Grandparenting Adventures

Today my younger daughter and I spent a lot of time shopping for a new granddaughter expected in early June. Since the youngest grandchild now is 10 years old, we had a lot of shopping to do! We got the crib and mattress from Target plus clothing items, hangers, and a bathtub.We went to a consignment shop called Once Upon a Child and got a swing and more clothing. My daughter's work colleagues are handing down a stroller and a car seat. All that is needed yet for "survival" is a diaper container (for the yucky ones) and a pad for the changing table. This coming week is my daugher's spring break from her school job so she has time now to get this all organized. My daughter received some brand new "hand me downs" even with the store tags on them from a friend. That baby never wore this clothing because she got too big too quickly. I have a feeling this expected baby will never wear some of these items either, for newborn size is to fit 5-8 lb. babies and I think this baby will arrive a quite close to 8 lbs!

Adventure with Gratification

Today at work we had a poster session event honoring our first group of DNPs who will soon be graduating. DNP means Doctor of Nurse Practice, but the speaker said DNP really means Do Not Provoke! My first advisee did a great project bring health education about diabetes to Hispanic migrant workers. I'm just so very proud of her work. She told me the greatest thing. Early in the program she was trying to decide between two projects. I wasn't at all crazy about the second option, but hey! it's her project. I told her to follow her passion because it would be so much work and she really needed to care about the project and its outcomes. Today she told me that was exactly the right advice!

One Step Towards Summer Adventures

Today is 90 days before I leave for Poland. At 7 AM this morning I got myself a very good seat on the MSP to Amsterdam flight. This plane is much fuller than it was last year at this time, a surprising thing considering all the doom and gloom about the economy.

This evening I spoke at my church about my times in Poland. Afterwards a man came to speak to me about volunteering in Poland. He explained his family came from Minsk. I inquired, "Which Minsk? The one now in Belarus or Minsk, Maz in Poland?" My question was the first time he knew there were two cities named Minsk quite close together. He tried to clarify by saying it was the one that would have been in Russia when his family immigrated. I told him both cities would have been under Russian control when Poland was partitioned. So he and his family have some looking up now to do in their family records.

There are many tasks to accomplish in the next 89 days!

Adventures at the Gas Station

This morning the gas tank was nearly empty, but enough to get to work and get near a gas station where the price is always better than at the ones in my neighborhood. After working 6 hours straight without even a lunch break, I took off for lunch and went first to the gas station. I was pleased when I saw the price was 11 cents lower than in my neighborhood. I couldn't believe the crowds there at 1:30 PM! People were patiently waiting to pull up to the pumps.(Here everything is self service. I don't even know of a gas station where an attendant would pump the gas.) Well as my journey continued, I understood. I bought gas at $1.88 while every other gas station was $2.03 and that price was a bit higher than most stations had when I drove to work this morning.

It mystifies me when the price of gas at a same company's station is so different in different parts of town. It all comes out of the same place. I didn't realize that those of us in the center city where paying so much more until first my older daughter moved to a southern suburb and then for awhile I had to teach in a northern suburb. I quickly learned to go to both of those destinations with a somewhat empty tank for the price in the suburbs was always lower.

Sometimes No Adventures is Fine

It's been five days since I've written anything. Life has just been routine for awhile. Or has it? The snow has disappeared except for some of the stubborn snow banks piled along driveways where it was shoveled. We got rain instead of snow this week. The rain washed the world a bit, and the best is that one doesn't have to shovel rain.

I've been reading and evaluating papers mostly in the evening. At the office I'm getting a few tasks off my list. I disappointed over 50 people sending them a letter saying they are not going to be admitted to graduate school. We received 4 times the number of applicants for nurse practitioner tracks than could be accepted, and that's with a 20% increase in acceptances.

I've been working on revising a course for which I'm responsible to a new textbook. At the same time I'm developing a totally new course that has to be ready to go Fall Semester. That's taken a lot of time at both the office and at home. The living room is now piled with books.

Today I packed out junk from the garage in to a Dumpster in a Bag. This has a funny connection to Poland. Two years ago while I was at Reymonotowka I was telling other volunteers I was going home to use this product. They couldn't figure out what I was talking about. Reymontowka was doing some remodeling that spring, and suddenly there was truck with dumpsters in a bag, only doing the opposite. The stone block being used was delivered that way.

So it's just one step at a time on a lot of projects. Later this week I hit 90 days before flying to Warsaw. On that day I'll get to pick my seat on the plane. Looking forward to that!

Saint Patrick's Day Adventures

Today I took the bus downtown to file for a lot split. I thought that was a better plan than trying to find a place to park, which might be expensive, and also might be hard to do on St. Patrick's Day. This is a big holiday in Saint Paul, for this city is only one of a very few during the times of European immigration that people from Ireland were treated fairly and equitably.

The people who first owned this property built part of the driveway on the lot I'm planning to sell. I learned now I had to create an easement for this use. The gentleman who helped me gave me a name of someone else to speak with who may be able to give me a form to fill out or can give me an example of what needs to be done.

Outdoors again, the street vendors were already setting up with many, many green trickets and souveniers. But I had to go to work for awhile.

With tasks done I started home at 2 PM. The downtown area was now filled with celebrating people. Tonight beginning at 6 PM the buses start giving free rides in an effort to help keep people who have been drinking off the roads.

On my final walk home from the bus I went by a neighborhood bar. I was stopped by a woman who was deaf who was collecting for some cause. And from the other direction I was stopped by a group of musicians who were warming up with their Irish bagpipes.

So that's just one day's activity in Saint Paul.

Global Adventures

Today I met with a physician from Kenya who very much wishes to establish an exchange program between the university at which he teaches and our nursing and dental hygiene programs. This may be the first step towards a program that will actually begin in 2-3 years. It takes a very long time to get something going like this. We were just about to say good bye when he mentioned our simulation center. I walked him there and found it was down day for the center and the staff there graciously demonstrated everything.

For dinner I met my friend who wants to go to Poland in September. We discussed all the different options. I know she and her family will have a wonderful time.

And today I received photos of December memories when I hosted a brunch for Dorota from Poland and Hu Di from China. One photo is above. The digital age is great. I received this photo from China and now only 12 hours later it's on my blog. However, Dorota on the left is presently working in South Africa in a location in which the Internet is scarce, so she will have to wait nearly a month to see the photo!