Grandpa's Birthday

Thursday was my Grandpa's 95th birthday. We drove all the way to Idaho for the big celebration. There was lemonade and carrot cake. It was a wild time. I was waiting for the old guy to get nekkid and dance on the table but that was his behavior in 1930. I think he's grown out of it by now. There were cousins, aunts, uncles, great-uncles, etc. that I haven't seen in decades. I vaguely remember playing kick the can with some of the middle-aged people in the room. Grandpa's a cute old guy. His girl-friend who is one year younger than him got tired and had to go home early. All of Grandpa's golfing buddies have died off on him so he's recruiting younger partners; say someone in his mid-70's.

Perspective

Tomorrow I'm taking the boys and our trailer up to Idaho to visit family and celebrate my grandfather's 95th birthday. I love the hell out of the old guy. He's pretty cool; all 5 feet of him. But I had been kind of thinking how I was not sure I wanted to go because my husband Mike can't come and the boys might be bored, hell I might be bored. How exciting can a birthday party for a 95 year-old man at a Mormon church be? The variety and types of desserts made with Jello might be interesting. However, after the last three days at work I can hardly wait to go so I can relax with no cares in the world.

Did I mention I am a hospital supervisor? Well one of my shifts was interupted by the call of a disaster alert because a gunman was loose in the city after killing a corrections officer. I got stuck between floors in the flipping elevator; thank God I had my cell phone so I could play video games until I was rescued!! A lot of my job involves making sure there are enough beds for all of the scheduled and emergency admissions every day. We are over 90% full most of the time so it can be a very trying endeavor. Many times even though I know it will be make my job more difficult I say yes to accepting a transfer because I know the patient needs the care only we can provide. Days like the last two days makes me call out for alcohol as I crawl up the stairs when I get home.

Boy am I looking forward to being bored!

Is it bad to Febreeze the dog???

I don't know what got into me. I partially cleaned the house yesterday. Now, if I fully cleaned the house my family would wonder if I've gone off my meds but luckily I paced myself. I had vacuumed our bedroom with my handy dandy Dyson with the clear dog hair holder(AKA dust bin). I like that see through compartment; that way I can see if I've sucked up an entire dog. This process usually makes the dogs pull themselves up from their lounging position and escape the room in case the vacuum turns into an alien and sucks up their mother. I do wonder what they think that loud thing is that is attached to mommy, but that is for another day. After I vacuum, I like to spray the carpet with Febreeze to get the hound dog smell out of the room. Trigger picked that moment to wander back in and well.....I couldn't help it, he is the source of most of the smell. What the heck, I sprayed his back. Trigger reacted the way does to most things, he just stood there like someone's idea of an abstract dog statue. He probably won't smell good for long.

This blogging thing is a chore!

I've had lots of ideas of things to write about these last few days but I am the master procrastinator. There are other things I'd prefer to master but I guess this is my calling.

I attended an 8-hour leadership workshop last week. It was all about dealing with people based upon their personality color; not to be confused with their race. A red is usually a leader and/or an asshole. A blue is a caretaker, nurturer (read doormat). A white is a peacemaker who rarely shows his/her feelings (stiff?). A yellow is a people person; life's a party and he/she is the host (slacker). I come up as about 60% red and 40% blue. Now why do I feel the need to point out that I am also blue?....because I'm not a completely bossy bitch, just partially.

Nursing Shortage

It's taken a while for the nursing shortage to truly hit Utah with full force but I think it's here now. We always lose nurses in the Spring; people graduate and move to other areas, vacations, etc. But I swear this year we are lower on nurses than last year. I am a hospital supervisor. Part of my job is to obtain and distribute nursing staff to replace ill calls or help with high census. It is getting so much harder to obtain staff than previous years. I was talking to a hospital supervisor across town and she reports their hospital is having more difficulty getting staff also. I know people complain about the money, but we get paid pretty well; more will always attract more staff but I think the real problem is there just is not any out there to attract. Every day, I ask nurses to do things I think they should and could do but lately I've been asking them to work too hard not just the occasional night but every night because there are just not enough nurses in the pool. We need more nursing schools and more nursing instructors. We're getting too old as a profession. I love nursing. We need more people that love it. Nursing is not what I do; it is what I am......

Medical update

Well, the Trigginator had a foxtail burrowed up in the flesh between his toes. He had to have minor surgery to get it out. He's pretty sure this is terminal and can't quite figure out how to get down the one step to the back yard. I must admit that he was pretty funny before the anesthesia completely wore off. He kept biffing his face onto the floor, then would look at me like he couldn't understand how he got there.

Trigginator

Our basset hound's name is Trigger, but sometimes I call him "The Trigginator". I don't know what possessed me to call him that because he's actually a giant woos, wimp, drama Queen...you get the drift. I came home from work last night to find him limping on his front foot. He has some kind of cyst between his toes. I think he's pretty sure it is life threatening. He's definitely not his old always underfoot self. We've got an appointment with the vet this afternoon. I can hardly wait to begin the ordeal of getting him in our Expedition.

How to impress girls of all ages

The other day I came home from work to find the sectional sofa moved into the middle of the living room and evidence of dusting, vaccuming, and mopping. My first thought was that perhaps we'd been hit by very tidy burglars but then I disovered nothing missing but dog hair. I found my son Jeffrey watchng TV in my bedroom and asked him what brought on the cleaning frenzy. He wants to bring his girlfriend to our home. Man I am ever impressed!

Mammogram

Several weeks ago I had dream in which I had a breast biopsy on one breast and a mastectomy on the other. It was an incredibly realistic dream. I should tell you that I have had dreams that have come true before. I dreamed I was married to my first husband when I barely knew him. If I remember correctly, my exact thought upon waking was "why would I marry him; he's an asshole". Anyway, I was a bit disturbed by the dream but was scheduled for my mammogram and didn't worry too much any more. About a week after the mammogram, I got a call that they needed to ultrasound and abnormality in my left breast. Well now I'm scared but trying not to be scared. I went back for the ultrasound today. You know that fad about "The Secret"? Well, I kind of believe in part of it; the part about positive energy bringing positive things. But I believe you have to work for it, that you can't just wish to be rich and healthy. Anyway, I was trying to think positive while she had that wand on my breast and told me that last year I had one cyst but now there is a second possible cyst but we can't be sure without ultrasound. Part of me was mentally chanting the positivity mantra while another more negative voice just knew my veins weren't good enough for chemo. Thank God the positive side won and it was just another cyst.

First Blog

I hope I get better at this blogging thing as I go along. I have a hard enough time keeping up with my diary which is supposed to somehow give me mental stability. At least "they" say keeping a diary is good for you. It feels like a chore somehow. Mike and I took the dogs down to the river for a walk today. When we sat to rest, Trigger, our Basset Hound, shook his big head and threw slime all over us. Scout, our Beagle, decided the bridge over the river was designed to kill him, tucked tail and had to be pulled over the bridge. What the hell, it's exercise; another thing that is supposed to be good for me.