Don't forget to vote!

I want to encourage everyone to vote tomorrow. Please take a moment to review all of the items on your ballot so that you are informed as you vote. You might know that a particularly heated debate has been occuring about referendum 1 in the state of Utah. If you don't know what your view is on this topic, please take a look at this site and read the arguments and rebuttals for and against so that you can make an informed decision about it when voting. I have developed a strong opinion about this topic over the last couple of weeks, but will say no more about it because I feel that as long as voters are informed, they will make the decision they feel is best. :)

Good luck, and happy voting!

Numbers for the neurotic

you'll have to forgive me, but everything seems poetic at 2am.

Just a side note: the hospital wifi is painfully slow. I arrived at 1:30 and it is now 2:20...see how much I've accomplished in 50 min? good thing I have lots of time....

It's amazing how suddenly I'm an expert at this nursing thing. Of course I know just as much or more than the nurses, heck I'm even wearing scrubs to play the part...the beautiful thing is that when I get home, I won't even have to change to go back to bed. And numbers have become our life. Every day it's a different number that worries our bald spots, or, in my case, our stomach ulcers (now that I'm a nurse, I can more accurately diagnose it).

Tuesday morning at 1am in the emergency room, it was blood pressure numbers in the 200's that knawed like a teething child at the holes in our stomachs. 225, 212, 201. sometimes we were lucky and got a 195 or even 185. That night there was also the oxygen levels to worry about, though not as much. 85% or 90%. Somehow Tuesday seems distant and passe' compared to the gaping hole that the last day has left in my stomach lining. This time it's all been about carbon dioxide levels. Let me tell you, if it's not one thing it's another. Some ambiguous number of "50" is what we're aiming for.

having the numbers constantly updated like tickertape right in front of me for 2 hours probably makes me a bit neurotic. The blood pressure monitor might sit at 160 for an eternity of minutes before it finally obeys my telepathic command to retreat.

I find that playing thumbwars with dad distracts him from pulling at his tubes and the "jason mask" they are forcing him to wear. Every so often he will reach up to touch his parched mouth and re-discover, once again, that there is a mask in his way. Everytime it is the same: He will feel the valve in front of his mouth and then work his fingers up from there along the left side of the hard plastic, over his eyes and forehead, he feels the velcrow holding the mask tight to his face and you can see that he is briefly contemplating tearing it off. Sometimes he does. He continues randomly pinning my thumb under his even after I've long since assumed that he's asleep.

One time, I appologize to him for my cold hands and his reply comes out muffled through the mask that it's ok. Then he says something else that I don't understand. I lean in farther and ask him to repeat. "Is that the place where you died?" he says. I briefly hope I misunderstood him.
But I say "I haven't died yet, dad."
He pats my hand and replies, "you lucky kid".

As my shift nears it's end, I'm thinking that maybe I will wait and publish this later, just to make sure. I mean, it is 3:30 in the morning, afterall.

Arriving home, I find that somehow someone else has arrived at our apartment building between the hours of 2 and 4am and stolen my perfect spot. I momentarilly curse night shift workers as I drive around to the back of the lot to find the one remaining open spot. As I walk past the car that stole my spot and up the steps to my place, I mentally take back my cursing and count my lucky stars that I'm not the one that has to regularly be up at this insanely hour.

Dumming down the information age

My current job has certainly helped me feel a little more computer savy than I have previously felt. I can do things now that I never dreamed I'd learn to do a year and a half ago. But with so much new knowledge, comes a higher level of responsibility. I feel to warn all you out there (all 2 that read this) that are thinking of jumping on this information bandwagon. Deep down, something tells me that perhaps instead, I my intellectual level is moving in the opposite direction. I had this thought while simultaneously trying to instant message with a six month old baby, a decapitated head, a bag of sweedish fish, and what looks something like a miniature shark. No matter that they were, in return, IMing with a picture of snow white. How proud I was that I was able to keep each conversation straight (for the most part). Don't you love it when you accidentally IM your friend with, "Sweet!" when they told you their grandma died (Oops, I meant that for the sweedish fish who got 100% on a test)?

I'm claiming nothing new here, but sometimes I forget that there is a real person on the other end of that conversation. Sometimes I might forget to talk to them that way. Just because they don't answer right away doesn't mean they are shunning me. Maybe....just maybe they have other things to do besides be at my beck and call constantly. I guess this is why we save time by responding with "ROFL" instead of "that's funny" or "AYBABTU" instead of "all your base are belong to us". I kid you not....that's real.

Interestingly, I thought my sister and I rather randomly came up with "lawl" to replace "LOL". But, no....I don't think so. Unless we're more trend-setty than we know. I found it when looking up that wiki link above. (seriously, you need to do this: go here and look under "variations on the theme". Excuse me while I pause to bask in my new-found knowledge of how popular I am.... "But wait!" you say, "isn't this off wikipedia? The place where anyone can edit anything themselves on there? How do we know that you are not the one that put 'lawl' in the 'LOL' entry?" Hmmm...just trust me on this. I'm not that computer savy.

'and call it a jubilee'

I heard my mom use this term once, when referring to taking a year off from having a garden. It also is the key title of one of my favorite songs. I looked it up in the dictionary and here were the parts that (ever so losely) apply to my meaning today:

1. often Jubilee Bible In the Hebrew Scriptures, a year of rest to be observed by the Israelites every 50th year, during which slaves were to be set free, alienated property restored to the former owners, and the lands left untilled.
2. often Jubilee Roman Catholic Church A year during which plenary indulgence may be obtained by the performance of certain pious acts.

Couple of things I would like to say in relation to this:

A- When I declare this year my "jubilee year", it's not because I feel I deserve it. Frankly, I don't. I'm not 50, nor have I been in bondage for 50 years, let alone the 28 of my life. I definitely have not performed any pious acts to make me deserve a "jubilee year". Nonetheless, I would like to say I declared this my "jubilee year" back when I booked my first trip in February. Soon after another one was planned, and another, and another...and...another (insterestingly, of those 5 trips, I only went to 3 different places).

B- When I declare this my Jubilee year, it's *mainly* because that's just how it has turned out. I mean, have you noticed that I haven't blogged in like 6 months? It's because it's my "Jubilee year". What about all the vacations I've been on? Jubilee. All the money I've spent? You know the answer. My messy room? -- of course! Ok, so maybe it's more of an excuse than a declaration.

Now I'm trying to figure out what else I can add to enhance my year off. I mean, really...the year is only half over and I don't really have much planned for the rest of the year. Is it just going to be a "Jubilee Half-Year"? Heavens. I hope not. I would welcome your suggestions of more fun "Jubilee" activities I can perform this year. And to make this more of a challange, let's say that it has to range somewhere from cheap to cost-free. Let's face it, all this playing has not helped my bank account.

#1 - I'm impervious to being tagged

Chain letter-schmain schmetter.

Here are the rules:

THE RULES: Each player of this game starts with the '7 weird things about you.' People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 7 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 7 people to be tagged and list their names. Don't forget to leave a comment that says 'you are tagged' in their comments and tell them to read your blog.

jojoba only tagged one, so that's all I'm going to do.

ok, um....7 weird things (this shouldn't be hard):

2) my nasal cavity is ashamedly small and refuses to drain properly. Though, I find it interesting that it never had problems draining until I got a sinus infection a year ago. So *suddenly* my nasal cavity shrunk and my mucus thickened and it's all 'normal'? And it had nothing to do with my sinus infection? Mom always said I was a late bloomer. I guess this proves it.

3) I have a disease that causes people to gain 50+ lbs in rapid succession, yet I am begging to gain 10lbs so as not to look so skeletor-like (imagine him without the muscles).

4) I am rational (okay, not all the time). I find that that makes me weird.

5) I wear glasses. There are two of us out of 40 here at work that do such an inhuman thing.

6) I have short hair. I'm the only one at work that is so weird.

7) If I make a commitment to do something semi-important with someone (like attend and help with a very good friend's birthday party), and a guy asks me out for that same night with not much notice, I will gently tell him I have plans and could we do it some other night...I know..."weird".

ok, I'm gonna have to think about who to tag.