Nurse on the Run

So last night was a bit of a nightmare at work!  Patients were difficult, lots was to be done, and I got out late.  Not too late, but even a minute late is considered too late.  I thought it was funny when I saw who the nurses were going to be on my floor last night.  Combined between the three of us, we had a little over two years of nursing experience.  HA.  No charge nurse, no aide…just three nurses, an orientee, and a unit clerk. 

While I’m not an idiot, I feel like that’s not the best idea.  Just saying.

the return of the rocket scientist

The Rocket Scientist is back from Japan!!  He came over last night even though he was super tired annnnnd a wee bit sick.  He thinks the airplane food wasn’t so great and was vomiting.  I should have stole him some Zofran from the hospital!  However, I also would have had to steal IV start kits and all that fun stuff….so maybe it’s better I didn’t.  (They also make Zofran you can take orally…which is funny since it is used to treat nausea and people don’t like to take pills when they’re nauseated.  However, I think I saw a study that demonstrated that Zofran is best used in anticipation of nausea instead of to treat nausea after the fact, in which case I suppose oral Zofran would be okay.  Someone tell me if I’m wrong…but I very well might be!)

Okay, you didn’t come here for a lecture on Zofran…back to the good stuff.

We had to reassemble my duvet last night since I washed it…vomity Rocket Scientist was up to the task, although I think he really just wanted to go to bed.  It sure makes for a good picture…

I left him there all night!  Ha…just kidding!

Since the Rocket Scientist knows me all too well, he brought me back from Japanese candy.  I haven’t sampled the blueberry/grape looking things, but the box of candy is little breadstick/cookie type things with a chocolate top, so they look like mushrooms.  Weird, but I’ll eat most anything resembling candy. 

Yummy!

winter wonderland

Every.  Single.  Time.  I walked into a patient’s room last night, the patient/family would tell me about the huge snowstorm we had coming our way.  Since I’m from Chicago, it takes a lot of snow to impress me.  When I was a student at the University of Maryland, school would be cancelled for the THREAT of snow.  (Speaking of which, they cancelled the university-wide graduation ceremony today…what??  You can’t cancel graduation!!)  I was suspicious of this “storm” that was headed our way, and I did wake up to it snowing.  However, four hours later, I can still see the grass.  Hmmmmm.

Marathon buddy Paul wimped out (his words, not mine) on our planned run this morning, so I slept in a little later to see if the snow would calm down.  After realizing the end was not in sight, I decided to man up, put my tights on (so manly!!), and head out for a run.  My many years of winter running experience reminded me that if it’s snowing, then it’s pretty warm outside!  There reaches a point in winter where it’s too cold to snow, so if it’s snowing, it’s warm!  Also, the cloud cover helps hold in the warmth, so really, snowy days are great days for winter running!

I went to see if the Rocket Scientist was awake to see if he wanted to go running with me, but I found him like this, so I decided to leave him be.

Dark picture, but I didn’t want to wake him with a flash!

Yes, I’m 25 and still sleep with my teddy bear.  I’m not ashamed.  Yes, I did tuck him in under the covers when I got up.

Anyway, I headed out for my run, and just as I imagined, it was pretty warm!  The wind was fairly calm (except, of course, when I was running uphill into the wind…naturally…).  I decided to stick to the roads instead of attempting the trail since I wasn’t sure what kind of shape it would be in.  Most of the roads were plowed or at least had cars that had driven on them so I had some solid footing for most of the way.   Surprise, surprise, I didn’t see anyone else out on the road.  The cars seemed a bit shocked to see me and I was worried they be so confused about seeing a runner in the snow that they would hit me, but I survived.

(The Rocket Scientist just woke up and stated…”Are you blogging about me sleeping??”  Yep, welcome to America!)

It was really amazing running in the snow!  When the wind wasn’t blowing, the snow  looked like it was suspended mid-air…floating, if you will.  Everything looked very peaceful and it was just me and the road for most of the time since not too many cars were on the road.  The run felt amazing and it was truly one of those “Ahhhh this is why I run!” moments.  Love it.

Saturday, December 19
7.13 miles in 55:23, avg pace of 7:46

Here’s what the view from the back of the townhouse:

If you look close enough, you can still see the grass!  It’s actually really coming down now and we’re supposed to get five-ish inches, but I’ll believe it when I see it.  And then I will eat my words.  (Or cookies…we may be baking tonight!)

I hope everyone has a warm (or snowy…or warm and snowy!) weekend!  My dad and brother were supposed to fly into Baltimore tonight (and we were supposed to go meet them!), but we’re not sure what the weather has in store for us, so we’re going down tomorrow morning.  Like my mom said, the only thing that could fool with our plans was a snowstorm…and we’re not even in Chicago!  Ah, such is life.  Have a great weekend!