KatysBlog

February 7, 2009 · 6:37 pm

Hospital Time

My 16-year-old son has had severe headaches for several weeks with no known cause.
Last Monday, after trying other tests and a variety of increasingly strong pain killer
drugs, we went in for an
MRI (scan of
Paul’s brain). We did not expect to find anything but unfortunately an unidentified mass
showed up. Our family has been experiencing a wild medical adventure since
those results came back.

I am writing from Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital
in Palo Alto, California, where we have been since Thursday morning. World-class medical
excellence aside, Packard is a marvelous place for kids, sick or well. The walls are covered
with colorful and interesting art (both originals created to illustrate well-known children’s books and traditional works from many cultures), there are videos on demand, a computer game
room, small and large indoor and outdoor play areas. Our family used Packard hospital for the
first time just after Paul was born in 1998, after this hospital opened. Packard
hospital has continued to grow and (from the large areas now covered with white plastic
sheeting from which construction sounds) growth continues today.

The day before his surgery, we checked in to Packard and Paul’s grandparents visited. Paul
spent the evening (between medical tests) dragging his grandmother to the game room and
watching “Spiderman 3” and “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” on the
monitor over his bed. Since Friday morning’s surgery to collect a brain tissue sample,
Paul has mostly been asleep. He moved out of the ICU (Intensive Care Unit) onto a
regular double room this afternoon. We are waiting for more test results to come back (some
are not due until Monday, others in a week). So far, it does not seem to be a tumor or infection
but we still don’t know for sure what the problem is. The surgeon said that the headaches
and whatever-it-is in his brain may or may not be related.

Thank you to everyone!
This has been a stressful and frightening experience but we have been wonderfully
well supported by our family, friends, and community. Our friend Susan has run emergency
errands, and three different families have offered their homes near the hospital in case
we need a place to stay. The pastoral care team from
St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church is helping
us get our second car driven home. St. Andrew’s prayer shawl ministry presented Paul
with a beautiful and soft hand-knitted olive-rust-and-navy small blanket to keep him company
in his hospital bed. Our parish priests and St. Andrew’s Youth Group leader have all
visited and prayed with us. We feel very well cared for both in terms of medical support and
prayers and good wishes. We can almost feel the hands of God surrounding and protecting us.

Paul got out of bed, changed into his own pajamas, sat in a chair then ate three
grape popsicles for the first time just now. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

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Filed under Home & Family

February 3, 2009 · 2:38 pm

SAMA Auction and Middle Eastern Feast – 22 February 2009

The
SAMA (St. Andrew’s Medical Assistance) auction and dinner will
be held in three weeks, on Sunday, 22 February 2008.
The fundraising event will be held at
St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, starting with a silent auction
at 5 pm, followed by a Middle Eastern Feast and live auction.
Tickets are $30/adult or $15/child

St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church

This event has been held for over ten years. My husband John and I are in
charge of the catalog
and checkout table. In 2008, funds raised by SAMA
went to support medical projects in the Holy Land (Gaza and Jerusalem), Namibia,
and Zimbabwe. Some of the items to be auctioned on 22 February include:

Caboose Brunch by John Plocher

Brunch for 6 on a private 1916 historic railroad caboose (Western Pacific Feather River Railway, WP668) in Willow Glen,
San Jose
Wine – old treasure from the Louis M. Martini family collection
Middle Eastern Dinner for 8 – by Lucy Asfour
Private flight plus brunch for 4

Private flight plus lunch. Experienced Palo Alto pilot

Charles Jackson of the
Shoreline Flying Club will be your host for 2 hours in a 4 seat
Cessna 182 Skylane II. Want to tour the San Francisco Bay and see the
Golden Gate Bridge from the air? Here’s your chance!
Aladdin Fantasy Glass for Children

Own a unique piece of Silicon Valley history! This is an original silk-screened heavy glass display cover from a 1982 Atari Aladdin arcade game. Never used – bought from factory by former Atari employee. 23-1/4″ x 24″ in size. Use it to display your child’s or grandchild’s photo or art with Aladdin, the Genii and other fantastic images. Unframed.
Cross and Chain – Gold – Maltese

Lady’s yellow gold-filled 24″ long rope chain with an 18 karat yellow gold hand engraved “Maltese” cross with pendant dove. Total weight gold 0.2 oz.

Missionary dinner for 6 to 10 persons. Cooked by John Watson-Williams. Menu includes ground nut stew with meat, poultry, or fish. Steamed matoke (vegetarian), side dishes, tropical fruits.
$1000 off Home Closing Costs

$1000 off your closing costs when buying or selling your home with
Asfour Realty at Keller Williams. Contact Sami Asfour at 408-888-7800 for an appointment.
Tiger Woods – Golf picture

A beautifully framed picture of Tiger Woods with his 2006 PGA Grand Slam of Golf Champion Trophy, Poipu Bay Golf Course, Kauai, Hawaii. Also included in the frame is an authentic unused ticket to the 2006 PGA Grand Slam.

Caboose Visitors from Japan

Last weekend, two visitors from Japan came to see
WP668, our backyard caboose. Atsushi and Tab were in the San Francisco Bay Area
for O Scale West and also
to visit the
Silicon Valley Lines (SVL) HO-scale model train club for operations.
Last week’s SVL monthly operations session was held in the dark – night operations.
Atsushi is a member of SVL and helped in 2006 to construct WP668’s very
short rail line. It was a pleasure to host railfans from so far away.

Visitors in WP668

Atsushi and Tab from Japan inside WP668 caboose
photo: copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson

Atsushi and Tab outside of WP668

Atsushi and Tab from Japan with WP668 caboose
photo: copyright 2009 Katy Dickinson

Atsushi in 2006

Atsushi helping to lay track for WP668 caboose
photo: copyright 2006 Katy Dickinson

EDD – Faceless Bureaucracy

My husband John was laid off two months ago and is now an “unclaimed treasure”
(that is, he is on a job hunt). To help pay the bills between jobs, John signed
up for the first time for
Unemployment Insurance
with the California Employment Development
Department (EDD).

What is Unemployment Insurance in California?

http://www.edd.ca.gov/Unemployment/

EDD appears to be a completely faceless bureaucracy. That is, there is no
person to call, no place to go to resolve problems. There
is only a phone number. John had a problem with his EDD paperwork
(he received two contradictory UI mailings on the same day and made the wrong
choice) and needed to talk with someone. It took three days of fifty to 100 calls
per day to 800-300-5616 to get someone from EDD on the phone. He called before 8 am and
heard the “We are not here outside of the following hours” message roll immediately
over to the “We are currently receiving more calls than our system can handle. Please
try again later” message. He redialed all day and heard the “Please try again later”
message roll over to the “We are not here” message promptly at 5 pm daily.

Only an EDD person on the phone can help with a UI problem. There are

EDD offices. EDD office staff only provide career and workforce services but
cannot resolve UI problems – they offer you a phone to call 800-300-5616.
Letters from the EDD feature a post office box address, no fax, no local number,
no names, only 800-300-5616 with alternate numbers for Spanish, Cantonese,
Mandarin, and Vietnamese.

Late yesterday afternoon, when John finally spoke with an EDD 800-300-5616
representative, the problem was sorted out promptly. The EDD woman scolded John
for his mistake but said since it was his first infraction, they would probably let it go
and not deny benefits. She went on to complain that there were so many callers
with all the people being unemployed that EDD was working nights, weekends, and
holidays. John gently pointed out that at least she had a job.

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Filed under News & Reviews

January 27, 2009 · 9:45 pm

Marriage Encounter and Mark Twain

Last Spring, my husband John and I participated in a weekend event called Episcopal Marriage Encounter. Since then, we have joined a Spirals monthly dinner and discussion group which has strengthened our Marriage Encounter experience.

What is Marriage Encounter?

“Marriage Encounter began in Spain in the 1960’s as a program to enable couples with basically good marriages to enrich the quality of their lives together. … The success of Marriage Encounter led to the formation of the Episcopal expression in 1971 and since then EME and other faith expressions have expanded worldwide. Since its inception, over 3 million couples in 45 countries have attended a Marriage Encounter Weekend. … The purpose of the Weekend is for a husband and wife to develop a better knowledge, understanding and acceptance of each other through the use of a communication technique which is taught on the Weekend.”
From http://www.episcopalme.com/NEWeme_about.html

Episcopal Marriage Encounter sign photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

God Doesn't Make Junk banner, Episcopal Marriage Encounter photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

John Plocher, Katy Dickinson, Episcopal Marriage Encounter photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

Love one another as I have loved you, Episcopal Marriage Encounter banner photo: copyright 2008 Katy Dickinson

At most Spirals evenings, there is a dinner, group sharing and discussion, plus time for each of the six or more couples to use ME’s communication technique to share their thoughts more privately. This month, our Spirals group did something different. Vance and Cynthia brought a small book containing a short story written just after the turn of the last century called The Diaries of Adam & Eve, Translated by Mark Twain. Vance and Cynthia had thought to read just a part but we started passing the book around the group to read it aloud. We found it so funny and endearing that we ended up reading the whole story instead of following the planned program.

Here is a little bit from early in Adam’s diary:

“MONDAY.–The new creature says its name is Eve. That is all right, I have no objections. Says it is to call it by, when I want it to come. I said it was superfluous, then. The word evidently raised me in its respect; and indeed it is a large, good word and will bear repetition. It says it is not an It, it is a She. This is probably doubtful; yet it is all one to me; what she is were nothing to me if she would but go by herself and not talk.”

And from Eve’s:

“MONDAY.–This morning I told him my name, hoping it would interest him. But he did not care for it. It is strange. If he should tell me his name, I would care. I think it would be pleasanter in my ears than any other sound.

He talks very little. Perhaps it is because he is not bright, and is sensitive about it and wishes to conceal it. It is such a pity that he should feel so, for brightness is nothing; it is in the heart that the values lie. I wish I could make him understand that a loving good heart is riches, and riches enough, and that without it intellect is poverty.

Although he talks so little, he has quite a considerable vocabulary. This morning he used a surprisingly good word. He evidently recognized, himself, that it was a good one, for he worked in in twice afterward, casually. It was good casual art, still it showed that he possesses a certain quality of perception. Without a doubt that seed can be made to grow, if cultivated.”

1 Comment

Filed under Church

Tagged as Episcopal church, marriage, Marriage Encounter

January 23, 2009 · 1:21 pm

Obama and Shakespeare

Listening to and later reading
President Obama’s
inaugural
speech (20 January 2009), one phrase struck me as familiar:

“We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished.”

I eventually remembered the words in Kate’s speech at the end of Shakespeare’s

The Taming of the Shrew (Act 5, Scene 2, written around 1590):

I don’t think Obama was scolding the way Kate is in her speech but
there is the same circumstance of reestablishing a basis for comparison
after much change. Obama has earned his reputation as a great speaker
and I look forward to hearing his addresses for many years to come.

Remote Inauguration

We were very excited that Jessica, my 20-year-old daughter, attended this week’s Presidential inauguration in Washington, DC. You can see her blog entries and photos at http://feelingelephants.wordpress.com/. Ours is a politically passionate family. One of my earliest memories was glee that my candidate (John F. Kennedy) won the presidential election over my older brother’s candidate (Barry Goldwater), in 1964.

Our family has always been split between liberal and conservative. The divergence of our current family politics is best shown in two objects: a framed picture of the late President Ronald Reagan that my father put up in the front hall of their San Francisco house (intended to be seen by everyone who came over for parties to phone Obama voters, hosted by my mother), and the shoe with BUSH –> in gold paint on the toe that someone gave my father for Christmas:

I was at work at Sun during Tuesday’s inaugural morning so I went over to the Menlo Park campus Crossroads conference room to watch history unfolding
live by CNN TV broadcast on the big screen. Because I usually get my news from National Public Radio (NPR), it was particularly interesting to see how the great and powerful look and interact:

Why did Jimmy and Roselyn Carter greet George and Barbara Bush with a kiss for Barbara but then walk by Bill and Hilary Clinton, who were right next to the Bushes, without a word?
The senior President Bush does not seem to be aging well. He sat next to Hilary Clinton and behind the new First Lady Michelle Obama, so there were many pictures of him with his mouth open looking confused.
Hilary Clinton, on the other hand, looked radiant two days before her confirmation as our new Secretary of State.
It was fascinating to watch outgoing President George W. Bush during his last minutes in office. I saw Bush pat the leg of one of the tall Marines in full dress uniform as he walked past – like you would pat a friendly dog.

It was certainly a great day for San Francisco, with soon-to-be President Barack Obama walking into the ceremony right behind Senator Dianne Feinstein
and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. This is a welcome change from President G.W. Bush pretending that California did not exist. Having Dianne Feinstein serve as Chair of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies meant that we got to see a great deal of her between speakers and events. We are so proud of her!

Except when greeting people, President Obama seemed grim during much of the event. The only time I caught a big smile was when he messed up his inaugural
oath (he had to take it again later). The biggest smile of the day, however, was that of cellist Yo-Yo Ma who appeared delighted to be performing with violinist
Itzhak Perlman. There was much wondering how the instruments and musicians could play “Air and Simple Gifts” so well on that cold day. This was cleared up when it was announced today that those on the inaugural stage heard the musicians live but a prior recording was broadcast for everyone else. However
real the broadcast, Ma’s smile and the superb music were a genuine delight.

CNN in Sun’s conference room