Happy Nurses Week, fools!

        The good news is that I ran ten miles last Saturday with a friend who I consider a real runner.  The bad news is that I always want a cheeseburger.  No, not just after running ten miles- I want a cheeseburger pretty much at all times.  I'm fairly certain this means I will never run any kind of an ultra marathon.  *surprise*

You're right, that is not a cheeseburger.  It is a pulled pork sandwich  with macaroni and cheese.  I made Eric carry my corn dog so as not to look suspicious.

        Did you ever want to be something ... not you?  I was walking with some friends the other day, and we were discussing what we used to want to be when we grew up.  When I was little I wanted to be an actress.  (And by little, I mean when I was 22 years old.)  One friend wanted to be an astronaut, and the other had dreams of being a marine biologist.  As fate would have it, we all became Registered Nurses. So, yeah, pretty close to our original plans...NOT.  (Remember when it was funny to say something that wasn't true, pause, and then shout 'NOT!" at the end of the sentence?  Me neither.)

"This shirt is NOT black."

        I suspect that I was the last of the three of us to realize that there are dreams, and then there is reality.  

These guys want to be frogs when they grow up. Fools.

        The would-be-astronaut met a real life astronaut at a young age because her parents were encouraging her to chase her dreams.  They got to talking, and it was discovered that my friend excelled at math and science.  A good sign...  However, when asked if she had any health problems, she mentioned an open heart surgery she had undergone as a baby.  Her new mentor informed her, "Yeah, you can't be an astronaut." Waaaaa Wahhhh.  (This is the sound you make when someone is being a real Debbie Downer- my husband responds to my practical warnings and advice with this noise multiple times per day.  Also, sometimes random people that I barely know Waaaaa Wahhhh me.  Rude.  If I warn you of a Costa Rican bug that implants its eggs into your body while you sleep, and then twenty five years later its offspring explode your heart, and you Waaaaa Wahhhh me...Well, don't say I didn't warn you when your aorta is blown to smithereens.) 

        I'm not sure why the marine biologist became a nurse, but I think it had to do with asthma, and the dolphins mistaking her inhaler puffy noise for a hostile beluga whale intrusion.  She's lucky she made it out of that career track alive.  Marine animals are beautiful, but they will turn on you in a second- regardless of any Albuterol requirements you may have.

        As for me, I did not have a financier  to support me in the necessary move to Hollywood to become an actress.  Clearly, this is the only reason I didn't make it big.  It had nothing to do with a thick Wisconsin accent, no connections, and (let's be honest) no real talent.  (5 minutes of fame as Sandra Dee in one's high school production of Grease is likely a big-fish-in-a-small-pond kind of thing if you're from Bay Port High.  So I hear, anyway...)

Luckily, any incriminating evidence that might have existed is in VHS form- suckas!

        I can't quite say exactly how or why I ended up becoming a nurse.

        What I can say is, I'm glad I ended up here.  Being a nurse brought me to Seattle, where I met Eric and some of my best friends.  It has allowed me the privilege of seeing patients and families at their best as well as at their worst.  This profession has given me the gift of glimpsing people as they rarely allow themselves to be revealed - as human.  It is a very humbling way to experience a profession.

         To all my friends who are nurses- accidental or other wise- happy Nurses Week!

Some of the best RNs I know.