Yesterday I had the BEST surprise in the form of an impromptu coffee meeting with two dear friends I haven't seen in ages. Karen Crane, who's a star of the Harlequin American line and also writes under the name of Karen Toller Whittenburg was a mentor to me before I'd sold to Harlequin. One of the books she helped me with was Santa Baby. The early drafts we played with never made it into the final version, but she helped me a lot with tightening and learning to not being afraid to cut my work. Amy Lillard was also in attendance. She's sold confessions and a wonderful book to a small press that sadly went out of business before her story went to the printer. She's a fighter, though, and I expect to see great things from her soon!!
Rounding out the fun, Thursday night was our bi-monthly critique meeting. I haven't seen the gang in ages, so it was awesome getting together with them, too!!
Today I'm thinking will be crazy busy. Due to our leaving town at seven tomorrow morning, and not coming back till late, I'm taking Granny Sylv to her home away from home. It's a rest home, but set up in a private house. It's a pretty cool alternative to some of the depressing retirement homes we've seen. Getting her out of the house is a MAJOR ordeal. In the past, we've just split up (Hubby and I) rather than move her, but caregiving is taking a toll on the whole family, and we think it's worth the effort to try getting back into somewhat of our normal family routine.
When I read the stats on how the folks caring for Alzheimer's patients are actually worse off the patients, I'd have to agree. It's a horrible disease I wish they'd hurry up and find a cure for. In the mean time, Hubby and I are consciously trying to make the best of this tough situation.
On a lighter note, Daughter's cheering at a big game tonight, so that'll be fun!! So far, our poor team hasn't won a regular season game, but I'm thinking (praying
In other fun news, HOW AWESOME WAS SAWYER AND KATE'S KISS ON LOST???!!! Whew!!!! Daughter and I have been watching it over and over on AOL's TV Pick of the Day. Love, love, LOVE that show!!!
5 comments:
I'm glad things aren't so crazy now!
I worked in two different retirement homes. One was government run and one was privately run. I found the government run one was a lot nicer and took care of the residents a lot better than the private one. It looked like the privately owned one was more about making money. In the 10 years I worked at the government one I heard about 1 case of elderly abuse where a nurse was undressing a resident and was taking off the residents blouse without undoing the buttons at the wrists.
Dream!!! Hey, sweetie!!!! Wondering how to put up my IKEA circular cork boards the other day, I was thinking about you. How've you been?
Christa--you're retirement home stories are heartbreaking. Daughter and I toured six homes before choosing this one. What we liked about this one is that is smells nice and clean--like a regular house instead of a retirement home.
The few large facilities we toured gave us the heebies. They were clean enough and all, just depressing and smelled strongly of antiseptic.
Sad, sad, sad.
Know anything happy??
*Your* LOL!! have I mentioned it's been a looong day?? LOL!!
I liked the fact that there were all of these activities available to the residents in the government one. They had an indoor swimming pool, a bowling alley, a craft room, a church, a store, we had a rec room with a large screen tv and they had movies scheduled etc. We had a large Christmas craft sale where people could come and buy craft that the residents made. Baby booties, sweaters and hat sets always sold the best. There was also a hall attached to it and rented out for fundraisers and weddings. Once a month we would have a birthday party and all the residents who had a birthday that month sat at the head table and got a special piece of cake. Special pieces of cake were also ordered for diebetic residents. We had one resident that liked to have 3 or 4 beers in the afternoon but there came a time when his doctor said he shouldn't have beer so we were giving him non alcoholic.
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