Working in a psychiatric hospital you start to wonder about your own sanity. Like really, what separates us from our patients? We all have problems. We all have done bad things in our lives, made poor decisions. We all lose control of our emotions sometimes (GIRLS...I can hear you snickering...stop calling me 'the water works'). We all have things that haunt us, or that we perseverate on, and we all have bad habits. What distinguishes the staff from the patients??
Keys.
Keys provide a magical wonder power. Everything in a psych hospital is locked, every hallway, every door, every office, every stairwell. If you have keys - you are like God. You guard your keys with your life, cause if you lose them, then you may actually lose yourself. You may become adrift with the crowd and be lost down some back hallway only to be found half dishevelled and pestering the nurses for a cigarette. Just being in the building and having to look at the awful colours and sterile walls...its enough to make anyone go batty! I'm pretty sure that's why psych hospital are always full, cause once you get in there is no chance that the surroundings will ever cheer you up enough to make it back out.
Unfortunately I have not quite reached super hero levels with my magical keys yet. I have a smaller than average set - only 5 plus a tag, all for stuff in the hospital. And they have these tiny numbers etched on them that are supposed to tell you what they do. So far as I have figured out the 47 key opens darn near everything, there is a key for the fire alarm, and the other ones...I'm not too sure. I think one is a door key for the whole building, or maybe my supervisors office, and everyone has been debating about the others and what long gone doorway they might have been for. And I'm also completely ungraceful and inept with my keys. There is no fancy one handed confident waltzing through doors. It is much more a two handed, almost drop the chart, nearly knock someone over, and possibly resort to knocking - sort of affair.
I fear that this might mean I am precariously sitting on the line...at any moment I might fall into either camp!
Lots of love
Pamela
p.s. Thunder Bay is FABULOUS. Dinner parties most nights with the other students, too much wine but you can never have too much fun :)
if you are unable to construct a large and complex bowl made of popsicle sticks, you're still on the right side of the line. :)
ReplyDeletewhat does it say if you CAN construct a large and complex bowl of popsicle sticks and it hangs together for 3 decades (great glue)?
ReplyDelete