Hello God, It's Me, Samantha

Sorry I've been MIA all month. Work has been C-R-A-Z-Y.

• Today we tied our all-time record for number of donors ever in a month. Which is awesome. And terrible. Awesome because we've pretty much wiped out our lists...if you were on our transplant list and you were really sick, you got taken care of this month. We even transplanted a patient that no one thought would ever get transplanted because she was so highly sensitized. Turns out she just needed the perfect donor. The numbers this month have been awe-inspiring. Of course, so has the workload. We are actually short a coordinator since we recently lost someone. Soo, we're short-staffed and having a record month. Which means that there isn't a single well-rested employee at my organization. There's been some kind of three-week cold/plague that's ravaged the staff (me included), my boss had a life-altering death in the family, someone else was diagnosed with cancer, and someone else was bitten by some kind of evil spider that caused her tissue to necrose and landed her in the hospital. Needless to say, I am exhausted. And so is absolutely everyone else I work with.

That being said, there are a few things that are getting me through the day:

• Today I had to go to a hospital with a paid-parking deck. There are about 3 hospitals in town with these decks, and they usually will let me out for free when I tell them who I'm with. So, I go to check on my patient until first call can relieve me. I'm there long enough for the deck parking to cost $4. I have no cash, and I have no ATM card cause I lost my checkcard on New Year's Eve. Or at least that's when it was last seen. Anyway, so, this hospital validates the parking for clergy and lets them park for free. So, when I leave, I stop by the information desk. "Hey, can you validate my parking?" Show my badge, tell them who I work for, blah blah blah. "No, only for clergy." "Right, but every hospital lets us park for free because we're emergency workers." "Right. But you're not clergy." We talked for about 5 minutes. The gist of the conversation was that hell no I was not getting free parking. Soo angry. While I was standing there trying to talk some sense into this woman, some clergy guy came in, signed the clipboard, and got a free pass. So, I finally gave up, and started walking toward the ATM thinking maybe it would take a credit card? The clergy guy saw me. "Ma'am? Take my pass." "Oh, no. That's fine, I'll just go to the ATM." "No, really. I'll only be here a few minutes and I have change. Please take it." "Wow, okay. Thanks so much." That's right. He gave me his free parking pass. God bless you, man of God.
• I still haven't heard from schools, but I'm excited regardless. Either way I'm getting out of Alabama. Finally. Today my boss called me into his office. "Are you sure you're leaving in June?" "Yes." "What do I have to do to get you to stay?" "There's really nothing. I like working here, the money's fine, I just hate Alabama." "I'll make it worth your while." "You can't offer me anything to make me stay." "We'll see." So I have no idea what he's planning...it might be interesting.
• I have over a week off of work in February. I am absolutely living for vacation at this point. Come ooon second week of February.

I hope to resume blogging at regular intervals, but I also hope to resume sleeping more than 3 nights a week. Gotta have priorities people. Laters :)