Just got back from a quick trip home for the holidays. I'll be back for Christmas, but took advantage of a long work break by visiting Grand Junction. I finished some craft projects, started some new ones, and made many many marshmallows. Somehow I have become the homemade marshmallow guru. I travel the mountains imparting the wisdom of whipped sugar.
While holiday shopping with my mom I got a fabulous new Christmas tree. I already had this rad black tree from last year. Check out my new disco-tastic green tree!
I couldn't be bothered with a full sized tree this year. But these little guys I can handle. Here are some more Christmas-related photos I've been meaning to post:
Isn't my advent calendar chocolate TOTALLY a companion cube??
Earlier this month I went to the Holiday Handmade craft fair with Miranda. She blogged about it here. I'm finally posting my pictures of all the beautiful crafts (note: I received permission to take every photo). Boy was it crowded! Next year we'll go on the second day and plan to do more shopping. I had most of gifts done already. Even so, it was good I only brought a limited amount of cash. I needed something to keep my spending in check! Luckily most of these sellers have etsy.com shops. I collected many business cards and plan to return to their online stores later.
For those wondering where we'll be for the holidays, here tis: I'll be in GJ this Monday/Tuesday (14-15th) for a short, quiet visit with my folks. Then back to Denver where I work 3 back-to-back shifts Th-Sat and on call Sunday. Monday is my day off of work. Then I go back for 3 more in a row Tue-Thur, ending with an evening shift on Christmas Eve. Ben and I will book it down to GJ on Christmas morning and spend a couple days there with family. We're going to visit the gang in Utah, leaving either Monday or Tuesday after Christmas, and return to GJ Wednesday or Thursday. Either way we need to be back in Denver by Ben's birthday on Friday the 1st, then I'm back to work on Saturday.
If any of my friends out there happen to cross paths, give me a call!
Is that it makes excellent biscuit dough. She wouldn't stop kneading my belly! Yes, this is a lot of cat pictures, but I got a few comments enjoying my last picture of us. Thought you might like some more. Oops, she's back. This time on my knees. That's cool. As long as I can see my screen and type :-)
Here are photos of my finished owl sweater! I bought buttons a while ago, but had to reorder more from Hobby Lobby. Weeks later I found out they were discontinued and out of stock everywhere! I finally snipped them all off and replaced them with sea-green beads. I like these new eyes better anyway. I also re-knit the collar so it comes up closer to my neck and doesn't slide off my shoulders. It's so satisfying to say that this project is DONE.
Today I fulfilled a three year dream of ordering vanilla beans from ebay. I found out about these sellers years ago, but either didn't have the cash or didn't have an active paypal account to deal with it. I was whining about wanting vanilla beans to make more marshmallows and Ben basically told me to shut up and order them already. After 25 minutes with paypal customer service to unlock my account, I bought my beans. What a steal! I got a 20 bean sampler of two varieties, costing $0.50 per bean. Incredible!
We got them tonight and Ben spent most of dinner trying to figure out why they cost so little compared to stores ($6 and up per bean). Something about inelastic demand. Or scarcity. I don't remember. It's cute how he thinks I understand economics. All I know is I'm going to make some FABULOUS marshmallows tomorrow.
After 5 years of pining over the idea of building a DVR, Rachel and I finallly decided to go for it as a (early) christmas present to each other. We are both pretty thrilled with it. There were some bumps along the road, but fortunately - the right software existed for me to make it happen to our specifications.
I got a micro ATX form factor case for the project. The guts are as follows:
Sempron 140 processor
Gigabyte AM3 motherboard with HDMI output
Two 640 GB WD green hard drives
Samsung DVD-RW
Radeon 4200 onboard video card
Hauppauge 2250 dual ATSC/QAM tuner card
4 gb of unganged 800 mhz ram
The hard drives use the onboard RAID controller to function as a RAID 1 configuration. I did this because I wanted a fairly robust storage solution for the house.
The RAM was supposed to be 1033 mhz, but it was unstable at that clock, so I had to bump it down. I didn't want to deal with returning it, and it seems plenty fast.
The processor actually has two cores, that my motherboard was able to unlock, so while it is a Sempron 140 - it registers at post as an Athlon X2 4200+.
The idea for this build was to use MythTV on ubuntu linux. I bought all my hardware with an eye for linux compatibility. That didn't work out. I'm sure that if I really hacked on it, I could have gotten it all to work with linux, but I decided that it wouldn't be up to rachel's standards in the end. I had a copy of Windows 7 beta, so I thought I'd give it a try for the media center.
It worked great! I had spent several hours trying to get linux working, but windows media center was up and running within 30 minutes.
There were still a few software quirks to work out, however.
The main thing I had to work out was the power settings. The system didn't wake from sleep properly, so I had to configure everything to work as hibernate. I got lucky, as my motherboard supports waking from hibernate for windows scheduled events (like show recordings). I had a hard time getting the thing to go back to hibernation after it woke up for a recording. I eventually found this software (http://slicksolutions.eu/mst.shtml) for configuring standby behavior with windows media center, and it works great.
I also snagged a plugin to make hulu desktop a clickable item from within windows media center. There are several out there, and none seem to work quite right - so I'm still working on that.
I had some trouble getting the sound to come across the HDMI because the settings in windows were strange. In the end, I didn't really need to do anything - it just worked. The problem was that it doesn't say that it's a 5.1 signal unless one is actually being sent. This was mainly a problem in the windows media center speaker configuration thing, as it couldn't tell I had 5 speakers for some reason.
Windows media center is a very slick DVR solution. It has netflix watch it now included in it, and you can record things with all the power that you might find in a Tivo. I actually like the interface better in some spots.
We have the capacity to record about 40 hours of HD stuff and have some room left over for music and photos.
We can record two shows at once, which I am amazed that we actually do (I'm looking at you bones).
I'm sure in my lack of writing lately, the top question on your mind is What does Rachel think about season 6 of SYTYCD? Am I right? Too bad. That's what you get :-P
Love the new stage. The backdrop gives the show designers something to do instead of screwing up the view with complicated lighting, like they used to. It also prevents the camera men from doing wacky side and circling moves from the old thrust stage. Instead we get more nice, front-on views so you can actually see the dances.
I don't miss Mia. Bring on Stacey Tookey and Mandy Moore instead!
I love Adam's judging comments. With our fab new DVR I skip Nigel and Mary and go straight to his review.
I'm not impressed with Wade Robson this season.
Favorite Routines
(sorry, can't find just the dance online)
skip to 1:45 for the dance
skip to 2:05 for the dance
Favorite Solo
(sorry for the dumb pop-ups)
Favorite Couple
I wasn't a fan of Ashleigh at first, but she's really improving. And Jakab is another superhuman dancer like Brandon of season 5. Not as powerful or versatile as Brandon, but Jakob's lines are better.
skip to 1:40 for the dance
It's no "Bleeding Love," but another great one by Nappy Tabs. (Yes, I watch Bleeding Love about once a month still. So. Good.)
Hi there. Been quiet lately, no? Today I'm home sick. I haven't missed a day of work yet, but I felt so darn crummy today, I didn't think I could make it through the afternoon patient turnover, work 12 hours, then be on call. So I called my manager and asked them to bring in the evening person early and I went home. I feel kind of bad about it. I have a lot of guilt about missing work. At least today was a good day to leave early. I helped get the day started at 6 like usual, so they're not behind schedule (like so often happens when someone calls in sick and the day starts short-handed). We have a moderate patient load with no portable one-on-one runs. So staff can stay in the room with a manageable number of patients. Still. Do you remember going to the school nurse and as soon as your mom says she will come pick you up, you felt better? That's how I was today. Once my manager confirmed I could go early I thought "Oh, Rachel, you're not that sick. Stick it out!" But I'm trying to be nice to myself instead of running haggard. I've got indigestion, nausea, some woman troubles, and I kept nearly fainting while working this morning. Seriously, I grabbed the wall on my way back from the kitchen with coffee for a patient. Also, I have an old dance injury in my back that flared up this week. It's not as bad as it was during last year's flare-up, but it makes moving around and lifting fairly painful. Thus I just got up from a nap and ate my lunch. I'm going to lay low and still do call tonight. I hope I can power through my next set of shifts - MTW all in a row! so I can have an enjoyable Thanksgiving break.
This is what I came home tonight. Brrr! I wish I had tomorrow off of work! It was no fair having to go in today when everyone else in Denver got to stay home.
What a grand day to have off from work! I woke up at 6 am and promptly turned off my pager, no longer on duty. Then I went back to sleep :-) Later I made pancakes for breakfast, and shared them with my dear husband who was working from home. You see, when we got up there was already 3 inches of snow, with much more forecast. We took Jem to daycare so she would get plenty of exercise despite the cold. Also, we could have an undisturbed day of coming and going from the house with her out of it. I haven't taken her to daycare in a long time and gee whiz, I thought she was going to stroke out on excitement. She starts running around the backseat, whimpering and clawing at the window, getting more and more exacerbated the closer you get. She DEFINITELY knows the route there.
To give him time to work undisturbed, I slowly shopped around Target, one of my favorite suburban pastimes. I needed some Halloween candy, stat! I also called my sister who is shacked up in the mountains, hopefully having a relaxing time. Then I got a peppermint hot chocolate at Starbucks and chatted with my mom, watching the snow fall in heavy clumps.
At home I met up with Ben and we walked down the block to the local Chinese restaurant. I love eating lunch out with Ben, and I love hot egg drop soup and rice with soy sauce on cold days. It was quite a trek to get there actually. The snow was knee deep in places on the way back. We passed a group of snowboarders on the sidewalk. They had built a ramp of snow at the top of a set of stairs down the hill. The stairs have a long, shallow rail running down it. They also hooked a bungee cord to the railing. They would bungee up the snow ramp, then jump on the railing with their snow boards, ride it down the hill, falling off onto the snow banks when they lost balance. Very clever.
Ben got back to work and I finished Shakespeare in Love on Netflix. Good movie. For a snack, I indulged in my all time favorite - diet cola with ruffled cheddar baked lays. Browsing for another instant play Netflix show, I found a real gem -
Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre! Holy crap this is a treasure. Did anyone else watch this when they were kids? It was on Showtime in the 80s, then picked up for syndication by the Disney Channel and PBS. I selected Snow White to watch. What. a. cast. First, we have Vincent Price as the mirror. With his face is painted like wood and stuck in the wall, he provides droll narration. Then Vanessa Redgrave plays the queen. I kid you not, she has red crimped hair frizzed out and wanders around waving her arms, draped in teal and purple velor. Fabulous. When she dies of vanity at the end she actually sticks her tongue out to make goofy gaggy noises while rolling on the floor. Fantastic. Finally, the singing prince is none other than my beloved Rex Smith! One year after his world debut in the Pirates of Penzance film, he's back! Singing! In thigh high leather boots! Oh, be still my heart. The episode needed a lot less stupid dwarfs and a lot more Rex.
So yeah, really good day so far. I'm not feeling the cooking vibe, so at Target I bought ready made frozen lasagna, ready made garlic bread, and salad in a bag. If you know me, you know how weird that is. Ben said "This doesn't look right" as he was putting the groceries away. I need to find something quick to take to movie club though. Brian has picked a super-Halloweeny treat. It's the Black Cat, by Edgar Allen Poe, starring Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi. How great is that? I hope I can watch it all and still get enough sleep for tomorrow when it's back to work for me.
I finally finally finished this sweater. I stopped near the end because summer came, and I didn't want to not be able to wear it when I finished it. Then I stopped to make a dress for Zaley. The recent snow reminded me that I need to GET ON IT and finish this thing. Ta Da!
See the owls along the neckline? I need to find buttons to put on their eyes. Then it will be more obvious that they are owls. It's not a perfect fit. The back sags a little, the collar could come up higher. But it's my first sweater! The homemade look is ok.
Ah, Stargate is the next movie of the night. To answer Serin's question, I started work at noon. So I'm entering overtime for 12+ hours. . . now! I'm trying really super hard not to think of my warm, soft bed with snuggly down comforter, snoozing husband, sleeping puppy, and dozing kitty. All probably wondering when I'll join them. I'm glad Jem was at daycare today. Ben tells me that she wore herself out hard. Hopefully she will agree to my "sleep in super late" plan.
I'm writing from a patient's room at 9:15. I'm about halfway through an 8 hour treatment. Because of a shortage of slow, continuous dialysis machines, we are simulating that sort of treatment with our regular hemodialysis machines. My schedule worked best among staff for staying here until 2 am, so here I sit. I found out I'd be staying at 5 pm.
She's tolerating the treatment well and the MICU nurses are very nice and helpful. I really can't complain. But it's an unexpected late night and those are hard.
Not much to it. Vitals every 15 minutes, top off dialysate fluids, run machine checks periodically. She's been watching The Perfect Storm and Wild Hogs on TV. I prefer my Artemis Fowl book, alternating that with Stephen Fry's Incomplete & Utter History of Classical Music. (Thanks Amanda!)
I plan to sleep in very very late and take a nap too.
I love that on Sundays you get to put on a smart, pretty outfit in the morning, then change into your most comfortable grubbies in the afternoon. Best of both worlds.
Holy crap guys, my Emma's Baubles site has actual traffic. In fact, Instyle.com linked to my site! In a Jayma Mays quote! My dream is that Jayma Mays will discover my site and comment on it.
There's a deli meat advertisement on Hulu.com. I think this kid is Brian circa 1992. Except Brian would have NEVER forfeited his Halloween candy. Well, maybe for an R-rated movie. But even then . . .
[This is a re-post of the video, now on Vimeo and in higher resolution]
This started as a 5x?? video, one of those 5 second clip things. But there was so much to put in that didn't fit exactly 5 seconds! I trimmed it a lot though. I believe less is more. But the 5 seconds became more of a guideline than a rule.
I'm disappointed that I whipped out my camera mostly when Zaley was being cute. I wish had caught more scenic panoramas. Oh well. It gives a good picture of what the trip was like. Watch for the bat!
Wow, today was a pretty bad day. I was supposed to be a 10a-10p shift. They called at 7 to say that a tech was sick and could I come in sooner and still work late? I got there at 8:30 and expected a long day. Although we didn't have a third shift, so I got to leave at 7:30p, our patients were a wreck. Seriously, what is this? Acute care or something?
----- I had written/published this long thing about all our patients, but decided I didn't want a big rant about the day out there in that much detail. Clotted systems, severe hypotension and hypoglycemia, barfing, and mucho mucho alarms. Enough said.
-----
I'm still decompressing before going to bed. I have the weekend off. Amanda and I hope to see a corny teenager performing arts movie (FAME! I'm gonna live forever . . .) I need to update my blog on Emma's Baubles. She was only in two scenes this week so it should be a quickie. Boy, and someday I might put together that vacation video I promised you.
Happy Weekend, everyone!
PS: My car is super awesome and driving it is the best part of my day. Rock.
Who can tell me what that animal skin is hanging above the arm chair in the living room? I've always wondered. We couldn't come up with a good guess. Badger? ManBearPig?
I spent the last hour editing down all the footage I took with out flip camera. Then the program failed and I realized that I hadn't saved it since I started trimming clips down to 5 seconds each. And I was almost half done. Grrr. So in the words of Miranda, iMovie is going to go sit in the corner and think about what it has done for the rest of the night.
Amanda wants details and I'm not sure what to say. We did pretty much exactly what I wanted to do on this trip. Bullets commence bulleting! (bulletting?)
The cabin is still deliciously seventies in design. Brown and yellow shag carpet with matching harvest curtains and harvest fireplace.
I made Nate and Ben walk up the drive way first before attempting to mount it. They poo-poohed my warnings about the steep angles, but later agreed that it was deceptively difficult to maneuver.
Fry sauce is awesome, equally delicious on french fries and tator tots.
We all memorized Zaley's signing video. "It's signing time with Alex and Leah..." will that ever get out of my head?
There is nothing wrong with having a LaBeau's milkshake every day.
The autumn colors were beautiful. We have a lot of pretty aspens in Colorado, but we miss out on the oaks.
I thought this might be my first trip to Bear Lake without a sunburn, but somehow it fried my nose!
The water at the lake was amazingly clear, like a swimming pool.
We are all majorly nerdy bloggers. This trip will be documented with photos and videos TO THE LIMIT!
In all our smart meal planning and grocery shopping, we forgot to take into account the attractive small town eateries that stole our appetites.
Disney's Robin Hood is really really good.
Jem is depressed that we hadn't moved into the cabin permanently. Talk about dog heaven. She started every morning bouncing bed to bed, doing consecutive laps up and down the stairs.
The weather was perfect - cool and sunny with scattered clouds. This morning, before we left, there was a terrific thunderstorm. I woke at 5 am to close the windows and watch the lightening beams shoot into the lake. The rain cleared by the time we were packing up.
I found some joyous remnants of my youth, such as fancy Kermit and Miss Piggy sheets that Amanda and I used to fight over, and our old Rainbow Brite "Rainbow Inside of Your Heart" cassette.
I'll work on the video another night. I planned to do another 5x5, but it will be more like 5x40. Molly is happy we are home. The couch is coated in cat hair. Miraculously my beta fish is still swimming. He has to be 304 years old in beta fish years. I have one more load of laundry to do before climbing into my glorious bed. Tomorrow is a short day of work, just some computer training. Later Ben and I will catch up on Glee. Look for more updates to Emma's Baubles this week!
Enjoy some of my favorite photos from our getaway. Many many more are on my flickr site, and we'll be forming a group with more cabin pictures than you can shake a stick at.
Last night after work I left for our family cabin at Bear Lake, with five adults, two dogs, and a toddler in tow. The plan is to sleep, relax, hike, walk the beach, drink milkshakes and ironports, play games, watch movies, read books, and knit. Three blissful days away from work and responsibilities.
This is a new blog I have started, devoted to the jewelry worn by a character on Glee. It was too fabulous not to start a blog. Please read, share, enjoy.
This afternoon I was killing time between picking up my car (now with a working AC) and my staff meeting in Aurora. I went to Anthropologie, a lovely place that is quickly becoming a usual pay-day jaunt. While trying on a darling dress (not on sale yet) I caught site of my pale gams.
AAAAACK! Look at those huge leg veins. I cannot believe how quickly those suckers popped up. I've only been nursing 10 weeks.
The camera phone photo only hints at how big they are in person. At this rate I'll have giant blue ropes by the end of the year. I wear podiatry-approved shoes and compression socks every day. What more can I do? I'm at gravity's mercy.
Oh, hi Blog readers. Sooo, long time no posting, right? Been busy. Done with orientation. Oh, and I bought a new car today.
[hands flapping with excitement] Been saving up my pennies since getting a new job and found some great deals for Labor Day weekend. I wasn't expecting to get one so soon, but the price was right and the color was right (hey, it matters!) so there I go. I earned my good price with hard haggling. That guy was a total jerk, I almost left the table. It actually kind of soured the purchase for me. But I came out victorious in the end and my new car is PERFECT. I really love it. Ben's going to help me get a hot stereo, just to make it a little more special. And I'm going to get some Sticars to personalize the outside. Probably more pictures to come. It's getting dark and I'm tired from a busy busy day.
PS It's a 2009 Nissan Versa 1.8 S hatchback in Arctic Blue.
Oh yeah, we totally had giant pieces of DD PDUC for dinner. That's double-decker pineapple upsidedown cake, don't you know. I had chips for an appetizer and Ben is having popcorn as a second course. Working has definitely taken a toll on my nutritious cooking.
Hulu has run dry, making room for the fall season episodes of all my favorite shows. I'm stuck watching Arrested Development for the 5th time while I knit. It's still funny, btw.
Weird morning so far. We only had one patient to dialyze and he cored 20 minutes into treatment. It was the first core I've seen. He went into respiratory arrest and we called the team, then cardiac arrest while they were working on him. I wasn't working on him, so I mostly stood aside, brought out supplies, and gave information. He made it and was transferred to ICU. What a rush. So now we are documenting and decompressing. I guess codes are really rare for our unit. Still no other patients. Weird day.
Ben inspired me to put together that video I was filming the day of the hailstorm. It's a 25 second movie - 5 second clips from 5 parts of my day. I like it. I hope I'll make more of them.
I'm writing from my repaired macbook! When I got the message after work that it was ready for pick-up I went straightway across town to Park Meadows to pick it up from the Apple store. They cleaned up the screen and gave me a new keyboard and frame too, so it's quite pretty. I've resolved to limit my eating and surfing to a minimum and to be more careful. I really really love this thing.
What a day of work it was! One nurse didn't hear his alarm and didn't leave his house until 6 am, his house which is in Conifer! The other nurse called in sick. So it was up to the remaining nurse and me, still in training, to get the day going. Ay yi yi. Crazy crazy. We got enough staff by mid-day but I don't think I sat down all shift. I was only supposed to be there until 1 pm but I stayed on to help out a bit. The last patient I was working on pissed me off. She's one of the type who won't hold her own access to clot, so I have to stand there holding her puncture sites with gauze for 10-15 minutes while I could be doing other things. During this she inquired in broken English where her lunch was. What? Lady, you refused to eat your breakfast tray, which is sitting there cold. You know you're about to leave dialysis for a floor bed, why are you asking me about lunch?? I told her no, I didn't have lunch for her, and she rolled her eyes and sighed like I had caused her the greatest grief imaginable. We have a few patients like this. It's a real challenge for me. I'm ALWAYS nice to them, don't get me wrong. But inside it steams me to know that they come here for FREE life-saving treatment, don't take care of themselves by following our advice on diet, exercise, and treatment regimen (this particular patient always comes in too far gone, she should come to us a day earlier), and don't even do the little things like holding their access which would save us a TON of time. Then they get pissy about my not putting their feet up fast enough, or not having a lunch that they like, or not have three blankets. I don't know what it would be like to be in their shoes, but I like to think that I would act a tad more polite and grateful.
Whoa, got a bit ranty there, didn't I? Sorry about that. Really, I love my job. It's been a long week.
Right now I'm having a power lunch of coke zero, cheddar baked lays, and a snickers. I have to put together a short lesson for the Young Women tonight at mutual. Tomorrow I have to attend CPR class because my CPR card doesn't specify "Healthcare Provider" on it. Grr. I just certified last summer and attended two CPR courses during my school nursing rotation. I'm really looking forward to that massage Friday night.
Ben and I are both hurting from my computer being gone. We're both too heavy on computer use to only have one.
Good day today. I added 2 more grafts and 2 more fistulas to my count. One of the grafts was on a sweet lady we haven't seen before, and I was able to stick her way up into her armpit and got great flows. I see site rotation becoming one of my issues that I have strong opinions about :-)
At the end of my shift we had one of our regulars come in not looking so hot. She had anasarca pretty bad and was unresponsive, barely arousing to her name. She also had a face mask on 10L of O2. Yikes. While we were trying to reposition her I noticed that her face mask had blood in it and there was blood on the sheets between her legs. We got a little panicky because there was nothing about any of this in report from her nurse. We checked vitals and blood sugar and everything came out normal. The blood in her mouth was all her rotten teeth bleeding at the gums. We couldn't find a source for the bed blood - her diaper was clean and there were no skin breaks. With the renal fellow's ok we started treatment - she didn't even flinch when we put the needles in and she normally uses lidocaine. Finally we got an interpreter in the room and was able to talk to her husband (he accompanies her on every treatment since she is a 1:1 patient and we can't staff it). He told the interpreter, who told us, that she has been very tired for a couple days but otherwise is fine. He noticed she was bleeding a bit from her mouth and in her stool and so he stopped giving her Coumadin, and was that the right thing to do (YES! MUY BUENO! we told him). Sure enough in a couple minutes she "woke up" and started talking to her husband. After some inquisition we found out that she was getting a nebulizer treatment shortly before coming up to us. RT left her on 10L after the treatment and she came up that way for no reason. Holy smokes were we confused though. I mean, sure this is acute care, but if someone needs 10 liters of oxygen, is way below baseline mental status, unresponsive to pain, and bleeding from every orifice, then we do dialysis in their room in the ICU.
Sorry my story had a boring ending. I don't have many cool experiences yet.
My shoe situation makes me unhappy. I love my Danskos, but I still have achy legs and feet at the end of the day. Like, -I have to stand up slowly like an old lady-sore. I need to find a reliable second pair to switch it up now and then. I'm looking at MBTs ($$$ + ugly), Z coils ($$$ + ugly), New Balance (porous), and crocs (ugly). Does anyone have any other suggestions? Should I just get a second type of Danskos? In the mean time I scheduled a massage for Friday. I always tell myself that I should get them more often. It's money well spent. I feel recharged and luxurious afterwards, and for not much money since I use a student clinic. Yet I go just once or twice a year. I should make it at least a quarterly treat. I spend more on my hair than my muscles.
Can't wait for fall. There will be chilly weather and more time off with orientation finished. If I could sign up for dance class too my body will be oh so happy.
I slept like a log last night thanks to the cooler temperatures. Summer sucks.
I had my last class for orientation today. I took my final and got 100%. They said they had never seen anyone get all the high/low pressure alarms right. Woot! Since class only consisted of taking my test I went to the hospital to work and ended up staying until 6. Long day.
My mac will soon be in the repair shop. Thank goodness for property insurance that covers what warranty doesn't. Thank goodness for my iPhone that keeps me connected and acts as a backup. Thank goodness I back up my computer - even though the hard drive was spared. Thank goodness I have a job - even if insurance pays for it.
Despite all these blessings, I broke my favorite thing that I own. I let myself down and feel pretty crummy about it. Doesn't help that the day before the spill I had to buy a new car battery and wiring.
(Thank goodness Ben was home and let me take his car while he arranged the repairs. Thank goodness for husbands).
Last night was the finale of So You Think You Can Dance season 5. Some great stuff this year. I watched it with Amanda this week and was sad to hear that she hasn't seen any of seasons 1-3. I sought to educate her. I decided I was qualified when I exclaimed at the TV screen "What, ANOTHER Paso Doble? That's the third one this season!" Huh, funny how my brain tracks these things.
I was also thinking about how this show aired the summer that I got my first real job, working for the psychiatrist. Now 5 years later I've gone back to school and started my second real job as a dialysis nurse. Amazing how much can happen in 5 short years.
Since I went through the trouble of hunting down clips for Amanda, I'll post a few of my favorites here for you. I'm sorry that many of these clips will be dead soon, that's the nature of music rights. That's why they can't air the shows on hulu or release DVDs. Damn dirty copyright laws.
Season 1
Solo: Blake
Yes it's totally cheesy when he takes off his shirt - but he does it during 4 back attitude turns en dehors! His crisp transitions are what get me - he's in controlled the whole time and doesn't waste a single second.
Season 2
Top 10/20 Group Dance by Wade Robson
This is one of their manically popular dances. Everywhere on the internet the next day. They repeated it later with the whole set of 20 dancers and then brought it back this summer with Wade dancing in it. I prefer the larger group, but sadly they have been hunted and taken down by Fox. You can only see the full cast in this poor version.
Top 4 Group Dance by Wade Robson
Utter brilliance.
Mambo by Alex De Silva: Benji (winner) and Heidi (4th place)
They are cousin ballroom dancers with a long history of partnering together, and that communication is what makes this so good.
Season 3
Top 6 Group Dance by Wade Robson (are you sensing a theme?)
Love the lights, costumes, netting, performances, and musicality. Great piece.
Top 16 Group Dance by Tyce Diorio
Tyce does most of their "broadway" genre and they generally suck hard. This is one of his rare moments of genius, unfortunately ruined by overzealous camera work.
Top 20 Group Dance by Wade Robson
Love the use of Busta, love the stark costumes, and love the blatent rip off/homage of Fosse's Rich Man's Frug at the end. I'm a sucker for Fosse when it's well done.
Hip Hop by Shane Sparks: Lauren and Pasha
A strong contender for my favorite piece, this one is so creative. I love when the lights and music and costumes and movement come together so well. Pasha is a cute, gentlemanly Russian ballroom dancer, so seeing him work so hard on hip hop is an awww moment.
Season 4
Hip Hop (sort of) by Napoleon and Tabitha: Chelsie and Mark
Another "Favorite dance" contender. I could watch this over and over. It brings out the teenage girl in me.
Contemporary by Mia Michaels: Twitch (4th place) and Katee (2nd place)
Mia does some great ballad-type stuff, but I prefer her upbeat numbers like this one. Kudos for props well used.
Season 5
Solos: Brandon (2nd place)
Possibly the best dancer on this series yet. His cabriole from the floor kills me.
Contemporary by Mia Michaels: Jeanine (winner) and Kayla (4th place)
Gorgeous.
Jazz by Wade Robson: Brandon and Janette
So fun and sharp. I can't believe this wasn't an encore last night.
Contemporary by Mia Michaels: Kayla and Kupono
This is the encore which has worse lighting. I can't embed the original so you should go to it here. Such a good piece on addiction, so perfectly played.
Contemporary by Tyce Diorio: Melissa and Ade (who were my favorites this season)
Yeah, this made me cry. So how about I end on a fun one?
Hip Hop by Shane Sparks: Jason and Kayla
Zombies!
I'm thrilled their bringing back season 6 in the fall, but worried that I'll spend too much time in front of the TV. Is it worth it to buy a DVR and cable for one TV show??
One month into my new job. Somehow I'm on "week 6" in my training. They're trying to get me up to speed as fast as possible.
I'm keeping track of the number of sticks I've done: Grafts - 4 Fistulas - 8 Catheters - 12
Today was technically a bad day. I cannulated a guy with a smaller fistula, sort of my first "non-easy" attempt. The stick itself went fine. The arterial line was perfect. The venous line a bit trickier to get a flash. I had to fish around a little and push deeper than I expected. Finally that pulsing red ribbon appeared. About 45 minutes into his treatment his pressures kept sy rocketing. The nurse and tech came over to assess. They flipped the needle and pulled out a little. When we restarted treatment he infiltrated. Darn. I helped recirculate the blood while they put in another, higher stick. The rest of his treatment went ok. So I didn't infiltrate him personally, but I feel responsible for the venous line going awry. Later I took off a different patient. As I was removing his venous line the tape nicked the safety wings and brought the needle out as I pulled off the tape. A fountain of blood squirted at me, I was not prepared to cover the hole yet. I grabbed a fistful of gauze and tried not to stick myself with the errant needle. Blood all over the floor, the table, my supplies, and my shoes. Ok, so it was probably only 10 cc, 20 at most. But this was the first time I had blood on the loose! I was able to stay cool, calmly asking my preceptor to bring me a LOT more gauze. The patient continued to snore the whole time, completely asleep.
I'm glad for these little mishaps because they show me where I'm making mistakes. Things have been going so smoothly. I'm happy when I spill blood, when a line is busted, or when a patient gets hypotensive. How else am I going to learn to handle these things on my own?
I love you, Ben. Happy 10 year anniversary of our first date. I'm looking forward to getting Chinese food with you tonight, just like we did 10 years ago. And I bet you get me home by 8 pm again too. I'm so happy that you found me, that we could grow together. What wonders are in store for the next decade? Where will go, who will we be?
Ok, not snow. But the heavy hail we got tonight made it feel like snow. There's a thick white crunchy layer on the ground. The trees have been pummeled, releasing a sweet evergreen scent. It feels like it should be Christmas.
On our way home from the Bulldog we hit heavy baseball game traffic and detoured away from the standstill highway. Out west the rain got heavier, whacking the car windshield. The wipers couldn't keep up. Ben called and warned us that there was three inches of hail in Lakewood, but that it had stopped falling. We creeped along Colfax. Most of the businesses were dark - multiple power outages. We glided through the street with rivulets of rainwater and floating ice. It looked like the arctic. There was low swirling fog from the ice condensing on hot asphalt, illuminated by colored stoplights, police cars, and fire engines.
Our cars escaped damage (yay carports!) and we are one of the few in our building whose windows were not broken. We replaced our ancient windows the summer we bought the house. I think they were stronger and had springier screens that could withstand the force of the hail. Our neighbors are all milling around outside picking up the broken glass and buzzing about Channel 4 news supposedly coming out to cover the storm. We feel very fortunate to have no damage.
I had taken the Flip camera out with me today to do a 5x5 video. After dropping off friends I got some action on the road and at our house. Here's a little clip of us enjoying the crazy lightening.
Thanks for all your kind comments! Many of you (here and on facebook) dissed the melting pot, thanks for the tips. Ben has been there and loved it, so we might have to on another day. Last night we went with the French place, Felix Brasserie. It was par for French food. Classic stuff. I had a frisee and yellow beet salad, country pate plate, and steak frites. Ben had a green salad, oysters, and halibut. It was all good, but not the kind of French food that knocks your socks off. I think Brasserie Ten Ten in Boulder was better. But I love eating in new places anyway, we didn't mind that it wasn't awesome.
After dinner we met friends in Denver who were playing board games. I bounced over to Fancy Tiger for their 3 year anniversary party and got a free gift (a pattern), then we went to Sweet Action. The place was hopping! I'm happy that it seems they will survive their first year. After dessert I went home, leaving Ben with friends and games. I watched the whole first disk of How I Met Your Mother that we had ordered from Netflix. Went to bed right after Ben got home, a little before midnight. What a great, long day.
I had 10 minutes left on my shift and Ms. A was taken off the machine. Some powers that be (too much Angel?) decided that it was the perfect time for her to have a ginormous BM. I helped clean up while the docs fled the room, then frantically put three machines in test mode and ran out the door. I'm forbidden from going into overtime while on training, so I got to take off early today. Today, which is my very first PAYDAY!
After a short stop at the bank I went straight to Anthropologie. By golly, it's time to celebrate! I changed out of my scrubs in my car and spent a glorious hour and a half trying on lovely things. For once I was the woman with an armful of clothes in the checkout line, the women who cause me envy. Sure, all from the sale rack and the "for once" might be "for the last time" too. But boy was it fun. That poopy bed felt miles away, even though I had to drive by it on the way home.
Behold my bounty!
At home another treat - Jem is at daycare so I'm free of dog duties! I made a plate of cheese and pickles and popped another Angel DVD in the xbox. (Pausing it mid episode to write this blog, because I couldn't pay attention to both) Tonight Ben and I further the celebration with a fancy dinner. I'm not sure where. We've been talking about the Melting Pot, but I just found a new French Brasserie in the Highlands that sounded good. Decisions, decisions. Here's hoping the rest of my weekend is as rockin' as the first three hours have been.
Good day at work today. Started at 6 am, like usual. I went in back to start mixing bicarb jugs and string the machines. Then we found out our charge nurse had missed her alarm, lives across town, and won't be in until after 7. Oops! Usually there are two nurses and a tech and me. But today it was two techs and me. They called our supervisor and she asked me to take report on the patients. Okay, not a big deal But I was really excited to do this! I got to put my license to work, taking report like a real nurse. The only hard thing was not getting too many details. Since I don't know all these regular patients, I wanted to ask more about their history and current stay, but the other staff knows them so well it's not necessary. It was nice to feel really useful- I saved the team 20 minutes for when the other nurse arrived and we were rushing to get the patients in the door.
Right now I'm still only qualified to set up machines, assist in getting the patients connected (though not breaking skin or connecting catheters myself), returning blood and terminating treatment, removing needles, and cleaning up.
Tomorrow is computer training. I get to sleep in a tad, but probably work later in the afternoon to make up for it. Monday I did my orientation at the hospital. I'm very happy to have my official hospital badge with access to break rooms and utility rooms. I don't have to sign in at the front desk on the list of employees who "forgot" their badges. People don't overt their eyes, searching my person for a name badge, when they see me. I also bought some scrubs in the official colors for RN's at the hospital, so I REALLY blend in.
We just rejoined Netflix after a three year break. There's so much on there now! I'm impressed with the amount of British television - even all of series 1 Doctor Who (9th and 10th Doctors). I think I will be busy setting up a queue this afternoon. Also, I want to get a remote control for our xbox now, so we don't have to use the controllers.
I realize I haven't written in a while. That's what happens when your life gets turned upside down. I haven't done the 5 days a week thing in, like . . . my life since high school. Seriously. Once I went to college I've had three day weekends for most weeks. Add a workday that starts at 6 AM and you can see why my home life has been a bit topsy turvy. So I'm updating you all that yes, I'm alive. Yes, I'm loving my job. I'm still posting pictures on shot-a-day (link on the right side). I might have more occasional, short blog posts from my phone, since I can do those on my breaks. Here are some other thoughts.
I'm CRAVING anthropologie clothes. When oh when will my first paycheck get here?
I'm planning to get a new (used) car this year. A big chunk of my paycheck will go towards that. Now whenever I drive I'm window shopping the other cars on the road.
Glee looks like it will be the greatest show this fall. Maybe even more than 30 Rock?
Oh wait, SYTYCD will have a season 6 this FALL! Crazy. This summer's season 5 is killah. I'm rooting for Melissa/Ade and Brandon/Janette for top four. They would do some wicked routines together.
I had lunch out today (guess where) and I saw a doctor in his lab coat, a cop in his blue uniform, and a sailor in his white dress uniform. Add to them my nurse scrubs and we looked like a children's book on professions!
I freaking love my iphone. I think I still love my macbook more, but it's a close race now that I'm away from desks all day.
I took out 6 giant needles from arms today. I did awesome in that no blood squirted and the patients didn't wince. Yay!
Amanda graciously loaned me some fun books. Reading is great. You all should get on Goodreads so we can make recommendations to each other.
Certain-Dri has changed my life. What is this new life? Where my pits are not mucky and clothing wet by the time I blow dry my hair? Where I can lift up my arms without fear? And in July with a nerve-wracking new job! Seriously, Certain-Dri is gaining on Instead cups for best hygeine revolution ever! (And since my family doesn't want to read about my feminine hygiene I'll refrain from describing that. But trust me, Insteads are a miraculous invention. Girlfriends, this is almost my favorite subject so ask me about them anytime.)
I spent hours reading a manual on ICD-9 coding today. Did you know there's a code for a disease called pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism? That was not a typo.
I kind of want a TV tuner card for our project hulu computer-tv. But its only purpose would be to record SYTYCD. Everything else is on hulu itself. Maybe not worth it.
Maybe we should restart Netflix this fall.
My cat is a druggie. It took three attempts to get her inside this morning. When I coaxed her with my feet she ran to get another fix of catnip. I had to pick her up and point her towards the door.
My house feels like a disaster. Not only is it not clean, but we have heavy summer heat. Blech. Also we had an ant infestation. I kicked it with combat traps. I've also seen two earwigs and a cricket in my kitchen sink. Dirty bugs . . . I declared tomorrow morning Clean Up The House morning.
