Heads up!

OK, just so you know, nurses are overworked. My last two work days have been incredibly stressful, partly because I have only recently been turned loose from orientation, where I had somebody with some experience helping me that I don't have anymore, partly because the patients I had were extremely sick and/or demanding, and partly because one and possibly more of our physicians are complete dicks.
I am an oncology nurse in a major cancer center, so you expect people to be really sick and also dealing with some fairly emotional issues. I'm really good with people and can usually smooth the roughest of feathers, but I came up against someone the other day who could not be charmed. Tough enough, but it was the same day another patient was in serious trouble (she died later that night), and I had two patients with intractable pain and nausea. So I was running from one to the other with morphine and antiemetics while trying to keep the one patient alive and the other appeased. (I am constantly amazed at people who think that "nurse" is another word for "concierge").
Anyway, as you're voting this year,(which of course, you will do because you are a concerned citizen), vote for people who are concerned about nurse staffing ratios. Hospitals, in order to control costs, are always sometimes trying to give nurses more patients, while also asking them to take more responsibility for the care of said patients, and to learn more complicated equipment and such. We also are required to learn about a dizzying array of new medications coming on the market at any given time, and when we get too busy, it's not safe for patients. Laws need to be passed in this country to mandate safe nurse/patient ratios.
On a lighter note, you will be happy to know that the E! network has a new reality series beginning October 2 called, "House of Carters", showing what happens when Backstreet Boys' Nick Carter decides to have his brother and sisters move in with him in order to straighten everybody out because they had such horrid childhoods. Holt worked for the family for a time at their compound in the lovely Florida Keys and I can tell you, these kids never had a chance. A perfect example of how easily money can corrupt people with negligible intelligence. I would post a link to the promotional site if I knew how to post a link, but I don't, so you will just have to find it yourself.
Also on a lighter note, Holt and I went to the local high school football game on Friday to watch Martin march with the band, playing his mellophone. Martin never missed a step, and the band sounded great. The team also won 57-13, which is not really much of a game, if you ask me, but it gave the band the opportunity to play the school fight song a lot from the stands. When you work in a high stress occupation, it is also nice to experience a little slice of Americana once in a while.