Beth's Contradictory Brain

Smack

My favorite part of seeing a movie at the theater is when everyone runs out of snacks and I no longer have to listen to them eat.

Yummy Sighs

I've written about Sarah before, and how I used to go hear her and Ginger play in Austin. I might have even mentioned that I kissed them both - chastely - one New Year's Eve.

She's posted a cool you tube video of her talking about Falwell's death at one of her shows and then the beginning of one of the songs off her new cd. Check it out.

Dented

I think today is the first day since we've moved here that I've had nothing to do but relax. And it came just in time. I had gotten to the point of tired where you think your brain is working at 100%, but it's really more like 80% or less.

Yesterday after work I smashed my fender on the concrete post in the parking garage. Ugh. Just a five second brain fart and my car is dented up. It's not a terrible dent, but bad enough. (I posted pics on the photo blog.) It was worse - I could only open the driver door about six inches, so I used a screw driver to pry the dented part back out so the door will work. (The hubcap has been missing for years.)

The emotional reaction I had yesterday was kinda funny. I started to really dislike my car, like I wanted to disown it, like it had let me down. Weird. I also hate how that dent makes me look like a worse driver than I am. I've generally been really happy with the car. I've had it for five or so years and only paid $5000 for it. I've put over 65,000 miles on it.

I don't plan on getting the dent repaired, it's not worth what it would cost. One thing I do have to get fixed on it is the driver's side electric window - it still works, but it takes it a long time to get back up.

I've been daydreaming of a new car. I'd love to pay off the motorcycle before starting on car payments. If I could find another deal as good as the one I got on the Skylark I'd be pretty happy. Maybe at the end of the year I'll get serious about looking.

Bad Days

I really like the patients at my current hospital more than I liked the ones in KC. Then again, I generally like the people in the DC area more than those in KC. As I've said, I like the diversity here - and that people who choose to live here generally seem to be energetic people who want to "make it" in life.

But the last couple of days when I've walked into one of the draw rooms and asked the patient how they're doing, I've gotten a lot of people saying "not so good".

Today, I had an elderly gentleman say that his wife had died two months ago - on his birthday. That's so sad. I had another elderly gentleman say he was ready to die. I had a middle aged woman say her doctor told her she's about to die, but that they'd told her that three years ago as well, but if they couldn't find a way to stop all her pain, she was ready to die. Worst of all, today I had a couple, the woman six or so months pregnant, and they'd just been told some really, really bad news about the pregnancy (I didn't ever find out exactly what). Her husband had gone to get something just as I was finishing drawing her blood, and after I was done she started to cry. I told her it was ok to cry, that between the hormones and bad news of course she was crying, and I hugged her for a moment. It was all I could do to not cry with her.

It wasn't long after that I had my lunch break, which gave me some time to think.

I don't write much here about my faith in God, or my beliefs. Mostly because they're so ill defined. But I do have a lot of faith in God. And there's still a part of me that really wants to be a person God works through.

In very simple terms, I have two goals at work. One is to not fuck up. I don't want to miss when I try to hit a vein. I don't want to draw the wrong tube or order the wrong test. All of that because I don't want to cause a patient discomfort or for them to have to come back and redo a draw because of something I did. Two is that I really want every patient to feel "good" when they leave my part of my job. (Eventually my time will be split between registering patients on the computer and drawing blood.)

Now, is it necessary for God to be a part of any of that? I don't know. But some part of me still believes that God really does bless people - and he generally does so through other people. I truly believe even just smiling at strangers can make a difference.

What's funny is that one of my co-workers "found God" about two years ago - and she's one of my least favorite co-workers. She tells people "God bless you" after she draws their blood - and I've seen it make people uncomfortable. Another of my co-workers is leaving this job in a month to go begin the process to be a Franciscan Monk. He has no reverence that's visible.

I really have no idea what I feel diferentiates me from them.

Anyway. I thought this post would be something other than what it's ended up being. Something about dealing with the public and trying in some small way to make their day just a little better.

AI

At least now Blake can give Ellen back all her pants. I swear that boy wears lesbian pants!

Gays in British Military Non-Issue

Since the British military began allowing homosexuals to serve in the armed forces in 2000, none of its fears — about harassment, discord, blackmail, bullying or an erosion of unit cohesion or military effectiveness — have come to pass, according to the Ministry of Defense, current and former members of the services and academics specializing in the military. The biggest news about the policy, they say, is that there is no news. It has for the most part become a nonissue.

found via Dale Carpenter at Volokh Conspiracy

Good

Life is Good. So much better than a month ago. Almost scary good.

I got through my first week of work. The job is just about what I expected it to be. My body was really worn out from being on my feet all day, but that was to be expected as well. I hear we're going to go to four hours of drawing blood and four hours of registering patients soon - that sounds good to me. I just don't want to end up doing all of one or the other.

This weekend has been really nice. We took Ramen dog for his shots yesterday morning. Then we went to get massages. Nerdstar found a place by searching online, and it turned out to be a nice little place. The vibe reminded me of Austin - which is always a good thing.

Last night we met up with a woman who works for Nerdstar's company - but in a different part of the country, and a friend of hers and her kids. We went to see Bodies - The Exhibition. It was really cool. The human body is so amazing.

Today we took Ramen to the dog park again. Eventually we'll remember to take the camera and take some pics.

The weather here has been amazing. I'm really not used to an actual spring. In Texas you go from pseudo winter to summer - no in-between. And such low humidity!! Wonderful!!

Work has led to a loss of some of my web surfing time. But that's ok. Life is good.

Public

It did cross my mind the other day that because I work with the public, there's always a chance one of my patients will go home and write about me as their phlebotomist. And that struck me as kinda weird. Mostly because there's really no way I'd ever known they did.

Hmmm.

No, the thought doesn't change the way I view my job, or the way I'd do it. It was just a weird thought to me.

Update

Work is going pretty well. It's a busy, busy place. Apparently there's going to be quite a bit of personnel turnover in the next few weeks. One lady who was out on maternity leave isn't coming back after this week. Another guy's last day is next Tuesday. I think another lady who's pregnant is kinda planning on not coming back after the baby in October - which will probably end up being August or September for her last day. Fun. Boss man said the other day he's about to hire 3 more new people. Another lady was hired just before I was - so our staff is going to be at least half, if not more, newbies.

That's not necessarily a bad thing - as long as he hires some more decent folks.

The best thing about work the last couple of days is how many patients have told me how good my "sticks" are. That means a lot to me. There are, and I'm sure will continue to be, a few patients every day with veins I can't locate. My personal philosophy is that unless I can find two good veins, I won't try to hit one hard to get one. I figure if they've only got one good vein, and by chance I miss it or something, then there's not a good backup for another phleb to hit. The goal is to get a patient's blood with as few sticks as possible. I'm usually right when I don't think I'm going to get blood out of a particular vein - so why try and miss just to have someone else have to try the second time. Of course, I hope over time to get better at harder veins.

The downside of work this week is that I'm spending 7 of the 8 hours drawing blood - which means I'm on my feet and putting my back at bad angles for all 7 hours. My back hurt so much today I was almost in tears. That's what I get for not working for 7 months. Ouch! Hopefully by the end of the week those muscles will toughen up! Eventually I hope to spend a couple of days a week doing the registration side of things, and a couple of days drawing blood. But it will be a few more days before I get trained on the registration side.

Just like the UN

Thursday and Friday were my early days at the new job. For some reason, I had to do two days of training with the lab's in-patient stick team. These folks do the blood draws all over the hospital - the floors, ER, GI, nursery, etc.

This is exactly the job I DON'T want. I don't enjoy drawing blood from people who are in the hospital. They already have all their IV lines, they've had blood drawn twenty million times already, and they're usually a hard stick. It makes me feel bad to have to stick them again. And honestly, some are just a little beyond my current competence level.

But, I got through the two days and made a decent enough impression.

Not only was I the only person on the stick team who is White, I was the only person even born in this country. It was fun listening to all the different accents. Two of the ladies are from Korea, two from Ethiopia, three or four people are from the Phillipines, and one of the men was Hispanic - I'm not sure exactly where from. It's also fun watching people with different accents try to understand each other!

Monday I start my real schedule at my real job. Apparently the out patient lab is still really understaffed. The manager told me Friday afternoon he's about to start the process to hire 3 more people.

Cool Sight

As mentioned, we went to the Natural History Museum Sunday. While there we checked out the Tiffany Diamond “Bird on a Rock” Brooch 128.54 carats
South Africa. In an adjacent room was the Hope Diamond. They're both stunning.

While I was standing there looking at the Hope Diamond - there was a couple standing next to me. I heard the guy say, "I know this diamond doesn't compare, but..." And saw him get down on one knee! He proposed right there! It was so sweet. Of course she said yes. I've never seen a proposal in person before!

Still Busy

But it's a good kind of busy. Today was the last day of new employee orientation. And while I know that companies tend to blow a lot smoke up your butt about what a great place to work they are - I do think this should be a decent place to work.

I've got to be there the next two days at 6 a.m. The good things about that are that there should be very little traffic that early, and I'll get home in plenty of time to take a nap!

Can I just say that traffic here is out of control. There are three basic sections to my drive to work. One is from the apt. to the highway. This takes 10 minutes without traffic. It took an hour the other morning. Not sure why. Then there's the highway stretch - 4.5 miles. Should take, oh, 6 minutes. Took 45 the other afternoon on the way home. There'd been a small fender bender earlier. Then there's the neighborhood stretch to the hospital. Another 4 or so miles. It's been the shortest in time coming and going.

I swear there should be very high/real penalties for wrecks during rush hours. Like $5000 - not to be paid by your insurance company. If you can't pay it - community service. AND/OR a month of not driving during rush hour. Then maybe these dumbfucks might pay more attention to driving.

(Of course - I really, really hope I'm not jinxing myself just by typing that rant!!)

Life Got Busy

I'm very tired - but for good reasons!

We ran errands and such most of Saturday, which was a good thing. As Nerdstar says, "there's always more to do." And there is, but it's good to get some things done.

Then the fun was all day yesterday. We got to hang out with Sean of Doc In the Box and his lovely wife. We had a lot of fun driving all around and seeing some sites. My feeties hurt, but oh well.

At the Lincoln Memorial I got all emotional, which is kind of weird because we'd been there before, back on our east coast road trip of '99. I just felt so much love for this country, and such sadness for all the people, military and civilian, who have given their lives over the past 400 years to make this country what it is.

I've also decided I could never be an immigrant in another country. I can't imagine what the people who decide to make their lives here legally go through, learning a new language, new foods, new ways of driving. Everything.

On top of all of that, today was my first day at my new job. Today was hanging out in the lab. The next two days are fun orientations. Then even worse, Thursday and Friday I have to be there at 6 a.m. and do in-patient draws so the main lab can see that I really do know how to draw blood.

Tonight is dinner with Sean and his wife again. Thankfully I get to sleep a little later tomorrow!!

Hope you're all having as much fun!

Sounds Familiar

Even thinking of naming future children after food...

Traveling and Birthdays

We had a really nice weekend visiting my family. The travels all went smoothly, although I'm not sure I'll opt for the 6:25 a.m. flight again. We had to get up way too early!

It was great to spend time with The Kid again. I wish we could see him a lot more often! I posted a couple of pics on my photo blog. And I just can't tell you how much he loves Nerdstar - it's so cute. But that also means he bosses her around and won't let her out of his site all weekend.

We got to eat some Whatburgers and at Salt Grass - so life was very good. We always wish we had more days to eat more meals when we're in Texas!!

Now, I think we're both ready to get settled into our new life in DC. Just a few more boxes to unpack, groceries to buy, things like that.