This is Francie—aka the Franz. She’s 15! I kinda know how she feels…

So wow, talk about an ass-kicking. I’ve been going in early and staying late all week playing catch-up from Monday, which was my compensatory day off for working this coming Saturday. My brain feels like it’s on a nutrition care elliptical machine or something. However, there have been some funny things getting me through the madness.

For example, I don’t know what was in the hot cereal yesterday, but the patients were in quite a mood all day.

It started at, like, 7:30 a.m., when a guy said to me, “If you are what you eat, then you must be eating some damn exotic stuff!”

Charming.

Then during meal rounds, someone grabbed my hand and kissed it. There was also a funny thing with a very old, sweet lady who didn’t want to let go of said (freshly washed) hand. We had a nice little chat, and at least it was good practice of seeming sane and calm when my brain is all “OMG SO MUCH TO GET DONE IN SO LITTLE TIME!”

I think the funniest part was at the end of my shift, when a bunch of folks were hanging out by the nurses station swapping dirty jokes. I caught one about sex in an eye socket—wtf? Actually, speaking of, author Steve Almond has a short story about eye-socketing (“Skull”) that I kind of love in this book.

Unrelated to the hot cereal where I work but just as odd, as my friend Anna and I were heading a kombucha-making class in Brooklyn later, some boys threw dry pasta at us as passed.

Me: Did that just happen?
Anna: Yeah, um, that was weird.

Teenagers…

At least the ‘buch class was really interesting! I’m not sure I’m going to become a home-brewer, but I’m toying with the idea. In the meantime, I’m looking forward to enjoying my free growler of goodness. I freaking love this stuff.

My other cure for this ridiculous week? Lots and lots of Talking Heads. I also saw a screening of this documentary on Tuesday, and it was awesome!

Heard any good dirty jokes lately? Do you like kombucha?