The Life..

Of a nurse.
(This is what I dreamed of when I was little...?!! But I do love it.)


I work 12 1/2 hour shifts.

I work the night shift, from 8pm to 8am. (so never, ever complain to me that you have to work until 2pm on New Year's Eve..Just dont.)

I have to work weekends and holidays.

Of those 12 1/2 hours, I have an hour and forty five minutes of break. In which I attempt to do nothing (look at facebook, play games, read, finish nursing notes). This is my bliss. These are the things that desk job-people have probably much more time for.

The other 10 3/4 hours I am on my feet continuously (suck it, desk job people). Literally, I have about 5 minutes of downtime. I am constantly doing something. Calling doctors, being a "super"nurse by problem solving old IV pumps, giving injections, IV meds, cleaning up bowel movements, diarrhea ..gross, vomiting (not me although it well could be), attempting to reposition 300 lb patients while only being 1/3 of their weight, listening to a patient's life story (I like that sometimes, when I have time...Basically 3% of the time)...But then I get to joke with patients, help patients cope with their illnesses, deal with patients in their last stages of life. Comfort them....End up really, really caring about them and their families. And then when I get home, pray for them before I go to sleep.


Picture doing this for 8 patients simultaneously, for 10.75 hours in one night.

Sometimes I feel like I'm a waitress...."2 Window wants water, 3 door wants a sandwich, room 5 is thirsty...
Hearing "NURSE, NURSE!!!! I NEED ______" being called out into the hallways by multiple patients in the matter of one or two minutes.

Sometimes I work 3 nights in a row. (ex: these past 3 days). 40 hours, crammed into 3 days.

I am deliriously tired. My nights are your days. My days are your nights. It's impossible to fit myself into someone else's schedule. It's nearly impossible to fit myself/sleep into my own schedule.

*knock on wood* but good thing I have a boyfriend...Because dating would be pretty difficult with this kind of schedule...

Speaking of my boyfriend, I am pretty smitten with him right now. We have been dating for 6 months. One half of a year. AKA FOREVERRrrrr. Haha just kidding. It went by so fast, though.

When I first saw this picture, I looked at it and thought..What a silly picture of us (aka Amy is looking roughhhh). But then I looked at our smiles..Eeeek how happy do we both look.

One WEEK and I'm done with work, and back in Utah.

Life is a Highway.....

One thing I miss about living in the country...
(besides Family, family and more family)

Driving.

People always ask, "Doesn't it feel weird to drive again when you're visiting home?"

No. It's like riding a bicycle. You sit in the driver's seat, turn on the CD that's been in your car for a couple of years, and it instantly takes you back to those days.

In case you don't know, I don't drive in the City. Way too expensive. Parking alone costs a month of rent on an apartment. Traffic is horrendous. Public Transportation is the easiest route, even if it means getting up close and personal with the homeless guy next to you...In my case, a homeless guy snorting some drugs as observed last night on my way to work.

I'm at home. Driving up Prospect Hill through the winding road up to my Mom's house, and near my old house, where so much of my growing up took place....Where I first learned how to drive.
The valleys. Driving from Horseheads to Corning and back again, realizing how beautiful it all is. It wasn't even green and I was still marveling at the beauty of Upstate New York. The 2 lane highways, the one-exit towns (Big Flats the most wonderful of all).

A piece of property back home (I googled, this is the best I could find?). Why doesn't anyone take pictures of the pretty roads? But, the point I'm trying to make here is..greenery. Not desert, it's green.

Those roads bring back so many memories. I could be driving up one and remember times when I was 16. Like when a boy I liked back in the day sped through the neighborhood and my neighbors called the "neighborhood watch committee" to look out for him and his Mercedes convertible. Or late night drives to the Corning McDonald's. Or just plain thinking about how my friends and I used to make the walk up Prospect Hill because we didn't have our licenses yet.

(This is the pond my brother illegally skates on with his friends, trespassing property..Your secret is safe with me)

THE END (for now)

Randomness

True fact: While I watch any movie on Netflix, I am pondering about how many stars to give the movie.
Next related fact: I like to give Indie movies a chance. Most indie movies (besides Napoleon Dynamite) don't get the recognition they deserve. During some, I yawn. But there are some that I loved and will forever remember.
City Island is a great one. It's funny, it has its' real moments. I love movies like that. So real you feel like you're there watching the actors right in front of you, without a screen to separate you.
Last night, I watched the movie Timer. It was a little quirky chick flick with a kind of weird, stupid concept....But I absolutely loved it. It had a lot to do with the soundtrack. I think it also had to do with the amazing soundtrack. Sufjan Stevens, Meiko, Iron&Wine, Katie Herzig? Timer, your soundtrack had me at hello. It also maybe had a little bit to do with Desmond Harrington being in it. Ayayay.

Desmond Harrington is also on Dexter..His character is not my favorite. Of course, I have a celebrity crush on Michael C. Hall as well. A serial killer has never looked so good. Just....Yes.
Jackson, if you read this...I still think you're cuter than all of the above. You win.

On my days off, I sleep and watch Dexter. I only leave the apartment to get food. Yesterday, my day off went like this: Home at 9am, sleep at 12pm, wake up at 12am. Watch Dexter until 7:40am. Go back to sleep until 4pm today. Sit in my pajamas and watch Dexter. Go to McDonald's around the block at 7pm. I've been home by myself for the past week and a half. Thanks, Kevin. Not happy about that right now, especially since our apartment is in shambles. I try to be understanding, but ughhh.

Anyway. I've realized that I am not taking advantage anymore of living in the City. I was looking at my friend's pictures of her being a tourist, fascinated by the bright lights and the City that Never sleeps in all of it's glory. The City that never sleeps? Pshhh I am the exception. I feel like I've seen all there is to see. Lauren and I tackled all of it in our 3 month Summer of 2009. The only part of New York that I take advantage of anymore are its' restaurants. All of them, locally owned, the majority of them yummy...There are about 350 just in my small neighborhood, Murray Hill.
I avoid Times Square at all costs, even though people dream of going there. I dread taking the 9am 15 minute commute back to my apartment in a packed subway. In NO other place do you get so intimately close to your fellow neighbors than on the subway. I have never felt so close to strangers before than on the MTA's packed trains. I don't even think Broadway is impressive anymore.
Not complaining, but I don't really have any friends here. One I've lost touch with since we graduated college (even before that, our friendship sucked), and don't plan on reuniting with. Kevin is basically the only friend I have here. Maybe that's why I don't get out so much.

Who wants to move to New York to be my friend and get me out of this apartment? I'll be taking applications asap.

TIME for another New York City blizzard. 8-12 inches. I NEED BOOTS.

Bye for now!

Updates, Domino love.

One thing I must get out of the way.
Domino's on 3rd Ave, just 6 blocks from our apartment, I'm in love. Your pizza: so good. Your service: so fast. Your foreign delivery men: The sweetest guys on earth (I'm not hitting on them, don't worry). And, you're open until 2am. So, even when I do happen to sleep from 12:45pm to 12:45am, I can have a meal delivered straight to my door. Not to mention that 2 medium pizzas for $11.99 will last me a few days. Too bad I don't trust my kitchen enough to even step in it so I can even refrigerate this pizza. Aye.

I don't think I've blogged about work in a while. Do I dislike the night shift? Yes. This sleeping during the day thing, I hate it. I feel miserable.
I'm completely working on my own now. It feels nice to be able to make the call on some things without feeling like I have to get permission. I don't know how many times I've gotten, "You're my nurse? You look too young to be a nurse...". Hearing the patients unsure makes me unsure. I just have to remember, I just got done with 4 years of schooling. More than most of the nurses I work with. I feel confident most of the time. Except for my first night....
My first night alone, I got the roughest district. 7 patients, and the majority of them were complete care. This means that they can't do much at all on their own. Let's just say, I broke down around 6am after arguing with my nurse's aide and cried. She was cruel to me. I felt small and insignificant. I'm 22 years old, she's in her late 50's and I'm basically her boss. She doesn't like that. But, I have a wonderful coworker that stood up for me. I had a patient that witnessed the whole incident and afterward, told me what a great nurse I was and that she was proud of me. At least I have these people that really care about me.

I spent Christmas in the hospital, while my family including the extended fam was out in Horseheads. I talked to my entire family on the phone; The phone was passed around the dinner table. That hurt a lot. But, we had a Christmas Eve party at work. Instead of Christmas music, we listened to R&B jams. I've never had so much chicken in my life.

Vanessa, Tom and I pretending to be divas.



Whoa...'

Just a little glimpse into what my Christmas was like.

But my New Year's was a lot better. I spent it with a lovely guy out in Utah. And even with only 2 hours of sleep, I was happy at Midnight. I think it's going to be a great year.
We went skiing and it was a lot of fun.

The winding road on the way up to Sundance.

And on that note, I'm OUT.

You just have to laugh.

This is Part Two of my previous post.
It'll be short and sweet.

It's gotten worse, as evidenced above. The light is hanging by a thread from the ceiling.

Meanwhile, outside of my apartment door...
People are locked in our building. This kind tenant who deemed herself as "handy" because she's an RN had to use her screwdriver to get these poor people out of the apartment to go to work late.

Really, I can't help but laugh at this whole situation.

My apartment has turned into a rain forest....Walking into the kitchen, a mist instantly hits your face. How peaceful.
I've found a new use for pots and pans since I don't cook. Kevin will be doing the dishes.

Anyway, maybe I'm deliriously tired...But laughing is healthy and it's a good way to cope with this crazy apartment.

True Life: I'm officially a New Yorker.

To the outside world, living in New York City seems like it would dream come true. They see it in the movies, they've seen the luxury apartments (or they've seen the ghetto). But when I tell them I live in New York City (as a middle-class New Yorker not to mention recent college grad) I fit in none of the above "dreams".

I'll say it. I live in an over-priced apartment that's probably from the 1950's. When I signed my life away via a year-long lease, the "management" (a landlord who looked like he'd been baking out in Florida for too long on one of his plethora of vacations) handed me a paper warning me of the risks of lead poisoning. I dealt with the mess and the scariness of the ground floor apartment, all because it was in a great location. That's what New Yorker's look for: location. Who cares if it's a crap hole, as long as you can get to work in 15 minutes it's golden. I dealt with the mix up of getting my keys too early and walking in when the old tenants still lived here (the management's mistake). I lived through getting my superintendent fired for making sexual advances on me. I continue to deal with the car accidents that happen outside of my window because I live next to a tunnel exit.
And now I'm attempting to live through this:
No, not attempting to live with Ramen as my main meal (as you can see), but above, above that you can see a huge gaping hole adjacent to a large droop in the ceiling due to a leak. What you don't hear is the water dripping. What you don't see is the numerous pots and pans I've had to put in the kitchen, as well as the huge chunks of ceiling/lead paint all over the counter and floor.

This mess? Ever-growing.
The Superintendent? An escape artist. I see him, and then I don't. He disappears like a magician and fails to let me know what's going on.
Did I mention I've never painted my walls yellow before?
A masterpiece on our ceiling, almost.

This isn't a "poor me" post. This is more of a, "this is real life as a grown up in NYC and it sucks" post.

I sure hope that others that live in New York don't have the bad luck that I've been having.

A related question....How can I get out of this lease?!?!