Easy Sunday

I am loving this song right now, word on the street is it has been in the 70's there, and I miss that!  This reminds me of my last few years...click here.

Dementoids

"How is work" my mom asked tonight when I called her during my lunch break.  "The patients are soul-sucking" I replied.  "Oh, like dementors" she said.  Exactly.  Today it was the little things that wore me out, nothing seemed to be simple.  Little things, like paging physical therapy to do teaching with a patient turned into a huge ordeal...I couldn't find the right phone number, the operator transferred my call to a satellite clinic 5 miles away, when I finally did get ahold of a physical therapist they did not agree with the physician's orders, the family of the pt had to be called, the physician had to change his orders, a walker was ordered, medical supply company had to be called, there was a problem with the insurance, etc.etc. All this while another patient had a blood clot and needed education and teaching on how to subcutaneously inject blood thinners at home, while the patient in room 5 continually yelled out for 7up, while the 3 year-old needed an IV and antibiotics, while the ultrasound machine was broken, while lab needed a red gel tube drawn while my other patient was ready to have a blood transfusion and the ambulance was bringing someone else in on a stretcher.  None of them had life-threatening conditions, but all needed a million little things.  And that was just the first hour...I know I am very lucky to have a job and shouldn't complain, but damn, I am worn out!

There is no where else I would rather be right now than where I am, in my comfy bed with my warm bed buddy on my feet and sleep imminent.  For the next few days the dementoids can be someone else's problem. 

Life Soundtracks

I am writing now, at 3:13am, cause I know when I get up in the morning and go to work from 2p-2a I will not have a chance, even if I do remember.

I am big on soundtracks.  Not just movie soundtracks, but life soundtracks.  The other day it occurred to me that I really needed to make a "skiing mix" for my mp3, and in the back of my mind I have been thinking of songs to put on it.  That reminded me that when I was in the South, my big thing was my "beach mix" and my "Workout mix".  I love mixes.  I love finding perfect songs and saving them and labeling them and dating them, and then finding them years later. Then you listen to a song and know which song is next, and it takes you back to the exact moment you were in when you last listened to it.  Music is deceivingly powerful like that.  I started burning CDs in 2001, and love looking back to see what songs I liked and what the purpose of the CD was.  I had a CD that I listened to while mopping floors at work during summers in high school.  I have a CD made of songs that my college boyfriend and I made together, complete with "our" song on there twice, Eddie Money's Take Me Home Tonight.  There was a CD I made to listen to while driving to and from clinicals in nursing school.  Whenever I hear Jay-Z's Forever Young I think of my drive to work in the South, complete with Magnolia Blossoms and Maryland Fried Chicken in the air.  The Nelly Furtado CD that played on repeat in the massive bathroom in my sorority in college will always remind me of that time.  Five for Fighting and Guster take me back to high school.  Third Eye Blind takes me back to junior high, and TLC's Waterfalls takes me back to third grade.  I am a sucker for songs and what they can mean to a person.  Delta Goodrem reminds me of my crazy bus ride through the Honduran mountains in 2008.  As far as I am concerned music is another form of memory.  Someday I want to put these all together and make a timeline of my life in music.  All these memories remind me of who I am and what I have been through, and I can't wait to see what mixes are to come.

On the move...soon!

I bought my tickets today for a friend's bachelorette party in Las Vegas in April.  Tickets are a lot cheaper to Vegas from Montana than from where I was!  I am so excited to be going somewhere, I don't even mind that I have to fly home via Seattle ; )  We are staying at the new hotel called The Cosmopolitan, it looks amazing http://www.cosmopolitanlasvegas.com. Once I get some money saved up and figure out how to do all the time-off requests at work I cannot wait to start traveling again.  I want to make it back to NYC before too long and Alaska again, not to mention all the places I haven't been!  There are so many places...traveling is wonderful for so many reasons, you learn about other people and cultures, get to try new foods, you learn about yourself, and when you come home you appreciate your own stuff and your own bed that much more.  I can't wait to be on the move again : ) 

First-timer

Yesterday I went to Cabela's.  For the first time. Ever.  If the world ever decides to end or there is a zombie take-over, that is the first place I will head to stock up on supplies.  Not only do they have food, clothing, weapons, ammo and shelter, but there are also very life-like animals mounted around the store, every 10 feet or so, including skunks and porcupines (I was glad to see them incorporate the non-trophy creatures in there as well).  There is a restaurant in there, AND a fish tank.  A friend asked if I wanted to go with him, and being bored I said yes.  He needed to pick out a new scope for his new gun.  I was a huge help seeing as how I have an extensive background in munitions.  Ha.  While he was stocking up on ammo, exploding targets, etc. etc.  I did find the cutest little pink North Face baby booties. Then I spent the rest of the time looking through magazines of beautiful log showcase homes, and found what I would like to have when I am a real home-owning adult, something like what is pictured below, preferably ski-in and ski-out access.  Overall not a bad afternoon. 

http://www.timberhomeliving.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/PrecisionCraft-Log-Timber-Homes-main.jpg

2 points to the opposing team

There is nothing I like more after a hectic night at work than driving home in complete silence. 

I enjoy a good prank at work, and the other night one of the doctors and a few of the nurses got me good, I just found out the real story tonight.  This is what happened.  We got a new Keurig machine in the lounge, and I found these packets to put in that make the best hot chocolate.  I made some for myself and took it out to the nurse's station and was going on and on about how good it was and how much I was enjoying it (it is the little things that get you through the last few hours of work ; )  Anyways, about 3/4 through my hot chocolate I got up to go into a patient's room.  I did something for about 5 minutes and then came back out and sat down and took a drink of my hot chocolate, but it tasted different.  "Ewwww!" I announced.  "My drink changed!".  Everyone at the desk just looked at me like I was crazy.  "I am serious!"  I said.  "I went in the room and it was hot chocolate and then came back out like 2 minutes later and it's coffee now!".  Then I started asking everyone if they had mixed up their drink with mine. "You are crazy." the charge nurse announced.  "I think you need a psych workup".   Then she called the doctor on staff over and made me repeat my story.  I was completely serious telling him something happened to my drink and I swore it was hot chocolate before but now it was coffee.  They all laughed and shook their heads.    I thought people were laughing because of how ridiculous I sounded and I went on for another 10 minutes or so trying to convince them my drink changed from chocolate to coffee in a matter of minutes. I am going crazy!  I remember thinking.  No one would make eye contact with me. I thought it was so bizarre and just ended up figuring that after awhile the Keurig hot chocolate just went bad or something if you didn't drink it fast enough.  Tonight when night shift came on they were all laughing and told me that the doctor that was on that night had been trying to get me back for my numerous pranks on him, so he and the charge nurse dumped out my hot chocolate while I was in the patient's room and filled it with coffee.  I knew I wasn't losing my mind!  Two points for them, now I will have to think of something good to get them back ; ).

I fell off the boat, but I'm back!

I fell off the blog-boat last Fall, I blame it on the wedding (Banana's), the move, and the new job.  I am now back, and intent on writing daily again.  

The beginning of 2011 was a rough night in the ER, I got the call from home that my grandma had died then literally had to run out and perform open cardiac massage (as opposed to closed cardiac massage???).  This year at the turn of the clock I was checking a temperature...rectally.  So maybe I would have rather been out in some fabulous heels and a sparkly outfit but I got to go home for Christmas this year so I am still considering myself lucky. 

Here are my most important updates RIGHT NOW, and by you all I mean mom:

A) I still want a hedgehog.

B) I ate some green bean casserole tonight not knowing there was cheese in it and now my stomach hurts. 

That is all.  It is 3:20am and I just finished working 12-hours in the ER changing entirely too many diapers on adults and discharging angry people because they did not receive adequate amounts of narcotic pain medicine during their visit.