Birthday Shenanigans

I don't know how to spell shenanigans. It's not in the dictionary --therefore, that's how you spell it! Happy birthday to me! I am getting so old!!! Seriously. Remember back in the day when you were little and high school kids were the coolest and most grown up thing that your little brain could fathom? Then you got to high school and, let's face it, nothing existed except your own little high school world. But shortly there-after you begin to look forward to all that lies ahead. You go to college, and the 22 year old Relief Society president intimidates your socks off because she is so old and mature and has everything so together. Now I'm typing 22 saying, "Gosh, that's so young!" I graduated from college, and liked it so much I graduated twice. I could have gone another 2 semesters and finished a third degree, but that might have been a bit of over kill. I spent the first month --ok 2 months. Ok, 3-6 months after graduation in a stupor wondering what to do with myself. I already had a full time job, but I'd had that for the last 2 years of school, and I didn't have a clue what grown-ups did with all the time that they weren't at work. It took a while to adjust to not having school and studying thrown into my every day life. I'm still by no means a grown-up yet ...at least not in my mind :)

This is the first birthday that I've spent away from home, so the usual birthday-day with family, and birthday-day with friends didn't have to be balanced. I worked the night before my birthday, and it was a bittersweet night. I spent the whole night in Trauma C --usually lots of fun, and my best friend was my tech, so we were all kinds of excited. The only downer was that it was our last night of working together --he left for Hawaii on vaca 2 days later, and when he gets back, my contract will be over. But enough with the sad. We got our butts kicked the entire night. It was one medic after another. I had three intubated patients, 2 medic-eval chest pains, one of whom was a cat-lab MI, and I didn't send one patient home the whole night. Wait, that's not true, I sent home an 11 year old who we thought might have a lacerated spleen, but the scans were clean. Everyone else was admitted to the ICU/CCU. I did however get a birthday hat --made from an emesis basin with a blown up glove sticking out the top. I also got 26 staples -one for every year in the right sleeve of my scrub top. And 26 paper clips attached to the cuff of my left scrub top sleeve. Why I held still and let him do this, I'm not sure --I should probably take the staples out before I have to go to work tomorrow.

Back on track. So after work, we went to breakfast. It was just the three of us, for one last time. Sad! Tears were shed. By me. But I was able to hold them off until I was in the car by myself. Breakfast was good --despite the fact that I was forced to wear my birthday hat inside the bar. I was allowed to take it off to play pool :) Then I spent a large part of my day doing one of my favorite pastimes --sleeping! I got up in time to get ready and go to dinner with my 2 best friends in Seattle. We went to the Crab Pot down on the water-front. It was awesome! They line the table with butcher paper and give you each a bib and a mallet, then dump your seafood dinner (seafood in shells, shrimp with head tails and legs still attached and all) on the table and you just go at it. Yummy! After dinner, we walked around the pier, went to Fado's then went bowling at the Garage. All in all a good day. And it still felt like I was at home when I came home and had messages from everyone either on my cell or on facebook! I have the greatest friends and family ever!!! Here's to a great year! And as a shout out to my girls back home --it's our year dammit!!!!