Howdy everybody! In the interest of my sanity, I decided that it would be best for me to do a monthly blog until I get the hang of it. And in the interest of actually having a blog this month, I've decided to do one about the extended family in my house: my nurses. We'll get back to the story of my fantastic hospital visit again, soon, but in the meantime I figured I should tell you all about the quirky and wonderful people that are now in my life.
One of the first nurses that ever came to stay was Youlan. He is an African-American man from Mississippi who has a great sense of humor. The most hilarious part of Youlan is his jokes; not so much the jokes themselves, but how big of a kick he gets out of them! He takes excellent care of me, is kind and attentive, except, perhaps, when he's watching Game of Thrones. I keep getting him addicted to TV shows, and he watches them the way I used to: no one can interrupt, and all of your attention must be focused 100% on every word being said on television. Youlan probably only focuses 95% (fail!), as he keeps an ear out for me. Youlan is very much a man's man: he's built, really strong, and loves cars and flashlights (I swear that's a prerequisite for being a man). At the store on base, my dad's Chief of Staff Greg bought a high-powered flashlight. My dad saw him with it, and almost immediately had to go get one as well. And then Youlan saw it on the table. As soon as work ended he ran to the base exchange and bought, not one, but three! I don't really get this thing with flashlights, but I think most men can relate. Youlan also leaves notes all over the house. He and dad have an ongoing cashew war, and so Youlan will periodically put a sticky note on the cashews that says "Youlan's cashews." He will also add to our shopping lists such things as flashlights and more cashews! I love cashews, and my dad loves cashews, but I'm pretty sure Youlan loves them the most.
The next nurse who came to stay was Ngozi, a beautiful woman from Nigeria. She's happily married with four kids, and still finds time to fit me into her life. Ngozi has the best sense of humor of anyone I've met in a very long time. She has the ability to laugh at herself, as well as others, and at all jokes, good ones or the bad ones my dad makes. We love her, and we pick on her all of the time because we know she can take it. Her latest thing is that "her hands are too big to do that." She has beautiful hands, perfectly proportioned to herself, but according to her, they are way too big. The other day, we were trying to scoot me over to the side in my wheelchair, which involves two people each grabbing one butt cheek and one of them pulling, and one of them pushing! Well, Ngozi is usually a night nurse and doesn't deal with me in my chair, but she was here that day and mom was on one side of the chair, Ngozi on the other and mom was trying to explain where to put her hands. Ngozi kept saying "They are too big! I can only fit one hand!" (And this is under my butt, keep in mind). No one else has ever had trouble, so mom goes over to see that Ngozi is trying to put her hands under the entire cushion of the chair, which doesn't work very well. So for the rest of the day, anytime she paused while thinking about how to do something, I would helpfully supply that "Ngozi can't do that; her hands are too big." all with a perfectly straight face, of course. She took it beautifully, and it made for a fun day.
Youlan is here three times a week in the day, making him my primary day nurse, and Ngozi is here three times a week at night, making her my primary night nurse. On Mondays and Fridays in the daytime, however, we have Brandi, a woman with the most sarcastic and dry sense of humor--as well as an evil giggle--that you have ever met. Between her and her girlfriend, they have five kids (God bless them!), and she has many good stories to tell of their adventures. She is relatively new to the Quad squad, and I'm sure there'll be much more to come about her!
So that just leaves two more night nurses: Tosha and Ethel. Tosha is probably the most quiet of any of the nurses in the Quad squad, but that doesn't mean she isn't awesome! She is so sweet to me at night, taking care of my every need (really, they all are and they all do). She has two kids of her own. Tosha is soft-spoken (and maybe a little shy), but has a great sense of humor: she will laugh at any joke and make a few of her own, but you have to catch them, because she doesn't overdo them like some people (dad!).
Ethel is all kinds of just this side of crazy! A passionate woman from Cameroon, she has four children that she talks about all of the time. I feel like I know them, and it's wonderful. Like Ngozi, she has a strong faith, and is prone to shout "Jesus Christ of Nazareth!" when surprised, which seems to be often. Perhaps the funniest thing with Ethel is her ongoing feud with our cat, Kiki. When we get me ready for bed, Kiki likes to be on the bed because she knows she will get attention if she's there. But not from Ethel. Oh no no. Ethel is terrified of cats. It's gotten a lot better, but in the beginning if she was standing next to my bed doing something or talking to me, and Kiki jumped up on the bed, Ethel would scream, throw her hands in the air, and run away. And then she would be unable to come to that side of the bed until Kiki had left. Her newest thing is to yell at Kiki in her deep voice with her thick Cameroon accent, "Go to your mommy!" any time the cat approaches. Which is often.
Those are all of our permanent nurses, but that doesn't mean it's all of our nurses. There are several more who come here to fill in when others are out. That includes Afanwe, Patti, and Susan.
Afanwe is a man from Cameroon with long dreads, and a vibrant personality. He is a terribly passionate person, particularly regarding politics, the state of his country, and soccer. He is in fact so passionate about politics that I am kind of glad we didn't see much of him during this insane election. I'm sure we would've heard much about every candidate, and at great length!
Patti is a fun-loving nurse from East Texas, but don't hold that against her! She's definitely the most sane of her insane family. A little bit of a flower child, she knows the words to every song you can imagine. My mom and I tend to sing snippets of songs (or quote Lord of the Rings!) to punctuate our daily life. If we encounter an issue or say something that is similar to a line from a song, we then naturally break into that song. It's usually the only line we can remember, but Patti doesn't have that trouble. She can remember the whole song, which helps mom remember it, and then they often sing and dance the rest of the song around the room, while they get me ready. Patti can also play Cards Against Humanity like nobody's business. If we didn't know what a card meant, we can always count on her to tell us.
And that leaves Susan. Susan is one of the kindest older women I've ever met, and she is very much a talker. So much so, that when I first met her I would say that I was "just closing my eyes for a minute" to get some quiet time. But the better I got to know her, the more I liked her. She cares deeply about her faith and her family, and a lot of her talk is about her youngest daughter, who is currently attending college in the Northeast. She is incredible with the sewing machine, and fixed my graduation gown in such a way that I could actually wear it (it's cut up the back, but not all the way, and stitched so that it won't fray). Last I heard of Susan, who has many hobbies, she was learning to circle dance!
Well, that's all about my nurses as far as an introduction, and I guess that means that this blog is finished! I'm sorry for the incredibly long delay; part of it is because I was taking a creative writing class! But more on that later. For now, I'll leave you with this, and the promise that I will actually get a blog out within a month of this one (I hope!)! Thanks for reading, and make sure you share if you like it! I've got to get my numbers up in readership! And so we go!
