Barb's Daily Dose

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Hilarious video for anyone who loves dogs, St. Patrick's Day and anything Irish. Happy St. Patrick's day!

 

How Nurses Are Portrayed in Television Versus How They Are in Reality

Our Featured Guest Writer Today is Elaine Hirsch

Television is an incredibly powerful force. All too often, people will believe that the way things occur on television are accurate portrayals of these events in real life and will be influenced by what they see in television shows. While some things on television are accurate and inspire people to study nursing, others can be grossly misleading and even detrimental to the reputation of the whole profession. The field of medicine has seen its fair share of television portrayals and has suffered from this phenomenon.

The Perfect Christmas - Really?

Our Featured Guest Writer Today is Mia Figlia.  When she isn't musing about life and all it's intricacies, Mia is busy making the world a happier place and bringing smiles to her friends. She lives in the SF Bay Area with her husband and daughter.

Have you ever experienced the “Perfect Christmas”?  Or imagined that you have?  It sure didn’t happen the year Santa gave me my first bicycle.  Yep, I asked him for a bike.  Yep it was there on Christmas morning next to the tree.  Yes, it was blue and had a bell on the handlebar.  But no, it wasn’t small enough for me to ride (I specifically asked for a kid sized bike in case you’re wondering if I forgot that detail in my letter).

Felix Takes a Trip to the Hospital

I looked out the window and smiled as I watched Felix, my 94 year old Father-in-law sitting in our front yard, head stretched back to bask in the sun.  His right hand was busy petting our dog Cookie's soft ears. He was smiling too and seemed to be soaking in the warmth of the sun.  I brought him out a glass of water and he sighed, "Do you have any idea how long it's been since I sat in the sun?" he asked. I didn't even have time to answer before he continued. "I haven't done this in months; it feels so good."

Thanksgiving Humor

I've always got a good laugh out of this poem on how to cook a turkey and thought I would share it with you. 

Happy Thanksgiving All!  Enjoy!!!!

17 Ways to Cook a Turkey

1. Go buy a turkey
2. Take a drink of whisky
3. Put turkey in the oven
4. Take another 2 drinks of whisky
5. Set the degree at 375 ovens
6. Take 3 more whiskys of drink
7. Turk the bastey
8. Whisky another bottle of get
9. Ponder the meat thermometer
10. Glass yourself a pour of whisky
11. Bake the whisky for 4 hours
12. Take the oven out of the turkey
13. Floor the turkey up off of the pick
14. Turk the carvey
15. Get yourself another scottle of botch
16. Tet the sable and pour yourself a glass of turkey
17. Bless the dinner and pass out

Felix and Edna Fly on a Plane

.....I heard a little voice in my head, "Put your oxygen mask on first."  I knew that in order to help these 2 people in wheelchairs get through the TSA security line in the airport in under 3 hours, I'd have to get my stuff in the grey bins in a nanosecond and then I could concentrate on helping them. After I quickly got all my liquids, creams and laptop into the bins and on the conveyor, peeling off my coat and sweater, I turned around to get Felix's shoes off and help him out of his wheelchair.  

Heading to Paris for Vacation

I'm sitting here listening to my Coffee Break French podcasts to brush up on my French before heading off to Paris.  If you're heading to a French speaking country, this is a fantastic way to learn how to speak French.  Mark and Anna are the teachers, which is made even more interesting by their strong Scottish accents when speaking English, but the complete absence of any accent in French.

Happiness = Longer Life

Remember the song from Monty Python's Spamalot, Always Look on the Bright Side of Life?  According t new research, this is good advice if you want to live longer.  Being grumpy is far more likely to shorten your days than having a sunny, up-beat, positive optimistic view of the world.  People who see the world through rose-colored glasses are more likely to live longer, and they're a lot happier too.  Research on students who were followed up for a whopping 40 years found that the optimists lived longer.

Big Fan of Jimmy Fallon's Real Housewives Series

Ok, fess up, you know you love to watch reality TV.  Especially all the crazy narcissistic housewives.  It's guilty voyeurism to see how the various personality disorders mesh and mix it up week after week.  It's like watching grown up 13 year old Queen Bees and Wanna Bees.  I would love to take a class that deconstructs all the craziness; in the  meantime, here's the Housewives of Late Night:

Words of Wisdom

If you know anyone who is graduating, this is a wonderful letter to a graduating class written by Peter Shankman.

Here's Part of It:

"Expect greatness, prepare for utter failure and never be unwilling to change. You’re going to have incredible moments of greatness in your life, I promise you. The things you’re going to do successfully are so  incredible, your little high-school brains can’t even begin to process them now. You’re going to be amazing, I have no doubt."

Click here to continue to read the entire letter.