Last night I stood out in the pouring rain in my socks and ate a plum and looked up at the sky, and got completely soaked. Yum.

I just returned from a trip to Colorado with Justin, which involved a cold night of camping in Questa, a meet-the-extended-family occasion, which went very well, and a lot of great walks and talks in my sister's new neighborhood (which used to be mobster and moon-shine central during the prohibition era, along with being the Little Italy of Denver).

I've only worked 2 shifts thus far this week, but the round up of Espanola drama has included a heroin addicted baby born in the ambulance and then transported here, a major postpartum hemmorhage, 3 precipitous deliveries--one occurring into a woman's sweatpants on the stretcher (the best part being that she didn't make a peep and we only knew the baby had been born when we heard some muffled whimpers coming from her pants--talk about stoic!), I held a 14wk fetus in my hands while it was still attached by a tiny umbilical cord leading inside the mom, and I successfully put a catheter in a 300+ lb lady. Now if only telling of such excitement gave me the strength/will to get through the next 4 shifts.... I scheduled myself a little whackily so that I could have time to go to Colorado and to Kansa City for my friends wedding next weekend, which means not having to actually take time off from work, but having to work 75hrs in 6 days.

...So on that note, I have to go to bed now! I'm not honestly sure why I'm still awake!

much love, Rachel

rounding it out

June? What? That means we're halfway through 2010.
That means I've worked at the hospital and lived in Santa Fe for 8 full months now. That means I'm going back to Peru next month...and that the Mayan calendar ends in a year and a half...and that more than anything: time is going really F'ng fast, and so I better be focusing on my priorities before I find myself too deep in something other than what I want to be doing. This comes down to: I want to be practicing as a healer, well more literally: one who helps facilitate the body's own natural processes, helping people be whole and well, without assaulting the body with chemicals and external forces, but acknowledging the body's wisdom and allowing it to do it's work. This is one reason I'm so drawn to midwifery, because it's about empowering a beautiful process and not getting in the way of nature. So...I want to be doing this. But I want to be spending an immense amount of time outside too, learning about the land and the insects and plants. And more concretely, I want to become a certified professional midwife, go to Guatemala and be a hiking guide there, and buy land in Peru or at least hang out on my friend Conrad's land and catch babies there for villagers.
Phew. Just had to get that out the way.

As for updates: I went back to the midwest for a long weekend to celebrate my brother's graduation from Lewis University and my cousin's wedding. I flew into Minneapolis and saw some good friends there--ate at the wonderful Birchwood Cafe with Karen, Alexis, and Kelsey, then drove down to Des Moines. My eyes loved seeing so much green and my skin felt moisturized just by existing there. As always, I had a fabulous time with my cousins and was delighted by the Iowa salsa scene. I went dancing on Sat nightat the Des Moines Embassy Club, and a girl who I met in the bathroom gave me a shot of tequila in a mouthwash cup from her flask. On another night, I enjoyed playing tennis surrounded by big trees and flood lamps that drew mosquitoes...

I was happy to come back to Santa Fe, where you don't stick to your chairs when sitting outside. My friends and I celebrated the glorious weather here, by literally taking all of the furniture out of my living room and putting in the front yard, where we grilled up some asparagus, corn on the cob, and homemade black bean burgers on the grill I bought from a police officer on craigslist earlier that day.

This past week we lost one of our travel nurses, so I had to step up and be a charge nurse twice last week, which meant it was just me on the unit with a less experienced nurse. We ended up having an emergency C-section, who later needed a blood transfusion, and a patient came up so dehydrated that the ER had to put an IV in her neck because her veins were so flat. Fun times. I am grateful for the challenge that it provided me, and that I was able to handle it all pretty smoothly! It renewed my sense of worth in doing this work for now, which I never wanted to do (be in a hospital that is), and made me feel that much more confident in my skillz. However it also strengthened my belief in the fact that for normal healthy women, hospital birthing is dangerous, and that the more we mess with the body's natural processes, the more likely we are to end up with bad outcomes (not to mention expensive!)

And last but not least, I have a boyfriend. I feel very strange using that word, as in the last 2 1/2 years I have become unaccustomed to using it with any relation to myself. But yep. I was wooed by a boy who I met in a cave on the Zia reservation, and who on our 2nd time hanging out dissected coyote poop and told me what he suspected it had eaten, pointed out some bats' hiding place under a bridge, enlightened me about bee reproductive anatomy, then made me dinner in a skillet which I convinced him should be eaten on his roof, where we looked at the stars. Que romantico :)

Well, that's it for now folks! Cheers to bbqs, summer nights, corn on the cob, and thunder storms!
xxxxoooooRO

My beautiful yard/outdoor living room and my wonderful friends

Oh yeah, and I hosted an early 90s themed skating party a couple weeks ago....and I forgot to tell Justin the theme :) see sparkly fanny pack