Nurse Sean (dot) com

This post is friends only…cause it’s not really appropriate for public consumption….

How crazy is this! At the Foothills hospital today, while I was working, a woman threw herself through a sixth floor window…falling to her death right next to the main entrance to the hospital. There were dozens of witnesses…

Never a dull moment at the hospital! I’m one week into my rotation, and I have yet to come home without a good story. But seeing a dozen ER staff running accross the parking lot to declare the woman dead, then watching the police clean up the body from the ground and load it into the medical examiner’s van, wins the “wierd hospital story of the week” award.

ugh!

The security guard on suicide watch that looked away for one moment won’t be sleeping well tonight…nor will the person who decided not to admit her to the psych unit after her first suicide attempt this morning. Nor will her elderly sick roomate, or the staff on that unit–particularly her nurse, who’s main duty is to take care of her and keep her alive.

What a mess….

I am SO bored! Will someone do something entertaining for me?

Thanks!

Hey! I have a blog entry with some pics. If you want to see it, you can go here

I included some pics of the plants on my balcony, my new altar, and my guinea pigs! YAY!

Hi everyone…

I have a new podcast out. If you would like to listen, it’s located here

It has been one heck of a week! Chaos ensues, life evolves, and I, in turn, grow…

Yesterday was a busy day. After a quick breakfast of cheerios, I dug into our spare bedroom and started organizing. When we moved in two months ago, the spare room somehow became a dumping ground for boxes of books, wires, shelves, paper, etc. It was always my intention that it would be a spare bedroom, fully set up and ready for any guest; however, it just never happened. It was too easy to close the door and ignore the mess.

So, yesterday I emptied boxes, threw out scrap papers, dusted, heaved, organized, shoved, cleaned, sweated, vacuumed, and in the end I had a spare bedroom!

The great part is that I planned it very specifically to have a big space left over on one wall. In this space I made my first ever altar. When I lived with my parents, I didn’t really have an altar, even though I had room. Really, for some reason, I just didn’t think about it. Whenever I had a ritual, I just gathered the equipment out of a drawer and went about my ritual. I rarely even wrote my rituals. I always tended to be chaotic that way. Then in all my other apartments, I just didn’t have room. I kept space aside on my dresser for magical items, but I never used it as an altar.

So, I used an old wooden TV tray type item, placed a black bed sheet overtop, and started hunting out items. I don’t overly have a lot of altar appropriate items, so I just gathered what I thought would be fun to have. As time goes by, I can slowly add more items that match what I am working on spiritually.

So far I have: A giant organic beeswax candle, my treasured block of rosewood, a generic tiny potted plant, a sand dollar, peridot (birth stone), blue lace agate (my personal stone), Nag Champa incense, a statue of Shiva dancing (definitely matches my chaos archetype attunement), and my scrying mirror that was given to me by Andrea a couple years ago. Of course, at the centre is my Spira emergent tile.

In the future, I would like to add items that are closely associated with chaos and the god I am working with at the time. I am still up in the air about adding a goddess figure for balance, perhaps a representation of Cardea. However, I think it will be a focused altar, changing to whatever spiritual piece I am working on at the time.

OK, I am talking about my altar WAY too much. I really am excited though, and I can’t wait until I do my first work with it today.

This afternoon, I finally have to submit to the demands of school. I have to go and watch a bunch of “educational” videos, do some research, and work through some policy and procedure manuals. I’m really not looking forward to it.

What I would RATHER be doing is another podcast. It has been almost two weeks since my last podcast, and it may be four weeks until I can do my next one. So, I will be doing one tomorrow for sure!

Other than the excitement of the altar, my budding spirituality, and the gloominess of the impending semester, not a lot is going on. I am watching a lot of television and doing a bunch of relaxing. I just wish it was warmer so that I could sit on the balcony and read!

I love when I start having spare time in my life. I start watching endless movies and reading book after book. Unfortunately, I’ve only had two weeks, and I’ve been confused as to what book I should read, so I’ve started no less than four. I need to just pick one and finish it. I’m assuming I will pick “A Complicated Kindness” since it’s already about half done.

I wanted to mention that I saw “Brokeback Mountain.” I hadn’t so much resisted seeing this movie, but I just really didn’t care. I assumed it was a great movie from what the reviews were saying; however, I figured that the attention was really based on the fact that it was a love story between two archetypical macho cowboys. It also seemed to be getting a lot of attention for the scenery, which is in fact Alberta. Well, the gay cowboy idea isn’t a shock to me all that much, since I’ve been to dozens of gay cowboy dances in which gay cowboys come from all around to socialize. And let’s face it, if I wanted to see the scenery from Brokback Mountain, I just have to look to the west.

I wasn’t really in the mood for an epic love story when I put it on, but by the end of the movie, I was truly entranced. This movie affected me more than I ever felt it could. However, it wasn’t the gay theme that kept my attention. Instead, it was the way the love story transcended the characters and scenery. It was a beautiful story that Shakespeare himself would wish he had written. If you haven’t seen this movie, I promise you, you will like it more than you think!

I also saw “40-Year-Old Virgin” this weekend. This movie is also an unexpected treat. From all reports, I knew it would be hilarious, and I assumed I would love it. However, I wasn’t expecting it to have a more “artsy” independent film flavour. Some of the dialogue was absolutely priceless! The peripheral characters really made this film for me. I think, besides being a movie about this mans ultimate inner change, it was a story about the power and quality of a bourgeoning friendship between the characters. The only thing I didn’t really like about the movie was the length, but to be honest, I can’t imagine which scenes they could cut! Anyway, go get this movie! It’s awesome, and I hope it’s unexpectedly good for you as well.

So, after years of people telling me that “The Mists of Avalon” is a great book, I finally bought it after years of passing it by. I have heard some say that this book is the reason they became a pagan. Others (I haven’t witnessed this personally) have said that they are reincarnations of characters in the book (uhm…yah…sure). It’s based on the Arthurian legends, but written from a feminist perspective. I’m looking forward to the book completely! I have seen the movie, but everyone promises me that the book is exponentially better than the movie.

Well, today should be a fun day, I plan to do some light housecleaning this morning (something I neglected when I was sick). Tonight, I would like to start working on the chaos that is my spare bedroom. Then I can start finding a table and cloth etc. with which to build my altar. It won’t be impressive, just a little table in a corner; only enough for me to stand/sit/kneel at.

Except for about an hour last night (and I still don’t know why), I have been in an incredible mood the last couple days. Even when crappy things have happened, I have been able to just shrug it off. I feel more like myself the last couple days than I have for months. I think it’s because I am lacking the stress of school.

Yesterday I worked a nursing attendant shift. Even though I keep thinking back at things that should have made me mad, I can’t help but admit I had a wonderful day.

One annoying moment happened when I was helping an RN and a physiotherapist get a patient standing for the first time in a couple weeks. Trust me, not as easy as you may think! Especially when the patient is a 300 pound man. I was listening to the physiotherapist’s instruction that she was giving to the man so that I would be able to help support/spot him. During this, the RN held out a hospital bootie (the blue, papery, disposable kind) in front of me, with the hopes I would take it and put it on the patient. I was just too focused on the physiotherapist and didn’t notice until the physiotherapist took the bootie and started putting it on the patient.

“Sorry!” I said to the RN, and then I joked, “I didn’t take that hint very well!”
“Well maybe next time you’ll pay attention so that you can do your job properly!” She snapped.

All I could think was, “Wow, you’re an incredible bitch!” and then reminded myself it was my last nursing attendant shift ever.

I was in a great mood though, and I just kept smiling while I did my job. One of the reasons I was so happy was because one of my favorite patients was so kind to me when I told her it was my last shift as an NA. I told her that next time I saw her (if she was still there), I would be the one giving her the drugs! She told me how wonderful I was, and how grateful she was that I was the only one who would ever give her hair a shampoo. Then her daughters came in later and stopped me to congratulate me and tell me I have been so wonderful.

It’s just so rewarding and makes everything worth it in the end!

Mostly, it was a great day because the unit was quiet and peaceful. I was able to work at a slow, casual, comfortable pace. The staff had time to talk to patients and joke around with each other. It’s amazing how fast staff morale can skyrocket when that happens.

So, today is Beltane! Fertility is everywhere! Days are getting longer and warmer. I had a good week leading up until today, and then completely forgot that today was Beltane. I planted a whole bunch of herbs that I’m hoping will grow up throughout the summer. Then, I repotted and fed all my other growing plants. Then, on Saturday, R. and I went to Golden Acres to buy a bunch of flowers. We decided to buy big containers, and mix some flowers into them and place them on the balcony. They turned out so incredibly beautiful!!! Our balcony is now our own personal (Even if sparse) garden.

I also found mature rosemary bushes at Golden Acres. YES! ROSEMARY! My all time favorite herb! So now I have a one foot high by one foot wide rosemary bush that I planted in a big clay pot and placed on my deck.

My biggest goal last week (besides going earthy and sewing the seeds of flowers, herbs, and plants) was to finally clear out and organize our spare bedroom. The main reason for this is because once I do, I want to create, for the first time in my life, my very own altar. I was going to have a table with a black cloth, candles, my emergent tile, candles, and whatever else I decided. Unfortunately, because I’m a big whiny lazy baby when I’m sick, I did none of this last week. I wanted it done by Beltane so I could do my first ritual today and consecrate my alter.

*sigh*

I think I will have to make that my project this week, and since I’m not celebrating Beltane officially until Sunday, I still have time to carry out my plans.

I really do feel so earthy and spiritual lately, which is not like me. I don’t tend to feel spiritual until the fall months, and when I do, it’s never usually in an earthy way. But I’ve felt such a drive the last couple weeks to plant things, play with dirt, and create life. It’s intense, and fun, and I can’t wait until my herbs are mature so that I can work with them.

Life is just so exciting right now! YAY!