End Of The Week.

One of the reasons I havent' been blogging is my AOL was glitching and I just didn't have time to reinstall it. Work has been nightmarish, I did 12 straight days. I worked through the weekend, made it home 7pm on Monday, 6:30 Tuesday, and 7:30 pm last night. The LPN is taking her boards on Tuesday but Susan informed me last night she let her LPN license lapse this weekend so until she gets her RN license we can't use her. The other per diem LPN's aunt passed away so he'll be in Nevada for the week so I am once again left holding the bag. On the upside I did go in and talk to my boss and got that straightened out. I can take a lot but I cannot take someone just being mad at me and not knowing why - avoiding people is just too much damn work. I've also been trying to follow the advice from the book, "The No Asshole Rule" - it's a wonderful read for management. I lent it to my co-worker and got a hug and told her she's to pass it onto the other manager when she's done.Things are hard enough in the office without us picking on each other. Adam is finally home, the Navy true to form hemmed and hawed and then just as suddenely announced it was time to go now which made a wild ride for him and an even wilder one for Janet and Diane who went to get him. We salute you and thank you so much! I'm finally off for the weekend so I'm planning on just shopping and laying around the pool if it doesn't rain. Jackson continues on in summer school and working with David - I'm so glad they have such a good relationship with each other and Adam's always had one with him too. It's great when your kids not only love you, but really like you, isn't it?

Running On Empty

David's current job is going well, I had spoken with one of the owners a few days ago and she said they're getting very excited as it's starting to near the end. David's been bringing Jackson to help out - it works for both of them. He pays Jackson pretty well and Jackson has been hoarding his money for the summer. We heard from Adam the other day, his plans have been pushed back another week and in true navy tradition they still haven't given him a definate date of leaving or a plane ticket. He's getting very stressed at this point as he has all of his possessions that need to be carted across the country, what a mess. They used to do this when he was in the navy all of the time so I suppose there's no need to change now. I'm working ALL DAY today, I have to leave here about 7:30 and will get back (hopefully) late afternoon. I'm now working 12 out of every 14 days and quite frankly, I'm getting tired. The house is a disaster, even when I'm home I don't feel like cleaning it, I do the dishes and the wash and that's about it. I've given up on the yoga - today I'll be missing the 3rd week so forget it. So I paid for classes I can't take but there's no point in even trying. I'm keeping an eye on the employment ads, I haven't quit yet, but if something better comes along I'll be applying. I hate feeling like this and I really don't want to quit as I've been there for two years, but I just don't see it getting any better.

I'll Be Behind The 8 Ball If You Need Me

I got home late the other night - I hate that. I feel like I hit the ground running - David was supposed to be home early but he got hung up at work and me not realizing it went to the grocery store. Pearl was stuck inside til almost 6 PM so when I opened the door she came flying out like she was jet propelled. I really do hate the fact that she's stuck in the house all day while we work so when I'm home - we're outside. Then I had to rescue Vincent from Pearl's unwanted attention, feed the cats, start the laundry, clean the pool, take out the trash, find the mail, etc. etc...I started a new project - it's a shawl, but haven't had time to make much progress. And it's hard! I bought lace weight yarn which is very fine (and easily tangled as stated in previous entries). It's started off on double point needles which is very awkward - even though they're only size 5 they're huge with this yarn. I started it off about 10 times which became frustrating - then I finally laid it on the table and knit it flat. Hopefully I'll get back to it tonight and get it to a larger more handlable size! Work continues on in all it's glory, I'm off to Pittsburgh today for a wound care seminar - at this point work is so busy these seminars do nothing but put me behind the 8 ball for the next week. Arrgh!!

Not A Bad Weekend

We had a fairly good weekend, I'm constantly stressed so fairly good at this point is pretty good. Sunday we went to a little art show at Ruby McQuaid park on the river, it was ok. It was pretty hot by then and the sun was glaring - I forgot my sunglasses so I spent most of the time squinting in general directions. We went to Ruby Tuesday's for an early dinner, that was a lot of fun. I didn't get to swim in pool all day Sunday because of David The Forgetful. He's been promising to pick up supplies for the pool for two weeks and keeps forgetting. Everytime I say I'll do it he says No, no I'm going to Lowes anyhow - so the upshot was it rained in a pool that had no treatment for two weeks and the water got so bad you couldn't even see the bottom of the pool. I ran out early Sunday morning and put so much chemicals in you would've thought the water would peel the skin right off you. But after a few days it finally cleared up and is swimmable again. I'm on call again this weekend and already have jobs lined up - I am getting VERY tired. I think if I was not being  two jobs at once it would be better, but it's not. I'm hanging in there for another month though before I make any final decisions, I just don't feel like the situation will ever get any better. For the past year and a half I've been the staff nurse trying to manage myself and now I'm the manager trying to be the staff nurse - I just get paid more for it. I'll probably try to stay, but I'm looking into having my resume professionally updated  - just in case.

The Pirates Again

We went to the movies yesterday - we saw the Pirates of the Caribbean again as David and Ray had not seen it. I didn't mind seeing it again and according to Jackson I go for the popcorn anyhow so it doesn't matter what's playing. No one is getting anything for Father's Day yet, I haven't had time to breath let alone do any shopping so it will be on my list. Considering that I'm still working on Graduation presents that's not a good sign. We went to the bookstore too, I got a book on how to deal with difficult people at work and also a knitting magazine that I don't need. BUT it comes with a free needle case which I also don't need BUT the needle case smells -I swear it!! - like fresh Barbies. Anyone who has ever owned a Barbie or any Barbie Accessorie can tell you exactly what they smell like - and there is nothing like the smell of Fresh Barbies to make your day a little better. Jackson thinks I'm crazy anyhow and says he would not own a Barbie no matter what it smelled like. Anyhoo, we went to Garfield's for dinner - total fun and then back home. I think we'll just be shopping today and I have to get more pool supplies. David had to get the first cup of coffee this morning (I got kicked out of bed yesterday for that duty) and complained because it's Father's Day so I told him the same thing I get told on Mother's Day - You're Not My Father. What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

Sit Back, Relax!

I got to work early yesterday to work on the schedule with Susan - we have all sorts of patients and patchwork staff at the moment so it's turned into quite a balancing act. We think we got it straight! We had one arguement as I had a patient to go see and everytime I was ready to work on the schedule for next week - Susan was not. Finallly at 9 I announced I was leaving and that would be when Susan yelled - it was a short lived thing.  I managed to get out of work on time and headed home a bit early - Ray and Jackson were hanging out in the living room waiting on David and the beer. (well, Ray was waiting for the beer, Jackson will have to wait a bit longer....). Ray's trip down went very well and he made good time. He's gotten his house in NJ straight with the window repair and all so he's doing well. We got Jackson's report card too - he did VERY well. 2 "C's and the rest all A's and B's - we're very proud of him for really pulling it together and doing so well. We didn't do too much, we were tired from work and Ray was a bit tired from the drive so we went out to the Boston Beanery. I had a beanwich of course - I asked them to leave off the strips of bacon and right before the waitress left to put in our order David told her I was a vegetarian. I told him I wish you hadn't done that because here she comes back to the table and I assured her I knew there were pieces of bacon in the beans and I would take care of it myself. Since I am a Nonpolitical Vegetarian ingesting the occasional teeny piece of meat doesn't affect my stance at all, nor has it ever interrupted my sleep or backstepped my karma. So I ate my fries while meticulously picking out every teensy piece of bacon I could see (with the waitress sneaking peeks everytime she passed to see how I was doing) and by the time my fries were gone I had a meatfree Beanwich which was better than you ever dreamed of a food to be. We headed home and I think everyone was passed out by 9 - Pearl the Pest included!

Living For The Weekend

I ran around like crazy yesterday - I had one faraway visit, one admission and one injection training. I got home right at 5 pm only to be called out AGAIN to go see a patient who lived Not Too Close. On the upside, the patient's husband told me to take Buckeye road home which aside from being a very cool road also shaved about 8 miles off my trip back. I got my pool cover yesterday, I was a bit shocked by the size of the box - I thought it would be much smaller. And I picked it up first thing so I had to rearrange my car and Susan's brother Ronnie loaded it. So on top of all the travelling I had to do I also had to tote along an enormous pool cover to boot. David has the pool covered and it's supposed to keep it warm. Those pictures of the butterfly are from one that I rescued out of the pool. I left it to dry on a fence post and it was gone in the afternoon so I hope it survived - isn't it spectacular? Ray is coming out this weekend FINALLY so I have to get moving on at least rearranging the junk in the house in a pleasing manner. I don't think we'll be doing too much, maybe the movies this time around. Jackson starts summer school today and we'll be trolloping him back and forth until the end of July. I started working with the second skein of yarn and managed to get it all unwound for the most part, the last bit tangled so I think I'll just have to order a couple more skeins and take the hit. The Yarn Hater voted to throw it all out but that is NOT a possibility. He doesn't understand The Code Of Yarn in which you are morally obligated to work with the yarn no matter how bad it gets and if you can't get it untangled then you need to put it in a bag in the closet  because someday you might be able to untangle it. The tangled skein is currently residing on the dining room table and makes me go through the Seven Stages Of Grieving everytime I go into the kitchen. It will lay there until I either untangle it or The Yarn Hater gets to it first and pitches in the trash.

Trudging Along

The good news is we have a full time visit nurse, the bad news is she won't be available until the beginning of July. In the meantime business has been booming and my boss has decided to have an issue with me - she hasn't told me what the issue is and from what I've seen in the past, she apparently just does this. I was upset - I certainly don't need anymore stress!, but she's on vacation for a week and I'm just ignoring it for now. My pool cover is finally in so I'm picking it up today on my way through Mannington at Susan's dad's home center. I also have to get more pool supplies - I go through them pretty fast. Ray is supposed to be coming out this weekend so I have to De-Cat his room but I'm really looking foward to this weekend, I'll be off and so will my phone. Adam has been writing me from Washington state, he's figuring he'll be leaving around the 20th and cannot wait. I'm sure he can't. Pearl's tail is all better and she's back to her usual loony self, much to the cat's dismay. My other problem is the yarn I ordered from Yarnpicks - it comes unskeined and when I tried to skein it - what a mess! It came apart in about 10 short lengths and the rest is a huge knotted mess so I'll have to contact the company to find out if there's some secret way to skein it or I should just give it up as a lost cause. Things have been bad enough lately, I don't need my yarn turning on me!

A Good Night's Sleep

This weekend was busy to say the least, I had one admission on Friday and then two on Saturday so I spent most of the weekend traveling around and doing paperwork. I ended up missing yoga on Saturday, the first admission was much further than I had thought it would be and of course, the place that discharged the patient "forgot" to mention a couple of things which needed immediate attention. I've been worrying about this and that so my sleeping has been a bit worse than usual, the Two AM Girl has been putting in extra hours on me, sometimes showing up around midnight. We had to go food shopping and we got that done and I started in on finishing the shawl I've been working on since the beginning of time. So Saturday I went to be early - and at 1:30 am Pearl  made a special guest star appearance, standing on us and crying and shaking. We were up til 3 with her - she kept hiding and crying and couldn't stop trembling - we took her out and she went to the bathroom, we fed her a little and she was fine. I finally fell asleep around 4 only to be back up around 4:30 and that's when we discovered she'd somehow managed to sprain her tail which apparently hurt everytime she sat down which would account for the crying (she can move it but she can't hold it up). I finished up the paperwork Sunday morning - I was already up and then headed out around 10 to the Faraway Patient. I came home and went swimming for a few minutes until I got another phone call about another patient which thankfully only turned out to be a phone call and not a visit, took Jackson shopping, did the wash, played with Pearl who's feeling better  and her tail issues seem to be resolving - and then fell asleep around 7pm - and stayed that way til 5 am. David said Adam called last night around 1 am from Washington State and he reports he hates it - it's cold, rainy, everyone is a big snot and the night scene is not the greatest. I think he just wants back here personally. But he's here finally - I didn't get to talk to him because David said he didn't want to wake me up, but I guess I'll be seeing him soon. He's in Washington for a couple of weeks and then he heads out to the east coast. Grandpa is doing better too which I'm relieved about, so maybe the 2 am Girl can  take a vacation!

Crossroads.

I was about to say I'm bored, but I'm really not. I'm just at that funny little place you hit once in awhile - everything is sort of bad, but not getting worse or better, stagnant. I have this constant feeling of - sadness? stress? I think the term used years ago was "meloncholy"  - moping aboutness. Work has become a drudge, I keep plugging along with scary moments of stress - what did I forget or worse, WHO did I forget. I haven't forgotten anyone yet, at least I don't think so. I got bad news about one of patients that I've taken care of since I started, everytime I  talk to the family I start crying, I just can't help it. One of the problems with home care is the chronic patients you see - it's difficult if not impossible  not to become somewhat attached to them and thier families. Everyone is overworked and thumping about - I told my boss I was overwhelmed by work. The next day she suggested to get our hospitalization rate down (and it's not actually OUR rate, it's the other offices that is added with ours) we should see our patients MORE and call them! I think when she saw me wilt she said she didn't mean me specifically, she meant the nurse who's in the office. Sigh, that would be ME when I'm not out seeing patients. It's not her - everyone is just frustrated and crabby. And of course David is waving Maine under my nose all week - you can live near Kim! Swimming! Hiking! Wowee, look at that house! Stress stress and more stress. Jackson is done with school today, at least for the week. He starts back again on the 12th until the end of July. I haven't heard from Adam for a couple of days, I know he turned off his phone so I suppose I'll hear from him when I do.  

The Clouds In My Pool

It finally stopped raining yesterday afternoon - it's been raining off and on for a couple of days. The bad thing is my pool is now all cloudy and it's VERY annoying. The levels are all good so I'm guessing it's the rain water that's doing it. Last night I added some algecide so hopefully that'll help. I've heard from Adam several times in email, he's turning off his phone on Thursday and is getting ready to head out. Although we won't see him for awhile, just his being home will be wonderful. The not so wonderful thing is my Grandfather is in the hospital, I called him last night and he sounds awful. There are times when being so far from home is not a good thing and this is one of them. He said he's had a CT scan but didn't know the results. I'll call again tonight and hopefully he'll be better. Jackson's last day of school is tomorrow, yesterday David went to drop him off at MTech and there was no one there - oops. Jackson forgot he didn't have school til noon. So back home they went until noon and David brought him back to take his final. David just hung around town and had lunch - he said by the time he got home he would've had to turn around and come back. David spent the morning investigating a house in Maine!! of all places, that his latest idea, we'll see. Work was annoying yesterday, I was doing a self infusion teaching at a doctor's office - I got there at 9 am and went through the supplies - the pharmacy had forgotten the tubing - and it was specialized tubing of course. While I was on the phone with the company I asked the receptionist if she could get ahold of the patient as we  couldn't do the infusion without the equipment and she was like, the patient's here already.. And indeed, the patient was right behind me getting thier vitals taken. So everyone went out and played for an hour and a half while pharmacist rushed the tubing down from Pittsburgh - not a big deal, but with me being so pressed for time lately, it certainly didn't help. On the bright side, the part time RN has had a change of heart  and has decided to stay, so that makes it a little easier, but we still have been unable to find a full time RN and this time of year, there's literally no one to hire!

In Every Life A Little Rain Must Fall

Yes, after two solid weeks of predicting rain, The Crack Weather Team was finally correct yesterday - it DID rain just like they said it would.It took 14 days but By Golly, they are now on the right track and it just goes to show, persistance does payoff.  My persistance also paid off, there was a pair of Timberline sneakers I had my eye on over the holidays, but with a strong genetic background of Pennypinching I just couldn't bring myself to pay $80 for them. David needed a pair of shoes so we stopped at that store first - while he was looking I was browsing around and there were the sneakers - two pair left on CLEARANCE and one pair in my size!! Whoohoo - $19, can you believe it? We're also looking at exercise bicycles, I've been having problems with my right leg and foot and I'm sure it's a repetition injury since I've been spending between 40 minutes and an hour daily on the treadmill. I've cut way back but I need to find an alternate form of aerobic exercise so I figured an exercise bike would be good. Try finding a plain inexpensive exercise bike these days. They're all digital, recumbant, etc and have price tags to match. Usually what we do is looking in the Bulletin for used equipment but with our schedules we just may have to bite the bullet and buy new. Neither of us have time these days to go driving around looking so a new one might be on the horizon, even though it goes against every grain in my body. Jackson is done with school Thursday and is doing the big countdown, one more year folks!

Let The Countdown Begin

Can you believe Adam will be back in the US in less than a month? I can't! He's supposed to be calling his Grandmother as I've pointed out that although she loves him dearly and wouldn't send him to the homeless shelter, a bit of forwarning is always nice. I think he's just so excited he's not thinking clearly. Jackson will be done with school this Thursday - that went fast! He's off for a week and then starts summer school until the end of July - it's only 3 hours a day so not so bad. I was really off this weekend - work has reached nightmarish proportions lately and I ended the week with a tiny dust-up with my boss. Nothing serious but it just added to the stress which I really didn't need. I've been carrying a full load of patients but am still responsible for everything in the office and it just got to be too much - I think I'm a good visit nurse and a good manager, but I can't be both at once. Yesterday I got some stuff done, went to yoga, swam and then Jackson and I went to the movies in the afternoon. We saw the 3rd Pirates of The Carribean movie, it was very good but I don't think it's the last one by any stretch of the imagination. We ate a ton of popcorn and we put a shameless amount of butter on it.   Today looks overcast and grey, The Crack Weather Team has been predicting Severe Thunderstorms and Rain for over two weeks now - I assume if they keep it up they'll eventually be right. And that Rotten Vincent the Cat! He didn't come home last night at all - I called him for quite a bit after supper but nothing. This morning when I took Pearl the Pest out, there he was standing on the roof peering down at me. I did speak to him about his Behavior, but I'm pretty sure he could care less and went back out right after breakfast. David does not seem to feel the cat needs to be grounded, but I think he does, he's bad!

It's Friday. Whatever

Work continues to march on, I'm in early again today to finish up some paperwork before heading out for my infusions. Yesterday I finally got my "temporary" crown removed and had the permanent one done - almost an hour and a half in the dentist's chair for that one. The dentist we have here has every high tech gadget you can think of - the xrays are computerized, your files are computerized - they even have a program to design the crown and make it right there - in 17 minutes! Our dentist is very young and enthusiastic with an assistant named Tiff who is equally young and enthusiastic. Given that my appointment was for after work my enthusiasm was a bit  less and the only thing I could get excited about at that point was perhaps dinner and a nap. They were a bit put out that I didn't want to watch my crown being made but life is like that. We continue to hear from Adam and the Big Countdown, we're now into June so his departure is about a week away. We won't see him for awhile but he'll be HERE which is a great deal closer that Japan! Jackson is done with school next week, for a week and then he starts summer school for English 10. He's secretly looking foward to it I think because he's got a couple of friends in the class and it's only a few hours a day. It runs from June 14th to July 27th so that curtails any travel plans but he'll have most of August off.  It looks like rain for the entire weekend which is disappointing as most of my plans centered around the pool but I suppose I can think of something else to do. Jackson wants to see the 3rd pirate movie so perhaps we'll do that.