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.