like, totally

The day started off a little strange today. It wasn't even eight in the morning when the orthopedics team started wandering into the wards. The surgeons decided that they wanted to do a few things before starting rounds, something we don't necessarily encourage because all of a sudden it's nine thirty and we're only rounding on our third patient. When they grabbed handfuls of casting supplies I was naturally curious as to whether they would really have the time for all that so early in the morning.

Following them over to the corner to find out what they were planning, I was more than a little surprised when Doctor Frank handed me a pair of gloves and a roll of fiberglass casting tape. You want to wrap some casts?

Not entirely sure whether he was serious or not, I accepted the gloves and headed to the side of Stephane's bed. The casts little Stephane had had put on in the operating room were split neatly down the sides to allow his legs to swell a bit without causing too much pain. Before he went home, he needed new material wrapped around the outside to pull the halves together and make the casts strong enough. Today turned out to be the day I would learn how to do that.

As Doctors Frank and Gary coached me through the process, I had that stupid grin on my face that comes when I get to do something new. It was when I opened by mouth to express my excitement that I made my fatal error, the one that was going to get me laughed at for the remainder of the morning.

This is totally awesome. Totally.

It was at this point that Doctor Frank underwent a sudden personality change and began talking like a valley girl. Every time he addressed either me or my friend Jenn, who was orienting to charge nursing with me today, he did so with a lift at the end of every sentence, his speech liberally sprinkled with likes. He spoke normally to everyone else on the team; only Jenn and I were treated to his head tilts and raised eyebrows, which naturally had us practically rolling on the floor with laughter.

I wasn't planning on learning how to cast this morning. I was also not planning to hear a grey-haired surgeon suddenly transformed into a valley girl.

If nothing else, this life isn't boring.