My GPS is finicky, I have absolutely the worst luck with vehicles, have a difficult time with change, and I'm driving 1,600 miles across the country to start a job as a new graduate in a completely unfamiliar health care setting. Let's go!
I know it sounds cruel, but if he’s going to do something, he should divorce her and start all over again, but make sure she has custodial care and somebody looking after her.
—Pat Robertson • Telling a man looking for advice that it’s OK to divorce someone — if they’re suffering from Alzheimer’s, which he refers to as “a kind of death.” Um … we really have no clue what to say about this other than that we wouldn’t do this ourselves. Sometimes, our boy drops some whoppers. source (via • follow)
(Source: shortformblog)
Tyler, TX
Before I talk about my ventures and provide somewhat shallow and boring details, I’ll start by saying I wish I had been watching Breaking Bad from the beginning.
On another note, I have returned from a trip 2 hours East of Fort Worth, TX. My two friends from college are working as traveling therapists in the smaller “city” of Tyler. I worked a full 8 hour day at the nursing home, saw two home health visits at an assisted living facility, and left straight from work to drive a little over 2 hours where I downed as much Coca-Cola Max as I could to keep from dozing behind the wheel.
My friends have a new puppy whom I adore because, let’s face it, who doesn’t love something that small and fluffy? I could forgo the puppy breath however. I wish I was able to get a dog or at least a kitten so that when I came home from a long day of arguing with perseverating patients I could talk and someone would just listen without feeling it necessary to give input (*I’m the opposite of “Johnny 5”).
We went out to a bar with some of their friends from work where I indulged in a key lime martini that tasted like great dreams and steamy showers (it was good?). I ended up passing out on the couch wearing my party clothes and when I awoke, I moved down to the floor to finish off my snooze right, waking up staring into the eyes of the puppy who also found the floor to be the place to be.
Saturday was a day filled with great conversation, tasty beverages, and drinking game glory days reminding me much of 2006. If I’ve learned anything from my visit, it’s that I definitely want to keep meeting people because every time I do, I find something out about myself that I wasn’t aware of before, or at least I’m more aware of those things. I’m single right now, and that’s fine. I feel that the more people I meet and the more I can challenge my social skills the better I’ll be as a well-rounded person who can communicate on many different levels. That’s my big plan for traveling. I think I may keep traveling until I meet someone who makes me want to stay where I am.
It’s Always Sunny starts September 15th.
One Month Down…
I live in Texas. Texas. It still surprises me. I moved 1,600 miles away from home and it’s over 100 degrees here all day, everyday. I can’t sit outside in the sun for more than an hour without feeling an intense melanoma beginning to grow on my right cheek. I have sweat beads on my ankles. I perspire more than anyone has ever done so at the gym on the elliptical if I stay on for more than 15 minutes and I’ve started using “the big towel” to soak it up. It’s hot.
I have applied to do some home health care work on the side of my job at the nursing home. I’m excited to start something new but I’m also worried I’m taking on too much. I think it will be more of a therapeutic challenge for me to treat patients who have returned home and who are not so medically unstable but at the same time, I’m tired. The people I’ve met here are incredibly nice and always inviting me to do things and I’m a bit overwhelmed by this. People in NY are not nice. They’re sarcastic and mean and quite honestly I fit in with them best. I met a guy from Rhode Island who shares the same thoughts as myself on this issue though he’s not nearly as cynical as I am. I fear I’ll never meet anyone who can deal with my cynicism and I’ll die alone in one of the nursing homes I’ve vowed never to place a family member in. I’ll steal the grapes.
I made dinner with my friends Lauren and Greg (across the parking lot) tonight. Stir fry and Dissarono. My kind of Sunday. It’s been great having them live so close because I feel a sense of home when I’m with them and they have the same type of humor as me. I’m that single friend of theirs who they feel they have to invite me on weekend trips with because I have no one else. We’re going to Austin this weekend…
Crazy Neighbors and Night Time Adventures
Well, I’ve already managed to piss off my neighbor. Angry about me moving her cat’s food bowl which she keeps outside of her apartment door. Hmmm. Well, she’s also bat shit crazy and knocked on the door of my fellow PT/friend’s door at 10:30 on a Tuesday night buck naked and screaming “blood curdling” screams. She later apologized that she had food poisoning and was unable to make the 911 phone call, thus calling upon the help of her neighbors. I wasn’t aware food poisoning would necessitate an emergency medical technician or a hospital stay but that was the avenue she chose. She was under the impression that I was living with the married couple and was partaking in the accused “moving food bowls” incident, and when I set her straight but also acknowledged knowing her true neighbors, she expressed how “pissed off” she was that they kept moving her cat’s food bowls because “that’s not how we do it here in Texas”. Alrighty.
I’ve been out with my co-workers all weekend. Dinner at a Mexican restaurant called Hacienda San Miguels right in downtown Fort Worth. There are large condos for sale down in the area which I dream about owning one day due to their stellar location, smack dab in the middle of a surplus of bars. Nice bars. With Shiner Bock, a beer which has recently become my favorite. Pool party at a co-workers on Saturday, pool party at my complex on Sunday. Busy busy bumblebee.
What White People Like
Classic example at the moment. On my MacBook PRO in Barnes and Nobles with other white people on their MacBooks drinking cafe lates. Still without internet at home. I’ve also dropped my phone one too many times and it’s been continuing to shut down on me all day. I may lose all connection with the outside world by this evening. Someone please make sure to tell my mother because God knows she worries.
Work has been going very well. I’m like, an actual PT. Still think it’s absurd but they pay me so I go with it. On a serious note, I’d have to say that the job is fulfilling (right now anyway, give me a few years) in so many ways. Today a patient told me that I do my job very well and I explain things to make it so much easier. I helped her walk more than she’s walked since she entered the facility. I say “Good morning!” to everyone I see everyday. I wonder if they get tired of having to smile and return the pleasantry, but I don’t lose sleep over it. I’m learning so much about how devious and deceitful people can truly be and I’ll tell ya, that, I do lose sleep over. People are of a very cruel, cruel nature and it comes out in the worst ways. Taking advantage of the elderly, taking advantage of government provided healthcare, taking advantage of co-workers, all for the sake of the greenback. I hope it’s true about Karma or this is all just a sick joke.
On a lighter note…
I’m going out to dinner with my co-workers tomorrow night. I’ve made friends. Stay put for an update.
