How will we see Him?

I'm the Infection Control Nurse at a small rural hospital, so over the weekend I read about the Swine Flu with dread. Even at our small hospital we have been preparing for this kind of thing for quite a while now. In fact we just met with our regional health department epidemiology nurses just this past week to begin working out our hospital plans for having our own closed point of dispensing from the National Strategic Stockpile.
I always put on my makeup and watch CNN Headline News. And of course this morning the news was all about the Swine Flu and the death of Pontiac/Hummer/Saturn.
I am always a very optimistic person. I run worse case scenario in my mind, but I always believe that things are going to turn out for the best.
However all this bad news did not put me in the best frame of mind on a Monday morning.
The first thing I did when I got to work was to begin ramping up for the possibility of an epidemic--I just can't say the word pandemic. I'm trying to get appropriate and correct information out to all the employees, especially those that work in the ED, without inducing panic.
Anyway, that's not really what this blog is about today. I said all that to say this: We live in an amazing age of information. This morning, I knew exactly how many cases of Swine Flu were in the US and in what states. I also knew what other countries were having cases and how many.
By this afternoon I had an update email from the CDC concerning the cases. In the 60s and early 70s we watched the Vietnam War unfold on the nightly news. Now we watch the war in Iraq unfold almost as it happens.
Now I'm going to segueway into the Second Coming of Christ. What?
I was born on a Friday and was probably in church the very next Sunday. I'm from a long line of Southern Baptists. My uncle was a Southern Baptist preacher and I was probably around 8 or 9 when he preached about the Second Coming of Christ. I remember he preached about how "every eye will see Him." Revelations 1:7. As a child I thought about that a lot. Would we literally see Him with our physical eyes? Our would we see Him with our spiritual eyes?
I decided that it would be with our spiritual eyes, because how could He be seen on both sides of the globe?
But now I know, we will literally see Him with our physical eyes. No sooner than He comes through the stratosphere, the satellites will pick Him up and He will be on CNN, Fox and all the other news channels. We will get emails, twitters and the smart phones will have His picture on them. Honestly, do you know anybody who doesn't have a cellphone? I don't even know anybody who doesn't have a computer. I have a friend that spent time in Haiti while he was in the military. Even in the poorest villages, they had one television set, hooked up to a satellite dish which would be outside, where the villagers would gather and watch CNN.
So this is what has been rattling around in my head today.....Jesus, the age of immediate information, swine flu, the economy, Pontiac, but mostly Jesus coming back.

Still plays with dolls

I have cleaned and straightened up the house, done all the washing, and bathed the dogs. So I spent the afternoon goofing off even thought there are still boxes that need to be unpacked and the garage needs further attention.
I played with my dolls. These are Barbie dolls that I bought for 5 cents a piece at a thrift store. I cleaned them up a little bit, and combed and fixed their hair. The one with all the braids is a Rapunzel Barbie I think. The two bride dresses I bought in a lot on ebay a year or so ago and the other two "dresses" are just wrapped ribbon.
I never get tired of playing with dolls. I still don't have my built in cabinet done yet, but someday.....

Flowers

My husband picked a bouquet of wildflowers and sent them to me.......the new way. He picked them while he was turkey hunting, took a picture of them with his phone and texted them to me. I love technology.

Interesting Saturday

I had a really interesting day yesterday. I went junktiquing. Usually I don't go looking for anything in particular, it seems that when I get this need/passion to go it seems that something is looking for me and it is my job to find it.
I have become interested (obsessed) with felting. And I knew (hoped) there would be a 100% wool sweater at the Salvation Army store. And sure enough there was. It is kinda ugly and I got several looks when I bought it. As I was taking this picture, I looked at the label and it says something like made in the British Royal Providence of Hong Kong. So I guess it's pretty vintage huh? I'm going to try my hand at felting it today and even thought it is vintage, it will be better off upcycled than hanging out forever in the Salvation Army.

And then I found this pink Alencon lace dress. It is also vintage and a little (quite) dingy. I plan on washing it in the delicate cycle and making a funky pillow out of it.


And this little cruet for my olive oil...which I almost never use.



Then after this, I rode around and looked at new houses to get some ideas on how to decorate my front porch. Wow there are some gorgeous new houses around here.
Then I was hungry, and of all of the wonderful places to eat in the Mississippi delta, I ate at the Krystal.I love these little burgers. But you have to know how to eat them. I get them without cheese. I ask for extra mustard. I then squeeze mustard on one napkin ketchup on another napkin. Then I sprinkle a little salt on the mustard and ketchup and dip the burgers and fries in each while I read the newspaper. Iwas in Heaven. Except for one little thing...I noted one of the servers (not the one that waited on me) being rude to a customer for talking on his cellphone while she tried to take his order, but then I guess they made up, because a minute or two later they were talking nicely to each other. Then she sat down at a table and put her head down....I'm starting to think hmmm, when she jumped up went to the bathroom and everybody could hear her wretching.... So I had a dilemma. Am I about to get a stomach virus? Should I quit eating? No, the damage is probably already done. But it did put a damper on my lunch. I'm a nurse and of course it's not the first time I've heard somebody vomiting, but it was a first for being in an eatery.
Then I went to "Big Lots" and found some neat cones with flowers for my front doors.
Then I went to "Cat Track Kennels" and got some puppy food for the furbabies.


She is the Dog Whisperer that came to our house. Gosh she has a beautiful place. It is on ancient Indian grounds.
Then I went to the local antique store...I didn't buy anything. Everything was just too high..there was a little chair that I wanted.......may go back and get it next payday.
Then came home and hubby and I had crawfish for supper. Boy was it good.
Avery spent the night. Here is a conversation concerning crawfish.
Avery: I don't like crawfish.
Me: How do you know?
Avery: Does my Mommy eat crawfish?
Me: Yes.
Avery: Then that's how I know I don't like it.
Me: What do you mean?
Avery: When I was in her belly, I remember her eating it and when she swallowed it, I didn't like it.
Me: Oh.

I’m a barefoot girl.

And I wonder if it is genetic. I have a picture my Mama took of my daddy holding me while he is standing barefooted outside. Oh and I was born in December and I look to be about a month or two old.

My cousin Annette used to be the same way. We never ever wore shoes in the summer….gravel roads, stickers in the yard…..all be damned.

And I can remember squeezing my feet into shoes when school started. My Mama would say that my feet had stretched and I believed her. Now I realize how silly that was. Your feet don’t stretch or get wider just because you go barefooted….do they?

I can remember when I first moved to “town” in the summer of 1975 to work at the hospital, not wearing shoes to the grocery store, or to the local Fred's store.

Also in the winter I don’t think twice about running outside to the mailbox or garbage can barefooted.

The first thing that I do when I get home is pull off my shoes, no matter what the temperature is.

I drive with my shoes off.

Sometimes in long boring meetings, I slip my shoes off.

I love the feeling of going barefooted on the beach……digging my toes in the sand.

When I was a kid, I loved the feeling of walking barefooted in the newly plowed ground of the garden.

But on the other hand, David’s feet never ever touch anything but shoes. When he gets up in the morning his feet go straight into his house shoes. When he gets out of the tub, his feet go straight into his house shoes. His feet are as tender as a new born baby’s. My feet on the other hand (no pun intended) are……well tough, but hey that’s just the way it is when you are a barefoot girl.

Happy Easter

Yesterday we all piled in two cars and went to my son's house. It was #6's birthday. She is 2. They had her a nice birthday party and egg hunt.
It was a lot of fun. And as I stood on the porch looking out over all the kids hunting eggs, I kept hearing this. "Look I found a real egg!" Somebody had brought some real eggs to hide. It made me feel nostalgic. We always hunted eggs at Aunt Gladys' house on Sunday after church. All the kids from church hunted eggs at her house. Why at her house? I don't know we just did. There were no chocolate Easter eggs, no Peeps, no chocolate Easter Bunnies, and I didn't get a present from the Easter Bunny, I had the same Easter basket every year, with new "grass." I did get a new dress every year and sometimes Mama would make her and I a dress to match--that was always my favorite. Easter was all about Jesus--not about the Easter Bunny.
After we found all the eggs, the mothers would divide them all up to make sure that nobody was left out, and then we would all gather under the pine trees and eat our eggs with salt and pepper.
That is one of my favorite memories.....Aunt Gladys' house, the breeze blowing through the pines and my friends and I eating our Easter eggs......

Mable

The other morning I thought about Mable for the first time in a long time. I used to think about her every day, then I thought about her about twice a week, then once a month and then only every once in a while.

Mable and I had a history. She was black and I’m white. She was in the 11^th grade and I was in the 10^th when our schools integrated. We graduated from high school the same year, because she stayed out a year. She was an LPN and I’m an RN. We both worked at the same hospital. When I graduated from nursing school, she was working the 7-3 shift and I started working the 3-11 shift. But we ultimately wound up working together and I was her supervisor.

We had our moments when we disagreed, but we respected each other. We had some very deep and private conversations and she helped me understand, and I hope I helped her understand things about our particular races.

Between the two of us, we knew a lot of people. And if I couldn’t remember a particular black person that we went to school with, she could remind me and I could do the same for her. We just had a huge common bond and history that I didn’t have with anybody else.

She had a “heart attack” and had open heart surgery, of which she only really partially recovered because she wound up with polymyositis. She also had some bouts of tachycardia and was in our hospital several times after her surgery.

I remember that the last time she was in the hospital she knew that although I wasn’t her nurse, I was keeping a quiet watch over her while she slept. She opened her eyes to see me standing at her bedside and I mouthed the words to her “I love you.” And she whispered “I love you too.”

I really can’t remember if she came back to work after that, but what I remember is David having one of the deacons come and get me out of Sunday School to tell me that Mable was sick and in the ER. I remember driving to the ER thinking that she had had another spell with her heart racing and ticking off the things in my mind that we needed to do for her---maybe that her medicine should be changed, or maybe she should see her cardiologist sooner.

I was totally unprepared when I walked into the ER to find David and the nurses performing CPR on her. Normally I’m very cool in a crisis, but this time I freaked out and started yelling….have yawl given her ………..? Have yawl done this or that ……? David looked me straight in the eye and said; if you can’t be calm…….get out!

And so I did, I went in the room with the family and had a quiet breakdown. Mable was gone. There would never be anybody else with which I had that kind of history. One of my dearest friends was gone.

A soloist sang “Let My Work Speak For Me” at her funeral. I remember thinking about how appropriate that was.

She has been gone about 6 years now.

And that morning after I trudged up the hill from the parking lot and struggled up those steps at the front of the hospital that seem to get steeper each year, walked down that hall that I have walked down almost every day for the last 34 years (I’ve been a nurse since I was 19) opened my office door and looked toward the Nurses’ Station I was overwhelmed with the thought……..”Mable got it right.” She doesn’t have to do this every day, she is at peace. Oh I’m sure that she wouldn’t have chosen to die and leave her children, but she is in paradise and I’m still at the hospital.

I don’t feel so morose today, in fact today has been a good day and I’m almost always a happy and optimistic person, but the other day………Mable was in paradise and I was at the hospital.

Morelater--AngelMc

Treasures

Since my previous post about D I and D II going hunting, I decided to do some hunting myself. And I did something unprecedented yesterday morning. I got up and left the house to do something fun for myself without making up the bed, sweeping the floor, making sure the washing was all done, the dishwasher was unloaded and reloaded etc.
I went to an auction!! I went with a BFF and we stayed almost the whole day. I did some serious hunting and scored some real treasures (to me).
It had been ages since I had been to an auction and the anticipation of waiting on the items that I wanted and then bidding...was a blast. I had forgotten just how much fun it was.
#6 whoever she is, was my nemesis. She out bid me on two things that I wanted really badly--a set of Fire King tulip mixing bowls in mint condition and a vintage picture of roses.
But I did score a wonderful green depression glass measuring cup that is very heavy.
And a gorgeous platter with dogwood blossoms in a cross that I think was a steal for $2.50. And this beautiful bowl that is etched and has beautiful design for $2.00.
And oh yeah and I got these glasses which are etched and have golden leaves...they look wonderful in my china cabinet with the Flora gold dishes........all 8 were $2.50!
I know that the pictures are backwards from my descriptions, but I thought that they would load one after the other as I wrote the text. I'll have to learn how to do this.
So what do yawl think? Did I do good on my hunting expedition?
Morelater--AngelMc

Testosterone Festival

It has been a regular testosterone festival around here this past week. My son, David II has been here this week and he and his daddy, David I, have been hunting and fishing or preparing to hunt and fish or talking about hunting and fishing or cooking the gains of hunting and fishing.

As of today, D II is under Federal orders and will be returning to Iraq sometime in May. So since this was D I’s week off (he will have to work the weekend) and D II had the week off, it was a good time for them to be together and do what they enjoy most.

Now I don’t understand the hunting and fishing…..well I understand the fishing—sort of…but not to the extent that they love to fish…but I do understand them wanting to be together and enjoy their time together before he goes to Iraq.

They were up at four thirty, home at noon for lunch and a nap and then back in the woods for the afternoon until dark.

Tuesday night they cooked the wild turkey that David killed. They fried some of it and D II cooked some of it in the oven with fresh mushrooms and onions and goodness knows what else. I ate one bite of the fried turkey and then ate a hot dog. I got a lot of grief for that, but I just don’t like any kind of any kind of wild game.

And you should have seen the kitchen when they got through, flour and grease…….what a mess, but D II cleaned it up. D I is not very good at cleaning up after himself and usually his wife Amanda is left to clean up the aftermath of his cooking. He imagines himself an Emeril Lagasse.

Anyway, this is a picture of David earlier while he was turkey hunting in the rain.