My Dearest Dad...

So, last night work was horrendously busy.  Short-staffed, over-crowded...it's no one's fault but it is still exhausting and makes you realize that burn-out is a very real thing.  Last night, somewhere between the anaphylactic shock patient and the fifth chest pain patient of the night, and the de-oxygenating little girl and the two psych patients, the demented man who kept trying to crawl out of bed and pull his urinary catheter out, and the vaginal bleeder, I decided I had had enough.  I decided that my options are definitely limited as to my future and getting a new job by the end of next week, but my miraculous brain came up with a plan: I will get in shape and become and exotic dancer.  Ha.  Last night if you would have caught me between 9pm and 3am, I would have been dead serious about doing it. "I just need to get my own insurance" I thought to myself.  I was not worried about what my friends would think, or co-workers, but the thought that did scare me was the idea that I would have to tell my dad I was quitting nursing to strip.  I don't need no college education!  I thought hard about how I would break it to him and decided that I would write him a letter and tell him I got a new job that a) was less stressful  b) safer (no worrying about needle sticks, TB, Meningitis, physchotic/violent patients that scratch, kick, bite, working with HIV + blood) and c) more physically active.  Let's not forget d) I would make a ton of tax-free money, and e) no more changing adult diapers either.  So, do those sound good enough to convince my dad?  Hell no.  Around 3:30am when I had two seconds to get organized rationality took my brain back over.  But it is nice to think that for the next couple years or so, exotic dancing can be an imaginary option for those really, really bad nights when I would do anything to be in a different line of work.  I wonder what my patients would have thought if they could have heard my thoughts last night..."I am going to quit this nonsense and start exotic dancing.  How will I break the news to my dad?".  It probably would have instilled a boat-load of confidence in them. : )