Jennifer Vitti

I used to have a great sleep schedule, even in my undergrad. I would wake up between 7:00-8:00 AM, I wouldn’t even really need an alarm, and if I did I would only set one and get up immediately when it went off. I would be super productive in the morning (productivity is clearly my theme and concern for 2012), go to classes and do homework during the day, have a little free time to myself at night, and be in bed, asleep by 11:00 PM, achieving 8-9 hours of sleep. That was so great! Now my schedule is a mess because nursing school classes are all over the place. They have to accommodate everyone’s different learning styles, so some classes are at night, some are midday, some clinicals are early morning and I’m just a mess. I need three alarms to wake me up in the morning, I hit the snooze button, I’m staying up too late at night, and I’m trying to do work in the evening, which is my least productive time. Now that I’m in my last semester and I know my schedule from now until May I’m looking forward to getting back on a good sleep schedule and in turn a good productivity schedule. I’m going to try to do the change gradually. Starting this weekend, since I have some flexibility, I’m going to try to go to bed 1/2 an hour earlier, wake-up to only 2 alarms, and get up 1/2 an hour earlier–and that goes for everyday that week. Then the following week (assuming the first week goes according to plan) I’ll go to bed another 1/2 hour earlier, wake-up to only 1 alarm, and get up an additional 1/2 hour earlier, basically continue this schedule, including weekends (I think that’s the key–I can’t mess up my schedule on the weekends by sleeping in) until it feels natural again. I’m hoping it works out. My only one downfall will be the fact that I also used to be able to keep the shades open both at my parents house and at my undergrad because my beds were nowhere near the windows and no one could look in. Now in my new house our bed is right up against the window and the houses are a little closer together. I do very well with natural sunlight, so that’s kind of a bummer, but I think a solid schedule/routine has the ability to overcome that. Any other suggestions would be great!

~love always~

Jen

Although I support all my Massachusetts teams (Go Pats!), I really don’t care to watch sports nor do I know very much about them. I went to my siblings games throughout their middle school and high school careers (football, baseball, and sometimes basketball for my brother, soccer and sometimes baseball and basketball for my sister) and I just had one dance recital a year they attended. That didn’t bother me though because I enjoyed rooting them on and that’s all that mattered. But they are long done with organized athletics now and all that is left for sports in my family is watching sports on television. Which I just don’t care to watch. Yay if we win, boo if we lose, but the game doesn’t intrigue me. So a few years ago my mom (who is similar to me in that she enjoyed supporting her children, but doesn’t care to watch professional sports on television) and I decided to go to the movie theater during the SuperBowl. It is VERY quiet during this time, so you get great seats, usually matinee prices, and it’s an excuse for us to have a mother-daughter outing and go out to the movies which we both rarely get to do anymore. Plus this year specifically we could both use a good outing after the past stressful weeks. Not sure what we’ll see yet, but regardless I’m looking forward to it this Sunday

~love always~

Jen

What do you do when you actually have free time? (I know a rare occurrence these days for many). I always love a good book. But I also really enjoy puzzles–I like all sorts of puzzles, but I’m specifically talking about good ol’ jigsaw puzzles. I just started a 3000!!! piece puzzle of St. Peter’s Cathedral in Rome during sunset (the actual picture of the puzzle I’m creating is below) and the colors are just gorgeous. I also have a 1500 piece puzzle of another area in Italy that I will do after this one. It’s very stress relieving.

I’m feeling very zen in 2012 I guess…I’m enjoying time with Sam and our kitty Daphne in our new house, I have my cleaning schedule good to go with FLYLady, I’m creating good habits with Daily Feats, I’m having fun exercising with Tracy Anderson Dance Cardio Workout, and I’m in my last semester of being an NP. I guess I should really “knock on wood” now huh?!

My weekend turned out to be very productive and unexciting…just what I wanted

The week ahead looks like dog walking Monday + Saturday, classes Monday + Thursday, and clinicals Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. It’s also the start of February this week–which means we’re that much closer to spring!

~love always~

Jen

Work was cancelled for the weekend (really quiet weekend for dog walking apparently) and I can finally be productive (KNOCK ON WOOD)! It’s almost 2:00 PM and I’ve already been able to do quite a bit of housecleaning and homework. Little bit more to do, but I have the whole day ahead of me.

I also plan to do a full workout today (rather than just a quick one squeezed in between classes and clinicals and work). I’m hoping to go for a run and also to go through the choreography of Tracy Anderson Dance Cardio Workout. She is highly recommended by Madonna, Gwenyth Paltrow, Courtney Cox, Shakira, etc etc. Very much an A-list celebrity trainer. Anyway, I received it for Christmas and have recently started doing it. I have a background in dance and I love aerobics, so the reviews for this workout made it seem like it is for me. And after doing it a few times it definitely is for me, however the routines are speedy and high impact and actually pretty difficult choreography because she runs through them so fast (rewind is your best friend in this case).  The reviews I’ve heard pretty much agree with me. They seem difficult to the person who is HIGHLY trained in classical dance because I guess she misuses some terminology, but great for people who like aerobics and pick up on it quickly. I’m enjoying the routines (and there are 8 of them, so I’m definitely not bored), but I can’t wait until I feel I have them down and can really run through the dances to the full speed and get the full workout. Tracy claims that if you do the workout 5-6x a week (don’t quite have time for that right now, but I’m getting it in a couple times a week) she’ll get me back to my teeny tiny dancer body I miss so much. Her workout is geared toward women who want to workout, but don’t want to build bulk, just tone up. I’m a fan–I’ll let you know my results overtime. I’m always looking for new workout dvds (especially fun aerobics/dance based), so let me know if you have any suggestions or if the Tracy Anderson workout  did or didn’t work for you–I’d be curious to hear from someone who really gave it a try and what their results were (it’s fun to hear from celebrities on the DVD, but not really comparable to my day-to-day life and how the workout fits in. Tracy Anderson is also not personally there training me like she did with them).

~love always~

Jen

I’ve been directed to a new website just yesterday that I am so far enjoying. It’s called Daily Feats and it encourages you to do little things that soon become habits and later add up to great things. It’s completely free! You get cute little “stickers” on your profile everytime you complete an action (they can be as simple as calling your mom or telling your boyfriend “I Love You” or more involved like writing a paper or going to a specific event, and it’s also great for health stuff like encouraging you to eat healthy, drink water, and even things like refilling your prescriptions on time or going for a check up!). It’s somewhat of a social community if you make your profile and “check ins” (that’s the term they use when you complete an activity–you “check in”) public, but I have mine so that only “my team” can see (which as of now is just me since none of my friends are using it). One of the best things about it is that you get points for different check ins and you can redeem them for real prizes such as Itunes gift cards, restaurant or store gift cards, or even donations to charities! You can also do challenges (complete specified activities/feats in a specified amount of time) or join communities (students, runners, etc.) and chat about different activities. I have found a couple of “bugs” in it, which can be annoying (e.g. sometimes it signs me off randomly, but it doesn’t tell me I signed off it just tells me the check-ins are temporarily not working), but overall I’ve found it to be nicely done. It’s a very low key social network to some extent (no I did not swear off social networking for a year…only facebook, which I have to say I’m not missing yet) and you can really be as active in it as you want…the more active you are the more rewards you can get. As I said, right now I’m having a lot of fun with it…haven’t decided if I predict I’ll get bored with it or not, but if I do it’s also easy enough to delete it.  Check it out and let me know what you think! Worth the rewards or another way to waste time?

~love always~

Jen

One of the reasons why Sam and I moved to the neighborhood that we did because while we were looking at houses in this neighborhood people smiled and waved at you. We loved it! Today I was putting out the trash and a neighbor drove by who I had never met before, gave a friendly honk with her horn and an enthusiastic wave. I waved back with a big smile on my face. Nothing like a friendly neighbor to start your day off!

Wanted to update you all that my grandfather is doing MUCH better…he’ll be transferred to a rehab/nursing home temporarily to finish recovering, but everyone is optimistic

Another quick post because I have to run to class to learn about headaches in pediatrics (ever heard of PANDAS?? I was doing a little research before class…look it up–it seems bizarre!)

~love always~

Jen

I LOVE a good chick flick (my favorite movie, which I own and can quote: P.S. I Love You, and yes I actually like the movie version better than the book although the book is great too). So it is no surprise that I cannot wait to see The Vow with Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams coming to theaters February 10th. My 7 year anniversay with Sam is February 13th, and we’re trying to keep it low budget, so I’m thinking a really great gift for me would be to do a low key dinner and see this movie (hint hint…too bad he rarely reads my blog haha). He actually enjoys a good chick flick now and then too, so it’s not even that torturous.

Anyway, the movie is about a young couple who are madly in love with each other and they get in a car accident, and Rachel McAdams’ character gets a form of retrograde amnesia where she loses her memory for the past few years (which includes her ENTIRE relationship with her husband) and she thinks she is engaged to a completely different guy! The romantic “message” behind the movie is “Can a once in a lifetime love find a second chance?” and it is all about them finding love again. Watch The Vow trailer here and let me know if you’re as in love with it as I am!!! And of course to top it all off it’s based on a true story (minus the part about the woman being engaged to a different guy) check out the true story too!

~love always~

Jen

Things are looking up! Thanks for all the positive thoughts! My grandfather is still in the hospital (and probably will be for a while), but he is doing better today My homework is slowly but surely getting under control. And my cold symptoms are also slowly but surely going away. I think the one thing at a time, 15 minutes at time is working well for me so far.

AND today I saw an elderly woman walking a cat on a leash and it was wearing a sweater. Made my day! The cat was totally loving it too!!

Short post today, but I hope to have an interesting one soon!

In the meantime, watch this youtube video–it’s about med students, but nursing students and nurse practitioner students will appreciate it too: Sh*t Med Students Say

~love always~

Jen

Sunday I woke up and I was feeling SO much better. I still had a little bit of a stuffy nose, but I could breathe, and I had a lot more energy. I woke up at 8 AM on Sunday basically leaped out of bed and was ready to start my productive day. The rest of the lost weekend was behind me and I was going to turn it all around. Took a nice long shower, got dressed, cleaned the bathrooms, and was going to start on my homework…phone call from my mom. She asked if she could come pick me up so I could go assess my grandfather (part of the job of being the nurse in the family I guess–even though I’m pediatrics). Of course I said yes, so we went over to my grandparents’ house and long story short we ended up in the emergency department for the entire day. He ended up being admitted and we went home (got home early evening and I was exhausted both physically and emotionally). I’m not complaining that I was with him for the whole day–I’m glad I could be there for him, for my grandmother, and for my mom too and help to assess him and determine what he needs and explain to them some of the medical stuff, but I will say I’m now feeling very stressed for this week and already feeling behind in school, still not feeling 100% better, and of course worried about my grandfather (he’s still in the hospital). I think blogging today has been my only time to myself since the last time I blogged! I’m taking it one thing at a time, 15 minutes at a time, but it’s already been a long week and it’s Monday.

Here’s to hoping things will look up soon and lots of positive thoughts for my grandfather!

~love always~

Jen

I don’t know where that quote is originally from, but it’s the title of an episode in either Season 1 or Season 2 of the television show, ER, and the title really resonated with me. Regardless of whether you’re religious or not, the idea behind the saying is that NOTHING ever goes according to plan. I was planning on being so productive this weekend. It was the first weekend I had to myself. The weather was going to be kind of crummy, so I was just going to stay in clean the house and do homework. Well…that “minor cold” that I mentioned in yesterday’s post turned into a miserable whopping head cold. I feel like a bobble head. I cannot breathe. I’ve tried all my little tricks to get the congestion to go away…it’s not working. I guess I’m glad that this didn’t happen when I’m studying for finals or w/e (and I usually only get sick once a semester), but STILL (I know I’m being whiny…but give me a break :-p). I got very little done today–I’m hoping I’ll be on the upswing tomorrow. I’ve been drinking fluids nonstop, I bought a humidifier (we didn’t have one for the new house yet), etc. Please just let me be able to be productive tomorrow.

It makes me think about “my little ones” though that I see (probably the same ones that got me sick haha) in the offices. They must be so miserable, especially the really little ones that can’t blow their nose, can’t be explained what is happening to them, and can’t be given any sort of medicine to help ease their symptoms. I’m 24 and I can barely stand it, let alone infants and toddlers! Hopefully we’ll come up with better treatments in the near future.

I hope for a more positive update tomorrow Off to bed early–hopefully I can get some sleep!

~love always~

Jen