In memory of ...

Diane was my co-worker/mid-level boss. She was a work person that I could consider an actual friend, which doesn’t happen very often. She had fibromyalgia so she was in a lot of pain, a lot of the time, but she was strong. She kept going even when she was near tears from trying to get from one place to another. She hated feeling less than perfectly in control even when she had every right to fall apart. She was the type of person that if I wanted to give her some much needed help, I had to disguise it so she wouldn’t feel like I was helping her. And she was there for everyone, always, even if it meant not taking time for herself. She was a great person, even when she was cranky from all the pain.

While she recently had a handful of new health issues popping up, they seemed to be pretty much in control. She was even at the doc’s as recently as yesterday. She said she was going to try and come in to work today, if she felt any better, since she didn’t like being out for so long.

This morning, she was cleaning off her car to get ready to come in, and I don’t know if she knew something was wrong, or if she just sat down for a break. A neighbor found her in her car. We had been trying to reach her all morning to make sure she was ok since she hadn’t called in to the office with instructions for the day, or to let us know if she was going to be staying home or coming in. We started calling around to her kids to see if anyone could reach her. One of her daughters called us back in tears with the news that she had passed away.

I know that wherever she is, Diane is not in pain anymore. She is with the loved ones that have passed on before her, and I know that’s something she’s happy about. I know, too, that she will live on in the memories of those she’s left behind.

She'd probably make fun of me for this post being so cheesy... which is the awesome part...

its good to be back!

When I first started really reading blogs and then started blogging myself, there were a few things that I always told myself that I don’t want to do. My personal “rules” for blogging. For example: There was this one blogger that I always enjoyed reading her blogs.. but every single blog was a massive complaint about something, and written in such a way that she came off as sounding like she thought she was superior to EVERYONE. I decided that if I ended up starting a blog (and I did, obviously), that I would try to avoid blogging only when I had a complaint or was bugged about something. Another example: I always felt like if I was going to blog, then I wanted to keep on top of it, and not keep people waiting who want to read random stuff I write. Now obviously, its NOT REQUIRED for people to update their blogs just to satisfy me :) OR for me to provide reading material to others, but I always said I would try to update more frequently, so people would have something to read if they wanted to. And that is why I’m writing today, with a little explanation, just in case anyone was sitting out there going “OMG where is my reading material!!??!!”

So last month I tried to do NaBloPoMo and started out strong, even doing the 30 Days of Diabetes Blogging thing too, and around mid-month I just epic failed. Basically, I got sick and also had way way way too much homework all of a sudden. I am a taking college courses (2 of them, at the time), and also working 40 hours, and that’s really not too bad, but right around the middle of the month I had a HUGE project due in one class and then my online class started doubling up chapters which meant twice the homework, twice the quizzes, and twice the discussion assignment (it was on online class, and medical terminology too, so it was a lot of memorizing and stuff too). So while I was sick I sat at home wrapped up in a blanket and did homework, instead of blogging.

After that it was the week of Thanksgiving and while I wasn’t sick, I still had the double chapters in my online class, so I was still crazy busy. And that’s how it continued. Until last night! Last night I took my last test and turned in my last project for one class, and then I went home and finished all my homework and studying for my online class, so now all I have to do is take the two quizzes for the chapters and then the last test (before Monday), and that’s it!

So I figure its time to get these topics floating around in my head out of there and onto my computer! And catch up on my blog READING too! I’ve been missing reading everyone else’s stuff, and I know I’m way behind.

For today, I’m going to leave it at that. One of my other rules, which I ALWAYS break, is to try and keep my posts short (ish), so that its not just a wall of text that people are going to get bored with. More tomorrow!