The weekend that changed Nashville

The last 4 days have been surreal. The rain started on Friday night. Saturday morning it was still going. Water started to pool. All of a sudden people were trapped in their cars on the interstate, drowning because they can't get out. Semi's were floating. A mobile building (that belonged to a customer of mine) broke from its usual foundation and floated down the interstate that had been overcome by a creek that I didn't even know existed.



The rain stopped on Sunday but the waters didn't stop rising. The flood finally crested Monday evening, not before flooding part of downtown Nashville along with Titans Coliseum, Opryland Hotel, and almost all of LaVergne.



The Grand Ole Opry house



But we're Nashville. We can stand up to anything.

Looking into my heritage

Karabeth, when I started thinking about this subject, I automatically thought of you and your zest for all things genealogy. It made me smile.

The Gilbert family is very lucky to have a close family friend who has taken the great task of compiling our family tree. Near the end of my grandmother's time on earth last year, she trusted our family's genealogy paperwork to my Aunt Teela, who then passed it off to her best friend and roommate Jackie for more research. Before my grandmother passed away, I was able to steal a few moments to look at this valuable information. Turns out, our family settled in Jackson, Tennessee after an ancestor who fought in the War of 1812 was given land in return for his time spent in war. Before that, I believe we were settled in the Virginia area. How amazing to see where my ancestors came from!

So from here, I'm eager to find out exactly how long my family has been in the "New World." I'm excited to fill out my Daughters of the American Revolution membership form and claim my heritage. It's like looking into the past and knowing that there's a reason I'm in Tennessee, in the Southeast, in the United States!

Where are you from?

Research, Shlmesearch

1 week, 4 days to go on this journey called college.

Tomorrow night (technically tonight now) I have an 8-10 page paper on the topic of my choosing due. Not to mention I have to take a break to go take a final exam in my Business Policy class. I must keep repeating to myself, breathe it's almost over. Just breathe for goodness sake.

Did I mention I don't enjoy extensive research? I'm not the biggest fan of it for sure. It can sometimes be as bad as getting bored watching the show House M.D. just because I get tired of all the what-if's that arise from all their research. (BTW who knew that so many ailments existed in this world, I'm just sayin') The good thing about my major is I haven't had to write as many research papers as maybe a Biology major would have, but I've done my fair share of "Pick a topic and write about it just so we know you can write" types of papers. My number one pet peeve of college has been the busy work, but I will digress on my pet peeves and other observations of my college experience in the upcoming days.

So that's my story and I'm sticking to it. By the way, in case you were wondering, my topic for this paper is "Older Workers in the American Workforce." This was for an Office Management class, of which the teacher has already said she doesn't enjoy my writing. I stick my tongue out at her.

Let the countdown begin!

I hate my job

I don't mean my normal 9 to 5 job (but I wouldn't mind having another one of those either). I'm talking about my side job as a caregiver. I usually love it, my patients are almost always someone I've known for a long time or are the family members of someone I've known a long time. I have a connection to them thus I automatically make them one of my family.

But there comes a time in every caregivers life when you realize your patient is not going to be there after your job is done. My patient right now is given a week to live, and her family has to just sit there and wait. My job at night is to sit there and wait for something to happen. And when it does happen, I have to be there when the family gets there. And I have to tell them that everything went peacefully, and that she suffered no pain. I know this process all too well because I've been through it, even with my own family members.

After speaking to one of this lady's precious children, I knew he had no idea what was ahead of him. He's going off what the doctor's say, and he's wise enough to know when to say "no, Mother wouldn't want that, it will just pro-long the inevitable." What he doesn't know is how hard this next week is going to be. I know an approximate time table of the events that are about to unfold for this family, and they are asking me questions about what happens next. How do you tell someone the next step is complete kidney failure, or she's going to go into a coma and be taking her turn towards Heaven? How do you tell 5 grown people that their mother, who has lived 91 wonderful years is suddenly not going to live past a week? Even more weird is when they ask you what they should do next.

I got on the elevator this morning and cried. Because I know how that family member feels and I know their anticipation of something might turn around. I have a great respect for death and the peace that it brings to your body when you've been suffering. You're released from this earth into Heaven, and there has to be no greater joy. My job here on earth is to make your suffering body at least as comfortable as you can be before you're released. There's no greater joy and yet pain to tell your loved one that it's okay, they can go on. I know there's a heaven because I see it through my patients. You see them connecting with some great beyond, and to this day I've never seen anyone frowning as they pass on. Even with faith on your side you have no concept of what Heaven is going to be like, but in my line of work you get to see the reaction of what someone else is seeing as they cross that barrier.

So to be blunt, my job is not bad and I really do enjoy it. But when it comes to times like this, I hate it.

Karabeth and Karen, please send your prayers for Mrs. Ruby Robertson and her family right now.

Where have you been all my life?

It's been a while since little ole me has been to Blogger-land. I know ya'll need catching up so here goes a list:

1) Finished up my second to last semester of college two days ago. All I have left is finals, next semester, and Im home free. Yippeee....
2) Ended the almost 2 year relationship with Alex back in October. It was a hard decision but our lives just were not going in the same direction.
3) Managed to work 4 different part-time jobs in the past 3 months and still barely have enough money every month. Good thing oxygen doesn't cost anything.
4) Started dating a new guy in mid-November. His name is Ben and everything is going great so far. I will be talking about him for a while to come I believe :)
5) Succesfully networked with a district manager with State Industrial Products, a chemical manufacturer based in Columbus, OH, and will start the first week of January as the new Sales Rep for the Nashville territory! A great job with an awesome company before I even graduate college, yeah!

I think that's about it for right now. Even though its only 5 things, they're all pretty major and are the reason I exhale deeply every night before I lay my head down. My life is exciting and very very blessed indeed.

Til next time...

A Little Political Rant (from a Conservatives POV)

Even as a Conservative, I stress belief in our Country and most importantly our Leader. I am a firm believer that if we operate as a country split in half over politics, we will present ourselves to the world as a broken land. We can have all the security in the world, but our we protecting our name as the United States?

Our Leader says he wants to speak to our children words of encouragement, focusing on staying in school. He wants to present himself as a Leader to everyone, not just adults. I feel this is important because the choices he and the lawmakers under him make will affect our childrens lives for many years to come.

So it comes down to this: If you think he might say something resembling propoganda, do you want your child listening to him?

In my personal opinion, I don't think he would dare say anything that would come across as what I like to call "Drinkin the Kool-aid talk." I'll go a step further and say that being this is a sensitive audience to speak to, that speech has gone through the editors and speech analysts more than the usual speech.

The important thing I see here is people need to learn how to speak to their children about what is going on in the world. I believe for children to be well-rounded, they need to be able to listen to a political figure speak, understand what their saying, and then make a decision for themselves. There needs to be dialog between parents and children, not just parents telling the children what they believe. I love to see parents and children having different viewpoints, it means that at one point, the parents let the children share what they thought and they didn't make the child feel bad for their opinion.

I am a child of this example family relationship, and I will forever thank my parents for their support.

If I don't post before Monday, have a great Labor Day weekend Bloggers!

French cousins and a trip to Europe

Have you ever tried to learn a new language? In high school, as a requirement, I was required to take a foreign language and I chose French. I never really knew anyone that spoke French, or if I would ever get to use it. The fact remained that it was a romance language, and it appealed to young Allyson. I didn't do too well in this endeavor, but I retained very very miniscule parts from this class.

Well you know how you should really pay attention in class when you think it won't make the difference? Well to make a long story short, my beautiful and intelligent cousin Brooke moved to Switzerland earlier this year to practice her science as a Doctor of Audiology in Geneva. I can hear what you're thinking, seriously, people actually do that? I know, I thought that myself. Brooke is a force to be reckoned with and aint nothing standing in that girls' way.

So I find myself intrigued, and upon a very expressive invitation to visit, I am tentatively planning a journey to Geneva, Switzerland sometime next summer (tentatively based upon my May graduation). I'm pretty excited about this trip and I hope to add a detour into Austria to do the Sound of Music tour. Talk about a dream that can really come true.

Back to my spat about paying attention (especially in French class) I find myself wanting to polish up on my French skills. Here I go using Google translator to converse with my cousin, which I encourage by the way, it will only help me brush up on my old French courses. It's definitely a change from learning to earn a grade to learning to communicate with someone you love.

Have you tried to learn a new language for a purpose other than just the challenge? I would love to hear your techniques.

Until next time, keep me in your thoughts. So far 18 hours ain't so bad on this girl, but crazier things have happened.

Bonne nuit,
Allyson