The Great Meatball Tradition

Food is our connection at every family gathering we have. I have three sisters who all live in southern Washington. As a family with busy lives we don’t get together often but when we do the first discussion is what’s for dinner. Food seems to be a driving force when it comes to having something to do as a family when we are all together. Food is something we all have in common and usually the one thing that we all agree on, eventually.I often think that food is a connection for us because we use it as a sort of avoidance. If we are cooking we disagree about anything and we don’t have to really talk about anything but cooking. I guess it is sort of strange but it actually tends to be, for my sisters and myself, a way of non-communication. The interesting thing is that even that there are even more traditions connected to food when it comes to my family. Holidays are a good example; we always get together for Christmas. Since there are so many steps and grandparents to consider we try and come together on a weekend close to Christmas so that the actual day is reserved for the kids at home. This year we had the celebration in Yakima which meant my families driving over the Pass. Once there we found that no one wanted to cook. The other three sisters were going to serve up their own family tradition and make spaghetti. Spaghetti for Christmas dinner, imagine that. I shut up and ate it anyway. As it turns out the spaghetti “tradition” began because when my sisters were little; my mom would make spaghetti whenever they came to visit. (They lived with their mom) She made it because it was easy and there would be a lot to go around. This tradition that is born out of my mom being frugal and lazy but still continues today.Food is often the excuse to be together for us as well. We have potlucks and BBQ’s because visiting and eating is easier for us than visiting and talking I guess. Food is often the thing that, in our family, makes it possible to connect. The funny thing is that we all need to lose weight but we don’t stop the eating when visiting because it is a tradition and traditions are important, apparently in our family even more important than waistlines.

Nursing is MY Community

Nursing is a community. I never thought of it that way but I see it now. There are 16 of us in our clinic office and although each of us has specific duties, there are many that we all share. The patients are everyone’s responsibility and when one person can’t anther steps up. Each of the nurses has undergone the same training. There are some who have done their training in different schools but the general training for each of us is the same.
We understand each other. The medical speak that my family quickly grows tired of at home is welcome within the community that is our nursing staff. Here I can discuss blood draws and gross wounds to interested eyes and ears, not the ones at home that get green around the gills. Our jobs at the same clinic holds us together however the nursing community is a world-wide community. When one of our community members are on television in a news story I now catch myself stopping and listening even if the nurse on TV lives in a different country, I can relate.
Nurses share one major need, to help others. Each of our community members has realized that they need to take care of others; they need to make people better. Our values are steeped in human life and making the human condition better. No matter what sex a nurse is, what race, what economic status, no matter how we grew up or what baggage we carry, we all have the same heart and have answered the same call to make people better.
In our clinic everyone works well together and understands the needs that have to be met however I can see where it could all go wring quickly. If there is one among us who doesn’t care, who isn’t there to help but just needs the job, there are balls that get dropped. The nursing staff has to be a well oiled machine in order to make sure that everyone who comes for help gets it. There are times when the office gets busy or there is an illness within the community that is touching the lives of everyone and things get tough yet our staff steps up.
I have always wanted to work in the medical field and I am pleased to have been given this opportunity. Now, however, I no longer think of it as the “medical field” but instead the medical community, my community.

I'm not really who my wallet says I am

The things in my wallet tend to be a little disorganized. This is not a direct reflection on my being unorganized myself but it does say something about what kind of a hurry I am in all the time. I tend to stuff things into my wallet and it shows.
My license shows my general information but I, like most every other woman I know fudged on the weight question. I didn’t go too overboard though. The money in my wallet is not the least bit organized. I pay for stuff and then shove the change into my wallet. I don’t count it until I really have to. I guess that could give the impression that I’m not concerned about money but I am.
I also have a lot of receipts in my wallet. This is directly connected to my past life as an accountant. Old habits die hard I guess. I empty them only when I can no longer shut my wallet. I probably have Wal-Mart receipts from 1998 though.
I don’t have any credit cards which might give the impression that I don’t have access to credit but instead the truth is I don’t like them. If I can’t pay cash, I don’t want it. I hate the idea of being in debt…again old accounting ways I’m sure.
The photos I carry are of my kids. I hope that this shows that I care very much for them, because I do. I do have a vast collection of small notes to myself regarding groceries, things to do, stuff to remember. I think that is my attempt to stay on top of things.
I guess my wallet does say something about me to some degree. I do think about making sure that I am keeping track of my life be it through receipts or small snippets of cards and notes, do this, remember that, pick up milk, drop off a book…I guess if I lost my wallet I would be a little lost but then so would anyone else who actually found it.