Life in the working world

Hello out there my lasting and adoring fans....both of you. :)
I know...it's been a LONG time! Well the reason is at least a good one. I've been trying to get used to a full time job and the schedule that goes along with it. The good news is that I'm finally feeling really comfortable with the day to day of it all and the paperwork is FINALLY starting to make sense.
As for the job.... I LOVE IT ! I can only hope this affection lasts for a very long time because I also love some of the new things in my life that go along with it. (more on that later). The biggest thing to get used to hasn't really been the early mornings (that worked out in about a week) or the 5 days a week lost to my knitting (I'll never get used to that) but the PAPERWORK! I thought hospital nursing had some overwhelming paperwork. HA! Every hour that I spend generates a minimum of 5 PAGES of notes and that doesn't take into consideration if I consult a doc, therapist or even another nurse. Those all generate their own collaboration notes. If I actually have to DO something like put the patient on a higher level of care that costs me no fewer than 10 extra forms. Holy rain forests Batman! that's a lot of paper. The powers that be know what an advantage computers would be and they keep teasing us with "maybe next year". Yeah, right.
In addition to the paperwork I generate, they expect us to carry around reference books. I weighted them - 25 POUNDS of reference books! That's in addition to the huge traveling-nurse bag with our equipment. I don't think so. I took those matters into my OWN hands and bought this. It's a Motorola Q PDA/Smartphone. Now all my reference materials either reside on the pda or I can look them up online. Yup, online goes with me. I can also use it as an MP3 player for those days in the office doing more paperwork. I could also justify it's use by taking photographs of wounds or videos of behaviors if my bosses would actually get our charting ON COMPUTER for gawd's sake. The other major advantage is the bluetooth. Our company cell phones - think umbilicus to the mother ship - don't have bluetooth. Now, consider this; we are 100% mobile...we (nurses) travel in our cars constantly to get from one patient to the other...our patients by definition are terminally ill and expected to die anytime...the whole point of the phones at all is to be able to respond immediately... and we are expected to hold a phone in one hand, DRIVE with the other and take notes with what? Our toes?! COME ON. It's only months before they make talking on a cell while driving illegal in this state. Must I risk my life and that of other drivers? Nope. Hence...bluetooth.
Oh, and about all that driving... my 10+ year old Stratus that survived teaching 3 teenage boys to drive, untold rabbit shows, a house fire and 3 or 4 multi state moves just couldn't cut it anymore. The last boy-child was all it could take. I found myself putting in as much tranny fluid as gas and the oil was getting a bit worrisome again too. So my most extravagant purchase was this...
(no, that's not MY actual car, mine needs a bath at the moment) It's a 2008 Toyota Matrix and I LOVE IT. This thing was made just for me, I'm convinced. It thinks it's a small SUV but it's "me" sized. The seats fold down flat in every conceivable way, even the front passenger seat folds into a desk! It's heavy enough on the road to be extremely stable. It's built on the old Corolla frame so has many many years of bug eliminating behind it and gets some of the highest reliability ratings from all the car-geek magazines. It even has a power inverter BUILT IN and household type outlets on the dash! Very cool for a traveling 'puter geek. Of course it comes with a hefty monthly reminder of just how cool it is, so that's why I hope I love this job just as much for the next 60 months.
Remember when this was a bunny and knitting blog? Well, both activities have suffered while I became acclimated to my new life. I actually did get 2 SA does bred and they get boxes today. I acquired two of the most gorgeous Thriantas from a top breeder out in the northwest - with generous assistance from a very good friend (hugs Eric!) and I've managed to start my herd thinning a bit with more tough decisions to come.
As for knitting...not so much. Every so often I get a stitch or three on a sock but that's about all I've managed. My mental knitting is going like crazy though. In my head I have all sorts of amazing projects planned. The advent of these... (yes, they are clear sneakers) has made sock knitting even more exciting! They are the Nike Airforce 1 clear sneaks and they would make some killer work shoes. I bought just exactly the right sock yarn for work socks too (back at Rhinebeck). So as soon as I get my hands on these in a size 7, look out!
So there's my life lately in a rather large nutshell. Other little diddies include I can't leave for any of the holidays like I'd hoped but I will be able to work the Farm show (nobody else asked for those days off), I am actually on call Christmas Day and the weekend before and Thanksgiving was way too quiet. I miss Miranda horribly. And JJ is out of school before graduating. That's extremely disappointing but he has to have the chance to work it out on his own. It's not the fun part of parenting, but it's one of the parts. Good with the bad and all that.
Until next time....