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| Jim and Andrea's wedding at the Varsity Theater |
Backing up a bit, Simon and I flew home at the beginning of March to attend my buddy Franko's wedding. It was fantastic. The ceremony was held at the Loring Pasta Bar (I had never been there before...it's on my list of places to revisit the next time I'm in the Cities...it was absolutely beautiful), and the reception was held next door at the Varsity Theater, which has been completely redone since the last time I was there. It was gorgeous, and it was absolutely perfect. Definitely a venue I could see myself having a shindig in one of these days...when I get around to it...and when a kind soul steps forward to pay for it...hahaha!
Having spent the last three winters in Florida, Simon and I were actually hoping for a bit of snow while we were home for the wedding, and Minnesota didn't disappoint. I don't think there was much accumulation, but just seeing those big, white flakes cascading down from the cloudy, grey sky made me miss winters in Minnesota. Well, I missed parts of Minnesota in winter. I don't miss being cold for 5 months straight, nor do I miss below-zero temperatures, scraping the windshield off in the mornings, slipping on ice, kicking slush dingleberries off the undercarriage of the car...yeah, I guess I don't miss everything about Minnesota winters, but I do miss that fresh bite in the air, snow on the ground, mittens on the hands, and hot coffee. Those things all go so well together. :)
When I was back in Minnesota, I noticed there was a lot of honking...more than I remember. I even got honked at a few times. One time because I didn't turn right fast enough in traffic, apparently. I really have no idea, but it was the only thing I could think of. I really didn't have anywhere to go, but the person behind me seemed to think I should have been moving nowhere at a faster pace. It felt weird to be driving in Minneapolis after having been gone from there for so long. Part it was that I was in a rental car with horrible blind spots, and part it was that I haven't really driven consistently on freeways in over a year...especially not in traffic. As I was nervously making my way up I-35 to hwy 36, it dawned on me that I've lost my big city driving edge, and with that I've kind of lost my taste for living in a big city. Weird, I know, since I've been saying for years that I'd like to settle down in a big city someday. Don't get me wrong, I like the big city, but it's so chaotic and indifferent. There are pockets of calm, which I appreciate, but the problem with big cities is that you have to go outside of those calm pockets. I suppose I really just need to reacclimatize. I'll have the chance this summer (more on that later!).
I had a first during the Minnesota trip. Well, I had a first prior to flying to Minnesota, I should say. I pooped in the airport. And you know, it wasn't all that bad...I have to admit, I was impressed with the ventilation. Prior to this particular incident, I always wondered why people would choose to poop at the airport, as I felt like every time I use the bathroom at an airport, there's always someone pooping in it. Having been left with two choices myself (poop at the airport or poop my pants), I decided that people probably don't intend to poop at the airport. And really, why didn't I come to this conclusion earlier? Honestly...who would plan to poop at the airport when they could poop in the comfort of their own home, with the good toilet paper, and their choice of bathroom reading materials? So I will no longer judge people for pooping at the airport. I will, however, continue to judge them for not flushing and for peeing on the seat.
So there's that. In other news, my working out regimen continues. Simon is completely boggled by it, as am I. I exercise about 3-5 days a week, and it's paying off...although not as quickly as it used to. I remember when I was in my early 20's, and I could tone up like nobody's business. Give me a month at the gym (if I could make it that long...usually I didn't) and I could take a month off. Now I feel like if I take a couple days off and throw in some not-so-stellar eating habits, I'm seeing the result of those bad decisions. So now I'm stuck. I like how I look and how I feel at the moment, so that means that in order to keep looking and feeling good, I have to continue to work out. I've left myself no choice in the matter. Dammit. I have also started to come to terms with sweating. I abhor sweating, and I've never really been a sweaty person. The first time I remember ever dripping sweat was the summer of 2010 when Simon and I were living in North Carolina and the temperature and humidity would climb into the 90's. So imagine my horror after those first few weeks (months, actually) of exercising here in Florida and coming home wet. My face even drips sometimes, which I find disgusting.
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| Spending time on Captiva Beach with the Pattens |
Quotes to ponder: "If it's important you'll find a way, if not you'll find an excuse." In the last year or so I've been trying to prioritize what's most important to me. Top of the list is family. It's difficult when I'm away so much, but when I'm home I try to spend as much time as possible with them. I've also been using the ipad to video chat with my brother and his wife in Arizona...it works out pretty well! I've been working on tolerance as well, as family can get under my skin like no one else can. I've been getting better at accepting and appreciating my family for who they are, not who I want them to be. It's important for me to have fun with my family...I want to have more good memories than bad memories, and life's too short to spend it arguing about trivial things. Friends are a close second in importance, and several of them are like family to me. I'm going to try to make more time for friends. Like my family, it's difficult when I'm away so much, but with all the technological advances with video chatting, it definitely doesn't have to be. It's more about finding the time than anything. I've also decided to make my health important. I have to remind myself of that on those mornings when I want to skip the gym, on those days when I'm at the grocery store and that red Doritos bag is beckoning to me. Other things that are important...making time for my dogs, which sounds weird, but it's easy to get caught up in my own things and spend a lot of time away from the house...that's just not fair to them. I've been making a point to stay home some nights to have a snuggle with them. It makes them happy just to be with me (how easy is that??) and it gives me time to just sit and do nothing (it also gives me a nice serotonin boost!). I need that time of nothing sometimes...I think we all do. Next quote: "Make time for fitness now, or make time for illness later." Truer words have not been spoken, and since I've been exercising the last few months, I truly understand that statement. From a nurse's perspective, I come across patients everyday who are in the condition they're in because they just didn't take care of themselves. Whether it's exercise, eating habits, personal habits (both good and bad), or regular check-ups with a doctor, it all makes a difference in a person's health as they age. That's part of the motivation for my exercising...I know I can only ride on my genetics for so long before all those bags of Doritos start to catch up with me (side note: I've been Dorito-free since January!). And lastly: "Eat well. Stay fit. Die anyway." Sort of the antithesis of the previous quote, but it also holds a ring of truth. I've seen 30-year old fitness junkies receive a terminal cancer diagnosis, and I've seen 95 year-olds who have been smoking two packs of cigarettes a day since they were 9 years old. I think genetics plays a bigger part in our health than we'd like to believe, but I still think taking care of ourselves can't hurt, right?
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| Brie and I having a chill moment |
Switching gears, I came across a bit of information recently that turned my stomach. A few people on Facebook were going back and forth discussing the pros/cons of pet insurance. More than a few people chimed in that they have discounted pet insurance through their employers. Come again? There are PEOPLE in this country who can't get insurance on themselves, and yet there are companies out there offering discounted PET insurance. What is wrong with this picture? What is wrong with our freaking country? I think employer-offered pet insurance is disgusting and insulting, and it's a slap in the face to those individuals who either can't afford insurance, or who have a job that doesn't offer it. But God-forbid our pets go without insurance, that would be tragic. I'm trying not to judge here, as I know that to some people, their pets are equally as important to them as their children, spouses, etc. My dogs are dogs. I love them, I'm enjoying them while they're here, I will miss them when they're gone, but at the end of the day, they are not people. I'll admit, I did look into pet insurance once upon a time when I first got my pugs. The monthly premium was more than what I was paying for myself (my employer didn't offer a discount for my pets), and the yearly expense was more than what I would have paid for their annual check-ups and vaccinations. And there were a lot of restrictions, such as breed-specific conditions/illnesses. And seeing as pugs are one of the sickliest breeds out there, very little would have been covered by insurance. I'm already donating my money to people insurance, I'm not about to do it for pet insurance. But that's just me. To each their own, people choosing to insure their pets does not affect me personally, and so on and so forth.
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| Busy street in Parimaribo, Suriname |
Another rant, if I'm allowed. I know you've probably all seen those bumper stickers that say, "This is America, speak English!" I used to find those a bit offensive, but the more time I spend in areas where there is a large population of non-English speakers, the more I think maybe they should put in a little time to learn at least some basic English. Case in point, the hospital. Both in California and Florida (more so than other areas I've worked), I have come across patients who don't speak a lick of English. People who have been living in this country since birth. And in both places, I wasn't living in the sticks, and neither were they. It boggles my mind how someone can live in a country where they don't speak the native language, and never bother to learn it. Do they not associate with English speakers, or do they just not want to learn? Do they not have access to people willing to teach them? And going along with that, can they read English? Should I be nervous about them sharing the road with me if they can't? Spanish and English are so similar...even though my high school Spanish was years ago, I can still pick out phrases and words in Spanish when I hear people speaking it. Immerse me in it and I'm sure it would come back to me and I would catch on pretty quickly. I don't speak Spanish well enough to converse confidently with my Spanish speaking patients, but I don't feel I should be obligated to ineffectively speak to them in their native language. We are, after all, in America where the official language is English. It's the language I know best, and it's the language that I'm safest using. Does that make me ignorant? Intolerant? Should I feel obligated to learn Spanish to speak with my Hispanic patients? What about the German patients? The Russian patients? The Somalian patients? I can't (won't?) learn all their languages, does that mean I should be able to expect them to learn mine? I guess I feel that if they're going to live there, then yes, I do expect them to learn English...at least a little bit. I would be terrified and uncomfortable to be in a country where I didn't speak the native language, and I'd like to think that I would put in a strong effort to learn the language as quickly as possible. I was in Suriname (South America) for about two weeks, and by the end of my trip I could speak/understand enough Dutch (the official language, spoken mostly in the bigger cities), Saramaccan (I believe this language is used mostly by those of African descent, and it was the language that I understood the least), and Sranan Tongo (the native creole...easiest to pick up...it's like baby talk with Dutch, English, and Spanish influences) to mostly make my needs known, and to have simple conversations with the natives (of course I've forgotten most of it...I do remember that 'biggie bobies' means 'big boobs' in Sranan Tongo...hahaha!). Granted, a lot of the natives there spoke enough English to bridge the gap if we got stuck, but still. I personally think it's irresponsible and also dangerous to live in a country where you don't speak/understand the native language. So my bumper sticker would read, "This is America, learning English is a good idea!"
To those of you who know me best, and those who follow me here, it's pretty obvious that I have a filthy mouth. I've been working on that. I was hanging out with some friends and small children recently, and I was talking about how I'm trying to get a handle on my potty mouth. My friend's little boy came running up to me and exclaimed, "I went potty!" I just had to laugh. I'm getting better at curbing the potty mouth when children are present, and I'm pretty good at keeping the potty mouth in check when I'm working with patients. I swear a lot in the car...and at work when I'm not with patients. I'm working on that. With the help of my roommate, Ellen, I've been substituting the F-word with the "Fist of Anger." Basically I just raise my fist and shake it in the general of direction of whatever it is that's bothering me. It might be a person not using their blinker, or a billboard that I don't like, or my ipad, or a pan of cookies that doesn't turn out. The Fist of Anger has infinite applications. I don't know that it makes me seem like any less of loose canon than spouting out a stream of expletives, but at least it's silent. I do, however, need to keep the fist in check based on the company I keep. Friends were visiting recently and the Fist of Anger came out multiple times during their visit...not at them, of course, but while we were in the car and passing motorists were driving like idiots. By the end of the visit, my friend's little boy was giving the Fist of Anger to passing motorists who were drinking out of soda cans in their cars (he assumed it was beer and felt they deserved a fisting for that). Whoops.
So my job. Lots of changes there and exciting things on the horizon. Florida has been a nightmare this year. They turned our quaint little 24-bed unit into a 36-bed unit with telemetry monitoring (heart monitoring). Our unit is staffed completely by temporary staff, and because of that it's supposed to be a low acuity unit, meaning that we're not supposed to get overly difficult patients. Well...that idea didn't really translate into reality, unfortunately. I don't know where the breakdown was, but our unit ended up housing a lot of the suicide attempts (we're not a psych unit), the drug addicts and alcoholics (we're not a detox), and all manner of other stuff. They understaff our day shift, which means day shift stuff frequently was either missed completely or carried over onto the night shift, which sets the night shift behind and has us calling the doctors for things at all hours of the night...and frequently we get yelled at for calling late or the doctors don't return our calls at all. It doesn't sound like much. When I write it out, I feel like there's no way for me to put into words how awful an average night shift is, but it's terrible. I worked as a charge nurse on our unit this year, and my decision to do that has played a huge part in my frustration this year. Honestly, they only reason I agreed to do it at all was because we'd been working without a charge nurse the previous two seasons, and were in dire need of one, especially with the unit expanding. I pretty much knew that if I didn't agree to do it, we wouldn't have one at all. So I bit the bullet. The healthcare system down here is broken. I don't want to say beyond repair, but it's going to take major changes to bring this place to the level that it ought to be. The hospital recently hired a new bigwig who has already rid the hospital of 4 managers/supervisors, and it sounds like there will be more. One of those managers was our director, who is "given" our overflow unit every winter season (I'm assuming against her will, but I'm not privy to that sort of information). Our unit is completely mismanaged, neglected, and is an administrative after-thought. Funny thing is, our unit somehow manages to pull in the highest patient satisfaction ratings. I have no idea how that happens, but I'll take it. So...the sunshine on the horizon is that the admins decided to cut our contracts short this season. Simon and I were supposed to be working down here until June 9th, which didn't bode well for me since I mentally checked out about 4 weeks ago. The only things getting me through my shifts were my friend's wedding in March, multiple visits from friends and family in March and April, and a trip to Seattle coming up in June. My last day to work is this Sunday night, and I can't wait. Simon and I will be spending the rest of May down here in Florida enjoying the sunshine and the company of our friends Ellen and Fred, who we haven't been able to see much this season because the powers that be scheduled us to work opposite shifts. It'll be good...a nice ending to a not-so-nice job placement.
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| Simon windsurfing at the Sanibel Flats |
And then...Simon and I had planned on taking the entire summer off to spend time with friends and family in Minnesota. Well...a job opportunity at St. Cloud Hospital in St. Cloud, MN presented itself, so I'll be working there for the summer. I had worked at St. Cloud Hospital back in 2007, and it's been one of the best hospitals I've ever had an assignment. I'll even be working on the same unit as before, and the nurse manager remembers me...positively, I'm assuming since she offered me a job. :) St. Cloud itself isn't the most stimulating town I've ever lived in, but Simon's sister and her husband live there, Simon's mom lives about an hour from there, and the Twin Cities is also about an hour away...my family is about 3 hours away, but that's a lot closer than the 27 hours away we are right now. I think it'll be good. We'll be nice and close to the majority of the people that we wanted to see this summer, and I'll be making money to support this spending habit of mine. Seriously, I try and try to save money and it just doesn't happen. I wonder if it's possible (I must not be trying very hard). We've also got a lot of fun things planned already for the summer, including 4th of July with my family, something I haven't been able to attend for a few years now, camping with my college buddies at a music festival in August, going to the Two Harbors kayak festival (it'll be my first time...Simon has gone before), a State Fair trip (of course), Labor Day weekend with the Frankos (I'm assuming I'm invited...if not, I'll just show up anyway...and honestly, someone has to take all the pictures so Senior has someone to complain about...hahaha!), and hopefully lots of visits in-between with family and friends. My roommate Ellen also took a job at St. Cloud hospital, so Simon and I will get to spend the summer with her and Fred this summer as well. As of right now, Simon and Fred don't have jobs and will just be bummin' around...probably spend most of their days trying to find a good lake to windsurf on.
And that's it for the time being! Enjoy!
