Lettuce Ketchup

Sorry that I missed the last few weeks. Things were crazy! Here is a quick catch up post to get back on track.

* The craziness started right after my last post. I talked about the week of death. Well my brother-in-law's Granddad's funeral service was planned for Thursday night. I had planned to take off work Friday and drive up to Nashville for the services. Then the weather... Wednesday night everyone was talking about the weather and freaking out. I tend to ignore all that stuff, so I just went on with life. I get a call that evening from the doctor I'm working with telling me to go ahead and take off work Thursday too so I can go be with family. Have I mentioned that I love the docs I work with? I woke up Thursday morning and looked out the window and there was actually some snow. I was thankful for the day off. I curled up on the couch and drank coffee and caught up on some DVR. I don't think I went outside all day.

*  Here is my small rant, because I hate when my friends from the North make fun of our "snow days," yes I know that this isn't a big deal compared to whatever icecap you came from. Yes I know that when you were growing up they never cancelled school for a little snow. I get it. I'm over it. Memphis isn't equipped to handle snow. We don't need to be. I've been up North when it snows. The next morning the plows have come, the streets are clear, and there are nice snow banks along the side of the road. Memphis doesn't have that. Also, many schools are walking schools. There are a lot of precious little children that walk to school that may have a light jacket, but most likely don't have a warm coat, and hat, and gloves and any other snow gear. So yes, I know that Memphis occasionally closes schools when it's cold and there is a threat of snow and people laugh about it. But snow or no snow, weather in the teens and 20s is cold. You try walking or standing at a bus stop in just a jacket and see how the kids feels. This wasn't meant to be quite this long, but oh well. We don't get a lot of snow. We freak out about it. Tornado and earthquake drills as a kid, though, were just another day...

*  Because of the weather (it was worse in Nashville than Memphis), the funeral services were moved to Saturday. The weather was supposed to warm up on Friday afternoon so I packed up my car and got on the road once it warmed up some. Actually, I caravanned with my parents because they were worried. Ha! I met them at an exit and followed my dad all the way to Nashville. The service Saturday was great. Granddad was an extraordinary man: physician, artist, author, mentor, etc.

*  I go back to work the next week and everything is back to normal. Busy, but normal. Wednesday I walk into the craziness. All 5 of our lists are at max capacity and they are thinking about calling in the back up physician (which we never have to do). I mentally prepare for a busy day and start seeing patients and trying to discharge the few people that are ready to go home. Then at about noon, the internet goes down. Slightly inconvenient. I see a few more patients and then decide to give up and go to lunch thinking that surely it will be back up after that. Nope. No such luck! I can't write notes. I can't put in orders. I can't see lab results. I can't discharge people. It is a mess. I finally give up. I had seen all the patients on the list, but couldn't do any more work so I left. And I went for a nice long run. Then I went home and started notes from home. I didn't finish things until after 8 that night. Blah!
Apparently there was a manhole downtown that caught fire and burned some fiber so there were lots of places in midtown and downtown without internet. It didn't come back up at the hospital until around midnight that night!

* Last Saturday was Pi Day. Like the nerdiest of pi days. 3/14/15. If you are as cool as me you celebrated on 3/14/15 at 9:26.53 That's a lot of digits guys! I ran 3.14 miles and then went and bought an apple pie. Because, of course!

*  Later that night, my roommate had some people over for game night for her 30th birthday. Such a fun night. I really like games. And hanging out with people. I need those nights.

*  Last week, I spoke at a career panel. It was for my sorority at Rhodes. They asked some alumnae to come talk. We were split up into classrooms with someone else in a similar field and the girls could chose which class to go to. I was with a research nurse at St Jude. We had about 20 girls in our class. We each spoke a little and then gave them time to ask questions about jobs in the healthcare field and just some general interview questions. They were all really sweet. I gave one girl my email address and she asked if she could shadow me sometime. I really should get more involved with the chapter...

So I think that's it. I think that should get you caught up on my life. It is now officially Spring and we have had some glorious days that are sunny and 70! Praise God!