Having a back and forth conversation on facebook with a nanny we had about 15 years ago when we lived out in San Diego. In doing so, I sent her a basic synopsis of what's been going on with Ian and I in the last years and thought it was interesting to share here.





After Puerto Rico ('95-'98), our dad retired from the Navy and moved us back to near where he grew up (he was from Southgate, KY and we lived right next door in Fort Thomas, KY ['98-'03]) because his dad had passed away ('96) and he wanted to be near his mom. I graduated from Highlands High School in '03 and went off to college at Wittenberg University. I wound up leaving after the fall semester of my senior year for varying health and personal reasons. For various reasons involving my dad's decent into problems of his own after his mom died ('01), our mom moved up to help out. While I was at Wittenberg, my mom and brother moved over the river to Colerain Township ('04). We lived in that area until my junior year ('06) when they moved to Monfort Heights (near Cheviot) and that's where they still are. I'm living in Dayton now, I moved up this way in January, with my boyfriend John, the handsome fellow in my profile picture, and two of our friends. He's in grad school at UD and I'm, already having received an associate's degree in nursing, am going to Wright State and working on my BSN. I hope to eventually get to anesthesia school and follow in my dad's better leading footsteps. I didn't know this is the path I wanted to follow until after he had died and I was talking with a coworker about what I was gonna do after nursing school. It's funny how the thought hadn't even crossed my mind before I said it out loud. I'm certain I had a funny expression when I said it because my coworker asked why I was making the face and I told her "I think I must have just been momentarily possessed by my father because I had never even considered anesthesia until it was already out of my mouth just now and... now it seems like the only thing I want to do." It's weird how things like that happen, but I really do think in some way my dad was trying to lead me down the path he knew I needed and would thrive doing.

As I know you've heard, through my aunt at least, our dad passed away just over two years ago on August 19, 2007 from a pulmonary embolism. It was very sudden and very unexpected. Ian, very very unfortunately, had been staying the weekend with him and was the one who found him, close to 8 or 10 hours after he passed. From his story, he found him and kinda had a minor break and paced around for over an hour thinking of everything that would need to be done and who he would have to tell before he finally called me and I, driving like a mad woman down 75 to my dad's place in Covington, called 911. In some ways, Ian is dealing with our dad's passing better than me (their relationship wasn't as bad because Ian's memory is not so good and he didn't take the brunt of our dad's abuse), but in other ways, I am. He doesn't much talk about it, never really has, and I didn't see him actually cry over our dad until we had to have his cat put down last fall after taking him when our dad died. For some reason, putting Freddy down was the cathartic for Ian in dealing with dad.

Speaking of Ian: He went through the same school system I graduated high school from through 7th grade and then began to attend Colerain Middle/High School. Ian has struggled with a predominantly undiagnosed learning issue almost his whole schooling and did not do well at Colerain. He wound up leaving after he failed his freshman year and began doing home schooling, where he flourished because he could learn his own way at his own pace. In no way is Ian unintelligent, he's actually as smart as either my sister or I, but he can't seem to learn in a traditional setting. In fact, in under a month, doing home schooling, he learned and passed all the way through senior level mathematics. It's crazy. But anywho, he has an appointment at the end of the month with some crazy long titled psychologist whose primary goal is to run tons of diagnostic tests on him and figure out what's going on. We've always suspected ADD, but now we'll know for sure and what, if any, other things are wrong there too. You should see Ian now though. He's tall (6'0" or so) and thin as a rail. For a while he had longer hair than any of the ladies in my family but after a tikki torch singing incident at a party at my place, he had to lose over a foot of hair. People sometimes tell us he should be a model because he has the height and frame for it and in alot of ways that very palatable face. lol. Though I know he's seen pictures from San Diego, I highly doubt if he would remember most of it, or even you without some strong reminders. It's funny how he can remember some things so well, like trivia or certain flashes of the past, but is terrible with people and most anything before he was about 10 years old.

Ep! Sorry this wasn't so brief, but I promise I left out alot of things I'd be happy to fill you in on later if you like. My number is ____________ and my e-mail is ____@___.com . I have a blackberry so I check text, facebook, and e-mails often as I receive them, unless I'm in class. =D

-Evy

I'll be working for Maxim Healthcare as a flu shot nurse.

They were going to hire me as a regular LPN doing home care but he had misread my license information and told me I have to have it *at least* one full calender year before that position. BUT, he offered me this instead. This way I get my foot in the door, get some experience, and make some money while I wait until February when they can hire me on for reals. =D

I'm not gonna complain though because this actually works better for right now because it's a guaranteed hours and money situation because the flu shot is in high demand this year with H1N1 scares. Also, I get to tailor it a bit more to my class schedule, which is great. This really isn't a bad gig for the money. =D

Let's also remember that today many other, non-famous, men, women, and children died around the world from starvation, AIDS, preventable diseases, childhood cancers, accidents, war, genocide, etc. By all means, "RIP" to the famous who passed, but let's keep things in perspective and reserve the word "tragedy" for the things that really deserve the title.

Not to say heart attacks and anal cancer aren't... dammit. You catch my meaning.

Wright State invited me to fill out this survey on that topic (and Facebook in general) and the last question was an open-ended one where I got to state just what the title of this note says. I am going to paste my answer and invite anyone who reads this to leave their two cents on the subject as a comment.



I feel the use of Facebook as a hiring tool can be quite ridiculous. For years people have had their work lives and their social lives with little overlap and without the fear of employers peering over their shoulders at every turn. Now, employers think the advent of Facebook gives them the right to do just that and it seems a little twisted. How many people that were hired in the past do you want to bet drank or partied or went to political rallies in their time off or before they found a real "adult" job? Probably just as many as do now, but with Facebook comes easier access to that information and picture proof. No, I don't think it is bad to use Facebook in a limited capacity for getting to know a potential employee, but even considering basing the hiring of someone off it is poor judgment. It is still the internet and as we've learned from sites like snopes.com, not everything you will read or see on the vast world wide web is the complete truth.

*sigh* No, really. I'm tired of reading about reasonable, smart people I know freaking out about the Swine Flu. Enough is enough. Please read on:



i seem to be missing something about this swine flue pandemic. for one, it's a strain of the flu virus. the flu virus is notorious for frequent mutations and is difficult to predict which strain to use in flu vaccines. and, yes, this doesn't come from strain a or b which are the most common strains of seasonal flu, but the spread of this strain seems to be no different from a typical flu spread. oh, but people die from this strain. really, and people don't die from other strains of the flu? in a typical flu season, about 36,000 people die from the flu*. so, we need to freak out about this why?

but the w.h.o. raised their level of alert from 4 to 5**! yeah, level five means that an outbreak has been confirmed in at least two w.h.o. countries and that a global pandemic is imminent. well, what is a pandemic, anyway? that's where a non-seasonal virus spreads easily from person to person around the globe. note the total lack of equating pandemic with panic and freak out.

so, let's recap: this strain of flu virus is contagious, just like any other strain of flu. this strain has killed triple-digit humans. the cdc states that a typical flu season kills on average quintuple-digit humans.

and are you really more likely to get swine flu than a seasonal flu without a flu vaccine? i know of three people who got the flu this winter AND had flu shots. i opted for not getting vaccinated and managed to stay healthy. am i lucky? perhaps, but i also do my part to take simple steps like washing my hands regularly (not compulsively), making sure to cough and sneeze into my arms, and not going to work when i'm ill. gosh, i don't even carry a little bottle of hand sanitizer around everywhere i go.

so, news media, can we stop with the 24/7 coverage? let's be reasonable and focus on diseases that we know already affect tens of millions of people worldwide like heart disease and cancer, instead of those that might. no amount of discussion and coverage is going to increase people taking appropriate steps to stay healthy.




*Influenza (the flu) is a contagious respiratory illness caused by influenza viruses. It can cause mild to severe illness, and at times can lead to death. The best way to prevent the flu is by getting a flu vaccination each year. Every year in the United States, on average 5% to 20% of the population gets the flu; more than 200,000 people are hospitalized from flu complications, and; about 36,000 people die from flu-related causes. Some people, such as older people, young children, and people with certain health conditions, are at high risk for serious flu complications. (From the CDC's website.)

**Phase 5 is characterized by human-to-human spread of the virus into at least two countries in one WHO region. While most countries will not be affected at this stage, the declaration of Phase 5 is a strong signal that a pandemic is imminent and that the time to finalize the organization, communication, and implementation of the planned mitigation measures is short.