We got a house!!

So, yeah, after my truly wretched night, I haven't really been in a blogging kinda mood. But actually it's been an eventful month. So here's a quick summary of what's been going on the last month and a half:

The week after my wretched night was my "long week". This is the one week a month that I have to work 4 night shifts instead of three (or 56 hours instead of 42). In a word, it bites. Well, this is also the week where Tropical Storm Fay decided to stall out over Melbourne, the city I work in. Since my commute is 125 miles round-trip and all the roads were flooded, windy and dangerous, I was pretty nervous about the drive. At a couple points, I had to pull over and wait it out because the driving conditions were just that bad. I even had to rearrange a couple of my days around so that I wouldn't be driving to my shifts during the worst of it. Could I call out of work, or get someone else to cover me? Not a chance. No way. Does it matter that I live an hour away? Or that the other two people who work there live within 10-15 minutes of the place? Or that they are men with family nearby if anything happened and I'm a woman whose husband would be 60 miles away? Apparently not, because nobody offers to help me out and when I suggest it, I'm basically told that I'll be expected to make it up at a later date. The moral of the story here, folks, is that the people who work there are simply not interested in coming into work for a millisecond more than absolutely necessary and will do whatever it takes to avoid it at all costs. Gotta love it. It left me wondering what I will do when I'm sick and need to call out or, God forbid, want to take a vacation. But one problem at a time. So that week I endured 56 hours of work, 8 hours of commute, 500 miles of scary driving to and from work, through terrible flooding and tropical storm force winds. To be perfectly blunt, by the end of the week, I was pissed. . . . and wet.

That horrible week culminated on Friday when, in between shifts, I decided I missed my husband and decided to meet him for lunch. That night was the last shift I had left to work that week and I felt energized by the near-freedom and felt like getting out of the house. As I'm sitting at a stoplight, the driver behind me slammed into me. I was spun around (yep, again) and sent into the median. After hitting me, the other driver still had enough momentum to keep going, ramp herself into the median, mow down a palm tree and finally come to a stop in some bushes. I think it's a safe bet to safe she never bothered to brake.

Luckily neither of us were flung past the median into oncoming traffic. Between the hurricane and my long week, my nerves were pretty raw and I didn't handle this so well. I was pretty shaken. I will say I feel terribly lucky to not have been hurt. But I had only had my car for 4 months and I got it about a month after being in another bad accident in March which was a terrible ordeal. Wanna know the best part, though? When I called the boss to tell him about the accident and that I didn't have a car, he ended the conversation with, "Alright, just let me know what you are going to do about tonight!" That's right, folks. He totally expected me to leave for work 3 hours after I was in a car accident which totalled my car. Awesome. I truly felt like I was being shat on by the universe. In the end, though, it wasn't as bad as the first accident. It took several phone calls on my part but in about a week the lady was determined at fault for the accident and my car was deemed officially totaled. I got the money for the car and my previous loan paid off and ended up getting a brand new version of my old car. Not fun, but again, it all worked out in the end.

So, yeah, August wasn't a great month for me. But it ended on a decent note, since Aug 30th was the day I got my new car, which was fun. September has been significantly better. Since then I've had 4 weeks of working my normal 3-shift schedule, which has been nice. And while there have been a few annoyances at work, it hasn't been anything awful. Also, for whatever reason, we got the house bug about a week into September and decided to drive around and scout the area of town we were interested in living in to see which neighborhoods we liked. We had fun and even went into a few open houses. We met Meg, our realtor, at one of them. She was very sweet and open. And she offered to dive right into a search for us if we would tell us what we were looking for in a house.

Brad and I were trying not to take it too seriously considering we were in our apartment lease until February 21st and had no interest in paying double rent. But despite our best efforts we (read: me) got excited and dove into house hunting. Over the next 3 weeks we compiled a few lists of houses and looked at about 20 houses in total. We liked a few but there was one that we were interested in from the start and no matter what our mood, never got cut from "the list." We decided to make an offer on it last weekend with the provision that we get a long closing, so as not to pay double rent for more than a couple months. The owners countered and it turns out they want a couple months to stay in the house so they can work on finding their next house in Tampa. We will close November 3rd and they will lease the house back to us until December 31st. We will move in sometime mid-late January (after we make a few improvements) and we'll only pay one month of double rent! How perfect. In short, we got our first house!! YIPPEE!!!

For those interested, here's a link to pictures of our new house!

Talk about semi-charmed life,
~Layne :-D

Truly. Wretched. Night.

Well, last Tuesday (August 5th) started out like any other day. But by the end of my shift on Wednesday morning, it would go down in history as "Hell Day." Yes, everyone at my hospital was calling it that, not just me. But unfortunately I think I bore the brunt of it. Ugh. . . here's my tale.

I started out the day feeling not so great. If you are a guy, skip these next few sentences. If you are a girl, I'm pretty sure you'll sympathize. To put it plainly, I was feeling fat and disgusting. I saw some pretty revolting pictures of myself and the numbers on the scale were not helping matters. So, on my way into work, I was already in a mood.

Alright, back to business. For those of you who are used to working in shifts, where your assignment is handed off to you by person who was working before you, you'll probably understand the frustration and dismay I felt walking in to find my attending in a particularly foul mood. Because it means that the assignment I was being handed was going down the shitter. . . . fast. There were 12 babies in the NICU, which is a lot for us, since we are used to more like 5-7 babies at a time. And one of them got particularly sick that day. The MD only had 2-3 notes done (meaning I had about 10 babies to examine, charts to review and notes to write, aka about 3-4 extra hours of work). And to top it all off, the baby that was sick needed arterial access which the attending was having difficulty getting. The umbilical cord was shot (the kid was 12 days old, so no surprise there) and he was dehydrated, meaning that getting a peripheral art line would be difficult at best. So he was stuck staying late. (Lucky me.)

Also, because he had been so busy all day he hadn't seen any of the normal newborn babies. So I have about 10 babies to examine and chart on upstairs. Since he had the fort held down in NICU I decided to get started on that. Well, no sooner was I upstairs, than I was called for a delivery. I don't normally go to vaginal deliveries but this baby was suspected to have a heart defect (which he didn't) and they were concerned how he would do. So I stand there for a good 30 minutes before a normal screaming baby pops out and I resuscitate him and leave. But while I'm there the respiratory therapist (RT) is able to shed a little light on the impending doom that will be the rest of my shift. First she tells me that 34 week twins (translation: they will be coming to NICU - ugh, shoot me) will be coming that night. Since they are premature and are twins, I will be going to that delivery too. Also, there are 2 C-sections in the wings. (I have to attend all C-section deliveries). In case you haven't noticed yet. . . . all these deliveries that I have to go to take away the time I have to actually do my work. FUN!

So basically the night plays out like this: I go to 5 deliveries in 6 hours which produce 6 babies (since there was a set of twins), 2 of which were admitted to the NICU. The last of my deliveries for the night was around 12:30am and I don't finish the daily notes for the babies in NICU until about 2 am. So now I can finally see the babies in newborn. Since there are 20 of them (WAY more than the normal, which is around 12 or so) I don't finish with their exams until about 5am. I get about 2 hours of sleep before I wake up to a page from the NICU. There is a baby in trouble they want me to look at. So while I'm ordering a chest xray for this baby in the NICU, I get a page for the scheduled 7:30 C-section. I end up getting there late, the baby is already out and not doing well. This isn't the norm. Most of the 7:30 sections are term repeats and go off without a hitch. NOT THIS MORNING!! :-)

Well, I'm cranky because my night has been absolute shit and the RT is cranky because I'm late. So needless to say, we exchanged some not-so-sweet words and ended up admitting the kid to the NICU. . . . 30 minutes after my shift was supposed to be over. I'm pissed. I settle the kid in, give report and haul ass.

So this next part is the best part. Not because everything else didn't suck that night, it most certainly, without a doubt did. But what happened at work couldn't really be avoided and was what it was. What happened afterward didn't have to happen, but did because at that moment God hated me. So I'm driving home, hauling ass as usual and I notice a cop behind me. I had seen 2 people pulled over so far on my drive home so I was happy to realize that I was actually going the speed limit, mostly because the jackass in front of me was going the speed limit and I was trapped. Whew, right?

Not so much, after following me for about 2 miles the cop turns on his lights. I pull over, thinking surely this isn't for me. Um, yeah it is. I said "WTF? I wasn't speeding!" (Paraphrasing here.) He tells me he clocked me a few miles back going 16 mph over the limit but waited until after the construction zone to pull me over. The funny thing is I ended up pulling over in front of three other cars, each with a cop car behind them, lights flashing. I'm thinking "Geez, this is effing ridiculous! Is there a freakin' quota someone's trying to meet??" During the 5 minutes I sit there not one, but TWO other cars get pulled over by cops! TWO!!! One in front of me and the other across the street. So there are six cars and six cops all on side of the street all at the same time. I must have looked absolutely, freaking ridiculous to anyone driving by. Luckily, instead of giving me the $300+ ticket for going 16 over in a construction zone, the cop gives me a $100 ticket instead. Sweet guy, really. :: cough:: jackass ::cough ::

In short, thank God there wasn't an electrical storm that day, because the ways the stars were lined up that night, I'd be suffering from 3rd degree burns right about now. What the hell did I do to piss someone up there off so bad? Seriously.

Unluckily yours,
~Layne

And there's a demon in my head who starts to play
A nightmare tape loop of what went wrong yesterday
And I hold my breath till its more than I can take
And I close my eyes and dream that I'm awake
- Third Eye Blind, "Narcolepsy"

I suck . . .

Yes, folks. I officially suck at this blogging thing. I mean, take a look at the evidence:

1. I haven't posted in 60 days. Exactly. I missed the entire month of July.
   
2. I have a friend who is half a world away with a job and a wife who posts almost weekly, has the same number of posts as me but has been blogging two months less, AND when he does post it's freakin' epic-poem long. Seriously. Meanwhile I do my best to pump out a few paragraphs and lately have resorted to puffing up my posts with pics.
   
3. No comments. I have had one comment on my blog and it was from another blogger that I think is really an advertisement. I know that I don't exactly shout this thing from the rooftops but seriously. And just goes to prove my life (and blog) are so boring that neither warrant remark.
4. I think that's it but it seems weird to use this whole "list" feature if the list is only 3 things long. So there.

"So," you ask, "what have you had go on in your life in the last 60 days?" You think surely there must be some interesting stuff to report after 60 days of absence. Um. . . . . not so much.

Okay, in all seriousness, I felt like all I did was come on this thing to vent. Which I also do a lot IRL to my friends, my mom and to Brad (poor guy). I feel like I'm annoying myself with all the complaining so surely I'm annoying those in cyberspace as well. Also, because I'm not in love with my current employment situation, I worry about saying too much in case somehow word gets back to my boss. No need to start shit until absolutely unnecessary. Right? Damn right. So every time I would think to post, all I could think to post was more irate banter about how frustrated, annoyed and sometimes downright PISSED I am with my current, commute, job, boss, situation, etc. All those things are still true but I can't think of anything else to say that everyone around me hasn't already heard about and that won't otherwise risk getting me in trouble if it finds it's way back to my employer. So I guess that's that.

I'm off to eat lunch and to consider what else there has occurred in the last 60 days that was post-worthy.
~Layne

Back to the grind. . .

Well, I've been back at it for a little over a week now. The cruise was fun but mostly just nice to get away from everything for a little while. Plus it's the most I've seen my husband in a long while. You know, I kinda like the guy (go figure) and it makes me kinda sad when I don't get to see him (EVER) which is kinda how I've felt since starting this new job. The only time I get to spend with him during the week is Tuesday and Thursday nights. Other than that it's just Saturday and Sunday. I guess that's what I get for working 16 hour night shifts an hour away from where I live. Call me stupid. No seriously, do it. I feel pretty stupid. ::sigh::

Back to fun stuff. The cruise was great. And Dawn and Dave's wedding was beautiful. HOT! But beautiful. It was a blast seeing the girls from Shands. Makes me realize how much I miss it. And the best part was, since I was on the boat over my birthday, I won 25 bucks in the casino gambling on my bday!! I was so excited and it's even better than it sounds when you realize Brad and I both put in $10, he lost his and I was down to $2 when I won. Woo hoo! And my hubby was super sweet and took me to an amazing private dinner on the ship and gave me a purty for my birthday. Here are some pics:

First view of our ship and goofing around. . .
Dawn and Dave's wedding. Great time.

We really enjoyed the towel critters. What can I say?? It doesn't take much to amuse us.

Fun at the beach! But ouch! with the chafing!

Formal night. Aren't we purty?? Well, that's about it. Hope you enjoyed the pics!

~Layne

Cruisin'

Well, it's about that time. Tomorrow we leave for the port in Miami and by dinnertime we'll be setting sail on our first cruise!! We are both happy for some vacation time. It will be a nice long week, May 18th-25th. It will be great to spend so much time with Brad alone, trying new things, exploring and eating! Yummmmm. :-) And I can't wait for Dawn's wedding! We dropped her and Dave off at the airport this morning and I am so excited for them.

Also I will have my birthday on the cruise! It's a week from today. It's kinda exciting and weird all at the same time. It doesn't feel like my birthday is so close but it is and it will be weird to not celebrate it with everyone like I'm used to. But Brad is making special dinner plans and I'm sure it will still be a great day! And what a memorable birthday, at sea! And the next week we'll have a "rockin" party where we can really do it up right. Woo hoo!

As far as work goes, there have been some crazy shake-ups and I'm not sure what's going to happen with it. I can't really say too much about it, but I will say I'm not nearly as sure about this job as I was before . . . . (and I wasn't all that impressed before!) I do like being a nurse practitioner, though. It's a great job and I feel suited to it. I'm happy to finally being doing this job, even if I'm not completely sure about the environment I'm doing it in.

Anyway, I'm going to try and take LOADS of pics while we are away. Hopefully there will be some of me I don't hate that I can post for everyone's viewing pleasure. We'll miss everyone! See you next week!

~Layne

Working 9 to 5 . . .

Well, not really. But I have finally started my new job! And just as I predicted, when it finally came time to start I got a whooping 2 days notice. Called on a Tuesday to come in on a Thursday. Oh well.

So far so good. The unit is very small and that's hard to get used to. Also I feel like I've been doing WAY more newborn nursery stuff and not a whole lot of NICU stuff. I'm kinda hoping for more of a role with the kids in the NICU but I guess we'll see. Most of my orientation has been on days so far and I'll be working nights. So I'm not sure if I'm really getting a good feel for what it will really be like. Tonight is my first night shift there and I'll be shadowing Don, the other NNP. He's a nice guy and pretty funny to talk to so hopefully the 16 hours will go by quick.

In other news, Dawn's bachelorette party was last weekend and we had a blast!! And Brad and I will be leaving for our cruise in about a week! I can't believe it's already here! It came so fast. I can't wait, though! And then my birthday is here! May has been a big month for us!!

~Layne

Ever get the feeling. . .

. . . that you are being completely jerked around?? Well, I am definitely getting that vibe. This whole job business has probably been one of the most trying and frustrating things I've ever had to deal with. I mean this thing has definitely tested the last shred of patience and tolerance that I didn't even know I possessed.

I won't go into the details but needless to say I'm frustrated. And at this point I'm SUPER nervous about starting. I'm hoping all the crazy will calm down once I just start. I know I love this job. I really do. I'm also trying to remember the butterflies and the excitement that I felt as I was finishing my clinicals and passed my boards. I've just been away from it so long and the bureaucratic side of this business has not been treating me well lately. I'm just looking forward to getting back to where I started, the medicine and the babies.

::breathe:: ::breathe::

~Layne

Week of goodbyes. . .

Well, I did it! I've made it to my last week at Shands. Tomorrow I'll be driving up to Gainesville for work for the last time!! (Well, probably not, but it will be the last time for a little while at least!!) And I will have a small goodbye dinner at La Fiesta (yummmm) with my girlies at Shands on Tuesday before I head back to Orlando. I really loved working in the NICU at Shands. I learned so much there and made really great friends who I will miss so much! :'-(

Also tonight is the goodbye party for Alan, a really good friend I met in high school, and Jenn, his wife. They have taken (crazy) jobs in South Korea to teach elementary school kids english. FOR A YEAR!! Yes, they know everyone thinks they are crazy. And, yes, they are going to do it anyway!! I will really miss them and I hate that they are leaving. [BTW, I think it's funny that I just moved back to Orlando and a month later one of our best friends here leaves the country!! What does that say about us!?!] So, lots of goodbyes this week.

The one thing that isn't sad this week is that I'm starting a new job in the interim, while I wait to start working as a practitioner. For those of you who don't know, I have a cousin who just gave birth to 33 week twin boys!! (That's about 2 months early for you obstetrics- challenged folks.) Anyway, they stayed in the NICU for about 2 weeks and then were released home on apnea monitors that have to be attached to them constantly to monitor their breathing and heartrate.

Since I've been so very bored and this job doesn't seem to be starting any sooner, I was looking for something to do with myself. Maybe a job at my mom's office or a friend's work. Part-time. Nothin' big. Well, my mom heard that my cousin was looking for some help with the twins. I called her and we talked and ba-da-bing, ba-da-boom . . . I'm their nanny. She liked that I knew preemies and work with them all the time and understood their issues and could handle whatever came up. I'll be taking care of them at night so she can get some rest. I started last Thursday and it went great. The twins (Aiden and Avery) are adorable!! It's so nice to be working with babies and will be a great way to spend my time waiting to start this new job!

That's it for now! Take care, peeps!
~Layne

I'm official!!!!

To all who care: it's official!!! I'm an ARNP!!! Advanced Registered Nurse Practitioner, for those of you who are non-medical. I just checked Florida's Department of Health website and they posted my new license number!! Big step for me, people! I'm a dork and very excited and thought I'd share. :-)

Layne out!

Bummed and tired

Okay, so all my posts are depressing. And, really, life's just not that bad but it has been pretty frustrating lately. Anyway, I found out Thursday that I was NOT going to get my car back on Friday. So I could NOT go to work this week either. And, you guessed it, I was NOT happy about this!! I hate missing work. It makes me feel so guilty and lazy, even though I really couldn't help it. . . we only have one frickin' car!! I really hope that it's done this week but, at this point, I'm not holding my breath.

We moved the rest of our stuff out of the condo yesterday. It's completely empty now and that is officially our last trip to Gainesville. It was kinda sad to leave it. It was our first place, we got married there, I got Raina while I lived there. Lots of memories. So we took a moment to say good bye. Yes, we really did . . . don't laugh! And of course we had a bunch of crap to do while we were there (turn in our cable box, pick up my framed diplomas, etc) and we forgot a bunch of stuff that we needed and it rained off and on the whole day . . . In other words, what we expected to be about 2 hours in Gainesville turned into almost 5 hours. It was a mess and we were a mess and it was a very long, exhausting day. But I'm glad it's done. Just two more weeks of traveling to Gainesville to work and then I'm done!! :-)

Alright, I'm done whining. I promise. We have a bunch of stuff that we brought back this trip so I have projects now to keep me busy. Believe it or not, I'm very grateful for that. And it was Easter today and it was very nice! We had lunch with my mom and grandma and ran some errands and set up the house a little. We even went to dinner to this (great) sushi place that just opened across the street from us!!

Overall, it was a good week and a very productive weekend. Anyone who knows me, knows that being productive makes me very happy!! :-)

~Layne
Anal-retentive and proud!