this has been my final week before i start work on monday. as i kinda knew would happen, i did not get a whole lot accomplished around the house. but that's ok. it will always wait for me. LOL. i did manage to do some fun and productive things though. on tuesday bob and i went to the milwaukee public museum to see the Gunther von Hagens' BODY WORLDS 1: The Original Exhibition of Real Human Bodies exhibit. http://www.mpm.edu/bodyworlds/. we both found this extremely fascinating. this is a process where people have donated their bodies specifically to the Body Worlds. through the process of plastination, fluid and fat are removed from the body and replaced with a synthetic polymer, or plastic to preserve the body forever. the amount of nerves and blood vessels in one's body is mind boggling, especially when you realize how exact a surgeon has to be when performing surgery. my favorite exhibit had to be the 8 month pregnant woman who knew she was going to die and donated her body with the fetus intact to the exhibit. bob probably found all the blood vessels his favorite. my biggest disappointment was that they did not have a brain with Alzheimer's on display. i have seen pictures of one on the internet but would have liked to have seen the real thing. they did show a brain that had suffered a stroke. i don't know if any of the other 3 exhibits traveling around the country have one on display or not. if you have not seen this and have the opportunity to visit one in your area i highly recommend it.
wednesday i had lunch with russ' home hospice nurse, janine. it was great to see her and catch up with her and her family. i had not seen her in many months but still think of her often and the wonderful care she gave to russ and the great support she was to me.
thursday morning i treated myself to a pedicure. or i should say the boys did. they had given me a gift certificate for one for Christmas and i hadn't used it yet with all the bitter cold weather so took advantage of it since we reached almost 50 on thursday. later that morning i had a nice talk with lynne, one of the in-patient hospice nurses and the first one who came to my house and did continuous care for russ at the end. it is always good to talk to lynne.
in the afternoon my sister and i went for a grief thing put on by the hospice russ used. i purposely call it a grief "thing" as i had a whole different perception of what it would be. somehow i was under the impression from the mailing that is would be a workshop or support meeting. well, it actually was like a church service, held in a nursing home's chapel. it was very nice and i was able to see another of the in-patient nurses, marlene. the thing though, and i know it will sound stupid, is i felt like i was under dressed. growing up my mom had a thing about never going to church unless she had a dress or skirt on. she instilled it in me as well, and now i do it more so to honor her memory than for any other reason. even though i had a nice top on and my jeans were my nicer pair, i kept obsessing the entire time about what i had on. i know i missed out of the majority of the service because of it. during one part of the service we went up to the front to light a candle for our LO. when sue and i sat back down, our candle went out. we tried to re light it 3-4 times from the person sitting next to us but it kept going out. all i could think of was how my mom was just shaking her head at me and blowing the candle out over what i was wearing. LOL. there were many others there with jeans on who i know didn't give me a second thought but it is just a personal thing.
yesterday, bob and i drove to madison to pick mark up for his spring break. he will leave monday with a high school friend to fly to arizona to relax and enjoy the weather at his friend's grandparents house. i have about 1/2 of his laundry done already. i know i spoil both my boys but i don't mind. i think matt might drive home tomorrow to see mark before he leaves. i anticipate a very low keyed and relaxing rest of the weekend. just what the doctor ordered before i start work on monday.
7 comments:
Well I'm glad you have been doing things you enjoy before going back to work. I can sure tell you are a nurse though because I don't think there is anyway you would catch me going to that body parts exhibit. LOL.
That's cute about your mom blowing out your candle. I only wear jeans to church and am sure my mom is just glad I'm there no matter what I wear.
Good luck on the new job sweetie. I can't wait for the report on how it goes.
I love your idea of your Mom blowing out the candle. The indignity of it all!
Break a leg at your new job! (Not literally, of course.)
BODYWORKS? OMG They had a "field trip" to Bodyworks in my major because its Biomedical photography. I really wanted to go but i could not, all my classmates really liked it. it sounds really amazing, and i wish i could have gone! Not many people would enjoy that type of thing (only dorks like us!!!) :D YAY!!!! haha
Oh i looked it up, the one my classmates went to was called "our body" but it says its based on the process of plastination developed by Dr. Hunther von Hagens like the one you went to. It seems like its an off shoot of the one you saw. Is pretty cool!!! I am looking at the photos my classmates took now. Anyway I am glad we found out we have this in common. *hugs*
Glad to see you getting some fun things in before returning to the working stiffs world. I've put in so many hours lately that by the weekend, I just want to sleep.
The Bodies exhibit was here in Pittsburgh but I skipped it. Glad you enjoyed it.
Good luck tomorrow, Nancy. I'll be thinking about you!
Checked out the BodyWorks site. Absolutely amazing. I was hoping an exhibit would be scheduled for Houston but not so far. I'll keep checking that out. Thanks for the info.
I, too, keep in touch with Mother's nurses from Hospice. The three of us go to lunch about every 2 months. I'm fairly close to a number of other Hospice staff but not as close as I am to Dinah and Emily.
Your Mom blows out the candle and my Mom rings the chimes. Boy, do they keep an eye on us!!!
Take care, my friend,
My love, thoughts and prayers to you,
Joyce
Hi Nancy, I hope that your first day of work went well. I'm glad that you were able to spend some time doing some fun things. Body Worlds was in Minnesota last year. I never did make it to see the exhibit. It sort of creeped me out. Several friends did go and say they enjoyed it.
I missed this post. The bodyworks exhibit was here, too, and we talked about going. But honestly I didn't really want to see it. Just something about the fact that it used real bodies that bothered me. But everyone that's seen it has said it just makes them more amazed at the body.
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