The Silk Tape Road: Seattle Children's

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I haven't posted an installment of this blog series in a long time?  Perhaps it's because I worked at the same hospital for three years in LA, or perhaps because that wasn't the greatest work environment, and I was wary of being fired over an internet posting.

However that is, I'm ready to write about work again.

I am currently employed as a travel RN in the Peds ICU at Seattle Children's.  I was initially hired in September, and have been extending my contract every three months, and am signed on through the end of August.  At this time, I will have worked there for a year, and will have to make some decisions about where to go from there.

Top Five Questions Everyone Has Been Asking Me About Work:

1.  "Do you like this hospital?"  

I sodding love it.  I don't even know how this happened, but this is the such a great place to work.  It's well-staffed, well-resourced, and well-run.  There will always be things to complain about, but for the most part, this is just a completely pleasant job.  The people who work there are oddly and almost irritatingly enthusiastic and committed to their professions.  I honestly, couldn't have come from a more opposite environment.  The staff at Children's seem genuinely invested in creating a community, and it's just a damn breath of fresh air.

Examples:

-Every morning, when shift change happens, all of the staff that are working that day, including nurses, doctors, respiratory therapists, social workers, etc etc all gather in a drum circle.  We go around and everyone gives their name, their profession, and who they're taking care of that day.  It's so cheesy and simple, but it honestly helps so much in creating a snuggly village.

-Within a few weeks of my start date, it was announced that our manager was stepping down because of health issues.  In order to send her off well, a group of the nurses planned a goodbye party for her at a bar, complete with a live band and a pre-rehearsed flash mob.  We are talking about a BOSS, people.  How many people would do that for their boss?!  Do you even like yours?!

-Every weekend that our eldest attending doctor works, he tumbles into the nurses lounge with scads of bagels and shmear.  That's what's missing from the Middle East: simple carbs and spreadable cheese.

- The employee entrance to the hospital is, every day, a bicycle dog pile.  There are so many incentives to bike.  I just like that.  I also like seeing our administrators roll up to work in their spandex shorties and clip in shoes.

-Usually, when I have to call other departments like X-Ray, Pharmacy, or Lab, I brace myself before I dial.  These disciplines are notoriously cranky, despite having very little actual patient contact (or maybe that's why?).  Through some crazy fluke, everyone at Children's is smiling on the other line when I call.  They are just plain tickled to come do my X-Ray or draw my labs.  You guys, this is just so weird.

-There are, at any time, at least 4 baby showers happening.  I'm not saying Children's is better because people are always pregnant (which is absolutely true), but that it's better because people are always throwing parties for people.  Our bathrooms are littered with fliers for martini nights, farewell Barbecues, and therapeutic teas.

2.  "Well! Are you gonna stay?"

I DON'T KNOW.  When Sept comes, I have to either leave Seattle, take a staff position, or take a month off and come back again as a traveller.

I figure August 30th is a while away, and I don't have to think about it until it's August.  I'm keeping a very zen in my mind, you-know-except-other-crap, and choosing indecision until then.  I know, that when the time comes, and there is a suitable position available for me at this place, then I will take it.  If not, I will pursue other things.

3.  "Where else would you go?!"

I DON'T KNOW.  Such is the nature of my life, that I am plagued with options.  There are so many places, and that's why I just plain won't decide until I have to.

Sometimes I think about spending the fall in NYC, which I love and didn't get enough of.  I could fall in love with standup again, see lots of shows, and feel some real city hustle again. Other times, I think about going to Denver to live with Nick.  He's single again, and now's the time for us to really have fun and be in the same place.  Then still other times, I think about Austin or New Orleans or DC or Hawaii.  You see?  It's not good to speculate too much before go time.  I just have to go when it's time to go.

4.  Hey, I thought you moved to Seattle to stay and wash up?!

Well, yes.  I still think it was absolutely the right thing to do to leave LA and move here.  However, there is a difference between the initial coming here, and staying indefinitely.  I still just don't have a legit reason to be anywhere, and as much as I love Seattle, I don't know that it's enough reason to stop finding new places.

5.  What would it take for you to stay?

Honestly, something kinda drastic I think?  It seems like I am just the person that will require a pregnancy, a dream job, a crisis, or a good man to tumble me back to Earth.  My dreamer mentality keeps me constantly in the world of the Next Possible Thing, and I just don't know how to shut that off, or if I even should.  I am starting, more and more, to see the benefit of a home, but I just don't know where that is yet.  I can't just stay somewhere because I can't think of anything else to do.  The problem is, I can always think of hundreds of other things to do.

Pray for me.

Post Script: This list was a cutesy way of addressing my current work status, but the truth is that the #1 question everyone always asks me about work is if I ever see Russell Wilson.  The answer is yes, almost every Tuesday that I work, and sometimes other days of the week when he surprises us.  He's a darling, a love, all the patients/parents just go crazy over him, and he is now the only professional athlete that I like.