No news on the contract extension other than my recruiter knows it was mentioned by my direct supervisor who doesn't remember saying it! But then a week later, she thinks it would be a great idea. I knew nothing would happen until sometime last week. The exact contract end date is 6/23 meaning my last day at work would be 6/22. I'm not packing yet. However, I just heard from one of my modular mates she, another of our modular mates and two other nurses from the same recruiting organization have been working without a contract since May 20th. Sage has not signed! She's not sure what's going on. She's not sure what to do. I, in my infinite capacity to advise, suggested finding out if she should go to work on Thursday (her next shift), if she is getting paid, if she has malpractice insurance, if she has to move...SOON, etc... I'd be hysterical. The DON lives next door and supposedly was in on the telephone call extending the contracts. This may not bode well for any extension for me. We shall see. My recruiter has another option for me not far from here. I don't know details about that one, but I'm sure I'll be finding out soon enough.
My Memorial Day was memorable, but not because of the obvious. BTW, my father, Venard Ray Jatho and Tom's father, Paul Justice Bryant were veterans. Neither lost their life in combat, but they proudly served and returned. My dad was in Korea as a Marine and in Vietnam as a merchant marine. Tom's father was at the invasion of Normandy and was one of 11 from his ship to survive. He recuperated in the UK and went back to serve.
Back to my memorable weekend. DH came to visit me! Yep, he left St. Charles, MO on Thursday AM and made it to Gallup, NM by Friday evening. We had a wonderful weekend! We shopped and ate and slept and site saw (site seed?), went sight seeing! We did the Gallup Saturday Flea Market where yours truly got some "Rez" jewelry, Navajo tea, ate menudo (a Mexican dish & not a boy band) and walked our legs off. Sunday we did a tour of the campus, the modular and a jeep tour of Canyon de Chelly. It was a VERY bumpy ride. My Fitbit logged me over 6,000 steps. I'm sure I didn't walk that much, but most likely the "girls" bounced that much as I wear the Fitbit on my bra. Monday we did some errands and then hung out at the county courthouse to watch the Zuni Tribal dancers. Each night, yes you read that correctly. Every night from Memorial Day until Labor Day, there are tribal dancers that perform on the county plaza. I'm hoping to see several before I come back. There is an Inter-Tribal Ceremony coming as well. Don't remember when that is, but while we were there I picked up several touristy books to give me details. The visit with the hubster was wonderful. Doing video chatting just doesn't compare with smooching the real thing and hugging up close and personal.
And now I'm homesick for him. And the cats who, I heard on Tuesday night when Tom and I chatted, had reigned feline anarchy over the living room. Our cats are 11 years old at best guess. Winfrey was adopted from CATSNAP in Champaign, IL and Lilly was a stray I found wandering the apartment complex a month after Winfrey came to live with us. Winfrey, in his older age has become quite possessive of both Tom and I. He's not very happy to share us with Lilly. And he show's his disfavor is a not so nice way when we aren't around. AND sometimes when we are, the snot! We've caught him at least twice starting to go on furniture! And before you think he's being unjustly charged, we know the difference between his deposits and Lilly's. His are a mush pile and hers are firm. Always been that way. He's been to the vet (thank you Dr. Dale Diesel at Yorkshire Animal Hospital). Unfortunately, catching him to give him meds is an exercise is futility for both of us. At any rate, foil on the furniture has become our friend and Tom has had to lock them out of our bedroom.
I've been knitting a bit. I'm on a dish cloth kick. I think I've made 10 or so. I have two for the woman that gave me one of her Navajo spindles. I've also spun up some Icelandic wool that was free at the Weaver's Guild sale in January. I brought it with me to finish carding and spinning. That is done and now it's getting plied so that I may send with the cloths to the woman who shared her spindle. I'm hoping she can do something with the yarn. It didn't spin well and I doubt it will work for her weaving, but she may be able to make & felt some slippers with it. It would be good and warm for that.
I mentioned buying some "Rez" jewelry. That means it is Native American and when I walked into work on Tuesday with my rings, my earrings and my NA inspired back pack, I was deemed "Rezzed out" by my coworkers! I'll take pics and post later. They are pretty. And very reasonably priced depending on where you buy. I learned a bit about turquoise and what passes for turquoise, but isn't. There's a way to tell, but I don't know it. Except that real turquoise is quite expensive and sold by the carat.
Meeting with patients has slowed a bit over the last two weeks. Transportation for them is very hard. Some don't have any way to get to appointments except to hitchhike, use family or one of several medical transport companies. We try to bundle appointments when they come to see other providers. In fact, I recently had a bit of a stand off with my supervisor re "trolling" for patients in the clinic. I understand her perspective and even agree with it. If a client is already in clinic and we have been having difficulty catching them at home or having them keep appts, why not see them when they are here. Unfortunately, that's not so cut and dried. The charting software we use is the 5th or 6th generation of one that is already in it's 10th or 11th. Very behind the times. It doesn't allow for looking up our patients one at a time to see when their next provider appt is. If we want to know if one of our DM patients is in clinic with another provider, we look on that clinic's list for the day. I had a hard time doing so, viewing it as a HIPPA violation since I could see everyone who was in clinic. My direct supervisor didn't think so. So, I took it to HR who moved it to the person in charge of HIPPA. (Administrators here wear many hats-I think I've mentioned that before). At any rate, I was correct and we have been dissuaded from this practice. (I don't think it has stopped, just doesn't happen when I'm here) I was told by the administrator in charge of HIPPA "Our patients already think they don't have any privacy." And if you think about it, it's easy to see why. This is a small community. Everyone is related either by blood or clan. They know each other and all their family. It's just like living in Dixon, IL and seeing each other in the clinic or hospital. Plus, we have mothers, daughters, husbands, wives working either side by side or in various parts of the campus. Small communities and privacy have always had problems. Can you say Peyton Place? I knew you could.
Interestingly, healthcare via the Indian Health Services is free for NA and they don't pay for medications or transportation. This is something I'm continually amazed at and happy to be a part of. No rules about how many A1cs are done, or how often they test (we work hard at getting once a day sometimes, much less 4), how often they may have education visits, etc. Makes my job as a diabetes educator so much more satisfying not having to deal with the red tape of bureaucracy and insurance. However, if they have an eye or dental appointment, those aren't covered for transportation. One of our lady's saw her dentist when her spouse had a doctor's appt and kept her visit on the down low. Even in the Navajo Nation, there are loopholes.
I'm not sure who pays the transport people. And the companies do not operate the same. Some make an appointment, pick the person up, drop them off and come back to get them. Others make the appointment, but may change their minds and not show or cancel at the last minute. We make home visits for people who are definitely NOT home bound and drop of medications to people who aren't even in the state! I'm pretty sure this would not happen in the Bilagáana (white) medical world.
Well, we tried to drop off the meds. We drove around for an hour and never could find the house. Directions are horrible! Horrible! HORRIBLE. Did I says horrible? 2.5 miles NE of the chapter house, gray house with gray roof. Those were my directions. 2.5 miles NE of the chapter house were 3 roads to choose from and none of them were straight north, east or northeast! We had a compass on the 4Runner. No grey houses. Seriously, no mailboxes, no markers, no nothing. There is something called a RF number. Rural Fire. But those are on the houses! Which are off of the roads and set well back! The place would burn down before any fire department would find it, except there would be smoke! I've threatened to put blue ribbons on things so that I could find the home again (blue is one of the colors of World Diabetes Day, November 14). I was so proud of myself the day I was able to tell my driver (we travel in twos--for safety and interpreting) how to find a patient. 'Course it helped that his name was on a tire that marked the entrances to his driveway! But still, I had to get from a main road to another dirt road to find it! I'll continue to pat myself on the back for that one.
Canyon De Chelly (de Shay) was inhabited by Anasazi, Hopi and then Navajo. The Anasazi were not tall people, with an average height of 5 feet per Ben. In order to remain safe from animals and other tribes, they lived in the walls of the Canyon. They built their homes there carrying water, food, etc from the canyon floor. Some of the pictures will be hard to see unless you are able to download them and zoom in. There are ruins and petroglyphs from thousands and thousands of years ago. You may be able to see the lighter colors of clay used for drawings and hand prints. I could see them clearly with binoculars. The later pictures of ruins (with the fence) are call The White House because there is a white house as part of the ruins. You can hike down to them and back up. It's the only place you may hike w/o a guide. It's 2.5 miles round trip and not an easy hike, although for those who are in better shape, it wouldn't be too bad. Every where else in the canyon, you must have a guide. There is a horseback riding tour as well as 1, 3, 5 hour and overnight tours. There is a tree called the Russian Olive that was planted there by conservationists to prevent erosion. Unfortunately, Ben says it's a very invasive tree and has caused more problems then prevented. The Parks and Recreations folks are trying to thin that tree out. The road is quite sandy, bumpy and difficult to travel w/o 4-wheel drive. One group had come into the canyon to visit Ben's family and were stuck in the sand when they were leaving. Ben said the foal was maybe two days old. It was still wobbly walking after momma.
Tom had brought our folding bag chairs so I was very comfy sitting there knitting and watching people until the music started. A couple sat down on the bleachers next to us and we started talking as people do. They were from Grand Rapids, MI and were there because they had sponsored a child through their church and that person had graduated. They were in town for the graduation. We got to chatting about how Grant and Kristi live in MI, etc. Then this woman makes a comment about "Are you one of those people that can't sit still? You always have to have something in your hands to keep you busy?" Her comment at first didn't bug me and I just commented that I was always knitting something. Then she made another comment about me working on something and causing trouble. I just said "Well keeping my hands busy keeps me out of trouble" with me thinking, "Like maybe I'd strangle someone who is rude and makes rude comments!" Seriously! So condescending. And she was a skinny, tall person! She made a comment about them hiking in the Red Rock Park. I clearly do not hike...through anything! She probably eats nuts, berries and bugs!
ckb
