Best of Luck to you. Work hard, have fun. From the mom of two college students and a former college student.

Hi ~tangerine~, Somehow I missed your post originally and didn't mean to disregard it. I was shocked at how many minutes passed before anyone acted in the back of the room. I don't know how long it was because I couldn't see in the back. But the lecturer did yell to call 911 right away once he realized that something was wrong. And someone must have called, because the paramedics arrived very quickly, surprisingly so, within 5 minutes. The fire station had to be close by. This happened near Kings Island, an ammusement park, so the station was near by for it. I wouldn't have hesitated to do CPR if I was close to him. And it was extremely weird to me that everything went on like nothing happened, like it was an everyday occurence that someone has a heart attack all the time. And no one said a word, not even the lecturer, about what happened. I asked the organizer after the class was over if he heard how the doctor was doing, and he didn't know, but stated that the squad didn't speed away after they loaded him in, so that was not a good sign. I was only one of two people who stayed afterward to find out how he was doing! I think that everyone was in shock. And the crowd psychology definitely took over, and no one wanted to look un-cool and show any emotion at the situation. Edited to say: Maybe my perception of time was distorted due to the situation. But my perception was that people didn't react immediately, and there definitely was hesitation waiting for someone to take charge and do something, even the lecturer showed hesitation, and he was not the one to do CPR. He had to ask if anyone knew CPR! Maybe people were waiting for him to take the lead and be the one to act since he was in charge of the class as the speaker.

Thank you, Mandy.

We celebrated our 30th Wedding Anniversary yesterday. My husband went all out this year. He sent beautiful flowers to me at work. He also bought me a beautiful silver necklace. And we went to dinner at the country club. And in my card were two tickets to the Ohio State vs. Wisconsin football game in October. The seats are center field, row two! He got them from one of his patients who was on the Ohio State football team in 1944. The patient played on the undefeated team with Les Horvath, the first Ohio State player to win the Heisman trophy. He gets these great seats every year, but due to his age, he can't attend every game. Too bad he didn't give us his OSU vs USC tickets for next weekend, lol. (Go Bucks!)

Thanks, Fan_S. The letter I received today said that the doctor graduated from Optometry school in 1969, so that would make him about 65 or so. He looked like Santa Claus, he had white hair and a white beard, a little chubby. No one went with him to the hospital in the squad. I didn't know him at all. I don't even know if anyone there really knew him. There were 5 from my graduation class of 58 there, and none of my class mates knew who he was. Of course, we are alot younger than he was.

A couple of weekends ago, I attended continuing education classes in Cincinnati. I have to take 25 hours of class every year to renew my Optometry license. After a break for lunch, as our speaker was beginning his afternoon lecture, he walked to the back of the class, and asked "Does he have a pulse?" I was sitting in the front row, and everyone turned around to see what was going on! One of the doctors attending the class had slumped over in his seat. A female Optometrist sitting next to him was holding him up, thinking that he just fell asleep (you know how boring these lectures can be!). But he had lost consciousness. They put him on the floor, and it took several minutes for anyone to start CPR. Everyone in the room could do CPR, but no one would take the initiative to do it. I was in the first row, and the incident happened in the next to last row. There were about 100 Optometrists there! I ran out of the room to get a lifequard with a defibrillator, as the meeting was at a hotel with an indoor water park in it. As I came back with the defibrillator, the police were arriving, followed within a minute by the rescue squad. They got there within about 5 minutes of the incident, very fast. We were ushered out of the room while they worked on him. When they took him out, the paramedic was on the guerney pumping his chest. It didn't look good. I just got a letter today from the seminar promoter saying that the doctor died. Here is my take on the situation. It was amazing to me how long it took for those sittng next to him to do anything, even to alert the speaker that something was wrong. And then there was a long hesitation for anyone to start CPR. Everyone was waiting for someone else to take charge. Then afterward, everyone in the class acted like nothing happened. No one talked about it. Everyone was stunned. The speaker just started lecturing again, without delay. The class finished on schedule. The entire delay from the incident was only about a half hour. When I ran out of the room, people sitting around me looked at me like I was nuts for doing something. I just couldn't just st there and do nothing. I am just glad that they sent us a letter to let us know the outcome. The reaction to this incident represents a classic study in crowd psychology.

Thanks for asking, ninelives. It was great! All of our flights left on time and went smoothly. We had good weather, very little drizzle on a few days. I loved London, England and Scotland. The people there were wonderful. All of the people on our tour were very nice. No one was obnoxious or pushy or loud-mouthed, as you sometimes get on these tours. Everyone got along well with each other. We went to the Tattoo in Edinburgh, a bagpipe and drum concert at the Castle. It was fantastic. We saw Les Miserables and it was wonderful. Our seats were 10th row, dead center stage. We went to the National Art Gallery at Trafalger Square and I got to see the Turner paintings. But I think that my current favorite painter is Constable. There were some beautiful paintings there. Pictures in books do not do them justice, as the texture of the paint is so interesting to see in person. My favorite was of the Salisbury Cathedral, which we did visit in person, where they have a original copy of the Magna Carta. Constable I took about 500 photos but have been too lazy to upload to my computer. I will post some this weekend when I have more time to play around with them. I have some great photos. Edited to say: it took a while to figure out how to post the photo. It's a little different than the previous way.

I don't know if this made me happy or unhappy today, but it sure was unusual. As I was greeting my last patient before lunch, today, in walked my former college room mate and high school friend. I haven't seen her for about 5 years. I didn't recognize her. Her hair was blond (she is a brunette), and she had gained a little weight. And she lives about two hours away, so I would never imagine seeing her in my office. She was in the general vicinity and decided to stop in and see me and go out to lunch. My patient was an elderly nun, and she was accompanied by another "Sister". While I was in the exam room, my friend chit-chatted in the waiting room with the other nun, who is the sweetest person you would ever meet. My friend, who has always been a little wacky, told the Sister that she didn't believe in God! And who knows what other insane things came out of her mouth! When I came out to the waiting room, I heard the Sister saying to her: "I will be praying for your soul"! My friend also had stopped by a town on the way to my office at the house of the parents of her former boyfriend, whom she had been engaged to right after college! He called their wedding off a week before the wedding. The parents were in a nursing home, so she talked to their neighbors to try to find out what her former fiance was doing these days! After a lunch talking about some assorted and unrelated topics, she left to track down her former fiance's sister! And she couldn't leave without her usual compliment to me which is really a disguised insult. This time it was about how funny it was that she always thought that she would be happy staying at home and just having kids and that I was the career person. But as it turned out, she never had any kids as her husband refused to have any, and that I was the one who had the kids. Implying that I didn't have a career. She retired as an accountant at age 40 and is now an artist who recently had an exhibit in the town where we grew up. Not my usual Wednesday!

I just finished reading Shakespeare On Toast by Ben Crystal. I bought it at Heathrow Airport on my trip home from London. I was inspired by visiting The Globe Theatere and Stratford-Upon-Avon. The book teaches you how to get more meaning from Shakespeare's writings by looking for some subtleties. An example: When he changes from using the words "thee" and "thou" to using the word "you", and vice versa. Thee and thou are more informal and imply an intimacy or a degree of casualness in the relationship between the characters involved. Using "you" implies a more formal relationship. If a character switches from using "thou" to using "you", it implies that there has been a change in the relationship between the characters. It always means something when this happens. Lady Macbeth uses "thou" when talking with her husband to show a closeness and intimacy. But after Act 1, Scene 7, once Macbeth has tried to convince his wife that they shouldn't kill Duncan, Lady Macbeth never uses "thou" to refer to her husband again. She begins to use the word "you". This seems to imply that she has lost a certaain degree of love and respect for her husband.

I had the flu, also. My symptoms came on rapidly. The headache and the body aches were almost unbearable. My sore throat was minor, I had a dry hacky cough, and the highest fever that I had was 101.7. Symptons lasted for about 3 days. I, too, had shivering with the fever. When the fever broke I was all sweaty and cold. I don't know if it was the swine flu or not as I didn't get tested, and frankly, I didn't want to go through the uproar that it would have caused in our community if I indeed did have it. No one in my family or at my office has gotten sick. I hope that you are fully recovered now, longdistancewinner. And that your sister gets better, JAL. And that you don't get sick, also.

Have a good time, Mandy!

Let's Spend The Night Together. Documentary of Rolling Stones concerts from 1982. This was my favorite period for the Rolling Stones. I forgot to say that it is on Ovation TV channel 274 on Direct TV.

Sorry to hear about the headache, JAL. I also get migraines. I take a prescribed medication named Zomig and it works fantastic on my migraine headaches. I had the mother of all headaches on Sunday night and Monday. Nothing helped it. I was in misery and had to miss work on Monday, staying in bed all day. Finally, after vomiting, it finally let up around 6PM. Then the body aches started. I had a fever of 101.7 F. My husband, the doctor, said that I had the flu. It was horrible. I am just feeling back to normal today. I don't know if it was the swine flu or not, but it really hit me hard. I went back to work on Tuesday, but cancelled the appointments for patients who were aged and frail as I didn't want to expose them to the virus. I washed my hands constantly and kept everything clean with alcohol and Lysol. So far, none in my family or my office employees have gotten sick yet. I think I picked up the virus from the chalis at Communion on Sunday. I don't normally take the Precious Blood at Communion due to germaphobia, but I had to this past Sunday since I was an Eucharistic minister. I followed a kid who was the Server who always drools into the cup for Communion. He's probably the one who made me sick. YUK!

Great news, Charles! Hope that you keep feeling well. Just read about the recent hospitalization. I hope that they took good care of you and that you had a pretty nurse.

Hope that you have a good time, Mandy, for a well deserved vacation break.

Hi Jimmy's A Legend I have been contemplating seeing Les Mis when in London next month. I have even checked out thier web site. They have some really good seats in the stalls, dead center stage available. I have held off ordering the tickets as these seats are really expensive. I'm glad that you went! My husband may be like your dad and not enjoy it too much, but my son and myself will love it. Is there a subway line near the Queen's Theater? Is it easy to get to? We will be staying at the Marriott by the London Eye for one night and at the Hilton London Metropole another night. Looks like it may be easy to get to from these hotels. I think I will book the tickets today, pending your recommendation. I also want to see As You Like It at the Globe Theater. My son saw it this past week and said it was fantastic. It is my favorite Shakespeare play.

I saw Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince today, also. I did enjoy it. As usual, it was a little long and omitted some interesting bits of the book. The teenage love angst angle was a bit overplayed, but I think that it made it seem more real-to-life. There were a few little ones in the audience and they were frightened by certain parts of the movie. I thought that the Dumbledore ending could have been portrayed with a little more emotion. Overall rating: 7.5 out of 10, in my opinion.

Def Leppard and Poison are currently on VH1's Live and Loud Fridays. It's the same concert that I attended on Wednesday. Great to re-live this concert again.

Hi Gigi! Just remember. "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas."

Def Leopard, Poison, Cheap Trick at Riverbend ampitheater in Cincinnati. Yesterday. Missed Cheap Trick because we arrived late. Poison was OK. Not a big fan of theirs. Bret Michaels was pumped up and excited to be in Cinci as he said he had alot of friends in Cinci. He invited the audience to party with him at a local bar after the concert. I liked Def Leopard. They played all their old hits and a few new ones. Nice performance. But I must say, that after seeing Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood, I am afraid that I am going to be a bit disappointed at all other concert that I attend. Once you have witnessed perfection and the pinnacle of musicianship, nothing can hold a candle to that. And I don't particularly like outdoor concerts. It was hot and humid. And it seemed like the weirdos come out of the woodwork (in this case, I think that they crawled out of the Ohio River which was next to the venue, lol) to attend these more informal settings. Too much of a party atmosphere, not enough appreciation of the performance, in my opinion.

Glad to hear that the summer school is going well and that you finally got paid (for a job well done, by the way). Happy that you got updated on your contacts and glasses. Just reminded me that I need to check my family's eyes this summer, but they are always the last ones to get taken care of, lol.

Hope that the second half is easier for you than the first half. Hang in there and keep up your positive attitude. Lots of continued prayers for you.

Thank you everyone who is not American for the best wishes for our national holiday. And Happy Fourth of July to all my fellow American friends. I will be taking my son to the airport tomorrow for his trip to England. He should be taking off from JFK about the time of the New York City fireworks. Should be a great view. (Then I will be worrying all night until his plane lands in London.) So no barbeques or beer for me tomorrow. My husband and other son will be working.

Def Leopard, Cheap Trick and Poison at the Riverbend Music Center in Cincinnati on July 15th. My brother won tickets on a radio station and can't attend, so he is giving me his tickets. Since the youngest son will be in England, my oldest son will go with me. My husband said that you couldn't pay him to go, LOL.

Looking forward to your posts of the quotes, Hotplant. I like old books. That 1946 edition may be a collectors item some day, maybe today?