Wicked Good

Have I mentioned how ecstatic I am that Day is finally home from Germany?! I fear I've been lax in giving her the proper welcome she deserves...

Daze, I'm so glad you're back!!

I was fortunate enough to get to spend the entire day with Day yesterday as we ventured to Memphis for a fun day trip, including a matinee of Wicked. I saw Wicked in New York two years ago, and it has remained one of my most favorite musicals. As shocking as this may sound, I think this touring group that brought the production to Memphis may have outshone the cast I saw in New York. It may sound crazy, but it's true!!

One cool surprise was the actor who played the Wizard. I thought he looked familiar the second he walked out on the stage, and with a little racking of my brain I came up with exactly who he was: head counselor Pat from the movie Heavyweights. Random, huh? (And an odd person to remember?) D-list though he may be, Day and I thought it was neat.

We had so much fun laughing and talking all the way to Memphis and back. Before we left, my mom said, "You and Day don't get to acting so silly and laughing that you run the car off the road." She said this in jest, but it was probably pretty good advice, for we did come awfully close to doing just that. I'm so glad she's back and look forward to more fun with her this summer before she starts medical school in the fall.

A Little Respect

No one can deny that the entertainment industry has taken a huge hit this week. Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson: three iconic figures no longer with us.
Our country and the world will certianly miss these three.
However...
(You know me... I have to play devil's advocate and try to look at things in a different light.)
I have heard a number of reporters, interviews, and newscasters say some of the most absurdly inappropriate things today. I just heard a commentator say, and I quote, "I wouldn't be surprised if tomorrow the world had stopped turning [because of the loss of Michael Jackson]."
The world stop turning?? Really??
Further, I heard another reporter say, just as the death of Michael Jackson was announced, "Even if you didn't know what was going on inside this hospital, you would know something horrible was happening because of the people outside."
Not to be crass, but... it's a hospital. There are horrible things taking place every minute of every day. Just because they're not happening to a celebrity or someone being covered by the media doesn't make them any less horrible for the people to whom they're happening. Seriously, how insensitive can you be?
Michael Jackson, just like every other celebrity and "famous" person plastered across the covers of magazines and television, is just a man. The loss of a human life is always tragic, and it truly sickens me when the media makes a feeding frenzy of these situations. It sickens me more, however, the way that the present world (and seemingly America) heightens celebrities to the point of dieties. And for what? They are people; they have lives and feelings and deserve the same privacy, respect, and sensitivity that any Average Joe would receive. Yes, they have chosen this life in the public eye, but shouldn't there be a point where the media says:
Enough??
It seems cruel and unnatural to me. I guess I just don't understand where the media gets off thinking it can do and say anything it desires, leaving humanity and decency at the door.
It's disgusting.
Wow... sorry to get carried away. Didn't mean to launch into a diatribe on "Where is the Humanity in Today's Media?" I'm stepping down from my soapbox now, I promise.

Birth

Happy Birthday, blog! You're one today.

It seems like only yesterday Becca was hassling me about starting a blog, and all of a sudden it's one year later; we've certainly been through a lot together in the last three-sixty-five, huh?

You sure have been a constant friend and confidante for me these months. Cyber space through the blog medium is a funny mix of personal insight and total anonymity, and you've helped me strike a balance between oversharing and keeping too much to myself. You've helped me to reflect on and sift through lots of the stuff in my life this year, and I'm not sure that I would have come through it as...er...gracefully (?) without you.

You've brought new friends into my life and helped me reconnect with some special friends I'd lost touch with, as well. You've also helped me keep in touch with some of my closest friends through new times in their lives, whether it be a move to the south or a brief stint on the other side of the world. Thanks for that, by the way.

You've inspired me to open my eyes to the world differently, and you've given me a platform from which to spew my opinions, some of which I should, admittedly, keep to myself sometimes. In short, I think it's safe to say you've impacted my life in a truly lasting way.

I hope together we've brought one or two laughs to somebody. Maybe we've even made somebody say, "Hmph... I've never thought about it like that." If not, well, there's always next year, right?

Here's to another year with you.

Spring

P.S. Readers, I know we (I) took a brief haitus for a few weeks earlier in the summer. However, I think I'm officially back, and I hope you're still with me. Are you guys still out there??

Big Deal

Jon and Kate + 8.

I don't get it.

Can someone please clue me in as to what the big deal is about this family??
Admittedly, I've never watched the show. It never piqued my interest; so, all I know about the show and the Gosselins is what has shown up in the media, which has skyrocketed lately.

Apparently there's some sort of trouble in paradise?

A family signs up for a reality television show and agrees to have film crews following them twenty-four/seven, three-sixty-five. Tension and (seemingly) disaster ensues. What about this is surprising? More than that, why is this newsworthy?

All I know is this: I can't turn on FoxNews, Entertainment Tonight, the Today show, or Late Night with Conan O'Brien (or anything else in between) without hearing something about Jon and Kate + 8. Seriously, some member of the Gosselin family has graced the cover of the last 4 People magazines. I see it all around me. I hear people talking about it all the time. All I don't understand is why.

Like I said, I don't get it.

I know there are at least a few of you out there who live for the latest on the Gosselins (Becca, Meg... ahem... Nick), so feel free to enlighten me. Until then, I'll sit tight for the newest piece of inappropriately private information released to the general public through the mainstream media. One of the kids picked his or her nose; Kate put new highlights in her hair; the family settled their differences with a Three Muskateers-style duel.

The sky truly is the limit, it seems.

This is My Confession

Here lies a truth of which I am wholly ashamed.
There have been times in my life I thought I had all the friends I needed. In fact, I know I have said this out loud. It probably went something like, "I'm not really in the market for new friends" or "Nah... I've got all the friends I need at the moment." I was probably laughing when I said it, but I know myself well enough to say that there was probably truth behind that laughter.
However, I'm not laughing now. I'm actually looking back in shame.
I came to this realization through a conversation my mom and I were having yesterday. We were talking about all of the phenomenal people we have come in contact with throughout the ongoing process of her surgery and therapy, and I was blindsided by the recognition that took place in my mind. Without the encouragement, openness, understanding, tolerance, patience, and positive energy of the people we have come into contact with, this experience would have been unbearable, and discouragement would have rained down upon us.
We have met cheerleaders and encouragers at every turn, however, and I credit much of the success of the past five weeks to them.
These people were merely doing their jobs, you might say. However, if any of you have had even the most minimal of experiences with the health care industry, you know that a nurturing bedside manner is not a prerequisite for entering the field. Just like most other arenas, sour attitudes, unhelpfulness, bitterness, and resenment abound. Instead of being the norm, however, these troublesome individuals ended up being the anomalies, the exceptions to the most pleasant of rules.
We have been blessed with some of the most skilled doctors, caring nurses, knowledgeable and capable therapists, and, of course, steadfast friends and family. The majority of people we come have come into contact with over the past five weeks are people we have never seen before, and they don't know us from Adam's house cat. That hasn't changed the fact, however, that they have given us their best and their all; they have dared to care in a world where all too often caring falls by the wasteside in exchange for an extra dollar or an immediate gain.
Now, back to my original confession. Where do I get off saying that I am not in the market for new friends? Just who, exactly, do I think I am? I have met tens if not hundreds of new people in the past weeks, and the kindness and helpfulness of each of them has impacted my life in a positive way. It is an honor and a privilege to now call them my friends. My mom was simply a name on a chart and I her emergency contact person. We are no one special and deserve no special treatment. The individuals we have come into contact with, however, have treated us as if we were their only patients, as if they had all the time in the world to answer our multitudes of questions, as if they were there to help no one but us--even though each minute they spent with us was one more minute away from someone else. I consider myself blessed to have been in their presence, and I will take a piece of each of them away from this experience with me. I will always remember them fondly, and I will forever look to them for inspiration.
I know I will glean many more lessons from this experience, but I have already learned a big one. There are new friends to be had at every turn and friendliness truly can change the world, one person at a time. They come in all shapes, sizes, colors, ages, and walks of life; not being open to these new relationships only proves detriemental for me. I am the one missing out. My thinking has now been forever changed, and I am ready and waiting for any new friends who will have me.
It looks as though Blanche DuBois really did have it right when she said in A Streetcar Named Desire, "I have always depended on the kindness of strangers." I should have known better than to go against the likes of Tennessee Williams.
Or Vivien Leigh, for that matter.

Before and After

Often when big events happen in life, I find myself looking at things in a before and after mentality. Looking back into my memory, things get categorized into one part of the dichotomy or the other. Before graduation and after graduation; before dad died and after dad died; before I went to college and after I went to college; before I went to grad school and after I went to grad school. Do you know what I mean? Well, I have added a new one of late: before mom's surgery and after mom's surgery.
Three weeks ago today, mom went to the hospital for a knee replacement. If you had asked me before the surgery, I don't really know that I could have told you what I expected "after the surgery" to be like. I don't think I had any idea, for "after the surgery" was such an abstract concept.
I am, however, relatively certain that I could have named a number of things that I didn't expect. I didn't expect to spend a stint in the ICU. I didn't expect to be so scared I thought I would be physically sick. I didn't expect to see God's presence in the faces of the hospital nurses. I didn't expect to take on these mountains of responsibility and still be able to keep a smile on my face (most of the time). I didn't expect to watch over my mother in the night while she's sleeping, as if our roles had been reversed. I didn't expect to have the physical and mental strength to play a major part in my mother's physical therapy. I didn't expect to be able to withstand pushing her to tears almost everyday. I didn't expect to spend a chunk of my day having a devotion with my mom and reading novels out loud to her; I didn't expect to cherish that time so much. I didn't expect to lean so heavily on my friends and family. I didn't expect to be so overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and support that has met me at every turn. I didn't know what to expect, but I certainly didn't expect this.
I am unbelievably proud of my mother and the improvement she is making everyday. I know she is in worlds of pain, and she is not afraid to make that known. She cries when it gets to be too much, but she never gives up. These weeks have not been easy on either of us, but she is the one who is being forced to endure the physical pain of it all, and I'm so proud of all that she is doing. My mom is unbelievably strong, and she impresses me every single day. I ask you to continue praying for her physical and emotional strength through this process, for she still has a long road of recovery ahead of her.
Thank you so much for all of your thoughts and prayers throughout these weeks. I've felt each one of them, and I could never convey how much they have meant. Your love and support keep us going.