Turkey Day

As I flew in to Elmira this past Saturday from home there was snow on the ground, which totally caught me off guard, considering I was coming back from Virginia where it was 70 degrees during the week. Over break I had plenty of appointments, however I got to participate in some of my family's traditions. I spent turkey day with 26 members of my family and of course went shopping on Black Friday. It was a first and last experience!!!! Friday night it was the Hemphill illumination, aka when we decorate our house for Christmas. Christmas is by far my favorite holiday, therefore this tradition is my favorite. Here is a picture of my family tree!!!

Now that I'm back to school it's time to buckle down and study for exams, however there is a little bit of fun mixed in to the next three weeks. This upcoming weekend is Holiday Weekend, which includes Holiday Banquet and Holiday Ball. I'll post pictures and more things about Holiday weekend next week. Until then!!!!!

Ash

Sick of BBQ!

For the past day or so I have been preparing for my floor program, "Good ol' southern BBQ," which has had me cooking pork in my crock pot non stop! I have two more batches to go and I can't wait for it to be done, however I am very excited to bring a little home-cooked southern pulled pork bbq to my floor.

Last week was the Ralphie May concert, which was very exciting because I loved him on Last comic standing. With his rude, crude, hilarious humor he brought me to tears, laughing so hard. At the end of the show he was kind enough to stay and sign autographs and take pictures with people. He was surprisingly pleasant and polite when doing the meet and great and seemed to truly enjoy meeting everyone. My favorite part of the night occurred when the bells from the bell tour were going off. He stopped in the middle of a sentence and goes "do you hear that? what is that? I could have sworn we were coming to Hogwarts with the castle and all the purple and gold. Go Griffindor!" Of course he is referring to the new dorm on campus as the castle, which is a common phrase to describe Meier Hall. Here is a picture of me with Ralphie!

Only two days until Thanksgiving break, which I can't wait for because that means it's closer to CHRISTMAS!!!!! My break is going to be packed full of doctor's appointments and food. I'm not complaining about the food, however I am complaining about the doctor's appointments, which include the dentist (ewww). It has been a very easy week, probably the easiest week of my Junior year due to the lack of quizzes, tests and homework. Nursing has continued to be absolutely incredible, as I got to see an open heart surgery last Thursday during clinical. The operating room is definitely the place I want to be at the end of the day in my nursing career.

Well..... I'm off to cook some more BBQ. I'll fill you in on how it turned out!!!

Tis the season for Hot tea and coffee :)

I woke up this morning to a brisk 43 degrees outside, and all I wanted was a cup of hot tea before my crazy hectic day began. So far life has been wonderfully.... busy. With nursing, ethics and inequality in America my schedule is kept jammed packed full of reading, writing and studying. I recently switched clinical sites from St. Joseph's Hospital to Robert Packer Hospital down in Sayre, PA. This meaning, I have to wake up before the sun does. My usual clinical day consists of my alarm going off at 4:30 AM, me hitting the snooze button a few times until I actually wake up at 4:50. I usually leave the college parking lot at 5:30 in time to get to the hospital to do my pre-shift patient information before a starting time of 7 AM. I love working at Robert Packer and I am seriously considering getting a job there as a Care Partner for this upcoming summer. :)

On top of all of my classes I have my lovely Perry 3rd freshman that are "keeping me young." Oh the days of being a freshman feel like yesterday, they complain about the work now but they have no idea what is in store over the next three years of their college career. Next week is registration for term two classes, which blows my mind because that means I'm almost halfway through my junior year of college. eeeeccckkk I don't want to grow up, however I am excited that I will be done with all of my pre-requisites for graduation at the end of this school year. That means my senior year will be purely nursing clinical courses and fun classes. I can't wait to have the time to take photography.

Alrighty, it's time for me to head to nursing class, but atleast it's Friday. Have a good Halloween weekend.... I'm on duty!

-Ashley

Junior year?

Hello!!!!!

Can you believe that it is already October? Of my Junior year? I know I can't! So far this school year has been really busy with being a Freshman RA in Perry, Equestrian club President and working at our local Buffalo Wild Wings. I do still find time for some fun, for example, this past weekend was Apple Fest in downtown Ithaca, which I went to my Freshman year. Six of us decided to go together and we enjoyed the booths and we loved the deep fried oreos! It is going to be a great year for classes and friends, and I can't wait to share it with all of you!

Love,
Ashley

Valentine's Day

I have been curious as to what different people have to say about Valentine's Day. I know that this year my boyfriend had to work during the holiday and I found myself sitting in my room watching the Olympic Luge competition by myself. Every time a Valentine's day commercial came on I got really annoyed. It seems that Valentine's day isn't about celebrating the love that you have with an individual, but that it's simply an excuse for Hallmark to make money and for women to ask for materialistic things. I wanted my Valentine's Day to be a day when I spent time with the person I love to celebrate being with each other. I told him that all I really wanted was to know that he loves me and that we have each other, and that if he did get me a gift that it was something from the heart and not something he was pressured into buying due to commercials.

Please leave a comment and answer the poll, because I'm very interested in what other people have to say about the holiday.

halfway through the term already?

Believe it or not it is Tuesday, Feb. 16th. Since my last post a few things have happened that I've wanted to blog about.

I had my first experience in the hospital!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As a nursing student I've been anticipating the day that I could put my scrubs on and walk into a hospital to care for a patient. The first day was just orientation, but the next time we stepped foot into the hospital we were on our own (with the supervision of our clinical instructor of course). As we got off the elevator onto floor 3 of St. Joseph's Hospital (this is part of the Long-term care unit) my heart was beating near out of my chest. Nervous and giddy my partner and I walked into our patient's room. After providing our patient with Morning Care we looked at each other and realized "wow, this really isn't that nerve-wrecking." Our last time in the hospital until after break was amazing, because we took care of more than one patient and had hospital staff asking for our help, which made me feel like a nurse.

A group of my friends went out to dinner for a birthday weekend. 3 of the girls actually had birthdays all within 5 days, so naturally we used that as an excuse to get off campus and go out to dinner. We went to Legends!!! If you are visiting Elmira I highly recommend this place for all of their food but especially their boneless wings!

This upcoming week is MID-TERM BREAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am super excited about this break, because this term so far has been unbelievably busy and I really need a break. My boyfriend is driving back with me, and I can't wait to see how my boyfriend, born and raised in NY will respond to our southern ways in Virginia. I think I'm probably a little more nervous about the trip my dad is planning for the two of them. My father + My boyfriend + the Norfolk naval base to see the Aircraft carrier = lots of questions...... I will keep you updated on that progress. Hopefully it won't snow anymore down in Virginia.



I'm off to finish up HW and study for my 2 mid-terms. I'll blog again soon.

Ashley Hemphill '12

Term 2 begins

Back to school...........
Let me begin with before break. Finals week was crazy and intense, but I got through it and actually raised my GPA with my term 1 grades (to my surprise). Getting home on the other hand was deffinitly the worst way to start my actual Winter break. So here it goes:
Friday, December 18th
- Slept through 5 alarms and 20+ phone calls to miss my 6AM flight out of Elmira.
- Departed from Elmira at 3:30 to only land in Philadelphia to find out my flight to Richmon had been cancelled.
- Learned that the Richmond airport had been shut down due to snow. (yes, I said snow.)
- Booked a flight into Newport News, VA to not get stuck in Philadelphia for 3 days.
- Parents drove 1.5 hours to pick me up.
- Luggage didn't arrive.
- Drove 4 hours through blizzard snow to get home.
- Woke up to 14 inches of snow on the ground and no luggage.
Saturday, Sunday and Monday
- Snowed in...... NO LUGGAGE
Tuesday
- Drove to airport to get luggage.... FINALLY!!!!!

After the ordeal of getting home I had a fantastic break, but there was a chance of snow on the day I was supposed to return. I chose to fly back to Elmira early inorder to miss any possibility of being delayed or canceled again. I had RA winter training the Saturday before classes began, which was fun...... however I could really move my head too well due to a stiff neck. I didn't think much of it until I woke up Sunday and couldn't move my head. I went to the Emergency Room and come to find out I had sprained my neck. So with a neck brace on and pain killers and a muscle relaxer in hand I returned to my dorm room and entered a comatose state until classes the next day.

This term I am taking my first Nursing Practicum course and I am extremly excited to be wearing scrubs and doing something other than book work. Of course I am excited about my pink stethoscope and my pink bedazzeled I.D. holder. It is a very very very busy term, and as I told my residents I am sorry if I am not available as often as I should be. The first week felt like a month and I can only hope that the rest of the term doesn't follow in that trend.

The RA selection process has begun and today I spent my time evaluating candidates in the small group process. It felt like yesterday I was in their shoes, nervous and hoping I would get the position. It was a relief to be on the other side of the process, and I have a whole new appreciation and understand of what it takes to hire a staff. A lot of the current RA's are graduating so it will be a fresh staff next year and a brand new building, which will hopefully provide a breath of fresh air to Resident Life next year.

Friday night S.A.B. brought Mike DuBois and his act "Adult circus" on campus. It was a great time!!!! Here is a link to his website. http://www.theadultcircus.com/circus/home.html
My last little tid-bit for today's blog...... I highly recommend going to see the movie Extrodinary Measures.

Thanks for reading
Ashley!