Good Humor

Just got this email from my brother.

The subject line: "No excuses"
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FYI - I looked and my calendar and confirmed that they've already nailed down the date. Christmas will be observed on December 25 this year, so plan on being here to celebrate with your family!

Love you again,

JC
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That, my friends, is just good humor.

This moment of laughter was brought to you by the letter H and the number 33.

Not Worth It

I looked in the mirror last night after spending a lovely evening with Tanyer and was shocked at the amount of gray hair I have. Someone who is turning 30 this year should NOT have this much gray!!

My job is completely stressing me out right now. I'm working my ass off, but it never seems to be good enough for my company. My client loves me, but it doesn't seem to matter to anyone in my company. Here I sit on a conference call from 6-8am, rush to work, mtgs 9-1 and then have time to get work done. I'm tired. I'm done. I'm between a rock and a hard place and the only thing that's happening is the space between the two is shrinking. I've been in difficult situations before, but have always been able to work through them. That doesn't seem to be possible on this project. After 7.5 years, I'm just done and ready for something else. Life is too short for this kind of stress, especially when there's no appreciation for it. I don't mind getting my ass chewed when I deserve it. I can't stand getting my ass chewed when I don't.

Time to start updating the resume.

This moment of being a stressball was brought to you by the letter F and the number 7.5.

Scared

Yesterday I had a lovely evening with my friend K. We did sushi and then relaxed at the Kabuki Baths. After we just hung out and talked. It was wonderful!

As I was driving home, I had a message from my brother last night on my cell to call him at whatever time I listened to the message as he would be up. I called him at nearly 1am his time. Our favorite uncle, J, is in the hospital. He has two blocked arteries, his lung capacity is 37% and he's anemic so they can't even do surgery. They gave him two pints of blood, but it did nothing for the anemia. They now assume he is bleeding internally somewhere. They are doing a colonoscopy today to try and find out where. Apparently when they were running one of the tests he had a heart attack. It wasn't severe, but there is damage from it in addition to old damage done at some other point in time. The doctor thinks it may be a few weeks before he's strong enough to have surgery.

UJ has been a part of our lives since we were born. He would always come to town for Christmas and we'd have one day where it was "our" day. We could go where we wanted, do what we wanted, eat and drink what we wanted, etc. Then he'd take us home, drop us off as we were bouncing off the walls on a sugar high and grin and wave at my parents as he'd go to grandma's to stay. :-) He's always been such a big part of our lives.

My brother and I have both been really concerned about him the past few years. He's gotten severely overweight, has smoked since he was 12 and we both think he's probably been depressed since our parent's deaths. Dad was his best friend and mom was his little sister. it always bothered him that he's been the one who has abused his body for so many years (he's also an alcoholic who stopped drinking long before I was even born and hasn't touched a drop since) and it was my parents who both died. I've tried talking to him multiple times saying, "Hey, you're all I've got left and I'd like to keep you around for a good long time. Let's try and take some steps to ensure that happens." Even that didn't work.

The extra-annoying part - his PCP missed all this. UJ's breathing had gone downhill a lot recently. He saw his PCP who didn't think it was anything to be concerned about. He even had his annual physical at the end of December and said he was fine. My uncle was at a Christmas Eve party and got to chatting with a cardiologist who said, "I wouldn't be so blase about your symptoms. Check yourself into the ER tonight, put me down as the attending and I'll be in first thing in the morning to see you." So he did. The doctor in the ER said he thought he had some clogged arteries and emphasema, but dismissed him so he never saw the cardiologist who had sent him there. He got some prescriptions from the ER doc and then had a follow-up visit with his PCP. His PCP said he didn't have any blockages and didn't have emphasema (keep in mind this is like a week ago) and there was nothing to worry about. Who knows how long this guy has missed it?

So here he now is in the hospital with two arteries blocked and 37% lung capacity. He's supposed to see the cardiologist this morning and then have the colonoscopy. His ex-girlfriend is there with him and calling my brother with updates. I'll hear from him once we know anything.

I'm scared. I'm scared of losing him too. I hope that everything will turn out fine and that this will be the kick in the pants he needs to get his life back on track. I pray that is the outcome. But mostly I'm just scared right now.

Please add my uncle to your prayer list. Thank you!

This moment of being scared was brought to you by the letter S and the number 3.

It's All About Perspective

Got this on email today. Thought it was interesting.

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Weather Bulletin - Denver

Up here, in the "Mile-Hi City", we just recovered from a Historic event--- may I even say a "Weather Event" of "Biblical Proportions" --- with a historic blizzard of up to 44" inches of snow and winds to 90 MPH that broke trees in half, knocked down utility poles, stranded hundreds of motorists in lethal snow banks, closed ALL roads, isolated scores of communities and cut power to 10's of thousands.

FYI:

George Bush did not come.

FEMA did nothing.

No one howled for the government.

No one blamed the government.

No one even uttered an expletive on TV.

Jesse Jackson or Al Sharpton did not visit.

Our Mayor did not blame Bush or anyone else.

Our Governor did not blame Bush or anyone else, either.

CNN, ABC, CBS, FOX or NBC did not visit - or report on this category 5 snowstorm. Nobody demanded $2,000 debit cards.

No one asked for a FEMA Trailer House.

No one looted.

Nobody - I mean Nobody demanded the government do something.

Nobody expected the government to do anything, either.

No Larry King, No Bill O'Rielly, No Oprah, No Chris Mathews and No Geraldo Rivera.

No Sean Penn, No Barbra Striesand, No Hollywood types to be found.

Nope, we just melted the snow for water.

Sent out caravans of SUV's to pluck people out of snow engulfed cars.

The truck drivers pulled people out of snow banks and didn't ask for a penny.

Local restaurants made food and the police and fire departments delivered it to the snowbound families.

Families took in the stranded people - total strangers.

We fired up wood stoves, broke out coal oil lanterns or Coleman lanterns.

We put on extra layers of clothes because up here it is "Work or Die".

We did not wait for some affirmative action government to get us out of a mess created by being immobilized by a welfare program that trades votes for 'sittin at home' checks.

Even though a Category "5" blizzard of this scale has never fallen this early, we know it can happen and how to deal with it ourselves.

"In my many travels, I have noticed that once one gets north of about 48 degrees North Latitude, 90% of the world's social problems evaporate."

It does seem that way, at least to me.

I hope this gets passed on.

Maybe SOME people will get the message. The world does Not owe you a living.

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Is my Midwest self shining through? :-)

This moment of perspective was brought to you by the letter D and the number 1.

Small Victories

This weekend was one of small victories.

Saturday afternoon I went shopping (which I hate) because I need some new work clothes. Everything I bought was a size smaller than what I've been wearing. Woohoo!

Saturday evening thanks to Meliza I "nutted up" and did a round of speed dating. It was surprisingly entertaining.

Sunday I enjoyed the great outdoors by playing volleyball for a few hours.

Sunday night I played poker - bought in for $5 and came home with $43 in my pocket. Not too shabby. Plus it was a good crowd and lots of laughs.

This morning I got my butt out of bed and hit the gym followed by a healthy breakfast.

Yep, sometimes it's the small victories in life. :-)

This moment of contentment was brought to you by the letter V and the number 5.

My New Year's Wish For All of You

wish you enough!

(blatantly stolen from an email circling the net - I just really like this)

I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright no matter how gray the
day may appear.

I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun even more.

I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive and everlasting.

I wish you enough pain so that even the smallest of joys in life may appear
bigger.

I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.

I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.

I wish you enough hellos to get you through the final good-bye.

They say it takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate
them, a day to love them but then an entire life to forget them.

To all my friends and loved ones,
I WISH YOU ENOUGH