IHOP Girl: The Final Countdown!

Wednesday, January 06, 2010

The Final Countdown!

Two more weeks till night shift is over! Can I hear an amen? WOOT! Yup, in a couple weeks I start weekend day shift, and my body is excited.

I'm actually starting again to look for a new house...gahhhhhhhh. I'm not very excited about it, but it doesn't hurt to look. I do have to remember too that by the Fall I'll not longer have a roomie at all, seeing as we're marrying off DOT. We'll see, I'll keep you updated.

Yesterday I went for a walk...and slightly regreted it. It's been in the teens for temperature, and with my cold I've been cooped up in the house for over a week. Sooooo, I went for a walk. I needed some air!! All bundled up I felt like a mummy, but by the time I got back to the house my legs were on fire, and I couldn't feel my cheeks or nose. Haha, sad times! Actually, I love it being this cold I just wish I had a fire place, and we had snow!!!!!

Okay, off to a 4 hour work in service about some new cardiac support for heart transplant patients, and also on infection prevention....Time to actually get dressed!!

6 comments:

shrunken_frontal_lobe said...: sounds like you need to resume some form of PT before you start looking like Jabba-da-hutt.

legs on fire...

face on ice...

want a fireplace...

wish had snow...

hmmmmm........i think i know what to get you for next christmas.

a treadmill with integrated blowing cooler, plug in hiney-warmer, and computer screen with faux-fire.

all you need to do is select which room in your new abode for it's final resting place.

he!; 6:46 PM
Clair Bannerman (alias) said...: I would love a hiney warmer! Thats the one thing I would love in a car, but you know I'm cheap...; 7:29 AM
shrunken_frontal_lobe said...: hiney warmers, let's see...

- heating blanket
- instant heat hunting seat
- skidding down carpeted stairs (NOTE; must be carpeted, wood stairs will not work)
- sit on cat (must be live cat for maximum warmth)
- sit on dog (ditto above)
- sit on hotplate
- sit in front of high wattage lamp
- good ol' fashioned belt whippin'
- move to warmer climate
- drink excessive quantity of alcoholic beverages until feel nothing (will also believe anything, so we will tell you that your hiney really is warm even if it isn't)

that's all i can think of but if i come up with more i'll write back.

he!; 4:02 PM
Clair Bannerman (alias) said...: Lol, you're a great list maker!!

- heating blanket was the best one.
- I'm not sure how much hunting I'll be doing.
- I didn't say I wanted carpet burn or a weggie...
- I'm sure mom huffed at both the cat and dog comments.
- The hotplate level I think gets a little to hot for me, but thanks
- You really think that a high wattage lamp gets that hot?
- A good whippin' would at least immitate some butt burning!
- I tried the whole warm climate thing.../e points to the thermometer, and its still cold!
- Alcohol would work at least for the time being, but then I could be like that teen in MN who walked outside drunk in -30 degree weather with bare feet, and now has frost bite all up his legs...just saying! ;-)

Keep up the good ideas though!

Meow; 2:49 PM
Jess said...: Jess, I have the best idea ever. You can come up here and live in the shelter with me!!!!!! I told you I would build you a room! Ha, problem solved. Yes!!!!; 3:56 PM
Jess said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 3:56 PM

Movie Night In...I love a good movie!

Mega Mind
Taking Chance (Will make you cry like a baby)
Charlotte Grey (A bit of a different take on Nazi Germany)
Series - Merlin (I LOVE BBC)
Robin Hood (Okay, a love Russell Crowe, you'll have to understand that about me...)
Kingdom of Heaven (Chuck full of acting power with an epic tale)
Miss Potter (Such a great film! Story of the creator of Peter Rabbit)
How to Train your Dragon (Possibly my favorite animated movie ever...I'm like a little kid, I watch it over and over)
Buck (Sundance winner, Biography of Horse Trainer, heart touching)
Lost in Austin (Modern day spin on Pride and Prej.)

Life as a nurse...

Great words by Reb Jeff: Vayishlach: Facing Death

"Rachel died. She was buried on the road to Ephrat — now called Bethlehem. Jacob set up a pillar above her grave. It is the pillar at Rachel’s grave to this day."–Genesis 35:19-20

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vidui http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva_(Judaism), and preparing the notifications to the community, feel like little fragments of the sacred. I have been entrusted with the care and tending of the most powerful, complex and difficult emotions that a person can experience in life. I have been made, in some small part, a guardian of the memory of a departed soul — a life that touches upon many other lives.After dropping off my older daughter at her high school this morning, I made a stop at Treasure Coast Hospice http://www.tchospice.org/, a remarkable organization that sets a very high standard for the loving and respectful care of the dying. There, I visited a lovely man whom I have seen a few times in his hospice room. I sat by his bedside and listened to him (in full possession of his faculties) as he told me about his worries about his family, the support of his wife after he is gone, and the future of his children and grandchildren. I was deeply moved by the way he put any concern for himself — even while facing death — in a distant backseat to his concerns for his family. When my own time comes, I can only hope to have his awareness of the way that one life can touch so many others.Also at hospice, I visited a woman I have known for the past two years — a dear soul who is a former Jewish religious school director. I sat with her, too, singing psalms to her as I listened to her heavy and labored breathing. I have no medical training, but I have come to know the sound of a person who is close to death. The body begins to fight for each breath as it slowly looses it grasp on life. As I held her hand and sang, I realized that being a rabbi is no protection against becoming one of the people caught in the web of connection. I, too, am changed by the loss of a life that has touched mine.Later in the day, I met with a couple from our congregation. She had just learned that her brother died yesterday in a car crash. Coming to terms with the loss is made more difficult for her by the fact that she and her brother had not seen each other or spoken in five years. Sometimes, people think it is easier to mourn the death of someone who has moved out of your life. In my experience, though, it's harder. Grief is magnified by wounded love and regret. I have no magic words to say to ease the pain of mourning. All I can do is listen, become a vessel in which people place their stories, and offer compassion.Actually, there is one more thing I can do. I can have faith that "all I can do" is all that I need to do. It is enough.In this week's Torah portion (Vayishlach) Jacob watched Rachel, the love of his life, die in childbirth. He was overcome by grief. Jacob had worked for his cruel uncle Laban for fourteen years to earn the right to marry Rachel. Now she was gone. Because she died while they were traveling, Jacob had to bury her by the side of the road. He built a pillar of stones on the spot to mark the place as sacred.This is what we all do, in one way or another, when death enters our lives. We grieve and our hearts break. We wish that we could continue to walk along the path of life with our loved ones forever, but the dead cannot fully join us. We have to leave something behind in order to resume our own journey. So, what do we do? We mark the moment as sacred. We erect monuments — both in cemeteries and in our hearts. The stones we place on top of stones remind us that a life may end, but its sanctity is forever.The Torah says that the monument Jacob built for his beloved continues to stand until this day. A life that touches the lives of others never ceases to send living reverberations throughout the web that binds us all.