www.randomshirts.com

Found this t-shirt ad in the back of "Rollingstone" magazine. Most of the shirts are only $10 and some are on sale for $5! Plus, if you enter 'rollingstone' in the discount section, you'll save 10%. Not bad! They have the coolest vintage t-shirts and I've ordered one for me and one for Elaine for her birthday (hope she isn't reading this)! Go ahead, treat yourself to one of these t-shirts! They're fun!


Here's what I ordered...I just started laughing when I read it. It's SO bad a$$!

This is what I ordered for Elaine...I liked this one myself, but already have a vintage t-shirt in this kelly green color!

I thought this tee was kinda of amusing and scary at the same time. Because of the scare-factor, however, I will not order this shirt.

Another bad a$$ shirt, but it just isn't enough "krunk" for me. Ya know wut I'm sayin?!?!

Like the shirt, but not the color...plus, it says "playing that funky music" NOT "play that funky music". Not authentic enough!

I like the random message of the shirt, but I'm afraid some people may not appreciate it's randomness...Also, am I missing an inside joke or higher meaning to the concept of ninjas hating pirates? Is it like the rivalry between a Star Trek fan versus a Stars Wars fan?

80s Movie: Real Genius

"Everybody Wants to Rule the World" by Tears for Fears has always been one of my favorite 80's songs. I've recently rediscovered this song's movie counterpart, "Real Genius" starring a very young Val Kilmer. It's joined my library of great 80's movies that you can watch over and over again...especially on rainy days!




If you get a chance, re-live this funny movie! Does this movie sound somewhat familiar or just wondering what it's all about before re-queing your Netflix account?

Here's a brief synopsis: Mitch Taylor is no ordinary 15 year-old. He's a bonafide genius and gets accepted to an engineering college for brainiacs just like him...only older. He's roommates with the legendary Chris Knight (played by Val Kilmer), who is a bit quirky and rides the fence of being clinically insane. Between studying for exams and working on a "project" with a team of envious classmates, he's trying to find time to make friends and enjoy his time at college. There's a bigger plot involving the "project", but I don't want to give away the whole movie, but I might anyway! Let's just say, it involves a blackmailing professor, a top-secret weapon for the military, Kent talking to "God" via his dental work, and a very large version of Jiffy-Pop in someone's living room. Sounds crazy? That's what makes this movie entertaining to watch!

Here's some funny dialogue about Kent (pictured below) who is Professor Hathaway's personal "Gofer":

Chris Knight: This is Kent (note those nasty braces!). This is what happens when a person gets too sexually frustrated.

Kent: You're all a bunch of degenerates.
Chris Knight: Oh, really? Well, what about that time I found you naked with that bowl of Jell-O?
Kent: You did not.
Chris Knight: This is true.
Kent: Yeah, well, it was hot and I was hungry.

Made in 1985, it's right smack in the middle of this awesome decade! This movie reminds me of a young "National Lampoon's Van Wilder" with a touch of "Revenge of the Nerds". It's the epitome of an 80's movie. Here's why:

1) There's the token Asian dude: Although they were all considered "geniuses" on campus, "Ick" Ikagami was the only one to temporarily convert their dorm hallway into an ice skating rink. How awesome is that?!?!?

2) Not ONE, but THREE 80's song montages: It's true, there are three great 80's montages that show Mitch adjusting to college life and exams, Mitch and Chris perfecting the laser, and the whole gang attempting to foil their professor's plan.

3) Parties on campus: Even though this campus is 100% geekdom, Chris (Val Kilmer's character), throws a "Tanning" party in a lecture hall by inviting the local beauty school over to socialize with the geeks. Best part, he converts the orchestra pit into a pool with a water fountain, inflatable slide, and fake palm trees! There's also random dancing, roller skating, and grilling by the poolside!

4) Randomness: There's plenty of random characters including: Lazlo, a legendary brainiac who flipped out from the pressure of college and now lives in Chris and Mitch's closet. Lazlo has been working on his own "project" that will ultimately get him out of the closet (no homosexual pun here...)! And then there's Jordan, a fast-talking insomniac who invents random gadgets and happens to be Mitch's love interest.

5) A typical bar scene: When the gang is celebrating the success of their laser, they go to the local bar. It's so typical of an 80's movie...people dancing (the 80's version of Bel Air's "Carlton") in a smoke filled room, biker dudes with pitchers of beer shooting pool, and butch-looking women fighting on top of a pool table.

Here are some of my favorite scenes:

During this montage, it's exam time and unlike Mitch, some students prefer to record their lectures. Look what they use to record lecture! Boom-boxes! I can just imagine them bringing them to class on one shoulder.


At the end of this montage, the guy randomly stands up in the study room and starts to scream from the stress. He screams and screams while everyone else is just looking at him like he's crazy. Eventually, he runs out of the room screaming and Ick (who's directly behind him in the picture), picks up his things and takes his place at the study table. Survival of the fittest!

At the end of the movie, Dr. Hathaway's house explodes at the seams with popcorn. Kent, who thought God was talking to him, becomes mesmerized by the growing Jiffy-Pop bubble in the house. He gets swept up out of the house in the popcorn "wash out". Funny scene that leads to the closing credits and my favorite song, "Everybody Wants to Rule the World"!

So, I hope you get a chance to watch this movie. It recently aired on Encore! television and I found it highly entertaining. I hope you do too!

Hajji Log: Part II

I know, I know, it's been a while since I have posted anything about Hajj. This time it's about one of MANY amusing stories to tell. I have always thought of myself as a tolerant person when it comes to hygiene (or lack of it). For goodness sake's, I'm a nurse! I've dressed the worst wounds and wiped the largest butts, but when it came to using the "Turkish Toilets" for the first time, it was all tippy-toes for me!

My introduction to these "ingenious" inventions were at Jeddah Airport in Saudi Arabia. We just flew in from Istanbul, Turkey...tired, disoriented, hungry, sleepy, and air-sick (that's me). The women were already wearing their abayas and hijabs (large robes and head covering) upon arriving. I needed to use the restroom and didn't want to go alone. Sarah, oh, dear dependable Sarah! She became my official bathroom buddy. I grabbed our disposable toilet wipes (as if that would be enough!) and we ventured arm-in-arm into the women's restroom.

The horror! Imagine a foreign bathroom used by literally thousands of women in a busy airport. Now, add in the interior design of San Francisco's Alcatraz and you have the women's bathroom at Jeddah Airport. Our top prioritiy was to find "regular" Western-style toilets to use, but found out that they were VERY popular...as an ashtray! It was like being in a horror movie as we warily peeked into each stall and then made the most grotesque faces you could imagine because of the conditions of the toilets! ALL of the "regular" toilets looked as if they hadn't been flushed AT ALL because they were brimming with waste, USED toilet paper, women's hygiene products, and garnished with cigarette butts. The floors of the stalls had a watery film of brown residue.

The "Turkish" toilets, on the otherhand, were far better in terms of functionality. For those not familiar with "Turkish" toilets, please study the attached photo. Self-explanatory, right? It may be an easy concept for men to comprehend, but for women, this is a logistical nightmare!

At least they were cleaner to use, but how? Sarah's only experience was as a cute 2 year-old being held over the hole by her mother. We weren't about to hold one another above the hole! We stared into a stall for a few seconds studying the logistics...where to stand, how to squat, how to aim, how to clean, and how to flush?!?! Those were the easy questions. The tougher questions were: Who goes first?!?! What about our clothes? How can we use the bathroom without getting our abayas and pants dirty?!?!

We had about 5 toilets to choose from and based our decision on the following criteria: overall smell, presence of any bodily fluids/solids in or around the porcelain bowl, amount of water/liquid on the floor, and location of water hose that is used to clean oneself (as if!).

Like a childhood dare, Sarah and I bounced the idea of who goes first. "At least you've seen them before!" I offered. She reluctantly accepted, swung her abaya over her shoulders, and began roll up her pants to her knees. Like stepping on hot coals, she tip-toed into the stall and locked the door. I won't share what we talked about, but you can probably guess that we were trying to figure things out together step-by-step...

Sarah truly captured the essence of this awkward, semi-public situation, when she echoed from the stall, "What am I doing?!?!?" At that point, I was hysterical, hunched over in laughter, and with tears in my eyes because of the scene we were making. I'm was glad that we were the only ones in the bathroom at the time!

Aside from questioning how to "flush" the toilet and nearly slipping into the porcelain bowl, Sarah was trooper through this whole ordeal! Now it was MY turn. I also reluctantly rolled up my pants and swung my abaya over my shoulders. Took a deep breath, stepped into the stall, and locked the door. I took my place on the footrest, did my business, reached under the door for Sarah to hand me my toilet wipes, and prepared myself to "flush" the toilet with me it it. Yuk.

With a sense of deep pride and accomplishment, we walked out of the bathroom together. Suddenly, Sarah stops and gasps, "Oh, MY God! I forgot to roll down my pants!" Embarrased, she runs back into the bathroom and I follow.

While she is bending over rolling her pants down, I look into the faded mirror and notice that she's not the only one who forgot something...

"Oh, MY God!" I hastily blurt out as I look myself over. Not only have I forgotten to roll down MY pants, but I walked out of the bathroom with my abaya still slung over my shoulders! How odd I must have looked! I was the Middle Eastern-version of a flasher!

Sarah looks up at me and we both start laughing hysterically! We can barely make out words because we are both hunched over in laughter and crying. We both had gone through such an ordeal with using the bathroom that this was the perfect ending to our bathroom adventure. What else could have happened?!?!?!

BTW- These are actual photos I took while at Jeddah Airport. Oh, the memories...

Food Network

Hassan has ESPN and I have the Food Network. It's my favorite television station on cable! Not only do I love watching people cook, but I love the chopping, learning about different foods, how they are prepared, and even the history of food! And what I like best of all are the people of the Food Network. They all have different personalities and it warms my heart too see them get together for the holidays and cook with one another!

Rachael Ray: Besides Emeril, she's recently become the famous face from the Food Network. She's got four shows going on at once: "30 Minute Meals", "$40 a Day", "Inside Dish", and "Tasty Travels". Now she's featured on "Entertainment Tonight" and even adopted by Oprah. I think the fame has gone to her head a little. In her recent "30 Minute Meal" shows she's become annoyingly loud and over-charismatic. She's got nicknames for food and annoying phrases like" "YUM-O!", "DEE-LISH", and "E-V-O-O" (short for extra virgin olive oil). AND enough scolding to those people who don't pre-wash their herbs and stick it in a zip-lock bag with a damp towel! Sheesh!

Giada DiLaurentis: Despite her large head (as some people criticize), she is SO cute! And a lucky-duck because all of her clothes are free complements of Anthropologie (her hubby is works for them). She cooks some seriously good Italian fare...and pronounces them all with an authentic Italian accent. "Parmigiano-Reggiano!", "Mascapone!", "Mozzarella!" She's also a HUGE chocolate feind for being so petite! Nuttella goes into every dessert! Last year, I was obsessed about the layered diamond necklace she always wears on the show. I stopped obsessing when I found out that it was from Tiffany's (Diamonds by the Yard), made from different 3 necklaces, and costing about $2,500!

Michael Chiarello: Another chef of Italian decent with a flair for Napa cooking. He's all about preparing food ahead of time. For a male chef, he's no Bobby Flay...a little soft with the cooking. In one episode, he was baking cookies and cupcakes for his daughter's bake sale. His daughter looked so embarrassed and withdrawn with the whole situation. He meant well...but it looked like she was going to have a major depressive episode.

Paula Deen: One of my favorite chefs in the "Food Network" family. She scared me at first with her Southern accent and upbringing. I swore that she had a couple of slaves in her basement chopping up onions and peeling potatoes. Anyways, I've gotten over that thought and now she's my favorite when it comes to cooking desserts. She doesn't hold back...everything starts with a bit of "BUTTA". AND not only does she have ONE "Mama's boy", but TWO! (Reminds me of a couple of boys I know...) They occasionally guest-star on her show and it's like watching a mother bear licking clean her two bear cubs clean. Hmmm....

Ina Garten: She's a bit pretentious, but I think it comes from living in New England. This poor woman, trapped in her Pottery Barn house alone all week long while her husband works in NYC. He comes home only for the weekend. Half of her shows are about cooking a "special meal" for her husband Jeffrey. It's either a brunch, late-night meal, or a midnight snack. Her desserts are fairly good too, but it's her brunch episode that had me watering by the mouth! A yogurt-granola parfait with peaches and brioche french toast...YUM-O!


Sandra Lee: I'm still trying to figure her out. Some critics call her the "modern Martha Stewart", but I think she's trying too hard to be perfect. I think it's the same person who designs the set and picks out her wardrobe because it's nauseatingly too coordinated. If it's an episode about coffee, she's (surprise!) wearing a coffee colored turtleneck and matches the curtains in her kitchen. I've also recently noticed how sexually charged the show is...no joke! She's SO adament to do things for you. "I will make YOU a super special cocktail!!", "I'm going to show you THE best chocolate cake EVER!!", or "Wait until YOU see this beautiful tablescape!!" SCARY!!

Alton Brown: He's my original favorite "Food Network" star. He's quirky, animated, odd, and a bit nerdy. He explains the history of food and the science of cooking. "Good Eats" is a highly entertaining show because he has interesting ways of explaining the science. In one episode about honey, he "spoke" with bees about how honey is produced. The funny thing was, these bees were actually hand-puppets. An adult "Sesame Street"! Alton is also a food commentator for "Iron Chef America". He was the perfect person for the job because of his culinary knowledge strange and exotic foods!

Vacuums Suck

Bagless ones that is...like some inventions, it seemed like such a good idea at the time. A new concept, the new sleek modern look, and a cool collection of colors...it was so different than the traditional vacuum. The evolution of cleaning our floors have made our lives easier, but how much does the vacuum have to evolve before we see genetic mutations?

It was the worst decision I ever made...two years ago, I kicked my (parents) 15 year old vacuum to the curb on trash day and purchased a florescent yellow Hoover bagless vacuum. Ever since then, I have been wandering the aisles of Target and BedBath&Beyond for a simple, no frills vacuum cleaner to replace this new one. If they still sell the vacuum bags, then why the freak can't they sell a regular vacuum?!?! Every single vacuum at Target is bagless...each one bigger than other, each one promising something I don't want.

"Light weight"
"Extra Quiet"
"Hepa Filtration" for cleaner air
"Wind Tunnel sucking technology"
"Removable filter that's easy to clean"
"Telescoping self-duster"
...and 10 attachment tools that I'll NEVER use.



I have to admit, I was quite impressed to see that it picked up A LOT more dirt than what I was used to seeing. It was so strong that the carpet fiber-fuzzies were ripped right off the carpet and swirling around in the clear canister! The visual display of the amount of filth in our house was both appalling and disturbing. After that, I wanted my old vacuum back...bag and all.

Picking up dirt was the best thing these vacuums did. Getting RID of the dirt was the worst thing these vacuums ever did. It seemed easy enough...open the canister, remove it from the vacuum, and dump the dirt into the trashcan. Sounds simple, right? HAHA! Did the manufacturer neglect to tell the consumer about the ridiculous amount of "fallout" dust one must deal with?!?! To the point that consumers may have to take their vacuum and their trashcan OUTSIDE of their home to dump the dirt? Or that the consumer may have to hold their breath or wear a surgical mask when dumping the dust? Or that consumers with asthma should avoid vacuuming all together?!?!?

Why does the manufacturer insist that dumping the vacuumed dirt is better than the conventional vacuum bag? Does the consumer really need to visualize see how much dirt they have vacuumed up? Does it give them pleasure or inner peace to manually dump out the dirt and see the dust float up out of the trashcan?

Am I the only bagless vacuum owner with these problems?!?! Does anyone else feel like a frustrated chimpanze when they hit the filter against a hard object in order to "clean" it? I don't know how morticians deal with the cremated remains of their clients, but the amount and distribution of dust I must deal with is absolutely ridiculous.

I thought we had it good with the bags. I never saw it as a problem...when you thought the bag was full, you unzipped the back, removed the bag, and threw it in the trashcan without holding a single breath (literally).















The future of vacuums is here...Roombas have already invaded our homes. Why not have a robotic pet that cleans up after YOU instead of you cleaning after IT? I haven't invested in one and don't plan to. I'm afraid that dumping out the dirt with the Roomba will be least of my problems. Roombas are a (big) step away from A.I.

Dem contraptions will be da deth us all!

Bottom line: Out of sight, out of mind. If I don't have to see or touch my own filth, then I am a happy person.

Random Things

As you can probably tell, I'm a list-person. When I have fragments of odd information in my head, I organize it better by putting things into a list. Besides, it looks better anyway.

1) Ever have a recurring dream? My husband says "NO", but he's always the counter-point in my discussions and things never seem to apply to him. Anyways, there three dreams that always seem to reappear in my head. Never at the same time, but who knows, I never completely remember my dreams anyway.

*Theme 1: I have dreams of my teeth falling out. Graphic, I know, but think it's related to grinding my teeth. I recall also feeling the anxiety of losing my teeth, but boy am I relieved when I wake up in the morning!

*Theme 2: I have dreams of putting on my contacts...which are the size
of dinner plates. Isn't it the strangest thing? In my dream, it doesn't even phase me that these contact are enormous. I go about in the normal routine putting my contacts on...I rinse them with the contact solution, balance it on my finger without difficulty, and proceed to open up my eye lids to put them on!

*Theme 3: I have a dream about a girl named Angela who I have known since kindergarten. We were "best friends" off and on during elementary school. Honestly, I haven't seen or spoken to her since high school 10 years ago, but it's strange that she still appears in my dreams. I guess there's a small part of me that wonders what has happened to her since then, what she looks like now, and if she still remembers me.

2) Have any favorite household products? I was cleaning our floors yesterday and thought about how much I love "Swiffer" products. I especially love the "Swiffer" dusters for both floor and the hard to reach places. It's amazing to see what static cling can actually pick up! Dust bunnys...gone. Dirt...adios. Murry's fur...hasta la vista! (Downside, contributes to trash.)


My other favorite product (highly recommended by Katrina) is "Rain-X Glass Treatment Wipes" from Target. All you do is wipe your windshield with these handwipes and wait for it to rain. The difference is utterly AMAZING! The rain literally beads up and rolls right off the glass before you even get a chance to turn on your windshield wipers! It works in any type of wet weather. If it's POURING rain while you are driving, it dramatically improves visibility and works so well that you don't even have to use wipers! It's also perfect for those misty days when the "intermittent" wiper setting is TOO slow.

3) This is the time of year when I feel sorry for Murry. The weather is getting warmer and the days are longer. Murry's has the "purrfect" personality of an outdoor cat. Too bad he lives indoors. He sleeps in the sun and stares longingly out the window. His "meows" are pitiful and weak. I know he wants to go outside and explore the terrain of a neighborhood he doesn't even know existed. He's never run more than the length of this house or jumped higher than the height of our countertops.

How can one deal with these guilty feelings? I have gone to incredible lengths to soothe my guilt. Yes...I bought Murry... a cat-harness. He loves it. He practically jumps into it and waits to be clipped in! I put him on deck and anchor him to a couple of bricks. He lays in the sun, flips onto his back, and stretches out. SO cute. It's nowhere close to being in the "great" outdoors, but it sure beats Murry getting stuck in a tree, or worse in a sewer drain.

4) I am Zombie freak. I just finished watching "Dawn of the Dead" and found it highly entertaining. Acutally, any movie where the end of the world is the direct result of flesh-eating zombies and I'm there. I can't get enough of it!!! "28 Days Later"---awesome. "Resident Evil 1" and "Resident Evil 2"---Alice kicks A$$! I don't know why I'm such a fan. Maybe it's the adrenaline rush to see people run away from these gruesome things or watching unsuspecting characters get bit and then transform into the enemy. Has can testify...I yell at the characters to avoid going into a dark room, run a little faster, or shoot the zombies in the head. Can't wait for "Resident Evil 3: Extinction"!

5) Ever watch the same part of a movie twice or thrice? (Sorry, "thrice" is a "Golden Girls" reference!) This is a weird phenomenon that I'm sure has a name on the internet somewhere. Say you are channel surfing and find a movie that interests you for a few minutes. You get bored and surf-on. You forget about the movie all together. Then, sometime later, you channel surf and come across the same EXACT movie only to find yourself watching the SAME EXACT PART OF THE MOVIE you surfed before. It something stupid, I know, but it's also freaky and weird. It's like a tangible form of deja vu, only you it's true to life.

From among the ashes...

Today was a beautiful day. Sunny, warm, and no deer in sight. Some of my tulips have survived the deer buffet and are even budding!

One of my favorite flowers, the purple hyacinths, have survived. All five are in full bloom and especially fragrant!








(Due to a loaned out camera, these are pics of last year's hyacinths. However, I assure you that they look exactly the same this year!)

LOST & BIG LOVE

Okay, okay, enough of the "serious" stuff. I'm surprised that I've lasted this long without blogging about my favorite TV shows. I'll have to limit myself to 2 shows because I could blog a little here and a little there about everything...

LOST

Has and I didn't start watching LOST until the 5th episode of the second season. The media buzz about this show caught my attention and curiousity. I was talking to my brother one day and asked if he'd ever watched the show. "You've NEVER seen it?!?!?" Mikey blurted out. Next very next weekend, Mikey handed me the the ENTIRE first season of LOST on DVD. There went our next 3 weekends. It was a LOST marathon. We finally caught up to the second season. I couldn't get enough of it!

There is so much going on with the show! Every survivor of the Oceanic plane crash has their own story in addition to the main story line. You really have to pay attention in each episode because if you listen or look closely enough into the show, you'll realize that each of the characters are related in some way. And they don't even know it!

The island itself is a HUGE mystery. No one knows where the story is headed, but everyone has their own theory. The survivors find this hatch that leads to an underground bunker. There's a mysterious counter that alarms off every 108 minutes. If they don't enter a series of numbers into the computer something "very bad" will happen to the island. What the freak?!?!

What's up with the trees being pulled out of the ground for no reason? The invisible "monsters" on the island that kill people? Or the polar bear in the middle of the jungle? And most recently, what is that map on the door that fell on Locke's leg?!?!? And the "numbers" : 4-8-15-16-23-42. They appear everywhere in the show...you just have to look for them! They're on the hatch, in the distress call, the lottery numbers, the code you type in the computer every 108 minutes!

There is HUGE following of fans for this show. I insist that I'm not crazy like them, but I do admit to checking out the chat boards on ABC.com to see what people's theories are about the show.

BIG LOVE

This my latest indulgence. Forget "Desperate Housewives" because a show about polygamy has definitely caught my attention! "Big Love" recently premiered on HBO and I seriously doubt that it will make it to public television. It's basically about a Bill Henrickson, a hardworking, middle-class man in Utah (no surprise here) what just so happens to have 3 wives and 6 children between them all. He grew up in a certain Christian sect that isolates themselves into "communities" and believes in polygamy. There's also a chosen "Prophet" who leads the group and runs his business like the Mafia. Bill Henrickson gets kicked out of the community and attempts to start a new life...one wife at a time.

The Henrickson clan moves into typical suburbia (probably one street down from Wisteria Lane) where all 3 wives live next door to one another. From the front of the house they appear to live separate lives where Bill always enters one house everyday, but behind the houses they share a common backyard and pool. They hide this lifestyle from the rest of the neighborhood and invite "friends" (other polygamist families) over to play what else, Spades!

I have to admit, it took me a couple episodes to swallow this show without difficulty. Initally, it was creepy to watch Bill come home from work and kiss all three wives as they made dinner together.

What's interesting are the characters.


Bill: Poor Bill. How he hasn't collapsed of a heart attack yet surprises me. If it's not the stress of listening to 20 voicemails a day that'll kill him, it'll sure be the fact that he spends "quality" time with a different wife each night (hey, remember it's HBO!).

Barb: She's the O.G. of the wives and is regarded by the other wives as the "boss lady". She's responsible for the master "Honey-Do" lists and making the monthly "sleepover" schedules for Bill.

Nikki: The religious conservative of the group and ironically the most manipulative one. She'll bend the truth any which way to get what she wants. Unfortunately, she owes the credit company $58,000 because she's a bonafide shop-a-holic. And her husband doesn't even know!

Margene: The youngest, cutest (by Has' standards), and most naive of the three. She's in her early 20s and not only has to learn how to be a wife, but find her place in a polygamist family!

The children: I'm not even 100% sure how many there really are! There's a cute red head with black glasses and two boys who resembles Lynette's (from "Desperate's") twin terrors. Don't forget a baby hanging off of Margene's baby fat hips. Add two teenagers into the mix and you've got a lot of drama!

What's a Nurse Practitioner?

What exactly IS a nurse practitioner? Has suggested that I answer this question in the form of a blog so that others may understand my new profession. So here it goes:








1) I have a Master's of Science in Nursing (MSN) with a specialization as a Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP). Similar to doctors, nurses who pursue their MSN may decide to specialize in an area of medicine. Typically, they choose areas in which they currently work as an RN (neonatal, geriatric, trauma, neuro, etc). Even though I work in the Pediatric ICU, I decided to pursue a family medicine specialty because I did not want to be SO specialized that I could only see children under the age of 18 years. With an FNP degree, I am able to see patients from the time they are born (neonates) to the time they die (elderly). So you can see, that I had a HUGE population of people to learn about!
FYI: By 2015, most nursing schools in the US will phase out the "MSN" degree and transition to a doctoral degree called the Doctorate in Nursing Practice or "DNP".

2) I see my own patients independent from a doctor. If I find a family practice to work in, I will follow my own patients and see a variety of medical complaints. For example, I can do annual physicals, GYN exams, and manage high cholesterol and hypertension.

3) I can prescribe medications. Nurse practitioners in the state of Maryland lobbied to have prescriptive authority and won. Now, I can prescribe all types of medications (with an appointment, of course!)

4) What makes an NP different than an MD? In school, we not only learned how to treat illnesses, but maintain health and change unhealthy lifestyles. The core belief of nursing is "health promotion, disease prevention". I can't emphasize this theory enough. If you promote health and prevent disease in the first place, then you will most likely never get sick enough to be in the hospital. For example, instead of solely treating high cholesterol by prescribing a cholesterol-lowering medication, NPs have to dig deeper and find the ROOT cause of high cholesterol. Is it lack of exercise? High fat diet? Genetics? We put emphasis on starting a consistent exercise program and reduced fat diet that will not only lower cholesterol, but improve cardiovascular health, certain cancers, and type II diabetes.

My personal thought: Most patients that comment about NPs say that NPs seem to listen more to what the patient is saying. Bottom line: NPs were once bedside nurses. Nurses have learned compassion and patient advocacy by taking care of BOTH patients and their families in their most vulnerable state. I have learned a tremendous amount of compassion by working in the ICU. Sadly, there have been numerous times when I had physically pick up a grieving mother off the floor and console the rest of the family when their child has died.

5) Want a "legal" description of my profession? Each state has a different defintion of what a nurse practitioner can and cannot do. Progressive states, like Maryland, even allow NPs to start their own practice. The only stipulation is to have an MD be available by phone or in-house for "second-opinions". Check out the MD Board of Nursing's Scope and Standards of Practice by clicking HERE.