foxes and glittens

i went to the Denver Art Museum today with one of my coworkers. of course i left my camera at home. grrr! but i really liked a lot of the exhibits. i don't think i've been to an art museum since highschool. i'm not very good at seeing beyond the exterior though, into what the pieces mean and such. i kind of wish i'd taken art appreciation in school. this walk-through exhibit was pretty cool. you could hardly see the wires suspending the foxes in the air.

later i went grocery shopping, so i wouldn't have to eat instant oatmeal again if i was hungry in the middle of the night. and then i came home and relaxed. and finished knitting my first pair of glittens! it was the hardest thing i've knit so far. i'm rather proud. oh, the cleverness of me. i guess this is my form of art. :-P

snow, tea, and insomnia

I was going to wait and update my blog when I had some more pictures to share. But I'm kind of lazy when it comes to capturing my life on film - or shall I say, memory card. I always seem to forget my camera when I go out, and then I see something I want to take a picture of and can't. Today I was good, and remembered to bring my camera with me. Alas, when I went to take a picture, I found the battery was dead.

But I'm going to update this anyway, because I can't sleep. In the past 30 hours I've slept about 3 of them. I just now lay in bed for 50 minutes, utterly exhausted and wide awake. And my feet were cold. And I was hungry. I'm always hungry these days. Maybe eating all the time is my body's compensation for sleep deprivation. Unfortunately, I'm running low on groceries. I was going to go grocery shopping in the morning, when I'd had enough sleep to think straight. So here I am with icy toes and an empty stomach. They roll up the sidewalks around here by 8 or 9, and I'm really too tired to drive, so going out to get food is out of the question. Guess I'll have to settle for instant oatmeal. Better than nothing.

I got up early this afternoon to go out to lunch with some ladies from work. We went toBoulder Dushanbe Teahouse. It was scrumptious. That's when I wanted to take pictures. Apparently the teahouse was a gift to Boulder from Tajikistan. It's absolutely beautiful, with mosaics on the ceiling and carved wooden pillars and beautiful statues and a fish pond in the middle. Oh, and in the corners, they had short tables where you could take off your shoes and sit cross-legged on cushions while drinking your tea. We sat at a regular table though. We all got different kinds of tea, and they brought it out in individual teapots, and gave us a little hourglass timer so we'd know how long to steep our tea leaves for. One of them got a blossoming tea, which I'd never heard of, but was very entertaining. Before putting it in hot water, it looks like a dried blob of mushroom or something. Then you add hot water, and it expands to look like a blossoming flower. We sat and watched it for at least 5 minutes. Here's a picture of one I found on the internet.

I guess I don't have much to write. Work is going well, and I think I'm getting the hang of computer charting. It's snowed a couple of times, but right now the roads are clear, thankfully. I desperately need snow tires. Driving home Sunday morning was scary. I'll hopefully get my tires changed tomorrow or Wednesday. I also need to get over my hatred of shopping long enough to buy some decent winter clothes. I've been layering a lot.

one week down, twelve to go

Well, I've been in colorado for a week now. It feels like longer. My wonderful 19-yr-old cousin Noah drove up with me from Texas, and he definitely made the drive easier. On Wednesday we just drove from Magnolia to Dallas, so I could see my grandmother before heading to CO. Thursday we drove to Salina, Kansas, which was a long boring drive. Both Wednesday and Thursday it rained and was cloudy most of the way. We ate a lot of junk food, and played with the GPS. Finally, on Friday things got more interesting. The sun came out, and the drive was beautiful. Right before crossing over the border into Colorado, Noah looked out the window and saw white stuff on the ground. Trying to be cool and nonchalant, he casually mentioned it.

"Um, Ruth, what's that?" (pointing out the window)

Me: "Oh, it looks like snow!"

Then he lost it, started giggling hysterically and bouncing up and down in his seat.

The snow got thicker and thicker as we drove west, and we stopped at the "welcome to Colorado" rest stop to have a snowball fight and make snowmen and a snow angel. Noah was excitedly rolling the balls for the snowman, when a man came walking out of the nearby building and started talking to us.

"Is this your first snowman of the season?" he asked

Noah: "No, it's my first snowman EVER!"

"Oh, well then, I gotta get a picture of this." and he pulled out his camera phone, snapped a picture, and walked off smiling. I think we made his day. Here's our snowman. We named him Duncan.

And of course Noah had to make some Calvin snowmen (if you don't know what that means, then you must read Calvin and Hobbes). This amused several other passers-by.

Friday afternoon we arrived at my apartment. It's the nicest apartment I've ever had, in one of those "luxury" complexes I've always been a little afraid of. You know, the kind of complex that's big enough to be a small village, and every building looks the same. I think some of Austin rubbed off on me, as far as gentrification goes. But it's a very nice apartment, and I do like living there. And it's paid for by my travel company, and they provided the furniture, which is actually pretty nice. I can't see the mountains from my window, but I do get the sunrises.

After moving my stuff in we did a little exploring in the area, bought a bunch of stuff at Walmart that I couldn't bring with me (you can only fit so much stuff into your car), and rested. I'd been sick for about a week and a half, and that on top of driving 1100 miles, and getting used to the altitude made me pretty exhausted. Saturday Noah flew home, and I spent the rest of the weekend resting and exploring some more, and trying out a couple different churches in the area.

Monday through Wednesday I had long, overwhelming computer classes at the hospital. The computer system is probably going to be the most challenging part of this job. At my job in Austin, we were still doing mostly paper charting, so the computer system is going to take a lot of getting used to, though I don't have much time to get used to it. I only get 2 shadow shifts on the floor, then I'll be on my own. But everyone seems pretty nice so far, so hopefully they'll help me. Last night was my first shadow shift, and my first night shift ever. It was kind of quiet and laid back, and after doing some charting I don't feel quite as intimidated by the computers. I didn't realize it, but I'd missed working. The 3-week break in-between jobs was nice, but once I was back on the floor working with patients, it occurred to me that I had missed it. Missed the patients. That's a good sign, right? Well, I made it through my first night shift without falling asleep, though I came close a couple of times. I hadn't had much of an appetite and hardly ate anything the whole shift, so I was starving when I got off work. So I ate my roast beef sandwich on the way home at 7:40 am, went to bed at 8:30, and woke up 4 hours later feeling awake but slightly jet-lagged. I think my body is going to be very confused for awhile.

Well, that's about it so far. Oh - except we had a massive snow storm Tuesday through Thursday, and I thought I was going to die trying to drive in it. But I didn't. I just drove really really slow, and probably ticked off all the experienced Colorado drivers in their 4-wheel drive trucks and SUV's. Hopefully they saw my Texas license plate and had mercy.

under way and off to see the world

I'm about to drive to Colorado to work as a travel nurse for the next 3 months. Most people know I've been thinking about it for awhile, so I won't write a bunch of details about it right now. I got a phone interview for the job last Tuesday, and they offered it to me a couple hours later. Then I had to drive from Austin to Magnolia to get some labwork done, do a crazy amount of paperwork, and see my little brothers while they were home for fall break. Then I drove back to Austin Monday to quit my job, pack the rest of my things, and spend 2 days saying goodbye to my brother, sister, friends, and coworkers. After they all gave me hugs, said nice things, and tore my heart out, I drove back to Magnolia last night. Now I'm at my parents' house, and have a few hours to cram all my belongings into the back of my car. If I thought about it enough, I could probably come up with something poetic to say about what lies before me. But all that comes to mind right now is this:

When the course is laid and the anchor's weighed

A sailor's blood begins racing

With our hearts unbound and our flag unfurled

We're under way and off to see the world

Under way and off to see the world

Hey ho, we'll go

Anywhere the wind is blowing

Hoist the sails and sing

Sailing for adventure on the big blue wet thing!

i love my patients

in the midst of all the busyness and stress of my job, there's always room for a little humor...

yesterday, i was called into a room to help a doctor out with his assessment on one of my patients. basically, the patient had a problem, and the doctor wanted me to deal with it so he could get on with his day. no problem, that's what i'm there for. so, i went in and was taking care of my patient, an adorably feisty little old lady who talks everybody's ear off. the doctor was just about to leave when his cell phone rang. his ring tone was a pretty, yet somewhat mournful rendition of Amazing Grace on the bagpipes. he silenced it, then turned to the patient to say goodbye.

"What was THAT?" she demanded.

"What do you mean, what was that?" the doctor said with a smile. "That was bagpipes."

"Well, I'm not dead YET, honey."