October 15th, halfway through the Ultimate Blog Challenge. I am still here almost 100% but not quite. It is good enough in that I step right back in after a slip. I’ve never cared for perfection. There’s a crack in everything as Leonard Cohen said. That’s how the beauty gets in. I do wish though that I could be a little more organized, had a plan and the discipline to come to the keyboard earlier in the day. Alas! I do not so I almost always have to work at writing a post at the end of the day. I think that’s what they mean by working under the gun.

Did I tell you that I like doing things the hard way? I do. A friend offered me a ride to our group lunch today. It’s not exactly out in hell and gone but it is a little outside the city. What with our crazy traffic and the price of gas nowadays, you would think I would jump at it. Well, I didn’t. I declined saying I want to take my own car. Why? Because it would help to keep my brain working. I am forever getting lost. I need to keep working on finding my own way. Another reason is I need to keep driving to keep from aging before my time. Traffic has increased so much in our city that if I rely on getting rides, I might get too scare to drive altogether. I need to keep up the practice.

Lunch with the girls was wonderful. It’s lovely to know and meet each other now that we are no longer working. We no longer ask each other: Are you on days off? Are you working nights/days/the weekend? We no longer ask each other how we’re sleeping. Life outside the hospital is wonderful. I, myself, do not miss the bedpan alley. I am not one of those who identifies once a nurse, always a nurse. I do not miss the shift work and the stress. It took me 3 years of retirement before I could shed all the trauma of caring for human bodies and souls. Even with all that, I can honestly say that I enjoyed all the experience of working with and caring for people. I don’t think there’s such a thing as stress free work or life.

It was wonderful driving a little into the countryside solo for our lunch. I had a little walk around the grounds before heading home.