When I looked at the last time I posted I was completely shocked! It started with the need to lock myself in a room to finish about 80 pages of translated, technical Swedish, and then my kids had the stomach flu, and then my birthday (yesterday) ~Happy Birthday to me ;-) ~ and well, it just has been a while. Also, I have rediscovered the joy of writing in my paper journal, and well, not as much of the personal stuff ends up here as previously. Which may provide a welcome relief! Anywho, here are some updates and what I am working on at the moment…

•     Finishing survey for group weblog project
•     Sent in last funding application to go to BlogHer
•     Getting ready to move (lots of packing and garage selling going on!)
•     Beginning first chapter/article

As I mentioned above, my birthday was yesterday, and it was so great! I got to have one of those intense conversations with a friend until 3am (and yes, I feel hung over today even though the only substance we put into our bodies was chocolate and diet coke). Also spent a lot of the day thinking about cause and effect. There was a show on tv which took the host through death row in a midwestern jail. I am against the death penalty, but that is not really the point of this  particular train of thought. The man had to put a thick vest on and safety glasses to protect himself from being stabbed or darted while walking down the corridor of death row. Watching him putting on layers of protective clothing made me think about a time when I was working in the hospital when I had to do a similar thing. At the time, I was floating the hospital, which meant that I was going where ever they needed me at the time. I was called down to a floor I had not worked earlier and asked to take the vital signs of everyone on the ward every three hours. Being the somewhat scattered person that I am, I did this without really paying much attention to the outside of the rooms before entering. After completing about half of the patient’s charting, a nurse came up to me and asked me if Mr. X had tried to bite me or spit at me. I looked at him confused and said of course not, Mr. X was very friendly and joked with me as I took his blood pressure. The nurse told me I was the first the man has not done this too since he entered the ward. I looked over to his room and noticed for the first time that there was a cart at his door with full protective gear that I *should* have put on before I entered. (Yes, I really can be that scattered). You see, the man had AIDS. I had nothing to worry about because he had not tried to bite me or spit and I just took his blood pressure and temp. (little disclaimer, I KNOW that having AIDS does not make you do these things. I knew some very lovely people who suffered from this disease. IT was this particular man who was not the most friendly.) I believe that the reason this man could be friendly and joke with me was because, to me, he was a person like anyone else. He was not defined by his disease and should not have his dignity taken away because of our fear. And yes, it is important to wear gloves and protect yourself when treating very ill patients, but full body armor is not needed to take a person’s blood pressure. I wonder if part of the problem on that  death row is that all the inmates were defined by their sentence.  There are no easy answers to the justice system…not by any stretch of the imagination, but I have to believe that we are doing something wrong. When I compare to the Swedish system which has much more lenient penalties – but also much less crime, I wonder if the breakdown in the justice system comes when people stop feeling worthy and start believing they are the monsters we label them.