I slept like a log last night thanks to the cooler temperatures. Summer sucks.

I had my last class for orientation today. I took my final and got 100%. They said they had never seen anyone get all the high/low pressure alarms right. Woot! Since class only consisted of taking my test I went to the hospital to work and ended up staying until 6. Long day.

Stick scores:
Catheters: 18
Grafts: 6
Fistulas: 23

We’re having a great storm right now with rumbling thunder. Cat and dog are cowering in the basement.

My mac will soon be in the repair shop. Thank goodness for property
insurance that covers what warranty doesn't. Thank goodness for my
iPhone that keeps me connected and acts as a backup. Thank goodness
I back up my computer – even though the hard drive was spared. Thank
goodness I have a job – even if insurance pays for it.

Despite all these blessings, I broke my favorite thing that I own. I
let myself down and feel pretty crummy about it. Doesn't help that
the day before the spill I had to buy a new car battery and wiring.

(Thank goodness Ben was home and let me take his car while he arranged
the repairs. Thank goodness for husbands).

Last night was the finale of So You Think You Can Dance season 5. Some great stuff this year. I watched it with Amanda this week and was sad to hear that she hasn’t seen any of seasons 1-3. I sought to educate her. I decided I was qualified when I exclaimed at the TV screen “What, ANOTHER Paso Doble? That’s the third one this season!” Huh, funny how my brain tracks these things.

I was also thinking about how this show aired the summer that I got my first real job, working for the psychiatrist. Now 5 years later I’ve gone back to school and started my second real job as a dialysis nurse. Amazing how much can happen in 5 short years.

Since I went through the trouble of hunting down clips for Amanda, I’ll post a few of my favorites here for you. I’m sorry that many of these clips will be dead soon, that’s the nature of music rights. That’s why they can’t air the shows on hulu or release DVDs. Damn dirty copyright laws.

Season 1

Solo: Blake

Yes it’s totally cheesy when he takes off his shirt – but he does it during 4 back attitude turns en dehors! His crisp transitions are what get me – he’s in controlled the whole time and doesn’t waste a single second.

Season 2

Top 10/20 Group Dance by Wade Robson

This is one of their manically popular dances. Everywhere on the internet the next day. They repeated it later with the whole set of 20 dancers and then brought it back this summer with Wade dancing in it. I prefer the larger group, but sadly they have been hunted and taken down by Fox. You can only see the full cast in this poor version.

Top 4 Group Dance by Wade Robson

Utter brilliance.

Mambo by Alex De Silva: Benji (winner) and Heidi (4th place)

They are cousin ballroom dancers with a long history of partnering together, and that communication is what makes this so good.

Season 3

Top 6 Group Dance by Wade Robson (are you sensing a theme?)

Love the lights, costumes, netting, performances, and musicality. Great piece.

Top 16 Group Dance by Tyce Diorio

Tyce does most of their “broadway” genre and they generally suck hard. This is one of his rare moments of genius, unfortunately ruined by overzealous camera work.

Top 20 Group Dance by Wade Robson

Love the use of Busta, love the stark costumes, and love the blatent rip off/homage of Fosse’s Rich Man’s Frug at the end. I’m a sucker for Fosse when it’s well done.

Hip Hop by Shane Sparks: Lauren and Pasha

A strong contender for my favorite piece, this one is so creative. I love when the lights and music and costumes and movement come together so well. Pasha is a cute, gentlemanly Russian ballroom dancer, so seeing him work so hard on hip hop is an awww moment.

Season 4

Hip Hop (sort of) by Napoleon and Tabitha: Chelsie and Mark

Another “Favorite dance” contender. I could watch this over and over. It brings out the teenage girl in me.

Contemporary by Mia Michaels: Twitch (4th place) and Katee (2nd place)

Mia does some great ballad-type stuff, but I prefer her upbeat numbers like this one. Kudos for props well used.

Season 5

Solos: Brandon (2nd place)

Possibly the best dancer on this series yet. His cabriole from the floor kills me.

Contemporary by Mia Michaels: Jeanine (winner) and Kayla (4th place)

Gorgeous.

Jazz by Wade Robson: Brandon and Janette

So fun and sharp. I can’t believe this wasn’t an encore last night.

Contemporary by Mia Michaels: Kayla and Kupono

This is the encore which has worse lighting. I can’t embed the original so you should go to it here. Such a good piece on addiction, so perfectly played.

Contemporary by Tyce Diorio: Melissa and Ade (who were my favorites this season)

Yeah, this made me cry. So how about I end on a fun one?

Hip Hop by Shane Sparks: Jason and Kayla

Zombies!

I’m thrilled their bringing back season 6 in the fall, but worried that I’ll spend too much time in front of the TV. Is it worth it to buy a DVR and cable for one TV show??

One month into my new job. Somehow I’m on “week 6” in my training. They’re trying to get me up to speed as fast as possible.

I’m keeping track of the number of sticks I’ve done:
Grafts – 4
Fistulas – 8
Catheters – 12

Today was technically a bad day. I cannulated a guy with a smaller fistula, sort of my first “non-easy” attempt. The stick itself went fine. The arterial line was perfect. The venous line a bit trickier to get a flash. I had to fish around a little and push deeper than I expected. Finally that pulsing red ribbon appeared. About 45 minutes into his treatment his pressures kept sy rocketing. The nurse and tech came over to assess. They flipped the needle and pulled out a little. When we restarted treatment he infiltrated. Darn. I helped recirculate the blood while they put in another, higher stick. The rest of his treatment went ok. So I didn’t infiltrate him personally, but I feel responsible for the venous line going awry. Later I took off a different patient. As I was removing his venous line the tape nicked the safety wings and brought the needle out as I pulled off the tape. A fountain of blood squirted at me, I was not prepared to cover the hole yet. I grabbed a fistful of gauze and tried not to stick myself with the errant needle. Blood all over the floor, the table, my supplies, and my shoes. Ok, so it was probably only 10 cc, 20 at most. But this was the first time I had blood on the loose! I was able to stay cool, calmly asking my preceptor to bring me a LOT more gauze. The patient continued to snore the whole time, completely asleep.

I’m glad for these little mishaps because they show me where I’m making mistakes. Things have been going so smoothly. I’m happy when I spill blood, when a line is busted, or when a patient gets hypotensive. How else am I going to learn to handle these things on my own?

I love you, Ben. Happy 10 year anniversary of our first date. I’m looking forward to getting Chinese food with you tonight, just like we did 10 years ago. And I bet you get me home by 8 pm again too. I’m so happy that you found me, that we could grow together. What wonders are in store for the next decade? Where will go, who will we be?

Love,
Rachel

Ok, not snow. But the heavy hail we got tonight made it feel like snow. There’s a thick white crunchy layer on the ground. The trees have been pummeled, releasing a sweet evergreen scent. It feels like it should be Christmas.

On our way home from the Bulldog we hit heavy baseball game traffic and detoured away from the standstill highway. Out west the rain got heavier, whacking the car windshield. The wipers couldn’t keep up. Ben called and warned us that there was three inches of hail in Lakewood, but that it had stopped falling. We creeped along Colfax. Most of the businesses were dark – multiple power outages. We glided through the street with rivulets of rainwater and floating ice. It looked like the arctic. There was low swirling fog from the ice condensing on hot asphalt, illuminated by colored stoplights, police cars, and fire engines.

Our cars escaped damage (yay carports!) and we are one of the few in our building whose windows were not broken. We replaced our ancient windows the summer we bought the house. I think they were stronger and had springier screens that could withstand the force of the hail. Our neighbors are all milling around outside picking up the broken glass and buzzing about Channel 4 news supposedly coming out to cover the storm. We feel very fortunate to have no damage.

I had taken the Flip camera out with me today to do a 5×5 video. After dropping off friends I got some action on the road and at our house. Here’s a little clip of us enjoying the crazy lightening.

Hailstorm Aftermath from Rachel Mason on Vimeo.

Thanks for all your kind comments! Many of you (here and on facebook) dissed the melting pot, thanks for the tips. Ben has been there and loved it, so we might have to on another day. Last night we went with the French place, Felix Brasserie. It was par for French food. Classic stuff. I had a frisee and yellow beet salad, country pate plate, and steak frites. Ben had a green salad, oysters, and halibut. It was all good, but not the kind of French food that knocks your socks off. I think Brasserie Ten Ten in Boulder was better. But I love eating in new places anyway, we didn’t mind that it wasn’t awesome.

After dinner we met friends in Denver who were playing board games. I bounced over to Fancy Tiger for their 3 year anniversary party and got a free gift (a pattern), then we went to Sweet Action. The place was hopping! I’m happy that it seems they will survive their first year. After dessert I went home, leaving Ben with friends and games. I watched the whole first disk of How I Met Your Mother that we had ordered from Netflix. Went to bed right after Ben got home, a little before midnight. What a great, long day.

I had 10 minutes left on my shift and Ms. A was taken off the machine. Some powers that be (too much Angel?) decided that it was the perfect time for her to have a ginormous BM. I helped clean up while the docs fled the room, then frantically put three machines in test mode and ran out the door. I’m forbidden from going into overtime while on training, so I got to take off early today. Today, which is my very first PAYDAY!

After a short stop at the bank I went straight to Anthropologie. By golly, it’s time to celebrate! I changed out of my scrubs in my car and spent a glorious hour and a half trying on lovely things. For once I was the woman with an armful of clothes in the checkout line, the women who cause me envy. Sure, all from the sale rack and the “for once” might be “for the last time” too. But boy was it fun. That poopy bed felt miles away, even though I had to drive by it on the way home.

Behold my bounty!

At home another treat – Jem is at daycare so I’m free of dog duties! I made a plate of cheese and pickles and popped another Angel DVD in the xbox. (Pausing it mid episode to write this blog, because I couldn’t pay attention to both) Tonight Ben and I further the celebration with a fancy dinner. I’m not sure where. We’ve been talking about the Melting Pot, but I just found a new French Brasserie in the Highlands that sounded good. Decisions, decisions. Here’s hoping the rest of my weekend is as rockin’ as the first three hours have been.

Good day at work today. Started at 6 am, like usual. I went in back to start mixing bicarb jugs and string the machines. Then we found out our charge nurse had missed her alarm, lives across town, and won’t be in until after 7. Oops! Usually there are two nurses and a tech and me. But today it was two techs and me. They called our supervisor and she asked me to take report on the patients. Okay, not a big deal But I was really excited to do this! I got to put my license to work, taking report like a real nurse. The only hard thing was not getting too many details. Since I don’t know all these regular patients, I wanted to ask more about their history and current stay, but the other staff knows them so well it’s not necessary. It was nice to feel really useful- I saved the team 20 minutes for when the other nurse arrived and we were rushing to get the patients in the door.

Right now I’m still only qualified to set up machines, assist in getting the patients connected (though not breaking skin or connecting catheters myself), returning blood and terminating treatment, removing needles, and cleaning up.

Tomorrow is computer training. I get to sleep in a tad, but probably work later in the afternoon to make up for it. Monday I did my orientation at the hospital. I’m very happy to have my official hospital badge with access to break rooms and utility rooms. I don’t have to sign in at the front desk on the list of employees who “forgot” their badges. People don’t overt their eyes, searching my person for a name badge, when they see me. I also bought some scrubs in the official colors for RN’s at the hospital, so I REALLY blend in.