celebrating an Olympian in Anchorage today!

 well, they were celebrating all Alaskan Olympians, but hey, this is Kikkan! we all want to celebrate her just a wee bit more.  this is as close as i get to Gold Medals, but it was nice to briefly meet her even though I'm always a ninny meeting new people.  think of the conversation i should have said after i have walked away. 

 also a few of Tusker.  he woke me one day chewing on the paper and above he sat by this toy box and just pulled out each toy, one at a time.

 worked ICU, CICU and then back to ICU this week...i think that was the order.  it all blends together.

 got a signature from Kikkan, at least i did think that far ahead. 

 just peeking at her Wikipedia entry...she's in there.  she was born the same year i graduated high school.  man I'm  getting old. 

 to say she has been determined is an understatement.  she has done a great deal for her sport of cross country skiing.  she and Olympic teammate Jessica Diggins won the first ever cross country ski gold in winter sports for US ever! Kikkan has been to the Olympics an amazing 5 times!  she has lived a lot of life in her years. 

 she is officially retired from being in this level of cross country. she will move with her husband and two year old to Canada to live soon.  well deserved and earned.  sad to see her leave our community, though i know she will return for visits with family. 

 I'm sure she won't stop skiing but now she'll just ski with friends and family. 

 i think this was more set up for kids and young skiers to come and ski with Kikkan, but there were plenty of adult types there as well.  they had some fun ski games set up.  in these pics Kikkan and another Alaska cross country ski Olympian Sadie Bjornsen (who's brother Erik also went to the Olympics this year as a skier) were replaying the entire Olympic experience and having the kids join them. 

 that is a large chunk of Gold.  super heavy really.  she allowed me to handle it.  :-) 

 it takes a great deal of time, energy, money and determination to be an Olympic athlete. it will no doubt be great for her to step back some.  will be odd too i imagine.  she's been so involved for years..suspect she will still find ways to be involved.  i doubt you slow down too much in life when you have that sort of driven personality. 

 when we were talking she made some comment about how long it took for her to achieve this Gold...it's never happened for any USA Olympian, there was one winter Olympic medal winner back in 1976, Bill Koch. he took silver...these are the only USA Olympic medals in this sport..so yes, very impressive.

 looked like everyone was having fun out there.  i was working the other day when the city had another event with Kikkan. 

 slept a bit today, will probably turn in early. below is Sadie. 

 woke up and hit the dog park.  after the Kikkan event i took the dogs to another part of Kincaid Park, the dunes.  the pups always enjoy time out there on the sand dunes. of course, I'm always hoping a big quake does not choose that time to hit.  on those dunes we would get sucked in and buried alive, literally.  it would be like quick sand.  we'd be gone, suffocated. 

 i also stopped by the cabinet place.  we hadn't talked money really yet...so it was time to.  of course, my cabinet choices are pretty spendy...so he will see what he can do to bring those costs down for me.  i know it will be costly, but i don't need the top of the line cabinets...can't afford the top of the line remodel. 

 thought some of these were pretty fun.  Kikkan always does great with the kids, such an inspiration to those kids. 

 we are all capable of so much more than we know if we take the time to apply ourselves and trust ourselves.  we hold ourselves back more than anyone else for the most part.  having faith in ourselves sometimes seems like it can be harder than having faith in God.

 one patient the other night kept making determinations about me.  he'd ask a question here and there and then he seemed to believe he had me all figured out.  kept saying strange things about me seeming like i had had a really hard life and that i had been a hard worker for many years.  something about my arms being strong and large showed him that.  I'm guessing the fact that i work nights and it was 3 am...when someone says you look like you have worked hard all your life i translate that to, man you look like shit. 

 patients don't mean any harm or any ill, I'm sure he didn't.  it is kind of human nature i guess, trying to get to know this stranger who you have now granted total access to your body. 

 by morning after many questions...i tend to just answer very vaguely.  don't really want every patient i meet to know much for details about me...anyway, in the morning he again decides to go with how rough my life must have been and said something like,"I'm so sorry your life has been so rough on you".  i finally just casually said," thanks, but in truth i really have not had that rough of a life."  i mean everyone has their challenges. i don't believe mine have been worse than anyone Else's and for sure my challenges were pretty minor compared to some of the stuff others have lived through.

 overall, nice patients, nice families. that was pretty easy.  one co-worker in ICU this morning seemed to take pleasure in finding that i had not changed tubing on an epidural pump...we didn't used to change those,did we?  anyway, she repeatedly informed me she would be writing me up.  I'm always like, go ahead.  i do find nurses with very little experience that decide to take on season nurses like this are fools.  generally, the day comes when the shit his the fan and you know those inexperienced but cocky nurses will come to you in a panic looking for help.  be nice to people, you may need them one day.

 after she repeated several times that she was going to write it up i just got annoyed and said i guess you'll have to write up the nurse before me as well, like me ,she was not aware of this new procedure, i told her to have fun if that is what she wanted.  there are worse things...

 she may just be too green to know to be afraid.  every day we are at work, be afraid.  we are in a profession where we are literally expected to be perfect 100% of the time...and we aren't perfect. forgetting to change tubing actually makes me happy...every day i will mess something up...thank God it was just some over due tubing and my patient is fine.  so much worse can happen. as i come into work each night i say a little prayer that i do no harm. 

 of course, the other day as i was attempting to say my little prayer while driving to work i started to sneeze.  often when i sneeze it's gonna be like 30 sneezes before it stops. i was trying to look for something to wipe the snot from my face while praying...apologizing to God for sneezing while praying and seeking a snot rag of any sort. i think i found a little glove finally.

 whoever and whatever God is or isn't, i do hope a sense of humor comes along with the love and forgiveness. i mean i really had snot all over my face by the time i found that glove.

 Sadies brother was there as well, but he seemed to stay back a bit. 

 here Kikkan and the kids act out the biathlon.  they are on their bellies shooting their guns at the targets.

 the kids were pretty excited to participate. they had a scavenger hunt set up and they had a ski obstacle course set up.  they also were doing rides on the big grooming machine.  the snow seemed to be in great shape for the event.  lots of skiers out there anyway.

 a guy got annoyed with a moose that was in his way and stupidly decided that kicking the moose was a good idea...the moose kicked him back.  that is part of the whole survival of the fittest. i guess he did survive but he was injured. 

 some other guy not too long ago decided to feed a moose carrots.  he ended up getting clocked by that moose as well.

 guess someone called in a bomb threat to my hospital while i was sleeping yesterday.  oddly, not one mention of it as we arrived to work.  nothing came of it.  false alarm.  hopefully, they can find who did that. 

 it appears that the mail in vote had excellent turn out.  it also turns out that most people in Anchorage at least, are not willing to believe that we should make peeing and shitting more difficult for transgender folks.  what are these people thinking.  live and let live.  bring back the hippies...make love, not war.  i think the other perk to the mail in is it slows the election results so if we did this nationwide we would have less of those silly 24 hour news shows giving away the results before those of us on the west coast have had a chance to even vote. 

 my speaker has made it back from the island so that is a relief...he's now headed for Fairbanks.  would love to just get a note that tells me not to worry.  I'm sure all is well.  when you plan events for public you do worry about a disaster like the speaker not showing up. 

 overall, i think we are about ready for our big event.  i also have skills fairs next week, always fun. planning on doing that Wednesday. 

 got a few packages mailed out the other day.  a facebook friend had a birthday and she decided to do a fund raising drive for WARIS on facebook...so sweet!!  such a happy surprise that day. 

 so many are really supportive at work.  I'm sure i have a bit of a reputation as the walrus lady, but there are worse things i guess to have a rep for.  answered the phone and this one doc was all "how are the walrus?".  he may come to the lecture and was asking about taking his kids out to the island. 

 my one brother had asked if most of my friends were work related...and i said yes, but i do have friends from other places in life.  the trails.  i see my trail friends all the time.  have met many people who i have now known for years out there.

 have met people through WARIS and then there is the University Lake dog group.  i chill with the danes and am very welcomed in with them. 

 ski's all over the place. i think they had a good crowd.  i got there fairly early and left early. 

 just attempted to read the newspaper that Tusker partially chewed...not easy.  still managed it though.  yes i still get an actual paper.  just want to show support for the local paper.

 little kids ski's. 

 more of me with Kikkan.

 getting Kikkan's autograph and holding the Gold!! congrats Kikkan.  thanks for persevering and making your dream come true.  we all enjoyed watching you go for your dream and get the Gold.  enjoy your new quieter, less public life with your family. 

thankful for: A.  Olympiads and their dreams and that we get to dream with them from time to time.  B. for all the great teachers i had growing up.  we don't thank them enough for all they do for us, for helping us get where we are now. i have enjoyed watching them stand up and walk out...i hope they get what they deserve.  C.  kind people and kind acts of charity.  it's out there, the hope, the positive, the kindness, the inspiration.  seek it out and fill yourself up. we all need it.