Hmmmmm, Thursday......

I'm postcall. I spent most of my day sorting through roughly eight months of unopened mail (it's one of my worse habits, frankly). Still not done, actually, but I've come up with a lot of recycling, found a couple of bills, discovered that the electric company in NH hadn't actually taken the electric out of my name or put it in the new owners' names, and was threatening to disconnect service for nonpayment. You know, things like that.

I'm really tired at the moment. Slept a little last night, was going to take a nap today, ended up finishing the book I'd been reading instead. And then spent the whole evening on the phone, pretty much. And now I so need to go to bed. But first, because it's Thursday and all, here's five things I love today.

1. My job. Not that I'm not looking forward to not taking overnight call at State Hospital (was that enough negatives in that sentence for you?), but I really like feeling useful. Like, last night, I got called to the male acute unit because they had this autistic and severely mentally retarted kid who was causing a ruckas. We gave him all manner of drugs, put him in seclusion for about two minutes, and that just made things worse. So he's out in the hall, he's sprawled on the floor, kicking, wailing, groaning, flailing...and scratching. And so I said, is he always like this? They said, no, he's usually quiet, just walks the hall at night. So I looked at him...and I said, something must be wrong. We concluded he must be itchy. I gave him some benadryl, sat down on the floor next to him. I read to him...well, I read to him from his chart, because I was looking for new medications or something that would give him an allergic reaction. But with nonverbal people, autistic or infants or whatever, it's really more about the tone you use. He had occasional moments of unrest, but mostly he calmed down and sat with me. And about thirty minutes into the benadryl, he was quiet and happy and roaming the halls again.

2. My Starbucks. You know, the one I go to every morning, where they all know me, know my order, etc. I stopped there on the way home today (for my usual breakfast), and gave them my usual order, including my typical Venti Black Unsweetened Iced Tea. And one of my favorite Baristas keys on the mike and says "yeah, um, we're, uh, out of water, so we can't really make your tea..." I said...well...um...okay. Which was about when they all started cracking up, and he said, "I'm kidding, Kate. Come on around." I got to the window and was like, that was fantastic. One of the other morning shifters, says, oh, the look on your face! They all thought it was hysterical that I was just like, well, alright then. Come on, we were out of water? I said, you know, honestly? That's not even the weirdest thing I've heard in the last 12 hours...

3. That my dog came home from the day care (where she spends the nights I'm on call at State Hospital) today and she was soaking wet.


In fact, if you look close enough, you can see what side she was sleeping on, because it's the one that's the side that is, in fact, is still wet.


He he.

She also cried all the way home. It cracks me up.

4. Love this picture of Mag's long lost coyote cousin, Charlie, from The Daily Coyote.

5. Sleep. So I'm going to go get some of that...