Started college in Wisconsin. Moved to Colorado — first Boulder, then Eldorado Springs, then Denver. Got bach degree in nursing from U of Colorado.
Only did actual nursing for about a year. Then went corporate via medical biotech and worked for Medtronic. In the beginning I worked in the field and it was unanticipated insanity. I worked with implantable defibs and pacemakers.
In your 3-hour radius territory, you’d be on call for every hospital, cardiologist, EP cardiologist, ER, general surgeon who dabbles in implantables, every clinic who needed you to come do the periodic follow up for every patient with an implantable. During white-out blizzards where no one had any business driving, a doc 2 hours away would not *hesitate* to send a page and expect you to get there for an unscheduled implant surgery. I had 2 cell phones, a car phone, and 2 pagers bc of how patchy cell service was then. It was SO intrusive and bizarre and incredibly stressful. To *this day* I have almost a phobia about phone calls and I usually jump out of my skin when it rings!! After being fried up by all that, I grabbed a position at world HQ in Minneapolis. Did global education (for sales force), program management, then US Physician Relations. As much as I tried to fit myself into the corporate mold, I was never really able to do that and it came to a point where I just wanted out.
Eventually I circled back to my right brain and began creating again. Now I’m an artist/painter and dabble in a few other things. I’ve become a DIYer which is a blessing and a curse. I like fixing everything myself if I can. And I love it if it’s something easy like electrical. But then you feel obligated to do, like, everything — like swap out garbage disposals (gross), fix irrigation leaks (bane of existence in AZ), replace a garage door (do NOT ever do this it’s absolute misery), paint kitchen cabinets, and blah blee blah — so I spend a lot of time doing house projects. I sometimes build stuff, nothing too fancy. I make art out of things from the hardware store or things that I find. I’m basically in a constant state of making about 5-10 things.
And I wait for the time when I win the powerball so I can buy a fleet of Grenadiers. Yum.
