Monday, February 9, 2009

Candy

As I travel through third year, rotating from service to service, hospital to hospital, my life is filled with a barrage of unfamiliar faces, strange new computer systems, new keypad codes for new supply rooms... and I search for the slightest bit of comfort, something that I already know, something that I don't have to figure out... and that thing is usually candy.

Wherever I am, whatever I'm doing, I always make sure I know where the nearest candy machines are, which ones charge only 75 cents for the candies, which ones try to get away with charging a dollar fifty. I know which soda machines sell diet coke in a can (Pepsi isn't the same thing, and diet coke in a plastic bottle isn't the same thing...) and I know which ones are generally well stocked, which ones take the crumpled dollar bills...

So, as my life spins out of control, I can sip Diet Coke and nibble on Starbursts as I jot down new supply room door codes, try to memorize the new names and faces that will be evaluating me, and try to figure out the new computer system.