hitched

Yep, the rumor is true: I went and got married. It was a great time, up in the mountains with a bunch a friends close at hand. Forgive me for not disclosing more, I am struggling these days with the issue of how much (very) personal information to disclose on the 'net. Sufice it to say I (and we) are very happy and now back in Missoula. We had to stall on our honeymoon for the time being, as work demands are highest in the summer, but we plan on a trip to Central America this fall for a few weeks. Mean time we spent 5 days at the High Sierra Music Festial volunteering in the medical tent in exchange for free passed to the festial. All in all an easy trade and great festival.

You know, considering that we have been dating over 3 years and living together for 6 months, you wouldn't think that a little thing like a wedding would make much difference, but it has. At least the shine hasn't worn off; we still like each other.

Montana!

Folks ask "so, you from around here?" No. "Got family here?" No. "So...ever been here before at all?" Not really. Passed within a hundred miles of here on the highway a few years back, but the smoke from the wild fires was too thick to see anything and I didn't stop. "So, why are you here?"

And there is the real question. Usually I answer with a pat response: I (we) were looking for a cool mountain town in the west with a trauma center hospital, and ____ was on the short list.

This is true. What you see missing from the above statement however is the name of the town in question. Maybe it is Missoula. But maybe it is Kalispell. Ya see, Risa got a job in the ER of the hospital in Missoula. I had interviewed at the same hospital, and though it had gone well, they simply had no open nursing jobs (Risa took the very last one), and wouldn't for several months. Ok, thought I, I'll look elsewhere. And elsewhere I did look, for every concievable nurse gig within 100 miles, in prisions and jails and schools and retirement homes and clinics and hospitals and summer camps. Nothing...within 100 miles of Missoula.

So, in a moment of curiosity, I expanded my horizions to a town near the edge of Glacier National Park, north of the largest freshwater lake in the western USA, surrounded by mountains and only and hour south of Canadia: Kalispell. And there I found a job, not wiping butts in a nursing home, or bloody noses in a school, but in the ER. A busy, bumpin' ER that handles all the trauma of summer tourists falling of mountains and getting trampled by moose and eaten by grizzly bears. In fact, one of our docs wrote the protocol for post surgical grizzly bear treatment. (that is treatment of humans mauled by bears, we don't actually treat the bears in our hospital...too many uninsured in that population.)

So I get to do what I wanted to do, in a place I love, and so does Risa. The only catch is that those two places are 128 miles apart. So I drive north for my days on, spend 2 or 3 nights a week in Kalispell, and then drive home for my days off. Not the ideal situation, but so far seems quite do-able and not so bad.

By the way, if you are thinking of how you would love to come and visit, but gosh Montana is just so far away, consider that allegiant air has fights into missoula from mesa/phoenix, vegas, and LA for usually under $100 each way (sometimes under $60). So no excuses.

When the earth moves

If you haven't heard, there was a massive earthquake that demolished the capital of Haiti, Port-au-Prince yesterday afternoon. If you have heard, so don't need me to tell you about the hundreds of thousands feared dead, or the many more homeless and injured.

Those reading this may remember that I worked in Haiti back in 2006 for nearly 2 months (before my own house caught fire and burned up). I still have friends there, and communicate regularly with the folks that are carrying on the human rights work that led me there. At least I did; I have not yet heard from the friends I had living there. I do know that the neighborhood where they lived was hit hard, and nearby buildings were destroyed.

I would like to go back, I would like to think my training as a nurse and EMT would be helpful, but given the utter lack of infrastructure and the fact that my Creole language skills never really advanced beyond mediocrity I think I would be greater burden to the system in the immediate aftermath. Perhaps I can go in a few weeks.

In the meantime I am hoping that my friends are alive and unhurt, and I am sending money, through the organization I worked for and still work with: Human Rights Accompaniment Haiti (HURAH).

I have always hated asking people for money, however in light of the dire circumstances now imposed upon a country already struggling with basic infrastructure and rule of law, I am asking those that read this passage to donate whatever they can afford to help those that help others, on the ground in Haiti day in and day out. If $5 is all you can spare, thank you. If it is more, thanks all the same. If you cannot spare anything (and even if you can), then a prayer would be appreciated.

For background, HURAH is composed entirely of unpaid volunteers (of which I am one, a board member since 2008). Any money recieved will go directly toward the victims of the earthquake. 100%, nothing taken off for overhead or operating expenses. If you like you can read about my time in Haiti in 2006 during the election and working in the jails at www.behindthemountain.blogspot.com .

Otherwise the website where you can donate to HURAH is at: www.hurah-inc.org .
Meci anpil.
(many thanks)

Scoreboard

115 job applications in 12 states. Actually that should be 114, since one of them was for a nursing assistant job, but then again, I was turned down for that one too. I did get one interview, but there was no job opening associated with that interview, it was more of an "informational chat". Hmm...If I were being paid minimum wage to work on job applications and searches, I might be able to start paying off my student loans. Tell me again about the nursing shortage, will ya?

In other news, we are down to single digits, only 9 days until graduation. So there is happy news. And Risa (aka Sugarmomma) is still gainfully employed. In fact I just went out to visit her for her 30th birthday and we went on a 30 miles (31.5 mile if computer assisted gps is to be believed) hike to celebrate. I celebrated when we finished the hike. Only took 13 hours.

Otherwise all is well: weather is cold, around 10 below right now here in Fort Collins. School/work (meaning clinical rotations) are good, seeing an appropriate balance of weird and mundane injuries and illnessed in the ED to keep me mostly entertained and perpetually learning.

So, if this whole nursing thing doesn't work out, I may wind up back in Kalifornia working as a movie extra and street performer again. But I'll be the most educated juggling clown you ever met!

Seasonal affective disorder

Winds picked up and the weather turned cold a few days ago. Smelled like firewood chopping weather. Then I had to get back to class; my five minute break was over.

Nearly all of my life has been guided by the seasons: football season, hunting season, trip leading season, fire season, and so on, across jobs and continents, moving in accordance with weather and opportunity. Not this year. From winter through spring, summer, and now fall the season has remained unchanged for me: nursing school. Or perhaps not unchanged, instead unheeded. Rather than move camp I have kept the same scenery and routine in spite of the changing seasons. Trips were still led, fires fought, classes taught, and deployments undertaken, apples picked, firewood chopped, and fish caught, but they were all done by someone else.

I’m not real happy with my current circumstance, thankfully the human organism is infinitely adaptable and capable of surviving most anything for limited periods of time. And this time is limited to only about 10 more weeks. What happens then is anyone’s guess.

Summer Art Project

Ok, so I got a wild hair and went a little crazy with the sidewalk chalk this summer, leaving notes in public places ranging from profound-ish to jibber-ish. Don't have any idea how many people saw them, as wind and rain usually erased the evidence in a day or so, but it amused me.


A warning of things to come.

The midnight skulker strikes again.

In hindsight, only makes sense if you watched professional wrestling like 10 years ago.

Dedicated to my mentor, Jimmy Buffett.

Thanks to Winnie for the quote.

Feeling a bit ornery that day.

Mmm, delicious grumblecakes...

True.

Tried for a bit of interactive art here, but the next day I came back (front door of the hospital) and it was all erased and the pennys were gone.

So I tried by the school.

Not much response, but better than round one.

Third time's a charm...

Got many more responses but failed to photo them all. Apparently the magic word is pleeze.

Happy Solstice!

Longest day of the year, means of course that the days are now getting shorter. Winter will soon be upon us. But until then, we can enjoy the sunshine. I did today, excusing myself from the tedium of studying to go exploring down by the river. And what did I find? Probably the prettiest place in all Scottsbluff county, and it wasn't even at the top of the bluff! I will definatly be back to do some fishin' and beer drinkin', down by the river.

In a related story, my latest batch of homebrew, a belgian pale ale, has turned out better than I hoped for, easily the best batch I've ever done, 10x better than my first efforts. Now I can only hope the trend continues; I have a trial batch of a special, secret, ancient brew that I am hoping to make for the wedding, but I figured I should give it a preview to see that it is fit for human consumption. We shall see. If you read my post about the rye bread and balloon animals awhile back, there has been progress on both fronts. I have graduated to silly hats and more sour sourdough.