Fat Free Almond Latte. (If it's not Christmas time, then I get into the peppermint or pumpkin flavors!) 2. What is your genre of books to read? I don't really have a specific genre that I'm stuck on. I'm really falling into the Freakonomics and Super Freakonomics books - whatever genre it is. 3. Where do you want to retire, if you could go anywhere? I would like to retire in San Diego on Coronado Island in a mansion on the beach. Or Florida on the Gulf side. To be honest, I'll take any gorgeous home on the beach. 4. The 17-year-old you is told to write a 10-minute speech. What topic would you have pick...

It's time for a recipe post. So since I was pretty much non-existent/missing in action all weekend at clinicals. I thought I'd make a big batch of "side-dish" to have around for the weekend. So Friday I did some recipe-research and found a great recipe for Gazpacho . I have never made or ate Gazpacho before, and neither has Ryan. So I pulled out from fresh veggies, our handy food processor and cooked away. I didn't really "dig" the recipe, since it was calling for raw onions (and that makes my stomach SCREAM in pain) -  So I tweaked. And here it is: 2 cans Tomato Juice 1 medium tomato 1 cucumber, sliced/chopped 1/2 cup fresh cilantro 1/4 cup fresh parsley 1/2 large onion 1/2 green pepper 1/2 Habenero pepper (if that's how you "roll"...you can skip this if your feelin' mild) 2 tbsp Red Wine Vinegar 1/2 tsp cumin 2 cloves garlic, minced pepper to taste (salt is kind of unneccessary since there's tomato juice i...