well i did get called but only for a couple hours and then i came home and finished cooking the chicken tomatillo dish, which i might add, melissa and i totally enjoyed. so now its 1:30 AM on tuesday. i have been to work again, and had another chaotic evening but thankfully i got off at midnite and am now on call until 4:00 AM. again, i hope i DON'T get called.

as to complete my thoughts on the job, it is freaking chaotic at times, and it requires me to remember alot of things concurrently--and it helps if you have at least one easy patient. which i have not had lately. it seems i'm pretty backed up with alot of things to do when the shift commences at 4 PM. meds, assessments, and oftentimes tying things up the earlier shift couldn't complete. and lets not forget that for some reason that is when most of your admissions come in, which brings in yet another factor in the equation. so i will say again: ayayaya.

but it some ways the job is preferable to many others. it pays well. i don't have to work fulltime. and it's challenging. and there are some of us who get off on that for some sick reason! i guess i'm one of them. so yeah, it may not be on my agenda to do this forever or even close, but for now it keeps me on my toes.

so life otherwise. tuesday is my last day for 3 weeks! 3 weeks!! first i'll be just hanging around and getting stuff together for the backpack trip. i have a list. yeah! then saturday it will be off to portland for a christie family gathering celebrating silas' graduation from portland state. it will be especially wonderful to see karla, as she and doug just got back from cambodia and south asia. i can't wait to hear about her work on the street and doug's experiences teaching others to make prosthesis' for the numerous with amputated limbs as a result of land mines throughout the country. then i return to eugene and hang around for a few days, really packing for the trip. then on tuesday off to astoria to see everyone and meet shelley. we are renting a car on wednesday and then driving together to the wallowas, thursday, arring in the AM on friday. we have enough time to take it easy, and then we meet karla and diana somewhere on some yet undecided trailhead up there in the middle of a lot of nowhere in some mighty beautiful mountains. the home of chief joseph. it is breathtakingly beautiful. so then "the girls" hike in on friday and don't need to be back to astoria/ idaho until wednesday the following week. a bit of hiking, fishing, bathing togehter in ice cold water. ahhhh. this requires one to always have handy their small little bottle of ETOH, ie., alcohol. like rum or tequila or something. just a little something to warm you up on the inside before you dunk. so after this its back to astoria and then shelley and i go to her hearing. sucky. they want to take her social security away. then on friday its off to portland to meet steve at the bus station and we go to a two day show with lots of people playing, namely michael hurley and vashti bunyan. and then, if thats not enough, its back to eugene with steves birthday party. and his family is coming. a jam packed vacation.

i will predict it will be hard to return to work. no news yet from peru about steve's and my idea. hopefully soon!

it's hard to believe it's already august. where has the summer gone? fortunately it's flown by because i've been mostly having fun. camping, fairs, bikeriding, yummy garden vegies, blackberries, pies. and good company. which you know is the best part. and more good times to come.

i slept well this morning after yet another chaotic night at work. whay does it get that way?? i've been doing this bedside nursing thing in the ICU for over a year now. i have a system, which i didn't have at first. which then explained the chaos that would develop. but sometimes its simply a result of a group of patients with their own agendas. like pain, not being able to breathe, or an illness that strikes them unexpectedly, or how they are because they've lived with this or that chronic illness. and the interaction that results between the patient, family and myself. and multiply it times three. ayayay. reminds me of a drawing depicting the sort of wiring between people, and the number of relationships that all add up, this way and that and why there might be confusion that results. (i learned about this when in family counselling with my kids.) agendas are all different and it seems nurses have to be sensitive to that. and the timing of it all can add up to chaos, at least for me.

i like the job for the most part. its not always like i've described above. thank god, i would be more insane than i am. sometimes theres enough time for everyone, and the damn paperwork. but seeing myself do this for an indefinite period of time is, well its not on my agenda.

so today, in between writing and picking up, i'm cooking a chicken and tomatillo dish. i'm inventing it. but vivian did tell me one is to roast the tomatillos first, to bring out their flavor. ummm. steve and i had a tapa a couple nights ago that was made with chicken, tomatillos, and artichokes. i don't know if i can duplicate it but will give it a shot. and i hope i DON'T get called. we will see.

some unrelated news: steve wants to go to peru! more later on this!! letters are going out in regards to our idea!