10-5 This is Kathy.

Recently a lot of the staff at work keep asking me, "You are all talk right? You're not really transferring to a different floor or moving to TN/NC are you?" I think it's so great to feel like I really fit in at work. If I were to be working with my night shift staff all the time without all of the management issues I'd consider staying. Joe, my charge nurse and "mentor" has told me recently that he is going to ask our nursing coordinator if he could train me to charge. This is NOT something I want to do. Yes, I would make more money. Yes, I would learn how to do a lot of new things. But, HECK NO! I don't have the experience it takes to be a charge nurse. To know what to do all the time when one of the nurses working the floor freaks out because they don't know what to do. I had my 6 month evaluation last month and my nursing coordinator did ask me to consider becoming a charge nurse. I declined. However, they have had me orienting new nurses to our floor. This is a scary scary thing. I feel bad for the new nurses I am orienting. They have however, given me quite the confidence boost. I have had a lot of people ask me lately how long I have been a nurse. My response to them is often, "How long do you think I've been a nurse?" Many have said they thought I looked too young to be a nurse, and others have said that I seemed so experienced they thought I had been doing it for 3 to 5 years. YIKES! Who knew I was just that good.. not to mention young looking! I'm kidding btw. I have SOO much to learn.

Would you like some marijuana with your morning coffee?

I haven't really brought you too many interesting stories from work lately, because I tend to forget them by the time I get home. Recently there has been a patient who I shall name George, who has become quite the annoyance. Every once in a while you come across that one patient that just drains you and the rest of the staff. When you come into work and find that you are assigned that patient(again), the first 5 and a half minutes of your shift you sigh and maybe complain a little here and there to whomever will listen to you or just under your breath, then you suck it up and get the job done. George has been with us for a while now, and everyone on staff knows him well. He will at times stop you in the middle of something just to talk to you about nothing. Or make comments about how hott you are and make you feel uncomfortable. But like I said, sometimes you get these guys and you just have to deal. The other night at work we had some issues with George. He had apparently been seen with a joint earlier in the day. There wasn't much we could do because we ourselves did not see the joint. Later that evening, George became agitated. I was forced to take action. I had to get very assertive with a Dr over the phone (with an audience no less) and sedate Mr. George. My night of work became much easier after that. One of George's favorite things to do was make and drink black coffee. He had at least one cup every 30 min. Around 3am, the clerk went over to clean up the nutrition room-where we keep the juice, sandwiches and patient formula and such. When she was cleaning around the coffee pots and restocking the sugar and creams she found a nice little baggy of green leafy substance. It was rather entertaining to all of us. Of ALL places for George to hide his stash, the nutrition room where all patients and staff have access is probably the most ridiculous place to hid it. We phoned security, who weren't really sure what to do with it. They took some pictures of the room and the drawer it was found in along with some names, placed the baggy into another baggy to prevent it from getting anyone else's prints on it. It had me crackin up. Never a dull moment.

Tik Tok

I forgottttt!! We had lots of dance parties at our intern reunion in NC. I didn't participate as much as I enjoyed laughing and watching, but we made a video for our friends who couldn't make it to the reunion. Check it out! Kristi wants to get to 300 or so views! She's getting close and already at 159 views! You might not think its nearly as funny as we do but it's most definitely entertaining. Enjoy! Tik Tok!

Growing pains

First off- I have to wonder who these random china mans are who are making comments on my posts. I don't read chinese and dont know how they have gotten through my privacy settings..

I have been pretty bad at updating my blog. I have had many attempts at it and then get distracted or bored and delete my posts. If I'm bored writing it there is no point in making you bored when reading it.
Lately I have been busy trying to have a social life. I was talking to my friend Jenny in Colorado about being an adult and how much planning goes into practically everything you do. You have to plan your trips to the grocery store, plan meals, plan a time when you can call your friends to make plans to hang out. When it comes to even talking to Jenny there is so much planning that goes into it. We text back and forth (with sometimes hours or days between each text) planning on when we can call each other to catch up on life. I miss my days of being spontaneous.
Work is going ok. I'm growing to love a lot of the people I work with. For the most part this has been a great first real job because I have a lot of time to learn how to be a nurse and not be overwhelmed. But in some ways its nothing I was looking for. I am however, VERY lucky to have a job. When I complain about my job I am often reminded of how my mom has been jobless for a YEAR and many other people who are with out jobs all over the place. The Lord has surely blessed me.
Another part of being grown up that I'm not so fond of is the number of bills that come along with it. I have recently begun to pay back my student loans and have become compeletely independent from my parents. Learning to budget is uch a hard concept for me. I am hoping I will get the hang of it while I am young and single.
I have had some funny stories to post here from incidents at work and with friends but can never remember them when I get home. Here are some pictures from my trip to NC from Christmas break like I said I'd post. We went to the sand dunes in the OBX. I have never seen anything like this in my life. I felt like I was on Mars!

and for new years we went to dinner and watched the ball drop with our bubbly and/or sparkling cider. It was a great way to bring in the new year. I'm not quite sure why that was all underlined and I can't get it to not be. Here are some of the great people I got to hang out with.