I donated blood at a blood drive at my church today, and it went much better than my Halloween attempt. The guy doing the needle insertion popped it right into my vein, and I pumped out a pint in 5 minutes. As I was pumping blood, I heard the phlebotomist tell another guy, “Great start to the day — hard stick, got it on the first try.” I hit my 2-gallon mark today for Puget Sound Blood Center. I think if there hadn’t been so many botched needle insertions in my past, I’d be on about 4 gallons by now. Ah well. Let’s hope it goes this smoothly again next time.
This Halloween, I tried to treat Puget Sound Blood Center to a pint of clean, pure O- blood, but the phlebotomist played a mean trick and didn’t get the needle in my vein right, so my blood stopped flowing midway through my donation. The same guy has messed up the needle insertion before, so he’s one vampire who won’t get another chance to drain my blood. Boo!
I’ve been thinking about doing this post for a long time, and I really don’t know why I’ve been putting it off. The past several months have been really hard for me — I think I’ve cried more since March than I did my entire life up until then. But I’ve also had a chance to reflect on how blessed I am, and so, in no particular order, here are a few of the things I’m thankful for: Continue reading ‘Blessings’
As many of you know, my sister Celia passed away May 16 from complications related to Acute Promyelotic Leukemia (M3). During her short stay in the hospital, Celia received numerous transfusions of blood products. In Celia’s memory and in gratitude to the people who gave blood that was used in her treatment, my sister Maria has organized a blood drive in Joseph City, Arizona, on Aug. 10. If you can make it to the blood drive, sign up at www.BloodHero.com. We are planning on organizing blood drives in other cities as well, and information will be posted on CeliasCircle.org and on the Celia’s Circle Facebook group.
My family has a goal of having 500 blood donations made in Celia’s memory in 2009, so even if you can’t make it to one of the memorial blood drives, please donate at a blood center or blood drive near you and e-mail info@celiascircle.org to let us know about it. I’m planning on donating three pints this year, so that leaves just 497 to go. Let’s make it happen!
I’ve had a couple of camping trips this summer, although neither was what I would call “real” camping. No tents were involved. My mom was the Girls Camp music director this year, and she recruited me to play the guitar for singing around the campfire. I have to admit, it was a lot more fun than I thought it would be — mostly because the stake leaders were a fun bunch. I made some new friendships and strengthened some old ones.
This past weekend my mom had her annual Cousins Camp for the grandkids deemed old enough to participate (and an old maid aunt). This year we went to Virden, New Mexico, to help clean up my grandparents’ place for them. We got a bit of work done, and we had time for lots of fun, too. We had a weenie roast, rode the John Deere lawn mower, climbed trees, swung in the hammock, shot off fireworks (spooking the neighbor’s horse), and lots of other stuff. On Friday, the older kids hiked to the peak of Caneaster to check out the petroglyphs while the younger kids made treats with Grandma Payne. Basically, we had a good ol’ time in the country. I’m thankful my mom felt well enough to enjoy it all.
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My mom and I have been practicing a patriotic piano duet to play in church tomorrow. Here’s a preview.
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My dad is terrific, but he hasn’t been very supportive of the plans my mom and I have to grow vegetables in the flower box on the south side of our house. I suspect it may be because he doesn’t want to eat any of the vegetables that the flower box may produce. Anyway, it hasn’t concerned him much that the chipmunks and cottontails have been stripping our baby plants of all their leaves. So while he was at Scout camp this week, I purloined his circular saw, a staple gun, some wire mesh and scrap lumber and got to work. I never took wood shop in high school, so the end result was no masterpiece, but it has kept our little plants from being denuded so far.
It was too late for the first tub; we'll have to replant
My older sister Celia died last Saturday after a short but intense fight with leukemia. She was diagnosed with the disease a week and a half earlier. Because the type of leukemia she had was supposed to be very treatable, my family was optimistic that our sister would pull through. However, Celia’s body didn’t respond well to the chemo that the doctors started her on, and her organs began to shut down a couple of days after she began treatment. After a bad reaction to dialysis, Celia developed a brain aneurysm and never woke up after that. I’ll miss her more than I can ever hope to express.
Those of you who knew Celia know what an amazing person she was. Those of you who didn’t know her, I wish you could have. She was smart, funny, kind — everything a big sister should be. She encouraged my love of reading even before I could tell an A from a Q. We had a deal that I could get in bed with her at night and she would read to me if I let her put her cold feet on my legs to warm them up — I still think I got the better end of that bargain. She always made up original games for me and my brothers and sisters to play, and she came up with the best characters for playing make-believe; Old Dame Dob and Gretchen von Klutz were two of my favorites. Unfortunately, neither of those characters ever made it into any of the numerous family plays she wrote and directed. The audience (Mom, Dad, grandparents) always seemed to love those plays, even though the acting was far from Tony-worthy.
As we grew older, I loved spending hours talking to her. Often when I’d visit her, we’d stay up talking and laughing (she was always laughing — one thing I loved about her) until 2 or 3 in the morning. Then she’d get up at 6 the next day to make sure her kids had everything they needed to make it to school prepared and on time. And she was always cheerful doing it. She was one of my best examples of love, compassion and selflessness in life, and I’m eternally grateful for the time I’ve spent with her.
Update: Here’s a slideshow from Celia’s funeral.
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My mom has been teaching music at Joseph City Elementary for almost as long as she’s been a teacher there. Her music students have three performances a year, and the community loves them. Two and a half weeks ago, my mom had her last concert as a full-time teacher because she is retiring at the end of this school year. One of her dreams has always been that her own children would be like the Von Trapp family and sing together, so for her last concert, all of my siblings surprised her with a performance of “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” from “The Sound of Music.” My mom loved it — and we didn’t even have to flee the Nazis afterward.
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I haven’t seen Sesame Street in decades, but I spent last night with two of my nieces, and they watch the Street every morning. I looked up from a NYT blog post about Terry Eagleton’s new book to see Rachael Ray cavorting with a muppet tomato. Why? I have nothing against the woman (unless you count my disdain for people who name magazines after themselves and put their own face on the cover of every issue), but does she really have to be that ubiquitous?
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