Minnesota Mundane

That's a strange title for a post, but I bet it does a good job piquing your interest! It may or may not be a play on the words of a coworker who introduced me to the smokescreen of "Minnesota Nice" weather.

What could possibly be mundane about Minnesota? Because I'm only visiting Minnesota for the summer, you're probably better off asking a native Minnesotan who doesn't think everything is new and exciting. Since I'm the one blogging, I'll answer the question for you in my own little way: Nothing that wouldn't be considered mundane in California, too. Luckily, mundane for me equates with time well spent!

In my down time, I've been working on:

• scholarship applications for the upcoming (LAST!!!!!!!) school year. That means writing essays about what I want to do with my life, my goals, my dreams, who has inspired me, what character traits I value, how I think current legislation on health care reform will impact my nursing career, and why I think I'm the most special person who deserves to be considered for [fill in organization's name]'s scholarship and would really benefit from the help.
• reviewing ECG's, meds, and other things for the N-CLEX and, more importantly, so I can be a better nurse after graduation.
• reading Eric and Leslie Ludy's book, Wrestling Prayer. It's not so much a how-to book as much as it is a description of what God-honoring prayer is. Maybe once I finish that, I'll get around to reading a book that my Aunt Debbie lent to me around Christmastime last year, Little Bee by Chris Cleave. I'm surprised at how little I've actually read so far this summer because I normally would be on to my third or fourth book by this point.
• walking the magical woodsy trails of Rochester after sundown just to watch fireflies and wondering why fireflies light up. Are they "thinking" of something? Are they surprised? What are they reacting to??? During the day, there are rabbits and all kinds of colorful birds: cardinals, blue birds, robins, woodpeckers with red crests, house finches, orioles, indigo buntings...
• researching hospitals (and their communities) that I'm considering for the future: UCSF, UCLA, City of Hope, John Muir, Huntington Hospital, CHOC, CHLA, Pres Intercommunity Hospital, Standford, Johns Hopkins, Duke, and, of course, the Mayo Clinic. All top-notch institutions. Most in California, but some on the East Coast and one in Minnesota.
• thinking about goals for CNSA this upcoming school year.
• planning my Minnesota outings........



The Rio Grande is outside my door!



Notice the rain shooting out of the two drains on the townhouse and the "path" in the middle of the grass...it's really grass underneath all the runoff from the hill behind the townhouses. All of the asphalt is under 2+ inches of rain.

• And, today it has meant staring out the window in amazement as 3-5 inches of rain/hour has fallen from the sky for a solid 5 hours....That's at least how much of it I've been awake for. (That's more of a joke...I don't spend much time thinking about that even though it's incredible by my California standards.)

I think I'll stop there to spare you from the really mundane!