"Life's Just a Cocktail Party on the Street.."

Looking for inspiration, about 3 months back I inquired amongst 'friends' and family at Facebook what books should be added to my "to read" list and I was both surprised and thrilled with the number of immediate and emphatic responses I received. I love books! I love writing. I love reading.

I immediately broke the suggestions into two parts and am now just finishing up reading the second half of those.

Wow.

At this point I believe I might be a bit scarred by the whole experience.

All of the suggestions intrigued me either because of the recommendee or the general synopsis of the book itself (or both!), but I have to tell you that other than a couple of cursory 'decent' reads, I just didn't seem to find humor in the same things that cracked others up, didn't find intrigue in yet another's 'favorite book of all time', was bored to death reading most of the others. One of them I misplaced in the car on a weekend roadtrip and totally forgot to look for it for two weeks, then just didn't bother.

What the hell?!

It seems I'm just basically working for the weekend these days, but at least the weekend upcoming is a long one. I'll drink to that!

Last weekend was good, but seemed short as hell because we went out of town overnight on Saturday and didn't get home til late afternoon on Sunday. A good time was had, but the traveling somehow made it seem like less of a weekend than usual if that makes any sense. At least we got to help ring in my friend Mike's ("Mogroith" of MOG/Multi/Twitter fame) 50th bday at a really splendid dinner celebration at Skipper's Smokehouse in Tampa. Good times!

We also got to catch Inglourious Basterds at the Tampa Fun-Lan Drive-in movie theater on Saturday night. WOO! Jory's first drive-in movie ever.



Now I'm just trying to get through the rest of this work-week so I can lay low at home most of this coming weekend. I'm feeling an overwhelming need to re-Zen or something.

Saturday *is* the opening game of the 2009-10 Gator football season so THAT is definitely exciting. May do some tailgating on Saturday, but other than that I'm going to try to make a point of doing as little else as possible. In fact, I'm going to see if I can make ART out of doing exactly that and nothing more.

Whatever the situation, whatever the race or creed,
Tea knows no segregation, no class nor pedigree
It knows no motivations, no sect or organisation,
It knows no one religion,
Nor political belief.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3rxNCzzJpY



Embedding is disabled for some reason. ?

Heading to St. Pete tomorrow for Mike Dixon's 50th Birthday. How fitting that it should be at Skipper's, which is where I first met Mike a couple of years ago at a Cracker concert. :) We've since attended several other concerts together.. but it's been a while since we last saw each other. I'm looking forward to the festivities. (and some beer-boiled scrimps!!)

We're planning our route to also incorporate some geocaching and.... I'm thinking about hitting the Dali Museum again just because I love it so much. We'll see how things pan out. Too bad we're not there tonight. The Museum is hosting "S'Real Friday Happy Hour" every week this summer where you can view the summer exhibits, hear live jazz, eat complimentary munchies, and purchase hand-rolled cigars. And oh yeah, there's a cash bar. Sounds like my kind of outing. :)

But a hands-down definite for Saturday night after Mike's shindig.... The Tampa Fun-Lan Drive-In Movie Theater!! Rawr!! Inglorious Basterds followed by Peter Jackson's District 9.

Awww yeah.

My Thursday... 08.27.09

8:12- Arrive at work to find pediatric case with anesthesia just starting in my assigned room, which is the size of a closet. There is no room to move anywhere. Room contains two anesthesia carts, our nurse, our nurse trainee, an anesthetist and her attending doctor, my tray full of sterile instruments, the portable ultrasound unit, an IV pole, myself, my attending, one regular garbage can, two biohazard trash receptacles and two dirty linen depositories. Extension cords are trailing everywhere.

8:15- I don my superstar lead skirt and vest and scrub in to case, wearing sterile gown and gloves so that I can assist my attending physician. My patient is 14 years old and has just been diagnosed with cancer. We are placing a portacath so that she can begin receiving chemotherapy next week. She is plump and rosy-cheeked and quite adorable.

(My own son turns 14 in 2 months.)

Fastforward to 11:30AM- Next patient is mid-60s. There's a problem with the chemo portacath, but we sort it out without having to do anything invasive. SCORE!

2:00PM- 4yo. on her 3rd liver transplant. Again with anesthesia in a tiny, tiny room. So much equipment, so many people, SO LITTLE ROOM to move around. 3rd LIVER TRANSPLANT on a 4 year old and our evaluation shows that the third liver is not taking well.

I seriously wonder if I'm in the right profession.

9:22PM- There's a certain irony in the fact that I regularly drink myself into oblivion so that I can go to work the next day and work on tiny livers on their 2nd, 3rd, or 4th go-rounds...

But then again it's really no wonder at all that this is difficult.

And then I return home in the evenings to my wonderful family cheerfully inquiring how my day went.

"Fine," I say.

Because how could I possibly explain? And why would I want to bring them down?

So I guess I'm semi-quasi-explaining it here instead. If you can't handle it, stop reading.

8 Count

from my bed
I watch
3 birds
on a telephone
wire.
one flies
off.
then
another.
one is left,
then
it too
is gone.
my typewriter is a
tombstone
still.
and I am
reduced to bird
watching.
just thought I'd
let you
know,
fucker.

Charles Bukowski