Jitters

I can clearly hear the sound of Dad slowly stirring his coffee. The sound of the spoon scraping and chiming in those old white glass coffee mugs is distinctive and clear. And I always stop and inhale deeply at the coffee grinders in grocery stores, the same as I have done since I was little at the Beulah A&P or IGA. I wish coffee tasted as good as it smells. From my memory, it seems like coffee was more of a man’s drink. My grandma Johnson drank Pepsi, so we had Pepsi when we went there, in glass bottles. My grandmother Maginity taught me how to drink tea from fine china cups with the pinky extended and everything. No one, back in those days, drank store-bought pre-bottled coffees or waters or teas. Pop was not an absolute necessity.

That was then. This is now.

When I went to high school the times were changing. Pop (or Soda or Coke, depending on where you are from) was becoming more of a daily drink. Faygo was the choice for family gatherings, and real root beer at the A & W or the Dog n Suds was a super duper treat. But then Mountain Dew started becoming popular. Somewhere near graduation, someone introduced Jolt.  They should have named that pop “spazz” or something snappy like that.

Me as a teen WITHOUT caffeine

And all of the sudden, everyone needs to have at least a couple of pops a day. Some people actually buy two liter bottles and drink the whole thing over the day. I guess that isn’t much of a stretch, when you think of how many 20 ouncers it takes to make two liters. Don’t make me do the math. Please. (Four 20 ounce pops is more than 2 liters.)

It isn’t only pop: There are little five ounce energy drinks, caffeine pills, caffeinated water (why in the world?) candy with caffeine added and energy drinks like Monster. In huge whopping cans. Some fool actually came up with an idea to make caffeinated alcoholic drinks! Caffeinated beer. To what purpose would that be? 

Facts about alcohol and caffeine

My husband came home from his job at a factory and told me that young people (which means anyone forty or younger) were drinking up to four big cans of energy drinks a shift. All I can picture for these young people is a bunch of jittery deaf people (deaf due to the bass booming in their cars) who think their cell phone is an extension of their brain. (This is my social commentary and I am entitled to my opinion. You kids get off my yard!)

  

Caffeine content comparison chart

I have gone on Mountain Dew binges while studying for college exams. I never drank coffee myself until I was in my late twenties, and I am a coffee wimp: Lots of cream and sugar, not much coffee.  I tried espresso but prefer to have more to drink with fewer flavors of burnt coffee grounds please. One of my classmates at Baker College had chocolate covered espresso beans and offered me one. My heart rate shot way and the heck up there, and I could hardly sit still in class. That was just from smelling of it!

What the heck are we doing to ourselves?

Let me first say that I am not a doctor. It seems to me that if you looked at recent changes in health demographics you would find a noticeable difference this past forty years. Heart issues are the top killers these days, as was illustrated in a chart I posted previously.  I suspect that if you did a search on percentages of people suffering from anxiety and panic attacks, you might see an increase in numbers these recent years in correlation to the increases sales of highly caffeinated beverages. There have been some stories recently of teenagers who have died of heart attacks who were drinkers of the huge cans of caffeine infused beverage. Moderation, people. Moderation is the key.  

 Top 10 Energy Drink Dangers

A little wisdom. If you are prone to heart palpitations, racy heart, or have heart problems in general other than a slow heart rate, mind how much caffeine you consume. I get palpitations after a cup of regular coffee or a bottle of pop these days. I can relate one to the other. Betcha I am not alone in this.

If you suffer from anxiety and panic attacks, do you really want to have a high intake of caffeine? Some of the reactions your body is signaling you with could be that the caffeine level is high right now. I have had panic attacks, and I am not spoofing those who suffer from these horrid experiences. It is just something to consider. If you are an insomniac, monitor your caffeine intake. I have family members who drink coffee, and that is really strong coffee, around the clock. They say it doesn’t affect them, but I get a contact caffeine buzz when I am around them.   

Oh, I am far from being a perfect roll model with this, but I am aware when I  drink regular coffee or Mountain Dew. My ankles swell up, for one thing. Since I am older, caffeine just doesn't give me the wake up it used to, so I am looking into changing habits to get more energy. Like, waking up in the morning and going for a walk. Cutting out caffeine (including chocolate) helps me sleep better. Being a spazz these days is not fun, it is embarrassing. 

Things I Have Learned (but don't ask me how!!!)

I was thinking back on life and being amazed at having survived for so long… well, not as amazed as my husband, but still amazed all in all.  We all set out with the best of intentions, but somewhere along the line, I bet we all have experienced things that there is no preparation for, no manual, handbook, or guide, and we live through them.  Those who don’t are written up in things like the Darwin Awards.
So, this is an irreverent and irrelevant look back on valuable lessons learned, in hopes that it will spare someone else the necessity of learning for themselves.  The list goes beyond things like the stove is hot and don’t stick forks in the toaster.  Have fun with it, and remember your own…. Um… experiences fondly and with pride.  After all, you lived though it!

1.  Do not pack personal care items that will come in contact with delicate areas with Ben Gay.  Or Icy Hot, or anything similar.  Cold baths won’t help quickly.  (This is for the ladies, you know what I mean.)
2. When a friend tells you that the bottle of nice smelling stuff he or she has is mellow and you should try it, DO NOT take a huge gulp.  Alcohol burns.  It is a good way to put off drinking regularly though, because we tend to believe that if something bites, it might keep doing so.
3. If you are burning trash in a barrel, do not casually throw the spray can without a label into the fire and stand there.  Do not throw any aerosol cans into fire, they will explode and set the ground on fire all over the place.  The unlabeled can will have something toxic in it, and you will nearly die just breathing around it.  It is tempting, because the fireball that results will be truly amazing, but don’t do it!  (Thanks, hubby)
4. If something is burning that has sealed can goods in it, be prepared to duck when the cans explode.  Particularly if it is canned beans.  They explode any way they can.
5. Don’t walk on docks that are not made properly.  Don’t blame yourself (and your weight) when said docks break and dump you into the lake.  Don’t kill the person laughing at you.
6.  Never use open scissors to poke out the squeaker in a doll.  (This one was passed to me by my Dad.)
7. Never ride in a VW Thing with a canoe tied to the top if the driver loves to do donuts.  Those Things could corner like nobody’s business!!!  It is a lot like being in an upside-down helicopter.
8. Umbrellas, blankets, sheets, towels:  these are not things that will help you fly off the porch, off the chicken coop, out of the tree house.  You will not fly.  Capes are not what make superheroes fly, and Mary Poppins had the only umbrella in the world that could fly.  Honest. 
9. You can read by the light of a tiny night lite if you don’t value your vision. 
10. Sometimes, reading a message written in invisible ink has the potential to start a house fire. 
11. Don’t melt crayons in the heat registers.  They really stink.
12. Don’t use leg makeup in theater on your whole self.  (Nods to brother)
13. Never carry wooden matches in your pocket where they can rub together.  Unless there is lots of snow on the ground to stuff down your pants.  (Another nod to brother)
14. Never kick a dead porcupine.
15. Don’t reach in and grab fighting dogs.  You will get hurt.  (From the only court case I heard while on jury duty.)
16. Do not be your own lawyer. (Same court case)
17. The car alarm will go off if you try to open the back doors of a van while the front doors are locked. 
18. If you are going to lie about where you are, make sure to inform the person whom you said you would be with.  Better yet, don’t lie.
19. Don’t drive through the snow drift.  You will pack your engine, your car will not run, and you will be stranded.
20. Always put gas in your car before you need it.  If your gas gauge doesn’t work, have a gas can in the back.  You will run out of gas in a most inconvenient location. 
21. IF you run out of gas in a most inconvenient location, there are angels who will have a gas pump in their yard and even at three am, you will be rescued.  (Before cell phones, this happened to me.  Prayer does work)
22. If you come across a row of people holding hands and standing near an electric fence, DO NOT listen to them, DO NOT take the hand of the last person on the row. 
23. Don’t bounce superballs inside the house where there is fluorescent lighting.  Or any lighting.  Or anything breakable. 
24. If your car won’t start, don’t panic.  Make sure, if it is an automatic, that it is in Park.  If not, put it in Park.  Then the car will start.  If it does not start, find someone to give you a jump.  If you forgot to put it in park, it is likely that you forgot to turn off your lights. 
25. Even when double dog dared, do not eat a spoonful of mustard.  Or horseradish. 
26. Rabbit pellets are not M&Ms nor are they Cocoa Puffs.
27. Cornering in a car is always scarier if you just hold on to the steering wheel and have to tilt in order to continue to turn. 
28. Bouillon cubes are not candy.
29. Bats can walk under doors. 
30. The boy next door that you used to play with just might be someone amazing!

 (Written 1/3/2012 and shared on my Facebook account. Thought more people would get a kick out of it. Wish I had pictures to add to this!)

How I Got Here

I was happy in my work. Sure I complained and got flustered, but I liked my job and liked the people I got to know through my work. Who needed to go to college when you were able to tap into the richness of information that was related to the job at hand? 

For instance, I knew nothing about wine before I worked at the Brookside Inn and Hotel Frankfort. They took the time to find a unique selection, and then let us taste as though we were discerning customers, and, viola! I was so good at teaching about German wines in particular that people accused me of being from Germany. People would come down to the cellar for the experience, not expecting to find anything beyond a cool wine cellar and part of the overall experience. These were beer drinkers, coffee drinkers, not much for wine, thank you. And I found them a match, a wine they really enjoyed, based on what they liked to drink. It was so much fun!

I could even pronouce things like "erzuegerabfullung" 

 

It was the fact that I was able to do so many jobs at the Inns that I just ended up doing just about all of them. I actually was a hostess, a position that handled reservations, check-in, check out, and also either seated or gave beverage service to the dining room and assisted the wait staff as needed. I started as a housekeeper, so I knew how to clean the bathrooms, fix waterbeds, hot tubs, and vacuums, and where there were spare towels and sheets and pillows. I could bus tables. I could cook in a pinch. I did advertising, created brochures, did inventory in the wine cellar and bar... You name it, I did it. There is a toilet upstairs need to be fixed? Send Linette. Our last guests haven’t arrived, and we know they are coming a half hour after closing? Well, Linette can handle it. We are going home. It got to feel like that; maybe it wasn’t quite like that. But I ended up working and actually living there and it got to be a bit too much. I became my job. So, I moved on after 15 years.

Closed and for sale, again.

The Rainbow Bookstore was a dream job. I have always wanted to work at a bookstore! Like many people, I never dreamed of what the job really entailed. Lifting, packing, inventory, cleaning, troubleshooting, teamwork, store change overs for promotions and holidays. Then, just three months after I was hired, they gave me the curriculum department, which I knew nothing about. Ok, to be fair, I was familiar with some Sunday school materials. But, deadlines and organization were not my strong suit. Curriculum is all about deadlines and organization.  

Still, there I was, being taught by the boss and the office manager about managing inventory and deadlines and making calendars. I was learning from each vender each and every year of work, learning from my church accounts and finding new ways to match people up with the program that best fit their needs. I grew, out of sheer fun, the Vacation Bible School event. I enjoyed the gizmos and gadgets and the energy these programs gave to the churches and to the kids who got to go and be a part of the program. The photos, the memories, the stories, my friends, all shaped me to someone who could not be happier than I was doing what I was and knowing who I knew.

Set up for Vacation Bible School

I love to read, but never was really in a position where I could share my favorite authors and find a match what the customer preferred before I worked at the Rainbow Bookstore. How awesome it was to help young readers find new authors and enjoy the stories I fell in love with!  It amazed me. It was such a good thing, a wonderful feeling, to work with hands on books, reading and listening and looking for new books by beloved authors and reading some more. I learned so much from being there! To learn that there were books that would be full of help for people who are grieving, who may have had a miscarriage or lost their spouse. To find that there were stories to support teens in making choices not to be cutters or how to watch out for their friends with signs to be aware of for drinking, abuse and even suicide. And to find out that there was some pretty awesome science fiction available there too!

I loved the gifts, the new lines and colors and shapes and creative things that came out each season. I loved the energy, I loved being able to help people out with questions about bibles and studies and resources that help benefit their studies. I loved the music, and I can still smell hot spiced cider and hear the Christmas music.

Books were rapidly becoming replaced by the Kindle and similar items. Music was downloaded, which gave the benefit of not having to purchase an entire album when there was only one song desired. Ordering online trumped most pricing breaks we could do. Suddenly, an old established business was a house of cards, we felt it falling, but didn’t know until the very end that it was the very end. My heart is still broken. It was not fair.

What you take from the work you do can equal a college degree easily. You learn about people. You learn about the thankless dirty work that is a part of the whole, and you do it, and get some satisfaction when it is noticed by the strangers who walk through your door. How some people are just unhappy, it is nothing personal, and it might be because something really difficult and terrible had happened in their lives and they just haven’t been able to go beyond their hurt. Some people just relate to other people by being difficult, and if you figure that out and rise to their challenge, you are suddenly their friend and they seek you out each time they come! Oh, the people skills you get from being in retail and hospitality! Worth its weight in gold!

There is a quite transformation in our lives that suddenly stole these much loved jobs away. A revolution, a huge change in how people spend, read, shop, travel. A rude awakening. My much beloved job was gone in a wink of an eye. Suddenly, the old faithful job I could fall back on was gone, too. Closed. Bankrupt. Gone. Business after business closed, homes were foreclosed on, people left to find jobs somewhere, anywhere.

I caught a glimpse of the end before I was totally stranded without work. I went back to another job, the second place I worked way back in the beginning of my adult life. I returned to Interlochen to clean, and that was a pure gift from God, providence to my sad and troubled mind. It was seasonal, but that was fine. I could earn a paycheck and be with people and work.

In front of Kresge before a concert at Interlochen

How pleasant it is to do work, hard work that you don’t need to be on your toes about deadlines and money and hurry, hurry, hurry, to make ends meet! Cleaning cabins is cold, wet, dirty, work. But it is work, with a paycheck, and I was glad of it. I was glad of the people I worked with, because I just cannot be without people in my life. I was relieved by the simplicity of the job at hand. If you start out thinking any job is demeaning and beneath you, you will certainly miss out. Of course, there are gross and unspeakable things. Yes, you will be utterly glad of the shower with lots of soap afterwards. Wear the gloves, use the proper equipment. You will be fine!

Not only did I return to Interlochen National Music Camp, I gathered up my courage and made a trip down to Cadillac, Michigan, to Baker College. I made a list up to present to the guidance counselor. We spent a lot of time looking at majors and what my strengths and weaknesses were, and came up with medical assistant.  

1980 before housekeeping got to wear the blues

Why did I do this? As part of my duties at Interlochen, I was assigned the main infirmary to clean. The nurses there impressed the socks off me.  I questioned them at length about why they chose to be nurses, what did they like about being nurses, and did they think I could do something like that? But the nursing courses in the area actually had waiting lists and pretty tough requirements. I wimped out on nursing, but medical assistant, now, that I could do. The medical assistants today are the nurses of yesterday. They are the people at the doctor’s office who room patients, take vitals, assist with minor office surgeries, chart, communicate, and more. They also can be in the front office scheduling appointments and making referrals.

So, after the fall of my old life, I am now living a new life as a Certified Medical Assistant. I am working with people, which I love. Sometimes I talk too much because in my old jobs, talking was a big part of things. But because of my old jobs, I can gather information that helpful in clarifying what the patients need. There are hard times, scary times in this work. This is not work I would have imagined myself doing, but I am glad of it.

 It took me quite a while to complete this two year program. I am  a little slow, and math was still a challenge. I wanted to make sure I understood things, that I could safely care for people. At 51 years old, I graduated with an Associate in Applied Science. Two months later, I passed the certification exam.

And now, I am writing a blog. 

Tom's Bee Story

 My wife thought that people would be interested in hearing my bee sting allergy story.

  Last summer I was walking behind the house when without warning, a bee stung me on the top of the head. Since I had been stung the previous year without any adverse effect my first thought was to grab the weapon of my choice and return to the area to seek revenge. As I exited the house armed for bees I suddenly realized that something felt wrong. I went back and looked in the mirror. My entire head was as red as a tomato. I turned to my wife and said, “look at my face."

 She responded, "Emergency room?"

 "Yes"

 We jumped into the van with my wife in the driver's seat and set out for the hospital. We soon were behind a slow moving motorhome. I said "Pass it"

 My wife said "I don't want to get a ticket"

 "PASS IT!"

(Lin: I had a hard time believing that anything was really seriously wrong. Tom is the kind of fellow that is hard to kill. It didn’t really dawn on me how serious this all was until later.)

 I tried to keep myself as mad as possible on the way since I knew that adrenalin could help but it was hard to concentrate. Even though it was only about eight miles it seemed to take forever.

As we went I was not afraid of dying, but I prayed "God I'm not ready to leave Lin yet."

At the corner just over a mile from the hospital we ended up behind a truck pulling a boat there was no way around until they had cleared the corner.

(Lin: This was when I was beginning to believe things were worse than I imagined. I began to be scared.)

At the bottom of hospital hill, a quarter of a mile from the hospital, the world went white. Just faint outlines on a white wall.

 At the hospital Lin pulled up to the door and asked if I could make it in on my own I said yes and staggered in through the door and yelled across to the lady behind the counter "Bee sting allergy, I’ve been stung!" I lurched over and grabbed on to the counter to keep from falling down.

 She said" Are you having trouble breathing?"

 "I can hardly stand up."

 She grabbed a wheel chair and slid it under me. As soon as my butt hit the seat I passed out for the first time in my life. I came to a couple of times on the way to the emergency room and passed out again.

(Lin: I came running in after parking the car and tried to help get Tom’s feet right in the wheel chair. The nurse looked at me and told me to go to the front and give the needed information to get Tom processed for billing and all that crud. I wanted to go to the ER with him, but they didn’t let me.)

When I came to in the emergency room, I heard the P.A. say "We have to get him up on the gurney" I looked around and saw a room full of small women and thought,  "They're never going to be able to lift my fat ass." so I stood up and laid myself on the gurney and promptly passed out again. When I came to again she was saying “We have to get your pants down so we can give you this shot in your thigh." so I arched my back, pulled my pants down and, you guessed it, passed out again.

(Lin: When I finally got to go see Tom in the ER, two hours had passed. The staff was still kind of hovering around but not nearly as intense. Tom was covered with hives, and as I sat with him, they were clearing up. It was like watching measles in reverse.)

 I found out later that my blood pressure was only 70 over 20. They said if it had gone much lower they would not have been able to get me back.

 They put in two IV's and filled me with Benadryl and kept there for six hours.

 I am very grateful to the staff for saving my life.

(Lin: So am I.)

 

Here is the thing:  Allergies can happen without rhyme or reason. Tom had never reacted to be stings before. This time, it nearly killed him. He was minutes away from dying. Thank God Paul Oliver Hospital is only 15 minutes away!

Tom carries an epi pen with him everywhere, and has taught people at his work how to use them should he be stung again there. He does not go out without a hat.

Please learn the signs of anaphylactic shock:  Here is a great resource I have found:

 What Is Anaphylaxis?