January 1, 2019 – Write From Karen

I’m attempting to force myself to write in my blog every day. I’ve gotten SO BAD at keeping up these past several years and someday I’ll be dead and then what?

I’ll be gone but hopefully not forgotten.

Today’s prompt(s):

Happiness: What makes you happy?

Also: New Year’s Goals – sorry, I’m going to be cliche for a moment.

What makes me happy … warm (not hot) sunny days. Sweet smell of flowers, or nice smells in general. Sharp, clean mountain air, cool ocean breezes gliding across my face. Funny people and entertaining stories. Being alone and immersing myself in an entertaining, imaginary world. Soft blankets and hot coffee. Challenging board games and comfortable clothes. Going on vacations with Kevin and coming home with really good pictures. Having adult conversations with our boys. Having a whole day in front of me with nothing to do and nowhere to be.

And here we are, friends, a brand new year. A clean slate. Out with the old, in with the new. Another year older.

Other than waking up each morning? I don’t really have goals. I guess my goals, overall, are to take a yearly vacation with Kevin, take more pictures and wrack up more memories. I would like to take a cruise with me and the boys one of these years but who knows when that will happen. Everyone has their own schedule now (though Blake is still working with Kevin, it’s hard for both of them to take off at the same time because that means there is no one to man the office) and we’re making the boys pay their own way (so they will appreciate the experience more) and that takes planning.

But it will happen at some point, I’m confident.

I’m really back into reading. I fell out of it for several years and I’ve missed it. I wrote about meeting my reading goal for 2018 and I’m looking forward to meeting my reading goal in 2019. I REALLY want to get back into writing, as well. My challenge is: since my day job sucks the life out of me and I’m so brain dead when I get home at night that all I want to do is veg out and do anything BUT think, I need to come up with a writing schedule that works for me, i.e. weekends/days off.

I’m trying to write these blog posts ahead giving myself permission to post an occasional “bonus” post whenever something comes up or the inevitable rant because trust me when I say, I rant at times.

It makes me feel better. And it helps me put things into perspective.

Other than that? I don’t really have “goals” per se. This year it’s our turn to host Thanksgiving dinner, which means we will be doing stuff around the house in preparation. Stuff that we needed to do anyway and hosting a big dinner just motivates me to get it done. Side note: I’m working on making our Thanksgiving dinner into our Christmas party, too. I tentatively suggested this to Kevin’s mom and she wasn’t a fan, but I’m GOING to make it happen and I have several months to sell people on it. We’ll see if I’m successful.

I still plan on giving 150% at work, it’s just who I am. I can’t NOT give everything in me to do my very best. Especially when I respect my team so much. My goal has always been to be the best MA my doctor has EVER had.

I need to work on not being so stressed out. I think I’m better than I used to be, but I have a ways to go. I’m picking my battles, I have to, otherwise, I find myself getting worked up over trivial things or perceived injustices and honestly, in the grand scheme of things, did we die? (This is what we say at work when things get tense).

I’d like to build my relationship with my parents. I’ve not been a very good daughter – again – life happens. But they aren’t getting any younger and time goes by so damn fast. I’m not sure how that is going to happen yet, but I will work on making time for them.

Other than the, “I need to exercise and bring my BMI down” goal, I can’t really think of anything else. Overall, I have a pretty awesome life, notice I didn’t say perfect, but it’s comfortable and works me, I’m happy.

Isn’t that all anyone can ask for?

Happy New Year!

It’s 2019! Next year I will have been married for 30 years. WHAT?!

That in itself is mind blowing, but when I stop to think of the number of years I’ve been on this Earth, it doesn’t feel real. I’ve been alive since 1965. It’s now 2019.

THINK ABOUT THAT FOR A MINUTE!

It SOUNDS old but I honestly don’t feel that old. Well, most days. There are days my body creaks and moans a little more than others.

I honestly think it’s mostly because I work with so many young people. They keep me young. And my job (medical assistant for a neurosurgeon) requires that I’m constantly on my feet a few times a week so that helps, I suppose.

Work is going great. I love what I do (most days) and of course my team is phenomenal. I do have a weird dilemma though – the nurse I work with has discovered my blog. *waves* I freaked out at first and hid my blog for a time but now I’m back and I guess it is what it is. I never write anything that I wouldn’t tell someone to his/her face, but still, it’s weird to make myself vulnerable in that way. I don’t really talk much about myself, my life, my thoughts/feelings much at work so to have someone read these thoughts, here, where I just sort of do a brain dump, is … strange.

At any rate, here we are and hello! to anyone reading this in my real life right now.

Welcome to my internal madness.

The doctor I work for is amazing. He actually invited all of us to his house this past week for a Christmas lunch. His house is gorgeous. It’s brand new, he just had it built, and it’s full of impressive technology and gadgets. The decor is a bit on the minimalist side, which we all knew that was more his style, but personally, I would have liked to see a bit more warmth scattered throughout the house. When we saw his son’s messy bedroom and his attic (which is a space above his garage on the 2nd floor) and saw all of his boxes, cobwebs and other knick knacks, I breathed a sigh of relief; they are not robots after all.

Because let’s face it. We all like nice things and to have our things in their proper places but all people are messy on some level, it was nice to see his level of messy.

We had delicious Mexican food and ate our lunch on their gorgeous dining room table in front of a wall of windows that overlooked their front lawn. We then had dessert in their modern kitchen and breathed in crisp December air after he opened up a full wall of windows that overlooked his backyard. It’s an impressive house.

We then sat down and opened gifts. I feel like my doctor liked the gift I gave him.

It’s an eyeglass holder.

I bought it because we’ve all been talking about glasses lately at work, getting our eyes checked, where the best places to buy eyeglasses, and then showing our new eyeglasses off whenever we buy them and my PA mentioned my doctor didn’t really like his contacts and was back to wearing his glasses and I stumbled across this gem.

I think he liked it. Who knows if he’ll actually use it. But it was good for a laugh.

I bought my PA, nurse and secretary a ring light to clip on to their cell phones. In theory, it’s supposed to help make your selfies look better. My nurse took a pic with it and then without and I think the pic with it looked better.

It was super cheap and I’m going to buy one for myself, but I think they all liked them.

My PA made a longitude/latitude picture for us. They match the colors in our rooms at home. It’s the longitude/latitude of our residence. It’s super cool and Kevin is going to hang it up in the family room sometime soon.

My nurse gave us cute “party of ….” pictures. The number matches the number of people in our families.

My secretary gave me a book, (which I found on Unlimited Kindle and put on my Kindle) and some yummy chocolates.

My doctor gave me a CUTE little Bluetooth speaker to put in our “new” office at work (we actually just swapped spaces with another team but it’s new to me and my nurse) and a jug of protein, mixer cup and protein bars (which I’m keeping at work because I like to eat a protein bar on clinic days because momma ain’t got time to eat in between patients).

My doctor’s wife, who gave me a hug (*squee!*) and his adorable youngest daughter, hung out with us the whole time we were there and it was great to get to know them a bit better. Even though I’ve worked for my doctor as his MA for nearly five years, I don’t really know his family very well. I mean, WHY would I. But it was nice to see a different side to his life.

Our clinic hosted a Christmas open house for surrounding doctors and hospital VIPs. It was the brain child of our PA. She’s super talented and such a hard worker and her and my nurse did the bulk of the work. And WORK they did. We had 14 Christmas trees. In addition, my PA made wreaths to hang around the clinic and my PA’s mom made EVERYONE in the clinic their own stocking to hang up on our individual pods. Close to 800 save the dates / invitations went out and I think we ended up having nearly 300 people attend. We hired a Santa and the kids had their pictures taken with him. We had a hot chocolate station, a cookie-decorating station, a “sign a card for the troops” station as well as a refreshment / finger food station. Everyone walked around to each station.

This picture is all of our nurses with Santa. Again, an AMAZING group of women. The picture below is one of our PA’s sitting with our Santa.

It’s safe to say that “Buddy the Elf” was a HUGE hit with the kids. We even had pom-pom snowballs that the kids had fun throwing at Buddy, who ran all over the clinic with the kids chasing him.

It was a hugely successful evening and the first of many open houses to come, I’m sure.

It took a lot to persuade the hospital to allow us to throw the open house, but in the end, I think it ended up making our neurosurgery department shine.

I know everyone had a good time planning it then working it.

Me? I was a runner. I constantly walked around to make sure everyone had what they needed at each station. I refilled the cookie tray, made hot cocoa and made sure Santa and our photographer had enough water. (I wracked up 15000 steps by the end of the night).

The last few weeks, with Christmas and New Year’s Day falling on Tuesdays, it’s been a ghost town at our clinic.

But not without some drama.

I think people are a bit bored and stir crazy. When we’re all busy, we’re really not paying attention to one another so a lot of things go unnoticed or not reported. But when we’re slow, well, some things stick out more.

Our management team is great, but they aren’t very proactive or timely with any sort of disciplinary actions. We have some people who spend the majority of their days on their phones and others that come up with every excuse in the book as to why they didn’t do something. Management is very aware of these individuals and yet … nothing happens. I realize that these things take time, that there are certain procedures and protocols, but I feel like stress levels are high right now. Who knows what sort of changes will happen in the new year.

Me? I’m perfectly happy with the team I have and I feel incredibly lucky to have them in my work life. I had enough drama with my old nurse, I’m DONE with drama and I’m minding my own business. I’m focusing on doing the best job I can do and everyone else is on their own. I have neither the time, nor the patience, to deal with sub-par associates. All I can do is report it to management, what they do with that information is up to them.

You can’t change people, all you can do is change the way you react to people. You have to think that way or you’ll drive yourself crazy. And honestly? Life is too short to be stressed out all the time. So I’m on a mission to stay chill. My blood pressure has been on the rise again and I’m working on getting it under control again. I need to start walking/exercising again as I know that is a large part of why my blood pressure is wonky again.

I’m looking forward to a new year and new adventures.