Such a great kid!

I spent a couple of days with my son and his family, and it was great! Hugs, kisses and a delicious lasagna dinner greeted me.  The next day,  the unofficial "Take Your Mom To Work Day" began where I was delighted to watch the radio hosting process up close and personal.  Made my heart smile to see my son as a professional media man who was living his dream job with such confidence  at the top!!  And no, that is not a biased Mama Bear statement.
In the evening, I was able to be the audience for a round table sports TV talk show that was taped for Time Warner Cable.  There was no script or prompting, and again, I wondered ,"How does he know all of that current and ever changing info off the top of his head?"  And add humor to it, too.
We then went to see the hockey game of the year...No, not the NHL game on the TV and radio.  It was the 12 year old kids' playoff game where we were rooting for #4 and his team to win and they did!  Wahoo!!
What was the best part?
The thoughtfulness and caring shown to me all the time by everyone.  My arthritis caused me to be kind of slow-moving and it was never the issue [for them].  As I heard the recurring words,
"This is my mom!"
there was also the resounding internal joy of,
"This is my sun!!"
[ I know how to spell...My son is my sun!]

One Moment in Time

This is a great story and a true story.  I know this because I was there.
A little bit of background to better appreciate how that 'one moment in time' came about.

 Arthritis has sculpted my hands and feet into some unusual patterns.   Nodules [roundish bumps ] appear and sometimes they need to be dealt with for a variety of reasons.  Since I believe in accepting the things I cannot change, I do try to change the things that I can.

             Twenty years ago, an orthopedic surgeon specializing in hand[iwork!] haha...began to help keep my hands functioning as well as possible.  I was impressed from the first office visit when I noticed a kid's artwork on the examining room wall, and the doc said his seven year old daughter had painted it.  It was certainly more attractive to me [elementary school teacher]  than the sterile walls that usually had graphic posters of anatomy [ for educational purposes].  It was my good fortune to find a fantastic surgeon with amazing  'people skills and empathy' and who practiced medicine in a consistently encouraging way. 

It was at my rheumatologist's office that this perfect storm began to gel.  He recommended that it would be wise to shuffle my feet in the direction of someone specializing in feet!  I asked if he had any recommendations and  he gave me a note with two names on it.  I immediately recognized one of the names.
"Any relation to my orthopedic surgeon?"
"Yes, his son.  He graduated from "XXX" [ highly regarded institution of learning] with a specialty in feet!"
I made an initial foot appointment, and coincidentally  my yearly check-up appointment for my hands had already been scheduled just prior to that one.  This conversation [with the father] began with my explanation:
"It is clear that there is foot surgery in my immediate future.  I have made an appointment with Dr. Foot [his son]."
He smiled and voiced his confidence in 'the good doctor'.
I asked, "Any chance that while I am in altered states getting my left foot operated on that you might remove a few nodules from my right hand?"
He answered, "Well, that would depend on what the foot doctor says relative[haha] to whether I would need both hands while recovering one- footed.  It would be his call."
Very pleased to meet the younger version of my favorite doctor, the son was a clone in appearance and personality which was a very good endorsement.  After the foot exam was done, I shared:
"In my yearly check-up with my hand surgeon...
He smiled and voiced his confidence in 'the good doctor!'
"I asked if I could get some nodules from my right hand removed 'at the same time' as I was having the necessary foot surgery.  He told me that  decision would be the foot doc's call due to the recovery involved.  And that would be you."
"Sure thing...I think that would be possible.  It's a matter of scheduling both doctors in the same place and time.  Since my father has the busier schedule, I would start with his availability and then I would join his allotted surgery day.  The two surgery-scheduling secretaries can set the whole thing up and contact you as to date and time.  "

And so it came to pass...
One patient...one operating room complete with appropriate staff...one anesthesiologist...
And history was made for them...the hand surgeon and the foot surgeon...the father and the son...simultaneously operating together for the first and only time.  My right hand and my left foot made a special appearance in that unique chapter in their respective lives...and it helped me, too. 
I was happy to be the connection for their historic 'one moment in time' together while in my favorite place to be...altered states and dreaming!
When you reflect back to the birth of a baby, I wonder if 'said father' as he held his newborn son... could have possibly imagined that one day in the future they would be two surgeons operating together simultaneously. Whew! 

Priceless

$640 Million and counting...

While I don't really believe that any one of our 30 tickets will win that absurd amount of money, I wish that they would deal it out a bit more like increasing the payoffs for people with 3 or 4 numbers. 
What would I do with that potential...off the top of my head...
I would certainly share it with friends and relatives.
Then...
Bless the beasts and the children.  Animal rescue and environmental help for Mother Earth are up there on the wish list.

I would pay off student loans of a whole bunch of college grads who are drowning in student loans.


I would create a fund to help rehabilitate veterans who will never quite recover from the physical and mental effects of war.  And the families whose lives need positive direction and help.

Five years ago when my mom had a stroke and went into a rehab facility [nursing home], I had wished  I had the ways/means to add another person to every shift because they are always understaffed, and the job requires such strength...both physical and mental.  God bless the people working in nursing homes 'cause it sure is not a piece of cake...even on a good day.

Okay...being a teacher who enjoyed watching kids succeed, it comes as no surprise that there would be several kid type funding projects. Let's create jobs in safety by hiring monitors to ride all the schoolbuses so that the bus driver could focus on driving the bus, and bad behavior and bullying would take a back seat...[so to speak!!]  It always made me crazy when eliminating the arts was suggested as a way to trim the school budget.  Art, music, and sports/ phys ed are so valuable and necessary.  Along with money to fund summer camps, art classes, drama opportunities...creative avenues.  That must be my dominant right brain's influence.
Medical research...millions!

Me?  I would have to purchase a house by the water, a cabin in the mountains, and begin traveling to see more of the USA's scenic and fascinating places of interest.  Anyone care to join me?
I am sure I omitted a whole bunch of  ways to spend that money.  Feel free to add a few to my list .I was just getting started.


Cause hey...you can't take it with you!!

Dreams...the kind you are not conscious for!

It is a known fact that everyone dreams, and also that many people do not remember them. I have been known to have some pretty unique dreams. Many times I can figure out what prompted the idea, and other times...holy cow...what was that all about?

Take last night, for example. I'm thinking the connecting element was probably the fact that I had left my porch door unlocked so that a friend could to pick up some paperwork that I had proofread for her. And from that...

There was someone outside the door, who then quickly entered the house. She wanted to hide out for a bit because the paparazzi was always following her every move. Who was it? Jennifer Aniston!!! I was very surprised that she chose my house, and since she needed a rest, we [spouse and I...huh?] prepared the spare room for her. Stupid stuff like not being able to find a matching set of sheets, and the sight of the TV on its side was annoying. Really...far out.

Some past dreams vie for the 'far out awards' and have been known to cause laughter in varying degrees. It is a common dream to arrive somewhere without your clothes. Case in point was my anguished dream of standing in the front of my classroom and covering up my unclothed body by standing behind an opened-up Samsonite blue suitcase!! {I owned one.}

Another took place in June when there was a substitute teacher in one of the 5th grades. My dream: The two of us were out on the playground with recess, and we raised one hand so that the kids would line up in front of their homeroom teacher to go inside. I was very surprised [and embarrassed] by the sub's behavior because she was dressed in shorts and smoking a cigarette. And who do you suppose came walking across the field to where we were assembling the kids?? The superintendent of schools [!] who told us that smoking was only allowed in the faculty room. [not true, by the way...there was no smoking in the building, and I didn't smoke anyway!!] So we go into the building and walk through the hallway to find the faculty room and there is no door there.

I said, "Well it just can't disappear. It would be like losing one of the fifty states!"

Then we see it, go inside, and there is a mural on the wall of...The Last Supper!!

Whatever happened to the separation of church and state? Freud would have a field day analyzing some of my adventures.

School was often a regular theme: I [dreamt] that while trying to call in sick from a clinic in Mexico [was in the Soc St curriculum] I could NOT get a phone connection to go through. Another dream had me getting stopped by the police, and was written a ticket for a disorganized pocketbook!

On the serious side, in May of 1967, my brother unexpectedly died in a naval accident. When I graduated from high school the next month, I experienced the most vivid dream that he was there in the back of the church. Certainly, I was the only one who could see him.

Dreams fascinate me. They are intriguing, funny, bizarre, scary... What if we have a whole different life as we sleep.

I would be interested in your thoughts. And for Pete's sake, I can't be the only one who has had some pretty strange dreams!!