So Long

I want to give a HUGE "thank you" to all of my friends here who came out in support of me after my last post. I really was struggling and am SO thankful I could come here and get the help I needed to get through that. In my heart, I knew that I would never jeopardize the privacy of my patients and that I had chosen my words carefully each and every time I wrote about them. However, that memo really caught me off-guard, even though I knew it was not directed at me (especially since I no longer access facebook at work and don't use MySpace anymore!) It made me question many things, including what I should do about this blog...

That being said, the title of this post is "So Long"...it means MANY things, but most definitely does NOT mean good-bye to this blog and "Just Me" :o) I have made a couple changes, and will continue to remain attentive to details so I stay free from violating any laws. And, as one of my friend's said...if God leads you to it, He will see you through it, and I guess I have to believe that He wouldn't have brought me this far, brought me so many friends, so much comfort, so much support to have me get into legal trouble for the kinds of things I have written here.
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Anyway...today I had to go back to work. For some reason, this week I was SO tired! I could not seem to get enough sleep. I think it was Tuesday that I posted a picture of the "sleeping girl" and was in bed for 12 hours. The following day, I did pretty much nothing. Thursday after I posted my last post, I took a 2 1/2 hour nap and STILL was ready for bed at the usual time and had a REALLY hard time getting up yesterday morning. So, I was not really excited about working, even though I hadn't worked a shift on the floor since Tuesday (AND after today, I am not scheduled again until Wednesday, so it wasn't like working "one day" out of a week is a huge sacrifice!) I was slow to get moving this morning and arrived on the floor just a few minutes before 7. We are "supposed" to wait until everyone gets there, or until 7:00, to make patient assignments. So, it was a tiny bit annoying that my patients were already picked by the time I got there, even though five of us did not work yesterday. To make things a bit MORE annoying was that it was decided I would get the first admission...and the ONLY open bed was the room at the complete other end of the hallway (no one EVER has to take patients at the two ends of the hallways)...gee, thanks!

But, I managed to keep my grumbling to a minimum and remember that it is "just one day". As I was getting report, it seemed likely that at least one, if not BOTH of my patients would be leaving. As the morning went on, it looked like they were not the only ones who were going home, and no new patients had been paged to the floor. So, the charge nurse said that I could leave after my patients did. That got me out of work at 1:00..."So Long"...See ya later! (Yet another example of things happening for a reason and I'm glad I didn't make a fuss or things probably would have turned out differently!)
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One of the things I wanted to do today was go to the fashion show at my favorite clothing store. My mom and I have done it a few times together, and she has done it a couple times without me. That was her plan today. However, since I have their phone number in my cell phone (crazy...ha ha!), I called "my girl" and let her know that I could come and asked if she would pick out an outfit for me. Of course she said "sure" and my mom was excited to have someone there with her. I think she did a good job with the outfit...I did buy the shirt AND the shorts, but not the bag this time (or the flip-flops...especially since there is snow in the forecast!)

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For MONTHS I have heard that my hair is getting "SO Long!" Why, yes, yes it is...I'm guessing this is the way people who have super curly hair feel when people inform them that they have very curly hair; or, people who are really tall, really short, have striking blue eyes, etc. This week, I seemed to hear it even more often since I was at work on my days off, in normal clothes with my hair down and flat-ironed. Apparently, my sister must not hold grudges because when she found out I got the afternoon off, she invited me over to cut my hair. When she was in cosmetology school in 2004, I donated 10 inches of my hair to Locks of Love. I actually ended up cutting my hair even shorter than that at one point in time (if I had gotten my act together, I would have posted those "before" and "after" pictures, but I did not!) I decided that I wanted to donate my hair again, so have been growing it out for a LONG time...hence the really long hair :o) This time, though, I decided I would send my hair to Pantene Beautiful Lengths.

Hope you enjoy the video...I did include fun music, so you may need to pause the other music :o)

"So Long" to my "SO Long" hair!

From So Long Hair

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Another thing that I wanted to do tonight, but wasn't going to be able to since I worked was to attend a concert here at one of the churches in town. A Christian artist I really like was performing along with a couple other artists. When I first heard she was going to be here, I was SO bummed that I was working. Once I found out I was off, I was REALLY excited I would be able to go. I thought about asking a couple of friends, but then I found myself at my sister's house and wasn't even sure if there would be tickets still available at the door. I took a chance and called one of my friends, but she could not come. So, alone it was...that was my original "plan" since I'm perfectly okay doing things like that myself, but thought I should make an attempt to be "social".

So, I showed up at this huge church (after driving around an unfamiliar part of town for a little while looking for a gas station since, you know, there is snow in the forecast and I was a lot further away from home than usual!) by myself for this concert. I found a row without anyone in it and figured whoever was "supposed" to sit by me would. A girl (my age kind of "girl"), her husband, and some of their friends filled the pew. Of course me being alone, and social, we struck up a conversation. Her husband is from a small town, she is from a different state, but they now live in my city. They actually attend that church. She is a nanny and also does something business-wise on the side (after the concert she asked if I "was looking to make more money"...kind of hard to answer "no" to that with the economy, but I politely declined at this time). We exchanged phone numbers, but you never know what will come of these things. And, since there are "no coincidences", of COURSE she had a nephew three weeks ago who was stillborn due to anencephaly AND she was impressed by the nurses AND the NILMDTS photographer who did an amazing job. Yeah, I've heard about situations like that in my life...definitely thought about them during some of her more "famous" songs...

The concert was SO much fun, and especially helpful spiritually as we enter Holy Week quickly approaching Easter.

Well, "So Long" was a good title for this post for MANY reasons including the fact that it really is "SO Long"...and has taken me "SO Long" to write. It is now 1:00 in the morning and I actually have to show up on time for choir before church with my music all in order. At least I have a lot less hair to deal with in the morning :o)

Good night!