Rick's Journal

Monique had been down in Frederick, MD all week last week, so rather than drive down, I took a train and she met me in Baltimore.  From there we went down to the Fairfax, VA area to spend the weekend with family.

Train is a pretty cool way to travel.  I like it.  Roomy seats.  Refreshment car.  On-board internet.  I was able to catch up on all the PEL reading from 7V (what peopel had turned in to that point anyway) and I even got a lot of my own PEL written, which I still turned in incomplete, but I'll add to it  :-(

We stayed one night with each of Monique's two sisters.  We did manage to sneak in a hastily planned last minute lunch with Kiera and Steve and a game of Ticket to Ride at their place.  I wish we could have done more and spent time with more people, but this was very much snuck into the middle of a busy family schedule.  The rest of the weekend was spent mostly talking.

We picked up Elijah in DE last night on our way home.  He'll be staying with us for a week.  This of course put us a fair amount out of our way and we didn't get home until far too late last night.

So, back to work.  Short week.  Monique and I are taking Friday off to go to St. Louis for the annual Halloween convention.  Good times and something to look forward to all week.  :-)

Ok, I'm adding in cuts because this ended up being a lot longer than I anticipated.

( Much needed (and appreciated) friends time )
( 7V staff lunch )
( Mixed bag of family stuff mixed with an unhealthy dose of cleaning )
And finally, to all my friends who are Packer fans, congratulations on your team's fine victory last night in the Super Bowl.

Look at that, a post, and only a week and a half since the last one. 

( Long ramblings beneath the cut to save friends' pages )

Monique just called.  Her father passed away this morning.  That's all for now.  :'-(

The doctors think it's probable Bob won't make it to the weekend.  We're leaving after work tomorrow night and flying to FL to say goodbye.  What an awful thought.  Things are not good with the family.  In fact, I've broken up several times today myself.  Bob was an awesome husband, father, grandfather and father-in-law.

Anyway, I should be back either Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning.  I am so not looking forward to this, but I wouldn't miss the opportunity to see him again.  The bright side is that his wife says he's taking it really well and is in good spirits and is joking about how he's going to be coming home (in a box).   Yeah.

Thanks to everyone for the well wishes.  It really helps to know you're all out there and sending along good thoughts.

Hmmm... somehow missed that whole NY update.  I wonder how that happened.  I guess I should throw a quick one in here for posterity.

( New Year's weekend )
( Broadway trip )

Somewhere along the line, I forgot to be quick.

My mother-in-law was admitted to ICU as I mentioned earlier.  Last report to me, her blood pressure was down to 84 over 60.  She was however awake and in good spirits.  I have since found out that she had a gall bladder issue about a year ago and chose to ignore it.  They believe it is what's causing her issues right now.  They are running tests and will in all likelihood end up taking it out.

Nothing new to report other than that at this time.  It's still a question of waiting.  I'm taking it as "no news is good news".

Thanks everyone for the well wishes.  They're much appreciated.  I love my friends.  :-)

Edit: Oops, I was talking to someone else about their pancreas earlier right before I wrote this and I had pancreas on the brain.  It is her gall bladder that's the potential problem.  They will now be awaiting the elimination of the infection before doing the surgery, so she will likely be in the hospital for days.

Monique and I both took Friday off to go to NH.  My Aunt Margaret, my mother's oldest remaining sister, was given a week to a week and a half to live, kind of suddenly.  She asked that all of the family on my mother's side be asked to see her before she died. 

In addition, my father-in-law, also in NH, was diagnosed with lung cancer on Wednesday.  Let's just say that there was much emotional not-so-goodness going on on both Monique's side and mine, so we spent the whole weekend up there with family members, splitting our time up to give as much emotional support as possible.

By the time we got up there, my aunt had already slipped to the point that she was never conscious again.  While we did get to see her alive, we did not get to speak to her.  I wish we had left one day earlier.  Oh well.

Monique's dad was in moderately good spirits all things considered.  We spent all day Saturday playing cards with my in-laws.  I'm glad we went.  He goes in for more testing this week to find out what stage the cancer is at.  Cross your fingers, send prayers and well wishes.  He's one of the best people on the planet and he deserves all the best.

My dad was in a pretty bad way today.  I couldn't even rouse him.  They checked his oxygen and other things.  He apparently just had a really rough night and was too tired to wake up.  Randy and I are talking about ways to improve his quality of life at this point because it doesn't look like his quantity of life is going to get any better, regardless of what is done now.

We rushed back to CT because I had a flute choir rehearsal tonight.  We had another new member tonight.  She's a good, middle of the road player.  It was a decent rehearsal.

Sadly, the Patriots lost to the Jets today.  :-(

It's been over a week since I posted.  You'd think I'd post more during a vacation or at least on coming back, but life had other plans for me.  Between sickness, family Thanksgiving and no internet connectivity in the condo units, It just wasn't to be.  Once Monique's family started coming in Tuesday night, that ended forays up to the main building to connect.  Monique frowns on such anti-social behavior so I decided to skip adding to the drama of a family gathering by even making the attempt.

We spent Thanksgiving in Williamsburg, VA.  We have a timeshare down there and we used some of our banked swap time to pick up more units so that each family could have their own place to stay for the 3 1/2 days were together.  Unfortunately, ours was the master hang-out unit, so there really was no escape from the mob.  In the long run, it wasn't too bad because letting everyone else escape kept the stress relatively low.  There were a few moments, but not nearly as many as I anticipated and I actually had some very cool conversations with my niece Melanie.  She's always been very quiet and non-communicative.  I think college has done her a lot of good.

I found this brochure for a Crystal Concert in historic Williamsburg and talked people into going to see it.  It was only $10 a person and most everyone wanted to see the historic part of Williamsburg anyway, so it worked out.  This was really cool.  It was a program by a guy who plays the crystal armonica, crystal handbells, a glass violin and this french instrument that's made of glass that looks like a xylophone called a baschet.  Everyone in the family loved it, so I was pleased that I managed to pull off a successful family activity.  If you want to see some of these amazing instruments, check out http://www.crystalconcert.com/photo_gallery.htm

The drive home Saturday was pretty brutal.  It took us 11 hours.  I did all the driving so Monique could keep an eye on Elijah.  We took him on the ride home so Amy and Chris could get ahead.  They were going all the way up to NH for the Sunday football game.  Unfortunately, even though they had an hour head start on us, because of traffic and alternate routes and us meeting up with them in NJ (we caught up), we ended up getting home before them.

And to make matters worse, both Monique and I caught colds while on vacation, so that added to the general stress and fatigue.  I actually ended up being quite sick Sunday, Monday and Tuesday to the point that I've missed two days work this week.  So I guess I'd better get to it because being out for a week and a half isn't going to make the rest of this week any easier.