IHOP Girl: Fall Has Arrived

Saturday, September 23, 2006

Fall Has Arrived

Ah, I am back again; finally. To my defense I have spent the last two weeks studying for my 4 exams, taking care of ill patients three days a weeks, and entertaining Velvet (woof) - she says hi.

This week we have had several very nice days, with beautiful Fall temperatures, sunshine, and blue skies. These days are truly the nicest of the South. Thursday I had to go get my senior yearbook picture taken, because someone's parental guidences insisted that for historical purposes I must have at least ONE yearbook. Personally I thought that there was no need for historical records, but hey, I may thank them in years to come.

My adventure this week was on Tuesday. I got ready to go to the monthly Oncologic Nurses Local Chapter Meeting which was going to be at a restaurant about 45 minutes away, and which I was actually excited to go to. After all, how often do you get a free steak dinner as a college student? So, you understand my excitement at the chance to go. Anyway, I get all ready, drive there, and go inside. When I get there the hostess tells me that they don't have a dinner party under that name, but that they would call the other restaurant in the area (30 minutes away), because perhaps my locations got messed up. I should have just called it a night, but I felt bad because I had said I was coming...I should have just gone home...Nevertheless, I drove another half an hour to get to the other facility where they said there was an Oncology group. When I get there, there was a group, but not my group...So, I drove home...After two hours of driving and no steak dinner I got home again. I know that its a disappointing story, believe me I felt it, and next time I will just skip the whole thing if I can't find them. :P

Well, that was my main adventure this week I know that it was a riveting story, but it was the best I could come up with.

By the way, if you haven't seen the new movie Akeela and the Bee you should rent it, because it is such a cute movie about spelling. SFL I think that Akeela is definitely Word Power - sorry, she knows more big words than I've ever heard...lol, enjoy!

2 comments:

Jess said...: (((Clair)))

*sends huge cyber-hug*

*cries tears of sympathy and empathy and commiseration*

So sorry about all that driving and no steak dinner, my dear! What DID you have for dinner after all that? (Please tell me you ate something...) How disappointing. :(

*pats Clair's shoulder comfortingly*

Seriously, I would give you a big hug if I were there. And then another one because I miss you! :)

How's Velvet? Soft and plump as ever? heheheh...

So when am I going to get to see this adorable yearbook photo of yours??!?!?!!

*cheeky grin*

Oh, and I will definitely check out "Akeelah and the Bee" if I can...it sounds really cute.

Hugs, love, and a telephone call soon to follow...; 4:43 PM
Jess said...: Videos on the history of kimberlite mining in South Africa?

Wow. Just...wow.

How fascinating! I am so glad you enjoyed these videos (in between your naps of course, which you didn't mention but which I know occur with alarming frequency these days...).

Honestly, you accomplish so much compared to the rest of us. It makes me want to just sit down and cry in despair because I will never catch up to your work rate. When I think of all those minerals inspected, catalogued, tested, and analysed...

*is speechless*; 9:58 AM

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.