Kobayashi Maru'd

We had our first mannequin-related exercise today. We were paired up at random and sent into the room to have a little chat with our "patient"--and ended up having to perform CPR.  We were not told in advanced that we would be performing CPR, though we had some idea based on how they introduced the mannequins to us ("There's a code blue light in every room right here." "This is how you drop the bed." "This board detaches so it can be used under the patient during CPR." "There's a phone in the med room to call 911." "The crash carts are right here." And so on), and the clinical instructor who accompanied us could not help but drop massive hints, so the woman I was paired up with and I figured out before we even went into the room and we worked out our roles ahead of time. Consequently, we ended up looking very professional. Or as professional as you can be when you're performing CPR on a mannequin in a hospital bed.

After the exercises, we're debriefed and told that we're not to talk about the scenarios to anyone-- which of course meant that there were a lot of whispered conversations in corners after. (We have to be careful because there are cameras and microphones everywhere in the practice and exam rooms. Yes, really.)

Then it was hour after hour of paperwork. Talk about your real life scenarios.

I came home a bit too caffeinated for a nap, so I got online to see how the idiot in the oval office is fucking up the world today. He's got Alzheimer's-related dementia, I'm sure of it, and we're paying for our stupidity in letting the Russians put him into office, he and his entire family of treasonous white-supremacist grifters. All the same idiots who fell for Amway and other pyramid schemes fell for this, too, and were manipulated by Russia's murderous dictator into voting for this orange nightmare. It's interesting watching the American system of democracy be dismantled by corruption and I sit back and watch with increasing incrudulity as women's rights and gay rights and Native American's rights and workers' rights are eroded, as the environmental protection laws get rolled back so that corporations can more effectively rape the earth for profit, as white terrorists attack and kill brown and black people at the urging of this president. It's not a good place to be right now. I keep thinking about the quote I saw that said that nice people made good Nazis because they politely looked the other way while Jews and gypsies and gays and lesbians were being dragged into ghettos then into concentration camps then into the ovens. That is where we are now. So many people are looking the other way....

And for those tempted to deny that that is what they are doing, looking the other way, James Baldwin knew better when he wrote: “I can't believe what you say, because I see what you do.”

And me? I can't wait to be finished with my degree so I can leave. I'm convinced that the republicans with help from the russians are planning on stealing the 2018 elections and then the next presidential election. I'm not going to stick around to see it.

We still have an eye on New Zealand or possibly Australia as a soft landing spot. I'm sure they'll need healthcare professionals in a year, what with the influx of emigres/American refugees fleeing what used to be a democracy.

So I have to remember to keep my eyes on the prize when I'm tempted to scoff at performing CPR on mannequins.

Ugh, but I'm sick of talking about this.

In other news:

We fired a kiln! It's been about six months (probably longer) since our last one and this one was just a bisque kiln, but we did fire it!

We got this finished piece out.

And these two moved forward in their journey:

You may remember the stargazer in the Starry Night dress and the decapitate-able sculpture in the black dress.

Dave had some stacks of bowls and cups and so on that came out. All of those will have to be glazed. Then sometime in the next year, we may have another firing!