Happy Fathers' Day

"My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person, he believed in me." - - Jim Valvano

It comes the same weekend every year, but never gets as much interest. That holiday is Fathers' Day.

Since I volunteered to take a father's place at church this weekend, my own celebration was broken up. (My husband agreed to it). I got up early and made Dahey and Bubba a breakfast casserole. The route to a man's heart may be through his stomach, but for these two, there had better be meat and cheese on the way, too. (Sorry vegetarians! I try all the time and sometimes I'm successful!)

I took care of my church volunteer obligation, then came home. We ate leftovers for lunch, and we went out for dinner at a swanky steakhouse nearby. Bubba wasn't thrilled that there were few kids there but he got used to it, and enjoyed the food.

We left and got dessert at home since the two wanted to watch the NBA finals. Dahey's father would have enjoyed that--he loved basketball. My father would have just taken the pie and gone on his merry way. Bubba was happy to see Cleveland win.

For all of you nurses out there, who are dads and are working, I hope your organization treats you right. Some do make things better when working these holidays. If you are working and can't see your father, I hope you can soon.

For the rest of us, who wish our fathers were here today, I wish you peace. I feel your pain everyday. I am so glad I have lots of happy memories with my dad, who loved us, pies (and just about any sweets) and being a dad. I'll never forget him.

More later.

Suspension of reality

It was a regular old Monday. Nothing fancy. Went to work and had a few unforeseen occurrences. No biggie.

Educated patients (my favorite part of being a nurse) and did some other stuff. Went back to my desk, did more stuff, then came home.

Now I feel like doing nothing in particular, but ran into this funny suspension of reality: the dog texts. Made me think of WildDog, who, as a member of one of the smartest dog breeds was a crafty character.

Enjoy!

Ah, snow!

It's coming. From the way the weather folks at the local RehabLand television stations put it, we're looking at potential snowmaggedon.

This is always fun at the Hotel. Patients don't come in for our outpatient clinics, and they miss tests. Inpatients get grumpy when their relatives can't come into visit. Thankfully, the grounds of the Hotel are cleaner than any roads in the area.

Nursing staff loves snow because it usually means you get to work overtime, since some of your coworkers never ever make it to work.

We do have something to look forward to...none of this should last. The temperatures will be above freezing by the weekend.

And the snow will go, go, go...stay tuned.

Working vacation

Around the house. Since I've been a busy grad school student in addition to work, I have been neglectful of my duties as chief housekeeper so it was time for an intervention. Yes, I finally buckled down, and decluttered my son's entire room (I left some stuff for him to do, though).

After that, I vacuumed, dusted and cleaned the floors. I also washed all the linens and curtains in the room. I will wash the windows before I go back to work if it doesn't rain (or I'll cure the drought with my window washing!)

Another fun task: bagging up, washing and distributing old stuff (clothes, toys, books) to one of the local charity thrift shops. Bubba doesn't want it--it's going to them. They are more than happy to sell off his stuff he no longer plays with for me. No craigslist, no weirdos coming to my house or meeting me in a nearby mall parking lot. So much simpler!

Today, I finished up some more cleaning and decluttering in my room. It's not completely done, but the start is better than what we had! So, so happy.

If only every vacation could be as productive as this one!

Stay tuned!

Laboring away

I'm not at the Hotel, but at the RehabRN household, Dahey, Bubba and I are doing lots of oddball stuff we've had on hold. Trimming bushes, sorting books, you name it.

Don't fret though, we're taking lots of breaks in between, enjoying the beautiful weather here in RehabLand.

And for all my friends laboring away today with your patients, the Labor Day songs here are for you.

My favorite is below, because it talks about working hard, in crazy circumstances, as many of  you are doing today.

"'Cause it's hard to keep a good man (or woman) down!"

Happy Mother's Day

God could not be everywhere and therefore he made mothers. ~Jewish Proverb

Hope all the mothers out there, especially those working today, have a great holiday. I'll be joining you shortly, once Bubba tells me what the big surprise is.

In mere days

I will be flying solo in the SU, since my training period will officially be over. I've documented, documented, documented and I've run the systems and managed the patients on the last few days I've worked.

Telephone triage is still interesting, but I'm getting the hang of it. Thankfully, everyone seems to be helpful.

Crossing fingers as I get ready to fly solo.

More to come....stay tuned.

Hannibal used to say...

"I love it when a plan comes together." and chomped on his cigar, in just about every episode.
I thought of this very saying when I read Theresa Brown's latest installment called When Nursing is a Team Sport.

Makes me wish this happened more often on our unit. She mentioned some valid concerns--especially ego and too much overtime.

Hope you enjoy this happy phenomenon wherever you are today...stay tuned for more excitement.