Monthly Archives: May 2010

A Bird-licious Day in Chicago

Outside cafes are finally open in Chicago. That must mean summer is around the corner. Here I share lunch with a friend and a bird who loves the crusty, yeasty, yummy rolls under the awesome white awning at Smith & Wollensky on the Chicago River.

A tour boat on the Chicago River. A favorite summer outing. I wonder if the passengers see my avian lunch companion pecking away under the white awning.

See Trump Tower towering on the right.

Anyone for washing windows at Marina Towers? Look closely.

Or would you rather back up out of Marina Towers parking garage? NOT.

So join us in Chicago–enjoy an outdoor lunch, a walking tour of the architecture, and a boat ride on the Chicago River. And much, much more.

Give Up Engagement Gift???

As I recall, my husband couldn’t afford a diamond when he proposed to me a year before marriage. Instead, for an engagement present, he gave me a set of Noritake china. That was in 1961, 49 years ago. I used it for a few years after our marriage when we had “company.” When the kids arrived, Melmac became my china of choice, followed by Corelle, and the Noritake went into storage.

Years later when my folks needed dishes, I “loaned” them my china. In their retirement, they used it for a few years in an apartment after they gave up their home and before moving into a senior living facility with communal meals.

So it was that I found the china wrapped in newspaper dated 1981 in our off-site storage area last Saturday, May 22, 2010.

“What do we do with our china,” I asked my dust-covered husband as we stood hunched over sorting boxes under the gabled roof of an attic.

“What china?” he asked, handsome as the day he gave it to me. Almost the same size—only two waist sizes larger and the same 6’2” height, with only a little salt sprinkled through his brown short hair.

“The Noritake you gave me for an engagement present—the dishes we’ve rarely used.”

No hesitation. “Shove it over here. I’ll take it down. We can find room for it in our storage unit.”

“I don’t think I’ll ever use it again. It’s sort of not my taste anymore. Our taste…”

“I’ll find room for it.”

Two days later, after I’d written some relatives about my china dilemma, I got an email from my sister-in-law who lives 500 miles away. “If you’re looking to get rid of your china and can’t sell it on E-bay, I’d love to have it. I told my dinner group about it, and they said I need it for when it’s my turn to host them. ” By this time, the china was safely tucked into the 6’ x 8’ storage unit in our condo building.

“Barb will take our china,” I told my husband that evening as we walked Michigan Avenue. “But I did find on the Web that a place setting of our outdated pattern still sells for $40, and we have eight…plus some serving dishes.”

No hesitation. “Tell her we’ll think about it.” He smiled. “ If we give it to them, tell her it will cost $400 in transportation.”

I have yet to answer her email.

Nursing Shortage — Another Take

I’m in to the nursing shortage tonight, partly because I’ve heard some horror stories again about people’s experiences where they needed a nurse and encountered someone without the education or licensure.

I’m not out to paint nursing as all rosy. The economic downturn right now is affecting jobs. Read or listen to this newscast:

Shortage of nurses, but not easy to get nursing job – WALB.com News, Weather and Sports for Albany, Valdosta and Thomasville. Leading the way for South Georgia. |.

No matter the job situation in some places today, note the need long-term for nurses. And nursing faculty.

Nursing Shortage Update — AACN

The American Association of Colleges of Nursing has updated their fact sheet on the nursing shortage, a fact sheet that I’ve used before for obtaining shortage data for the promotion of Caring Lessons.  Check out their website:

AACN – Media – Nursing Shortage Fact Sheet

As one of the growing population of older folks, I want nurses, registered nurses, to be available when I’m going to need them. I hope some of you will consider nursing or at least encourage nurses you know for their work or nursing students to persevere when they feel overwhelmed.

I, after nearly 40 years of nursing, can readily say that nothing matches the reward of  being able to help another human being at any and all times of their life.

Blogging as a Nursing Student

One of the fun things about blogging is having easy access to others that blog on topics similar to yours. And this week I stumbled upon a great blog by a nurse that teaches informatics to her nursing students and makes them write a blog for the course.

Now, imagine if I would have had that advice when I was in school nearly 50 years ago. Ha. I would not be bumbling about now. Never mind there were no computers then. Just my old Royal typewriter.

But check her out–Terri Schmitt at nursestory.com And also check out her students’ blogs at the end of her April 27, 2010 entry. What a great idea! And what a good way to share information and ideas.

Once a Nurse, Always a Nurse

I’m often asked if I miss nursing. Yes, I do. I don’t miss getting up early and going to work. Or the evening and weekend work while teaching. But I think when you’re a nurse, nursing becomes a part of you. As much a part as your hand or heart.

Last week, I had an MRI with contrast. I watched the phlebotomist with much interest as she started the IV. I thought back more than 45 years to my days starting IVs on PMs with a butterfly. What a thrill it was to glide that teeny scalp vein needle into a hand vein. And then tape it with adhesive so it would not move and go sub-q. And to get asked by the other nurses to start their IVs. It took a knack, they’d say.

I survived the jack hammer and buzzing noises and then took myself out for lunch. Roasted tomato soup. One-half sandwich. I passed up dessert. I can’t forget teaching my nursing students Geneen Roth‘s ideas on weight control–eat only when hungry, stop when full–but don’t deprive yourself. And something about throwing the scales away and learning to recognize what food means to you. Check her website; read her books–all of them. Worth every word for gaining insight and getting motivated.

When I got home, I felt something under my shirt. The MRI tech had left the Vitamin E capsules that marked the MRI site taped to my upper back. Probably not a good thing that she forgot. What would I tell a student if she’d left some remnant of a test or treatment on a patient?

My mind seems to obsess over all kinds of nursing-related memories. And I hope it never quits! It gives me lots of things to think, talk, and write about.

Drowning in Paper

It’s bad enough drowning in drafts of my memoir, but now I’m needing to go through 17 boxes of old papers that I stored when we moved to our condo five years ago. No wonder I’m procrastinating long enough to complain about it.

I wonder what other people do when they finish a book and before it comes out. I know I should be working on other writing projects I’ve started, but my book piles, plus the hundreds of drafts on my hard drive, keep calling me. But they are so intimidating that I do everything but get at sorting them out and pruning them down.

So these 17 boxes of memorabilia provide yet another delay. Maybe I should just have a bonfire. But, get rid of my appointment books for the last umpteen years of my career? Or my framed diplomas for my master’s and doctorate? Or wall calendars saved from the 70s with important play dates scrawled in?

It’s my history that’s at stake! But, as a friend said, if you haven’t missed them the five years you’ve lived downtown, chances are they weren’t that important. I’m not sure yet whether she has a point. I guess I’ll just wind my way through the stacks of boxes and piles of paper and go read a book.

Creative Nonfiction’s Popularity – Why?

With the Spring 2010 issue of “Creative Nonfiction,” this literary journal became a magazine. Lee Gutkind started the journal in 1993 when there were few creative nonfiction journals around. And now, as a magazine, it will be expanding to include more than essays. There will be articles on craft, literary developments, profiles, and more.

So the usually small (5.5″ x 8.25″) journal arrived in my mailbox this week as a splashy large (8.25″ x 10.75″) magazine, its cover resembling a tag cloud on WordPress!

I was most interested in reading what Gutkind had to say about the state of creative nonfiction today. A sidebar paraphrases him: “I believe there are many reasons for creative nonfiction’s popularity, beginning with the practical fact that people-readers-respond to stories, to narrative.”

I especially liked that he says on page 5 that “narratives help make information accessible and memorable.” For sure, we all like to read a good story.

You may want to check out this new magazine format. It promises to be broadly informative for those of us who like to write narratives. Simply click on the name of the magazine above. Note that this current issue has a thought-provoking series on immortality, including an excerpt from Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

A “Category to Tag” Enlightenment

Wow, the light has dawned; the road is clear. I just figured out the difference between tags and categories. I thought I knew before because I’ve read the “help” page on it several times. But no!

So from now on, I’ll add tags (as well as my already established categories) to my posts and see what happens. In other words, I will add more specific words in the Tags Module box of my post!

Learning the blogging process is truly a fun learning curve for the novice. And I agree with many people on the forums that WordPress information on every topic is really, really helpful.

Writers: Start a Writing Circle

Writing Tip: Start your own Writing Circle.

Near Christmas the first year I was writing my memoir, I faced a few weeks between classes at the Newberry Library when I spotted a notice on a bulletin board for a writing group for people over 60. I adjusted my trifocals and peered up to read the where, what, and when. I was now used to weekly classes and did not look forward to several weeks off before spring classes started.

The class that was advertised was called the Writing Circle and it was sponsored by the City of Chicago at the Chicago Cultural Center. I joined the next week and participated weekly for over a year, alongside the other small writing group I helped start a bit later that I wrote about earlier.

The neat thing about the Writing Circle was that anyone could join who was over 60. So a diverse group of men and women. We picked a word each week and wrote up to one page, single spaced, using that word for a prompt. We brought copies for each person, usually about 12, to the meeting. We read our pages aloud and got feedback, written and oral, from each member. One woman volunteered as a coordinator to keep the group going, left to right, or right to left, alternating each week.

It was these folks who really gave me an early go-ahead on my nursing stories. I thought of them as my “dry run” group. They thought my stories magnificent, so I was greatly encouraged to keep writing. It helped me to know these “lay” people liked and could understand my nursing stories.

And I’m thinking that the notion of a Writing Circle would help any group of would-be writers. You could start one at your home, library, or any public place where you can sit in a circle and hear one another.

For starters, use some of the words we used: loyalty, connection, art, rainbow, consume, yellow, and dark. See my own story on “dark”–about my writing friend Marianna and me on a jaunt to FL–this coming Friday under stories on the sidebar. See how fun it can be to have to write a page a week for free feedback!