I can't begin to say how much I love this quote:

Expecting the world to treat you fairly because you are good is like expecting the bull not to charge because you are a vegetarian.
~Dennis Wholey

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I'm the first to roll out the story-catching service that our Hospice organization is offering. In theory, I'd meet with a patient whose family has requested this service and record a story on a little recorder; put the story on CD and present it to the patient and their family. It's not supposed to be an interview and you shouldn't hear my voice (much). Just the patient telling their story for about 20 minutes or so. In THEORY it should be an easy transition of sitting down, giving a brief introduction on the recorder of the patient's name and date and keeping the patient on track.

After reading a brief summary of what the patient wanted to share, I knew that it was going to be more than 20 minutes. No problem. The recording device has a lot of capacity.

To say this man was ready for the interview is an understatement. He started talking from the moment I walked into the door and I had trouble finding a gracious way of saying, "hey- we need to start the recorder." So much for graceful.

Twenty minutes went by.... then another twenty... and another twenty.... until we were up to three hours worth of 20 minute stories.

This man's eighty-something years of life have been amazing. Three hours wasn't enough, so I made an appointment to meet with him again. That was yesterday.

Again, I was off to a completely ungraceful start. I just decided to turn on the recorder as soon as I could- even though he was in the middle of a story. We spent another three hours together and I still feel that he had more to share, but it's important that we get this finished and presented to the family. My volunteer coordinator is under pressure to get our first story finished so the social workers will feel comfortable in referring the (totally free) service to more people.

I told my new friend that we had to wrap this up, and told him what would happen next. And then I did something I wasn't really expecting. I told him that I wanted to continue visiting him even though our project was complete, which really put a smile on his face (mine too!) I really had/have no intention of volunteering in the patient-care side of Hospice, but there's something about this amazing man that made me want to see him again. I called the volunteer coordinator and asked him if I could be assigned as this man's volunteer.

I promised the coordinator that I wouldn't 'adopt' everyone whose story I would be recording. Besides, when will I have time? I've also signed up to be in the new Hospice Ambassador program. Public speaking to create awareness about Hospice and what it has to offer.

Man, it's a good thing I don't have a job.

::KIDDING:: But I do need to make sure that I keep this balanced. Balanced? What is that?

When I write my book, this quote is going in it:

I believe luck is preparation meeting opportunity. If you hadn't been prepared when the opportunity came along, you wouldn't have been 'lucky.' — Oprah

I'm one of those people that sings stupid songs many times a day. I've done this since I can't remember when. When the boys were little, I'd sing songs and replace some of the words with their names and now I do that with Einstein.

::ahem:: for example:

Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah, zip-a-dee-ay, my oh my what an Einsteiny day.
Plenty of Einstein comin' my way, Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah, zip-a-dee-ay

There are several songs in my repertoire, but that one is my go-to song of the day. I don't think a day goes by that I'm not singing that song in one form or another.

Today is Friday, a half-day for me and I was shutting down my company laptop. In doing so, I fired up my Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah song to Einstein. What do I hear next? BJ shutting his office door!

I'm SO SURE!

OK, yes, I can understand that it could become annoying and yes, I do it several times a day but I told BJ he's going to miss it when I die.

NOTE: I'm not dying anytime soon- that's just my way of making him feel guilty. It's a good one, eh?

I went back for my six month check up with the cardiologist today. I’d broken my foot and tore that ligamenty-type stuff due to fainting since the last time I’d seen him and was wearing a boot. I shared with him that my neurologist wasn’t a happy camper that he was taking a watch and see attitude with the fainting because each time I hit my head could be the last time I hit my head. A brain injury on top of another brain injury could be fatal or other terrible things that I’d personally find to be worse than fatal.

Anyhoo- enough of the fatalistic thinking. Bleh.

My cardiologist says that he knows why I faint (tachycardia), but he doesn’t know the cause of the tachycardia, so he is sending me to another cardiologist that specializes in electrical problems of the heart and said that he’s going to advise that he surgically place an internal heart monitor. Here's some information about it if you're curious.

I would have this for up to a year, depending on how often I faint.

He also ran a slew of blood tests today.

It would certainly be nice to get to the bottom of this and get it treated so I quit bonking and breaking things. I’ve gained almost 20 lbs since breaking my foot because I’m supposed to stay off of it as much as possible until it’s healed. My instructions are, when it starts to hurt, get off of it. That takes about 10-15 minutes, which isn’t very long. I can’t even ride the bike because it involves moving my ankle around (where the stuff is torn.)

Summer is coming and I want to be ACTIVE again.

I go back to see the foot surgeon in April to see if surgical intervention is required.

Surgery, surgery, surgery. Thank goodness for health insurance.