Annual post

It seems like a yearly (or less) tradition for me to stumble again on this blog for some reason or another and post  an update on work-related things. Which is fine (at least for me)! I seem to have spread myself, butter-on-bread-like, between various media and social networking sites. Each one I use as an expression for one aspect or another of my life. I think I originally intended this blog to be focused on my career. However, I figure there's enough medical blogs out there (most of them much more entertaining and consistent than mine). I may as well mix and match.

On the medical side of things, I'm continuing to work as an emergency room technician. Our ER has been expanding, and construction is - finally - underway. The talented engineers are bursting through old rooms and halls to create an entirely new, hugenormous place. Of course, with the expansion it seems as though we're leaking employees. We've lost about half of our technicians, and replaced most of them. Several nurses left, and are slowly being replaced as well. Short-staffing led to an evening tech and I competing to see who could pick up more hours. I think I won by a whisker, but we were both doing around 60+ hour workweeks for about a month. Rough stuff, I'm glad we're not salaried! I'm awaiting news of my application to PA school; supposedly I'll be getting word back within the next three months or so. Here's hoping.

In terms of other stuff, I found out it's pretty hard to find a good striking school in this city. All the dojos/dojangs are either tip-tappy Tae Kwon Do (no offense to any practitioner out there, but the ones we have here are pretty slaphappy) or roleplaying in the guise of a no-sparring dojo (hold my wrist. No, not like that). The MMA gym here has some decent kickboxing that I've seen so far, so I figure I'll keep it up until I can find a good hard-hitting karate dojo. I've had to take it easy on the judo side of things due to a rib injury, but I think crosstraining in both would be beneficial. Either way, once I'm healed up I plan on hitting the next judo tournament available (I've missed three ack).