And this is where my writer's block starts to show.

Another of the reasons I was hesitant about starting a blog was that I didn't want it to just be a 'fad' with me. I was afraid I'd get started, be all excited about it, and then realize....what the heck do I have to write about that's actually interesting?

It appears I've reached that point already. :) Maybe it's because I've been kind of overwhelmed this week. I hope that's the reason. I just can't seem to get my thoughts to actually form coherent sentences. At least, my interesting thoughts.

Not a whole lot is going on at the moment. This week has been crazy at work, given the whole Epic (electronic charting) thing. Switching systems and getting everyone on the same page is quite the process, and I feel bad for the nurses and especially the doctors. They have to put all their own orders in, and a lot of them aren't happy about it! We had a cardiologist who came in, struggle for a few minutes, and then refused to do it. He wrote all his orders on paper, handed them to our secretary, and then left. Needless to say, our manager made a couple of calls. A few minutes later, the VP of Medical Affairs (who happens to be my stake president) came down and had a little talk with the cardiologist. And what do you know? Somehow he managed to put in his orders.

Quite honestly, it's gone a lot better than most people expected, which is definitely a good thing. There are still some kinks we're working out, but it'll be okay. Let's see...what else? Um, I have class this afternoon, fortunately without lab. This professor is boring enough I'd like to whack him upside the head with his own textbook...figuratively speaking, of course. He reminds me a little bit of Mr. Nickless from high school, but a lot less amusing and a lot more irritating. The man repeats himself a million times, spends 45 minutes "refreshing" what we went over in the last class, and has a sort of monotone voice. Plus, it can't help that we're doing the basic chemistry chapter (which is apparently necessary in biology?), seeing as I had chemistry last semester and know far more about the subject than what is being taught. It makes for a really long class, especially when he spends a whole lab (2 hours) telling everyone what the most basic lab tools are and what the metric system is. When we've all had classes with labs before. Gah! At any rate, I'm looking forward to only spending an hour and twenty minutes with him today.

Brett has a half-day at work today. I love his half days! It means I get to spend all afternoon with him, although honestly we'll probably do something boring like...clean. Yuck. This evening is the monthly meeting of Burns Recovered Support Group. Since I already have plans that mean I can't go to the temple with Mom, I'm planning on going to the meeting. They're usually rather engaging, and it shouldn't come as a surprise that I enjoy sharing my opinions. After the meeting, Brett and I have play practice at 8, which should be interesting. I don't remember if I talked a whole lot about the play last time, but one of the directors (who happens to be a nonmember) totally reminds the cast of Simon Cowell from American Idol. Not in a bad way, he's not mean. It was just kind of funny because during auditions he would interrupt and his mannerisms were kind of similar. Other than the mean part, he actually seems really nice.

Well, I've run on a while. I'll try to get my more interesting thoughts together for my next post. Hopefully I don't bore anyone too badly!

My Goings-on

So, I figured that today I'd just talk a little bit about what's going on in my life right now. I'm still working full time in the Burn Unit, which I love. Today was the day our new all-electronic charting system went live. I'm really glad I don't work Sundays! It'll be crazy enough tomorrow. I really love my job. It's incredibly fulfilling to be able to help other people. I'm looking forward to starting nursing school hopefully soon, as I would love to continue working with burn patients as a nurse.

I'm also going to school, although I'm not quite full time this semester. I'm taking biology (blah) since it's been more than five years since my last bio class. My professor's kind of old school, in that he totally locks the classroom door at 1:00. If you're late to class, you're out of luck. I'm still not sure how I feel about that, although it'll be nice not to have people walking in 20 minutes into class. A couple semesters ago, I had human growth & development at 8 am. People would seriously walk into class with maybe 15 minutes left. I never understood that. If you're going to be more than a few minutes late, why even bother to show up? Of course, it was kind of funny since the professor was Scottish and would yell at the student in his awesome accent. That made up for my annoyance a little bit.

I'll be taking another fencing class this semester, also, and I'm president of the fencing club. :D Fun, fun! I'm excited. Last semester my class focused on the foil, and this semester I'll be working on sabre. I really like those two weapons, I'm just not looking forward to epee. I hate epee. At any rate, setting up fencing club for the semester is keeping me hopping. As soon as I have some pictures of me fencing, I'll try to put them on here. I know Kristin has expressed interest in seeing me in my getup!

I've also been busy in church, or at least I was. I'm really bummed out. Today I was released from my calling as YW advisor. I really loved my calling, and I loved working with the Mia Maid and Laurel girls. I already miss it. I felt like a total wimp, since I started crying when Brother Livingston released me! I cried again in sacrament meeting, too. I know the Lord will call me where he needs me, but I love the Young Women! I don't want to be called elsewhere. Hopefully I can regain my positive attitude before the call is extended to me.

Also, my ward decided to put on a play. You can probably all see where this going! As dramatic as I am, it should be no surprise that I immediately signed up, and managed to drag Brett with me. After auditioning (yes, for real), Brett and I were given the parts of Snow White and Prince Charming. How appropriate! :D The "play" actually consists of several one-act plays. Our act is the two of us and a narrator. The acts are all completely unrelated. But it's incredibly amusing, and I get to be dramatic, and Brett gets to wear his sword, so we're all happy, really. I don't remember the dates of the performances, but as it gets closer I'll post them.

At any rate, with work, school, church, and my social life (such as it is), I feel like I'm always running around like a chicken with my head cut off!

About the name

I always have a tough time naming stuff, whether it's coming up with a title for something I'm writing, or a character, or whatever else. So it's not surprising that I struggled with a name for this blog.

I knew fairly early that I wanted a reference to a phoenix. I've always loved the idea of a phoenix being reborn from its own ashes, and the whole fire reference feels appropriate. With everything that I've been through, and that my family has been through, it's not difficult for me to see a comparison. Regardless of what may happen, we come through it and we become stronger because of it. I especially feel this way about my own childhood, with the abuse that I endured and the burns that I have.

The actual name "Kiss of the Phoenix" came about first, because phoenix references appear to be fairly popular, and therefore a lot of phoenix names were already taken, and second, because I like the imagery of just being touched by the phoenix rather than consumed by it. I think it's fairly poetic, and being as dramatic as I am, I figured it worked.

And so a blog is born.

All right, all right.

So, ever since this whole blogging craze came about, I always swore I would never have one. I have my little online journal, and I was okay with that.

Well, thanks to my sisters, I'm beginning to see that blogs aren't all that bad. Actually, they're really fun to read, which is definitely helped by the fact that my sisters are all very intelligent and it's not just inane babble. I always thought of a blog as the minute-by-minute action that would make me want to shut my computer down before going crazy. Well, looks like I was wrong.

So I've started my own little blog. I like Heather's idea of waiting to make sure I actually like doing this before I send the link to anyone, so we'll see how this goes.