Sunday, June 27, 2010

Guess whose who.


Here's a surprise Jan. I found this while packing up the house. Guess which one is Jan and which one is me. This is a photo taken back in 1971 while Jan and I were doing our undergrad psych nursing rotation.

114 comments:

Carol said...

Coreen, I finally opened and used the present Mary gave me for Christmas. The one that you recommended that she get for me.

Carol said...

That little gadget is pretty cool.

Coreen said...

Told you it was a pretty cool gadget...
makes it so easy to cherish old memories anytime you want once you get them on the p.c.

Now my guess who is who?....

Only a guess, but are you the one not smiling much...2nd from the right, tallest girl with long hair....

Think I remember that Jan is shorter, so my guess is she's one of 2 girls on the left side,
maybe the girl with the striped shirt....

And ok if you want to wait to tell who is who
until the others get to take a guess....

And now that pic can add some smiles & good memories for both you & Jan...technology can be a really great thing...

Anonymous said...

Carol, I think you're the girl to the far right too (thought that before I saw Coreen's guess) - and I think Jan is the one on the far left. But the girl in the middle wearing the skirt looks to me like she could almost be your twin. (?)

Anonymous said...

BTW, a great pic!

Carol said...

Well I can't wait any longer. You were both correct in identifying me but Chloe wins the contest by identifying Jan correctly. She's the one on the far left. And guys, I think I was smiling, LOL. I don't take good pics and usually can't smile unless it is spontaneous.

Jan really hasn't changed much at all. The girl in the culottes is Katie. She and I went to high school together and were in the band but didn't know each other very well at that time.

Carol said...

The group in this photo was kinda like a St Elmo's Fire group. We all spent a lot of time together that summer, all stuffed in that car.

Solar said...

...... having trouble with my pc...but I knew right away that the bossy shotgun rider was U..and the tall thin look gave you away also...u still a looker.!!

Coreen said...

Same here about pics & smiling....

And not sure if you guys knew much about cars,
but I think that the car was a 1963-64 Chevy
Impala...Solar may have a better guess about that, but I stil think that is what it is...

Around here cars were a big deal....not trucks,
real cars...

Carol said...

Sis emailed to say she got home OK. I think she took a nap, she was pooped. She didn't call because she knew I couldn't handle another telephone call. My ear is about to explode.

You may be right about the car Coreen but I don't know one from another. They all have wheels. Maybe Jan will remember.

Solar said...

Coreen,

10-4, that was a 63 impala...was my first new car..a sky blue that I paid for in cash... ( only had one male car...a 65 Pontiac Bonneville..blk convertible, with leather bls seats, and blk body- sugar bear-....great, great car that I shouldn't have sold....damn). I have to get some old pics scanned sometime later....they are a lot of fun....

Solar said...

If you guys see a cop around here; let me know...just witnessed another hit and run.....

Coreen said...

Glad your sister made it home w/o any problems...

Solar, like I said, we grew up having cars...
& around here you either liked GM or Ford...
& most of my friends had Chevys...& I had the
67 GTO...Few kids had Chrysler (Mopar) but if
they did it usually was pretty fast...

Around here it was like the movie American Graffitti, driving around town all night....
wow memories...& what did gas cost back then
maybe 20 cents/gallon?....

jan said...

Boy does that picture bring back memories. I noticed that Linda is not in the picture. Was she taking it?

I am not the one to ask about cars. I know little about cars.

Carol, we could write a book about that summer. It was one of the most memorable times of my life.

Carol said...

You need one of those little toys Mary got me Solar. When I opened the box, I thought that they forgot to put the machine in it. It is so small that I didn't think it could be the gadget. Once I realized that this little thingy was the gadget, it took only a couple of seconds to put the pic thru it, it scanned the pic on a pic card, I put the pic card into the computer and voila.

jan said...

By the way, the pic was taken on the old Chennault AFB. The base had closed and they needed space on the Univ for the nursing program, so we were moved there.

I think the comparison with St. Elmo's fire is interesting. I will have to watch that movie again. Carol, I think you were the youngest in the group and Arthur and I were the oldest. I think I had just turned 30. You were about 21. Arthur was a year older than me.

Carol said...

Oh good Jan. You finally got here. I've been waiting for ya.

Solar said...

Coreen,

Don't remember what gas was, way back then; it sorta didn't matter, unless we were taking up a collection to get us somewhere, and even made it back sometimes HA.!

Another brand new car that my two younger bros and I had was a supper bee...we used to race it on lake shore drive.....she was an all purple car that I called "make up"...for some of the winning pics.....
had nice lines ..and I loved the GTO's and the a used 442 that I had at camp lejune......yep cars were a lot of fun then....not they are not so much....just had to install the third starter on a 2000 show room condition Nissan Maxima.....these new cars might be lighter, and all....but they are super expensive to keep up with....everything is computerized.....and the dealers scare the hell out you when they talk car-computer talk, don't they??

jan said...

Arthur is the guy with the moustache. He died I think about 10-15 years ago. Carol, do you ever hear from or about Katy, or Gil or Arthur, or Darlene?

jan said...

Solar, I wish you were more interested in cars -LOL.

Solar said...

"Carol, we could write a book about that summer. It was one of the most memorable times of my life. "

Tell me anyway...but skip to the sexy parts first... more pics please---- je je je

jan said...

carol, what do you call that gadget. I want one. I wonder if it will work on a Mac??

jan said...

Solar, there were some sexy parts, but none that involved either me or Carol. But there was some fun going on.

Carol said...

I used to get a Christmas card from Katie every year but don't think I have in the last several years. Last I knew she was living somewhere in Washington State, not far from Seattle. Maybe Gig Harbor??

jan said...

Carol, what can we say on here about the events that summer? This is your blog.

Solar said...

Jan,

Did u like my new bike? what's her name...sometimes I don't remember girly names for a while....until i know that im going to keep her....my bike that is...

jan said...

The 2 younger guys went on to become nurse anesthetists. The girl next to me did some teaching after I left there. I don't know where she is now.

Carol said...

Haven't heard about the rest of them. Yes, Arthur died of pancreatic cancer about the time I was working in the diabetes center. He developed diabetes and I was working with him on his diet. He couldn't get his sugar under control. I told him I thought something else was affecting it. It was the cancer.

jan said...

Solar, where is your bike?

jan said...

I heard he had died, but did not know of what.

Solar said...

last thread.....Jan...

Solar said...

Jan,

.....hope that Maria reads all the silly things that I write...keeps her entertained she said...

Solar said...

Jan,

.....hope that everything turns out just like you want it to.!

Me-
Not going to the flea market today..too many things that I don't need end up in my truck....but last week I saw a Huffy women 26 inch ( just the right size for a female-bike that is ) bicycle and took it for a ride...finally settled for 30 bucks..would have bought it for over 50....been riding it all week and going to take it over to the area ( Forrest preserves )
that we used to hold our S A C club picinics.......the bike has one of those real wide comfortable seats.....and all of the gears respond as if new.....wonder if they have helmets for the ass she going to go pretty fast I think.....just finished cleaning her up....looking for a name....lets see...she has long fine legs....nice curves where they should be...and her handle bars are easy to hold on too....and after warming up a little....she is ready for the high speeds......

Got it " Candy Girl"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfF2vqFm4-Y
June 27, 2010 11:31:00 AM PDT
Solar said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfF2vqFm4-Y
June 27, 2010 11:36:00 AM PDT
Carol said...

Carol said...

Whatever you want to say Jan. It's your blog also. Actually, we have already told some stories from around that time.

We did all go a little nuts while training at the mental hospital. Happens to every group of students who used to go thru the psych rotation. They don't have psych rotations anymore. It's all integrated. That's ashame. Going nuts was the most fun we had.

jan said...

Maybe I will save the stories for my book LOL. It seems to me that the summer in psych changed us all and changed our group too. After that summer I looked at the world in a different way.

Carol said...

Jan, it's called a Pandigital, photo, slide and negative converter. Mary got it on QVC. Coreen also has one. Mary and Coreen would know more. All I know is that it was easy.

Carol said...

That was an old pic that was just stuck in a dusty box. You can tell.

Carol said...

My daddy had a Chrysler/Plymouth dealership for a very short while. It was just before he got his cancer. For that little time we got to drive some cool cars. There was one hot number but I can't remember the name. It had 400 and hemi in the name. Ring any bells to you car people?

Carol said...

It was somewhere between 1966-68.

jan said...

At my tallest I was 5 ft 2 in. but my sons are taller and grandchildren even taller. My tallest son is 6-2 and his 12 y/o daught is 5-9 in her stocking feet. I call myself "vertically challenged"

Coreen said...

Here's the latest version of the pandigital scanner...this one takes pics up to 8-1/2 x 11
don't know if the little one is still in stock
you can check on qvc...

I have both the little one & the larger one, both work great so far....
pandigital photo scanner at qvc

jan said...

I am so glad they no longer have the mental institutions we trained in that summer. They were inhumane. But what they do with mental patients now is not much better.

Carol said...

The little one is perfect for me. I don't have any large pics. Mary said she's not sure if the bigger ones do the negatives.

Carol said...

She also said they had it on QVC this evening.

Carol said...

" But what they do with mental patients now is not much better."

It's much worse Jan. There in jail.

Coreen said...

My car guess would be like a 1966-67 Plymouth
Fury...with a 440 engine...very fast...
I knew a guy who raced one....told you the
mopars were really fast...but my heart always
belonged to Corvettes...2 of my exs had vettes...

jan said...

Coreen, thanks for the link

Carol said...

No Coreen. I think was something like a Chrysler Hemi 400. I don't think the car was around for long.

Carol said...

Well, I don't find that name when I google it but it was something like that. I do remember we left a lot of rubber on the roads in this town.

Coreen said...

As I recall, the chrysler hemi engines 426 & 440 were in light weight Plymouths (Plymouth Sport Fury) & Dodges in the mid 1960s & the combination big engine/light weight car made them really fast...

Solar may remember if he comes back...I don't remember a Chrysler having a really fast car
then, just the plymouths & dodges, which were
Chrysler products...

Chrysler imperials were like real luxury cars
way back then...but not fast...

Carol said...

I think it was the Plymouth GTX. Maybe it just had a hemi engine and I'm getting confused.

Carol said...

I tell ya, I know nothing about cars but it did impress the boys.

Coreen said...

Fast cars always impressed the guys....my little GTO was a head turner...

Carol said...

That was all that mattered Coreen.

Carol said...

And Jan, you don't have to hook up that photo thingy to your computer. It downloads it to the little memory card. Then you can put that card in your computer.

Carol said...

Jan, referring to our psych nursing clinical, I said that going nuts was the most fun we ever had in college. We did have fun that summer but I'll have to take that statement back. I've had a few occasions in my life when I felt like I might be on the verge of "going nuts". It wasn't fun. It might have been if I would have ever reached my destination but the trip was a real bummer.

Carol said...

I still feel very good about my decision to share my house but I can't say that having someone else moving into my residence hasn't been tough. I'm sure I will get over it. I almost feel like I'm getting married to strangers.

My new roomie, almost in tears, told me yesterday how much she appreciates the opportunity I was giving her. I told her that what I was doing wasn't humanitarian, it was selfish. I needed that stressor off my plate.

jan said...

good morning folks. I bet this situation with roomie will work out for you Carol. I think houses need to be occupied and this will keep your pool in working order too.

jan said...

Hooray, our temp has dropped here. we are supposed to have temps in 80's this week. I am sitting outside on my front porch now and it is 60 degrees. John is doing well with his new eye. I did his drops yesterday and I changed the order and timing of his drops so his antibiotic was in his eye for 30 minutes to get its full effect before the other 2 drops were put in. His eye looks better and he seems to feel better.
Carol, tell me why the doc would say his drops could be put in in any order 5 min apart and one is an antibiotic, one is prednisone and one an NSAID? that does not make sense to me.

jan said...

I have some news. I have been asked to go back to work (teaching at univ) on part time basis - 15% (6 hrs week) in fall and 25% (10 hrs/week) in sp and summer. I am going to do it. I miss the contact with people.

jan said...

thanks for posting the pic Carol. It sure brought back some memories. I don't think you have changed much.

jan said...

Ivy and Chloe, I miss seeing you all here.

We watched the movie, " There will be Blood" on TV last night. It was about oil and its beginnings in this country. I still don't get the title. The movie was based on a book named "Oil." An interesting movie. I guess it was of interest to me b/c I grew up in OK and oil was big there. Also, my former husb worked for oil companies during our 21 year marriage. When we lived in Louisiana my husb was a chemist at the Conoco refinery. When we left LA and moved to Montana, I began to be aware that many people hated the oil companies.The movie was especially interesting in the light of the current crisis.

jan said...

The major theme of the movie was about greed, power and corruption.

Anonymous said...

Jan, part time teaching at the university sounds perfect for you. It'll give you the contact that you miss, but won't be (any where near) as stressful as your previous schedule. Congrats!

Anonymous said...

Carol, I agree with Jan that your room mate decision will turn out for the best - and it sounds like your roomie was really in need, and appreciates it.

Anonymous said...

Coreen and Carol, I ordered one of those little scanners, and received it a while back. I got the one that is 8 1/2 by 11, because I mainly got it for scanning documents that we need to either fax or email.

It works so much better than our printer faxes - I love it. It's quicker, and I like the idea that it puts it on the memory card, and you can work with the document once it's there. Our printer scanners make that almost impossible.

Mary, thanks to you too for showing me exactly where to find it!

Anonymous said...

You know... I see this pattern here at the Swamp, where things seem to work out for us in the long run. We each have our little (or BIG) problems, but as time goes by we do solve them. I think the fact that we share what goes on with each other leads us to a faster and more adequate solution.

We're learning from each other - that's a good thing.

Anonymous said...

... OK then, out and about!

jan said...

Hi Chloe, I am going to order that scanner thingee. Sounds perfect. Was the place you ordered it from the same link from Coreen?

I agree, each of us has things to work out and it is great to have friends here at the swamp to visit with and share different aspects of our lives. Sometimes when I share something I go back and read it and it think to myself "now they don't care about this stuff" but I figure if you don't want to read it you can just skip over it!

BTW, I am weaning myself off my loaner desktop. I am not opening it up during the day and just working on my laptop. It is a little frustrating at times b/c there are things I know how to do on the desktop and I have to work a little harder to figure something out on this laptop, but I am making progress.

"I think the fact that we share what goes on with each other leads us to a faster and more adequate solution."

Chloe, I agree, and sometimes just the writing of it even if someone does not respond is helpful in coping with it or resolving whatever it is.

Carol said...

Quick word of caution. They may soon having you working full time for part
time pay. Happens all the time. Be
clear about hours and responsibilities. Don't ever go over.

Solar said...

Jan,

Been thinking...and Chloe, Carol are right about U going to teach part time...and also a chance for u to do suggest a few things that u have learned along the way.....

Hey did U see that hit and run driver again? have to slow her down...dang a missed her again.

Solar said...

About the fast cars: dodge Polara had a 383, and a 400 I think? my older bro. had a white one with blk interior...was a real nice car, inside and out,

Solar said...

The xke,super bee's also had a 400 hemi engine......U know who would know for sure.....Pogo.

jan said...

Carol, I hear you. I will be doing most of the work with a clinical agency and the administrator is doing part time work also. She is very good at making sure we neither go over or under our time. Sometimes I will bank my hours so that John and I can go out of town for a week or two.

jan said...

Carol, looking at that picture again, there is a pretty ugly black cloud over us.

Solar said...

Coreen, Coreen the dancing machine, and Oh Carol:

You both owe me a dance....to whatever music I want, and whenever I want it: if you like this information about cars.....ok?

Alexandra (1905 automobile)
The Alexandra was an all-wooden bodied electric brougham made by the Phoenix Carriage Co of Birmingham from 1905 to 1906. It included a safety device found in hansom cabs to stop passengers from falling out of the vehicle in the event of a sudden halt. A petrol-engine vehicle was also listed for sale, but it is unknown how much, if any, success this model found.-References:^G.N

Im charging that dance anyway..so have those slippers on all the time.....u will never know when the mood strikes me...well it is most of the time, but just the same......

jan said...

Solar, you are so right, Carol was and is a "looker.' People (both men and women) always commented on how attractive she was. When she was younger she did not wear make-up, she just had a natural beauty - never needed it. I don't ever remember her wearing a dress. She dressed very simply - jeans or occasionally dress pants but never anything "foo-foo."

Mary said...

Solar, I am now going to be in Chicago from 7/6 - 7/20, 2 wks. so I hope you won't be out of town for both those weeks. I'm really a nice person, I promise. Ask Chloe.

jan said...

Hi Mary, Good to see you back. You have been gone from here a long time. How is your granddaughter?

Solar, I will vouch for Mary, she IS a very nice person and very pretty too.

Coreen said...

A little piece on Dylan Ratigan...I know he's
one of your favs Carol....

Dylan Ratigan from business reporter to bank critic

Coreen said...

Looks like you managed to combine the best of both worlds, Jan....hope it works out well for
you...

jan said...

I am going over to see my new baby GGD, Abigail. I have some great pics of her - and on my computer but still cannot figure how to send them. I tried but no success. I do have my class on thurs evening, so I plan to spend the whole time on working on pics and definitely sending them. She is so cute.

The other evening, I was at her house. she was on her back on one of these little blankets on the floor that has a four-pod attached to the blankt with little toys hanging down that she can reach up and touch. She had hold of one of the hanging toys with each hand and was pulling her upper body off of the blanket. She is about 5 1/2 months old.

jan said...

I too hope it works out Coreen. The nice thing about this age is that if it does not work out, it is not a big loss.

jan said...

Coreen, How did your power outage work out? Did you lose anything in your fridge or freezer?

Carol said...

Thanks Jan for the compliment but I did wear makeup. No one ever thinks I have on makeup so why am I spending 20 minutes every day putting it all on? Even when I went camping, I was first up so I could run to the shower shed to take a shower, wash my hair, blow dry my hair and put on makeup. I was thru and cooking breakfast before anyone else got their asses out of the tent. I wouldn't be caught dead without doing all that. If I didn't do my hair every morning, my hair would look like I stuck my finger in an electric socket. Well, that hair do would be popular if I were a rock singer.

I am just more comfortable causal. I spent an entire year when I was teaching, called it my dressy era, wearing all these nice dresses. I had long painted fingernails, what a waste of time. My nails were so perfect that people thought they were fake. I had a tupperware container full of nail polish colors, most I didn't like. Everyone loved it but me. It's just not practical. Try to change a tire, work on the lawnmower or work in the dirt with that nail polish on.

I did keep a couple of dresses around to wear when I went on TV. I did that for mom. Of course, wearing the dress wasn't enough for mom. She bitched that I wasn't smiling enough. Wouldn't it look a little strange talking about diabetes complications with a big smile on my face?? Come on! The local TV station used to call me often to talk about diabetes on their Live at Five or early morning show. I seem to remember that the last time I did that and saw myself, I noticed I had a chicken neck. Yuk. Mom didn't mention that.

Carol said...

And Jan, if I looked so good why weren't there any men knocking on my door? The ones who did were either mutants or came up to my navel. No disrespect to mutants or extremely short guys but they weren't exactly my cup of tea. I really hated talking to my date while kneeling. It's killer on the knees and my are boney.

Solar said...

I was 6ft-1"....and if I say U are a looker, than u are a looker....fini.!

Maria,

Im looking forward to seeing you...the only thing that would make me not to...is that I would have to go start a job in Ohio.....I had thought U were coming in around the 17 th, and for 2 weeks...but lets see how it goes....am looking forward to seeing and talking to you...

Carol said...

Thanks Solar and I think you do tower over my navel.

Carol said...

I think I finally came up with the name of that car. We didn't have it for long, it was a demonstrator and sold pretty fast. I'm pretty sure it was a Road Runner but had the 400+ hemi engine. I kinda got stuck on that engine because that was what impressed people and as I said, I don't know much about cars.

Carol said...

Hit and Run has done it again, huh Solar?

Carol said...

We're looking forward to baby pics Jan. It can't be too difficult.

Carol said...

Jan, when I mentioned the working part time problem, I was eating a PB and J and trying to type on Iphony. Couldn't write much.

I have seen too many times where someone took a part time position but before long they were doing full time work and only getting part time pay. Also there is that hidden, after hours preparation. What you are going to do might not have that.

I know you are a nice person and I don't want you taken advantage of. Of course, you can quit if they do try to take advantage of you.

Carol said...

Work was a bitch today and actually more relaxing than vacation. I still had about 8 patients waiting to be seen when my time was up and I had to leave. No emergencies and I couldn't stay over because I had to get home to take the Magster out and get to the hospital before visiting hours were over. I didn't get there yesterday. Hey work took up most of my vacation on the phone. I do have limits.

I sped home to take the Magster out and instead of doing her business, she decides to lay down in the grass and enjoy the oppressive heat. I told her that wouldn't do so I brought her back in without her doing her business.

I rushed to the hospital. SF told me that his SW told him he would have to stay for several more days but not to tell me because I would call a lawyer. I told SF he was the one who wanted me to call the lawyer and that we did have an appointment as soon as his lawyer was back from vacation.

The SW came to talk to me and told me that his Shrink said he could only go home if he had 24 hour supervision or if he goes to an assisted living facility. I asked the SW if his Shrink was planning on paying SF's care and did the Shrink have any monitary connection to that assisted living facility. SF got a charge outta that. He said "no" to paying for SF's care and "I don't know" to the any connections to the facility. I said that the Psychologist report didn't recommend that intensity of care. He just smiled.

I asked SF if he wanted to fire his Shrink and he said yes. I told SW that we wanted a new Shrink. I also told SW that his Shrink better not be planning on charging SF for any visits since he didn't make any. He said he would pass that along.

Carol said...

Hey, that Shrink has a horrible reputation with other professionals that I have asked and the only other patient I know he took care of.

BTW, our little conversation today took place in the day room in front of all the other patients. If any of them would have been alert or oriented, I might have started a mutany on the bounty.

Carol said...

Oh, I asked SF how long he had been in the hospital and he said he got there on June 12th. Right on the money and I didn't remember. I told SF, "you can go home, I think I need to stay."

Carol said...

Jan, I did notice that black cloud hanging over us in the pic but thought it was better that I didn't mention it. It's OK that you did.

Carol said...

Coreen, I enjoyed the Dylan article in the NYTs. Yep, he is my boy.

Carol said...

"....sometimes just the writing of it even if someone does not respond is helpful in coping with it or resolving whatever it is."

Jan, this is therapy for me. When I went thru that crisis with mom and the grief I got from working for that old Doc, I wrote a book, an entire book. It's in one of my laptops. Maybe I will send it to you and you can see my trip thru insanity and back. I truely believe that writing was the only thing that saved me. The writing was therapy. I'm using it again here. You may detect some teetering on the edge. When you think I am completely gone, send the white coats but please pick a better place than the one SF is in.

I'm waking up with my hands shaking and my heart racing. I think my hyperthyroid might be back. I think I created it before to try to do all I needed to do. I was hoping those days were over, but no. I'm stretched as far as I can stretch and it's not enough.

I tried to deny this SF responsibility. I tried to put my foot down. I wanted someone else to do it but the guilt was killing me. The Universe wouldn't hear of it. It had to be me again.

The Universe is throwing a few breaks my way. My roomie was a blessing, I hope. Having sis down here to get things started was a huge break. Mary is doing all that she can. Probably even SF's abduction is a blessing. I don't want to fight that too hard. If I win, the prize just might kill me.

A good friend of mine has her mother living with her. Her mom makes SF look like an angel. My friend was in the process of throwing back three cosmos(alcoholic beverage) and chasing it with a Xanax. I warned her that that was a dumb thing to do but I can certainly understand the need. I couldn't even listen to her pain. Her mom's life mission now seems to be to torment the only daughter that would take her in. It makes no sense.

Mom didn't do that to me in the end. Even when mom stopped talking and I thought she really wasn't even there anymore, she would be watching me and would pop out with "thank you Carol". It would startle me. And when she saw that I was dangling from my last thread and it was unraveling really fast, she made her exit.

jan said...

Carol, The writing is good therapy. Your friend's cosmos and zanex is a short term solution and can lead to worse problems later. Grief over a big loss, like the loss of your mother, does not necessarily end in a defined span of time. People try to put a time limit on grief and it can't really be done. When I was going through therpy in LR, I was still grieving the loss of my marriage and my mother. Just when I thought I was over my grief of my marriage I would dream of Bob and it would all come back again. When I talked to my therapist about it, she said, the grief may never end, and she recommended when I would have the dreams again to just "be" with the sadness and write about it. That has worked for me. After mother died, I wanted to spend as much time as I could with my sister. It almost seemed she took the place of my mother. Twice, I moved closer to my sister b/c when I felt the sadness it helped to spend time with her. Both times I moved closer to her, she moved further away from me. That really hurt my feelings and pissed me off at the same time. I can see all that more clearly now but in the depths of the grief I could not see it.

I guess my point in telling you this is to let you know that sometimes the anxiety or sadness we are feeling over a particular loss or situation may be tied to another loss or situation. The writing of our feelings (what you have done and are doing here) helps us to work through whatever grief or loss we are experiencing. Awareness and understanding about all of this may not come for years later. What you are doing here in writing all this down is helping you get through a difficult time.

In the past, I have tried to solve my problems alone and bottled up many feelings. I am learning to share those problems with people I love and trust and am finding that life is much more satisfying when I do that and it helps me to live and stay in the present.

Anonymous said...

Jan, I could hardly believe it when I read your comment that Abigail is 5 1/2 months already. How time flies! Keep taking those pics, and just post them when you can. (You could also put them on your windows desktop, and post them from there - but hopefully that won't be necessary after your next class).

Oh, and Solar, I vouch for Mary too. She is a VERY nice person. Why don't you two share a pizza or something. You'll be the first to see some fresh pics of her new grandbaby.

Anonymous said...

.. oops, I just read you might be in Ohio Solar. Hope you two can work out that meet.

Anonymous said...

Oh, and Jan, yes - I ordered that scanner from the same place that Coreen and Mary recommended. PanDigital Up to 8-1/2"x11" Photo Scanner & Photo Book (You might prefer the smaller one though (if you're only using it for smaller photos. It's offered on the same site for less money).

They're plug and play - with a simple one button operation. You just slide in whatever you want to copy, and it quickly comes out the other side, and is put automatically on the memory card that is included with the scanner.

You could take the scanner with you to someone's house (since it's so small and portable) and get copies of any of their photos while your visiting. Then you just insert the memory card into your own computer, and print directly from it onto your printer, or store the pics (etc.) on your computer - where you can share them with other people. It's a very self explanatory, easy to use little gadget.

OK... I just found a link to a page that shows both of them. The small one's about 40 bucks cheaper. http://www.qvc.com/qsearch/search.aspx

Anonymous said...

"Wouldn't it look a little strange talking about diabetes complications with a big smile on my face??"

Carol, You had me really laughing this morning at a few of the things you said. Especially the one I just quoted. It's so funny because it's true.

I'm like you, I like to dress comfortably too. And manicures would make no sense whatsoever in my lifestyle. If something doesn't make sense to me, I don't do it. I don't really care what anyone else thinks about it either. I gave up trying to find people who agree with me long ago.

Anonymous said...

"I miss the contact with people."

Jan, I'm glad that your part job worked out for you then. I have to admit, I have never missed people contact (outside of those I live with). I think all those personalities are 'so much' work - just way too many variables for me, on any kind of regular basis.

A little goes a long way.

Anonymous said...

... that way of thinking has been more since I've gotten older - not so much when I was younger. I have so many more choices now.

Anonymous said...

Have a great day guys! I'll check back in later.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

.. I don't know why that link to the small scanner keeps changing over to a pic of a hamburger Jan. You'll just have to use QVC's search bar for the small one. Sorry.

jan said...

Hi Chloe,
Thanks for thinking of me in posting the link. I will find the photo thingee.


There are several perks to doing the part time thing. I get to do just what I want and can avoid those tasks I don't like. I get to keep my e-mail ID that I really like and there are a few people that I really like to continue to have contact with. Also, to keep my nursing license I need to work so many hours in a 2 year period. The agency I work with also provides me with money to get my continuing educ credits for my nurs license. Did I mention I do get paid to do it too.

jan said...

" I gave up trying to find people who agree with me long ago."

Chloe, You are a woman who knows what she wants and sticks with it.

Solar said...

Carol,

You knew down deep that you would be the one that would take care of anything that would come up with your Father. You were just looking for a little help is all.!

Now that you know how things are now...you found what you always had: The strength and character that it take to do the right things.!!!

You are one of those people that finds strength by knowing who you really are...you have looked in the mirror and saw yourself......thats what I have been talking about when I say that we can and do lie to others, even our confessors....but not to ourselves....I think that your SF helped in shaping you somewhat...his work ethic imo??

Wish I was near to you, and able to take some of the load...but you will bear it like you always have...one thing...if those house roomies of yours turn out to be just like you have described them....maybe they can help out a little later on with your S F ?? later.!

ps.....Hey if U see little mrs "drive by"
slow her down and giver her a ticket...no make it two....

still having power problems..specially pc.....

jan said...

I just took John to get a tooth pulled. He had a crown break off the other day off a tooth way in the back. He has not lost any permanent teeth before this. Our regular dentist is out of town. He could have opted for a root canal and another crown. He decided to have it pulled. I tried to talk him into the crown, but he had his mind made up.

jan said...

/Users/sjwayland/Desktop/DSCN0696.JPG

Here is a pic I was able to download to my desk top. I will see if I can open it in a search engine

jan said...

ignore above. It didn't work. Trying something else.

jan said...

New post. I figured out how to post one picture.