" HUH! What did you say #2"

This is a re-do because the 2012 class in pharmacology had some amazing answers to the abbreviation quiz that not only made me laugh they also would have gotten very good grades...IF this was a creative writing class...not pharmacology...See the new entries to this post below:

Today was the first exam for my Pharmacology class.  I graded the exams and began to think about all the things we can no longer do or say in class...teachers and students.  When I taught a second grade after school drama class, I clearly remember hugging and wiping tears from one young thespian who could not remember her lines...today...that hug could be beyond the boundaries set, by the child, her parents, or the school district.

It's a shame the way we are restricted and I must admit I sometimes go beyond the invisible line in the sand.
I find it hard to talk about the creation of another person, when I teach Maternal-Child Health and not sometimes mention...OH No...God, Heavenly Father, Jehovah...the big guy in the sky.  Now I'm not preaching or giving a sermon but my goodness it is hard to look upon a new born baby that was created in nine months from the DNA of two different people and not think it's a miracle beyond our understanding.  And that a greater being than a mere human had a lot to do with it.

From time to time I have a student ask ,"What do you think about abortion or pregnancy termination."  I remind them of the timeline of physical and neuro-conscious development and ask when they consider a life begins?  It is quite clear when I make that statement what I believe without putting it into words (which could come back and bite me).  But I let them figure out the answer for themselves, knowing that today the climate is very different from when I was in school.  Over 40 years ago when I first worked in Labor and Delivery, one of the things we were allowed to do as nurses was declare our feelings on the issue of pregnancy termination and we were not required to participate in the procedure.  Fancy that one happening today.

All this leads me to some interesting and very 21'st century answers on the medical abbreviation quiz.  We list medical abbreviations such as PRN (whenever necessary) or TPR (temperature, pulse, respiration) and expect the student to fill in the blank with the appropriate meaning of the abbreviation.

Since nursing and medicine in general has it's own language, knowing these abbreviated terms is a critical part of a student's knowledge and an important part of communication between professionals.

Some of the answers were very creative and others gave me insight as to how much the world has changed.


               Medical Meaning                         Student Answer
ADL      activities of daily living          active dance life
           (watching dancing with the stars last night?)
ac          before meals                        electric plug
           (electrition husband?)
bid         twice a day                   what you do at an auction
           (watches antique roadshow?)
CHF      congestive heart failure      crummy reaction found
      (I think I'm having a crummy reaction to these answers)
Derm     Dermatological                    like a germ only nicer
          (what were you thinking?)
DNR     do not resuscitate                 Do Not Run!
          (good if you work at the pool)
HA         headache                   hard ass, holding account
          (has a nasty boss...see previous blog entry of 2/22)
HDL      High Density Lipoprotein      honey do list           
          (must have been one of the male students)
INR     International Normalized ratio      ingestion required
          (not bad try)
ER          Extended Release               Erection returning
          (used the little blue pill recently)
GTT       Glucose tolerance test       Gut toughness test
          (another creative try)
MED     minimal effective dose   medical emergency Do over
          (AND don't tell anyone this happened)
NPO     Nothing by mouth                Not pleasant odor
          (code brown)
optha   ophthalmic      opthamolicalology, orthomydiacal,   
           (if I use enough letters maybe I will be right)               
 SR        sustained release               sometimes rancid
           (the NPO was SR?)
SubQ   sub cutaneous                     sub-courteously
           (is this a spelling error?)
SL        sub lingual                         standing lateral
           (Or sitting posterior?)
OT       occupational therapy         over there
           (over there...where?)
SOB      shortness of breath           someone obnoxious
           (Watch out! SOB-OT)
LR        Lactated Ringers               lactating regularly
           (can male patients do this?)
RTU     ready to use                      regular time uncertain,
                                                    religious talk underway
            (Oh my! is this test over yet?)
PVC  premature ventricular contraction      plastic pipe
            (husband is a plumber?)
Tx        treatment                       Texas
            (How long ago did you move to Calif?)
Tab      tablet                         totally awsome babe,
                                                   taboo
              (Ot is a Tab who is LR....try that one)
pc         after meals                    politically correct
            (Really?)

HUH, what did you say?

"Look for the Good, You'll find it, Even in Nasty Meanies", maybe

With a new class of students on the horizon and a new hospital to take them to; I have my nasty people worries welling up within me.  Will the mean old man doctor be there?  The one who gets mad if you sit in his chair (never saw his name on it) or the one that is so tall he can’t help but look down his nose at everyone and scare any intelligent answer right out the window. 

And then there is the eerie green reflection of the monitors in the DOU unit (Definitive observation Unit) into the glasses of the secretary ward clerk who has had her big butt in the same seat for 20 years and treats everyone as if she was the Queen of England.  She even talks to everyone about herself in the third person…  Beverly wants you to know “If you can’t get the monitor on correctly, then don’t try!”  The first time she reprimanded my nursing students who have more education in their toes than she has in all lobes of her cranium; I thought, “Who is this Beverly? Some doctor…cardiologist, or who?…guess what? That Beverly was HER!  Imagine, I expected her to begin the royal wave!”

As a nursing student…and their professor, you get very thick skin.  Or at least you try to.  (I got practice as a school board member) Somehow most of the health care workers treat students like the door mats of the hospital, and expect them to bow and scrape.  I have to tell the students to remember how it feels and in 20 years when they are in charge, "be kind to the students." 

It has been said that Nurses eat their young, but these days there is very little left to much-upon after the health care populace gets at them. 

I try to prepare my kids, (they are really young and mostly inocent I become a protective tiger mom while I have them in my class.)  One particularly difficult day as we sat discussing our patients before we left the hospital for the day(behind closed doors). Several were concerned about the cool reception and mean comments made by the staff.  I said, “Don’t think if someone acts nasty or mean it’s you.  It could be something has gone wrong in their life.  Like the doctor who has a wife who just left him, or the nurse who has a sick cat, or maybe even, I don’t know something like her dog died the night before.  If it’s you or something you did, I’ll let you know, and try to help, so don’t worry about the crusty looks you’ve been getting. 

About a week later one of the more shy girls pulled me aside and said, “I know what’s wrong with that one really mean nurse.”  “Oh, you do?” I said, thinking she had some special insight.  “Yes,” she said with a sly smile.  “I figure she owns a kennel, and has lots of dogs, and every night one dies.” She turned away with a special spring in her step.  And I thought, “Ya know, maybe she’s right.”

Mean people suck!  I know that’s not a nice word, but the truth hurts…and sometimes people deserve to hear the truth.  Pollyanna is my middle name, and if something goes wrong, I figure the odds are that something soon will turn out right…like the saying…there is so much horse #$@# in this pile, if you dig deep enough you’ll find a pony.  I know some folks see everything with cracked glasses, or have the chemical thing going that puts them on a downer.  I’ve been lucky in that for the most part I can find something decent about a bad situation.  I don't think anyone has the right to take out their bad day, or bad life on those around them...the unfortunate thing as one bad apple can turn the entire basket rotten, which often happens in the work place.  You...and I should be the ones to stop the spread of being mean! 

On one vacation we had so many car problems I lost weight running down the road to the service station looking for parts to repair our trusty (or untrusted) station wagon.  So when I usually gain weight in a vacation, this is one of the few where I lost weight.  And beside that at the end of the trip we were towed backwards through the Mojave Desert while all seven of us were still sitting in the car….the older kids wanted to put paper bags on their heads they were so embarrassed, but they all admit we saw the most amazing sunset, which we would never have seen if we were driving and all facing in the other direction.  I have found, it depends on your point of view, or where or how you view a situation that will determine if you find it positive or negative.  So if all seems lost and you are full of despair, get up and change how you look at what you have lost, and you may discover it’s not so bad…easy for me to say.

One day soon I’ll talk about my seven years of badbadbad luck…or more accurately, no luck at all.

"Happy Valentines Day, I just opened my Christmas Cards!"

This is a huge confession…sad but true, I just read my Christmas cards and those lovely, yet sometimes long winded notes and missives.   You know one would think at my age…and the age of most of my friends.  The overdone messages should be forgotten, suffice it to say, “Hey! I’m alive, my spouse is too…or not, and my kids are not in drug rehab.  The grandkids haven’t started to drive yet so you are safe on the roads for another year…and leave it to that!  I must admit I run a lot of ink on a montage of photos…mostly sent to folks who wonder who the squinty eyed people are but who sort-of recognize one or two on the page.  Oh well maybe I’ll do better next year…but I doubt it.  My busy notch has been at the top for several weeks now and I see no rest in sight.  Between the play, I mostly wrote in just a few days, and now the contract with Cedar Fort, I am the run around person extraordinaire.   

And on top of that one have I told you yet my hubby has decided to re-do the ceiling in every room…yes you can imagine the mess. Take down the cottage cheese and then put up a new knock down something ceiling he expects me to paint…Ya! Right! And considering how long it took to do the doors. 

Oops the last one needs painting. (my job) and is not done yet.  And when it is all done we put the house for sale and move…yes out of Calif. unless we get some huge influx of cash. (One can always hope as I lovelove the beach)  Enough to pay for the welfare of about 5.3 people who are here illegally including health care and the TB they bring in.  Hey! What ever happened to Ellis Island where my relatives landed where they lifted your eyelid with a button hook and sent you back home if your sclera looked red…or maybe even a little pink!  No coughing was allowed either.  

When I was a nursing student we treated the TB patients at Olive View hospital who lived in bungalows and handed them huge cups of pills to consume until the organism was encapsulated and they were no longer communicable.  Now if you even mention someone looks sick you are told to shut up or you will be labeled racist. 

I say, not racist…just wary of new organisms and junk brought in by unsuspecting folks.  And if they went through proper procedure, they would be treated before they could bring such stuff into our country.  Okay enough of that rant!  I’ve just seen the county clinics loaded down with entire families of 16 or 17 coming in for medication.  Medication I am paying for and the cost is driving many out of the state they have lived in for all, or most of their life.  NOT FAIR Governor Brown.

We did go to the beach for our anniversary, relaxed and saw some old friends...it will make me very sad to move away.  Every time we go to Hollywood beach we see something different like these little critters who wash up on the beach then run away to the sand!

Future Farmers Beauty Contest? OH BOY!

Ali, one of my first grand children has been an outdoor girl since she was a bouncing baby.  She travelled on her mom's back up in a forest above Cedar City.  You see Megan's first job after she graduated from college was a survey on Cedar Mountain.  Meg timed Ali's birth to arrive the Christmas break before she graduated and so this little girl was watching leaves and the sky and critters from a very young age.  She was never much into fluffy pink things much like her mother who you had to hog tie to wear a dress to church. 
At a very young age Ali would carry around caterpillars and bugs in her pockets, then moved on to lizards and small animals.  Now at 14 she is a horse whisperer, and has several horses she has trained from colts.  For her first vehicle, (she can already drive a tractor) she is fixing up an old truck her Uncle Bruce used to haul water out to the cows.  She will get this rusty piece of junk running long before she can drive it legally on the streets. 
She has entered the county fair and been active in Future Farmer of America for several years showing her prize sheep.  One would think, Okay, a farm girl, and a bit, well, you know on the hokey side.  NOT SO, She is an extremely attractive young lady, quite bright (wants to be a veterinarian, but will most likely get a track scholarship to help with the cost.) and with the added bonus she can get covered in grease or other farm stuff, and still look attractive and feminine enough that her dad is considering setting up an electric fence around their house.

We were surprised a bit when Megan called to tell us Alie had entered in a beauty contest.  Yet not surprised to hear she had won the local contest once we got the full explanation that it was a FFA Beauty contest which consisted of a rope pull, driving a tractor and moving manure from one side of a barn to another, and then the topper was a timed gutting of a fish.

"Oh, no wonder she won."  "And then she had to answer questions," Meg told us.  "Questions on what cut of beef is the most expensive and what grain was selling for the highest price."  Saturday as she moved on to the regional competition she had to change a tractor tire (no problemo) and do several other farm type activities.  Tomorrow will be the portion where she will walk around in a prom dress.  That may be tough as she is much more comfortable in cowboy boots than high heels.  We are waiting to hear how that went...film at 11:00.

"I'm A Bag Lady'

    So here I am…!      Judy Phan took my picture for the back of the book cover for Cedar Fort…She erased some of my wrinkles I think...thank's Judy, Judy Judy (sorry couldn't resist) I am discovering without an agent maneuvering through contracts and lists of things they want at the publisher (*Cedar Fort Inc.)  is a bit of a maze for a novice like me.  At my age I should be sitting and knitting and crocheting.

 Ha! Fat chance for that one…I’m too nervous.  I just read an article they are doing away with lots of the OCD, Attention Deficit Diagnosis… (Which I always thought was a lack of running around and stuff to do, like milk the cows, or plough the south 40 kind of stuff.)

So anyway  I can sit for about 10 min every evening before I begin my pop up routine, do other stuff and then forget what I was doing in the first place, It’s just that when I sit down, then I remember what I need to do and try to get some other chores done. Also Remember I’m a bit OCD and have to keep moving. EXAMPLE:  I drove to Oceanside to see a “lady doctor” to care for my lady issues.  (They keep changing their office…soon it will be in Mexico I think.)  Before it was in Palm Springs, then I went to a guy in Chandler AZ…Palm Springs was a fast drive and if I wanted my brother Tim has a house down there I could stay in If I was too tired to drive back…BUT now the drive down the I-5 it is a bear so on the way home I began to fall asleep.  I stopped to walk around, when I said I was tired and had a bit of a drive one of the ladies near said I should go to Starbucks next door…I didn’t, but It was tempting…then I thought of how much their drinks cost…and the thought was gone. I stoppd at a mall of course…found nice stuff for my husband, but not for me well...too much…although I tried on a bunch…that alone will wear  you out, so by the time I got home I was pooped.(mostly from calculating the percentage of money off I should get at the sales!)

Did I mention this is a replacement blog entry for a previous entry…that I accidently erased due to the changes in the blog site?  Please Please quit doing that whoever is in charge of this blog site!

That reminds me of my sons, who every time they are here change prgrams on our computer.  I think they forget that we with OLD minds do not do well with change.  So if the blog-spot wants to keep us more matur4e writers, they should not keep changing stuff…it takes long enough to learn one program, much less two…or three or more...and even then it is hard to remember what we did to get the site the way we want it…never mind that I keep changing things…that’s so I don’t get bored of looking at the same things. ANYWAY>>>

In the previous message to myself, and I say this because I am still not convinced enough people read this to make it worthwhile…however, I will continue as I believe it may be in some ways soothing to write stuff down.  So I will tell the story again…back to bags…"I am a bag lady."

I have bags for each class I teach Sunday School, nursing classes, and also for a Play I am directing as well as other kinds of church stuff, sewing, knitting, embroidery projects etc.  I even put up a big coat hanger in the room where I have all my projects and have every hook full of a bag…  It keeps we a little organized.  But woe to me If I pick up the wrong bag when I am rushed and going out the door in a hurry.  I have to be very careful as I wouldn’t want books on cardiology for a class I’m teaching on the Bible.  Or to take my crochet bag to my Pharmacology class. 

The other day the phone rang.  Silence.  Then breathing, and"Ah, u-m, so Grammy, We got your package with the purse/bag for mom."  “That’s nice honey, thanks for the call”  "So um Grammy, Ali and Brooke got one for Christmas and now my mom has one…ah um…so…Silence.  So Honey, Beth, you would like one too.” Yep”, she says.  “Well I could make you one if you like.”   “Yep,…sigh” was the answer and then

she hung up.

Oh foolish me, I should have known she would want one since everyone around her has one, so now I have another project on its way and another bag hanging down the hall in my project room.  Hopefully I don't confuse that bag with my Sunday School class bag.

How to make Plastic bag-Bags!!?

Plastic-bag-Bag”…or “Give it to Da Man…bag” http://writergrams.blogspot.com  do not pay for grocery bags!

Since they are now charging at a lot of places for plastic bags because of all the tree hugger green people, (didn’t they used to try and cajole you to use plastic instead of paper?)  I think its fun to go into the store and collect my groceries in bags made out of “their” bags….who needs their stinking bags anyway?  And if milk spills in one you made from their  bags you can put it in the top part of your dish washer for cleaning (the ones you crochet are quite sturdy), re shape it and use again…tada!

You can use any size hook from a g to a J...the bigger the hook the faster it will go, but the more bags you'll use...then you must save about 80-100 plastic give away bags…you can cut them into 1 ½ strips…you don’t need to be neat…start from the bottom of the bag going around.  Roll them up like yarn….you don’t have to do all at once, if you get tired of cutting, go ahead and crochet for a while.  (You can get lots of places to give you extra bags, or have put each item in a separate bag before they charge for bags or the new tax hits.  It is easier to cut if they haven’t been used or all crinkled up!)

Get different colors and designs on bags for different effects…some bags are heavier and the strips can be narrower…changing colors can give a stripe pattern…where the bags are tied together you can weave the ends in…put them hanging on the inside…or the outside…(I like that as it looks fluffy)

Foundation row:  chain to the about 2 inches width of bag you want…anywhere from 12 -25 inches, your bag will be larger than your foundation row.

Bottom:  single crochet in second chain from hook.  Work to end of row.  On end crochet three stitches then single crochet down the other side of chain. (You are going around in a circle…or oblong to be exact) then when you get to the end of the second side of your chain…three single crochet in end and then down the other side with single crochet again, increasing on the end with each row.

Body: Continue crochet around until the bottom is as wide as you want.  Usually 3-5 inches wide, (if you want a very wide bag you may end up doing increases at corner stitches so your bottom doesn’t roll up) now once the bottom is done you will continue going around except you will NOT add stitches when you get to the end.  The work will begin to grow into a bag shape…you may even have to decrease a stitch or two to get it to travel up into the tube (bag shape you want. When you get the body of the bag, make it as deep as you want then bind it off…

Patterns: Different colors make stripes or other patterns with the bag colors or print on bags you have.

Handles:  join yarn at the open end of the bag where you want handle to begin.  Chain to make it the length you desire.  Then single crochet back and forth to the width you want. (I usually do three to four rows)  Each time you are back at the purse top make sure you attach the handle to the body of the bag.  When done then slip stitch other end to the corresponding place on the same side of the bag.  Repeat.

Strength addition:  to make sure the handles are strong, do another row of single crochet around both handles joining at the body of the bag as you go around.  Using a contrasting color bag ads style, whatever that is?

Decoration can be shreds of different colors around or one side, or add, pockets on the inside or out, I like making flowers and sewing with the bag-yarn to the front…are also a nice touch I think.

This will be on my blog with pictures… http://writergrams.blogspot.com   Have fun and when people ask about your bags… you can smile and think inside your head…”I gave it to da man.

I'm not Lazy!

I'm not lazy!  I've been so busy writing...amazing how much time things take.   I'm writing a Radio-Theater piece..."Murder at the Convent", hopefully to be heard on KBET...and to be followed by others.

Also doing an adaptation of "The Ten Virgins" which was way too slow for my liking, without a wit of humor..and half way through watching the tape I was hoping the last five virgins would get married so they didn't have to sing their song of woe!  Sean McLaughlin who is an amazing composer is helping with the music to spice it up....It took four days and over 50 hours to come up with a workable script for a 45 min production...with music. (lyrics by me).  Now I only have to direct the production...a piece of pie, or is that cake?

Then...WONDER OF WONDERS... got a contract in the mail to publish the "Jingle Bell Bum"...any one who got a chance to read it got a freebie....it is now back under wraps awaiting Cove Fort Inc.  tender touch to make it perfect and get it to a book store for at least $5 near you!

Promise to write something of more interest next week...I promise..

Oh by the way, he got up the last door and is now taking off the cottage cheese from the ceiling and putting on a knock down finish.....this may take until 2020   so don't plan to move just yet...so far it's a huge mess, but in the old girl's room upstairs...I can hardly wait (just kidding) for the living room to be blessed by the hand of the hubby....film at eleven...of a murder...or NOT!

What I got for Christmas, reminds me I was like Loretta Young, feel like Napoleon Dynamites' Brother, and had breakfast with Katherine Hepburn.

It has been a fun and interesting holiday, I got for Christmas a neat-o device...a Kindle...yes I admit it...I folded...got another piece of technology...I feel like Napoleon Dynamites' brother.."I love technology", no pages to turn, no nice smell of the book binding.

But then again, it will fit nicely in my clipboard at the hospital and I won't have to rip my trashy novels into pieces to fit in the little space under the clipboard writing area. Oh, yes...I would sneak the pages out during my lunch to read...often hidden in a nursing magazine so I would look studious.

This nice tiny device downloads books pretty quickly, but I was having a bit of a problem getting the thing to work...I hope I have it fixed now that I have taken a total of eight hours fiddling with it...as it is one of those things..."HOW do it know?" If it won't work...since I have no idea how it works in the first place...I would never be able to get it fixed myself...

And have you ever talked to one of those tech-help guys...sitting in India, or some such place...named Peggy of course, they all try to sound like Americans. HA! as if I couldn't tell in two seconds they were on another continent!  Anyway, those guys are a pain and so far I have never had one of them ever help...for example...the story about one day when Mike and I tried to build Patrick a computer and the processor blew up! What a mess!

Against our better judgement we called the help number...The guy on the other end kept saying "What does the bios-say?" "Hey, buddy, the screen is black..blank." I yelled into the receiver, only to get the question again.  "So tell me now, What does the Bios say?"  "Dude", I said loudly, "Can't you get it...no screen on...no bios to SEE or read..."Now mam, (the condescending voice said) simply...take a little peek, What does the Bios say???  I hung up and returned the smoking thing to Fry's electronics...AND, I have to tell you honestly that before I left the return counter I saw them shrink wrap it-up and put a price tag on it..."HEY! that processor does not work...It blew up!" I said,...The guy just looked at me and smiled..."Now are you sure honey?"  I stomped off and I know some tech-slob bought that processor and is cursing out someone thousands of miles away who is asking..."hmmm, now...tell  me...What does the bios say fella?"

Yes I admit I read silly novels at work because after a while how many times can you read about child birth, care plans, wound care, and insulin administration so I do read the occasional book of nonsense, for after 50 years as an RN I feel entitled.

Hey wait a half a mo...No! I can't be that old..no way, impossible!  I was a child nurse I know.  Wore pigtails delivering  my first babies, and when I worked as a research assistant with a doctor who took care of mostly movie stars and politicians, broke the rule frequently "not to go out with patients". Heck, I was a child, and tinsel town was exciting.  I went to more star-studded parties than an astronomer, AND frequently dated people you would know if I mentioned them, but I won't, today.  I broke the rule because I was a kid who thought the rule did not apply to me, and I know my mentor and doctor, Martin Covel  MD. of Beverly Hills and USC. (thought I was more like Loretta Young than anyone he knew because I could not open a door without throwing it aside to make a grand entrance     
...anyway, he surly knew ( don't call me Shirley, sorry I can't help it.) I broke the rules all the time and kept his mouth shut because he knew most of the patients treated me like a mascot of sorts, and would be upset if he fired me.

In fact when I first suggested I leave his employ after I married my Frenchman, he lured me to stay with the same pay, yet dropped me from 8 hours to 5 hours, (quite the deal in those days.)  I did that for another three years, giving B12 shots to hung over actors by driving to the studio, and going to the sets where they were working.  I guess it was a glamorous job now that I think about it, and a good thing there was some bit of cerebral activity to keep my brain busy gathering and assisting to gather data or I would have been very bored.  Weird that it was many years later that I took statistics to get my BSN...since I had been fully immersed in compiling and calculating data for this job not even realizing I was doing a statistical analysis.

For this very gruff doctor (yet a cream puff on the inside) at lunch time we provided him with a fat free diet as he was very rotund.  His wife insisted (he married his first secretary) and I heard, not too long after I left his employ he died of a heart-attack.  He loved rich food, but worst of all he smoked.  He CLAIMED he didn't.  But my Loretta Young behavior of slamming open the sliding doors without a knock...caught him often with a cigarette, which he quickly threw into his trash can...or the drawer with his patient charts where he hid his ashtray. (many of the charts had burn holes in them).  He couldn't fool me...first, because of my great nose...and then because smoke would frequently be wafting from the bottom drawer of his desk as his charts went up in smoke...I would leave and quickly return with a large glass of water...and a towel...then exit his office.  I guess we both had secrets...and told no one.

During those years, the late '60s, I was especially friends with Vicki Carr, and we went to lunch together often.  I think she thought that me in a nurse uniform kept her anonymous as she was a very popular singer at the time.  And whenever Katherine Hepburn who would ride her bike into the office and sleep on the couch in the waiting room while waiting for the doctor to arrive for her physical often we'd walk down to the corner and have breakfast after I drew her blood for tests.  At first I made her toast with jam and coffee, but she said "Dear, I need a more substantial breakfast and would like some company." and I know she did need a bigger breakfast (or so I thought)...as I was quite skinny in those days, but she was very tall and looked even thinner than me.  She wore a scarf on her head and sun glasses and no one ever knew who she was...and I guess being with a kid dressed in a nurse uniform was her celebrity disguise.  She didn't talk a lot and wanted to know about my life.  I told her about my husband and all the softball games he pitched in.  It seemed she liked hearing about anything that wasn't acting.  I wasn't very impressed with the famous folks who came into the office there in Beverly Hills on Wilshire Blvd., including Richard Nixon and Walt Disney (who once also wanted me to keep him company during his breakfast)...I guess because with my dad in the movie industry I was around what one would call "stars" for most of my life. I only thought of people as nice, kind, or mean and nasty.  What a person did for a living never seemed to make a difference much to me. I remember once making friends with the cleaning lady from next door.  The fellow who lived there was the director/producer of the original Godzilla.  Everyone thought he must have been Japanese, but he was Jewish, and I remember he was also a diabetic...his daughter let me play their piano and we would sneak  candy out of his stash for if he went into insulin shock.  I know my indifference to famous or celebrity people was one of the things this Doctor liked about me.

When Martin hired me he didn't know my father was in the movie industry...I think the main requirement was to be somewhat attractive, and very smart (he gave me a math test as part of the interview).  Wow! Now that I think about it...my second job as an RN nurse was perfect for me...awesome, and really fun!

Student Nurse Vampires! I'm a werewolf and It's a good thing.

It is the end of a semester and my nursing students take the pledge!  "If I ever find Professor Hanrion in a nursing home in poopy diapers...." well you can fill in the rest.  This week I watched several of my old students, (those from two semesters ago) graduate and began to think of my new-nurse days.


This photo is one of my students with a seasoned and very good nurse friend of mine.  They had a special bond and worked together for the two months we were on this unit.  He helped her a lot since she was not even five feet tall...she had a hard time reaching things.  And He was over 6'8" and could reach almost anything.


I usually ask my male students during conferences why they chose nursing as a career and get a variety of answers. Most have relatives they admire who are in the medical field.  Others have opted into the career  because they have not been able to gain entrance to medical school or the Fire Department...usually due to quotas!  Sometimes it is difficult for men in what is considered a woman's career and it certainly takes a gutsy and self assured male to venture into this world.  Several of my male students were ex-military (I had to constantly tell those guys "gentle-gentle")  and I had one student who was a paramedic and had tried 6 times to gain entrance to the County fire squad, scoring over 100% on each exam.  (He told me his girlfriend's father continually mocked him as a 'girly-man-nurse' at family gatherings.) Men with much lower scores than he were hired and trained because of their ethnicity.  I'm not sure I want the lower scoring fellows putting out my fires...but that is life, once again, here in beautiful politically correct California.  Fire fighter's loss was Nursing's gain...he was a very bright young man.


Lots of the men I know in the profession work at night...I'm not sure if it is to avoid mocking criticism about being in a woman's field, but imagine a woman who worked hard to be an engineer being teased for her career choice!  Nursing is a very difficult job as you must think, process, evaluate and DO all at once.  Both sides of the brain have to work simultaneously, not like some other well respected careers.  Like a person who is good with their hands who has no critical thinking skills, or a person who is good at solving math, or situational problems actually having to give a presentation and interface with the human race such as rocket scientists...who are known to be reclusive. (I know several rocket scientists and have found their communication skills somewhat lacking) and besides most guys can help me figure out the new computer systems that are now mandated in most hospitals.


Nurses who work at night are often thought of as vampires as they go for weeks without seeing the sun.  In fact that may be why they chose nursing as a career. I don't know but some of the night nurses do look a bit strange when I report to duty in the morning. I can almost picture them sleeping in coffins...but that may be the bad hair day they usually have by the time they have been up all night.  Not too long ago I worked for several years doing 12 hour night shifts, and sometimes 16 hour night shifts.  The bad thing is...my interior clock never quite shifted to the night-time.  At 3 am my body usually said sleep, Sleep, SLEEP!  Another clue that I never flipped to night time waking is the fact that I never peed at night.  Then at 6am when I should have been just waking up, I went to the bathroom volumes...dumping the many sodas and glasses of liquid I had consumed since about 10pm the night before.


Then my husband started bugging me to quit nights.  He said I was grumpy for several days after a long run of night shifts.  And I realized my body was beginning to rebel when I had issues with my bowels, and felt crummy most of the time.


After you graduate nursing school most students get assigned to a night shift.  Not really the best place to hone your skills.  Such was the situation with me.  Many moons ago after I graduated, at the tender age of 18, I worked the night shift in labor and delivery at newly built Kaiser hospital. (which now is closed as a hospital...it's creepy to think you have out-lived a building...)


However, the night shift in this specialty is particularly busy.  Pregnant women will relax, go to sleep and then the baby decides to emerge in the middle of the night...or at least her body says, "get out of here".  (Then 19-20 years later when that same child is staying in the room you always wanted to turn into a den or sewing room...you say "get out of here."  Sometimes it even works!)


I saw lots of action during the night in this specialty area of the hospital and got very good at delivering babies...often by myself because the doctor didn't get there in time.  I was young and pliable and slept the next day until 5 pm and never noticed that when I was giving report to the day shift I needed to go to the bathroom several times or my bladder would explode.  When I was older that same situation sent me into bad-breath, grumpy, diarrhea nasty mom.  So it's a good thing new nurse graduates make good night nurses and can give us older and wiser day-loving (werewolf) Angels of Mercy a Break!


THANK YOU New-Graduate NURSES WHO WORK THE NIGHT SHIFT            
 (My bladder and family thanks you too.)

Road Trip Nightmare...almost!

Roadtrip Nightmare…almost.

The journey began two days before the trip actually began with a fellow who cut off a Cal Arts junk-auto driving purple haired student…the domino reaction then caused the fellow to jump a divider while I was calmly waiting at a red light.  I was eye to eye with Mr. Violet locks as he blammed into my front driver-side fender and door…The door was so smashed in I couldn’t get it open and was scrambling over the center console to try and get the license number of the guy who had caused the accident.

Thankfully the perpetrator stopped right there on Valencia and McBean Parkway and admitted he had swerved into the college student’s lane.  No one was hurt…except for my beloved car which has a penchant for stationary accidents.  Either in a parking lot, parked, or stopped at a red light.  Oh the woes of L.A. Calif. driving, you’re not safe anywhere.

Drivers exchanged information and the next day I took my car into the shop for repair, with insurance approval…thank goodness.  The bad thing was we were leaving the next day to drive 450 miles to Monroe Utah to spend Thanksgiving with two of our daughters and six of the 12 grandkids…with a stop in Fredonia Arizona to see Patrick’s brother along the way.  I was excited as we were planning to take my car with the seats which are much more “back-friendly” than my husband’s truck. “Oh no! “I thought, “Now we have to take the back-breaker”

However Patrick’s smile of glee (he loves to drive his truck) was soon squelched because I was offered a very large Ford Explorer…so wide it barely fit in the garage, as all the smaller cars were already rented for the long weekend.  I did the happy dance packing the monster car with all our gifts, food for the feast, and even my “Glenda the Good witch” costume at the special request of Beth, Megan’s five year old.

We had not been on the road more than two hours when the dash began blinking a tire was low.  We ignored the blinking…mostly due tothe fact we had no idea what the blinking meant…there was so muchhigh tech stuff on the dash we had not yet figured out how to turn on the radio.  I looked for the directions…which were not found until we were stopped between Glendale and Mesquite in Nevada…the middle of nowhere and not far from Zyzyx, for anyone who knows the area. 

As Patrick pulled out the 25mile do-nut tire to allow us to reach civilization, we found the directions to the intricacies of the dash board. (They were hidden under the car-jack and never been opened, I assumed as a joke on us non-initiated car-tech drivers)  We met some very nice people in Logandale who sold us a tire allowing us to drive to St. George Utah and exchange our car for a smaller SUV as no tire to fit the large Ford until after the long weekend.  After the nice people at Enterprise car rental exchanged our flat tire car for another and we put our large load into the second car and we were finally on our way…after basically a three hour detour.  I guess not as long as Gilligan on his sea tour!

On the way to Megs’ house we stopped for one night in Fredonia to visit with Don and Tony and check in on our house.  Patrick wanted to get a few things off the ranch which may be sold to the Paiute Indians.

Jacob and Beth called us no less than six times on Wednesday waiting for us to arrive and were very excited for our visit.  We went to the horse auction to see Brooke herd some of the animals into the barn for the auctioneer.  Then went out to the farm to see Ali’s new truck.  Well, it really is an old one from the rancho and belonged to Uncle Bruce.  It’s about 30 years old and was used to haul water out to the cattle when the well ran dry.  She was excited and hoped to be able to fix it up and drive it to school.  Quite different from the fancy rides the kids in Santa Clarita drive to school.

On our way home I began to write…a little ditty…

Now…I should’a known and simply said, “Let’s stay home in our big cozy bed.”

But No! The calls from kids led to the adventure that’s hard to forget.

It all began most innocently,

Tickets to go east were beyond our budget capacity

I should’a known and simply said,

“We ought ’a stay home, are you out’a your head?”

A trip to the girls only four hundred fifty miles away

“Mom, please come, we can cook and play”

The plans got set for a road trip, and almost packed to go

When sitting at a red light doing nothing wrong

A guy in leather pants singing a purple hair song

Smashed into my fender, and driver door too

The car went to the body shop, “What else could I do?”

My rental was big, “It’s all that we have”

The insurance man’s voice cooed, he applied it like salve.

So I said to my sweetie, “Let’s take this car on the trip,

The seats won’t give me a backache so I feel like a dip

Like the seats in the front of your old truck”

Off we went feeling good til out in the desert we ran out a’ luck.

Hey feller, we ain’t got that tire out here in the sticks

We thought he was gonna cheat us with one of his tricks

But he put on tire and said as we drove out of sight

“Have fun with the family and a great Thanksgiving night.”

In the next town the folks were helpful when they saw we were stuck

(I was beginning to think we should’a brought Patrick’s old crippling truck)

But they fixed us up with a rental and we squeezed in it quite tight

Finally reached our destination, from then on things went fine and right. 

I thought, “It could have been worse like when we had all five kids in the wagon

And got hauled backwards through the Mojave with our spirits a’draggin

We had a great time hiking in Moab checking out arches and edifice.  And at the end of one day our single daughter found an Irishman in the need of a kiss

So after the fun we waved and called them by name
We were full of joy and could have heard us exclaim

On Megan and Darin, Bye Ali and your horse

  Bye, Jessika, Brooke, Jake and Trevor of course.

  Colleen and Little Beth in her dancing shoes

  We were with our loved family…so how could we loose.

Some may ask

Should we have stayed home and alone for the holiday?
No I don’t think so, I would have travelled there in a sleigh
Yes, the trip filled was with flat tires and a bit of strange woe
But, just ask me again, I’ll be packed in a jiffy and ready to go….