IHOP Girl: November 2008

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

O Christmas Tree

I know that everyone says that you should never put up your Christmas tree before Thanksgiving, however this year we are breaking the rule due to the fact that our family is coming into town for our big family Thanksgiving/Christmas. That said, my sister and I finally got our tree and blasted the Christmas music while setting it up and decorating. It was so much fun! We went with red and gold with white lights, and a nice red/gold bow at the top. I looks awesome, and much to our suprise the cat has not made a true effort at knocking it over - I'm so proud! I will definately have to do an update to all the festivities this weekend, so stay tuned.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Update

Time for another blogging update at an atrocious time of the night for most of you. My last several days off I have done a major cleaning out of my computer hard drive, which has caused me to think that I am just computer savvy enough to be dangerous. On some levels it was a great thing seeing as I had sooo much junk clogging up my computer space, and I was brutal in deleting files and programs. I mean - I had old documents from high school saved, and tons of PowerPoint's from nursing school...I probably could have taught four years of school just from my saved files (its scary in there!). Thus, I deleted, and deleted in the hope to open up a lot more space on my C: drive. Mm, ok the honest truth...I am a total computer nerd!! I was prompted to do this whole Fall cleaning due to the fact that I was wanting to download a new program on to my computer. The sad fact is that even after deleting tons of crap...I still am short like 2GB of space, which has me thinking that the program is entirely to large, and I should just forgo the whole adventure. We'll see who knows, perhaps I'll get bored and decide to upgrade my computer by hand, muahaha (as my computer attempts to hide). Yeah for being bored at 3am!!! Stay tuned for further updates, I'll try to remember to keep you posted on the computer. ;-)

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Leaves

Today was one of those chilly, dreary, sprinkly kind of days. It was so appealing to have some fresh air, so I went outside to rake the backyard. I think that there must have been half a foot of leaves on the ground, because I now have three giant piles in my yard - I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with them, I guess I need to see if the city picks them up...Oh, the joys!

This week I've been trying to decide if I want to start graduate school this coming semester, due to the fact that work will pay for it. However, I'm not yet sure what I want to do - and to be honest the thought of starting school again is slightly repulsive, so I guess we'll wait and see. It is a very nice benefit to have a degree like that on my resume, but.....yeah..........

Saturday, November 08, 2008

Fall Time

I think that there are special people in this world destined to create titles to books, movies, and blogs...I am not one of those people - not even close...

I highly doubt anyone reads this anymore, due to my haphazard blog posts; however in some respects that is rather liberating. It is like being able to have a journal, a place where I can put words to the crazy thoughts rolling around in my brain; a journal where occationally someone as crazy as myself braves the webesphere (like my new word?) for a glimps into my internal mullings. Scary thought indeed.

The last several weeks have consisted of work, sleep, cleaning my house, and wandering cyberspace. Scratch that - I did actually go to the park last week to swing on the swingset for about half-an-hour. We have had some beautiful days this fall, and Velvet and I do enjoy some walks in the sun.

One nice evening I shared with my sister this week had me dragging her out to Lowe's (which by the way is one of my favorite stores - it smells good and there are no rudd people with carts) in order to find a Christmas tree and decorations so we can decorate after thanksgiving. We had lots of fun picking out how we wanted our tree to look, and I can't wait till we get to set it up, and see the vision take form. My poor sister...being an available listening ear may have not been on her agenda, but being the good sport that she is she graciously listened as I bemoaned my ticking biologic clock - ode to PMS. ;-) All in all we had some good sisterly bonding time, one of the benefits of finally living close.

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.