Final Weeks

So I've been away from LA for about 2 months. I've been meaning to write this final post before I forgot all of the details...

We'll see how we do. I basically want to highlight 5 things:

1. SFMC Beach Bonfire
2. Closing Retreat
3. Final Days at The Medal
4. Where I am now
5. Where I want to go from here

SFMC Beach Bonfire:

Michelle and Sergio planned a going away party for Holly and me. It was at Huntington Beach in Orange County. It was pot luck and we had a bonfire. A ton of the staff turned up with their families. I'd wager 70+ people came out for this. It was such a blast. I mean, a day at the beach is always fun, but we had so much good food, games and great company. It was great to see everybody outside of work.

The staff also presented me and Holly with some really awesome gifts, which include personalized embroidered hoodies, engraved iPods and a SFMC coffee mug (for Holly this was a cookbook). Everything had SFMC on it and I treasure them all because of who they were from and what they represent. It really caught me by surprise but it was really the icing on the cake of an amazing day that showed that we're all surrounded by love. SFMC 8th Floor Family.

VSC Closing Retreat:

The sweetest part about this is that we went to the Hollywood Bowl and watched "West Side Story" but the music was edited out ant the L.A. Phil played the music. It was awesome! You could see the entire bowl and the Hollywood sign off in the distance. Having the whole VSC crew there and a handful of the support people there made it a nice closing event.


The next day everyone said their good byes. While at the DePaul center we got one last "tree picture". It was done quickly as there were hundreds of ants in the tree. None of us recalled ants from the first tree picture, which was taken 2 weeks later in the year. Oh well. It turned out just fine.

Final Days at The Medal

Holly had to leave a little over a week before everyone else. Her departure marked the beginning of several sentimental farewells. Personally, it wasn't so much that she was leaving (I'd see her in a few weeks back in MN) but rather that it was our family was starting to part ways. The following weeks was marked by a good number of "lasts". Last Pho; Last Yogurtland; Last J & S; Last Stoop Time. It was also marked by a lot of cleaning and classic MM antics. We also worked down the last perishables with great creativity (turkey/mac & cheese spring rolls) and polished off the last of the alcohol.

Jonathan Sunday; Fischer Monday; Jess & myself Tuesday; Laura Wednesday and Adrienne headed back up the coast a few days later. That was that.

Where I am now

I flew in from LA and embarked on a 2 week journey of friends and family. I had my job interview in Duluth and got a call the next day. I then spent two weeks finding an apartment and enjoying my time not working. I crashed and Kenzie & Eric's place for a week as I awaited the move into my new place in Duluth. It's been 4 weeks tomorrow and I've settled in nicely. It's not especially homey at this point, but I'll get there. It's bizarre living alone. I think I will need a housemate(s) down the road.

Work at St. Mary's is going very well so far. My orientation period is rather long (roughly 4 months) because I will orient for a few weeks on all the units and then a few days on the floor. There are also education days peppered in there as well. I spend six weeks in Neuro/Trauma. It's great to be back there and catch up with all the people that I know. I'm already halfway done with my stint there.

It's been about 5 weeks in Duluth. I'm getting settled nicely into work and home. The weather is changing, which is refreshing albeit chilly. I'm getting my finances together now that I have student loan payments and other bills. Once that happens it will be time to get my own vehicle and give Rainbow Stu his buick back.

Where I want to go from here

I can see myself spending a few years at Essentia and then moving on. Where? Beats me. During those years, I'd like to really get a handle on my Spanish Skills. I'd like to do more traveling. I'd consider doing travel assignments for a while, especially if I dig the float pool gig. I'd also like to do more volunteering. I'd most likely combine the traveling and volunteering. Grad school is likely down the road. Ultimately, I just wanna see new places, meet new people and eat lots of things; jam with the people I know and love; and rest just enough to give me the energy to do it.


That's it. That's a year of post-grad volunteering. It's been real. It's been fun. I would do it all over again.

The Entire Month of June: Pride, Premiere, Party & Parents

So It's been a long while to say the least. As I previously mentioned, one of my goals was to live my last several weeks in LA to the fullest. I feel that I've done well and continue to do so. Here's what's happened in June:

Aquarium: We found a half-off deal for the Long Beach Aquarium around memorial day. It was something that we found on the lists of things to do while here that previous groups left. It was a fun Aquarium. Very busy with the deal, but once we got into the exhibits a bit the crowd dispersed. There was an a caged in area where they had lorikeets. There were signs that sign not to pet them because they may bite. Well, something outside made a loud bang (It sounded like a fire cracker) and all the lorikeets went crazy. They were swooping down in groups and flying back. We all ducked low and they were still way too close for comfort. One of them grazed Jonathan's shoulder. Thankfully, that was all. The rest of the trip was less stressful. Long Beach was super cool. It was the first time I had been there. Where we were, right at the Ocean reminded me of Duluth.

Holly's Trip to MN and my Long week at SFMC:

Holly's cousin was getting married so she went back to MN for a week. She had a couple of job interviews, which ultimately led to her getting the job in the Pediatric ICU! My week was a long 4 day stretch at SFMC. Tuesday and Thursday were skills fair days and I covered assignments for hours at a time. It was unexpected and tiring. Ultimately, I made it through the long week. Not that exciting to read about, but it was a crazy enough week that it is worth mentioning.

LA Pride:

LA Pride came and went. It was awesome. Jess, Adrienne, Meaghan and I went to the West Hollywood park for the festival on Saturday. Unlike Minneapolis, LA Pride Festival has an admission fee. It wasn't terrible and it was worth it. We saw lots of vendors, got lots of freebies, spun wheels and jammed to some music at the outdoor stage. They did have more variety of things to do than Minneapolis, but their layout just wasn't the most user friendly. Typical of LA, the weather was gorgeous. That night Adrienne, Jess and I went out in West Hollywood, which of course was PACKED. We started at the Abbey then moved to the East West Lounge, which was awesome and slightly less packed. It was a great night. It ended with Jack in the Box and use prepping the dining room for Jonathan's Birthday.

Premiere: It wouldn't be a time in Los Angeles without seeing some celebrities. Well, I already saw Josh Duhamel and Fergie on the plane at Christmas. Earlier this year we saw Corey Monteith and Mark Salling at a bar in Westwood. Unfortunately, it was lost on everybody because nobody watched Glee. We only knee because Jess heard other people at the bar talking about it. Anyways, I went to do some Celeb Sighting at the Green Lantern Premiere with Jess and her cousin. We got good spots on Hollywood Blvd and waited for them to arrive. We saw 0Ryan Reynolds and a bunch of other people I didn't know. I got Ryan Reynold's Autograph for the person standing behind me (I didn't particularly care and I didn't have paper of any sort....didn't think that one through). I got my picture with Max Adler, who is another Glee cast member. I took other pictures of people I was vaguely familiar with. It wasn't something that I would do all the time, but I had fun and I am so glad I did this very, very LA thing.

Jonathan's Birthday was pretty mellow, but it did involve a trip to yogurtland. That guy loves his yogurt....more than the rest of us and that's a lot! We had a big party right before Laura's birthday which was also a party/BBQ for all of our friends and co-workers to attend. We didn't have the epic turnout we'd expected, but we still got a good number showing up. Ruthi, Corina and Marylou came from St. Francis! It was awesome!

A week earlier than expected the parents rolled into town. We went to Griffith Observatory after showing them St. Francis the first day. The next day we rented a car and hit up Santa Monica Beach and got to experience LA traffic at its finest. I'm very impressed neither of them freaked out. We did a lot of driving around just so they could see a good sized chunk of LA. The following day I took them to Hollywood Blvd which included the Chinese Theatre. They got to see the Hollywood sign. I took them for a short driving tour through Skid Row, which was very mellow as it was a Sunday Afternoon. They got to experience some fine tastes of LA including J & S drive in (twice), YOGURTLAND! (twice), The Hat's world famous (and HUGE) pastami and Thai food. Yes. My father was willing to get adventurous. He appreciated it for what it was. I was very happy. On the morning of their last day I led them out of town. I had the rental car. Each of them was on their bikes. I took them on surface streets to the 5 to the 134 to the 101. Let me just say that traffic wasn't terrible, but I've never, ever been so on edge driving. Ever. It's hard enough leading someone in a car in traffic. It's another leading not one but two motorcycles with your parents! As I signaled them to break away and head up the 101, Ma hit her kill switch and had to pull over and regroup. It took us about 20 minutes to get in contact with her. Let's just say it was nervewracking to the the least. Everything turned out all right thankfully. Neither Holly nor I worked that day so we went and soaked up some sun at Will Rogers. It was a nice bit of relaxation after a busy weekend and a stressful morning.

America Party: We had a 4th of July party on the 2nd of July. Why not the 4th? The answer should be explained shortly. It was a fun party that involved a lot of jello shots. Some of which were in citrus wedges crafted by Alli and myself! Check them out!
The ones in the lime are indeed lime, but instead of using vodka, we used tequila and triple sec.

On the day of the fourth Meaghan and Becca from Boyle Heights House got together with our house for an all day trip to Huntington Beach. We took two cars. The first left at 4 am to secure a fire pit as the beach opens at 4:30. Apparently the beach got swarmed at 4:30. We shared a fire pit with an incredibly nice family. I was in the car that left at 9 with the majority of stuff including the table and cooler. Everybody was settled in around 11am. We spent the day lounging in the sun, reapplying sunscreen, playing games and playing in the ocean. The ocean was perhaps my favorite part of the day. When the sun went down we started the fire and made more bonfire food. The fireworks went off at 9. To the dismay of many, the finale was lost in the smoke created by the previous fireworks that was consolidated by the shifting winds (They could have just waited for about 5 minutes, but that didn't happen). It was an epic departure from the beach. It took us less than an hour to get there over 2 hours to get home. We had a good walk to our car and slow street traffic to the 405. The other car was just stuck in a lot for about one hour. Gross.

Our final retreat is this weekend. Holly leaves next Saturday and the rest of us shortly thereafter. Time is winding down fast. I'm going to stop blogging as I'm up to date AND I need to continue with my job search.

Silent Retreat; Brendan's Visit and The Beginning of the Ending

I was thinking lately about how I need to update this blog because of Brendan's visit. I realized that I didn't even post anything from the silent retreat! Clearly, I'm a bit behind. Fortunately, not a lot happened the silent retreat so I can get myself up to speed pretty quickly.

Miraculous Medal was busy preparing for their Spring Carnival. This is a full on carnival. There were rides, a midway, food vendors, a beer garden and live music all in our parking lot. It's pretty sweet-unless you're trying to get some sleep. Fortunately, the first night of the fair was Thursday night and none of us worked Friday as we were headed up to Los Altos Hills the next day for the retreat.

The ride up to Los Altos was uneventful. I drove most of the way with Jess and Alli. Everybody arrived in reasonable time, we ate dinner and gathered to talk about the impending silence. Everybody shut off their phones and we put them in a basket which was locked away for the weekend. I fell asleep at 7:30pm and woke up at 7:30am. It was glorious. We ate breakfast in silence and had only 3 30-minute sessions where Fr. David Pettingel spoke to us. He is a fantastic speaker that makes you feel alive and gets you thinking. It was nice. In between all of these sessions and regular meals I would basically do the same thing: walk around the beautiful campus for 20-30 minutes and then nap for 30-45 minutes. Repeat. I went to bed at 9:00pm and woke up at 8am. Glorious.

We debriefed about the silence. For me, it was fine. Neither amazing or terrible. I was just thankful to get caught up on some much needed rest. Jess, Alli, Meaghan and I drove back on the 101-S. We wanted to take the PCH, but there was a landslide that blocked our way creating an epic detour. Still, the 101-S was much better than taking the 5-S. Totally worth the extra 1.5 hours on the road.

The carnival's last night was Sunday and nearly all of us worked Monday. Alli and I took advantage of the beer garden and enjoyed some of the music. They shut down at 11pm and began tearing everything down. My room is on the front of the house overlooking the parking lot where everything was. While I am a hard sleeper, it was difficult to get to sleep. I think it was around 1 by the time I fell asleep. Fortunately, I slept a lot that weekend. I worked Tuesday and Wednesday. After work Wednesday, I picked up Brendan from LAX. We got back to the medal around midnight. Brendan is a friend and mine and Holly's. She and Brendan are both from Brainerd and have known each other since middle school. I met Brendan in college and lived together with 2 others last year at CSS.

The next day Brendan, Holly and I went to St. Francis as Holly was taking the Pediatric Advanced Life Support Class. We dropped her off and took the car to West LA. We went to La Brea Tar Pits and then to the Grove, neither of which I had been to yet. Her class was scheduled to end at 4. While at the grove she called saying she was done at about 12:30. We bustled over to Lynwood to pick her up. While there, we gave Brendan a tour of SFMC and the 8th floor. We met up with the housemates at Spitz in downtown for some Happy Hour. Later that night Brendan and I went to Chico's for additional drinks and so he could see what our neighborhood bar was all about.

We didn't do a great deal the next day since we knew Holly would be home early. We got Pho and Yogurtland that afternoon and showed Brendan more of where we live and work. That night we prepared ourselves for the Abbey in WeHo. Jonathan and Laura were kind enough to drive us there. It was a blast. Sally, from the Santa Barbara house, was there as well as Courtney Mitchell, a CSS OT grad doing travel OT in Santa Monica. It was a great night out with everyone.

The next day we went to Santa Monica to meet up with Courtney and roam about. Unfortunately, she was unable to meet up with us. We still roamed about. We walked the farmer's market, the promenade and went down to the beach. It was a beautiful day. We had planned to go to WeHo again, but the crowd was looking to stay in and it was too difficult logistically to go out, so we stayed in with the gang and had a great time, as we always do. We made homemade margaritas, which I now have a great recipe for, and ended the night with J & S (Cheap, mexican drive in food just down the street that is SO good and SO cheap).

Jess, Brendan, Holly and I went to Worldfest in Van Nuys on Sunday. We took public transit, which was in the spirit of Worldfest, but was more time consuming and most costly in the end. Thanks LA. Your public transit system is terrible in so many ways. Worldfest was all right. I was under the impression it was going to be music, green vendors, etc (peace, love and recycling). It was really focused on vegans and animal rights. A bit much for me in that regard, but was still a good time. We heard some life music and ate some really good food. I had an amazing Thai Red Curry.

We had yogurtland again that night (because you can never have too much yogurtland). Monday was Brendan's last day. We went to Homegirl Cafe, checked out the giftshop and stopped by Dockweiler beach before dropping him off at LAX. It is a great beach to watch the airplanes fly overhead, which Brendan loved as he is a plane fanatic. Once Brendan was gone it was back to work for me and Holly.

Yesterday we went to Redondo beach and soaked up the sun. It was beautiful there. The waves were pretty big and we got misted every now and again as we laid out on the sand in the sun, which felt amazing. That night we went to Bahn Mi Che Cali (A Vietnamese diner, which I will miss like crazy). The gang got pho, I got dac beit (Sandwiches). It is so delicious and hella cheap. Alli and I had beer on the stoop.

We're off to the Aquarium today (1/2 off!) Pictures to come. I have 81 more hours to meet my required 1700 to get my AmeriCorps grant. I'll be done with them at the end of next week. After that, everything is a buffer. I'll still go in, but I will be a bit more liberal with the days off. We're all starting to feel the service year's end close in. We're going to take the next two months and own Los Angeles like we did when we came!

Beach Bonfire: Take 2 & ¡Caballo de Mayo!

Following the great night out with the co-workers last Sunday, I had a long work week. I did four 12s in a row at SFMC. Friday I went to work with Adrienne. She and I left from St. Vincent's to the Thai consulate where I did manual blood pressures and she handed out referrals. Kat, who works at the consulate and is super cool gave us Thai take out, too! I went home after to get some errands done. I picked up Alli, Adrienne and Laura and we headed to Dockweiler beach. We met Jess, Jonathan and various friends and co-workers. Boyle Heights met us there later, too! We stayed until a few hours past sunset. We had a little fire, which was enough to warm us, make s'mores and give all of our clothes that awesome bonfire smell.





Saturday everybody but Jess and Jonathan went to Connor and Darby's (A couple of VSCs from last year) for a ¡Caballo de Mayo! Party. Caballo (Horse in Spanish) because it was the Kentucky Derby and de Mayo because it was just past Cinco de Mayo. Ann, another VSC from last year was also there and a handful of their friends. Ann was dressed like a Mexican Horse (She wore a piñata around!) It was a blast. Great food, drinks and entertainment. We stayed there for about 9 hours. Alli, Adrienne & I went to Chico's just down the street when we got home for some dancing.




I worked yesterday; it was an all right day. I covered a float LVN-she works on the 7th floor, but they had enough nurses and we needed more so she floated to our floor. She was awesome, but the report we got from night shift was one of the worst I had ever received in my life. The night nurse was registry, so I didn't recognize her. One of our patients, he was motorcycle versus tow-truck, was so thankful for the care he got in the first 3 hours. He said it made up for the terrible nights he's experienced thus far. Honestly, neither Lupe, the LVN, nor I did that much, so it was a bit distressing. Either way, he was in good spirits and doing well, which is what it's all about. He was a cool guy. He also gave me my first high five from a patient at SFMC. Excellent.

Dinner out with SFMC crew

So last night Holly and I met up with a bunch of the crew from SFMC at a restaurant to hang out. It was a blast. The food was excellent but the company far exceeding it's goodness. Most of the Ates were there and Kuya Alfred. I may not have learned any Tagalog, but I can recognize it when I hear it. I love it. We ordered a few pizzas and pasta dishes and shared across the great table. It was fabulous. I really enjoy spending time with these people because they are really great and it really demonstrates the family aspect of SFMC-especially the 8th floor.

Not a whole lot besides that went on this weekend. Laura and Jess came back from there adventures in Ohio and the Grand Canyon respectively. Alli has a friend in town-we all played games Friday night. I did a lot of cleaning and resting. It was nice. This week is another long one. Four 12s in a row at SFMC and the Thai Consulate on Friday. Caballo De Mayo this weekend at Connor and Darby's (A Cinco De Mayo and Kentucky Derby celebration). Next week we have the Silent Retreat in Los Altos Hills.

Also, we now have a Foosball table we found for cheap on Craigslist and bought as a community. neat!

Easter Weekend-Rapid Post

As previously mentioned, I've been picking up lots of hours at SFMC and even some elsewhere. Two weekends ago we went up to...not sure where at this time....to some Lake and watched Jess and Meaghan do their mud run. Basically, it was a 5K with obstacles! Including a mud pit you had to army crawl through! I will need to post pictures. I want to do one someday. In fact, that may be the first MM reunion event.

A busy work week followed. I had Wednesday off, which was the first weekday off I've had in a while-and those are days I really get things done. Last Saturday I volunteered with the SFMC mobile health unit doing screenings at a big Easter event in a park in Paramount, which took about 20 minutes to get to from The Medal. Afterwards, Adrienne, Jonathan, Alli and I drove to Santa Barbara. We spent the night with Sally.

We cooked, ate and played games pretty much all day Easter Sunday. Holly, her mom and sister came up and joined us for the eating and some games before they ventured off into the many beautiful sights of Santa Barbara. We got home around 10pm-exhausted.

I worked today and spent some time going over stuff for my ACLS class tomorrow and Wednesday. I'm excited. Once that's over it is time to apply for jobs. No foolin' around.

Visitors and Logging lots of hours!

The Monday after RE Congress my good friend from school, who moved to Chicago a few years ago, Matt Keane, visited for a few days. We went to Runyon Canyon, Santa Monica and wandered the Silverlake neighborhood semi-successfully. The weather was very hot/sunny one minute and rainy/cloudy the next. Very un-LA. Overall a great visit. At the same time, Laura's Boyfriend, Ted, and Jess' mom were visiting. A full house it was. Great times were had.

The first weekend in April was busy and wonderful. The weather was in the 80s for the most part. Friday I went to Venice beach with Jess and Meag. I lounged in the sun on the sand for a while, walked up and down the many ecclectic shops and finally got some food truck food as it was Venice's first friday. A lot of art vendors and performers come out on the 1st Friday of each month and there are hella food trucks.

We didn't stay out very late because we got up at around 4 am the next day for Cardinal Manning's (Laura's Service Site) Hike for the Homeless. It was the first time the event happen. Laura helped plan this very successful event. All of us volunteered at the event. I helped direct people to different paths, helped set up and took down signs and things of that sort. It was a great time and the hike itself was great. That night Laura's Mom and Aunt came into town. That girl has been VERY busy with work, the Hike and Visitors.

On Sunday the 3rd we went to Thai town for the Thai New Year festival. It was many blocks of food vendors, artists, performers, and more. There was Muay Thai fighting and some really awesome dance groups. We got Thai food and walked up and down the streets in the hot sun. We hoped on the redline back and I recovered from the busy, busy weekend.

I worked a busy week the next week. Mon-Thurs, all 12's. Friday I went with Adrienne to the Thai consulate and did blood pressure screenings. I do like community outreach even if the events are small. It can still have so much meaning. There were a lot of nurses who weren't going to be at SFMC so I went into work Saturday in case they were short-staffed. One of the med/surg floors closed earlier that week due to low census so we had enough staff with their nurses on our floor. I stayed for 8 to make it worthwhile. Apparently, the heat wasn't working on our floor (and the AC was on??) Either way, it was really cold the whole day.

I got a lot of errands run on Sunday-not enough though. I did spend some time finishing up my resume in the back yard and soaked up some sun. That was really great.

This week Holly and I are taking an EKG interpretation course at SFMC. It is Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It's been good. I'm familiar with EKG, but this is really taking time and breaking it all down, so I feel really good about my knowledge and look forward to being able to use it. In two weeks we're going to take the Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) class. This will make us much more appealing when we apply for jobs, which I am starting to work on.

That's what's up.

On the Horizon: Cherry Blossom Festival a couple miles down the road Saturday in Monteray Park. Jess is doing a 5K mud run on Sunday. We're going to cheer her on. I'm working M, T, Th and F next week. I am getting crazy hours in April, which is fine (I make my own schedule for the most part). By the end of the month I will only have about one more month's worth of hours to get done before mid July, which means I can take off days when Brendan, The Parents and Kenzie come out! Yeah!!

Super Quick

So I've been meaning to really update on the recent happenings-including hike for the homeless, but I'm a workin' fool lately. I will log at least 56 hours this week. Possibly more. All right. I'm going to go to bed.

The good news is that all the hours now mean I can take off days later when friends and family visit!

Finally...he blogs again!

All right, so I've been absolutely terrible about updating this blog lately. I have been slightly better about calling people though despite only having speakerphone. Anyways, not a whole lot of events have happened in the last month, but I will touch down on a few:

Santa Barbara Weekend: A few of us were going to do a weekend of volunteering at a camp near Santa Barbara for the Vincentians. It would be cleaning and setting up for the summer camp. We were planning on staying with Sally and Allison (The VSCs in Santa Barbara). Due to the weather, the volunteering was cancelled. Since we had no other plans, we decided to go up to SB Friday night and stay until Saturday for fun.

Because of the weather and Friday traffic it took over 3 hours to get there. It normally takes around 2. It was terrible. We got there fairly late in the evening. Allison had gone to bed (She was spending time with a friend or family-we didn't see her unfortunately). Sally met us there. We went and got delicious burritos and basically went to bed right when we got back.

The next day was great. We walked around downtown Santa Barbara (The weather was much improved). There is great architecture in SB. Very much Spanish influenced. I'm told there is some sort of city building ordinance or something that dictates the architecture of buildings. I'm not sure to what extent or where it applies. All I know is that it was really cool. We grabed lunch and proceeded down to Stearn's wharf, which was freezing! We wandered down the pier, into some shops and headed back inland.


Santa Barbara is and up-and-coming wine country. There are numerous wineries that offer all sorts of tastings. Connor, a VSC from last year, who is pretty much all knowing when it comes to what to do..anywhere, suggested one not far from downtown. It was $5.00 to taste 6 wines plus you got to keep the glass. I didn't have my ID (fool) so I offered to drive. Next time, I'll be enjoying those wines, too. From what I was told, it was $5.00 very, very well spent. A mere 10 minute drive back towards the house put us at the Santa Barbara mission. We pulled in and checked it out. Situated on a hill, it had a great view of downtown and the oceans with the mountains behind it. We didn't stay too long as mass was beginning.


We intended to head back to the house, but decided a trip up the mountains was in order sin
ce there were right there. We were pretty high up in under 20 minutes. The views were spectacular and we even got to experience some snow! We got out several times to enjoy it all. It was great how in one day we were surrounded by great architecture, wonderful shops and restaurants, the wharf, the winery, the mission and the mountains! It was all so close. Nothing....NOTHING at all like LA. It was great. Plus the air was cleaner. Santa Barbara > LA (Most places are).

Two weeks ago Holly, Alli, Jonathan and I went to LaCosta for the Cougs vs UCLA game. Unfortunately, the cougs lost. The good thing in that meant they played Thursday night and Alli had two sets of free tickets to all the PAC-10 tournament games! I was the most interested in going so on Thursday she and I set off to the staples center to watch the Cougs play their rivals, the Huskies. It was a really great game that the Huskies won...barely. It was a blast.

That weekend it was Jess' 23rd birthday. In celebration we went bowling on Friday night (Something we've been meaning to do for a long time and now finally have done-clarification: We've all bowled, just not together in LA). Saturday night we went to LA live (Staples center basically). We went to the yardhouse for dinner with our house (minus Alli who was in Chicago for an interview), Alli's sister and Meaghan. Afterwards, we went for cocktails at a really chill lounge type place. A game of Apples to Apples rounded out the evening. In the morning she got the usual birthday surprises: Vincent and Louise's speech bubbles ("Dryer Bole" "2 questions: Is he single and is he cute?" "How come you guys never wanna come out with me" "Organic & Vitamin"), the "Feliz Cuplianos" Banner and for her a cardboard/spraypaint new york skyline. Bagels and Black & White Cookies rounded out the display. I'll try to post pictures of that (and my birthday display) when I upload them. (Most of these pictures are Laura and Adrienne's. None are mine. Thanks Laura and Adrienne!)

This past weekend was the religious education congress. We hosted the San Fransisco house, which put our house at capacity for the first time since we've been here at 13 people. Santa Barbara stayed at Boyle heights.

The first day of the congress went all right. When I arrived my attitude wasn't the greatest. 40,000 people (99% of them Catholic) was just not my scene. It was at the LA convention center in Anaheim, which is huge. That and the organization made it feel like there weren't that many people there. We had preregistered for 8 sessions (each about 1 and 15 minutes long). My first and third sessions on Friday were all right. not bad, but nothing worth writing home about (or in this blog for that matter). The second session was called Mission Haiti and was very moving. It was about a priest's ministry in Haiti and all of the things surrounding that. He was a really cool guy who said it like it was. We watched a few videos made by some of the people in one of the supporting parishes. Pre and post earthquake. Again, very moving and heartwarming. A great call to action.

My second day was awesome. My fourth session (the first on Sat.) was about Thomas Aquinas and the New Atheists. The presenter spoke about The New Atheists and there assertions. He agreed and went on to talk about what God is and isn't. It was very intellectually charged and got my mind moving. My fifth session was terrible. I walked out. This woman was just going on about this Chinese legend. I'm assuming she was going to draw a point, but she was a terrible speaker. She circle the airport of 50 times and still didn't land the plane. My sixth session was a powerhouse of new ideas and in a way a nice follow up to my fourth session. It was titled "God for those who don't need God". Again, he talked about the New Atheists and why they are right. He got into some very heavy, philosophical thinking. He brought up a lot of things and took questions along the way. A lot of people left during it (About 25%, from a total of about 100-125). You could also tell that some people were shaken by their questions and comments. He made a lot of great points and it helped me immensely. One of his big points was that the Catholic Institution needs to reevaluate itself and needs to reassess how science comes into play. It was wonderful. I will admit that I lost him a few times-not because he was boring, it was just really deep and intellectual.

That night we had all of the VSCs over for a burrito bar fiesta. It was a total success! Delicious food. Simple to prepare, easy to clean up and a crowd pleaser for sure.

My seventh session kicked off my Sunday. It was titled "All things Catholic". I'll admit when I registered for this I was maybe looking to get a bit riled up. It wasn't that case. This one had John Allen Jr, CNN's vatican correspondent. He laid out what he thought were the top 3 stories in the Catholic church, the top 3 underreported and the top 3 to look for in 2011. It was informative. I didn't particularly care, but he was a fine speaker, so overall, a good session. My final session was titled "Religious beliefs are not intellectual suicide" I was hoping it would echo my 4th and 6th sessions, but it didn't so much. The speaker was awesome and hilarious. Overall, the session gave me a boost in my enthusiasm for what I do, which was needed. Our house was empty for a few hours. Laura's Boyfriend Ted is now here, my friend Matt arrives for a 3 day visit and Jess' mom flies in tomorrow.

All good things-though it will be nice to have the house back to normal after all of this.

Something ridiculous

Holly reminded me today of something that I must put in this blog:

A few weeks ago there was a patient in 8208. He truly was the definition of "scrapper". He was an old man with an amputated leg, a sense of humor and he didn't really care what you thought of him. He was Spanish Speaking, but as usual the communication gap wasn't as broad as one would think. Anyways, one day I was outside of his room when one of the nurses, Alfredo, walked by following his lunch break. I thought to myself "Man, Alfredo smells like he's been smoking cigarettes. I didn't know he smoked."

I moved towards pod 8100 and noticed the smell was incredibly strong from 8208. I was in to see this gentleman sitting in his bed, cross-legged (as much as he could be with the stump) smoking a cigarette. Thankfully, he wasn't on oxygen. I immediately rush to him and say something to the effect of "Señor! No Esta Bien!! No Esta Bien Aqui!" I almost went off in German since I actually know how to say "no smoking" auf Deutsch. As I go to pull the cigarette out of his hand, he calmly puts up with other hand as if to stop me. He takes a good, long drag and then hands me the cigarette completely content.

As I say, the man's a scrapper. He grew on me during his few days at St. Francis. Other than that he pulled out his IV, which I replaced. He pulled out the replacement. I scolded him for that too and secured the second one I started a lot better.

Good Times sans potentially combustible moments.

Community...

A couple of months ago I wanted to do some mid-year reflection on the core tenets of the program I am in. It is a chance for me to see how the program is working for me and it gives a better insight to those of you reading the blog why I chose to do this year of service. I already posted an entry on Service a few posts back. I'm going to use this time to talk about community living.


This is yet another one of our traditional "Family Tree" Picture. This is MM: New Edition, as it has our new, seventh roommate, Jon. It is always the same tree at the DePaul center here in Montebello. Our community is definitely an intentional community. We work, play, eat, pray and learn together. Our struggles and successes are shared. We're brought from all over the country. We all have our own stories, talents and skills. We're unique and we each bring something awesome to the table. I'm going to share a bit about each of my awesome housemates here:


Jess is from Long Island, New York. Yeah, she has the accent. It's great. She loves life and is always looking to do something new. She's our house social chair. She plans the majority of our outings and coordinates a great deal of dates, times and schedules. Most of the fun things in this blog were planned by her. Her educational background is in English and Education. She is currently a teaching assistant at Mother of Sorrows School. She and I took the more grueling course at Echo Mountain. She is constantly challenging herself mentally, physically and spiritually. She has got me trying new things, going new places and not letting fear and doubt get in the way of finding great joy in the unknown. She has a passion for teaching, especially in intercity environments. She will do great things with her career.


Holly is my good friend from back at St. Scholastica. She is from Brainerd, MN. We met in sophomore year in college. We became close friends through our involvement in our campus's social justice center and through the Nursing program. While we have much in common (We are the only two RNs in the program, the only two Minnesotan, we live in the same house, work at the same site, on the same floor, she is a day older than I am, etc...) we are very different and we each made the decision to come to VSC West independently. When we found out we were going to be in the same community we spent a good deal of time talking about how we wouldn't bring a lot of our friendship to the table upfront as to allow for our full community to flourish. Indeed it did. Holly is a wonderful friend and community member. We have a special bond not just because of our time at CSS, but also being the only other RN and VSC at St. Francis Medical Center. Holly is kind, gentle and patient. She is our house's Den Mother. She may be soft-spoken, but make no mistake-when she feels passionate about something she will fight for it. She desires to be a pediatric nurse.


Alli is from Washington State. She studied Nutrition and Dietetics as the University of Washington, Pullman. GO COUGS! Alli loves food and nutrition. She is the grocery shopper for the house. I told her the other day I made a smoothie and put ground flax seed in it. Her face lit up. We can talk about all sorts of foods and new recipe ideas with great excitement. She gets excited about things whether it is the spectacular or the everyday, and I love that about her. There is a picture that Adrienne took and she and I are on the far end of our group. We're looking up, not paying attention whatsoever. I believe our conversation was something like this: "Do you think we're in this picture?" "Eh, maybe..." She is applying for Dietetic internships now as part of the process towards becoming a Registered Dietician. She studied abroad for a year in Chile. She helps me with my Spanish. It is coming along.


Laura is from Ohio. She studied photography at the University of Dayton. She is artistic to boot though you have to see her work for yourself because she can be pretty modest. Laura is so chill-she can get along with anybody. It may also have something to do with her stellar sense of humor. She has a great appreciation for the absurd and we certainly have plenty of that in our house. She is the only one in the house who is seeing someone. She manages her time well between Ted and our community so well. She doesn't miss a beat. She is at St. Vincent DePaul Cardinal Manning Homeless Shelter working as a case manager. She has no social work background but she is both awesome and chill and takes on her role with great finesse.


Adrienne is from The Bay Area. She studied Political Science and English at Dominican University. She is plugged in to what is going on with the world. She keeps me updated. She has a strong desire to advocate for others. Her sense of humor is everything I want it to be and more. She can by dry, dark, goofy-she's got a stellar sense of humor. Her sense of family and tradition are very strong; she isn't afraid to speak her mind. Her service site is at St. Vincent's Medical Center (As is Alli's). Her role is patient advocate and she works with the community outreach department. She brings great joy and humor as well as intellect and thoughtfulness to the community.




We have a new housemate, Jon. He moved in about 3 weeks ago. He isn't on Facebook, so I don't have a picture of him. He is from Orange, CA. He studied US History and Political Science in college and went to law school for a year. We're getting to know him and are excited about welcoming someone into our awesome community.

February: A time for Holidays and Celebrations

February has rolled around and we are well into the Festivities! We kicked off with Groundhog's day. I worked that day and didn't celebrate in any special way, which is fine. The following day was Chinese new year. I also recently discovered that I was born in the year of the Rabbit, not in the year of the dragon. Most of '88 is dragon but the Chinese new year fell after my birthday in '88. Who knew? So that means that it is my Chinese Year this year! On the 5th we went to Chinatown (I believe it is the only Chinatown in the U.S. that was actually designed to be Chinatown-the others just kind of happened. This is because they built the current Union Station in what used to be Chinatown thus they re-created. Better, Faster, Stronger.) There were all sorts of activities, vendors, food trucks, a really, really long parade and some awesome performers. There was one guy who essentially tossed around a big ceramic pot...and then later a bigger pot. He'd balance it on his head, toss it in the air, catch it on his fist. It was epic. Perhaps the most epic was this:


Yeah, that's a woman held in the air by an apparatus which is supported by three other women's mouths. She is spinning those red cloth discs. She was awesome! She was doing one-handed flips and all sorts of epic acrobatics!

I led Community night on the 3rd. We had homemade blackbean burgers, sweet potato fries and milkshakes. It was awesome!

The Packers won the Super Bowl Sunday. Some of the housemates went to Westwood to a SB party with some of former volunteers. I declined. I kept updated on the game, but had a ton of things I needed to get done.

Holly's Birthday was the 7th. I worked that day, as did everyone but Holly. She made dinner and dessert that night. Thai Chicken Salad, Rice Medley and Homemade Chocolate Cake with Homemade Chocolate Frosting. It was awesome. She and I both got packages from Kathie and Sr. Camille (Our program directors) with a board game and other goodies for each of us. It was awesome.

The next day was my birthday. I didn't work that day. I went downstairs to discover a wall of boxes and some birthday messages in the dining room, which the housemates set up. I went to the clinic, post office, grocery store and bank that day to get a ton of errands done. I made dinner that night: Spanikopita, Roasted Veggies and Nutella Semifreddo with homemade cinnamon whipped cream. It was pretty good. I was exhausted after the day and went to bed pretty early.



Wednesday was a usual day at work until about 12:30 when Liz, the charge nurse, came to me and pretty much dragged me to the conference room with Holly. The staff prepared us a party. There was pizza, pancit, chicken, soda. It was so nice! We ate food and talked a bit. It was really cool. Lately, I've felt like I am really becoming a part of the 8th floor and SFMC 'family'. Everybody at that hospital is very well connected and I love it. I also got a basket of goodies from Emily, one of the nursing assistants, and Sonya and Maria, a couple of the LVNs we work with got us In & Out burger. How cool is that?!

I picked up an extra shift on Friday because there were 2 LVNs to cover. I had a good gig with Sonya. We transferred a patient to ICU right off the bat for extra monitoring. Thank goodness Mayra, who is truly awesome in every way, was charge and helped me with the transfer! She made sure everything was in order. I got to see the ICU there, it is laid out very well. I'm glad I got to see it.

Later that day, I was covering for Jen M for her break. Right as she was coming back and I was filling her in on what happened while she was at lunch, a family member from bed 16 rushes out and calls us into the room. The patient, a 92 year old man, was in his chair and non-responsive with some drool on his face. Jen says "Call a code!" I respond "He's still breathing, call a rapid response" She runs to call the Rapid and I'm checking the pulse of the patient. The next few minutes tons of staff rush into the room. We get him into the bed, the crash cart arrives, vital signs are taken. Apparently, he has had syncopal episodes before, but none of the staff knew it. The monitor showed his heart rate was slow. Esther, the resource nurse, who is excellent, pushed some atropine. He had some irregular heart rhythms so Jen transferred him to ICU while I kept an eye on her other patients.

It was my first Rapid Response that I was a part of at SFMC. I could have done better, but overall I am happy with how it went as well as the outcome. Friday night I got home and crashed. I was exhausted.

Late Saturday morning we went to Griffith park and hiked up to the Hollywood sign. It was a beautiful day. We had a picnic and then meandered back down and back to The Medal. Later that night, we had a party to celebrate the may occasions of the month. Ann, Connor and Darby, volunteers from last year, came out as did Becca and Emily-two volunteers from the other house. Great fun. Today is a day to catch up on mail, e-mail, laundry and more...like blogging!


We did get closer to the sign, but you can't get right up to it, which was fine. We had quite the hike regardless. Yeah, we're wearing that in February. 80s. Holla.

Short Post: Week in Review

Last week was a busy albeit great week. I decided to pick up Tuesday because I'd like to get some extra hours in occasionally to give myself a buffer at the end of the year. There were 2 LVNs on the schedule so I decided it would work well to pick up that day, so Holly could cover one and I could cover the other. As it turns out, one floated to another floor so I covered the LVN (because I had the assignment the day before) and Holly was extra hands on the floor. I covered the LVN on the same assignment Monday-Wednesday and I was in-ratio (They were short staffed so I took a full assignment myself) on Thursday. Fortunately, it was the same assignment, so I knew the patients.

I've worked 4 days in the week; I've worked 3 in a row, but I've never worked 4 days in a row (Keep in mind these are 12 hour shifts). It worked out well. There was no way I was doing a 5th day. Wednesday was a really busy day, and Thursday started and ended great, but in the afternoon my patient, who was a trauma-blunt abdominal and blunt head trauma had increase abdominal pain. Ultimately what happened was we sent her to Telemetry (She complained of Chest Pain at admission and her Cardiac Enzymes were elevated on the second set).

It was stressful because both the Trauma Surgeon and the newly consulted Cardiologist were both there and there were hella new orders. Thank goodness for our unit secretary who knows how to enter in all of the labs and tests. The really frustrating parts were: it took lab 2 hours to come draw some STAT labs (For the record, I called them 3x and the charge nurse called once and that was documented). One of the labs, Lactic Acid was critically high (4.67). She was the image of sepsis. What's worse is that when I went in to help the resource nurse get her ready to go to her CT, her O2 was Off!. She was on 4L! I was pissed. She ended up going to CT, up to Tele, then to Emergency Exploratory Laparotomy due to air and blood in her Abdomen...

As I think about this know, a mere 3 days later I think about what I could have done differently. What I should have done, what I should have caught on to sooner. I'm not beating myself up, but I am learning from this. She is going to need some aggressive care. I'm put money on her being transferred to ICU after surgery.

After that day and the three preceding it, I spent most of Friday lounging about the house not getting a great deal done. That night, we hung out with Connor, Darby and Ann (VSCs from last year) at Ann's place in Culver City. It was very laid back and fun.

Saturday morning we went to Baldwin Hills. It is a park in the middle of a very industrial area. The main goal of the park is to call attention to nature vs. concrete. It was quite a hike up some very tall stairs to a garden and more trails. We had a picnic and went home. A very quiet night at home rounded out the night.

I found cheap free weights for the house on Craigslist. The money came out of the community account. We now have a basic, but pretty good, exercise room in the house. After we picked them up, we got Dim Sum and Yogurtland. I tried out the weights (I've gotten quite a bit weaker in the past couple months since I haven't done much of anything physical). It will be great to get back into the swing of things. Nachos for supper and it is time for bed!

It was meant to be a short post, but I needed to unload a bit about Thursday.

Thoughts at the halfway mark (A lot of rambling)

We're nearly halfway done with our year of VSC. I should be slightly over halfway done with my hours at the end of the month. I've been at SFMC for 5 months-6 more remain. Many of us in the house are sending off applications to programs, updating resumes and performing job searches.

Personally, I'm up in the air in many ways. I've recently had the possibility of another year of volunteer service re-opened up when informed I can make loan payments on my private loans with my AmeriCorps Scholarship that I get from this year. Whether I want to do this for certain remains unclear at this point.

I do know that I will not be returning to VSC West for another year. It has been a great year, but I don't feel that I second year would benefit me personally in the way this year has. I've done a bit of searching for programs. I'm really open to possibilities regarding another year regarding where I serve and what I do there. I'd really like to do something completely different from anything I'll ever do again in my life.

At the same time, I would like to be able to be close to friends and family....or at least pulling an income that would support me visiting them without great financial difficulty. Plus, I'd like to establish myself as a young adult. I got some advice from a nurse who did years and years of work with the peace corps back in the 60s. She told me that she had a fantastic experience, but she missed out on her young adulthood. When she returned to the states (from Southeast Asia) all of her friends were married and with children. I don't believe another year of service would set me back greatly, but it does make me think and that is worth something.

I've also thought about the fact that if I did do another year of service I would be done when I'm 24. That is so young and I'll have plenty of years to establish myself as a young adult, get a job and start....the rest of my life. Well, at least until I decide to go to grad school, but that is another story entirely.

Then there is the question of where do I apply for jobs if I go that route? Minneapolis? MN? Midwest? Elsewhere? I think I'll conduct a search similar to what I did last spring. Shooting for Minneapolis but open to other places. I may look into the Pacific Northwest. It's nice to know that I have family in the region. The east coast is less appealing for that reason.

It's nice to be able to put this thoughts done into words. I can come back to this in days, weeks and/or months and see how many thoughts have changed. Decisions, decisions....

Service...

Over my winter break I had many opportunities to catch up with friends and family, which meant I talked about what I've been doing for the past few months many times over. In doing so much talking about what I've been doing, I had the chance to reflect upon my experiences more and engage in a number of different conversations. Ultimately, it made me more aware of the fact that I'm very much engaged in all of the core tenets of this program. They are: Serving the poor and marginalized; living simply; living in community; and personal/spiritual growth/development. I'd like to spend some time blogging about my experiences in each of these.

At the end of 2010 I wasn't feeling like I was getting the full effect of serving the poor. My role at SFMC has me often interacting with a great number of patients but in very short interactions. I often will spend 2 minutes of less with a patient. While many of our patients come from poor environments, I don't often get to hear there stories. I was feeling like I was serving the nurses and staff at SFMC who serve the poor rather than serving the poor.

Last week I met and interacted with a patient who made me realize this isn't true. I got to work on Monday to find that I would be covering a float from the 6th floor. I had a few nurses remind me that I was not to do his work, but rather get my job done as covering RN (Initial Assessment, a note and IV piggyback and push meds) and go about my business helping others on the floor. Well, one of our patients was...challenging. She was very frustrating with the care she had received thus far (She was at SFMC late December, they found a small bowel obstruction and she left AMA-Against Medical Advice. Of course, she came back about a week later). She had surgery a few days prior. She was most disenchanted by her pain control. She has breast cancer and was taking 10mg morphine (A hearty dose) at home every 4 hours as needed.

I tried to listen to her concerns and offer some solutions, apologizes and gather more information; however, she was very tired of telling so many people the same story. During this interaction she complained to me about things I had nothing to do with and had no control over and didn't want to listen to anything that I had to say about things that I could do for her. After a challengling initial interaction and assessment we got out of the room and onto our other 4 patients. Fortunately, the surgeon came by and I told him before he went in the room what's been transpiring. He wasn't surprised. In fact, I believe it went something like this:

Me: "Hey Dr. Stafford, I'm really glad you're here!"
Dr. Stafford: "You have the patient in bed 14 today don't you?"

Clearly, this was nothing new for her. Ultimately, he changes her pain medication. She had a PCA-patient controlled analgesia (The one where the patient pushes the button when they want medication). He increased her settings. She went from getting 2mg continuous infusion every hour and 2mg on demand every 5 minutes to 2mg continuous to 5mg every 15 minutes. She was still frustrated she had to push the button and wanted to just be able to get the 10mg every four hours as need. The PCA didn't go higher and Dr. Stafford convinced her to stick with the PCA. Oh, he also took off the bandage on her abdominal incision.

I'm covering someone for break around noon at the front nurses' station. I get a call from the LVN saying that she wants me to come look at some drainage from the incision. I ask why he doesn't look at it. He says he did, but she wants me to see it. I tell him that I'm covering someone for break and didn't have time but that I'd be back later. This is especially frustrating because I feel like I was babysitting this man in several ways and compound that with this difficult patient just made for a stressful day. She had taken to me a bit and vented her disdain for him. Part of this came from the 4 hour delay in getting her thyroid medication. She has hyperthyroidism, which can cause your emotions to get elevated and somewhat manic (explains a lot).

After I was done covering, I head back to the nurses' station where he was (we have 3 stations on our floor-8100, 8200 and 8300). Mayra, our charge nurse for the day and an overall great nurse, told me she went in and looked at the wound per the patient's request. She said it was fine. I went and looked. A scant amount of serous (clear) drainage. Very minimal redness. Dr. Stafford had apparently told her, right before leaving, his main concern was infection. While that is his job and he is totally right, it seems she interpreted his concern as something very great. To keep a long story from getting too longer here is a snapshot of the next hour:

Pharmacist at desk working on getting thyroid medication dose
LVN working on thyroid medication with pharmacist
Charge nurse calling surgeon
Nurse manager getting filled in on the entire situation
Myself-feeling very caught in the middle

I go in and talk to her. Surgeon orders prophylactic antibiotic. Manager talks to patient. Charge nurse fills in patient on her conversation with surgeon. I educate her on types of drainage and what they mean. LVN gets her the thyroid medication. I stay after the others leave (since I don't have anything else that I need to do as I'm a VSC and don't have my own patients) and talk to her. I come to find out the following:

-She lost her job last june
-She is unmarried and lost her only son when he was my age (I'm not sure when. the date was July 4th-I was under the impression it was 2010; however, based on a picture she had of him and her age I'm not sure. Either way she lost her only son)
-She lost her health benefits in the fall
-That happened around the time she was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer with metastases.

Quite frankly, I'd say her outlook was pretty great. She and I talked. She acknowledged she was a terrible patient and appreciated a lot of things happening. She had come to like me by this point in the afternoon and I to her. Later in the day she told me she apologized to the LVN for being rude and had a short conversation with her. I enjoyed our conversation and was glad I got past the challenges in order to get to know who she was as a person, not just the snapshot of her as a patient in the hospital

I saw her again Wednesday when I popped in to say hey. She was doing better, still not great, but was on the right track. She was thankful I stopped in and we chatted for a bit about stuff. A bit about her status and clinical stuff, but mostly just talked about stuff. I went in the next day a couple times. It was the day before her birthday, I wished her a happy birthday and said I'd be off until Monday. Hopefully she has since been discharged. I don't imagine she'll still be there tomorrow. Maybe.

Collectively, I spent a good number of hours in her room. I got a hug from her before I left Thursday. Quite the turn around from Monday. I think I would have had a good connection with her even if I was a staff nurse and she was my patient; however, I think that because I had the time to devote to her I got a deeper connection. That right there is part of why my role as a VSC RN is special. That is how I serve our patients.

A Quick Update. Perhaps the first of many more??

So I've been meaning to do a post about my winter break in MN, but I just haven't had the time/energy to sit down and write it all. Instead, I am going to update with a bit of what I've been doing lately. Hopefully I will come back and finish a post on MN and continue to write some longer, insightful posts while having small updates.

Last week everybody in the house got back into their routines. We returned to work, caught up with one another and re-established our food supply. We also learned that VSC west was interviewing someone for a half-year.

Fast-forward a few days to pretty low-key weekend, to hearing about the new VSC, Jon. He was accepted and placed in MM. We met him tonight and dinner and he will move in Thursday. He seems like a cool guy and should mesh well with our community. We're excited.

Backtrack to yesterday. I covered a float LVN's assignment, which shouldn't be any different, but this guy is...not the greatest nurse in the world. Pair that with a patient who was under a lot of stress and it just isn't a good thing. I want to come back to this patient in greater detail, but basically I did a lot of customer service/saving face/education while I was there. We had some pretty great discussions too. I needed that because I've felt like I'm lacking in true interaction with patients since I float around the floor a lot.

I'm meeting with my site supervisor, Gilda, on Thursday. We're going to talk about a number of things, one of which is perhaps added another dimension to my service here. I'm not sure what implications that will have regarding my service on the 8th floor. I have not intent to leave there, but I wouldn't mind doing one less day a week there or something to that effect. We'll see what my options are based upon who pays for my stipend and the like.

This was meant to be a short post....it's a bit verbose, but it didn't take long to write. I'm working tomorrow and Thursday so it is time to get to bed!