Ted and the Duck

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Originally uploaded by rosebuttons.

Welcome to Ted's movie reviews! Well, not really, but the only interesting recent photo that I have is this one of Ted. Seriously, I do have two dogs, and I love them BOTH to bits, but the other dog, Tessa, chooses to sleep under her down blankie on the couch in the other room while I'm at the computer. Therefore, she is not such an easy target for my camera...

The Seattle Film Festival is in full swing, and I'm desparately trying to use up my 20 passes that I bought back in January. So far:

Adam's Apples, a Denmarkian movie, a black comedy. It's sort of about a Adam, a neo-Nazi ex-convict sent to live at a tiny little parish church and do community service or something. He ends up there with Khalid, a Saudi ex-con who used to rob gas stations, and Gunnar, an alcoholic who used to rape and kidnap women. Also a tennis star in his youth, although he now weighs about 300 pounds. And does shots of cough syrup, nearly two or three bottles a day. The priest of the parish is a bizarre psychopath who is in complete denial that he is dying of a brain tumor, has a paralyzed, retarded son, was raped and molested by his own father, and his wife recently committed suicide. He's just convinced that the devil is testing him, that's all. Adam is so annoyed and befuddled by this lunacy that he becomes determined to make the priest see the truth. It was strange and sometimes funny and sometimes disturbing. Overall, 2.5 stars (out of 5).

Then I saw Huldufolk 102, a documentary by a young American woman (who was at the screening!) about the phenomena of "hidden people" in the Icelandic culture. Apparently, most Icelandic people believe (or, "don't deny the existence of") hidden people or elves who live everywhere, have somewhat magical powers, and live in big rocks. So much so that entire roads and homes have been built around certain rocks in order to avoid upsetting the elves who live there. It was really interesting, mostly for the interviews with some fascinating Icelandic people. 4 out of 5 stars.

Three things

Three screen names that you have had: Rosebuttons, Intemperance, and Saro

Three things you like about yourself: My hair, my ability to nap on cue, and my photographic memory

Three things you don't like about yourself: My teeth, procrastination, and my headaches

Three parts of your heritage: Scottish, Italian, Marxist Hippy

Three things that scare you: Snakes, crowds of people, and I'm super afraid of heights.

Three of your everyday essentials: Coffee with soy creamer, checking my email, and watching Blind Date before bed.

Three things you are wearing right now: Dansko clogs, scrubs, fugly cotton work underwear. Yeah, I'm at work.

Three of your favorite songs: Thinking of You by Radiohead, Time After Time by Cyndi Lauper, and In Da Club by 50 Cent.

Three new things you want to try in the next 12 months: Yoga, growing an herb garden, starting a Roth IRA. Boy, will that make for an exciting 12 months.

Three things I want in a relationship: Someone who brings me take-out for dinner, booty, and more booty.

Two truths and a lie: I'm left-handed, I routinely report my neighbor's car as abandoned so it gets towed because he parks too close to my driveway, I believe that Oprah needs more media exposure.

Three things you can't do without: Lactaid, Burt's Bees chapstick, and my migraine pills.

Three places you want to go on vacation: Iceland, Budapest, and Costa Rica

Three things you just can't do: Eat most kinds of meat, be cheerful or even somewhat functioning and awake in the morning, save money. Not that I don't try. To save money, that is.

Three kids' names: Stella, Ruby, Daisy

Three things you want to do before you die: Drive across the country in an Airstream trailer with my dogs, live in Scotland, raise alpacas

Three Celeb crushes: Colin Firth, John Cusack, Andy Garcia in a white tuxedo. Oh and Prince William is really hot. I know that's more than three...it's not like it's going to overload my social calendar or anything though.

Three people you want to know these things about: Jodi, Steph, and Judi Dench.

Rosepetals and weeping p*nises

The title of this post sums up my shift at work on Tuesday night. Pt A lay dying in his ICU bed, officially placed on comfort care measures, in a peaceful morphine drip slumber. Our unit chaplain had held a small ceremony with his family earlier that afternoon, sprinkling rose petals over him and playing some soft music. Pt B, two doors down, was admitted with urosepsis and needed a foley catheter placed. The urologist was called, and he attempted several times to thread a small catheter through his urethra into his bladder...using a wire he had inserted into the urethra and into the bladder previously as a guide for the foley. This was unsuccessful; the doctor surmised the urethra was narrowed due to strictures and/or tumors (dx: bladder cancer). So...let's open up the narrowed area! He then inserted seven- inch long steel rods, about the size of a ball-point pen, into the pt's urethra, each one larger than the last, and wiggled them about a bit. All the while grasping the man's p*nis tightly (Ack! So tightly!) between his fingers while it weeped blood and urine. The pt winced a bit, and reported that it "hurts just a little." Eek. Poor fellow. I later had to call his doctor several times to get an order for something more than 1 mg of morphine for his pain. Good grief. I wanted the morphine just for having watched the procedure.

Also, I am dead inside and I hated Narnia. Again, good grief. Talking animals? Sons of Adam? Gross. And no, I never read the books. I don't think that would have helped. Still, yuck. And did you see the fur coats the children were wearing? Grody. I could smell the moth balls. Give me a good old zombie movie any day. Maybe a zombie movie where the zombies eat fur-coat wearing children and their talking beaver friends. Wheee!

McDreamy...

In defense of all nurses, particularly ICU nurses, everywhere, just a clarification for those of you who might be so enthralled by the realism and drama of Grey's Anatomy...

Just because you close the blinds in my patient's room -- my ICU-status heart-failure patient, who is connected to every sort of lead and monitor we can come up with-- does not mean you can just do whatever you want to him. Maybe you can sneaky-crawl into bed with him, but you cannot cut his LVAD wires without me or my monitors or any other nurse or tech or RT noticing. Heck, you can't even walk into my patient's room without me noticing. And also, you can't really get away with fake-killing my patient so he can get a new heart. But then again, absolutely no surgeon looks like Dr. McDreamy, or even Alex, or George, so I'm willing to suspend disbelief long enough to enjoy the show as well. And oh yeah, Izzy? You are crazy.

For you more experienced nurses out there...will lip-reading get easier? I spent ten minutes last night "conversing" with my patient while she mouthed words around her endotracheal tube and used hand gestures. I thought she was wanting to talk about dying, and heaven, and getting to go home, but actually, turns out she just wanted me to raise the head of her bed. Ah well.

As a side note, I have perpetual nurse's guilt. Does everyone have this? Does it go away? I finish every shift wondering what I forgot to do, feeling like maybe I didn't do every single little tiny thing I could have done, second-guessing most of my "nursing judgements" that I make over the course of the shift. It's not as bad as it sounds...I'm not a quivering ball of unconfident nursing jelly, but inside I sort of am. I suppose over-confidence is just as bad. But does trusting yourself more just come with time? (Bad-nurse voice in my head replies: No, you actually need to be a better nurse!)

Ack. It's hot out. The dogs are melting. They are like silly putty, they actually get longer in the heat.