Many, many years ago, when I was a high school senior, I had to make a decision. I had been Copy Editor of the high school newspaper, The Dragon’s Tale, my junior year and I was Editor in my senior year. Writing was in my blood and reporting came second nature. As did archiving information and disseminating it through op-eds.

Being the editor taught me so much about lay-out, of negative and positive white space on a page. It allowed me to experiment with pictures and with assignments to the reporters who wrote for the paper. This was the 1992-1993 school year and I became editor right when the 1992 general election was heating up. We wrote about it, of course we did. I fought for inclusion of student art as part of the layout. I asked a very talented cartoonist in my class to draw me a couple of comics of the presidential nominees. He did and it was everything I was looking for.

Were we old enough to vote? Some of us. I wouldn’t turn 18 until the following July but I wanted my classmates who were old enough to realize the importance of voting and of making their voices heard. It was a pivotal election year.

Just like this year.

I used the high school paper to try to get the older students excited about the election. Same as today. It might look a bit different but same.

My choice when I was a high school senior was to continue my education through the two things that were interesting to me. Journalism and science.

We all know which one I picked.

I picked the science.

However, I kept up with the news, preferably printed, ever since. From multiple source, like a good little editor.

Right now the first amendment of the US Constitution is under attack by the administration.

The first amendment secures the freedom of the press. This means that the press can publish anything they want to report on, regardless of how the president and congress feels about it. The reporting is often done on the actions of the government and is not to be controlled, stopped, censored, or censured by the government.

At all. .

It is a foundational constitution given right. It is enshrined in the very first amendment of the Bill of Rights. Remember those?

This week the government expelled three separate news organizations because the president felt they said mean things. The three were CNN, MSNow and Politico.

They tried to fancy up the language but that is what it is at its core.

Censorship.

And a veiled threat.

I would say that I am sorry that the president’s feelings got hurt and he lashed out. But I am not. The news organizations exist to report on the news, not to make nice and say nice things about the administration. Well, at least most of them. But you can’t throw out the baby with the bathwater.

Everything that has happened since, the lawsuit filings, the court siding with the press organizations, the administration failing to heed the courts, has been breathtakingly dangerous.

We are teetering on a very unstable branch.

And the president and cabinet and all the yes men and women are gleefully shaking the branch.

Talk about a dark night in the soul of our country.

If only there were news organizations who could shine light through the night.

Oh wait, there are.

Because the Constitution said so.

Happy Scrub Tech Week, everyone!

There was a lot of competition for the stomachs of the operating room this week. Every day there was a different kind of treat. Cheesecake on Monday, donuts practically every day, lunch brought in on another day, capped off with homemade chicken and noodles today.

I should have finished the Good Morning, Starshine, the Earth Says Hello September theme with the espresso shortbread.

Instead I plowed ahead with my plan. This week’s make was a version of the McDonald’s McGriddle in mini muffin form.

I am not sure which of the week’s is my favorite. The Grape-Nuts cookies were phenomenal but these McGriddle mini muffins were amazing.

Since I went to the dark side in January by turning lacto-ovo vegetarian (eggs and cheese are fine), I have been exploring meat free options. And there are a lot of options.

Today’s McGriddle mini muffins were made with just one of the many sausage options. Which made the over all muffin lower in fat and cholesterol and calories.

As with using a new ingredient, practice does make perfect here.

Did I practice? Heck no. Did it turn out amazing. Heck, yeah.

Would I do a better job oiling the pan before introducing the vegetarian sausages? Yeah. There is always next time. Cooking is about learning how to adapt to the different ingredients you have. Cookie Thursday is a Thing is about learning how to use different ingredients in the weekly makes.

Not to mention, in this time of high grocery prices, the vegetarian sausage was much cheaper than pork sausage. Cookie Thursday is a Thing is self-funded after all.

This month had 2 winners.

The espressos shortbread was kind of lost on me because I don’t drink coffee and I missed adding marmalade to the orange muffins. Bear in mind, the orange marmalade was not an ingredient. I just wanted to see what would happen.

I plan to incorporate the Grape-Nuts cookies and the McGriddle mini muffins into my own breakfast rotation. They were that good.

The McGriddle mini muffins can be made gluten free by using a gluten free pancake mix. I am still trying out recipes for gluten free Grape-Nuts so I can make that one gluten free as well.

This caps off September!

On to my very favorite month of the year, Something Spooky This Way Comes.

Of course I over-scheduled myself this past week. This job was supposed to counter-vent that but you can only do what you can.

I covered for the evening shift Thursday and Friday from 1900-2300.

I had agreed to cover the weekend call shift for the weekender months ago.

It was just my dumb luck that the two occasions collided.

Add in a soupçon of very late/early cases and add a dash of very long surgeries by Sunday I was hurting and had the entire week of my own shifts to do. I did a series of 5 things to make it a bit easier on myself.

The first thing that I did to be kind to myself was that I allowed my husband to take care of the house and the cat during the weekend. He also fed me and would have stepped in to feed the OR if asked.

I slept when I could and took naps as needed. This was number two.

It wasn’t a hard weekend, just a long one that was bookended with long surgeries on either end.

The third thing I did was take Monday off from working out by giving myself a rest day.

A book I had on hold at the library was ready to picked up and I did that on Thursday. I read in snatches through the past six days and returned it early. You know, for the next person. This was number four.

The last thing that I did was order new work shoes because I had been stepping out of my clogs.

And they came today!

Happy dance.

None of the things that I allowed myself to do were difficult but it can be hard to get out of the “I am responsible for the universe” mindset.

This is me giving myself and you permission to be kind to yourself during long stretches.

Even if you did it to yourself.

Especially if you did it to yourself.

Also, Merrell is finally making shoes that are not brown or black or navy.

Happy Day!

Early voting has started in Virginia for the 2026 Midterms. And the resulting number of people who have voted already has outpaced the 2022 Midterms early voting.

Early voting won’t begin in North Carolina until October 15th.

I submitted an application to be a poll worker in August.

Crickets.

I re-submitted in the beginning of September. I changed the answer to being able to work in a precinct that was not my own.

Louder crickets.

It’s not like I’ve heard nothing. Just the email that acknowledges that I submitted the form. Both times.

That’s less than nothing.

I may have to re-tool my being a poll worker plan.

But one part of my brain is wondering if the inaction on their part has been linked to my voting record. Which they have.

I would hate to speculate.

I’ll just have to be louder.

If you are planning to vote, good for you.

What is your plan?

Are you going to show up on the day of and vote?

Okay.

Do you know what your precinct is?

Double check because, here in NC, they were monkeying with the districts in order to squeeze that much more red winners. In a state that is remarkably split and not the red bastion they want you to believe.

Are you registered to vote?

Okay.

Have you checked recently?

Check again.

And DO NOT use Elon Musk’s sham of a website vote.com, use vote.gov instead.

Check weekly until you vote.

Read up on the issues. All of them.

Make a plan of who you are voting for.

This is a friendly reminder that a passport can be used as voting identification.

You know, in case you lose your other government ID.

There are 44 days until Election Day.

I’m not going to lie and say it’s going to be smooth sailing.

After all, a badger is at its most dangerous when it is cornered. So too are the politicos that feel the election heat drawing ever closer.

Don’t be distracted by the cost of living. The cost of gas. The cost of food. The cost of healthcare.

Make a plan and stick to it.

Remember that all the really icky stuff in the bullshit big beautiful bill will come due AFTER the election. Because they depend on your faulty memory and blaming whoever is in power.

A poison pill of a bill. Who’d of thunk.

The news has been heavy. And relentless because it is planned to be so.

The economy has been heavy. And relentless and damaging to so many people.

Healthcare has been heavy. Well, working in healthcare as people lose their healthcare options or ability to access high-quality health care can be relentless.

There’s only so much your brain and your heart can take.

It’s been a rough week. Long, dragged out middle of the night cases, medium middle of the night cases, short middle of the night cases. We do them all.

But I am a bit worn today.

I’ve worked my shifts for the week, just in time to pick up and cover for the weekender call person over the weekend, and to work next week’s 4 shifts.

I did this for years, weeks and call nights stacked together like a Jenga tower.

The thing is you have to learn to flow with it. The best thing to prepare for a long stretch is to give yourself permission to rest.

And take your easy afternoons where you can get them.

I have a new book from the library that I’ve been cracking on with and a comfort read waiting in the wings.

That’s what fun looks like for me.

Find your fun.

Find what you can do for hours and hours and not look at any screens. Your brain will thank you, and if the fun is not shopping to shop, your wallet will thank you.

I realize that this could be construed as a topic for Secrets of the Call Shift Wednesdays or Best Kept Secrets of the OR but I wanted the f of fun to stand in for fuck in For Fuck’s Sake Fridays Because word play is fun.

Me?

I’ll be here reading until it is time for the next thing. Or until it is time to feed the cat.

Whatever comes first.

Y’all know it’s gonna be the cat, right?

I remember growing up in the 1970s and 1980s and when they played a sugary cereal ad during cartoons (IYKYK) they always claimed that the cereal was part of a healthy breakfast. This where they flashed to a bowl of cereal, toast with butter and jam, and a glass of orange juice.

Now, we all know this is NOT a balanced breakfast. Less carbs, more protein.

But this kind of imagery is where the September 2026 CTIAT theme came from. And the musical Hair.

Reminder, the theme for this month is Good Morning, Starshine, the Earth Says Hello!

I wanted to do a cookie with orange juice.

And then I thought, maybe muffins.

A grab and go on the way to school/office/the bus.

Originally I was going to incorporate orange marmalade into the muffins but it slipped my mind, even if the jar was on the counter with the rest of the ingredients.

Of course, my next thought was donuts can be part of breakfast too!

I whipped up a batch of donut muffins. The kind you have to dip into butter and then cinnamon sugar.

What I delivered to the hospital was half orange muffins and half donut muffins.

Definitely part of a balanced breakfast.

Goes great with the Grapenuts cookies and the espresso shortbread.

I did keep a few back to bring to a nurse manager in the hospital who is leaving.

As always, the message I want to convey is that “Good for You!” balanced with “Sad for Us!”.

Through carbohydrates.

The Good Morning, Starshine, the Earth Says Hello September theme is rolling right along.

It is also breakfast cookies. Last week was Grape Nuts cereal cookies that were amazing and I thought I would follow it up this week with coffee.

I might be the only nurse I know that doesn’t drink the stuff. This means I have no idea what is a good coffee. My husband assures me that espresso is the best coffee.

Okay, fine, I bought espresso powder that I hope my husband finishes because I’m not gonna.

The cookie came together quickly. Butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, espresso made from the powder and boiling water, flour, and chocolate chips. What’s not to like?

I am glad that I read the recipe last night because this has to rest in the refrigerator for 2 hours before baking.

I used the time productively by washing the bowl and wooden spoon I used. And setting up another pitcher of iced tea. Oh, and the sieve I had used for the powdered sugar so that there were no clumps.

After the dough had rested in a 9 x 11 square, I ran a knife through it, making it easier to break apart after it baked.

Cereal and coffee is all part of a balanced breakfast.

So is the orange juice I will be making next week.

This is a throw back School Me Saturday, from WAY before there was a School Me Saturday. Way back to the beginning of my masters degree in Fall Semester 2017.

This is a post from my Facebook at that time, word for word.

______________________________________________________
September 1, 2017
First week of school is almost over.
Lessons learned:
1) When it says week 1 assignment, check the due date to make sure it isn’t due in week 2
2) double check when the assignments are due
3) double check when the assignments are due
4) when the directions say 250 words/discussion post they mean it
5) the 250 word thing with be SOOOOOOO HARD!!!
_______________________________________________________

Yes, I counted the 7 Os on the original post.

It’s been nearly 10 years since this post and it remains salient.

Check the due date.
Underline it!
Star it***!
Highlight it!
Put it on a post-it note!
Put it on your calendar!
On the wall calendar or the phone calendar, your choice.

I got WAY better at this the longer my school journey has been.

It still gives me low key anxiety though.

And, yes, I am that nerd who checks my Facebook memories every day.

Because sometimes the past IS trying to tell you something.

There will always be lessons that today you can learn from yesterday you.

Go ahead and count how many weeks until Winter Break.

You know you want to.

But keep your eye on the calendar and start working on the assignments.

Future you will thank you.