So it's cold outside

And people in the south have no idea how to drive/deal with it!

Christmas Night it started snowing here and there’s been snow (albeit very little) on the ground ever since. And what happened that night? Every loaf of bread, gallon of milk, and carton of eggs disappeared! People…this is the South…it’s all gunna be gone in a few minutes.

As you can see, I’m not from the south for two reasons - 1: I love the cold weather, and 2: I know how to freakin drive when there’s snow!!!!!

But actually all that aside, this post has to do with what happens when these poor southerners realized that they’ve panicked for no good reason. Their coping mechanisms are proven useless! Ok so that wasn’t a really good way to segway into it, but I just had to vent about Southerners and Snow!

Today I think I discovered a new way for ME to cope when things start to suck. I spent 11 hours building book cases for the apartment I’m moving into in about a week. I have to put all my effort into the wood work because it’s kind of imperative that stuff be level! Also, I’m left handed and they don’t make power tools for me, so I have to be extra careful, or I’ll be going to the ER as a Patient and not as a Nurse!

So for a good 11 hours I haven’t been thinking about all the lovely stuff that bothers me (Being Single, stress at work – and now the new one, moving into an apartment for the first time!) And after I was finished I realized I’d gone almost a whole day without dwelling on that stuff – until I started thinking about it.

So maybe I’ve found a good coping mechanism (unfortunately it isn’t cheap). But it got me wondering how you can have a “good” or “bad” way to cope.

Sure on a daily basis I have patients that come in drunk, high or looking to get high and 9/10 they just want a way to deal with the shit that is going on in their life, I can understand (if not quite respect) their choice. I mean, if your going through your 2^nd divorce and your only 27….yeah I’d probably be popping Oxy too...no… I wouldn’t.

But still, what if a “good” way to cope (like exercise) consumes you and you lose your job because you were running your 17^th marathon this week? And honesty if you were just Code 40’d (Sexually Assaulted) I can’t think of anyone judging you because you’re trying to cope anyway you can!

But I figured I could at least list what I do to cope with stress (and life when it become sucky), maybe somebody else can give me some insight if I’m doing something right or wrong!

*And I’m going to skip the usual things like “Listen to Music, Read a Book, Take a Nap, etc.” Because everybody dose them, and I figure the more important ones are – well – more important.

I blog (I try to blog about positive stuff (and nursing stuff since that’s what the point is supposed to be) but lately it seems to have become a vent zone so that I can let off steam – that and I’m not so good at keeping up with it.

Building: Actually when I was younger I use to build stuff with LEGOS and that always helped…but when you get older it’s kind of frowned upon for adults to play with toys. So now It’s furniture, decks, a little bit of tinkering with cars.

Drinking – No Just Kidding – I do have a drink every now and then, but I don’t get drunk, I hate drinking alone, and 9/10 I’d rather have water anyway. But I do see many people who this is their primary coping mechanism, and I have to tell you – I wouldn’t want to be drunk, you look, talk and act like an asshole and half the time you don’t remember what is going on so you have to spend the next day apologizing for everything!

Not to mention hangovers have got to be a royal pain in the ass!

Research – yeah, it’s kind of reading but I try to look up ways to be a better nurse. I also try to go over information I may have learned in High School or College and see if I can relearn what I have forgotten (sometimes it’s pretty cool, other times dull as it was back then).

And those are the three kind of big ones recently. I do read and go running when I’m pissed but lately I just come back, tired, hurting and still pissed so running isn’t doing a whole lot for me at the moment!

What do you guys think?