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This year is for adventure
Jan. 7th, 2018 08:21 pmWell happy 2018 my Dreamwidth friends!
I’ve had a word for the year for the past several years. I do this instead of a resolution; I prefer to have a theme. 2015 was progress (both as noun & verb), 2016 was balance, 2017 was explore, and 2018 is adventure. I’m an action verb kind of lady.
Our first adventure of the year is Joe!
It started with a news story on the local station: a town not too far away in Missouri had seen a sudden huge increase in their shelter population due to an issue with a local breeder. She specialized in small breeds: Yorkshire terriers, Chihuahuas and “Chorkies” (which is the mixed breed name for that combo, and I hate it with a passion). She got in over her head & realized she couldn’t take care of so many, so she surrendered them; there were 72 or so. We’d intended to get one but because there was a news story, a ton of people responded & they were all re-homed on last Thursday; my first day off work was Friday. We called before we drove all the 2 hours & 45 minutes there, and I’m glad we did. Ganon was really disappointed, so I thought why not stop at our LOCAL humane society instead? We did, and there was a 12 week old puppy they were calling “Sir.” He & Ganon clicked immediately, so we decided to become a 3 dog household again. We decided his name is Sir Joseph Robert (i.e., Joe Bob!). He is a really chill, laid back dog. Very easygoing. I suspect he’ll be decent to potty train. His only drawback so far is that he appears to be a “chewer”. However, being fairly experienced with dogs (I’ve owned one my whole life except the year we lived in Dallas), I knew rawhides were a good idea. So far tonight, Joe has finished his...then he stole Harry’s & finished it, and then he took the part of Pete’s that he didn’t finish.
My next big adventure...is more school. Yes, I know I just graduated in 2016 & I’ve only been doing this APRN thing for just over a year. But I’m in emergency, and I dislike that there are situations I’m not allowed to/trained to handle. Because my degree is “adult-geriatric acute care” I am not allowed to care for patients younger than 13. It’s not that I particularly WANT to be in pediatric care but finding emergency nursing has been much like finding nursing in general was for me: this is where I belong. I will remain in emergency nursing for the rest of my career until I retire into teaching, and then I’ll TEACH emergency. So since I’ve decided this is where I belong, I’m going to do it to the furthest extent of my ability. That means a post-doctoral certification in pediatric acute care. I will be applying to UAMS & taking one or two classes to fill in my gaps of knowledge on children & babies, and then I’ll be completing something like 1,000 clinical hours, mostly at Arkansas Children’s Hospital—one of the most outstanding pediatric hospitals in the world. This should take me right around a year from the time I start, which I believe is in the fall. It’ll be even more adventurous because that will mean a 2 hour drive down to Little Rock and another one back to Jonesboro, so it’s likely I’ll schedule my clinicals a few days at a time & drive down to stay in Little Rock with the RV!
I gave up on ARNA just before Christmas. There was so much garbage, and it just kept becoming more & more clear that the people in office on the executive board right now wanted to stay in power until we could join up with the Midwest regional association. Fine. If they want it so much, they can have it. It’s too much stress. I resigned my position as Region 2 director and as editor of the Arkansas Nursing News. I kept my position as the coordinator for the education center; there’s no one else who could be taught how to do it & besides—Rebecca, my mentor, gave me that position before she moved away, then passed away. I keep it in honor of her. They’ve replaced me in both positions, and I’ve got this huge sense of RELIEF. No more biweekly meetings, no more deciding when to be nitpicky about the rules only when it suits our larger goal, no more strategically withholding information & then acting surprised when people are surprised by decisions made based upon that information. They burned me out. I don’t want to have anything to do with them anymore.
It’s been SO UNUSUALLY COLD here this last week! Arkansas doesn’t have exactly mild winters, but neither is it known for it’s bone chilling low temperatures. It certainly has been this last week! Along with most other places in the south, we’ve been thrown for a loop by these phenomenonally cold temperatures. We have a small homeless population here & the churches have opened warming centers. In fact, a bus load of homeless ladies & their kids were brought up to Jonesboro from Little Rock because the Little Rock shelters were full & we had this one open.
What else? I got an iPhone X & I love it. We put Ganon on our phone plan as well & switched to AT&T’s new program, so now we all have unlimited data in a cloud. This will be excellent for going to the cabin & taking RV trips. In fact it already worked extremely well on our trip to Dallas for Christmas; Ganon was able to make his own hotspot & watch videos, play games, & chat with friends on his iPad during the drive. Ah, kids these days. They’ll never know the boredom of a car ride without internet. Or life without the internet, for that matter; as one of the youngest members of Generation X, I’m among the youngest people who remember that analog life. I like that I have those memories, but I do so love the internet & what it’s done for us.
I’ve had a word for the year for the past several years. I do this instead of a resolution; I prefer to have a theme. 2015 was progress (both as noun & verb), 2016 was balance, 2017 was explore, and 2018 is adventure. I’m an action verb kind of lady.
Our first adventure of the year is Joe!
It started with a news story on the local station: a town not too far away in Missouri had seen a sudden huge increase in their shelter population due to an issue with a local breeder. She specialized in small breeds: Yorkshire terriers, Chihuahuas and “Chorkies” (which is the mixed breed name for that combo, and I hate it with a passion). She got in over her head & realized she couldn’t take care of so many, so she surrendered them; there were 72 or so. We’d intended to get one but because there was a news story, a ton of people responded & they were all re-homed on last Thursday; my first day off work was Friday. We called before we drove all the 2 hours & 45 minutes there, and I’m glad we did. Ganon was really disappointed, so I thought why not stop at our LOCAL humane society instead? We did, and there was a 12 week old puppy they were calling “Sir.” He & Ganon clicked immediately, so we decided to become a 3 dog household again. We decided his name is Sir Joseph Robert (i.e., Joe Bob!). He is a really chill, laid back dog. Very easygoing. I suspect he’ll be decent to potty train. His only drawback so far is that he appears to be a “chewer”. However, being fairly experienced with dogs (I’ve owned one my whole life except the year we lived in Dallas), I knew rawhides were a good idea. So far tonight, Joe has finished his...then he stole Harry’s & finished it, and then he took the part of Pete’s that he didn’t finish.
My next big adventure...is more school. Yes, I know I just graduated in 2016 & I’ve only been doing this APRN thing for just over a year. But I’m in emergency, and I dislike that there are situations I’m not allowed to/trained to handle. Because my degree is “adult-geriatric acute care” I am not allowed to care for patients younger than 13. It’s not that I particularly WANT to be in pediatric care but finding emergency nursing has been much like finding nursing in general was for me: this is where I belong. I will remain in emergency nursing for the rest of my career until I retire into teaching, and then I’ll TEACH emergency. So since I’ve decided this is where I belong, I’m going to do it to the furthest extent of my ability. That means a post-doctoral certification in pediatric acute care. I will be applying to UAMS & taking one or two classes to fill in my gaps of knowledge on children & babies, and then I’ll be completing something like 1,000 clinical hours, mostly at Arkansas Children’s Hospital—one of the most outstanding pediatric hospitals in the world. This should take me right around a year from the time I start, which I believe is in the fall. It’ll be even more adventurous because that will mean a 2 hour drive down to Little Rock and another one back to Jonesboro, so it’s likely I’ll schedule my clinicals a few days at a time & drive down to stay in Little Rock with the RV!
I gave up on ARNA just before Christmas. There was so much garbage, and it just kept becoming more & more clear that the people in office on the executive board right now wanted to stay in power until we could join up with the Midwest regional association. Fine. If they want it so much, they can have it. It’s too much stress. I resigned my position as Region 2 director and as editor of the Arkansas Nursing News. I kept my position as the coordinator for the education center; there’s no one else who could be taught how to do it & besides—Rebecca, my mentor, gave me that position before she moved away, then passed away. I keep it in honor of her. They’ve replaced me in both positions, and I’ve got this huge sense of RELIEF. No more biweekly meetings, no more deciding when to be nitpicky about the rules only when it suits our larger goal, no more strategically withholding information & then acting surprised when people are surprised by decisions made based upon that information. They burned me out. I don’t want to have anything to do with them anymore.
It’s been SO UNUSUALLY COLD here this last week! Arkansas doesn’t have exactly mild winters, but neither is it known for it’s bone chilling low temperatures. It certainly has been this last week! Along with most other places in the south, we’ve been thrown for a loop by these phenomenonally cold temperatures. We have a small homeless population here & the churches have opened warming centers. In fact, a bus load of homeless ladies & their kids were brought up to Jonesboro from Little Rock because the Little Rock shelters were full & we had this one open.
What else? I got an iPhone X & I love it. We put Ganon on our phone plan as well & switched to AT&T’s new program, so now we all have unlimited data in a cloud. This will be excellent for going to the cabin & taking RV trips. In fact it already worked extremely well on our trip to Dallas for Christmas; Ganon was able to make his own hotspot & watch videos, play games, & chat with friends on his iPad during the drive. Ah, kids these days. They’ll never know the boredom of a car ride without internet. Or life without the internet, for that matter; as one of the youngest members of Generation X, I’m among the youngest people who remember that analog life. I like that I have those memories, but I do so love the internet & what it’s done for us.
