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I read a news article recently about a study conducted by the National Institutes of Health regarding weight loss. They proclaimed the “key” to weight loss is… wait for it… here it comes… cutting calories and getting exercise! Well, DUH! I’ve said for years now that weight loss isn’t magic. It boils down to simple math. Burn more calories than you take in. And now a study conducted by a reputable organization has proven me right. Don’t I feel special? The part I find most laughable (or sad, maybe… pick one) is that grant money was spent and time spent to determine a “key” to weight loss that is simply common sense. Does this seem like a waste of resources to anyone other than me? Let’s research a cure for cancer or diabetes, or research ways to clean our environment and keep it that way. Those would be more worthy causes to use the resources on. Sure, obesity is a huge problem in our society. (Yes, pun fully intended.) It costs us hundreds of thousands of health care dollars to care for the many chronic health issues associated with obesity. I’m not diminishing the severity of the issue. I’m just saying it’s pretty much common sense to figure out that eating less and getting more exercise is going to take bring weight off. Yet someone felt the need to spend who knows how much money and manpower proving this? That just seems like reinventing the wheel… in other words, completely unnecessary.
“There’s no dollar sign on peace of mind, this I’ve come to know.” Those are some lyrics from a country song and ever since I first heard that line I’ve loved it. As I get older, and hopefully wiser, I’ve come to realize that some things really are more important than money. Peace of mind being one of those. I know it sounds trite and cliche, but money really doesn’t buy happiness. The love of family and friends and a strong self esteem and sense of personal worth bring happiness. And money might be able to buy a cheap imitation of those things, but not the real thing. Sure, money is necessary for basic needs like food and shelter. But besides those things, most of the rest of what money buys is just stuff. And stuff can be replaced. The older I get the more I look to the little things in life to be grateful for. And the more I find to be grateful for, the more I realize just how rich I really am even though my bank account may not show that. Do you feel rich? Are there things in your life you’re grateful for?
The hospital where I work sets along a river. There is a hiking trail that runs along the river behind the hospital. This morning after work it was misty out but not cold so I went for a walk with my camera. These are my 3 favorite shots of the morning. And yes, that middle one is just a weed but I thought it was kind of shaped like a heart and I liked it.
I’ve been living on my own for a number of years now. My mom has said I’m “too damn independent for my own good.” And I learned to use various hand tools as a kid playing in my dad’s wood shop. Add that all together and I can do many small repairs around the house and am pretty comfortable with that. So this evening I didn’t give a second thought to moving the futon from the living room to the spare bedroom by myself. I was getting prepared for the delivery of the new couch tomorrow morning. Well, what I should have probably given more thought to was the tight corner between the living room and spare bedroom that I needed to maneuver the futon around. I got it stuck a few times… said a few obscene words under my breath… ended up having to move it halfway around the corner in the couch position then flatter into the bed position to get it the rest of the way around the corner and through the doorway into the bedroom. I’m sure it looked pretty comical. At one point I was ready to give up. I planned to pull it out the front door and put an ad on the free section of craigslist to let anyone who would haul it away have it. But I seem to have inherited my mother’s stubborn streak and wasn’t going to just give up. So it did eventually get into the spare room. And looks rather nice in there, too.
This isn’t a technically great shot. But I just thought it was some really fun graffiti I saw painted on a fence as I was driving today.
Anyway… I’ve been doing my part to stimulate the economy lately, but now I’m done. I spent my tax refund on a few things I’d been needing (or some just wanting) since I moved back to Oregon almost 6 months ago. I wanted a new tv because I’ve been using a small old one my sister gave me when I moved. I needed a new couch because I’ve been sitting on an old futon that my sister and I have passed back and forth between each other for a number of years now and while it’s functional, it’s not all that comfortable. And I wanted a fancy new vacuum, needed a dining table because I didn’t have one, and just really wanted the new camera I got. So it wasn’t as though I was spending money just to be spending it. I was clearing off my wish list. And now it’s all cleared off so I am DONE spending. But it was sure fun. My living room and dining area look completely different… and great!
So, I have a close friend who actually enjoys cleaning. She’s my cleaning guru. I call her any time I need to know how to best clean something around my house and she always has an answer. Me, I like my house being clean but don’t enjoy doing the cleaning to get it that way like she does. I tell her that not everyone enjoys cleaning and she reminds me that not everyone hates it like I do. It’s an ongoing debate and joke for a while now. Anyway, she’s been telling me for several months now that I need a Dyson vacuum cleaner… only a Dyson will do… I’ll be amazed at the difference and at how much it sucks up. Target happened to have a PINK Dyson on clearance sale and pink is my very favorite color and I happened to have the money to spend at the time sooooo… This morning after work I went shopping! I am now the proud owner of a new Dyson brand vacuum. And yes, it is as amazing as she said. In just the bedroom alone it almost filled the entire dirt canister and I had vacuumed in there just about 3 days earlier! It also is awfully quiet compared to other vacuums I’ve owned, and it glides on carpet really easily. I had never even heard of Dyson brand vacuums until this friend of mine told me about them and now I’m hooked. And as I’m writing this, it occurs to me that my life must be awfully dull if a new vacuum is the only thing I can think of to write about, yeah?
As anyone who knows me knows, I love being a nurse. I really do. It’s what I’m meant to do and I can’t imagine what other career I would be in if I weren’t a nurse. But there is something about nursing that I don’t think the general public is aware of. It’s hard work. And I’m not complaining about that. I accept that fact as just part of the whole gig. But it is not a profession for the wimpy or lazy. I don’t mean just physically hard. I mean mentally draining at times, too. The physically hard part is the walking (or sometimes running) from room to room, lifting patients, transfering them out of bed and back into bed, repositioning them in bed, all of that. Then the mentally tiring part is the constant pressure to meet the needs of a group of usually five to six patients for eight hours straight. And frequently two or three or even the whole group may have needs to be met all at once. (Ok, so that part of nursing may not be so different than being a parent or a handful of other careers that I can think of.) Besides the needs of your patients you also have phone calls and new orders from physicians to act on. So you have to be very good at prioritizing. And then there are the family members… The majority of time, family members are just great and helpful and it’s nice to have them there. But once in a while you can have the family member or member(s) from hell. The ones who think their loved one is in a hotel, not a hospital. The demanding ones who want you to be at their beck and call every moment. I completely understand that it’s scary to have your loved one ill enough to have to be in the hospital. And I understand they’re maybe not at their best under that stress. But the other side of that coin is that as much as I would like to devote all of my attention to their loved one, I have four or five other patients to also care for and THEIR loved ones feel they deserve the same amount of attention. And I agree with them. So a good nurse is definitely a diplomat. Soothing ruffled feathers is just a part of the job. I know this may sound up to this point like I don’t actually like my job so much. But that’s really not true. I do. I had a shift one night that was just a disaster… one problem after another to deal with, crazy-busy, short staffed that night, just a Murphy’s Law kind of night. And I very clearly remember thinking “I still wouldn’t want to be doing anything else.” After almost eleven years of nursing I still get excited to go to work and learn new things every night. The fulfilling part is the happy stuff… The patient who had a stroke who calls you into their room at 4 am to show you how much better they can move the side that had been previously almost completely flaccid because they know you’ll be as happy about it as they are. Or the patient’s sister who thanks you for being with her sister while she took her last breath. Or just a simple “Thank you for being my nurse” from a patient. The reward to nursing is knowing you are making some degree of difference in the lives of your patients. Maybe not a huge, life altering difference, but some difference. To my way of thinking, that’s a pretty huge reward. And it’s what keeps me coming back night after night, year after year.
Earlier tonight I was driving along a quiet residential street. The speed limit was 25 mph. I was driving around 30 mph and there was a car following me way too closely… and kept getting closer and closer. When the driver finally realized I wasn’t going to speed up any faster no matter how much they wanted me to, they illegally passed me on a dark stretch of road with a curve ahead and flew up the street. I had to laugh just a little bit when I saw the same car about six blocks up the road and they were stuck behind a slow moving city bus! Yeah, that dangerous move passing me like that really paid off, didn’t it?
I was embarrassed today to discover just how out of shape I am. I went to a local hiking trail near my house to walk. I had my new camera with me and wanted to go to the summit of the butte to get some photos. From the bottom of the trail at the parking area to the summit is only 0.6 miles… not so far at all, really. But it’s steep. I mean REALLY steep. Add that to the fact I hadn’t eaten anything in at least 12 hrs and… well… I didn’t make it to the top. I made it about 2/3 of the way and turned around and came back down the trail. I’ll try it again in a few more days and make sure my body has fuel before I go. And hopefully then I’ll have some pictures to show you. For now I just have this shot I took along the trail. It’s one of my first shots with my new picturer and I was pleased with it.
So today I got a new toy… A Nikon D40 digital SLR. An awesome camera I’ve been wanting for a long time. So that’s why I just had to post a picture of the dessert I made tonight. This recipe is incredibly easy and turned out delicious. It’s simply a box of angel food cake mix and a 20 oz canned of crushed pineapple mixed together. I baked it at 350 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes. My mom told about me about it. She had found it in an RV recipe book somewhere. So I just thought I’d share. Enjoy!
