On the mend...

**** WARNING ****

**** This post contains graphic photos of my fixed fingers! ****

So the surgery to fix my mangled digits went very well. They were able to do it with a type of anesthesia block to avoid the general anesthetic. And it looks like the pins will come out just before Thanksgiving (very good news for the Christmas decorating and baking)!!

2 bandaged fingers 1 week after surgery!

The white balls are the pins sticking out of the middle and ring fingers on my right hand. And here is another view of the same thing...

As you may remember from the last post, I actually broke three fingers, but the pictures only show pins in two of them. In the pics above, you can kind of see the bandages from the broken finger on the OTHER hand. Yes - I broke fingers on both hands. Yes - it sucks!


But I'm on the mend and will get the hardware out of my hand soon!

Zip line 1, Ruth 0!

At one point this last weekend I seemed to think that I was 12 years old. I'm not certain what it was that made me think this, but let me just say that I most definitely am NOT 12!

As if I needed certain proof of this, my attempt to use a zip line (a silly contraption that you hang from and zip from one platform to another) last Saturday gave me just such proof. The attempt, which started with me uttering the phrase "Here - let me show you how it's done" - certainly words that belong to the mouth & brain of a 12 year old, ended with three broken fingers and my needing surgery next week to put pins in two fingers of the right hand (of course I'm right-handed).

So my days of hunt and peck on the keyboard begin, and the blogs may be few & far between for a couple months.

Zip Line 1 - Ruth 0

I was ROBBED!

I was recently on a trip to Washington DC with a friend to do some sightseeing and shopping (Can I just say that I LOVE outlet malls?). It's not unusual for my office to call me at least once when I'm out of town. So when my cell phone rang on a Monday morning in Williamsburg, VA - I wasn't terribly shocked.

First - a little background. My office is in the middle of a HUMONGOUS remodel. Since we are using the office during the remodel - there have been many days where I move equipment out of a space in the evening so that remodeling work can be accomplished; and then move it back in the following morning so that we can see patients.

However, when my boss asked me if I'd moved any computers before I left (the Thursday before) - I was a little confused. The places she asked about had all of the remodeling work finished several weeks ago. So I told her I hadn't moved any, that they would have had to have been used on Friday (after I left) - but to check with a couple other people to see if they had moved the computers.

Unfortunately, the next call I got about 2 hours later confirmed the worst. The office had been burgled (is that a word?)! Sometime over the weekend, someone walked out with several computers, flat screen monitors, and miscellaneous other equipment. And it gets worse... I get a phone call later that afternoon after it is discovered that my laptop computer and my personal external hard drive have also been stolen.

I'm speechless. I honestly don't know what to say to my boss. My mouth won't work - and my brain is going 150 miles a minute. My pictures... My music.... My sense of security... all gone. And the worst part is, I'm 1/2 a country away and can't DO anything. Not that I could do anything if I were there, after all - the stuff is gone. The police don't even come to the office to take a report so what chance is there that I'll see any of that stuff ever again? None. Zilch. Nada.

Two hours after that, my brain kicks into rescue mode - I call my boss and tell her to call some computer experts (besides me - I'm too close to the situation) and tell them what happened and what we think may be compromised - and then ask them what to do. I tell her to inactivate my account and a couple others. I tell her what I can remember is on the laptop and external hard drive and there is nothing to compromise patient privacy so we dodged a big problem there.

We've since discovered more things that were taken that weekend. And we know it happened while construction crews were in the building (although there is no indication that they did it). But they were in the building when it happened and probably weren't as careful about locking up and closing doors as I would have been.

Now - its almost three weeks later and I have a little perspective. I have a new laptop - nicer than the old one. I have a new backup hard drive - bigger than the old one. iTunes lets me transfer purchases to a new machine. I've found copies of lots of pictures that were uploaded to photo sharing websites, burned to CD for mom, copied to a memory stick for a digital photo frame, still on my memory card - so its not the disaster I first imagined.

I'm sad that I no longer feel safe alone in the office at night or on the weekend. I'm sad that I find myself suspicious about co-workers I don't know very well. I'm sad that someone has something important to me - and they don't care what I've lost. I'm sad I was robbed.

20 years?!?!?!

7304 Days (give or take a leap year here or there)

1040 Weeks

2 Decades

1/5 Century

In other words, a REALLY, REALLY long time since I graduated from high school! It doesn't seem possible, after all I just graduated from college. OK - so this was the third college graduation , but it can't REALLY be twenty years - CAN IT?

Much to my shock, dismay, and much denial... it has indeed been that long since I walked the halls of Omaha North High School. You know what that means, right? Yep - the 20 year high school reunion.

It was great to see my friends and hear all about their families; siblings I knew-spouses & children I didn't. It was fun re-living the geeky band trips, interesting finding out "whatever happened to...", and sad to learn that some of my classmates and teachers have passed away.
Our reunion committee did such a fantastic job of planning and executing a wonderful reunion weekend for everyone and I told each one of them this several times during the weekend of events.

Go VIKINGS!

Road Trip 2007

Another road trip come and gone. Our travels this year included the Bon Jovi concert at Cheyenne Frontier Days, many hours in Yellowstone National Park, 5+ days at my brother Dave's ranch, and then the two day trip home. The two big highlights of the trip were Bon Jovi (great show and yummy eye candy) and being at the birth of Paprika, Flicka's new foal at the ranch. I've included some pictures below of our trip:

How cute is he?

Grand Teton National Park

Old Faithful - WOW!

Doesn't get much better than this...

Flicka's new baby, just minutes after birth!

Trying to stand up - about an hour old

First time out - about 30 hours old!

First run with mom.

It was a great trip, we love the mountains and even enjoy the drive (at least during daylight hours). Can't wait until our next visit to the ranch!

The Year of Shows

I've now dubbed this the year of shows. It started simple enough - the Broadway Musical of The Lion Kingwas coming to town in January and we wanted to go, so we did. Then we had our fabulous Disney Cruise where we saw amazing shows every night. And then I won tickets to see Billy Joel at a sold out concert. We also bought tickets to a baseball show, the College World Series which will be in Omaha from June 14th to the 25th.

The icing on the cake (or in this case, the beefcake)is... We heard that Bon Jovi is going to be performing at Cheyenne Frontier Days on July 20th - and it just so happens that we're heading towards Montana just in time to stop in Wyoming and see them perform - so we bought tickets.

I can't wait to see what August - December brings!

Piano Man

Last week was a great week. So much happened I hardly know where to start, but I'll try to start at the beginning...

Monday - my brother who has been laid off for three months, started working again, and my downstairs neighbor got a new job (at my office) and that will bring many good things to both of our lives
Wednesday - I took one of my two finals and I WON tickets to the sold out Billy Joel concert for Saturday!
Thursday - I had my very last 'class'.
Saturday - We got a ton of work done for the graduation party and then we got to go to Billy Joel (for free)!!!!

I have always enjoyed Billy Joel's music. He's multi-generational (as evidenced by the crowd around us) and covers several genre's as well. He is an extremely gifted musician, vocally and especially instrumentally. They had a camera positioned so that the big screens showed his fingers flying over the keys of the piano that rose from beneath the stage. The piano also rotated so that his back wasn't always to one part of the audience which was great. He performed for three solid hours, with no opening band, and he still couldn't play all of his biggest hits, although the closing number of his last encore was an incredible Piano Man, which he sang twice! He was also quite funny when he spoke to the crowd, making comments about songs written for an ex-wife, and his aging; telling the crowd at the beginning that he was Billy's dad filling in! I still can't believe we got to go for free. I've always wanted to see him, but just couldn't find enough room in the budget when tickets went on sale.

This week promises to be pretty great as well. One more final to take (Tuesday), and then graduation on Friday and the graduation party on Saturday. My brother gets to be here, as well as lots of other family and tons of friends. I'm excited to see everyone and keeping fingers crossed for good weekend weather!

Graduation!!!!!

51 days and counting!

Graduation announcements will be going out in the mail soon.

Politics (and why I hate them)

Normally I try to stay out of politics as a discussion. I especially try to stay out of Nebraska politics because most of it isn't worth the time to form an opinion. But yesterday brought about the most ridiculous thing I've seen in politics in a long time. In fact, so ridiculous that even Jay Leno (and I'm sure others) felt the need to weigh in last night.

In case you missed it, you can read the entire thing here, how the entire media establishment showed up in Omaha yesterday for a NON-announcement from Nebraska senator Chuck Hagel. I don't really care if he runs or not, I wouldn't vote for him anyway - and the more fractured the GOP is between candidates the happier I am. Even if he were to run as an independent, I couldn't bring myself to vote for him.

My question is this - why did he find it necessary to make such a big freakin deal out of not announcing anything? I think it made him (and Nebraska by default) look idiotic. One radio station in Omaha was talking about the carbon footprint left behind by the sea of camera trucks and the surge of the media - for absolutely nothing!

So thanks for nothing Senator Hagel.

Another Fantastic Trip

This is my boat. Well - not my boat, but the boat I was on last week. This is the Disney Magic in the beautiful port of St. Thomas, USVI last Wednesday. The picture was taken from the top of the Paradise Point tram. This was one of three magical stops we made on an Eastern Caribbean itinerary.

After two days at sea (translation: pool time) we stopped first at St. Martin/St. Maarten. This island is split between the French West Indies (St. Martin) and the Netherland Antilles (St. Maarten). We went on a tour of both sides of the island, stopping at a Butterfly farm (great pics will soon be available) and did some (translation: a LOT of) shopping.

The next day we were in St. Thomas where I snapped this picture. In the morning we went on the tram ride and shopped a little (really!). In the afternoon we went on an incredible speed boat ride to a couple of awesome snorkelling spots. We had a very small group so we got to go to some spots only locals usually go. We saw lots of fish, three sea turtles, and a couple of stingrays so it was a VERY successful snorkel excursion.

We had another day at sea after St. Thomas, then a final stop at Disney's private island -Castaway Cay in the Bahamas. We spent some time feeding and snorkelling with stingrays here, followed by several hours of sun, sand, and surf at Serenity Bay (18 and over only at this beach).

Every night there was a fantastic show, followed by an incredible dinner, all done with service and a smile like only Disney can do. And the best part, we booked another cruise while we were there and it's only 1 year 5 months 13 days 5 hours 17 minutes 38 seconds away (OR 75 weekends OR 529 days OR 12,701 hours (8,467 waking hours) OR 762,077 minutes OR 45,724,657 seconds). That one will take us to the Mexican Riviera (Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta) with all new things to see and do.

Let the countdown begin!

The Countdown

I had a conversation last week at my weight watchers meeting about the "instant gratification" world we live in. Cell phones, instant messaging, email, fast food, the internet; it's all instant. It makes us believe that everything should come that fast, that easy. And the truth is, the hard things take much longer.

Think about learning to play a musical instrument, getting through school (at any level), or even having a baby. None of those things happen fast; they take study/practice/patience. And the point my WW leader was trying to make is - you didn't suddenly become overweight yesterday, it took years to get that way, shouldn't taking the weight off take some time as well?

So all of that got me thinking about this countdown thing I do. I used to put something on my calendar page and then start counting the days until it arrived. Now I even have a special program that will tell me down to the second how much time is left until any event/date/time that I tell it. And to some it may seem as though I'm 'wishing my life away' by always looking to the next event, then the next one, etc.

For me, watching time pass as I wait ever so impatiently for things like my next trip (7 days 5 hours 44 minutes), spring break (41 days 1 hour 28 minutes), and GRADUATION (98 days 39 minutes)- provides me with a mindset that good things are worth waiting for, that each day brings me closer to a goal, and that there are things worth the wait/the work/the effort.

Significant Events

The week is young and already I've had two significant events! First, I formally and officially applied for graduation yesterday! Now I've got to order cap and gown, announcements, etc. I'm so excited!!!!!!!!!

And today - classes start for my very last semester as an undergraduate. Which means the weekly countdown can begin. And as of today, there are 17 weeks left (one of which is spring break!).

So wish me luck in my last two classes!

New Year, New Me

Happy New Year everyone!

I vowed that I would not, COULD NOT make yet another New Years' Resolution that is destined to failure. So I started making changes before the new year, and what I have now are New Years' intentions!

#1) I started Weight Watchers meetings the 16th of December and I intend to stick with it - it's the only thing that truly worked in the past and I just didn't keep going. It must be working though because I lost weight even over the holidays, more than 5 lbs!

#2) I intend to say no when I've got too much on my plate and someone wants me to take on just one more thing. Too often I say yes because I want to help, and I end up frazzled and sometimes sick because I wear myself out.

#3) I intend to finish school in 119 days, participate in the graduation ceremony, proudly display the diploma it took me almost 20 years to finish, and not think about any more school for at least a year so some fun things and projects that I keep saying I will do "after graduation" actually get done "after graduation"!

#4) I intend to be flexible with my intentions, to realize that I don't have control of everything and sometimes plans need to change in response to the environment.

That's it for this year so far (see - I can be flexible). If things go well, I may add more intentions mid-year. I wish everyone a happy and healthy new year!