Monday, November 23, 2009

A time to say goodbye...

Ecclesiastes 3

A Time for Everything

1 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:
2 a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,
3 a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build,
4 a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,
5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
6 a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away,
7 a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak,
8 a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.

This is one of my favorite passages of the Bible, and the inspiration for the name of my blog--which I'm sure you all figured out.

This week has been full of these "times." I was called back to Nebraska to my daddy's hospital bed. He ended up in the hospital about two weeks ago with difficulty breathing and some other symptoms. The doctors have not figured out what caused his issues, but they were able to get him well enough to go home. Which was good because our family and my sister's family were planning road trips for Thanksgiving, us from Texas and hers from Michigan.

However, last Thursday morning my daddy coded, and while they were able to resuscitate him, he has not woken up. My sister and I, sans husbands and children flew to NE last Thursday in order to be here to say good-bye if necessary. Luckily, daddy held on until we could both actually get here.

I'm not sure what his status is--critical, serious, stable, etc. I'd say all three really. His condition is non-responsive. He's not actually in a coma, he's not unconscious, and he's not on any kind of sedation. He's on a respirator, but he's doing most of the work, so they're trying to wean him off it. He's fighting pneumonia. Most of his vitals are stable, but his blood pressure keeps jumping.

He had his eyes open this past Saturday, but it's a case of "the lights are on but no one's home." Sunday they gave him a low dose of sedation for some reason, but he's so frail and skinny that it knocked him out.

The rest of us are just hanging out and hanging on, waiting for him to wake up or let go.

Update: MRI showed no brain activity. So we will be pulling the minor life support he's on soon and allowing nature to take its course.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Tag, you're it...

My fellow chapter mate has tagged me from her blog: Writing in a Vortex to post seven random things about myself...

Yikes, okay...

1. I've seen the real Little Mermaid.

2. I've attended school in two countries other than America.

This is harder than it looks...

3. I was a "Valley Girl."

4. I am not a coffee drinker--Plantation Mint and Lady/Earl Gray are my tea addictions.

5. I've been to the USS Lexington three times.

6. Creating fan girl Web sites is my just-for-fun thing to do.

7. I am a Trekkie (DS-9 and this year's movie being my favorite incarnations of the franchise.)

So there you have it--seven random and trivial thing about me. And I only read two blogs...L.A.'s and my mom's, so there's no tagging from me.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Margie Lawson...

...is awesome.

Margie was the sole presenter at the writing conference I attended this past Saturday. She's funny, gracious, generous...and so many other things.

I wish we could have a longer session as we only hit the tip of the mountain of what she could have taught us. Some of which included some deep EDITing techniques, use of rhetorical devices, power words, and back-loading our sentences.

It was pretty much unanimous that we went her back again. Or that individually, we will participate in some of her online classes or purchase her lecture packets which are several hundred pages long each.

A great weekend with a fabulous speaker, a fun and smooth-run event, and good time with fellow writers, some old friends and some brand new.

Friday, November 6, 2009

Music and writing...

First off, let me just say how much I love music. I tend to forget for long stretches, but then something happens to make me remember.

Last week, I played chaperon for my son's band when they went and played with the high school band at a football game. Unfortunately, the middle schoolers tend to get bored because they haven't been given all the music the HS band has--only some, so obviously they can only play the songs they know. The high schoolers get to play continuously for the most, the drummers drum and the others pick up tunes and randomly play whatever comes to mind. They have fun and get to be artistic. And there's nothing like seeing truly creative people create. So while the HS band is jammin' spontaneously, the middle schoolers sit and wait, not always so patiently.

But the point was--these high schoolers were seriously talented. I really enjoyed listening to them and was reminded how much I enjoy listening to these types of bands.

In the same vein, my sister-in-law introduced us to the TV show "Glee," which is about a high school Glee club struggling to earn respect both in the school and on the competition circuit. There are musical numbers in every episode, most of which I have enjoyed tremendously, again being reminded how up listening to music generally makes me.

My second topic is writing...I've been writing again. I made the commitment to get up at five am each morning and write till six-thirty. So far so good. And if I get to write at any time during the day or evening, so much the better. Plus, Candy Havens has The Writing Game going on on the workshop loop again, so that is giving me concrete word goals to hit each day. And so far, I've made each one. Today will be a bit tougher since I'm leaving for a writing conference this afternoon, but I've got words banked I can draw from if necessary, but I hope I won't have to.

Have a good weekend--I will!