My Family FTW!!!

My mother went back to school when I was 14. She had always dreamed of being a teacher, and I like to think that I set that plan into motion when I was conceived. She was shortly thereafter ordered to bedrest and ended up quitting her accounting job to stay home and manage me. Just kidding...you know, mostly.

Long story short, she's now the most motivated, hardworking and inspiring teacher I've ever met. She alway goes to work early, stays late most days, adjuncts at our alma mater, tutors and teaches homebound students. We usually can't go grocery shopping without a student or parent hugging her and telling her what a difference she's made in their/their child's life.

For these and many, many more reasons, I'm so proud for her that her hard work has paid off in a way she hoped for but never expected: last Tuesday, my mother (and another lady) won the 2011 McGlothlan Award for Teaching Excellence.

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I wasn't at the ceremony. I was at a graduation party that one of the healthcare corporations planned for the area's nursing students. They had casino games for us to play with fake money, and at the end of the night there was a blind auction. It just so happens that Justin is very good at black jack and won quite a bit of fake money.

As the auction started, a handful of people form our school gave him their money so someone we know would have a chance at winning something. Justin bid and won whatever prise was in envelope #5. He's now the happy owner of...an ipad.

With all the calling and texting back and forth about the good fortune of my family, I learned that my sister was at a concert that she'd won tickets to.

Good luck evidently really does come in threes!

On the transition from person to healthcare professional

I started watching Grey’s Anatomy on my sister’s DVDs when I came home from college one summer. I remember being interested in how intelligent and collected the characters seemed as medical professionals, and I enjoyed the blend of awkward and steamy personal interactions.

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I stopped watching Grey’s Anatomy…I don’t know, at some point. I got bored with how complicated the personal stuff got and how outrageous the medical situations were becoming. When I started nursing school, I’d make sure to catch an episode here and there so I’d have something to talk about with students, with clients. I caught the season finale with the shooter at the recommendation of Justin’s family. And I am in the process of catching the most recent episode right now. It popped up on hulu with the word “musical.” Ooooh!

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You don’t understand how into musicals I was in college. And I think that’s the best way I can express that. Immediately, I thought back to the first time I watched the show.

But as I’m watching it, I find myself feeling really differently. I knew, when I saw the word, “musical,” it would be a neuro (or psych) show, which also peaked my interest. I watched, though, as the doctors did their assessment and rushed Callie to surgery. I wasn’t concerned for the character; I was thinking, “yep, that’s a neuro assessment.” And when the musical left Callie’s field of vision, I couldn’t help but be irritated. Why? Musicals, though I hate to admit it, aren’t realistic. If musical hallucinations happening, you have a lesion on your brain stem (usually from a stroke, abscess, trauma or a tumor) or you’re really old with hearing loss. And your friends aren’t going to sing this week’s Top 40. You’re probably going to hear a really familiar tune from your childhood or think that someone’s cell phone is ringing.

The way I think has changed dramatically in these two years, and that's an excellent thing most of the time. I hope, though, that I’ll eventually develop a sense of separation. I hope to find a way to regain at least part of the automatic nerdy excitement I would have gotten when I was 20 and The Chick From Spamalot was singing in some TV show.  ...Here's hopin'!