Friday, January 21, 2005
Oh bother....
So, to take Amanda's blog savvy advice, I typed this entry in Word first because the last entry I tried to post didn't work, and that was two days ago. All my brilliant bloggings from Wednesday were lost in internet space. Oh well.
So, I'm patiently awaiting the arrival of Shawn, Andy's grad buddy, to come back into town from Hawaii at the end of the month so that he can set up our internet at the apartment. Then there will be much more blogging. I promise! The IS Nazis at work prevent me from venturing outside the hospital's highly guarded network. So on even the slowest of night shifts, I can't so much as check my email. If Ohio State's network had been half as secure, I never would have reformatted my HP twelve times.
It's officially winter in Central PA now. I have begun to show my true southern colors because the high hasn't been above freezing in at least a week. We've also received several inches of the white stuff. I hate losing ten minutes of my day to the weather. It's ridiculous! You have to bundle up appropriately (my fashionable coats are no longer warm enough, the parka is now the only option), sweep snow off your car (scrape residual ice from the melting and refreezing process), warm the engine (while you sit shivering in your vehicle), drive 4 miles to work (the car is just reaching a comfortable temperature by then), get out and walk in to the hospital (don't forget your gloves like I did or you'll get frostbite), take off your wet and salty shoes (designate one pair for the whole winter to walking outdoors, change into better shoes inside), then finally thaw out and get warm indoors just in time to go back outside. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Forecast for the weekend: 6 to 18 inches of snow. When I will emerge from hibernation: March.
Jenni the big brown bear, signing off from the sleepin hole.
So, I'm patiently awaiting the arrival of Shawn, Andy's grad buddy, to come back into town from Hawaii at the end of the month so that he can set up our internet at the apartment. Then there will be much more blogging. I promise! The IS Nazis at work prevent me from venturing outside the hospital's highly guarded network. So on even the slowest of night shifts, I can't so much as check my email. If Ohio State's network had been half as secure, I never would have reformatted my HP twelve times.
It's officially winter in Central PA now. I have begun to show my true southern colors because the high hasn't been above freezing in at least a week. We've also received several inches of the white stuff. I hate losing ten minutes of my day to the weather. It's ridiculous! You have to bundle up appropriately (my fashionable coats are no longer warm enough, the parka is now the only option), sweep snow off your car (scrape residual ice from the melting and refreezing process), warm the engine (while you sit shivering in your vehicle), drive 4 miles to work (the car is just reaching a comfortable temperature by then), get out and walk in to the hospital (don't forget your gloves like I did or you'll get frostbite), take off your wet and salty shoes (designate one pair for the whole winter to walking outdoors, change into better shoes inside), then finally thaw out and get warm indoors just in time to go back outside. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Forecast for the weekend: 6 to 18 inches of snow. When I will emerge from hibernation: March.
Jenni the big brown bear, signing off from the sleepin hole.
Friday, January 14, 2005
creature of the night
I am now part of those strange nightshift workers around the world who sleep during the day and work at night. We have no tan, we are often a little quirky, and we have no sense of Circadian rhythm. I just worked my fourth night shift in a row. I will work four more starting Saturday, and then I only have a day to rotate to evenings. I see 730am on my ride home, and watch the Today show as I'm falling asleep. I wake up when the sun goes down (picture Kenny Chesney) and eat dinner with Andy. It's a strange existence.
Other than feeling out of touch with the rest of the world, I am enjoying night shift. The pace is much slower and less stressful, which allows me to take time to learn lots of details about the hospital and my unit, instead of learning on the fly and getting harried orders barked at me in the frenzy of dayshift. I get to really study up on my patients too, and since they don't have any visitors, I think we have better conversations (that is, when they are awake and talking). Like last night, we had a very confused woman who was wandering the halls and trying to escape down the stairwell. On dayshift, this could have been an enormous inconvenience and frustrated the busy staff (I know, I've worked it). But last night we just took all the linens and tousled them in a basket, told her the laundry needed to be folded, and she sat quietly folding at the nurses' station for HOURS. It was quite cute.
Yesterday it was a BALMY 69 degrees here in State College. Being a vampire, I was actually sleeping and didn't get to enjoy it, but none the less, that's crazy warm for January in PA! Today it is going to be 29. Yuck.
I got the neatest grill for Christmas, it's like a George Foreman, but there are three different inserts: waffle, grill, and quesadilla. And they are all removeable and dishwasher safe. I make chicken on it last night for dinner, very good. Can't wait to try quesadillas! MMMMMM Bueno!
Alrighty, I've been up all night and I'm getting loopy. Time to head home and watch soem daytime TV until I fall asleep. BTW, the sucky thing about sleeping during the day is that no one else thinks about the fact that you're sleeping. UPS, solicitors calling, neighbors, roof-workers, friends calling. It's hard to really stay asleep. So if you call me leave a message b/c I'm turning the phones off from now on.
Later!
Other than feeling out of touch with the rest of the world, I am enjoying night shift. The pace is much slower and less stressful, which allows me to take time to learn lots of details about the hospital and my unit, instead of learning on the fly and getting harried orders barked at me in the frenzy of dayshift. I get to really study up on my patients too, and since they don't have any visitors, I think we have better conversations (that is, when they are awake and talking). Like last night, we had a very confused woman who was wandering the halls and trying to escape down the stairwell. On dayshift, this could have been an enormous inconvenience and frustrated the busy staff (I know, I've worked it). But last night we just took all the linens and tousled them in a basket, told her the laundry needed to be folded, and she sat quietly folding at the nurses' station for HOURS. It was quite cute.
Yesterday it was a BALMY 69 degrees here in State College. Being a vampire, I was actually sleeping and didn't get to enjoy it, but none the less, that's crazy warm for January in PA! Today it is going to be 29. Yuck.
I got the neatest grill for Christmas, it's like a George Foreman, but there are three different inserts: waffle, grill, and quesadilla. And they are all removeable and dishwasher safe. I make chicken on it last night for dinner, very good. Can't wait to try quesadillas! MMMMMM Bueno!
Alrighty, I've been up all night and I'm getting loopy. Time to head home and watch soem daytime TV until I fall asleep. BTW, the sucky thing about sleeping during the day is that no one else thinks about the fact that you're sleeping. UPS, solicitors calling, neighbors, roof-workers, friends calling. It's hard to really stay asleep. So if you call me leave a message b/c I'm turning the phones off from now on.
Later!
Thursday, January 06, 2005
ahh, 2005
May it be better than 2004. So I spent New Year's Eve watching football and drinking beers with Andy's friends. Jon and Brian finally made their brainstorm the "Bacon wrapped Bacon Burger" into reality as a final hoorah Friday night. This consisted of bacon and ground beef in patty form grilled, then wrapped in bacon and cornmeal batter and deep fried to perfection. I told them all I would see them in the Cardiac Care unit later having heart attacks. Then I tried it. Pretty good burger. I imagine they will perfect the process over several evenings of beer drinking and grilling this spring.
Since the oil was already hot on the stove, and Junium mentioned that the Brits and Keowees also deep fry candy bars. Timmy went to the Exxon and came back with all the standards for experimentation (These are all scientists remember, they'll try anything in a very methodical, well planned manner). They rolled Twix, Snickers, and Milky Ways in pancake batter and deep fried them (my cholesterol is going up just thinking about it). I have to say that the Twix was TO DIE FOR (and i might). Goes well with champagne though.
State College had some fireworks, then I went home b/c I had to work at 645am New Year's Day. I've been working every day since, filling in gaps at work and making the big bucks. It's true, when you work 48 hrs a week you hardly find time to spend all the money you're making. Though, I do a good job trying.
Last night we were awakened several times by the sound of "pop, crack, whoosh, thud." Trees were down all over town after a heavy rain fell and the temp dropped to 32, just cold enough to freeze everything above the ground including branches and cars. The trees look beautiful with the silvery coating but it's dangerous and power lines are down as well. Andy said he changed the clock twice last night when it started flashing. I just kept sleeping. I'm good at that.
The boy and I are heading to his folks this weekend to celebrate the holidays with them, belated. Shopping for Christmas presents is way better after the new year b/c EVERYTHING is on super sale. I plan on heading back to the mall today before work to stock up on new clothes so I can clean out my old ones. Maybe I'll become a little more fashionable now that I'm a grown up with a real job. :-)
love to all
jen
Since the oil was already hot on the stove, and Junium mentioned that the Brits and Keowees also deep fry candy bars. Timmy went to the Exxon and came back with all the standards for experimentation (These are all scientists remember, they'll try anything in a very methodical, well planned manner). They rolled Twix, Snickers, and Milky Ways in pancake batter and deep fried them (my cholesterol is going up just thinking about it). I have to say that the Twix was TO DIE FOR (and i might). Goes well with champagne though.
State College had some fireworks, then I went home b/c I had to work at 645am New Year's Day. I've been working every day since, filling in gaps at work and making the big bucks. It's true, when you work 48 hrs a week you hardly find time to spend all the money you're making. Though, I do a good job trying.
Last night we were awakened several times by the sound of "pop, crack, whoosh, thud." Trees were down all over town after a heavy rain fell and the temp dropped to 32, just cold enough to freeze everything above the ground including branches and cars. The trees look beautiful with the silvery coating but it's dangerous and power lines are down as well. Andy said he changed the clock twice last night when it started flashing. I just kept sleeping. I'm good at that.
The boy and I are heading to his folks this weekend to celebrate the holidays with them, belated. Shopping for Christmas presents is way better after the new year b/c EVERYTHING is on super sale. I plan on heading back to the mall today before work to stock up on new clothes so I can clean out my old ones. Maybe I'll become a little more fashionable now that I'm a grown up with a real job. :-)
love to all
jen
