Crazy Hair Day

In which I read an email from camp saying that crazy hair day is tomorrow. And I go shopping with LK to buy some colored hair spray and only find blue. And I get up and put crazy ponytails in hair and spray several of them blue and put colorful ribbons every which way in crazy ponytails



only to find out that the email was sent the day BEFORE yesterday, making yesterday crazy hair day instead of today.

Bah.

Jealousy unleashed

Wow, that last one was a downer, wasn't it? Sorry about that. Sometimes that stuff just rears its ugly head. Thanks for putting up with me. As a matter of fact, things have been pretty danged awful on the work horizon lately, so I've had a hard time coming up with fun stuff in general. But OMG!!! DDD calls me last evening, I can barely hear her. Turns out she's at

SHEA STADIUM

at the very

last

concert

ever to be

held there.

BILLY JOEL.

I just about fainted. And I wasn't even there! I have no doubt I would have been screaming like a teenybopper if I'd been there. Holy Crap! Incredibly Holy Crap!

The first band ever to play there was the Beatles, so they coined this concert Beatles to Billy.

Roger Daultry

Steven Tyler

Garth Brooks

Paul McCartney!!!

I can't stand it! Fuggedaboudit!

She'll be blogging about it soon at Broadway Bloopers. What an experience! I would have known everyone of those songs. Well, if I couldn't be there, I'm glad she was...

Aren't we all supposed to live vicariously through our children?

Well. Ok. then.

photo found at newsday.com

credits: (Kevin Mazur /WireImage / July 18, 2008)

Caring is not a choice

Once again, I'm reminded of my nursing history. This time, by Kim from Emergiblog, who writes about the death of one of her patients. And again I wonder just why it is that the death stories are the ones that stick with me in those little recesses of brain matter where they are available at a moments notice.

I was a temporary hire in a coastal city in Alabama once for about 6 weeks. This was during a 2 year period of time when DH and I were still pretty much newlyweds and lived the life of employed gypsies. We drove a trailer around and parked it in mostly beautiful campgrounds near wherever DH's engineering assignment led him. This time it was in a post Hurricane Frederick town near the Gulf of Mexico. The devastation was still evident, but streets were passable and the gunk mostly gone. What was still there were the uprooted trees and roofless houses.

This medical center needed help and even though I was only going to be there for 6 weeks, I had intensive care experience. It was mostly a piece of cake job - many of the cases they put in the intensive care would have mostly been handled on the floor at the last hospital I'd been at. But not this one.

The little boy came in - 6 years old, lethargic and clammy. The nurse could not start the IV. I got lucky and got one in only to have it infiltrate within about 20 minutes. Not nearly long enough to hydrate and medicate the youngster. A resident came in and proceeded to do a "cut down" to get an IV in place (a surgical procedure where you cut the skin to visualize the vein and thread the catheter directly into the vein - usually a very last resort). He then left the room and told me (the nearest nurse) to "go tape it". I said "WTF (not quite in those words, but pretty damn close - I was new there, remember?) - you left it unsecured???" and ran in there, "my" patient or not. The child promptly coded and the team ran in to resuscitate. About 15 minutes in (give or take - who knows), I notice the IV was laying on the bed, the meds and fluids soaking the sheet. I can't remember who was directing the code but I remember the incredulity on his face when he realized the IV had not been secured. He uttered some choice words that I felt were directed to me, tried a few more attempts to get access and the code was over.



It should have been the idiot who placed the catheter without taking the extra minute it would have taken to secure it properly who should have felt responsible. But it was me. Because I couldn't get it secured before he needed it. Because it came out at the time he needed it most. Because he was 6 years old. Because his family was going to face the rest of theirs lives without him.

Sometimes it sucks to care.

But the alternative is just not an option.

"Green" Gift Wrapping

I was stuffing gifts into gift bags and wrapping them one day when I had an idea. Why not use one of those cute little Trader Joe's bags instead - not only is it usually big enough for some of these odd shaped toys, but then the recipient (or their mom, in my case, usually) can use it later for groceries.
So I drove to my not-so-nearby Trader Joes (because theirs were the only ones I thought were festive enough) and bought a handful of these things. Found some decorative tissue paper and here you go:
(one of these is a boy's gift, one a girl's)
I think they turned out pretty cool!

Small Town Holidays

One of the things I love about our small bedroom community town is the holidays. Mostly the 4th of July. The day starts with a race. Runners from all over a 3 mile radius come to compete in this highly rated 2 or 5K run. Kids of all ages are invited to run in the Kiddie run - once around the bank and back, or for the older kids, twice around the bank and to the finish line.

From there, you go to the pancake breakfast.
If you like pancakes.

Then there is the dog parade. We didn't do that this year, although I did put a very patriotic scarf on M's dog and bring her with us to the race. (I forgot my camera though. aaaaghh.)

The big event for us is the bike parade. We forgot about it last year, so this year we made sure we had all the crepe paper and stuff we could find.
 
No sense in doing something like this unless you can be excessive about it. One of Moraga's finest gets on his bike and leads the parade. Until the speedsters take off and lap him a few times.
 

After that, games like three legged race, burlap sacks and all; wheelbarrow race; egg and spoon relays; watermelon eating contest. stuff like that.
oh, and the ever popular jumpy houses. This year they had an American Gladiator type thing where you whack your friend around with big ol thingies. The girls lasted about 2 minutes in that one. But it was a fun 2 minutes.
 
Oh - and looking back at the schedule, I see we completely missed the bocce ball tournament! What were we thinking? Oh well, there is always next year.

And of course, the day ends with a concert at the bandshell (Larry Lynch and the Mob. ha ha. Get it? Lynch and Mob. yeah. well...) and fireworks. Yes, little Moraga has a nice little fireworks show. You can drive a bit and see a really big one, but we all gather together on the hill at the park or at a nearby club/golf course and watch the admittedly smaller show. But it's our community there "ooohing" and "aaahing" instead of some random anonymous crowd. And you can't beat that with a stick.

Yep. This is why I live here.