So I found out that the University of Arizona has a BSN-RN to PhD-Rn program. It takes four years but it speeds up the process of graduate school. I’m giving great consideration to applying to this program as it has a lot of what I’m looking for. I would want to go out there and see the program for myself before obviously committing to anything. Not to mention, I would want to check out and interview at several area hospitals for a job, as many hospitals out there will pay for graduate school. Nursing educators and researchers are in even greater demand than regular staff nurses.

http://www.nursing.arizona.edu/doctoral.htm#fasttrack

I’m getting tired of the Midwest. I’ve lived in the Chicago area all my life and its getting dull. It’s time for a change and some new adventure in life. Complacency provides the genesis for dissatisfaction and monotony. Life here is quickly becoming routine and mundane. The southwest is a growing economy and the environment so vividly different and beautiful. I really think it is a good next stop in my journey with Gabrielle. Who knows where life there will take us…perhaps toward Oregon or toward Maine, all I know like is far too short to confine yourself to complacency, routine, and safety.

I think we should all ask ourselves, when was the last time I took a life-changing risk? When did I make a choice to experience life on a new level? It is time to start experiencing the infinite levels of existence that are presented to us each and every moment. Sometimes those life defining moments are thrust upon us with or without our knowledge and sometimes they are carefully constructed doorways opened at opportune moments. Whatever the case, when was the last time you gave yourself permission to live life?

Hey all,

So today Gabrielle and I went to her grandmother’s house in Brookfield to celebrate her older sister, Juli’s birthday. It was nice and relaxed, got to see baby Rowan and see her get cranky….sooooo cute. Got the opportunity to hang out with Jane, Ed, Dani, Spencer, and Mick. We all got caught up on our individual life’s adventures and then had three different types of pizza. Twas a nice day and the storm that is brewing has brought in a welcome cool breeze and lightning show…should be nice sleeping weather.

I don’t know if you all know…I know some of you know…that I won’t be at faire this year. It is because of a great opportunity that I missing the season. I have been offered a nursing externship at Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove. Not only have I been offered the externship but I’ve been offered the CCU (critical care unit) which is something that is not usually offered to externs. This is a paid opportunity…hurray income…but more importantly a great learning opportunity…and a great resume booster…not to mention a good check on a graduate school application. My schedule has not been given to me, but I’ve been told that I will have a rotating schedule of nights, P.M’s, possible A.M.’s, weekends and any holidays. I’ve had my physical and received my medical clearance. I have an appointment with human resources in a few weeks to go over all the new employee stuffs. Gabrielle and I will have to play things by ear if a chance arises to visit Bristol, but I know the program is demanding and typically leads to a regular job at the end of the externship which lasts 10 weeks, so I haven’t the foggiest idea if we will get a visit. We will miss ya….Karl

So Friday was a pretty cool day. First thing in the morning I drove Gabi to work. I like driving Gabi to work it gives us more time to just be with each other, oh and time to plot our take over of the world governments. We often will do lunch together…its nice to get that extra time together…its a nice boost in case the morning has been crappy…anyway.

So I dropped Gabi off at work and came back home. I needed to be on the road at 1pm so I killed some time by watching an episode of Battlestar Galactica. By the end of that episode it was time to be on the road. I needed to be at school by 2pm because I was participating in the Tri-Beta Scholars Olympics. It is a Cystic-Fibrosis fund-raiser that creates smaller pools of money to aid research that often needs small boosts to complete projects. A worthy cause. After reaching the school I meandered to my team…the Scholars Academy Team. It was a fierce competition the Scholars Academy vs. The Tri-Beta blue vs. the Tri-Beta red vs. the Tri-Beta black (Tri-Beta is a biology honors–and there was a lot of ‘em) vs. the physics dept. vs. the mathematics dept. vs. the aviation dept. vs. the Business dept. and last but not least the computer science dept.

It was a heated battle royal consisting of the the soccer ball relay…the egg toss…the clothespin/milkjug challenge…the skip/hop/crabwalk/scooter-push relay…the jump-rope challenge…the balloon butt-pop challenge…the guess how many M&M’s challenge..the sack-race…and the quiz off. Fields of battle have never know such carnage!….may the fallen rest in piece.

So I was pitted against my fellow charitable geeks in the milk-jug clothespin drop. (made 1 out of 12) I am a bit too tall for that game. I then was entered into the egg toss…my partner (who was on crutches from a sprained ankle) made it to the final 5…we had a final toss of over 150 feet…but we finally cracked…why is it in battle the children suffer…those poor avian offspring….so fragile…so young…so tasty. Having done well, I then was informed that I a 300 pound man with a huge blister on his toe was going to be the leader in the relay where I would have to skip half a football field to tag my partner who would then hop and so forth…oh the humiliation. This man should not jiggle his body fat with the force or the multiple directions that resulted from the torrent of skipping….oh the humanity…if only I was wearing a kilt at the time. I, however redeemed myself with my large ass…in the balloon popping relay where one had to deposit a balloon on a chair, in high winds mind you, with only his/her teeth and then sit on it…lets just say I have the fastest ass in the midwest. Then of course the quiz off, where each of us takes turn in the hot seat….math has never been my forte, so of course I get a math problem. I had never heard of the Fibonacci sequence. My question was “In the following sequence 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21 what is the next number? Having never heard about this before….having no deductive reasoning skills…having only dumb luck and divine intervention I place a 34 as the answer, and it was….so much relief. The next question I got was “What is the term that refers to a personal attitude that causes a division among cultures?” Easy…prejudice…two points thank you very much. My last question….argh…”How many books did Socrates write?…..HOLY MUTHER F(*^&*^(*&^…..and then it dawned on me ZERO…Plato was the first to write down Socrates philosophies.

In the end….drumroll…..SCHOLARS ACADEMY WINS THE CHAMPIONSHIP and we get a engrave plaque in the school learning resource center….HUZZAH…and we raised collectively over $6000 for Cystic Fibrosis Research….by this time it is 530ish and I have to change into the suit I brought.

Suit…why are you changing into a suit, you may be asking?…well at 7pm the induction ceremony for Sigma Theta Tau begins. And what the hell is that? Sigma Theta Tau is the International Honors Society of Nursing and I somehow miraculously made it in.

Normally, I don’t make a big deal about these things ever since the parents died, but it was nice because John was able to come at the last minute after some personal stuffs worked out for him. Also, Ed, Jane, Dani, Vivian (Gabi’s grandma) were able to come…that was really cool that so many would come to be supportive of me, and I thank each and every one of them with all my heart.

So, John arrived first and we hung out for a bit and I got a chance to show him the Flyers den, which is one of the student cafe/lunch spots. It has a mini-bowling, arcades, pool, TV, etc…food…smoothies…and a movie theater and music stage (calling Seelie Court and Bounding Main) upstairs. I hadn’t had lunch so bought drinks and an apple each, then wandered a bit. Would have loved to show him the antiquated library but it was closed.

A bit later everyone else showed up and we entered the Chapel where the ceremony was held…I’ll reserve comments on the ceremony itself for personal discussions. Anyway…I managed to surprise the family because not only was I being inducted into the Honor Society but I received a scholarship from them as well, so that was nice.

After the ceremony, we headed off to a very nice dinner at The Public Landing (http://www.publiclandingrestaurant.com/). Had a great prime rib dinner with garlic mashed potatoes, portabella mushroom and onion…yum. After dinner, Jane (Gabi’s step mom) had ended up in a conversation with a lady at the table next to ours…turns out she is a board member of the Lewis cultural diversity board. Well, Jane of course was telling her of the nights events and introduced me. Ok…you need a bit of back story here…A few weeks ago I presented a poster at a professional nursing conference at Rush-Copley, at which Edwards hospital expressed an interest in my work that I did at Advocate Christ Hospital. Well, this lady asked me about the work that I did that cause such interest…I told her…and then she introduces me to her husband who happens to work in an administrative capacity at Provena St. Joseph Hospital…and so she would like me to send her and her husband information on the work I did…This is pretty cool that my undergraduate work is spreading like this….It has actually caused Lewis university to prompt me to get written permission, to keep track of who has this information and why, from all my group members, from the college of nursing, and from the interested hospitals because of the intellectual property rights involved. I am being encouraged to write this project up for one of the nursing journals, such as Nursing Spectrum a publication from Hoffman Estates.

So, overall a great night…lots of great things happening…and lots of great friends and family.

ok….so Monday Craig Broers (aka. Craig of Farrington) called me and asked if it would be possible to get together for dinner up in Kenosha. Now…how do you turn down a red-bearded chap with a tie-dye hat who is calling from the Appalachian mountains on his way to Michigan to see his grandchildren. So after much ado…Gabrielle, John Wholers and I drove up to the Birchwood, a favorite—ewwww were sweaty…in garb or not…I’m exhausted…dehydrated…I gotta pee…OMG the wait staff will tolerate us and our behavior…ooooo salad bar restaurant (so good suggestion Carl —aka Mr. Jezabel).

So…dinner was awesome and per the usual we all had the dinner buffet…nice and tasty. It was a great time catching up on things, cracking jokes at Bob’s expense, having fun with Craig’s new phone, and just generally fostering camaraderie. Now Monday was also Bouncy Jens birthday. Craig being the wonderful person that he is, decided to brighten Jen’s day, as she had to work late, by calling her and singing her a birthday song. Of course the rest of us were in the background as singers…and by the sound of us we needed to be in the background. Well…this just elated Jen and made her day…we passed the phone around and gave our birthday wishes. I can still here the squeals of happiness here in Carol Stream.

Well, I think it was around 9pm and Craig had to get on the road to his next stop…we all hugged…said our goodbyes and Craig was off. Gabrielle, John and I were out of the parking lot next…and Bob…humm….I think he was having phone sex with his Jen as we never saw him again and we all had to go the same direction.

So, we are in the VUE and driving back just generally talking and trying to help John with the song stuck in his head…well actually two songs stuck in his head playing simultaneously. As we are driving we think we see Bob coming up behind us…well he passed us. So Gabrielle and John were urging me to catch up, but I resisted…I mean who knows what state Bob was in after his phone sex in the Birchwood parking lot.

IT WAS AT THIS POINT THAT SOMETHING WAS SAID THAT CAUSED ME TO RE-OPEN MY LJ….

John said, “If you catch up to him. I’LL MOON HIM!”

And so the foot eagerly depressed the accelerator and the driver was revitalized with new vigor and purpose in life….lol…well I did catch up to that car but it wasn’t Bob sadly, because I wanted Wohlers to moon Bob…I’m not sure why…probably just for the photo opportunity…well, I suppose there is always next time.

and that is the story and the sentence that brought me back to LJ — now I must return to the enormous paper that I have to have written by morning….sigh

Hello all,

Just to let you know I’m back on Live Journal…have a great story but it will have to wait till morning…afternoon…uh well…whenever the hell I wake up…

Karl