Happy Punkintines

Two whole months since my last post? Wow. I've been finding it hard to write in general lately, even in the paper journal. Guess it's time to start forcing myself again. A well-kept journal is a path to wisdom.

Today is Punkintines! My favorite holiday. I received a much-loved Punkintines box in the mail from Auntie Lori and the Vancils today. In it was delicious cake and various goodies, among which was a tiny witch hat. This became the central piece of my costume.

I decorated the table with various Punkintines items of years past. It made for a properly spooky candlelight dinner. Because Halloween is a day of the dead, I wore my great-grandmother's pin on my shirt to honor her and all my other dead relatives. I thought about people like my grandmother Betty, who lived with us for years before she died. Death is so mysterious, you know? People don't want to think about it, but it's interesting if you can avoid being morbid. Sometimes I wonder how many people follow religions purely because they fear death? Also, how can people who claim to believe in an immortal soul, angels, and demons dismiss ghosts as superstition? Is that not weird to only believe in half of the supernatural stuff in our current popular mythology? I think about skeletons and the way different cultures celebrate the Day of the Dead. I think about the fact that Halloween has become all costumes-and-candy... yet still retains this element of the fantastic where you recreate your identity. Masks over our masks over our masks. Are we more or less authentic when we dress up?

Anyway, I've been busy lately with work. I'm on an alternating schedule of 7a-7p shifts that goes something like MTon-WRoff-FSSon-MToff-WTon-FFSoff.

I'm loving my job in CCU. I'm mostly learning how to recover patients coming out of bypass surgery. I feel like I'm almost ready to do the job all by myself, but I still have another month of orientation to complete before I'll be operating completely independently. There is so much to think about! As soon as the patient comes out, you have to hook them up to ten different cables, titrate all these medications to keep their blood pressure in a safe range, draw labs, do a basic assessment, monitor chest tube output to make sure they're not bleeding too much or too little, monitor urine output, sort through a huge stack of papers and assemble a chart, figure out which medicines they still need from the orders, fax things, talk to doctors, pull meds, watch all the numbers on the screen at once, and chart vital signs at least every 15 minutes. Somewhere in there you have to let the family come back and see the patient too, and try not to trip over everyone in the tiny room while you work. It can get a little crazy and there's more than a little stress, but there's a lot of adrenaline and it makes the day go by quickly. Because so many things can go wrong, you feel like you're really helping someone by being there. And because bypass patients tend to get well, you feel like your help pays off. It is good to do meaningful work. I am all about "being there" in every sense.

I'm glad I chose to start in CCU. It's giving me a chance to really develop my skills,work closely with the physicians, and learn. Of course, my mother is terrified I'm going to catch MRSA or something at the hospital. But who isn't these days? FYI, here is the secret to preventing most infections: WASH YOUR HANDS. There, I just saved you so much money on medical bills. You may all cease your panicking now and put the extra quarters in your piggy banks.

I recently painted some piggy banks. I've been doing lots of crafts lately, like crazy.
The gray one is Mr. Piggins. He has "For Rainy Days" written on one side and a storm cloud on the other. The green one is Little Piggins. I made him for Lara. He has a clover on his bottom.

I also painted a picture. My first ever. Playing with textures is fun.

Rachel had her baby, Molly, earlier this month. To show my love, I knitted a hat and made her a shadowbox with a real four leaf clover. Molly Sullivan is a very Irish name afterall, and I wish them all the luck in the world.

I even sewed a dress and wore it the the Renaissance festival this year. Which was as fun as ever.

And what other news? I've started a new comic that I will eventually be hosting here. It's called Glory Heart Hospital, and can be found over on Planet-BOB. Very sporadic updates, but far more frequently than Dream is Destiny!

I'll try to write more soon. Love and light to you all.  ¶ 20:42