So I get this weird call last Tuesday at my mother’s house. The caller left a message on the answering machine. My mother called me and played the message over the phone (I was in Chicago). It was a man with a strange voice that at the time did not seem familiar. The guy was asking for me, calling me “Kris”. That in itself roused my suspicions; as no one besides my family (and very close friends) ever call me that. He then asked me to call him back and said his name was “John Wayne”. Of course he left no phone number.

You see, about two weeks ago we got this strange call from the local county jail; someone calling us collect. My mother did not reverse the charges. After calling my brother Tony and my sister Holly, we deduced that it was someone we didn’t know. I guess that there is this scam that the prisoners try pull off; it requires them to call someone collect randomly and have the unsuspecting person on the other end to reverse the charges. I’m not quite sure why they do this and exactly what scam is…but WHATEVER…

Back to the other call I got…So this afternoon I listened to the message. At first the man sounded fairly bizarre, but oddly familiar. So I listened again. I think it was the way the man said “bye”… I occurred to me who it may be. The culprit was MUSTAFA. He has a new cell phone and I guess he was taking it out for spin. I think that he wanted to see how the sound of his voice channels itself through the air and across the Atlantic Ocean. This whole cellular thing is relatively new to Libya. He left another bizarre message on my brothers’ cell phone. My brother actually listened to his message (he never listens to his messages). He figured that it was Mustafa to begin with.

Anyway, the only reason why this is significant is because that I spent a whole week scratching my head, bewildered…thinking that I had some strange man calling me from prison, or some sleazy bill collector has come up with a new way of getting you to answer the phone.

Gee thanks Mustafa…

This is what my thanksgiving day looked like. I went to Chicago and I would like to think that it snowed just for me. I spent a whole week up there.

I arrived on Tuesday morning and spent the day with my aunt and uncle. My Aunt Marylou is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. She still can perform most activities of daily living, however needs someone who is patient to prompt her. My uncle happens to be one of the most impatient people I know, and he is headstrong. I don’t know what my family will do when she starts getting worse.

Later that evening my cousins Nancy and Nikki arrived from Texas. Nikki’s 20 years old so it was nice to be able to get have a non-geriatric person to be with. She’s a little bit of a thing, only 4’10 ½“ tall. She has a cheerleader like persona… Usually I find that annoying, but she’s OK.

Wednesday my cousins Sara and Annie had permission from her mother to leave school early, so we went to Kohl’s. For those of you who are lucky to have one close by you, you may not think that was all that exciting, but we don’t have Kohl’s here in Florida. It’s like a tourist attraction. We were only there a few minutes when Sara and Annie’s mother called to tell them to go home (there was a snow storm, and she freaked out). I still ended up buying two shirts. We spent the rest of the day watching TV. My cousin Nancy made a wonderful meatloaf meal.

Thanksgiving Day was beautiful. The sky was bright blue and was a fantastic backdrop for the snow. We had dinner at Cousin Loretta’s house. There were about 40 people all together. That was the biggest Thanksgiving I have ever been to.

Friday I went to downtown Chicago with my cousins Nancy, Nikki, Laura, Sara and Annie. We went to H&M, Marshall Fields (where we watched the official tree lighting in Daley Plaza), and then we went to The Christkindlmarket.

Saturday my Cousin Larry’s son Phillip was christened. Afterward they had some nice lunch, which I ate too much of. A few of us went to a local bar afterwards and had a few drinks.

Sunday was a quiet day. There was a local tree lighting which my Cousin Annie performed Christmas music with her high school band.

I finished my trip with a visit to “The Olympic Star Restaurant” this morning. I treated my Uncle Ed and my Aunt Marylou.

It was a great trip. I am glad that I was able to go. I mostly thankful to my family for having me.

Now back to the real world….

I saw a van today with “You may have nothing, but you still have (and in letters at least five feet high) JESUS!” painted on the side of it….I LOVE living in the south…It’s like a whole different world here.

My dog Mya has a UTI. I didn’t take her the vet that day, so I didn’t see exactly how they did the urine specimen. I can’t imagine them using a straight catheter…. It would be rather small. Not to mention she would probably freak out if you tried to put that thing in her. I can just see it now; the vet chasing my dog around with a specimen cup and a straight catheter. She is on antibiotics and is doing just fine now. She has gained seven pounds in the last year…and she isn’t a puppy, she is just a fatty!

So far my week is going ok. My clinical instructor informed us that we no longer will have to do a clinical prep for the rest of the semester…THANK GOD! This is my favorite time of the semester, when things are winding down, your Holistic Nursing Care Plan is done, and sanity is slowly returning. One more theory test, one more psych test, a final exam in both classes and then the semester is done. It seems like a lot, but really that’s not all that bad. Three semesters down (almost) and one to go!!!

Next week is Thanksgiving week. I convinced my theory instructor to allow me to take my quiz on Monday instead of Tuesday, so now I am considering leaving my laptop at home. I won’t need it while I am in Chicago. It’s quite pretentious anyway…

This weekend was rather uneventful….Which is what I planned for. The weather was great and I fit in a walk Monday afternoon. Not that there was a lot to fit in….

We have a new grocery store in town called Sweet Bay. It certainly isn’t Albertson’s. Wide isles, high warehouse like ceilings, a produce section that will make you salivate….and a 4’×7’ Middle Eastern food section. It’s not much, but that pretty progressive for this town.

Well I finally did it! I finally finished my “Holistic Nursing Care Plan”. We have one every semester, and it’s really entailed. Basically you pick a patient, and you do a case study on them. It requires that you go through the patient chart, research their disease process and evaluate what you would have done for the patient. We have most of the semester to accomplish this. It’s about thirty hours worth of work. Well you guessed it… I waited till two days before it was due to do mine. I make a promise to myself every semester that I will start and finish early. No promises next time. This semester’s done and I hope that my instructor won’t make me revise it.

This weekend I have absolutely NOTHING planned…. And I am very excited! I have my last three days left of vacation and so I took it this weekend. I did buy a book to read; “The Rule of Four” By Dustin Thomason and Ian Caldwell. I heard it was good… I hope so. I don’t have any tests or papers due next week. So I will just relax!

I found out today that I there will be no class the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, so I won’t have to worry about missing class that day. I have to take two tests that Monday and then Tuesday morning I will be on a plane. I will be in Chicago that Tuesday. I do have a quiz that afternoon with my online class, so hopefully one of my family members will have an internet connection. If not, I will just go to Panera Bread. They have free Wi-Fi there.

Blah…Blah…Blah… Here I am rambling on and on…

The weather was real pleasant today, but I didn’t get to enjoy it. I sat inside doing homework. The semester is almost done; I think that there is about 5 weeks left. I can’t wait for a break. I only had about 4 weeks off last break. It’s all starting to get to me. I have to choose my classes for next semester, this week. My current clinical instructor is teaching next semester. I don’t know if I want to take her again. She’s a “teach by intimidation” kind of teacher, and that teaching style stifles me. She’s has a way of talking to you in a condescending way, when there isn’t anything to be condescending about. But all my comrades are taking her again. We’ll see…

I am stunned by the election. I pray that we make it thru the next four years. I didn’t vote for Bush last time, and I was a registered Republican. There was something creepy about him. I think I voted for Harry Brown (Libertarian) in 2000. If I knew how close it was going to be, I would have voted for Gore. I live in Florida, so my vote may have counted…maybe.

I called my friend in Ohio; her whole house was for Kerry (Except for her husband). She was in Florida in 2000, and now Ohio. She told me that they had many big arguments, a near divorce. I have heard that story over and over.

I had a friend who voted for Bush because she’s against the whole embryonic stem cell research fiasco. That was her only reason for voting for him. I’m pro life too… But if the whole world turning into a hell hole, who cares about stem cell research? What about the people who voted for Bush because “My pastor told me to”? Why is he considered moral? He sent our country to a war that unjustified, he was known (while the governor of Texas) for the most executions then any other state (Pro-life?), and he’s a hypocrite. What are people thinking?

Women are like apples on trees. The best ones are at the top of the tree. Most men don’t want to reach for the good ones because they are afraid of falling and getting hurt. Instead, they just get the rotten apples from the ground that aren’t as good, but easy…. So the apples at the top think something is wrong with them, when in reality, they’re amazing!!! They just have to wait for the right man to come along, the one who’s brave enough to climb all the way to the top of the tree.

And remember… Men are like a fine wine. They start out as grapes, and it’s up to women to stomp the s**t out of them until they turn into something acceptable to have dinner with!!!