Vitriol and sparkles!

As most people know, I’m not a fan of Sam Katz, the mayor of this city circling the drain.  He treats this city with disdain and contempt, and seems to hold his office purely for the purposes of using this place as his own personal cash cow.  I’m not sure if he ever did, but he doesn’t even bother to try to keep up the appearance of caring about his job anymore.  And when faced with any manner of criticism, his response is to basically flip the public the proverbial bird.  Every. Single. Time.  Last year, Sam Katz held a taxpayer-funded Christmas party at a restaurant he owns, essentially funnelling the city coffers into his own pockets.  Unsurprisingly, people were kind of annoyed with this.  And yet he’s publicly doing it again this year.  "When people are busy, I’m able to get a significant discount to save us money," Katz said. "From my point of view, it’s a win-win."  Well….which is it?  Is it that you’re trying to save taxpayers the money (for something they shouldn’t be paying for in the first place) or is it that venues are all booked up?  Were you unaware the holidays were coming this year?  I’m going to go ahead and assume that any of the hundreds of local restaurants or caterers here in the city would have made room on their slate for a city hall function with a normal amount of notice, and would probably appreciate the business even more than Sam Katz’s already overstuffed pockets might.

Anyway, to this end, I emailed my city councillor Jenny Gerbasi, who has a long history of publicly defying Sam and just generally sticking in his craw.  I like this.  I emailed her Saturday morning when the story first appeared (Mayor Tells City To Go Eff Itself) and actually heard back from her on Sunday morning, stating it was she who had alerted the media to this repeat offense, and has refused to attend this function since the mayor started using it as an opportunity for personal profit.  Sam Katz is like Nickelback or the Conservative party.  No one seems to like him, but he always seems to do well….This city is so effing terrified of change, even when changing might mean a more ethical city hall and not existing for the sole purpose of making a rich asshole richer.

For those of you who caught the Victoria's Secret fashion show tonight, can we all agree it was pretty spectacular?  Maybe not the most spectacular they've ever done, but pretty close.  Plus they were without Heidi Klum for the first time, and it was definitely noticeable :(  Sparkly and fantastic though.  My 2 favorite looks were on Miranda Kerr and Alessandra Ambrosio (pics below), 2 absolutely gorgeous women who you would never guess in a million years have both had children.

This bra is apparently worth $2.5 million

 

 

 

 

This was actually much sparklier on TV :)

The only glaring ickiness of the evening was seeing Karlie Kloss' sternum as though you were looking at an X-ray.  You just wanted to make the poor girl a sandwich.

Moving on.....

Our beloved Bombers lost the Grey Cup on Sunday evening.  It was heartbreaking to watch, not because we deserved to win and were robbed, we weren't, this city could really just have used the boost, that's all.  The Bombers really didn't start playing til late in the 4th quarter, and by then it was too little, too late.  B.C, as much as I hate to admit it, played an awesome game.

Friday, November 18, found me and my best gal waiting in line, like so many other silly girls, for the opening night of Breaking Dawn Part 1.  I was satisfied.  Not thrilled, not disappointed, just satisfied.  It was fairly true to the book, and now the final installment won't be out for another year.  It's already been shot!  It's done!  Put it out!  Yeesh!

Things on the ICU front continue to chug along.  I have about a week and a half left in MICU, and as of yesterday, decided to do my 10 week specialized orientation in SICU.  Which means I am in the absolute middle of the course.  It feels like it's been much, much longer than 12 weeks already though.

Take care everyone! 

(Yes, I know the font changes about halfway through, and it refuses to be fixed!)

"It's a hell of a thing, to be able to recognize what makes you happy" - Lucille Ball

Apple of my swollen itchy eye

I find myself really wanting apples lately.  Which is an unfortunate craving since I've been allergic to apples since '03-ish.  It was one of the earliest of my now 6 or so fruit allergies.

I set up a Twitter account this afternoon, not because I really want to broadcast my 140 character thoughts to strangers, but because I felt I was missing out on some Michael Ian Black gems.  And so far, I find Twitter beyond annoying to try to use.  I really don't get the crack-like addiction people seem to have to it.  Facebook yes.  Twitter no.

I was out doing some shopping today when I noticed something.  Parents (many, not all) seem to feel that if they are able to tune out their screaming, crying child that surely everyone else must be too.  This in fact is NOT so.  Shockingly enough, like most problems, ignoring it doesn't make it go away, and it's probably the reason you're getting so many dirty looks.

Heavy D passed away this week at the age of 44.  Being some of the first hip-hop my white suburban self was ever exposed to, Heavy D & the Boyz will forever be straight up good times music to me (and really most other people too).  It's scary to think someone so young can just drop dead of pneumonia....

Watching this it makes you wonder when dancing changed.  Like back in the early 90's, were people really out at the clubs doing the running man and the Roger Rabbit?  It looks like aerobics and like you'd need a fair amount of clearance to get the job done.  I suddenly feel like watching New Jack City....

I may or may not hyperlink the crap out of this post.

With the devastating floods in Thailand, and the earthquake in Turkey, I got to wondering...how exactly does the Canadian government determine who should receive our foreign aid money and who shouldn't?  What causes the government to decide what it will match donations for and what it won't? I had doubts about the decision over the summer to send aid to Somalia, which is essentially a lawless failed state, and has recently overtaken Iraq in the prestigious race for "Least Secure Country In The World."  The average citizen suffers greatly under the weight of political and religious posturing and guerilla violence.  Aid pours in from around the world but is merely a trickle by the time it reaches those who truly need it, hijacked and quartered to fill the pockets of those doing the oppressing in the first place.  It would be really interesting to see what the final actual humanitarian impact of these donations really is, and what responsibility the government and foreign affairs are taking to ensure it's effective dispensation.  Meanwhile, hundreds have died, and hundreds more are missing in Thailand and Turkey, and there's been not a peep from the government about either.  No appeals for donations, no promises to match funds raised, nothing.  When the flooding in Bangkok recedes, it will not be infrastructure that will be most affected.  It will be public health hit by rampant disease and overwhelmed health care services.  This actually makes the provision of aid in this situation much easier and more straightforward.  And it's on a comparitively smaller scale.    There just seems to be no rhyme or reason to the selection process.  And if there is, foreign affairs should be explaining it to the people paying for it (I'm really not a John Baird fan and even less so in the wake of this.)

Does anyone else watch the Big Bang Theory?  Has anyone else noticed what an absolutely heroic amount of take-out these people consume?  Has that kitchen ever been used to make anything but toast?  None of them seem to work almost ever, where does this massive food budget come from???

Also, these McDonald's commercials, where one guy buys a cheeseburger for his roommate, and then tries to hide the flyer on the fridge that shows that said cheeseburger is $1.39.....ummmm....what's up with this?  Is it trying to state that there are people out there who are unaware that McDonald's is cheap crap?  Like the roommate thought he was eating a $7 burger instead?  Doesn't McDonald's theoretically probably have the biggest advertising budge in the whole wide world?  And this is what they came up with?

The Best of Chris Farley SNL special was on this morning and I turned it on to the Chippendales sketch he did with Patrick Swayze, and it was actually just kind of sad.  It was still funny, but the whole time it's in the back of your head that they're both dead now.  They also threw a Matt Foley sketch in, and David Spade giggles throughout.  I have to say, I love the live TV giggle.  Horatio Sanz, Jimmy Fallon, David Spade and Adam Sandler were all terrible for this and I love it.  I miss Will Forte.  If he's not going to do anything else with himself, why doesn't he just go back to SNL??

Aside from Breaking Dawn (which everyone who knows me knows I'm excited for. Yep. I said it. Deal with it.), I'm crazy excited to see the beginning of the Hunger Games trilogy.  It's always tricky when movies are made from books you love, but I'm optimistic. Still not totally thrilled with casting, especially Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss, but it might be fine.  Better her than...I dunno....Miley Cyrus or some nonsense like that.  I still think Saorsie Ronan or Hailee Steinfeld might have been the way to go, but no one asks me about these things. Neither of the guy characters seem particularly good either, given they're both supposed to be fairly strapping and rugged.  I wasn't thrilled about Robert Pattinson as Edward the in Twilight series either, but I seem to have made do lol.  The book series was amazing.  I made it through each one in about 2 days apiece.  I definitely recommend them if you're looking for something engaging to read.

Have a fantastic week everyone :)



"I'm not a hairstylist, I just put new lids on a couple of trash cans." - Homer Simpson

Observations.

Zooey Deschanel: You are annoying.  You are the worst part of your new show and you're the lead character.

SICU: I am very happy with you so far.

Kim Kardashian: Get back with Reggie Bush.  You 2 are made for each other.

Busted elevator in my apartment that forces me to climb the stairs to the 5th floor all the time now:  I. Hate. You.

Herman Cain: If, like Tiger Woods, the women you've associated yourself with negatively keep coming out of the woodwork, I would find it deeply satisfying if that number were to get to and stay at 9.  Thank you.

Egg sandwiches with ketchup:  I cannot get enough of you lately.

November so far:  Your weather is terrific.  Keep up the good work.  Please.



"Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today to make a new ending." - Maria Robinson

Over the river and through the woods.

So I have come to the end of one of the longest, most exhausting weeks of my life.  Successfully.  I made it through my lab testing with (mostly) flying colours.  The parts I was dreading and was so sure I was going to flunk, I aced.  But in the end, I made it through the classroom part of this nursing boot camp I'm currently enrolled in, which seems widely considered to be the worst part of this 6 month slog.  Thank you everyone for all your well-wishes and prayers and good vibes.  A special mention goes to my girl Tracy.  I don't think I'd have made it this far without all her help and support. 

I realized throughout this process though, that I have shockingly little faith in myself.  Everyone around me seemed to be quite confident I'd do well and get through, but the entire time I kept thinking to myself "Oh God, I could fail."  Not the far more positive and plausible "Oh God, I could actually do this."  I have no idea why.

Today was code blue simulation day, where in groups of 6, we practice going through the motions of an actual code situation.  The simulations consist of 5-6 RN's, a respiratory therapist and an ICU physician.  It's run as a real world scenario on a patient simulator (which costs tens of thousands of dollars, and actually has pulses and breathes and talks.  Freaky).  It was amazing.  I've always been apprehensive of codes or being directly involved in them (I've had patients code before, but once the code team shows up, the ward nurse is basically relegated to a go-for role), but I loved today.  I loved the pace and the tension and the excitement.  It kind of makes me think I should consider doing my practicum in MICU (because they run the code team), even though I don't come from a medicine background....Jump off that bridge when I come to it I guess....

Tomorrow is clinical orientation (I'm starting in SI!! Woo!!), and Saturday is sleep-14-hours-straight day.  I've got some biiiiiiiig stuff going on :)

An amusing sidenote I discovered this week for those of you that use Blackberrys (-berries?) When you text a non-Blackberry user the hug emoticon on your phone, it shows up like this:

({}) 

Make of that what you will.

I don't think Jimmy Fallon is funny.  He sure seems to though.

We got to watch this video as part of our code training.  These are way more widely used by the military in the field apparently, but we do use them on occasion.  Kinda gross but super cool:



"Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts" - Winston Churchill

My head is like Sputnik.

It's 11:25 pm and I've just returned home from lab practice for my demos tomorrow.  Today was supposed to be the day I had in the bag, tomorrow was supposed to be the day I allowed myself some slips.  I slipped today though.  Kinda hard.  It messed up my confidence for the whole day.  I'm not a "performance art" sort of individual.  I start running through my demos and I freeze up and blank.  There's a certain kind of despair you feel in moments like that that simply doesn't compare to anything else.  In the past week and a half or so, ALL my nervous ticks have come back (pulling at my hair, ripping the ever loving out of my cuticles, drinking inhuman amounts of Coke), all my physical stressiness is present (for some reason my eyelids get super raw, I'm all headachey when I almost never am, my posture is all wrong and tense).  I just keep telling myself when we turn the corner to clinical things will get better.  And that corner is Friday.  I will update then, assuming I'm not hanging from the rafters by then.

Thanks to everyone for the messages of support/encouragement/love.  I'm so blessed.

Halfway up the mountain...

[Note: Much of the following content could be construed as offensive to delicate sensibilities.  Please proceed with caution.]

So I've made it through the 1st month of the critical care course relatively sane and with all of my lives intact.  I know, I'm a little surprised too.  It's been really intense, and we've lost quite a few people from where we started already.  It's unsettling for those of us still left standing.  I have a decent amount of post-secondary education under my belt, and I can say honestly that none of it holds a candle to this, volume OR complexity-wise.  So much of what I learned in nursing school when I did my degree much makes more sense now than it ever did before though.  And for those of you that may still be unaware of this, your body, the one sitting there absorbing this, is doing amazing and incredibly complicated things to keep you alive right now.  Right at this very moment.

I'm going to try to keep this next point brief, as I know it's a drum I bang frequently.  Being a vocal supporter of participating in the democratic process as I am has compelled me to vote in every election I've been eligible for since I was 18.  I've always done so enthusiastically and without reservation.  But this provincial election, I can honestly say I truly don't WANT to vote.  I'm still going to, but I really, really don't want to support the ludicrous shenanigans that constitute the political discourse in this province.  We seem to swiftly be moving toward American-style "politics" where no one has an actual platform or any ideas, but boy do they have funding to take out adspace pointing out all the faults they can conjure up about any other horse in the race.  I'm frustrated with the childishness and I'm frustrated with the re-zoning that's given me an MLA I know nothing about now.  This election was/is the NDP's to lose, and they sure do seem to be working hard towards that goal, somehow legitimizing that erratic crackpot Hugh McFadyen in the process.  His crap about hallway medicine, his pie-in-the-sky idea that he's somehow going to stumble upon a secret cache of thousands of nurses and hundreds of doctors, his idea that tracking sex-offenders with GPS devices is going to make this city a safer place when it's not even close to the top cause of our crime statistics (though still horrible obviously). 

*For the record, the problem with the nursing shortage is a from-the-ground-up one, not one that will be fixed by throwing out a few thousand work visas to foreign-trained nurses. That's a temporary band-aid, not a solution. (This is in NO way a criticism of international nurses, I promise).  Overhauling nursing education is the key to fixing this problem.  There is most definitely enough interest in the profession, but rather than expanding programs and improving accessibility, there are now only TWO nursing programs in the city where there were 4 only a couple of years ago, and the resultant wait lists are the major discouragement to people wanting to enter the field.  You don't need to hire 2000 nurses Mr. McFadyen.  You need to make the educational process miles more accessible.

Moving on...

In an expression of opinion that will surprise no one who knows me, I came across something yesterday that not only enraged me, it made me feel absolutely sick to my stomach. As many of you know, and many of you probably don't, I work at the largest hospital in the province.  It's actually comprised of 5 hospitals (general, rehab, women's, children's and psychiatric) plus research centres and a campus of the University of Manitoba.  Because of the size of the hospital and the number of professionals working there, the breadth of services available there is truly astounding.  One of the veritable thousands of these services is pregnancy termination.  From time to time, and only EVER in nice weather (you'd be forgiven for thinking abortion is only a sin in the summer, go ahead and terminate in -40), there will be the occasional anti-choice demonstrator in front of Women's.  Usually 1 or 2.  It's distasteful but whatever.  Yesterday (Sunday) I was driving past Women's on my way to St. James, and there was an actual hoarde of them.  Like 60 or 70.  Covered in sandwich boards and ignorance.  On the boulevard, on the curb...soooo much self-righteousness. My first impulse was obviously to roll down the windows and tell them all to go eff themselves, but apparently giving them a reaction only makes things worse.  My second impulse was "I should find out where they all go to church and show up there wearing big signs judging THEIR choices."  Someone should really (and just as a stunt obviously, no child actually deserves this) go up to these people with a high-needs baby and say "Here. Go raise this child yourself since you felt my decision to terminate this pregnancy was erroneous and sinful."  See how fast the Christian charity flies out the window then.  Assuming you know what's best for someone else, and in these people's cases, someone else you've never met and know nothing about, is arrogant, ignorant, condescending....I could go on.  I'm also going to go out on a limb and assume none of these are attributes the Bible endorses.  You're free to have these opinions, just keep them out of the faces of people who have enough on their plate already.  And P.S protestors, it was Sunday.  They don't do abortions on Sunday.  Likely you were just annoying new mothers and women with cancer.  Bra-vo.

To finish up, I love, love, love how this man says heroin.

And this here I need to watch asap.  As soon as I can find it anyways lol.  What happened to Mike Meyers' career???

Thanks for hanging in there with me.  I know this was a lot of volume!

"Happiness can only exist in acceptance." - George Orwell