Waking Up to Sweet Things

Portland, Oregon. O6.2o.2o17 O4:45

The Father’s Day 2o17 post had to go sit quietly by itself in the ‘Drafts’ holding area. It was just a wee bit too painful to tend to in real time.

So, Sweet Things will be the theme of today.

I woke up at O4:3o this morning. This may sound awful, but it’s a huge victory.
According to my CPAP machine, I slept a full 7 hours.
This is a big improvement from my normal 4 to 6 hours of nightly sleep.
And, I did not have any nightmares.
None that I remember, anyway. I will have to ask Mr. Blitch when he wakes up.
Apparently, sometimes, I wake him up talking or screaming in my sleep. Sometimes I am very well aware of this, sometimes not.
Oh, you don’t have this problem? Well. Lucky you.

What do I have nightmares about?
These things (in no particular order)…
1) my job
2) #45
3) my mother
4) my father
5) dance auditions from High School (circa 1983-1986)
6) that I don’t really have my bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) degree. There is still a college history class that I didn’t complete…
7) someone named ‘Jennifer’

So, today is already a great day!

Here is my better list – Sweet Things of Today:

1) My son HH and our neighbor, Max, slept out in the backyard last night. HH on the hammock, Max slept on the grass. There really are some sweet teenage boys in ‘Murica. I know of at least 7 or 8 of them. Good students. Musicians. Young men who are respectful towards girls and women. This does still exist.

2) My friend Julie’s daughter turned three yesterday. Her papa, Mr. Beastwood, gave her a rad pink, black, and white drum set for her birthday.
And, apparently, she learned that she’s going to be a big sister this winter.
Everything about this family is tremendously cool. Creative, super smart people. Julie and I used to work together at my previous job. She is one of the smartest women I have ever known. She taught me everything I know about Epic medical electronic systems. I could not survive or thrive at my current job as an Oncology Nurse Navigator if she hadn’t encouraged me to change my stubborn Luddite ways, and embrace the advent of medical technology.
When I graduated from the University of Portland School of Nursing ten years ago, my first job was as a night shift Bone Marrow Transplant nurse in a large teaching hospital. Paper charting was still a thing then. The noc shift nurses would grab calculators in the early morning hours to frantically add up each patient’s I’s and O’s (Intake/Output fluid balance) and ANC (Absolute Neutrophil Count) prior to the arrival of the Nurse Practitioners, Physician Assistants, and Hematologist-Oncologists at o6:00.
I was working the night when our Epic system “went live.” It was insanity. All managers on duty, people who had not worked through a 12 hour night shift in their lives. All the night nurses were snickering at them as they struggled to stay awake. Good times.
Anyway, Julie and her husband are outstanding people. They make life better though science and art. I truly, deeply, admire and appreciate them.
I mean, Holy Shit, had I been given a drum set when I was three years old? What might life have been like? What roads might I have traveled down? Kudos to them. Strong parenting. I am thrilled there will be a new addition to their family in the near future. Our world will benefit from this new arrival.

3) Mr. Blitch has gotten his groove back. After a couple years of limited time in the studio due to chronic back pain, parenting, “other work,” and me being away at work for 40 to 50 hours per week…. I went down to the studio this morning and found this: