For a moment, in all seriousness

I do not like my job at the hospital.
I frequently complain about it and some of the people I work with and the nurses and unit staff who are rude and unhelpful.
Sometimes I deal with patients that are unpleasant as well.

But this is not always so.

I have encountered many, many people who were pleasant, friendly, appreciated the small things I did for them. Most of the time, however, I can't remember their names.

I am ashamed to say I don't even remember the name of the woman who, when I was crying during one of my first weeks, hugged me and gave me one of her own get well bouquets because she didn't want me to cry. It was very, very beautiful.

But I remember Patricia Manzer, my favorite patient from last summer. I liked to go in and talk to her, I made her a little card for when she finally left. She was back in the hospital over the winter, unconcious when I sought her out and hooked up to tubes. And I felt so very bad.

I remember her.

And today I carved a new name into my immortal patients list.

His name is Larry Schroeder, and I went to give him lunch and he thanked me, he said he knew we worked hard, and I said I appreciated that, because many people never think we do. And he said he's worked hard his whole life too.

I told him I was leaving on Wednesday, and he said he was leaving soon too. I asked him how long he'd been in here, and he said 14 years. I couldn't believe it; 14 years? How...? And then he told me. For 14 years he was a morphine addict, until Monday, when he came to the hospital and said he wanted it to be over.

"It does terrible things to your body." He said. "I wanted it to be over."

I told him it takes a lot of courage to do that. And he cried because he was so happy.

Before I left his room, he held out his hand, and I took off my blue plastic gloves and took it.

He said "Good luck to you, kid."
And I said "Good luck to you too."

And when I walked away, I was smiling, but I felt like crying too, and for a few moments, I had the best job in the world.

Holy crap, there are vultures eating my head!

David and I watched "Shanghai Noon" last night, and it was super hot. Owen Wilson was funny, Jackie Chan was Jackie Chan, and it had *Xander Berkeley*. Mmmm..Xander Berkeley. Eheh, er.. Xander Berkeley being the actor who played George Mason on "24" and I love George Mason... Anyway, a quality film overall. I really want to see "Shanghai Knights" now.

So far I've clocked about 8-9 hours of sleep in the past few days. I am so tired. Tomorrow I can get up at 4:30! Woohoo, sleepin' in!

Bob, mouichido o denwa kudasai... I don't want to eat quiche. ;) (Quiche should be pronounced "kwitchy") Your dream sounds awesome!

Ummmmmm...So for the past two days, I've been able to just stand around and draw at work. It's weird. And lots of people were bitchy this morning. It was uncool. I did get to leave early, though. And I went over to the condo and saw the beginnings of the LAN party. I was hoping it would have started already by the time I got there so I could bust in and I shout "I'M NAKED! NO CLOTHES!" but no such luck.

I went out to dinner with my oldest childhood friend Hasina tonight. We went to Imperial Gardens and it was good and tasty. It was a little strange, since we hadn't seen each other for a long time, but we kept the conversation going and I made her laugh a lot. We talked about sleep. It made me more sleepy, but it was really nice. I took a picture of us because I thought we needed an update. She still has a picture on her wall of us at my 10th birthday at Fast Forward. She's towering over me, and I'm wearing neon pink and yellow biking shorts, a blue polka-dotted headband and my koala fanny pack. I dress a little better now. So yeah. That was that.

Mmmm....Xander Berkeley. I mean! EHEH! EHEHEHEHEHEHEHE....argh. I just need to make my cuddly George Mason doll and be done with it. And my CUTE HAT.

So it goes.

Kwitchy.