Bringing that Weak Stuff on Wednesday

Health Care Conundrum
Hospitals are awful places. Even when going to visit your newborn, they are awful places. They are full of death and disease, and there is an element of "secrecy" surrounding the staff, as though they were keepers of elder magicks as opposed to flesh mechanics, that always bothers me.

That being said, I have had the opportunity to spend time at St. Mary's Hospital in Troy while visiting with an ill relative. Everything that I said above was multiplied but the awfulness of this place. I was shocked by the facilities but what was worse was the staff, specifically one staff member that made me think that this hospital would better serve the public if it disappeared and the smoking crater became a pilgrimage point for hospital administrators so they are reminded not what to do in terms of patient care and bedside manner.

I am not going to get into details, but the REDACTED is a treat...take Nurse Rachet on a bad day and give her the personality of a Bukowski girlfriend on a bender, however, I think this is a great example of what is wrong with St. Mary's.

Do you see what it says? "I always introduce myself when seeing a patient." This is what they are advertising in terms of patient care. "Introduce yourself" is something that we teach toddlers, even those that are almost pre-verbal. Why do we do that? BECAUSE IT IS FOUNDATIONAL TO FUNCTION IN SOCIETY. We give people our names, especially is they are going to do things like ask horribly personal questions and probe wounds with sharp metal objects, but...for St. Mary's this is a point a pride.

When a medical professional takes pride in INTRODUCING HERSELF to PATIENTS, you have failed as an organization.

*shakes head*

Okay, I am done here.

Rediscovering classic foods

Last week, I met up with a friend for coffee and when I arrived, she was eating oatmeal. I had not regularly consumed oatmeal in decades and, as you well know, my breakfast of choice has been set with the whole two eggs poached standard. However, over the weekend, when I was looking for something healthy and filling, the idea of oatmeal sounded appealing. So, maybe oatmeal will be my new thing. It is certainly better for me than rye toast, bacon, and runny eggs. Oh, and I am trying sweet. If you do not use local honey, you should start. If you have no clue what local honey is...just stop reading.

What other classic foods should I revisit?

Tiny Furniture

Based on a conversation about Girls, @jonathanrnash and @fofacy recommended "Tiny Furniture".

Have you seen this?



It was more appealing than Girls, at least to me, but I still did not understand it. Maybe, it is because I am an old or maybe it is because there is something fundamentally different about this.

(For the record, the second and third episodes of Girls are stronger than the pilot.)

Complaining about the weather

I hate complaining about the weather and I have a little bit of distaste for those who do. With that out of the way, I am going to complain about the weather. The weather has been very gentle this spring and I have been enjoying it. So much so that I have been spending a lot of time running and walking just so that I could be outside. This coming weekend, I was looking forward to doing the Dodge the Deer 5k. Then, as I was watching Morning Joe, I saw that we in the Northeast are expecting a Nor'Easter and that the weekend is a "washout". It is predicted that it will be raining and there will only be a high of 48. This is not what I wanted. At least the storm is predicted to put an end to the drought conditions in New Jersey and Southern New England. So...that's a yay, I guess?