Next week across the country, will begin a week-long celebration of Registered Nurses. What does this mean? Well, where I am employed, it means that local colleges will set up attractive tables to recruit us to their institutions to further our education through a nursing program, handing out gifts of new ink pens, note pads, and cute little hand sanitizers for our purses. Posters highlighting different areas of nursing expertise will be showcased throughout hospitals. Crispy Kreme will have a sharp increase in sales, as hospital staff stops to pick up last-minute donuts for hungry, eating-on-the-go nurses. We will, no doubt, all be semi-comatose each day from a diet of excessive carbohydrates after the everyday gifts of bagels, donuts, and chocolate "nibbled on" throughout our ... View Post
Go Home, Al Sharpton!
What in the WORLD is going on ???!!! I am a nurse. I have been spit on, kicked, slapped, had nails dug into my arms, and been called every name under the sun. But I am not afraid to go to work. And I am not afraid to park my car in the nurses' parking garage and walk into the hospital, or to stop at the grocery store on my way home from work while wearing my scrubs, or to run into a convenience store wearing what obviously is the uniform of a nurse. I am not frightened that because I wear a nursing uniform, people will want to kill me. I am not afraid that someone will destroy my car or my home because I am a nurse. And I am not afraid for my life because some gang will put a hit out on me because I am a white nurse. My biggest fear is that my knees and my back will ache after a ... View Post
My “Stupid” Phone
It was just a half mile to the grocery store, and I only needed a few things. Surely I could leave my almost-dead "smart" phone plugged in to charge at home. I mean, what could happen in 30 minutes that I would absolutely have to have my phone for? By the time I got to the end of the street, I was automatically reaching into my purse to find my phone to pick the song I wanted to listen to. "Oh, shoot! That's right! It's at home charging!" I remembered. Pulling out onto Metro Parkway, a Mercedes came around the turn just a few hundred feet ahead, obviously not having seen me, and I had to emergently slam on my brakes. "For the love of God! What is WRONG with people on the road these days? If he would have hit me, I could not have even CALLED anyone! I don't have my "smart" ... View Post
The Alzheimer Waltz
Albert didn't talk much. He leaned quietly forward as his daughter kissed him on the cheek, reassuring him she would be back to get him after work. "Don't go. Please. I want to go with you." His daughter's eyes welled up with tears as she gave him one more kiss, one more hug, and turned and walked out the door. Someone took Albert's arm. "Are you hungry, Albert? Your friends are having breakfast!" And within a few minutes, Albert was sitting at the table with 3 other men living with Alzheimer's. Sam talked endlessly about the war, forever fixing his shirt and pants, making sure his "gig line" was straight. He saluted everyone - all smiles. But Albert continued to look around, seemingly frightened, every few minutes asking if someone could please call his ... View Post
Confessions of An Empty Nester
It is AMAZING to me, in the short span of only 7 months, how much I've learned about myself since becoming an "empty nester." (Please, do not get having learned much about myself, mixed up with the notion that I have somehow "grown." I have not. Not yet, anyways). Being bored for a few hours today, I googled "empty nester" and the most bizarre things came up, from suggesting I study Buddhism, to taking tennis lessons, all the way to taking a sabbatical in India. Um, NO thanks, NO thanks, and NO THANKS! I left home at 18, traveled the world, lived in 4 different countries outside of the United States before the age of 30, raised two kids by myself for 21 years, and graduated from college a second time while they were still teenagers............. So, I'm pretty confident I'll ... View Post
“You’ve Got to Think About Yourself” She said!
Chatting with a girlfriend of mine, she suggested that I needed to get out more. "Do something for yourSELF," she said. We texted ideas back and forth, and "Painting With A Twist" sounded like the most fun, so we got out our calendars, picked a date, and scheduled it! This girlfriend of mine is a few years older than me, is enjoying her children being away from the home with their own families, is excitedly anticipating retirement, and is just LOVING being a grandmother. You can't help but notice how she lights up at the mention of her grandchildren. So, knowing she is 10 years more "wise" than I am, I figured she was right. I ought to, and I deserve to, do something "for myself!" Right? Right. I believe she said something along the lines of "You have to think of yourSELF once ... View Post
Good Old Days, Good New Days….
Strolling the aisles of Bronner's "The World's Largest CHRISTmas Store," I picked up every tree ornament that reminded me of my sons. Every year when they were very young, they would each pick out an ornament, so that one day, when they grew up and moved out, they would have not only a good start at an ornament collection, but a tree full of childhood memories as well. For years, our Christmas tree looked like something in a Disney store, decorated childishly, yet adorably - with Buzz Light Year, Woody, Nemo, cowboys & Indians, and every baseball or hockey player that my sons admired. This past year, I passed all of Rory's ornaments on to him to decorate his first Christmas tree with his new bride. I am sure his ornaments looked silly to he and his wife THIS year, but I am praying ... View Post
A Step-Mom, Put in Her Place! (By Jessica Pearson)
Hi, my name is Jessica, and I am…a step-mom. There, I said it. Wow, what a word with so many connotations, yes? Step-mom. I am one, and I have had two. The word and the state of being a step-mom has numerous connotations. In my eyes, they are motherhood (which encompasses a stratosphere of its own connotations), nurturer, lesson-learner, lesson-teacher, teacher of life, social worker (depending on your family situation), chef, care-taker, nurse, planner, chauffer, entertainer, entertainee, barer of pain, sorrow, grief, and loss, barer of immense joy, love, and happiness. It has, however, been through my life’s journey, but especially my journey through step-motherhood, that I was lead someplace immeasurably special. It is said that Satan will fill your life with distractions to ... View Post