I survived the week

Well, let’s see….

The youngest daughter has made it to Umea, Sweden and is beat. This follows not sleeping the night before she left as she was so pumped, then a flight to Newark and over to Stockholm, then the train north. She starts her nursing clinical on Monday so hopefully will be over the jet lag by then.

The newly minted (temporary for 30 days) lobster captain has done very well the last two days he was out. In fact he was not only the ‘high boat’ but almost doubled the remainder of those selling to the plant. So, now the quest is on for a lobster rig to buy this summer, with plans then to be on his own come November.

The second daughter is working hard at her BEd courses, working at the preschool and babysitting. When she was thinking of what to do as the forecast was for precipitation, I suggested she make finger paints for her Dutch/Canadian toddler and she was tickled as to how they turned out. I explained this was a favorite rainy day activity when they were small as they weren’t the type of kids to park in front of the TV. Their creative streaks were recognized early, and it was amazing what they thought of – most of it loud and messy as children should be to develop imaginations.

The oldest daughter has moved within the same city and finds herself living with a surrogate grandmother who makes her breakfast every morning and I’m sure packs her lunch. The trade off is that she is walking a very rotund, spoiled, small white dog as the landlady has bad knees. The dog is managing well but still breathless for extended periods after the cardio workout.

I’ve survived an atrocious week where I’ve worked 70 hrs. under very intense conditions due to the H1N1 influenza outbreak. Thank goodness I had a conference for the other part of my job to go to on Friday as that removed me from the purgatory I found myself in. The conference included a yoga instructor and a chair masseuse so combined with the king sized bed and high speed internet I actually thought I was in heaven! I stopped on the way back and visited Chapters – spending the $3 gift certificate one of my daughters had graciously given me – finding a discount novel and a copy of Porthole magazine; I’m supposing you can guess what type of travel that concerns.

Today I have spent organizing (my previous cleaning lady now western friend) used to call it a puttering day. I sorted papers, cleaned briefcase and purse, unpacked my bag, organized my scrapbooking and craft supplies. By the time I finished (as well as baked brown bread, brownies and walked the dog) I had run out of ambition to actually create anything.

Here is the link to the Doctors Without Borders article on immunization I mentioned I was reading last week:

http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/news/article.cfm?id=3525&cat=voice-from%20the%20field&ref=home-sidebar-right

And in closing don’t forget that May 6th is the Great American Grump Out Day so you will have to refrain from getting your grump on for 24 hours - better start practicing. There’s to be “no grumping, no frowning, no grousing, no complaining, punching, slapping, hitting or killing” Smile more, stress less.