My time off of work… it always goes by so fast? #nurselife

7 days on, and 8 days off. I have one more day off. During the past 7 days I packed a busy week. I got to spend time doing what I love, coaching. Along with putting my hand on the barbell 4 out of the past 7 days training. So I couldn’t be happier. Top it all off with a weekend spent with my awesome family doing some belated birthday celebrations, and you can call that a pretty kick-##S week.

Here’s my week in pictures:

The sun was shining all week, which made for some awesome training weather during the early morn. I got to coach the 6am class early on in the week, so I’d stick around and train while enjoying the sunrise. Perfection.

http://instagram.com/p/tSWJnTv0Ko/

http://instagram.com/p/taHHMFP0Im/

This was my favorite one..

http://instagram.com/p/tU8t3pP0Gp/

Along the way I discovered I think I broke some sort of ‘branding’ law by wearing all three major brands in one sitting…

http://instagram.com/p/tU3H0Zv0AC/

My week off wouldn’t be complete without a few trips to the store. I decided to share one of my many hidden talents..

http://instagram.com/p/tTNTQlv0IH/?utm_source=partner&utm_medium=embed&utm_campaign=video

For some strange reason I ended catching a nagging head cold / allergy exacerbation (check this previous post: I don’t get sick … often? ). I still sucked it up and made the road trip home to visit my family for some belated birthday celebrations. So of course I have to practice what I preach:

http://instagram.com/p/tdNEV8v0P-/

Despite how crappy I was feeling, I wasn’t gonna let it ruin family-time.. insert McDonald’s-smile:

http://instagram.com/p/tfSiwYv0Az/

We spent a great weekend laughing and catching up with our family. I’m glad we did. I missed them. The more I’m away from them the more I realize how important they are to me, and the time I spend with them is a priority.

In the end, my weekend was partially (if not completely) fueled by:

http://instagram.com/p/tfaaWEP0M9/

Uhh…. Heeelloooh? I’m a nurse. Coffee. It’s what we do.

How was everyone’s weekend? I’m back to the grind on Tuesday for a short stint before another nice long weekend. A belated Wedding Anniversary get-away / celebration with my beautiful wife. 🙂

 

 

Coffee? Did someone say COFFEE?

Well, it’s official. I no longer have a coffee addiction. I have successfully weaned myself from my abusive amount of coffee that I was drinking daily to a mere cup or two in the morning. I honestly will slowly just stop drinking the stuff all together relatively soon. It’s crazy to say, I’m slowly losing the taste for it.

I went from drinking close to 2 pots of coffee a day to 2 cups.

Not too shabby ehh?

I now have another problem though. I seem to have traded one addiction for another. Instead of a coffee mug in my hand you’ll see this:

I’ve become ‘THAT‘ guy. The ‘Shaker Cup’ guy.

Heh heh…

For the love of that beautifully brewed beverage – Coffee

For the Love of Coffee – YouTube.

While my love for coffee is unquestionable, I always find my sense of humor when it comes to the coffee connoisseurs of the world. The ‘hoighty-toighty’ urban dwellers that spend more time sipping the darn stuff and categorizing this fine beverage instead of enjoying it.

Take for instance Kopi Luwak brand coffee:

“…is one of the most expensive coffees in the world, selling for between US$100 and $600 per pound in 2010”

Yet, guess how this ‘fine brew’ is made:

“refers to the beans of coffee berries once they have been eaten and excreted by the Asian palm civet (a cat)”

That’s right folks, the most expensive and supposedly the best tasting coffee is made from the excrement of wild cats.

I do have to wonder how good that coffee tastes? Now if you’ll excuse me, my coffee mug needs a refill.

Is it really the coffee??

New $7 Cup of Coffee at Starbucks – YouTube.

I just finished having a nice chat with a great friend over a cup of  coffee. We seem to pick a new place each time we have our coffee talks. Which I find oh so interesting.

I’m not a coffee connoisseur by any means. I’m a ‘coffee person’ but I’m just a black cup of coffee kind of guy. I add some sugar substitute, but nothing more. No mocha-latte-chocho-skim-frappe with or without cream. Just a hot cup o’joe.

I’ve tried many types of coffee. I’ve tried the expensive stuff. I’ve tried the down-right cheaper than dirt stuff. Aannd I’ve sipped on many of the middle of the road concoctions. And quite honestly I don’t think it has anything to do with the coffee. I mean, really. In the end, don’t we all ‘doctor up’ our cup o’joe to our liking anyway?

Here’s my point.

Maybe it’s really not about the coffee, or the coffee shop, or the barista or the particular store chain flavor of your choice. Maybe it’s about the conversation? Maybe it’s about the company?

…..

Maybe..

Ideal Coffee Time??

• 
  _{Source: Gizmodo, NeuroscienceDC, Dailynews}

Whelp.. I’m pretty much on track. Although I’ve been known to drink coffee all the way through the day except for lunch.

😉

 

Reference: The best time to drink coffee according to science – I Love Coffee.

Coffee and Nursing..

I really would expect the Nursing profession to be the profession who consumes the most coffee. 13th?? Maybe it’s a biased opinion? I for one KNOW I drink an abusive amount of coffee. I actually am afraid to count and calculate just how much coffee I truly drink during one day.

My total ounces consumed can be skewed. It’s a vice of opportunity. I drink coffee when I open my eyes, I drink it on the commute to work and then I drink an insane amount while on the job.

Buuuuuuuut, I also can down a pot o’ coffee without blinking an eye when I’m at home and not at work.

I like the taste. I like the smell. Heck there isn’t much about coffee I don’t like! I think my coffee drinking has taken the place of my mindless eating in front of the television. Now I mindlessly drink cup after caffeinated-cup sitting in front of my Mac. Sometimes I’m productive, like writing blog posts, or researching material for future post. While other times I’m aimlessly hopscotching and web surfing the vast array of social media hot spots.

I know I’m addicted to it. I just can’t decide if I’m addicted to the ‘concept’ of my cup o’ joe, or am I truly addicted to the caffeine response? I can go without coffee and not get the run-down headachey feelin’, but I truly just want to taste the stuff.

Yep. I know. I’m sick.

So, any-hoo. Back to the infographic. I’m having a hard time grasping the concept and accepting the fact that  there are nurses out there who don’t drink coffee. Period. Like none at all??!!!

I think my heart just stopped a lil’.

Excuse me while I go make another pot. 😉

Which profession drinks the most coffee? – I Love Coffee.

New Dunkin’ Donuts & CareerBuilder® Survey Reveals Which Professionals Need Coffee the Most

One cup of coffee a day..

Via Cartoon: 5 Healthy Reasons to Drink Coffee – Cartoon Contest Winner – About A Nurse – Nursing Cartoon Series

This was so appropriate for me.

Heck.. for almost all nurses.

 

Coffee and Tattoos

Drinking coffee is like having tattoos. I remember a wonderful quote about tattooed and non-tattooed people:

The only difference between tattooed and non-tattooed people is… tattooed people don’t care if you’re not tattooed. 

Wait.. what was I talking about?

Oh yeah. Tattoos and coffee. I believe non-coffee drinkers just can’t understand us coffee drinkers. Or maybe they just don’t appreciate the seriousness of our addiction… err I mean habit?

More specifically, don’t ever ask a non-coffee drinker (like my wife) to make a pot of coffee for the coffee drinker in the house (that would be me).

I awoke to coffee and coffee grounds and hot water all over the kitchen counter. Not quite sure what happened during the making of the coffee.. but something wasn’t done correctly. LOL. I love that she was kind enough to make my coffee, but I think I’ll be making it from now on. Heh heh. (If my wife is reading this – LOVE YOU BABE)

Where was I going with the whole coffee and tattoo thing?..

Oh yeah…

The difference between a coffee drinker and a non-coffee drinker is that the coffee drinker doesn’t care if you don’t drink coffee.

 

😉

 

I’m Up!

Ever have days like that? I think I have had too many lately. Darn school. Heh heh

Amplify’d from verydemotivational.memebase.com

STAYING AWAKE

See more at verydemotivational.memebase.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/bv912

Caffeeeeeeeeine anyone?

Another post from Scrubs Magazine I wrote that I thought was worth sharing. How much is too much?

Amplify’d from scrubsmag.com

A glutton for caffeinated punishment

How thirsty are you? How much coffee does one need in one sitting? It seems the land of over-abundance has struck again. Starbucks = caffeine. Am I wrong? We all know that Starbucks is the vacation get-away for all things caffeinated. I only know ‘of’ it since I don’t frequent their stores. My coffee drinking repertoire is simple  and bland, so a mocha-latte-choco-espresso-whipped-not-stirred-slightly-steamed-with-ice phenomena still escapes me. It seems that we not only need as much variety as possible in our coffee-diet, but we need more of it. Lots and lots of it to be frank. It seems that the latest serving size offered by the coffee-bean connoisseur is also a wine lover of sorts? The ‘Trenta’ serving size cup holds the equivalent fluid amount in a bottle of wine. Yes, you can drink an entire bottle of wine.. err coffee in one serving. I guess my question to all my fellow caffeinated colleagues is why? In what scenario would we NEED to carry around that much coffee in one trip/station/sitting? I’ll admit it. I’m addicted to coffee, or the caffeine, or the taste, or something. I really don’t know what, I just know I can down some serious coffee while I’m at work (or at home if we’re laying it all out on the table). But I can’t see myself needing / wanting / utilizing this new serving size in any capacity of my day. First of all you have a full bottle of wine.. sorry coffee. You have OVER 750 ml of coffee in your hand. According to the graphics I’ve seen Trenta cups actually holds 916 ml!! 916 ml! So you either drink a lot of coffee very fast, or you have a cold cup of coffee by the time you actually drink all of it. The ramifications of this have a type of domino effect. Do you remember the suggestion I made about over eating? Psychology experts have suggested that when using a smaller plate / bowl you actually will subconsciously eat less. Eating less will curb the excess calories. So what do you think this gargantuan sized serving of coffee is doing? It’s subconsciously convincing you that you not only need to finish the entire amount in the cup, but that you actually need that much coffee in one serving! I’m not disputing the positive or negative health effects of coffee. That’s been discussed at great lengths lately, and there still is no definitive answer. What is definitive is the idea of ‘everything in moderation’. Moderation is the key to maintaining a healthier you. How much ‘moderation’ is in this Trenta cup? Things that make you go hmm. Read more at scrubsmag.com

 

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/apaxv