Shine, My Child, Shine

Today was a super long day at work. For the past 24 hours, I've been playing CSI:Dialysis Land. One of our patients experienced a traumatic experience yesterday, and my boss and I had to play detective to try to figure out whether their trauma was due to a faulty design or a user error. There's nothing like trying to piece together 20 different files and 3 different personal accounts of the story to try to figure out what really happened. On top of that, pictures of bloody tubing and parts don't mix well with lunch. In a way, sadly, it was kinda fun. The un-fun part was reporting our findings to upper management. Now, I feel that providing investigation results to "hot" issues is a chance to shine in the eyes of the management team. It's your chance to show these people that you are both calm under pressure and that you know what the hell you're talking about. I have no problem with either of these issues. I'm a fairly calm person and I can usually persuade most people just by being confident. Lord knows that it's gotten me this far, so I'm not ready to let go of it yet. Anyway, the part that I hate is that management expects you to make decisions that they are being paid the big bucks to make. The biggest decision out of every patient trauma is whether this risk is possible for all of our patients, and if so, what is the severity of it? These questions usually lead to other questions, such as what corrective or preventative actions need to be taken? From there, we have to make decisions on whether or not we need to recall anything or to stop anyone from treating. Now, I have no problem making decisions. The problem that I do have is that I don't have an MD. I can't make decisions on what kind of medical consequences will occur if the patient continues to treat on a faulty machine. As far as I know, they may die. Isn't that always the worst possible scenario? So for me, I always tend to lean towards the conservative side. I'm not a conservative person, but when other people's lives are at stake, I'll be as right-winged as I need to be. But management always disagrees with this. They don't want to take people off of their machines unless we can statistically show that these people are significantly at risk. I don't think that I need to show that 99% of the time, these people are going to get error X and die. If I can show at least one instance in which someone can get error X and die, then I think it's significant enough of a risk.

I look at these managers and wonder if that's who I'll be one day. Will I be waiting for a twenty-something year old to tell me what kind of decisions to make? Maybe. Just maybe. I'll give them their chance to shine.

How I Love the World of E-cards

If I was single and I received this in my inbox, I would totally say yes.

Random Thoughts from a Random Girl

So this post will be filled with lots of random events and thoughts that have been floating through my head as of late. And by that, I basically mean today.

First, I got back today from a business trip to Charlotte, North Carolina. This was my second time to that city, so it wasn't anything spectacular or new. I did, however, learn that Charlotte is the largest city in both North and South Carolina. Plus, Charlotte is a banking mecca, since 4 large banks are headquartered there. Another thing I noticed was the way that I'm treated whenever I go anywhere south of Chicago. Maybe Asians are just rare down in those southern parts of the US, but I've always been asked the same question. Whenever I'm in the airport, at the car rental agency, or in a cab, I'm always asked, "Where are you from?" Now the first time that I heard this, I figured they were asking where I was traveling from, since that question seems to fit with the scene. When I respond with Chicago, they make it obvious that that was not the answer they were looking for. They always follow up with, "No, but you look Korean/Chinese/Thai." This is usually when I have to explain that I really was born in Chicago and have, in fact, never been to China before. This seems to ruffle their feathers and put them in a frenzy, because they just can't seem to understand how an asian girl could be from Chicago. Does this ever happen to anyone else?

In addition to returning from Charlotte, I seem to also have brought back a stomach virus with me. I've spent most of the day either flopped on the couch or with my head over a toilet. Pleasant, let me tell ya. I haven't really been able to hold down any of my meals and have seen each of them one time too many. Not only do I feel extremely dehydrated, but I'm also starving. I normally need about 6 meals to exist, and now I can't even hold one down. This is not keeping the tapeworm happy.

This past week, my company had a re-organization and my department was essentially wiped out. Now, don't worry, I still have a job. I have a new boss and a new department. There are many good and bad things associated with this. I'm a bit sad that my old department has dissolved, since I felt that we were a really cohesive group that just worked well together. All of our personalities complemented each others and we had good rhythm together. We were all congratulated for doing such an excellent job. Apparently, we did such a good job that they didn't need our department anymore. I am, however, excited about my new group. My new boss is actually my ex-boss's wife. I'm fairly good friends with her and I know that she thinks very highly of me. In fact, she said that she has wanted me on her team for the past 2 years, but was never able to provide a good enough trade to get me on her team. Interesting to think that managers attempt to make trades like professional sports teams. She has promised me that I'll be involved in a lot more design work and that I'll be getting all the "fun" assignments. I somehow tend to think that she and I probably have different definitions of fun. But regardless, I think that it's going to be a good next step in the career.

Last, I would just like to say that I have the best boyfriend in the world. While I was bed-ridden for most of the day, I received a fabulous package from him that made me smile. He had previously told me that he had sent me something, but for some reason it took over 2 weeks to get to me. Maybe somehow, things worked out such that it would be delivered when I needed it most. So now, I have acquired a new zoo of animals, soap, a magnet, and a bobblehead. Nothing could make me happier. :)

Wedding Planning = Fun?

Seriously, I think that I must have missed the day in "girl" classes when they taught all of us that if you have to sit down to pee, then you must love weddings and planning them. The other night, my apartment was Wedding Central. Our living room was filled with wedding magazines and books. I didn't even know that there were this many magazines published about the topic. My two roommates and two of their friends were huddled around a 12" powerbook examining the details in digital photos of other people's weddings. In addition to that, there was rampant oohhing and aaahhing over table settings and reception halls. I honestly had to leave the room.

Now, don't get me wrong. I have nothing against marriage. In fact, I have gotten so much better about the whole thing. There were about two years in my life after I broke up with an ex-boyfriend that I never ever wanted to get married. The idea of it was so repulsive and I envisioned myself enjoying the rest of my solitary life. Luckily, all of that has changed, and I've definitely embraced the idea of marriage with slightly wider arms. It probably helps that I have a fabulous boyfriend. But that doesn't mean that I want to sit around and pick out table settings and bridesmaid dresses.

Someone said it best when they told me that girls look forward to getting married while guys look forward to being married. I'm all with the guys on this one. I'm looking forward to the day when I'm married and starting a new life with the man I love, but I'm totally not looking forward to the whole planning process. I honestly don't want to pick flowers or bridesmaid accessories or anything like that.

Does this mean that I should start standing up to pee?