Happy Halloween

So I love holidays, and pagan holidays such as Halloween are no exception. My opinion...we need more reasons to have random celebrations over nothing. People would be happier.

So this year on Halloween day I worked in the hospital. An e-mail went out from the office manager that it was ok to dress up for Halloween, we just had to make sure that we were still very professional and able to perform our responsibilities without the costume getting in the way. I was debating 2 different costumes. I don't know how many of you know but I am in 2 different belly-dancing performing troupes and I thought I could just pull a costume together from some of my supplies from that. I was also contemplating using my Rasta hat and making a dread-lock wig out of yarn and wearing that (copying my Aunt Amy from last year). My cousin Jasmine came up with a perfect idea for me too: a ATF agent, but I heard about it the night before Halloween and did not have time to drive to Delta to borrow my dad's bullet-proof vest (alas, maybe next year).

So in the end, I was a "conservative" belly-dancer. It was fun! I was a little nervous about it because I have been reminded several times in the past couple months that because I am a NP I am now a "professional" employee. But I went for it anyway. My motto, if you are gonna wear something, the deciding factor of whether or not people love it or hate it is how you wear it. Rock it and people will love it! I went confidently out into the world and people loved it!

The saddest part is JHACO (the accreditation organization for hospitals: aka people who close hospital's for code violations) was at the hospital for it's routine evaluation. 4 of the 5 floors I work with, the staff were told to not dress up because of JHACO's presence. I did not get that memo! I felt a little stupid at first. But then I started noticing peoples reactions to me, that was the funnest part.

My patients all loved it! Everywhere I went people caught a glimpse of me and smiled. I had one physician who actually had to stop his conversation with someone when I walked up and tell me how great my costume was! I had discussed my costume dilemma with the MD I worked with the day before...when I finally saw him at lunch he smiled, chuckled and said something to the effect of "I've been waiting for this all day! That's Awesome!" Of course none of the 3 MD's I worked with that day dressed up. What do you do? Maybe next year I will figure out a simple, tasteful, fun costume for them to wear and bring it for them (because I could never expect them to try to do it on their own). In the end, I was glad that I decided to dress up. I may have brightened someones day and that is really worth it.

And because it is so close to elections, I found this on the internet and thought I would put out a fun political jab.