ER party 2009

ER party 2009

every year, my department holds a party. we used to call them "christmas" parties, but this name has slowly faded, due to the fact that our parties are always in may since during christmas time the ER is bursting past capacity in its peak season (flu, pneumonia, RSV, etc.). the parties are usually casino parties, where you have the chance to gamble with $25 worth of chips (no cash needed!) and when you're done gambling you turn in your chips for raffle tickets to win prizes purchased by the doctors (a few this year included: red door spa day, $100 cash, starbucks giftcard, an ipod shuffle with prepaid itunes downloads, a camera, a blu-ray dvd player...and more!). this year the party was held at austin ranch in grapevine. the food was great, the music was good and i even got the chance to dance and hang out with work friends while not in scrubs!!! i wasn't planning on going, in fact i was scheduled to work that saturday (may 9th) and be charge nurse. but the friday night before i got a call from scott, a new supervisor, saying that they "needed me to be at the party" and that i could either take the whole night off, or come in at 0000 (midnight) and assume charge. i told him, hesitantly, that i would take the 1/2 night off and attend the party...if they "needed" me to. i was curious, and skeptical. i told matt about the change in plans and we quickly threw together some "cowboy" outfits (it was western themed this year) and made plans to attend.
we had a great time, and at the end of the evening the curiosity was over when i was named employee of the year! matt is upset i haven't said more about this, i just don't know how to bring it up in polite conversation. so, there it is! after the awards ceremony they raffled off the prizes and matt & i won a $50 bed, bath & beyond gift card despite our best efforts to snag a starbucks one ;)
after the party, we drove to MCD where i changed and clocked-in. it was a crazy night, a GSW (gun-shot wound) that was transferred to parkland and a 41 year old CPR was what i walked into. just another night in the ER...life and trauma doesn't stop for christmas parties, unfortunately.