NO PENNIES PLEASE!!!!

The Jay Foshee Gazette Weekly Email 

Series 13 Issue #105

October 30th, 2013

H A P P Y    H A L L O W E E N !!!!!

Costumes have come a long way. The other day I went to a Halloween event with the girls in their pumpkin costumes. 

Man costumes have come a long way since my day. They are now made of all sorts of different materials and do so many things. I mean some had lights. There was a stay puft marshmallow man with a fan built in to keep him inflated. I remember how most years we had to decide if we were going as a ghost (a sheet) or a hobo (a handkerchief on a stick) or if we would get one of those plastic masks with the elastic string from Freds for 3.oo! I mean I remember when I was like 8 or 9 and Kooky Spooks was the most advanced costume around.

                                                    

"BIG 11 IDEAS FOR HALLOWEEN COSTUMES 2013"

11. Wear your normal clothes and go as a JERK! 

10. DUCK DYNASTY (you'll see about 1,000,000 of these 

       this year and everyone will think they are original) 

09. Someone is going to show up as that lady that almost 

       fainted behind the president the other day. 

08. The NEW iPad Air! (you can just wear the iPad  

       costume you wore last year, no one can tell the 

       difference.)

07. Miley Cyrus. (You (explicit) your (explicit) in the   

       (explicit)!) But you should get should decent candy. 

06. Crazy squishy face man. NOW GIVE ME SOME 

       CANDY!!!

05. A t-shirt that says "This costume was closed due to 

       the government shut down and will not reopen until 

      November 1st. (We apologize for any inconvenience.)"

04. A giant cow. There's nothing scarier than a giant 

       cow. 

03. Ron Burgundy (See the new Anchorman 2 trailer 

       now! ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VdGI5-z_hg )

02. A doughnut. Cause I’ve never seen a doughnut 

       costume. 

01. Elvis. 

Callie pulls up, "won't be long" Dad exclaims. 

Last week while on vacation Callie, or Two as we call her sometimes, started pulling herself up on her feet. Anything she can get to she's pulling, the fireplace, the couch, the ottoman, the fridge, there's no stopping her now.

"You can just see the gears turning",  Said Jay Foshee, "She's trying to figure out this walking thing, it won't be long until she's walking. My guess is before Thanksgiving."

50/50 TRIVIA

Q. Pumpkins were not the original carved condiment on Halloween. Which of the following did people originally use on All Hallow's Eve?? 

A. Turnips.

B. Cantaloups. 

(answer below)

CORDIE'S QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"God, please let Mommy take me to the park."

TIDBITS

Sea Monster found off coast of California (http://bigstory.ap.org/article/18-foot-long-sea-creature-found-calif-coast) So how come we get SHARKNADO but this real creature can't get a movie? C'mon SYFI network get on the ball if you use your usual production standards this could be on TV in two weeks. The wife is all excited about the Dumb and Dumber sequel now shooting but for my money the only real sequel to get excite about is Jurassic World which is casting up (http://www.aintitcool.com/node/64649) not sure about Bryce Dallas Howard in a BIG movie the only other one she's done was Terminator Salvation but I don't blame HER for the decimation of that great franchise. 

MOVIES

Theaters 

-CARRIE- Remake of the CLASSIC horror film of the same name. Yes, classic, as in why would you mess with a CLASSIC!! It's the story of an odd teen(Chloë Grace Moretz) who develops telekinetic powers and takes revenge on the bullies who tease her. 

-ESCAPE PLAN- Used to be you couldn't walk down the street and hear about a movie with either Arnold Schwarzenegger or Sylvester Stallone if it were opening that week. Now here's a movie with both of them in it and nary a word. There's a REASON. Look at the un-original trailer and you'll see why! 

DVD

-KEVIN HART: Let Me Explain- I don't know enough about him to know if he's funny or not. I liked one of his skits on SNL but it didn't feature him and he laughed the whole time. 

-AFTER EARTH- Will Smith and SON(I don't know or care what his name is, yet) start in this movie about a father and son exploring earth after nature has overtaken man many years in the future. M. Night Shyamalan directs. 

SONG OF THE WEEK

SCARE ME- New Beat Fund. 

A. Turnips 

UNCODED

The Jay Foshee Gazette Weekly Email 

Series 13 Issue #104

October 4th, 2013

"Is it true you never forget your first time?" 

I haven't been looking forward to this weeks issue. I've been dreading it all week since Sunday because I knew what this week's lead would be. I thought I would be able to write around it, or maybe by Friday I could bury the lead. Maybe by today it would be moved to page 6 under the picture of the girl in the bikini where know one would see it but no! It's time. 

I've had a pretty rough week this week. Not just because I'm trying to switch my sleeping/awake schedule from nights to days but because on Sunday, my last official night, I lost my first patient. I've been in codes before but this time it was my patient. Sometimes I'd had the people who coded as patients but it was someone else's patient at the time.

It's an odd thing when people die period. This was harder because my patient went pretty quickly. I'm really forbidden from talking about the details due to HIPPA laws but this isn't about what happened. This is the JAY FOSHEE Gazette, and this is about how I'm dealing with it. 

I tweaked my back trying to get the patient on the headboard so we could get good compressions so I've been in a nice 4-5 (numerical scale) pain and had to call in the next day. I look back now and think this was a mistake. I think getting back on the horse. Not just that horse but a new "wilder" horse they call the DAY SHIFT (cue scary music!) has helped a little. I have definitely run the gambit this week as far as emotions go, everything from I don't want to do this anymore to I'm coming back with a vengeance and I'm going to be the BEST NURSE EVER!!! I'M GONNA BE SUPERNURSE! THIS CANNOT, WILL NOT HAPPEN AGAIN!!!!!! But it will! The odds are not in my favor on that. In fact I was part of a code my first day back. The number of patients I see in a year, the floor I work on and as years go by, it will happen again. The house always wins the longer you play! 

If you are a Christian, as I am, it brings of some interesting points of faith. At least it has for me. I'm not questioning my faith, it's not WHY GOD?? it's more of questions along free will vs. choice. Could anything I did or have done made a difference?? Was it the patient's time? Could I (and I mean WE cause there were like 20 people in there with me!) have done anything to change the outcome. Could WE have bought the patient a few more hours, days? Could the patient have survived and walked out of the hospital?? I don't know. 

Some things I did great, somethings I could have done better. Will it make me a better nurse? I don't know. I know what will/does make me a better nurse and that's the men and women that I work with on CVSD and Baptist Memphis Hospital. I turned around and had a handful of people helping and by the time we got CPR started we had a roomful. Of course, my judgment of time is off since it stopped for a few minutes. My teammates were great afterwards helping me finish my shift and picking up my patients for me while I tended to the family and the paperwork.* For me to personally thank any of them would do a disservice to the rest Cause I honestly couldn't tell you who was in there and who wasn't I was trying to focus on the patient. But my heartfelt thanks and appreciation to all of my night shift coworkers for all they did! 

ADDED* I don't make notes before I write but maybe I should start. I also meant to mention that I would like you to join me in praying for this family. They are going through one of the worst weeks of their life. Someone they love has died. 

*I thought there'd me more paperwork! 

CORDIE'S QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"I hope there's cookies in there!" - As she reaches into a bag of potato chips I was eating out of.

TIDBITS

MOVIES

Theaters 

-GRAVITY- The space shuttle breaking apart looks amazing! The reviews are great but the thing that makes me doubt is they only show the same 3 scenes over and over. Looks like all the action takes place in about 10 minutes in the 20-30 minutes in and then it's another hours of not quiet as cool, or good. Although every review says see it in 3-D on the biggest screen possible. 

DVD

-THIS IS THE END- The Judd Apatow group is back and this time they poke fun at themselves by playing themselves in an end of the world scenario. So if you think their funny, this will be funny. I personally don't think Seth Rogan is as funny as he thinks he is. 

SONG OF THE WEEK

Champagne Supernova- Oasis

Manly? Yes! But I like it too!

The Jay Foshee Gazette Weekly Email 

Series 13 Issue #103

September 6th, 2013

"ODE TO MAN"

Robert Redford said it best when he portrayed Roy Hobbs in the Natural, he said, "There's nothing like being on a farm. Being around animals, fixing things…" I like fixing things. Today was a manly day around the Foshee household. I will admit that there a an overwhelming percentage of estrogen in my household these days, unlike when I was growing up. In my parents house it was three men and one woman, here I am the sole man. 

I built a shed in the back yard to have a place to go and fix things. I wish I had a garage so I could fix things in that too! But not today, today I was under the car in the carport. Had to drag all the tools around and make the walk back to the shed about 8 times for different tools that I needed for one specific thing. Dear Isuzu, I know it's a conspiracy that you've made the gap in your tiny hose clips just a hair bigger than the standard channel locks so that I need to buy a special tool to get them off cause there is no way on God's green earth I'm getting them off with a standard pair of channel locks. A standard pair like every other normal person owns. NOOOOO! Why make it EASY to fix. I got it off!  

Anyway even though the Rodeo fought the good fight I won. At least I think, the final road test hasn't been done yet but I started it up and ran it without any leaking. I was putting in a new radiator, I humored the wife and did call the mechanic to see how much it would cost to have someone do something that I knew I could do. It took about 4 hours with a lunch break and two trips to the parts store. I almost had that moment where I had a few parts left over but I figured out where they went. Although I did misplace two insignificant pieces of plastic. 

Here's the way I see it and check my math on this. If it cost me 220 and the corner mechanic(I didn't shop around) was gonna charge 440 then that means I saved 220 and it's FREE right?? No?? Okay but that does mean that I can buy that new dovetail jig I wanted since I saved 220 right? Just so you know the 220 was the new radiator, two new hoses for the radiator and fluid. Even though the hoses were fine I replaced them because if you replace a 12 year old radiator and don't replace the 12 year old hoses guess what you'll be doing next weekend…replacing twelve year old hoses.

I also want to let it be know that I am trying to educate my wife as to the inner workings of a car. I absolutely do not intend for my daughters to be ignorant of cars. Not to say Daddy won't show up in the middle of the night to fix a flat for them but I'd like them to have an inkling of how to change a tire, jumpstart a car, or check the oil. Of course I said the same thing about my wife 4 years ago when I married her. Although she did get a verbal explanation of how and what a radiator does, of course, her eyes glazed over about 10 seconds into the lecture. 

It's not that I don't take pride in my job as a nurse. I do. But there's something instinctual about building something or repairing something. I don't ENJOY working on cars but I do derive some satisfaction about doing a job myself. Building something with my hands. Designing and cutting and nailing and gluing and painting something I've built. I know my way around around a miter saw. 

So I'm gonna put my feet up, have a cold drink or two and see if there are some sports on. Have a good weekend. 

TIDBITS

There's a new Robocop coming - http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=108578. They had me and then they lost me. The last 30 seconds just looked like everything else out there and none of it compares to "I'll buy that for a dollar."  The use of e-cigarettes is up in those under 18, but it's only the really cool robots. (http://news.yahoo.com/study-childrens-e-cigarettes-increasing-170522362.html) Sorry, there's some sort of old person and young person joke in there about technology but I'm not sure that's it. 

50/50 TRIVIA

The name Donkey Kong came from the creator's loose translation of what phrase?

A. Monkey Pong.

B. Stubborn Gorilla.

NAME 5 

INXS songs. 

MOVIES

In Theaters 

RIDDICK- Hey! I read that there's a sequel to that movie Vin Diesel made back before he was a star? So he's releasing a sequel to every single movie he's ever made?? It's about him battling aliens. Unless they are aliens in mustangs and one of them is Paul Walker I ain't interested.

On DVD 

NOW YOU SEE ME- Street magicians in vegas pull of a heist. It was supposedly the biggest hit of the summer that nobody saw. Looks good though. I want to see this one. 

SHARKNADO- As in, "oh my God! It's a tornado, with sharks! It's a sharknado!" (This could also be a new menu item at taco bell I'm not sure. I'm pretty sure the Taco Bell menu item is a Sharknado Supreme!)

*dvd sales releases of the week. Not necessarily reflective of what's in Redbox or available on Netflix. I don't have that kind of time. 

SONG OF THE WEEK

Letters from the Wasteland. - The Wallflowers. (not the one headlight song)  

answer: B

"In Memoriam"

The Jay Foshee Gazette Weekly Email 

Series 13 Issue #102

August 30th, 2013

"Untitled" or "To a Friend". 

Monday morning I lay in bed and heard the pitter patter of little feet coming down the hall. I continued to lay still as Cordie climbed into bed with me and stated that she wanted to watch Calliou. I sarcastically stated "Good morning Daddy" to which she replied, "Good morning Daddy" then reinstated that she wanted to watch Calliou. This is our routine on the mornings when I'm home, when I'm not home I've been told the routine is that she asks where I am, then asks to to watch Calliou. 

As we lay in bed I could hear fire trucks pretty clearly but I thought nothing of it because of our proximity to Stage Rd and we can sometimes hear sirens clearly through our bedroom windows. We we got up to get ready to go to our babysitter I looked out the office window and saw a fire truck, ambulance and police across the street at my neighbors house. 

Last year Mr. Holloway had some health problems and I was concerned that maybe he'd had a heart attack. This wasn't the case. I'm not interested in the details of how he died, I want to tell you how he lived. 

Look under "good neighbor" in the dictionary, er-uh, on your dictionary APP and these days you'll probably see an ad for State Farm Insurance but then definition number 2. would say see Roy Holloway. He was what you'd want in a neighbor. He'd loan you a tool, cup of sugar, his truck (which he's doing now since the Rodeo is overheating) whatever you needed he was ready and willing to help. He'd be there with a wave hello, a good morning, advice and he was willing to watch out if you were getting up on the roof and would call someone in case you fell off and broke something. 

His death has affected me and my family greatly this week. More so than I would have every thought it would. It, his friendship, was something I've only missed once it was gone. I realized that even thought he was 33 years my senior that we were pretty good friends. We talked to each other almost daily, which is more than I can say for my life long friends. SURE, I keep up with them on F'book but that's not the same. 

Cordie loved Mr. Holloway, she'd see him out the window working in his yard and she come running up and say "I wanna go to Holloways." I'd walk her out to the street and call out to him and see if it was okay(it always was) and he'd just smile and say come on! I'd walk her across the street, she'd follow him around for an hour or so then she'd say I wanna go home. He'd walk her back. 

He was the kind of neighbor who if you went out of town you could say, "Roy, look after the place" and know that it would be done. You know he'd water the plants, get the mail, and call the cops if he saw someone walking off with your TV. He was the Wilson to my Tim the Toolman Taylor except he lived across the street and he wasn't "ashamed" to show his face.  

It was a shock and we are still reeling from his death. I've been in thoughtful prayer for his wife and son all week. You just want to say Why? How could this happen? You want to hold them, hug them, help them, just help them anyway you can. They've ask for a few things and I've been happy and honored to help the family through this time. I will continue to pray for them I know it will be hard for them. On Tuesday morning I got up and got the girls ready for the babysitter and managed to forget about it until I walked out the door and looked across the street expecting to see him for a second until I remembered it wasn't a dream, a bad dream. 

He was a Godly man, took pride in his lawn, his cars, his house and himself. He was a good man, husband, father, grandfather, neighbor and friend. He will be missed. 

To view his obituary follow this link. 

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/commercialappeal/obituary.aspx?n=roy-g-holloway&pid=166673242&fhid=5683#fbLoggedOut

Song of the Week

Dandelion- The Rolling Stones. 

A NEW JOURNEY

The Jay Foshee Gazette Weekly Email 

Series 13 Issue #101

August 22nd, 2013

"A NEW JOURNEY"

There's something I like about a blank page. A new beginning. The limitless possibilities. Infinity, just a white horizon with no point of reference. Taking you to someplace you've never been. I was trying to get all fancy with this new weekly email. The weekly thing is just a title by the way, I'm not so sure I'll be able to sit down each week and crank out an email or not. Things have changed a lot since we last spoke my friends.  

This isn't the first time I've sat down and tried to start up the Jay Foshee Gazette again. Won't be the last either. I'm not sure where we left off on the JFG. I know there was a blog which was just posting a blog format of the weekly emails. That's probably going to be as close to what you'll get this time as well. I know there were some big issues, like Jay's getting married and Jay's starting nursing school. Nursing school was pretty much the nail in the coffin of the old weekly emails. I found myself saying it then and I continue to say it regularly now, "when you're in nursing school you only have time for nursing school." 

Well some other big issues should have been Jay Foshee has a baby, graduates, and has a another baby. So now I have two daughters which is partially one of the biggest reasons I have for wanting to sit down and write again. They give me my poetry back most days. I lose my poetry sometimes. 

For those of you who've been with The Jay Foshee Gazette from the beginning, it started as a monthly newsletter for my friends who went away to college 20 years ago, you know there have been days, weeks, months, and years between incarnations of The JFG but I think most of you felt as I do it would return. This last blackout, the last 3-4 years though I think I will look back at and wish I had done it as much as possible. This was the period where I got married. Had kids and started a "career" I think it would have been nice to be able to sit down and write out my thoughts and share those with people and then look back years from now and see what was going on. The JFG was, is and will be a catalogue of the moments of my life. Which was a big problem and one reason why I boycotted agains the digital medium for so long. I know that keeping those digital files of the issues of the JFG will be harder and harder as time goes by. They are a big part of my life. AS I hope this one will be as well. 

So I'm a dad twice now. You're like, DUH! I have Facebook! But some of my peeps don't use Facebook. I liked Facebook for about 20 seconds, 4 years ago when they had that cork board with the flair on it. After that I feel it's a necessary evil. Two little girls. Cordie and Callie. I work at Baptist East Hospital in Cardiovascular step-down.

"Cordie turns 3, USES POTTY!!" 

Unfortunately or fortunately stories about my daughters will probably become very commonplace in this email. Cordie turned 3 years old this week and has begun to use the potty on her own. She's having accidents daily but usually when distracted. It's been a week and there has been a big turn around since last week. It's like the switch finally went on. 

We had a big birthday party for her with family. It was still more adults this year, we figured with preschool starting and daycare that next year we are going to have to start inviting all the kids and their parents so we went with people that she knows really well. 

We had a Thomas the Train theme and my wife really outdid herself with the decorations and food. 

MOVIES

Theaters 

The Worlds End- The people that brought  you Hott Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead. 5 friends try to recapture their youth by reenacting a pub crawl from 20 years ago. But they end up in a struggle for humanity. I like Shaun and Fuzz but not as much as other people did, I prefer Simon Pegg as Scotty!(NETFLIX it! I can't really say RENT it anymore can I?(I know REDBOX) 

You're Next!- A family reunion turns into a nightmare as a trio of masked killers show up and pick the family off one by one. Word is it's great, scary and is a genre twisting movie. (SEE IT if you like scary movies.) 

DVD

EPIC-(animated) I will have to know about all of these movies soon enough, but not yet.

Scary Movie 5 - I won't even type a synopsis so you can save 10 seconds of your life you won't get back. If you see this you'll lose more than 10 seconds you won't get back.

SONG OF THE WEEK

The Background- Third Eye Blind. 

A NEW BEGINNING, uh, BEGINS!

You won't see it on any of your regular news outlets. Channel 5 on your side won't send Andy Wise out to cover it. Channel Three won't pass this on. No if not for a tiny website you've never heard of until now the news of this literary milestone would have simply faded into oblivion.

Over 2000 years ago Julius Caesar was told to beware the ides of March and 20 years ago on this day the world could have been told the same thing. March 15, 1993 is a day that lives in infamy. It was the publication date of issue number one of The Jay Foshee Gazette.

The Jay Foshee Gazette was a small run local publication that featured stories and ideas that were from the mind of Jay Foshee. It was a oddity at that time. This was before the internet, before email, any most people were just starting to get a home computer that ran something called "windows." When it came onto the scene in Memphis no one new what to expect. The first run was only 15 copies but that number soon skyrocketed as people began to read, and actually enjoy The Jay Foshee Gazette.

"I remember some of the first letters I received from fans," Says Jay Foshee, "and this was when you had to actually sit and type or write out a letter. The first year of issues were done on an electric typewriter with whiteout. The second year I managed to get a computer which improved the layout but not the typographical errors."

The Jay Foshee Gazette (or The JFG which is was shortened to in later publications) had fans in Louisiana, East and West TN, and a few in Kansas. Jay states he remembers seeing an article in the newspaper about small run magazines that the story called "zines" and thinking that he was one of the forerunners of this movement. Of course the "zine" movement never caught on and then the internet came into play.

"I feel that what I was doing back then was more of a forerunner to what would be known today as blogs. I fought against email, against the websites, against all of that for so long. I liked analog. I liked something about seeing hundreds and hundreds of the same issue. Going to the printer and watching my creation print out was one of my favorite things. Of course money was an issue too" said Foshee.

The Jay Foshee Gazette was purchased from an overseas conglomerate in the spring of 1996 for what Jay Foshee thought was 14 million dollars but turned out to be 12 bucks and half of a sandwich. Jay Foshee had lost his namesake to a Japanese company which rebranded it and went on to make a lot of money. 7 years after it's launch in Japan though a news agency there broke the story that Jay Foshee had nothing to do with the japanese version of The Jay Foshee Gazette and the stock fell. The company went bankrupt.

Meanwhile back in the states Jay Foshee still wanting to write and share his humor with his friends and fans called a lawyer to look over the deal. The beauty was that the contract stated that the Japanese company only owned the rights to The Jay Foshee Gazette but the contract didn't prohibit Jay Foshee from writing new material. So Jay Foshee took his 12 bucks to Kinko's and launched The JFG after a small hiatus.

This hiatus and this rebranding wouldn't be the only time this would happen in the 20 year history of The Jay Foshee Gazette. Also at the time no one was using www. anything so Jay managed to get the rights to his namesake website. The JFG ran a couple of years then was rebranded The JFG 2K in light of the upcoming millennium. The JFG 2K ran for a couple of years and was the foray into the electronic age of The Jay Foshee Gazette.

"The website was great. I taught myself how to do that. It was great to have something out there that anyone, anywhere could access 24 hours a day. They could could say hey my friend had this website that's kind of funny, you should check it out on your dial up sometime!"

The website had no structure to it. Jay stated that he liked that idea of a deadline. So he went to a weekly email. Something that could be cranked out in a hour and satisfy for a short amount of time and it was not too permanent. Some place that he could comment on the stories of the week, throw one or two fun things in and send it on and be done with it until next week.

"I was getting older, friends were getting harder and harder to keep up with. We couldn't just get together and say hey did you read about this or that. It was a way to keep up with people in a faster paced world. I truly liked all of my iterations when they were on full speed and cranking and working like they should have, but I think that the weekly email was my favorite. It turned into a blog as well and maybe that's the way to go."

Shortly after going to the blog format Jay Foshee met Susan Johnson who became his wife and he started in nursing school. Depending on which rumors you wish to believe either nursing school time constraints or the stress of having your relationship in the public life but the JFG into another hiatus.

When asked about the future of The Jay Foshee Gazette Jay says, "It's definitely time to bring in back. I had so many articles I wanted to write about being a newlywed, being a father for the first time, being a father for the second time, being a nurse(placing a hand to the side of his mouth and whispering) although for legal reasons I can't write these.

When asked about format, web presence, or even mobile applications Jay Foshee says, "I have no idea about any of that for now. I've never worried about it, I'd love to learn how to program an app and finally make some money off my writing-you'd pay .99 cents for a Jay Foshee app right?? I don't know or think an app will happen but I've always let the Gazette happen, I tried things and if I felt that they worked they stayed and if I felt that they didn't work I let them go, I never listened to criticism or those that tried to censor me too much, I just followed my heart and did what I thought was right. Don't get me wrong I understand that I will get the "I love it! I just don't want my kids to read it" from some people. That's fine I made some mistakes and I'm sure I will make some more this time around, all I ask is that you join me on the journey. I will try and make it fun.

PREFACE

For a while now I've been trying to restart my writing. I took a break because I had to for nursing school and for almost a year now(I graduated in April) I've been putting it off and putting it off. I kept thinking if I could get a semi consistent schedule I would be able to carve out a time each week to write. NO. I had to get through training at work, then get used to working nights, then the computer went down because we were remodeling and I was only using the ipad. I bought a keyboard to help with the typing on the ipad. I bought apps to help with the blogging(I am really liking this Aiwriter btw.) Still nothing happened.

I've had a couple of ideas about things I wanted to write. I had an interesting take on the election I was going to entitle "Bruce Willis For President" (Die Hard 5 in theaters now) I made notes and had a good theme and everything but couldn't get it written in time. The election was over before I knew it and not one single vote for Bruce.

I've been on myself for a while now to just sit down and write. Sit in front of the computer and type and let whatever comes out come out. Write a letter, write a thank you note, anything just write. Write, write, write. Just Do It! as Nike would tell us. Yet still nothing.

Then a new year. A fresh start. But the baby won't sleep at nights. Still nothing. Til tonight. I am almost, ALMOST, caught up on sleep and awake at 5am. So I thought I'd see what happens. I didn't have any brilliant ideas or anything just the thought to sit and write.

Back to the beginning. How did I start writing? No big 11 lists, letters. Letters to friends. Here's one for you.

Dear Friend,

Long time no hear from. How are things with you? I hope the family is good. You still at that job? I thought for sure they'd have figured you out and fired you by now. Hi to the spouse and or kids.

I finally made it through nursing school. I graduated April of 2012. I am currently working at Baptist Memorial Hospital in the CardioVascular Step Down unit. I work from 645 at night til 730ish in the morning. It's tough to stay awake some nights but it can be satisfying work sometimes. There is a clamp down on talking about work on social media and the internet so I won't say more than that. Call me when you come to town, we'll go out and have a (lemonade) and I'll tell you all about it.

I can't remember when we saw each other last I know it's been a while. If it was before nursing school, and that's possible cause when your in nursing school you only have time for nursing school. I got married to Susan and we now have 2 daughters. Cordie and Callie. Cordie is 2 years old and Callie is 1 month old. Adjusting to life with the second one is tough so far only because of the not sleeping thing. Cordie has adjusted pretty well. Susan is still on maternity leave for a while.

We had to do a lot of work on the house to accommodate Callie. So so far there is no normal around here. We have almost got all the renovations complete and there will be a new office space where I can hopefully start working on a new blog and other projects.

I hope to hear from you soon please write back when you can. Hope all is well.

Love,
Jay