Represent

Today we signed our papers to be represented by a union. There was a video,
and our union rep gave us a bunch of information, but people were talking
during the video and she was talking while I was filling out
papers--unfortunately, I don't multitask well. I think I should feel
excited to be part of the long tradition of labor organization and
collective bargaining, but currently I'm just annoyed that they take $37 out
of every paycheck and I have to go through this huge hassle to get
reimbursed for my dentist visits.
I have been insanely, crazily, unspeakably tired lately. I have no idea
what is causing it. I feel like I am seeing things through a veil, like I
have earplugs in, or like I am always slightly drunk. I should clarify that
this is not when I am actually in the clinical area, but when I am at home,
on the train, in the classroom, and pretty much anywhere that is not my
hospital's emergency room. I have no idea what is causing this, but if I
had to guess I'd say probably mono. Or I am just spending all of my alert
time on the floor. Either way I'd like a little more energy, please. I've
started eating better. At some point I'd like to exercise again, but
currently I am too tired.
I found an apartment. I love it, mostly, but I am also sort of convinced
that it sucks and I might hate it. I hope the former is the truer
sentiment. I have been fantasizing about vases, flowers, plants, and
candles. I love to decorate. Our landlord is a little crazy and doesn't
want us to put anything up on the walls except for with these weird hanging
kits, but I kind of don't mind paying for any damages. I want my house to
be pretty.
It's almost the season of the many new years, so I've been thinking about
resolutions. Last year I worked on myself mentally, and I think I've gotten
to a pretty stable, happy state. This year, with money, I think I am going
to work on taking care of myself better. That is, when I have paid back
some people, and I have some money in the bank, I'd like to get a massage, a
personal trainer, some accupuncture, and maybe take a pottery class. Maybe
if I had more restorative activities, I wouldn't be so tired.
Alright, I think I have stayed awake long enough and can go to sleep without
waking up every hour on the hour throughout the night.

Really?

A lot has been surprising lately:

1. It is September 5th and it has felt like fall since the very end of
August. Strange. That's not to say the weather will stay this way, but
last year at the end of October we were begging for the weather to change.
This is a pleasant difference.
2. My hospital seems to believe that if they give us stacks of policies,
tell us the answers to quizzes on said policies, and yell at us quite a bit
about pretty much everything, we will be well prepared to work on our units.
I fear for my license.
3. An atheist friend of mine told me the other day that the best way to find
an apartment in New York City is to pray. Huh. I didn't even tell him my
specifications for said imaginary apartment.
4. I watched House for the first time ever today (wooed by the promise of
weird medical problems with uncommon diagnoses at the end). I was
disappointed. The guy had been quadriplegic for 8 years, and at the end of
the episode one of the doctors gave him a shot of cortisol and he stood up.
Ha! His muscles would have been so atrophied, that moment would have taken
weeks to months.
5. I went to church on Sunday for the first time since June. There were a
bunch of new people, and two of them were telling us that they searched "gay
churches and New York City" on google, and ours came up first. There are
even specifically gay churches and other houses of worship in Manhattan, and
our tiny church still came up first. Sweet!
6. I guess none of this is very suprising: the weather is cooling down; the
city hospital that I work at is so short staffed that they don't have the
people to give us a proper orientation (they could be nice); it's hard to
find an apartment in New York; TV isn't realistic; and Unitarians love the
gays. When I put it that way, it all seems pretty commonsense
actually...maybe I just like to reimagine normal things as surprising, and
occasionally exciting.