Way Cool and Way Hot

I had an absolutely great three days. I went to Cathe Friedrich's shrine in Glassboro, NJ (my workout guru -- I've been doing her home exercise DVDs since 1999) for her annual road trip weekend and then on Monday I received word that I have been accepted into graduate school. I'll be going to the "the university" as they say here in Texas (UT) to become an FPMHNP. What a mouthful. That stands for Family Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner. It's an advanced practice nurse that works with a psychiatrist but performs many of the same functions that the doctor does - I will assess patients, manage their treatment, do brief therapy, and (ta dah)....I have prescriptive power. The psychiatrist I work with may want a pretty close working relationship where he/she is involved in a lot of decisions or it may be very hands-off -- just a resource that I use when needed. Well, I couldn't be more excited. Yes, and very scared. It's a two year program, very intense, many clinical hours. But I love this field - it's truly my life's work - and I'm ready. I realized I'm going back to UT almost exactly 30 years after I was first there and got my business degree -- is that weird or what? How many people can say that? And ...gulp.... I start August 24th. Yes, in 3 weeks. WOW.



The Cathe trip was actually a tad disappointing. She had just finished filming a new series and I could tell she was fatigued. She skipped some of the interactions that usually took place and all the events started late. Now, if you know me, that's a pet peeve of mine. Standing in the workout room under those big-ass fans, shivering for ten minutes or more just wasn't fun. I also took time to talk to Chris, her business manager, like I do every year and he sounded tired as well. I asked what were the next road trips planned (she did one in Texas last October) and he basically said none....they're too darned expensive. And I asked what was next for productions and his response was "oh, nothing special, more of the same". Not what he usually says. Anyway, it's all OK - I've bought every series she's made since 1999 and don't plan to stop that -- she's absolutely the gold standard of home workout queens. Maybe too, I'm just jaded. This is my sixth road trip, after all. But Cathe still inspires me and I greatly admire her. She's so warm & real, a true anti-diva. Here's a pic of us together.



The kids are happy and having a good summer. Nile is the camping fool. He's done sculpture, ceramics and dog camp (2 weeks with the dog). Karate camp is next week. Whew. Dani is back from New York and is out with her friends or with my parents, it seems like all the time (which is fine -- she is 17, after all). Last night she went to the Kesha concert. She said, "goodness what can I wear?" I looked at her like she had three heads....I mean, we shop together at Anthro and you could arguably say that we both have a clothes-buying problem. I mean, her closet is full. Ah, but I'm such an old lady....apparently one must dress just like Kesha to attend her concert. And Kesha dresses rather, um, interestingly. Let me give you idea -- here's how they looked at they left (ha). You can't see her nails but they alone took an hour to do -- three different ghetto-fab colors with the crackle effect. It did look pretty cool, I must admit. Dani is such a girly-girl, she loves that stuff. Hmmmm, wonder where that came from?





And next weekend, Ken and I go see Death Cab for Cutie in Dallas. I'm really excited about that. Their video You Are a Tourist is nominated for an MTV award this year. A lot of their songs really speak to me, I think it's the existentialist thing. It was interesting to hear them explain where that comes from on "Storytellers" on VH1 (a great show, BTW, and yes it's still around after all these years) -- it's from Catholic school. Yes, even when one grows up and learns to reject dogma and superstition, there are remnants. And interesting ones, too. Who'd have thunk it? We're going to stay in Dallas an extra day and visit the Kimbell. I haven't been there since the 80's -- which is kind of embarrassing. I think it has the best natural lighting display of artwork that I've ever seen. And this hot, bright Texas sun should really be good for that now. Good lord, I like it hot but 107? I was out in that heat and it just takes your breath away. But you know what's good about that -- pretty soon I can wear shorts and flip-flops every single day! Cause I'm a student! HA!