Another one bites the dust (some miscellany!)
We haven't had one of these in a minute, sooooo, buckle up for some randomness. 🙂
Another one bites the dust
I still have a few regular Pyrex lids hanging around, and this week, my last 7-cup round lid bit the dust. It was so brittle, it cracked into three pieces, and this despite being faithfully hand-washed and air-dried.
But..this is okay because I have three 7-cup containers, and I happen to have three Sophico silicone lids. Sooo, I don't need that old one anyway.
(In case you haven't heard: Sophico silicone Pyrex lids are my FAVE. They're basically indestructible, which is not what we can say about regular Pyrex lids.)
Nietzsche, Dostoevsky, and a hungry cat
When it gets close to dinnertime, Chiquita likes to walk back and forth in front of me on my desk, meowing, just in case I forget it's close to pate time.
This is mildly irritating when I am just writing a blog post, but yesterday, I was writing an ethics assignment about the philosophies of Nietzsche and Dostoevsky, and I decided I could not do that with a hungry cat pacing on my desk.
So, I shut my office door. Sorry, Chiquita.
I added a Snoopy magnet to my locker
It had to be done. 😉
I got my two Daisy pins!
I received two Daisy award nominations in the last few months, and this week, I got my badge pins.
I realize that Daisy awards are not necessarily an accurate reflection of one's nursing abilities*, but still, I feel kinda proud to have the pins on my badge.
*The nicest, sweetest patients are the ones most likely to nominate you for a Daisy award, but the difficult patients are the ones who actually require the most Daisy-like nursing. However, those patients will never be the ones to nominate you!
I am a work order queen
A while back, one of my coworkers showed me how to place a work order, and I have now become the work order queen on my unit.
I love getting things fixed! Broken light switches, plugs that are missing the grounding prong, thermostats that don't work, computer mice that won't scroll, beds that have error codes, bedside commodes that are missing their plastic feet...I put work orders in for all of them.
And lo and behold, things get fixed! I'm not sure the engineering department at my hospital appreciates me (ha), but my unit is in better shape as a result of all the work orders. 🙂 Also, my patients appreciate this; they feel cared for when I try to make sure things are working in their rooms.
When I was driving home from my last shift, I was careful to avoid a long-standing pothole near my house, and I thought, "Hmm, it would be nice to get that fixed." So yesterday I put in a pothole report with my state (it's a state highway, not a county road).
I'm bringing my Work Order Queen energy outside of the hospital now. 😉
I am trying to learn MLA
Warning: first-world problem ahead.
An unfortunate fact about my ethics class: it requires MLA formatting.
At this point, I'm pretty good at APA formatting because all of my nursing classes use APA. But now I am having to adjust to MLA for this class. It's like speaking a slightly different language.
BOO.
I have spent a lot of time googling how to cite things in MLA, which is vaguely annoying because I am probably never going to use MLA skills again in my life.
Oh well.
Lisey moved to Seattle!
She got a job with a different, better airline, and now she's on the same continent as me. Woohoo!
Also, now we only have a three-hour time difference, and that is pretty nice.
Have you heard of MyBib for formatting help? It has been helpful with citation formatting for papers I've had to write. Free to use, and I don't think I even had to make an account.
https://www.mybib.com
Yay for Lisey being closer! And congrats on the Daisy nominations!
Btw, I thought of you recently when an online classmate posted a [graded] discussion board contribution that accidentally included obvious portions of text from an AI generator. (Like, "feel free to edit this response to make it sound like your own voice" and "if your class discussion doesn't include XXX, then consider the following instead"). I was both annoyed and slightly amused!
Now I'm wondering if there's irony in using MyBib to help with formatting citations while at the same time frowning on AI assistance for discussion posts, lol. You're in Ethics... am I crazy over here? Is there a difference?
Oh, no, I have checked with multiple professors and they are not against using citation generators at all. I mean, obviously you have to check what they generate, but they're an acceptable tool to use. I love MyBib!
I feel like the difference is that a citation is just information about a source formatted in a specific way. If 1000 different people cite the same source, they should all have identical citations.
That's very different from discussion board posts, which should all be unique.
Agreed that a citation is very different from forming sentences and paragraphs and, you know, thoughts. 😉
Agreed, yes! So I'm not crazy. Thanks! 🙂
I'd say the difference is that a citation is not creative work while what your classmate posted is supposed to be.
Congratulations on your Daisy pins! The commentariat is not at all surprised. And your difficult patients benefit from the same skills that are recognized by the easy patients.
I received a recognition myself this week and it feels good! It really motivates to continue practising the skills and attitude that is so appreciated.
Good news also on Lisey living closer by. No doubt she loved Hawaii, but a career improvement that brings you closer to your family is a double win.
What did you find most interesting about your lessons on Nietzsche and Dostoevsky?
Bleah, well, the Dostoevsky was the section on the Grand Inquisitor, so sort of a story in a story and I hate those in basically every book I read. I often skip them, truth be told. I felt like it was hard to understand what he was saying, but thankfully, our professor gave us an outline and reading guide and that helped.
This is the first Nietzsche I have read and I found myself surprised by how many times he wrote words in all caps. I kept feeling yelled at.
Just like Queen Victoria underlined half of her sentences and used exclamation marks a lot !!!!!
I am curious what is next on your reading list though?
I haven't looked ahead that far yet. The Nietzsche/Doestoevsky readings are for this week and next, and our professor says to just take one module at a time. Soooo, I will finish this assignment and then consider looking ahead.
I like stories within stories but then I'm a massive nerd 😉
Yay for Lisey being so much closer AND working for a better airline!
Re the Daisy pin nominations. I worked as a Teaching Assistant in an infants school (age 4-7) for a few years. It was usually the parents of easy-to-be-with children who thanked you. In a way it helped me be more understanding towards the more challenging kids
- hearing their grumbling / ungrateful parents made me feel sorry about their probable home life.
So glad Lisette is a LITTLE bit closer (well, about 1,000 miles ?! Closer). Hopefully this means when school is behind you (soon!!) you can see each other more often!
I’m proud of your motivation to get stuff fixed. I am the same way. Why ignore it when it can be fixed!
Congrats to Lisey! And, I'm sure it is nice having her a bit closer.
One of the nicest features in Word is the citation builder which does MLA and APA. They taught us about it in my Technical Communications degree classes. Hopefully this will help save you some time!
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/word/add-citations-in-a-word-document
Ooh, I didn't even know that existed. I will check it out.
We have a pothole reporting system in our city, and when I've reported one, usually they're out there fixing it in a couple of days - impressive!
Nice to have Lisey somewhat closer to you! My daughter lives just north of Baltimore, so she's still on Indiana time - no guessing whether it's a good time to talk.
Ooh, I hope my results are that fast. If this is successful, then I will keep reporting them. 🙂
I made my first ever flower arrangement with all fresh picked from the farm. I inherited heritage roses with the house. That part was easy. We have Mexican sagebrush, tall and purple. The tricky part was the Helianthus annuus. They are a variety of wild sunflowers that grow on the side of the road. I had to park on the highway across the ranch. A little unnerving. The arrangement is gorgeous.
I have decided my new hobby is flower arranging. After clearing out and moving five houses I am over anything that accumulates. I get the creativity of art but not the lasting "stuff."
Your flower arrangement sounds amazingly lovely! I laughed at last line as I stopped painting for the same reason but I am slowly easing back into drawing.
@Juhli, I have 2 flat files full of drawings. At least it's only paper. . . been trying to keep from painting things just because I want to instead of painting things that I know will sell. Often if something doesn't sell, I paint something new over the top.
Jana, I've quit receiving your blog via my email. Are you taking a break or is it on my end?
Yet again, I regret that we can't post pix in our comments. I expect that overall it's just as well, and yet I'd like to see your arrangement.
Yay for Lisey (and you)!
Miscellany:
-DS20 left dishes in the sink (the dishwasher was running), and we didn't get more ants. Hurrah, because they have been in & out, and the weather is hot again, so I'm very happy.
-My boss gave me a hard time for replying to work stuff at 6 am. You scheduled me for a 7 am meeting, and I don't like to log in just as a call starts - I need to be prepared. She means well, but doesn't always put the pieces together.
-I love having leftovers in the fridge. It's a little bit of Little Red Riding Hood (is that the right fairy tale), where you want just enough to make the work week easier, but not too much that you risk food waste.
Why is a problem to reply at 6 am? No one else is obligated to respond at that time!
Goldilocks and the Three Bears is what you are thinking of.
Yay for Lisey being closer and congratulations on the Daisy nominations! They are truly deserved!
Have you tried using CiteThemRight for referencing help? They have good templates and guides.
I'm going to Venice with my sister in a few days! It seems to have come up very quickly (in a good way).
Are you enjoying Ethics so far? I really enjoyed studying it in school and the show The Good Place, which features an Ethics professor!
That's wonderful that Lisey is a little bit closer! And a better job is always good.
Daisies rule! Your daisies are so well earned (note the work order queen among many other special things you do for your patients). And, our also sweet little granddaughter is a daisy in Girl Scouts. So cute.
Super props to Lisey for the new job and cool workplace. I recall when she graduated she had wanted to live and work someplace warm. Has she put that aside for now? Seattle is a wonderful place for you to visit, yay.
One of the first things I did after coming home from having both my kids was put in Daisy award nominations! If you find yourself getting great care in the hospital, send yourself a voice note or text to remember the name of the nurse(s).
I feel your pain about different footnote styles. I was deeply trained on one; then had to learn another, rather weird one; then had to learn and use a third, which sometimes involved inventing new usages of it, trying to adhere to the spirit of the system when the rules didn't cover the situation.
Congrats on L moving to your continent. Seattle is so beautiful, full of tasty food, has all those wonderful ferries including to Canada, and then there's the Chihuly museum. One of my faves because it's so beautiful. I highly recommend going to Vancouver and Vancouver Island; Beauchart Gardens are not to be missed.
I finally caught up on the paper and work that accumulated when I was away the first half of September. I realized some of my unease was not knowing if there were any buried landmines waiting for me. Future Me will put this insight to work by doing a deeper survey of work first, rather than a quick triage.
My roommate has his wheelchair accessible van with motorized ramp for his big chair. It's monstrously large and now he can wheel right in instead of having to do the energy-sapping transfer. His old van is 10 years old, lacking any number of modern safety feature and conveniences. He's giving away his old van - which has hand controls but not a motorized ramp - to someone who can't afford the van conversion.
I found The Inspector Lynley Mysteries. While I'm sorry the class conflict lasted only one episode, I'm greatly enjoying the clever plotting. Usually I can't guess the perp till close to the end.
@WilliamB, have you read any of the Inspector Lynley books? Elizabeth George is the author. There are a ton!
I think I have because every now and then I remember a detail from the mystery that didn't make it into the TV show. If I have I barely remember them. They are on my list for "someday".
Elizabeth George is my favorite mystery author, bar none!
Hooray for the van upgrade! And for passing on the older one.
WilliamB, Your roommate is an extraordinarily caring person. Lucky you.
I begged my boss for an 8 hour day today and because we had a light day he said yes. So grateful mostly because yesterday was horrible at work AND also after work.
If you can visit the maintenance department, you might consider going there to express your thanks in person. They don't usually hear positive feedback so yours would be extra powerful. Bonus points if you bring treats with you, challah perhaps? Or can you nominate them for an award, or write a commendation to the head of dept?
Oh yes, whenever they come up to my unit to fix something for me, I am profusely grateful, whether it's the IT guys or the biomed guys or the engineering guys (I say guys because I have not met a female one yet at my hospital.)
So, they do at least know I appreciate the work they do. When I saw one walking down the hallway to come unplug a stinky sink, I was like, "OMG the hero is here!" Heh.
Something I just don't get about those Pyrex bowls: how do you know the sizes? Did you actually measure how much liquid each one holds? Mine aren't Pyrex brand, but have the same cracked lid problem. I've never taken the time to fill them with water, measure them, and then write down the sizes.
YIPPEE FOR LISEY!! Mike Rowe says that the people with the skills who are willing to move where the jobs are will always find work. Seattle area is so beautiful and so full of wonderful things to see and do. I believe ferry travel is the be-all-and-end-all of transportation modes (no offense to your airplane mechanic girl...)
P.S. How annoying to have to write a paper about non-nursing subjects in order to get your BSN. No idea what MLA or APA is. And why wouldn't you complain about a "first world problem"? That's where we live, and doggone grateful for it.
Pyrex bowl have their sizes in raised glass on the bottom of the bowl. I have to hold mine up to a window to check the sizes, Worth looking for on non-Pyrex bowls!
Yep, they should all have their measurements written on the glass bottom. 🙂 Definitely a little hard to read, but in the right light it can be done.
Citations! Thank you for the multiple citation resources in the comments. I have an incarcerated friend who is taking a college English class this semester and for the first time is having to deal with citations. It is challenging.
I'm still kind of laughing over the person who left the AI suggestions in their work. Did they even reread their submission?
Glad to hear Lisey is closer now and with a better job. She might miss some of that Hawaii weather though, in particular the sunshine. Seattle and that whole area is a wonderful place to explore.
As for the fixit tickets...you go! Nothing is more annoying than having equipment that doesn't work right or doesn't work at all and you know it has been that way for a while. I do like William B's suggestion to go down to the maintenance department and express your appreciation. I'm one of those people who always says thank you to those people doing the menial tasks.
And after many many years of following you, the girls were practically babies, I still do not know how the name Lisey is pronounced.
Haha, it's Lee-see. 🙂
And yes, yes to saying thank you to the people who do the down and dirty tasks at work. As I said to WilliamB, I always profusely thank the IT, Biomed, and engineering guys, and I also always say thank you to the cleaners and trash-removers because my goodness, what would we do without them??
I had a professor who on one quiz asked us "what is the name of the janitor who cleans the room after class?" This was part of the regular quiz, it was not for extra credit. His point was that everyone and every name matters, and it made quite the impression on the class.
YES. 100% agreed. I know all of the daytime cleaners' names, but I still do not know all of the evening people.
One of the cleaners at work stopped to thank me because I always ensure that the room I use with groups is tidy at the end of the day. I think it's the least I can do. As a side note, I'm not sure why I'm so good at cleaning other people's spaces and suck at tidying my own, but I'm working on it.
Congrats on the Daisy! I had a rough and tumble grumpy guy patient who was a "frequent guest" in the icu. He made all of the nurses cry with his insults and I was helping him to the loo and he hated that, called me anything embarrassing to get a rise. I sat him down and I whispered that he wishes he was as tough as 40 grit sandpaper, but I know that he is 90 grit, just a polisher making everything shine.
His family wouldn't come to see him because of his outbursts. So invited his lovely wife to come while he was having a procedure. We built a team of suitable providers who would always be his care team. He was so tickled that he felt in control. She came everyday from that day forward.
I am so happy for Lisey and you!
Team build was a great solution there! Definitely a positive solution for both sides of the equation
And you definitely deserve a Daisy for that work. 🙂
Yay for being on the same continent as Lisey! I grew up in a military family that moved a lot and I understand how much this means to a family!
I read a kindle book that I got for free using delayed shipping credits. I knew it would be a light book but I didn’t expect it to be such a fun read. I quickly read through the rest of the series, via library books, and they were such a fun little break in my day.
Way to bury the lead … Yea for Lisey, a new job, and closer to family!!!! The weather will definitely be a huge change. About February I long for someplace warm and sunny.
As a career-long APA user, it was always a challenge to grade a paper submitted by one of my students who didn’t use APA. I tried to be kind and use it as a learning opportunity; however, the ability to follow directions and adjust to something new was so important to their future profession. The rubric I used had one section devoted to APA, so I could get their attention without being too punitive. Truthfully, I was far more interested in content than style. And, I understood their familiarity with a previously required style system. But, we couldn’t have them writing willy-nilly!
Fall has arrived in the PNW. Leaves are turning and falling. It’s still pretty warm, though. Pumpkins are everywhere. And, in true PNW fashion, I’m starting to long for rainy days.
I live in the Seattle area. I'll keep an eye out for Lisey and say Hi if I run into her. I seldom go into Seattle proper, but if she were working at Kenmore Air we would be neighbors.
I always use EasyBib for help in both formatting and citing sources.
On occasion, I look up Donna Freedman's Surviving and Thriving blog, even though she rarely posts anymore. Months go by without anything new. I called it up yesterday and, sure enough, she announced she's quitting for good. It's nothing we didn't already know, but it makes me sad nonetheless. (She says she will keep it online so we can look up her past writings, and says if she ever wants to post something again, she will. But for all intents and purposes, it's over and done with.) That final farewell was several days old so I didn't write a reply. Maybe I should have. I've read her stuff for decades -- since she was first on MSN.
We finally have gotten some cooler autumn weather! Sat outside on the porch and read a book this morning, and I've once again started eating meals outdoors on the patio -- something I haven't been able to do since early June because of the oppressive heat. Our afternoon highs will be in the low 80s, but that is sooooo much nicer than triple digits! And most of the day is even cooler; lows in the 60s. Snuggles loves this weather and has been happily running all around the backyard.
Tomorrow, our region's annual fair and rodeo begins and it's within a half-mile of my house. Talk about noisy! They have outdoor concerts until fairly late at night and I'll hear the music (if you can call country music "music" -- personally, I can't stand it!), even indoors. The TV news reports say the agricultural participants are really having a problem with diesel prices, and this may affect a lot of things. But the fair still boosts the local economy; they interviewed some Future Farmers of America kids who came from 200 miles away to exhibit their animals. I filled up my car's gasoline tank a few days ago so that if the filling stations jack up the cost of gas during the fair's 10-day run, it won't affect me. I don't drive very much at all these days, mostly just to work, church and the grocery store.
Yes, I saw that she announced she is done with blogging. She is indeed one of the OGs!
All of your post is interesting, but could you ask Lisey to do a q&a post? I spent a month on the Big Island four years ago, and I really wished I didn't have to come back. I'd love to hear her experience living on Oahu, if she visited any other islands, which tourist spots she went to, what she would recommend doing as someone who is living there. All the stuff!
I will ask her if she's interested, and if so, I'll put out a call for questions. 🙂
All the news about Lisey is wonderful - woohoo!
A question … do you know exactly which patient or family member nominates you for each award? Or are you able to tell by the details they give in the nomination? If it were me I’d be curious about that. And I know your awards are so very well-deserved!
I do, actually! Both of mine were submitted online, and I could tell which patient it was from the details they shared. 🙂
If you use Google Docs, there’s a way to make the program do the citation work for you. I know you won’t actually learn the formatting but is it really necessary to know how many spaces between each period? I think not. It’s in the tools tab.
Clark does the same thing if I'm studying when it's within an hour of a feeding time. I don't have a door on my study, though. I'm envious of your door!
after 3 weeks of the worst vertigo i have ever experienced and one ER visit, one PC dr visit and i cardiologist visit, i am slightly better. i always take care of calling maintenance for my apt building in stuy town. i call for elevator repair, washer repair, removal of wrongly delivered pkgs, and i put pkgs in apt order. i leave notes under people's doors that their pkgs are having babies. t'was great to see photos of your airplane mechanic and her hosts from back in the day. everyone looks so photogenic. where did the time go?
Goodness, I'm so glad you are feeling better now!
me too.
Yay Lisey!!! Congrats!! Did they move her car? Can she keep her cats? All the best. Will she miss the beach? Is the rent lower? Is the place to live nicer? So many questions. Am curious, not nosy.
Yes! Piper, her cat, flew over on the plane, and apparently she made quite a ruckus. Lisey says Piper needs to be on a "do not fly" list. Ha. And yes, her car moved with her. I do think her rent is lower, but then again, rent is lower everywhere than in Hawaii. Ha.
thanks for the quick reply. am thrilled my questions were answered so swiftly.
I am the neighborhood 311 queen! 311 is the non emergency site for my city. I frequently go there and fill out requests: illegal dumping, street lights out, overgrown vegetation, ect. Most things get done in a timely matter, not all. But I love it when I see something has been fixed. Yay!
Have you ever used the Gallup StrengthsFinder tool? With your Queen status, it makes me wonder if you are also a "Maximizer." It's great to notice and work from a place of recognizing your (and others') strengths!
I LOVE those Sophico lids! The are absolutely worth the money. Thanks for introducing me to them. = )
This feels like a second thankful Thursday post (except maybe not the part about the cat lol). Appreciate your positivity!
Congratulations to Lisey on the new job! And if she's working for the major airline headquartered here in the Seattle area, my sister works there as a flight attendant and a longtime friend is a pilot for them. As a lifelong Seattleite, I was a fan way before I personally knew anyone there. I hope she likes working there. Also, if she doesn't like our wet and gray winters, she can always fly down to Mexico for some sunshine---it feels like 75% of people here do. (Not me---I love the rain and hate summer heat!)
I am also a work order queen at work. Things need to look orderly and work properly. We get it done!!!
Giving you a high-five!