Report of 1 Aug '08
'allo from ze libraire -
Such a fun place to be. The spirit calms down and revels in all the books and technology available to me - for free. Quel treat.
Do you know how difficult it is to buy affordable products that are not made in China? I have been hunting for such an umbrella for ages, w/o success. I find China-made goods very spurious in quality, and don't like them. China, as a human rights entity, is also not a favorite in my book because of several things, including their overrunning of our beloved Tibet. There are several Tibetan refugees living in India, and they are a peaceful, peace-loving, hardworking, wonderful people. The Dalai Lama is right up there with Aung San Suu Kyi in my esteem. The world sat by and watched China unleash itself on Tibet, because Tibet was not strategic enough to any one. The outcome was certainly different when Kuwait was invaded, was it not. All that oil.
Thusly, the Olympics, which I would otherwise follow avidly, are not generating much excitement in my irudhayam (heart). It is certainly true that the rich and powerful (countries or people) can get whatever the heck they want; some of us believe the poor can also be empowered to do this.
This weekend, Naren's band debuts at "Unwind Center" (I like the name), a hangout in Chennai. Scott and Navin plan to go for the show, and I am envious. I really want to see the show. So, after their debut, these guys will be big cheeses. I told Naren that the Banyan pays a lot of big name artistes to perform for us, and Naren's band are big cheeses in my book, so I offered again to pay; his response was that perhaps the (other) big name artistes should also refuse their fees. That was nice.
I am winding down my time here, and still have some dreaded shopping to do. As I have said before, there is not an almighty hurry to leave because work has been great - and also, returning to mundane, thankless, wife-and-mother chores ain't exactly thunderously appealing. The 3 Weiss men try to be grateful for what I do, and sometimes are; as a wife and mother, when my entire daily focus is someone else (apart from my sanity-preserving hour and a half in the gym in the early am) and there is inadvertent overlooking of my work, it gets exhausting. I am sure plenty of other mothers, and fathers, can relate to this. I am completely fine once I get home, and can merge back into daily routine easily. As I have said before, a "Thank you" helps me accomplish things.
The clinic has been fine. As I headed out for lunch one day, a motorcycle came zooming in to the parking lot, the young man riding it parked it and yelled something. I thought he was an example of the psychotic patients we sometimes see, and tried to continue walking, but he was directing his comments at me. I couldn't hear him, so approached, leaving plenty of distance to bolt if I needed to, and asked what he'd said; he bellowed, "I haven't smoked weed since I left you." Certainly bellow-worthy, was it not. And I thanked him, to which he said thanks as well. Small triumphs, but wonderful affirmations of efforts.
A 38 year old young man came in with chest pain, rating only a 3 on 10. We discussed his history, with his wife waiting in the waiting area, and I then did an EKG. It showed some damage to his heart, and I referred him to a cardiologist. I then brought his wife in, and all 3 of us discussed what he needed to do. I thought the man got teary and reached for the tissues to pass to him, but he said he was ok, and pointed to his wife; she started bawling. I held her hand until she composed herself, and let her ask all the questions she wanted. At the end of the visit, the young man thanked me profusely, and I thought to myself that I was just doing my job - but of course, the words were nice to hear.
Some fun, fun times last week: I went to my in-laws' place for a farewell visit and couldn't wait to get there, didn't even gas up my car. Some tasty soup was brewing in the crockpot, there was watermelon in the fridge, and all kinds of tasty goodies in between. Wooo! It was nice to sit there, eat, chat and laugh, and completely cleanse the soul with these fine people. The next afternoon, I left. I headed to Mary Remster's for dinner; her son, Donnie, had cooked a wonderful meal and I overate. The company, as always, was stellar, and Mary can laugh at quite a few situations in her life, which is absolutely awe-inspiring. The leftovers were packed for me, much to my great delight. This week, I have had the pleasure of the company of one of my hosts, Mary Beth Simon; her family is out East vacationing and she and I have managed to go out for dinner once, and see each other as our schedules allowed. Mary Beth is an unflappable, pretty, genial sort, and good for the soul. I've also managed to speak to friends - 3 from college days, Mala, Latha and Geetha. There is a special place in one's heart for friends from long ago, isn't there - jokes known only to us, things we say our kids do, favorite memories from days of reading dreadful romance novels and eyeing the boys from the boys' college. I also connected with Monica Cooley, who now teaches Indian dance in Nashville, and we talked for a long time; I'd wanted her help with a situation Scott and I are facing, and she had wonderful advice for me and a robust sense of perspective. Monica was a visiting student in Madurai long ago, taught us ballet for free, and we have kept in touch since.
Well, this library is bringing out the verbage in me. I was interviewed for some article over email, and poured out my heart about the work I do, especially to the question of advice for anyone else contemplating similar work - and the draft which I got yesterday looks like vanilla. Bland, passionless, lecture-ish. Aiyo. I asked the correspondent about it and she stated the mission was to make it look educational. I could understand, then, the reason for the blandification - I could also see firsthand how anyone could be misquoted by a journalist.
Unw -
R
Such a fun place to be. The spirit calms down and revels in all the books and technology available to me - for free. Quel treat.
Do you know how difficult it is to buy affordable products that are not made in China? I have been hunting for such an umbrella for ages, w/o success. I find China-made goods very spurious in quality, and don't like them. China, as a human rights entity, is also not a favorite in my book because of several things, including their overrunning of our beloved Tibet. There are several Tibetan refugees living in India, and they are a peaceful, peace-loving, hardworking, wonderful people. The Dalai Lama is right up there with Aung San Suu Kyi in my esteem. The world sat by and watched China unleash itself on Tibet, because Tibet was not strategic enough to any one. The outcome was certainly different when Kuwait was invaded, was it not. All that oil.
Thusly, the Olympics, which I would otherwise follow avidly, are not generating much excitement in my irudhayam (heart). It is certainly true that the rich and powerful (countries or people) can get whatever the heck they want; some of us believe the poor can also be empowered to do this.
This weekend, Naren's band debuts at "Unwind Center" (I like the name), a hangout in Chennai. Scott and Navin plan to go for the show, and I am envious. I really want to see the show. So, after their debut, these guys will be big cheeses. I told Naren that the Banyan pays a lot of big name artistes to perform for us, and Naren's band are big cheeses in my book, so I offered again to pay; his response was that perhaps the (other) big name artistes should also refuse their fees. That was nice.
I am winding down my time here, and still have some dreaded shopping to do. As I have said before, there is not an almighty hurry to leave because work has been great - and also, returning to mundane, thankless, wife-and-mother chores ain't exactly thunderously appealing. The 3 Weiss men try to be grateful for what I do, and sometimes are; as a wife and mother, when my entire daily focus is someone else (apart from my sanity-preserving hour and a half in the gym in the early am) and there is inadvertent overlooking of my work, it gets exhausting. I am sure plenty of other mothers, and fathers, can relate to this. I am completely fine once I get home, and can merge back into daily routine easily. As I have said before, a "Thank you" helps me accomplish things.
The clinic has been fine. As I headed out for lunch one day, a motorcycle came zooming in to the parking lot, the young man riding it parked it and yelled something. I thought he was an example of the psychotic patients we sometimes see, and tried to continue walking, but he was directing his comments at me. I couldn't hear him, so approached, leaving plenty of distance to bolt if I needed to, and asked what he'd said; he bellowed, "I haven't smoked weed since I left you." Certainly bellow-worthy, was it not. And I thanked him, to which he said thanks as well. Small triumphs, but wonderful affirmations of efforts.
A 38 year old young man came in with chest pain, rating only a 3 on 10. We discussed his history, with his wife waiting in the waiting area, and I then did an EKG. It showed some damage to his heart, and I referred him to a cardiologist. I then brought his wife in, and all 3 of us discussed what he needed to do. I thought the man got teary and reached for the tissues to pass to him, but he said he was ok, and pointed to his wife; she started bawling. I held her hand until she composed herself, and let her ask all the questions she wanted. At the end of the visit, the young man thanked me profusely, and I thought to myself that I was just doing my job - but of course, the words were nice to hear.
Some fun, fun times last week: I went to my in-laws' place for a farewell visit and couldn't wait to get there, didn't even gas up my car. Some tasty soup was brewing in the crockpot, there was watermelon in the fridge, and all kinds of tasty goodies in between. Wooo! It was nice to sit there, eat, chat and laugh, and completely cleanse the soul with these fine people. The next afternoon, I left. I headed to Mary Remster's for dinner; her son, Donnie, had cooked a wonderful meal and I overate. The company, as always, was stellar, and Mary can laugh at quite a few situations in her life, which is absolutely awe-inspiring. The leftovers were packed for me, much to my great delight. This week, I have had the pleasure of the company of one of my hosts, Mary Beth Simon; her family is out East vacationing and she and I have managed to go out for dinner once, and see each other as our schedules allowed. Mary Beth is an unflappable, pretty, genial sort, and good for the soul. I've also managed to speak to friends - 3 from college days, Mala, Latha and Geetha. There is a special place in one's heart for friends from long ago, isn't there - jokes known only to us, things we say our kids do, favorite memories from days of reading dreadful romance novels and eyeing the boys from the boys' college. I also connected with Monica Cooley, who now teaches Indian dance in Nashville, and we talked for a long time; I'd wanted her help with a situation Scott and I are facing, and she had wonderful advice for me and a robust sense of perspective. Monica was a visiting student in Madurai long ago, taught us ballet for free, and we have kept in touch since.
Well, this library is bringing out the verbage in me. I was interviewed for some article over email, and poured out my heart about the work I do, especially to the question of advice for anyone else contemplating similar work - and the draft which I got yesterday looks like vanilla. Bland, passionless, lecture-ish. Aiyo. I asked the correspondent about it and she stated the mission was to make it look educational. I could understand, then, the reason for the blandification - I could also see firsthand how anyone could be misquoted by a journalist.
Unw -
R
posted by Renu Weiss at
12:18 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home