good things come to those who wait.

Every morning for just about a month, I have grabbed my phone immediately upon waking in order to check my email in anticipation of receiving recognition from the Florida Department of Health and Pearson Vue (a testing company) that I have completed my nursing coursework and am APPROVED for testing. Well, this morning, I woke up and grabbed my phone and for a second thought I must be dreaming (I dreamed once that I performed this ritual and received the letter, but upon waking realized it was just that- a dream). I FINALLY received my letter today! Holy mackerel, I am so relieved! I am one of a few people that I know who were in the "late bunch" to receive their letters and I was convinced I must have done something wrong. For a second, I even feared that I had never officially graduated, and that since I hadn't gone to commencement, I was none the wiser. (The receipt of my diploma proved that theory false.) So today I had to choose my test date. I chose July 21st for several boring reasons (one that it gave me almost exactly 1 month more to study, two that it was NOT the 13th [which was also open], and three because it was the only date in July with a 1pm test time open [I am a morning person but I fear I won't get much sleep the night before my exam]). SO I have ONE MONTH to get a whole lot of nursing stuff into my head. I also found out that my start date for my new job is July 11th. I go to the hospital/HR this Friday to get my stuff... sign my papers, get my parking pass, peepee in a cup, etc. etc. If I get my badge, I'll be rather excited. I need to get some sun in case I do... that picture is going to be seen by many! ;-)

I know you can't really see, but ^ that's the email!

So just a little update about Friday night... we had a BLAST! Two girls who get seats at the bar can be a good time! My friend and I just chatted with each other and whoever approached us (there were some serious doozies). One guy was a super duper close-talker and was talking so loud he was making my eardrum vibrate. Uggh. Really annoying. I made sure to tell him he was in my bubble! My friend did call one of her friends, though- a guy who plays basketball for UCF. He was really nice and reeeaaally tall. People would come up to him and say, "Heyyy, PJ!" because they recognized him from the court. I asked him what it was like to have fans and he said it could be really strange, and that he could see why some people tend to get an overinflated ego. He was very modest, though, and handled the "fans" with ease.

I am 5'10", so you can imagine how tall he is! (I know I look a little close, but there was no flirting going on.... he's 21!)

Anyhow, today was a pretty great day. I made chili from scratch (it's pretty dang good if I do say so) and cleaned a bit and am thinking about how I am going to pack all of this stuff up for our move. Other than that, I am ready to buckle down with my studies and walk into the test nice and confident a month from now. I don't think I have had so many big things coming my way all at once before, so the next 30 days should be really interesting! Stay tuned! :)