White Girls with Problems

For class we have to do this assignment comparing death statistics between ages, races and genders for two groups changing only one of the variables.  I was looking at black and white teenage girls.  The leading cause of death for both groups is accidental injuries.  And the second one for white girls?  Suicide.  For black girls?  Homicide.  Almost four times as many black girls as white girls die of homicide.  That is a real problem.  Almost three times as many white girls as black girls die from suicide.

Have you heard the term "white girl problems" before?  It's like "first world problems".  They're things that actually aren't problems but because you don't realize how good you've got it you make it out to be a real problem.

And that's all I can think about when I'm looking at these death statistics.  Although saying "white girl problems" as a reason for the difference in suicide statistics isn't scientific.  Which is the reason I'm bringing it up here instead of in my assignment.

Oh Hey, Nursing School!

I think I might have reached my month mark of nursing school.  Pretty awesome!

We took our first test last Thursday in Pathophysiology and we just got the results.  There were 52 questions, and 2 would be dropped for and even 2 points a question.  Which is how I ended up with 102%.  That felt good!

And we've finally started our Health Assessment class.  I've learned how to take vitals, like blood pressure.  And after years of not being able to, I CAN FINALLY FIND A PULSE!  It's pretty exciting.

Needless to say, school is going well.  Onward?  Onward.

Yoga is still going nicely.  Today during the relaxation part at the end I placed my hand over my heart while I was laying in the fetal position.  I don't think that I've ever felt so connected to my body, as I felt my heart beating and felt my chest rise and fall with my breath.  It was life affirming.  And after so many years of feeling the hatred of my gender, there is something so therapeutic about a weekly yoga class that tells me how perfect and beautiful my female body is.

Work study is going just fine.  I had a phone interview with a greeting card company.  It was super awkward (you recorded your answers in response to a recorded question) and I did not get the job.  This afternoon I got a call for an interview at a retirement home.

Church is church.  Every week someone makes a crack about the government and Obama.  I'm sort of becoming friends with a guy at church who used to be my friend Levi's roommate back in Provo.  He's going to teach me and my friend Emily how to slack line sometime this week.

Friends?  Emily invited me to the Blue Plum Festival this weekend.  They had a graffiti art contest that was pretty cool.  My friend Jessica mentioned that she watched a roller derby match before we got there.  Emily and I walked to a coffee shop (or bar?  I'm not sure) where her neighbor was part of a circus type show.  Her neighbor did aerial art while other people did magic tricks, stand up comedy and fire eating.  Afterwards we went back to Emily's and talked for a few hours about whatever we thought of.  It felt so natural and nice and fun.  I have made a friend.

My roommate's boyfriend moved out.  My roommate is a mess.  We have not bonded so it's really awkward because I don't really know what to do.  The boyfriend is still over here quite a bit "but it's not enough" and "he doesn't give her enough attention."  Super awkward.  I still hate the dog.

I fell in love with a poet that works at the public library.  I'm scheming ways to give him my phone number that make him want to call me.  I'll probably start my complementing his fashion sense and move on to how I'm new to the area.  And then ask him what he likes to do in the area for fun, and then slip him my number and tell him to call me if he'd ever want to do that thing with me.  Yessiree.