Just when I thought...

...they had made a day-shifter out of me.  Whew!  Welcome back to nights Nelson!  No offense to the suits, but it's so much nicer to work when only the necessary folk are wandering about - especially when you are busy.  Speaking of work, I'd like to retract a few statements from the record.  The part about ALL the pts needing to be in the ED & how most of the pts & families are grateful and awesome?  Yeah, subtract about 65% of that.  AND, if we have a few docs who are ADHD, then they have a few here who are Bipolar.  Both require a bit of duck feather, but I prefer the former.  Have I mentioned how much I miss our Pharmacists & the tube system?  Good.  While I'm at it I'd like to thank our XR/CT techs for collecting & returning our pts, Social Work & Psych for facilitating & solving sooo many important issues, Admitting & Secretaries for keeping the background running smoothly, and Techs...Oh, my dear sweet Techs, there aren't enough muscles in my fingers to type the ways in which I miss & appreciate thee!  I'll even thank the lab...well, it seems the ED/Lab - Love/Hate rel'shp is universal :)  Thanks at least for spitting out results this century.  Also, a fat SHUKRAN to our docs (regardless of your psych status) for having more than 1/2 a clue and for treating us as colleagues and respecting our judgment & opinions.  You are Wonderful!  Can't forget my peeps...again, not nearly enough ink kids!  Oh Emanuel, how I miss you!  It's probably a good thing they don't have alcohol in this country or we'd all be alcoholics!

Speaking of alcohol...had my first glass of red wine in 10 wks at an Italian Consulate dinner last wk - it was Delicious!!  I sipped & savored every grape.  There are a few other opportunities to get (bad) home-made wine and "Sid" here.  Sid reminds me of Zambian kachasu/latuku which is one smidge better for your esophagus than draino.  The Saudi vice seems to be puffing on the shisha (hookah) - it's flavored tobacco vapor (think artificial grape) - men & women alike enjoy it at home & at some open air restaurants.

 
Other pleasantries...a few of us had a lovely walk along the Corniche a few nights back.  It was nice to see a few stars & hear the waves crashing...and crashing again.  A powerful force beyond man & beyond rules & restrictions.  It provided a refreshing sense of normalcy...

What else?  You may have heard about our change in wkend days - they decided businesses could be more productive with other bits of the world by moving the wkend from Thurs & Fri to Fri & Sat.  Sounds simple enough, but it'd be like the U.S. saying, "Our work week will now be Sun-Thurs."  No arguing or debating - official decree from the king.  Done.  Imagine, we can't even get day-light savings time sorted out! :)

A more significant life shake up = Ramadan!  Very interesting...and tricky for those of us with tape worms (just kidding Grandma!)  I'll save Ramadan for my next post...it has barely started & I'm curious to see how the rest of the month plays out.

Well, (most of) you are probably enjoying summer weather & activities...if you need some extra sweat I'll gladly lend you my abaya & some of this humidity!  I think I'll end up being the crazy lady who wears a hoody when I go home and it's "only" 80 degrees :)  Do some camping & hiking for me - in shorts!!
Maasalama ~
k