I guess things happen that way

2004-11-19 - 5:40 p.m.

I can't seem to find the lint trap on my dryer here in my apartment. Does anyone out there know if they make dryers without lint traps? Or am I just too dumb to find it?

This morning I climbed out of my sleeping bag at five and headed into the bathroom to take a shower. Except there was no hot water. I'm sorry, but mid-November is no time for taking early morning ice-water showers in Seattle. So I kinda took a sponge bath and called it good. I was very annoyed though. Luckily, the hot water was working again by the time I got home from work today.

At work I got in more computer time, which is good. I also had to go to a mandatory class that all employees at my hospital have to go to at some point about feedback. I learned today how to give and receive feedback. It lasted for an hour and half and was surprisingly unboring. The teacher was very good, especially considering the pupils. There were two guys who were really jerks and had to argue all their points. Who cares, guys? We're talking about feedback for Pete's sake, how important is it that you be right? Especially since they weren't, but whatever. There was also one woman who absolutely refused to talk in front of the class. After explaining to us how to properly give and receive feedback, the teacher made us all think of a situation we had been in recently where we could give someone feedback and then write down what we would say. Then we roll-played by telling our bit of feedback to someone else in the class, even though they had no real idea what you were talking about. Anyway, this lady absolutely refused to be on either end of this roll-playing thing. It was amazing. We all thought she was joking. Until she said, "Maybe I should just leave." I couldn't believe she'd actually put her job in jeopardy over that. Over all, though, it really was pretty cool.

Well, I know that today I made at least two mistakes. The first mistake was when I was checking IVs. I checked a rabbit globulin and then set the filter that goes with it on top of it. I don't know why I did it since I had just finished checking a bunch of chemos and rubber-banded all their filters to the bags, but for this particular one I just set the filter there. The tech took the bag up to the floor and left the filter. Ergh. The second mistake was that I entered a morphine order as a push instead of continuous infusion. That second one wouldn't kill anyone though, at least.

And the best part is that I'm starting to feel more comfortable around people. They're starting to talk to me more and I was even invited out to party with "the girls" next Saturday. I didn't actually accept the invitation, but I plan on it. Unfortunately, they're going out to Thai food which has a way of making me sick, but I think I'll go anyway. It's funny, I'm nervous about it. I mean, really, these girls are like my one link to a social life here. What if they discover that I'm actually just a big doofus not worth going anywhere with?