I have been home for about a week now, and it's taken me a little time to get back into old routines. I spent five weeks in Alaska (four of it working, and 1 of it playing). A few days since I have been back were spent catching up on sleep and mail, and then diving back into busy night shifts.
There are a ton of pictures to sort through, and stories to tell, but I am glad to be home. I'm going to follow a lead from Chris, and list 100 things I'm grateful for (in no particular order).
1. Family
2. Army Guy
3. Friends who will let you drag them around at crazy hours for a week and still speak to you.
4. Friends who will wake up their new spouse before the sun is up to meet you for coffee at the airport during a layover.
5. That it gets dark here before 1 am
6. Alarm clock-free mornings
7. Surprise dinners waiting for me in the fridge when I get home from work
8. Anchorage bus drivers that will mail a forgotten cell phone back to you across the country
9. Antibiotic eye drops (don't ask)
10. Microwaves that don't explode when you nuke a fork... uh, twice
11. Air conditioning
12. Summer breezes when the A/C stops working
13. High-speed Internet
14. A stable job
15. Online banking accessible anywhere
16. Coffee!!!
17. DVR
18. ... and cable
19. Worn-in sneakers
20. Scrubs so I don't have to bother with getting dressed
21. Supportive co-workers
22. Knowledgeable and efficient nurses
23. Shady trees
24. Having a roof over my head
25. Alarm system
26. Perennial flowers
27. Smooth intubations
28. Unexpected happy outcomes
29. Cruise control
30. Non-exorbitant dairy/produce prices ($7/gallon of milk, $5/avocado!)
31. iTunes/iPod
33. No cavities at the dentist!
34. Quiet time to read a book
35. Picking fresh blueberries from the Alaskan tundra
36. Digital cameras
37. Nights on-call when the pager didn't go off for a few hours
38. Lightning bugs
39. Reliable transportation
40. Deadlines to push myself harder
41. Finished races
42. Friendly faces at work
43. Vacation time
44. Mint-chocolate chip ice cream
45. Female predecessors who paved the way for me in the workplace
46. Soldiers
47. Freedom of speech
49. Hand-written letters
50. Laughter
51. A finished book chapter revision
52. Freedom of religion
53. A warm hand to hold
54. Afternoon naps
55. That I live in a society that wants to take care of its elderly, disabled, and women with children
56. Opportunity
57. Rediscovering old friends
58. Free time
59. Benefiting from the creativity of others... art, music, theater, movies, comedy shows
60. Ability to travel
61. Good health
62. Optimism
63. Ability to vote and participate in government
64. Ability to have input in my work schedule
65. Ability to work overtime
66. Room to improve in my cooking skills
67. Rainy days
68. Parents that valued education
69. Tree-lined neighborhood
70. Long walks around the lake
72. Teachers that challenged me
73. Patients that trust me
74. Mexican hot chocolate (it's cinnamon-y!)
75. Long soaks in bubble baths
76. Foot massages
77. Post-shift bar trips
78. Long highway drives with the radio blaring
79. Running into someone I've helped in the community
80. The comics section in the newspaper
81. Learning more about other people's life experiences through blogs/comments
82. Covered parking
83. Waterproof hiking boots
84. Hours-long phone calls to de-stress with my buddy
85. That first "welcome-back" hug with a loved one
86. First-time "I Love You" and I guess the ones since then, too!
87. Starry nights and trying to find constellations
88. Campfires and s'mores
89. The way time seems to help me forget bad memories
90. My work ethic
91. My stall tactics
92. The way sumac turns impossibly-red in Fall
93. Twinkly Christmas lights
94. Memories of my grandparents
95. Daydreams
96. A future to look forward to
97. The smell of fresh-cut grass
98. My sense of humor
99. There are significantly less mosquitoes here than in Alaska
100. TO BE HOME!!!
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6 comments:
Welcome back. But somehow, I thought you and Alaska would get along fine.
Thanks for letting me tag along with you for a week. It was great fun.
Oh and am I the buddy your talking about in #84?
Hope you got your phone
Dang, girl! That was a long list. Glad to be a part of it . . . My list resembles yours for the first few and then there is a huge derailment with the words "successful intubation." I guess I should think about adding that one to my list; do you know anyone I could practice on?
P: Got my phone back on Monday. Yes.
R: Your list would probably be much more poetic
Kick butt list! I'm thankful for it:)
90 and 91 cracked me up, being one after another.
You have to admit, once you got started, this list just rolled out, didn't it?
Lists bring out the prose in me . . .
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