In memorium...

A year or so ago the building I work in underwent construction for a new addition. I could see most of the construction work from my own second story window. Watching all the work was fascinating, especially when the huge crane came in to put up the steel framework of the new wing.

On one of the days that the guys were building the framework, I took lots of pictures. These guys were absolutely fearless walking along the steel beams. I love the smile on this guy (left). He looked so happy to be up so high with only a rope keeping him safe.

I took pictures from my office window. I took pictures from the back entrance that was technically locked and off limits due to the construction, but I stood in the doorway and clicked away. Then I went to the side parking lot to get some good views of the crane. The best pictures I got were actually of the crane operator and his black dog.

The guy actually caught me taking the pictures, so when I was finished, I printed off a copy of my favorite picture, wrote my name, the date, and location on the back of it, and ran downstairs to give it to him. Unfortunately, he had already gotten back in the crane. Luckily, another guy was close enough to the fence that I called him over and asked him if he'd give the picture to the crane guy.

Fast forward to today...

After a meeting this morning, I checked my voicemail and had a message from a co-worker in another building. I called her back.

Her: Beth, I have a personal question for you.

Me: Ok.

Her: My husband is friends with a guy who worked on the construction crew that built the new wing on your building. He said you took a picture of him and his dog one day.

Me: Yes I did!

Her: Sadly, his dog died in an accident earlier this week.

Me: Oh no!

Her: Yeah, he's really down about it. The dog was his buddy. He has had that picture you gave him in his truck all this time. It's really wrinkled and beat up. He knew you had written your name on the back of the picture and asked me to ask you if you still had that picture.

Me: I have it right here. I'll email it to you. Actually, I took several pictures so I'll send all of them to you.

Her: That is wonderful! Thank you so much. He'll be really happy to have these pictures.

Me: I'm glad I could help.

This one is my favorite, and probably the one that I printed out for him on the day I took the pictures:

5 Most Character Defining Events in My Life

I stumbled upon this on my computer today and I don't know that I ever posted it anywhere.

1. Mom retiring very early
From the moment I was six weeks old until just before I turned 9, my mom worked shift work at our local Dupont plant. She kept me with her whenever she could (long-weekends off from work and her vacation time), but for the most part I stayed with my grandma. Even there it was just me and Mema, because grandpa worked shift work at Dupont too. One afternoon, when I got off the bus at my grandma's house, I noticed Mom's car parked in the driveway. Her car being there was very strange because it was the middle of the week and I usually only saw her on the weekends. But I just thought, "Neat! Mom's here!" Once I was settled in for the afternoon after the intial "Hey how are ya?" and "How was school?", Mom asked me, "How would you like to have a full-time mom?" I gave her a rather puzzled look and she went on to explain. Earlier that day when she was at work she realized she didn't have any tylenol with her, so she headed up to the staff nurse's office to get some. Mom has arthritis in her knees and by this time had already had surgery on both of them (later on she had a second surgery on one of them). In a flurry of action, the nurse deemed that she should be retired on disability. SWEET! Mom didn't have to work anymore. Needless to say after 8 years of only getting to spend quality time with my mom in little spurts of long-weekends and vacations, I got to be by her side almost 24/7, especially once she started volunteering at my school.

Mom and I became very close after her retirement. She became much more than just a parent; she became my closet friend for many years to come.

2. Getting my first violin
When I was in early elementary school, I rode the school bus. Therefore, I got to know the older kids on my route. One of those older kids (three years older than me) had been a violinist since she was three. She was an excellent player and I knew it. One day while we were walking from the bus to the school building, I built up enough nerve to ask her, "When can I learn to play violin?" She kindly replied, "You can take violin in the 4th grade." Great! But I was only in second grade. I had to get through the rest of that school year and through another one before I'd get to join the school's orchestra.

My very very first violin was a tiny white plastic thing that my grandparents had bought me for Christmas one year. I liked to 'play' along whenever Grandpa played his classical music records on the stereo. He got a real hoot out of it. There is a famous picture of me (well...famous in our circle of family and friends) in jeans, little red cowboy boots, and a ponytail holding my little fiddle standing in my grandparents' living room. I looked so serious and just like I knew what I was doing. I think I was only three or four at the time.

I still remember going with Mom to the school one afternoon at the end of my 3rd grade year to sign up for the beginning orchestra class. It was so exciting! I was measured for a violin (3/4 sized) and one was ordered for me, though I wouldn't get to see it until I started school in the fall. Waiting was horrible!

Then came the day when I was finally in the fourth grade and I finally had my very own violin. From that moment on, I had something special that would stay with me for the rest of my life even if I didn't do anything professional with it. Learning to play the violin was something I had waited for for so long and once I finally got past that horribly awkward period, I realized I really enjoyed playing for myself.

3. Entering my first chat room
Computers were just becoming affordable and attainable during my early high school years. My grandma bought her computer first, and was the first to get internet access. After having to drive to Mema's house daily and spend HOURS there just so I could get online, it wasn't too long before Mom decided to get one for us too. A few days after we brought it home, it was hooked up to the world wide web and I entered my first chat room provided by Prodigy (one of the first ISPs). I just happened to stumble into a role-playing chat room. In these RP rooms, the chatters would assume characters and interact with each other forming very complex story lines, almost like a written soap opera. From these chatrooms I met some of my longest lasting, though very long distance, friends.

The chatroom, for me, slowly evolved into the MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game) complete with graphics, not just text! My first RPG, and really the only one I've ever gotten deeply into, was EverQuest. This game was introduced to me by two of my chatroom friends during my summer stay with them in Texas. From that dear $14.95 a month game, I met my future husband. Ah! Love at first sight! (Though, at the time, he was a blue faced barbarian and I had no idea what he looked like in real life.)

4. Going to Legislator's School
When I was a sophomore in high school, I was chosen to take part in a two-and-a-half-week program just down the road at ECU called Legislator's School. This was my first experience being away from home for any length of time. I made a few new friends (though I only kept up with one after the program ended) and I had an ok time (the walk from the dorm to the cafeteria in the morning for breakfast was over a mile and included climbing a huge hill which killed my poor knees). There wasn't anything spectacular about the experience other than I didn't see my mom for an entire two and a half weeks. That was definitely a first since she had retired.

The next summer I was chosen to participate in Governor's School, three hours away in Winston-Salem. Because I had successfully been away the previous summer for two and a half weeks, I felt brave enough to conquer the six weeks of being away from home for Governor's School. This in turn gave me the courage to (gasp!) GO AWAY FOR COLLEGE as I had been planning to go to ECU and live at home. But, instead, I went to Salem College, spending a good portion of the year nearly 200 miles away from my mom and grandparents.

5. Going to college away from home instead of just down the road
Being away from home for college forced me to be with other people, to learn new streets, eat new foods, and try new things. I changed so much from the little home-body I was in high school. The only time I ever stayed out late in high school was for the prom, and for senior prom we were all back home well before midnight. College gave me the courage and forced me to be on my own and set my own rules. It also proved to me (and to everybody else we knew) that Mom would be fine without me underfoot all the time, which led to me staying in Winston-Salem after I graduated. She likes me being away because it gives her somewhere to go. She loves coming up to see me, and now loves coming up to see her son-in-law too.

PotUS

This week started out with a totally unexpected bang -- I got see the President of the United States of America!

Yes, I took that picture.

Unfortunately, I didn't know I would get to see the President, so I didn't have my good camera. I got a last minute ticket. Luckily, my department has a camera that I took with me. But, the camera wasn't charged and only took seven pictures! Talk about good news, bad news.

Regardless of the camera situation, getting to see the President speak was very exciting!


My new-old violin got to play in a quintet (2 violins, viola, cello, and harpsichord) the Sunday before Thanksgiving. It was AWESOME! I love playing chamber music, especially with a harpsichord. If I had room and money, I'd have a harpsichord (and a soundproof room for Jamie's sake).

The one time of year that I hate the crappy economy the most is at Christmas. I only have one gig this year, and I only had one gig last year. The first few Christmases after I graduated college I could easily get six or seven gigs. With the economy in the dumps, fewer people want to hire musicians to play for parties, open houses, ect. But, I am very thankful for the one gig I have -- it just wouldn't be Christmas without playing Christmas music somewhere! I've played for this particular church's Christmas cantata for at least five years. It's a no-pressure job where I'm one of only two violins trying to be heard over 8-10 brass and woodwind players. Plus, I get to play second fiddle to my favorite violin buddy.

I'm looking forward to winding down the fall semester and gearing up for the holiday break. The best part about working for a college is Christmas break! Free vacation time! Woohoo!

You figure it out :)

Creative
One-of-a-kind
Nifty
Nurturing
Integral
Earnest

Wonderful
Awesome
Loving
Loyal

Food, glorious food

Feeding Jamie since his surgery back in December was a bit tricky. He has only a certain variety of foods he likes to eat. Because of his initial surgery, he had some food restrictions -- no peanuts, corn, beans, seeds, gummy things, or anything that comes out looking very much like it went in. Foods like that could cause a blockage in his newly reworked digestive system.

Now that everything is hooked up again, he is off the food restrictions. We're still getting used to the fact that he can have some of his favorite foods again. Last night I picked up lots of his favorite treats -- popcorn, trail mix with peanuts and cashews, honey roasted peanuts, roasted cashews, and dried pineapple.

Today I fixed him my awesome chicken noodle soup with corn and black beans, and there is currently a crock pot full of 4-bean chili slowly cooking for tomorrow.

Hopefully, we can do more eating at home now that he can have a little more variety to his diet. YAY! I like to cook!

Home!

Jamie came home from the hospital yesterday. This was his shortest hospital stay yet (not counting having his port inserted when he was only at the hospital for a few hours). Everything seems to be working ok. He has some pain and discomfort right now, but hopefully it will continue to lessen over the next few days.

He is happy to have his bed, his tv, his wife-cooked food, and to not be bothered every two hours in the middle of the night. Most night nurses will just peep in on patients during the night hours, but we had one who insisted on turning on the lights and doing a full check every two hours overnight. We missed seeing two of Jamie's nurses who only work weekends. They were awesome night nurses.

Wednesday Update

Jamie's continuing to improve. He has eaten real food (the kind that requires chewing) today for lunch and dinner. Keep your fingers crossed - he may get to go home tomorrow!

Tuesday Evening Update 2

A few minutes after my last email Jamie's night nurse stopped by and said "I think I'll just go ahead and unhook you from the IV."

YAY! He still has the needle in his hand, but he isn't tethered to the pole any more.

*happy dance*

Tuesday Evening

Jamie saw the surgeon for all of about 10 seconds earlier today. "Belly's soft" was about all he had to say, which is good. A soft belly is what we want.

Jamie had a five-lap shuffle around the floor and sat up in a chair for most of the day. He was nauseous right after waking up but it went away. He has eaten chocolate pudding and applesauce, and was able to keep two vicotin down. He is conked out in the bed right now.

Things seem to be going ok.

Tuesday Morning

Not much to say this morning. We've only just actually decided to be awake for the day -- not that either of us really slept much all night. Jamie spent some time last night with his new book (Thanks Betsy!) and his new iPod, which is good because last time he didn't want to do much of anything but lay in bed and stare at the tv.

Hopefully today will continue to improve.

Monday Afternoon Update

Jamie's doing pretty well. He spent an extra hour in recovery because of pain. His surgical site is his main pain complaint this time. When he got up to the room, he was really nauseous, which seems to be pretty normal for him after surgery. After some Zofran in his IV and a shot of Phenergan in his hip, his nausea has subsided for the time being. We walked around the hospital floor twice.

We've seen lots of familiar faces and lots of people have recognized Jamie from his previous visit. We even learned that two of his favorite nurses (Chuck and Jen, they're Canadian) from his July stay are married to each other! How cool!

Jamie was on a liquid diet as soon as he got back from surgery. At least he doesn't have to wait on a sip of water. He'll probably be on the liquid diet for a little while. Right now he has a dinner tray of jello, broth, tea, and juice. If he's able to keep down something, then he'll be able to have some Vicotin.

Monday Morning - Post Op

I'm a good girl! I'm doing what I said I'd do!

We arrived at the hospital at 6am and Jamie was quickly taken back to pre-op with the other first-thing-in-the-morning patients. About 40 minutes later, I was called to go sit with him. At 7:20am he was wheeled back to surgery. At 8:45am the surgeon called to say he was finished and everything looked good. I'm currently (9:00am) sitting in Jamie's room up on the third floor of the little hospital waiting for him to get out of the post-anesthesia/recovery unit. Hopefully he'll be up in about an hour.

I'm really hoping that since this surgery was so quick that his hospital stay will be much shorter. Hopefully, his belly will wake up quicker. Hopefully, he'll look much better when he gets wheeled into the room this time.

Story of Us, Part V

So, it has been a while. Jamie went into the hospital on July 23 for his second surgery and didn't come out again until August 12 -- 21 days later. The full story (in emails) is posted in Story of Us, Part V.

My new violin (I think I'll call her Sabine...Top Gear fans might get the reference) had its first public performances -- in church with piano accompaniment and at a wedding as part of a violin duet. I can't wait to play it in an orchestra!

For Labor Day Weekend, we took our first mini-vacation trip. We've traveled to other places and stayed in hotels before, but we've always gone because of something. When we visited the museums in Raleigh, we were in town for me to play at a wedding. When we went to the beach, we were there to be Mom for her surgery. When we went to Anacortes together, we had to pack up Jamie's stuff. When we went through the Shenandoah Valley and up to Bethlehem, PA, we were on a business trip.

We went to Charlotte for our mini-vacation. We stated at the Hilton Garden Inn in Uptown Charlotte. It was super nice and directly across the street from the NASCAR Hall of Fame. We ate great food and visited lots of new places: Discovery Place, the Charlotte Nature Museum, the NASCAR Hall of Fame, Southpark Mall, and the Carolina Raptor Center. We took lots of pictures (go to our Flickr album!).

The days are quickly counting down to Jamie's third and final surgery on October 11. This surgery will only take about an hour and will have a much shorter recovery time (3-5 days). Since the surgery will be shorter than the last one, we're hoping Jamie won't have the same intestinal problems. Anesthesia makes the digestive system really sluggish and sometimes it takes a while for everything to start working again. The longer a patient is under anesthesia, the harder it is for the gut to wake up. And, when the patient has digestive problems to begin with...well you get the idea.

If I'm a good girl, I'll post my surgery/hospital update emails on the blog as soon as I send them.

Pre-Op

Today Jamie had his pre-op visit for his surgery on Friday. He answered some questions, gave some blood, and had his vitals checked twice (two different places that don't really talk to each other). The only bad thing we learned is that he doesn't check in for surgery until noon on Friday. Argh. Early is better. We were hoping for a 6am check-in. I'm guessing his surgery won't actually get started until at least 1:30. The procedure could take anywhere between 3 and 5 hours. It will be a long day. Plus, he has to stop eating/drink at midnight before the surgery. He'll be one hungry dude by the time it's all over.

I'll start my regular updates on Friday once I get settled in the waiting room. YAY for free wireless and an awesome laptop!

In the meantime, head over to the Flickr album to see pictures I took at High Point University. I would have a hard time choosing between HPU and Salem College, if I had to pick out a college right now. HPU is so NICE!

Newest Edition

I've had three violins in my life. The first wasn't around for very long. It was a 3/4 sized loaner instrument that I didn't even have for a full year. My next violin was a full-sized student instrument. It served me well from fourth grade through seventh grade. In the seventh grade I purchased, with my own money, the instrument that would see me through the rest of middle school, high school, Governor's school, college, and the start of my semi-professional career as a violinist.

I played my first Irish fiddle tune on this violin. I played two high school recitals and my college senior recital on this instrument. This fiddle flew to Texas with me and even went to Ohio once. It has played in countless concerts, numerous weddings, a memorial service in the woods in the rain, and for impromptu performances in family backyards.

But now, this instrument sits in a shop waiting to be bought by its next owner. It has been lovingly broken in and has come into its own special sound. I was its first owner and I'm a little sad to see it go. But the time has come for us to part ways.

Yesterday, Mom, Jamie, and I headed downtown to partake of some yummy bbq. After we finished stuffing ourselves full of smoked beef brisket, us ladies dragged the non-musically inclined guy over to the music shop. Mom and I mainly wanted to look at music, but I couldn't help oogling the instruments.

There hanging above a glass case was a gorgeous old instrument with a not-to-bad pricetag. A sign on the case said "We're happy for you to try out our instruments!" I took the invitation. A salesman carefully took the violin down and handed it to me with a bow. I pulled the bow across the strings. Ah! What a sound! I asked the salesman about trade-ins, but he said to come back on Saturday to speak with the owner and the violin guy.

Today, Jamie and I headed back downtown with my violin. To make a long story very short, we walked out of the music shop with a 1739 German violin in my case.

Before buying, the owner of the shop told us the story of the instrument. It was being sold on consignment by a man whose sister had been a member of the Winston-Salem Symphony and had died several years ago. She had played the viola in the symphony but had several violins in her collection. The music shop was also selling her viola, which she made herself, on consignment. Her name was Margaret Ann Smith.

My eyes widened at hearing her name. Several years ago, a man brought several crates of music to the Moravian Music Foundation as a donation. His sister had died and he was cleaning out her home. He said we could keep the music or give it away as we saw fit. The collection was made up mostly of violin studies and ensemble music (quartets, quintets, trios, etc.), which we sent over to the Salem College Fine Arts Library. But there were a few books that caught my attention and I claimed them for myself. When I got home from the music shop, I flipped through my shelf of music books. I found a book of Violin Duets by Playel with "Peggy Ann Smith" written on the cover.

Perhaps it was meant to be. :)

Facing the Swelter of Summer

Summer doesn't officially begin until June 21, but someone forgot to tell Mother Nature. Yesterday afternoon my car thermometer read 92! In NC, when it's that hot outside and humid, be prepared for really nasty weather. About an hour after I got home yesterday afternoon the skies darkened with ominous clouds on the southwestern horizon. The storm wasn't terrible, but we did have nickle-sized hail, wind, downpours where we couldn't see down the street very far, and continuous rumbles of thunder that would last almost a full minute before dying down. And, the lightning. Haven't had brilliant lightning like that in a while. We never completely lost power, but several times we had, for lack of a better phrase, power drains; lights dimmed, tv dimmed, the fan slowed down. That was weird.

I updated the Story of Us, Part IV with the latest emails.

School's out for...about two more days

Commencement was tonight. I get to spend the day decorating our division's room at the coliseum. We do an awesome job, if I do say so myself. My college commencement was outside and it had rained earlier in the day, so there was a lot of mud. The best part of my commencement was throwing tissue paper butterflies in a rainbow of colors instead of our mortar boards. I think Mom still has a little bag of those butterflies tucked away somewhere.

Speaking of Mom: I got to spend Mother's Day with my mommie for the first time in several years. I bought her a pretty yellow orchid corsage to wear to church, and I went with her to church! Afterward, Jamie and I took her out to eat. I'm going to treat her to a movie (Robin Hood...) sometime soon.

Jamie had chemo on Monday. His platelet count went from 84 two weeks ago to 130 this past Friday. Hopefully we can stay on schedule for the next 4 treatments, even though he does feel really bad. The fatigue and general blerg feeling are only getting worse, but that is to be expected. The doctor might stop the chemo drug that cause the uncomfortable tingling in his fingers and toes before the 12 treatments are up. Most people aren't able to get the full 12 treatments of that particular drug because of the side effects.

This past semester I taught my first college course. It was soooo cool! Though, I don't really feel that it's fair to call me a "teacher" or an "instructor". The course is online and was already set up, for the most part, before I took over. I have added some assignments and deleted ones that I didn't like. Hopefully, I'll get to teach the course for a while. It's a really good side gig. Summer semester starts up on Tuesday. I hope everybody does well in my class!

My violin isn't being too neglected (though I'm not practicing nearly as much as I should). I've played two weddings recently and I have a concert with the new orchestra at the end of the month. I really need to practice for that concert! I've been "promoted" to 2nd stand in the 2nd violin section. I need to sound like I know what I'm doing.

Oh! Right. My biggest accomplishment lately has been all the jewelry I've been making. Mom says I should be taking pictures of everything I make, but I keep forgetting. I've made over 100 individual pieces and sold quite a few of them. Most of the ladies at work are sporting handmade, one-of-a-kind necklaces, earrings, and bracelets. Several of my pieces have been given as gifts. Everybody who gives one of my designs as a gift always tells me how much the receiver liked the piece. And, everybody who buys something usually always stops by my office to show me their jewelry when they wear it. I love making jewelry! I really do need to post some pictures sometime.

Googlesites Sucks

Excuse the strong terminology, but it's true.

Googlepages died and Googlesites has taken its place. Googlepages was good. Googlesites -- not so much. Googlepages didn't translate directly over into Googlesites; so, now all of my layouts are funky and I can't get them to look like they used to. Well fine. I'll take my ball and go home; or take my blogging elsewhere.

From now on I'll blog directly into our Blogger blog.

Unfortunately, all of the pictures in this here blog were linked to the pictures uploaded to Googlepages, which meant their address was for somewhere within Googlepages. Now all of those pictures are in Googlesites. So Blogger can't find those pictures anymore because their address changed and they didn't leave a forwarding address. Bah. Oh well. Don't worry. Those pictures aren't gone forever. They're in one of the two Flickr albums or safely saved on the computer.

I've uploaded the latest updates in the Story of Us Saga. Parts II, III, and IV are basically in the form of emails that I've sent out to update family and friends on Jamie's emergency hospital stay (Part II), his surgery (Part III), and his adventures in chemo (Part IV). Links to these are located on the right-hand side of the blog.

Now I need to go pay some attention to the hubby because he is feeling neglected. :)

February 8, 2010

Hmmm...where to begin. We (ok..mostly Jamie) have been through quite a lot since I last posted on this blog, as evidenced by the new additions to our Important Dates column.

Our grand adventure started with Dominoes pizza and wings one night for dinner, which led to a trip to the ER for massive dehydration due to throwing up for 36 hours straight, which led to a colonoscopy, which led to a diagnosis of Colon Cancer, which led to a total Colectomy and Chemotherapy.

I plan to put the whole story here, but first I have to organize it! It's mostly in emails that anybody who might read this blog has already received, but I want the story all together in one place.

Check back later for how the story begins.

October 29, 2009

I'm a lazy blogger.

We haven't disappeared off the face of the earth. I promise.

We've been moderately busy during October. October is one of my favorite months. The first weekend in October I played for a wedding in Fuquay-Varina. It was an interesting experience between a pianist who really didn't have much classical music training and no legible road signs for getting around town. Jamie and I took off to Raleigh on the morning before the wedding to see the museums. YAY for FREE stuff to do! We visited the NC Museum of Natrual Science and the NC Museum of History. I took some pictures and they're uploaded to the Flickr album.

I entered five of my photographs in the Dixie Classic Fair's Amateur Adult Photography Contest. I didn't win any ribbons, but my photos looked just as good as the other non-ribboned photos I saw.

Keeping with fall tradition in my family, we went to an October race. But we didn't go to Charlotte. We checked out the short-track action at Martinsville last weekend. Getting there and back were the most interesting part of the day since our Mapquest directions got us lost in the middle of nowhere, rural NC. The trees and vistas were very lovely, though we did drive probably half an hour more than we had to. I took more pictures and they're uploaded to the Flickr album too.

Our little house was about to burst at the seams. We had six people stuffed in it. Mom came up with Mema, Grandpa, and Aunt Gloria for the race, though we left Grandpa at home on Sunday, which was A-ok by him. Mom and Aunt Gloria will be back in a couple of weeks after a Camp weekend. Then Mom, Mema, and Grandpa will be back for Thanksgiving. I'm soooo excited! Food and family and shopping and CHRISTMAS decorating!!!

As much as I complain about stores setting out Christmas stuff before Halloween, I do secretly LOVE seeing all the Christmas stuff. Like tonight, I was drooling over some very adorable holiday plates at Target. As I get older, I love Christmas time more and more and I'm very disappointed when it ends. I love the lights and decorations!