G's-Spot

Catch Up

It's been a couple of days since I posted last.  Not much happening. I worked an extra night this week.  I couldn't help but feel pity when I talked to Chris the other night and they were so in the weeds. Ashley and Kendall and I all went in so with three extra people it turned out to be a breeze.  Amazing what you can do with a full staff, eh? :-)

Other than that I've spent the week trying to un-wreck the house for my cousin's graduation party today.  Will have pics later.  She's been commuting so I offered my house as a meeting point for all of her relatives from down home and the rest of us from here in town. As usual Aunt Miranda and I have gone freaking nuts (!!!!) but there will be fun to be had and plenty of food to eat!

I just finished the cake and love it.  I don't think Michelle reads this blog or if she does she'll be too busy to read this morning so here's a preview.

I really like this little cake.

The cake is white with white chocolate buttercream filling, her choice.  She also said her favorite colors are chocolate brown, teal, and pink.  I think I covered all three.

I like the simplicity of this one and the royal icing "M" was fun.  You can't tell in the pic but the rose is also dusted in pink luster powder so in real life it's very luminescent.

Okay, enough about the cake. I'll move my culinary ramblings to the food blog.

Nursing Home Beauty Pageant

This is my Nannie at her Mother's Day beauty Pageant at the nursing home.  How adorable is she???!!!!

Ohmygawd, it's so cool!

My profile in the hospital's newsletter came out today. Man, that is cool to see your name in print, and EXTREMELY motivating.

People Make Me Crazy

So I was at Kmart a little bit ago picking up some odds and ends toiletries and thought I could scoot through the line quick since there was only one lady with about 10 things in front of me. WRONG!  Said lady argued with them that the Bounce she had was on sale for $1.00/box.  The young cashier took it over to the service desk and they showed her in the add where it wasn't the Bounce on sale. She came back and informed the lady. The lady said "I thought it said Bounch on the sale thing.  I hate it when you guys always screw me over on sale prices. This happens every time.  It happens to my husband too..." and at that point I completely tuned her out and attempted to get her marching on her way by moving my body closer and closer to the little part of the check out stand where you write your checks. The young clerk very sweetly and graciously explained that it was a different brand name on sale and offered to have someone go get the sale item.  OHHHHHHHH GOOOOOOOOOOOOOD, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, the lady THOUGHT it had said bounce and she repeated the whole monologue all over again.  The young girl offered to have someone go check out the sign. OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH  GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD NOOOOOOOOOOOOO, the lady didn't need someone checking it out, she THOUGHT it said Bounce and this always happens to her that they won't honor their sale prices.

Me, thinking I was hot snot and all that, offered nicely, "Oh you know, I get confused all the time or sometimes I don't pay attention when people are too lazy to reshelve their products and just put it on the same shelf where they take the sale item from.  Well SUDDENLY the women KNOWS without a doubt that the sign said Bounce and she goes through the whole harangue again, twice, once directed at me and once directed at the young cashier.  Having not goten a cart or basket, my fingers are going numb from holding my stuff I came in for plus my bad impulse buys....and the lady's stomping on my last good nerve.

I said, "Hey, if you feel that strongly about it, maybe you should step over to the service desk and talk to a manager.  This young lady can't do anything for you. She doesn't set the sales, doesn't do the advertising, doesn't label or stock the shelves, but the managers do. "  I was somewhat nice.

OH holy hell, here we go again. The entire rant all over again. Finally, I laid my crap down and literally nudged her on.  Screw it.  I get really tired of people who want to bitch but never take any responsibility for their complaints.  She left out the door pushing her cart, bitching to no one in particular.  Maybe she just likes hearing herself complain.  The lady behind me in line and I cracked up. The cashier thanked me.  For what? Losing them a customer?  Funny, I have a feeling that lady will be back right on ad day next week with something new to bitch about.

Geez, people make me nuts.

Assess & Treat Rule of Thumb:

When the patient's birth year and BNP are the same number....that's not a good thing.  But Albuterol won't fix it, either.

Holy Shit Me, What a Night!

Wow.  We all must have been very bad because we certainly got spanked at work last night.

I was A&T and it sucked big time.  I moved a bunch of people down from the top floors onto appropriate floors to be Bipapped.  One person ended up Bipapped and after an hour and a half on maxed out settings won a free trip to the unit to buy a tube.  Apparently there was a conspiracy with all the patients deciding not to breathe right, all at the same time.

The only one who beat my record was the ER where Jones vented and Bipapped half the county.

Geez, what's in the water?

Sharon took pity on me at 0330, when the cafeteria had closed and I'd had nothing but some tater tots the previous day, and gave me an apple.  It was glorious, I must say, and very sweet of her.

Wow, and I thought I was in a bad mood when I went IN to work...

But about 5am after a giggle fest with Stephanie I found my smile again and all is well.  Or will be as soon as I get some sleep. It's supposed to rain today. I love sleeping in the rain.

Change of Scenery

Worked the first half of this stretch with barely two cells of my brain focusing.  What can I say?  I haven't been sleeping well so I think I need to go back into the units for a few nights before I have a come--to--Jesus with one ward in particular over fluid overload. Usually I love A&T because that puts me on the code team, CAT (critical assessment) team, picking up new, and running intervention with floor pts.  My goal every night is to keep people OUT of the units.

But the last couple of nights have been tense.  From me. Admittedly, nothing has really changed except my patience level.  I think I just need a break.  I remember saying to Chris at one point after another ugly code "I'm really fucking tired of watching people die". I'm also a little burned out on being called to assess patients with fluid overload.  Most of the time I'm okay.  I even welcome it just because I know that I can, again, intervene and make sure the patient gets treated but these last couple of days have been rough. I've been on the edge of sarcasm in the least "Didja even LOOK at the patient before you called me?"  and basically a screaming F-bomb meltdown in the extreme.

I say that but I'm exaggerating. I would never have the meltdown on the floor but I would pity whomever among my friends gets stuck listening to me vent behind closed doors.

But.  I also slept yesterday and last night so when I go back tonight, no matter where I am, I'm thinking I'll be fine.  Even on my beloved A&T.  :-)

New Favorite Saying

Available at http://www.foocus.com/noveltiesnew2.php

The Rantings of a Day Sleeper

I worked last night and didn't get to bed until almost 11am this morning which put me up right at 23 hours.  Gene told me he'd be out running errands all afternoon so I could have a quiet house.  Imagine the dead sleep I came out of at 2:30pm when the door bell rang twice, each time multiple times.  I laid there for a second trying to wrap my head around that strange noise that had just infiltrated my dreams.  Then I heard a strong long knock.  And another. And another. And another. At that point I jumped out of bed, threw clothes upon my naked body, which is harder than one would think when you're functioning on about two brain cells and both of those were still trying to nap but with that much knocking I immediately assumed something was wrong with a neighbor or something. It had to be someone who really needed to talk to me.  Now.  Another long hard knock sounded. I literally ran down the hall and skidded around the corner into the living room to see two bicycles in my driveway and in the front door window the shoulder of a white shirt and the black strap of a backpack of an LDS missionary turned away from the door.

Now, don't get me wrong here. I love the LDS missionaries and get a big hoot out of those boys. I also love the LDS church and when I go to church that's the door I choose to walk into on Sunday. I have nothing but respect for the LDS church and every wonderful thing it/they are and do.

But don't screw with my sleep, man.  That's just not cool.

They didn't see me so I pivoted and came back to the office.  I've sat here listening three more times to the loudest knocking that I've ever heard in my life.  One of those boys must have knuckles made of granite.  I know it was rude of me to ignore them but I figured rudeness was the better choice between that and, say, opening the door and popping their little heads off like Pez dispensers.

But it's not just them. Sigh.  As soon as I climbed back into bed and changed the satellite from Sirius "Love Songs" to "Songs of the 70's", my favorite two sleeping channels, the phone rang. It was my state governor, Matt Blunt, inviting me to participate in I know not what because I picked up/hung up on his butt with a mental note to have Gene turn the answering machine volume down.  I could try it but I'd only end up somehow deprogramming the VCR or the garage door opener in the process.  I'm about as good with electronics as any ninety year old geezer.

After I mentally told the governor where he could shove the state, I crawled into bed once more and closed my eyes. The phone rang again.  It was the American Heart Association calling to ask me for money.  I left that one on the machine.  I figure I'm already going to hell for ignoring church missionaries and refusing to ask not what I could do for the state. I figured I didn't need to compound it with screaming at a charity phone volunteer.

Well hell.  I'm up now. Guess I should go check my garden pots and see what I lost in the near-frost the last two nights since I forgot to cover them up with a sheet....

It's Spring--Time to Play!

I have written much about my social life lately but I love that spring is here both in reality and in attitudes.  It seems like I, along with my friends, have been having a lot of fun lately, and to me, that keeps me plugging along in the rest of my life. Know what I mean?

Had a great time out with a couple from work.  I've known the wife for a few years now and we were right that when we got the "men folk" together they hit it off too so I'm looking forward to lots of summer dinners and poker nights.

Ahhh...something fun to live for.  :-)

Ashley's been a riot lately, planning little get togethers all over the place and at one of them we all definitely...um...let our hair down.

And then last weekend some friends and I who've known each other for over 20 years got together to hang out together and we went to the inaugural concert at the new Chaifetz Center at St. Louis University.  Aside from the driving rain coming in sideways that we had to walk five blocks through, the concert was a blast.

Hey, life is filled with work and obligations but what keeps me humming is fun times with people I love.  I live for that shit!