Echoes after a decade

Tonight I was driving home from a Rotary holiday party in the next town over. The stars were fantastically bright as there is little to no light pollution here. With the flatness of the desert one can see stars scattered like diamonds on black velvet from one horizon to the other.

I cycled through the radio stations in hopes of finding something interesting to listen to for 20 minutes as I kept my eyes wide open for antelope and deer. I settled on some new age sounding music that was fitting with the night sky and couldn't help but smile when I heard a voice that used to be my regular companion 10 years ago at the age of 17.

Echoes, hosted by John Diliberto, is a radio show that is distributed through Public Radio International. It is best described as a musical landscape interspersed by interesting musician interviews. As a 17 year old, I thought this radio show was the most amazing soundscape connecting me to the world outside of small town Idaho. It wasn't country, pop, or oldies. It was uncommon and delightful, alien and intriguing.

Unfortunately, I moved away to college and then Portland where surprisingly Echoes was not available on the local NPR station, or perhaps I was unavailable to listen. In many ways, I have not listened to music as habitually as I did in those tender teen years when the music seemed connected to my neuronal pathways.

Tonight was once more delightful. Like finding an old friend and remembering all the sweet memories that you haven't brushed off in awhile, it was a reminder that some things don't change. You just forgot about them for a little while.

If you are interested in listening to any of the Echoes stuff, here are some links to enjoy !

• Musician interviews PRI: Echoes Interviews
• John Diliberto/Echoes Blog with great music clips to listen to Echoes Blog

Google + Users

Dear readers,

If you are also Google+ users you will notice on the right hand side of my blog that there are several ways to follow my blog! Some of you are already Google+ users that follow me, and therefore appear in the 'Followers' section. Please feel free to click 'add to circles' as I look forward to to this year of writing and hopefully entertaining you as well.

Cheers!

Dingo News by Brisbane & Roxie

So far I have been selfishly blogging about my experience moving to Idaho. The dogs have their own version of the recent turn of events.

Brisbane
"This entire experience has been a cruel trick by my owners. I hate boxes - they smell terrible. I currently do not have my bunk bed and I am too short to see out any windows. How embarrassing! I cannot even rule over my new domain.

I do get my regular dog walks and the cold weather is exhilarating.  I can feel the frost inching into my brain and I find that I must run around like a loon at least twice a day at the park to keep it under control. I do like playing with my humans at the park, but then I pout as soon as I get home to let them know my immediate displeasure.

Other observations that I have gathered include:

• Toddlers taste delicious and do not mind a thorough licking twice a day. 
• There are 2 cats living here. I am aggravated that there are cats living here. How dare they perch outside and taunt me on our dog walks! They do not have the common courtesy to come introduce themselves. 
• Oma and Bopa (grandma & grandpa) give me treats for looking cute. They are so much easier to trick than my mom and dad !"

Roxie
"Dog walking - my favorite thing!
Running away from my mom on the morning of her employee health appointment - my favorite thing!
Letting her run after me for 20 minutes until she gets the leash on me- my new favorite thing!
Sleeping on couches even while getting yelled at - my favorite thing!
Seeing cows and alpacas on my walks - my NOT favorite thing - those things are freaking scary!!!"

Employee health versus my health

Good news:
I did not pass out while getting my blood draw today! I went to employee health where I was asked about every vaccination I have ever had since birth. I thought I was lucky and only had to get poked for a TB test. Unfortunately though I had to go get a blood draw for a hepatitis titer (for non nurses: this determines your antibody count to see if you are immune to hepatitis, apparently this is routine at my hospital even if one has had all required hepatitis shots).

I am no longer scared of getting shots. I am,however, very against having bodily fluids removed from my blood vessels- not for any religious reasons- only that I become woozy and act like a ninny about it. Last autumn I donated red blood at the Red Cross only to become faint and have the nurses drop my head down and put my legs up and cover me with a blanket (also known as shock position). You can imagine how thankful I was to not have a repeat performance of that event today. I had a vision of the phlebotomist running down the hall to the ICU to tell them what a silly fainting new nurse they had hired fresh out of nursing school. It could have been incredibly embarrassing!

Bad news:
I seem to have a terribly weak immune system. Moving from Portland to here I had a stressed induced cold. It was an awful bug that had me running on empty for about 2 weeks. After avoiding dairy, meat, and wheat I perked up just in time for Thanksgiving when I got to cuddle with my little nieces (aka as adorable pietri dishes with legs). Alas, I got my very own version of the preschool plague. My goal is to be better my Monday for my first day of orientation.

Achoo!

Botany Lesson #2

There are goatheads everywhere. If they were valuable and could be exported, it would be like an oil boom town here! 

Tribulus terrestris is a ground dwelling vine with a tap root. Here it has the name of goatheads, but the plant is also known by puncture vine, bull's heads, or my favorite, devil's eyelashes. This invasive plant species is everywhere and gained its entertaining nomenclature due to the the seeds it produces - harder than stone little seeds with 3-4  pain producing spines that look like horns.

In researching this plant for my blog I even learned from the local news website, KMTV, that 2012 was a heck of a good year for this invasive species to invade the Magic Valley some more. The goatheads apparently loved this year's heat and moisture so much that they are maliciously propagating some more. In fact there will be, "five times as many goat head plants next year (KMTV Goathead Boom, 2012)."

To give this some perspective, in a very unscientific manner, my poor city dogs are going to being lame by this time next year. In this week alone, I removed an average of 5 goat heads per dog per walk. I walk my dogs three times per day. So each of them is getting an average of 15 goatheads in their paws per day. And this is supposed to quintuple? According to my math then, I will be removing 75 goatheads per dog per day!

Although these seeds are easy to remove if you are lucky enough to have thumbs, their spines stick into everything - including your thumb!

Freakishly cold dry weather

When we arrived here last Saturday it was in the 40 degree range. It was comfortable. In PDX 40 F degrees is cold because it's damp and soaks into your bones before you have even stepped outside to have gallons of rain poured on you. Here, with the bright blue skies, a thick sweatshirt, and a hat it's perfect dog walking weather. I was almost thinking, 'wow, this is wonderful, I am not soaking wet!'

Then the winds came...My  rain-less weather now feels like -10 F degrees! Perfect dog walking weather- my frozen fingers! I take it back Mother Nature.

This morning I realized my lips have chapped in the course of a week and I feel like a snake molting out of its skin. However, unlike a darn lucky reptile, my next layer of skin is also dry, so there is no end in sight to this itchy misery cycle. It doesn't matter that I practically bathe in moisturizer morning and night. I am becoming a raisin and it is at an accelerated rate with all this wind!

Apart from my skin, I realized this morning I have forgotten the effects of winter - cold winter I mean - not moderate/mild PacNW winters by these observations this morning

1. The dog's water bowl had a layer of ice
2. The dog's tennis ball was crunchy and could not bounce until it had sufficiently softened in a warm dog mouth at the park (did I mention I had to peel the ball off the lawn because it was frozen to the blades of grass?!)
3. My nose hairs were rattling with ice on each inhale only to melt and drip with each exhale
4. I was (and now am) forced to use a hair dryer or my strands of hair clink together as I walk outside and my ears are promptly entering the first stages of frostbite. Ugh.

The worst part, is it's still not even the worst of winter yet! There is much more freezing, drying, and whining to do on my part. So my next endeavor is to find the best moisturizer ever!

Quaint small town idiosyncrasies

I have apparently forgotten what it is like to live in a small town. Here are 4 examples that prove my point.

Example #1: I was walking with my mother in law down the street on her lunch time break. She waved down the police car meandering the streets to let him know not to ticket my husband's parked car for facing the wrong way and that we would turn it around as soon as we got home. Really. In PDX we parked the wrong way on the street all the time! The police never bothered because they had more serious matters to attend to. Nor would they have listened to a request NOT to ticket you.

Example #2: I went to a new store in town that is all organic, local products. As I was browsing the breads, the elks antlers (a favorite dog treat with our dingoes), and the apples the baker/shop keeper came up and introduced herself by first name and wanted me to try some fresh baked goods. Now I am buying a bourbon pecan pie from her for Thanksgiving.

Example #3: Friday night my husband and I had dinner with the mayor and his family. Yes, they are long time friends, but still!

Example #4: I went to sign up for a gym membership ($25 a month - yahoo!). The gym manager wanted to know why (don't they usually just want your money?). I said I had just moved to town. I was then interrogated/interviewed about how I came to Buhl, what I was doing here, and most importantly who was I related to. Once I gave my family name - and only then- she was satisfied and then I could fill out my membership form and get my electronic key for after hours. Oh, and now she greets me by first name whenever I work out.

The botany of sage brush

Now that I'm surrounded by sage brush I thought I should indulge in some botany discussion. Sage brush is an evergreen and therefore does not lose it's leaves in the winter. It has beautiful silvery gray leaves with yellow flowers and thrives due to a tap root (think of a carrot) with allows the plant to gather water from both the surface when it rains and ground water when it's dry. I have read the plant can live for 100 years! In my future hiking, I hope to encounter such a plant and consider what it was lived through since 1912.

The smell associated with sage brush is due to the plant producing camphor and other oils. On camping trips as a child I remember crushing sage leaves to rub them on any mosquito bites I had obtained (Side note: as a child I was obsessed with medicinal plants for awhile and Native Americans; I'm pretty sure at one point I had aspirations of becoming a Native American medicine woman). For those of you who have ever used Camphor-Phenique to treat bug bites - it also has camphor. Nature was of course the first apothecary's shop.

All these volatile oils also means the plant also tastes bitter as a protective mechanism against herbivores. Interestingly enough, these oils if they were ingested in a large quantity, are poisonous to the symbiotic bacteria in the stomach of ruminants (think of cattle and deer). In Southern Idaho, however, there are pronghorn antelope that apparently are the only herbivore than can graze on the sage brush.

There is your botanical lesson for the day!

My overuse of "adventure" explained

Somehow my catch all word about this transitioning point in my life from student to professional, from Portlander to Buhlite (I know those aren't words, just stick with me :), from under employed to employed has all fallen under the label of "adventure." I am sure my friends are tired of me talking about all the adventures we are having right now - from packing up the house, to finding a real estate agent, to picking out the right stethoscope and scrubs for the ICU. 

However, I refuse to give up the word adventure just yet. This is because the word "adventure" brings to mind the harrowing excitement of the likes of Dr. Indiana Jones and it sounds much better than saying "I am starting out on a panic inducing life transition."

To further flesh out my point:

adventure (according to Dictionary.com) is as follows:

1. an exciting or very unusual experience.
2. participation in exciting undertakings or enterprises: the spirit of adventure.
3. a bold, usually risky undertaking; hazardous action of uncertain outcome.
4. a commercial or financial speculation of any kind; venture.

I think that perfectly captures this transition. And it keeps the word "panic" out of ear shot and out of mind (a girl can dream can't she?).

Defeating unfairness in a quote

In the midst of packing I have found myself reading an odd book for my tastes - really I just downloaded it from the library since it was ready in the 2GoCart option and my other books are still on hold. It sounded strangely calming in the rush of packing boxes and squeezing in last minute coffee dates with all my beloved friends and keeping my tears under control as I said goodbyes. The book is called The Best Advice I Ever Got: Lessons from Extraordinary Lives by Katie Couric. Each chapter is from a different person she has interviewed. As I am a sucker for a meaningful quote, I found this one quite powerful.

"Indeed, life isn't fair...despite this obvious fault in the universe, it cannot be used as an excuse for not trying to be your best self. Instead, use unfairness as a starting point to be sure than your actions are the best you can muster, and find peace in navigating your time here with grace and humor whenever possible." - Valerie Plame, former US CIA Operations Officer 

Growing up in my household I heard the constant refrain from my stepfather that "life isn't fair - get used to it."  (Note: let me be clear, my stepdad is wonderful, he just was trying to prepare his children for this harsh reality). At the tender ages of childhood I often felt like I was the only child of divorced parents in our small town and in retrospect I wish someone had clarified what you are supposed to do when you have that realization that unfairness is the norm. Plame's quote gives the solution to that adage of how to deal with unfairness in an articulate,succinct manner that is also inspiring.

This quotation also hits me in my nursing heart. Already in clinical rotations I have seen the patients with terminal illnesses that are kind, compassionate people that face their mortality bravely and still some how carry a smile. All you think is that it's just not fair and it tugs at your emotions. It is a reminder that grace and humor are tools just as important as your stethoscope and alcohol wipes that we carry onto our unit with each day.

The goal: to chart on my own adventure

As a new nurse I know that I have a life time of charting ahead of me. Hours and hours, hundreds of patients to chart on. However, my friend Tessa who has moved cross country for her first RN job has inspired by with her own blog of her recent adventures (her blog: http://willmoveforjob.blogspot.com/) that I should take the time to chart on myself too. Especially in this first year from novice to professional nursing, where I hope to learn and absorb everything I can like a sponge.

My last 4 years have been spent nestled in the vibrant verdant culture and climate of Portland, Oregon where I discovered nursing and with loving support from my husband, family, and new friends, succeeded to survive and flourish in nursing school. That chapter has come to a bittersweet close as my hubby, my 2 dogs, and I are loading up the Budget van on Saturday to relocate to Twin Falls, Idaho for my dream job in the ICU.

To be clear, Idaho is my home state. I grew up in its mountains and I finished my first bachelor's degree a midst its wheat fields of northern Idaho. We are packing up for southern Idaho (my husband's home town in fact) where after 4 years of Pacific Northwest moisture, I am certain my skin will shrivel up like a prune and my beloved curls will be gone in the dry high desert wind. Apart from my vanity, honestly my greatest sadness lies in leaving behind my treasured friends. Prior to Portland I never had so many supportive, loving people in my life all at the same time! I'm deeply thankful that these smiling souls have crossed our paths. I will try to import them as soon as possible ;)

Albeit for the bittersweet nature of a move, I am thrilled about my new job, my chance to be closer to my family, and my chance to explore the Snake River plains.

Now back to packing boxes...