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I got a thing!
Aug. 14th, 2012 03:41 pm
This is my thing! It's a leather iPad case with a bluetooth keyboard. I've seen these at Best Buy & Staples, etc & really thought about them, but I was always put off by the price tag: they're about $100 at those places. If I ended up not liking it, that's a bit steep. So I had the brilliant thought of hunting on Amazon, & found this one for around $40. Much more reasonable.
So far it's a bit different. It's a tiny keyboard, so it's a bit cramped. It's soft & the keys do not have a click, which I miss. It doesn't automatically correct when you're using it, either. so if i type expecting it to autocorrect, the way it does when i type on the screen keyboard, i get this, with no capitals. The apostrophe/quotation mark key is on the bottom row next to the arrow keys, which is a super awkward spot for it.
I AM, however, typing a lot faster on this than on the on-screen keyboard. That's the idea, so SUCCESS! Also capslock is easier.
Ganon certainly likes it, but that's mainly because it's new & it's red.
Posted via LiveJournal app for iPad.
In which I get some spam created entirely of cliches
Well, today I got this email. I'm pretty sure it's spam, but it's very unusual spam, so its got me wondering whether some poor schlub may have accidentally sent his love letter to the wrong email address. In more ways than one.
I'm Frank Nowak Wicker like you already know, 46 years old live in Montana, USA, I'm single with my son he is 5yrs old i have never been married I enjoy boating, hiking, camping,fishing, nature, walks on the beach, sunsets, movies, music, cooking, and quiet nights at home. I'm a Contractor working as a petroleum refining consultant for a large multinational corporation. I travel to Europe,Australia-New Zea land, and Asia on work-related assignments...I am a God fearing man, with good morals and values am honest I do not cheat or play games, I can't stand seeing some one been intentionally hurt I have had my heart broken before and will never pass that kind of pain to a woman I'm a simple man with a big heart you will find that i am very caring, understanding, patient,loving and kind. I am full of passion and romance, and have an endless amount of love to offer the right woman I'm searching to find that one woman that will take my breath away, the one woman that I can never stop thinking of for any reason, the one woman that the mere whisper of her name brings a smile to my face.
She must be not only my best friend, but also my soul mate. My commitment to this woman will be till the end of time when i find her asking her hand in marriage is all i ever hope for, I must tell you that I am also old fashioned in my beliefs and would defend and protect this woman at any cost for any reason.
I believe that a woman should be able to look up to her man for protection, for well being, and for strength. I intend on fulfilling these roles without failure, I will be this one special woman's knight in shinning armor. This special woman will know that I am deeply in love with her, for I am the type of man that showers her in my love, Whether it be flowers, gifts of candy or jewelry, or just a simple "I love you" and a kiss, she will always know she is loved and appreciated. I hope to have caught your attention with this letter, and would like to discover who you really are, and how much love you have inside of your heart after been heart broken, For you could be the woman i am searching for.
The only person that truly knows that answer is God himself. I am willing to take the chance and see, if you are willing to get along. Someone once told me "It is better to have lived life and regret what we have done, than to never to have lived and regret doing nothing." I believe this to be true. If you decide that you are interested in discovering the real me and seeing if I'm the man you are searching for, please write back to me. I will patiently be awaiting your letter.
I am looking forward to your response soon
I'm seriously doubting it, because googling the name doesn't turn up any real people (there are a couple of Frank Nowaks). But wow. What an email. A woman who needs defense & protection & to look to a man for her well-being...this spambot is DEFINITELY barking up the wrong tree! :D I'm about as unlike Spammy's dream girl as its possible to be.
In which Dallas was both hot & fun
In other news, we're home from Dallas. Had a great time with Mimi & Augie, but it's nice to be home. It's cooler here, for one thing. I know 95 degrees F is not "cool", but when I compare it to the oven-like atmosphere & 105 deg F of Frisco... It was really bad. The sun radiated down, then the heat reflected back up off the concrete, and when there was a breeze, it felt like the gust of hot air out of the oven when you open it. It was so hot the swimming pool felt like soup during the hottest part of the day; you had to swim in the early morning or late evening.
We did go eat at a SUPER cool restaurant called Whiskey Cake. It was in Plano, & I had the best salmon burger I've ever tasted, as well as the whiskey cake that gives the place its name. It was a lightly spiced cake with pecans, vanilla bean sauce, & fresh whipped cream. The restaurant is one of those with a variable menu; they always have certain core items, but sometimes those items are slightly different. The devilled eggs, for example: this week they had a tiny bit of pulled pork & a cherry-Serrano jelly on top. Next week they might have smoked salmon on top. in addition, they have a large roster of foods that change based on what's available seasonally, because they source as much food as they can locally! I was really impressed. They have GORGEOUS outdoor seating, & when it's not so blistering hot in Hell Texas, I'd like to go back & sit outside.
The whiskey cake itself.
Snagged some things on sale at Torrid. I love going there because we don't have one in my part of the country. The one in Frisco is literally the only one to which I have access regularly. 3 shirts & a skirt, all on buy one/get one 50% off clearance. I went by Ulta instead of Sephora this time. So of course I joined THEIR rewards program. It was free. :)
Please note the new lip color. :)
Prompted by one of my favorite docs at work, I discovered Biscoff cookies & Biscoff spread! I got them at World Market, along with a killer cute shoulder wrap. I wish I'd gotten the set of stacking coffee mugs in rainbow colors. It was only $15. :(
In which COOL SCIENCE HAPPENS
We got to watch the Curiosity landing! We were gonna put Ganon to bed & stay up, since it was at midnight our time. But as we were doing that, it occurred to me that we had an 8-hour drive for him to sleep the next day, & it's not every day that NASA lands a nuclear-powered rover the size of my car on Mars, on the other side of the sun, using the largest supersonic parachute ever & a rocket powered sky crane. This was science history! So we relented & at 11pm, Ganon & I went out for tacos & shakes (we determined this was appropriate landing food), & came back to watch. Little scientist did not make it to the landing. He fell asleep about 11:45.
I tried to wake him when we had entry, but even though I squeezed his cheeks & put him in my lap, he was fast asleep! So when they announced touchdown, I was crying Happy Science Tears with a 6-year-old in my lap, who will someday know he sorta witnesses history. :) Also, I'm also in love with Mr. Fedorski, otherwise known as NASA Mohawk Guy. If I had to pick a favorite rocket scientist, though, it might've been the lady with the super long, super straight red hair, or Gandalf.
In which there's a creeper at Target
Yesterday was Starbucks Appreciation Day. I can't say I went there BECAUSE of that, but I did remember, & I did want an iced Americano yesterday after the farmers market, so I went into Target, which houses Jonesboro's only Starbucks. As I walked in, I IMMEDIATELY noticed a man looking oddly at me. Not just me, but every person who went to the counter. He was staring very intently, as though he relished making people uncomfortable. Well, I'm not down with that. I am VERY into non-verbal communication & I think people should be as polite with that as with verbals, so I looked back, held his gaze, & arched an eyebrow with a very clear "Can I HELP you?" type look. He looked away from me, but didn't stop staring at the other patrons. He was wearing a shirt with an obnoxiously neon Bible verse printed on it in all caps (JESUS is the WAY, the TRUTH, & the LIFE!!!!!1omg!). People who know me well know that I get extremely accurate "feelings" from people when I'm near them. I am very sure this is because I'm intuitively VERY good at interpreting nonverbals, but the closest description I can use is that people "feel" like things. Happiness feels like jumping up & down, specifically on a trampoline. Sadness feels like someone strangling me, but not with fingers; more like holding something thick & hot around my neck. Someone panicking feels like whirling wind, & so on. Well, this guy felt like a sustained prod, like someone stabbing you with their finger & holding it there. That is focused intensity in my experience.
I don't know why, but I really feel in my bones like this guy was trying to figure out which people were there just to get coffee & who was there because they appreciated Starbucks' stance on gay marriage. That would not be strange in my ultra-conservative, Bible belt part of the country, & it just creeps me straight out. My first thought upon recognizing that was "He could have a gun", and then I thought "That's ridiculous. Don't be so paranoid." Then I realized, yes. Maybe that's a little paranoid...but it isn't ridiculous. It happens.
In which I have things to look forward to!
Tomorrow I get to go play with my Borgs! Q & I are heading to Little Rock to see Jess, & we're going to do stuff & things. I want to talk them into riding the trolley to the Argenta District.
This autumn is going to be made of music for me. First up, in September, are 2 album releases. The Jeff Coffin Mu'tet releases "Into the Air" on September 4, (please note, the anniversary of my having passed the boards & become an RN) & Dave Matthews Band releases "Away from the World" on September 11. Then, Bassnectar plays in Little Rock on October 10 at the amphitheater, & BIG GIGANTIC IS COMING OCTOBER 30. *flails* with both the Mu'tet & DMB releasing albums, I have to think at least one of them will tour. If DMB doesn't, the Mu'tet certainly will; they're touring in the short period of time between DMB's last show & the upcoming Gorge event! So either way, there will definitely be one of my favorite bands touring.
Today, Ganon & I are alone, since Bryan had to go on a teacher field trip. :) They all went to the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis. I told him to take pictures. I suppose now I have to figure out what me & mr. Crazy Pants are gonna do today.
Posted via LiveJournal app for iPad.
Yes. At age 33 my uncoordinated butt played this game in public. Because I don't give 2 poops what anyone thinks of me when I'm having fun. :)
Posted via LiveJournal app for iPad.
A Saturday night post
Jul. 14th, 2012 11:27 pmYou can hear so much more depth in a song when you listen in headphones. The inability to hear anything else brings out such detail.
I am aunt of the year. My gift to my 2 year old niece upon the occasion of her birthday? 250 DumDum lollipops.
Had a super crappy day at work Friday, which involved working a 16 hour shift. I did not INTEND to work a 16 hour shift; I wasn't mentally prepared. It was one of those crappy things that sometimes happens, & I saw a way to fix it (which would improve the stays of several patients). So I stayed 4 hours over to make it happen. But holy cow, what a long day! I was so tired on the way home that I judged it SAFER to call Bryan & talk the whole way home while I drove than to risk falling asleep. At least there are few people on the road at 11pm in Jonesboro.
I'm tired now, too, so how about a few more pictures, then I'm off to bed. Included: I drew a video game character for Bryan in Draw Something, & I'm rather proud of it!
( Read more... )
Just to let you know, I passed! I celebrated passing boards with a photo, so here is your photo of a Progressive Care Certified Nurse!
Standing at the Doubletree Trolley stop in downtown Little Rock, no less. ;)
Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.
So that even if this test DOESN'T go my way tomorrow, it'll still be a great memory.
Posted via LiveJournal app for iPad.
Work, photography & getting new letters
Jul. 9th, 2012 12:55 pmWork is rough these days. Usually our census is pretty low during the summer. In fact, any time I think of when I got low census (when we're called off because we have too many nurses scheduled for the number of patients we have), it was always around a major winter holiday (Thanksgiving or Christmas) or during high summer. This summer is much different: it's so blasted hot. A lot of frequent flyers are in because they overheated.
That strikes me with a thought: I don't think I've ever defined "frequent flyer" here.
For an ER nurse, a frequent flier is someone who shows up at the ER a lot, & it's often used as a derisive term for someone who is seeking pain medication. I work on the floor where the ER sends those who come in truly sick in unstable ways, though, so you're not going to find otherwise physically healthy folks looking for a high. Don't get me wrong; some might like a high. :) They're just also legitimately sick.
For us, a "frequent flyer" is a person who has a chronic disease or condition that occasionally requires acute management. So, a type 1 diabetic who gets an unrelated illness might need an insulin drip to manage their glucose during that illness. Someone with COPD might get pneumonia & need a BiPAP to help them breathe off enough carbon dioxide. Someone with a heart condition might go into acute renal failure if they get too hot. These are our frequently flyers. In addition to being very legitimately sick, we get a little attached to them. In some cases, a LOT attached to them. While the ER definition of frequent flyer is the one most often used in pop culture, to a stepdown/PCU nurse it's often a term of endearment.
I have taken care of a couple of our frequent flyers this week; ones who would not normally be in during the high summer. It makes me sad. They certainly don't need more crap than they already deal with.
~~~~~~~~~~
Work really interferes with my ability to do the July photo assignments. I missed the 7th & 8th; I think I'll make them up today. Photo assignments relax me, & I think part of my problem on work days is that I feel I can't relax, or possibly shouldn't. Time is at a premium during my workday, & I feel like I can't spare the seconds to think about a photo when I'm trying to think about saving lives & improving customer service scores (& I have to think about that because part of the clinical care coordinator job is to think about it).
On my days off, though, I think about photography a lot. I'm really in the mood for it today.
Jeff coffin has evidently discovered he has a twitter account & has decided to use his iPhone accordingly. He tweeted a photo of a Dave Matthews Band concert...from the stage. :) I sorta love that. I wish he'd join instagram.
~~~~~~~~~~~
So on Wednesday, I'm scheduled to rack up a few letters! I take the PCCN-A exam! When I pass that, I will officially be considered an expert in my field of nursing. I'll be qualified to instruct continuing education, I'll qualify automatically for coordinator/manager positions at other places than just my current hospital, & in general be considered excellent in my field. I'm sorta stoked about this. I love the idea of having acknowledgement that yes, I do love progressive care & that I can be considered advanced in that field. I don't get a raise or anything, but there's something about the prestige of new letters. Plus they get to go on my name badge. From a possibly jaded point of view...I can use the PCCN on my badge to increase customer service. If you think you're being cared for by a specialist, you're more likely to view your care as better.
So tomorrow we are going to Little Rock to the museum & all that, then we'll spend the night in a hotel & go someplace for breakfast & all that. Then at 13:30, I sit for the PCCN & we see how it goes from there! Eeeeee!
Right now it means I'm going to go check out the PCCN review modules & mainline information about renal failure physiology (I'm great at the nursing care part but I'm rusty in the physiological processes) & endocrine syndromes (thyroid storm, etc). Probably ought to bone up on SIRS & resolving sepsis while I'm at it.
Posted via LiveJournal app for iPad.
July Photo-a-Day
Jul. 6th, 2012 10:16 amHere's my July Photo-a-Day 5: on the floor. :)
If you're interested in following the Photo-a-Day yourself, here are the daily themes!
Adventures!
Jul. 6th, 2012 10:11 amI cannot sit still for very long, I think. Since reality means I can't just buy an RV and roam around all the time, I need little side adventures to keep me happy. Right now I'm feeling super restless & suffocated (this is the mood that always gets me listening to Grey Street by Dave Matthews Band), I want to jot down potential adventures for myself, then see about having one of my own today. I want to take some photos of Jonesboro for that new community I joined.
July 17: Borg adventures in Little Rock. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
thejessone & asqmh & I are gonna be big kids & use my family pass to go to the Museum of Discovery. :)
July 21: In Little Rock again, as I need to attend a meeting of the ARNA board. Our chapter prez is out of the country, so it's up to VP Hillary to represent!
August 4: Same thing again. This one is a larger meeting.
First 2 weeks of August: I have taken ALL my vacation time. It rolls over in August & I lose what I don't use, so by George I'm getting me a vacation. I know there will be a somewhat extended trip to Dallas in this time, & I'm making plans to find local food trucks & visit new things I've not seen in Dallas.
Man, this is one of my favorite user pics. THANKS, Q!
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Where my peeps at?!
Jul. 2nd, 2012 08:29 pmPhotography alert! ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif){kind=small}
wild_photos is a photo community that opens every so often. The idea is that members show off the place they live! This year the dates are July 28-August 4, which MIGHT afford me 2 options: here where I live in Jonesboro, & then shots of Frisco, Texas where my in-laws live (& I consider it a second home, as familiar as I am with it). Thanks much to curiouswombat, community maintainer, who pimped it on her journal!
Waiting on my parents to come over & install the basement wall mount for our TV. I should currently be washing at least 2 sets of scrubs, as I'm working for the next 2 days. One good thing about working every other weekend with a short staffed floor is that they tend to spread us out. That means I'm generally working 2 days in a row all the time. A Tuesday/Wednesday followed by a Saturday/Sunday, then a Thursday/Friday followed by a Wednesday/Tuesday.
I'm having more schedule issues again. I swear, centralized staffing is the devil. They've got me scheduled for 4 days during one week (I'm a 36 hour employee so that's one too many), & of course it's the week of Ganon's birthday so my in-laws will be in town! Now the state nurses' association (ARNA) has called 2 board meetings & since our chapter president is out of town until the end of August, I need to attend both. I'm okay on the August 4th meeting, but the other is July 21 & I was already scheduled for it. T_T So I need them to drop one day during Ganon's birthday week & I've got to trade someone for the 21st...which will be hard because it's a Saturday. Poop.
So anyway the tv! I'm excited because this will mean 3 different entertainment centers. I can accomplish things in the basement (our laundry room is there) while my boys do their things on the other TVs. When I'm back in school (or now, when I'm using the PCCN review course videos), it can also be a quiet place to work on things.
I used to think it was silly when people went all oenophile over wine. "This has subtle notes of oak" or "there's a distinct blueberry on the finish!" then I had to shut my piehole because I got that way about coffee. Now I may be doubly embarrassed because I can see myself getting that way over cider. I don't have access to many different brands, but I'm trying every seasonal blend of Woodchuck I can get my hands on, & thanks to my local liquor store getting all classy on me, I'm getting all of them! I mentioned wishing for the Winter brew & behold, they got it! They've had the Spring & Summer all season, & I have every reason to think they'll have the Autumn & Pumpkin ones this fall! This year's Spring has maple & brown sugar notes on the finish. I don't care for it by itself, but it's delicious with BBQ! The Summer has a bright, clear blueberry flavor right up front. I could drink it by the gallon. Which wouldn't be advisable since hey. It's alcohol. But whatever, YUM.
WELL. Ganon is flipping out for me to play de Blob on the Wii, so I'm off.
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A public pot of coffee
Jul. 1st, 2012 11:46 amWhy yes, I am planning to drink this entire pot of coffee. Out of my pot Bryan bought me off Amazon, & my mismatched Fiestaware from the Borg trip to Eureka Springs. Where I am still planning to live after I obtain my doctorate in nursing practice. Just sayin'. Oh, & it's a public pot of coffee because I've chosen to go back to overall public entries unless I have a reason for friends only. There are a lot of people I'd like to read these entries who don't have LJ accounts.
Bryan is playing Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands. I am jamming out to Jeff Coffin on my iPad (I didn't know I needed one until I got this one for Christmas, & now it's my freaking baby) & new Gumy headphones. I'm pretty picky about earbuds. They have to sound awesome & not hurt my ears, & almost ALL shapes hurt my ears. I finally found a single brand that meets both requirements: JVC Gumy. They've recently changed them to Gumy Plus & I'm afraid they'll discontinue the original line, so I've bought a bunch from Hastings. :) Hastings has been doing a buyback program for video games, & we took advantage. For every 3 games you sold to them, they'd give you $25 extra in-store credit. So Bryan purged his collection & now we have a boatload of Hastings money. Stuff appears to be cheaper on the website.
So you remember that job I took in December? I'm still that...but I haven't been able to do the job, not even once! The goal is that i would be a "float charge", helping everyone else, doing discharges, & making sure that patient education was being done. We just don't have enough nurses, so they can never afford (budget wise) to let me go without a team. They could technically get a staff support nurse & let me float, but staff support nurses are expensive. Other floors with healthier budgets can do it, but for some reason our budget is just crap. I'd like to see where that money is going. We DO require more nurses per patients (being a progressive care floor, our nurse to patient ratio is 1:4, whereas other floors in the hospital to 1:6 or 1:7), so maybe it's that. We ARE getting new nurses, now that graduation has happened. I'm training one (though that's on hold since she did not pass boards & must wait 45 days to take them again) & I think she'll do well. The other duckling belongs to Angie, but I personally urged her to apply to our floor. She's no nonsense, she's got backbone, & she's hella smart. She WILL do well, & I am going to do everything to make sure she stays on our unit.
We're getting a new TV& I'm all up in this project! Bryan has always wanted a 50" LCD for the living room. We found a great deal on one on target.com (plus we have a Red Card so that's 5% off). We're going to move the one currently in the living room into the basement along with the other Apple TV. That will make it distinctly awesomer to do laundry in the basement for extended periods of time. <3 Also it will be nice when we're stuck down there during crap weather. Usually with my whole family.
Well. Ganon is bored to tears. I think we shall go to Home Depot & buy some impatiens for the front yard planters. Later I'll post my Wakarusa photos. I tried last night, but evidently uploading that many pics from the LJ app was just too much & it disappeared into the ether.
Posted via LiveJournal app for iPad.
When you are in the hospital as a patient's loved one: avoid coming in, guns a-blazing, announcing how you went to nursing school/medical school/are a CNA. Claiming any sort of medical expertise in order to impress or intimidate us is doomed to spectacular failure in one of two ways.
If you did NOT attend medical school, go to nursing school, whatever--we're going to know that VERY QUICKLY. It's gonna take us approximately 30 seconds to figure that out; less if your nurse is, unbeknownst to you, capable of reading body language professionally & saw "lie" written all over you to begin with. Even if your nurse was oblivious, the first time you don't understand the function of s VERY common medicine? Yeah. Please note: the level of education you claim is directly proportionate to the size of moron we will assume you to be when we catch on. Ergo, if you pretend to be a CNA and then do not know that a 230/122 is a very high blood pressure, we may give you the benefit of the doubt & assume you could've just been a very bad CNA. If you claim you went to medical school & then do not know what arterial blood gases are & why we take them, we will assume you to be a tremendous tool.
If you DID attend medical or nursing school, bravo! You're one of us! Use that to your advantage & let us find out in a low key, organic way. When you ask about starting the beta blocker or the ace inhibitor, we'll grok that something is up, & we'll ask what you do for a living. Sheepishly admit you're a doctor/nurse but you didn't want to make a fuss, & we'll usually love you. Question everyone's most minute action, & note each time "I'M A DOCTOR!" or "I'VE BEEN AN RN FOR 25 years!!!" and you will find you suddenly get not a single scrap of info you didn't specifically ask for. Quite frankly, its a hospital. You couldn't spit in any direction without hitting someone who is a MEDICAL DOCTOR!!!1! or HAS BEEN AN RN FOR XX YEARS!!!1!! It does not make you a unique & beautiful snowflake. From another angle, the odds are good that you're not a specialist in the area that your family member is admitted for, & then you look stupid for questioning those of us who DO specialize in them. If you're a labor & delivery nurse, your critical care stepdown nurse might actually know more about post-heart surgery care than you do (heaven knows I'm not about to tell an L&D how to do her job!). If you're a family practice doc, the cardiologist probably knows quite a bit more than you do about electrophysiology. There's no shame in letting a specialist be a specialist & do their job. When you flaunt your expertise to fight us every step of the way, it just makes you look like an immense douche.
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