Work and Dolly update

As you all know, I am a Physician Assistant and have recently started my new job in the Emergency Department at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan. That is a picture (albeit blurry) of Mount Sinai. It is beautiful. It is only a 10 minute walk from our apartment and is flanked on one side by Central Park. So, if I ever actually took a break I could walk over there and relax. So, here are the biggest differences between Mount Sinai and Virtua (my previous employer). First, Mount Sinai's shifts are 12 hours each but only 3 times a week. Virtua had 9 hour shifts and were usually 4-5 times a week. I like the idea of the 12 hour shifts, although they are exhausting! It is nice to be there only 3 days a week and have the other 4 days to myself. Here is the problem I am having though. I have a hard time walking away and eating lunch/dinner. At Virtua, if I didn't leave to take a break and get something to eat it wasn't as big of a deal because it was only a 9 hour shift. Now, with the 12 hours it is a bit much. For example, yesterday I had run out of my Kashi Go Lean Crunch cereal so I had an apple for breakfast. I then never took a break because...oh hell I don't know and therefore found myself in a cold sweat (probably due to my impending hypoglycemia) for the last 2 hours of my shift. So, okay...it's 9:00 time to leave right? No, again I have issues. I have ended up leaving 45 minutes after my shift each time so far because I am finishing up charts and what not. So then I walk home. It's funny, while I am in the ED I am running around and moving and grooving feeling good. As soon as I step outside I realize how bad I have to urinate because I haven't done so since the morning and my hypoglycemic coma starts to set it. When I get home I have to walk and feed Dolly though (because Steve still isn't home from work!) and then finally at 11 I sit down for some dinner. Now, this would be a great diet except after both shifts I have come home and scarfed some pizza near midnight. Oprah would not be very happy! The second thing that is different is that I can wear scrubs on night and weekend shifts only. I love scrubs. I have loved scrubs for years and even have my favorite pair of scrubs. I am heartbroken. And even worse, now I am forced to poke at butt puss and cut out ingrown toenails in my snazzy dress clothes. But I agree that it does look more professional. It's sad. I am looking forward to my weekend shifts so that I can wear my favorite pair of scrubs. Incase you are wondering they are a pair of navy blue bottoms with my green virtua top that I stole. But so far I love Mount Sinai. Everyone is really nice and happy to help when I look clueless when I don't know where the emesis basins are (which is something valuable to know if you don't want your shoes puked on). I was supposed to be on training/probation for 2 months but was informed yesterday (at the end of my second shift) that that period would be halved because I am so wonderful and people love me so much. haha....but seriously, that's what my boss said. Seriously...I'm awesome at my job.

Now, to the all important Dolly update. I will forgive anybody that just skipped the work update and came here first. Because she is SO CUTE! So, Dolly is continuing to adjust nicely to the city and into our family. She just recently made another trip to her country home (i.e. my parents house) while we went to a wedding. When we first adopted her we were told that she was horrible with other dogs. And probably for the first month and a half she would bark and go dog-shit (instead of ape-shit....anyone get it?) on each and every dog that we would pass. Which would be 5-10 dogs each walk! But then slowly but surely she stopped barking and starting sniffing. It's great now. Pretty much all dogs her size and smaller she sniffs and plays with and dogs that are larger than her she is starting to want to play with too. But almost no barking. I think that she just needed a stable home in which she doesn't feel threatened by other dogs. There is even a good friend of hers that we see each night, Charlie. Charlie is another Shih Tzu and they love each other. The only thing is that Charlie is a boy and he continuely front mounts her (if you catch what I'm throwing)! She doesn't get too upset, but I take personal offense for her. Does she look like that kind of a dog! My goodness, what will all the other dogs think. I am also finding more and more that when we walk her at night......she is afraid of shadows on the pavement. I don't know what it is but she does not enjoy walking on darker pavement. Another thing that she isn't thrilled about is the rain. Thunder and lightning doesn't bother her, but don't expect her to get her paws wet. Oh no! Apparently being front mounted is okay, but ask her to get her paws wet and how dare you! This was a problem because whenever it rained she would refuse to walk and we didn't want any messes in the house. So I went to our local pet shop, Furry Paws, and bought little booties for her to wear. They look like thick balloons and when you put them on her they look like boxing gloves because they are red.......but she loves them! She could walk all day in the rain with her booties on. So, while other dogs may laugh, she is just singing (well, barking) in the rain.

Awe, I love this picture. It was one of the first days that Steve started work and therefore wasn't around all day. First thing in the morning after I came out of the bathroom I found Dolly sitting on his Wall Street Journal. It was probably just because the last owner laid newspaper out for her to pee on, but I like to think that it was just Dolly missing Steve!