Today I got yelled at 4.3 times in twelve hours.

And it didn't bother me a bit.

I've grown inured to the yelling-at that some doctors, pharmacists, other nurses, house supervisors, patients, and facility management specialists (read: Janitors) do.

I used to bristle. I used to take offense. Occasionally I would vent.

Now, if the person doing the yelling is doing it face-to-face, I imagine that person covered with banana pudding. If the person doing the yelling is doing it over the phone, I giggle. Audibly.

Because, you see, *everybody* yells at nurses. We get caught between the proverbial rock and steel plate, and we are the recipients of everybody's frustrations. Toilet broken? Yell at the nurse. Did payroll fuck up your overtime again? Yell at the nurse. Can the pharmacist in Alabama not read your handwriting? Inform the nurse stuffily that that's the same DEA number you've used for the last five years. 

Then listen to the nurse (well, *this* nurse, at any rate) giggle helplessly at your stuffiness.

This is the time of year when I face both burnout and brilliant ideas simultaneously. The time I don't spend updating the blog is time I spend out weeding the garden and grooming the dog. This time of year, I'd like nothing better than to get fired for smarting off to somebody, just so I could work for triple or quadruple what I'm making now, with plenty of time off to weed and groom and just lie in the sun. I know I won't feel that way come January, though, when things are cold and rainy, so I mostly hold my tongue.

And giggle. Audibly. Audibly, but not offensively. Because, honestly? Not one damn thing I got yelled at today had anything to do with me or my nursing. One was a doc who was pissed at a pharmacist; the next was the pharmacist who was pissed at the doc. The third was a patient who had an entirely different nurse. The fourth was a manager who got annoyed that I actually followed hospital policy (and they wonder why I'm such a loose cannon) and did what I was supposed to do.

Keep your yellow "Live Strong" wristbands. You can have your pink ribbons and red dresses and grey ribbons and God knows what else. I am wearing, from here on out, a smiley face. Giggling is my new cause.

You may be next.