IHOP Girl: My life as I know it!

Friday, October 28, 2005

My life as I know it!

Ok, so it has been entirely too long since I posted! Between this post and the last so much has happened (albeit insignificant to most).

First of all, we had Fall Break which was fun, although I mostly studied. Actually I went on Tuesday to the house of my great friends from church, and we made applesauce! Yummy!!! It was a wonderful Fall thing to do. Their kids are so great! I love my church family, they challenge me so much to go hard after Jesus.

Second, I had to go to the dermatologist (no fun), because after the whole skin cancer thing I have to keep a sharp eye out. Yeah, so I went, and after a head to toe I had him take off a spot on my right arm. This is the part where I feel stupid (no, I couldn't have one day without such an experience)...Ok, so he numbs the area, cuts it off, etc. I'm fine here...Then when I'm getting ready to go I get light headed (starting to feel stupid). I get a nurse and she lays me with my head lower than my feet to allow the blood to come back to my head. After about ten minutes I'm back to good, but definitely feeling like an idiot (what's new). I guess my body just reacted a little negatively (psychologically and physiologically) to the anesthetic. Oh well, at least I get another cool scar on my arm! Yeah, I know weird opinion of scars, but hey if you're gonna have so many you might as well start a collection! :-)

Other things of note:

- My rommie wants me to publicly refute the claim that she is a grinch, I'll admit there has been marked improvement in the Christmas spirit. Go Ashley!
- I got a great phone call from some of my IHOP buddies, oh I miss everyone!!
- My parents are coming next week!!!! YEAH!!!! I can't wait!
- We started clinical in a nursing home this week, how fun! We get to wear our scrubs, and next week we're giving flu shots.
- My sister is AWESOME, but then again everyone knows that! :-)
- Jess #1 is drop dead gorgeous, and since it's my blog she can't say anything otherwise...*muhahaha*...
- My father lies. His frunkin shrontal lobe is too small.
-I got to have dinner with my un-related aunt, uncle, and cousins. They're awesome, and I get to see them again after Christmas!!! Yeah!
- Classes are hard.
- God is teaching me humility and sacrifice - ouch! It's REALLY good though.

That's about it. Nothing earth shattering, and as always I'm busy. Thanks for reading my blog! I need to keep up with it better, but it is fun to have. Alright, ciao guys!

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Movie Night In...I love a good movie!

Mega Mind
Taking Chance (Will make you cry like a baby)
Charlotte Grey (A bit of a different take on Nazi Germany)
Series - Merlin (I LOVE BBC)
Robin Hood (Okay, a love Russell Crowe, you'll have to understand that about me...)
Kingdom of Heaven (Chuck full of acting power with an epic tale)
Miss Potter (Such a great film! Story of the creator of Peter Rabbit)
How to Train your Dragon (Possibly my favorite animated movie ever...I'm like a little kid, I watch it over and over)
Buck (Sundance winner, Biography of Horse Trainer, heart touching)
Lost in Austin (Modern day spin on Pride and Prej.)

Life as a nurse...

Great words by Reb Jeff: Vayishlach: Facing Death

"Rachel died. She was buried on the road to Ephrat — now called Bethlehem. Jacob set up a pillar above her grave. It is the pillar at Rachel’s grave to this day."–Genesis 35:19-20

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vidui http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva_(Judaism), and preparing the notifications to the community, feel like little fragments of the sacred. I have been entrusted with the care and tending of the most powerful, complex and difficult emotions that a person can experience in life. I have been made, in some small part, a guardian of the memory of a departed soul — a life that touches upon many other lives.After dropping off my older daughter at her high school this morning, I made a stop at Treasure Coast Hospice http://www.tchospice.org/, a remarkable organization that sets a very high standard for the loving and respectful care of the dying. There, I visited a lovely man whom I have seen a few times in his hospice room. I sat by his bedside and listened to him (in full possession of his faculties) as he told me about his worries about his family, the support of his wife after he is gone, and the future of his children and grandchildren. I was deeply moved by the way he put any concern for himself — even while facing death — in a distant backseat to his concerns for his family. When my own time comes, I can only hope to have his awareness of the way that one life can touch so many others.Also at hospice, I visited a woman I have known for the past two years — a dear soul who is a former Jewish religious school director. I sat with her, too, singing psalms to her as I listened to her heavy and labored breathing. I have no medical training, but I have come to know the sound of a person who is close to death. The body begins to fight for each breath as it slowly looses it grasp on life. As I held her hand and sang, I realized that being a rabbi is no protection against becoming one of the people caught in the web of connection. I, too, am changed by the loss of a life that has touched mine.Later in the day, I met with a couple from our congregation. She had just learned that her brother died yesterday in a car crash. Coming to terms with the loss is made more difficult for her by the fact that she and her brother had not seen each other or spoken in five years. Sometimes, people think it is easier to mourn the death of someone who has moved out of your life. In my experience, though, it's harder. Grief is magnified by wounded love and regret. I have no magic words to say to ease the pain of mourning. All I can do is listen, become a vessel in which people place their stories, and offer compassion.Actually, there is one more thing I can do. I can have faith that "all I can do" is all that I need to do. It is enough.In this week's Torah portion (Vayishlach) Jacob watched Rachel, the love of his life, die in childbirth. He was overcome by grief. Jacob had worked for his cruel uncle Laban for fourteen years to earn the right to marry Rachel. Now she was gone. Because she died while they were traveling, Jacob had to bury her by the side of the road. He built a pillar of stones on the spot to mark the place as sacred.This is what we all do, in one way or another, when death enters our lives. We grieve and our hearts break. We wish that we could continue to walk along the path of life with our loved ones forever, but the dead cannot fully join us. We have to leave something behind in order to resume our own journey. So, what do we do? We mark the moment as sacred. We erect monuments — both in cemeteries and in our hearts. The stones we place on top of stones remind us that a life may end, but its sanctity is forever.The Torah says that the monument Jacob built for his beloved continues to stand until this day. A life that touches the lives of others never ceases to send living reverberations throughout the web that binds us all.