A portrait of Howie

The daughter was drawing a picture of one her favoritie friends, Howie the dog. He kind of looks like a rhino with skinny legs, but she was proud of it so I had her sign it. In a way, sometimes Howie is a lot like a rhino with skinny legs. I then told her I was going to feed the picture to the computer. I told her how all that noise was the computer chewing her picture. She didn't buy it. She says, "Mom, I think you are just kidding." She is getting too old to even get her to believe that a computer eats paper.

Can't sleep, clowns will eat me

At least, I can't sleep well these past two nights. I am not sure if it is the job or the book or just life in general but I can't turn my brain off at night. I have all kinds of active dreams. I wake up and can't get back to sleep. Last night I gave up around 2am and just got up and finished my book I was reading, "Circus of the Damned." I was thinking, maybe that was why I couldn't sleep because I couldn't wait to find out how it ended. I was so close to the end and it was leaving me on the edge of my seat. Nope, finished it and 4am I still can't sleep. I think I fell asleep about 5am and my alarm wakes me up at 5:30 to get to work. Man, I was so close to calling in sick due to lack of sleep.

Here's hoping I get more sleep tonight. Maybe I should read more calmer books and not ones about vampires, zombies and werewolves.......

Musical memories

I have been thinking a lot about all the memories a single song can bring out. It is amazing how much in my life is associated with music. So, I thought I would share my list. My list though is not all inclusive as my memory fades and there are just too many great musical memories.

Listening to my "Jungle Book" album soundtrack at age 7 on my little record player. "Look for the bare necessities...."

The Michael Jackson "Off the Wall" album on dad's awesome stereo system. The speakers were probably 4 feet high. It felt like Michael was in the house singing. I can still almost hear him cry as he sings "She's out of my life." I can't believe I am writing this, but CDs don't sound the same as vinyl. Vinyl is so much warmer and richer.

Discovering Grandma's old vinyl albums 78s of classical pieces by Stravinksy, Dvorak or Brahm, then using her stereo system that would play that speed. It was one of those rectangular long cabinets with sliding doors on the top, a beautiful wooden piece. The sound was amazing. I would sit down and listen to the music with a sketch pad and draw what I felt the music was describing. I overheard my dad tell my mom that I was odd. I wonder where that stereo is now?

Any song by Erasure brings up some great times with friends. One night we were driving around trying to cheer up a friend. We ended up at a dead end road in the country. We stopped the car, left it running with headlights on, Erasure blaring and had our own dance party under the stars.

Then there was the Erasure concert, when we heard this guys behind us say, "Oh my god! These guys are gay!" Yep, the band was and there music was too. I mean their music was happy-gay, not gay-gay. :)

The "Circle of Life" will always remind me of Dana. I miss her and still am saddened that she was killed so young. It took a few years before that song didn't make me cry anymore. Now, I just get some chills when I listen to it.

"Rio" by Duran Duran has many moments for me. Our silly girl band (Modern Modes) when we were like 14 or 15. Friends in college singing that song to me but substiting my name for Rio. That was a very silly night.

"Oye como va" was a song my dad would blare on his stereo until the walls and windows rattled in the house, but I LOVED playing this song in high school band at the football games. I played tenor sax and this song was just a blast to play at those games. Same goes for "Wake me up before you go-go" by Wham. It was a lot of fun for a sax player, even though the song is a bit cheesey.

"Sail away" by Enya. I remember my boyfriend (now my spouse) and I were taking my younger brother and sister somewhere and this song came on the radio. My brother thought the lyrics were "save a whale" and was singing it loudly. To this day, I laugh when I hear that song and sing in my head "save a whale, save a whale, save a whale." It is a great message, right?

"Mustang Sally" and a trip to New Orleans with my future spouse. We had a rental car and it was a burgundy mustang and I swear that song came on the radio just about everyday we drove it.

"Whole of the Moon" by The Waterboys will always remind me of my true friend that did a musical dedication for me on KFOG when I was away at college. She recorded it and mailed it to me for my birthday.

"Ghost Town" by the Specials reminds me of a road trip with two friends and a little music video we made in the middle of nowhere Texas. I think we broke the camera after making that movie, but we still have the video somewhere.

"Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen at the 12/31/92 New Year's Party and banging our heads so much to this song that we nearly fell over from being dizzy.

Listening to Elvis Presley and Frankie Valley and the 4 Seasons on 8-track in my mom's yellow Plymouth Duster on the long roadtrip to visit Grandma every summer.

I think I could on forever and maybe do a book, but that is my list for now. Care to share your musical memory?

Why are there stoplights on the wall?

Yep, that is the latest question asked as people enter our ICU at the hospital.

There are large yellow traffic lights with the standard green, yellow and red lights on them hanging on the walls on all the nursing units at the hospital. Why? Noise detectors.

I'll be the first to agree that it is freaking noisy in the hospital, especially during shift change because there is typically double the staff and half of them are talking and giving report on their patients. It also seems that many times during this short 30 minutes is when almost every patient hits the call light and family members call to ask for updates on the patients. Also, xray technicians are roaming and doing the scheduled portable xrays of all our ventillated patients. Pharmacy is dropping medications due at 8am. It can be utter chaos during that 30 minutes.

So, management is on a kick to reduce noise and help the patient's stay be more pleasant. They are even asking us to provide ear plugs to our more alert and awake patients to help them get a better night sleep. Sounds great, right?

Well, except the first week these stop lights were in place, we actually created more noise. Every person who came through that week had to ask what was the traffic light for. We had to explain the theory about quieter units. Then we got to demonstrate how the light worked. If you make a sound loud enough, the red light comes off and emits a loud siren wail. Yep, the noise detector actually makes noise (louder and quite obnoxious) to let you know you are making noise.

Ahhhh, the irony. It made me smile a bit more that week, but now the lights are old hat and it is still noisy and the light goes yellow very often, but never really emits the red siren wail. And, some people have figured out how to adjust the noise detector so it never really goes off.

Oh, and no one knows where all the ear plugs went.