The Language of Elves

Last week during the employee dinners, I wore an elf outfit (again, not posting pictures!) to serve the employees. Elvis bought me an elf hat with little ears sticking out of it. It was cute and it totally served its purpose during the employee dinners.

I was finished with the hat...except that when I wear it in the hall, staff and visitors seem happier and they are not afraid to laugh at me. It brightens the vibe and it's fun. So I wear the hat when I buzz the ER, HR, Guest Services, or anywhere else that takes me right by the main visitor entrance.

In fact, I wore it up to PACU (post anesthesia care unit) the other day to talk to one of the recovery nurses about our Six Sigma project. I had scrubs on, but since it's not sterile back there, I could wear my hat. One of the patients sat up and tried talking to me (while still under anesthesia). She's going to tell her family she talked to an elf and they're going to think she's crazy.

Elves don't go to PACU...Or do they?

Anyway, the stupid hat has gotten a lot of mileage during the last week. When I'm not wearing it, I stick it on the doorknob of my office (even if I'm in the office). The connotation this suggests didn't hit me until about Day 5 when Nurse Jackie, in passing, yelled out some comment about me needing privacy. I asked her to please clarify...then she asked if college kids still put socks on the doorknob when they want "privacy." Oh yeah! I left it there, though; it's a funny conversation piece.

Then Nurse Jackie and I were in a meeting, during which we reviewed the Marketing piece to target physician recruitment. We couldn't decide between two pieces (and the energy level was quickly turning to slaphappiness), so we gave them back to marketing with new ideas. We asked that Elvis, spotlighted in the brochure, be superimposed with the Santa pictures from the employee dinners. "Santa" points to a letter in the brochure, written in a random, made-up scramble of letters as place holders for the real letter. We were trying to read it, realizing it was a place holder. Nurse Jackie exclaimed, "Oh look, it's written in North Polish!"

I was crying laughing at this remark and the rest of the meeting was hopeless. The Marketing guy just shook his head, packed up his proofs, and left the room. Before he left the building, he tossed two sugar cookies on the table, instructing us to "please eat more sugar." Whoops!