Tag Archives: blogging

Airlines Promoting Travel Wear

Did you know that airline companies are now advertising travel wear at check-in? The four-piece, wrinkle-free, mix and match ensemble, plus shoes, which will transport you seamlessly from daytime to evening wear?

What? You didn’t know? You haven’t seen the ads?

Well, neither have I–because they are not viewable. They are only implied. By baggage fees.

It’s 11 at night, and I’m 90 minutes from home on one of those airlines. I was supposed to be home 20 minutes ago. But, hey, when a computer system freezes, I’d rather sit in my seat with no food or water or lavatory than be stranded in a pitch black Caribbean Sea in my orange life vest.

But I digress—I’m traveling on an airplane that now charges not only for checked baggage but also for carry-ons.  I’d not heard of this additional way of squeezing fun out of a traveler’s wardrobe until this fling. And this airline, and all others charging the same, need not worry about hearing from me again.

However, if there is no alternative, I’ve had mucho extra minutes this evening to contemplate a solution.  Since I can still take one “personal item” on the plane free—you know the kind you can completely stow away under the seat in front of you, I will buy a travel wear set and pack it in my backpack from my never-ending student days.

And this is how I will arrange things.

Alongside the rear wall of the larger compartment, I will place a loose, slightly flattened roll composed of the four pieces of travel wear, a flat package of disposable undies, and one each of the following: fabric purse and nightgown and bathing suit and cover-up and collapsible wide-brimmed straw hat.

In front of this roll, I will place a transparent one-gallon zipped bag of 3-ounce bottles and tubes, necessities for globetrotting beauty.

In the smaller compartment in the front of the backpack, I will place one paperback, two magazines, and a flat stack of cash and necessary cards–driver’s license and credit and health insurance and public transit. And a fat stack of business cards for Caring Lessons.  Prorities.

In one of the two front zippered slits will go two pens for use in a midnight attack of inspiration to write a travel piece such as this (written on a newspaper airline ad—it has the most white space), while my fellow passengers shield their eyes from my light and snore.

The other slit will hold lipstick and floss and house keys.

As my head fills with a bulging image of my backpack, I’m thinking that for the cost of my baggage fees on this flight alone, I can buy at least 25% of the four-piece travel wear ensemble. Four trips and I’ll have it paid for.

And now, just as I’m thinking I have this baggage fee problem solved, I’m remembering my baby-blue Crocs I wear to the beach. NO way will they fit in my backpack. I suppose I could wear them. But, if I string them together with a shoestring, string the shoestring across the crown of my head, do you think my favorite baby-blue bouncy shoes could pass for earrings?

Bulky, I know. But, could they?

Grace…

Marv and I have had an unexpected detour in our lives. So I ask you, what would you call it if:

1. your husband is scheduled for an elective surgery that he could have chosen not to get and, during the pre-op work-up, something suspicious shows up on the test results that requires follow-up?

2. your husband calls and asks you to come along to a doctor appointment at a certain time and you happen to be free only at that time?

3. the situation in number 2 happens a second time?

4. the situation in number 2 and 3 happens a third time, only this time it’s with a different doctor?

5. you feel desperate and you call a friend who never has her cell phone with her, and even if she has it with her, it is not turned on, and you call and she answers?

6. you suddenly need to take a plane flight that would cost $750, and you remember that you just “happened” to have earned enough “miles” by applying for a new credit card that you can use now for scheduling that needed flight?

7. on the day of the newly needed surgery, three friends looking all over for you in a large hospital just “happen” to run into you in a corridor the thirty seconds you “happen” to be at that exact spot?

8. on the day of and on the day following the surgery, an out-of-town sister who is usually booked with necessary obligations, just “happens” to be free to come and sit with you?

9. seven hours after surgery, the surgeon, who has already talked to you once, giving you good news, “happens” to come by again to reassure you, when you “happened” to decide not to leave a waiting area to go for dinner even though you’d been told you could leave for an hour?

10. a stranger you met a week before in a strange city describes to you the exact unlikely good outcome in a similar situation that you’ve now had with your husband?

What would you call it?

I call it GRACE. God’s grace.

And I’m so thankful. And I thank all those people praying for and wishing Marv and me well in these past few days.

We no longer have to discuss the possibility of chemo. Radiation. DNRs.

And Marv is telling me to get back to my work. No more fussing about him. No more loafing around…

The Chicago Manual of Style (16th Edition)- Debut

For $65 you can now buy the newest edition of The Chicago Manual of Style. Maybe you’ve never heard of it, but maybe you also have communed with it for hours trying to figure out the “correct” use of commas, quotation marks, capitalizations, etc.

In college and in grad school, I used APA format (Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association) for writing my papers, a thesis, and a dissertation. But embarking on writing creative nonfiction, I had to become acquainted with what the Chicago Tribune yesterday headlined the “nit-picker’s bible.” Luckily, a writing friend loaned me her copy. I spent hours hunting up the nitty-gritty of punctuation. And then if the book gave two possible ways to do things, I’d get exasperated.

And then I got a series of editors from my publisher–Deep River Books. On my. What a joy and relief, if not work, to get every word and paragraph into proper style. But now there was a knowledgeable expert on the other end of email to walk along with me in the process.

I cannot say enough good about having a content editor, a copy editor, and a senior editor in charge. If not for them, my measly editing work would have turned out hundreds of errors that my eye missed over years of proofing. Yes, you read that right. Years. But I wonder how many more years my editors have slaved over this editing guide that the Trib says is so familiar that it’s simply called “Chicago.”

A Two Day Visit to Chicago

Before I moved downtown, I remember racking my brains to figure out what to do when we had out-of-town guests. Taking them downtown was our usual entertainment because there was little to do in our suburb.

Not true, now. One of my sisters is coming tomorrow for her annual visit, and I always try to plan something we’ve not done before. I’ve started to make a list:

Art Institute – lecture and tour
Grant Park Music Festival in Millennium Park
Million Dollar Quartet at Apollo Theater
Concert at Fourth Presbyterian Church
Gene Siskel Film Center
Tony Tasset’s new Eye sculpture on south State Street
Yolk and Original Pancake House for breakfast

So, I’ll see what we manage to do in her short visit here. I do believe we have the most beautiful city to show off. And it’s so easy to get around.

My husband has promised to leave us alone. And our walking shoes are ready… Oh, and did I mention shopping?

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.

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.

Nurse Turned Blogger

So today I have learned, all by myself, how to add “child” pages under a “parent” page on this blog. Note my spiffy work by clicking “Excerpts” on the header. This “learning” only took two hours. I say this to encourage any illiterates like me that learning is possible. Plus, if the WordPress help menus and forums fail to inform, the “Happiness Team” is always there to help.

As I read more (and more) “child” and “parent” instructions, my mind skittered back to when I taught Eric Berne’s Transactional Analysis theory of communication. About how we communicate from three ego states: parent, adult, and child. The parent in us can be “critical” or “nurturing.” The child can be “natural” or “adapted.” The adult mediates, or is the rational problem solver of, the activities of the parent and child.

We all know (or have been) the “critical” parent, the parent who is bossy and punitive. The parent who says, “You should…,” or “How many times have I told you…?”

The same with the “adapted” child–the child who had to learn to get along with parents, so became somewhere between compliant (too sweet) and rebellious (too defiant). And carried these patterns into adulthood.

So, my goal has always been to try to talk from my adult self to the adult part of the person with whom I’m talking. As soon as my critical parent jumps in or my adapted child, I can safely know I’m headed for trouble! (My kids can vouch for this.)

All of this parent/adult/child theory leaped back from my past today only because I’m learning how to blog! And I’d like my former nursing students to know that the theories they learned may surface at the most unexpected and delightful times.

Sprung from the Bed

If you’ve stopped in before, you’ll notice that I’m revamping this site. I feel “free” again after three days in bed with the flu. I mean being down and out. Cold. So with a new spurt of energy, I’m clicking on everything in WordPress and trying on new looks. I’m sure there’s more to come. My husband was surprised I’d not changed the “theme” earlier. I like adventure!

By the way, my friend Marianna told me there was in informative article in the New York Times on Sunday about self-publishing. The stigma is down. Publishing is open to more people than ever. So don’t give up on writing down your thoughts to your kids, grandkids, friends, students, parishioners… (Remember, though, to always have a professional editor help you get your ramblings up to snuff.)

Yippee!

Got my final draft of Caring Lessons in to my publisher this afternoon! It will soon be on its way to layout.

Now I can diddle some more setting up this site. Notice that I changed my TAG CLOUD to CATEGORIES with the number of entries after them. Nifty! A slow, big learning curve. I’ve looked at others’ new sites and they seem to have them up and operational with all the gadgets and widgets right away. They must be lots younger…

And I couldn’t have gotten this far without my ever-ready blog mentor, Helen Gallagher at releaseyourwriting.com. Check out the various ways that she can help you as a writer.

Again, all this fun because I decided to write my nursing memoir.