Good Evening from the East Coast, even though it really isn’t. But let me start at the beginning.
We’ve finally completed our first week here in New Jersey. It’s really been an interesting experience. We visit every department in the hospital to do our testing and that’s something I can honestly say I’ve never done. You don’t usually go to a hospital for a tour. But it was a neat experience because in addition to visiting each department, we got to interact with the people in those departments. Seeing how much fun these nurses has makes me reconsider my vocation!
We started going to the hospitals later in the day as the week went on in order to have a little more freedom in our mobility and what we could test. If someone is having their appendix out, it makes it hard to test the equipment in that OR. Anyway, to our pleasant surprise, everyone at our hospital was not only friendly, but went out of their way to make us feel welcome. I think my team and I have made friends for life on the labor and delivery floor. They had zero patients when we were there late Wednesday night.
To our dismay, they told us the cafeteria had closed and we hadn’t yet had dinner. No problem, they told us where to order Chinese and have it delivered, then they set us up in a waiting room with plates, forks, drinks—they even made us coffee! Tonight we were nearly forced to sit down in the OR and have some cake left over from a retirement party for one of the nurses. We complied. And speaking of the OR…
What a trip! We blew through the ER last night from about 9 until 2 in the morning. No patients, just a skeleton crew of nurses, seven rooms, and a lot of equipment! It’s amazing that there’s this whole little isolated world within a hospital that you ordinarily wouldn’t give a second thought. (The ORs were the cleanest rooms, by the way, in case you were concerned).
That brings us to Friday, today. Thursday was the first day my team was able to commandeer a van for our exclusive use. Until then, we were dropped off and picked up and as you can imagine, that limited us greatly. Ned, our “senior tech”, has driven to and from the hospital each time and Ned likes to drive fast and furious, a practice he employed frequently during our commute on the Garden State Parkway, a toll road. There were several times when I was glad I had an airbag in front of me. For some reason, Ned threw me the keys tonight on our way out of the hospital and told me to drive.
For those of you who have ever been to Jersey, you know how ridiculous the freeway system is. Highway 22 has no off ramps and runs right in front of our hotel. Therefore, every time we go somewhere East of our hotel, we have to drive 5 minutes West to the U-turn and then double-back to the hotel and continue. The Garden State is no better, the signage is ten times worse than the Bay Area. Needless to say, we took the scenic route home this evening.
So there we are, in a foreign state, in a foreign vehicle, in the dark, lost, working on directions from some guy who was fishing in a river under an overpass, trying to get back to our hotel so we can start our weekend (it’s already about 8:30EST). What could possibly complete this situation better than a state trooper? That’s right, New Jersey fuzz. And better yet, remember who was driving tonight? No, not Ned “Speed Racer” Salmon, but me. There we are, finally on the right track—apparently the too fast in New Jersey track—because all of a sudden there’s a car in the darkness facing the wrong direction and he has lights, siren, and radar.
So that's how I'm starting my weekend. There is a plan brewing to go into New York tomorrow. I'd say I hope someone else drives, but I've experienced how they, er, "drive" and it scares the hell out of me. So maybe I'll take a cab.
-Speeding in New Jersey