Right Now

Right now I'm waiting on my husband to finish his workout so that we can finally eat dinner.  Who am I kidding, this would be considered an early dinner for us, and the fact that we are both home to eat it is beyond amazing.  We have been all over the place the past few months.  It's been go, go, go around here and honestly we haven't had a lot of time to be by ourselves; it seems like there is always someone else stopping by, having dinner with us, visiting over night, or meeting us somewhere when we go out.  It's been fun, don't get me wrong, glad that we have friends, but I am also craving some major alone time with Jon. That is the honest truth. We have a 10 hour drive to Orlando coming up in a couple of weeks and after we get the phone calls out of the way maybe we will actually get a chance to learn something new about each other.  The cell phone, a blessing and a curse!  Anyhoo, right now I am patiently waiting on Jon to finish his work out so that we can eat dinner together before anyone calls or stops by.
     I made a pot roast tonight and I'm pretty sure it's amazing because I've already sampled it.  I've only made pot roast once before, a couple of years ago, for Room in the Inn, for church.  I was going through my RCIA classes at the time and Jon and I were hoping we could bring dessert, salad or bread but we got stuck with cooking 4 pot roasts.  The lady in charge gave us a recipe and grocery list.  We used the crockpot per the instructions given.  We cooked them over a 24 hour period if I remember correctly and then took them to the church.  We never tasted them.  I have no idea if they were edible.
     This past weekend I happened to catch http://thepioneerwoman.com/ doing her new show on The Food Network and she was making a pot roast, mashed potatoes and blackberry cobbler!!  I went back and forth as to whether or not I should make this today because it's still warm outside but since we will be busy all weekend going here and there and next week Jon won't be around and I won't be around next weekend either I figured I had to go ahead and make this pot roast.  The only thing I did different was add extra salt and garlic at the end, next time I will salt the meat more and add garlic cloves before I put it in the oven.
     Also I haven't been eating a lot of meat lately, it's just grossed me out really.  Even this pot roast grosses me out a little.  It tastes great but still, it's meat, flesh, eewwwwww.  But my finger nails are falling apart again, as they always do when I quit meat, so now I'm in the phase where I kind of close my eyes and just eat it really quick without thinking and try to hold it down.  I have no idea why this happens to me but it does from time to time; sometimes it's short lived and other times it's not.
    Anyways, I hope everyone is doing well, I have lots of things from this summer to blog about to catch up!  Let's hope that it happens.

                                                  

Almost 2 months!

 It's been almost 2 months............................... since I blogged and I have so much to share (hahahahaha, gotcha didn't I?).  Jon is having a "guy's and Wii lunch" tomorrow so I am keeping myself out of the house for awhile and thinking that a trip to Starbucks with my laptop will be in order and hopefully I can do some update posts there.
But I wanted to get back into blogging with something easy so.......
Ive been reading this on some other blogs and here it goes!

A.  Age:  31

B.  Bed size:  Queen;  at the beginning of the night it feels too large and by 3 AM it's too small and I want to stretch out, in the middle of the bed and Jon seems to want to do the same!

C.  Chore I hate:  Mopping and dusting.  But fortunately I have a really great housekeeper named Hilda who does most of it.  I had to break out my own mop, a steam mop this morning when Sadie threw up. (thankfully on the tile in the kitchen and not in the carpet, yay! for small wins).

D.  Dog:  Yes, sweet Sadie.  She weighs 40 lbs and is ten or eleven years old and completely snuggly and cute.

E.  Essential start to my day:  Peace and quiet; I am a slow starter and I really don't want to talk to you that early.

F.  Favorite color:  Grey and dark, dark orange.

G.  Gold or silver:  Silver; but I have a fabulous gold Movado watch that I can't seem to match.

H.  Height:  I think I'm 5'5". But the lady who did my physical last year for life insurance said I was 5'6". Who knows?

I.  Instruments I play:  I used to play the oboe.  I can still kinda play piano.  I've also played the clarinet and Marimba.  They are all closely related.  I can't seem to play a guitar to save my life. 

J.  Job title:  RN- neurobehavioral   a.k.a. psychiatry; I switched jobs at the end of January and now work in a mostly geri psychiatric unit.  We mostly have patients with dementia, which isn't always interesting to me but every now and then....when the moon is in alignment with the stars.......we get a flood of "real psychiatric patients" like we have right now and then I get a familiar taste in my mouth of why I love psychiatry and feel like I am in my element again.  It's like an adrenaline rush and I feel so relaxed and at ease. 

K.  Kids:  Not yet but hoping to be ready to start trying sometime this year but I have a blood clotting disorder that makes me prone to miscarriages and automatically puts us in the high risk category and means that I will have to take injections of blood thinner medication (anticoagulants) twice a day throughout my pregnancy and possibly before to make the pregnancy "stick" so to speak.I already take these every time we travel and it's nothing new but....twice a day for 9 months is a little bit longer than I'm used to.  Because we use NFP my doctor is requesting that I go for a "pre-conceptual consult" to the high risk obstetricians soon just in case we should get a "surprise!" and because they like to plan before you plan.  Whew!  I say I want 3 kids but......we will see how the first one goes and go from there.  Not ready just yet......but having 2 of my best friends pregnant and being surrounded by all of these other pregnant women are definitely making me jealous, jealous, jealous.  It's a weird, difficult to describe feeling.

L.  Live:  Nashville TN

M.  Mom's name:  Pamela

N.  Nicknames:  Shug (from my brothers), Bratley (from Jon)

O.  Overnight hospital stay:  when I was 19 or 20 for 4 nights after I developed blood clots in my legs, a.k.a. DVTs.  This is when I found out I had the blood clotting disorder.

P.  Pet peeves: dirty dishes, irresponsibility, ignorance, people not using their 5 senses all at once, people who lack non verbal communication interpretation skills, slow drivers, bad pet owners, slow checkout lanes, my schedule/routine being turned around.

Q.  Quote from a movie:  "where we're going we don't need any roads."

R.  Righty or lefty: ambidextrous,  depends on the moment

S.  Siblings:  2 brothers, i have no sister skills in me and i'm okay with that

T.  Time I wake up:  If it's a work day then 5:30 a.m.; non work days are between 6:30-9 a.m.; yes I know that's a broad range but it varies

U.  Underwear:  Usually

V.  Vegetable you dislike:  any that are cooked to death and most peas

W.  What makes me run late:  Jon, Jon, Jon!

X.  X-rays:  recently just my teeth.  I had a few in my 4th semester of nursing school when I was in a car wreck and broke my wrist but not too many since then. 

Y.  Yummy food you make:  I love to cook and most of the things I make are pretty yummy.  I love to take a normal recipe and modify into a lower fat, higher nutritional content recipe.  One of my favorite things to do is to make something that tastes really yummy and also has a lot of goods nutrients in it.

Z.  Favorite zoo animal:  Errr, I don't know.....anteaters maybe.

That's it and now you know WAY too much about me!

Springtime

I don't normally blog about the everyday things we do but I thought I might give it a shot today because we have been having a very busy spring.  Normally I work every other weekend but took some time off in March so we had some extra weekend time.  April has really been the first month, at my new job, that I have been working my complete schedule without taking off any........but I'm taking off a lot in May!  I realized today that we have really been getting out and about and enjoying our Spring weather here in Nashville so I thought I would recap some of those moments right now while I am sitting out on the deck, in the shade, waiting on some corn to grill, and watching Sadie and Jon take a nap.

                      This is my sister-in-law, Arika, she is about 7 mos. pregnant here and we kicked off our Spring by going to Hendersonville to attend and baby shower for her.  Let me tell you, she is one of the amazing pregnant women I know.  She had her first child almost 2 years ago while living in Switzerland!  This is her second child and she makes it all look so easy.  A couple of Jon's parents friends  had this baby shower for her.  The new baby, Alexa Sophia is due mid-May, I think on the 16....my birthday is on the 21st.  Cutting it close!!

Another weekend we focused on detailing our cars and I will not bore you with those details.......it is not one of my favorite or even likeable things to do.  But Jon, as always, being the awesome husband that he is found a way to lure me into helping him with this by providing refreshments!

                                                     Yay for Yazoo Dos Perros Ale

Another weekend we went for a long walk over the Cumberland River Pedestrian Bridge off of Briley Pkwy, near where the old Opryland used to be and where the Opryland Hotel still is and this connects to Shelby Bottoms, one of Nashville's many greenways.  Urban "hiking" at it's best!  We got to walk over this really neato bridge I had been wanting to go over for quite some time.

                                     Cumberland River Pedestrian Bridge from Briley

                                    The Cumberland Pedestrian Bridge, Nashville Tn

You would never guess that this was behind us:

Seriously I took a picture of the bridge and then turned around and took a picture of the interstate right behind us.  Eh, you can't have your cake and eat it too!  After you walk a quarter of a mile you don't even know the interstate is there anyways.  Yay for an urban oasis!   This was an  interesting  actually a boring walk really.  The bridge was neato but other than that, b-o-r-i-n-g.  The most interesting thing to happen on this walk was that we ran into my hair stylist and her posse and the only reason she recognized me, I think, was because she had just done my hair for me the day before and, she recognized my dog!  I don't think we will be doing this walk again, it was just what I said it was, boring.  Not to mention it's about 25 minutes from our house, we have numerous other locations within that same time-distance that are more secluded, more developed and just offer more in general.  Or we could swing for a 45 minute total drive and be at my favorite hiking destination, Old Stone Fort and visit a winery nearby at the same time!!  What's not to love!?
     Today we chose somewhere closer to home, about 10 minutes away, Radnor Lake.  The thing about Radnor Lake is that it's scenic, fairly quiet and still within the city limits.  Not to mention I kept my eyes peeled for homes for sale and lots for sale on the same street.  There were a few but I don't think the lots were really what we are looking for in the future and there was only one home for sale and it was just okay.  So onwards and upwards!  Radnor Lake is perfect if you don't have a lot of time to drive or walk.  It's very short.  Also note, if you haven't been here before that you cannot take dogs on the wooded trails, only on the paved road...........which is a huge drawback for us because I can't really justify going to walk somewhere and not taking Sadie, who goes for a nice walk in the woods and leaves their dog at home, assholes!    This is a good walk though because it's quick, within a very short driving distance and nearby everywhere we had to stop on the way home yet still giving us our "urban oasis", "out of town" feel.  Here are some things we saw:

                                        Radnor Lake, Nashville Tennessee

Me taking a picture of myself on the way there.  Jon has two cars, one of which is an old Miata.  I would tell you the year, but I don't know what it is .  I think the thing is a deathtrap and I don't care too much for riding in cars as small as it. I have known Jon almost 4 years, today was the 4th time in that many years that I have agreed to ride in this "deathtrap".  I was in the kitchen prepping lunch and dinners for the next couple of days because I have to work Monday and Tuesday and all of the sudden I thought, what the heck, Jon loves that little car, why not suck it up and surprise him by riding in it.  Seriously that's all he asks for, what's a few minutes in it?  I had to take several pictures to mark the occasion.

   4 or 5 Turtles on a fallen over tree

  Sweet Sadie von Hoscheit

              a dam, speaks for itself!

Sadie and Jon at the Visitor's Center

Sadie and Jon taking a nap once we got home.

                                                                  

Growing up is Hard- Part 2

Okay, so I just thought you might want to see a photo of the Duquesne Incline in Pittsburgh, PA that I rode up with Matt.  What part of, "you are riding this thing with a girl who is afraid of heights, this is your chance to hold her close, etc", did he not get?!  
   Before we went on our "date" that night; (can we even call it a date since he didn't seem that interested in me romantically).  I am going to make the decision to stick to calling it a date since we were alone, by ourselves (and it boosts my self-esteem!).  So before we went he came in and met my parents, blah blah blah.  But one funny thing while he was talking to my parents and they were asking about his "church school" etc he asked had I applied to the "church school" before deciding to go to Miami U.  I said, "no, no, I didn't."  My mother jumped up, went out of the room and came back with an acceptance letter in her hand from the "church school".  Crap!  Then my mother proclaimed, "see, yes, you applied, you even got accepted."  At this point I just mumbled something like, "well, it wasn't for me, time to go ride that incline (even if I am scared)."  Truth be told, and I didn't tell Matt this, if I had chosen to go to that school they would have kicked me out starting with orientation on day 1.  My parents had made me apply to the school since it was only 45 mins or so from their house but I knew I was not going there.
    So after our "date" riding the incline Matt did not kiss me or anything when we got back to my parents house and said goodnight.  But I did agree to drive up to his church school later in the week.........
     So Friday came around and we decided I would drive up to the school and see it, meet some of Matt's friends and then we were going shopping for a wedding present for one of his friends.  I got up to this school and let me just tell you, I was not in Kansas anymore; this was different.  The boys and the girls lived in separate dorms/apt style housing.  Matt lived with 3 other guys on campus in this apt like thing where you walked in the front door and there was the living room and behind that a small kitchen and behind that was a hallways leading to the bedrooms/bathrooms and YOU COULD NOT CROSS THE LINE PAST THE KITCHEN!!   I don't want to sound like a hussy, and I'm not but, seriously, where in the world had I landed!?  And, and, you had to keep the door of the living room that opened to a main hallway open and they were only allowed to "co-mingle" or whatever you want to call it on Friday and Saturday nights in each other's place of residences and this was all overseen by an RA type figure that actually was watching!!  I think you could hold hands on campus with your person of interest but kissing was definitely out of the question. Sidenote:  I bet the Duggars, of 19 kids and counting, would like this school.  Then again, the visitation might even be too much.  To me, the funniest part was shortly after I arrived at his place of residence and he offered to show me around and basically pointed to the living room we were standing in and the kitchen (this is where they kept the Kool-Aid..........hahaha, just kidding).  And immediately after he showed me he was kind of like, "well, that's it."  And asked me something like did  I have any questions or something like that and I kind of rudely said, "well, I don't think there's anything else to see here." 
   After the "Tour of Homes" :)  we went to buy Matt's wedding gift.  Then he had the bright idea to take me to meet his parents.  This also included an introduction to his grandmother who was found in a living room watching the Saturday night lineup on NPT.  I thought, well, certainly his parents will be cool and maybe I will see more eye to eye with them.  Nope.  His mother was a nurse and his father was a social worker/counselor/therapist type of man. He even had to leave in the middle of our powow to go and talk someone out of suicide.  This was the last time that I ever saw Matt.  After this night I was completely convinced that it just wasn't going to work out.  A couple of years later I brought his name up in conversation with my mother.  My mother said, "I knew it wouldn't work out between you two the minute I met him, he was nice, but way too boring for you."   Never have I ever laughed so hard.  What truth!!

Growing up is Hard

     As previously mentioned in one of my other blogs, I dated my fair share of frogs before I found my prince charming.  Well, they weren't all frogs I guess.....some were nice, I will admit, but anyways......they weren't the missing piece to my puzzle so onwards and upwards!

                                                  Jon playing a piano in the groom's room
                                    

     I did not date a lot in high school.  I think I had two serious boyfriends and one casual boyfriend and did not really date a lot in between those boyfriends.  All I can say about those relationships is that it was a long time ago, in another time, another place and the Lord works in mysterious ways.  My heart was broken several times and apparently I broke one too, but who's counting?  The honest truth is I don't like to think about that time a whole lot.  High school was a traumatic, tumultuous time for me.  Every, single time I meet a young girl broken-hearted and convinced that "he's the one who got away" I just want to pick her up and hold her and tell her it's all going to be okay and that eventually she will see the light.  I am so thankful that I did not settle.  Thankful that my "steering" could not alter the plans God had planned for me because trust me, when I sit down and look into that crystal ball and see what could have been...........my oh my, I am so thankful for the way things turned out.  I won't go into the details that I see of things that might have been but let's just say it isn't really me and I would probably be miserable.
      So I took one of those high school boyfriends to college with me.  Actually I went to Miami University and he chose to go to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and then transferred to Miami U.   Can I just tell you that we filled out the transfer papers together for him to come to Miami.  I was working in the University mail room at the time and I actually hand delivered his transfer papers.  We even got him a room in my dorm!!  Thirty days after he arrived at Miami he did not meet me after class one day to walk back to the dorm.  I found him though walking home with a friend, in my mind, "too cool to wait for your girlfriend."  Later that night after dinner at the dining hall across the street I jumped in front of him on the sidewalk and screamed, "what is your problem?!"  He basically told me he no longer loved me, point blank.  I threw up, a lot.  I cried, a lot.  It was dramatic and went on and on for months, up and down and around and around.  I won't go into the details because I said I wouldn't display another person in such a light as to make them look poorly at the start of my blog.  But I will tell you this, as I say to every young girl I meet who is broken hearted; it's like climbing a mountain when you're trying to get over someone.  You climb up a little and you fall back down a little, you go up and you go down until finally, one day you reach the peak and climb down on the other side!!  And you will know when you reach that point, you will know even if you haven't been thinking about the process.  It's like you suddenly breathe for the first time!
     Okay, on to more humorous stories.  So after I got over this hurdle of mine let me tell you, I shot off like a loose cannon and never looked back!  One time in college, I had two dates in one day, and I saw my ex boyfriend that day too......dangerous!  Playing with fire!!  One of them was a really nice guy, Matt, we went to play frisbee golf because Matt was like that.  He was just in summer school at Miami doing some sort of sciency internship.  He actually went to a school that I think was about 45 away from Pittsburgh.  A "church school" (that's what I called it).  So as you can imagine, we went on a date in broad daylight, out in the open where everyone could see us, where we weren't left alone to the temptations young people have!
     Sidenote:  I am being sarcastic here.  As I said in the beginning we won't always agree.  I accept that some of you won't find this funny and that some of you would agree with Matt's ways of dating and that's OKAY; it just never worked for me.

     Anyways, so I went on this date with Matt and we played frisbee golf and then he went to study........and I went to get ready for my next date, ha!  Next date, Jake.  Jake and I were in a class together and had worked on a project together.  Jake and I had planned to play tennis for our date.  Yes, I was getting quite a bit of exercise that day. Difference with date #2 of the day?  When I showed up to play tennis with this guy he had brought all of this beer with him, including my favorite.  Hmmmm tennis and beer?   Yeah, no.  I think I drank about one to be polite, I mean, seriously!!!  I might not be straight and narrow but I'm not like that and I am smarter than to let you get me drunk in the hot, blazing sun while we play tennis!  After a little tennis we went to dinner.  I pulled the flag when he ordered a large beer with dinner (underage) and asked me could I drive his car back to school.  I didn't mind underage drinking and I did my fair share, but not with a fake i.d. in public and not on a date!!  As if!!  So that was that.
     After summer school I had a few weeks before Fall semester started.  At this point my parents were living in Pittsburgh, PA and I was FORCED to go there and spend a few weeks.  Matt (from one of the paragraphs above) and I agreed to a date one night.  I was feeling pretty good about this, I mean, yeah we had gone on that straight and narrow date but after Jake I thought, I think I will stay with the straight and narrow!  I hadn't seen any happy-mediums out there.  So Matt drove down to Pittsburgh one night from his "church school" (his parents also lived nearby the school) and we went downtown and ate and road this trolley thing way up on a mountain that overlooks the city.  I know, you're thinking, how romantic.  Let me tell you, it was not.  I hate heights and I did not especially care for the trolley ride.  We got to the top and it was still not romantic.  Cue me thinking: "could you please stand next to me Matt, maybe put your arm around me, reassure me it's okay." 
    **** I am going to tell the rest in the next blog, as you know, I tend to be long winded!****

Trying to Fit In

    I can't believe I let the blog go for so long.  I can't believe that all of my ideas I have written down on a piece of paper are too involved for me to think about right now.  My brain is sort of numb.  I went back to work on the 24th of January and spent, I think, a week and a half in classroom orientation; it felt a lot like nursing school all over again.  I will spare you the details but I seriously felt a lot like I was back in school; only this time I was a lot more anxious for some reason.  I reviewed a lot of things I had forgotten about.  I met some really great people that have been very helpful.  One good thing though about all of this was that spirituality and believing in God and using yourself as a vehicle to spread his teachings were mentioned every single day.  I also felt a lot of anxiety because we kept talking about all sorts of medical conditions I really didn't know a whole lot about and all of it makes me nervous.  I am a psychiatric nurse, I went to school for nursing knowing I would only work in psychiatry, it is the only place I feel safe.  (yeah, i know, most of you would not feel safe being locked up in a psychiatric unit but for me it's HOME).  I also realized throughout my classroom orientation that it was the first time I had been in a hospital since Jon had ruptured his spleen and had the long recovery this past summer.  I felt all of it coming back on me.  I think I cried almost every day after work.  I cried when one of the chaplains came and talked for 2 hours about death and the reactions that people have and their understanding of it.  He shared numerous stories about people that aren't even sick getting involved in something during the course of their day and then die suddenly and tragically.  My eyes were watered the entire 2 hours, my hands were also busy moving from anxiety the entire time.  I have been shown where the morgue is 3 times in the new hospital I am working in.  I saw the "dead body carts" twice the other day.  I saw a patient from my unit get transferred to hospice and I watched her family being told she had 6 months or less to live.  I was walking down the hall and saw a doctor talking with a wife and I saw her fall into the wall and almost collapse from the bad news she was given.  I had to watch a very long video on organ donation and it was about a young student who had been the mascot at a university and was hit by a driver as he was walking along a road and his parents talked about how they had to decide whether or not donate his organs and then they interviewed the people who received the organs....not a dry eye in the room!  I even cried during the bed demonstration where they were showing us how to use these fancy high-tech beds we have.  When they put the bed into this chair/sitting position I suddenly remembered and saw Jon sitting up in one of those bed in ICU. 
     Tuesday and Wednesday were my first two days working on my unit.  There were a few patients who made me smile and some who made me laugh.  There was one who made me cry; a lady who had tried to commit suicide a couple of days before and when she finally opened up and talked to me about all of the things going on in her life at current I broke down and cried too.  I am working on a small psychiatric unit at a faith-based hospital; mostly geriatrics but some middle aged adults.  On my first day the husband of one of the patients was asking me a question that I didn't know the answer too and no one was around I could ask so I confessed that it was my first day and I would have to seek out someone who knew what we should do.  He asked me if I was Catholic and after I said yes he asked me if he could give me one of the small rosaries he keeps in his pocket and passes out to people.  I was so impressed and suddenly calm.  Several of the patients have given me hugs and they need  hugs too :)  Some of the more "with it" patients helped me out and would tell me where the ones who couldn't speak for themselves like to sit and where things were located, very helpful.  One of the older patients with dementia and I were talking and I hadn't seen something and I jokingly said to him, "do you think I need to get my eyes checked?"  He exclaimed, "no, you need to have your brain checked."  I could not stop laughing!!
    Despite all of the anxiety and tears and frustration with trying to know who everyone is and what role they have and where everything is I would say it's going better than it was when I first started.  It's frustrating going from the person with all the answers to not having a clue.  A couple of my co workers have been very supportive and one was baffled and said, "i just don't get it, it's like you've always been here or something, you've just settled right in and look like you're at home."  I don't necessarily FEEL at home yet but they say, "fake it til' you make it"!  So that's what I'm trying to do.  I only had one drug addict patient this week, that was awesome and so different from the experiences I have had in the past, very excited about that.  And, and, and.....not one patient called me a nasty name!!  So I would say things are on the up and up.  It's just going to take some getting used to.  I hope to return to my previously scheduled bloggings soon but for now I'm just trying to hang in there; being away from home for 14 hours every day that I work is tiresome!

I Am Planning To Continue Blogging....

    I am planning to continue blogging but I need a normal schedule before I can do so.  Right now I am in orientation for my new job and I do not know how some of you work 5 days a week!!  I cannot wait to be finished with orientation and only working 3 days a week.  Work is just taking up too much of my time and I can't stand that as soon as I get home I have to workout, then shower, then cook, then clean, then time for bed and repeat.  What is the point?! 
     At any rate it will probably be the weekend before I sit down to really blog again because I am just too stressed out right now.  I know, I'm crazy; but it's true.  I realized today that one of the reasons I'm having so much trouble with anxiety the past week is because, I think, this is the first time I have been back in a hospital since Jon's spleen ruptured and nearly killed him at the beginning of the summer.  And then I got caught up in the wedding planning drama.  This is the first time in a long time I've had time to think and it's causing me all kinds of anxiety.  I've always, always had trouble adapting and making changes whether it was the first day of school or first day of the semester, etc.  This has been particularly rough on me and I am hoping it goes away really soon because walking around all day feeling like you can't breathe isn't very comfortable. 
     Yesterday I even skipped working out and came straight home, took a bath and got in the bed and pulled the covers over my head and except for a small snack, didn't get up until this morning to do it all over again.  Today I realized the whole thing about being back in a hospital and I just kept remembering Jon being so sick and how he almost died, etc. and then wouldn't you know it, a pastor came in to talk for an hour about death.  About how the families feel after someone dies, what our views are of death, how the patient feels etc.  There I was already down and boom it all came hurtling at me again.  Some things he shared were very touching and I had tears in my eyes thinking about it all.  And then I drove home in the pouring down rain.
    So I will return to my more entertaining posts........I just need a few days.  And a routine.