Tricia's Musings

Random Thoughts about life in general, living in the big city of Toronto



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Why do I enjoy watching so many medical dramas on TV?

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You’d think that since I’m an ER nurse (well one that’s on medical leave) I wouldn’t be all that interested in watching medical shows on TV, but they are still one of my favorite form of television watching.

I used to love watching ER. Oh I’ll admit the early years of the show were the best, but I watched every episode right until the series ended last year.

Now this year a new crop of medical TV dramas are on ranging from more nurse oriented shows like Mercy, Nurse Jackie and HawthoRNe to Trauma which covers the paramedic side of medical drama. I even watched the short HBO series Bloodletting and Miraculous cures – mainly because it was a series that developed from a book written by one of the ER doctors that I’ve worked with for several years.

I also watch House regularly, although as with ER I think the earlier seasons were better than what’s being produced lately. Likewise with Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice. Geez there’s a lot of medical shows isn’t there? Maybe they all just need to take a multivitamin and they’ll get better?

These shows are full of errors – from having too many doctors and not enough nurses, to medical errors, to patients going from deathbed to miraculously healthy by the next day. LOL

Of all the new shows I think I like HawthoRNe best. It captures the emotions of being a nurse in the ER much better than most of the shows I watch regularly.

Although, just like Mercy, I don’t understand how the nurses that are supposed to work in one area end up working all over the hospital and even assist during surgical procedures. In real life, in a big hospital, nurses work where they are assigned whether it’s the ER, a medical floor or in the OR … they aren’t all over the place .. nor are doctors unless they are specialists – then they might be seen regularly in a few areas of a hospital over the course of a shift.

I think I like watching these shows because I can spot the mistakes and I get a little thrill when I spot them. LOL Maybe these shows keep me on my toes?

Anyway .. do you like watching medical dramas on TV? Which ones are your favorites and which ones could you do without?





How do you handle unwanted door to door sales people?

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I was just saying on my other blog how much I hate door to door sales people … well at least the ones that are trying to sells services or items that are an obvious scam!

We just had a guy at the door trying to sell us a service to repair our brickwork … but believe me he looked like he should be buying a ton of acne medicine rather than wasting his time trying to scam us on work we don’t need done to our home.

Our dog just freaks when someone comes to the door too. She barks her head off. Of course she just wants to make friends with whoevers at the door, but they don’t know that because she looks like she means business.

Maybe next time a solicitor comes to the door we’ll just let the dog bark and bark and scare them away?

How do you handle door to door salesmen? Do you talk to them or just leave them standing outside?

The awful renter neighbors have moved out! Yeah!

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I’m very happy to say that our neighbors from hell moved out yesterday! Yeah!!!!!

They were going to be formally evicted by the Sherrif on Tuesday if they didn’t move out on their own and luckily they took the initiative and moved on their own.

Of course, even though they apparently haven’t payed rent to the homeowner for five months or more (as well as bills like gas and electricity apparently) they still legally have possession of the house until noon on Monday … and they are taking full advantage of that by putting a note on the front door that says “we still have possessions inside and you can’t legally enter until March 22”.

So as far as I can tell the home owners are going to stay away until Monday and unfortunately … those awful soon to be ex renter neighbors are back outside right now. I guess they are moving a few last things out of the house with the big van they jammed into our tiny driveway.

I peaked out a few times yesterday while they were moving their things into the big moving van they’d rented. Man … just like the last renters they didn’t put much thought into their move. Things were coming out in garbage bags … you’d think that most familys would have few luggage sets or at least pack their things in boxes … but oddly enough both of our renter neighbors moving item of choice is the large dark green garbage bag … maybe it’s suiting since they were “garbage” neighbors.

Chris and I are very happy that the criminal element is going to be gone from our neighborhood. Over the last week there have been so many cars, jeeps, SUV’s, and pick up trucks parking outside the house or in our driveway at all times of the day and night that we feared that when it came time for them to be officially kicked out that there would be trouble.

We talked to the home owners yesterday to let them know that we finally saw the awful renters moving out and they said that they’ll probably sell the house after this. That’s a relief because just last week the woman was talking about renting again! Ah .. they’ve had two very bad renters so far … I couldn’t believe they were thinking of renting again! With their and our luck they’d probably make another awful choice and we’d have to live with the neighbors from hell all over again for another 6 months or so … instead, if we’re lucky we’ll get new “real” neighbors in a few months! I can’t wait!

I’d love to get away for a winter holiday!

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I’ve wanted to go on a holiday all winter! Not that winter here in Toronto has been all that bad. We’ve had barely any snow and it’s been quite a bit warmer than it usually is! More spring like than anything!

Still … a holiday would be nice. I’d be happy to go anywhere. Niagara falls for the weekend or a week in one of those beautiful Outer Banks beach rentals.

Actually considering that it’s already March Break and Spring arrives this weekend, perhaps we’ll hold off on a “winter” holiday and try to take some time at the beginning of summer. Chris has a one week lay off from work coming up in June (yeah cut backs!) so depending upon how our finances are doing maybe we could take a mini-holiday during that time. Maybe just going up to a friends cottage would satisfy that need for a vacation that I’ve been going through.

Did you take a winter vacation this year? If you did, where did you go?

GMAT prep courses for my niece

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Wow, time sure flies! I was just thinking about my husband and I’s nephews and nieces and I can’t believe that almost all of them are in their teens or in their young 20’s! It certainly doesn’t like that much time has gone by since they were babies!

As I said time flies!

We got a call from our niece in Chicago last night. She said she’s looking into gmat prep courses as she’d like to take a graduate business administration course. She said she’s looking into the Gmat prep courses at Knewton because they have the practice items, practice Gmat Cats, 36 live teaching hours, live office hours and a membership time of 12 months.

I don’t know much about Gmat prep courses, but I like that it’s online. I’ve become quite a fan of online courses in the last several years. You can still work and pay the bills while you’re learning!

I’ve you’ve taken a Gmat prep course I’d love to hear where you took it so I can pass that information on to my niece. It might help her decide where to study!

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