Although I secretly thought that I would be better about my posting frequency, I’m not off to the best start. Oh well, hopefully the content will make up for the quantity.
Just to recap, I worked Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and then took a 6 am train home on the 26th. I had an amazing visit at home with my family and when I arrived back in the city, I was refreshed and recharged, ready to take on the world again.
Work this past week was GREAT. Staffing was the best I have ever seen it (it’s the beginning of the year, NO ONE takes vacation and there are NO restrictions on OT).
Despite the fact that I still had crazy patients (i.e. the lady who thought it was a good idea to smoke while wearing her oxygen, the person who tried ironing their clothes WHILE wearing them, and of course pt #1 from this post), my days were pleasant and enjoyable. Tomorrow, Sunday, I go back to nights. Ahhh, the bliss of working days is done, but I’m a big girl and need to get a grip about having to work nights. One day (night) at a time, right?
But okay, this all sounds too perfect, yeah?
So true.
My roommate is currently in L.A. traveling on business, so it’s just me in the apartment. I have been de-decorating from the holidays (so depressing) but really haven’t spent much time hanging around the apartment. I never wrote a post about what happened last time A was in LA on business, but pretty much I got locked out my apartment, the super was away on vacation, and the key cards that I had to get spare keys made in the case of a lockout WEREN’T for the current locks on our door. Main jest, we each only have 1 set of the apartment keys and the super doesn’t have any. A had just said before she left for L.A. that she was going to get another set of keys made, “just in case”…
Flash forward to Friday morning in the middle of burn care and central line changes…
“Kelly, pick up 60828.”
5 minutes pass, I can’t get out to the phone.
“Kelly, PLEASE pick up on 60328”
“I’m in the middle of burn care, can you take a message?” I yell out.
“No. It’s urgent.”
My pulse quickens and I bolt to the phone.
“Oh my God. It’s me….”
“Yeah, hey. What’s up. Wait, isn’t it like 6 am in LA?”
“ Okay, you need to go home. I keep getting these frantic calls from the super that there is a flood coming from our apartment and he doesn’t have keys. Clearly, I’m in L.A. and not much help. What can we do?”
“Umm, well, uh, sh*t, let me see if I can get someone to cover me and I’ll try and run home and drop off the keys. I’ll have to call you back. BYE.”
I hang up, clearly white with panic, thinking the worse, and ask a co-worker if they can cover my patients for 10 minutes (I hope) while I run home. Thankfully, Dennis agrees and I fly to the locker room. Yeah, I gave almost ZERO report on what was going on with my patients, I know that was not safe.
I raced to the locker room grabbed my keys and cell phone and flew down the 8 double flights of stairs (in my clogs) and out the back entrance. It was all of 20 degrees here in NY, but I Didn’t zipper my coat, put on my gloves on tie my scarf. Instead I RAN down York Ave, all 6 blocks, in my blue scrubs, blue clogs, coat flapping in the wind, and oh yeah my surgical cap. Yup, completely forgot to take it off….I must have looked absurd to all those out and about yesterday morning.
I made it home in 2 minutes, I really don’t know how I made it that fast!
I buzz the super and he grabs my keys and bolts up the stairs. He is so flustered that he can’t open the lock and I do it. We go in, expecting the worst, but only see damage in the bathroom. By some miracle, the “flood” was over the bathtub and draining down the drain just quick enough to smei control the outpouring from the tub.
Seeing as the plumbers needed to come, and I HAD to get back to work, I left my keys with the super and he said that he would let me in when I got home from work. This was only after he gave me a hassle about not having a copy of the keys. I profusely apologized and said that we would take care of it come Monday.
I raced back to work, and threw my stuff in my locker, slammed it shut. Oh crap! My coat is caught in the hinge and isn’t going to open. Oh well, deal with that at 8pm.
My day just sort of went by. I was in a fog and distracted about what was going on in my apartment.
Finally, after giving report and prying my locker open with a screwdriver from the “environmental services” person I leave. I call the super, to get my keys but he tells me that he won’t be home for 30 minutes because the plumbers just left. GRRRRR
I try and kill time but cannot focus. I attempt to grocery shop, but all I buy is a bottle of ketchup, a green pepper ,and 2 oranges. Yes, that will not make any semblance of a meal.
I finally get let in and here is what I learn…
There was a leak in the wall pipe that sort of affected my apartment, but that it collapsed the ceiling in the apartment below me. I currently have ½ a bathroom ceiling, the rest is plastic and tape, and no water. WTF?!?!?! Supposedly, they are keeping the plastic up for a week, to see if it leaks again, then they will fix it. The water was in the process of being turned back on.
I go up to my apartment and look at my bathroom. There is dirt, dust, and grit EVERYWHERE. Everything that had been in the bathroom is thrown on the floor in the hallway, including my toothbrush. GROSS!
Thankfully, the water was turned back on and I hopped in the shower to cleanse myself after work. Ehhh, that wasn’t the best idea. The drain must have been filled with the grit because the tub filled with gross brown water and was up to my ankles.
When I got out, I scoured the bathroom from top to bottom, and then went to the store to buy a new toothbrush.
11:30 pm and I’m finally trying to sleep. “RING. RING. RING” I picked up my cell phone. It’s N. Now if I thought I Was having a rotten day, hers was worse. I talked to her for 30 minutes and then finally fell asleep.
2:55 a.m. “Chirp. PAUSE. Chirp. PAUSE.”
What the heck? I’m not at work, that’s not an IV pump, and it’s not my alarm.
Oh my G0d, that’s the Carbon monoxide detector! I jump out of bed and race into the living room. I look up at the detector.
Okay, I don’t think it’s “alarming” but it’s definitely making noise. Oh crap, what am I going to do? I really didn’t want to do it, but I picked up my cell and called the super.
“hello??????”
“Hi Charlie, it’s Kelly in 7f…I think my carbon monoxide detector is going off?”
“Is it alarming or just beeping?”
“It’s been beeping like once a minute.”
“Oh, ehh, that’s just the batteries! Take it off the wall and take out the batteries, we’ll replace it in the morning.”
“Umm, well. I would but it’s up at the ceiling and I can’t reach.”
“Sh*t. I’ll be right up.”
He comes up and takes it down. I thank him and go back to bed.
Not 10 minutes later the chirping begins again. WTF???? AGAIN??!?!
I go back to the living room and follow the noise. I look up near the bathroom, behind the sophet and there is another detector. Gotta love quality assurance. The batteries were put in at the same time and now they are dying at the same time. Knowing that I can’t call the super again, I drag out a step stool, put a phone book on top and REACH on my toes to take the damn thing down.
Mission Accomplished.
Finally back to bed.
I woke up this morning at 8am and went for an amazing, de-stressing, 7 mile run.
Upon returning, I was ready to once again face the world.
