Writing: Up to 25 pgs of 137 total edited. Mostly. Book 1 edits will be here soon, I’m told, and the thought of that is freaking me out.

Work: Very busy this past weekend. I didn’t get to catch up on the news until now. So sad about Wisconsin — I hope that Walker gets impeached, and that they can somehow undo all the damage he’ll do to their economy. Hope hope hope.

I live in a state that’s on the fence about unions. I happen to belong to a union, and am also a state employee.

As a nurse, I’m at a high risk for all sorts of things, from radiation to toxic chemicals to crazy infections, because of my job. I’ve been stuck by needles before. I don’t know a single nurse in an ICU setting who hasn’t been, at least once. I’ve been punched, spit on, kicked at, groped. I’ve been called every name in the book, in many languages. These situations aren’t unique to me or my floor — hell, they aren’t even unique for most public employees, heh.

We have traveling nurses that come in from all over the US — sometimes from all over the world. And the stories they tell — damn. There are hospitals where there’s one nurse for every ten patients — or twenty, depending on the floor. Where if they don’t have someone to replace you for the next shift they’ll make you stay over, whenever they want, rather than hire new employees — because in those states, as a nurse, you can’t leave, you’d be prosecuted for patient abandonment (a law that makes sense, but not when it’s used to jack you over for weeks at a time). Where you don’t get sick time…even if you’re sick….as a nurse. I mean…where is the sense in that?

My union helps to keep me safe — which helps me to keep my patients safe. It’s easier being on the frontline of the hospital when I know someone has got my back.