Six guilty things..

There is a fun girl I've enjoyed "getting to know" through blogging. Check her out at www.greeblemonkey.com/. She's just like me in the fact that although being "tagged" is fun, I'm still not apt to do it because I don't want to make anyone feel obligated to respond. So if you feel like it, do your own. If not, cool.

Six guilty pleasures no one would expect me to have:

1) I love Doritos! I know, my husband and I eat pretty much only "whole foods" straight from the farmers market and organic farms but I have a craving for Cool Ranch Doritos. I miss Monterey Jack Doritos I used to nosh on in my teen years.

2) I pick my lip. Lou, you understand.

3) Trashy mystery novels that all follow the same basic plot. Sexy yet vulnerable man, smart and beautiful woman falling in love over solving a murder. Helps me fall asleep at night.

4) In Touch magazine. Hey! Sometimes the brain needs to turn off for awhile, okay? Got a problem with that?

5) Cigs. Yes, I know I'm a nurse and know better but an occasional cigarette feels goood...

6) Babies. I realize that I have decided not to have my own children, but I could walk around forever with someone else's (sleeping) baby in my arms. They are so cute and soft and smell delicious!

Six guilty pleasures I wish I had the courage to indulge:
1) I want to play guitar and sing. In front of an audience. And make an album. And have people cheer for me.

2) My own cooking show. I know, I know, my husband is the chef and I really don't know anything but sometimes when I'm cooking by myself I pretend there is a camera watching me and I speak out loud with all my little tips. Heehee!

3) I have a fantasy that I'm on an airplane and someone yells "Is there a doctor on board?". No one responds so I say, "I'm a nurse." I save the persons life, of course.

4) Making a cookbook about my husbands food.

5) Being a incredible photographer.

6) The last one, you should all guess and relate, becoming a published writer.

Six pleasures I once considered guilty but have now abandoned or made peace with:
1) Made peace with the amount of drugs I've done in the past. I used to feel bad about it, but now I realize that I wouldn't be who I am without that experience.

2) Made peace with the music I listen to. When I first met my husband I thought some of the music I listened to wasn't "cool enough". Now I catch my indie rock husband singing along to Alicia Keys and Justin Timberlake.

3) Made peace with eating fois gras. Media hype made me feel temporarily guilty about this indulgence but now I'm a little more realistic. I eat meat. The meat I choose is as "humane" as possible. And I've watched video about the "force feeding" of ducks and it seems okay to me. (Please respond if you feel otherwise. I'm always open to opposing views.)

4) Made peace with masturbation. Need I say more?

5) Guilty pleasure I've abandoned: Starbucks anything. Don't need the calories and don't need to give that company any more money.

6) Abandoned: Eating junk food at work. Why did I eat See's candy at work? I can't stand See's candy! I only ate it because it was in front of me and I justified I "deserved" it because I was working so hard. No thanks...

Boy, that was fun! Try it out. It seems like work at first but then it makes you think about your life a little bit.

Soo..

I've come to realize that a certain person that I work with is verbally abusive to me. And even though I have discussed it with this person, it still continues to happen. Without going into specific details, I'll just relate how it makes me feel by sharing a dream I had:

In the dream, a patient collapses right in front of me. I check the patient's pulse and realize she has none. With no one else around, I realize that I am going to have to "code" this patient on my own. I immediately start to do chest compressions and I know that I need to gain IV access. So, with one hand I continue my chest compressions, while with the other hand I somehow successfully start an IV. (Pretty much impossible, that's how I know I am in a dream). I recheck her pulse and realize her heart has begun to beat on its own again. At this point, other people arrive to help. I'm feeling pretty proud of what I've done until.. this abusive person comes up to me and starts critiquing my compressions:

"You are supposed to use two hands for compressions."

"I know, but I was by myself, and I..."

"And your arm wasn't straight, it was floppy. You weren't giving adequate pressure."

"I know, but the patient survived and..". In my dream, I am totally deflated and feeling shitty. Like, even though I got the job done, I didn't do it good enough. What the F*ck?!

Anyone out there have any solutions for me or any similar situations? I'm not a total pussy, like I said, I've already talked to this person about her behavior. Obviously to no avail. Without totally alienating her (I still have to continue working side by side with her for 12 hours at a time!) how can I change her behavior? And yes, I have already told my supervisor. No change.. Any ideas??

Ggrrrrr...(part 2)

Work sucked yesterday! And I have to go again today! We had a patient have a seizure in the waiting room, a patient who was suicidal, a heroin user screaming obscenities at us because I gave her a shot (does that make any sense to you? she uses a needle on herself everyday!), and a woman with incredibly infectious diarrhea that kept having "code browns" (shit everywhere except the toilet). At least I wasn't in the main ER where our bloody, screaming seizure patient went, also a 20 year old woman with some developmental problems came in complaining of abdominal pain and constipation. When the nurses got her out of her clothes they discovered an arm sticking out of her vagina. She was in the middle of giving birth to a breech (and dead) baby. She had no clue she was pregnant. Sometimes I want a new career that leaves me blissfully unaware of these things...

The best thing about my day? Coming home to my husband and laughing really hard as we talk about our day. I have the next few days off... Can't wait to relax, polish my new punch bowl, read, and putter around the kitchen. Only 12 more hours!

Ggrrrrr...

I'm grumpy and don't want to go to work today! I'm working with someone who is lazy and that makes my day that much harder. Nothin' worse than a lazy nurse...hey, maybe I should buy her a t-shirt for christmas that says that...

Okay, deep breath, only 12 hours to go!

Score!!

I scored on a large punch bowl that came with 12 matching glasses!! 15 bucks! And I was surprised at how many punch bowls are out there second hand. I guess punch isn't as hip as it used to be but maybe its coming back in...

Worked the first of three in a row today. Good day all in all. I'm always surprised at the diversity of people that come in to a hospital. Like the DMV, everyone has got to go sometime. We helped a cashier at a parking garage who had gallstones, a wealthy psychiatrist who couldn't pee after a surgical procedure so we put in a catheter, a homeless guy who had been punched in the head (on his birthday no less), and a writer for a major TV channel who was on strike in the heat all day and now had a horrible headache. Just a sampling of my day..

Goodnight!

Goin' O.I.P. (out in public)..

So I've decided to go O.I.P. today. It's hard for me sometimes to face the general population on my day off but I'm going to do it! My adventure? I need a punch bowl for an upcoming dinner party. We are going to have 10 people over to our tiny apartment! I thought a nice self serve punch would take some of the burden off of me. But I dont want to buy a new one so I am hopping on LA's (meager) public transportation, Big Blue Bus Line 1, and hittin' some thrift stores! I hope to be the crazy lady on the bus singing to myself and cradling a punch bowl on my lap! Wish me luck!

By the way, it's disgustingly hot here today. The Santa Ana winds again just when I was wearing boots and scarves..

Hey Lou, wanna come over? Here's what we are serving:

Relic..

Check out my June 16th, 2007 relic post I finally decided to post..