Doofus, RN

I've been trying to get used to this night shift still, now that I have finished my "official" nursing orientation and I am now technically all on my lonesome as a nurse. Eek! On the job, I'm feeling more and more confident as the days progress--and the night nursing staff is fantastic in asking me if I need an extra hand and answering all of my silly questions.
Unfortunately in the process of becoming a night nurse, I've also become a complete dimwit when it comes to normal day to day things. Yesterday, I demonstrated this by coming home from a shift, leaving a light on inside my car and completely draining my car battery. After finally having a decent nights sleep, going out for a nice meal with Joe (driving in his car), watching Rock Star INXS (Sara's fault that I got suckered in to the show), and then letting Joe get to bed early (since he had to be up at 5:30am for an early day at work), I walked out to my car at 10:30pm to see the light still on inside my car. Damn! I dropped my bag and sprinted to the car, like I could make it in time to still have any sort of battery left to start an engine. I had to wake up poor Joe to drive me to work...and luckily my Dad was still awake so I could ask for the ride home in the morning. This is just one demonstration of the silly little things that I feel like I've been doing that I wouldn't have done before. Oh well. I got a lesson in how to recharge a battery from my Dad, so at least I learned something in the process.

In August, Joe and I traveled up north to the UP for a relaxing weekend in the Sylvania Wilderness. It's a fantastic place to get away. Most campsites you have to paddle into and some you have to portage one or two times to reach. We borrowed my parents' canoe for the trip. Joe convinced me to visit a lake I'd never been to before, which meant a longer paddle into a campsite. The extra haul in and out was definitely worth it. And despite a bit of rain, which we get whenever we camp together, it was fairly pleasant weather. I actually caught fish--two Northern Pikes! I haven't caught a fish bigger than my lure since I was about three. One of the Northerns was possibly 2 feet long. The other was about half that size. I highly recommend the employees at the Sylvania Outfitters--they gave us the big tip on the lure that caught those fish. You can check out photos of the big fish and our other Sylvania photos.
Calm after the Storm at Sylvania

Also in August, our region had a tremendous storm that brought more tornadoes to the area than in the last 20 years. Fortunately, Madison was spared this year. However, a tornado did hit a couple blocks from my parents' house a little over a year ago. An F3 tornado hit Stoughton, which is just south of Madison, and wiped out a neighborhood north of Main St. The clouds from the storm were amazing--nothing I've ever seen before. Sara, Joe, and I couldn't resist going out after the storm had passed our area to take a look. I took some storm cloud photos. The clouds you see in the photos are south of Madison and over Stoughton. We started at Lake Monona and then ended up over at the terrace on Lake Mendota, where we sat on a picnic table, ate popcorn, drank a beer, and watched nightfall over the lake.
Storm Clouds Beyond Downtown Madison, WI