Spring ...!

Officially, it's the first day of Spring today!  Facebook reports from Pittsboro tell me that the redbuds are blooming, and dogwood not too far behind.   Here in Deep Gap I believe it'll probably be another couple weeks to a month until we get really visible signs,  although the buds are swelling, and we've had a big  influx of robins....(now that I can see them up closer I find that they're much bigger birds than I realized!).

Yesterday was my first full day at the Hospital.  In Medical Records I got to do exciting things like remove staples from ER reports, prior to them being photocopies for charts, and separate medical reports and discharge records by physician name, seal them up into envelopes, and poke the envelopes into the different doctors mailboxes.  All around me there was constant activity and conversation (how do all these women get much done, with all the talking going on?) as the clerks went about their daily routines.  I am always amazed at the amounts of paper involved in record-keeping.  How many times is each sheet handled by someone, one w onders?  Are they usually looked at again, once they're filed?  Where might they store all the files, once people are discharged?  Or do they keep hard copies?  hmmmmmm......lots of things to find out.

Then I had lunch in the cafeteria - a small cup of chili, some broccoli and some fried zucchini, and went over to the gift shop for the afternoon shift.  Once again, busy enough to not be bored, but not too busy.  The past few weeks haven't brought much new or interesting merchandise (probably fortunate, for my wallet's sake!) - I guess fall/winter/christmas is probably the biggest time for the shop.  Maybe our economic downturn is affecting it all too?

There was a small drama in the afternoon, when an attractive youngish woman came in, asked where her friend was, and when she didn't see him, angrily deposited  his bag and jacket at the reception desk out front, and stormed out saying she had to drive to Raleigh to meet the body and didn't have time to wait for him.   About five minutes later the guy appeared, having gone to the restroom or something, and learned he'd been abandoned.  It seems that he had flown over from NYC to support her as her grandmother was dying, and now he was left  in a strange town .   The ladies at reception and I tried to help him sort out his situation, and he made a lot of calls on his cell phone.  I don't know what finally developed with it - when I left just after 5:00 he was (temporarily?) gone from the lobby.  I really hated to leave with no resolution to things, and just hope  he worked something out.   [But of course he did - something - I just don't know what.]  

 Imagine abandoning someone who made a special trip to support you, in a strange city/state, that way!  Sheesh.....he'd been hanging around all afternoon waiting for her - even if she was distraught about her grandmother, seems like she could have waited a few minutes...

People are amazing!