Drinking on the job

Before you all have collective heart attacks, no, I did NOT get sh!t faced while doing my nurse thang.  However, Saturday night WAS the cardiac surgery holiday party (aka open bar on the MDs tab).  Unfortunately for yours truly, I still had to work my 12 hour shift on Saturday…as well as the next day (Sunday).  Boo!

I can think of about 15,000 other things I’d rather do after work than put on a dress and pretend that I feel pretty while I’m covered in a patient’s ventilator spew and C. diff. 

Oh, and did I mention one of my patient was so unstable she had to go back into the OR?  Yeah.  So while I was putting on my game face (makeup) in the staff bathroom after work, my patient’s chest was being reopened.  Time to celebrate?  Not so much. 

 

Some simple math:

12 hours in the ICU + two patients on the cusp of peacing out = so much stress I hardly ate all day

I did manage to scarf down this salad in 7 minutes flat, along with the pretzels and an apple.  But that was all :(  I always pick the wrong days to float to the ICU!  It was a mad house.  Every single patient was intubated and hemodynamically unstable.  Pretty much the opposite of jolly.  And yet, I still sucked it up and put on a dress and a smile and headed to mid-town after 12 hours of hell.  What choice did I have?  Kyle met me at work with my clothes, so I was def past the point of no return. 

Hardly eating all day + all you can drink booze + awkward social situations with coworkers = the textbook definition of screwing yourself over

Talk about setting myself up for a horrible Sunday shift. 

Being the lightweight that I am, I got good and drunk in 5 seconds flat…but being the responsible nurse that I am, I stopped after two drinks and sobered up before leaving at 10 pm. 

Like last year, it was at Cibo, a cute “Tuscan-New American” restaurant that closed the place down for our group.  They offered a pretty extensive menu, from which we each chose our three courses (app, entree, dessert).  My appetizer was the three lettuce chopped salad with marinated cippolini onions, chickpeas, and a balsamic roast garlic vinaigrette.  Perfection.  For dinner the vegan options weren’t exactly plentiful.  When the waiter took my order, I simply chose the dish with the best veggie sides that I wanted, which happened to be a seared scallop dish.  While flashing my cutest smile, I asked if the veggies were sautéed in butter or olive oil, as I couldn’t eat dairy.  Once I sensed that he was aiming to please (and not begrudgingly tolerating the food preferences of 140 medical staff), I asked if it would be possible to just amp up the veggies on the plate, and eliminate the scallops al together.  He was happy to oblige.  Win, win.  I wish I could have taken a picture of what they brought me.  OMG.  Soggy veggies this was NOT.  You know how sometimes the vegan options are the afterthought of the chef?  The Cibo chef prepared a dried cherry cashew quinoa dish with broccoli rabe and sautéed eggplant and zucchini.  Just for me!  This was WAY above and beyond what I was expecting from a restaurant catering to a huge audience, but that just goes to show you how great they are.  No wonder the holiday party has been at this same restaurant for 17 years!  I bet if the owner of Cibo ever came for a cardiac bypass it would be on the house :)  Anyways, it was an amazing dinner, and I didn’t even have to break into the bar stash that was still in my backpack. 

I really wish I could have enjoyed the party more.    Last year I had SO much fun dancing the night away, but then, last year I didn’t have to work the day of the party or (more importantly) the day after.  The silver lining (if you’re looking for it) is that I didn’t stay long enough to do anything embarrassing or take pictures that would inevitably end up on Facebook, thereby ruining my pristine work reputation ;)  Kyle and I headed out after the chief of cardiac surgery gave his speech…I was nearly sober, but still buzzed enough to agree to take a taxi home. 

Seeing as I didn’t pack my lunch for Sunday the night before, this Yves vegan Meatless Chili was the quickest thing for me to grab in the morning.  I’ve had this product before (it was a lifesaver when I first went vegan and hadn’t yet started experimenting on my own in the kitch).  I love how filling it is, while still not feeling like a brick in my stomach.  Plus the ingreds are great and pure (no multi-syllable chemicals for me thankyouverymuch). 

After dragging my a$$ to work, the first thing I checked was how my patient from yesterday did after surgery numero dos.  A-OK!  Phew. 

I’m happy to report that Sunday’s shift went much smoother than I thought it would.  Mostly because I was back in my comfort zone on the step down unit (as opposed to the ICU).  But also I had great patients.  Not the picture of health clinically speaking, but total sweethearts. 

At least I was able to get a full hour lunch break…to play with my food. 

I was perfectly happy – (im)maturely using my pretzels as a scooping device shovel for my chili (amazing combo btw) – enjoying the warm salty/bean combo, when a nice older gent (Hugh Hef older) sat next to me and started chatting me up.  Normally I’m pretty antisocial on my lunch break (with my precious down time, I prefer to zone out with a crossword or book), but he was such a cutie, and happened to pass on some wonderful life advice/words of wisdom (all the while complimenting the crap outta me)…who wouldn’t love that!?  So although my free time to eat, drink, regroup, and perk myself up flew by (and this hung-over one was especially rough) it was nice to spread some holiday cheer.

I should also mention that I was stupidly trying to save $ and deemed this weekend the time to abstain from the siren.  I brought my own tea, but it’s just not the same as the full bodied Pike Place (mi amor).  Not even close.  At least the cash I saved went to a good cause…

The rest of my shift dragged by slower than the OJ trial, but eventually I made it home for some grub. 

My dinner snackplate included home-made seitan, home-made falafel, spelt pretzels and carrots.  And as you can see there was a tub of Cedar’s roasted red pepper hummus on the side (and by “on the side” I mean “the central feature”).

If you want, I’ll go into the deets on how I made the seitan at a later time. 

For now, I’ll show you my dessert(s).

Two apples and chocolate/cherry/tofu pudding.  Somehow a few apple slices made their way into the pudding.  Oh yeah!

A while ago I won a contest hosted by the lovely Abby and wound up with a bunch of Nasoya coupons. 

Thanks girl!  I love love love their silken tofu, and it has the perfect texture for pudding.  So clearly that was the first thing I made. 

Ok, so it wasn’t exactly “pudding” per se since I used frozen fruit…more like a thick smoothie, but what’s in a name?  The flavor of the frozen cherries was barely evident, and the texture still wasn’t quite right.  Hmph.  I have heard avocadoes are key, so next time I’m going to try that…I’m determined to get the magic formula right.