Pressing On

So, today was a good day all in all I'd say.  Although I had very little sleep last night - just takes me a while to get back into that going to work groove after a long Christmas holiday - I had a good day.

Work went well, and went by fast.  In the morning I caught up on the happenings between Christmas and New Years at work - emails to read etc etc.  In the afternoon I started training my good friend and co-worker Dawn to do my duties while I'm away.  Thanks Dawn.  You didn't even complain about having to do ucky puky Service stuff... by the time I come back you will be!  I couldn't believe how fast the afternoon went by for me. Yay! 

My boss (who has been probably more than understanding through this whole thing) has also been great.  Told me that all my emails will be re-directed to someone else while I'm gone - I won't even get all of the carbon copied emails that I usually do while I'm gone.  Ahhhhh.  It might seem like a little thing, but not having to come back to literally upwards of about 2,500 emails after 4 or 6 weeks or whatever the case may be - just a clean slate - is a relief and a joy and something that just totally made me feel good.

After work, I checked the mail.  A card of well wishes and thoughts from really great cousins and friends, and a long anticipated CD from my mom's friend who has gone through kidney cancer herself this past year.  It is a meditational CD filled with guided imagery and affirmations specifically aimed to help prepare your body for surgery and healing afterwards.  Now to be quite honest - I was skeptical.  I even thought I might laugh at it the first time I heard it... but I didn't.   I really enjoyed it and I can actually see myself listening to it quite a bit in the next week and a half... It reminded me a lot of what my Yoga teacher did in the last part of our class during the meditation phase, so a big, BIG thanks to Arlene too, for sending the CD.  I am going to download it to my iPod so I can listen to it whenever I want and more importantly so that I can send the CD back to her, so she can forward it on to the next deserving person who it may help.

I was worried (still am a bit, but less I suppose) about how this week and a half left would go.  Worried that my pessimistic self would come out in full force, but I think this CD will help... parts of it already have.  As odd as this may seem, I don't think it would have ever occurred to me to try to imagine the operating room in a positive light.  Until tonight, I didn't even want to be awake in that room.  I was actually kind of dreading seeing the inside of it because for me that would make this whole situation VERY real... and when you read that the operating room is going to be a physically cool/cold room, full of sterile equipment and technology that I could never fathom understanding, it's kind of a scary place.  But when you think of it in a new light... as a room filled with really smart, talented and caring people that are about to do a really great thing and suddenly your mind is envisioning this bright yellowish white aura of kindness and humanity that surrounds them, it becomes a warm, friendly, and kind healing room, a healing room, rather than a scary and cold place, and that is very good... very good.

So tonight, I'm Pressing On... a great song written by Bob Dylan and sung by the Chicago Mass Choir.  Jann Arden's bleak song is out tonight and Pressing On is in.  Please give it a loud listen in a quiet room.  It's worth it.

And in other good news, in the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship, Canada just kicked USA's butt 4-1 for the chance to play in the gold metal match on Wednesday night versus Russia.  Yay Canada!

Kristie