Thursday, May 26, 2005

Packing, and sad

I finally aroused myself from a post-graduation stupor to obtain more packing supplies and start packing the house in earnest. We are going to be at mom and dad's for a few days and I wanted to get a jump on things, since closing is only TWO WEEKS AWAY! Holy cow, where did the time go? One minute I looked at a calendar stretching out before me, with closing in the great distance, and now....it's close. Too close.

Then I called my mom and found out that a close family friend had died. He has known my mom since she was a little girl, and in the last few years has been very close to my widowed grandmother. He was at my college graduation and at countless family holiday celebrations. He would always bring wonderful deviled eggs to parties, and my parents had a bottle of Bombay Sapphire in the freezer just for him. He and Grandma made a good pair, and they were so good for each other.

He had a stroke a few weeks ago, and horrifically laid on the floor of his kitchen for at least 24 hours until he was found. I saw him at the hospital, his right side completely paralyzed, but he smiled and kissed my cheek and seemed to recognize me. He'd recovered enough to make it to a nursing home, but after Grandma's visit last night (when she showed him photos from this last graduation . . . ) he started to have more trouble breathing, and this morning he died.

I'm sad for his family, for his kids, for my grandmother, and for his community. We have all lost a wonderful man, who has a terrific sense of humor and a smile or a kiss for everyone. The past few years I've felt like he was more my grandfather than any other I've ever had. But I am relieved that he is at peace, and will no longer suffer the indignities of a body that won't do what he wants, a body that leaves him victim to the tender mercies of others. He was too vital, such a full inhabitant of his life, to drag out through months or even years of slow rehab and loneliness, all too aware of what he has lost.

Goodbye, Fred. We will miss you and think of you always.

Tuesday, May 24, 2005

Busted

He totally DID read it. And then he called me. Lame, lame, lame. But! I was actually PACKING as he called. I have a lot of the spare room done and now am getting ready to move on to the living room, or maybe the bedroom.

The cats are strutting around, enjoying all the boxes in the living room. They're very excited that their mommy has turned the whole entire living room into a place for cats to scratch! On the boxes!!! And it's near their food--it's like kitty heaven!

Well, that's what I keep trying to tell them. Then they just LOOK at me, and jump up onto the counters.

Bad, bad cats.

That is all.

Procrastination is the enemy of . . . everyone

So I oughtta be packing the house right now. I have a beautiful multitude of cardboard boxes just waiting--nay, aching--to be taped up and filled with all of my posessions. We even have a calendar, people. With things to DO on it. For each DAY.

A week after we printed it out, I am already behind.

And the sad part is, I'm not really doing anything in particular. Checking around the net, reading a bunch of blogs, eating, checking Salon, filling my brand new iPod mini with random songs, drinking Diet Coke (now flavored with Splenda!) . . . and that's about all.

*sigh*. I just hope my husband doesn't read this. Otherwise I am in BIG trouble.

Monday, May 23, 2005

Class of 2005


Allcrop
Originally uploaded by DrKateB.
It was raining, but we were all smiling--even Gina, who had given birth to beautiful Andrew only eight days before; even Sarah, who was worried about being "homeless" between her lease ending and her house purchase; even "the boys," who were certainly hung over; and even and especially Bruce, whose last graduation this might be.

It was a beautiful, tearful day. And wholly unbelieveable.

All the medical students. All doctors at last.

Graduation 2005


Crop 3
Originally uploaded by DrKateB.
This is what happens when you have a bunch of loving people come and see the culmination of four years of work, sweat, tears, vomit, and Diet Coke. One person dresses up in a funny hat and gets strangled by a velvet cape thingy, and people kneel in praise. Sounds good, doesn't it?

If only it didn't cost $130,000 to get there.

Let the games begin!

If I am going to READ blogs all the time, and if my HUSBAND has a blog, and perhaps even my CATS secretly have a blog, then I guess I should have a blog as well.

Today is the first whole day of my life as a Medical Doctor. Funny, you don't LOOK like a doctor... but the nifty parchment paper says otherwise.

The next five years, I will be an indentured servant to Major Medical Center's psych department. Allow me to express my excitement at that prospect.

I may knit once in a while as well.

That is all.