THE SLIPPERY SLOPE, GREEN GRASS AND A NEW DAY, FRI OCT 26

Have you ever had one of those slippery slope sort of days when you get up earlier than usual to accomplish more, strip the bed with plans to wash the sheets when you arrive home from work, end up running late, forget to take your vitamins, lose one of your very favorite earrings, have an assignment at work just about wrapped up when a new dynamic, like another child with a suspected case of Pertussis and a large family to contact and do multiple documentations on, extends it to what feels like is going to be after Christmas?  Your immediate supervisor flies out for a family emergency, her supervisor has left for a month’s vacation, no one else has had experience with this sort of investigation meaning that you either guess about a procedure or call the Mayor-appointed department head who has a reputation for intimidating the strongest (I'm not saying that this is true...it's just what I've heard), stay an extra five hours working on said documentation, finally arrive home at 11:30 pm to discover that your sheets are still in a mound in front of the washing machine and your bed is bare?  Really?  Me too…this perfectly describes my Friday. 

There were of course good things (green grass equivalents) that happened to offset the unusual…I met Esther, the school nurse, a gentle, kind and easy-to-work with person who is grateful that my position was filled and that she now has a liaison at Public Health. I worked closely with our nurse practitioner, Colleen, learning more about incubation and contagious periods of Pertussis and the efficacy and timing of testing and treating.  It was my first pay day, the support staff at the Wellness Center is, I’m sure, the cream of the crop, all joyfully and efficiently doing work to support patient care and nursing, no exaggeration!  JC and three of his compadres, minus a vacationing Lupe, accompanied me to the post office in the afternoon with two big trucks to pick up what I’m hoping is the last of my boxes to arrive from Washington, taking all of 30 minutes from start to finish.  Sydney, the on-the-job training high school receptionist showed me where the supply of miniature Milky Way bars is kept...several of these took the place of my missed vitamins today…that works, doesn’t it?  I am becoming the resident expert in following up with Pertussis cases…whoops, this belongs in the preceding paragraph! 

My fellow public health nurses are smiling, all busy with preparing for village trips (Michelle), laying on the beach in Hawaii (Bertrand)…I’m just guessing, but I’m pretty certain he’s smiling, or seeing a large caseload of individual clients (Joanne).  Michelle and Joanne keep telling me that I’m being baptized by fire and that they’re really glad I’m here.  We understandably haven’t heard from Bertrand although he is being cc’d on all emails.  There has been just one case of Pertussis that Bertrand documented the week before last, but no others since any of the other nurses have been working here.  An outbreak seems to be developing this year unfortunately with many people in Barrow sick.  Because all events related to the investigation need to be communicated to all supervisors, their supervisors, the nurse practitioner, the other public health nurses and the school nurse, Julie, my boss’ boss, who was waiting for her ride at the airport in Seattle, read hers and emailed back, “Holy Ludefiske!”  I hope she turns off her work message feature on her phone for the rest of her vacation!  I know I would = )  I don’t remember getting a feel for these sorts of days in the job description, but knowing they will improve or I will become faster, I’m still very happy to be working here as a public health nurse…yay!  I really am! 

The walk home was welcome and pleasant, unusually warm, around 30 degrees and not windy at all.  Keeping a lookout for polar bears was my only concern, but otherwise, I enjoyed the bright starts against the dark sky, the crunch of snow beneath my feet and greeting others who were out walking as well.  It isn’t unusual here to see people walking from place to place any time of day or night so there was no reason to worry (or for any of my female relatives to worry either…honest = ).

I have many boxes to check against my list today, but the one containing raisins, pumpkin seeds, walnuts, macadamia nuts, olive oil, AC vinegar and soy protein was opened, like a Christmas present, around midnight.  I laughed after saying out loud to my big bag of pumpkin seeds, “am I ever glad to see you!”  I indulged in the can of macadamia nuts (thanks Lisa and Josh!) before going to bed, deciding to read from a novel I’m enjoying, “Wish You Well” by David Baldacci.  Maybe tonight…my eyes closed the minute my head landed on the pillow.

It’s comforting to be wrapped up in a warm blanket on Saturday morning even if still on my bare mattress…my sheets are churning away in the wash.  Possible plans for the day include catching a ride in front of the library at 1:15 pm for a lecture being held at the Barrow Arctic Science Consortium.  Someone from NASA is putting on a presentation about new technology it is developing.  It sounds interesting and I’m curious about a NASA presentation being held here in such a remote place where there is one gas station, no paved roads, limited internet and cell phone connectivity, no home mail delivery and no Fed Ex or UPS.  But I’m not sure if even an extra tall glass of carrot, apple, ginger juice will be able to revive me enough to venture out instead of rest here today.

At 6 pm the monthly Tuzzy Consortium Library book club meets.  I’ve tried reading its chosen book this month, “The Lonely Polygamist” by Brady Udall, but am struggling to get through it.  Reading about the tired protagonist coming home from out-of-town work to a chaotic and unkempt household of 14 children who want to play a rough game of dog pile with him when he walks in the door and three disapproving wives isn’t meeting my need for a relaxing read.  I decided to look over the final chapter to see how the plot developed and was surprised to read that it described the wedding ceremony of his marriage to his fourth wife.  She is a lot younger than the three other wives who seem to be blessing the marriage…I know this might seem normal to some people and the book is probably very well written, but it just didn’t speak to me, missing elements of a good Hallmark movie on paper.  But I do want to get to know people in the community, this is one of the very few social activities here, and this is the only book club in town, so I may go with the hopes of a book that I’ll enjoy more on the agenda for the coming month. 

The wind is howling outside, snow machines are buzzing down the street and it’s almost what you could call light out at 9:30 am.  We will have 7 hours and 40 minutes of daylight today...earlier this week it was over 8 hours…they say that the darkness descends quickly here, so soon we won’t see the sun for three months.  I was thinking about this as I was walking home last night and think it won’t be difficult to adjust to, but am glad my box of Vitamin D arrived.  The temperatures have ranged between zero and 30 lately…today it is 20 degrees.

Time to check the mail…there is only a three hour window of time on Saturdays when you can get into the post office building.  Getting a piece of mail is a big event here and with so few distractions there is time to even read things you would normally toss in the recycle bin…there are no recycle bins here though.  I asked about this in a discussion at the Barrow Arctic Science Consortium two weeks ago and learned that a lot of research had been done and it was determined that it would not be cost effective.  A lot of people reuse things for different purposes, so there is active recycling, but not an organized effort.  I am very impressed though by the sort of plastic bags used at the grocery store…imprinted on each one is:

The plastic used in this bag will convert to water, carbon dioxide and biomass in the presence of soil, heat, moisture and oxygen.  Like a fallen leaf, it will disappear over time.  100% recyclable.