Bean's World

Word to the Wise

2009-02-05T22:25:00.003-05:00

Today I had a pretty good day at work-- the best one all week, in fact, considering the amount of drama that has been going on around there lately. I worked late, just trying to catch up on a few things, since DD was also going to be home late tonight.

As I drove home in this freezing weather, I thought about how warm and cozy I was going to get, curled up on the couch with a blanket and a bowl of chicken noodle soup. Little did I know what was waiting for me at home.

I opened the garage door, only to be shocked by the gallons of water spewing from the burst pipe and the flood of water covering the floor. The only thing I could think to do through my panic was to run upstairs, grab a towel, and do my best to stifle the water flow, until I could figure something out. I fumbled around, looking at the pipes, trying not to get completely drenched, and trying to figure out if any of the two valves I had access to would turn it off...no luck. I hated to do it, but I went ahead and called my dad, knowing DD was busy at work and not able to get home anytime soon. Luckily, my dad was at home and was able to come over right away.

When my dad arrived, I was scratching around in the grass and in the dark, trying to find the water meter cover. A few minutes later, we found it, and tried desperately to get the cover off. As it turns out, the damn thing was still locked from when the water in the house was turned off while it was in foreclosure. Finally, my dad gave up and went into the garage to try to figure out where the valve was that would turn it off. And what do you know? He walked over, found the valve, and turned it. Then I said, "Oh." And we both laughed out loud.

Then he said, "One thing you should know about owning a home is that you should turn off the water valve that goes outside to the hose when it gets cold."

Good to know.

I vacuumed up the several inches of water that covered the back half of the garage, picked up the few items that needed to dry off and placed them away from the puddles of water, and made it upstairs just in time to get in my pj's, cuddle up with a blanket and chicken noodle soup, and watch my two favorite shows while I defrosted. It could have been a lot worse, and I can't even begin to say how happy I am that we still have hot water right now.

No More Bean Car

2009-01-27T22:02:00.003-05:00

Well, that month went by fast. I think it went by even faster than December. Either that, or I just went through one heck of a time warp. I guess maybe I just needed a little bit of a blog break.

Let's see updates....updates....

Work=busybusybusybusy. I think I'm getting a little more used to the volume/ pace of work in the clinic setting. Either that, or I've just figured out how to deal with it a little better. Either way, it's still way more ridiculously busy than I ever would have imagined. It's just as stressful as working in an ICU, just in a different way.
I wonder if I will ever figure out a way to have time to check blogs/ personal email while I'm working... I'll get back to you on that one.
It's been at least a month since I've read anyone's blog and that is a little sad to me. I'll try to do better I promise :( What do I do at night, you ask? Catch up with DD, help make/ eat/ clean up dinner, do laundry, watch the designated TV shows (no DVR=little TV flexibility), fall into bed, repeat the cycle. Damn my life is exciting.
Social life=busybusybusy. Every weekend there is always something fun going on and for that I am extremely glad and happy. It's good to have so many awesome friends.
In general, content with life. Still have goals to work on...have done a little more research...will get back to you on that when the master plan has been formulated.
And the latest news is that my poor little bean car is officially dead. I finally took it to the body shop yesterday and I got the call today that it is officially totaled. Time to go car shopping!

That's all I got for now...hopefully more will be coming sooner than later.

2009: So Far So Good

2009-01-01T22:14:00.005-05:00

And once again I have managed to survive the usual Christmas mayhem that ensues around this time every year.... it was getting a little dicey there for a minute! I got to visit with all of my immediate family members in one way or another-- as always, it was very busy, but very nice to spend time with everyone. And the best part was, I was very generously given gift certificates for two massages this year-- I can't wait to cash those in!

I have not had much time yet to reflect on what I did or didn't accomplish last year, but I realize that I've lately had a rather pessimistic attitude toward life. It is my goal to leave that behind in 2008. That is one of the greatest things about starting a new year-- the prospect of being able to start over again, the opportunity of a fresh, new beginning.

I don't have any specific resolutions at this point in time, but there are several goals in my mind that I would like to start working towards. One thing I know I need to focus on is to not let my long-term goals get lost and pushed away by doing the small chores that I must do day in and day out. Somehow I need to regain my focus and make a reasonable plan on what I would like to accomplish this year. Otherwise, it will just never get done. So perhaps my resolution should be to make some resolutions?

I guess my brain is still a bit mushy from the cheer of last evening. All I know is, I rang in the new year by spending time with the best group of a friends a girl could ever ask for. And for that, I am happy and grateful. So far, this year has gotten off to a great start :)

Haaaalp!

2008-12-22T22:32:00.002-05:00

Christmas is upon us. And as usual, I have found myself running around like crazy trying to get things done at the last minute. I guess some things never change. Usually I'm not quite this bad about getting the shopping done. However, this year, the past month has just exploded into our lives and I'm having much trouble keeping up.

I have decided to add the items of crash helmet, suit of armor, and Hummer to my Christmas list. Apparently my car has an invisible target painted on it, because after I got into that wreck on the 10th, eight days later I got rear-ended on the same damn road (but slightly further along my route home). Some idiotic 19-year-old who wasn't paying attention bumped me in stop-and-go traffic. No injuries or major car damage besides a few scratches were incurred, and I thought about letting her get away without calling the police. But then she pulled out the "Is this going to take long, because I have to be somewhere" card. And then to top it off, she handed me the car registration instead of her insurance card, when I was trying to get her information. When I told her that was not the information I needed, she pulled out "well my car is under my mom's name and I don't know what to do cause I'm too young and stupid" card. I simply said "Well if you don't have an insurance card, then I'm going to have to file a police report," and that was that. Soooorry--you picked the wrong person to rear-end that day. And I had somewhere to be too.....biyatch! Why don't you call your mommy or daddy so they can pay this ticket for you too (in addition to your car payment, car insurance, cell phone, etc, etc, etc)!!

I guess I'm still a little annoyed.

And then after all that rain last week, one of our gutters fell off the house. Yeah, one of the brand new gutters that we just had installed when we bought our place last spring.

After all the dust settled this past weekend, we did make some major progress on the Christmas shopping on Sunday, when we had an 8 hour shop-a-thon. It was very stressful, but I guess the more we get done, the less stress and the more Christmas cheer there will be. It will all be over soon. I'm just glad that we don't have any major traveling to do this year (like we always have in the past).

Do I need to say that I'm ready for this year to start over?

Epilogue:
End on a bright note, end on a bright note, I say to myself. OK, Okay.

Things that make it all better: cozy fire, glowy Christmas tree (our first real tree in our first house), snuggly kitty, fuzzy socks, a couple of glasses of wine, people that love me and that I love back, a snuggly bed that I'm about to collapse into. I have all of these things, and there are a lot of people who don't. So thankyou for what I have.

Another Great Day in the ATL

2008-12-10T21:18:00.004-05:00

Can someone please tell the witch doctor with the voodoo dolls shaped like DD and myself, to quit poking us with pins in all the wrong places?! I don't know what we did, but we have apparently seriously pissed off the karma police.

Late yesterday afternoon I received a call from my beloved, spoken with more fury than I've ever heard in his voice before. On his way home from work, he had stopped at the CVS on Shallowford Rd. in East Cobb to pick up his prescription for allergy medicine. It was around 5pm, the street was rather busy, it was still daylight, and he parked at the first parking spot outside the front door. He went right up to the counter, gave them his name, the lady gave him his medicine, he swiped his card, and he was out of the store in less than five minutes. He was greeted by the sound of the broken car window glass, still crackling from being freshly shattered. His nice leather Kenneth Cole laptop bag with his shiny, new MacBook Pro had been swiped from the back seat of his car in a matter of seconds.

And today, I have felt like ass all day. My throat is sore, my nose has been stuffed up, my voice a little hoarse at times, and I have a zit right above my lip that hurts like hell. The weather has been horrible all day, and I really wish I would have just stayed in today. I had a stressful and rather busy day at work today, and all I wanted to do was drive home, get in my pj's, and snuggle on the couch. Little did I know, there was a certain red PT Cruiser lurking in the oncoming left hand turn lane, slowly inching into my left hand lane, as she was trying to make a left hand turn. I slammed on the breaks as soon as I saw the car in my lane, but my car skidded on the wet, slippery road through the entire intersection and abruptly crashed into hers. Next thing I know, we are both climbing out of our cars in the pouring rain, in the middle of the intersection, surveying the damage, and calling 911. Luckily, we were both OK, although I'm expecting a nice bruise to form on my right knee, which slammed into the dashboard, and my whole entire body is working on feeling like I've just run a marathon.

I'm rather afraid of what tomorrow may bring.

Nothing to Complain About and Much to be Thankful for

2008-11-29T22:07:00.003-05:00

Today has been a wonderfully cozy day, spent in my pj's, being safe, warm, and dry in front of a crackling fire, one of my most favorite ways to spend a cold, rainy Saturday. And I think I just spent 8 hours straight in this very same spot on my comfy couch, surfing the internet and shopping online. The person I love most in this world and the cutest, best kitty cat in the world have been my faithful couch-surfing companions throughout the day. And a nice Asian man brought us delicious crab rangoons and warm, coconut chicken soup for dinner. If that isn't the good life, I don't know what is.

Playing Catch Up

2008-11-15T20:39:00.003-05:00

Please enjoy the following jumble of random thoughts....

An interview can only reveal so much about what a job is really like. I'm not quite sure I knew exactly what I was getting into when I accepted this new position. It's not necessarily anything that's really bad, but it's just different than what I had expected. I am trying very hard to be open-minded and continue to adjust, but I am rather stubborn about some things and this is causing me some frustration. I can't wait until I can go back to school.
There are two cats yowling outside of my window right now. I am home alone, and it is a very scary, very unsettling sound. But I find it very funny that my cat is intently listening to it with a bit of a confused look on her face. I wonder if those cats are speaking in a different cat language than she speaks.
I feel like someone has hit the pause button on my life in some ways. I know what I want, but right now I don't have any control over how or when I will get there. Everyone else around me seems to be moving through their lives swimmingly, but I just feel like I have been put on hold.
Speaking of things being on hold, we need to put some more serious work into our house. The next big project is going to be the office. We went and blew some serious cash on new furniture at IKEA several weeks ago, and I can't wait to actually put it to use. It will be so nice when that room is clean and organized.
*sigh* I can't wait to be "done" with this house. I am proud of what we have accomplished, but I am so over the worrying, the doing, and the stressing. I just want to come into my house and not be bothered by thinking to myself about all the things we still need to do.
I keep saying that I need to start exercising again. I don't know what it's going to take to get motivated to actually do it. I'm really good at coming up with excuses.
I feel really fortunate that I have so many nice friends. And when I say "nice" I mean these people are good to the core, and I really appreciate that. At this point in my life, I don't see a point in hanging out with people that don't genuinely care about me, or that I don't genuinely care about.
I had a really great time last weekend hanging out with some friends at their house on Lake Hartwell. We took the long route home on Sunday, and enjoyed the gorgeous fall weather and beautiful scenery as we drove through the mountains. I almost forgot how much I love the fresh air of North Georgia. We stopped in Dahlonega for lunch and ended up finding the cutest little hole in the wall of a restaurant, called The Crimson Moon Cafe. They even had some really good live bluegrass music, which I really enjoyed listening to while we ate.
I miss going to random live music shows and knowing all about the good local music like I used to.
Leftover hibachi chicken and fried rice with "yum-yum" sauce is freaking delicious.
I had a blast dancing with friends at the most random redneck bar in Cumming for CD-H's birthday last night. There were a lot of really "special" people there.....Good times!
We haven't been doing movie night the past couple of weeks, but I am hoping we will have time for one soon.
I can't wait to snuggle up with a glass of wine next to a roaring fire in our very own fireplace. Hopefully I can get the chimney man to check our chimney out sometime this week to make sure our house is not going to blow up if we light a fire.
I have been reading the first book of the "Twilight" series, and I gotta say, I am totally hooked so far. This will be the second entire book I have read this year. That's pretty good for me.... Hey I gotta start somewhere right?
I love lazy Saturdays.

H-A-L-L-O-W-E-E-N!

2008-11-04T21:54:00.004-05:00

I love Halloween. It has always been one of my favorite holidays. I have so many fun and happy memories from this time of year, both as a child and as an adult, and I think it's partly because of the traditions my family always honored year after year. Even now, there are just certain things that I have to do in order to really enjoy and celebrate the holiday.

For one thing, I always have to carve a pumpkin. There's no better family bonding than sticking your hand into a big pile of pumpkin goop, and eventually coming up with a creative design together. This year, I ended up attending a pumpkin carving party with my dad, where we joined family and friends from his neighborhood to see who could carve the most creative pumpkin. Two ~~ghouling~~ grueling hours later, I came up with this (and boy was my hand sore and cramped from those darn pumpkin carving knives):

I also love dressing up every year. There's just something really fun about coming up with a creative costume design and putting it all together for the big reveal on Halloween. I always have such a great time checking out everyone's costumes and seeing who has the goofiest, weirdest, or scariest idea. Of course, it's fun to watch other people react to your costume too. This year, I think we had one of the funniest ones at the party we went to, as DD was Luigi and I was Mario from the Super Mario Brothers! (If you are reading this and have no idea what I'm talking about then you are dead to me.) The mustaches we wore were pretty freaking hilarious, I gotta say. Check out my pics on Facebook!

We only got a few trick-or-treaters this year, but they were sooo cute! They reminded me of how much fun I used to have back in the day when we would go all over our neighborhood trick-or-treating, and getting so excited about how much candy we were getting.

I guess in some ways, I'm just not ready to admit I'm a grown-up.

Work, Work, More Work

2008-10-27T20:56:00.002-05:00

It's amazing how much less time I have to blog and endlessly search every corner of the internet, much less to read anyone else's blogs (sorry in advance), now that I have a big kid, 9 to 5 job. Go figure.

It's certainly been an adjustment. I'm trying to get a little more used to doing my chores little by little throughout the week, rather than save them all for the extra 2 days that I am used to having off. Although I miss having 2 extra days a week to myself, I don't miss the exhaustion that is unavoidably incurred in working a 12 hour shift (running around like a crazy person for 12 hours on six hours of sleep will do that to a person). It's also really weird for me to leave things unfinished at the end of the day. In the clinic setting, I have to remember that it's OK if I leave it for tomorrow... no one's going to die because of it (unlike in the ICU).

So work is coming along nicely. Little by little, I'm getting things figured out, but there is still a lot to learn. It's frustrating because I've often found myself sitting at my desk, knowing what needs to be done, but not knowing the right process for getting it done. And I'm not afraid to ask questions, but I often feel like I'm annoying people by constantly asking, asking, asking.

The good thing is that everyone I work with is very nice and has been very patient with me, especially the administrative staff (the ones I bug the most). And I did feel better about things at the end of last week, when one of them remarked that she knew I was doing a good job because she wasn't having patients call repetitively about the same things (which is what happens when things aren't getting taken care of properly).

So I've made progress, but still have a ways to go. And one thing is for sure, now I know why it takes doctor's office nurses so long to return phone calls.... there's an awful lot to do and not enough hours in the day (seems to be a common theme in my field).

Cool Stuff About My New Job

2008-10-15T20:08:00.002-05:00

As of this past Monday, I finally rejoined the working members of society. I have never been so excited to go to work in my life! (Having two and a half months off work will do that to a person.) So far, I've spent the majority of the week sitting in a conference room learning about how to give good customer service, infection control, where the MSDS (Materials Safety Data Sheets.... thanks OSHA!) binders are, fire safety, risk management, HIPAA, compliance, and all of the other mandated subjects all good employees of a healthcare organization must learn about. Even though this part of the orientation process is painfully boring, anything is better than whatever the heck I've been doing at home over the past couple of months.

Tomorrow is my first official day at the clinic, and I'm really looking forward to finally getting to the hands-on part of the training. I know it will take a while to get acclimated to this new position, which will be so radically different from my previous job experience, but I'm sure I will get it all figured out in no time. What I do know, is that there is an awful lot of cool stuff to look forward to in my job.....such as:

the super cute new scrubs I bought last week
the awesome new stethoscope I also bought last week
M-F, 8:30am-5pm, no weekends, no nights, no holidays!
25 minute commute (I'm thinking that's pretty good for the ATL)
the opportunity to have a little flexibility in the work flow and how I will organize my day (AKA, no patients crashing at shift change in the ICU)
no more wiping asses
working with a staff of young, fun people (including the MD's) that don't hate their jobs
working with a fairly new practice that seems to be growing quickly
working with an institution who will give me a significant tuition reimbursement when I go back to school
working with a healthcare organization that is constantly trying to improve patient outcomes and doing research in order to figure out better ways to take care of the seriously ill (as opposed to those who just like to do the same old thing because "that's the way we've always done it")
working with doctors who will be willing to take the time to teach me so that I can further expand my clinical knowledge in order to provide better patient care
I get my very own pager (of course, this one might bite me in the ass, but it sure sounds cool)

What I Hate Most in the World is that Bad Things Happen to Good People

2008-10-09T19:48:00.007-05:00

Our flick of the week this week was P.S. I Love You. Although it was originally advertised as a romantic comedy, it certainly does not have the boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love, boy hurts girl's feelings, boy chases girl down to get her back, and then they live happily ever after sort of storyline that most movies of that genre follow. There are romantic parts, there are funny parts, and there are sad parts. Most of all, the whole idea behind the movie was quite thought provoking.

What would you do if you lost the love of your life, your husband, at age 30?

It is something that I have thought about a lot. It turns out that working in the ICU, where people lose their husbands, wives, daughters, sons, sisters, brothers, grandmothers, and grandfathers, makes you think a lot of morbid thoughts.

Of course, my immediate thought is, well, I would just give myself a high dose of IV potassium chloride, and get it over with. That would be that. But I wonder if I would really have the guts to take my own life. Would I really be able to go through with something like that?

Well....no, probably not. And besides, that would be the easy way out. But I do know that the loss of the one person who knows and understands me better than anyone else in the world would cause more unimagineable pain than I have ever felt in my life. And when we are apart, every now and then I think to myself, "Keep him safe, just please make sure he gets home safe to me." Just in case someone up there really is listening.

So what would happen? What would I do? How would I go on living? I just wouldn't know unless it happened. So please, if you are listening, just don't let that happen. It is what I fear more than anything else in the world.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, I thought it was a very enjoyable movie, although it turned out to be an unexpected tearjerker. You should watch it, but make sure you have a box of tissues.

Tell Me Something Good

2008-10-03T15:18:00.002-05:00

So we took off this morning to head to Tybee Island for the wedding of some very close friends of ours. It has been something that I have really been looking forward to for awhile for a multitude of reasons. I hadn't heard a yay or nay on the job yet and had already put it out of my mind, deciding not to worry about it and just have a good time this weekend.

Just as we were arriving in Tybee, I got a call from the nurse recruiter. Unfortunately, it stopped ringing before I was able to answer it. Thus spawned the worrying for the next thirty minutes. There was no message left, and I just didn't know what to think. Was it a mistake? Was he going to offer me a job and then he changed his mind? Did he have a question about one of my references? And blah, blah, blah, worry, worry, worry.

Suddenly my phone made the funny noise that signified that I had a voice mail. He wanted me to call him back. I took a deep breath, trying to ignore the rock in the pit of my stomach, and made the call.

And what do ya know, Hallelulah, they came through with the job offer!!! I'm still somewhat in shock that I'm finally going to be employed again. As soon as I got off the phone, I jumped around like crazy and then fell on the floor, not sure whether to laugh, cry, or just take it all in.

What I do know is, right now, I'm sitting in a hotel room looking at the beach and listenening to the waves, and that this is going to be a fucking good weekend.

Weekend Update

2008-09-29T12:02:00.003-05:00

This past weekend was a lot of fun, and once again it has come and gone a little too quickly. But before we get to the fun stuff, how about a few thoughts about my second interview?

I arrived at the office precisely on time, only to find out that neither the nurse manager nor either of the doctors that I was supposed to be meeting/ interviewing with were there. It turned out that one of the doctors was doing emergency surgery at Grady, the other doctor was getting ready for emergency surgery at Kennestone, but would be by as soon as possible to meet with me, and the nurse manager had to run an errand for one of the cardiothoracic surgeons who share the office with the neurosurgeons. All were excusable absences of course, but it made for a bit of an awkward start. While I was waiting for everyone to arrive, I spoke briefly with the neurosurgery nurse practitioner and at length with the one nurse that currently works for all four of the doctors. Finally, the nurse manager arrived, whom I spoke briefly with, and shortly thereafter, the doctor arrived, who spent at least a good twenty minutes talking to me (which I felt was quite generous, since he still had a brain abscess to remove later that Friday afternoon).

All in all, the office itself seemed very nice, as it was new, clean, and well laid out. In addition to meeting the medical staff, I also met the secretaries and receptionists, and everyone that I met that day was very nice and friendly. The overall atmosphere of the office was friendly and laidback. I talked with the current nurse for a long time, and she gave some good insight as to the job responsibilites, the pace, and the general workflow. I really like her, and I was disappointed to find out that she would be leaving in mid-October to return to working twelve hour shifts in the hospital. I also enjoyed my meeting with the neurosurgeon, as he was easy to talk to and seemed genuinely interested in getting to know me better.

I could see myself fitting in well there, and I just really hope that I presented myself well enough to them that they would also see me as a good fit. There was also another candidate for the job there at the same time I was, and that really caught me off guard. We didn't have to interact or anything, but it was just kind of weird to actually see my competition as we passed each other in the hallway. Not only was it awkward, but I had to suppress the urge to stick my foot out and "accidentally" trip her as she walked by. (I'm not competitive at all, or catty for that matter... haha!) Before I left, I reiterated my interest in the job and my eagerness to begin working. The nurse manager said I should hear something within the next 1-2 weeks. (One or two weeks?! Really?! Does it really take that freaking long to make a decision?!! Ugh, why oh why must they torture me like this?)

So Friday night we met up with RS and ES to catch up and have a few drinks in downtown Roswell. This time, E and I went to have wine and girl talk at Nine, while DD and RS went to have boy talk and beer at Diesel. Nine was a great little wine bar where we sat outside and enjoyed the people watching. Their wine list was like a book, and although our server had only been working there a few months and eventually admitted that he still had quite a bit to learn about wine, I give him a B+ for effort. (I think he got a little busy towards the end and we had to track him down to get our check.) We were able to get as many free wine samples as we wanted until we found one that we liked, and although I thought it was a little overpriced, at least each glass was a nice sized serving. We also were very entertained by the scantily dressed, luxury car driving, drunk, middle-aged trophy wives who seemed to make up the majority of the people walking or driving along the sidewalk. If I ever end up like that, someone please shoot me.

Saturday night I attended a bachelorette party for a friend of mine who is getting married on the beach this weekend (which I'm really looking forward to!) We had a great time having girl talk at LW's midtown condo while snacking and drinking her lethal party punch (beer + vodka + pink lemonade... who ever knew it would be so tasty?) Then he headed out to CosmoLava, where we all drank and danced the night away. I think we ended up passing out around 4 am after taking some hilarious video footage of the bachelorette talking absolute nonsense. I can't wait to head to the beach this weekend!

Things that Cheer me Up

2008-09-24T10:35:00.002-05:00

Today is Hump Day... nuff said!
Tonight is movie night! Because there are only a few things we watch on TV anymore, and because we do have a Netflix subscription that we've been neglecting, we've been having a movie night once a week. Last week we watched "Walk the Line" and it was so good! I was very impressed with Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix. This week we are watching "The Bucket List." I've seen it before, and it's kind of a tearjerker, but it was really good and DD needs to watch it.
This weather is gorgeous!! We have had windows open throughout the house for about the past week straight. It has been so nice to have a fresh breeze blowing through the house, and it has been just the right temperature... aaaah.
Cake! We made our favorite kind of cake last night-- yellow cake with chocolate frosting. We had it for dessert with some fresh, organic raspberries... Delicious! Sometimes you just have to treat yourself for no reason.
Grey's Anatomy! I am so excited for the 2 hour season premiere tomorrow night!
And last but not least... I finally got my second interview set up for this Friday! This time I will be meeting the doctors at their office to make sure they also think I would be a good addition to the practice. I am excited and nervous again, but hopefully this meeting will be a little more laid back. I'm just going to try to relax and be myself, and hopefully they will like me. Keep your fingers crossed! (And I'm also going to try very hard not to have another nervous breakdown the night before, but there are no guarantees... brace yourself honey!)

Why I Hate Mondays

2008-09-22T11:34:00.003-05:00

This was one of those mornings when I laid in bed with the alarm going off for an hour. I knew it was Monday morning, which meant the beginning of yet another week where I can only assume I'll be hanging out by myself every day, being bored and trying to force myself to do "house stuff," while everyone else in the world is being a responsible and productive member of society. If there is one thing this unemployment saga has taught me, it is that I would never make it as a housewife. It's just not for me.

My current prospective employer is still moving at the rate of molasses on a 15 degree day in Vermont. The second interview/meeting was supposed to be set up within 5 business days (by last Friday). However, on Friday when I checked in with the nurse recruiter, after not hearing a single peep out of them all week, he said they were still waiting to get the schedule from the nurse manager. Schedule, schmedule, just let me work for crying out loud!!

The other bad thing about Mondays is that our weekends always seem to be full of fun and excitement, and then Monday comes and it is the ultimate low compared to the previous days. Friday night we had a great time in the downtown Roswell area, which we actually hadn't ever checked out before. We had a delicious dinner at Ceviche, where we enjoyed authentic Mexican tacos and margaritas. And then we went across the street to a new bar/ restaurant that just opened, called Red Salt. I enjoyed the publike atmosphere there, and they had a decent wine selection with a fairly diverse (but short) beer list. And although we didn't stay quite that late, they stay open until 2 am (impressive for a suburban bar)! I could definitely see us making friends with the bartender there.

After leaving the bar around 1 am, we headed home, where I promptly got ready to pass out. However, somebody actually dragged me back out of bed to play a game of Scrabble until 4:30am. (Usually it's the other way around!) And here's what drunk Scrabble looks like:

Saturday we waged war with the yard, and made some major progress! I trimmed the hedges, picked up 8 million more pine cones, and pulled up a bunch of weeds. My better half was the hero of the day, and successfully sawed up the tree that had fallen down in our yard shortly after we bought the place back in the spring. Thankfully, no (human) limbs were lost in the process. Here's the proud stack of wood:

Sunday we went to the Roswell Arts Festival, where we browsed through a large assortment of different booths of paintings, photographs, pottery, jewelry, and a handful of other different crafts. It was a beautiful day to be outside, and we discovered some really talented artists! (We were most impressed by Robert Griffis Rodenberger, Bill Turner, and Doug and Leah Cavanah.)

After the festival, we headed to Canton, GA, to visit DD's rents and to eat a delicious, home cooked meal. It was so nice to sit on their back porch with a glass of wine, watching all of their cute birds around the bird feeders and enjoying their nicely landscaped backyard. Hopefully one day our backyard will be that nice too...

Anyway, I'm really glad that we had a fun weekend... I just hate that it's over now. I suppose it's time to do some laundry or vacuum or some other mundane chore. I'm trying very hard to stay positive right now, but there is just a lot to be frustrated about.

This Explains A Lot

2008-09-19T10:56:00.001-05:00

more music charts

Why I'm Bipolar and How my Interview Went

2008-09-16T09:22:00.004-05:00

This is one of those stories that may or may not be funny depending on how well you know me and how well I tell this story.

So last Thursday was the day before my big interview, that was scheduled for Friday morning. (In my mind, "big" in this case is also known as "important" or "the only interview I've had in seven weeks of applying for jobs and endlessly calling nurse recruiters" or "if I don't get this job, maybe it's time for a career change" or "if this doesn't work out, I will probably spontaneously combust." No pressure.) All day long there was a lump in my throat and what felt like a rock in the pit of my stomach, and both seemed to be growing exponentially throughout the day.

By the time my Favie got home from work, I was a nervous wreck of a time bomb, just waiting to explode. I'm pretty sure I greeted him quite grumpily, and so what does he do? He goes straight to the office and gets on the computer. I don't blame him--he was just getting out of the way of my wrath and letting me have some space. About an hour later it was getting to be dinner time, so I went in the office to ask him what he was doing. What I really meant to ask was "Could you please make dinner so I can work on writing down some notes of what I want to say in my interview tomorrow?" But it didn't quite come out like that, and I'm pretty sure he just answered whatever question I asked.

Well now, on top of my anxiety that had already been building up, I was getting even more nervous because it was getting late, and there were things that I still wanted to do to get myself ready before going to bed. So somehow we get through dinner--he ended up making it and cleaning it up--without too many more grumpy, stress-induced snaps from myself. Afterwards, he offered to help me type up a references page (which I didn't even know existed until he mentioned it.) I agreed and tried to calm down a little while I ironed my clothes.

When he finished, he had printed it out on the nice paper, which I had reserved only for the final draft. I looked it over, and there was a misplaced comma and a word which had accidentally been omitted. I thought to myself, "Why the hell did you print this out on the nice paper when it was not the final draft?" I pointed out the corrections, and then went to check on the paper situation. Just as I had suspected, there was now not enough paper to make enough nice copies of each document that I wanted to bring with me.

"Honey! Why did you print that out on the nice paper?! There's not enough of it to make copies of everything now!!" And I threw the paper down on the desk and ran into the other room where I started ironing furiously.

"Well, I didn't know there wasn't enough paper."

Silence from me. Still ironing furiously. Got...to...get...this...wrinkle...out...

"So what do you want me to do? Can't we just print out the cover letter on regular paper?"

"I don't know what to do!! I don't know anything about this fucking kind of thing!! Just do whatever the hell you want!! I...don't...care!!" And I'm ironing and ironing my poor pants to death all the while.

Next thing I know, he comes into the bedroom and says in the sweetest voice, "Honey? I don't think anyone will notice that wrinkle." He takes the pants away, and encloses me into the tightest, safest hug in the world. I try very hard not to cry, and we just hug for a few minutes, until things start to feel a little better. I apologize for being a bitch, and he says it's OK, he knows I am stressed out, and he tells me to go and write down my notes for the next morning.

So I think everything is going to be OK, and I'm trying to stay calm and write down my notes, when all of a sudden, the biggest, fattest, ugliest roach comes trotting across the middle of the floor in broad daylight, like he owns this fucking place. Oh hell no, not tonight. This is not a good time buddy.

I call my big, strong man into the room to save me from the roach, but when he walks in, I realize he has no shoes on, but I do. I reluctantly tell him not to worry about it, and that I'll do it, while I go to get the paper towel. I put the paper towel over Mr. Nasty Roach, and get ready to release all of my stress by squishing his freaking guts out.

Just as I am about to squish him as hard as I can, he runs out from under the paper towel, at lightning speed, straight for me! I immediately jump to the other side of the room, letting out the loudest, most blood curdling of all screams--like the kind from a dramatic death scene just before the brave heroine collapses to her untimely death and all the lights go out and the curtain closes.

"Goddammit honey!!!!" He yells, in such a tone that signifies "that was so entirely unnecessary, you just blew my ears out, and why the hell are you acting like a total psycho?!"

And he goes off to finish killing Mr. Nasty Roach, and I just cover my face with my hands, all the while crumpling inside. I'm embarrassed at my behavior and stressed out beyond belief, and all that's left to do is cry it all out. And for the second time in a span of maybe fifteen minutes, he's hugging me again, in the tightest of all hugs, and telling me it's all going to be OK. And then I'm laughing at how ridiculous I've been acting, and then I'm crying again because I'm scared I'm going to screw up tomorrow, and then we're both laughing together, and everything is better in a few minutes. Soon after, I'm so exhausted from the emotional stress of the day, I finish my notes and go to bed, hoping that tomorrow morning goes by quick, so I can just hurry up and get it over with.

My interview ended up starting out a little awkward. I interviewed with both the nurse recruiter and the hiring nurse manager, and for me, talking with two new people that I am trying to impress is way harder than just talking to one. When I was telling about my background and about what point I am at in my career, I fumbled over my words and couldn't quite get out my thoughts the way I would've liked. I've never really been good at speaking on the spot. My brain closes up and locks itself off and doesn't want me to get into all of the juicy thoughts and ideas that are always swirling around in there.

The middle portion of the interview was still awkward and spotty at times, but things seemed a little better. They asked me ten situational questions, which I had to give a three part answer to by describing 1) the specific situation, 2) what action I took, and 3) what the outcome was. For most of the questions, I could think of a pretty good example, but there were a few when I just couldn't think of anything specific right away, and I had to sit there in silence, trying to think of something while they were both just staring at me.

The conclusion of the interview was a little easier: I was given an opportunity to ask them questions about the position, and then I just had to tell them why I wanted this job and what I could offer to them. The last thing I said was, "I'm ready to start working...Let the healing begin!"

I then was asked to wait in the lobby, while they scored my interview. (Yeah... they scored that shit... And that didn't make me more nervous at all.) I waited somewhere around 25 leg-shaking, tooth-grinding minutes, during which I thought of at least 20 better answers that I wish I would've given instead. Finally, the nurse recruiter came back out and told me that I would be asked back for a second interview, where I would go to the doctor's office and meet and interview with all the other staff, mainly to make sure the doctors also think I would be a good fit for the position. I then heartily shaked his hand with a big, cheesy smile and enthusiastically thanked him for his time.

I then walked to my car, collapsing into it, and thanking somebody up there that it was finally over.

If You Really Want to Piss me Off...

2008-09-09T16:10:00.002-05:00

Don't return my phone calls or emails. This is one of those things that I think causes people to randomly roll up into a school or a church with a machine gun. It is by far my biggest pet peeve of all time. Especially if you take my money first without giving me anything in return.

You see, two weeks ago I paid CPR Training Academy $65 so that I could renew my certification. It seemed like a very simple procedure. In fact, I have renewed with them before and didn't have any problems. I registered and paid online, and they were supposed to send me a code via email that I could use to access the study material and take the test online. Once completed, I would then print out a certificate saying that I had passed the written test, and take this with me to the testing center. At the testing center, I would perform the skills part of the test, and after promptly passing that portion, I would receive my certification card. Voila! Easy, right? Especially since I have had to do the same exact thing multiple times and practically have the entire test memorized.

Well I don't know what the hell kind of operation they are trying to run now, because even though I have registered and $65 have been deducted from my checking account, I got nothing! No access code, no test, and no certification. I have called and emailed these people endlessly with no response. At this point, the only thing left to do is go over there and see if anyone knows what the hell is going on. Otherwise, I'm doomed.

And did I mention that I need this certification in order to be hired anywhere as a RN?!?!

Did I also mention that I finally got called for an interview?! At least that is one person that did call me back..... Thank God! Finally!! I must have done at least a 5 minute happy dance around the house with my cat after I got that phone call. Somehow, she was not as amused as I was. Maybe I just need to sic my cat on those CPR buffoons... she'll show 'em!

This Message was Brought to you by Urban Dictionary

2008-09-03T18:19:00.003-05:00

I have officially become a PITA in the eyes of my nurse recruiter. I can almost hear an audible sigh after I identify myself every time I call. And yesterday he thanked me for my persistence at the end of our phone call...nice. (Although it sounded sincere, I'm almost positive it was at least a little sarcastic.) He has assured me that there is no obvious reason as to why none of the managers have picked me for an interview. He says that it rarely takes this long. And still, I have not been called for one single interview. Frustrating does not even begin to describe it.

Besides being unemployed with no source of income or health insurance, life is good. We had a fabulous weekend in Athens, hanging out with friends and cheering on the Dawgs for the season opener. My muscle strain is almost completely resolved after taking matters into my own hands and seeing a chiropractor. We had my boo's family over for a successful Labor Day dinner on Monday, and I'm pretty sure I passed the test of being a good hostess. We were both sick with a sore throat, a hideous cough, and nasal congestion over the past few days, but we're both feeling a lot better now. And I've thoroughly been enjoying the beautiful weather outside this week. Yesterday evening I lounged on my deck with a glass of wine, and it was so wonderful and relaxing. Now, if only I could do that after a satisfying day of work, life would be great.

Things That Keep me up at Night

2008-08-26T18:43:00.005-05:00

I am not a light sleeper. Most nights I don't remember my dreams, if I have them. And most of the time, I could pretty much sleep through a marching band. But this past week I have not really been sleeping well. I wish I could totally attribute it to the late night thunderstorms we've been having, but I know that's only part of it.

It could be from a lot of different things. There is an awful lot that has been swirling around in my head lately. But at the forefront of it all is my current state of unemployment.

I think I really took for granted the fact that I am a nurse. I assumed that with the so-called nursing shortage, HR would be banging down my door, begging me to interview. I assumed that with my six years of critical care nursing experience, I would be a top candidate for any job I applied for. And I assumed that this process would go much quicker than it has. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

I applied for three different jobs 29 days ago. I allowed one week for processing of the application, and then I started trying to contact nurse recruiters. I left messages with multiple people in HR, stating my interest in interviewing. Not one of my phone calls was returned. The next week I was on vacation, and I tried not to worry about it, telling myself that they are just busy and that they would call me soon. Nothing. As soon as I got back from vacation, I made some more phone calls, and finally got someone on the phone. The nurse recruiter seemed to have a genuine interest in me, asking me questions about myself and why I was interested in these particular jobs. He seemed confident that I would be contacted within the next couple of days for a possible interview. All last week, nothing.

So what am I supposed to think? Was he just stringing me along? Are there that many other candidates that are better than me that they are interviewing first? Or is it just a delay from red tape, paperwork, or other processes? Should I continue to be patient and wait for a phone call? Or should I be a persistent, pain in the ass? Have I been going about this all wrong? Should I have been calling from day one of submitting my application? What if I have waited all this time, and I don't even get the job? Should I go ahead and apply for other jobs, or just wait this out? And all the while, my checking account balance is slowly decreasing, my credit card bill is staring me in the face, and there are about one million things that I would like to buy for my house.

By nature, I am a very patient person. But enough is enough already! Persistent, pain in the ass, is what I will have to be. And I can be a very persistent pain in the ass when I want to be.

Back to Reality

2008-08-19T22:10:00.005-05:00

Holy crap, I just laughed for like five minutes straight after reading this. It could only happen to him.

Annnyway, I am back from the beach after spending some wonderful R and R time with my main squeeze. It rained quite a bit, but we did get at least one full sunny day of beach time. It was at least enough to give my pale ass some color, so that was good enough for me. The week in a nutshell: we slept in every day, we drank many delicious cocktails, we ate some delectable seafood, we watched the Olympics every night, we laughed at the cute lizards that hop around all over the place, we snuggled, we went to the Kennedy Space Center and ogled the geeky space stuff, we visited the Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge, where we saw a whole bunch of birds we didn't know the names of, 2 baby alligators, several turtles, 1 raccoon, and absolutely not one single manatee (although we tried), we got eaten alive by mosquitoes, and we just had some good old-fashioned fun. It was just what we both needed.

My birthday was spent driving home from the beach, and that was just fine with me. We had been partying the whole week anyway. Plus, turning 28 is somehow just not all that exciting. Meh.

Now that the vacay is over, it's back to reality: working on the house, paying bills, and finding a job that does not include taking care of 350 pound people that are comatose. I talked to one of the Emory nurse recruiters this morning, and he seemed confident that I should be getting called for an interview within the next day or two. Here's hoping!

Happy Happy Joy Joy

2008-08-09T15:13:00.002-05:00

I can finally breathe a huge sigh of relief now that my better half has been returned home safely to me! He rolled up last night around 10pm, just in time to catch me frantically trying to finish cleaning our house in preparation for his return... doh! At that point there was not much use in trying to pretend that I had kept the house sparkling clean all summer while he was gone, so we just had a good laugh and a great big hug instead.

Soon after his arrival, we headed over to a small reunion of friends, and to catch the last few minutes of the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. (Thanks to the DVR, we rewinded and watched all the shows at the beginning of the ceremony too.) Only one word can describe such an amazing collection of performances: WOW! OK China, you win the prize!

After we returned home, it was just like old times... We stayed up way too late, talking, laughing, listening to music, and drinking way more alcohol than was necessary. It is so incredibly wonderful to have him back home again. The phone wasn't ringing every second, and I got to have his undivided attention once again (a luxury I had sorely missed over the summer).

I am so incredibly grateful that he is back home safe and sound, back where he belongs. I still love him just as much as I did when we first fell in love four years ago, and then some.

Updates Galore

2008-08-06T22:14:00.003-05:00

In the past two weeks I have successfully applied for three jobs. Two of them I have already been rejected for because apparently I do not meet the requirements. It's just like with any job--how am I supposed to get the experience required for the job if I can't be hired for a job that will give me experience? (Say that ten times fast!) I'm feeling very frustrated, but I'm sure something will come up soon. I'll put in some more applications and just see what happens. You know the economy is bad when even a nurse is having a hard time getting a job!

Oddly enough, my back has been more sore and generally more uncomfortable since I have started physical therapy. I guess it's just from the strengthening exercises--I am sure that my muscles were pretty weak since I am so out of shape. It's not like I am unable to perform my regular daily activities or anything. It's just an annoying sort of soreness. Perhaps the doctor can shed some light on things when I go back to see him again this Friday. I think that regular massage therapy and visits to a chiropractor would also help a lot--I need to get on that.

Last week I spent three and a half very long days working on the guest bedroom. I finished it just in time for my mom and my sister to visit this past weekend. And when I say just in time, I mean that in the very literal sense. As in, after removing excess furniture, removing the closet door so it could be painted, painting the walls, the trim, and the baseboards, vacuuming, making the bed, putting up curtains, and returning the furniture to its original place, I finished screwing the freshly painted closet door back in place literally minutes before they arrived. And did I mention that they arrived at 3am? (It's not just me, running late is a genetic disorder that my family carries on both sides.) At any rate, I was very proud and happy to present warm and inviting (and finished!) accommodations for the weekend to my very tired family. Now I can check another room off the list!

I had a wonderful time with my family this past weekend. I always forget how much I had missed them. I only get to see my mom and my little sisters about twice a year, so it's always a bit of a reunion when we can get together again. Sometimes I really wish they lived closer so that I could be closer to my sisters. There have been a lot of "firsts" in their lives that I have missed as a result of the distance. And that is just kind of tough to think about sometimes, because I practically raised them during their younger years when I was in high school.

I also had a meaningful talk with my mother about what it was like to grow up in that household, where she and my stepdad were constantly at odds with each other. It was very stressful, and I just remember being so incredibly ready to get the hell out of there when I went to college. I can't believe they have been married for seventeen years and my mother is still miserable. It sucks to see her so unhappy and to feel helpless in doing anything to make it better. She knows what she has to do, it's just a matter of getting up the guts to do it.

In two days my favorite person in the whole world will be returned home to me again. I can't wait!!! Thanks to all of my best peeps (you know who you are) for taking me under your wings while he has been gone. It has meant a lot to me to know that I have friends to call on when I am at my loneliest. Soon our big, happy family will all be reunited....yay!!!

Conclusions from the Day

2008-07-23T15:34:00.002-05:00

Facebook is the devil. I've probably spent at least four hours on it today. The page where you sign up for it should say: "Warning: Highly Addictive!!"
I've been at least a little productive today. I've updated my resume, which I'm not sure I even need since I am applying for nursing jobs, and all they really care about is past experience. But I guess it's a good thing to keep up to date either way.
My evaluation of the Emory job website: Good idea, bad execution. I should not have to wait 60 seconds (or more!) for each job description to load. The slow loading of each page is most of the reason why I have spent half of my day on Facebook. I have no patience for slow web pages.
The bug man from Arrow Exterminators came today for a maintenance visit. Apparently now that he has taken care of the carpenter ants (which were the initial house invaders), our house is slowly being taken over by spiders. He found FIVE active spider webs in our house, and he says these kind of spiders bite! I definitely have the creepy crawlies now.... yuck! Looks like a cleaning spree is in the works for this week!
I'm bored.

LOL for the day:

P.S. My spider fears were not calmed when the bug man told me that they can't do anything about spiders because they just step over the poison with their long legs. And furthermore, they can have around 1,000 babies when their eggs hatch..... SH*T! I better start cleaning now!

So Ready for Down Time!

2008-07-17T16:28:00.002-05:00

What is it about the summer time that seems to make life so much busier? I guess it's just that when the weather is warm, people are more willing to dust off the cobwebs from the winter and get out and do something already! Or maybe for me it's the fact that I'm spending this summer in a place near family and friends, instead of the most boring place on earth. My man and I were just discussing the other night how much faster this summer seems to be going than last summer. (Thank God!)

I'm afraid that time is about to come to a screeching halt though, and that is no good when your other half has to be five hours away for 23 more days. (We'll call it three weeks-- that sounds a lot better.) My current contract at Piedmont has just ended on Tuesday, so I'm about to be out of work for at least the next month. Why you ask? Well I kind of strained a back muscle at work about a month and a half ago, and I went ahead and filed for worker's comp, just in case it turned into something worse than I thought. Luckily, there does not seem to be any disc problems, just an overworked lower back muscle. But come to find out, I can't be hired for any new contracts until I am medically released from treatment by the doctor. Right now, I have at least four weeks of physical therapy ahead of me until I even see the doctor again.

I'm really not complaining though. I've been getting pretty burned out over the last year, but have continued to work contracts as long as possible, because it pays so much better than a regular nursing job. And now with this back injury, I am going to have a much needed break from a stressful (mentally and physically) work environment. In the meantime, I plan to put in some job applications for some permanent jobs that will hopefully be easier on the back, and a nice change from the stress of working in the critical care area. I just hope that whatever job I find won't be too boring (which I'm afraid most things will be, compared to what I've been doing for the past six years.)

At any rate, I'm looking forward to having some down time. It will be nice to try and get myself onto a little bit of a workout schedule-- it's been months since I've had any kind of routine exercise. Hopefully the physical therapy will be able to help me get on track with some exercise that will be safe for and help strengthen my back. Maybe I can do some more work on the house, as long as it does not require heavy lifting. I'm just hoping I can find something to keep me busy enough to make the next three weeks go by as quick as possible-- I need my man back!

A Small Town Under a Big Sky

2008-06-26T20:37:00.009-05:00

Red Lodge, Montana: Population 2,243, Elevation 5,555. It is a place where the cow to person ratio, as well as the dog to person ratio, is at least 2:1. It has been known as the Gateway to Yellowstone Park, and as a place where there is a history of snowfall on every day of the year, except for one day in August. The quaint charm of this town, nestled in a valley amongst lush, green rolling hills, which eventually stretch into towering mountains, has a way of melting even the frostiest of hearts. This laidback, friendly town among an incredible landscape is where I was fortunate enough to spend last week.

Our journey started off quite early last Tuesday morning at 4:30 am, when my dad called to tell me that I had 30 minutes to shower and finish packing before he would arrive to pick me up and drive us all to the airport. Thirty-five minutes later, I was clean, had thrown the rest of my belongings into my enormous suitcase, and was huffily being hustled into the backseat of my dad's car. Boy was I grumpy!

Approximately 12 hours later, after sleeping through most of both of my connecting flights, I was again in a backseat. This time, I was in a much better mood, gazing in awe at the scenery unfolding around me. I was greeted by velvety green hills, sharp plateaus, and the big, blue sky that gave Montana it's nickname.

Our first experience with the people of Montana occurred during the hour and fifteen minute drive from the Billings Airport to Red Lodge. As we were all starving after having not eaten much except airplane pretzels all day, we were on the lookout for a quick place to stop for a bite to eat on the way. It turned out that once we got outside of Billings, there was a whole lot of nothing in the way of fast food, or even food at all. We finally found a little cafe in the tiny town of Roberts.

The place was mostly deserted, except for a few cars out front, but we figured we would at least check it out. We were greeted by an older man, who started to explain to us that they had already closed about 30 minutes earlier. (It was about 2:30 in the afternoon.) Then a plain-looking, middle-aged woman approached from the dining room, saying she wished she hadn't already turned the grill off. When my dad pointed out that there were five hungry customers, willing to pay for a good lunch, she smiled and said, "Well come on in and pick out a table then!" The food was delicious and tasted home cooked, and our hostess/waitress/cook, was warm and friendly throughout our entire meal. I felt like we had been invited to lunch at an old friend's house. And as it turned out, everyone else we met during our trip was equally as warm and friendly as she was.

After lunch, it was not long before we were driving through downtown Red Lodge, which consisted of a 7 or 8 block stretch of restaurants, shops, bars, and a really old hotel. Originally a mining town, Red Lodge now seems to make most of its money on tourism. There is a ski mountain, just 6 miles away for winter entertainment. And in the summer months, many people take advantage of the multiple hiking, camping, biking, horseback riding, fishing, hunting, whitewater rafting, kayaking, and golfing opportunities. It's not surprising that I can't remember seeing one morbidly obese person while we were out there.

But the landscape surrounding the town is enough reason by itself for a visit. No matter what direction you looked in, there was always a beautiful mountain or a lush, green hill on the horizon, with an expanse of clear, blue sky above. (Granted, we were really lucky to have gorgeous, warm, clear weather while we were there. Apparently, it had just snowed about three weeks earlier.) Here are some pics of the downtown stretch and some of the cute little side streets:

The Main Drag

The dark gray building on the corner is the
Red Lodge Clay Center, the gallery my sister
is doing an artist residency with.

I loved the way these hills cozied right up
to the town. If you click on this picture to
enlarge it, you will notice an entrance to
the old mine that this town grew up around.

"The Snow Creek" is how the locals call this
saloon. Apparently it is known as the "rough"
bar in town, as it is not uncommon for fights to
break out there.

The one and only organic and health food
store in town. Inside is also a delicious cafe,
where we ate breakfast at least three times.

The warm hospitality of the locals, the cute local shops and restaurants (not a chain business for miles!), and the pureness of the surrounding nature made for an amazingly refreshing trip that I really needed. I have never inhaled air so pure and clean.

Bits and Pieces

2008-06-23T16:51:00.004-05:00

It's our last day here in Red Lodge, MT, and everyone is pooped from almost nonstop sightseeing, eating so much food you would think we were on a cruise, and drinking delicious local beer after beer. We are having a lazy afternoon today, and I thought I would take a quick minute to write a few bullets about the happenings over the past couple of weeks....

Our housewarming party turned out wonderfully! Thank you so much to everyone who was able to make it. Having everyone over for the evening really made our house transition into what now feels like a real home. Of course there is still plenty more to do, but at least I feel like we can have people over now without having to apologize. If you didn't make it, you were missed... But don't worry, there will be more parties and get togethers ahead!
The Official Unofficial Event was a fantastic party, as always! I got to catch up with so many friends that I had not seen in a while, and in the usual fashion, drank myself silly. My favorite part of the night, was when we all got buzzed enough to dance until the wee hours of the morning. Some of the best times of my life have been dancing with my friends late into the night.... It has always been the best way for me to feel free of stress, worry, anger, and sadness. When I am dancing, it makes me so happy, nothing else really matters, and that was a much needed feeling.
I have been having a fabulous time in Montana this past week! It's been really fun getting to see my sister, her incredible artwork, and the awesome place she has been living in since last August. It's also just been a nice break away from the house, work, and life in general. Unfortunately, tomorrow we head back to Atlanta, so as I write this, I am also gazing out the window, trying to embed in my memory every last detail of the amazing landscape surrounding us.

Pictures and stories to follow in the coming days.....

And here's another morsel of beauty for your viewing pleasure.

Sunset over Yellowstone Lake

Yes, I am Alive

2008-06-22T18:38:00.003-05:00

There seems to have been a ripple in the time-space continuum this month... I can't believe June is almost over! The past couple of weeks have been busy to the max, and although there is much to write about, it never seems to quite make it to the computer in time. Luckily though, life as I know it has slowed down for a minute, and I have almost caught my breath. I have taken off to Montana this week, otherwise known as the Most Beautiful Place on Earth! I have many stories to tell, and much writing to do, but for now, all I can leave you with is this picture that I took from the Beartooth Pass yesterday:

Enjoy.... I will be bring forth tales of merriment soon!

Just for the Record

2008-05-29T11:40:00.003-05:00

Yesterday morning I received the dreaded 7:10 am phone call from work. A phone call that early in the morning can never be a good thing, especially when it is from work. I reluctantly dragged myself from the warm snuggliness of my bed and called them back. Apparently I got my schedule mixed up, and was supposed to be working Wednesday, not Thursday. And yes, they still needed me, because they were already short. Darn. An hour and a half and approximately 2.5 cups of coffee later, I was immersed in patient care, trying to catch up on what I had already missed of the day.

Of course, my coworkers were curious to know what had happened to make me an hour and a half late for work, so throughout the day, several people asked about my morning. I then explained to each concerned person that I was merely a doofus, and had gotten my schedule mixed up. After we would chuckle about it for a minute, each conversation took the same route. The other person would then reply, "Well we knew we needed to call you, because you are never late for work."

See, I have witnesses. I am not always late!

The Other Side of the Coin

2008-05-19T11:17:00.004-05:00

After reading Oob's last post, I took a look at some of my recent posts and realized that I might need to change my blog title to the Debbie Downer House Blog. It's true, the past two months have been tough: overwhelming, stressful, and exhausting. Usually I think of myself as an optimistic, upbeat person, who tries to make the best of a bad situation. But somehow, the past two months have turned me into a whiny, grumpy pessimist with an eternal gray cloud over my head. I'm starting to realize that having a crappy attitude toward life is neither making the situation any better, nor making me feel any better. In fact, it's making things worse. And the reality of our situation is that it could be worse. It could be a lot worse, and we have a lot to be thankful for.

So today is the start of a new week (Ok, actually yesterday was, but close enough). And today I'm going to start thinking more positively. Because really, it's just not that bad. So here are some things that I'm looking forward to:

Today I'm going to paint the guest bathroom, and I think it's going to be kind of fun. I am excited to see what the finished product will look like when it is all fixed up.
My close group of friends from nursing school is getting together this weekend, and I'm starting to get really excited. We always have the best time when we get together, and I don't doubt that will be the case this time around. Plus, we are going to Lake Hartwell on Saturday, and it will be so nice to just lay around in the sun for a bit!
Two weekends from now, we are heading to Athens for a gig that my Favie is playing with Grogus on Friday night at Farm 255. I am so looking forward to hanging out downtown and listening to some great music!
Ready or not, three weekends from now we are going to have a housewarming party to celebrate all of the hard work we have been doing around here! It will be so nice to finally relax with friends and family in our very own home.

And here is a happy kitteh for the week. (Also doubles as a picture of what I looked like last night after sharing 4 bottles of wine with my parents and my Favie):

more cat pictures

And No Vacation in Sight Yet

2008-05-15T15:35:00.004-05:00

Today I started out my day by stepping in a pile of cat puke with a bare foot. Startled by the warm squishiness that was suddenly seeping in between my toes, I squealed rather loudly, as my hands flew up, spilling my coffee all over the floor, and almost tossing my bagel across the room. I then cringed, hoping my Favie hadn't heard me, and wouldn't run into the room to see what was going on. But of course, being the sweet, concerned gentleman that he is, he interrupted an important work phone call to check on me. "Sorry, I just stepped in cat puke." He sighed and went back into the office.

This is going to be a long day, I thought.

I finally received somewhat of an answer today from the two week long string of phone calls that I have been exchanging with Mark the Mover. They are going to give me a refund on the 30 minutes of time that was wasted by the moving crew arguing about how to move our refrigerator into the house. OK, great. That will be enough money to cover the tip that I gave each of the guys. That is, the tip that I have been regretting giving to them ever since they had been gone no longer than five minutes, and I started surveying the damage that was incurred.

I said, "Well sir, that's great, but what are you going to do about the numerous scratches and dents all over my new hardwood floors and my brand new refrigerator, that I have to look at every time I walk in my kitchen?"

He replied by stating that he could either send someone out to the house to survey the damage, or I could send him some digital pictures over email. I opted for taking the pictures myself, thinking that there is just no telling how long it would take before someone would be able to come out to the house.

So now I have spent my afternoon trying to take some decent pictures of the damage, taking measurements of each scratch, and composing a professional-sounding email to this guy. Taking the pictures ended up proving to be a little more difficult than I thought it would be, because I forgot about the glare that happens when you try to take a picture of something that is already shiny (AKA stainless steel refrigerator and polyurethaned wood). Four hours later, and the finished product has been sent.

Boy am I going to be pissed if we don't get any more extra money back for this. Fockers.

Anyway, in case anyone is interested, here is a display of some of my (and their) handywork:

(Each little white box contains the measurement of the scratch that is outlined by the black bracket--Just click on the picture to enlarge it. Yes, I know I'm OCD. Have you met me?)

Kittehs Are the Best

2008-05-11T21:11:00.003-05:00

I am tired of blogging about our house. But that is really about all that is going on. All the complaints that I wrote about in the last blog have been resolved, so that is good. Except Mark the Mover. They are still on the bad list. Otherwise we are still slowly making progress on our house, little by little. Soon we will have a big party....Yay for that! We still have a lot of work to do, but I am just glad that I can sit on my couch and drink a beer without worrying. It is not perfect by a long shot, but perfection is overrated anyway. I have stopped worrying about fixing every little thing, and just accepted what we have for what it is. Anyway, I would much rather laugh at these silly kittehs, than worry about fixing our house, so here is my Kitteh of the Week:

Two Steps Forward, Three Steps Back

2008-04-24T11:54:00.004-05:00

Well, here we are...finally living in our very own house. Hmmm...it's not exactly what I was hoping for. At least not yet. Little by little, and excruciating, painstaking inch by inch, we are slowly making progress.

Moving Day was a very long, very busy day. We had contractors at the house again, working on the bathrooms and trying to get the plumbing in order. Then around noon, the movers showed up at the apartment, and started tossing our stuff into the back of their truck. A couple of hours later, both the movers and the contractors were at our house, simultaneously working up a tornado of chaos. When the dust cleared around 5 pm, the plumbing work was just about finished, and all of our stuff was moved in, except for the refrigerator.

I was pretty happy with Mark the Mover, up until that point. Apparently these guys had very little experience moving refrigerators. First they spent a good thirty minutes arguing amongst themselves about how to get it in the door, before they finally figured out that they just needed to take the handles off. (And they only figured that part out after David got out the manual and read it.) After the handles were removed, they laboriously slid it along our brand new floors, leaving several dents and scratches behind. They also left us with several very noticeable scratches on the refrigerator itself, as well as a huge scratch on the freshly-painted trim on the kitchen door frame. I am still pissed that we tipped them as well as we did.

Meanwhile, the plumbers were working quietly in the bathrooms. They were having a little problem getting our new shower fixtures installed correctly, although they seemed to be working through it without too much of a hassle. Around 6:30, they finally finished up, collected their tools, and went outside to turn the water back on. Next thing we knew, they were bounding back up the stairs and into the bathrooms, saying that there was water pouring into the garage. Come to find out, there was a drain pipe coming from the tub that was totally corroded. It wasn't long before they were able to deduct that the person who had refinished our tub a few days earlier, had poured laquer thinner down the pipe without making sure it was diluted out thoroughly. Luckily, our contractors/plumbers were nice enough to stay a little while longer to fix the melted pipe. And even though I had already paid them for the day, they refused more money when I offered to pay them for the extra work.

Overall, we have had a very good experience with our contractor. He is a good, old boy from Gainesville, who genuinely seems to care about the work he does and is not out to rip us off. Anytime we have asked him a question about anything, he has been great about making sure we understand everything, as well as giving us some very helpful and money-saving maintenance tips along the way. I would highly recommend him to anyone.

Having said that, he is kind of on my "bad" list right now. After they finally got everything fixed last Monday, I realized that they left us with a huge mess. They smeared dirt and/or grease all over our brand new carpets, and they chipped our newly refinished tub. I also realized the other day that one of the tub fixtures is still not working properly. (The lever that you pull up to make the tub drain plug off when you want to take a bath is not plugging the drain off). I'm waiting for a call back from him so that we can have a little conversation about this. I'm confident that he will be willing to have someone come out and fix it for us without a problem. Right now, it's just one more thing to worry about.

To Do List:
--Call moving company to complain about scratches and dents on refrigerator and floor
--Call contractor again to schedule a time to fix the tub plugger lever thingamabob and complain about chipping the tub
--Call tub refinishers to fix tub chip
--Win the lottery to pay for all of this house stuff
--Find my sanity
--Call my friends and tell them how much I miss them since we haven't hung out with anyone in forever!

Time Keeps Flying (But are we having fun yet?)

2008-04-11T22:46:00.002-05:00

Weird, I just blinked my eyes, and all of a sudden it was Friday night again. Time seems to be moving at the speed of light, between working at the hospital and working at the house. And because it is my bedtime in 4 minutes, here are a few more bullets for your weekly consumption:

Last weekend, we were very productive in our house work because we had to get everything ready for our brand new floors to be installed...yay for floors! There was a flurry of dust removal, vacuuming, baseboard removal, baseboard painting, and ceiling painting in a matter of two days. I am very thankful that both sets of our parents were able to come over and help us get some serious work done over the weekend.
I am especially thankful for the super duper shop vac that my dad bought us. I swear that thing is powerful enough to just about pull a limb off if you're not careful! It felt so good to finally start cleaning some of the dust and years of dirt that had accumulated in there. A clean house, is a liveable house, but there is still a loooong way to go on the cleaning front from my standards.
The thing that has really started to turn this house into an actual home that I would like to live in, is our new floors, which they just finished installing on Thursday. They are in one word...gorgeous! It is very satisfying to see them finally completed. Now all I have to do is try not to have an anxiety attack when the movers are scuffing them up!
Monday is moving day. We have already accepted the fact that our house is still a really long way from being done, and that it is just going to have to be a live-in work in progress. This has been a tough one to swallow, but I guess it will somehow all be worth it in the end.
Tomorrow our parental crew will be gathering again to help us do some more last minute preparations before move-in day: touching up ceilings, installing light fixtures, cleaning and rehanging our cabinets, and more in depth cleaning/ disinfecting. (Did I mention that the previous owners were really freaking disgusting? For example, there was at least a half inch layer of dust on all the fans and the miniblinds...gross!)
Somehow we're going to have to get packed up in time to move Monday afternoon. Even though we only have 3 boxes packed right now, I'm actually not that worried about it, because I think we've pretty much got packing down to a science by now.
I keep looking forward to the day when we can finally relax with a beer on our back deck. That will be the greatest feeling of all :)

Things I Would Rather Be Doing Besides my Taxes

2008-04-04T11:19:00.005-05:00

sitting on a beach with a pina colada
skiing
getting a massage
getting a pedicure
watching a movie while curled up on my comfy couch
napping
shopping for new spring clothes
painting my new house (by the way, I'm sooo over painting)
shopping for cool new appliances for my new house
packing boxes and getting ready to move
wiping asses at work
cleaning
doing laundry
exercising
cutting off my own leg with a chainsaw

Wallpaper 101

2008-03-26T23:04:00.008-05:00

So last week was our first dive into the wonderful world of home improvement. After all of our mishaps, we finally started removing wallpaper around 4pm on Sunday afternoon. Seven hours later when we finally left the house, we had only finished half of the kitchen, and we still had the two bathrooms to do. Obviously, we had no idea what we were actually getting into when we first decided to take on that task. It's one of those things that really sucks when you are doing it, but soon after it is all over, it will become quite funny. Anyway, here are a few things we learned:

Wallpaper is ugly and it sucks. Never, ever put it in your house...ever. You will miserably regret it if you ever decide to take it down. Here are two prime examples (The top one was in the kitchen and the bottom one was in the master bathroom):
Having a wallpaper steamer helps quite a bit. However, do not expect the wallpaper to just slide off like magic. You also need a really good scraper with a sharp edge. Meet the wallpaper steamer we rented from Home Depot (I named him McSteamy).
Patience is key! The best analogy I can come up with is that it is kind of like eating crab legs. It is hard work to break through the shell, but once you figure out a good technique, it's not so bad. Sometimes the meat comes out in little tiny shreds and you wonder why you are going through all of the trouble. Other times, huge long pieces of meat come out all at once, and that is when it is so satifying and worth it!
Go ahead and plan on taking about three times as long as you originally planned.
Don't be surprised if you find out that there are other layers under the top layer. Usually they will be even uglier and harder to remove than the top layer!

Be prepared for dust, wetness, and a big old mess!

Uh Oh...

2008-03-22T20:41:00.002-05:00

Well I was hoping I would have time to finish my story from yesterday, but today has been a loooong day and now it is bedtime because I have to work tomorrow bright and early. I promise I will finish my post midweek after I'm done working! Happy Easter to all!

Home Improvement FAIL

2008-03-21T14:51:00.003-05:00

We have officially been homeowners for exactly one week today....Woohoo! I can hardly believe it is true!

Our closing last Friday went pretty well. At least I thought it did. There were a few little glitches in the paperwork that we were able to work out right then and there, although it made the process a little longer than usual. Our real estate agent, who is a little on the hyper side, was about a minute away from smashing her head into a wall by the end of it, because we were there for a good two hours by the time we got everything worked out. Apparently most closings only take about thirty minutes. Oh well, I certainly didn't mind it taking a little longer if that is what it takes to get it done right!

The closing attorney, who was a college friend of Dave's, was very patient, and did a great job of explaining each paper we were signing in simple terms. I still don't understand everything we signed, but I trusted the attorney, our realtor, and our mortgage agent, who were all there to cheer us on. I really don't think they would have let us sign anything that would end up biting us in the ass later. The bottom line of it all was: make your mortgage payments on time, the property is being sold "as is," and make sure you get your property tax bill when it is issued. Oh, and now you are in debt for the rest of your life! Aaaaahhh!! (But actually, it wasn't really that scary to think about. The much more daunting task right now is making the place liveable.)

After our closing, we went to visit our new house just for fun (and we had to go and get the keys anyways). We walked around a little bit, making mental notes of the work ahead of us. As we were standing in the kitchen talking, all of a sudden we heard a scratching noise in the ceiling above our heads. My heart sunk, as I imagined some horrible rat chewing up the rafters and making a nest in our new house! I wondered to myself if we had just made a big mistake. And then to top it all off, when we were pulling out of the driveway a few minutes later, I noticed that we have a fire hydrant in our front yard. Well where the hell did that come from? I totally had never seen it until right then. It's weird the things you notice after it is too late. But truthfully, I'm not sure that would have turned me off enough to not want to buy the house. It is what it is.

The next morning we started out bright and early, attacking the task of.......

Oh wait, sorry, wrong story.

We meant to start out bright and early the next morning attacking the task of ripping the horribly ugly wallpaper out of the kitchen and the two bathrooms. But those who really know us would not be surprised to find out that we actually went out with friends in Decatur the previous evening, stayed out later than we meant to, slept later than we meant to, and didn't make it to Roswell until the mid afternoon. Then, the Home Depot that we were planning on renting a wallpaper steamer from told us that they don't rent tools there. Doh. So, instead we worked on picking out a few paint colors that we thought might look good in the living room and picked up some new locks and doorknobs for the exterior doors. Hoping to make some use of the rest of the day, we drove over to the house, only to discover that we had forgotten the tool box. Damn, we suck at home improvement. So we couldn't change the locks out, but at least we threw some paint on the wall to see how it would look. We also scared the shit out of the poor squirrel that was scratching around in our ceiling, probably trying to make a nest. Take that Mr. Squirrel!

The next day, after sleeping off the double UGA victory hangover, we again headed back to the house, after renting a wallpaper steamer from the other Home Depot store in the area that does actually rent tools. We lugged the contraption home, filled it with water, turned it on, and waited....and waited...and waited. NO fricking steam. The damn thing was broken. So then we had to go and exchange it for another one, which kind of worked out, because we would have had to go back anyway to buy the rest of the other tools we would need. I guess at first we thought we would just steam the wallpaper, and it would fall right off. HAHA! Now that is funny. Looking back on it, I am sooo glad we had to go back the second time, because we bought some chemical wallpaper remover and a scraper, which ending up really helping (but at the time, we bought them "just in case.")

Tomorrow: Wallpaper fun, working with a contractor, and pictures!

I Blame it on the Hops

2008-03-07T21:24:00.004-05:00

Last night I met some friends at Muss and Turner's to taste some beers I've never tasted before and to learn all about hops. I'm not sure I retained much of the educational material by the end of it all, but at least I expanded my hoppy beer palate. I enjoyed the presenter, as well as his presentation, and discovered that I might like hoppy beer more than I thought. In the past, most IPA's I have tasted have caused me to immediately scrunch up my mouth and nose and stick my tongue out in response to the bitterness, but I must say I was impressed to find a few that I thoroughly enjoyed last night. To top it all off, the company we were in was even better than the beers we were sampling. It was a much needed reunion with friends that really cheered me up and helped me forget about all of our house worries for a moment.

We ended up staying later than we should have, because we were having such a good time, and we just wanted to have one more beer. I'm not entirely sure what time we actually left, but it was much later than a person having to get up at 5am to work the next day should have been out. I remember passing out in the car, and then stumbling around once we got home, trying to get my clothes ready for the morning. Next thing I know, I'm laying in bed telling my favie that I really don't feel good. About 5 seconds later, I'm vomiting in a trashcan that he had pulled over to the side of the bed, just in the nick of time. I then proceeded to barf my guts out, until there was nothing left inside, and passed out in the bed. Ugh.

Somewhere in the midst of all that, I at least had the sense to tell my favie to call in to work for me, seeing as how I was in no shape to have people's lives in my hands early the next morning. I woke up at 7:30 am with the worst hangover that I can remember. Now, around 14 hours later, I am just starting to feel human again. And I must admit I'm feeling a little embarrassed about my shenanigans last night. I am usually a much more responsible person than that. Oh well, I guess everyone has their moments. All I know is, I think I will just stick with the Rock Green Light for now.

P.S. A word to the wise: If you take Pepto Bismol immediately before vomiting, a chemical reaction between the active ingredient, bismuth, and sulfites, which are in your intestinal tract, will turn your tongue black. Yes, black as the night. I thought I might be dying from a horrible disease when I woke up with a black tongue this morning, but the powers of google solved the mystery for me. Here are some links for more info.

Here We Go

2008-03-04T11:25:00.010-05:00

When we first set out to buy a house, we were not looking for a "fixer upper." We know as much as diddly squat about renovating, remodeling, or updating a house. We have the tools to hang up a few pictures, and that is about it. Well then we found our house, and it was just what we were looking for in every way, except for the fact that it needed mainly cosmetic updates throughout. Then came the inspection, and a few more things went on the list of needed repairs. We weren't sure we would be able to swing it, until our mortgage lender found a way for us to not have to put any money up front. We were quite relieved to know that we would then be able to use our money for the needed updates and repairs on the house, instead of for the down payment. Everything seemed to be going just our way, and it seemed like it would all work out according to plan.

Now, suddenly, we are about to be knee deep in updates and repairs on this fixer upper of ours. Yesterday, we met with a contractor at the house to get some quotes on the work that we would like to have done. Mind you, the day before we had made a prioritized spread sheet type list of everything we would like to do in the house. (Guess whose idea the spread sheet was?) The list is 84 items long. Some are big things, like replacing carpet, and some are small things, like capping an unused gas line. We then divided the list into things we thought we could do ourselves, and things we knew we would need a professional to do.

So in the end, we presented Mr. Contractor with a list of 45 items. He was very nice, very professional, and seems like a trustworthy person. He went through the list, making notes, and asking us questions as needed. I'm sure he could tell that half of the stuff we really had no idea about, except that we would like to have it done and have no idea how to do it or how much it would cost. He never made us feel stupid about anything we were unsure about, and even made suggestions for ways that we could do some things cheaper, even if it meant he would not be the one doing it for us. He genuinely seemed to want to help us.

Then Mr. Presumptious Douchebag, the flooring and countertop specialist, shows up. He was neither genuine, nor trying to help us achieve what we were trying to achieve. He only wanted to talk about the options that he wanted to do. Of course, they were the higher priced, higher end options, that we most likely will not be able to afford. The quotes he gave us for the floors and the counters were not even the ones we were originally asking for, but the higher end options that he had suggested. Sure, we would like to be able to afford those things. But the stark reality is that the quotes he gave us for those options would take up more than half of our budget. We really appreciate you wasting our time buddy, but I think we'll be shopping around, thankyouverymuch!

So we are now anxiously awaiting the rest of the quotes from Mr. Nice Contractor. I really hope that the prices he gives us don't make us wet our pants. I really hope that we will have the ability to do at least the higher priority improvements before we move in. I really hope this doesn't turn into a nightmare, a disaster, or a huge ass reality check. And I really hope we are not getting in over our heads. Please Mr. Contractor, help us make our house into a home, not a living nightmare.

Whatever we can't afford to have the contractor do, we'll have to either put off doing or do by ourselves. I am so scared this is going to turn into a horrible episode of a do-it-yourself "Flip This House," where the featured homeowner makes all the wrong decisions and everything goes horribly wrong. Or that old 80's movie, "The Money Pit." And that would just really suck.

Ready for Spring?

2008-02-21T00:21:00.007-05:00

So for the past couple of weeks I have been making a concerted effort to quit sitting on my ass on the days I am not working and actually go outside, enjoy the "fresh" air, and get some exercise. I have set a goal for myself of exercising for at least 30 minutes three times a week. This is actually less than the recommended standard set by the American Heart Association. (However, it would be virtually impossible and probably clinically insane for me to think that I will actually work out or exercise on days that I am working twelve hour shifts. Plus, I feel like I get my share of physical activity at work, so I don't really feel bad about not trying to exercise on those days.)

So far, I have been keeping up with it pretty well, despite my usual day of exhaustion following any span of working several days in a row. In fact, once I finally get motivated to get out there and just do it, I usually feel more energized and generally more motivated to accomplish whatever tasks I may have set out for the rest of the day. That is, until today.

I felt pretty run down this morning anyway, because I had a crazy day at work yesterday and ended up not being able to leave until about 10pm. So I finally peeled myself away from TLC this afternoon around 5:30 and ventured outside for my usual walk/jog through the neighborhood. I felt like it went pretty well, returned to my apartment, and plopped down into the recliner to catch my breath before stretching.

As soon as I sat down, I must have sneezed about 10 times and my nose was an instant running wasteland of snot and general clogginess.... Ugh! My first thought was "Oh crap, I've contracted my Favie's plague/sinus infection that has reduced him to a coughing, snoring, stuffed up and runny nose, sneeze-o-matic 5000 since last weekend." But the more I thought about it, the more I felt like it was a reaction to being outside, since I had been fine all morning.

Weather.com certainly confirmed my suspicions. So apparently I'm allergic to tree pollen. And here's the kicker: Somebody left town for business this morning and took all the damn drugs with him!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2008-02-15T12:41:00.002-05:00

Adventures in Housing!

2008-02-11T11:59:00.001-05:00

I'm sure that everyone has been waiting on the edge of their seats to find out whether or not our offer was accepted on the house. (And by "everyone" I mean the 3.5 people that actually read this thing...haha!) Well the bad news is that we waited five days to find out that they rejected our first offer. But the good news is that they accepted our second offer two days later! Yay! We are super excited!

Now we are just waiting on the appraisal, our mortgage loan financing, and the closing date. From what I have heard about the mortgage market these days, you just about have to promise them your right arm to prove that you are capable and prepared to actually make your payments. Luckily, our mortgage broker assures us that we should have no problem getting approved. So for now, we are still just waiting to find out where to sign next.

In the meantime, I've started trying to watch some of those really lame HGTV design shows to try to get some ideas for the remodeling that we will have to start almost immediately after we close. I have a few ideas, but whatever we end up being able to do will pretty much all boil down to money. I'm already getting stressed about it, because we're in a bit of a time crunch at this point. After our apartment lease is up at the end of March, the longer we stay in our apartment, the more money we'll have to waste on rent (which will be at an exponentially higher rate than our regular rent because we'll have to pay the month to month rate.... stupid greedy apartment management.) I'm sure we'll get it all figured out in the end, but I'm expecting the next few months to be a busy, stressful roller coaster!

Give it up for Feathers...

2008-02-06T21:13:00.000-05:00

I dedicate this video to Georgia Girl (and The Baffled King). I'm just glad to know that I'm not the only one that can get a silly song stuck in my head.

News Flash!

2008-01-27T22:11:00.000-05:00

I must interrupt this regularly scheduled program because I am bursting with news! The evil, unrelenting internet has been summoning me to blog about this, so I guess I'm just going to have to give in.....

We found a house that we love and we put an offer in on it yesterday! Woohoo!

I have been afraid to blog about it so far because I was worried that the whole thing might be jinxed. But then I thought that maybe if I told the world and asked everybody who reads this to think good thoughts/pray/talk to Xenu/will it to happen, then maybe our offer would be accepted.

I am nervous beyond belief. On the one hand, I'm worried that they won't accept our offer because there are two other offers on the table. (However, our realtor is pretty sure that ours will be the best offer because she thinks that the other two are probably from investors that are just trying to see if the seller is desperate enough to accept a lowball offer.) On the other hand, I'm nervous because if they do accept our offer, then I'll be like "Oh shit, we own this thing." Plus, it will need a ton of work before we could move in, because it's a foreclosure. And we don't know shit about shit when it comes to remodeling. So yeah, that's a little scary. I'll admit I was shaking as I was driving home yesterday.

All I know is that we've probably looked at around thirty houses so far, and this one has been the closest thing we've found to what we're looking for. I just really, really, really hope they accept our offer. So please, if you're reading this, hope/pray/talk to Xenu/wish upon a star/think good thoughts for us, and maybe, just maybe, we'll finally become proud owners of our very first home. I'll be keeping my fingers and toes crossed and wearing my lucky rabbit's foot.

A Day in the Life (cont.)

2008-01-24T16:43:00.001-05:00

After a short walk through the town, we duck into the ski shop, stomping our boots and dusting off the fine layer of snow that we have already accumulated. The shop is chock full of bustling activity. Customers fill up every inch of every bench throughout the shop, as they are all trying to strap their boots on and get ready to brave the mountain. Employees dart in and around the customers, helping them try on boots and pick out the right skis. And in the middle of it all, Rugs, the shop owner's bear-like golden retriever, is sprawled out, taking a nap. To him, it's just another day at the shop.

As I make my way through a particularly unaccommodating group of South Americans, who are blocking the aisle and speaking boisterously in their native language, I look for the familiar faces of the ski shop boys. These veteran employees of the ski shop have over time become old friends that I look forward to visiting with every year that we return. It's too busy for chatting right now, but at least I get a head nod and a smile from one or two of them. After saying "Excuse me, " about a hundred times, I finally elbow my way through the crowd, retrieving my ski boots from the drying rack and heading toward a corner of a bench that has just opened up.

It occurs to me that it's already midmorning, and I start to get anxious that all the good snow is getting used up, so I hastily strap my ski boots on and finish getting my gear together. My favie, my dad, and my dad's close friend that always comes skiing with us are all just about ready to go, so I throw my shoes in the locker and head for the door, grabbing my powder skis on the way. Once we regroup outside, we all grab our skis and start the short walk to the base of the mountain.

My excitement builds, thinking about the ski runs that I want to tackle for the day, and I start walking as fast as I can in my bulky and awkward boots. The base of the mountain is crawling with people, and I keep a vigilant eye all around me, as I watch for others that may be haphazardly carrying their skis. One wrong move and I could easily be whacked in the head! We carefully descend several metal steps to get into the long line for the gondola, which will take us to the top of the mountain. After inching through the line for about fifteen or twenty minutes, we finally set foot into our eight person carriage, the doors close, and we begin our ascension through the snow and fog.

The ride to the top takes about ten minutes, and I watch the ant-like skiers whizzing down the mountain below me. We all laugh when a snowboarder doesn't land his jump, resulting in a total yard sale. Finally, we make it to the top, hop off the gondola, grab our skis from the rack on the gondola door, and head inside the adjacent building, where we take a quick pit stop. Then I make the final adjustments to my boots, gaiter, gloves, and goggles, and meet the others outside. We all snap into our skis, and after what has seemed like eons of getting ready time, it's finally time to ski!

We ski down the small hill to the beginning of the run we have already decided to go down first, and then off we go like dominoes, one after the other. My heart beat picks up as I speed off, gliding with ease down the slope. The foggy snow cloud continues to envelope us as we ski down towards a ski lift that is about halfway down the face of the mountain. It is so foggy, I can barely see my dad, who is already disappearing into the trees about seventy-five yards ahead. The snow and wind sting the few exposed portions of my face, but I barely notice because I am too busy enjoying the soft, fresh powder that my skis are sliding through like a hot knife through melted butter.

more skiing coming soon...

A Day in the Life

2008-01-17T22:32:00.000-05:00

I have been working on this little narrative on and off since we got back from our ski trip.... It's not quite done yet but I've been wanting to post something, so here's what I have so far...

I wake up. My bed is warm and snuggly, and I have my sheets and blankets pulled up tight to my chin. Still half asleep, I try to fight my heavy eyelids and wipe the Grand Marnier and red wine fog from my brain. The sweet smell of brewing coffee wafts into my room from the kitchen. I hear the cheesy "Good Morning Vail" song coming from the TV in the next room, which is always set to the local Vail station in the mornings. Hearing that song lets me know that it's 8am, and I must peel myself out of bed. I wake up a little more as I finally roll out of bed and shuffle in my slippers towards the voices in the next room.

I sit by the fire drinking a fresh cup of hot coffee, just trying to absorb as much heat as possible. As I watch the daily weather report, I notice that it is currently 20 degrees and snowing. I start to get excited when the snow report comes on, saying that there are 9 inches of "fresh pow" on the slopes. Time to hurry up and get ready to tackle that powder! I slurp down my coffee with a bowl of oatmeal, eyeing the bathroom door. As soon as the person inside emerges, I throw my dishes in the dishwasher quickly, knowing that if I don't go ahead and take my turn in the bathroom, one of the other four people I'm sharing it with will jump in ahead of me. I know that if I'm not ready in time, I'll be subject to the usual playful, but still really annoying, prodding from my dad to hurry up.

I finish putting my hair in pigtails just in time to grab my gear and join the others in clearing the fresh snow off our rented SUV. As I walk outside, the refreshing cold hits my face, and I feel snowflakes melting one by one on my nose and lips. My boots are already covered in snow just from walking up the driveway to where the car is parked, and I can see the intricate shape of each tiny snowflake that has nestled itself into the folds of my jacket.

When the car is finally ready, we all pile in, hoping that we'll make it up the slippery driveway. The four wheel drive of our Durango dredges through the snow with ease, and I relax as we head toward the ski shop. I take in the sites of our magical Christmastown while the rest of my family chats about what their ski plan is for the day. With at least a foot of snow on every rooftop we pass, I am reminded of little gingerbread houses with marshmallow roofs.

Before I know it, we have already found our favorite spot in the Lionshead Village parking deck, which is at the base of one of the three main faces of the mountain. We head through the deck, across the street, and through the village towards the ski shop. Quaint shops and restaurants line the cobblestone pathway through the village. We pass rosy-faced couples, families, and singles, young and old, of all colors, shapes, and sizes. Everyone is bundled up in colorful ski apparel, as they trot excitedly over the cobblestones in their ski or snowboard boots.

to be continued....

Looking Back, Looking Forward

2008-01-03T19:16:00.001-05:00

Just as I knew it would, the last two and a half weeks have passed in what seemed to be a blink of an eye. Here's what I've been up to: worked all night, worked all night again, slept all day, shopped, cleaned the apartment, went to a surprise dinner and Nutracker show at the Fox, which actually moved me to tears, sister from Montana came to town, shopped some more, made a bunch of gingerbread, dressed up in ugly Christmas sweaters and drank a lot with old friends, drove to Canton for my favie's family get together: exchanged presents, ate delicious steak, drove to Roswell for my dad's side of the family get together: exchanged more presents, ate a whole bunch of melt-in-your-mouth crab legs, drove to Louisville, KY to visit my mom's half of the family: exchanged even more presents, ate some yummy Christmas ham, shopped some more, returned a few gifts that didn't work out, hiked to a waterfall and back, wished we could stay longer, drove back to Atlanta, had lunch with an old friend from high school and shopped some more, looked at some houses in Roswell, didn't find any winners yet, had dinner and drank several pitchers of Sweetwater with old high school and college friends, drove to Athens, dressed up in a 70's outfit, partied down Funkle Ester style, drank a lot more and danced till my feet were about crippled, almost froze to death, had breakfast in bed, drove back to Atlanta again, took a nap, watched the Sugar Bowl in good company, did a million loads of laundry, ate a delicious home-cooked meal, and checked out mortgage lender #3.

And that pretty much brings us to the current place and time: my apartment, my couch, 7:54pm. You would think I would be a little more exhausted after all that, but in the spirit of the new year of 2008, it seems that things are just getting started. Tomorrow we leave for our annual ski trip to Vail, CO with my dad. This year I am thoroughly looking forward to sailing along fresh powder trails, whizzing down the groomed ones, and a total body ass kicking, seeing as how the last real exercise I got was sometime in September.

After we return from Vail, I'll have about a week of sore muscle and bone recovery time before starting my new adventure at Piedmont Hospital. The good news is I've worked at Piedmont before, on this very same unit, and that I am finally leaving the dark side behind, as I will be back on day shift. The bad news is the same people that I didn't get along with so well when I worked there before are still there. But I think it will be better this time around since I already know what to expect from them.

Anyway, not getting along well with people at work is the least of my worries right now. A matter that has become much more pressing is finding a house to buy. More and more I have come to realize that our first house will certainly not be our perfect dream house. I think I already knew that though. The magic of buying a first house is more about owning something really worth owning. And the only thing that will make it perfect is the fact that it will be ours together. It will be some sort of combination between what we can afford, where we can afford it, and the things that are most important to us in a house and a neighborhood. It will probably be more modest than impressive, but it will be what makes us happy. I know it's out there. We just have to find it.

Just a Few Random Thoughts

2007-12-16T04:31:00.000-05:00

There's a lot spinning around in my head tonight....

This time of year is always crazy for me. It's just what happens when you have two families that live in different states, and you try to give everyone equal holiday time. Plus, I am the ultimate procrastinator. I started my Christmas shopping yesterday. Two presents down, only ten more people to buy for, and nine shopping days left. But it's OK because not only am I the ultimate procrastinator, but I am also the ultimate marathon shopper!
Last year, I remember dreading the holiday season. It's just too stressful, running around shopping at the last minute, traveling, and trying to make sure you visit all of your family. But I'm actually really looking forward to Christmas this year. I think a huge part of that is due to the fact that for the first time in five years of being a nurse, I don't have to work Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. I got way lucky this year and I'm totally going to enjoy it!
I miss my mom. I can't remember a time when I've missed my mom and my two little sisters more than I do right now. I haven't seen them at all since last December. And even then, it was only for two days. I just can't wait to give them all big hugs.
I've been very emotional the past two weeks. I think a big part of that is probably because I'm pretty stressed out right now. This whole house hunting thing, on top of the regular holiday season stress, has made me into a bit of a nutcase recently. I think I've cried three times in the past two weeks.
On top of being stressed out, I am also grieving for a patient of mine who recently passed away. I only knew her for a few weeks, or maybe a month, but she and her husband quickly became very near and dear to me. Although being born with a terminal illness, she had an amazing outlook on life, which made a lasting impression on me. I'm not sure I've ever allowed myself to make such a deep connection with one of my patients, especially with one that has ended up dying, so I've not really been sure how to deal with it. I've just been letting it out little by little so far. It's weird, but even though I've seen plenty of people pass away, I don't have much personal experience dealing with losing someone who I have really cared about.
The house hunting has pretty much come to a bit of a grinding halt because Christmas seems to be approaching at mach speed, and our realtor just has too much on her plate right now (and so do we). But I think at this point, we've pretty much realized that what we want, where we want it, and the amount of money available to us to get it is an equation that just doesn't have an answer. I'm still not feeling very hopeful about the whole situation in general. In short, the initial slap in the face has pretty much become a full body beatdown.
I do have good news though. I've accepted a day shift contract at Piedmont, that I will start next January. I really hope that this opportunity is exactly what I need to help me have more energy to focus on things like budgeting, house hunting, getting requirements filled to return to school, eating better, exercising, and doing things that really make me happy (like maybe taking a dance class or some music lessons).
After this Tuesday night (my last night of work on my current contract), I am looking forward to having the next few weeks off, so that I can sit back and relax with my friends and family and really enjoy Christmas this year. Then I'll party down on New Year's, ski my ass off (my skinny jeans are getting quite lonely) in Colorado for a week, and hopefully some of this other stuff I'm worried about will somehow work itself out.

Reality Check

2007-12-05T05:27:00.000-05:00

So I may have mentioned before that my favie and I are in the market for a house. As first time home buyers, we know next to nothing about this process. It's been quite a learning experience so far...to say the least. With preapprovals from two different mortgage lenders and one day of official house hunting with our real estate agent behind us, here's what we've figured out so far:

Shopping around for different mortgage deals is a good idea. It helps if you happen to know someone in the business and/or have a good recommendation of a lender to go to. We've gotten two different lenders to preapprove us so far, and we know of two other ones that we'll probably also check out.
Never underestimate the amount of money you will have to have as a down payment and for closing costs. Of course, all we have are estimates right now, so maybe we, (actually I), shouldn't get my panties in too big of a wad just yet. I'm just really hoping that we can convince the seller to pay for closing costs, because the number they gave us on the estimate was like an ice cold slap in the face.
The intown housing market in Atlanta is extremely hit or miss. The houses we have found so far that are in our price range are either old and need at least some work, or new and in the ghetto.
Question: Why the hell would you build a nice, new beautiful house in the ghetto or put a bunch of money into a beautiful renovation that is in a neighborhood where all the other houses have cars parked in the grass and there are drug deals going on across the street? Answer: To tease innocent people like me into getting excited about a really nice house that is in my price range, only to have my hopes come crashing down when we pull up in the driveway and the garage is tagged with "Fuk da Fam." Yeah, that wasn't in the pictures.
After our experience house hunting on Monday, we've basically realized that if we really want to live ITP, and not in the ghetto, we're just going to have to sacrifice some of the amenities that a suburban house will have (i.e. fireplace, 2 car garage, nice master suite with a big bathroom and a double sink vanity, etc)
The real estate agent we have is smart, and she knows what she's talking about, even if I don't want to listen. She has already been right about a lot of things. (One of them being that I will feel extremely disappointed after our first day of house shopping and probably cry.)

And I do admit that I pretty much fought back tears with every ounce of stubborness I could muster as we were driving home, because I didn't want her to be right. But once in the safety of our apartment, I just let it all out. Right now, I don't have a whole lot of hope that we will find our perfect dream house for our first home, but I think I kind of already knew that. I was just trying to ignore that nagging little feeling in the back of my mind. But I do feel encouraged that this process will teach me a lot about what my priorities are and what I can and can't live without. Wish us luck as the saga continues...

Blast From the Past

2007-11-29T12:32:00.000-05:00

Every Tuesday I try to get to work a little early so I can have a chat with my favorite teacher from high school, who is now retired from teaching, but works a couple of evenings a week at the information desk at the hospital. He is the kind of guy who really makes an impression on you, whether you are one of his previous high school students, or a family member of a patient at the hospital, just trying to find out the right room number. He's jolly and feisty, always cracking a joke, always wearing a kind smile, and always telling one of his funny little anecdotes. I am sure that I am not the only one of his previous students who makes a point to swing by for a chat. As it turns out, my thinking is absolutely correct.

When I went to visit him last Tuesday, there were two other people already in front of one side of the desk. I went to the other side to wait for their conversation to finish, thinking that he was probably giving out a room number and would be done shortly. He noticed me and said, "Well here's yet another Lakeside person!" I looked over at the other two people and smiled, thinking to myself, "Do I know them?" The younger of the two, stared right at me, waiting for me to recognize her. I had nothing. Finally, after an awkward moment or two, she said her name.

As soon as she said who she was, I absolutely recognized her. But wow, if I had passed her on the street, I never would have known it. She looked different, way different. In high school, this girl was like a stick....skin and bones. And now, I'll just say, she takes up much more room (like 3 times more).

I have actually seen her a couple of times in passing since our high school graduation, and I remember that she had gained some weight in college, but it seems like she's gained even more since then. What in the heck happened? She was very athletic in high school, and always had a ton of energy. It just doesn't seem like her to have gained so much weight. The only thing I can think is that maybe she ended up with some kind of medical condition that made her gain so much. I mean, this was way more than your average freshman fifteen.

My first reaction is much along the lines of high school maturity: "Haha! You're fat now and I'm not! I can still fit into my high school clothes and you can't! Haha!" You see, this girl was not only skinny and athletic in high school, but she was one of the most popular girls in our class. She was one of the people that I tried so hard to impress and fit in with back then. Isn't this what she deserves for not giving shy, awkward, and uncool people like me the time of day?

Well whatever she has gone through in the past 9 years, doesn't look like it has been fun. And for that, I say, shame on myself for thinking evil thoughts. I could tell that she felt awkward and uncomfortable, because I am sure she is very aware that she looks very different than she did when we graduated. But I must admit, it's hard for me not to be just a little smug.

Despite my initial reaction, deep down I do hope that she is happy, well, and has been able to follow through with her hopes and dreams for life. Nobody ever got anywhere by being happy for someone else's misfortunes.

I am Thankful For...

2007-11-25T12:35:00.000-05:00

my favie
my family
my friends
snuggling
comfy couches
sleep, sleep, wonderful sleep
funny movies
delicious food, especially when my grandma makes it
comfy clothes
my apartment
rain
my bed
jokes
having a good job that pays the bills
indoor plumbing
showers
pillows
cute, furry animals
my cat
upcoming ski vacations
mountains
waterfalls
toothbrushes and toothpaste
snuggly couch blankies
smiles and laughter
flowers and trees
sunshine
beaches
inside jokes
road trips
happy memories
fires (in fireplaces)
good music
opportunities
the hope for a happy future ahead

Middle of the Night Musings

2007-11-19T03:04:00.001-05:00

It was a little over a year ago now that my Favie and I had just set out on an adventure to find whatever it was that we were searching for at the time. I'm not sure I knew what I was looking for then, nor do I necessarily know what it was now. I just knew that I wanted to experience life elsewhere: somewhere different, somewhere new, somewhere exciting. I wanted to be outside of my comfort zone, so that I could learn something about myself that I might not have known. And I wanted to grow as a person in whatever way that I could: intellectually, psychologically, and socially. I found all that and more during the seven months I lived in Boston, MA.

The time that I spent in Boston and the things that I learned about myself and the world around me, are now forever ingrained in the countless memories and musings that my mind happily revisits almost every day. What's interesting is now that we have returned to Atlanta, I seem to be experiencing this city in a whole new way.

As a 27 year old, I figure this is the 26th fall season I have lived in Georgia, and the 20th I have lived in Atlanta. And honestly, I really can't remember a time when the trees here have been more beautiful. It seems that going away for a year has really enabled me to appreciate the good things about Atlanta that I had ceased to notice after living here all my life.

Driving along the winding, tree-lined streets of my commute to Emory has really become something that I take great pleasure in. I'm sure in years past, I would have thought of the same drive to work as a necessary evil. But over the past couple of weeks, I've noticed the trees bursting forth with more color than I ever remember. It reminds me of the drives we took last fall in New England, discovering the place we would soon grow to love. And now, as I drive along on a clear day in Atlanta, I take in the brilliant hues of red, orange, and yellow, streaming along the road beside me. I then reminisce on my time in Boston, and I am warmed inside as I smile to myself, remembering the place that I will always think of fondly. Maybe I just needed to find the joy of something new and different, to rediscover what I could have found here all along.

Some People Call it Job Security

2007-11-14T23:53:00.000-05:00

The past three nights (Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday) at work have been extremely busy. Sunday started off pretty laid back, but the night became much busier after I admitted a patient around midnight. And from there, each night of work has increased in intensity, culminating with by far the most intense night I've had so far on my current unit.

What am I trying to say? I guess just that I seriously worked my ass off last night and I am still totally exhausted to the max. It took me until about 10:30 this morning to wind down from it all and then I was literally physically and mentally unable to peel myself from my comfy bed until about 6pm. Uggh. I feel like every joint, bone, and muscle in my body, and not to mention my brain, have been reduced to a pile of half-melted jello. I feel weak like I have the flu, but I don't have any other symptoms. This is what night shift, especially a busy night shift, does to you. (And by busy night shift I mean, 12+ hours on your feet and a dinner break that is reduced to chugging orange juice and scarfing down a few graham crackers only because you are a shaking nervous wreck that can't think clearly due to a low blood sugar.)

Last night I took care of a 34 year old patient with spina bifida who came in with a severe blood infection on Monday. She is also a dialysis patient, and she developed this really bad infection from her permanent dialysis catheter. Apparently, she wasn't feeling good on Friday and was acting "a little confused." Her mental status declined over the weekend to the point of unresponsiveness Monday morning. However, she was not brought to the hospital by her mother until that evening. What?! Excuse me? Your daughter was not responding to you at all on Monday morning and you still waited until the evening to bring her in? Your daughter, who has a history of seizures and brain swelling, was unresponsive and you didn't bring her in right away? Anyone else think this is weird??

Anyway, this poor woman, who is apparently at her mother's mercy, was very very sick when I was taking care of her on Tuesday night. So sick that she almost stopped breathing before the "let's wait and see how she does" ICU resident finally decided that we could put her on the ventilator. But that was only after I called her 3 times in a 2 hour period to let her know that her patient's fingers were blue and that her breathing was agonal (breathing the way someone does just before they stop breathing.)

I'll spare you of all the details of everything that went on overnight, but basically, I've been reduced to a pile of sludge thanks to this idiot lady who wouldn't just bring her daughter to the hospital when she first noticed that she wasn't acting right. She even admitted that she noticed the green drainage coming from around her daughter's dialysis catheter. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out something should probably be done about that. I guess she was too busy with more important matters, like taking her half-conscious daughter to have her 2 inch fake nails done. And guess what the mother said after I brought her back in the room and explained about the tubes we had to put in her daughter to keep her alive? "Can I have a blanket?" And without another word, or a hint of concern, she went back out to the waiting room to sleep.

Here's yer sign.

Poor Li'l Punkin

2007-11-11T13:19:00.001-05:00

My cute Halloween pumpkin, just after I carved it:

After sitting on the counter all day next to the slow cooker:

I guess the humidity got to him :(

I See Dead People

2007-11-03T14:40:00.000-05:00

Most people who decide to go into nursing don't really know what they're getting into until it's too late (me included). A perfect example being from my previous post, in that part of my job includes cleaning up incontinent patients. Being an ICU nurse, it just kind of comes with the territory I guess.

Another part of working in the ICU that a lot of people might not always think about, is that because our patients are so sick, even when we do everything we possibly can to save someone, sometimes they just don't make it. Between the ICU and the ER, those are probably the two areas of the hospital where patients end up dying the most often, just because that is where the sickest patients are.

Every ICU nurse remembers their first patient death. Although my first patient death was probably five years ago, I still remember it as vividly as if it had happened yesterday. Unfortunately, death is part of life, and it is something that all ICU nurses have to learn to deal with when it comes up as often as it does in our job.

So last week one of the patients on our unit ended up passing away around 9pm that evening. It was a particularly unfortunate case, as she was a 19 year old female with Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia that had gone into blast crisis. She had apparently not been feeling well for awhile, and had been putting off going to see the doctor, probably because she wanted to be with her 1 year old child a few days longer. Because she wasn't my patient, I'm not sure of all of the details of her arrival to the hospital, but I think she may have collapsed at home, and finally been brought in by ambulance. By that point in time, her disease process was so advanced, there wasn't much we could do for her, except give her pain medicine and sedatives, and keep her alive on the ventilator until all of her family gathered together to say goodbye. Once she was taken off of the ventilator, it wasn't long before her body gave out and her heart stopped beating. After she passed away, we then allowed her family to stay in her room with her for awhile, saying their last few prayers and beginning their grieving process.

Once the family was gone, it was then our job to take care of her body. No matter how many times I have done it in the past, I'm not sure I will ever feel totally comfortable being in the same physical space with a dead body. It's just plain eerie. I always have to make sure that there is either someone else in the room with me, or I leave the door as wide open as possible, so I can at least see or hear someone else. Otherwise, I will start imagining things like seeing an arm twitch out of the corner of my eye, or that the body will just all of sudden wake up and grab me. Yes, I know this is irrational, but I have a really vivid imagination that gets a little carried away when it comes to scary stuff. (And that is why I've stopped seeing horror movies.)

When I walked in the room to help the patient's nurse prepare her body for the morgue, she had been dead for several hours. She was definitely the youngest dead person I have ever seen. I was immediately taken aback by her childlike features and her small, frail body. Her entire body was a dark grayish shade of blue, darker around the lips and nails. It was difficult not to look at her face, studying her little button nose speckled with freckles and her perfectly still purplish-blue lips. I could tell that she had been through numerous chemo treatments in the past, as her hair was growing back out, all spiky and wild looking. I wondered what she was like when she was alive and well: bubbly and fun-loving or more quiet and intense?

During postmortem care, it is our job to take out all of the tubes and IV's that we had once stuck in her to help keep her alive. We also have to stick an identification tag on her toe, called a "toe tag," to make sure that her body can be properly identified by the funeral home when they come to retrieve her. Finally, after we place her in a body bag, she is ready to go to the morgue.

At every other hospital I've worked at, they have a patient transport team, whose job it is to take patients around the hospital, whether they are transferring to another room, going to a diagnostic test, or going to the morgue. At Emory, the transporters don't work at night, so the nurses get to do it. So I was the lucky one that got to help take the body down to the morgue. Oddly enough, in this hospital, the morgue was located right next to the cafeteria. Gives you a whole new meaning to "mystery meat," doesn't it?

So there I was, a week before Halloween, going to the hospital morgue in the middle of the night with a dead body. It actually was nowhere near as scary as I imagined it. It wasn't anything like you might see in the movies, where there are rows upon rows of metal drawers that the bodies lie in and some weird, creepy mad scientist looking dude guarding them. Actually, it was a small, very unassuming looking room. We entered the room through a set of wooden double doors. To my right was a row of five or six small metal doors, just big enough to slide an entire stretcher with the body on it into what basically amounted to a large refrigerator. In front of me was another set of wooden double doors, which I can only assume led into the room where autopsies were performed. I made sure to stay as far away as possible from those doors and as close as possible to the first set of doors I came through, just in case I needed to make a hasty exit. And finally, to my left was a couple of filing cabinets and a small desk with a computer on it. I really would hate to be the person that would have to sit at that desk all day.

So once we got to the morgue, we had to wait until a security guard came to open the locked double doors for us. We brought the stretcher in and slid it inside one of the empty compartments. And then we "signed the patient in" by filling out a little form on the clipboard hanging above the metal doors to the compartments. The funeral home would then pick her body up the next day.

And that was all there was to it. I went to the morgue and came back to tell the tale with not even one dead person jumping out and grabbing me. I survived, but hopefully this won't become a regular task at work. I'm about 99% sure that no matter how many times I end up at the morgue out of necessity, it will never be a place that I will look forward to visiting.

Beware: Gross Content Ahead

2007-10-30T11:02:00.000-05:00

Last week at work two totally creepy things happened... just in time for Halloween I guess :P They were both creepy in different ways though: one was more like child molester creepy and the other was more like morbid spooky creepy. So the first thing that happened is....

I was taking care of an 83 year old African-American male who was admitted to the hospital earlier that day due to gastrointestinal bleeding (AKA, he was shitting blood). Let me paint a pretty picture for you: A person who has this problem has frequent bloody diarrhea (like they have to use the bathroom every 30 to 60 minutes as long as they are actively bleeding), and it smells like the most foul-smelling rotten piece of colon you have ever smelled in your life. As you can imagine, this problem is extremely miserable for both the patient experiencing it and the nurse taking care of the patient (and pretty much everyone else on the unit that has to smell it too.)

Whenever I take care of these patients, I try to be as kind and compassionate as I possibly can, knowing that they really don't need anyone to make their life any more miserable than it already is. I was trying especially hard in the case of this patient, who had the great misfortune of being conscious when all of this was going on (many patients that were losing as much blood as he seemed to be losing, would have been pretty much comatose). Not to mention the fact that so much of it was coming out, he was unable to control it, and just had to go in the bed every time because he wasn't quite strong enough to get up and use the bathroom.

As his nurse, for me this means having to clean his bottom and change his linens for him about every 30 minutes to an hour. If you've ever tried to clean a grown person's arse while they are lying in the midst of a bloody puddle that they have just expelled on themselves, you will know that this is a lot of work! And also quite humiliating to someone who is totally awake, alert, and with the program.

At least I thought he was totally with the program. By around midnight, I had just finished helping him get cleaned up for the seventh time that night. As you can imagine, that is quite a lot of old man butt whiping and genitalia cleaning (when you're sitting in it, it pretty much gets in every nook and cranny possible). All of a sudden he starts talking about how nice I've been to him and how gentle my touch was. I said something like, "Well I just hope you start feeling better soon," and I leaned over him to listen to his heart and lungs for a quick mid-shift assessment. He took my hand in his as I leaned over him, listening for any changes. I didn't think much of it at the time, just that he wasn't feeling good and needed a hand to hold.

Before I knew what was happening, he said, "Would you be offended if I did this?" at the exact same time that he put his other hand on my breast! I must have jumped back from the bed at least five feet, absolutely steaming with shock and anger. In the sternest voice I could muster, I stated affirmatively, "Yes, I absolutely am offended! You have no right to touch me there, and I swear to god, you better not ever, EVER try anything like that again!" I'm pretty sure he could tell I was pissed.

I mean seriously, what the hell was he thinking? He's 56 years older than me, and I've just cleaned up his shitty bloody ass repeatedly!

He then said, "I'm sorry, it's just been so long since I've been touched by a woman." Oh, and that makes up for it?? He kept apologizing like fifty more times, "Please forgive me" blah blah blah. I simply said, "Don't ever do that again, and I don't want to talk about it anymore," and promptly left the room.

My work for the night was not yet done though. Before that ever happened, I had been trying to decide whether or not I needed to put a catheter in him, so that we could watch his urine output. Well let's just say that after that little episode, I decided that he definitely was going to need one. But hell if I was going back near that man's genitals! So I got one of my male coworkers to do it for me. It's all about teamwork in my field.

I believe in karma. You molest the nurse, you get a tube rammed up your dick!

Creepy story #2 to follow soon...Bwahahahahaha!

Yes, I Have Been Scheming

2007-10-25T10:45:00.000-05:00

Well I guess it's been a few weeks now, but I have a good excuse: I was scheming. Although my Favie jokingly accused me of it several times, little did he know how right he was! The surprise party last Friday for my Favie and Georgia Girl went off without a hitch, thanks to all of our fellow schemers, who Mr. Beer Pong and I could not have pulled it off without.

My original idea for this post was to reveal all of the little white lies that I have told over the past few weeks in order to pull this whole thing together. I tend to be someone that does not deal with a guilty conscience well, and I was thinking that maybe I should "purge" myself of all the stories I have told my significant other recently. But then the more I thought about it, the more I realized that maybe I should be a good magician and not reveal all of my secrets. So as a consolation prize, I shall recount a few secrets and thoughts, but maybe not every little thing:

Be careful what you wish for: Over the summer, my Favie made a joke about how I needed to start planning his surprise birthday party. Well I think it was around the end of August that I first contacted Beer Pong about it. And see what happened?
As it turns out, it's pretty hard to surprise someone that works at home, especially when I was not working for six weeks, and had to make up excuses to leave the house so that I could scheme.
Email and myspace are the grand enablers of all scheming!
I cannot count how many phone calls I made to people while hiding in the closet or the bathroom (with the bathroom fan turned on), as I was trying to scheme while he was at home working.
Scheming makes a person totally paranoid, about everything.
As my present to each of the birthday honorees, I made each of them a collage of pictures of all their family and friends. In order to put each collage together, I collected pictures from six different sources (I acquired over 200 pictures) and spent around fifteen hours cutting and pasting pictures onto posterboard. (I'm not trying to toot my own horn here, but making fun of myself for going a bit overboard and being so damn detail-oriented and anal-retentive about getting them perfect.)
I cannot tell you how relieved I was when I found out that my Favie had planned to be out of town for five days during the week of the party. I'm pretty sure that I never would have been able to do the collages if he had been in town.
I was afraid to talk to Georgia Girl for about two weeks before the party, because she is so darn nosy and I'm afraid I'm not always the greatest liar. Good thing she's not much of a phone talker! ;)

All in all, the most important part is that they were without a doubt, totally dumbfounded and surprised. All my scheming was totally worth it, just to see the looks on their faces. The party itself was a total whirlwind that was over before I knew it. We had a great turnout between both friends and family, and I thank everyone so much for helping us make it all happen!

P.S. I'm not sure if I should write this part, but for some reason it keeps bothering me, so maybe I should just get it off my chest. I have one regret only. I don't why, but I have really been beating myself up about the fact that I got way drunker than intended. As far as I know, I didn't really do anything embarrassing, but I pretty much don't really remember the end of the party or going home that night. A good hostess should never be the drunkest one there, but I think I might have been, only because I don't really remember anyone else "acting drunk." It's just that I was looking forward to this event for so long, and now I hardly even remember half of it. But the party was for them, not for me, so I've told myself to just get over it. Anyway, the most important thing is that the birthday boy and girl were surprised and had a good time! the end

A Change of Pace

2007-10-08T00:00:00.000-05:00

Working at Emory the past week
Has been super neat.
Four days of orientation classes
I did complete.

I learned about their computer system,
And took a few tests.
Even though I was a little bored,
I still did my best.

One day I visited my new unit,
So that I could meet some peeps.
My new manager and colleagues
All seemed super sweet.

My first night working on my unit
Will be this Tuesday.
I hope on my first night
Things will go my way.

I admit I'm a little nervous,
And I always am at first.
I just need to show them
That I really am a good nurse.

So wish me good luck,
As once again I start out.
Hopefully I will like this new job,
And have no further doubts.

Self-Evaluation

2007-09-30T19:59:00.000-05:00

I'm proud to announce that I have not been beaten by the boxes of death. I finally made myself buckle down this week and finished unpacking every single one of them! Hiiiiyah! Take that! (Actually, what I meant was, I unpacked every single one that needed unpacking. The rest are neatly stacked in the guest bedroom closet. Bottom line: they are put away, and I don't have to look at them anymore. And that makes me very, very happy!)
I still have a few more pictures to hang up, but at least all the major ones are up. I literally spent hours pacing about the apartment, trying to figure out where to hang stuff up. Sometimes I think I might over-think things a tad much. (Of course, it might have been the too much free time thing too.)
The guest bedroom is now open and ready for visitors/people who are too drunk to drive home after partying it up with us. We'll have to have a get together soon!
I actually did meet my exercising goal for the week, including the running a little bit part. It turns out that I am even more horribly out of shape than I ever imagined, and my body did not hesitate to let me know that. On Monday, I ran maybe a mile, and I could not squat or bend down without groaning until Wednesday.
Today I went to Emory Hospital to scope out: 1) how long it takes to get there, 2) where to park, 3) where to meet for orientation, and most importantly, 4) where all the hot residents hang out. I am now ready to start my new job tomorrow!
I am definitely having my share of the usual "new job jitters," but for some reason, I'm just not as nervous as I used to be when starting a new position. The first couple of days are always easy, because all I will have to do is learn about policy and procedure type stuff. (Boring, but easy.) The real test will be when I actually start working on the unit, either at the end of this week, or the beginning of next week. I haven't studied yet, but I do plan to review a few things, before I start taking care of patients again.
And the best part is..... I don't have to be there until 11am tomorrow! I guess they are starting us off easy this time around.
Yay, I actually have something productive to do tomorrow! :)

You Gotta Start Somewhere

2007-09-23T18:28:00.000-05:00

So it turns out that when your primary mode of transportation is no longer on foot, your skinny jeans, that you easily and fabulously slid into while living in Boston, no longer fit. They have now returned to the status of my "I can get into these with a whole lot of hip wiggling and shimmying" jeans. And even when I finally get them on, there will be no eating or sitting down in them. :( Super sad.

So this past week, I have been trying to eat a little better and working on ramping up to some sort of an exercise routine. So far I've just been taking 45-50 minute walks around the neighborhood. The weather was so nice last week, I really didn't have any excuse not to. Plus, it gives me something to do and gets me out of the apartment, where the boxes of death have been continuing to taunt me.

Now that I only have one more week of unemployment left, I'm hoping that I will feel a little more motivated to get some things done around here. As the Queen of Procrastination that I am, part of the reason why we are still not totally unpacked is because I know that I can do it tomorrow since I know I don't have to go to work. But realizing that life will be a little busier once I resume working again, has definitely made me eye those boxes with a little more determination.

Goals for the week:

Exercise for at least 45 minutes at least 4 times. Maybe I'll even progress from walking to jogging a little! (Could I be any lamer?)
Figure out exactly what I want to unpack and what I don't. Then put the shit away, somewhere, anywhere, where I don't have to look at it anymore!
Study a little, in preparation to get my mind back into nursing mode!

I'll let you know how it goes....

If Only I was a Dog

2007-09-17T20:39:00.000-05:00

So we've been back in Atlanta for a little over two weeks now, and I gotta say, things for me are just kind of "blah." I'm so tired of unpacking boxes I could scream. In fact, now that we have the necessites out (kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom stuff), the rest of the unpacking has come to a squealing halt. I have absolutely no motivation to unpack the books, the pictures or any of the other miscellaneous boxes that we still have lying about. For some reason (I can't imagine why), I really just don't feel like unpacking stuff that has been sitting around in a storage unit for the past year, especially when I really haven't missed it. Not to mention the fact that it will just sit around for another six months until it has to be packed up yet again so that it can be moved again. Uuugghhh! It makes me cringe just thinking about it.

I'm also extremely restless and stir crazy. This is about 99% due to the fact that I have been basically unemployed for the last four weeks. Apparently the travel nurse market in Atlanta is either very saturated or just nonexistent right now. This could be due to one of the following: 1) There are just too many travel nurses in Atlanta right now, 2) Permanent staff nurses are taking up all the jobs, so that there is no need to hire travelers, or 3) Even though hospitals may still be understaffed, they may just be too cheap to hire travelers (which cost more than permanent staff). Whatever the reason, I finally got my first interview on Friday. Normally, I start interviewing for the next contract a month before the current contract ends. So basically, things are running about two months behind!

Today I went ahead and accepted the position that I had interviewed for, but I'm not exactly thrilled about it. It's a 12 week night shift Medical ICU (MICU) position at Emory University Hospital. MICU is probably the area that I have the most experience in, but I've also been getting very, very burned out on it. The patients tend to be very complicated cases with several different disease processes that compound each other and just tend to make things worse. They tend to be very sick with high acuities and tend to have long hospital stays. These patients can be very labor intensive. Don't get me wrong. It's not like I'm not willing to work hard, but it's just that it tends to be very stressful and physically laborious at times. I'm also not too thrilled about the night shift part either, but I kind of had to take what I could get.

Since I've already been in kind of a funk lately, I'm trying not to focus on the parts that I know I'm not going to like about it. There are some good things too. One being money. It's been a little sad watching my bank account dwindle, so I'm definitely looking forward to getting paid again. Also, this position happens to be the highest paid position that I have ever found in Atlanta, by quite a margin. (I'll be making as much as I was in Boston, if that gives you any perspective). I'm also excited about working at Emory Hospital because it will be nice to be working with intelligent people that actually know what they are doing, as opposed to those that I worked with in coughHighPointcough. While working at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, I realized that I really enjoyed working in the teaching hospital environment. Not only did I learn alot, but I also liked having residents around 24/7 that could come and check your patient in the middle of the night (instead of having to call and wake up sleepy, grumpy community hospital doctors). Furthermore, this contract will end December 22....yay! I won't get stuck working on Christmas yet again this year!

My first day of work won't be until October 1st, so I still have two more weeks to burn. I never thought it could be true, but it seems like it really is possible to have too much vacation time. Oh well, I guess now I really won't have any excuse to not have everything unpacked by then....darn!

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety Jig

2007-09-04T17:11:00.000-05:00

Despite Thursday's decidedly disappointing turnout, things were looking up on Friday. All I can say is the four ceiling fans that the previous occupants of our apartment installed probably saved our asses on this one. And I gotta hand it to Post for getting the carpet guys and the maintenance man there early in the morning to get things under control for us.

We arrived around noon with a truck chock full of furniture and all of the other junk that we've had in storage for the past year. By that time, the carpet guys had already sprayed mildew killer on the carpet and treated the ventilation system, and the maintenance man had replaced our thermostat (which apparently was broken, and probably part of the reason why the carpet didn't dry properly.) When we walked in, the carpet was dry, there was no scent of mildew to be sniffed, the majority of everything we had moved in the day before had mostly dried out, and it was nice and cool.

We unloaded the truck in record speed with the help of our buddies RS and WG. (Thanks again guys! We could not have done it without you!) Even the humongously heavy and awkward sleeper sofa was moved in the easiest that it has ever been moved. By 3pm, our incredibly large amount of stuff was all inside our apartment, we had returned the moving truck, and we had checked out of our storage unit.

Thus, we were left with this:

When Saturday morning came, we had to balance our priorities: dive into the mounds of stuff everywhere and try to make some sense out of them? Or take off to Athens for the first UGA game of the year? The choice was clear..... and to Athens we went!

So yesterday we actually started unpacking a few things, and certainly made a dent in it, but we still have a long way to go. I'm not worried though. We'll get it all done eventually. In the meantime, we have really been enjoying being back in our old hood. We have already been to two different restaurants we missed while being gone (Mellow Mushroom and Lettuce Souprise You), and today we revisitied our good old friend, Publix!

Aaaahhh...It's good to be back!

No Joy in Mudville

2007-09-03T22:29:00.000-05:00

Well, as it turned out, we did have a bit of a rocky start to our move...

We did a good job of pre-packing my car and the truck the night before leaving Greensboro, so that we could be as ready as possible to leave the next morning. Thursday morning, around 11am, we said goodbye to the land of strip malls and began the final leg of our journey home. The drive home was uneventful, although trafficky, and we did get sprinkled on a few times. Neither one of us were worried about the few sprinkles of rain though, because My Favie had painstakingly (AKA it was a bitch) tied the tarp down over our stuff in the back of the pickup truck.

As we drove through spaghetti junction, the skies were mostly clear with just a few puffy clouds. We thought we were home free. However, sometime during the signing of our lease paperwork, the skies opened up and monsooned on our poor little truck. Before we could rush our boxes inside, just about every single one of them was completely saturated on the bottom. Some were even saturated on both the bottom and the top. About all we could do was unpack all the boxes as quickly as humanly possible before the exisiting water saturated through. (Most people know that I only move quickly when forced to... this was definitely one of those times!)

Wet boxes were not the only problem either. When we entered our apartment, it smelled like mildew, and the carpets were completely damp. Apparently the carpets had been shampooed, but had not dried properly afterwards. We immediately alerted the management of the problem, but since it was late in the day, the carpet guys would not be able to take care of it until the next morning.

Soooo, we couldn't put anything on the carpet because it needed to dry out some more overnight. Plus, we had unpacked all of the boxes so hastily, that we had junk strewn everywhere. There was no order or organization to it whatsoever. (No good for a bean!)

Exhausted and frustrated, we hung up the wet stuff on every towel bar/shower bar/clothes rack we could find, turned on every fan in the apartment, and turned the thermostat down to 65. That was about the best we could do at that point, since it was after dinnertime, and we were both tired, wet, hungry, and not to mention stinky!

We left our supposed new home that night with little optimism about the whole situation. The one good part was the dry, comfy bed offered to us by two of our best peeps: Beer Pong and Georgia Girl. (P.S. We still can't thank you guys enough!)

to be continued...

The Bean Update

2007-08-27T23:57:00.000-05:00

Well, we've been back from our beach trip for about 24 hours now, and boy am I grumpy! We've had a lot of fun the past two weeks between my birthday and our beach trip, but now that we are back home, it's been a little overwhelming playing catch up. Don'tcha hate that?

My birthday was quite nice, even though I slept most of the day away (till about 4pm) after working all night. I woke up to a beautiful bouquet of flowers and a wonderfully clean apartment. Then I was wisked away to a delicious dinner at a really nice restaurant (yes, they do exist here, believe it or not), the Green Valley Grill. We enjoyed the best-tasting, most elegant meal we've had in a long time. Then on Friday, I was treated to a professional massage. It was sooooo nice!

Over the following weekend, we had a delightful visit from a college friend of mine, who was brave enough to venture up from Atlanta to po-dunk ville. We showed her the miriad of sights downtown on Saturday, and on Sunday, we ventured out into nature, taking a long walk on the nearby greenway and having a nice evening sunbath at the pool. We sure did appreciate the visit (and hopefully it wasn't too boring for her)!

When Monday arrived, we finally embarked on the long-awaited trip to the coast! We visited Surf City, which is the largest of three towns on Topsail Island, a barrier island off the NC coast, just north of Wilmington. Although it was the largest town on the island, it was still quite small and quiet, without too many tourists.... just the way we like it! We rented out the cutest condo with a beautiful view of the ocean from the deck. We then proceeded to spend the next three days lounging about or taking walks on the beach, trying to get some sun without getting too burnt, and eating some delicious seafood. Although I wished our trip could have been longer (as always), we both had a wonderful and relaxing vacation.

Friday morning started the driving marathon of the weekend: Friday we drove six and a half hours to Athens, Saturday we drove an hour to Atlanta, and then Sunday we drove another five and a half hours back to Greensboro, arriving back here around 1:30AM. The driving was both for fun and as a necessity. The fun part was getting to see two Modern Skirts shows, which included the premiere of their new music video and four new songs. As usual, this band never ceases to amaze and impress me with their talent. It's been really cool watching them along their journey, as I have known them since before they became the Skirt Boys (my name for them). Plus, it was really fun to hang out with friends that we haven't seen in quite a while.

The necessary part of our Atlanta trip was to pick up a truck from my favie's dad, so that we can have a vehicle for moving. It was wonderful to see his parents again, because we hadn't seen them since April, but we ended up staying there catching up and talking a little longer than we probably should have. We didn't leave until about 8pm; thus, the late arrival time last night.

Today we have both just been trying to catch up on the routine necessities of life. Things really do sneak up on you when you go out of town. Tomorrow we will pack up everything we possibly can from this apartment. Then on Wednesday we will pack up my car and the truck, with the intention of having everything pretty much ready to go Thursday morning. As of Thursday afternoon, we will officially be Atlanta residents again! And then Friday we will lug all of our crap out of the storage unit again.... sooo not looking forward to that. Finally, Saturday, although we will be up to our ears in boxes, we're gonna say, "F*ck it!" and go party down in Athens for the first football game of the season.... Gooooo Dawgs!!

If we make it through this week, I guess we start unpacking on Monday. If not, please be kind enough to scrape my tattered body off of the pavement so I can have a proper burial.

It's all Coming Together Now

2007-08-13T12:49:00.000-05:00

Now that I have my boyfriend back, we have spent the majority of our time together blissfully being lazy and pretending like we don't have a whole lot to do. But the time has come for us to get back in gear and plan for our move back home.

Actually, things are already starting to come together. Last week we made an extremely short trip (I think we were there less than 24 hours) to Atlanta to look at some apartments. We decided to look in the same area that we had been living in before we left, because we know it well and really enjoyed living there. So after looking at three different places, we mulled it over for a few days, and finally decided on a place at Post Brookhaven.

This apartment should meet our needs well for several reasons: 1) It should be large enough to fit the incredibly large amount of crap that we have accrued over our short lifespans on this earth, 2) It has a nice sunroom area which should work well as an office for Dave, a necessity now that he will be working from home, 3) It is on the bottom floor, so it should be easy to move in and out of. This is especially important since we will only be there for seven months. And, lastly, 4) It had the best price for the amount of space we will have, and is not in a ghetto complex with poor management (unlike one place we looked at that had really great prices with very spacious apartments but that we could tell was very poorly managed, and overall, just seemed a little sketchy).

You may be wondering why we are only going to live in this apartment for seven months. Well, our great new idea and goal once we return to Atlanta, is to put ourselves on a budget, so that we can aggressively save up and plan to buy a house to move into....YAY! And then we are never ever ever ever moving ever again!!!

So at this point, I have three more days left of work at High Point Regional. I'll be done early in the morning on August 16th, which just so happens to be my birthday. (No more work= an awesome birthday present to myself!) Then on August 20th, we get to go to the beach for 4 days.... double yay!! And finally, we'll come back to Greensboro, pack our sh*t up, and get the hell outta here! Can you tell I'm ready?

P.S. We will be accepting any willing volunteers who can help us move from Greensboro to Atlanta, and once we get back to Atlanta, move stuff out of our storage unit and into our new place. I know, we suck, but like I said, we are on a budget!

P.P.S. We will pay you in beer (or liquor if you prefer)! ;)

What in the Heck Have I Been Doing?

2007-08-02T10:58:00.000-05:00

Hmmm... that's a good question.

And the answer is: Nothing very exciting. Well, that's a little bit of a lie.

I did have one bright spot in the month of July. The weekend after my last post, I attended the annual Girls' Weekend trip that I have been to just about every year since I graduated college. This event is planned one weekend every summer by a friend of mine that I have known since my MCG days. She is adament about having a weekend every year where all of her girlfriends get together for girl talk, drink lots of alcohol, eat junk food, and just act silly (i.e. we have been known to set off fireworks, run around naked in the snow, play truth or dare, etc.) Although I don't talk to a lot of the girls who attend Girls' Weekend on a very regular basis, they are a great bunch to hang out with, and I always end up having a great time. This year we did end up having a little bit of drama since two of the girls had it out in an all-out screaming match. But hey, I suppose it was bound to happen one of these years. What can you expect when eleven girls spend 10 hours straight of drinking wine and beer together in one little cabin? I'm sure we'll all laugh our asses off about it next year!

After that weekend, I came home already exhausted and had to go straight into a three day stretch of shifts. After working, I spent the end of last week doing my chores and continuing to count down the days until EMF was over so that I could have my boyfriend back again. Although the last day of the festival was Saturday, he's had to play clean-up until this past Tuesday. So finally, yesterday was his first complete day off in the last six weeks! I don't know how he did it, but I sure am proud of him. Way to go babe!! (Without a doubt, EMF being over is definitely the other bright spot of July!)

Now all of a sudden it is August 2, and by the end of this month, we will hopefully have gone to the beach for a vacation (THANK GOD!), packed up, and be moved back home. I am sooo looking forward to it.

Counting Down the Days

2007-07-18T16:40:00.000-05:00

Despite the fact that there is nothing very exciting happening around this town, I've managed to keep quite busy. I guess I figure the busier I am, the faster it will be over with. While my favie has been working somewhere around 70 hours a week, I have continued to work my regular 36-40 hours a week on night shift. Needless to say, our schedules have not been matching up very easily.

I've been doing my best to stay on top of the household duties of cleaning, doing laundry, and grocery shopping during my days off. I've also been trying to prepare meals at the beginning of the week so that we can have leftovers to eat off of during the rest of the week. This has worked out pretty well for the most part, preventing us from eating fast food all the time. I had really gotten spoiled by Dave cooking a couple of times a week for us, and since he has been so busy and tired from working, that has not been happening.

At this point, I think we are both pretty much "over" this place, this town, and the crazy working hours that EMF has sucked away from my man. So what do I do when I am bored, tired of doing chores, and lonely? Shop! Last Tuesday I went on a shopping spree at Target, Macy's, and Old Navy. We both really needed some new clothes (especially since half of our wardrobes are still packed away in boxes in the storage unit right now.)

So for David I bought 3 pairs of pants and 4 shirts, and for myself I bought a skirt, 6 tank tops, a purse, a wallet, an umbrella, and 2 necklaces. All in all, I spent $299.17, which I felt was pretty good for what all I bought. So now that we have all these great new clothes, all we have to do is find time to actually wear them around each other.

Only 11 more days (and this one is about over)!

Table For One

2007-07-08T22:17:00.000-05:00

After working Thursday through Saturday, today was the first day of my weekend. I came home from work this morning, changed into a T-shirt to sleep in, and literally passed out, before even taking out my contacts or brushing my teeth. I finally woke up this afternoon around 5pm, a little confused and with a serious need for hygiene.

By the time I finished showering and brushing my teeth, I was starting to get seriously hungry, especially since I had passed out before eating anything. I knew that my favie was not going to be home until late because of his run-out gig, so I would be on my own for dinner. We had next to nothing edible in the refrigerator. So for dinner my choices were: 1) fast food, 2) go to the grocery store and then cook something, or 3) go to a restaurant by myself.

After eating sandwiches and frozen dinners the past couple of nights while I was working, I really wanted a decent meal, but I really didn't feel like going to the trouble of grocery shopping first. Therefore, I was left with option #3. Dining alone is not necessarily my favorite thing to do, but I've figured out a few things that make it a little less awkward.

I ended up going to a to a laidback brewery and steakhouse called Liberty, because I knew they had good salads and good beer (two of my favorite things). It was a nice evening: not too hot or humid, so I also went there because they had a nice patio that I wanted to take advantage of. I sat outside at a small table with a local newspaper to read. Whenever I have gone out to a restaurant by myself before, I have found that the most helpful thing to have to entertain me is one of those free, local newspapers. That way, I can browse through it without having to be too involved in reading, and also be able to people watch and talk to the waiter or anyone else that might want to strike up a conversation with me.

I took my time with dinner, enjoying the nice evening and the opportunity for relaxation. Although I still felt a little silly, sitting and eating by myself, I was glad that I got out of the apartment and treated myself to a nice dinner. I figured I deserved it for my hard work of the week. (And plus, I'm pretty sure I'm starting to get a little stir crazy from sitting in that apartment by myself when my man has lately been having to work so much.)

Just Five Dollars More...

2007-07-04T11:12:00.000-05:00

Speaking of getting my nails done the other day....

Click on this link to watch some hilarious stand up by Anjelah Johnson about going to the nail salon! (Ln I know you always skip the videos, but you will really appreciate this one.)

Hangin' With My Peeps

2007-07-03T22:42:00.000-05:00

Well the good news is that my car is fixed, after being in the shop for a week. The bad news is that I had to return the nice, new rental car that I've been enjoying driving for the past seven days. The rental car I was given was a 2006 Hyundai Sonata. While it is not necessarily a car I would buy, it was still way better than my poor, old 1997 Mistubishi Galant. Nine years makes a huge difference in a car. And now, I have the "I want a new car" bug pretty badly. Alas, I have been trying to hold out as long as I can. When I do finally break down and buy a new car, it's going to be sooooo nice.

Anyway, at least I was able to keep the rental car over the weekend, as I drove back to Atlanta to visit some more of my peeps. I arrived late Friday night to Virginia Highlands and met up with two of my close friends to celebrate the fact that one of them was having a birthday. We had a lovely and relaxing night at Apres Diem, where we enjoyed the summer night, as we sat on the porch lit up with Christmas lights, ate some delectable food, and sipped on some delicious martinis. We had a great time chatting the night away until closing time. I would definitely go back to that place again.

Saturday, after waking up around noon at my friend's house, we went and had lunch at Treehouse, another place with a great patio. It is located in Peachtree Hills and has a large patio with trees and flowers planted all around it, tables with large umbrellas, fans in between each table, and little water sprayers that spray water into the fans so that you are lightly misted while you eat. It was cool, relaxing, and the food was delicious. (Also another place I would definitely go back to.) After lunch, we went and had our nails done at a place nearby. I gotta say, it's hard to beat a good foot rub.

After my feet and toes were renewed and made pretty again, I headed out to East Bumblef*ck (a.k.a Buford, GA), where a friend of mine that I went to nursing school with lives. Along with two of my other friends from RN school, we were having an emergency nursing girls meeting to lend some support to the one that lives in Buford. Her husband has recently moved out, and it is looking like they are probably going to end up getting divorced. After I hugged everyone, we all grabbed a beer and headed out to the back porch for some serious girl talk. As it turns out, hiding inside my friend's husband, was a real creep, who has only gotten meaner since he moved out. From all of the things she told us about him, I have a new respect for her as a person who had to put up with all of his crap. He is a seriously twisted person, and even though I know she is going through a lot right now with all of the stuff she has had to deal with, I know that ultimately she will be a much happier person without him.

As is the norm with my RN friends, we usually get wasted and end up doing something crazy by the end of the night. This time, we hitched a cab ride to Wild Bill's, a humongous country western themed dance club. Although this is not usually my first choice of a place to go, it was the closest place to go out dancing around where she lives. (It was still like a 25 minute cab ride from where we were.) We danced, we ogled the hot singer and guitar player in the band, and we drank a lot. By the end of the night, I just remember yelling at one friend not to get in the back of some dude's truck, as we were absolutely not going home with them, and then making everyone get in a cab to head back to Buford. (At least I didn't do a wet T-shirt contest like someone convinced me to do last year.... I usually just try to block that memory out.)

After we all stumbled out of bed late the next morning, we said our goodbyes, gave everyone hugs, and headed our separate ways, promising to talk again soon. I then made my way back towards Marietta for some glorious hungover Sunday pool action. We only got to hang out at the pool for about 45 minutes before we were rained out by a torrential downpour. But I was just as happy to laze around on the couch for the rest of the afternoon and evening, chatting and watching TV.

Monday morning, I got up early (for me) and headed back to Greensboro. I got home just around the time my car was ready, so that I was able to take care of the exchange as soon as I arrived in town. Poor little Bean car.... don't worry, I won't retire you yet.

All in all, it was another wonderful summer weekend, spent doing the things that I enjoy most in the world: eating good food, drinking good drinks, being outside in the warm weather, relaxing, laughing, and hanging with my peeps.

It's All About the Golden Rule People

2007-06-25T23:00:00.000-05:00

After reading this and this, it kind of makes you wonder if there are any good people left in the world. Well, I know of at least one.

The morning of June 13th, I had just finished working four shifts in a row, stayed late to learn how to use the new IV pump the hospital was introducing, and was pretty much exhausted. I was about to leave the hospital, when I remembered that I forgot to get a copy of the most recent work schedule. I reluctantly went back up to my unit, only to be greeted by the frantic unit secretary: "Oh my gosh you're here! Security's looking for you! Your car was hit in the parking lot and I heard it was pretty bad!" I immediately started to panic, but then I remembered that my car is a piece of crap anyway, and that it probably was not as big of a deal as she was making it out to be.

When I went down to the security office, the police were already there waiting for me. Now that's what I call service! I was expecting to have to wait hours for them to arrive to file the report. Apparently, the High Point police don't have much going on at 9am on a Tuesday.

Anyway, they told me that a witness had actually reported the incident about an hour earlier. Apparently, another employee was going a little too fast while turning into the parking space to the left of mine, and totally rammed into the rear driver's side door. She then proceeded to continue pulling into the space without stopping, got out of her car, looked at her car, glanced at mine, and then ran inside. Not to mention, when she opened her car door, she rammed it into the front passenger door of the witness's car (who was sitting in his car, one space over from mine), looked right at him, didn't even say anything, and just walked off toward the building.

At first, the witness thought that this crazy lady was going inside to report the incident. However, he actually knew this woman, so he also knew that she was not of very good moral character. He called security a little while later to see if any accidents had been reported that morning, and of course, since none had been, he went ahead and reported it. Well here's the kicker: When he went back out to the parking deck with security, the lady had actually moved her car! Can you believe it?! She was actually trying to pretend that nothing had ever happened. The nerve!

I am a firm believer in what goes around, comes around. And I think this lady must have had it coming to her. On the police report that I recieved a copy of, I saw that she was charged with "Leaving the Scene of an Accident" and "Unsafe Movement." LSOA is basically considered a hit and run (if you are leaving the scene without producing "necessary driver documentation"), and that, my friends, is a misdemeanor. (If I had been seriously hurt by it, it would have been a felony. Well my neck does kind of hurt... ) So there! Good guys: 1, bad guys: 0!

I am unbelievably thankful that there was a nice witness there to report this incident. Otherwise, I would have had to spend $1000 out of my own pocket just to get my poor car fixed. I'd also like to take this time to mention that this is the third time my car has been hit in a hospital parking deck. The first two times were also hit and runs! I'm sorry, does my car have a freaking target on it?!

Thanks to my nice witness, the crazy lady's insurance is taking full responsibility for getting my car fixed. Plus, I get a rental car, free of charge to me, while mine is in the shop. I did take the time last week to call up my witness and thank him over the phone (and that is how I was able to relate the detailed story above.) This week at work, I am planning on meeting him in person, so that I can also thank him in person. I am also going to bake him some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies to show him how much I appreciate what he did. It's the least I can do. I just hope he's not allergic to chocolate... or oatmeal...

See? If you do nice things for people, you get home baked cookies! :)

Home Sweet Home

2007-06-21T22:58:00.000-05:00

Despite my "near-death" (so maybe it wasn't really "near-death," but it certainly felt like it at the time) experience of last weekend, everything else was fabulous. It seems like the more time I spend in this town of Greensboro, the more time I have found myself missing my "peeps" back home. (I think I've probably mentioned that a time or two.) Maybe it is because I have spent a lot of time on my days off, staring off into the green oblivion of the lawn that surrounds our apartment complex, wondering what I could do to entertain myself. I guess I just got a little too used to my favie always being home, like he was quite often while we were in Boston, when I was finished working for the week. Maybe I've just forgotten how to entertain myself. Maybe it is the huge contrast between the busy, almost overstimulating streets of Boston, compared to the vast openness of the terrain surrounding us: never-ending strip malls filled with chain restaurants are to one side of us, farms and manufacturing plants stretch to eternity on the other side. Or perhaps it is just the plain fact that we have been gone from the place we call home for eight months now, with our plans for return still two more long months away.

Whatever it is, can you tell that I'm bored and lonely? It's not a great combo, believe me. As always, I am trying to tell myself, it could be worse. We both have jobs that pay the bills, we have a roof over our head, we have the best kitty-cat in the world, and if nothing else, we do have each other. I also have to remember that it was my great big idea to strike out on our own for a while in the first place. (I'm sure that is something that has crossed many of your minds while I've been here complaining away.)

If nothing else, one thing I've learned while being away is that there are always good and bad things about every new place. So here are some things that I've been enjoying about being here:

First and foremost: WARMTH! The high's in Boston are still staying around the 70's with low's in the 50's and 60's. (And I would definitely be complaining about that!) I am just fine with the warm, sunny days of the 80's down here!
We have found a couple of local brewhouses around here that have nice patios and great food. At least it is enough to keep us out of the stinking old Applebee's, TGIF's, and Chili's (yuck, yuck, and more yuck!)
There is also a really nice greenway that we have recently found to be a wonderful place to walk.
It's a lot easier to go to the grocery store when you have a car.
As a result of the above, we have been cooking meals at home a lot more, which is not only cheaper, but much healthier.
Lastly, Atlanta is not that far anymore. It is at least manageable to take a weekend trip home whenever we can.

Having said all that, I now remember the original point of this post. I had a fabulous time last weekend. I surprised my dad for Father's Day, and spent a great night catching up with him and my stepmom. I got to have a wonderful dinner Saturday night with two of my oldest friends. No matter how long it is between times of seeing the two of them, it is always great to be able to pick right back up where we left off.

And lastly, although not a band nerd myself (sorry but I had to get one little jab in), I was glad that I was at least able to represent for my man, since he couldn't attend The Official-Unofficial Event himself. I was admittedly a little nervous about going by myself, not being an RCB Alumni. But as usual, I still felt like one of the clan, since now his friends have become our friends. I got to see a bunch of old friends, and I even got to meet some new friends, which is always a great treat for me. Overall, I was just really excited for an actual social engagement, in which I could bask in the glow of familiar faces, sharing old jokes and stories, and laughing about new ones together. Thanks to all for allowing me to be part of such a special night. It was a much-needed and refreshing reminder of the joys of friendship.

Near-Death Experience #3

2007-06-16T00:40:00.000-05:00

I left Greensboro yesterday afternoon in a rush to get to Atlanta by 8pm last night. Together with my stepmom, I had built a scheme to surprise my dad for Father's Day. It was simple enough. My stepmom was going to tell my dad to be home at a certain time, and I would be there, waiting for him when he arrived. I would say, "Surprise! Happy Father's Day!" and prepare for the great big hug that would surely ensue.

Well, I didn't take into consideration that I was about to travel to hell and back again. There's a reason that we have gut feelings. And every now and then, a certain someone/ something up there reminds us of that. I was hoping that I would get to swing by my favie's work to at least give him a hug and a kiss before I left. But as usual, I took forever to get ready, and I didn't get to give him the farewell hug that I was hoping for. I felt more distressed than usual that I was about to be leaving for 2 days without an official goodbye. I couldn't explain it, but I just felt like something bad was going to happen.

My journey started out fairly well. It was cloudy, but no rain. I hit a little traffic going through Charlotte, but after that, it wasn't too bad. Once I made it to the Spartanburg/ Greenville area, I started seeing signs for Atlanta. I then realized that I was more behind schedule than I thought, and amped up my race against the clock, trying to get there in time for the big surprise. I didn't even stop halfway for a bathroom break, because I just really wanted the surprise to work out.

Finally, I got into Georgia, thinking to myself, "If I keep up this pace, and just don't stop, I'll make it." OK, so maybe I was a little tense already. Then it started sprinkling a little. It wasn't too bad, and I could still keep up my speed. Then, all of a sudden, it was raining cats and dogs, but it only lasted a few minutes. I thought I saw a clearing in the clouds ahead, and hoped that was all it was going to do. Well, the next thing I heard on the radio was an emergency broadcast system report for a severe thunderstorm warning in Franklin County until 7:15pm.

I thought, "Hey, I'm in Franklin County..... I guess that was the storm I just passed through." Maybe if I had listened just a little harder, I would have heard someone up in the heavens scoffing at me.

So as I was going along, it was still sprinkling. Then the rain drops got a little fatter....and a little faster.....and bigger.....and faster.....and the wind started blowing....really hard! Before I knew it, rain was streaming across my windshield in sheets, like someone was putting a gray blanket over my car. The wind was blowing the trees sideways: leaves, twigs, and all kinds of debris were being tossed across the road like they were grains of sand. And marble-sized pellets of hail were pounding my car. I couldn't see a damn thing except the faint hazard lights of a car in front of me. Over and over again I prayed, "Please God, just get me to the end of this cloud, Please God, just get me to the end of this cloud."

My body was completely tense, like a cat ready to pounce on its defenseless prey. The only problem was, I was the prey, and someone else was the cat! The death grip I held on the steering wheel could not have been pried off for anything. I could hardly see two inches in front of the car, but somehow, I managed to steer my car over onto the shoulder. I saw someone else's flashing lights ahead of me on the roadside, and I cautiously inched forward towards them. Alas, I saw the outline of the bridge the other car was parked under. I have never been so happy to find a bridge in my life!

The storm continued on that way for what seemed like hours. Even under the overhang, I could feel my car shaking and shuddering from the wind. I fully expected that at any minute my car was going to be swept up into a black funnel cloud, never to be seen or heard from again. As the minutes passed by, more cars and trucks kept pulling under the bridge, until the entire area was like a parking lot. Even the cars driving in the lanes just flat out stopped in the middle of the road, blocking up traffic.

Eventually, the wind stopped, and the rain eased up. After I stopped shaking, and blinked the tears out of my eyes, I called my stepmom to let her know what had happened. As we talked, and she looked at the weather map, horns started blaring and the other cars and trucks started moving around me. After we hung up, I finally found it in me to crawl out from under the overhang.

It sprinkled for a few more miles, and pretty soon I was out from under the death cloud. As I neared Atlanta, the sun even came out. All in all, I made it to Roswell, safe and sound. Of course, I arrived at about 8:25pm, and my dad had beat me there :( Oh well, he was still surprised, but I think more confused than anything. At least I still got the great daddy bear hug, the kind that will fix anything. Before I knew it, we were all in the kitchen, laughing and drinking my dad's special blend of blood mary's.

Aaaah.... I cannot tell you how good it feels to be home (and dry, and warm, and safe, and oh yeah, alive!)

No Sleep for the Weary

2007-06-07T10:50:00.000-05:00

I can't believe it is already Thursday! See, this is what night shift does to you. I "lose" days all the time because I am always trying to catch up on sleeping. Next thing I know, it's already the end of the week... sheesh!

I tried to get some rest last night, but I just ended up tossing and turning most of the night. But now I am awake and I'm supposed to be asleep because I have to work again tonight. I wonder if I will ever win.

There has been a lot on my mind lately. There are just a lot of questions that I wish I had the answers to. I tend to be a bit of a worrier sometimes, especially when there are so many unknowns. We know we are planning to move back to Atlanta at the end of the summer, but that's about all we know. Here's just a sample of my stream of consciousness: Where will I find a job? Will I be able to find something on day shift? If I get a day shift job, will I be able to keep up with the pace and still do a good job? Where will we live? What is his job going to be? Are we ever going to buy a house? Will we be able to find a house that we are happy with and that we can afford? I want my stuff back! I miss my couches! How much longer are we going to have to leave our stuff in storage? And I miss our friends! Are our friends going to remember to call us and invite us to stuff when we get back, now that we have been gone so long? When am I going to be able to go back to school? What kind of master's program do I want to do? How will I pay for it? And on, and on, and on...

I know I won't be able to get an answer to these questions until it is time to make the move. It's just been hard because I know it's coming, and I want to plan for it, but there's not a whole lot I can do from here. It feels like someone has just hit the "pause" button on my life, and I'm just waiting until someone finally hits the "play" button again. It's really kind of agonizing. Maybe I just need to hit the "stop worrying" button. Does anyone have a remote with that one on it?

I Don't Care Who You Are, That's Just Funny

2007-06-01T10:02:00.000-05:00

I saw a story about this guy on CNN this morning. I guess this video came out on YouTube in 2006, so maybe you guys have seen this before. Anyway, it made me giggle. I present to you..... The Dancing Cadet!

This is Me

2007-05-31T12:54:00.000-05:00

Following along in the spirit of this post, among a few others, here's my introduction:

Hello, I'm Bean.

Actually Bean is my nickname. (For some reason, I just don't want to put my real name on the internet, even though I'm sure it is already on other people's blogs, and the only people that read this already know who I am.) Bean comes from a longer name that my dad used to call me when I was little (my real name with bean on the end.)

I am addicted to laughing. I tend to find humor in things that most other people don't. One of my fondest memories from childhood is when my brother and sister used to make me laugh so hard at the dinner table I couldn't hardly even chew.

I would describe my personality as: laidback about some things (like budgeting), really anal about other things (like cleanliness), fun-loving, sensitive, compassionate, kind, having a good sense of humor, intelligent (but ignorant about some things like politics and world news), open-minded, and easy to get along with.

I am the best kind of slacker. I do a good job on the things that are important to me. But I slack whenever I know I can get away with it. I am always on time except for when I know I can get away with being late. I am the ultimate procrastinator. I need a lot of structure and a good plan in order to get things done or learn new things. Otherwise, I will just keep putting it off.

I have always been a loyal and dedicated friend. I think I am a good listener and try to give good advice when asked for it. I am usually pretty good about keeping in touch with old friends but sometimes I get frustrated when I feel like I am the only one always trying. If anyone ever needs help with something, I am always willing to drop what I'm doing to be there for them.

I was born on August 16, 1980 and I am a Leo. Leos are supposed to be "powerful, creative, arrogant, intolerant, warm-hearted, and opinionated." My personality does seem to match many of the Leo traits, with some exceptions. It's true that I do like to be in charge, and I have no problem delegating tasks at work. In fact, I really kind of like telling people what to do. However, I tend to be pretty shy in some situations, so that if there is a stronger personality around, I'll let them do the talking. But if they are doing something that I strongly disagree with, I will surely let them know. I also do enjoy being the center of attention, but I don't necessarily seek it out, and I only enjoy it when it's for something positive. I have always thought that I would do well in the performing arts. Although I do have certain insecurities, I am overall a self-confident person, borderline arrogant at times. I usually try to pretend that I am humble, so that I don't seem arrogant. I also tend to be jealous in relationships. If you so much as look at or talk to my man in a certain way, I will instantly give you the evil eye. But I'll be sweet as sugar to your face.

Besides all that.... things I enjoy include: good food/ eating out, having lazy days by the pool, going out for drinks, listening to music, dancing, having game nights, taking walks with my favie, going to the beach, ski vacations, and daydreaming about all the things that I still want to do with my life.

Getting so Much Better all the Time

2007-05-28T12:51:00.000-05:00

Well things are looking up today. I think I have finally just about gotten rid of the plague, so that always helps. Besides that, we've had some really nice weather this weekend, and I even got to hang out at the pool a little bit yesterday. Good weather + pool time + no more plague = one happy (and not so pasty) bean!

After having Saturday and Sunday off, of course I have to work again tonight. I'm hoping that it won't be too busy since it is a holiday. Usually holidays are a little slower, but the day after the holiday is really busy. At this hospital, it doesn't seem to matter what day it is, because it is just always busy! I have definitely been working my ass off at this new place compared to the old hospital, but so far have enjoyed the craziness of it all. More on that later because a pre-work nap is calling my name!

I'm Ready for Next Week

2007-05-24T09:36:00.000-05:00

The last week has been kind of crappy. Partly because I've been fighting off the plague. I guess either I finally caught it from Dave, or maybe it was just my turn to be sick. I hardly ever get sick, so when I do it's usually pretty bad. Either way, it's always a good reminder of what my patients must feel like. The worst thing about it is that I don't really get sick days off from work. I can call out sick, but then I don't get paid. Also, if I don't make up hours that I miss when I call out, my housing subsidy gets deducted from. So I've basically just been going to work sick all week and then coming home feeling worse. Needless to say, I haven't had a whole lot of energy to get much of anything done.

Besides being sick, I think night shift in general is really starting to take a toll on me. I constantly feel tired and unmotivated to do much of anything. I'm hoping that once I get over being sick, I can start exercising at least a couple of days a week. Now that I'm not walking everywhere as my mode of transportation, I know I need to make an effort to exercise. Plus, I think that will boost my energy some too. I'm also hoping that I can try to find a day shift contract for my next assignment.

There has also been some drama going on in my family life. I don't think I'll go into the details of it right now, but it has been on my mind quite a bit. So much so that I haven't been sleeping very well or able to concentrate much at work. Things are not so great right now, but I fear that they might get even worse. This situation has been coming for a long time, and I figured it was just a matter of time before things came to a head. Once we get through it, I think things will be a lot better, but right now it's just really hard.

It's back to work again for me tonight and Friday. Hopefully, we can find something fun to do this weekend. At least the weather is supposed to be nice, so maybe I can make my debut of relaxation and tanning at the pool, and try to forget about all the drama.

If Only Our Ceiling Could Be a Little Thicker

2007-05-17T22:37:00.000-05:00

Dear Upstairs Neighbors,

I am writing because perhaps you are unaware of how incredibly loud your concrete-filled shoes are as you stomp around upstairs. And I am just wondering: is it really necessary to constantly run back and forth across the floor? Are you training for a marathon? If so, you must be exhausted after training for such long hours everyday, running back and forth into the wee hours of the night, only to wake up at the butt crack of dawn to continue your endless circles around your apartment. Don't you ever sleep? But how do you explain the squealing, the screaming, and the loud talking? Didn't your mother tell you about using an "inside voice"? And by the way, our bedroom is apparently directly under yours. So when your girlfriend is moaning and screaming, "Crazy! Crazy! Crazy!" as she climaxes at 2AM, I'd really appreciate it if you would just stick a sock in her mouth. Thanks for your understanding in this matter.

Sincerely,
I Wish I was Hearing Impaired

I Couldn't Have Put it Better Myself

2007-05-14T11:09:00.000-05:00

If you've ever wondered what exactly I do at work, you should read this article.

It is the best written, most accurate description of ICU nursing that I have ever read (minus a lot of the gory details). Some of the quotes that really rang true for me, sending chill bumps throughout my body:

"My war with the clock began the first week." (Anyone who knows me will probably also realize that this quote applies to my everyday life, not just work.)

"...I operated in a state of continuous low-grade panic, punctuated by spikes of abject terror." (This exactly describes how I felt as a new-grad nurse.)

"There could be no skimping, no coasting through a shift because of a headache or trouble at home. For 12 hours, I belonged to people whose survival was at stake."

"That's what nurses do. They deal with the unexpected and set priorities."

"My patients lay clean, well-bandaged, and stable, tucked under smooth white sheets amid the rhythmic click, beep, and whoosh of ICU equipment." (What I strive for by the end of every shift.)

P.S. And just for the record, I have never had to give hourly enemas. If I had a patient with this order, I would adamently refuse. That would be cruel and unusual punishment for both the patient and the nurse. Any doctor that would write that order should be shot!

Working Through the Muck

2007-05-10T03:26:00.000-05:00

Anybody ever watch Shear Genius? It's actually pretty funny! I've gotten stuck on a marathon tonight as I've been trying to stay up late so I can sleep during the day. Tonight will be my first night shift at the new hospital I'm working at: High Point Regional Hospital.

Orientation went well last week. It consisted of the usual: a couple of days of sitting in a classroom, bored out of my mind, reading about and taking tests on the policies and procedures of the hospital. And then I had two days of clinical orientation, working on the unit with a preceptor. Well there's only so much you can learn about how a hospital runs in one week. I've pretty much just learned to pick up what I can during the "orientation" week, and then just run with it. By now, I've gone through this enough times that I'm just going to expect to be totally disoriented for the first week on my own, work through the muck, and then finally get a routine down.

I'll admit that I am a little nervous, but I always am at first. At least I feel comforted by the fact that everyone I've met so far has been incredibly nice and helpful, and that alone is one of the most important factors in success at a new place.

Anyway, wish me luck...I'm ready to dive in and get my hands on some fresh patients. Let the healing begin!

Junk in the Trunk, Part Two: Spring is Here!

2007-05-08T12:57:00.000-05:00

After everything we went through on the first driving day, the second day was a breeze. We actually got up and on the road by 10AM. (Of course, we were partially motivated by the fact that we had to get to our apartment before the office closed so we could get our keys.) The weather was beautiful, warm, and sunny. And we didn't have any slow fast food service or unexpected traffic. Plus, we only had about six hours of driving instead of eight.

As we drove further and further south, everything kept getting greener and greener. And I started to feel more awake and more alive, the closer we got to home. I don't think I ever realized how much I enjoyed the springtime in the south until it was taken away from me. Over the course of two days, we went from a place where the trees were still completely bare, to a place where there were a million shades of green and flowers blooming everywhere.

When we finally pulled up to our new apartment, I could hardly keep from dancing around in the parking lot, as I felt the warm air envelope me, and I looked around at all the blooming plants and flowers. I was wearing pants and longsleeves, and for the first time in six months, I was actually hot! I don't think I've ever been so excited to put shorts on.... that is, until I saw the ghostly shade of white my legs were. Yeah, I'm gonna have to work on that!

So after we spent six and a half hours packing up the Durango, it took us probably less than an hour to unpack it! We are still working on getting everything put away around the apartment, but most of the work is done now. (Thank God!)

Overall, our new apartment is really nice. It has a ton of windows which let in a lot of light during the daytime. We have a decent size balcony, which will be great for watching the fireflies and listening to the crickets at night. In general, the living room/ dining room/ kitchen area has a very open feel. And the bedroom has a large walk-in closet, with plenty of room for both of our clothes and shoes. We do also have a nice fireplace, which we probably won't ever use while we're here, but it's a nice thought anyway. And last but not least, we have carpet again! (It sounds silly, but it's amazing how much colder, less cozy, dirtier, and dustier a place feels when it has all hardwood floors, like our apartment in Boston did.)

There is just one problem: those damn green couches! Here's the thing with the couches: they are the exact same couches that I had when I did a contract in Denver and that we had in Boston. They are ugly, they are hard as a rock, and only one person can lay down on them at a time. I hate them with a passion! And I really thought that we would get away from them this time, because we thought we were using a different furniture rental company than the one my company uses. Dave thought it was pretty funny when we walked in and saw them, but my good mood instantly turned sour. I don't know what it is with those damn couches but I can't get away from them! Arghh!

At this point, we've pretty much decided that after this summer, we will definitely be ready to resume a state of permanent residence. We're pretty burned out on moving around so much, and we want all of our stuff back! (including our nice, comfy couches) By now, we don't even know what all stuff we have in the storage unit. I swear, it's gonna be like Christmas when we rediscover all of the stuff we have!

For now, we are working on getting settled into Greensboro for the summer. But we are hoping that while we are here, David will be able to find a decent, permanent job in either Atlanta or Athens. So Atlanta/ Athens people: keep your eyes and ears peeled for job opportunities.... we miss you guys and are ready to make our way home!

Junk in the Trunk, Part One: The Longest Day Ever!

2007-05-07T14:47:00.000-05:00

Slowly but surely, I'm working on trying to get everyone caught up with our goings-on of the past few weeks. So here is part one of the story of our move back down to the lovely south:

As Dave mentioned, as soon as it was time to move, spring weather had burst forth upon Boston, yet we were stuck inside, cleaning and packing up a million boxes. I'm not going to lie, I was more than a little pissed. But at least we got to have the windows open, infusing a little fresh air into the stuffiness and dust left behind from the winter.

We worked all day Friday and Saturday of that week, preparing for the big move on Sunday. Saturday evening we had done about all we could do, and we went out for our one last night in Boston. We ended up going to the Skywalk Observatory at the top of the Prudential Center, so we could have one last view of the beautiful city lights. Here's a look at Fenway park from above:

After the skywalk, we went to our favorite neighborhood bar, The Hill Tavern, one last time. We were supposed to just have dinner and a few drinks, and then head home early so that we would be ready to leave by 10AM Sunday morning. But in the usual Dave and Bean style, we went out with a hearty "BANG!" Instead, we stayed out till 2AM, drinking more than we should have, but we sure did have a great time, and that's all that matters, right? Here's a picture of our favorite spot, complete with our favorite bartender and friend, a big ass dude who you definitely want on your side:

Sunday morning, April 22, 2007, was a little rough to say the least. I'm pretty sure we didn't even get out of bed until 10AM.... Oooops! And then to top it all off, what we thought was going to be just a couple hours of packing up the Durango we rented and a brisk cleaning of the apartment, turned into six and a half hours of packing hell.

Problem #1: When we first moved to Boston, we got extremely lucky by renting a Dodge mini-van with the all important "Stow-N-Go" seating. In this van, the back seats tuck down under the floor of the van, creating a perfectly flat cargo area for us to pack all of our crap in. However, the car rental place didn't have one of these vans for us to rent, so we ended up with a Dodge Durango, which is still a pretty large vehicle, but the seats do not tuck under the floor, only fold down flat. Therefore, we probably lost half of the packing space we originally had. (Sidenote: We did explore the option of an actual cargo van rental, but we did not find any that would allow a one-way trip.)

Problem #2: It is inevitable that no matter where you live, you will accrue more stuff than when you originally moved in.

Because we knew we had more stuff than would fit in our vehicle, we had already shipped our six biggest boxes with nonbreakable items in them. Apparently that wasn't enough. After cramming every possible inch of space in the Durango with anything that would possibly fit that we couldn't throw away, we ended up with this:

It certainly bears a striking resemblance to this, doesn't it? After all that, we still had to ship four more boxes, and had to throw away quite a bit. Some of the casualities included: both the bathroom and the kitchen trash cans, the dish drainer, numerous cleaning supplies, and David's beloved vacuum cleaner (which I swear was a decrepit old thing from the 80's that never worked right anyways, but David will tell you otherwise... even so, I still felt a little sad to leave it behind).

Finally, at 4:30pm, we said goodbye to our beloved Charles River Park, and headed towards Washington, D.C., where we had to make it that night, because we had already made a hotel reservation there for the evening. The drive started off OK, despite both of us being tired, hungover, and generally frazzled from the trauma of packing the shit out of the Durango and leaving much later than we had hoped.

We made it through the expected New York traffic without too much of a delay, and by the time we were almost through New Jersey, we were hungry and ready for another break. We stopped at one of those easy-access traveler's rest areas that are common in the northeast. They are accessed directly from the highway and have gas plus a variety of fast food, that I'm sure was designed for a quick and easy stop for travelers. Apparently the "quick and easy" part does not apply in New Jersey.

It was about 10:00 at night by that time, and the only thing that was open was the Burger King. Long story short, we spent about 40 minutes there, by the time we hit the bathrooms and finally got our food! We next had to get gas. First of all, we didn't get the memo that it's against the law to pump your own gas in NJ. We had to wait in line at the full service gas station, and by the time it was finally our turn, the guy comes up to us and says, "It's going to be just a few minutes. We are in the middle of a shift change." I swear I saw smoke coming out of Dave's ears, and I was really afraid his head was going to explode! It was at least fifteen minutes later, when we left that damn rest stop, and David proclaimed, "We are never stopping in New Jersey again!"

Little did we know, just around the corner, they were doing a little bit of Sunday night road work... Here's what we saw:

A sea of breaklights, spanning to the horizon. By the time we got through all that traffic, it was probably around midnight, and we still had two more states to drive through!

We ended up at our hotel around 1:30AM, defeated and exhausted beyond belief. We crawled into our bed, and both immediately fell asleep.

And that was only Day One of driving! Day Two to follow tomorrow....

Nostalgia

2007-05-02T21:14:00.000-05:00

I don't think it really hit me that we were leaving Boston until my last day of work. And in general, the last day of work is always just weird, because you say goodbye and sometimes you might exchange email addresses with a few people. But all along in the back of your mind you know you'll probably never speak to any of those people ever again. Even so, at the end of my shift, I found myself lingering. I walked around my unit a couple of extra times just to make sure I said goodbye to everybody. Then I walked just a little slower than usual out of the building. And finally, after I exited the building, walking towards my subway stop for the last time, I took one more look at the hospital, just to make sure I remembered what it looked like. I really enjoyed working at the Brigham, and I will always remember it as a shining example of how all hospitals should be.

Throughout the rest of our last week in Boston, I definitely found myself lingering quite a bit. I felt like I wanted to savor every last moment that I could. Things like the Charles River sparkling in the sun, the wind whipping my hair all around, and me not even caring about it, the quaint and narrow streets stretching upward to form Beacon Hill, and even the Whole Foods and CVS that we frequented for groceries... Every time I realized it might be the last moment I would experience these things, I felt a little tug on my heart strings. It was things like riding the subway, watching a group of fat pigeons waddling along the sidelwalk, hearing an authentic Boston accent and giggling to myself about it, walking along the downtown streets, as I watched and looked at all the people and things going on around me, hearing seagulls laughing as they soared through the ocean breeze between the buildings, feeling the coldest of winds creep down my neck, and visiting our favorite neighborhood bar while we laughed with our favorite neighborhood bartender and friend... all of the "last times" I experienced these things made me wish we could've stayed just a little bit longer.

I admit there were plenty of things I complained about while I was there. But then when I realized we were really about to leave for good, I just kept thinking about all the things I loved about being there and that I would sorely miss. I loved Boston and I have so many wonderful memories from our time there. It was an experience of a lifetime that will always have a special place in my heart.

The Boxes Ate My Homework

2007-04-30T22:03:00.000-05:00

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

2007-04-15T16:47:00.000-05:00

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

2007-04-13T03:59:00.000-05:00

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

2007-04-09T15:24:00.000-05:00

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 St Right Now!!

2007-04-03T12:35:00.000-05:00

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!

Cleanliness is Next to Godliness

2007-03-26T09:00:00.000-05:00

As soon as I published my blog yesterday, Dave looks over at me and says, "Hey do you want to go for a walk?" The funny thing was that he hadn't even read my blog yet. I was so happy he finally wanted to go outside I almost humped him, but then I decided against it for fear of overstimulating him and inducing one of his violent coughing spells. And really, I've just had enough of the whole coughing thing. (I know, I know, I am a mean, old, crotchety nurse.)

So we went for a walk by the river and the park, a route that I surely will miss when we leave here. The sun finally came out a little bit and was sparkling on the river as a group of rowers were out there practicing. It was picturesque to say the least.

We then made our way towards Charles St, where there is a cute strip of restaurants and shops. We crossed the footbridge over Storrow Drive, which is one of my favorite streets, since it runs right along the river.

Here is a picture of Storrow Drive. The river is just on the other side of those trees on the left.(And I would just like to point your attention to the street sign at the bottom right hand corner of the picture. If you can't read it, it says, "Beaver Pl. Pvt. Way." Those dirty, dirty Bostonians.)

After crossing Storrow, we stopped to have dinner at my favorite little cafe on Charles St. I got some carrot cake to save for a bedtime snack, and we were on our way.

I was feeling much more relaxed until we got home and everything felt so dirty and germy again. Thus started the cleaning binge of 2007. The bathroom was cleaned, the kitchen was cleaned, all handles of all cabinets, all the doorknobs, and all the faucet handles in the apartment were disinfected, all towels, sheets, blankets, the duvet cover, and the shams were washed, and the apartment was thoroughly vacuumed. Then and only then could I relax, shower, have a glass of wine, and eat my cake. And it was damn good cake.

Now I am sitting here in my nice, clean apartment, relaxing and waiting for someone to hurry up and wake up. I did an "Ln" this morning, as I woke up at 7:30 and have already been to the grocery store to buy breakfast food while waiting for sick boy to wake up. He's been snoozing for almost two hours now. I swear that boy can snooze longer than anyone I've ever met, even me! But I figure I'll cut him some slack because he's been sleeping horribly all week because of snot and coughing so much.

(He only gets a little slack though.)

Why I'm so perky this morning is beyond me, but I'm not going to complain. All I know is the forecast today is for a high of 50, and that's better than 45!

The Natives are Getting Restless

2007-03-25T11:17:00.000-05:00

I am tired, grumpy, and irritable. Why you ask? Could be the weather. It's cloudy and 44 degrees out, it snowed again last night, and it's March for godsakes! I was really just kidding when I was hoping for snow in January. OK, we got some, and now I'm done. Couldn't we at least make it up to the fifties by now? Where the hell is my sunshine?! And there's this Toyota commercial that keeps playing on TV. The song goes: It's coming...Can you feel it?...It's spring... I think that commercial is just a cruel joke.

Spring fever is real. It happens to people, and it's happening to me right now. I am so tired of this stuffy old apartment. It doesn't help that Dave has been sick all week, so we haven't been able to go out and do anything fun this week or this weekend. Today is actually the first day that he has woken up without a fever of at least 101. But he still has a very persistent cough and I swear this place is crawling with germs. I seriously need some fresh air. Don't get me wrong. Of course I am glad that he is starting to shake whatever it is that has been plaguing him all week, but that bug of his needs to hurry up and get the hell on so we can get back to our lives again!

Yesterday I was cooped up in a classroom, listening to lectures about crap that I've already learned. Every two years I must endure one of those days so that I can get recertified on ACLS. This is the third time around, and it's getting old I tell you. I can resuscitate someone just fine. I do it all the time at work. Shouldn't that be enough?

Luckily the class got out an hour early, and since yesterday it was at least sunny and 45 degrees, I decided to get off at a subway station that was farther away than usual so that I could have a nice walk home by the park. Boy was I in for a surprise! I came up the stairs out of the station, and immediately found myself in the middle of this:

The sign reads: Stop the Biolab

The sign reads: Stop Iraq War/ No Iran War/ IMPEACH

The rainbow flag speaks for itself.

A view of the group in the Boston Common from afar, just to give you a little more perspective on the size.

So the best I could tell at the time, it was a pro-earth, anti-war/ anti-Bush, pro-gay rights demonstration. According to the news story, I guess it was mostly geared towards anti-war/ anti-Bush, but I guess the other groups just decided to jump on the bandwagon. Either way, it was pretty impressive to find myself in the middle of it. People were chanting and banging on drums all around me as they marched by. I've never experienced anything like it.

At this point it looks like that's going to be the highlight of the weekend. Maybe I'll feel better if I take another walk this afternoon. Sometimes you just have to get out.

Slacking

2007-03-22T02:30:00.000-05:00

Well it must be a good night at work because here I am blogging again. Actually I have several things that I'm supposed to be doing right now, but seeing as how I am a professional procrastinator, I'll do that stuff later. I guess that's the reason why my taxes still are not done.

Anyway, I thought of something that might be funny to have as a running bit on my blog. It will be called "Overheard in ICU." I'm going to have to start writing down some of the weird, funny, and interesting things that come out of patients mouths while they are in the ICU. You see, many ICU patients are confused, demented, delirious, etc. They can say some wacky stuff. And it's not only the patients, but the doctors, the nurses, the family members, everyone. This is still in development since I just thought of it tonight so I haven't had much time for compiling, but here are just a few things I have overheard tonight:

Family member: Do you see that he has a fever again? Are you going to give him Tylenol?
Me, thinking to myself: Considering that the patient's temp is clearly labeled for me to see even from outside the room, and the fact that the patient's temp is the very reason that he is here, and the fact that I am the nurse taking care of this patient, don't you think that I have already noticed the temp of 99.8 (which isn't even that big of a deal)? And perhaps if you would hurry up and leave and quit asking me stupid questions, I could give it a little sooner.
What I really said: Don't worry, I'm about to give him some Tylenol soon.

Coming from the patient's room next door:
Nurse: dave....Dave....Dave!.....DAVE!......DAVE!!....DAVE!!!
There is no response from the patient
Me, thinking to myself: Hellooo, your patient is comatose, and hasn't responded any of the other 8 times you've tried to wake him up in the past two hours... get over it!

I go into my patient's room and he is wide awake, staring at the ceiling:
Me: Do you see something on the ceiling?
Patient: My wife and I have been married thirty years, and it's still not working out.
Me, to myself: Riiiight, OK I'm gonna go now.

That's all I got for now. And now, I really have to go and work too!

If Only I Had A Four-Leaf Clover

2007-03-19T22:58:00.000-05:00

I swear I have some of the worst luck with work schedules. I only have to work every third weekend. But, of course, I was scheduled for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday this past weekend. And why am I so piffed about this? St. Patty's Day was March 17th! And since Boston has a huge Irish population, it was just like one big party everywhere this weekend. Everywhere, that is, except the Brigham, where I was forced to slave away against my will. (Feel sorry for me yet?) Anyway, here are a few bloggable moments/thoughts from the past couple of days:

Thursday night I did manage to drag a few friends out so that I could at least have my own little St. Patty's Day celebration. We went to a few nearby pubs that had some pretty good cover bands playing, I wore green, and I drank plenty. All I remember is running up to the front of the stage, screaming/singing, and head-banging to some song at the end of the night. Good times.
On the way to work Friday evening, I almost got swept away by a blizzard....for real! It was so f***ing cold, snow was everywhere, and the wind was blowing so hard, I was in full-on survival mode. I wore long john's with jeans and boots on the way to work because I knew my scrubs would not be warm enough and would be soaked by the time I got there. Even with my head bowed against the wind, and my hood cinched up, snow still managed to blow down my neck. Now that's what I call cold!
The trek to work on Saturday evening was just as bad. It was still cold, but raining instead of snowing. After the four or five inches of snow from the previous day, the rain on top of it made for a huge slushy mess! Plus I left the apartment a few minutes late, so I had to run through all that crap, dodging drunk people that had been partying since that morning. Then, just as soon as I got into the train station, I heard my train pulling up, so I started run-walking even faster. As I started down the escalator at warp speed, my wet boot slid straight out in front of me on the first step. I threw my arms out and caught myself in mid-air before I totally busted my ass, and then ran the rest of the way down to jump on the train just in the nick of time. When my adrenaline quit pumping, I then felt super embarrassed at how dumb I must have just looked. And my left quad still hurts because I must have pulled it a little. Yeah, that sucked.
Sunday morning I was oh-so-pleasantly surprised to see beer cans, liquor bottles, multiple patches of yellow snow, frozen vomit, and various green party debris littered all over the sidewalk on the way home from work. And most of it is still there, as it is frozen in place. I guess city life isn't always what it's cracked up to be.
On top of the bad weather and missing the partying, work itself was also pretty crappy this weekend. The patient census was lower than usual, and since I wasn't needed to work on my regular unit, I was floated to other units to work. I don't mind having to float every so often, but by Sunday night, I was really feeling abused. Both Friday and Saturday nights, they floated me to work on one unit at 7pm, and then made me switch units at 11pm. This is really a pain because at 11pm, I would be on a completely different floor with a whole new patient assignment, and have to start all over again. So Sunday night, I simply told the charge nurse that if I was told to switch units at 11pm, I would just go home. And what do you know? I stayed on the same unit for the whole twelve hours and had a nice night. So here's to putting the smack down!
Just when I thought my nursing duties were over for the weekend, my poor little favie needed his own private nurse. When I woke up this afternoon, I found him lying on the couch, looking like death itself. It turned out that he had a temp of 103.4!! I was trying to stay cool, but I blew it when I looked at the thermometer and exclaimed, "Oh Shit!!" Thanks to some good drugs and a little extra TLC, his temp finally came down to normal by bedtime, and he was feeling much better. Whew! I've never seen a temp that high on a conscious person! I'm so glad his brain didn't fry up, because I think I would've really missed it :)
And last but not least, just when we thought the snow was over, it started snowing again this evening. See, I told you I wasn't getting my hopes up about spring!

Speaking of News for Sale...

2007-03-15T16:03:00.000-05:00

Now that the cat's finally out of the bag about our next destination, we've started making plans for our move down south. This includes me trying to find a job that is close to David's new job. Me finding a job directly translates into where the available jobs actually are. And I don't know much about Greensboro, but I wasn't expecting to find a whole lot of availability because most of the travel nurse jobs are at the big teaching hospitals in big cities.

So at the beginning of last week, I told my recruiter that I wanted to find a job in Greensboro, NC. Upon the initial survey, my recruiter found several orders for jobs, but they were all in Raleigh, Durham, or Chapel Hill. Surprise, surprise: Duke medical school is in Durham and UNC's medical school is in Chapel Hill, so that's where the big hospitals and where all the jobs are. I was like "Well that's great and all, but I'm going to actually be living at least an hour away from there." And here we go again...

All the stress and worry about our previous move to Boston came rushing back as I remembered everything we went through to get up here in the first place. I wondered if I was going to have to go through all that crap again: not finding a job until the last minute, feeling pressured by my recruiter to take a job that wasn't really what I wanted, not knowing where I was going to be living until a week before the move-in date, etc. But I decided to just chill out, let all of that go, and have faith that somehow everything would work out.

And what do you know? Today I spoke with the ICU nurse manager at High Point Regional Hospital. High Point, NC is not only the next town over from Greensboro, but it is also the furniture capital of the world. So I can work and buy discount furniture in the same place... awesome! Although the commute time will still be longer than I would have preferred (probably about thirty minutes), it is at least doable, and everything else about this hospital sounds great. After an extremely pleasant, hour long conversation with the nurse manager this afternoon, the job was all mine!

So now that we can both check "job" off of our list, all we have to do is find an apartment. This could prove harder than we think, but I told myself that I wasn't going to stress. It can't be that hard to find a furnished apartment with a four month lease can it? I'm sure we'll figure something out. Until then I'll be looking forward to those balmy summer nights with all the crickets chirping and the fireflies sparkling in the trees.

Look out south.... here we come!

Getting Warmer

2007-03-13T02:48:00.000-05:00

It's a miracle! The temperature actually made it up to 54 degrees yesterday! I definitely have no problem with that. Today it's supposed to get up to a high of 58! I'm not getting my hopes up though. The forecast for the end of this week is predicting highs back down to the 40's. Of course, it's still better than the 5 degree weather with the -8 wind chill that I endured last week.

My weekend, as usual, went by way too fast. Friday night we went to the Harpoon Brewery down by the waterfront. They were having an early St. Patrick's Day celebration, complete with plenty of great beer, about a million drunk people under a huge tent that I wished was even bigger than it was, and a great U2 cover band. Basically, we spent a $15 cover charge to get a plastic pint glass with the Harpoon logo on it, only to have to elbow our way through a huge crowd of people that had already been drinking for a few hours, only to have to pay $5 per pint of beer. Oh well, I guessed we should've pre-gamed that one. At least it's really good beer!

Afterwards, we almost froze to death, waiting in a 20-minute line to get into a crowded bar where some of our friends were hanging out. Somehow they had gotten completely wasted over the past two hours since we had seen them. Again, more alcohol was needed to make the situation tolerable. Luckily, the bartender was a quick worker, and soon we were on our way. Over the course of the night, we ended up fending off a guy for one of our friends, pretending that we hadn't seen her, and going home early because one of our other friends got sick at the bar. It was just like college times all over again!

Saturday morning we fought through our hangovers and woke up at 8 AM to pick up a rental car and make it to Manchester, NH by noon. My mom's sister and her family live there, and my mom's parents live about 45 minutes north, in Belmont. We had a nice little family get together with them, which included a homemade lunch and a rousing game of dominoes. It was kind of funny because I hadn't seen them in about seven years. In fact, that's usually about how often I see them. But I can definitely see where I get my competitive side from, the way they argued about the rules of dominoes. I mean really, it's just dominoes. It was all in good fun though.

That afternoon, we followed my grandparents to their home in Belmont. It wasn't long before my grandfather offered us a glass of wine (I think, more because he wanted one, since it was only three in the afternoon). We made some conversation for a little while, and then watched Waking Ned Devine. It was an enjoyable movie, but I couldn't help thinking to myself, "I haven't seen these people in several years, and they want to watch a movie?" I think they were just trying to entertain us, but I couldn't help but wonder if I thought it was rude or not. Anyway, after the movie, my grandpa played some music for us so he could show off his impressive stereo system. (Perhaps a little known fact about my grandpa is that he developed a certain speaker design in the 1970's that was once claimed by critics to be the "best loudspeakers in the world.") That night, they took us out for a nice Italian dinner. Just when it seemed like we were finally getting warmed up to each other, dinner was over, and it was time to part ways. All I can say is, I wish I was closer to that side of the family so that visits were not so few and far between. Most of all, I hope that's not the last time I see my grandparents before one of them passes away.

That night, we stayed in the cutest bed and breakfast that was owned by a really sweet couple. They started the Lighthouse Inn B & B after they both retired. If anyone is ever going through New Hampshire anytime soon, I highly recommend it. The place was immaculate, the bed was comfortable, the owners were friendly and attentive, and the breakfast the next morning was delicious. It's near Lake Winnipesaukee, the largest lake in New Hampshire, and, interestingly enough, the setting of What About Bob?

Sunday morning we had planned to ski at Gunstock ski area, about a fifteen minute drive from the B & B. Wouldn't you know it? We finally decided to try New England skiing, and it warmed up so much over the weekend that it actually rained that morning. I was prepared for disappointment, but by the time we made it over to the mountain, the rain had stopped, and all lifts were operational. We had an awesome day of spring skiing, as we went on practically every trail they had open.

By the time we got home Sunday night, we were both exhausted. I ended up doing my sleep marathon again, as I slept for a good twelve hours, waking up at 2pm yesterday. Since it's now 5:20AM, soon I'll go back to bed so I can sleep all day. Hopefully, I'll be able to at least experience a little bit of the heat wave before I have to go to work tonight. It's gonna be a scorcher out there!

You Know it's Cold When...

2007-03-09T03:53:00.000-05:00

You wake up wearing long sleeves and pajama pants, and the covers are still pulled up to your chin
You tiptoe from the bedroom to the bathroom, not because you're trying to be quiet, but to limit the amount of bare skin touching the cold, hardwood floors
You get dressed in the bathroom after showering because it's the only warm place in the apartment, even with the heat on
You wear long john's under your scrubs, just so you can survive the eight minute walk to the subway station
You wear the dorky Christmas socks with reindeer on them because you know they are thick enough to keep your feet warm
The eight minute walk to the subway station becomes a five minute walk
During the walk to the subway station, you may throw yourself in front of oncoming vehicles just to get there faster
Also during the walk, you do not under any circumstances take your hands out of your pockets (even though you have gloves on), at risk of losing a digit
You almost run an old couple off the sidewalk because they are walking way too slow
You wear your ski jacket with the hood up, even though you already have a hat on, and you know you can't really see the oncoming traffic because you have no peripheral vision
You don't care if you look like a crazy, fast-walking eskimo
You keep your hat, gloves, and scarf on during the entire 25 minute ride to work, when you would normally take them off
It's been 10 hours since you've been outside, and your hands are still cold
For once, you are actually dreading leaving work in the morning

Better Late Than Never

2007-03-07T05:32:00.000-05:00

I have been meaning to post about the weekend... However, now that it's Wednesday morning, and I have nothing better to do at work, I must not procrastinate any longer.

So we flew to Atlanta on Friday afternoon after I had worked Wednesday and Thursday nights. Our flight was delayed due to cold, rainy, slushy weather yet again, but we made it into town around 8pm. We then high-tailed it over to the Ten High for a fabulous Modern Skirts show. I was tired after getting limited sleep on Friday, but I'm really glad I went because three of my best buds came to the show too. It was great to catch up with them again. Plus, I loved hearing about how surprised the Skirt Boys were that my Favie showed up to play with them.

Friday was followed with a trip to good, old Athens, GA on Saturday afternoon. It's been five months since I've been there, so I was super happy to make the trip. I enjoyed another Modern Skirts show at the 40 Watt, and had even more time to catch up with my Skirts Crowd, including the other girls that "f**k the band." The 40 Watt show was even better than the Ten High show, and I think I was quoted as saying to John, in a drunken stupor, "That show was even better than Coldplay!"

Sunday we made it back to Marietta, where we went out for some decent Mexican food finally. (Mexicans don't live up here 'cause it's too damn cold.) The highlight of the evening was definitely watching Ln go from zero to wasted in around an hour, thanks to her 32 oz margarita.

Monday we flew back to the coldest place on Earth (it was 10 degrees yesterday when I went to work), but still managed to make it out of the apartment to grab some dinner and a couple of glasses of wine. I then proceeded to pass out at 2AM (early for me).

I guess I was more tired than I thought, because I pretty much slept until 4PM yesterday, when I finally crawled out of bed to go to work. And that brings us around to this morning. Now I must wake my poor patients up from their lovely sleepy time since it is 6AM, and it's time to give more meds.

The End.

Dream, Dream, Dream

2007-02-28T06:26:00.000-05:00

I woke up this morning at 5AM after going to bed at 1AM last night. I feel surprisingly well rested and content to be awake this early in the morning.

I woke up from a good dream, the kind where you try to go back to sleep to get back in the dream again and find out what happens next. It's kind of funny, but I was dreaming about my wedding. I think I must have had weddings on the brain after looking at Ln's pictures. Oh, and when I talked to Eeyore last night, asking if she had any exciting news to tell me, she said she was getting married. (Congratulations!)

Anyway, I was never one of those girls who had their whole wedding planned out by the time they were ten years old. But now that I've been to a few, and the prospect of a wedding in my future is actually plausible, I do think about it from time to time.

I've had two wedding dreams in my life that I can remember. Interestingly enough, they have both taken place during the time which I've been with my current man.

The first dream took place, I think, sometime towards the end of the first year we were dating. This dream was very surreal. I don't remember much about it, except that it took place outside, in some type of forest glen. The setting was the most vivid thing about it. This place was very deep in the middle of a forest, but there was a clearing where everything was set up. All sides of the clearing were surrounded by very tall, thick trees. Streams of light filtered down through the treetops and seemed to shine light into the middle of the clearing. On the edge of where the light was shining, there were wooden, pew-like benches set up in a semi-circle fashion, with an aisle through the middle of them. The scene felt very peaceful and happy. I was wearing a straight, long, white gown, which definitely could have been a hippie dress from the 70's. It reminded me of the dress my mother wore when she married my father. I was also wearing a crown of flowers, much like something you might buy from a renaissance festival. The only action piece I remember about this dream was that we were just about to walk down the aisle, and I was worried about my dress getting messed up in the dirt and leaves on the ground.

Hmmm.... a little odd.

The dream I woke up from this morning was much more similar to a traditional wedding. This one took place in a big, old, stone church with tall ceilings and huge, stained-glass windows. The setting here was also beautiful, peaceful, and happy, but I don't remember the details as much. My dress was simple: another long white dress, but with a strapless satin top and a full skirt that was made from layers of some sort of thin, sheer material. The top part of the back had a bunch of satin buttons down it, ending with a light pink satin bow, just above my hips, at the seam where the skirt met the top. The two tails of the bow flowed down the length of the skirt. The action in this dream was also just before we were supposed to walk down the aisle, except David was right there, so obviously we had seen each other before even going into the sanctuary. Also, the bridesmaids and the groomsmen were collecting their flowers, which were light pink roses, when all of a sudden I remembered that I didn't have a bouquet. I was about to get really upset, when my mom pointed out where it was, and that she remembered to take care of it for me. As soon as I saw my bouquet, I got really excited and happy, and prepared to walk down the aisle.

Dreams are funny. I always figure out little bits and pieces of recent thoughts that I've had or images that I've seen that end up being incoporated into the dream. For example, the light pink color of my roses was the same color of Ln's dress in the wedding she was recently in. It's also funny to me that the two things that seem most important in these dreams are the setting and my dress.

So I got curious about what these wedding dreams could possibly mean, and I looked up several websites about dream analysis. Most of the sites said that dreaming about weddings or marriage is most likely related to: 1) a commitment to someone or something, 2) a harmonious integration of the dreamer's personality or pysche (whatever that means), or 3) a wish-fulfillment (as in, you wish you could get married, so you dream about it). However, the most interesting thing I read was that dreaming about a wedding could also symbolize death. I have kind of been thinking about death and dying a lot lately, so I wonder if that has anything to do with it. It's kind of spooky if you ask me.

Either way, I've always thought it was interesting to try and analyze dreams to see if they could mean anything. The only problem is, the only time I remember my dreams is if I'm sleeping really lightly. And anyone who's ever tried to wake me up knows that it usually takes a jackhammer to get my eyes open.

Tick....Tock....

2007-02-26T04:15:00.000-05:00

Wow...I was just wondering if this night could possibly be any slower. I am actually blogging from work, and that has definitely never happened before. I also had time earlier in the night to have a 20 minute phone conversation with my mom and a 40 minute one with my brother. This is my fourth night in a row, and I was kind of hoping it would go by as fast as the first three nights so that I could just get it over with. But noooo, tonight had to be slowest night ever.

I guess I can't complain. I'm taking care of a very nice gentleman. If I was busy, that would mean he was doing poorly. So I am glad that he is doing very well, considering that the reason he's here is because he had a heart attack. However, I am also a little concerned that my exhaustion and boredom might overtake me and drive me into a narcoleptic sleep. Just two and a half more hours...

Anyway, all I gotta do to make it through till the end is "Keep 'em alive till 7:05." (It's the ICU motto.)