Tuesday, March 16, 2010

25 Days

But who's counting?

April 10, I leave Fresno for Miami, Florida. On Sunday, April 11, I board ship headed for the Eastern Caribbean on the yearly SAM trip. I am getting excited. I have so much fun on these trips. I am the only one who has been on every one of them. (Which is proof that these trips are for fun and to enjoy with like-minded singles and not to find a mate! LOL Although, there have been several weddings as a result.) I have met so many wonderful people on these trips. I have made life long friends from all over the U.S. and Canada.

The cruise is 7 days and we will leave Miami headed for Half Moon Cay, Bahamas. From there we will go to Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, USVI, San Juan, Puerto Rico and Grand Turk. We arrive back in Miami on Sunday, April 18. Tim and Joyce, (my friends who recently got married as a result of the Hawaii trip in 2006), will be meeting me there. We plan to go to the Everglades on Monday, and then possibly to the Florida Keys after that. We really aren't sure exactly what we will do, but we will be staying in Florida until Thursday, April 22.

I will be home for the month of May, and then on June 11, friends from Louisiana are coming to visit for a week. They want to pack as much as possible into that week, so we are going to stay busy. We will be going to Pismo Beach, Kings Canyon National Park, Yosemite National Park, where we will be staying in a cabin for two nights, and San Francisco. If I can find any time in there, I will take them to Monterey.

I really need this vacation. The hospital has been full to over flowing lately. I have been working extra days, not only to help out, but to pick up some extra fun money while I can.

What are your plans for vacation this year? Are you going anywhere, or just staying home and relaxing?

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Words and the English Language

I love words, and the English language fascinates me, so when I got this in an email, I just had to post it. I found it very amusing and I hope you do, too.

You think English is easy???

Read to the end . . .. a new twist

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.

2) The farm was used to produce produce .

3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

4) We must polish the Polish furniture.

5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.

6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present .

8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

10) I did not object to the object.

11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

12) There was a row amongst the row of oarsmen about how to row ..

13) They were too close to the door to close it.

14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.

15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line..

16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.

19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France . Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? Sometimes I think all the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible..

PS. - Why doesn't 'Buick' rhyme with 'quick' ?


You lovers of the English language might enjoy this .

There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is 'UP.'

It's easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP ?

At a meeting, why does a topic come UP ?


Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UP to the secretary to write UP a report ?
We call UP our friends.


And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver; we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen.

We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car.

At other times the little word has real special meaning.


People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses.

To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special.

A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP.

We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.

We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP !

To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary.


In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UP to about thirty definitions.


If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used.


It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred or more.

When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP ..

When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP...
When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP.
When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP.

One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now my time is UP, so.......it is time to shut UP!


Now it's UP to you what you do with this email

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

A Song in My Heart

I pretty much always have a song in my heart. To keep from singing aloud in public, I whistle. The song breaks out through my whistling and most usually, I am not even aware of it. Here is a common conversation as I walk into a patient's room....

Patient: "Oh, that's you I heard whistling out there. It sounds so cheerful and happy."

Me: "I am happy. I have a song in my heart that my God gives to me, but I whistle because I don't think you want to hear me sing!"

Patient: "That's just awesome. You don't hear people whistling or singing very much anymore."

For the past several weeks I have had a song in my heart that just won't go away. Not that I want it to, I love this song. Here are the lyrics.

"I Can Only Imagine"

I can only imagine
What it will be like
When I walk
By your side

I can only imagine
What my eyes will see
When your face
Is before me
I can only imagine

[Chorus:]
Surrounded by Your glory, what will my heart feel
Will I dance for you Jesus or in awe of you be still
Will I stand in your presence or to my knees will I fall
Will I sing hallelujah, will I be able to speak at all
I can only imagine

I can only imagine
When that day comes
And I find myself
Standing in the Son

I can only imagine
When all I will do
Is forever
Forever worship You
I can only imagine

[Chorus]

I can only imagine [x2]

I can only imagine
When all I will do
Is forever, forever worship you


Will we just stand there in awe for a while, or will we immediately begin to praise and worship Him? I can only imagine. Just to be in His presence forever! Walking with Him forever! I can only imagine, and I can't wait to see HIM!