Blog#29-From Camp to Castle
Kissimmee Prairie Preserve to Stuart, Florida
I loaded up my camp and left Kissimmee Prairie and headed for Stuart, where my friend Pjudy lives.(PaJudy, like pajama). She also goes by her alias, Judy. But I know who she is.
Kissimmee Prairie-my trail to the ponds
I stopped one last time in the park and hiked out to the ponds. Each time, it has a new cast of characters.
Along the trail
On my way back to the car, I found an unsigned 2-day pass into Universal Studios in Orlando. Kismet.
Pjudy’s
I drove to Pjudy’s house–Wow. Beautiful landscaping (by Pjudy), beautiful interior design (by Pjudy).
Pjudy drove me out to Johnathon Dickenson State Park, where I had originally booked a campsite, not knowing how close to Pjudy it was. We thought we might as well check out the park for future purposes (Pjudy and her husband like to camp), plus I had already paid for a campsite, so we utilized the park pass.
The park has a observation tower that we climbed to look out over the area. We could see Jupiter Island where Tiger Woods and Greg Norman live- lifestyles of the rich and famous. The park has miles of bike trails, camping and riverfront.
View from the tower at Jonathon Dickenson State Park
We went back to Pjudy’s and she fixed me a killer meal of Moscow mules, fajitas from leftover BBQ steak and a salad that I will be attempting to duplicate in the very near future. No restaurant could have provided a better meal.
Pjudy is a whirlwind– she goes nonstop. Reminds me of Titi, but slightly taller. And white.
She took me with her to run some errands, and pointed out some spectacular lizards. She was not as impressed with them as they deserve, but my enthusiasm made up for her lack of appreciation. She said she sees them often.
African Redhead Agama, non native
Female African Redhead Agama
She is the kind of friend you can count on, and one of the best nurses I have ever worked with. Pjudy oriented me to the PACU, telling me how she does things(after almost 30 continuous years doing it), but encouraged me to explore my own methods. Of course, being a Clever American Woman, I set out to find the most logical and effective ways to improve on her ways.
Couldn’t be done. The more shifts I worked, the more I saw her rationale for doing things the way she did. I finally stopped wasting energy for the sake of my ego and simply adopted her best practice. No regrets.
Pjudy is my definition of a nurse: she knows her stuff and advocates for her patient-no matter what resistance she meets from surgeons who may have some God complex going on. I have witnessed her dogged persistance to get a chest film done on a fresh postop patient whom she suspected had a pheumothorax. The surgeon kept dismissing her opinions, but she kept after it until the film was done. And the pnuemo confirmed.
I have overheard people out in public complaining that nurses make too much and don’t have to go to school anything like a doctor. They don’t know that doctors rely on nurses to double check them, to question orders that maybe weren’t perfect, to ask for orders for their patients. Like chest films. We actually do work other than make beds and pass out pills.
Day 2 at Pjudy’s and she took me to the beach to go shelling. Together, we got a bucketful. And I took all that Pjudy collected. She lives there, after all…
The Gilbert Bar lookout
I told Pjudy how excited I was to see an endangered gopher tortoise, and she drove me a mile from her house and we saw 5 more. She is such a showoff.
We went out for a great lunch in downtown Stuart. What a cool little town. Saw some amazing lizards–amazing to me, old hat to Pjudy.
Check out the curled tail
I was so glad to see my old friend. I miss her mug. But off to Miami, where my husband and one of my daughters will meet me to spend a few days. I am getting very excited to see family again.
There’s my Pjudy, waving me goodbye