Naps 1, Blog 0

Yesterday was the perfect day to catch up on all of your blogs and my posting but instead the wiles of a rainy day, warmth of my bed and 20 hours of wake time tricked me into doing, well, nothing. Napping and nothing. So, I am posting yesterday's entry today since I never got around to it and since nothing much is going on right this very second.

Monday, December 07, 2008

Rainy Day Essentials

I actually made it through a three night stretch without being floated to another unit or having my shift canceled. It's been over a month since I have worked full week and have been out of payed time off for about half of it. The time off itself is great but starting the new year off just as broke as the last one ended is not how I envisioned a new beginning. Just before the holidays shifts have become harder and harder to come by. I'm not talking extra shifts but scheduled ones. Somehow the hospital is able to close down whole 15-bed pods on each floor due to a decrease in patient admissions. It is difficult for me to believe that less people are ill or injured during months of November and December. More likely I think that house staff is at a minimum, people who would normally be admitted for 'observation' don't make it past the ER and that others would rather put off a hospital visit and remain at home with 104 degree neutropenic fevers, festering wounds caused by wine corker mishaps or wait until the trickle of blood from their rectum becomes a gushing torrent.
To this third group of people, I have this to say: On any normal day, during any other time of the year, you would rush over to be looked at, checked over and treated. Why are the holidays any different? Being with your family is important, yes, but this is your life we are talking about (all except wino but not to say your digit is any less important). We want you (and your extremities) to be around for many holidays to come. Exercise good judgment and take care of yourselves people. That is why we are here.

Anyway, it was somewhat refreshing to work a full week and this morning when I walked out of the building the sky was dark and stormy, the air was chilly and the rain was coming down. There is nothing better than leaving work at eight a.m., after your last shift, knowing you can either rush right home to go to sleep or laze around and enjoy a cold, rainy, winter's day.
So here I am. Showered and wearing my flannel jammies, cozied up with my coffee and book, in clean sheets next to a puppy that smells like Pantene*.
One of the many things on my mental to-do list for 2008 (not resolutions per say) is to actually finish one book at a time instead of starting a new one a third of the way through the previous one. Currently, I have four in process. The first book on my list is Bright Lights, Big Ass, which I started before Thanksgiving and have been itching to get back into. If you are looking for a light, easy read that will have you in stitches I totally recommend Jen Lancaster. Seriously funny stuff. Do not try to read this book at 3 a.m. when patients have just gone to sleep (or similar situations requiring complete or near silence, say a golf tournament or Wimbledon).

My coffee is getting cold and my book is waiting. Happy Monday Tuesday to you all. Good day and good night.






*This story and possibly pictures for another day when I am less annoyed and can laugh about it.

What a sexy... blister you have!

My less than sexy, unmanicured, flakey, blistery foot.

I went to the Mill Avenue Borders again tonight to do some shopping. Thinking the H.P. guy would be there, I was hoping he would autograph my copy of The Prisoner of Azkaban, for shits n' giggles. He was not there. A girl who kind of looked like a red-haired version of him helped me instead.
Anyway, after cruising around and picking out several books (see Jennsylvania for this little gem), I stopped by the cafe to pick up a latte. As I was handing the girl behind the counter my card, a strange man sidled up beside me, so close that he was touching my arm. Some people seriously have no sense of personal space. I moved over a bit to give him some room and took my card and receipt from the girl. Again, he was touching me. Then in a half whisper he said, "I'm sorry. I was looking at your feet. So small. Pretty." UGH! Completely creeped out, I side-stepped away from him again. He said, looking down at me feet, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. Foot fetish... ", and then something garbled and trailed off. At this point the girl behind the counter, hearing this, tripped over something and redirected his attention to her. I used this as my get-away. Armed with scalding hot latte in one hand and my keys in another, I dashed towards the door, eying that guy the whole time.
I have never been so nervous walking to my car and all the way there the blister on my foot was screaming, "How do you like me now, FREAK?!"

One Down...

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, originally uploaded by scoobers1.

I finished book one tonight and decided to head over to Borders for The Chamber of Secrets and a latte. At the counter, the guy (who, in all honesty, LOOKED like H.P. himself) called me a late bloomer. True enough.
I started reading Sorcerer's Stone in 2002, when I lived in Texas, and decided to give it another shot. I started reading last Wednesday, so it took me a week to read it. Well, it took me five years and one week to read it.

Hopefully, I will make better time on this one and I will be back to Borders to buy book three before 2012.