The Gales of November, or October, or whatever

So I've been in The Big Regional Hub for the past three days, doing my chemo certification class and a little bit of following the IV team this morning. I thought I would be doing more of a training, with practice and everything, with them, but when the lady (who had already yelled at me for disparities in our practice--for the record, according to the manufacturer of the device in question, she's wrong) said "You know you're not going to be starting any IVs, right?", I just nodded. Instead I watched, and tried not to get in the way, and unwittingly followed them to the Neuro ICU, which just happens to look damn near identical to the ICU in Boston Medical Center, into the same room per that layout that I spent way too much sad time in, and tried not to hyperventilate. I also got told that we in Ashland are doing most things all wrong, as is becoming the custom for my training up here. I was happy to leave at noon. But at least I got my chemo certification, and three nights at the Sheraton, out of it.

The huge storm showed up sometime Monday night, and I have to say, I really love storms. I especially love storms on Lake Superior. Evidently parts of the lake, nowhere near us, had waves over 25 feet. Awesome. I would pay a lot of money to be able to watch something like this
all day long. I wouldn't want to be out in a canoe on it or anything, but on land at a barely-safe distance? Hell yeah. I've always been in love with the lake, ever since I first saw it as a kid, and a big part of that is due to its potential for this level of scary amazingness. A lot of people have no clue what Superior's really like. Here it is.

Photo from SymonSez blog (googling "Lake Superior waves")

Post-Equinox

For the first time in a long time, I can't wait for winter. I don't know if it's my advancing age or living here in the north amongst the wilderness and hippies, but I'm getting that whole "in-tune-with-the-seasons" thing going.

This summer was a little exhausting. I really should be smacked for saying that, since I didn't work until August, but it just felt really hectic. And then once I did start working, it felt like Kevin and I were always, always busy. We'd plan on a stay-at-home weekend, then something would come up here, another thing would come up there, and before we knew it our schedule was full. Don't get me wrong, we had fun and I'm so, so glad we have made so many wonderful friends up here, but I am dying for a quiet, snowed-in weekend, just us and some movies and craft projects.

Work is going well, I suppose. I'm starting to get IVs down, although today I tried to start an IV on someone who apparently has concrete coating his veins. When I finally gave up and pulled out the catheter (the needle doesn't stay in, it's just to get through the skin and hopefully the vein), there was no blood on it and it looked like I had jammed it into the wall. Mad skills, yo. But my success rate is slowly improving. I'm trying to keep telling myself to give myself a year to get comfortable in my job--I'm a new nurse, it's a tough specialty--but I'm not great about being patient with myself. I do my chemo certification at the end of the month and once I start doing chemo as well, I'm sure my comfort level will plummet again. But I've got great teachers working with me.

I'll switch to part-time once I'm done training, probably some time in November. It will be awesome to get that extra time back, especially as we start working on the house, but I'm worried about the drop in income. My full-time nurse's paycheck has been pretty nice. But we'll manage. We know how to live poor, and it's only uphill from there. And Kevin has a fantastic job that he absolutely loves, working for a really great guy who builds and restores fine wooden boats. So we're pretty solid, all in all.

I know this is incredibly sappy and unlike me, but I often kind of marvel at how lucky we've been, to move up to this little economically depressed town in rural northern Wisconsin and both find really good jobs right out of school. I think we're definitely home, our little family with our dog and cats. Especially doing what I do, I know that lightning can strike any time and the odds are decent that someday, hopefully a long time from now, it will. But right here and right now, we're happy. Perfection? No, but for now it's pretty damn good.