Policies and Procedures

Yesterday, we went over the new EMR (Electronic Medical Record) that is in it's second phase now. We won't actually start documenting with it until October, but can already look up some information using it. TK, this put's Farmvegas' to shame! Okay, so that's not hard to do, but still. It's pretty amazing that before I even go up on the floor I can see if my patients have had their pain medications, see images of their x-rays, and abnormal lab values (which are spelled out as if they knew that this is a hole in our education "hey, you, dummy, this value is abnormally high!") all with the click of a few keys. I love it!

P.S. I had Mexican last night with the Pharmacist and his Pharmacist Wife and her brother. It was delicious! I loved getting out of the house and interacting with other people...even if I did clam up a bit! Mmm chips and cheeese dip! :)

On to today. Policies and Procedures. All of this is necessary, but entirely too dull to enlighten you with. Except for:

"Do you know what R.A.C.E is?"

Rescue. Alarm. Contain. Extinguish.

"Good, what about P.A.S.S?"

Pull. Aim. Squeeze. Sweep

Then she went over what we do during a fire alarm/drill. As her words are still hanging in a little speech bubble attached to her lips the fire alarm starts going off "Code Zero Basement." Pretty crazy timing. Who has ever heard of a fire code being anything but red??? Weird.

Here's a picture of me in my new royal blue scrubs:



I LOVE this color...not to mention the comfort and lack of having to decide what to wear in the morning. How amazing do they make my eyes look?! I am trying to embrace the crazy curls being loud and wild and free like you people seem to dig...it's hard in this humidity. And I thought VA was bad! Any product suggestions?

Orientation: Day 2

Today was much more boring. There were less speakers than yesterday, which meant we had to listen to the same few people talk ALL day. Here are a few highlights:

From the older black woman on risk management: "We had this woman about to walk up the escalator and two ceiling tiles fell on her head. Lucky for us she had thick hair and all I had to do was pay for her to go to the beauty shop."

From the 5 foot 2, self-proclaimed "little man with a little power" and thick rimmed Clark Kent like glasses on security: "When you leave work at night, I want you to take off your name tag, put it deep in your pocket, and be the meanest SOB around! I mean it! If someone asks you for money say 'Get a job! I did!'" aaaand...

When describing himself and his position ("The Security Guy"): "I am the scrawny, geeky guy with the thick glasses and pocket protector that you picked on in high school. Now, I'm back to haunt you. I'm here to make sure every little thing is in line. I'm here to catch you doing things incorrectly. When little men, get a little power...it's a scary thing!"

Another highlight, which I did not think was funny (unlike the two speakers above who had me in stitches the whole time): When a non-PT, non-health care provider presented the section on back injury prevention. Man, I get frustrated just thinking about it. It was all I could do not to shout out things she was saying incorrectly or missing on the slides.

On a brighter note, I'm going out for Mexican tomorrow with the pharmacist and his pharmacist wife. :) Yuuum!

Orientation: Day 1

The hardest thing about working, second only to actually waking up and getting out of bed, is taming this mane:


This is my idea of tame: wax + a hair tie = half up and almost professional???

Okay, so we all hate icebreakers, right? Orientation of course started with talking to your "new best friend" and then introducing them to the rest of the group (close to 30 people) . I was introduced as being "athletic, a runner." Half way through the day a young pharmacist cornered me and asked about my running. We ended up exchanging numbers so his wife and I can be running partners. She sounds a lot faster than I am, but maybe this will be the motivation I need to kick it up a notch. Plus, he's from here and she isn't and she needs to meet people and so do I. Perfect! I also met a new grad RN who will be working on the orthopedics floor. She's from here and knows where to go and where not to go. Again, perfect! I cannot believe that I, the girl who does not speak unless spoken to, got not one but two phone numbers today! Score!

About the orientation itself: boring of course, but it somehow managed to leave me excited to be working for this company (not to mention scared about determining my benefits and 403b plan!).

If you want to laugh, read The Best Man's account of being locked out in his underwear ;)

First Weekend

My first weekend here alone (without The Best Man) and NOT studying went a little something like this:

Friday:
- Began reading Inventing a Nation- Washington, Adams, Jefferson
- Lounged by the pool and got a tinsy bit burned
- Crocheted a scarf for someone from high school...I was supposed to finish this in 2000. . .
- Ran 1.75 miles on the treadmill
- Watched Bridget Jones' Diary & Wimbledon
- Drank wine
- Missed The Best Man (he's in Illinois)
- Texted The Best Man
- Talked to The Best Man

Saturday:
- Recycled the boxes I have unpacked
- Bought a really cute dress from Old Navy
- Ran 1.99 miles on the treadmill
- Finished the scarf noted above and started working on another half finished one
- Watched Serendipity
- Did not drink wine

Sunday:
- Lounged by the pool while reading, crocheting, and listening to the outrageous accents of the other people at the pool
- Cleaned my bathroom
- Grocery shopped
- Elliptical x 20 minutes
- Got ready for my first day of work! :)

Man, what an exciting life I lead!

Don't you hate lying?

Nervous Woman on Airplane: Don't you just hate flying?
Annie Reed: Yes, I do, and I just told the most terrible one to the man I'm about to marry. Do you feel that any lie is a betrayal?
[pause]
Nervous Woman on Airplane: I said FLYING.

Man, what a spectacular movie!

So, I lied. I vowed that I would go out in public, even by myself, so I did. Thursdays and Fridays there are free concerts downtown. So I gave it a shot.

I have this really bad habit that if I make eye contact with someone by accident (while I'm people watching) I keep looking back to see if they think I'm still looking. Well, guess what they keep noticing me and I keep noticing them. This happened with two people tonight. Here's where my lie comes in:

1) An olderish, trying to be younger woman on a date. She just thought I was weird.
2) A mid-to-late-at-least-10-years-older-than-me-man-wearing- tallish-black-socks- with-shorts.
He did not think I was weird.
"Are you waiting for someone?" (As I reached into my purse to call The Best Man)
(Who could I be waiting for in a town where I don't know a soul?)
"Yes?"
"Oh. . . What time is it?"
"Almost 7:30."
"Lovely."

Then I called The Best Man to chat with him on his first leg of his 3 MONTH long road trip. And I left.

Meeting people is hard when you are painfully shy, taken, and piiiicky.

A Kodak moment or two. . .

Good news, people! I found the USB cable to connect my camera to the computer! Score! Here are a few pictures from the past couple of weeks:

7/11: Moving down to G-ville. The car was packed!



My odometer at one point during the trip:



The Best Man blowing out the candles on the tower o' brownies I made him for his birthday:



7/18: HUGE snapping turtle The Best Man spotted while camping this past weekend:

"I don't want no scrub, a scrub is a guy who thinks he's fly"

As much as I LOVE Grey's Anatomy I freaked out when I was almost forced to buy a Grey's scrub top. I have to get scrubs in royal blue and was having trouble finding tops in this color in my size. At first, I could only find 1 Grey's Anatomy brand scrub top in my size. Okay, so it was pretty cute and actually makes me look like a woman and not a teenage boy. But it's almost borderline sexy (well, I think scrubs are sexy in general, so maybe that's just me?) and who is going to take me seriously wearing a scrub top that has a little Grey's Anatomy tag on it? No one! Thankfully, after looking around for 10 extra minutes I found 2 unisex tops and didn't have to buy the Grey's top. Phew! That also saved me about $14 bucks because obviously Grey's scrubs come with a trendy price. Too bad I'm back to looking like a boy, but at least I have cute Dickies bottoms :)

The Results

So, I took the test last Wednesday and have been in hiding (aka driving back to VA and camping) ever since. That was the worst 4 hours of my life. I walked out "knowing" that I didn't pass. I've been practicing a mix of dispair and indifference until today when they finally posted that I'm now licensed (they have had my results since LAST THURSDAY).

Now, I have come out of hiding with the good news and can get on with my life! Whew! I will try to update once this adrenaline rush wears off!

Unofficially Official

According to my internet aliases, I am now residing in South Carolina. This won't be official in the real world until I can fork up some money for car insurance and pay my car tax and all those fun grown up things. Yay!

Living out of boxes

The move this past weekend was relatively uneventful mostly due to assistance from The Best Man (I keep wanting to shorten his name, but somehow don't think he'd respond well to BM).

At this point, I have:
1) Studied- not as much as I would have liked.
2) Been living out of boxes secondary to trying to study.
3) Found my way around suberbia.
4) Started learning to cook- I have a sneaky suspicion I may be a decent cook. You know, so long as I have a recipe and a lot of spices- Any good recipes out there?
5) Stolen the internet- shhh, don't tell the guy next door!

I still need to:
1) Buy a LOT of things
2) Take and PASS the test.
3) Unpack
4) Upload pictures of my drive down- which I currently can't do because I don't have my cable to hook up my camera...grrr
5) Head back to VA for the rest of my stuff and for The Best Man's annual birthday camping trip :)

Happy (Early) Birthday, Sammy! :)

Packing up Ol' Bessie!

I've already started packing up Ol' Bessie over the past couple of days, but now it's time to get serious. So serious in fact, that I'll be packing not only my stereo, but also this laptop! Over and out! I won't have internet, except poolside and in the club house once I move. I don't have the money for luxuries such as the internet, when I have to worry about gas and food. I'll try to update sometime after the move and/or boards! Adios!

Festivities

I moped around for the first part of my LAST shift EVER at the Y today. I had to tell a lot of the patrons I've known since I was a kid that today was my last day. It was all rather anticlimatic- well besides a few guards aknowleding that I was leaving and a slow clap from Peter. I moped right up until I saw my boss, Drew, who said "Thanks for everything, I've got to run, sorry I'm missing tonights festivities."

"Festivities?"

"Yeah. For you tonight."

Hmm...I don't think I was supposed to know about that.

So, the ol' Y crew pulled through and had a lil going away shin dig for me! Complete with a Ukrop's cake (the best ever), balloons and a card. I kinda wish I had actually been surprised about it. But, on the other hand, I would have kept on moping until it was time for cake. Speaking of cake, I've got a ton left over if there are any takers!

In other news, I've been studying. I've been studying until I can't study any more- which sometimes is surprisingly quick. Some of this lack of attention has to do with people watching. I've recently taken up recidence in B&N for some good studying and people watching. There are several regulars that I've come to expect on a nightly basis:

1) The Barista Who Flirts With Every Girl who orders from him and even some of the other regulars whom he has come to know. Oh, and did I mention he's dorky and I love that he's social/fliration skills are that of a middle schooler. Seriously though, I think it's endearing.

2) The Old Man Who's Seat YOU Are Sitting In has a specific seat he craves every night. Most nights, I see him sitting a few tables away from this prized seat. He faces the seat and moves closer and closer until it becomes unoccupied and he can snatch it up. One time he, when he saw an employee clearing tables he pointed at the dirty dish on HIS table and said "that's been there for at least half an hour." After the guy cleared the table the Old Man quickly took up residence there. Last night he made a friend with an older woman who was VERY well endowed. They chatted and chatted and I didn't think they'd ever stop. He sat there talking to her and let his table become empty and then occupied again by 3 different groups of people. I was mystified. I kinda wanted the old guys to get together, but sadly no numbers were exchanged only a "I'm sure I'll see you around here again." Tonight, The Old Man was at his table and was caught talking to a man for at least an hour while I was there. They were discussing a language that I did not recognize. I think the Old Man moved here several years ago and knows at least one other language. The man he was talking to tonight kept trying to talk to him and ask how to say this or that and The Old Man would correct him.

3) I have spotted The Cowboy With The Pony Tail the past 3 nights as well. He is always alone. Always with his long, wavy hair in a low pony tail. And always, always wearing a straw cowboy hat. Tonight, he wandered around the store, sometimes browsing, sometimes staring. I can't really hold the staring against him...I was after all staring at him trying to figure him out when I should have been studying.

I wonder, if these people where to give me a name or descriptor or two, what it would be. Girl In the Green Crocs? Girl Who Stares Off Into Space Instead Of Studying?

So Long, Farwell

I just wrote my own goodbye e-mail from my Y. I figured no one would do it for me, so I should write a lil something up to say goodbye. It's at times like this, when I'm not at the Y that I can't believe I'm leaving. Then I remember how crazy, hectic, and unorganized swim lessons were last night and I think how great it is that I am moving forward and will finally have a "real job." :0) But I know I will miss my young lifeguards and the patrons I've known since I was 17!

"Something to Talk about"

Lately, instead of singing and dancing in the car, I've down graded to thinking. Driving alone is a good time to collect ones thoughts. However, there is one song and one song only that can get me to sing my heart out no matter where I am, what I'm doing or thinking. It goes a little something like this. . .


Ooh, ooh, ooh,
People are talkin', talkin' 'bout people,
I hear them whisper, you won't believe it.
They think we're lovers kept under cover,
I just ignore it but they keep sayin' we...
laugh just a little too loud,
stand just a little too close,
we stare just a little too long.
Maybe they're seein', somethin' we don't darlin'.

Let's give 'em somethin' to talk about
(Somethin' to talk about)
Let's give 'em somethin' to talk about
(Somethin' to talk about)
Let's give 'em somethin' to talk about
How about love?

I feel so foolish, I never noticed
You act so nervous, could you be fallin' for me?
It took the rumor to make me wonder,
Now I'm convinced that I'm goin' under.
Thinkin' 'bout you every day,
dreamin' 'bout you every night.
I'm hopin' that you feel the same way,
Now that we know it, let's really show it darlin'.

Let's give 'em somethin' to talk about
(Somethin' to talk about)
A little mystery to figure out
(Somethin' to talk about)
Let's give 'em somethin' to talk about
How about love?

Let's give 'em somethin' to talk about babe,
A little mystery to figure out.
Let's give 'em somethin' to talk about,
How about love? Ooh...
Listen to 'em baby
(Somethin' to talk about)
A little mystery won't hurt 'em
(Somethin' to talk about)
Let's give 'em somethin' to talk
How about our love, love, love, love
whoowhoo mmmm hey oohh whoowhoo
About love, love, love, love
How about they talk about it? uh huh
Talk about love........


Ooooh man. I just love it. I don't know if its the tune, her voice, lyrics or a combination, but I dig it. It may also have something to do with loving a good friendship turned romance. Those are the best.

Finally!

Everything has officially gone through! Now I just have to wait to get a letter in the mail so I can sign up to take my boards! I'm SO glad this process is finally coming to an end! Yaaahooo!


Crap....now I really have to study!

Also, I move in 1.5 weeks! :D I'm mostly packed up and have managed to score the following from various friends (mostly The Best Man and his old roomies):
- Dinning room table and chairs
- Dresser
- Desk
- TV stand
- Deck/camping chairs
- Microwave
- Jumper cables

It's slowly but surely coming together, folks! :)

VCU pulled through!

SC officially has my transcript! Only one month after I originally had it sent! I was worried I'd have to hand pick it up and hand deliver it to Columbia when I move next weekend.

Now, there are just 3 things pending:
1) Verification of completed requirements
2) Exam
3) FSBPT, exam approval

I was told I didn't have to submit the form that goes with #1 because I had my official transcripts- I hope they acknowledge this online! #2 & #3 seem redundant to me. I guess it means did I a) take the exam and b) pass the exam?

Who knows...Now if SC would get off the internet and let my call get through I could figure this out! (Seriously, who still has dial-up internet?)

Update: I am an idiot and was calling a fax number. . .