redoubt may have just erupted...

heard it from a bird. okay...not really. saw it on a friends facebook. i'll have to check it out. wind must not be blowing towards anchorage as i don't see any ash on the new snow we got last night. looked to be 5-6 inches. snowed the entire night i was at work. love watching the snow fall. it's just the calmest thing. complete silence. i love rain too though. the sound of rain is mesmorizing in it's own right. i put a few pictures from round island on here. round island was the first of "betsy's island adventures". in order, round island, kayak island, pribilof islands, churchill, skagway to hike the chilkoot trail and last years shuyak island. still much to explore. loads of birds. i'm not a birder, but i do enjoy watching the birds of alaska. i have a book called "guide to the birds of alaska"..i know original, but i tuck my pictures in of the birds i've caught on film...or digital nowadays. i'm always hoping my pictures come out better than the books have. above are horned puffins. they are the cutest little birds. impossible to capture flying as they are so quick. they also "swim" underwater. they have them at the sea life center in seward and i love to watch them underwater in the tank there.

these next birds are murres. they hand onto the cliffs and hold a big blue egg in place. the sound they make is like the sound of laughter. i remember my friends and i couldn't help but join in while we were on st george island walking the cliffs. there are just thousands of birds out on those islands. i must say...i never got pooped on. i guess that is quite an impressive feat.

sunset on round island. it's always just a sight to see the colours of the night come on. of course, this is over solstice so this was probably after midnight. you could get in your tent at night after midnight and still be able to read a book by the natural light. it's hard to imagine...you just have to experience the never ending days of alaska.

i'm on call for work tonight. i'm happy i got the call as i ended up with a migraine. i watched a wonderful movie while i writhed in pain and took breaks to puke...ah the joy of the migraine. anyway....i did feel a bit better after puking and could enjoy the last of the movie. it was quite moving, i must say. i was crying...so after it ended i just pushed play again. i cried just as much the second time through. the movie was called "speak". it was just powerful to me...a movie filled with the angst one feels when they have been violated. it was about a girl who is raped. she tells nobody. that is fairly common. they say 1:4 girls has had some sort of sexual molestation in thier life. i believe it. i also believe that this ratio may be far greater in some of the native villages of alaska. i doubt this even begins to show the abuse women across the globe have suffered over the centuries. just started reading "infidel" by ayaan hirsi ali. i'm sure that will be quite the read. my friend kelly loaned it to me.

not sure how some females get selected for abuses more than others,but it does seem to be the case. i think part of it has to do with self esteem and a feeling of empowerment. i've had several things happen in my life. i've been flashed more than i can remember. i just always seemed to be there when some strange freak wanted to show his goods off. the first time it happened i was 15 and walking to school. a man pulled over to "ask for directions" all the while jerking off. i told nobody. when i was house sitting with a friend we went to bed only to be awakened in the wee hours of the night being fondled. i remember the message from that entire experience was that i was to keep quiet about it...these were members of our church...we wouldn't want to embarrass them. basically, the message was that i was not worthy of action being taken over being violated. i think i could just relate to the angst of the girl in the movie and to her eventual empowerment. in the end you have to find your own worth. you have to value yourself enough to know that you are worthy of action against your perpetrator.

i see how much these lesser transgressions against me impacted me and i think of those woman who have suffered more. especially those women in societies that totally restrict thier ability to have any voice.

my other 3 nights at work were fairly busy. i had a patient on sledd for 2 nights. that is a continuous dialysis, 24 hours/day, for patients too fragile to handle a regular dialysis run, which usually lasts 2-3 hours. that patient was only 28, they stopped his sledd on my day 3 and gave me a second patient. they were both a bit confused. the 2nd patient was a 36 year old with some sort of lesion on her mid brain causing all sorts of neurologic changes. so both patients were trying to get out of bed. i took a break at some point and the girl who was supposed to "keep an eye" on my patients didn't really...i came back to find the one dude almost out of bed with several lines pulled on/out. i suspect that is what caused my stress knots and thus my headache and subsequent migraine tonight. little me trying to keep a large 6'3" man from doing what he thinks he needs to do. they never mention wrestling in nursing school..but you do your share of it. he actually seemed to be a gentle giant kinda guy and i didn't get the impression he would hurt me....a few weeks back...well, that guy i thought would possibly deck me. that guy was a little guy. very hypoxic. i just kept trying to rationalize with a totally irrational person and call for help. eventually help shows up....eek! anyway...i had to put a new feeding tube in, check my central line, get xrays, wake up a radiologist and...it just takes some time and can be very stressful. this is why most icu nurses will tell you they love a sedated/paralyzed ventilated patient. i say if they are an orphan, even better. that is always the joke anyway. i must say the families of my patients were great this week.

i'm feeling better about the shamrock green. i got a coupon book from cost co with the same green colour and i have had the accent tile sitting on it...it's quite nice really.

the dogs....walks, walks and more walks. kelly and i got the dogs together thursday...there have been bear sightings and i saw bear tracks last week so i was happy to have someone else there. i guess a guy got tree'd saturday in the area..so those bears are out. lucky for him someone came along with dogs and they chased off the bear. moose sightings almost daily...it's that time of year in anchorage. the moose get hungrier and head into town to find what they can. we got another dump of snow so no spring thaw yet.

well...my headache is finally gone so i should head to bed...doubt the phone will ring at this time...if i was on call for the adult icu i would never be safe til after 6 am...but peds icu generally will try and make due in the wee hours rather than wake you up.