The few, the proud, the marines

I'm at work at the VA right now, in locked inpatient psych. The Marine Corp theme keeps giong through my head as I reflect on the evening.

I arrived an hour late because I had to take Ana to the clinic for an x ray on her ankle (she has at the very least a bad sprain, and possibly a bone chip in there). When I arrived i was informed that we had only 8 patients, but 4 of them are pretty psychotic and it's a zoo. As i was being briefed, I looked out to where they were having supper. One guy was smoking an imaginary cigarette and yelling at nobody. Another guy was laughing. With nobody. Guy with imaginary cigarette finally has enough of the imaginary person and stands up to throw a punch. As I head out to redirect him, another dude starts barfing into his tray. And before I can get there, another one wants to know if that bitch is coming back.

We got most of that under control just in time for a new admission, a detoxer who was so sloshed he coudn't keep his mouth shut around the breathalyzer, so I just took my hand and muzzled his lips down, to the endless amusement of the cops who delivered him. Well, it did the trick, didn't it? He blew a .3 something.

The few. The proud. The marines.
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It's been a busy week, which is why I'm behind on posts. But for those who think a guilt trip is in order, rest assured that most bloggers aren't this prolific--not by any stretch of the imagination!

Remember my 100 year old lady from last year? I'm looking at her obituary. She passed away shortly after I had my day with her, and I can't say it's all sad. To make it to 100 is pretty darn good. Her obituary is something else! I can't direct you to it (its online) because that would be breaking confidentiality, but I'll share a few things. The first thing that I noticed was that she won an award in 2007 :) According to her obit, she was the first recipient of the Mother Benedicta Reip Award for living and exemplifying the ideasl of the Benedictine Order. She was not, however, a nun. Some other interesting things are that during world war II she was a member of the USO in the state of Washington, and she at one time worked with the poor and underprivileged in Harlem with Dorothy Day. She also traveled to the bahamas to work with the poor. I think it bears repeating--she wasn't a nun! Another thing I didn't know when I first posted about her was that she had a master's in teaching. And perhaps my favorite of all: she began her teaching career in 1926 in a one room school house. My grandma mary, who was old when she died at 81, was TWO when this lady started teaching. To think I spent one of her last days on earth with her, and even better, she went to eternity wearing my first and last shampoo set!
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The barfies went through our house this week, and I got it. Earlier in the day I had a yen for a bravo burrito, which I havent had in years and years and years (it was a big dating food for me and Brian back when we were young and lived in st cloud). I got the veggie burrito which has lots of nice big black beans and rice. When the barfies hit, it was like bullets hitting the toilet bowl. MACHINE gun bullets! Somehow, I have lost my taste for bravo burritos...........

Wil and Zac had it too. Zac is having a hard time recovering, poor guy. His little tummy just can't seem to calm down.

That should be enough of a post to tide you over for a few days.
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