Miscellany | bad nectarines, hospital frustrations, my teenage opera phase, and more

Some of this miscellany is frugality-related, some is not.

But all of it is overflow from my brain. 😉

(Which is honestly true of every blog post here, I suppose.)

Hungry Harvest’s customer service: 10/10

Hungry Harvest’s mission is to rescue imperfect food and get it into the hands of people who can eat it. 

And nearly all the time, my Hungry Harvest food is perfect. 

But occasionally, something arrives that is not in good shape. Such was the case with some nectarines in my last box, so I took a photo and emailed it to them.

Within 5 minutes, I got an email back saying my account had been credited. And this has been the case the other handful of times I have had some funky produce as well.

They always tell me they appreciate hearing about it when some bad produce slips through the cracks, because then they can refine their processes. 

One of my favorite ways to care for patients

I have noticed that a common frustration for patients involves them waiting for something with no end in sight and no updates.

They don’t know when a doctor will be by, they don’t know when a procedure will happen, they don’t know when discharge will happen, they don’t know when a nurse will come back, and so on. 

I think what makes this extra frustrating is that they often have no way to check on any of this stuff, so they are just sitting, sitting, sitting, with no information. 

As a patient care tech, I don’t have a lot of power at the hospital. But one thing I can do is update people.

I often say, “Let me go check your chart to see!” or, “I will go check with your nurse.” or, “I will call department X and check.”

Patients feel cheered if I can pop back in and say, “I see your name on the transport list.” or, “You are at the top of the list; a wheelchair should be up shortly.” 

Even if I have to go back and say, “Your doctor hasn’t signed your discharge order yet.”, or, “Your diet order is not updated yet, but I’ll keep checking and I’ll let you know as soon as I see a change.”, they still seem to feel happier when they know someone has checked. 

Paint-Sharing

When I helped Fashion Girl move to her new college home, the white-painted furniture collection sustained a few scratches and dings from the ride in the U-Haul. 

So when she was in town last week, I poured some of my Benjamin Moore Cloud White paint into a saved Trader Joe’s sun-dried tomato jar and sent it home with her so she can do some quick touch-ups. 

Benjamin Moore Advance paint is expensive (as in, $35/quart!) So I’m glad I could save her the cost of buying a whole quart when all she needed was enough for some touch-ups.

(You might think she could simply get a sample jar, but alas, the sample jars do not come with sheen options. They’re all just flat, and that would not look right on the satin-sheen paint already on her furniture.)

Defending yourself vs. being defensive

When I read Jefferson Fisher’s book, his section about defensiveness made me wonder what the difference is between explaining/defending yourself and actually being defensive.

So as all good modern people do, I googled. 

I came across this article from 13 years ago in which the author recommends going with neither option (defending yourself or being defensive) and instead, he suggests countering with some curiosity-based questions like, “Hmm, is that congruent with who you know me to be?” 

And then he has a series of follow-up questions if the person says yes, like, “What did I do in the past that gave you the impression I’m that kind of person?” and then, “Oh, okay, I can see how you might have come to that conclusion. Would you like to know what I was really thinking?”

I really love this approach, and I am going to try to remember to use it next time someone accuses me of something that feels really off-base to me. I like this better than having to explain myself (because oh my gosh, I have done three lifetimes of explaining myself already!)

And it actually reminds me a little of some of Jefferson’s style of advice; you get your point across in a way that is respectful of the other person, but without giving up your firm ground. 

Sometimes I have had someone say something like, “You were just trying to hurt me.” and if I had followed up with some of these questions, I think the ensuing conversation would have gone better.

I could have asked if that was congruent with what the person knows, and if they said yes, then the second question essentially asks for evidence (which forces the other person to rethink, and also provides an opportunity to clear things up!)

My teen opera phase came in handy

When I was a teenager, my sister and I used to check out CD soundtracks of musicals from the library, but we also delved into the library’s opera CD collection. 

This was a pretty niche teenage side quest (ha), but the other day it became useful at the hospital! I was ambulating a patient, and while we did multiple laps around the hallway, I discovered that he was into classical music, particularly opera.

And I was able to hold a conversation with him about things like what is the best part of Mozart’s The Magic Flute. 

I also found out he wasn’t much of a fan of Brahms or Shostakovich, but I suggested a Brahms piano intermezzo that is just lovely, and I also wrote down the name of the Shostakovich piano concerto that has the beautiful middle movement. 

I often think about how advantageous it is to be an older person at the hospital; because I have 47 years of life under my belt, I can manage to find some point of connection with almost every patient I come into contact with.

Even if it’s something as niche as an opera aria. 😉 

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And that’s all for miscellany, that is, until next time!

Any topic mentioned here is up for discussion; you can lead the way. 🙂 

P.S. I was about to schedule this post, and then I came across this article, which reminded me of a discussion we had in the comments recently about the wine-ification of motherhood.