just to see what i’ve been missing these past three decembers, i finally went to our unit’s christmas party. not that i want to disprove the rumor going around that i am anti-social, i just got curious.

so…

i found out it is quite difficult to recognize people you have seen in scrubs for almost three years, wearing different kinds of clothes. especially with the matching leather boots. it’s weird how your mind gets used to the idea that all there is in everyone’s closet are funky, or boring looking scrubs. it makes you squint and take a second or third look at everyone’s faces, mentally trying to picture their faces in their common scrubs to match it with the unfamiliar faces you see in fancy winter outfits. interesting.

i also found out that it actually pays to be thick-faced by telling your patients, or your coworker to fill out the CARD if they liked you, or your services. let me explain what the CARD is all about. it is a piece of paper that patients or staff fill out to acknowledge somebody’s good deeds. it is called by an acronym that stands for some virtues, which i will not spell out here, since there is a .000001% chance that a coworker will read this blog later. that will be the end of my anonimity, and i certainly do not want this free therapy to end just like that. anyway, it feels good to get the CARD sometimes, but for me, nothing can beat the verbal or nonverbal expression of gratitude from patients. that’s why the CARD does not really tickle my ego. anyway, at the end of the year, the ones with the most CARD gets a reward. no wonder i heard somebody said this to a patient one night: “you really want to thank me? okay, let me get you a pen; fill out the CARD; this is how you spell my last name.” no, i didn’t get a reward, because our nurse manager did not do the reward thing. but what if she decides to do the same thing next christmas? a 30 minute massage gift certificate does not sound bad at all. you think i should get some pointers on how to loose my face by telling my patients to put their gratitude in writing? not.

i found out that food is cheap and it is impossible not to waste it. four tables of desserts, four tables of all sorts of food that directly go to your arteries with the main purpose of clogging them. it seemed to me that the more people go for second or third helping, the food just kept multipying. like the typical boring party goer that i was, half of the people left after an hour or so. we were urged to take home whatever we felt like taking home, but still, there were entrees untouched, and cakes unsliced. what happened to the leftovers? i guess that’s when a garbage can becomes indispensible.

i also found out that no matter what our nurse manager do to make her staff feel appreciated, there will always be people who are cynical and critical. yeah, they think she bought the gifts from some cheap place, and that it’s not really special, and she just made it look otherwise. these people are the reason why i have no desire whatsoever to be a nurse manager. heh.

don’t ask me why i’m not going to the christmas party in 2006.