But We Just Got Here!

We just moved to our new house on June 17th and already, Darling Hubby and I have had enough of our neighbors next door. We get along for the most part, but they have some really bad habits that hubby and I have a hard time tolerating. For instance, they have a portable grill, the kind you can buy at your local pharmacy, and they park that ugliness in front of their garage in clear view. They've even grilled on it right in their driveway! Who does that?!?! And then, they have this rugrat, Evan, who we swear have ADD, whose toys, just like their grill, are parked right in front of their garage. Man, oh man. And their mutt! Oh boy, their mutt! He has the nerve to bark at us like he has lost his mind as we enter or exit our home on OUR property! Yep, his sorry-azz owners allow him to run across our lawn when they let him out to crap. It doesn't happen often, or at least we have not experienced this often at all, but the point is it shouldn't happen at all. Period. Darling Hubby and I pay enough mortgage every month for this kind of b.s. When that mutt, on our property, barked at D.H. last night as he opened the front door, I gave him a nasty look before I closed the door. Then I opened the door again, gave him another nasty look, then slammed the door. Fat Bastard (our neighbor resembles the character, thus the nickname) and Mrs. Fat Bastard, his owners, were out there but so what? I wanted them to know that was not appreciated at all. Of course they tried to coax him over as threateningly as any Fat Bastards could, but the mutt is obviously smarter than they are. He's not afraid of them at all.

So what kind of solution have D.H. and I come up with? Well, it's illegal to shoot dogs anymore so that's outta the question. Talking to Mr. and Mrs. Fat Bastards, hmmmm, that's an option but it could yield some ugly results. First, it doesn't guarantee that they would actually do anything about it. Secondly, it might piss them off and we don't want that 'cuz Fat Bastard is actually a bit handy and we might need his help in the future. So we've decided on a contraption, an alarm that emits a sound unbearable to dogs that humans can't hear, to be placed on our lawn. It has a strobe light so it won't be inconspicuous, but D.H. and I have decided that we're prepared to tell the Bastards about it should they ask. And we are sure they will 'cuz Mr. Bastard is nosey as hell. That's the solution we've come up with and we'll give you an update as soon as the device arrives.

P.S.
By the way, I've decided that I exude way too much negativity. I mean, I must because people have told me so. It shows both in my daily conversations with people and also when I write. So, to prove that I do have positive thoughts, everyday I will write down 5 things that are positive or things for which I am grateful. Here are today's:
1. I was able to clean the entire house.
2. The Eagles won over the Oakland Raiders.
3. I made the very best curried shrimp ever.
4. I didn't see Niko on our front lawn.
5. I got to talk on the phone to my cousin Stephanie who just had a baby.

Insomnia - A Good Reason To Write Again

It's 5 past 1 and I am still very much awake. My insomnia must be back again, or perhaps this could be the result of me taking a nap this afternoon. I don't know what it is, but lately I have needed to take naps in the middle of the day. Even at work, I try to get a nap in. Lately though I have been getting so dogged at work that I haven't been able to take an entire hour for lunch. I mean, I know I'm entitled to it and really I am a fool for not using it, but it's not courteous to leave another nurse to care for your patient who is really busy. I wouldn't like it done to me, so I don't do it to others.

Having been assigned such crappy patients at work has really turned me off to picking up extra time. I really should because it's never nice to turn down money (and lots of it), but goodgoddarn I really have been getting dogged lately! If I'm not taking care of F.F.F.F. (Frequently Flippen' Fat F*ck --- darling hubby's nickname for Mr. G) and another patient who is either crappen' every hour, on 4-point restraints and STILL able to climb out of bed, a fresh trauma, or sh*t, all of the above, I'm sure to have a patient on 1:1. This kind of patient is so sick, he or she is only assigned to one nurse. Ang guess what folks? That nurse is 9 out of 10 times me. I don't know what I have ever done to piss my co-workers, but darn if they don't love to give me the crappiest assignments!

This one particular nurse, we'll call him F.B. (Fag Boy --- Jackie's nickname for this flaming homosexual at work), especially loves to torture me. For instance, 3 weeks ago he gave me this 1:1 patient, a male multiple GSW (gun shot wound). When I received him, he was on 2 pressors, on 100% FiO2 on the vent, receiving multiple blood products and basically sick as sh*t. He was so sick and unstable that instead of going to the OR, the OR came to him. Yep folks, I became an OR nurse with about 30 minutes notice. Now, I've received post-op patients many times before and had an idea what goes on in the OR. Or so I thought. When faced with that situation, I felt helpless. I felt like I was totally not in control of my environment and was this close to crying. Every second, someone was barking out an order at you and I just felt like I couldn't keep up. To make matters worse, Drs. Bradley, Santora and Pathak (3 of our 4 SICU attendings) were all in the room! Talk about working under pressure here. In the end, I survived and learned a great deal from that experience, but dang if I didn't hate my job that day!

Well, I feel sleepiness creeping up on me. I'm going to bid adieu for now, but promise to write more later...