Mitchell
Welcome back to the show, doing the most with the Scarlet Mitchell episode 25. Mm-hmm. What? Grocery store scenes and big dreams. How are those big dreams coming out? The stories that sparkle and barely begin?

Scarlet
And end.

Mitchell
Oh But am I doing it wrong?

Scarlet
No.

Mitchell
Oh, after twenty-five minutes.

Scarlet
I just feel like I always have to add that.

Mitchell
Oh, okay, okay. Well, welcome back everybody. You’ve made it this far Uh we’ve made it this far. Um yeah, let’s do this. So episode twenty oh did I say twenty twenty six. Did I say twenty five A second? It is 26. It doesn’t matter. Okay. We it’s off to a nice classic uh doing the most start uh nice and rocky rough. Oh, and let me just beep, beep, oh, beep, beep the timer Okay, making sure it’s rolling.

Scarlet
Oh, okay.

Mitchell
We’re doing good. We are. This is out of the gates, an excellent show, by the way. Thank you.

Scarlet
Yeah.

Mitchell
It’s really going good. How do you feel about it right now?

Scarlet
We got a free Morocca.

Mitchell
Well, I guess we kinda paid for it. Yeah. It’s feeling good.

Scarlet
$130 Morocca.

Mitchell
Yeah. Well, maybe $65 because you got a set of bills. Okay. But I um yeah. So it’s going good so far, I just touch and bass, check it in with ya. Yeah?

Scarlet
Yeah.

Mitchell
What kind of tea are you drinking?

Scarlet
Oh um the Oh my gosh, what is it called? It’s not the little bear, it’s the North Star, North.

Mitchell
And this is from Matolius, okay.

Scarlet
Yes.

Mitchell
And I am drinking I hibiscus rose and sweet berries, maybe, from Good Earth. Does sound like a tea? I don’t know. I may have made it I think I said I’m pretty sure. It’s ’cause I’m out of uh sweet and spicy, but this is good stuff So, all right. Lots to talk about and a little too little time. Time we’re short, by the way. You know what I want to oh phew. Boy, I do have an I’m so tired.

Scarlet
Okay. Okay So I’m so tired and I feel like this is I feel like this always happens to us. And it happened yesterday.

Mitchell
Oh, okay, sorry.

Scarlet
I’m so tired. Of being at a restaurant and you hear at the table next to you Can I make a suggestion? And they’re saying this the like the waiter waitress.

Mitchell
Yes, can I give a little feedback?

Scarlet
Yeah. Can I give you a little feedback? Can I give you a suggestion And it’s usually coming from, you know, a person of non-color.

Mitchell
Okay.

Scarlet
Okay.

Mitchell
Uncolored.

Scarlet
Yeah. So, you know, one of us.

Mitchell
Yeah.

Scarlet
And we were at a restaurant yesterday. Um it seemed to be owned by like a lovely Latino family, like Yeah. It was called the Daily Feast. It was in downtown Portland and we just happened I was picking up my library card um so I could keep my Libby account. So um We just happened in there and they had like diner style food and it was like a nice little cozy joint and They had like little figurines for your kids to play with and I was like, this is so great.

Mitchell
It was like kind of I liked it because it was cozy, like very tight.

Scarlet
Yeah. And they were super friendly staff and I got like a really good um uh what roasted sweet potato salad and my it had like a Dijon and I really liked that ha the Dijon had like a lot of black pepper. So I feel like she must have had a salad and that’s what she was complaining about because I remember her saying there was too much black pepper or something.

Mitchell
But I just remember but w it was funny ’cause she said, Oh have a little feedback. And then you and I both look at each other and we’re like leaning in a little bit over to the table like, okay, this is gonna be fun Yeah, she said something like, Well an Italian vinaigrette. She’s like, you should she was telling them to taste it too, I think. You should try. I think it has too much pepper and Italian vinaigrette. And all I wanted to do is I kept I remember I was like Why I want to see the meeting.

Scarlet
I’m like, listen here, lady. This place has been around for ten years without your feedback. Why don’t you go find yourself a cracker barrel, okay?

Mitchell
Yeah. Wow. See yourself out. Yeah, it was just kinda like ’cause I couldn’t tell if she was angling for like Yeah. She didn’t seem to be I don’t know, it was just that weird like, okay. And I the guy I remember he took.

Scarlet
And I’m like Yeah, and this is why we should be hated. Because we’re terrible. Stop it. Nobody cares about your opinions on food. Yeah. Your terrible opinions on white people food. Go cook your casserole. Don’t add any seasoning to it, okay?

Mitchell
Like anyway, so Yeah, I don’t I am trying to think I well, so yeah, no, I get that was and I th I don’t wanna make it a thing, but I do feel like It was a certain type like it was a woman forties, fifties. Mm-hmm.

Scarlet
Yeah.

Mitchell
In that zone.

Scarlet
With like other older white people.

Mitchell
Yeah, but she I didn’t get the vibe that she had kids. I don’t know.

Scarlet
I d what am I saying? We’re making all these like generalizations.

Mitchell
But I feel like that’s what I would expect it out of. I’m trying to think.

Scarlet
I’m guessing she doesn’t use a lot of hot sauce

Mitchell
Yeah.

Scarlet
On things.

Mitchell
Or the pepper was yeah, it was. It was like because we were like, oh, I was I really was. We were both like, I thought, where are we going with this? Like, oh, she’s complaining. And I also saw in my head Your did your salad did the uh dressing come in its own little ramicant? Yeah. So in my head I thought, like did she not like it or was there an issue because she could have tasted it You know, I always if I’m unsure about something, I always just taste it for put your fork in there, just ta you know, maybe a little too peppery for me. Ask for something different, but then to give the feedback, it was kind of weird. As if she’s some sort of vinaigrette expert as well. I remember thinking, Oh So now you’re an Italian vinaigrette. And that’s why I wanted to see the menu, because what if it just said vinaigrette? And she’s all like, well an Italian vinaigrette.

Scarlet
Okay, there were two salads on there. Okay. There was the house salad. with probably some sort of vinaigrette. And then there was the one I had, the roasted sweet potato salad with a Dijon vinaigrette.

Mitchell
So

Scarlet
What the lady I d whatever.

Mitchell
So anyways they offer some feedback.

Scarlet
Yeah.

Mitchell
It’s like, oh, I never sound like it’s gonna go on. Yeah.

Scarlet
Yeah. Well don’t do it.

Mitchell
I won’t let you be that person.

Scarlet
I would I would never. I would never. I feel like they’ve been open since twenty sixteen ’cause I went and went through Instagram, I was scrolled all the way down and I’m like, they have survived ten years without your stupid

Mitchell
feedback lady. I mean I did see a lot of people writing too much pepper. I’m just kidding. Definitely too much salt, wink wink, if you know what I mean, in the restaurant.

Scarlet
I don’t know what that means.

Mitchell
It was fine. It was delicious.

Scarlet
Thank you, Daily Feast.

Mitchell
We loved it. I had that Teresa bowl.

Scarlet
The pancakes were delightful. Our kid had them. So yeah

Mitchell
It was no, I I would go back. Very good. I mean it was a nice little pleasant surprise. So I’m gl uh yes, I am glad that you are tired of

Scarlet
Those people.

Mitchell
Leaving those people. You, a white lady. I was I can’t you know, I’m not wearing my glasses ’cause the but we do send this out on the YouTubers, right? And uh so I wanna look like I don’t wear glasses like Less smart or I don’t know, I can’t tell. If you’re on YouTube, you’d find us at Les Cast Please. Or on any of the socials This is my uh bi-weekly plug. And I got a haircut. You can go check it out if you don’t even care. But you should like and subscribe. Let’s get up to three subscribers on YouTube So I think we have more than that. I’m just kidding around. Here’s what I have. Well I have lots of notes. These are my weird notebooks that I make. And then if you go they go back in time it’ll be like, oh, file taxes Uh check out the medical bill for this. Anyway, this one I had to scratch at the bottom today’s notes because I didn’t go digital on this. But I had a thing and was like, today I officially fed one of the squirrels I don’t think about feeding squirrels, which because I don’t know if we’ve ever mentioned this before.

Scarlet
I mean we’re not talking about the squirrel feeding.

Mitchell
Doing the most for us is well, I don’t we don’t even know where this inception of this whole thing was. It’s about other people doing the most, and we realize we’re doing the most. I was like, we are doing the most with like the with all the I’ve mentioned it. You have like 400 bird feeders and suet cake things and how many bird feeders and you’re attracting

Scarlet
I’ve made two Scrub Jay friends too, guys. I’ve made two Scrub Jay friends that I they’ll come like swoop down on the porch and they’ll kinda be like, where’s our peanut? And I’ll walk out and be like, oh, you want your peanuts? And then they’ll fly to like close by trees until I can lay the peanuts down. And they’ll like swoop right back in and like take the peanuts.

Mitchell
And they actually are strangely picky They will kind of sort through the peanuts items.

Scarlet
Even though they end up taking all of them.

Mitchell
Yeah, it’s like, oh not this one, not this one. Yeah. So and these are by the way, these are raw peanuts for folks who are worried we’re not giving them uh uh high blood pressure or something with a lot of salted snacks. We are looking out for their health, the all raw peanuts, uh and then the squirrels. So I had seen here’s the funny thing, I was thinking about this, because there are We have the CJ brothers, the two red they’re Eastern red fox squirrels, I think is technically what they’re. Excuse me, fox squirrels, because they have bushy tails. They’re chubby.

Scarlet
And they have cute little fuzzy red and they’re actually a nuisance animal

Mitchell
uh in an Oregon invasive species and um then there’s the gray eastern gray squirrels and then the Oregon gray squirrels and I don’t know all the differences but Uh there’s the CJ Brothers, those two. And then the other ones, this is a gray squirrel of some sort that comes up. You a couple two weeks ago, three weeks ago, a week ago. A couple weeks ago. Some point.

Scarlet
You have been given peanuts and one of them just came up and Well it started because there were like I put out all this bird seed, right?

Mitchell
Yeah.

Scarlet
And there were Like four squirr squirrels just like swooped in. And sorry, I put out some birdseed, I put out some peanuts, I put out some meal worms, and like they four squirrels just swooped in and I opened the door and I’m like You guys need to get out. You’re like, get out of here. Right. And all of a sudden, one of them just like walks up to me and is just like, hey. And I’m like, oh. Do you want a peanut? And I hand him a peanut and he just takes it.

Mitchell
And that’s how it started. Okay. Yeah.

Scarlet
And then And and then I named him Buster.

Mitchell
Yeah. Now we’re not we’re pretty sure it’s the same one because so you fed Buster many times.

Scarlet
Yeah.

Mitchell
Today I was just looking out the window and there was like three squirrels I don’t know what they’re doing in the yard. They look like they’re either burying nuts or looking for I don’t know what. They’re just working in the moss. There’s not even grass anymore. They’re just like doing their thing. And then all of a sudden they all kinda scurry up the up the to the deck, up the stairs and I’m standing there and I was like, oh and then one of them does the thing and hops up onto the the uh barbecue grill And s and I was like, Oh, maybe um may I’ll try to feed one myself, see how this works out. I go out, open the door, and he hops down, comes up, and I just hand him a peanut. And he comes with his little tiny little paw and he like kinda puts it on my touches my finger, but then he like takes the peanut. Right? But he touches me and I was like, Oh, and it was very soft, like gentle, delicate touch. I thought, Wow, I I don’t know. I told you I wasn’t I wasn’t sure was I expecting more like him to grab it and then grab the peanut. I don’t know. I was worried about him getting angry and biting me. He took it Did his thing. And I was like, oh, that was pretty like, you know. And then so I waited a while and I looked around and another one kind of came up and didn’t I thought no. And he turned around. Then I was like, okay. Then all of a sudden I saw one jump up on the barbecue grill. I was like, I think that’s our guy. Then he jumps down and goes under and comes and I hand him another peanut. And I was like, and I filmed that one. I was like, okay. And then I was so it’s kind of funny because I thought I was like, oh, we’ve trained these squirrels. I’m like, not really. We’ve not trained the squirrels because that would imply that I like open the door and then whistle a little tune and then knock three times and then he jumps up and does something and gets a peanut. It’s really like ’cause I was thinking there’s just one squirrel so far that just doesn’t have that fear, which is really I mean, he just Whatever it was, he was like, Yeah, I’m gonna go up to this giant smelly thing and it’s holding a peanut. I’m gonna take it. Like that’s what made me laugh to think like Why that one scrolls this way.

Scarlet
Maybe he’s just the dumb one with bad survival skills.

Mitchell
He’s not gonna make it through the winter through but yeah. But he just comes up and takes the peanut. It’s kinda cute. I mean I’m part of me now is like And we got a lot of cats that are interest of you’ve people have heard you may know this. We have five cats. If you didn’t now you know. Spoiler alert, there’s a lot of ’em. That’s why at less cats please. Um but the cats kind of sometimes mill about, you know. Didn’t you say one the fat CJ brothers took a peanut? I’m sorry, I should say fat. Husky.

Scarlet
Yes, one of them took it.

Mitchell
The red ones, yeah

Scarlet
Which I was so happy ’cause I was like my goal was like I gotta get one of these red ones because they’re so cute.

Mitchell
But then maybe it was the cat that went out. Scared ’em. We’re not sure.

Scarlet
I don’t know. I don’t know if the friendly ones have been here today

Mitchell
Yeah, they don’t the red ones don’t come at the same time than the gray ones come. They’re like working in shifts or something. But so I guess I was saying like we’re not really training ’em, they’re just kinda or they’re training us either way.

Scarlet
I thought about getting like a little bell it can ring. Oh.

Mitchell
I don’t know. It’s getting now this to the most doing the most. Let’s just enjoy it. I though I was yeah so my uh grandfather had trained trained. I keep saying that He he had gotten a squirrel’s out he had a uh like a lazy boy, the old fashioned like that kinda crumply valore rocking, you know.

Scarlet
Mm-hmm

Mitchell
And he had them the squirrels would come up all the way into the house up to his uh the arm rest on the chair and get the peanuts from it.

Scarlet
Was this Phil?

Mitchell
No, no.

Scarlet
And then go Which grandpa?

Mitchell
This is actually a great grandfather.

Scarlet
Oh.

Mitchell
My bad. And then he would go and the squirrel would go out and I was like, and I remember I was a teenager, like, how’d you do this? She’s like I just would put a peanut down and slowly kept putting them f or further and further indoors until it was up there ’til they came all the way up. And I was like, I thought I’d try it as a kid and I had gotten a squirrel to come up I think just barely inside the sliding door. That was about it. And that was a you know, the end I was a teenager. That was the end of my patience, you know, with that. But so I thought, oh, it’d be kinda interesting, although we have too many cats to see if we could get ’em to come inside the house a little bit. I don’t know.

Scarlet
And I don’t know why because I bet as it gets nicer outside we could sit on the porch swing and we could get them closer. Garner their trust a little more. Like hey. If I could just pet one of their heads

Mitchell
Man, I feel like they have to have rabies or something. I feel like that is a dangerous game.

Scarlet
I I don’t know. I feel like you you think rabies is like ri way more rampant than it actually is.

Mitchell
I live in the world of the nineteen eighties where uh kidnapping rabies and kids drowning happen pff like every four minutes in America. So I don’t know where we’re at today, but that’s the world I live in and that’s my anxiety all the time. So Uh anyway, feeding the squirrels. If you have a feeding the squirrel story, send it in.

Scarlet
Oh my gosh. And like last week we saw a raccoon in the backyard and I got so excited.

Mitchell
Uh okay. Now I’m pretty sure that they all have some sort of disease.

Scarlet
No. It’s called cuteness. No, actually, there there’s like the like there’s there’s no they’re thinking There’s some research coming out that’s saying like their raccoons might be the next domesticated pet

Mitchell
Because they’re they’re people that ha I’ve seen those videos on the TikToker.

Scarlet
They’re being like bred to look or they’re they’re evolving to look cuter because their snouts are getting shorter and their eyes are getting more puppy like, so

Mitchell
Okay, well they’re evolving to come into our lives. I yeah, not in my life. I want less. I want The whole point of this uh experiment is I thought we’re trying to get rid of stuff. Okay. Fair enough. I mean animals, but I mean, okay. If we had a friendly one that lived outside, I could handle that.

Scarlet
Yeah. But not Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

Mitchell
I don’t want one inside. Raccoon. I feel like the raccoon is always used as a comedic tool in certain movies where there’s one that attacks somebody and then I’m imagining like uh Will Ferrell like uh spinning around with a scroll. They all do. Uh okay, so we sold on our last uh podcast that this week would be pillow talk A little special episode of Pillow Talk. Oh, if I had a harp music, I’d be pillow talk, by the way. This is what the this is the core of the episode. We got a few minutes left to talk about it. Um This this all started. Well this conversation started like this. I have a picture. I’m not going to show it. I mean, but I’m going to pull it up in theory and so I can read it. Right? So in my place of work, which is your place of work, which is a hospital, we don’t tell people where we work I mean on the podcast, yeah. I my my own kids don’t even know where I work. No. Um so I’m just saying it’s What are we, Steven? We we are on a uh we work at a place and it’s uh It’s not a private hospital, there’s multiple. Okay, di’s. They’re literally.

Scarlet
Yeah.

Mitchell
Um We are I can’t move this T then.

Scarlet
Yeah, yeah.

Mitchell
We w work at a hospital that there’s multiple hospitals. I guess I’m saying there’s hospitals nationally. To give like an idea. Okay. No, go ahead. Well I’m just saying as opposed to we worked at Salem, there’s only one of those. I worked at a Kaiser, there’s lots of those. Telling people it’s not an individual, it’s one-off. So The idea. So I m probably months ago at this point. This uh wonderful laminated sign appeared on like and they started talk I don’t know they’re kind of talking about it but laminate sign at the front and the back nursing stations where we have our huddles and talk. And I want you since I’m gonna let you read the sign as it says verbatim

Scarlet
Please keep pillow with stretchers.

Mitchell
Okay, one more time.

Scarlet
Please keep pillow with stretchers.

Mitchell
And then what’s the graphic or the image?

Scarlet
pillow at the top of the stretcher and there’s a pillow at the bottom of a stretcher.

Mitchell
Is it a stretcher?

Scarlet
No, it’s a

Mitchell
It’s a hospital bed.

Scarlet
I guess.

Mitchell
It looks more like a hospital bed.

Scarlet
Yeah.

Mitchell
And it is a it’s an illustrative graphic. It’s not a picture they’ve used. So they it so I mean I know people are like oh you’re being so anal. Well it’s like well no this isn’t no if it were a stretcher it might be slightly different doesn’t matter there’s two pillows in the graphic but it says please keep pillow with stretchers Now, just a quick background. A stretcher for us in the hospital is refers to generally the brand striker. It’s a simple uh model of moving people around. It’s not the same as a hospital bed, which is more comfortable, quote unquote. It is a device if you go to the emergency department, you’re gonna sit in a stretcher in the emergency department The olden days it might have been a gurney, okay? Which is this a crappier. Well not an old timey gurney Because it has it still has a draw sheet on here. This is a terrible sorry. This is this whole thing set me off, this picture, because I was like, what are they getting at? So The stretchers are beds that we use to transport people around the hospital, but not where they’re gonna stay in their room. So this sign is like, hey keep please keep pillow with stretchers. And I’m so I’m like, what is this getting at? Why is there a sign telling me keep a pillow with stretchers. We have a room where we have all the clean linen and there’s a big giant bin of pillows. And trust me, these are not pillows anyone’s stealing because they are barely qualify as a pillow The only thing that makes them maybe a pillow is that they are rectangular in shape and they have a little bit more thickness than a piece of paper. So that might be the close and you can put a pillowcase on them But I was like, why is this who is got this campaign of please keep pillow with stretchers? Like w I don’t e I I mean it blows my mind because I came articulate. I don’t even know what it gets at. What do you think it’s getting at? I mean if you were to conjecture a guess why there’s a sign about please keep pillow with stretchers. And the phrasing is terrible. Why is it not like I mean seriously, why didn’t it say like um Keep one pillow on each stretcher. Like it’s like the way it’s phrased. It’s like please keep pillow with stretchers. It’s just dumb and it irritates me I know I’m always complaining about signs at work too, by the way. The bathroom sign. Remember that one that you rotating me? The deep down un unless you make me frown or whatever that one might. But this pillow and the stretchers is just Every I and I make a joke every every stupid huddle I’m the guy that won’t shut up and I still get laughs by the way because I’ll be like oh by the way there’ll be any safety concerns I’ll be yeah I uh I saw three stretchers in the hallway and none of them had a single pillow on there. I’m a little worried and everyone chuckles it up. And I’ve been so jaded that I’ve been thinking about getting a chain and chaining a pillow to a stretcher Like a little like uh an attachment so it like it can’t get lost or something. So it’s like hey we want to keep the pillow with stretchers, let’s just start you know fastening a pillow to the stretcher And I again I’m an autopsy.

Scarlet
When did this become a thing? Who did that?

Mitchell
I don’t know who made this sign. And it’s laminated. This is wasted money A laminated stupid sign that doesn’t even make sense where they keep pillow with stretchy.

Scarlet
Wait, where does that sign I’m assuming that sign doesn’t live there.

Mitchell
It’s this sign lives on the front whiteboard with all the patient names and on the back whiteboard with all the patient names. I haven’t been to any other floors to determine if every floor has this dumb mandate.

Scarlet
I’ve never seen that sign in my life

Mitchell
You saw it now. Oh shoot. If it appeared on camera on camera, I’ll have to blur it out because I don’t want someone from our place to be like you can’t use uh work It’s st so even better and then appeared recently, so that sign now pu then recently on each stretcher I’m seeing this sign. Now what does that sign?

Scarlet
Please leave pillow with stretcher.

Mitchell
Yeah. So now.

Scarlet
Right, please leave pillow with stretcher.

Mitchell
So now you’ve got to sign on each stretcher.

Scarlet
Oh, this is on the stretcher.

Mitchell
Yes, this isn’t if you lift up the back of the stretcher, underneath the head of the stretcher is a little space, you know, when you elevate the head This is where they’re taping this please leave pillow in a black and white sign. And this one has a picture of like a gurney on it, but it’s just a silhouette. Please leave pillow with stretcher. W is there a pillow shortage first?

Scarlet
Oh I mean, kind of. Or at least there has been. Okay. Because there have been times, weekends in the ICU where pillows go missing. And we call Lennon and we’re like, we need some pillows and they’re like, we can’t do that. And we’re like, why? And they’re like, we were told we can’t give you any more. And we’re like, what are you talking about? And they were like, this is policy. What what what po what are you t what policy? What are you talking about? And they’re like we were just call the ED.

Mitchell
That’s their response.

Scarlet
Yes. I wish I were kidding.

Mitchell
They’ve told you you can’t have more pillows in the ICU.

Scarlet
Yes.

Mitchell
Uh we need to elevate this guy’s leg a little bit. He had surgery and maybe put some under his hip. We need some pillows. What would they say?

Scarlet
Like we don’t we can’t give you any more pillows.

Mitchell
But it’s for the patient safety. We need a can we just get a pillow?

Scarlet
Call the E D. They have pillows. Shh. So you and I was telling you about this. Okay.

Mitchell
This is stupid.

Scarlet
So because like like like and we had our Um like education gal call Van Coover where all of our supplies come from and just order boxes of pillows and we wrote ICU on them And they still went missing. And we’re like, where why are they taking all these pillows? And it turns out that they were like cleaning the pillows. And then EMS was just taking them to wherever and only leaving two in a room. They weren’t taking him and putting him back in the bin.

Mitchell
So and you’re referring to we’ll call it custodial services or environmental service. They’re cleaning up, but they’re taking pillows to where we don’t know.

Scarlet
Correct.

Mitchell
Somebody’s hoarding pillows, possibly.

Scarlet
And this became such an issue. On top of that, the custodial services supervisors then started telling us that we can’t have extra pillows. And we were like, we need extra pillows because sometimes we use like Ten pillows per patient. We have critically ill patients and we use pillows to turn patients. And then we they were like, you can’t use pillows to turn patients. And we were like I’m sorry, what? And they were like, you you should be using wedges to term patients.

Mitchell
I love that a non-medical group is. Exactly. Medical advice are telling you guys how to do your job.

Scarlet
Exactly.

Mitchell
You’re gonna have to use uh watered up uh blankets or possibly your hands.

Scarlet
And it became which when obviously Anybody like anybody with a half a brain would be like, this is insane. Now your the supervisors of your custodial services is telling ICU nurses what they how they can, what they should and shouldn’t do when it comes to like patient positioning. No other hospital anywhere except for this particular branch of hospitals that we work for operate in such a dysfunctional way that not only that, but for every one cleaning person, there are Two sub supervisors, I will call them.

Mitchell
Yeah.

Scarlet
And then five red shirt supervisors. Yeah. Okay? Hear me out You people are so freaking stupid, okay? This like you’re so stupid.

Mitchell
Now now thank you for and I know you’re holding in.

Scarlet
Before this, like Like before this whole gate system, like like it used to operate so beautifully because every unit had assigned people. So the ICU had like three cleaning people and they were part like part of the family. Right. You know, we would have potlucks. We would be like, oh we need we need yeah we had we need XYZ done. But now it’s like None of that anymore. It’s like any time you become close with the person or you’re like, Hey, I really need this done even though like your boss is telling you to do this, but we really need you to focus on this because

Mitchell
Oh yeah.

Scarlet
You know, something else is happening. Um, we really need this room to clean because the way the ICU functions, they’re like You know, they’re like, Well, we can’t do this right now because my boss is telling me to do this. And it’s just so yeah. It’s so dysfunctional. And it’s so heavy. It’s so classic. How the system is right now.

Mitchell
It’s top heavy with at least from my point of view, the management. Yeah.

Scarlet
Yes.

Mitchell
Because there’s in the morning is I call them Tweedledum and Tweedled D. There’s a two Two person unit, one’s tall and one’s short.

Scarlet
Oh yeah. It’s always tall and short.

Mitchell
Yeah, that’s like I feel like you have to like there’s a height requirement or something. You must be this tall or shorter to be a sub and to walk around together we need a shortened or need a tall one. They they amble or lollygag. They just kind of stroll. Like they’re not in a hurry. They just str first they look at the boy. Who’s here? Who’s not? What’s dirty? Yeah. Then they stroll and ambulate and then I’ve watched the interactions with these people sometimes with the well I don’t know there’s a couple tiers of supervisors. There’s there’s the red shirts, the blue shirts, there’s a gray shirt level. And then we’re going to have to do that.

Scarlet
So the red shirts are at up top. Then there’s the blue shirts. Then there’s the black shirts. Okay. And the black shirts are the heavy lifters. And Ours is Mar you know, Marlena. She’s phenomenal, but she’s a s she’s one body and she has so much to do.

Mitchell
But ’cause then they ’cause on our f you know, they have to come and check off the rooms and I don’t know if that’s on That’s a new thing or just on the new I This okay boy that’s a within a last year thing. Blowing this wide all because this see the pillows isn’t where it started Sorry, now I’m getting it.

Scarlet
I gotta get back to the pillows in a second. Because because they were trying to tell us okay they were trying to tell us that we couldn’t Position we couldn’t use pillows to position patients, right? Right. So so we had to form a pillow committee. Okay? To be able to because this was calling causing such a kerfuffle and like causing management such a headache that it was just the insanity, right? This was like, this is so insane. Like The custodial services is telling us how we should be taking care of our patients.

Mitchell
This is insanity. Yeah.

Scarlet
And and they’re refusing, they’re only letting us and they’re like, mm-mm, you can only have two pillows per room. That’s all we’re gonna give you.

Mitchell
That’s a maximum.

Scarlet
Yeah. Which is insane. So like a pillow committee had to be formed to come to some sort of agreement. Because before that there was a lot of like yelling back and forth. Pillow fighting.

Mitchell
Head butter if you will.

Scarlet
Yes.

Mitchell
Like

Scarlet
Yeah, there I think there was actually a newsletter or like weekly newsletter went out and the title it was like Pillow Fight or something.

Mitchell
Oh.

Scarlet
Um, thank you, Jason Warren.

Mitchell
I like see there’s a lot you could do with this pillow talk, pillow fighting.

Scarlet
So ultimately we have our pillows back. Okay. But there were it was a lot of hit of like the pill you know, a committee had to be formed. There was a lot of tears. There was a lot of just unnecessary.

Mitchell
In the pillow.

Scarlet
It just goes to show you how dysfunctional and like in any other hospital, this never was.

Mitchell
Just let the pillows flow.

Scarlet
And on top of that, thanks for never mopping our floors, guys. Like we are, you know, w one of the filthiest hospitals in the country. That’s a whole other thing that we could talk about.

Mitchell
Now we c we’re busting this wide open investigative I’m gonna be a whistleblower.

Scarlet
I’m not I’m I’m seriously looking for the big thing.

Mitchell
I’m gonna be a pillow thrower. Well here’s what I will say though. The people that are doing the groundwork for most part are really great. They are torn between the stupidity of the supervisors. Yeah. I just want to make sure I say because some of them they’re really nice. They hustle, they do a good job, and you’re like, oh, but like then they’re torn. So sometimes I’m not frustrated at them. I’m just like, their dumb manager is making them do this.

Scarlet
So now the employee bathrooms don’t have any toilet paper.

Mitchell
They don’t have any paper towels and the floors are sticky.

Scarlet
Yep.

Mitchell
I don’t know what’s going on in there by the way. But so that is a top heavy organ part of our organization. It’s stupid. They ought see this reminds me we’re running out of time here, but on this week, blow this wide open I don’t have a picture of but this they we have the stupidest sashes that go across doors. Have you seen these? They’re magnetic. Yeah. And they say like I think it just says sanitized for your not protection, but like it’s the kind of thing you would put across a toilet in a low end hotel. Motel.

Scarlet
Yeah yeah.

Mitchell
Little piece of pl but it’s instead these are I’ve told they’re twenty five dollars each. I bet they were more. They have magnets in ’em. They’re like stitched their sashes, they’re stupid. But what I’m saying is they’ve they wasted money on those for every door and then some of our doors aren’t magnetic because they’re like aluminum sliders and they can’t get them on. Yeah. Wasted time and energy and money on these dumb things. So I make a point every time when someone comes, a new patient arrives, I always wheel them in front of the door and then I’ll be like And I’ll do like a Vanna White thing and I’ll show them. And sometimes they laugh, sometimes they’re not in the mood, but I’m like, I just want you to know this room has been sanitized for your Safety or whatever it says. And then I s then I cut it. No, I don’t and then I move it. Because I’m like the whole point in my head is like, what is the point of this dumb sash? if we’re not using it to show somebody it it’s it’s stupid, Terry. It’s stupid. But I’m saying that level thing, we’re wasting money on that. We’re wasting money on lamin these are laminated is high quality lamination by the way. This is not that Crank it through crappy contact paper laminate. This is high end lamination for these dumb signs for pillows on stretchers. Stupid. When they could be maybe getting rid of some of the supervisors. It it’s a upside down pyramid. For each one person there’s Two middles and then threes and then fours and then the two guys that walk around doing nothing other than hey what’s up you know and you’re like, I don’t know, what are you doing here? Like, why don’t you

Scarlet
Grab a mop and then they’ll come and Oh and they treat them like crap. Yeah. Like they like I’ve just seen them treat like they’re you know no compliments only complaint it’ll be like coming like yeah oh you gotta wipe this down better than the right the the blue shirt people like they will get in there and clean sometimes if they’re short staffed so I can’t even like necessarily knock them. I think they should do more just daily because they’re they’re always short staffed, I feel like, but I will see them in there like doing some stuff. Redshirt people never ever ever. Never.

Mitchell
And I see them just sometimes sitting outside looking out of the window. So we’ve done a lot of throwing under the bus, so I’d like to really get to the bottom. I’d I’ve not that we’re going to. I’d love to know.

Scarlet
I would literally love to throw them under a bus.

Mitchell
Well who like so where is the problem lie? I don’t know, but I know there’s some supervisory something is crappy in that organization and it’s and it stinks because

Scarlet
Well let’s start with ELT.

Mitchell
We are a sinking ship in some regards as an institution, and this is where they’re choosing to waste their money. This is why I think it infuriates me because it’s like really like yeah we can get some more pillows, but we can print up stupid signs that make no sense. Like why is it Oh no, I have a stretcher, but there’s no pillow. I guess I can’t save this person’s life. It’s like that’s what I’m wondering. Like who’s like, yeah You know, I can’t use this stretcher. Ain’t no pillow on here. Like that’s why I’m just like really? I just go grab a pillow out of the pillow bed. We need a couple pillows.

Scarlet
I’m so sick of being bombarded by signs Stop it with the signs. Yeah. Sign when I go into the bathroom. Sign when I leave the bathroom. Sign when I come through the door. Sign when I leave the door. Sign when I get into the ele I’m so tired of I have sign fatigue that I don’t even see them anymore.

Mitchell
They waste so much money on these dumb signs on and then the pills? Oh Well, that means that chicken is up to 165. This bird is done. So we can wrap it up, but I will say this. That makes me wonder, one, nobody’s stealing these pillows. The the you w if you said, Hey, I got a bunch of pillows I’ll give you I’d be like, where’d they come from? And they’d be like, Your hospital, I’d be like, Yeah, no thanks. I wouldn’t even use that pillow to hold my leg up. That’s so nobody’s stealing these pillows in my opinion. If you are you are hard up for a pillow and the other part is is there just a is there just some room deep in the bowels That is literally just filled with pillows. And then the management of this group, which there must be like 400 of them, are in there just pillow fighting, like, yeah, having a good old time. I don’t know what’s going on The pillow thing has to stop. This is stupid and it’s wasteful, but this is the world we live in.

Scarlet
I want to say this and I’ll be done. Yeah. Hey.

Mitchell
It is

Scarlet
No. I love what I do. I love my job. Like this is not to knock me out. Management’s listening. This is But we have both worked at a functioning hospital and this is not that. Yeah. It’s it’s true. Like every day it feels like it’s crumbling a little more and a little more.

Mitchell
Yeah.

Scarlet
And it it probably is. And it’s more than we probably actually realize.

Mitchell
And it’s sad and unfortunate.

Scarlet
Um But that doesn’t like get rid of the fact that I, you know, love the patient care that I provide. Right. Or my charge nurse shifts where y you know, or the people that I work with. So that doesn’t dismiss that. But there are just so many problems that go No, I would so deep and so wide.

Mitchell
It’s it’s frustrating because I always say at the end of the day when I have am overwhelmed with lots of things, I always tell people like, My priority is always gonna be my patient care and safety which for me is often like How are they doing? Getting their medications and the interventions that I need to do. You know, wow. I mean like that is my main role. Some of this other cause there’s like tedious, stupid other garbage they want me to do classes, you gotta do this, you know, this training, lots of things. And I’m like, you aren’t providing me enough bandwidth to do that. And so for me it’s like it is. So it’s sad when I see them wasting money on this kind of crap when they could be pouring it into the patient because that is ultimately the number one thing. Like if uh if our administrators if we lost half of them Guess what the hospital would still work the next day because the hospital’s nurses and CNAs and the cleaning people and like so that’s why it’s just funny, like that strange, like you know Yeah, but if half the nurses didn’t show up, the hospital would collapse. Right. Management could all disappear. And I even I’m sorry, I even mean that from As long as a charge nurse in nurses and CNAs are it would function. I mean in doctors, I don’t mean it to but I’m saying like there’s a certain level where it’s like, yeah, they do have a role, but like it’s that’s part of why I think it’s frustrating because we can see From our perspective like this is like it can’t sustain what it’s doing and starting to show in these weird ways where people are like Somebody decided they were gonna lose their job unless they kept pillows. That’s why I think in my head, I’m like, that’s where we work at a place where someone’s like, Well you can’t get rid of me. I’m like the pillows are. And it’s like, oh well, he’s Ryan. He’s the guy, he’s the guy that fought for one pillow every stretcher. It’s like Oh Kizoki. Anyway. So I mean yeah, it’s Anyway, so there’s your pillow talk for the week Folks.

Scarlet
Yeah, we don’t talk about our job that often.

Mitchell
So there you go. A little insight into our our job, the jobs we care.

Scarlet
So And for those of you listening who work with us, uh You get it.

Mitchell
Yeah. Or you’re telling on us. And that’s fine too.

Scarlet
We’re telling on ourselves. Yeah.

Mitchell
Okay. Well, you know how it works, right?

Scarlet
Yeah. Oh, I’m Scarlet.

Mitchell
And I’m Mitchell.

Scarlet
And we’re doing the most. Bye!