Report of 22 June 2014

A soccer game on T.V., a yelling husband, a son playing League of Legends - by golly, it is good to be at home.

We had a nice weekend in L.A.  It was capped off by a brunch at the home of our son's hosts, David and Peter.  We'd wanted to take everybody out to eat, but Peter suggested we eat at their house and donate our expected expense to the Banyan.  Very sweet, I thought.  We went with David to an awesome Farmer's Market, bought good fruit and some tasty baked goods, and had brunch in D&P's back yard, surrounded by lemon and orange trees.  Lovely, lovely.  Crossing generations, Mohit, Naren, Navin and Christopher enthralling me with their chatter.  David and Peter sharing parenthood stories.  Perfect weather.  It was a memorable time.

Our flight from Phoenix to Indy was delayed and I have never been happier for a delay, as it enabled us to watch the Spurs win the NBA championship.  We love, love, love that team.  United Nations in their team roster, and unselfish, excellent play.  I was sorry we could not watch all of it, especially the post-game celebrations, but about 3 people have recorded it for us and we now have to show up at these folks' houses to watch it.  Surprising that in this day of technology, we cannot have a portable recording.  Still - I am so glad the Spurs won.  The TV channels later were talking more about why the Heat lost than exulting over the Spurs' win.  Hoo hoo!  We'll take it.  We're low-key and not about flash and dash, our players don't have lucrative endorsements, but we win championships with clean and good play.

Work has been fabulous.  Jasper is beautiful and I am enjoying my daily walks.  The people are nice, no one is rattled by a short dark-skinned woman toodling about on the streets or the hospital.  My colleagues are good and kind and competent.  They also address me by my first name (and pronounced correctly!), which I love.  We manage as many cases as we can, given that we don't have the entire gamut of specialities represented in our hospital.

A 51 year old man had a heart attack outside the hospital, his son did CPR and revived him, and he was admitted.  He had stents put in his heart arteries, and then started bleeding.  The ICU team responded well, and a massive transfusion was initiated.  They managed to stop the bleeding, which was impressive.  However, 30 minutes of CPR does not guarantee blood flow to the brain, and the patient showed no meaningful signs of life.  His family took him off the ventilator yesterday, while I was on my late shift, and he died.  It causes one to think about the extent of interventions and their benefit.

We hope to see a couple of movies this week.  The family and I went out for lunch today and partook of some of Jasper's fine cuisine.  I had a lovely salad and a most healthy, unsweetened parfait with fresh peaches and granola, and all of it was delicious.

I will try to talk to my father this week.  I enjoy these chats.

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Report of 15 June 2014

Good morning from a small apartment in Los Angeles!

We are here to see Naren's play.  He, his co-star, Mohit, and Navin are asleep in the next room.  This apartment is lovely and in Hollywood, where the theater is.  We are near major attractions and inexpensive food.  As with any city, there is expensive food if you want it.

We moved to Jasper, Indiana, about 2 weeks ago.  Scott landed the day before Navin turned 21, and that was nice.  We celebrated Navin's b'day in Lebanon at an excellent small cafe, their chicken-fried steak being one of the best I've ever had.  We moved to Jasper that weekend, and I started working.  The following Monday, Navin interviewed at Memorial Hospital, and now works there also.

Jasper is very beautiful and the surroundings are hilly and verdant.  I imagine fall here will be spectacular.  The people are nice, and genial.  Work is good: this hospital commands serious loyalty, with some nurses having worked here for over 15 years.

There are a couple of memorable patients, one of them being a lady who came in with bleeding from her bottom.  She was obese, which prompted a lot of discussion.  Obesity is a complex phenomenon, isn't it - no easy solutions, no fairness in the question "Why did she let herself get that way?"  Scott and I saw the documentary "Fed up" and were aghast at the vehement defense of soft drinks in schools, by the soft drinks companies.  "Our beverages are part of a way to get some fluids."  Some years ago, I read that impoverished neighborhoods do not have grocery stores.  A bunch of spinach costs twice the price of a giant bag of potato chips.  It is easier and cheaper to get overweight.

We flew to L.A. last week, and saw the play "The abridged history of Modern Day India" on Friday and Saturday.  Naren and Mohit did a good job in spite of a small audience (de rigueur for small theater festivals, I hear), and appeared to have a whale of a time.  They are staying with friends Peter and David, who came to the play yesterday.  After the event, the younger adults veered off to do other things and the older adults went to get dessert.  It was great to see Peter and David, and talk of all things family, and work, and life.

I think the small audience will teach our young thespians the erratic nature of the acting world - that revenue depends on the viewing public, that it will be hard to get folks into the theater, that you'd better love what you do because there is currently not much money in it.  Naren has wanted to write more than act, and the play was indeed well-written (by him); let us see where that path leads.

In L.A., we were very privileged to see a friend of many years - Gohar Teherani.  She is now 97 and remains feisty and fun.  She moved from Iran to India to the U.S. and stays accepting of her surroundings.  If I'd had a daughter, she might have had the name "Gohar."  Mrs. Teherani's memory is failing, but we spoke of many things - India and her warm, beautiful home in Chennai (then Madras); Iran; her children and grandchildren; food.  Flashes of her old sense of humor emerged when her caregivers interacted with her, and it was a phenomenally lovely visit.  I was blessed enough to see her, and it is one of the highlights of this trip.

There was a tournament of "League of Legends" in a suburb of L.A., and we dropped Navin there.  He was lucky that he saw that the event was on during our stay in L.A.  While this is an entity I do not understand, I was very happy for Navin that he got to see the matches.  He was quite euphoric when we picked him up, and showed off some merchandise that he had bought.  Truly, it is nice to see our children happy, isn't it.

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