Good News

This evening I received a voicemail message thanking the nurse practitioner and I for our help. Nick is resting comfortably at a local hospital while his doctors run tests to determine what happened. Both he and his wife left the message.

He mentioned that when he "came to" he saw my face smiling down at him.

Geesh, can you imagine?
You come back and see my giant bowling ball head looking down at you?

I'm glad he's ok.

I am discombobulated. I slept fitfully last night.

And this morning: in a church pew, a nurse practitioner and I performed CPR on an 85 year old man who collapsed during the sermon. He "came back" but it was disquieting for us all.

Knee, or Just a Jerk?

I was asked to write an article discussing my opinion about Don Imus' remarks about the Rutgers Scarlet Knights. Mind you, I wasn't asked as a result of how vocal I'd been in my opinion, but because I'm a brown grrl. Now before you get your knickers in a twist, the asker is my minister. Larry is a middle class white guy, and I think his motivation had to do with our particular congregation and how they'd receive remarks from him. He's what some might call, hmm, a "knee jerk liberal." You know, the kind of guy who understands white and male privilege; the kind of person who understands how oppression against one group feeds oppression of another.

The congregation mostly "gets" this, I think. But sometimes, hearing something from someone besides Larry is good for them- even if they say exactly what he would've said.

Fast forward, then, to me writing about Imus. Surprisingly enough, most of my thoughts were not so much about racism, but about that this guy is 66 years old, and he picked on a group of accomplished athletes, most of whom aren't even 21. Gimme a break. How pathetic is that?

Exhausted

Ok, so not only do I have a great job, I have one that I'm fitting into pretty well. Of course, adjusting to the hours isn't so easy. In fact, the hours are kicking my behind.

I nearly fell asleep driving home this evening. Yesterday too. And Last Friday I came home from work and almost immediately I dozed off. And, I wanna tell you- I honest-to-goodness slept. So much so that when I called my sister to check in with her (she wasn't feeling well), I fell asleep while talking to her.

And to those of you who are rolling your eyes and thinking "what's new?": NO, this wasn't my usual "sheree says stupid things when she nods off" but "sheree woke up to hear her voice and realized she had no idea what she'd said." How horrible is that?

So, I think I gotta get more sleep. I'm gonna have dinner in a few minutes (it's 6.20pm), and plan to be in bed at 9pm. I'd go now but I'm afraid I'll wake up at 2am and not be able to get back to sleep.

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As for the job itself: it's good! I'm settling in, finding my way. I think we might have even hired me an assistant! Woo-hoo!

Say What?!

Take a look at these.



How sad is my life?
When I was 2, I looked like Jim Belushi.
6 years ago I looked like Samuel L. Jackson. And I still do, I guess.

That's just wrong.

Of course, there is another way to look at this.
And let this serve as a warning to my friends:
I look like Mary Poppins, Laura Croft, and the Queen of Daytime TV.
Talk about superpowers!



And yeah, I'm amazed that 2 people actually showed up on both: Gabrielle Union and Rosario Dawson, although apparently I looked more like them when I was younger.

First Day, No Jitters

Today was fabulous. Ok, it was fine. The people were friendly and helpful, and they even let me have the day to "settle in." I did some hygiene exams, including a very cheerful 5 year old. Tomorrow will be a heavier load, if only because at least emergency patient is on my schedule. It'll take time to "build my practice," but I am both excited and hopeful.

Oh, and I ordered scrubs, some supplies, and a filing cabinet. My desk doesn't have any drawers and I wanted some. Some now I'm gonna have a lovely little faux woodgrain cabinet (2 drawers & 1 filing box) to match my faux woodgrain desk. All that, AND I got to start work an hour late. Wish me luck tomorrow, when I have to be there at my "regular" start time of 7am. And no, that's not a typo.

Vacation Redux

So the gf and I took our first "real" vacation together in February. The week of Valentine's Day, no less. We had a blast.

The Ship
BIG. Talk about a sea of humanity. I never got around to ice skating, although we did watch people climb the rock wall. Not my cup of tea, you understand... The pool was fun, even if all of Albany could fit into it. The "adult" pool was more to my liking: no kids, quieter grown-ups. And for some reason, no photos.




Belize City, Belize

The only place we "shopped," if you can call it that. No, we didn't shop at these places, but how fun they?


Costa Maya, Mexico

We were lazy, just went into the little touristy town. Pretty water.
Cool colors, huh? Maybe I'll convince Shirley to paint her house that color...



GeorgeTown, Grand Cayman

There is a neighborhood in GeorgeTown called Hell. You know we had to go! So now I can honestly say that I've been to Hell and back!



There are jewelry stores galore in the Caribbean. Imagine my surprise when the gf tells me that there's one store we just have to visit. Too funny! Can you see the price of those bracelets? $450?! Are they kidding me? I'll just stick to my Avon pendant!



Just for the record, we went to Cozumel, Mexico too, but we spent that day sitting on the beach. Guess who didn't take very many pictures?

Easter Sunday

printed in the church bulletin this morning:

"I believe that deep, life-changing Christian belief is based not upon arguments and reasons, but upon encounter with the risen Christ. We believe simply because he comes to us and gives us that which we cannot give ourselves- a reason to believe, a way to go on, a path out of doubt toward faith."

-The Reverend Wiliam H. Willimon

Old Home Week

Last week sure felt like it.

A boy I went to high school with called me out of the blue. And I found 2 very funny (and very sad) videos done by other classmates on YouTube. This, frankly, is remarkable. Why? Because I graduated 23 years ago, from a place called the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics. It is billed as the country's first public, residential high school.

2 years (11^th and 12^th grades)
Residential ("boarding")
"bright" kids (think: the Star Trek generation)

When I was there, it was new- really new. I was in the 3rd class.

When my class arrived for our junior year, half of the girls found out that their dorm was not yet ready and that they'd be living in the Carolina Duke Motor Lodge down the street (it was a motor lodge; need I say more?). What kind of parent leaves their 16 year old kid to live at the Crusty Dusty Motor Inn for 3 months?!

The same kind who approves of this...

Renovations in the dining room were complete, but not to the kitchen. So for all of my junior year, we had cold breakfasts and lunches (cereal, sandwiches, ...). For dinner, we walked up the street to the local grammar school: EK Poe Elementary School, affectionately known as Icky Poo. That says it all, I think, but at least it put us half way up Ninth Street, a pretty cool place (esp when you're 16 and living away from home for the first time!)

Our mascot is the Unicorn. We have never had a football team, and someone thought it'd be clever to have t-shirts made that said "NCSSM Football: Undefeated since 1980." And now that's part of their alumni begging campaign. It's not funny, people. It's sad. Very, very sad.


And on another sad, sad note: my Tarheel grrls lost. I just wish the game hadn't been such an ugly one- Ivory was out most of the first half with 3 fouls. Last night, the Florida boys reclaimed the National Title; OSU fought the valiant fight, but. Tonight Rutgers will face Tennessee. After watching Rutgers run all over LSU, I can't wait to see what happens tonight. Again, I love me some Pat Summitt, but you gotta admire C. Vivian Stringer. She put 4(!) grrls on LSU's leading scorer and shut their whole system down. 4 on 1. It was amazing!

My Reality

These are the women.

These women, along with my sister, are the folks who keep my feet on the ground. Who tell me that even though near-strangers find me "delightful," I am odd. Period. End of story.

Huh. Why are they in my life again?
=====================
the gf

Quite simply, the most amazing woman I have ever met.

the "new" friends

Both are "of" the South. One is from my hometown & even went to the same college I did, but we met in Virginia. The other one claims she "followed" me to Virginia from the Northeast, where we met.

the high school (read: "old") friends

We are from 3 different towns in the same state, and went to high school together. I graduated with one, and 1 year ahead of the other. I graduated from high school in the mid 1980s.

“There are not many things in life so beautiful as true friendship, and not many things more uncommon.”

I am lucky, lucky grrl.



Tonight Ivory and Candace will do battle at 9.30pm.
Pat Summit rocks and all but I still say:
Go Tarheels!