Sorry the Jack pages have been late lately...Dave usually gives them to me in month blocks, and I letter them over my weekend. The last couple times he's dropped a month block on me, either work's been ridiculous and I haven't had the energy to do much of anything except drop into bed when I get home, or...as is the case with this latest block of them...I was flat-on-my-ass sick for a couple of weeks. (What's this? FLU is evolving! CONGRATULATIONS! your FLU is now EYE INFECTION, TONSILLITIS, and EAR INFECTION!)

On the plus side, they finally made me permanent so I have a reliable schedule now and can better plan my agenda. On the downside, they've given me the "cursed" area, where apparently they haven't been able to keep anyone for longer than a few months because they either quit or get kicked out. It's not a BAD area, really...but since it's the recovery area and the minor procedure OR's, they expect you to be on your game and keep up on everything. Which means wiping everything down in the procedure rooms nightly to keep dust off of it, moving all the furniture to mop underneath it (because they can and often do end up with stray needles or blood spots underneath stuff), and peeling off the operating table pads to scrub under and between them.

The guy who had the area before me, I guess, tried to get away with doing all of that once a week instead of nightly. ....it went about as well as you'd expect >_>

In addition to THAT, the doctors in the recovery area have their own special set of demands. Eight garbage bags on every can. new toilet paper rolls every night in the bathrooms regardless of whether they're getting low or not, all the foot mats and computer stations arranged in a square, all of the beds get made with the left guard raised and the blanket draped across it. Do not feel like doing these things? God help you. Also, they won't tell you they want them done. You'll hear all about it when you DON'T do it, though and they'll give you a pass for being new, but tell you they expect it from now on.

It really sucked the first few weeks trying to cram all of this into a four hour shift, but I'm getting the hang of it now and have my "milestones" set up for what time I should be where if I want to get finished by ten.

Now if I could just convince them to stop leaving the break room looking like starving wolverines tore through it every day...