Professional generosity

Some days it doesn't seem like there is any in the world, but I know there is. I was doing research for my class at LocalStateU, and found a commentary that made me think of my advisor.

As a result, I sent her a note (and one to the author of the op-ed). They both replied. Looks like I'll be spreading the love in a blog for students soon at my advisor's request.

Giving and receiving seems to be an infinite circle. Don't forget to share some generosity yourself today.

More later...

I love it...

When people in your online class actually pay attention. Thank you ladies for taking time to go to our meeting at the very last minute.

Helps me feel less overwhelmed by everything! Especially since my comps date is now looming over there ==> in the sidebar...

Stay tuned...

As the old saying goes...

Even the blind squirrel can find an acorn under the oak tree.

I got lucky and found the instructor's error from one of our assignments. So glad he's got a sense of humor.

Let the week begin. I'm ready to go jump on in! Here goes...

I'm on the A list!

And it's not on Southwest Airlines, either. Finally got the grade I've been waiting for all semester.

Yes, indeed, this will be a Merry Christmas and a happy holiday season. Not long now...I'm in the home stretch!

More to come...

I get the last laugh

Nitwit, the co-team lead for the last part of the semester with Silent Bob (he was too often quiet) drove me crazy during most of the semester. He/she thinks him/herself to be the world's greatest writer, which would be like saying Tattoo from Fantasy Island was the world's tallest man.

Nevertheless, Nitwit, who had always been looking for ways to thwart everything (and I mean everything) I put into our projects, decided he/she didn't want me to mention a particular industry tool in my section of the paper.

Much comment ensued, Nitwit went all ghetto (which is hard when you look like you just came from the Swiss Alps)and took out the information and substituted another generic info bit.

Needless to say, I was pretty perturbed last night. Since we have to write evaluations for the team leaders after each section, I was prepared to skewer him/her in them.

I decided not to today, as I was reading our classmates submissions and then re-reviewing ours.

Nitwit might have thought he/she removed all references to this item, but he/she missed one.And I chuckled to myself, "One day he/she will learn the proper ways to use find and replace in Word."

Karma's a bitch, baby, and she's got puppies...just sayin'!

The final countdown

No, we're not headed to Venus, but it sure seems like an extended odyssey. Still plugging away with the most sleep-deprived member of the team.

Should be an interesting day. Stay tuned.

No gold rings...

But in five days, this grad class will be over.

Maybe getting up early after staying up late will allow me to see any pinot grigio induced errors in our implementation plan.

Stay tuned...

Down the rabbit hole

Sometimes life surely seems that way. I've been busy doing this, that and the other thing and I feel so overwhelmed.

Just like being on the floor, you have to have a plan.

The current plan:

1. Orient the new boss. Nice character, so this should not be difficult. I like hands-on management, especially when I don't feel like I need to take a cultural orientation class to figure out what to do with them.

2. Orient my manager re: my new projects. I just love being an employee who reports to multiple people.

3. Work, work, work until the end of the semester for my grad class. So glad it will be done in just shy of one week.

Then this house really will be merry!

Stay tuned...

So glad it's the weekend...

We're halfway there...oh!

Thank goodness the grad class is actually more than that, but this certainly conveys the feeling I often had as a teenager out with my friends on a weekend...or in this class!

What holiday?

I'll spend mine working in one way or another.

Got up early today and attempted to pay bills. Found out my sibling (who is disabled) had a 4 figure phone bill. Checked it out online, then discussed with said sibling and found out someone he/she knows has been scoring very expensive Eastern European phone calls from him/her, in addition to "borrowing" money. Got everything documented and hotlined him/her. Happy holidays? I don't think so. Not when you have no money in your account.

Installment #1 of 2 sets of books for the next grad class arrived today. Hope the other one (which has the required text) shows up by the time class starts in about 10 days.

Bubba and friends are having fun at the baseball tournament next door. Dahey is out making sure he's not eating everything in sight.

Should be a fun day....stay tuned.

Weekend recap

Yes, I'm in a stupor from all the weekend excitement, but I think it has more to do with the hours I work. (Sorry, I'm just a diurnal kind of person...)

Thankfully, the weekend was quiet. We never say the "q" word at work, but now the weekend is over, we can. It's fine and dandy when you sit and work in relatively equal proportions.

This was handy, since I was asked got stuck to train people on how to use the new payroll system. Why? Since I can read and am "good with computers." We're going green just like Saintarama did years ago and Madison will not print your paycheck stubs anymore. You can via the internet. Great idea in practice, but when a government organization runs anything, there are lots of caveats.

One big bugaboo is that SuperGiganto Payroll people sent e-mails with passwords that expired pretty much after they left the mail server. Which means I had to teach people a) how to get their e-mail (some know how and some don't) and b) how to get through the maze that is SuperGiganto Payroll.  As a former author of help documentation, there was way too much of it. One of our nurses totally violated the "green" part of getting into her payroll account by printing the help file, which had to be at least 100 pages. This task, in between call lights and actual work, took about two days.

I also had to complete the paperwork for some folks who missed our yearly competency reviews. The caveat: the forms said they all had to be reviewed by the nurse manager, so only about 20% of the competency could actually be completed over the weekend. Sorry, boss. I tried to help out...you'll just have to do the rest. You'd think our very own education nurse could work on this, but lately, the only thing she's working on is vacation and sitting in her office. I heard more than once that maybe I should be doing her job instead of her. Not a chance. Said nurse has more experience than I do and probably will never set foot back on the floor again.

Since I had some free time, I found a great free review for my next grad school class. I'll be looking at that in my spare time, since classes won't start for a couple of weeks.

Overall, it wasn't a bad weekend. We have more bookings coming up today at the Hotel, so we'll see how it goes.

Stay tuned. It's never a dull moment.

Full moon Monday

And to think, I'm not at the Hotel! Darn!

Ah, but it was crazy enough here. Bubba did not want to spend the day with momma and daddy and go to the Kidsmuseum with all the climbing stuff, dinosaurs, animatronics, etc., you can think of, so off he trotted to day camp, where he cried a river before Dahey dropped him off. Not just bawling, but the whole throw yourself on the floor drama queen spectacle. Glad I missed that one. He was still crabby by the time I picked him up this afternoon. Now he's sulking with a root beer float and watching the Yankees play whoever. My child a Yankees fan...eek! That's not kosher in this part of the country, son, but at least he's not asked for an A-rod jersey or a cap yet.

I vegetated and then Dahey and I went to lunch. Didn't end up where we should have, but got lunch nevertheless. Fancy schmancy ethnic was closed, as it is on Mondays, so we went to another nearby eatery owned by Mom and known citywide for her sandwiches. The smell of the marinara drew me to the meatballs...yum!

Dahey went to transact some business. He's an inveterate shopper--goes to auctions, trolls Craigslist, you name it. He drove far away looking for the ever elusive antiques. No dice. Nice man on craigslist who said, sure go to lunch with your wife got a better offer minutes before Dahey arrived and sold the stuff as he was driving up.  Pissed off husband ensued.

Nevertheless, I had a lovely day. My partner and I worked on our group paper and got most of it done. At least we have time to give it a thorough look over for all those APA pitfalls.

A little more bliss, maybe some rain, and hopefully, an interesting lunch or two. Stay tuned....

Simmering Sunday

It may well be that later. Our simmering heat is getting pounded by massive thunderstorms flooding everything.

Since I'm on vacation, I've been cooking here and there (one of my favorite hobbies) and drinking up all the good liquor with Dahey, since I can sleep in every day. (not to excess mind you...gotta keep some for later!)

Why am I drinking? You would if you had your nose buried in these spreadsheets. Class will be over soon, class will be over soon, I keep telling myself.

More later.

I am...

Free...freed from the cares of the Hotel for nearly a week.

Wet, from careening down a mega three stories high water slide with a big swirly tub at the end. Talk about being disoriented! I entered the water head first!

Happy...Bubba and Dahey and I could attend a Cub Scout event together. (I usually miss them due to work).

Almost finished...with this class I'm taking. I need to collect my thoughts for the final paper, but I know they're coming.

Done...good night, all. See you next time...

Endings

It's the weekend, so not only is it the end of the week, but it's been the end of a lot of other things.

One of our patients died late last week. It was a great relief. He/she was in hospice and the illness moved quickly. I'm glad he/she was there, instead of here, because that's the place he/she needed to be. It's quiet, peaceful and appropriate. Our house: noisy, often dirty, and just plain crazy. If I had to pick, I'd take hospice anyday. It's like a park there, it's so peaceful.

My summer class is getting close to the end. It's been a lot more work than it looked. Only two more summer classes before graduation. Not sure if that is a good thing, but at this point, with little to no support from my boss, I just can't handle two or three classes and working full-time. My family just likes to see me occasionally.

And the weekend now is nearly over...I wish they were longer. Summer lately has just flown by. I can't wait to get loose for a few days very soon!

Last but not least, I heard Brainscramble was ending via CoS. Good luck wherever you go! Now you know why I don't use my name. (just a tip for all you potential anonymous bloggers out there...)

But, even with endings, there are beginnings. Registration for the new semester starts soon under a new system. I'm just crossing my fingers that it all works without a hitch.

Stay tuned...never a dull moment here or at the Hotel.

Planning

Lots of things in my life require planning.

1. Getting patients cleaned up. This sometimes is a mess. Luckily, I had one guy ready right as the docs came by and was able to talk to them about changing his dressing orders with the wound nurse. Why you ask? Because it's a whole lot easier to talk about what would be best, when an area is clean and you can see everything going on there.

2. Finishing my class for the semester. I talked to my prof yesterday as part of a planning meeting (see part of the theme) and realized that I really need to maximize the lunch time I get. How am I going to do it? I've got to escape..or go to lunch early. If I don't do that, I get shortchanged. Shortchanging right now is not a good thing.

3. Surviving the day, despite planning, can go awry pretty quickly. I just cross my fingers and go.

And off I go...stay tuned.

It's almost over...

It's almost over, I keep telling myself, as I look at the tree I murdered for my class to print out all of the handouts, instead of reading them all online.

In mere weeks, I'll actually get a vacation from school...for about three weeks.

I am motivated! Motivated to get done.

Stay tuned...and note, no tree was murdered to post this, either. ;->

He told us not to do it...

So I'm not going to even LOOK at that class while it's spring break. Thanks Mr. H.!

On to more fun assignments, like laundry, cleaning and lunch with the folks out and about.

Sometimes, I love the weekend!

Great expectations

That's what I get for opening my mouth in class.

The instructor assigned me to quiz, query and otherwise get one of our guests to tell us everything we'd possibly want to know about a certain nursing terminology.

Oy! Off to my reading...stay tuned for more goodies!

Yes, they really do...

...like me. I got accepted to SuperDuper State University grad school. A plus...most classes are online. Hooray!

Guess I can't take up any new hobbies (drat!).