run on sentences

If I were a really good blogger, I would have faithfully placed an entry in here every day while Bruce and I were in Michigan and Wisconsin. I would have mentioned staying in a motel in York Nebraska and drinking my first of many Leinenkugel beers of the trip (a Wisconsin favorite), and maybe mentioned how boring it was driving across Nebraska and how I felt at home once we got to Minnesota. But a lack of wireless Internet connection in my mom's small town and maybe a lack of motivation kept me from revealing all of the details, so here are some of the highlights for anyone who cares to see what it is like to spend a week in the wilds of northern Michigan and another week somewhere in mid Wisconsin. Michigan was our first stop. We slept on the most uncomfortable hide-a-bed, that was a hand me down from my Dad's sister Helen. Why do they always have a bar right across your back? We went to the casino and I won nothing but my mom had fun. I had my traditional bloody Mary that is ...

Well, I was unable to run for a week because of a sore calf muscle. The past week when I could not go out at 6 am and run with Jack the dog made today's run even more enjoyable and made my work day better. It was the usual 5 mile run through familiar neighborhoods but I felt so lucky to have just a nagging stiff calf instead of the feeling of someone sticking a knife into it. It was also the usual Monday work day but it was made better because I ran before getting there. I got this injury just because I had to show off. I am not so good at running up hills but I am fabulous going down them at breakneck speeds (nearing 7.5 minute miles for God's sake, at my age). My friends Tom and Craig and I were doing our usual run up Millcreek canyon before they open it to cars. Going up is pretty much torture and makes one question the entire running thing. It is 4.5 miles up - quiet, beautiful and the air smells so good it is intoxicatin (I tried to think of a description that wasn...

For the first time, I am without a dad on father's day. My dad died last August, and I miss him. So I join the many people who have no father to celebrate father's day with. I feel lucky though, to have had this father, through all the good and bad, for 81 years. Happy Father's day, dad. I love you. The Eyes of My Father I looked into the mirror and saw The eyes of my father staring back I suddenly saw all the things he saw The happiness and sadness of my growing And going. I saw the times we went out into the woods He with his lunch pail, And I with my orange pop Happily sliding down the fallen trees, Wet and stripped of their bark Sometimes on Sundays we would all go the farm I was “just a girl” and wasn’t allowed to drive A tractor. But, I could sing a Finnish song and earn a dime. It was about a pig being slaughtered in a sauna Maybe that song was the reason I became A vegetarian in college. Soon I became too grown up and too busy For the trips to the woods My father ...

My friend Bob showed up today for our run barefooted and wearing some soccer shorts that must have belonged to one of his kids. It wasn't that he was in a hurry. He wasn't late meeting us at Dan's Foods where he, Tom and I agreed to meet. It was because no one in his family was awake to help him pull on his usual running shorts and get his socks and shoes on. Bob has ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease. This disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord. Motor neurons reach from the brain to the spinal cord and from the spinal cord to the muscles throughout the body. The progressive degeneration of the motor neurons in ALS eventually lead to their death. When the motor neurons die, the brain can no longer control muscle movement. Bob can't use his hands very well any more and has lost almost all of his upper body strength. Sadly in some ways, the mind is not affected and people with this disease are aware of how...

If you are one of the wonderful nurses who attended my lecture in Pittsburgh on writing for publication, welcome to my blog. You are the first group I have "put myself out there" for so feel free to comment. Let me say how much I enjoyed talking with you and I hope you will all publish something - nursing related or not. I know each of you have experiences in your job or experiences that are unique to your family - like the ones I have written about here. We are all connected and all alike in so many ways. Thanks for being such an attentive audience and for inviting me to speak. Someday you will see my book titled "Dirty Bathroom Dreams". I wish you all the best.

On Easter Sunday when I got up to get ready to run with Sid, I let Jack the dog out to pee as I usually do. He came back in wet, and I almost decided to call Sid and cancel. I knew though, that he would be waiting for me. I thought about a poem by Robert Herrick that my sister likes and my daughter says is about sex. She would know, being an English major. The title is To virgins to make much of time, so she might be right . As much as I like poetry, I am not very good at interpreting what the author is trying to say. I think poetry is like the Bible - it can be interpreted differently depending on what you are looking for. Here's the first few lines of the sex poem: Gather ye Rosebuds while ye may Old time is still a flyin And this same flower that blooms today Tomorrow will be dyin After my coffee, Jack and I went out into the rain and into that great smell of spring and newness and I was immediately glad I did not call and cancel our run. As I ran towards Sid's house, I tho...

My sister Barbara Jean has a long list of people she says a prayer for every night. She has a superstition about her list too. She never talks about praying - just "putting in a good word" for people who might need it. This term came from my dad who always asked us to "put in a good word" for him. Barb has people on her "good word list" who have long been dead....like grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and even many pets that we had as kids and that she had as an adult. She even puts folks on the list that she reads about in newspapers or who may just be "locals" that she doesn't know but figures they could use some help. I once asked her how she ever gets to sleep with all those folks to remember. She says she just thinks of them but does not pray out loud. She has considered just asking the good Lord to refer to the previous night's list, and only list out the new additions. Once you are lucky enough to be on her list, you never get...