This and That

No, I haven't fallen off the end of the earth. It has been an ordinary, yet strange week. Some random thoughts in no particular order, except for the first.

My thoughts and prayers all week have been with my cousin Steve's wife, Allyn, who remains in intensive care. Steve has faithfully been writing updates and sharing his thoughts on a daily basis. His son Scott has also been keeping up a blog. There have been "ups" as Allyn has come through myriad surgeries on her limbs and physical healing is occurring. The horrible "down" has been that her brain injury is much more severe than they originally thought - three strokes and huge trauma during the accident - and it is possible that she will not recover from those. There is still room for a miracle but it looks bad.

Steve and Scott seem to share my need to write to process. They write poignant and extraordinarily complete reports on each day's events as well as their emotions as they deal with those events. Through technology I feel like I'm in Washington, feel like I'm crying with them, but can't do a darn thing but pray. They do have a large circle of friends who are visiting Allyn and preparing food for Scott and Steve.

All the ERs, Grey's Anatomys, St. Elsewheres, Private Practices, Robin Cook books, and Patricia Cornwall books don't come close to preparing one for a REAL family experiencing such trauma.

On to the more ordinary end of things......

Summer finally arrived in Chicago yesterday afternoon when it got very hot and muggy, stormed like crazy last night, and returned to a little less muggy heat today. I don't understand my body. The first touch of humidity and I crash. Trying to prepare some food for Father's Day and clean up the kitchen were beyond me physically....so I actually put on the air conditioning! What a wimp!

I'm tutoring a 14 year old girl who WANTS TO LEARN!!!! I was asked to tutor Devin to "give her a leg up" for high school. I figured she would be polite at best, resistant at worst. She ended up being delightful. She actually KNOWS what she was taught this past year and is actually EAGER to do some homework and to push ahead. To think they will actually pay me to have fun!

Kevin had his big adventure of driving himself to California. After filling the entire first floor of the house with his stuff, he got it all in the car and took off mid-afternoon on Tuesday. He stayed with a friend's parents in Des Moines, then had a great short visit with Ed and Judy (got to do a long bike ride with Ed) and then stopped somewhere in Utah Thursday night before arriving in Santa Barbara at the necessary time on Friday. His excitement is palpable.

I am so pleased that Kevin was able to spend some time with Ed and Judy and that he and Ed could engage in their common favorite activity. Just as I've so thoroughly enjoyed times to visit my adult niece and nephew independent of family events, now Ed and Judy are having those opportunities to get to also know their nephews as adults. I think when families live in close proximity, the "kids" just sort of ooze into adults but, when families are far from each other, it can be a delightful surprise when this adult with adult opinions, skills, and experiences shows up on your doorstep!

The Paris pictures are all organized on both computers and I've even labeled them! Now I hope someone will want to see them :-) Could that have only been a week ago???