Catching Up

1. Christmas was wonderful! Santa brought me a new printer/scanner combo--YAY! We opened gifts early, then bailed Grandma out of the nursing home and brought her over for breakfast which *I* did not have to make, lol. She loved her creepy talking kitty, of course. I'm sure the batteries will be dead in no time.

2. I'm surviving the Job. I'm back on 3-11 for a while, though I *will* have to work a few day shifts here and there. The best thing about the job is that my co-workers are awesome. The worst thing about the job is that my patients are, um, NOT. Every shift is an 8-hr miniseries, a combination of the Lifetime channel and those MSNBC specials on mental illness and prison inmates, where you sit there in shock, thinking Holy $hit!

3. But I so miss the A Team. I walked out to my car alone last night after work, and felt a terrible pang because for the past 8 years Jan and I have always walked out together. They say losing a job is one of life's greatest stressors. The job loss, to me, is almost incidental. All of us--me, Jan, Tangela, Elca, and Debbie--were truly a family, so this is more than "losing a job"; all of us are scattered now throughout the hopsital, on different floors, different shifts, different days, etc. The other day I was outside smoking on the curb and I heard a distant "MERRY CHRISTMAS!" It was Tange, yelling at me from a second story balcony. So yeah, we do see each other in passing (and Deb works between my floor and one across the hall) but it's not the same. I've been depressed about this, to say nothing of how hard it is to adjust to a new environment. But I'm starting to feel like my old self again. :)

4. Although I haven't written a word in over 3 weeks, I *have* been reading--and one of the novels I read was
Head Case by 2k7-er Sarah Aronson. Totally compelling and awesome and beautifully written! I sat down and read it from cover to cover without stopping.



5. I'm off on both New Year's eve and day. At work, we have a policy: if you work 3-11 on New Year's Eve and you don't manage to punch out and get to your car by 11:45 p.m. then you MUST hang around and wait till 12:30 a.m. or so. The reason? People shooting guns off in the projects. Heh. Can I possibly make up ANY of this stuff?

6. I am officially a huge fan of Jodie Picoult. I'm reading Nineteen Minutes--



--and I can't put it down!

What I am looking forward to:

7. Catching up on everyone's blogs (I am sooooooooooooo far behind, I hang my head in shame).

8. "Kosher Christmas" (Grandma's affectionate term for Orthodox Christmas) on January 7th.

9. Starting revisions on STW (soon, soon, soon).

10. Writing something NEW.