Late For Work

Arriving at work, I heard the excited cries of my coworkers, "Melissa is here." That was unusual. Normally, only my dogs get that excited to see me. Everyone was excited because I was late for only the second time in my nursing career. Well, they weren't excited that I was late, they were excited that I had finally arrived. They weren't concerned for my safety, they just didn't want the added burden of having to take care of my patients. I totally understand that. Even after I arrived, we were still short-staffed.

What made me late was the same thing that had me late on that other occasion, a brush fire. Going through the Newhall pass, traffic came to a complete stop. With the smoke and helicopters flying around, it wasn't hard to figure out what the problem was. All I could do was call in late and wait.

While waiting, I was thinking about that other time a fire got in my way. I was four hours late to work. That had me a little worried because I had drunk a lot of fluids before leaving the house today and I could feel a growing pressure in my bladder. If this was going to be another four hour wait, I wasn't going to make it. I was starting to look around in my car for something to pee in, in case it became a crisis situation. After only half an hour, the freeway was re-opened averting a bladder incident.