There should always be a bit of mystique with your leaders.

You should not be too buddy-buddy with your leaders. Like, at all. Never, not gonna do it.

I’ve seen OR staff ruined because they misunderstood their boss’ friendliness.

Why?

Because some bosses only cultivate close relationships to gain intelligence from the rest of the staff. After all, you can trust me, I’m the manager. No, sometimes you can’t trust the boss to have your best interests at heart when it comes time to make big decisions for the departments.

All of a sudden there can be a new tech or nurse in the department and you are shunted off into the cold without any benefits from befriending the boss. Because they are now the boss’ friend.

Of course, this can go both ways.

Some people go out of their way to befriend their boss. To get a better assignment, to get a better schedule, to be able to “rat” out those they don’t like.

You know, so they can undermine someone they don’t like.

But, in my experience, this is to get a better assignment or to become a lounge lizard because no one would yell at the boss’ friend. I take that back, it is also be complain about those they don’t like.

What is even worse is when the boss is in the in-crowd and making decisions based on their bestie’s desires.

Remember, friendly but not friends.

Because if you are friends with your manager and they leave the hospital and all of a sudden you have a new manager who has a different policy on friendship, what then? And the old manager, that you thought you were friends with is nowhere to be seen.

Drat, all those hours babysitting down the drain.

Friendly but not friends.

Well, last week happened.

The best I’ve heard/seen is that “I knew a lot of men hated women, but I didn’t realize how many women hated women”.

I mean hated/feared same thing, right?

Women didn’t show up for other women, instead they voted for some nebulous promise to make eggs cheaper?

Yes, inflation sucked, sucks, and will continue to suck.

But the seeds of inflation started in 2017 when the transfer of power began and the kowtowing began to those rich in money, but not in morals, started immediately. Tax cuts for the wealthiest ring a bell?

And the covid pandemic, you remember the covid pandemic don’t you? Well, that just accelerated the inflation that had already begun.

Again, inflation sucks.

Suddenly our buying power is a lot less than it was. And don’t get me started on shrinkflation where what once a 24 oz bag of chips, became a 22 oz bag of chips, and a 20 oz bag of chips, and even a 16 oz bag of chips. I am conjecturing here, I don’t buy chips. But I do notice that money gets you a lot less these days.

But the fed was digging us out of the hole we were in. And it was working, faster and better than it had in just about every other country in the world. It was painful, I’ll admit. More painful for those who have less.

And the 2024 general election happened. Lies, lies, and more lies were told.

And immediately entitled men started showing their ass, chanting your body, my choice as if that was a thing.

No, my dude.

No, it is not.

No, we won’t date you.

No, we won’t sleep with you.

Just, no.

You can’t make women do anything we don’t want to do with threats of violence or of taking away choice. What are they going to try? To get rid of Roe? Too late. They’ve already done that and we are still fighting for all the women who can’t fight and all the babies they want to torture. But that’s another post for another day.

I admit I have blocked people with this “Your Body, my choice” attitude on my personal FB page. And I’d do it again and will probably have to.

The backlash against this limp dicked energy was swift.

I don’t choose to entertain their delusions of grandeur.

MY body, MY choice.

May your god of choice have mercy on your souls.

This is a warning!

Heed it well.

The more you are educated and the more you seek out education, the more empathy you find yourself experiencing.

Think about it.

At the collegiate level, you are exposed to ideas that you have never thought before. Not only that you are meeting people from all different walks of life. And being exposed to their troubles. Suddenly the person that you have been taught to “other” is a real boy.

Or girl.

I really only wrote that for comedic effect and to make you think back to Pinocchio. And his very real desire to be real.

Furthering your education you start to consider the concept of what it means to be real. Pinocchio’s definition is not the same as yours.

Because you are not Pinocchio.

And your mind is blown open by the idea that some people want different things and that some people use different goalposts to consider what is good or bad.

And you realize that even the words good and bad are not enough to explain the world.

Because everyone experiences the world differently.

Your universe has suddenly expanded and now you can’t other Joan, the international student in your class who came seeking a path to creating a better life back home. Or Daniel(le) who has so many questions about what makes a good person, a good person, and is trying to outrun their small town.

It is too late to not meet Joan or Daniel(le).

Your eyes have been opened to the terrors that governmental policies can bring to other people.

Where, before, you would have listened and done what the government told you. But now you know that there is two or three or more sides to a story.

And all we are trying to do is make life a little better for those who have not got the same privileges or power that we were born into.

Boom.

Empathy.

So sorry.

No, I’m not.

Unlucky 13.

Did you know that many operating rooms don’t have an OR #13? Many hospitals don’t have a 13th floor, either. Many units also don’t have a room #13, including ERs, med-surg, ICU, and PACU bays.

Huh, I wonder why? This is a rhetorical question.

The best-kept secret of today is that sometimes terrible surgeons get away with their shitty behavior, with their throwing of instrumentation, with their misogyny, and their open disdain for women.

Sounds like a person who is headed for the White House, no?

It doesn’t matter that there have been many, many, many, many, oh so many, attempts to report a surgeon for bad behavior, they just seem to get a slap on the wrist and a pat on the back in the same motion.

Sometimes the assholes win.

When they do, you have two choices. 1) suck it up and deal with it the best you can and 2) keep reporting, even if it seemingly goes nowhere.

Eventually, bad things happen to bad people. At least that can be something we tell ourselves in an effort to cheer ourselves and our coworkers up.

Now if a surgeon’s bad behavior puts a patient in danger, that is an entirely different ball game. Often there is an Alert Line that team members and others can use to report behavior. Eventually, they have to listen.

In The Princess Bride, Fred Savage’s character reacts badly when the grandfather tells him that Westley is dead. If you haven’t seen the movie, watch it and understand so much more about my posts.

I feel like Fred Savage’s character today.

Best thing I can do for myself today is to take a nap.

And then start again.

I’m gonna Pollyanna a bit, and maybe Annie, too. The sun will come out tomorrow and I have hope that not all is lost. It’s just gonna suck for a bit.

Here’s hoping.

Well, they’ve nearly broken me.

Between the near-constant text messages from unknown people, even received AFTER I noted, and the incessant election commercials on the news. You know, if I even watched television. I don’t even sit with my husband as he watches the news, as I cannot stand the man’s voice or the one-sided coverage or it all really. I continue to get my news from a variety of news sources, but even they are starting to drain me. Although I would 100% rather read about the batshit things that the GOP candidates say than listen to the sound of their voices. Yes, the sound of any GOP candidate is grating.

I am starting to get incandescent with rage listening to the non-stop lies. If I never have to read or hear “baseless claims” or “claims without proof”, it will be too soon.

If I never have to read about a woman who lost her life or her fertility because of a fucking abortion ban, it will be too soon. One woman has lost her life and her fertility because of the need for control over women that some men are trying to exert is too many.

Bless the news sources that are calling a lie a lie.

I have to work Tuesday night and I don’t drink but others can make a drinking game out of poll numbers returning.

Seriously, this is the 8th presidential election that I have voted in and I cannot remember once when it felt this fraught.

Ugh.

Buckle up, there will be rough water to come.