Brooklyn Spring

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Spring is finally in the air here in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Got up this morning to placate the gods of alternate side of the street parking and shot these images.

Sidebar Links Galore

Hey guys and gals- I have been doing some serious beefing up of the General Nursing Links section of the sidebar on the right. I am trying to add links to more specialty nursing associations. If you have suggestions for additions please drop me a comment.

Oma and Moni visit Uncle Jerry

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My grandmother ("Oma") and I (Moni to my closest friends and family) went to visit my Uncle Jerry's (Jurgen) resting place last week. Shot this video. This cemetery is in New Paltz where he lived for many years. We both miss him very much. I have been thinking about him a lot lately.

Time for a game of tag...

Okay, so I have been tagged by Student Nurse, prn (sorry for being so slow on the uptake). This is going to be tough, because I can think of at least a dozen for many of these categories:

Four Jobs I've Had in My Life:
1. Counter waitress at Howard Johnson's, Brattleboro, Vt.
2. Photo finish operator at Hinsdale Race Track, Hinsdale, NH
3. Computer Geek (20 years of variations on this theme), Stonybrook University; JP Morgan Chase
4. Shovelling horse and cow poo, painting barns, planting, pruning, and weeding tomato plants, picking tomatoes, driving a small tractor(tilling and spraying), Brattleboro, Vt.

Four Movies I Could Watch Over and Over (only four! Darn. I could think of dozens!):
1. American Beauty
2. 2001 a Space Odysey (almost any Kubric to tell the truth, 'cept that last one: Eyes Wide... Yeech It's Tom Cruise)
3. Office Space
4. It's a Wonderful Life
Honorable Mention: A Fish Called Wanda, The Fifth Element, Blade Runner...

Four Places I Have Lived:
1. New York, NY (born there)
2. Brattleboro, VT (spent my very misspent youth there)
3. Munich, Germany
4. Park Slope, Brooklyn (last 11 years)

Four TV Shows I Love to Watch:
1. Anything on Discovery Health Channel
2. Any flavor of CSI (used to love Quincy when I was a kid)
3. Old Twilight Zones
4. ER

Four Places I Have Been on Vacation:
1. Iceland (honeymoon- had a blast)
2. New Orleans, LA
3. Huntington Ravine, Mount Washington in NH
4. Alta

Four Websites I Visit Daily:
1. Sitemeter (I am a stats addict)
2. my blog
3. blackboard.pace.edu
4. google
Honerable mention: people in my sidebar! I try to get to them all at least once a week. But sometimes its tough!

Four of My Favorite Foods:
1. Sushi
2. Thai
3. Indian
4. Raw Oysters

Four Places I Would Rather Be Right Now:
1. Someplace exotic I have never been to (not a war zone, please)
2. Trekking in Nepal
3. Hiking the Pacific Crest Trail
4. Visiting Buddhist Temples in Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan, Thailand....etc.

Four Most Wonderful Places I've Ever Been:
1. Yosemite Valley, California (You MUST go there before you die- its a religious experience.)
2. Alta, Utah (If you ski powder, you MUST, go there, ditto the above)
3. Iceland
4. Southern West Coast of Costa Rica

Four Books I read Over and Over Again (Only Four!!!):
1. Siddhartha, Herman Hesse
2. The Life of Pi, Yann Martel
3. The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood
4. Anything by Octavia Butler - if I have to choose it would be the Xenogenesis Trilogy.
Honerable mention:Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden, The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula LeGuin,

Four Songs I listen to Over and Over Again:
1. Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Pink Floyd, Wish You Were Here
2. Hidden Treasure, Traffic, The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys
3. Babelogue/Rock 'n' Roll Nigger, Patti Smith Group
4. Broken English, Marianne Faithful, Broken English
Honerable Mention (About 500 more songs!!!!!)

Four Reasons Why I Blog?
1. I need a creative outlet. I find blogging/vblogging is fun and relaxing.
2. to share my experience with those who might find it interesting or helpful. Specifically anyone considering career change or going into nursing.
3. It allows me to let my feelings out and clarify my ideas.
4. I like watching the "body of work" evolve. Each entry on it's own is a piece of the puzzle. When you look at the blog as a whole- it takes on a whole new life.

Four people I tag to do this?
1. Anyone who has the desire and time to do it.
2. Nurse Practitioner's Place
3. Third Degree Nurse
4. MissBHavens

I understand some people don't like or have time for these things. If you can't or just don't wanna - don't sweat it.

Why Choose Nursing? Marilyn Jaffe-Ruiz

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As promised, I am very pleased to bring you Dr. Marilyn Jaffe-Ruiz, professor of Nursing at Pace University's Lienhard School of Nursing giving her perspective on why Nursing is a great career choice and why she has never regretted her decision to enter the nursing field in 1963. This is the third installment in this series on Why (or Why Not)Choose Nursing. I hope to be able to entice some more interesting folks to weigh in so please check back for future installments.

Why Choose Nursing (or Not) - Miss B speaks

I greatly admire MissBHavens.
She puts out one of my favorite video blogs, "The miscellaneous mischievous missadventures of misbhavens" which I visit regularly. I highly recommend it. A while back I did a "Why Nursing" post and I asked other nurses to join me. MissB has done an absolutely honest post about a very difficult day in her life as a nurse. I think it is just as important for those of us entering the profession to see this side of the coin as well as the upside.

I sincerely hope we all commit to join together as nurses to build each other up instead of tearing each other down. I know it sounds naive, but that is what I intend to strive for in my new professional life.

Thank you, MissBHavens for your wonderful and honest post.

Click here for her post. Or here for her blog.

Nursing Dx:

Caregiver role strain related to multiple(3) caregiving responsibilities, high nursing school workload, and limited personal support system as evidenced by: irritability, anger, feelings of inadequacy, feelings of being overwhelmed, fatigue, lethargy, extreme anxiety, alternating bouts of insommnia and hypersomnia, inability to concentrate, forgetfullness, emotional lability, and overeating.

Care Plan to follow....