Dime a dozen

Dime a dozen
Originally uploaded by Nikki McLeod

hawaii's got nothin' on oregon in the fall and spring. ok, maybe the ocean temp. but as far as rainbow state rivals, i would wager hawaii could just get cozy in that back seat. my commute is beautiful. and, at least one trip of the day is done in daylight hours, so that's a bonus.
in the dark it is kinda creepy on the back roads.

last week i hit a possum on the way into newberg. it got to me more than i ever thought it would, mostly because it was not by any means a small possum, but i pushed it neatly under the figuritive rug.

until today, when my first legitimately *crazy* patient showed up with some sort of acute psychosis going on. after ruling out she wasn't seizing (generally not a bilateral movement phenomenon that one can talk through) i tried the old cure for pseudo-seizure my preceptor recommended...smelling salts. and hey, they work! imagine that. snapped my patient right out of it long enough to get out of her that she was having these constant visual hallucinations....of dark places, with animals with red eyes....

and dammed if the first thing i thought of was that unfortunate possum.

and her fear became real to me. i got it. it would really suck to be stuck in that world forever. i'd probably be shaking non-stop too.

acute onset schizophrenia? maybe. it sure fit. not up to me to make that diagnoses, and i'm glad it never will be. admit to psych. done. yikes.

in other news, the boys are madly whittling down their halloween preparations...initially it was supposed to be some sort of scooby doo holiday, but now we might be going in another direction altogether...tomorrow is the deadline. we shall see. liam rode around the neighborhood this afternoon making a map of the super decked-out halloween decorated houses, so we're gonna hit those up first. last year they lasted about 2 blocks before the desire to eat the candy outweighed the desire to get more. this year, mommy has a chocolate quota that needs to be met, cool decorations or no.

if i'm going to be shipped out to newport, WA for a northern exposure stint in 2 weeks without my family, then i will need all the emotional and cocoa-bound nutritional support i can get. will enjoy the scenery and the sugar in the meantime.