Day 15 of 40 Room with a View

Since my office is temporarily transformed into a storage room for everything that is already removed from either walls or floor and packed with cardboard boxes, you might think I don’t work at the moment. Well, that is not the case. Most time I don’t work in my office these days. I have also a small desk in my living room where my computer is stationed, pretty crowded now as well but still workable. And when I’m meeting my clients it’s often at other locations than my own place. Only intakes take place in my office anyway and for following sessions we mostly practice outside in elevators that are public or in the Kone building. That is for elevator anxiety.

Today I had a first appointment with someone for driving anxiety. She’d told me that she was in kind of a hurry otherwise I would have postponed it to mid October. Luckily I could use one of the offices in the building of the driving school.

One day I want to have an office like that. With different rooms for me and my colleagues and a virtual lab room with simulators. Of course that building would have its own elevator and a nice receptionist. And preferably a private parking lot because I’m done with paying € 8 to € 10 for parking at the University Hospital each time. But I’ll have to keep doing that for another couple of years I’m afraid. 

Day 14 of 40 Heart over Head

I was pretty much revived after a good night sleep and determined to push at least moving related matters aside until after my first exam on Friday. This morning we’ve had the third practicum about the Central Nervous System and I felt cool again about it. Even the two corpses on which the spine was dissected didn’t make me feel sick.

The chamber of commerce returned my papers today because the information they had from the town hall wasn’t  up to date yet. Now they require I show them the contract of the new rent. I will, after Friday. My two oldest kids promised to come and help again this weekend. There a two friends in Leiden with whom I've settled a date for catching up and a bite. I texted them if they wanted to combine the date next week with stripping some wallpaper. They agreed! My brother texted to ask if I wanted to show him the house tonight. Instead I asked him to come over Saturday to give my son a hand with removing the kitchen doors, which he agreed upon. I briefly wondered if he had read my yesterday’s update or that things just work well when you don’t worry…  

Anyway, these kind of things make me realize that the only thing I actually need to do is prioritize. And after Friday my priorities are again on enjoying the company of great people (and fixing the new house). For the moment my priority is trying to learn sixty-six salient structures of the CNS by heart! 

Day 13 of 40 Let me sleep on it

While I was being slightly nauseous and very sleepy at the second brain dissection practicum, Samantha was stripping wallpaper in the living room of the new house this afternoon. She gave me an update by phone and as Michael predicted there’s a lot to be done. We filled up 10 big plastic bags already.

The new house has a bit larger open plan kitchen than this house. Big enough for the dinner table and all the household devices next to the unit. Not big enough for an island unit but then I’ve got something left to wish for when I’ll move again. Next to removing the wallpaper there’s a double door and glass panel to be removed.

It is about time now to call my brother to help with removing the doors and to plan a date with the guy who’ll help with plastering the walls. But, I’ve got an exam to take coming Friday which keeps my mind rather occupied so I’ll postpone that a little. If I keep feeling so sleepy then there’s no chance of studying properly for the exam. And if I keep worrying about that I’ll even sleep less than I do now. There it is, the beginning of a vicious circle.

Day 12 of 40 Luna-tic

It is likely too much to bear for her, seeing her environment changing from a nice looking garden into a steppe like empty space with a mangrove in the middle. The mangrove is resulting from filling up the crater with branches and even whole plants with their roots. Or she has just a free spirit. Anyway, she was rattling her fences for long now and eventually succeeded to escape. I didn’t realize that the first time, because when I was in my neighbor’s backyard last week, collecting some material for the crater, he asked me if the rabbit had escaped. He pointed at some rabbit droppings in the grass. I said no, because I had just seen her in her hutch a second before I went there.  That following night I heard a lot of noise in the backyard and when I checked where that came from I couldn’t see her in her fenced space at first, but when I looked away I saw her. She was sitting there on the path. I yelled to my daughter to help me, she went just upstairs to go to bed. While she came downstairs I ran through the front door to go to the back garden, the idea was that we could close her in that way. Hm. When I entered the garden door my daughter was standing there, asking me what was wrong because the rabbit was in her hutch. Both rabbits were actually but only Luna is a troublemaker. I thought what the heck, am I seeing things? Is stress playing tricks with my mind?

But the morning after my daughter came to my bed saying that I had not imagined it, she escaped again. A relief. And she did catch the rabbit already. Shame. No, just kidding, but sometimes… Today we had another rabbit hunt. We were late out of bed because of the party last night and were having breakfast when my other daughter pointed to the backyard saying that the rabbit was out again. I couldn’t believe it, I tie-ripped the fence after the previous escape and eventually shut the doors of her hutch so she couldn’t go out of that at all. Only, I had overlooked a hole in the netting of the hutch. My son was the first to get dressed properly for the hunt and learned from another neighbor that the rabbit was hopping on the parking lot next to a couple of houses for hours. Now she was in my neighbor’s backyard again and he said he didn’t mind. I did because the last thing I was longing for was trying to catch the crazy rabbit, so I asked him if he liked rabbit for dinner and that he could have her. That probably scared her off, so in the end she returned rapidly to her hutch again. 

Day 11 of 40 Celebration Time

My youngest girl has had her 18th birthday today. So, only one time with the van full of stuff to the new house and then celebration time. That’s how it is supposed to be and that’s why (amongst other reasons) I took one and a half month to move. We had a great day today!

Day 10 of 40 Grey

I am not sure yet what colors to paint the walls of the new house with. A fashionable color is in a brownish shade of grey. It is a color that easily can be combined with other, brighter and more cheerful colors. But for now it is more important to prepare the walls to be painted eventually.

Today I had the first practicum of the brain dissecting lab. We were expected to be there at 1:15 sharp. That is because the room where this kind of anatomy classes take place is in a part of the hospital building that is not accessible without a pass. The neuroanatomy professor picked us up and when you would be too late there was no easy way to get there. I was a little anxious about this part of the course. I mean, we would be confronted with a human brain. When we arrived at the location we were divided over 4 tables. For each table was a brain and a student assistant who would dissect it for us. Each group consisted of 6 students. But first we had to scrub our hands carefully, to prevent the brain being infected by stuff we had on our hands like from our bread, they explained. After that we were given a green operation coat and gloves. From there we could peek into the room where all the metal tables were laid with scalpels and other instruments. The room was filled with the smell of formalin. After an introduction speech from the professor the student assistant introduced himself to us. We were lucky to have the only male assistant, and he was rather good looking too. Another assistant first brought the half skulls and prepared membranes. So far it was not so freaky as I feared. Then the brains were brought in. Neatly prepared and therefore not scary either. I began to relax because it was really interesting. At one point the assistant was removing some veins and when he had to dig deeper it was visibly not easy to do. Me with my big mouth asked him if it would be handy if one of us gave him a hand. He handed me the tweezers and there I was holding up (if I remembered it well) the optic nerve. I felt like I was participating in Grey’s Anatomy, and I said so. I also added that he was like Mc Dreamy. Then he asked if I could hold up the particular piece with my index finger, so he could use the tweezers. At that time I was completely in my role as a nurse so I did it until I felt cramp in my leg because of the unnatural position I had, then another student took it over from me. We’ve had a very interesting couple of hours there and it will be continued Monday and Tuesday. The only thing is that I still smell the formalin, although I scrubbed my hands when leaving the room and even a couple of times when I got home.

After I came home I picked up the minivan I borrowed for this weekend. Together with my son and youngest daughter we moved the first load tonight. Stuff from the shed and backyard. Slightly covered with dust and dirt I feel like the color grey has lost its appeal a bit. Maybe a little too much grey matter for one day. 

Day 9 of 40 I’ve got your Number

This is tricky. I know exactly what I want to say tonight, except not in English. It’s about my bedroom. The carpet of my bedroom to be specific. And about a guy. There’s the problem. The guy is a bloke who I’ve only met twice. He did this thing for me. With the carpet. That’s what made me confused because at first I thought of him as a carpenter. Carpet, carpenter. No so strange, is it? But then I realized that carpenters don’t work with carpets, in general they work with wood. I need one of those too by the way, someone who works with wood. To build me a stair to the attic in the new house. But that’s another story which has an open end at the moment. Not the attic, that has a shutter of course. With a foldable ladder. And that’s about the only thing I don’t like about the new house. I am not a ladder type.

I remember it now. The guy I am talking about is what you’d call a furnisher. Anyway a couple of years ago I bought this black fluffy carpet for my bedroom. I still love it. I think that is the best part of the bedroom, next to the bed that is. The guy worked for the company where I bought it. He did a great job, neatly and quick. The way my father used to work. My father used to be a furnisher too. And an electrician, a plumber, a builder, there were many other things in and around a house you could call him for. Back to my carpet. This was carpet which has to be laid without glue. The old fashioned way. Therefore it is removable. You’d need special tools to remove it though. That’s why I need this guy again. To remove it here and replace it in my new bedroom. Great that I still got his number. Even better that he did not switched from telecom company and got his self a new number. I’ve called him today and we fixed a date. Saturday September 29 that is. Another thing ticked off my to do list.