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3.30.2012

"Promotion?!"





I got "promoted" today! I use quotation marks around promotion because it's not exactly wonderful news. I work as a secretary/Cardiac IT assistant at a hospital's Cardiac Care Center. Over my year here I have observed and picked up some other people's jobs and covered for them when they were away. I was first hired as a secretary/office assistant, but after my first day one of the medical secretaries fell and broke her leg. That was my first "promotion!" After one day of training, I had to do the job for 6 months! If anyone has worked in a hospital or medical office, you know there is way more work than meets the eye! There is a big difference between a business office secretary and a medical secretary (I've done both! Both have a unique set of headaches), and any secretary in a medical setting does so much more than answer a phone and click a few buttons like most people think. It was intense work, but I survived and went back to being an assistant when the secretary returned.

Then, yesterday afternoon, the Cath Lab Medical Secretary was fired. Since I had sat with her a few times to get an idea of her duties, I was "promoted" again! It is becoming a running joke in the department that next I will be doing the procedures myself, since I have been stuck doing so many jobs!

While I am so grateful to be employed and should be happy, i cant help but be terrified. The Cath Lab is where patients go directly from the ambulance when they are having heart attacks. When we get word that someone is coming in, it's now my job to find out all the patient's information and get ahold of any previous cardiac procedures he or she has had. Visiting from out of town and had a previous cath in Las Vegas? You bet I'll be googling every hospital in the city and calling each one to try to get the records sent (for real, I've done it!) while the doctor is breathing down my neck. Along with heart attacks, every cardiac procedure gets scheduled and billed by me, all while I'm trying to secure anesthesia and make sure all doctors have the room they want! The job is stressful and complicated, and I have no formal training. Needless to say when I was informed of my "promotion" this morning, my first thought was panic. It took awhile, but I had to change my attitude to excited that I've been given the opportunity to prove myself, and muster up all the self confidence I can find. I stepped back for a moment and asked for patience and strength. Doctors can be very arrogant, and speak down to us "lower beings." I used to take it personally, but now I'm going to brush it off and do my best. You really can't ask for more than that!

So keep your fingers crossed for me that I can keep it together until someone gets hired to take the job permanently! And I apologize for the slight ramble-y-ness of this post. It's Friday and my mind has all but shut off. :)







3.27.2012

Cold Day Pick Me Ups!

Happy Tuesday!   I don't know about you all, but I am seriously depressed it's cold again!  I really think I have that Seasonal Affective Disorder thing.  When it's warm and sunny out I wake up with a smile and my mood is sky high.  But wake up to freezing temperatures and gray skies? I'm miserable.  Needless to say I was not the greatest person to run into at 7:30 this morning when I got to work.  However, these little Pinterest finds brightened my day right up! Oh, and then the sun came out. :)

I know Dom would love these! He isn't much of a sweets guy, but I think the salty savory-ness (is that a word?) plus whiskey will be delicious.  Find the recipe here!

I need this now!  Bright, fun and so summery! Find the recipe here! Plus, the website is all about Florida weddings.  It has GORGEOUS pictures and great ideas.  Go check it out!

Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Pancakes.  Yum. Make them.


Love this! Unfortunately, Pinterest didn't link back to anywhere to buy it...but just looking makes me happy!


Love the pop of color trend that's going on right now! I hear H&M has pink blazers, so I'm definitely on the prowl.  So cute over sundresses! 



No caption needed.
 (picture found here)

Hope these brightened your day as much as they did for me! 
Follow me on Pinterest here! :)

3.23.2012

Tomorrow...

... I get to see this guy!
 (All time favorite picture...Yum...if I do say so myself ;))

It has been three long weeks, but tomorrow I finally get to see my love! When I was still in college, we lived 8 hours apart. Going 3-4 weeks in between visits was our normal. I missed Dom terribly, but it was all we knew, and life, school, and my sorority kept me busy. Now that we live only an hour and a half apart we see each other every weekend, and I don't know how I ever lasted 3 weeks before! I have definitely gotten spoiled. Being in a long distance relationship is never easy, but the one time I do like it is when I feel the excitement right before seeing him for the first time in a long time. We have been together almost 2 years and I still get butterflies every time I see him! I don't know if I would feel that way if we saw each other every day. I feel like I would get so used to seeing Dom constantly that I wouldn't appreciate all the hugs, smiles, and hand holds I cherish so much. I try to look at the good in every situation, so I see that as a benefit to living apart. Now that I do appreciate it, once we live together (4.5 months!) I am going to make sure to keep the butterflies and never let our spark fade! Life changes relationships, but I truly believe the honeymoon stage doesn't have to end if you don't want it to. It just keeps getting better!

So ladies, go give your man a hug and tell him you love him. Do it so all us girls far away from our men can live through you ;)

3.21.2012

Ending the "Waiting Game"

Lately I have felt like all I do is sit and wait for my life to begin.
 Before I explain why I feel this way, I need to give a little back
story to show how I made it to this "transition" time in my life.

I had the time of my life in college, and the "real world" seemed so
far out of sight.  I fell in love with biological anthropology my
sophomore year and immersed myself in the study.  After returning from
abroad I began working as a research intern at the Smithsonian
Zoological Park.  Doing cognition research on the gorillas and orang-utans was something I loved, I could never get enough.

Still, I had the nagging feeling that I couldn't see myself doing it
for the rest of my life.  I knew I would love it, but instead of
feeling excitement when I read about field schools it was a mix of
intrigue and distress.  How could I be away from a husband and
children for months at a time? If Dom gets into medical school how on
earth would he have the time to visit? All of my friends seemed to
have their passions and goals.  My best friend planned to be a doctor,
while my other did plan to move to Africa to study primates with the
  fervor I couldn't muster in myself.  Why couldn't I find something I
wanted so badly I'd give up anything?  No matter what interest I had,
all I could think was how much time it would take away from my future
family.  Still, as my senior year drew to a close I began researching
bio anth graduate schools, and plotting the long road to my .
While researching schools I felt dread, not excitement.  Then I
graduated, and reality hit.

I did have a passion.  My passion was just to be the best wife and
mother I could possibly be.  Friends tend to laugh this off and joke
that my only goal in life is to be a trophy wife, but that's not the
case (not that I'd mind!).  I do want to work and make my own money, I just realized that I
would need to find a career that could easily work around a family,
not the other way around.  My mother was a stay at home mom and it was
the greatest thing for me. She always put family first, and I know
that's where I got the passion from.

I spent the summer after my graduation searching for a career path,
until it came to me.  Not being able to eat wheat, most fruits or
veggies, and nuts has made food and nutrition a constant staple in my
life.  I need to make sure I get all my nutrients each day, even with
a restricted diet.  This was something I had experience with, an
incredible interest in, and can be a wonderfully flexible career.
After research and meeting with multiple people in the field, I
decided to continue my schooling to become a Registered Dietitian.
Once I have my license I want to focus on consulting, so I can help
people like me!

So fast forward to today...

Now I am working full time (and then some!) as a medical secretary and
taking chemistry and anatomy classes every evening to fill in the
requirements I'm missing before I go back to school.  Dom and I see each other as often as possible and while it's amazing, I feel like that's part of the waiting game too.  Whenever Dom and
I talk, we make plans for all the wonderful things we will do once we
get to Florida.  We will finally be able to see each other every day!
After two years of long distance, this really does seem too good to be
true.  We always talk about how we want the house to look or what we
will cook and do for fun.  Our life seems so beautiful and full of love
and happiness...5 months away.

This is my very round about way of getting to how I'm feeling now.  I
feel like I'm waiting to finally finish pre-reqs so I can go back to
school full time.  Waiting until August to move to Florida with the
love of my life.  Waiting to get back to hobbies like photography and
cooking that have taken the back burner to school and work.  Waiting
to be happy.

I realize now that I cannot wait! Life now might be more hard than
fun, and more stressful than relaxing, but it's temporary.  I need to
try to enjoy every day for what it is, even if it's just that the sun
is shining and its hot in March!  Life isn't always going to be
perfect, but it's short, so why not live every day God grants me to
the fullest? That's what I promise myself to do! So now instead of being sad Florida is so far away I'm focusing my time left in New York by trying out the recipes I want to make for Dom, and learning how to be a domestic goddess so I'll be all ready when we move in! ;)  Instead of a waiting stage, now it's more of a practice round, if you will.  That's another reason
why I started this blog now, instead of after the big move.  It makes
me happy, and that should never be on the back burner. :)

3.19.2012

A week through instagram

Chocolate martinis for Mama's birthday!


First page of the scrapbook I'm making my boyfriend's parents for taking me to Hawaii with them :)



Feelin' festive!



Parents showing their Syracuse pride at the St. Patrick's day party!



Bagpipes. Enough said.



Picnic along the Erie Canal! I biked 15 miles. My legs still haven't forgiven me! (all the food has to be kept separate because of my allergies, and we wash and reuse lots of baggies so we don't kill the planet!)



Homemade Bubble Tea!

Happy Monday!

3.17.2012

St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I hope everyone is wearing green with a green beer in your hand!  I must say, even though I have never been a fan of beer, St. Patrick's day is the one day a year when I wish I wasn't allergic! I don't know if I would even drink it, but there's something so festive about green beer that seems so festive.  

Now that I'm a "real" person, my day was nowhere near as wild as my college days, but no less fun!  I went downtown to the parade with my family, and then to an Irish Hooley Party at our city's convention center.  The parade was definitely the highlight, although not for the normal reason.  It was awful! Syracuse really doesn't have anything going for it except basketball, so we weren't expecting much, but the finally was none other than...a septic tank.  Seriously?!  It made it so amusing though, and we had a great time.  In between the more lame floats were animals and bag-pipes, which made up for it!  I have a bizarre love for bagpipes.  I'm weird like that.
 Mom and her best friend, my "Aunt" Alice
 Couldn't NOT where orange when 'Cuse is playing!
Love 'em :)

Besides the bagpipes, another thing happened today that made me so happy.  There was a homeless man kind of hanging around the area where we were watching the parade, collecting cans.  We just let him do his thing and didn't pay him much attention. Then we realized my uncle was missing.  We looked down the block for him and say him coming back, arms full of cans.  We watched as he approached the man and gave him all the cans he'd seen thrown by the wall just down the block.  When he came back he just shrugged and said he didn't want the man to miss them.  The homeless man was so happy.  Usually people (myself included) tend to turn away when we see someone in need, or doing something we don't deem "socially acceptable."  But my uncle took a few minutes to make his life a little easier, not caring what anyone thought.  I hope we can all take note and try to think of other people more often!

3.14.2012

Daily mantra for a Sunny state-of-mind!





This is the quote on the March page of my Lilly Pulitzer planner. This saying could not be more perfect for March in central New York! This year we have been blessed with a warm winter, but usually March consists of grey skies and muddy melting snow. Nice, right? No. Thankfully, my family has quite a few birthdays this month to bring some cheer to the month, but I'm still going to say it. I am not a March fan. By this time I am done with cold and just want spring to get here!

After reading this quote I made a decision. I decided... it is Spring! I'm taking the Lilly Pulitzer attitude and letting the sunshine in! Even if it's only in my head. Now, I'm not doing anything crazy like getting my white clothes out or anything, but dressing in bright spring colors and getting my mood ready for spring has done wonders for my attitude each day.

So from now on, no matter how dreary, dark, and depressing it is outside, I'm going to live like it's Spring!

XXO Robin

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