The Boxes Ate My Homework

The past two weeks have pretty much been balls-to-the-wall with moving madness! Every time we move it amazes me as to how much shit two people can have. Anyway, I have many thoughts and stories to share about our most recent venture down to the beautiful, lush, and warm greenery of the south. Hopefully I will be able to post a few more this week so that I can get all you peeps caught up. Check back in a day or two.... moving stories coming soon!

Checking off the List

This week and weekend we've been checking off the list of all the fun, touristy stuff that we wanted to do before leaving Boston:

Last Tuesday was the last night before another one of our travel nurse friends was leaving Boston because of the end of his contract. We went to the Top of the Hub restaurant, which is kind of equivalent to the Sun Dial in Atlanta, minus the revolving part. We had some $10 martinis, listened to some live jazz, and enjoyed the beautiful view of the nighttime lights of Boston.

Friday night we checked out the Museum of Science, which has been located practically in our backyard the whole time we've been here. Although it was geared mostly towards kids, with easy-to-read and interactive exhibits, I still enjoyed it because I'm such a science nerd at heart. The exhibits closed at nine, but then we got to see an IMAX film called Alaska: Spirit of the Wild, and that was just plain cool.

Saturday morning we went down to the Boston harbor (hahbuh) to go on a whale watching boat ride. Luckily, the weather was relatively warm, and we got a break from the rain, so it was decent for boating. The boat took us way out of the harbor to an area called Stellwagen Bank, where whales come to feed on the plankton-rich waters every summer. It was really cool because some of the whales we saw came within probably 20 feet of the boat. Then they might hang out for a minute or two, take a few breaths, and then dive back under again. We got some great pictures of not only the whales, but also the Boston harbor as we were leaving and returning to our dock.

Taken on the way out to sea

A humpback whale poking his bumpy head out.

I think he is waving at us.

A whale spout

Taken as we were coming back in

And here we are, almost back at our dock.

Then Saturday afternoon, we visited the New England Aquarium, which was conveniently located right next to the docks that the whale watching boats were leaving from. Although it was really crowded, we still had a great time checking out all the fishy exhibits. One of the coolest things they had was a gigantic aquarium (40 feet across and 23 feet deep) with a ramp that spiraled around it, and had a bunch of huge windows that you could look into as you walked along the ramp. I loved the penguin exhibits too 'cause they are just so darn cute!

Here is a big ass shark.

This is a rescued sea turtle that is estimated to be 65-70 years old.

And the cutest penguins ever!

Today we were supposed to go to the Museum of Fine Arts, but we were so exhausted we slept until 1:30 this afternoon! Oh well, we might still have a chance to go at the end of this week in between all of the packing we still have to do. And anyway, it's all cold and rainy again today so I'm not that excited about going anywhere.

One Soggy Bean

Spring in Boston officially sucks. I know, I know... I've been complaining about the weather alot the past couple of weeks. I guess the weather makes a much bigger impact on you when you can't just get into a nice, warm, dry car when you have to go somewhere. I am at least glad that I've been able to get by without long underwear lately. Of course, now that it's a little warmer and it's stopped snowing, we're getting something that's just as annoying: cold rain! And today I had the pleasure of getting completely soaked on the way to work.

I knew it was raining before I went outside, but I figured I'd just put up the hood on my coat and try to walk fast. I probably would have brought my umbrella with me if it hadn't gotten completely turned inside out, shredded, and broken in the last wind/rain/snow/sleet/nasty crap falling out of the sky storm we had. Unfortunately, I haven't bought a new one yet.

As soon as I got into the lobby of my apartment building, I saw how hard it was raining outside and knew I was done for. But since I was short on time, I pretty much just decided to try and make a break for it. Yeah, it took about 30 seconds for the entire front portion of my scrub pants to become completely saturated. By the time I got under shelter about a block away, I could already feel the water dripping down my legs and into my socks... awesome.

Luckily scrub pants dry very quickly (for obvious reasons). By the time I got to work, I was probably about half dry. But after such a wet, pants-sticking-to-my-legs ride on the subway, I think if I had met the person who installed the hand dryers in the bathroom at work, I would have kissed his/her feet. Whoever that person is, totally saved my soggy ass.

Mental Health Day

OK, I admit it... I'm a little stressed. We have two weeks left here in Boston, and all of a sudden there is alot to do! We still don't have our apartment in Greensboro totally nailed down, but at least we are close. We have picked out the one we want, and now it is just a matter of working out our little deal with the manager for our furniture package and then doing the paperwork. Besides that, all we have to do is reserve our rental van, pack up all our stuff, clean.... and, oh yeah, see all the stuff in Boston that we have been wanting to see, and thought we would have plenty of time to see before we left. However, we are incredibly good at being lazy when we have time off, and haven't really been out and about doing all the touristy stuff we wanted to do. Instead, we've just been doing the basic things that you do once you get settled into a place: grocery shopping, going to work, eating out, and bar hopping with friends.

I have been trying very hard to stay relaxed about moving again, but I can tell I am starting to stress because I've been very tired and grumpy lately. Plus, my work schedule has been a little weird this past week with a 2 days on 2 days off type of schedule, which makes for a very erratic sleep pattern. I was supposed to work Saturday and Sunday this weekend, but I decided to call in sick on Sunday. Besides the fact that I didn't feel like working on a holiday, I usually call in at least one day per contract, citing a "mental health day" as my reason. I know, it's sad. I only work three days a week, and I still end up calling in sometimes. Oh well, sometimes you just need a day.

Today we sat down to try and plan out the next two weeks, so that we can do all of the fun stuff we want to do before we leave, in addition to making sure we are being responsible adults and getting all of our moving and work involved obligations complete as well. Of course, having a list of items to complete and a plan of attack is the only way I can ever seem to get anything done, but now the list is so overwhelming, all I want to do is keep procrastinating because I'm not even sure where to start anymore.

And speaking of procrastinating, I think I'll start on the list tomorrow.

I have a good reason though: Today is mine and Dave's three year anniversary of when we started dating. I can hardly believe we are already at the three year mark! So right now I am about to get ready so that we can go out for a nice dinner at Legal Sea Foods. I am sooo looking forward to the wine and relaxation of tonight. And hopefully, tomorrow morning I will wake up motivated and ready to get some stuff done!

My Definition of STAT is: "I need that F***ing S**t Right Now!!

Last week was one of those weeks where you're just constantly moving and time is whipping by. I worked Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights. It was kind of a tough week at work. It was just really busy all week because I ended up with kind of crazy patient assignments. Then, to top it all off, early Friday morning, I got bitched out by one of the residents and it really upset me. I paged him "STAT" because his patient was in severe pain (10 out of 10 on the pain scale). On top of her pain, she was also extremely anxious, and the situation was starting to escalate very quickly. I knew I needed a STAT order so that I could get the situation under control before things got worse.

So the doctor called me back right away, asking why I paged him STAT. I explained the situation to him, saying that I needed him to increase the frequency of her pain medication. And he said, "Do you know what STAT means?" I explained to him again that I needed a new pain medication order STAT. And in an extremely condescending voice, he told me that STAT pages should only be used for an emergency or a code situation. I then tried to explain to him again, the urgency of the situation, and why I had paged him STAT. He had the nerve to then say in a patronizing and condescending way, "You don't know what STAT means, but I'll write you the order." At which point, I slammed the phone down, and yelled out, probably a little louder than I should have, "You F###ing A$$hole!" (There wasn't anyone else around except one of the other nurses.)

So I got the order right away, and the patient ended up being fine. However, I was not fine. I was absolutely furious. How dare he talk to me in that tone of voice? How dare he ask me if I know what that word means? Every single person in the hospital, even the housekeepers, know what that word means. How dare he question my intelligence? How dare he question the legitimacy of my page?

This is one of those situations where I was so mad at the time, that I couldn't think of anything to say to him. I just sat there and took it. And that makes me even angrier. Of course, by now, I've thought of about a million and one things I could have said to him. If I could go back and do it all over again, I think it would have gone something like this:

"Excuse me, jackass, but seeing as how I've been a critical care nurse for five years now, I'm pretty sure I know what STAT means. In fact, I'm sure I've handled quite a few more STAT situations in my career than you have. And don't you think that if you were the patient lying in the bed with a 10 out of 10 headache that was about to cause you to have a severe anxiety attack that you would want the nurse to page the doctor STAT? So why don't you shut the hell up and write me my god damn order you piece of shit?!?!"

Damn that felt good. Anyway, I'm still debating about whether or not I should report it to the attending doctor (his boss) next time I go to work, or if I should just let it go.

So Friday night I had a little steam to blow off. One of my closest friends from high school came in town from New York to visit for the evening. And later that night, we had yet another episode of drunk travel nurses out on the town, as we were saying goodbye to a friend of ours whose assignment was up. I think I managed to stumble into bed around 3:30 or so, setting my alarm to wake up at 7:00AM. You see, I still had to pack for my trip to Tampa this weekend to visit a friend of mine that I graduated nursing school with. I ended up rolling out of bed around 8:45AM, and then proceeded to freak out for the next hour, while I stumbled around in my hungover state, trying to leave in time for an 11AM flight.

I made my flight on time, and I thoroughly enjoyed my weekend in Tampa. It is a tradition that my group of friends that I graduated nursing school with started a couple of years ago. The two other girls that live in Atlanta and I have in past years all driven down to Tampa to visit our one friend that moved down there after she graduated. It usually turns into Nurses Gone Wild whenever we get together, so it is always a good time. This time around we were more well-behaved than usual. (At least I didn't enter any wet T-shirt contests.) I also thoroughly enjoyed the luxury of 80 degree weather and sunshine. Every time I went outside, I couldn't help but exclaim how nice it felt. Aaaahh.... I love sunshine!

I arrived home to crappy 45 degree weather and rain. Does it ever end? The forecast is for high's in the 40's, low's in the 20's to 30's every day this week! Aargghh.... I am so tired of this weather I could scream!