Posts

Thoughts pass through my mind...

Thoughts pass through my mind often of things I might write to the blog if time allowed. I had thought that finishing my BSN would create space for a more balanced life, but instead, it pulled me into a higher degree of responsibility at the clinic spending most of perceived free time working many evenings and weekends. In October when the PHN Coordinator position became vacant, I was asked to apply but declined, thinking that it was beyond my abilities and a position that I definitely didn’t want to fill. I was reluctant, but agreed to fill in as the Acting Coordinator, thinking that it would be a relatively short assignment. Four very rewarding and life-changing months later, we’ve filled the position. Time seems to be opening up again.  We’ve also filled one of the two open nursing positions and Bertrand is back from four months of paternity leave. We’re for the most part, just about fully staffed. We’re recruiting for one more nurse if anyone knows of a BSN who wants an adventu
Post a Comment
Read more

Post BSN...

Ahhh...it feels wonderful to have pushed the last "submit" button on my last assignment of my last RN-BSN class this afternoon. I've been preoccupied for the past two and a half years with finishing this nursing degree that I knew was required at some point after finishing my ADN program and passing my RN licensure exam in 2011. What a gift it's been to have had an opportunity while living here in Barrow to work online through the University of Texas at Arlington and to have completed my BSN degree now. My class graduates next Saturday...well, I do too, but will be happily enjoying time with my family in Washington instead and will attend ceremonies by way of imagining being there, maybe. I've never met any of my instructors or classmates, but feel as though I know them very well. We've worked together on projects, discussed many topics related to nursing at length and some have also traversed US history, political science and American literature courses along
Post a Comment
Read more

TO BIKE OR NOT TO BIKE

I'm trying to decide whether to ride my bike or to walk to work today. One morning last week the weather report looked incredibly grim with visibility at less than 1/2 mile, high winds and a subzero temperature. I hadn't opened my blinds before leaving, so was pleasantly surprised that the sun was shining and the winds hadn't picked up yet...a glorious morn and an enjoyable walk on the still frozen lagoon. On the bike ride home from work yesterday, the strong, cold winds and I fought it out...I think it just wanted someone to toss around like a lion does its cub. It had almost lifted and definitely propelled me towards work earlier in the day. This morning NOAA, a reliable source of weather conditions most days, reports a wind chill of -11 F with winds out of the east. Here's a peek of our weather here. To bike or not to bike...that is the question... Detailed forecast for Northern Arctic Coast Today Partly sunny. Flurries. Areas of blo
Post a Comment
Read more

I'M FEELING RICH

I'm feeling very rich tonight. My serial visits to Anchorage and multiple orders though Amazon Prime have resulted in my cupboards completely reaching their saturation points. I have eight liters of olive oil, bags (and bags) of dried figs, Goji berries, nuts, quinoa, flax, chia, sesame, sunflower seeds, 10 tins of sardines, pounds of frozen fruit and salmon, bottles of sesame oil, apple cider vinegar and soy sauce. I am stocked for a good, long time with all of these wonderful commodities. The drive to have an abundance of supplies on hand came from the almost tiresome routine of ordering food staples every two weeks. Not meaning to take this for granted or to be ungrateful in the least, but along with doing the wash by hand most weeks, it has become a bit of a chore and all without the enjoyable experience of bumping into friends while shopping. Another dynamic of the online shopping experience is the multiple trips to the post office that are required to pick up one's trea
2 comments
Read more

GOOD MORNING ON THE EVE OF A NEW YEAR

Image
Glenn and Anne's hut at NARL Ah...I haven't written for some time now but somehow it feels right this morning.  I'm sitting at my pine desk after a wonderful night's rest in my own bed.  It’s wonderful to have taken this for granted in the past but to find renewed joy in it now. Contrasts and change seem to heighten a sense of gratitude for me, pushing me into a pleasant and welcome state of mind.  I just recently returned to my apartment after enjoying eleven days of  house/cat sitting out at one of the huts at NARL, the old Navy Arctic Research Lab.  Big Boy, Anne and Glenn’s smokey-gray, long-haired, affectionate feline was in need of companionship and feeding as well as were the two fish in the large murky tank and the multiple, active, chubby worms in the indoor compost bin. All-in-all, it was a great eleven days.  The hut is quite large although it looks small from the outside. I’m still washing clothes by hand at my apartment, a weekly ritual that is ti
8 comments
Read more

ARCTIC JELLY FISH

Image
I took these photos the summer before last but missed posting them. When out with Mari for a beach walk last weekend, we saw the same varieties of jelly fish and some, this year, with longer tentacles. They're beautiful and sparked my curiosity. Some years one sees them populating the beach with ice bergs floating on the sea in the background, so the water can't be very warm. It's interesting that they can live in the Arctic environment here.  According to Natalie Angier in an article she wrote for The New York Times (June 6, 2011) called So Much More than Plasma and Poison , jellyfish inhabit all the oceans of the world and are the oldest multi-organ animal, believed to have been in existence for 700 million or more years.  Here's a link to her fascinating article: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/07/science/07jellyfish.html?_r=0
1 comment
Read more

ALIVE AND WELL IN SUNNY BARROW

It's been some time since I've visited or posted to the blog but in looking back on my last entry, I could have left the impression that I didn't survive the outing to scout for polar bears.  Unfortunately there were none who wanted to be seen on the Saturday Jan, Mari, Rita and I ventured out in the small car Jan had borrowed. It was a wonderful afternoon though with the sun beaming from low on the horizon, promising longer days and the ability to see again the stunning Arctic beauty after a long, comfortingly dark winter. My father passed in early January.  I'd been fortunate enough to see him and Mom several times over the past year and know that he's in a brighter place now.  Our family and his many friends will miss him in ways that are difficult to describe but I think feel his presence to some degree at different times.  The sound of his laugh is easy to recall and I smile remembering listening to his thought processes as he explained something to me, alway
Post a Comment
Read more