Happy Nurse's Day - Oops, Excuse Me, I Meant Hospital Week

Yes once upon a time children nurse's had one day a year when they were celebrated. Kinda like Mothers and Fathers do. And it was nice.

In fact the nicest Nurse's Day I ever had was the very first year I was a nurse.....the DON (Director of Nursing for those of you who dont know) came around our medium sized community hospital, and pinned a corsage on each nurse (ermagawd, dont report that to Infection Control!!!).....the very best things is - she knew the names of all of her nurses so she always had something special and personal to say to each person.

And then different hospitals started celebrating in different ways. Special meals for the nurses, special gifts. Another hospital actually had a nice little breakfast for the nurses - all the serving done by management - with a nice little talk about Florence Nightengale. Now dont get me wrong, Flo was a wonderful old gal but when you have just worked your what-ever-in-a-row nightshift, and sitting down to eat a carb heavy meal waiting for the prizes, the gifts, the raffles whatever, well, nightshift could get a little punchy.....yup we got ourselves in trouble one year when we all got the giggles and just could not stop....

But lets go thru the years when apparently someone got their tiny little knickers in a twist because ONLY nurses were getting recognition so it morphed into Nurses Day and Hospital Week so that ALL the employees could be involved with the meals and special gifts.....wah wah wah.

And so now the gifts are more generic, and cheaper. Lunch bags that rip within a week or so.....one year we got a nice backpack but they didnt stand up to much....a messenger bag that was a bit more sturdy.....a beach towel that was so thin  it did not make its way thru the first wash without starting to disintegrate. We did get a nice backed picnic blanket and an especially nice trunk organizer that I am still using. But this year.....well, this year was the piece de resistance.

An 8" x 5.75" bamboo (Made in CHina of course) cutting board. Oh I guess I could put it in my Nurse's Day lunch bag......nope, that bit the dust within weeks after getting it......and why would I take it to work anyway? I would be assuming I would actually get a long enough lunch to have time to cut cheese up....well, maybe I could because at the size this is there wouldnt be much cheese to cut up.

Well, just something else that will set around and then end up at Goodwill like all those Made in China water bottles. I try very hard not to buy anything Made in CHina that is going to come in contact with food or drink you see.

So present a problem or complaint, no present a solution. How about all year long we are recognized - hey good job everyone - it was a hell of a shift but you pulled together and we all survived! Or - hey, I see you are really busy, what can I do to help you?  Coupons for coffee or ice cream or bagels or a movie (guess that would mean we have a life outside work tho). Little things but heartfelt things....not jsut oh yeah, gott get everyone some sort of generic gift to make them all happy for Hospital Week. Who has the beast specials on?

So I know I am coming off sounding very unappreciative and you are right - employees should not have to wait for one day or one week per year to be shown they are appreciated by some chintzy gift. It should be a year round process - and it only takes little personal things to make people happier.

Beautiful Day

Well, it would be if it wasn't spring....

Yet another day hubby decided I had to be up early (no sleeping in for me this week! Sleeping in, BTW, means till 0800) and tomorrow I will be up early to get labs drawn and then my mammo.

Started putting together the little cabinet and found that we bought the wrong hinges......drat.

Helped hubby a bit. Then I soaked and blocked n entry for the Country Fair (the I-Dont-Like-It Cowl) and a gift for a June birthday.

Then we started earrands. Picking up his paycheck.....driving to Berkeley to get the veneer for the risers on the stairs. While he was doing that I poked around Urban Ore. Found lots of goodies but didnt buy anything. Of course this time they had lots of granite and I didnt have the measurements I needed for the dough table. Murphy's Law.

Decided to stop in San Ramon for lunch and the diner is long gone....so went to Habit. Must be a new one because boy things were not working well!

Back to Home Depot to get another hinge, and some more paint. And then over to pick up the milled stair treads.

Finally home. Put the new hinges on and now the door doesnt fit the same. So we need to put a little board in it which means more painting - but now hubby cant remember where he put the brushes! So we are done with that for awhile!

I hear 2 of the boys are going to spend the night Friday (I work Thurs, Fri and Sat this week) so that hubby can take them to track over here at GHS Saturday morning. No upstairs! So they will either sleep in bed with PaPa, on the couch, or maybe we will get the cots out!

I Was A Good Girl Yesterday

Actually went in for my annual physical.....which is a laugh because I think my last one was a decade ago! Got questions answered - got caught up on my preventative tests (almost - came home and made my mammo appt for Thursday).

Did not get the slap on my hands that I deserved for letting things slide for so long. And found that I have lost about 5 lbs since the last time I weighted myself - which I knew I had lost weight because my most recent (and most expensive) pair of jeans are looser on me! And this is all without getting out and walking because of my enemy Spring!

Will do my lab work on Thursday morning too - pick up my RX that I am desperately going to try to fix my ugly to. Turned down a consult on my hand because MD is sure it is what I am sure it is - arthritis. And it is not bad enough to undergo the only treatment that either of us can think of that the hand specialist would try. So will jsut keep on using my Salon Pas as long as it works.

Of course I am dreading my mammo and having to explain why I let it lapse for so long (no excuse really). And am dreading the lab tests - cause I am pretty darn sure my cholesterol is going to be bad......and then I will have to have montly labs while I am taking the drug for my toe (as long as I escape any side effects that is).

Part 2

Because I forgot a few things.....

the most amazinfg thing to me.....standing in the dining area at the house where the reunion was ( either belongs to the father of a classmate, or the family of the classmate, not really sure) there was this HUMONGOUS hand written geneology chart on the wall. Was just glancing over at it when I saw hubby's last name on it! WHAT????? Yeah, back I dont know how many generations they are related! The only thing was, it must have been completed before he and his brother were born....and his mom's name is mis-spelled. His uncle is listed only by his nickname but still....

And I forgot to follow up with the * in the title of the previous post.....

At one point I said something to member of the class ahead of me about "the diploma I never recieved". One of the women looked at me and said "You mean you never graduated from high school???" (Trying hard to remember if she was blonde or not). Luckily everyone else knew what I meant and we were all laughing. Someone looked at her and said "Remember....the school closed right after we graduated? She is from the Class of 1971"

So this was the reunion of the HS class that did NOT graduate from JMHS....about 4 or 5 of my class graduated with the class of 1970.....the rest of us went on our seperate ways - Carmel HS. PGHS, MHS, Notre Dame/Palma HS, Santa Cataline and RLS.....

HS Reunion of the HS From Which I Did Not Graduate*

So the JMHS class of 1970 had a reunion and invited other classes to it. Drove down to Pacific Grove to spend the night at a friend's house, and then out to the reunion.

The day was semi cloudy and chilly to start with but got sunny and warmer as the day went on.

I remarked to hubby on the way that I find it very odd that I remember so many more people from the HS I went to for my senior year - than I do from the previous HS and even 8th grade. So I was a little apprehensive but decided to go with an open mind since it was only for a few hours and actually we could leave whenever we wanted to!

Thank goodness for name tags!!! And I have found with going to reunions for hubby's HS and the HS I graduated from, that the older we get the more enjoyable the reunions are because there is less and less clique-ish-ness!

My comment on this reunion:

• The nice people were even nicer
• The men REALLY aged ....far more than the women
• And the guys that were all that in HS???? Oh my goodness, not even close any more......old, bald, fat, thin, looking rough.....wow!
• Most of the women looked older, of course, but so much better! Makeup, I guess, really helps!
• The food was not very good at all. The appetizers were some burchetta (ick) and olives, and bowls of ruffles potato chips. The BBQ chicken was not thoroughly cooked (the nice crunchy skin was, but the meat was pink and red).....the trip tip was ok.....the potatoes were some sort of au gratin that tasted odd.....the chopped salad was, well, a chopped salad. But the garlic bread was good!
• The Class of 1970 had the most people there - our class of 1971 had the second most (altho there were many people who werent there which was disappointing) and there were 9 people from the class of 1969!
• So sad to hear about the deaths of classmates.....all of them since 2010 I believe it was.
• One girl in our class who I swear I only heard speak a few times in HS.....was a chatterbox now!

Got back to our friend's home and sat around talking. Watched a beautiful sunset and the stars coming out and then sat around his firepit drinking some wine.....it was lovely.

Today we had breakfast with other friends and headed home. So funny to have a hosue without dogs. They will be so mad at us tomorrow when we pick  them up!

This Weekend

This weekend is my annual Bras For The Cause Walk. Use to be on Mother's Day but last year they moved it up to April. Not sure why.

This weekend is also a high school reunion - the HS I almost graduated from. Oh dont worry - I graduated from HS! But Junipero Memorial High School in Monterey was closed by the money grubbing bishop at the end of my junior year. They kept accepting classes and decided to just clsoe it down....rather than stop admitting classes and let the last classes graduate. We protested - and demostrated - all to no avail. It was supposedly a cost management thing....yet the Bishop still maintained his hosue out in Pebble Beach. So what was my HS is not the elementary school that use to be across the street.

So several people in the class had enough credits that they went ahead and graduated early. The rest of us dispersed across the community. My parents chose to continue my Catholic education and sent me to the Catholic HS in Salinas, Notre Dame. And I must say I had the best year of my HS career. Not the least because it ended up with me having a new car to drive back and forth! Not the car I wanted....but it was a car and we had some great times with that car and I made some great friends!

So the last class to graduate from JMHS is having a reunion and they opened it to anyone who went to JMHS. There have been other reunions but I have not gone to any of them. This year I happened to have the weekend off to do the walk.

Weeks of decision making - and weeks of horrible allergies! - and I decided what the heck, lets go to the reunion. I know I will know 2 people there - they have promised to attend! Otherwise - I am not sure I will remember anyone which is interesting to me since I spent at least 3 years with these people. But I was part of the nerd crowd, not the jocks, not the popular ones. So this will be interesting and yes, my anti-social self is quivering in fear.

But the other part of me - the part who at my 50th birthday decided I would never turn anything down ONLY because of fear says - hey what the heck, it is only a few hours out of my life. And I will either hate it or enjoy it, and maybe a combo of both!

The bad thing is the dogs have to go to the kennel. And we had Bella to the vet yesterday about her granuloma which she continues to lick.....have ordered another style of cone for her and we are trying laser therapy - which the vet says may or may not work but she, being a skeptic she says, has been surprised at the things it helps. We will have to see if she can eat with the new cone (which doesnt arrive till Friday) before we decide what to do about her being in a stressful situation for 2 nights.

Easter Photos

 Every year we try to get this pose.....they were not very cooperative this year....and neither was the sun!

 And yes they all wanted to do an Easter egg hunt.....competitive like their mama's?

 I cannot believe how tall these two are! On the left is Owen, who will be 13 this June. His mom and especially his dad are very tall. On the right is Connor who just turned 15 in November. Taller than both parents but he has grandfathers who are tall and other family.

 The dogs werent too happy about this photo - maybe Ralph is complaining about the pink ears and Bella about the blue?

 My lilacs were in all their glory for Easter. I just wish they would last longer than the do. They are really getting beaten down by the rain today. This year we really have to figure out how to cut this back a bit.

The prettiest daffodils I have ever seen....got them at the Pleasanton Farmer;s Market the day before Easter and they are still looking lovely