Observations from my Walk Home

It's funny how you can return 'home' and yet find that your interpretation of circumstances has changed because of experiences you've had while away. The mind makes leaps in logic that seem completely reasonable until something else startles you back into the current setting.

I walked by an ivy-covered building at the medical center the other day and heard birds chirping. I caught myself thinking "weaver birds" and turned to look for them. I saw the ivy instead of the palm trees and remembered I wasn't in Africa anymore. In 1990, after returning from Sierra Leone, I sat on the hillside at camp, heard movement in a large tree, and immediately looked for a monkey.

Last night I saw 3 gas tanks hanging in back of a building and wondered, "Why do they need three church bells?" I walked a little bit farther and realized it was a dive shop and those really were scuba tanks, not a mechanism for calling people to a meeting.

On another note, there are three Dunkin' Donuts along the 1.2 mile walk home. Do we really eat that many donuts and drink that much coffee?

Lessons from my First Week on the Job

I've learned a few key things in my first week on the job:

• I don't have a crew, I have a team/staff
• The SICU and Trauma/SICU aren't on Decks 5 & 6, but on the 5th and 6th Floors.
• That big wall of glass in my office isn't a porthole, it's a window.
• No one uses military time, so I need to use AM/PM again.
• I'm back in the US, so dates are written month/day/year and not day/month/year.
  
• The entrance to my workplace is not a gangway, but the main entrance.
• That person near the entrance is not security, but the valet parking attendant.
  
• Magnets do not hold things on the bulkheads...I mean walls.
• I do not have to use sticky-tack to hold items on shelves. And sail preparation was probably NOT the most likely explanation for all the equipment the staff found on the floor in a storeroom this morning, but it was the first thing I thought of!
  
• No one pages me to tell me that mail is available for pickup. I have to wait until I get home to see if any mail awaits me on the stairs and I have no idea who else might have received a care package this week. Of course, most people don't rely on care packages. If they need something, they go to a store to buy it!
  
• I can't just wander over the the ward or down to post-ops to get a baby fix! Maybe I need to volunteer for that 'baby cuddling' program they mentioned at orientation.
  

On the other hand, some things are no different:

• I need to wear my ID all the time.
• There are still lots of stairs to go up and down.
• I'm still not excited about going to the dining room/cafeteria for dinner. I'd rather cook my own meals.
• I walk about 4 miles/day and am going to have to figure out a way to add that extra mile at the end of the workday.
• My office is just as cold as my office on the ship and I don't think I can control the temp either.
• Patients speak at least as many different languages here as they do on the ship. The difference is that the translator is available via the telephone.