Days 5, 6 & 7

Exercise: day 5 was rugby practice, 6 was spin class and 7 was the gruesome rugby game

Went to the LDS general women's meeting tonight.  Seriously moving experience 

Day 2 & 3 & 4

So I've been thinking as of late.  Entirely too much thinking honestly.

day 2 was YOGA, day 3 was spinning with Krysta, and day 4 was a walk.

Day One

I don't even know how to start with this.  Well, best to start from this morning.  George, a dear military friend of mine, said his good-byes after visiting for the week, and as I reached over to the phone to check the time, I saw a letter from my friend David.  I really hate the term "ex-boyfriend" because it just sounds so harsh, but I have yet to learn of another way to describe someone you loved so deeply at one point, and yet no longer have that life with anymore.  Of course I still have feelings of love of him, I think everyone always has a bit of love in their hearts for those who have influenced them in an intimate and meaningful way.  But, it's different now.  I now get it when I learned in my humanities classes the different forms of Greek love... Agape, Eros, Philia.  For, what I now feel for David is a friendship type of love.

So, the email was a bit of a surprise, since I hadn't heard from him for many o' months.  Honestly, while George was up here he mentioned that he hadn't seen David for a long while at the branch, so that was a bit concerning for me, especially since working in the ED for so many years, you can't help but think of worst case scenarios.

So I looked at the phone to read the subject line, "You should probably sit down before reading this."  I had seen that similar expression before with a few of my girlfriends, to which they followed with "I'm getting married!"  So naturally, I thought this was David emailing to say he'd got engaged.

Nope.

Quite the opposite, actually.  He's been diagnosed with a form of leukemia and will return home from Korea this week (as he is currently deployed there) to receive chemotherapy and additional treatments.  Don't know the prognosis yet.  We chatted via Gmail later in the day, and it was so hard to keep the conversation light; I tried my hardest not to bombard with a gazillion questions, but really, I have a habit of getting directly to the point.  I knew that that's what he was trying to do, to keep it light, but it was a bit of a struggle to kid around and still process the news.

I'm trying to find the points of gratitude in all this, and honestly it's a bit of a struggle.  But I am grateful to see he is still alive and did not die while combat.  I'm grateful he is coming back to the US to Walter Reed, and will be much closer to his parents.  I'm grateful that I have friends at the U that hopefully will be able to tell me more so that I can pass that information along to him.  And I'm grateful for the strength that can be found beyond ourselves during times of devastating crisis.

And those are my gratitudes for the day.  Day One.

I think a good walk is in order at this moment.

12

I'm grateful for:
Charity making an excellent dinner
teaching Brownies about a bit of medicine
the can of unicorn meat that one of my nurses gave to my device tech

Exercise: stairs during lunch

11

As you all know, I've been recovering from a bit of a cold.  So today while walking out of work I was happily strolling to the bus when a mad coughing spell hit.  It was so bad that with the last cough I may or may not have expelled air from multiple locations from my being.  And of course, OF COURSE, I was surrounded by people all heading to the same place.  And in these cases, these oh so joyous moments of life, there is nothing else to do but to deny, deny, deny.  So I immediately looked around me with that "who the hell had the audacity to fart in public" kind of look, furrowed brow and all.  You and I both know they didn't buy it, but at least I'm grateful it didn't happen while in an enclosed space. like the bus (give it time, friends.  It's bound to happen).

I'm grateful that I've learned how to laugh through the passing of... time.
2. Also grateful for Somer being so concerned about me last night after my phone died during our conversation that she started to drive up to check on me to make sure I hadn't been eaten by sharks.  True friendship.
3. Last, but not least, I'm grateful for the confidence I built in my Zumba classes while in Killeen.  Tonight I tried my hand at a u-jam class, and at the end the teacher was kind enough to say that I rocked it.  So thank you dear fierce Killeen instructor who taught me well

Exercise: u-jam dance class (hip hop)

10

I'm grateful for:
1. Tracking two days in a row on My Fitness Pal! Veeeery small victory, but I'm realizing that in order to achieve these goals of mine, I need accountability.  And a biking partner/work-out friend.  I think I may have found said biking partner in the boyfriend (shocking, I know.  I'm actually using the "b" word).  But!  He lives in a land far away, and I am in need of weekday work-out friend.  Now accepting applications.  ;)
2.  Being able to help in clinic today.  They were miserably swamped down there when I came down in the afternoon to check on a patient of mine, and though I only helped manage 2 patients (one didn't even need to see us really), they were so happy to have the help
3. My two attendings, Dr A. and Dr. H.  I'm realizing I'm very lucky with the two of them, because boy it can be waaaay worse

Exercise: spinning class at the gym (it's literally called "the gym")

9

I'm grateful for:

1.  The band "The Strike"

2.  The echo tech Tracey spending a bit of time explaining various cardiac US views

3.  The app My Fitness Pal.  Day one complete.

Exercise: Dancing

8

I'm grateful for:
1.  My dearest Philly friends Kristina and Angie.  I had dinner tonight with their families (Kristina and her husband and two kids were visiting her father as he is slowly dying of dementia.  Heart wrenching, really.  But she is a woman of great faith.  And Angie is 37 weeks pregnant, with a girl!! How happy I am for the two of them
2.  My two home teachers, Josh and Mikey, sitting next to me during sacrament.  Actually I was sandwiched between them, and throughout the service Mikey and I wrote back and forth about things that we were grateful for.
3. The Sunday school lesson today.  It was about Abraham and Isaac, and it helped me better understand the Atonement and our Father.  Good stuff.

Exercise: organizing the house

6 & 7

I promise!  I did day six.  In my head.

My father tells me when I was a little girl I used to answer questions the same way.  Example:

Dad: Jackie, did you have a good day today?
Me:
Dad: Jackie?
Me:
Dad: Jackie.
Me: Yep?
Dad: Did you just hear me ask you a question?
Me: Of course I did dad.
Dad: But you didn't answer...
Me: Yeeeeeah, I did.
Dad:  No... no you didn't.
Me: Yes, I did.
Dad: Nope.
Me: Yep.
Dad: I didn't hear anything.
Me: Well, that's because it was in my head.
Dad:
Me: I agree with you there.
Dad:
Me: Well said, dad.

Obviously a highly communicative family.

So.  I'm grateful for:
1&2. Jason making the drive to Park City to spend a bit o' quality time with me, & for making it home safely in the dark and snow
3&4.  Having a lovely chat with my new friend Nikki, the art gallery gal in Park City, & listening to the struggles and successes of a group of gals at the after conference party
5&6. Pulling off the side of the road to look up the location of the nearest Wal-Mart to discover I literally pulled on the street that landed me directly in front of one, & for the Wal-Mart being clean and well stocked

Exercise: 3 mile walk around Park City Yesterday, and a 5k on the elliptical AND calisthenics before the start of conference