I'm halfway to my magic 100 sticks!!  Actually I'm at 63, so I'm a little more than halfway there.  Then I'll be finished and in theory will be able to find a job.  --IN THEORY. 

So here's the update on my patient interactions and my confidence level at this point:

Last Saturday was a great day for me.  Especially since the Monday before sucked.  Monday I missed on my first four patients.  That's not the way to start the day.  Thanks to some encouraging words from a couple of friends, I got back in there and had, for the most part a successful afternoon.  But Saturday was my best day by far!  I stuck 14 patients Saturday and got blood out of 11 of them!!  That's my best ratio yet!  Two patients told me, "you can stick me anytime I ever need to have this done because you didn't even hurt me!"  And my best, most successful stick all day was an old lady who, when I started feeling around for veins in her arms, said to me, "oh honey (they always call me honey) they haven't gotten blood out of my arms in seven years, you're going to have to stick my  hand right here." and she pointed to this little vein in the side of her hand.  I asked her if she minded if I tried her arm because she had a really good vein that I could feel.  She didn't mind at all, so I stuck her in the anticubital vein and *poof* blood started going into the tube.  --And my patient was shocked, and impressed!  :)

I've found that I have more success on Saturdays than I do on Mondays.  I chalk this up to the fact that the guy I work with on Mondays intemidates the shit out of me and makes me nervous, so I tend to miss a lot.  Saturdays I work with a different person every week and each one of them is laid back and willing to teach me when I make mistakes. 

I've also enrolled in an at-home medical assistant course.  I am hoping this will help me to find a job in the medical field since it's somewhere I have never worked.  I am learning a lot, but right now I'm still in the boring part--going over administrative stuff that, as an administrative assistant, I alrealy know.  But there's always room for improvement, right?  I'm hoping to be done with this course by the end of the summer. 

All in all, I'm still happy with my chosen future career.  I know it's sick, but drawing blood is really fun!  And I'm looking forward to many years of doing it.