Thursday, January 31, 2013

Spring Cleaning!

Though it is just January, I got the spring cleaning bug on Friday. And when I say spring cleaning, I mean I move all the furniture and clean behind it, rearrange the furniture, sort through stuff and purge, organize, everything!

Of course, I didn't get far since I had to work on Friday and all weekend. So, of course, things are still in a half-done state. Which is rather annoying.
However, pictures will come after I've finished everything. Which might not be until my spring break in March when it's fully done. But, ya know.

Do you get the spring cleaning bug? How far do you take it?

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Rock and a Hard Place

I'm definitely having a hard time with some things right now.

I hate for things on this blog to ever turn negative, but there are a few situations that have been bubbling up over the past few months. These situations are finally coming to a head.
I have the feeling my boyfriend would rather me not discuss one of them with anyone at all. The other, main one, has to do with my unhappiness at work. There are a few situations at work which are making me so unhappy and I haven't quite figured out what to do about them.
One has to do with various attitudes at work. There are two people in particular that have holier-than-thou attitudes, think they are better than everyone else (when in reality...neither of them are), and in general their personalities have started to grind my gears. Which is making me regress from being myself at work. There's another situation in regards to management which I won't really get into, and finally, there's the fact of my job itself.

I love what I do. I really do. But I also don't want to be stuck doing it forever, hence, why I'm busting my ass in school full-time while working full-time. I'm not sure I want to stay at my current job location, even in a different position, just due to the way I've been treated, my general attitude toward the place at this time, etc. This has been building for...probably close to a year. It waxes and wanes, but at one point I was so miserable at work that I was crying before I had to even get ready for work, because I didn't want to be there that badly. It's improved a bit since then, but it's still fairly dismal.
To compare...when I first started, I had voluntary overtime within my first two weeks, and about 6 months after I started, I was voluntarily there about 50 hours a week. And now I don't want to be there at all, even though I really do need the money.

So, I'm in a very odd place in my life right now. I'm trying to sort out various situations, and it's really wearing on my mental state. I will get some relief soon, I'm sure, with the situation that I didn't go into detail about, however the work situation, I'm afraid, will be lingering for at least the next few months, if not for the next year as I finish school.

Saturday, January 26, 2013

A Source of Snark

Do you ever have those days where you just want to forget all social etiquette and start screaming at someone?

Well, today (uh, yesterday at this point) was one of those days. Not getting into full details, but when you have fully grown, fairly mentally stable adults acting like children for hours until you can get them to leave...that should be enough to drive anyone crazy. Then add on the fact that you practically need to babysit other people lest you fear for others' well-being while fielding phone calls from people that obviously have no clue what's going on...

I actually missed working in retail today. Even front-end customer service retail. You know, the kind where you have people arguing with you over a PENNY. ONE CENT. Yelling.

Everyone keeps telling me that I have a light at the end of the tunnel, but damn, the this tunnel feels like it's never going to end. I absolutely LOVE what I'm going to school for, but getting to the point of being done (December of this year, y'all!) is wearing on me. There's only a person or two that really gets it.

I wouldn't be nearly as snarky and plain mean some days if I didn't feel like my brain was wasting away at work. Yet we have people that...well, you'd think it was advanced rocket surgery or something. It also wouldn't be as bad if I got the recognition for my hard work and desire to learn...but seemingly, the slackers get rewarded while the people that actually have a clue are held back. Whether it's true or not, I can't say, but that's sure what it feels like.

What I do know is that I used to love my job. I would voluntarily work around 50 hours a week for the longest time. Now, it takes everything in me to not call in a lot of days.

Friday, January 25, 2013

TGIF

Yes, I'm like 95% (totally made-up stats y'all) of the population when I say I look forward to Fridays nearly EVERY week.

It's normally our slowest day of the workweek, leaving me with ample time to get work things done and not feel rushed, as well as leaving me with a few hours to get schoolwork done as well. Win/win, right?
I also normally get to begin my lazy weekends with my boyfriend, starting with our weekly Friday-night-at-11:30pm trips to Denny's as soon as I get off work.

Unfortunately, this weekend is not the case.
The pitfalls of working in a hospital is that they tend to be open 24/7. In most hospitals, this means the lab needs to be staffed on the weekends too. And, because we are currently shorter staffed than a sewage plant, I'm pretty much on the working-every-other-weekend rotation. Because also factoring into this is the people that we can't seem to get rid of that suck at their job, and thus can't be TRUSTED to work a weekend.
Ah, the inequalities. Being good at something means you get crap pay and you have to work more weekends.

Anyhow. Boyfriend has to work too. The shift before me. So we don't get a chance to see each other at all this weekend. (No, we don't live together and we only typically see each other on the weekends.)
Thankfully, our days off coincided enough to have yesterday off together and then Monday, our anniversary, we both have the day off as well.

So, while I am happy that it's Friday, it's also a bit bittersweet. Oh well. Maybe I'll get some blog posts written up for you guys while I have some time to myself.

How is your Friday going?

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Facts of Me




So, I'm linking up with Whitney's The Facts of Me and listing 20 fun-filled, sometimes little known facts about me. Ready?

-I normally only wash my hair once a week. I am a fan of dry shampoo and it isn't as gross as it sounds. Most people can't tell.
-I prefer getting my drinks, except soda and most alcoholic beverages, without ice. You get more bang for your buck without ice, plus I don't want my stuff getting watered down!
-I'm naturally a very cold person. I actually LIKE 90 degree weather.
-I'm slightly OCD with various things. I know many people are like that. Mine tend to involve cleanliness. Yes, this contradicts fun fact nĂºmero uno. Deal.
-I can't keep a pair of pearl stud earrings intact. I have 2 pairs that only have 1 pearl total still attached to the back. I need to rectify this.
-Throughout high school, I only listened to alternative rock. Much of it was 5-10 years old when I was listening to it. Leaving me with no frame of reference as to when it was released.
-Tinkerbell is my go-to favorite Disney character.
-I have 10 active piercings and 1 microdermal anchor. Most people don't realize this as I only have jewelry in about half of them at any given time.
-Even though I wear scrubs to work every day, I would still love the opportunity to dress up with heels, skirts, etc every once in awhile at work. It's not feasible :(
-I can't parallel park. Thank God I don't have the need to.
-I hate unpainted toenails on females.
-I don't particularly like feet in general. They gross me out.
-I was blessed with great eyebrows. They basically require no maintenance and have no holes or unibrow tendencies.
-My humidifier is in the shape of a penguin. Yes, I'm still 3 years old sometimes.
-I have a slight obsessions with ducks and penguins. And goats. I have no idea why. They aren't even my favorite animals.
-I have never broken a bone or had major surgery in my life. The only surgery I've had was wisdom tooth extraction.
-On a similar note, I've never had a cavity or had to have braces.
-I have an extremely high pain tolerance, which scares me sometimes.
-I almost got a minor in humanities. I could probably go back and get it, but really, what's the point?
-I really dislike talking on the phone. I have only a few people I'm okay with talking to. And if your number isn't saved in my contacts list, forget me answering your call.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Insulted/Offended?

Have you ever been so insulted/offended by someone downplaying your abilities/skills/intelligence that you were shaking and -literally- seeing red?

This happened to me yesterday. While I'm not going to get into details here (I do have a LITTLE bit of class!), I have to say that I have NEVER felt so insulted in my lifetime, and it was a combination of 4 people that accomplished this, one in particular. While the one in particular does not know me well, it's partially that fact that I felt so offended by his comments and general attitude toward the situation.

While I feel like I handled the situation as best as I could - sitting there and taking it at the time, letting myself cool down for over 24 hours, then writing a simple email to the principal party involved - I would have loved to go take my frustrations out in the gym. Of course, I also would have liked to shout obscenities at various people, but once again, I do have SOME class.

I know I'm being horrendously vague, but I don't want someone from my real life to come across this.

If you have been in a situation like this before, what did you do?

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Thursday Night + Insomnia Thoughts

So, in lieu of posting about this on...oh, I don't know, the night it happened. Or yesterday, since I needed to link up with miss Brandi for the What's In My "Makeup Bag" post.

Anyhow. My birthday is tomorrow, the 13th. And I have to work all weekend. So, I had a day off Thursday. J came over after he got off work, and took me out to dinner (amongst us doing other things). It was honest to God one of the best times we've had in a long time. We went to an upscale restaurant (for Oklahoma anyway) and enjoyed our food and then just had an amazing time. I don't know what has happened over the past month or so, but it's fixed so much about our relationship. And I can't help but be so happy and excited about it. I'm not sure if it's the fact I just didn't have classes for the past month so I didn't have that heavy stress bearing on me or what, but I don't want it to ever change.

However, my insomnia was raging. He has to get up for work around 2:30am, so we tried to go to bed around 8. I fell asleep around 9, woke up no less than 4 times throughout the night, and then not long before his alarm went off, I woke up. And proceeded to not go back to sleep. It's so frustrating not being able to sleep. I mean, I feel fairly well rested for the most part, like I'm not just absolutely dragging, but considering most days I'm not going to sleep until a lot of people are getting up for the day...it's frustrating. I guess it gives me more time to do my schoolwork though. I just wish I could figure out what was wrong with me and a way to fix it.

Friday, January 11, 2013

What's In My "Makeup Bag"

Obviously, looking at these pictures, you can tell that this isn't what's SOLELY in my makeup bag. However, this is the stuff I use on a fairly regular basis, much of it is what I bring while traveling and it fits into one little bag for size purposes, but I've expanded a bit recently. I also have other makeup in another case in another room that has stuff I don't use routinely.

I'm linking up with Cupcakes and Curves for this one, so go see her post over here when you're done here :)

So, onto the explanations!

This is my samples bag from Sephora that I'm slowly working my way through (various skincare samples along with 5 perfumes) on the left.
On the right is my travel makeup bag. Hence, why it's beat up. And, quite frankly, pretty ugly. LOL, it used to be cuter, and my lipgloss bag in my purse is basically a disco ball, but this really doesn't see the light of day except when going somewhere overnight.




Skin prep! I use either CeraVe or Neutrogena Oil-Free Moisture (I have another bottle with SPF floating around somewhere as well) every day under everything. Even when wearing my Maybelline Dream Fresh BB Cream; lately I've been using up samples from Sephora though, so I haven't been using my BB Cream lately. I use 3 different concealers from Physicians Formula on a daily basis...the small one on the bottom left I often will use as a primer for eyeshadow, the navy blue Gentle Concealer stick in the middle for red spots, and the larger white Powder Finish Concealer stick on the right for undereye circles. I either set with Rimmel Stay Matte powder (upper right) or Physicians Formula Bamboo Wear pressed powder (which all the stores here quit carrying so I'm just using the last of it) on the right. And finally, some days, I'll use my Rimmel Natural Bronzer to give myself a glow...I use that more often in the summer though.

Brushes and eyeliner! Yes, I got the Hello Kitty brush set from Sephora, and yes, I like it. Haha. I also have some random kabuki and various other eyeshadow/etc brushes pictured right below Hello Kitty. My eyeliners that I use for my waterline are below the brushes: Maybelline Unstoppable in Onyx, L'Oreal Le Kohl Pencil in Onyx, and Maybelline ExpertWear in Ebony Black. It depends on the day and the look I'm going for as to which I use. Finally, my E.l.f. Studio Cream Eyeliner in Black is at the bottom.




Ah yes, eyeshadows. I have the Disney Cinderella Storylook palette from Sephora (LOVE it!), the MAC 2007 Holiday Curiositease warm pigments (used to use these daily until getting my Cinderella palette), and my 3 go-to highlight MAC pigments - Vanilla, Jardin Aires, and Provence.






And finally, my miscellaneous crap. My mascaras - Maybelline Waterproof Falsies in Very Black and Maybelline LashBlast in Waterproof and non-Waterproof in Very Black and Black. I have an EOS Smooth Sphere in Summer Fruit, and then bobby pins and hair ties :)

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Insomnia is SO NEAT you guys!

Please read the title of this post with the largest amount of sarcasm you can bear, then add about 3 more units of measurement of sarcasm on top. That title is DRIPPING in snark.

I have not been to sleep before 3am since oh...about 2 weeks ago. Some days I've had to get up at 8am. Other days I haven't gone to sleep until 8am. I don't know what my deal is but I'm ready to tear my hair out. And of course, I'm not really horribly productive at the hour of four am, because I live in an apartment complex. I can't exactly start vacuuming or rearranging furniture at 4am. Well, I could, but I'm not THAT big of an ass.

And of course, I apparently think I'm too good to do schoolwork at 3am to try to get ahead, since classes don't technically start until (tomorrow) Thursday. I did already print off my forest's worth of notes - I'm only slightly exaggerating. One class had I think 350 pages of notes? The other three classes I think averaged somewhere around 150 pages. I DID print them all double sided, so cut all of those numbers in half. But still. I put all of it in binders, but I still need to put all my tabs in. Last semester I decided to make my own tabs, which is fun and cute but also kind of a pain in the neck. I got the super awesome pack of construction paper that has prints and glitter along with non-primary colors and I cut it down to size and added those stick-on tabs. Alllllll color-coordinated and I tried to make patterns "match" the subject material...like for body fluids I had wavy lines.

Geesh, I ramble a lot.

Which brings me to the point of this post. I'm trying to find blog linkups, especially ones that will have a topic on a specific day of the week (or a weekly topic, I'm not picky) so that I AVOID having posts like this that make people question my sanity/sobriety/etc. If you know of any, PLEASE SEND ME THAT DIRECTION. The daily topics, I'm talking like Wordless Wednesday, Meal Plan Monday, those open letters on Fridays, etc.

Thanks y'all!

Tuesday, January 8, 2013

The Good, the Bad, the Ugly

Today was honestly the most stressful and busiest day at work I've had in the lab ever. And I've worked there 2 1/2 years.

I came in to mountains of stuff, and when outpatient services are normally finish by 7 or 7:30...we got done after NINE. And that didn't include everything that went along with it. I had the feeling that I was just treading water for the entire first 6 hours of my shift. It made things go by extremely fast, but holy crap, were we busy.


I finally got access to all of my classes for school. I'm super excited about that, even though I'm not really looking forward to this semester...Molecular Diagnostics, Chemistry, Microbiology, and Blood Bank. I'm kind of excited about Blood Bank, as the bf thinks I'll enjoy it because it's like a huge puzzle. Who knows, I might. However, in our lab we sort of outsource our molecular stuff (I enter in results for it all the time, but I don't run the tests) and chemistry just bores the crap out of me. So, we'll see.

I also got part of my order from Victoria's Secret today, yay :) I accidentally ended up getting a matching set, lol. Go figure. I pulled them out of the bag and was like "Oh, hey. I don't have any patterned stuff that ACTUALLY MATCHES, so here we go". I also stopped by Walmart after work to get new nail polish, new headphones, and some binders. I tried printing off all my notes for class and ended up getting a quarter of the way through Microbiology lecture plus all of Chemistry lecture. I already had Blood Bank lecture and lab printed off, but it's going to be like a damn tree getting all of this printed. Retail therapy FTW though. I'll be making my own tabs for my notes again, color and pattern coordinated. And once I figure out what I want to do with my nails for my birthday week, I'll do them as well.


I did have the worse insomnia and anxiety last night. I wish I knew what my problem is. I went to lay down with J at 2am (he has to get up between 2 and 3 for work) and just started BAWLING. The kind of bawling where you're taking the weird little gasps for air and you're getting snot all over the place. And I ended up not falling asleep until 8am. So, uh. I got about 3 hours of sleep. Go me. I don't know if I'm anxious about school or work or what. Friday night I had a work-related nightmare in which I was actually, in real life, awake and J was trying to calm me down and I wouldn't have it...I was still halfway stuck in the dream. I remember it all, too.

Monday, January 7, 2013

The Disappointing Weekend

Gosh. I've gotten my days and nights all messed up again. Just in time for school to start again. Convenient, no?

This weekend was, unfortunately, rather disappointing. One of my close coworkers had her last day on Friday, and thus she decided her "outside of work" going away party would be Saturday evening at a restaurant/bar. I'll admit, I slept in a little late; I was finally able to sleep on Friday night, so I took advantage of it. And apparently I should have gotten up earlier. J also slept in...until 5pm. Well, we got up for a few hours and napped.
Anyhow. The party started at 7, we didn't get there until about 7:45. It was extremely awkward for me. There were a total of 10 of us there, and I didn't know any of them terribly well except my coworker and J. We were at a long table and of course I was at the opposite end of the table as my coworker. The other people there...3 of them we also worked with, but I'm on a different shift and not horribly comfortable with 2 of them. Then there were guests that had been brought which I didn't know at all. It was actually rather miserable for me.

This is why I hate going to social events with people I'm not super close with. I always feel awkward and wish I could be somewhere else. And I get extremely irritable. So, I just continued drinking. For two hours.
After that, 6 of them decided to go to a hookah bar and the other 2 decided to go home. I didn't want to be in the awkward situation anymore and didn't want to spend the money, so we also decided to go home. In which J and I stayed up until about 2, intended to do things today.

I couldn't wake up until 3. I was in a horrible fog. This is what I get for taking sleeping pills, I suppose. And J didn't want to do anything, like take back the clothes we got him that didn't fit. He managed to sleep all day, and I fell asleep again for an hour around 6pm. I feel like such a lazy slob.
And I also hate feeling like I'm wasting weekends like this. This is my last real weekend off until May, and that's horribly disappointing. All the rest of the weekends until then will be absorbed by school and/or me working. Or both. My classes officially start on Thursday, but I've already listened to one lecture and I'll be listening to more as they become available. I work next weekend, but for the weekend after, I'd like to be ahead enough in my schoolwork that my birthday (the 13th, which I'm working) can actually be celebrated and I can really spend time with J.

I'm just really disappointed right now and I'm not entirely sure what's wrong with me.

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Digital Thermostats



Not gonna lie. This is my first tipsy post here on Health and Snark. Probably not going to be my last. Also, I'm not a lush and I'm writing this at 1am, not 10am. Promise.

And I'm keepin' it classy with apple pie moonshine in a redneck wineglass. Yum. If you haven't tried it...well, you should.

I'm also COMPLETELY obsessed with the ring that my boyfriend got me (uh, that I picked out). It came with a necklace too, but the ring is what I was after. Isn't it pretty? It's opal with diamond accents in white gold. <3

This post is going to turn into a ramble, I believe.

Which brings me to my next point. My neighbors are RIDICULOUS. Their (probably) 2 year old, I kid you not, is up screaming every.single.night between 1 and 1:30am. I don't think this kid has any kind of schedule...or rather, the parents continually wake the kid up with their loud video games and their parties. I honestly feel bad for this kid, but I also just want to go over there and yell at them all to shut up. And when I say this kid is screaming, I can hear, through the paper thin walls, that the parents are doing nothing to try to comfort their child. They just let him scream his little head off. Which...cry it out method. Cool. Whatever. But don't do that shit at 1am when you're in an apartment complex and your neighbors may or may not be trying to get some shut eye. Or trying to do school work. Or just, quite frankly, are sick of hearing a toddler screaming.

Ahh, apartment life.

Which, speaking of. My heater had been having issues for...geez...probably since last winter. I thought I probably wouldn't be living here this winter (bad thought, obviously), so I just kind of ignored it. When we got to the days where it wasn't getting above 40 outside and it was 60 inside...well, I talked to the apartment manager. This was about 3 weeks ago. I figured they had already "fixed" it, as apartment complexes are notorious to do, but a maintenance guy stopped by on Monday and fixed it. And installed a digital thermostat. Guys, I'm living in near-Stone Age apartments here.
And I'm excited over a damn digital thermostat.
Imagine what I'll be like when I have my own home, with a dishwasher (nope, I'm living without one here), a garbage disposal (I said near-Stone Age!), and I can paint and decorate to my heart's content. And all without having to hear someone else's child screaming!

It's going to be insane y'all.

This random post brought to you by alcohol :)

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Links

Gotta put this out there, as I'm currently setting up shop here...

Would anyone like to be linked in the sidebar? I'll be adding my daily favorites, of course, but if you'd like to see yourself up there, leave me a comment :)

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Obligatory

Ah, of course. The obligatory New Year's post. I'm sitting here watching the Orange Bowl while my boyfriend is trying to go to sleep...over my yelling and clapping. And he wants the Cinderella team to win, so I'm even more obnoxious because I'm pulling for FSU.

Yeah, well. I don't have a "2012 in Review" to post...the main thing of substance I remember from the year is getting accepted to lab school, and completing my first semester with a 3.9 GPA. I'm sure some other things happened...many of them disappointing, but whatever. 2013 is a new year.

So, let's start with the resolutions that we all know I'll fail at at least SOME of them.

-Make my relationship better with my boyfriend. We've been fighting a LOT, especially since I started school, and some things I've not so proud of have gone down. I'd like to fix it. I'm tired of being in this limbo state, and these last few days have done wonders for our relationship...we spent this weekend, Monday, and today together.
-Get back on track with my health. This includes both my eating and working out.
-Have another amazing semester of classes at school. My clinicals shouldn't be a problem, but this upcoming semester has all kinds of potential to be problematic. I'm aiming for a 4.0, just because that's what I aimed for this semester and I can't really do any better than that, now can I? ;)
-Get work settled. I'll be done with school in mid-December, and I'd either like to be working as a tech at my current hospital by then, or have a job lined up outside of my current hospital if they aren't willing to work with me as much as I'd like.
-Get my blog on! I'd love to get something good going on with this blog, whether it morphs entirely into a lifestyle blog or continues to focus a lot on health and healthcare.

I think 5 is a good number to have. And I don't really feel like it's acceptable for me to fail at any of them. It's stuff I was planning on working on anyhow, it's just out there now. Heh.

Glitter Gradient Nails Tutorial

When I tried doing a glitter gradient for the first time, I failed pretty miserably and couldn't find a tutorial for how to make it look decent to save my life. I finally figured out a version, and thought I'd share, complete with crappy quality iPhone pictures :)


First of all, prep your nails. Get your old chipped nail polish off. Don't spill acetone all over the place like I did (uh, multiple times. I don't know what my deal was). Trim them if you need to, though I love how this looks on long nails at the tips. Then buff the crap out of them. That makes my polish last at least 5x as long, and I'm rough on my hands at work.

You'll probably want to add a base coat, if you're into that. Once again, anything to make my stuff last longer than half an hour without a chip, I'll do it.

Then I did 2 coats of my base color, Snow Me White from Sinful Colors. 1 thick coat probably would have been enough, but in the small picture on the left, you can see what two coats look like. It's fully opaque and I'm actually really impressed with it. If you don't know about Sinful colors...you should. It's normally between $0.99 - $1.99 and I'll get it from Walgreens or Target.


Let this dry extremely well. I took a nap, to be honest. A long one. And a shower.

Then I used Gone Gonzo from OPI to make a single dot on the tip of each nail. I let a full drop of polish drip off the brush onto my nail, wiped most of the excess off onto the lip of the bottle, then spread it along the edge of the nail, about halfway up or so.

Again, let this dry VERY well before you start the next step.

Your final step with colored polish is to take your glitter polish again and line along the bottom of your nails, almost like you're doing a French manicure on top of the glitter that's already there. Use the remaining polish on your nails to dab glitter up above the top of halfway point on your nails where you spread the polish from the previous step. If you feel like you need to add a bit extra polish, feel free.

Finally, you will once again let this dry VERY well, then add your top coat to protect it and make it smooth so you aren't snagging everything under the sun on your glitter.