life is so very precious.

My drive home from work last night seemed tedious. People were in a hurry and no one was going anywhere fast. I was feeling annoyed at all the construction because my 15 minute drive took over 30 minutes. My energy level was also at negative 10 because Bill and I had a very productive and exhausting camping trip around Oregon for the last 4 days. I was in a hurry to get home after a long day in the office.

Less from a mile from my house, I was driving through a beautiful park in the neighboring area of Sellwood when I saw something out of place. There was a man laying on his face on the jogging path that runs parallel to highway 99. This man did not look right and I was puzzled because no one was stopping. I drove up over the curb(99 is VERY BUSY and a 50 mph road) and ran to check out the situation. As I approached, it was evident that this man was having a serious heart attack. I had my phone and started to call 911, while I was consoling him and telling him to stick with me. He muttered the words, "help me" before loosing consciousness. It seemed like an hour before others joined me, but it was probably only 10 or 15 seconds. We rolled the man over onto his back and his gasps for air were growing less frequent. His eyes rolled back into his head and he was foaming heavily at the mouth. The 911 operator then told me to start CPR. By this time, an EMT and a PA had stopped and started CPR, although it seemed hopeless. His pulse was gone, and he wasn't even close to breathing on his own. Finally the Fire engine arrived after probably 3 or 4 minutes and the crew took over. I was so relieved, but not hopeful. I felt like I had watched life leave this man's body and I was not confident that it would return. After about 3 or 4 minutes of using paddles and IV's to revive this man, they were able to get a pulse and he was even breathing on his own. I have no idea if his okay now, but I did leave the scene after it seemed that he was alive again.

I've seen many old people pass away. This was different. While we were all waiting for him to come back, all I could think about was his family, his wife, his teenage kids.... Here this guy was trying to get into shape with a run after work and he was in danger of never going home. Life is so precious.

I also felt a huge amount of respect and thankfulness for the job that the emergency responders do. Right after this situation, I was thinking, "maybe I should be doing something like that for a living?" and then I realized that I am maybe not the best candidate because I would be thinking about the families and the consequences of the losses that they see on a regular basis. Not fun. Thank you firefighters, EMT's, Police, ER employees..... Thank you so very much for all that you do.

Life is precious, so tell those close to you that you love them!

Bethany Beach

I'm leaving Bethany Beach, Delaware tomorrow and I'm sad to say good by to Jessica, Robbie(the one kissing me in the photo), and Rob.

The last time I saw Jessica and Rob was 3 years ago at their wedding. Now they have an amazing 2 year old boy! Catching up with the family has been amazing!

Tomorrow I drive back to Washington DC. I'm staying in a swanky hotel for 4 days while attending my Alzheimer's conference. I'm excited to participate, but before that, I need to wrap up grading for this past term.

I'm staying very busy! More later.

blah blah blah....

It was our first taste of summer weather this weekend and somehow my spirits feel very, blah-ish...

I did enjoy the weather this weekend. Yesterday I worked in the yard for several hours and then had a very long and wonderful scenic motorcycle ride in Mt. Hood Territory. I also visited with friends; got in some workouts for a triathlon later this month; made my way to the local farmers market for fresh veggies; and BBQ'd(twice!)

....but the reason why this weekend was blah is because I had to work on, and worry about catching up with my online teaching responsibilities. I can't really explain how this job effects my psyche, but it really does... in a bad way. I think because I love teaching in a classroom, and teaching online is completely different and it seems to be much more time consuming! It's like all the work and then some, without witnessing the instant gratification of facilitating growth in the mind of a student. It is also no fun when you are teaching with another instructors material. Next time I won't be taking on additional classes at the last minute for the $$$. It's not even hardly worth it!

Wow! I'm done with whinefest 2011. I have my eye on prize! All this work will be done a week from tomorrow. This will be a bit challenging though, because I'm traveling to Washington DC and to good ol' Delaware on Thursday for a week. My county job is sending me to a National Alzheimer's Conference and I'm also going to fit in some time with one of my dearest friends, Jessica! I can't wait to meet her little boy!

Really, I have very little to complain about! I have two jobs that pay my bills!

I'm too lazy and tired to write out descriptions of all the events that were fun this weekend. So, for a quick photo journal journal of this weekend, look here. My iphone makes it pretty easy to catalog events in my life with pictures. I had some pretty adorable kiddos for company this weekend.

This is enough for now. More later.

Home and exhausted!

We got home on Monday night after another 20 hours of traveling, on three flights, and over 3 hours in the car. I'm happy to be home, but sad to rejoin reality by going to work and worrying about the same old stuff!

Luckily, I have great memories from a wonderful trip. I really enjoyed meeting all of Bill's family and hope to see them all again soon. The trip also showed me that Billy and I are great travel partners. I will get to posting trip pics, but first- a quick clip from the Minneapolis Airport. It appears that it doesn't take much to entertain these two kids. Good times!