She Makes the Best of What's Around

For the first time in a long time...a diet

2018-07-24T18:21:59Z

I’m a body positive person, & I also happen to be a bit fat. Once upon a time I wasn’t so body positive, and I did everything in my power to NOT be fat, up to & including a stint with Weight Watchers. That turned out to be pretty bad for my mental health (seriously have you ever weighed in front of a room of judgmental people who were trying to act like they weren’t judgmental?), so I quit. I had a revelation when Bryan was RELIEVED that I’d quit, as he also felt it was bad for me mentally & he liked me just fine the way I was. Since that time I’ve been practicing intuitive eating & not giving a fig what size I am. I do my thing.

Well, I’ve done my thing up until about a week ago, when I had to do a “wellness check” for an insurance discount. We’re on Bryan’s insurance for Arkansas state employees, and as part of a wellness initiative they give discounts if you do this yearly. Well, it involved a fasting lipid panel, CBC, & CMP. Well, for the first time in my life I had a high fasting blood sugar!

This is a little suspect because of the way the phlebotomist collected it. It was collected by capillary action and she milked the heck out of my finger, which can cause a falsely high glucose. But just in case, I’ve decided to have a hemoglobin A1C drawn at my primary care provider’s office. That’s a test that tells you how your glucose has been over the last 3 months, and is a better indicator of possible diabetes than a simple, one-time fasting sugar check.

Regardless, in my typical fashion, I have jumped headlong into eating & acting as though I AM diabetic. I have a strong family history (my maternal grandfather died when I was 6 of complications of diabetes, and had been blind since before I was born due to the same; all of my mom’s brothers except one has it, and my dad’s only brother has it). More than that, I see the effects of uncontrolled diabetes on a literal DAILY basis at work. There isn’t a single day I don’t see someone who’s disease is either directly caused by or at least worsened by their high blood sugar. To that, I say “Aw HELL naw.” Therefore, I have changed my diet!

I’m not dieting to intentionally lose weight this time, though the app I’m using to monitor & track my food requires a “goal weight.” I set it for 25 lbs less than I am, and to my surprise and minor delight, it doesn’t expect me to reach that goal for 6 months. That is a VERY slow weight loss, and as a medical provider I know that’s the safest, most reliable kind. I’m pleased with that. I’m going to weigh myself no more than weekly at the gym, but if it starts to trigger my “failure” reflex when I don’t lose, I’ll be weighing less often than that, or just skip weighing altogether until physician appointments.

The app is called My Net Diary Diabetes version. It was $10 but if I’m going to do this, I’m going to do it the best I can & this app came very highly recommended. It has a rather incredible database of foods, speaking from an American perspective. You can even scan the barcode on packaged foods. For ease of use, it gives foods a “grade” as well as telling you the technical specifications. For example, the half a Snickers bar I ate yesterday got a D grade, while the roasted veggies & sausage we ate for supper scored an A. It makes it easy to put in what you’ve eaten for each meal. If you work out & use the Apple Watch app, the number of minutes & calories automatically are entered into My Net Diary. If not, you can manually enter a workout.

I don’t drink diet sodas, due to the horrid headaches I get when I eat/drink artificial sweeteners, but I do love me some cold, flavorful drinks in the summer. This has led to some creativity on my part, which has led to some excellent discoveries. I like my hot coffee unsweetened with just milk, but I’ve always drank my iced coffee quite sweet. I’ve discovered I like it just fine with milk & no sugar. I’ve ventured into La Croix flavored seltzer waters with great success; the lime & grapefruits are my fave. They’re also good with a bit of peppermint flavoring added. I’ve started ordering my iced tea unsweetened, and I’ve also found that an Arnold Palmer (half iced tea, half lemonade) is very tasty with unsweetened tea. The foods I eat are hardly ever horrible, but I definitely had a tendency to drink my sugar.

It’s easy to eat well at home, but at work will be a different story. I’m going to have to start planning ahead more than I do now. It’s ironic how limited the healthy food options are at my job, given that I work in a hospital. We’ll see how that goes!

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Three Good Things

2018-05-27T02:42:54Z

1. Playing Splatoon 2 with Ganon. We like to do online Salmon Runs together.

2. My sleep mask. It's SO much more feasible to sleep during the day since my dad-in-law Walter got me this eye mask that blocks out almost 100% of light! Night shift is doable again!

3. KT tape. You can tape your joints & muscles in certain ways to take the strain off & it's supposed to relieve pain. Whatever mechanism it works by, it really does seem to work for me. My ankle is so happy.

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3 good things today!

2018-05-22T00:03:32Z

1. I picked up today's shift at the last minute, so I got $10 extra hourly!
2. I did precisely the correct things when a patient went into a very dramatic seizure right in front of me.
3. I now have pizza and a gin margarita.

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First Camping Trip of the Year!

2018-05-18T16:20:51Z

We had a couple of free days around last weekend & we knew we wanted to go on a trip in the RV, but it was Mother's Day & I thought I should stay around for my mom at least. So Bryan had the very bright idea to do both, and we took our motorhome to the local park!

My city can be super weird & backward about a lot of things. Like most smallish American cities, it's built primarily for car traffic & lacks good pedestrian/bike pathways & public transit options. In my town specifically we have this weird lack of good local restaurants; everything new that opens here is a chain. Basically if you think of the whitest (we HAVE people of color here but are they in decision making positions? Mostly not), most generic, boring background city of any American teen drama or sitcom, you've got Jonesboro.

There's one thing Jonesboro has gotten very right, however--Craighead Forest Park. We have a park which has a fairly decent sized lake for fishing & boating, several awesome playgrounds, a walking trail with exercise equipment around it at intervals, and most importantly, an RV park! If you're looking for a relaxing weekend, oddly enough, this is the perfect place for it in the middle of the most dull, monotonous town.

We drove over (less than 3 miles from the house) on Friday and got a spot for 2 days. For those 2 days we roasted marshmallows, watched Ganon fly his drone, took walks, and had the cousins & my parents over for Uno games on Saturday night. It was SO relaxing, especially for Ganon who is the very epitome of school burnout. He's been working so hard on his grades, which remain all over the place regardless. He was this close to a huge stress meltdown, so getting him out of school early that day & going on a camping trip was just what he needed.

Pictures!

( Is it a staycation? )

It was an awesome weekend. I work overnight tonight & tomorrow night, but it's Greek Food Festival weekend in Little Rock. Despite working 5p-3a Saturday night, I'm going to try & get up early to go. It's the only time of year I can get souvlaki, pastitzio, and melomacharona (which may perhaps be my favorite cookie in the history of cookies). There should be lots of cool photos from that as well!

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hillarygayle @ 2018-05-07T15:40:00

2018-05-07T21:15:21Z

On my porch again. Sunny, warm, & beautiful.

I'm in a strange head space today. I found out today that a friend of mine (who I interact with mostly on Twitter, but we began as friends IRL) sustained burns in a house fire last week. She contacted me to find out exactly how long she should expect to have acute traumatic stress symptoms, like jumping at the sound of anything remotely "popping" and physically recoiling from warm, flickering light. She didn't go to the ER at the time of the burns, so I was also able to stage her burns for her via pics.

It's interesting, thinking about a remote trauma from the standpoint of both healthcare provider and survivor. I told her the acute trauma resolved for me in less than a year, maybe 7-8 months. Chronic triggers have remained but they're quite specific: the smell of burned cooking oil, the visual of someone being burned with cooking oil (which is rare but has happened in a couple of TV shows; one I had pre-warning but one blindsided me recently). Aside from those rare triggers, though, the visceral, fundamental terror of fighting and winning the fire that burned me (I carried it outside the house to stop the house from burning down) has left me with a couple of superpowers: I have the pain tolerance/hit points of a demigoddess and I am almost supernaturally calm & confident in a crisis. Frankly I think I'm 10 feet tall & bulletproof, and I believe I have fire to thank for that.

Another burn survivor friend of mine says she thinks when you're burned, you remain a part of the fire. Like it's inside us now. I love that idea. It makes me feel different, but in a badass way as opposed to a "burn PTSD has fucked up my brain" way.

B, my newly burned friend, says she feels so much better after talking to me. I was able to stage her burns & able to give her some idea of what successful emotional recovery is like. Consequently, I also feel better. If I was able to help support her in her emotional & physical recovery, then what happened to me gains a little more meaning, outside of simply the ways it shaped me. I can use that experience to make the world better for someone else, which is more or less the meaning I've chosen for my own life: make the world better.

Bryan & Ganon are bringing home Sonic drinks so very shortly I'll be swinging in a hammock drinking strawberry limeade, thinking about how, at least at this moment, I've achieved the meaning I want for my life.

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Photos of my finished porch!

2018-04-30T20:48:58Z

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Beautiful weather, a porch, and Facebook

2018-04-29T16:08:31Z

I totally forgot I haven't mentioned it here: I deleted my Facebook. I weighed the options and realized I was just feeling much more stressed at baseline because I HAD a Facebook, so I ditched it. It wasn't worth the mental stress. Now, I do miss a few people I only ever kept up with on Facebook, but overall, big decrease in stress. Now if only the president would give up Twitter...

Yesterday was a GORGEOUS day, and we got started building my porch! I have wanted a roof over our back deck since we moved into this house in 2011, and finally we've gotten around to it. I say "we" but I am not the person building the porch. No, that honor goes to my parents, who are the people you want to take with you if you must be stranded on a deserted island. If you can't find a way off it, at least you'll be living in a bamboo mansion which somehow has indoor plumbing.

At 9:47 am Daddy arrived with the goods:

Couple of hours later we already had 4 posts planted: 2 of which were dug into post-holes and seated in cement, and 2 of which had been anchored by drilling into existing concrete. An hour after that we were here:

By the time they decided to leave in the afternoon, we were here:

My parents are capable of an incredible amount of work in a very short amount of time. Always have been; it's a huge strength of theirs. Another is Daddy's ability to essentially freehand designs of a fairly large nature. There is no plan or design for this porch roof other than the one in his head. He measured the porch and from there decided how much and how many of everything he'd need, scribbled down a list & estimated prices. That was the extent of the planning.

Found this growing unexpectedly in my yard. I'm not sure what kind of flower it is, but it's precious I want to dig it up & put it in a pot. Edited to add: it appears to be nothoscordum bivalve, commonly called crow poison or false garlic.

And finally, my feet in my hammock with a background of the sky through my trees.

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Fashion!

2018-04-26T17:08:17Z

Found this on the journal of sasha_feather and loved it! I am a big fan of fashion, but in my own way. I'm not one to follow trends unless I actually like the look. I was SO THRILLED when metallic makeup came into style early this year because it meant there was a ton of it out on the market for me, and I'd loved it for ages. My own particular aesthetic could be described as "mid-century modern Hogwarts Professor."

1. Have you ever done something awful to your hair? What happened?
I don't know that I'd call it "awful" but I had that layered Jennifer Anniston clone haircut everyone had in the late 1990s. It didn't look bad on my face type, but blah. It just wasn't "me." I did once ask for a layered cut and the hairdresser did STACKED instead, and left a damned rat tail at the nape of my neck! I talked my husband into cutting off the freaking tail when I got home.

2. Conversely, at what time in your life have you looked your best?
I love the pictures from my junior prom. That said, I like me now. I look friendly but authoritative. The second kind of makes me a little intimidating but the first makes me a bit more approachable. I love people with backbone, so this particular combination almost screens new people for me. Bonus points it works for me as an emergency provider because most people take me at my word that I know my stuff.

3. Do you have a favorite article of clothing? Tell us what and why.
It's not a single piece of clothing, but rather I own several: my eShakti skirts & dresses. They are tailored to fit me because eShakti does custom clothing based on measurements. The skirts all have pockets and everything fits me like a dream. I don't wear them as often as I should, but this summer I intend to rectify that.

4. Confess the worst fashion trend you ever succumbed to.
Well, it's more like my mom succumbed on my behalf, but in the mid-to-late 80s I had a spiral curly permanent in my hair and goofy bangs where you rolled the back half upward and the bottom half downward to make this giant round POOF on the top of one's head. We paired this stylish hair look with brightly neon, often sequined oversized t-shirts and spandex shorts. This was the height of fashion in that time frame but damn.

5. Are there any clothing/fashion trends today that you simply don't understand?
Well, I mean there's not always something to understand about fashion, is there? Throughout history there have been fashions that were just...why? However, I do wonder about ultra skinny jeans. I've seen some dudes wearing jeans so tight I might call them leggings, and basically my question is this: how did you get your feet through the bottom holes? I lived through a really tight jeans time period too, and then we had these little zippers at the ankle so we could get our feet through. How are these guys with giant feet managing this without those ankle zippers?

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3 good things

2018-04-26T16:06:10Z

Having some weirdness with Gmail in the last several days. My first inkling of this was a terse email from a learner trying to enroll in the ARNA Education Center I coordinate. She said she'd emailed me three times without response. I searched my archives in case I had checked off her email without actually addressing it, but nothing. She eventually got through to me by using a different email address. Then I got another email today from an ARNA board member, Margo, who told me that Sue, a member of the AR state board of nursing, had also been trying to contact me without getting a response! Nothing from her either. I know that Gmail has recently gotten a big update which might be making it act weird. Margo mentioned she was happy to know it wasn't just her having problems with it, so apparently I'm not the only one.

I have a cold. The stuffy nose, scratchy throat, generalized malaise kind. It's more an annoyance than truly anything I'd consider an "illness" but I resent it disproportionately. Therefore, please have these 3 good things about my morning.

1. Coffee!
2. Little vanilla wafers. I could eat half a package of these things & not bat an eye. So delicious & so light & crispy. Though it would be nice if they had a little more nutritional value!
3. Janelle Monaé's music. I'm playing The ArchAndroid beginning to end for the first time, rather than on shuffle or shuffled in with a larger playlist of other artists. Should've done this a long time ago. It's amazing.

We have family plans to go out to breakfast and then go see Infinity War tomorrow and we're thinking we'll watch the rest of Stranger Things season 2 tonight. I love my boys.

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Stretching again...

2018-04-24T22:56:34Z

So here I am, with a doctorate...and I've decided I need a LITTLE more school! I have been accepted to the UAMS (University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences) College of Nursing as a non-degree seeking student in the acute pediatric program!

What this does is offer me exactly enough classes & clinical hours to make me eligible to take the exam for acute pediatric nurse practitioners so that I can take care of high acuity patients younger than 13. Right now I'm limited to people 13 & older and while that wouldn't have been a hindrance in a hospitalist or intensivist group, it gets weird in emergency. The rotation (the order in which providers take patients) gets weird when you have people like me who aren't qualified to take care of kids. There's also my own feelings on the subject. As I did when I was an RN, once I got comfortable with myself in this role as nurse practitioner, I began to want to expand. Emergency is CLEARLY where I belong. I love it and I appear to be suited for it. Jody, one of the ER charge RNs, was in ACLS renewal class with me today. I had mentioned once working on the floor, and she shook her head & said "I know you did, but I just can't picture you ANYWHERE except emergency no matter how hard I try." It works with my strengths, and my weaknesses are not such a liability in this particular environment. The higher the stress, the better I focus. When I'm in charge of something like a code, the world seems to slow down while I make decisions. BUT--I can't do that with every patient that comes in, & that bothers me. In some cases it's the frustration of not being able to use information I already know simply because the patient is 8 years old. I know how to treat an acute asthma attack in a kid, I just am not allowed to by my scope of practice limitations. In other cases, it's a legitimate gap in knowledge; there are some laboratory tests with different ranges of normal in a child, and some that aren't useful at all. The differential diagnosis for children is different in some chief complaints; the workup for a child vs. an adult for "chest pain," for example, diverges WILDLY. I want to be the woman who's name gets yelled out of rooms when someone needs help. I want to be known as the woman who steps into the room and gives everyone more confidence because "Creech knows what to do." I'm getting closer to that every day I work, but this program will get me one more big step.

I have that restless feeling I always get just before I start a program. I've been admitted, I've accepted admission, I've even got network access & have set up my school email. But I don't have classes yet, or even know who my advisor is. I'm standing on the starting line, waiting for the word go! It doesn't help my restlessness that my admission letter implied that there's some flexibility in a non-degree seeking program, and that maybe I can make it go faster. Being an older version of Hermione Granger, that idea appeals to me greatly.

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Friday Five late entry

2018-04-24T22:29:56Z

1. Do you suffer from Spring Fever?

I certainly have in the past. I'm pretty excited for spring this year. Unlike past years, I don't have any particular REASON to be so excited; I just am. In 2009, for example, we had the worst ice storm this area has seen in YEARS and we lived in a trailer in the country. We had to have our house hooked up to a gas powered generator to have any power at all for 3 weeks. I was also in the middle of the accelerated nursing program. That year you better believe I was excited for spring!

2. Have you ever been twitterpated (infatuated or obsessed. In a state of nervous excitement)?

I've definitely been twitterpated, and it was actually during the spring!

3. What does Spring taste like to you?

My immediate reaction to this is that it tastes like raspberry sherbet.

4. When was the last time you visited an ice cream truck?

I want to say it was a couple of years ago during the 4th of July festivities in Frisco, TX. Everyone hangs out in all the business parking lots near the downtown area to wait for the evening fireworks show (which is a very good one) and some enterprising ice cream truckers roll around from parking lot to parking lot, doing fine business.

5. Do you know what song your ice cream truck plays?
We don't have one in our neighborhood. Having listened to a podcast not long ago about the incredibly racist origins of the classic ice cream truck tune I knew as "Turkey in the Straw," I should hope it wouldn't be that one if we DID have an ice cream truck.

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Randoms!

2018-03-26T19:32:33Z

1) When you are married to a high school math teacher sometimes you have weird texts.
Bryan: I need M&Ms.
Me: Like statistical analysis M&Ms or you just want to eat some?

2) Joe is losing baby teeth. He lost one earlier...biting me. The teeth coming in appear huge. I feel he's going to be actual labrador retriever sized.

3) I'm going in to work unexpectedly because Brenda is sick. I was so grateful when Lauren did the same for me so I'm paying it forward.

4) I am slightly obsessed with the song "Dangerous" by Big Data featuring Joywave right now.

5) I am hoping to have the energy tonight after work to do last week's Friday Five, which is here to remind me...

1. What is the most important lesson you have learned from your love life?
2. When it comes to love, are you an optimist or a cynic?
3. You see a long lost ex walking down the street. Are you more likely to approach him/her or just keep walking?
4. Do you believe in the idea of a soul mate?
5. Care to share any relationship stories?

I've had a great relationship for the last 19 years (includes the year we dated) so I would like to answer those questions.

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That guy is kinda cute

2018-03-20T14:50:54Z

Amusing moment last night in LUSH.

I was standing there talking about jelly face masks with the shop lady and from the corner of my eye, I saw a tallish, broad shouldered, bearded guy. I got distracted from my conversation with the shop lady & turned to get a better look because the guy seemed cute, which is always worth a look. The guy turns out to be Bryan. Y’know, my husband of 18 years!

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Big 5 Personality Test

2018-03-20T14:38:28Z

Took a Big 5 Personality inventory yesterday. So apparently I am a pretty balanced person. I agree with what it assesses as my most marked personality qualities: agreeableness, stability, & intellect. I think probably I should score even slightly lower on conscientiousness, though. I really am very disorganized, but perhaps the fact that I’m not out-of-control impulsive really made the difference there. I was talking to my friend Tashina about it (oh she of the DNP in mental health) and told her I think that I am NATURALLY quite disorganized & fairly impulsive, but because of the way these inventories work, they often ask about your BEHAVIOR. I have trained myself quite rigorously to avoid the disorganized/impulsive behaviors because they make my career much more difficult, so there is a difference now between my nature & the way I actually behave.

Much fun yesterday shopping & generally being out & about! We all went out to eat at a “new burger place” that neither of my in-laws could remember the name of. They knew the general location & described it to me, so I went on Google Maps and found that it was...Shake Shack!! I was so excited. I’ve seen so many rave reviews of it online and I’d wanted to try it for a while, but of course nothing ever comes to Arkansas until it’s well & truly mainstream. It was actually very delicious; best fast casual burger I’ve ever had for sure. I did not try an eponymous shake. I did get some raspberry ginger lemonade which was A+++. Kick you RIGHT in the face lemon flavor!

On our way out, we saw a cupcake ATM! We did not get a cupcake. We did get a cookie.

After this I went shopping with my mom-in-law & got some clothes! Four new spaghetti strap camisoles & cardigans to mix & match (which have been a mainstay of my wardrobe since the early 2000s), 2 pairs of crop jeans a bit longer than capri length, and a very cool t-shirt I wish they’d had in a wider range of colors because it was SO COMFY. I went with the gray one but maybe should’ve gotten the black one too. I gave the red with cream stripes some thought, but ultimately didn’t go for it. I did notice that other than the gray t-shirt, everything I got yesterday was either red or blue! I guess I have a theme this summer.

Bryan & I went out for sushi for supper, then to LUSH, where I can spend WAY TOO MUCH MONEY. I kept it reasonable though. We got Bryan’s favorite shampoo bar (New! Is the actual name of it), Ocean Salt skin scrub, Mask of Magnaminty (my favorite mask of all time), a tea tree face treatment, and Imperialis moisturizer. I’ve also got a whole bag of Origins skin care for my birthday from my delightful in-laws. I LOOOVE skin care.

This morning Ganon & I were watching the garbage truck pick up the trash outside the house. The arm lifted up the first bin, emptied it, & put it back down. No problems. The 2nd bin, though...at the apex of the arm’s movement—fell right out of the arm into the garbage truck! Luckily it’s one of those garbage trucks that empties into a front container, then when it gets full, dumps the front container into the back container. So the worker was able to hop out & rescue the bin from the front compartment.

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My anniversary...upon which St. Patrick’s Day happens to fall

2018-03-18T19:10:38Z

1. Are you Irish?
I am not, and boy let me tell you does this throw people for a loop when you are redheaded. I swear sometimes I think people must believe that Ireland is the ONLY place where redheadedness exists (the proportion there is not significantly higher than anywhere else, statistically speaking). So far as I know, my family is historically German. It might be fun to get one of those DNA breakdowns.

2. Do you like Guinness?
I do not. I don’t beer, for the most part. There are only a few beers I’ve ever truly enjoyed, and they are all German heifweizen. Kellerweiz by Sierra Nevada is my favorite. Guinness just isn’t my taste in beer at all.

3. Do you know what the symbol of Ireland is?
A symbol? Like, the shamrock?

4. Have you ever watched Father Ted?
I don’t even know what this is.

5. Do you believe in leprechauns?
I believe in the leprechaun on the box of Lucky Charms, but other than that, pretty much not. Though during Spring Sing 1999 at Harding University, my club’s show was based on a fighting video game, & I wore a green version of a karate gi. Everyone referred to me as a “lepreninja.”

But we all know the vastly more important holiday on March 17 is my anniversary. This year we celebrated 18 years together. Still making each other laugh daily, still taking on the world as a team. Best decision I ever made.

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Just some pics from recently

2018-03-18T18:21:53Z

My favorite things about Hurt’s Donuts emergency donut vehicle are the little labels for all the equipment bays. Maple bacon defibrillator, emergency jelly pump, vanillacillin...

Headbands that can be adjusted for size?! This is brilliant.

Harry thinks I am a dog bed.

Joe demonstrates rug mode.

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Making the break

2018-03-18T17:21:20Z

Well I’ve made my announcement on Facebook. I’m out. I’ve felt for a long time like FB was mentally bad for me; it just felt stressful even logging on. When I got my iPhone X I just simply didn’t place my FB account in the account settings and never downloaded the app. I felt less stressed for it, so I’m thinking getting rid of it entirely is the way to go. There’s a handful of people there who I won’t be able to keep up with elsewhere, but that’s the nature of the thing. Several people are already ones I keep up with on Twitter.

I’d like to get back to the way it was on LJ in the early 2000s, frankly, but I don’t know that we’ll ever capture that kind of lightning in a bottle again.
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We’re in Frisco, Texas for spring break!

Yesterday was mine & Bryan’s 18th wedding anniversary. We ate at Fogo de Chao, a Brazilian steakhouse which has basically become traditional for us. We got a creme brûlée for dessert yesterday, though, which was a first. It’s a shame, too, because HOLY COW THAT WAS THE BEST DESSERT. I’ve had creme brûlée elsewhere & it’s really hit or miss. Well, Fogo de Chao’s is a hit, y’all. Creamy & smooth as butter, perfect crunch of the sugar on top. Was really just top notch.

This morning I went out to get donuts for the family at Hurt’s Donuts in Frisco. They started in Springfield MO, where my lovely friend Jodi lives. They’re a 24/7 donut shop, and per their website they’re known for large donuts. I went in & ordered a dozen picked, without really noticing the size. Once they put the box up & started putting these monstrosities in there, though, I realized my error! The apple fritter actually went into a box by itself; a box the same size as the one that holds a dozen plain glazed at Shipley’s. Oh my. I tore off a bit of that & ate it on the way home with my cafe misto, and it was fantastic! Not too dark on the outside (which is my problem with most fritters), very delicate, big chunks of apple. None of the donuts were terribly greasy, but they were mostly topped with dramatic amounts of sugary frosting. I’m not a big frosting fan, so my faves were the fritter, the glazed, & the “Monkey Brains” which was just a cinnamon-sugar donut with no hole. The cherry pie was really quite good though too, despite having a thick white frosting. Probably because it was balanced by the streusel topping & cherry pie filling in the middle. It’s a delightful place to just LOOK at though, because of all the bright donut colors.

Places I’d like to hit while I’m down here: Ulta because I still haven’t picked up my birthday gift (I turned 39 on Monday!), LUSH because LUSH, the Lane Bryant outlet because I always need shirts for work. Ganon just told Augie (that’s my dad-in-law) he would like to go jumping at the trampoline place, which gives me anxiety. If you’ve seen the injuries I’ve seen from trampoline parks they’d give you pause, too!
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This morning at Starbucks.

Barista *to the crowd of waiting people*: Is anyone waiting on a mobile order?
Me *raises hand*: I am!
Lady in front of me: Me too.
Barista: What’s the name?
Lady: Sheila.
Barista *looks at mobile spot*: I’m not seeing one for that name. Are you sure this is the right location? Could you have placed it somewhere else?
Sheila: Well I just ordered right over there *points at register* so I don’t know how it could be somewhere else.

The barista & I exchange a look & she goes “Name on yours?” 😂 Why do people not listen with their brains engaged?

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Alas! The flu!

2018-01-31T03:40:13Z

Ah, my friends. I've been doing SO WELL this entire season. I want to say the last time I was actually sick was sometime last spring, perhaps early last summer. I had strep throat, & my colleague A wrote me a scrip for prednisone & penicillin. For most of my life I could say I was going to catch "what's going around" at least 3-4 times per year. This year I just kept waiting & waiting and somehow never managed to get sick. My mom even commented that I had made it really far into virus season without getting sick. Well, on Saturday my streak ended. Just after work I started to feel a bit crummy and on Sunday morning I woke up with malaise, myalgias, sinus congestion, & a headache. It's lasted through today without signs of stopping. I wore a mask yesterday at work; no I didn't take the day off. I'm a contract employee & we don't get sick days. I didn't want to spread the flu to people who came in with injuries or unrelated illnesses, though, so I wore the mask. Just as I was about to leave for the day my Grandma called. I answered because I thought maybe she needed to bring in her husband; he has severe COPD, wears continuous O2, & gets pneumonia at the drop of a hat. No, apparently my mom had told her I'd FINALLY gotten sick. She asked how I was & I told her I was just about to leave work so my day was looking up. "You went to work?! You'll get pneumonia! You'd better go to the doctor!" I laughed & told her "Grandma I AM the doctor! And bonus points I can see 3 physicians from where I'm sitting!" I doubt my colleagues would let me fall over of sepsis. :)

Let me just say I'm very good at makeup that makes me look Not Sick. I was super happy with my eyeliner on this day.

Still feeling like reheated poop today though. I haven't checked my temp but I don't think I've had a fever, so this may not be the flu. We also have another respiratory type thing going around which isn't the flu but still has crappy effects. An adenovirus or rhinovirus I'm sure. So I'm treating myself the way I tell my patients to treat it: ibuprofen/acetaminophen for the body aches (alternating every 3 hours so one is always in my system at an effective level), nasal fluticasone, pseudoephedrine, and an antihistamine. I also added Afrin nasal spray at night so I can breathe through my nose while I sleep, but I don't suggest that to laypeople. You CANNOT use it more than 10-12 hours frequency, and CANNOT use it more than 3 days. The rebound congestion is dramatic and horrible if you do, and people won't understand that & they get themselves caught in a cycle with it. I'm also using some adjunctive therapies I give my sis-in-law & sister crap about: essential oils. They think they can prevent cancer & cure arthritis with the damned things (seriously my sister recommended them for the 20-year-old post nerve damage in my hands and that is Not Going To Work), but for most respiratory complaints, a eucalyptus/tea tree/mint oil is actually quite good. It's not curative but being able to smell ANYTHING when I'm in this state at least makes it FEEL a lot better.

The other thing is herbal tea: I like echinacea ones & slippery elm ones. Slippery elm is for sore throat specifically, usually combined with anise, and tastes truly awful but wow. With some honey to make it nearly palatable, it's SO EFFECTIVE. I drank some echinacea tonight, & dropped some peppermint oil in. Does it really boost the immune system? I'm not convinced. But does it make my sinuses & head FEEL better? Yes it does.

Had to get a new Joycon for the Switch.

We got the version with the blue (L) and red (R) Joycons, but yesterday Ganon found the blue one wasn't working. Specifically the joystick had stopped registering L vs R and would only move up vs down. Ganon thinks it's because the neighbor kids were over & treated the controllers too roughly, but I think joystick problems are a bit of a known issue with the first edition of the Joycons. We pondered over what color we should get & decided that neon yellow makes for a cool looking Switch as well.

Ganon made his own supper tonight. Little dude is actually becoming quite comfortable in the kitchen; far more so than I was at age 11 and maybe even more comfortable than his dad is now! He made teriyaki chicken: put the rice in the Instant Pot to cook while he made 3 grilled chicken strips on the George Foreman grill, then shredded the chicken with the sauce & put it all together. Literally no help from me or Bryan. Bryan said he also made his own Bagel Bites this Saturday, preheating the oven, putting them in, taking them out & everything. I actually think he could follow my recipe for chocolate chip cookies all on his own.

Also tonight: we started the audiobook of Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone! Ganon's school does Accelerated Reader (AR), so he has to read books & take tests for points. He's required to make a certain number of points by certain milestones like 9 weeks. Up to this point he's been doing 3-4 point books, maybe 7-8 if they read them as a class at school. BUT SS is a 12 point book. If he does well on the test that knocks a huge chunk out of his 30 point goal. We'll be listening to a single chapter each night with him following along in the book. 17 days to go!

Joe update: still getting large. Must be deterred from chewing shoes. Plays fetch! First dog I've ever had that would actually do the classic "chase this stick, & bring it back for me to throw again" thing!

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The flu, the gym, the beard, and the Instant Pot

2018-01-25T17:56:43Z

The flu is kicking our butts, y'all. I saw 20+ patients within the first 8 hours of my 12 hour shift and diagnosed the flu at least 6 times. I started to see a pattern: if the person came in with a fever in the triage booth, an elevated heart rate, and they were younger than 30, I was probably looking at influenza A. Influenza B was more in the older folks & didn't come with the elevated heart rate so much, though they did generally have a bit of a temp. It means a LOT of explaining about why I'm not giving antibiotics, and a lot of presenting the pros & cons of Tamiflu, the antiretroviral that can be given within 48 hours of flu symptoms onset. SO MUCH FLU. A good thing happened yesterday though: recently one of the main ER physicians, MD (which are funny initials, bc he's a DO and not an MD), had sent me an article recently about rib fractures in people older than 65. It turns out they're treated about the same as in anyone else UNLESS there are more than 2 of them. The combo of older than 65 and more than 2 fractures is a tipping point & people are at greater risk of pneumonia. It was extremely timely information as of yesterday! I also had a patient with pancreatitis 2 days ago and thanks to a misstep on someone several weeks ago (non-dangerous, but not optimal), I was able to be on top of things ensure my patient got the appropriate fluid bolus for their condition. So that's two cases this week that I KNOW I did correctly because of research & learning from my previous experiences. Feeling good about that!

Also feeling good about the appointment I have at 13:00 today at the gym! We joined a gym here in town. NEA Wellness is the smallest of the 3 main gyms, but it's also the least expensive for us because Bryan gets a discount as a teacher. It's also not particularly crowded like Trim Gym, which tends toward the "dude bro" crowd more than I prefer. NEA Wellness is mostly older folks & seems to be pretty sparsely populated, which is good for me as I want to get into weight training. I did legs on Monday; planning on arms today. That's in addition to walking on the track which overhands the weight machines, free weights, and cardio area as well as past the pool. My only gripe with the place is that Ganon, at age 11, isn't allowed to use the track or cardio machines even though he's a perfectly well-behaved kid. He can swim for free, but until he's 12 this summer we can't sign him up as a member, allowing him to use the treadmills, bikes, etc. This really burns me up. People are constantly saying that kids need to get more active, that people need to exercise as a family & incorporate activity into everyday routine. Great idea! But then you tell people that their kid can't do the gym with them? That's missing the most formative years to instill the idea of activity! We've decided we're going to take a swim suit every time & let him swim until July, then get him signed up as a family member as well. At least it's just a few months.

Bryan's beard...is gone. I'm in mourning! He agreed to a fundraiser at school: he & another beardy teacher would raise money & the one who raised more money got to shave the other one's beard. Thanks to a $500 donation right at the beginning, Bryan never had a chance. So at the pep rally on Tuesday, the other teacher cut Bryan's beard off with scissors, after which Bryan basically just finished shaving the whole thing. He looks like an entirely different person. He wasn't particularly upset about it because he likes the idea of growing a "yeard", which is when you grow your beard for a year to see how long it will get.

I feel like the beard just conveys his personality so much better. It makes him look smart, slightly serious, but with a dad-like sense of humor.

Have I gushed about the Instant Pot before? This thing is ridiculously awesome. I've cooked so much more at home since we got it. My favorite new thing is lentils; I'd never eaten them before, and I'd always avoided dried beans because they took so long to prep between the soaking & all that. With the IP, though, you put them in dry & they cook up under pressure. It's rather amazing. I've had a few IP fails; most notably the red beans & rice, but it wasn't bc of the IP itself. I forgot the rice we most often use at home is short grain, but when I realized, I substituted it anyway. That was a mistake--the glutinous nature of short grain rice makes more of a congee style concoction when cooked at the pressure/time needed for red beans & rice. It was essentially Cajun congee when it was finished and though the first bowl of it was good, it did NOT keep well. It turned into a gelatinous mass. Had to toss that. Some MAJOR successes, though: the egg bites made with a silicone insert, the giant IP pancake, and spicy Indian dal. The dal was my first lentil dish and OMG. A plop of yogurt into the spicy bean stew sort of texture, scoop it up with naan bread, and wow. I was so proud of myself. The giant pancake was a hit with my niece & nephew Molly & Konner. They were over when I made it, & when I took it out of the IP there was much squealing & generally having a fit. It made a very fluffy, very moist, almost cornbread like texture, with the bottom (it's the top when you turn it out) very crunchy & hard where the recipe says it should be crispy. I think I should've gone a few minutes shorter. Anyway, they liked it, & Bryan really loved it with strawberry jam.

In other news: Joe the dog is getting very large. When we got him, he had wee paws & we thought that indicated he'd stay small. Over the last 2 weeks he's about doubled in size. He outweighs Harry significantly & is now taller than him at the shoulder. In fact, he's about the same size as Pete & I wouldn't be surprised if he outweighs him, too. More amusingly, his ears have begun to do this interesting slightly backward turn that looks VERY reminiscent of an American Pit Bull Terrier. I don't think he'll be as large as a pure bred one, but I do intend to get one of those doggie DNA swabs to test, and when I do, I expect we'll see a not-insignificant amount of that in Joe's lineage. When a coworker asked what we'd do if it turns out he was a pit bull, I shrugged & said "Get a bigger dog door I guess." She laughed & said "That's what people love about you." I'm not sure what that answer says about me (or us as a family) but I'll take it.

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Already changed my mind?

2018-01-09T18:10:45Z

I think I’ve already changed my mind about what I want this year’s theme word to be. I had thought adventure, but now I’m leaning more toward something like “importance” or “priority.” I’ve had to pare some things down in the last year as far as what I can handle myself versus what needs to be outsourced or just given up entirely, like ARNA. I broke down & got a new accountant who is going to do all of my tax work this coming year instead of me handling it all myself. Things like that which I’m technically capable of with assistance—but are they worth the stress? I want to evaluate everything in my life this year, make a thorough “stress vs benefit analysis” and act accordingly.

Speaking of stress, I had a hell of an episode last night. Netflix has these passive “trailer” sorts of things that automatically play if you have a certain show highlighted. One of their new offerings, “The End of the F**king World” has one of these. Heads up to all: it visibly, graphically depicts someone plunging their own hand into a deep fryer. Some of you may know I have a history of having been very badly burned in a cooking oil fire when I was 17 years old. It was a bit different than just sticking my hand in it (I picked up the entire pot & carried it out the back door of the house, burning both hands horribly in the process), but the fact remains that I know exactly what cooked human flesh smells like and I’ve had full-thickness, 3rd degree burns with all the pain & horror you think that entails. SO IT’S NOT GREAT TO SPRING THAT IMAGERY ON ME. I know I’m an outlier with a very specific circumstance and obviously no one can be expected to cover EVERY trigger, but it was BRUTAL. I heard the voice over say “When I was [age] I put my hand in a deep fryer to see...” and I don’t remember any of the rest of it. I heard the Nurse Hillary part of my brain scream “DON’T LOOK AT IT!” just before everything in my head cut off and the only version of myself left was the one trying to get away from the fire. I immediately burst into tears. This, of course, startled Ganon badly & after the panic attack was over I had to explain PTSD, flashbacks, and panic attacks in terms an 11 year old can understand. He took it well but he was CLEARLY alarmed. I was thrown badly off for the rest of the evening; I drank a gin & juice with a rather liberal amount of gin & we watched an episode of the Crown & then one of the Great British Baking Show.

Today it’s time to get my stuff together & put in the application for UAMS!

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This year is for adventure

2018-01-08T03:05:08Z

Well 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.

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Journaling prompt

2017-10-13T16:34:06Z

I got this journal prompt from my friend Tab, & I use it when I feel like journaling but I don't know what I want to say.

Outside my window…
It's quite a sunny morning. The leaves are starting to go a bit yellow & lots of them are falling. We've had a few cool mornings but it's warming up almost to the 80s by the afternoon, and this weekend is supposed to stay pretty warm.

I am thinking…
There's a huge pile of clean laundry on the bed in the extra bedroom, and I should really fold it up & put it away. My bedroom gets the full morning sun and I don't have blackout curtains right now, so I may have to sleep a little in the extra bedroom this weekend due to night shifts.

I am thankful…
For coffee, experienced colleagues who don't mind teaching me new procedures or tips & tricks for the ones I already do, and a paycheck that allows me to pay my student loan bills!

In the kitchen…
I got a new Instant Pot! We've made Mexican chicken, rice, and experimented with rice pudding so far. I'd like to try a pot roast!

I am wearing…
Nothing special. A pair of black capri pants and an ivory tank top.

I am creating…
I'm not feeling all that creative right now & I think that's okay. I may create another cup of coffee. :)

I am going…
We have a trip to western AR planned! We'll be staying at the KOA in Salisaw, Oklahoma, which is in the Fort Smith, AR metroplex. We wanted to stay up in Fayetteville/Bentonville/Rogers, but it turns out our 3 day weekend just happened to coincide with War Eagle Craft Fair, which is in Rogers. It draws a TON of people annually to that area. No wonder I wasn't finding any good RV spots! So instead we opted to stay in the Fort Smith area, which is only about 45 minutes to an hour from the museums in Bentonville that we'd planned to visit.

I am wondering…
How my patient from last night is doing. Oldest patient I ever sutured!

I am reading/listening…
Not currently reading anything, but this prompt made me realize I wasn't listening to anything either, which is unusual for me. It then got me started on a small music binge during which I listened to Elle King, then Dave Matthews Band, and now Deedee Magno Hall (Pearl) from the Steven Universe soundtrack. I love music. Sometimes I wonder if I could've sung professionally; I absolutely have the raw talent but no training. I never tried because I simply never had the ambition for it. I still don't. That takes a lot of commitment & there are no guarantees. But still, I do so love it.

Oooh now I'm listening to "Gun in my Hand" by Dorothy (a band, not a solo artist). It's gritty, jukebox sounding rock.

I am hoping…
This weekend goes well. I work Saturday & Sunday nights: 5pm to 3am! I've worked nights in my career, but never in the ER and never as a nurse practitioner. It's me & one of the very experienced APRNs with 2 of the most abrasive physicians the hospital has to offer. Pretty sure they picked the backbone-having nurse practitioners on purpose. Here we go!

I am looking forward to…
Our trip over to Fort Smith. We are planning to go to the Amazeum, maybe Crystal Bridges Museum of Modern Art, and to eat at places we don't have in northeast Arkansas.

Around the house…
I have quite a bit of laundry to do. Also, the people from the pest control company are coming to look at the outside of the house where we have some potential places for critters to get under the house, where they make noise and generally exist with their flea ridden selves. This may be a major contributor to our summertime flea problem, which persists even when the dogs are well-treated.

I am learning…
A little more about myself as an APRN each day! I was upset at a very very bad shift a couple of weeks ago, but I can look at it now and realize that I did manage all those patients decently; I simply couldn't do it fast enough. That won't come without more practice, so practice I will!

I am pondering…
How anyone ever gets up the nerve to use an 18 gauge needle to scrape metal off someone's eye for the first time. I won't, because I have nerve damage in my hands and therefore don't trust them to safely do that.

A favorite quote for today…
"What's that got to do with the price of tea in China?" --this is something my DNP classmate Hallie said a lot and it always made me giggle. It's said in the place of "What does that have to do with the topic at hand?" It's so quirky.

One of my favorite things…
Blankets! With the chilly evenings & mornings it's been actually worth getting the blankets out!

A few plans for the rest of the week…
Work the night shift, play Splatoon 2 on the Switch, and try to figure out some ARNA stuff in between times.

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3 Good Things

2017-10-09T03:53:15Z

1) Today I set up my Instant Pot. It claims it can make rice in 12 minutes, where my rice cooker takes 40!
2) Aired out Beatrice & hung out in there, getting ready for an upcoming trip to northwest AR to see the foliage & the museums!
3) Set up a reasonable, logical consequence for Ganon since he didn't meet his Accelerated Reader goal for the first 9 weeks. He agreed that it was reasonable & logical, too!

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Man what a week!

2017-07-22T19:17:18Z

Worked all last weekend. You wouldn't believe how many hand lacerations I've repaired. I'm going to need to ask everyone in my geographical area to please step away from the heavy & sharp objects. I've had 3 crush injuries and at least 6 lacerations in the last 4 shifts I worked. The most impressive damage was someone who accidentally put their arm through a glass & metal door. Y'all, don't expect a door will hold your weight!

I've also had 2-3 admissions, which is unusual for the area of emergency in which I work. They try to send the lower acuity folks over to the Annex (where I work) because there are fewer infrastructure type resources (heart monitors, vital sign machines, only a Omnicell & supply Pyxis), so most of what I see are simple laceration repairs, twisted ankles, sore throats, chronic low back pain that magically became an emergency at 6pm on a random Tuesday, krunny noses, & the occasional N/V/D (nausea, vomiting, diarrhea). Every so often, a VERY high acuity patient sneaks in because they simply don't look bad to the naked eye--it takes some digging to find the real problem. In the last year I've admitted a major heart attack who came in because of a cold, a hip fracture (bad enough to need next-morning surgery) that walked in, a pneumonia patient who had no fever, no cough, and just a little shortness of breath, and a back pain that turned out to be a ruptured kidney! My admissions this week were along those lines: walk in looking not bad at all--run a white blood cell count or get an x-ray or two and OH hey, why don't you come in & stay for a night?

Of course it hasn't helped that I was sick this week. Bryan went to a teacher training last week in the exotic far away lands of Arkadelphia and he brought home this upper respiratory virus which he then thoughtfully gave to me. Booooo. I was okay on Tuesday, sick on Wednesday, and then yesterday was REALLY bad. Fortunately I didn't have anyone who checked in with cold symptoms, because I probably would've stomped on their foot. When you're rocking pseudoephedrine, prednisone, acetaminophen/ibuprofen combo, and oxymetazoline nasal spray just to function enough to come to work, and someone comes in with a runny nose wanting a work excuse? Breeds just a touch of resentment.

I do believe things are about to change a bit though. We recently hired several more nurse practitioners. It's enough that M, the physician owner of the staffing agency for whom I work, has decided to start staffing the Main ER with 4 NPs per day: 2 from 09:00-17:00, and 2 from 17:00-03:00. This is in addition to the Annex, staffed by 1 NP from 09:00-21:00 and one from 11:00-23:00 (usually me). As the 2nd most senior employee, I get to state a preference for more shifts in Main or Annex, and I'm going to go for Main for sure. Not only am I specifically trained for that, I'm almost a year into my practice. I'm comfortable with my work flow and my processes, and once that happens it's only a matter of time until boredom strikes. UNLESS I'm learning new things, that is--which is what happens over in the Main ER with the very ill patients who come in. Lots more experiences interpreting labs, which is something I'd like to get better at.

My RV really wants to go somewhere! Ganon's birthday is Monday, and between that & my work schedule, there's no time for us to take the RV anywhere before school starts back. I'm going to plan us a trip to northwest Arkansas anyway, though. That can be done in just a couple of days. We can stay at an RV park over in Bentonville or Bella Vista and see the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and the Amazeum. A trip like that might even be MORE fun on a random weekend during the fall, when the heat is less unbearable. Even later in the fall would give us the gorgeous foliage of the Ozarks.

We're going to our first Dragon*Con over Labor Day weekend! I'm so excited! My mom is working on a costume for Ganon to dress as Link from BotW. I can't wait for...

Ganon: I'm Ganon.
Fan: Don't you mean Link?
Ganon: No, I'm cosplaying as Link. My NAME is Ganon. :D

I'm taking one cosplay outfit: my Pokémon professor costume from last Halloween. It's incredibly easy. It's just one of my old lab coats to which I sewed a Pokéball patch on the front. Put that on over one of my cute dresses, and *poof*! Pokémon professor! I already have a bit of an animated look, with my colorful hair and my professor-type glasses and my stand out makeup. When I wore it last Halloween, people knew instantly--even the parents at houses we went trick or treating at. Other than that, I think I'm going to stick with my geeky shirts & skirts from Her Universe & Tee Fury.

Right now, however--I am craving pizza with mushrooms, and I just found that Lost Pizza now supports online ordering. It's go time!

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Hot Springs: Our First RV Trip!

2017-06-27T18:12:39Z

Thought I would share some photos of our trip to Hot Springs! Bryan spent his days at the Arkansas School for Math, Science & the Arts (ASMSA) while Ganon & I hung out at the RV, drove around Hot Springs hunting for things to improve the RV with, and played around on the free wifi (!) at KOA.

The Hot Springs KOA is an extremely nice place. It's built into the side of a hill and the campsites are terraced. There are several large pull-through sites, which is exactly what I wanted. They sent a person on a golf cart to pilot me into the spot & make sure we could reach the sewer/water/electricity hookups. The campground was super close to the downtown area; it only took 8 minutes to drive Bryan over to the school. Really it was QUITE awesome. I loved the whole experience & I feel like getting a KOA membership was a great idea.

Where there was once a heavy, small-screened CRT television, there is now an empty cabinet with a nice flat screen mounted to it. All thanks to my incredibly creative parents and my dad who just sort of happens to carry a table saw in the back of his truck. Not a joke. The empty cabinet now contains wiring for the Apple TV and any video game systems we want to bring along. My mom said we're supposed to go on vacation to "get away from that stuff," but I disagree. You go to get away from work & stress!

More pictures of the campground & our trip in here!
( Read more... )

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