V Day

I feel like unless you are in an established relationship, Valentine's day is just awkward.  Gifts? Dinner?  Do you even feel like celebrating it?  I am thinking Chinese food and Batman marathon with the boyfriend, but what does he want to do?  What if he gets me a present and I don't have one for him?  Should I get him one?  Should I get a card?  Ug, it's so stressful.  V-day is weird and I am not a fan.

pre-work

Getting ready to head out the door to work...all I want to do is sleeeeeeeep.

Bayou

Last night during my lunch break I found myself sitting alone in the break room watching Swamp People.  For those of you who have not seen this show, you are missing out.  I had no idea such a different way of life, language, recreational activities and diet in humans existed in the continental US.  Every time I watch that show I find myself repeating what the people say, the accent they have is so outrageous I have to hear myself speak it. I am glad that the History channel decided to provide subtitles.  I could watch that show all night long. 

Also regarding last night at work...it was weird.  Odd complaints and lots of sick people.  I had another patient with a heart attack, that is three heart attacks in two shifts for me, must be some kind of record.  Well I am out.  Goodnight. 

Busy

Last night was busy, had 2 heart attacks and an SVT...all my patients of course ; )  I am back tonight and we are short-staffed, I have a feeling it is going to be a good night though, I don't know why.  I am getting ready to go crash on the couch, a maintenance worker is coming at 10am to fix my broken locks (one I might have broken trying to pick it when I locked myself in the garage, but the other broke on its own).  I need to be downstairs so I hear the doorbell.  Last time they stopped by I slept through them knocking and ringing the doorbell.  My apartment is all cozy and warm and the snow is coming down outside.  I am so fortunate to have a place to live like I do, especially when I see the amount of transient, homeless people this community has.  Sweet dreams! 

back to nights...

I put in a work request for a full night's position.  I have been doing late-mids and nights, which means I work either noon-midnight, 2pm-2am, or 7pm-7am.  I thought that would be better than all nights, but mixing afternoons and nights is pretty brutal I discovered.  I will be so relieved to consistently know what time I work and not have to worry so much about switching constantly, and there is a pay raise for full-nights.  Keep yo fingers crossed!

Sometimes..

Most of the time I believe I am of above-average intelligence, and then something comes along and I realize how dumb I can be.  JUST the other day, probably not even a week ago, it occurred to me for the FIRST time EVER that the song Amazing Grace is not about a person named Grace.  Wowza.  I was floored. I always imagined that song was about a black woman named Grace, who obviously was amazing.  Yeah, not what that song is actually about.  I feel like my friend when she told me she realized relatively recently that in The Sound of Music, a movie she had watched a hundred times growing up, they were not playing hide and go seek, they were actually hiding from the Nazis and it was during WWII.  Oh the stuff we misinterpret as kids and then grow up to still believe.... 

that face looks familiar...

Time got away from me for a few days there!  I had some much needed time off and got to spend some time with some friends out on the town, went skiing, watched some movies, overall a pretty good few days.  Yesterday/this a.m. I was back at work running around like a wild goose like normal.  At one point one of the other nurses asked me to set up the arterial line during a trauma.  I have never set one of those up before and after putting it off for as long as possible I pulled it out of the packaging and looked at it.  Imagine approximately 600 miles of itty-bitty tubes and clamps and plastic pieces and caps you hook to a bag of saline and then attach one million different yellow legos to all the white legos on the tubing, and then hang it so it looks wrong and upside down and you basically have the jist of it.  Ufta.  I need to set one up again soon to help me remember it.  If another 3 years goes by and I don't set one up I don't think I will remember. 

Also, new experience for me - reading in the newspaper about a horrific, gruesome murder of not only one person, but two, then after seeing the mug shot of the murderer, realizing that the murderer was your patient two days previous...I banished the "Did I miss something?  Could I have prevented this?" thoughts as soon as they entered my head because a) they would drive me insane and b) one of the reasons I remember the patient is because they were very cooperative and pleasant and stood out in a good way from my usual mess of rude and angry patients.  Odd...very odd and slightly nauseating.