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Home alone and prison porn

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prisonerIt has been a very quiet day for me. I stayed up last night until two am playing stupid candy crush. I thought to myself why not. After all, it’s just me and the dog and I promised myself I would stay off of my foot so I had nowhere to go today. Except of course the gas station to get my coffee. I haven’t watched Prisoner Cell Block H in at least six weeks. A bunch of stuff happened and then I got really busy with graduation and surgery. So today I was going to scrapbook and watch at the same time. I didn’t last five minutes scrapbooking. I couldn’t find the cricut cartridge I was looking for and not in the mood to search all over the house so I said screw it and just watched the show. Brian loves to call it prison porn and if I watch it on my phone while he is trying to watch TV he will yell random things like tell the prison bitches to shut up, or tell them their riot will not work.

My foot doesn’t hurt as bad today as yesterday but it is still swollen and my arch touches the ground when I walk if I don’t have it wrapped. Now that is just the most bizarre feeling in the world. I have iced today as well. One day this foot will be back to normal. My dad called and my bike is ready, so tomorrow I will venture out to his house and pick it up. Maybe I will even go for a short ride since the weather is nice. Not sure how that will feel on my foot though. I am planning on resuming exercising on Monday. Not exactly sure how that will look but I know I will post about it.

Now back to peace and quite and a little bit of prison. Happy 4th of July to all. The fireworks are just starting down in good old Jefferson County!

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Pay it forward

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quarterToday I went to Ugas to get my morning coffee. I have seriously considered given up this habit and using the money for something else. However, nothing compares to the concoction I whip up there so I just can’t seem to quit it. I suppose it’s better than smoking. Anyway Allyson asked me to get her flaming hot cheetos. Yep that would be her breakfast. Chalk me up for parent of the year! So I bring in a five dollar bill and four pennies. That way no matter what the total, I wouldn’t be getting pennies back or even worse the cashier giving me a nickel back instead. (Ok we all know I have weird issues). So she rings it up and it’s 5.29. I said well crap let me go get a quarter out of the car. She says go ahead and take it, I know you will be back. So I dig out a quarter and I am about to walk back in and this guy says hey I paid your quarter, don’t worry about it. Then says this way you don’t have to go back in. I thanked him and I was so surprised and happy by his kindness. My foot was pretty happy too because it knew it was soon up for shift number three.

Not too long after this Emily texts me because she cannot get her paper to attach to her email. She bought herself a Mac before she started PT school and had written a paper in pages. She was finally able to attach it in her non Rockhurst email but then she couldn’t open it. So her friend had her save it in google. I had a bunch of frustrated texts. Next text I get is she can’t get it to print because the internet is down. So she heads over to wherever they print stuff at Rockhurst and is out of print points. She  must have given them a sob story of sorts because they gave her five dollars worth of print points for free. And to top it off you can only buy them with cash.  I really can’t lie in the fact that I was kind of cracking up because I can see so much of myself in her. She wasn’t about to let it go until she figured it out. It’s a good thing and a bad thing to be like this. So I told her at the lake this weekend to hit her dad up for a twenty. He has a whole wallet full of them and if he throws too big of a fit, I would reimburse him when he returns.

I survived my first week back at work. My foot is swollen and hurting but I am now on four days of rest. I asked the second year resident if any of the first year residents were single. He said are you single? I said no I’m married. (I just haven’t worn my rings in forever because they are way too big. I’m paranoid if I get them made smaller, I will gain my weight back again I know I have issues.) So he tells me one guy is single. Another girl asked him his age and he said 28. I said yeah I’m old enough to be all of you residents mother so let me kill myself. Hahaha. I told him I wanted to know so that when the single girls I work with ask me, I will know the answer. Not only am I “smarter than I look”, I seem to know almost everything. I am just in the right place at the right time.

 

 

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You are smarter than you look!

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Some time ago at work someone asked me about the new rules for PCA pumps and where I saw it at. So I told the nurse buddy of mine where to go to find it. It was right where I said it was and she looked at me and said “you are smarter than you look!” I cracked up and my nurse buddies and I have been using this for a while now. Here are a few examples.

Emily texts me about PT check outs today and said she couldn’t find the femoral pulse. I reply its hard to find and you have to push really hard. She responded my teacher said the same thing. I said that’s because I’m smarter than I look.

The recovery room called me to tell me that they had changed pain medication to 4mg of Dilaudid IVP. I said are you sure the doctor didn’t mean either .4mg of Dilaudid or 4mg of morphine? “No” she says, she read it back twice to the doctor and he agreed. So I said to her I will call him when the patient arrives to the floor because there is no way anyone would give that amount. I mean the max I (the one with 10 years burn unit experience) would give is 1mg of dilaudid. So after I relay this to my co-workers of the day, I get a call back saying that said nurse called the doctor back and I was indeed right. Of course I was because I am smarter than I look.

I get a text message picture from a friend of her child with angry hives. I respond those may need steroids. She then tells me that’s exactly what her nurse practitioner friend said. I had to say it, I am smarter than I look.

I had a lot of fun with the new GYN resident whose name happens to be Paul Dixon. I know a guy with the same name from South Africa. I will have to tell that story at another time. I was talking about my sister-in-law and how she can get Best Buy to drop the price down and I said she should have been a Jew. Then I say to him oh if you are Jewish, I didn’t mean to offend you. He said no worries he’s Catholic. I said oh great I am non denominational but everyone else at the nurses station was Catholic. I told him I was a rebel. This was after I had introduced myself and said I’ve been a nurse since Jesus was a small boy so if you have any questions I should know the answer. So he asked me where the bathroom was. I pointed to it and said I know where every bathroom in St. Louis is. Followed by I had Dr. Veronikis surgery three years ago, so it’s no longer an issue. I am sure that by the time he left he was convinced I was crazy. Hence back to the living up to my nickname CR.

One more shift of working and then I am off for four days. It will be rest my swollen foot and even use ice. I am getting adventurous with the ice.

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My first day back

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Womens healthFinally July 1 has arrived. Not only was it my first day back to work, it was also new OB/GYN residents day. Always a fun and challenging time. I cannot imagine having one week orientation and then thrown into hospital life and expected to know everything. I decided that since I have been a nurse since Jesus was a small boy, that I will be a resource to the new kids this year. I met the day and night gyn first year. Both seem nice and so young. But I am not old! Hahaha.

So I looked at the census last night and said oh five patients away from needing me, I won’t be working till 3. As soon as I said that to Meg, I said I just screwed myself. And sure enough when I called at 10 to see if I was needed charge nurse said yes come on in. I was excited to go in and take new surgeries but was unsure how my foot would hold up. The surgeries were great and I really enjoyed the patents today. However, my foot within two hours was saying you should have listened to Dr. Anderson and took another two weeks off. I still cannot figure out how a couple people were back at work at three weeks. Even if I wore my boot, I would not have been able to stand it last week. It makes me feel like a big old baby but then I think I am too hard on myself. So I came home took 1/2 a pain pill and slapped ice on it. I am so non compliant with ice that using it speaks volumes!

I was talking about nursing boards at the desk. I said when did they start calling it NCLEX instead of state boards. When I graduated NCLEX was a voluntary class you could take to study for boards. It was $200 back in 1988 and I opted to skip it and study on my own. So one of my co-workers looked at me and said when it went to computer it was changed to NCLEX because thats the program that administers it. I asked when was that. She looked at me and said when Jesus became a young adult. I cracked up laughing. I am not sure which is worse, they changed the name or the fact I didn’t realize it until this year when Emily was telling me that her friend Kaitlin had taken NCLEX.

I am scheduled the next two days. If they call me off from 11-3 I will not complain. If they need me I will tell my foot to FOAG and work. It was really nice to be out of the house today!

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My first school board meeting

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school boardToday I attended my first ever school board meeting. This means one of two things, I am either getting really old or I have been sucked into the C-6 school district drama. Probably a little of each. It was interesting and I learned a lot about the format and how a meeting is held. I found it ironic the school board didn’t understand the simple question of why the time was changed from 5:30 to 7:00 and therefore never did give a reason. If it was to decrease attendance, that was not successful. I arrived fifteen minutes early and barely found a seat. By the time the meeting started it was standing room only.

There is a seven million dollar deficit that needs to be fixed. So of course the answer is cut pay and make all the employees pay 300 a month health insurance. For those that make ten dollars an hour that could be very difficult. How about we cut the superintendent salary by 100,000 as well as all the other high paid administrators. It will be very interesting to see how the budget turns out.

I wanted to laugh when one of the board members thanked the audience for bringing all the issues out into the light. I wanted to stand up and say you should thank Sam, Michelle and Rich who no matter what was said of them stuck to the facts. But wait, you can’t thank them because they have a lawsuit against the school district for the horrible things said on topix that was traced back to the superintendents home. And that woman is refusing to step down. I really thought by now she would have said I screwed up and I resign. But I think she will hide behind her lawyer and play out her contract. I could be wrong, I mean I hope I am but time will tell.

Tomorrow I return back to work. I cannot wait as I will have other things to keep me busy. I didn’t get much accomplished while I was off. I think I read two books and I did finally beat the level in candy crush I was stuck on for six weeks. Yes life in the mole house is super exciting when out on leave!

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Living up to one of my nicknames

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I am a girl with a few nicknames depending on who is around me and what I am doing. One of the more common one is CR which stands for Crazy Rachel. My work gave me this nickname a few years back and I enjoy living up to it. I told one of the residents at work to call me CR. Not too long ago I had one of the patients he was following and when he asked the girls at the desk who had the patient they said Rachel. He said I don’t know anyone named Rachel. When I walked up to the desk they said you know Rachel and he said oh yeah CR, I forgot her real name.

As I posted earlier I read the entire topix thread about the nepotism in the Fox school district. There were only a couple of people that actually posted using their real name and one of them was Sam Ferry who is a former employee of the school district. The thread started with this post from a lady I think:

I am posting this not to start bickering back and forth but am just wanting to post a question and see if there is an informed person out there who would know the answer: is there anything the community can do in order to have an investigation done?

The president of the schoolboard’s daughter-in-law just got a $65,337 a year job when she has no post-secondary education and her experience is a high school diploma and her work at McDonald’s? This is beyond ludicrous. She doesn’t even have the degree needed for the position. Isn’t this illegal or am I wrong?

All throughout the thread Sam’s character was attacked many, many times but instead of attacking back he would simply remind the people the topic was about nepotism and not his personal life. He really impressed me that he never once got involved in the name calling and stuck to the facts. After I was all finished reading and had time to absorb it all, I knew I needed to write him an email. He had put his personal email address in a few of his posts. I got this prompting from God. I know this is crazy and no God did not yell down from heaven “hey CR you need to write an email to Sam.” I just felt a whisper in my heart that I needed to do this. And so I did. I sent him an email saying how impressed I was that he stayed true to the subject and took so much heat during the process. One of his goals was to get a new school board in place and in the past two elections all the seats have been replaced. I think there are only two of the original ones left.

Did he answer my email? yes he did several days later. I am copying and pasting just the beginning because it just kind of confirms that what started out as seeming crazy was indeed the right thing to do.

Nothing new under the sun, nothing in life surprises me, but your email…..that surprised me enough that I wanted to take a thoughtful amount of time before I responded. Thank you! It is so rare that someone actually takes the time to say or do something for an unknown. That makes you interesting right off the bat. You are one of one when it comes to that.

How many times in our lives do we think I should send that person a card, a letter, a text or an email and yet we never do? We just assume those around us know when they have done something good. But in a matter of two seconds when someone does something wrong we point it out, criticize, gossip, and make sure everyone knows. Yet when someone stands up and does the right thing rarely is that person supported.  Just an observation I have made.

Moral of this mole story: If you feel God telling you to do something, you should listen! The results can be amazing!

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More comedy with the post office

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snail mail

 

Remember last Friday the guy on the phone said I should hear within a week about the lost claim form he filled out for me. So I decided I would give it until this coming Monday and then I would call. I still haven’t heard from them but I did get a letter in the mail about my insurance claim. I had to mail the letter back with proof of what I had bought to get my 300 dollars back. The books were purchased through half.com which meant I had to go on there and print that out as well as my credit card  statement. So I start to print that and the printer jams up. I have hated this printer/scanner since the day I got it. Of course my mom was kind enough to give it to me brand new for free so I cannot complain about it too much. It said cartridge error please consult the owners manual. First of all, who has the owners manual five or more years later and secondly nothing comes with one of those anyway. So I take the ink cartridges out and jam them back in and it finally prints the stuff. I am going to have to crack and get a new printer but not in the middle of being ready to smash it! So then I head to Imperial post office to mail it because I have decided I am paying to have it sent certified with a signature required. No way am I dealing with “it never came to us, it’s been longer than 30 days so you are screwed out of 300 dollars.” Of course I get to Imperial and they close at 11:30 and it’s 11:40. So I get back in my car, drive over to Arnold and get the stupid thing mailed out today. I told Emily order your books again and I will give you the insurance money when it comes. And she has changed the address on her credit card so the books can be mailed directly to her in Kansas City! Never again is she having anything mailed here first. Oh and if by chance something does come I will be using the brown clowns (aka UPS) from now on!

UPS

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The case of the missing deodorant

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Last week, Brian was packing for his fishing trip to Wisconsin when he noticed he was low on deodorant. He first tried to steal Kayla’s but she also was almost out. I told him to go to the store and buy some. Not real hard. He left Friday night and the next morning I got up took and shower and my deodorant was missing. I thought to myself are you seriously kidding me, he took my deodorant instead of going to the store. For me to go means dragging my boot and putting that on before I got out of the car. It was a good thing I had an extra stashed in my gym bag but he didn’t know that. He got in late Friday night so I waited until Saturday morning to ask him what happened to my deodorant. He acted all sheepish and  I told him to hand it over. I then informed him we were hiding all the deodorant from him so he can go buy his own. Yep that how immature mama mole acts.

The moral of the mole story don’t act like an invalid~go the store and buy deodorant when your wife is a cripple and you are not!

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The debit card fiasco could have been a nightmare

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Today I got up and did what I almost always do  which is sign in to online banking and reconcile my account. Yes I still keep a check register. Ok I’ll admit I’m sort of progressive because it’s on the computer and not on paper. I use to use Microsoft money until I ditched windows and went to Mac. I know use an app for it. This way my math is always correct. This obsession with keeping track of my money all started when Brian and I met with the preacher who married us before we got married and he suggested keeping track of money so there is no argument where it went. Now if you remember my refusal to ask for help issue in a previous post, you will not be shocked to realize I took this to the extreme. I have printouts of monthly income and expenses since 1990. Yes, I use to keep track of it on paper and when I got my first computer I went back and manually entered like 10 years worth of data. See why my coworkers call me CR? (you know crazy Rachel).

Ok back to the story once I signed in I immediately noticed a charge from Sams Club and some place I never heard of. I do not own a Sams club card so I knew that wasn’t from me. So I call my sister in a panic and she says remember I’m at the lake, I told you that yesterday when you called me. So she told me who to talk to at the bank because it was before the lobby opened. So I got my debit card shut down right there and then went to the bank later to get a new debit card and sign the papers for the fraud on my account. I did learn that the credit union that the people who steal your number start with small amounts because normal people do not notice for some time. And if I were like most people these days and not even keep track, it may have taken me even longer to notice. I had a pending charge to Dollar General for 54. I said I do not mean to sound like a snob but I never shop there. The girl laughed. So the 105 dollars worth of money they stole, should be back in my account within ten days.

The moral of this mole story, it pays to be a freak!

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The battle with the post office continues!

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Yesterday Emily was harassing me about her books again so I shot off an email to the post office stating I wanted someone to call me. The same guy from Arnold post office (even though I mailed the stuff from Imperial post office) called me back. He was like didn’t I talk to you before. I said yes and he said he forgot to make a note. I told him I filed an insurance claim over a week ago. He was shocked that I haven’t heard anything. He asked me if I filed a lost package claim. I said nope, never heard of it. Because according the tracking it is till at the Imperial post office although when I called them first, they swore it wasn’t there. He said someone should be calling me. I said how long should I wait before I call again if no one contacts me. He said a week. So come June 30 if no one has contacted me about my insurance claim or the lost package I am going to go off. I told him the 1-800 number always says speak to a customer service rep not available and hangs up. So if I get that ######## again I will have to go to Imperial in person and demand they get someone on the damn phone that can take care of this. On a positive note, Emily has better grades these last three weeks without books so who needs them. Hahahaha. Totally kidding. But she only has 7 weeks left so at this point it’s almost a waste of money! Oh and I did tell him if these books are in St. Louis I’d be happy to go get them and mail them through UPS. (Or as Brian has nicknamed them, the brown clowns!)