Last night I completed hospice volunteer training for the second time. The first time I did the training was a few years ago, for a hospice that was not connected with a hospital. My Wednesday evenings were spent in that location for just over two years, but then I needed to take a break.

The class I completed last night is for hospice in a clinical, hospital setting. It's going to be different. While many of the rules and regulations are the same, there are a few requirements that really gave me pause to reconsider the idea of volunteering in this new setting. Just a for instance-- yesterday I had to get a PPD shot, and had to sign a waiver declining flu and hepatitis vaccinations. While I understand the reasoning behind the shots and vaccines, the idea of them is not a comfortable one for me. It IS a hospital, so I get the need to have everyone disease free, but we weren't required to have any shots at the other hospice.

Dementia was the final topic discussed in training last night, with an introduction to Validation Theory and the work of Naomi Feil. After watching a video of Mrs. Feil sharing an INCREDIBLE interaction with a woman with dementia, tears filled my eyes and I was left speechless. By using her method of validation, Mrs. Feil was able to reach deep and make contact with a woman who had basically shut down to the world around her. By the end of their encounter the woman was keeping time to the song being sung to her, making eye contact, and even speaking the words to the song. Wow. I want to learn more.

I am anxious to get back into the swing of things. And yet...also a little trepidatious about the more clinical surroundings of the hospital. I also think about how there are necessary barriers to put in place that I didnt give the proper respect to before. This training has put a lot more emphasis on boundaries, and I am thankful for that. The next session I'm signed up for is Eleventh Hour Volunteer Training on August 18th. Something that is really awesome about working with a huge hospital is that they are very organized and are always offering continued education classes. And there is always more to learn.

Jury Duty

For the past two weeks I have been on jury duty. As a result, my reading has been really sporadic and scattered...bits and pieces of whatever can hold my interest while confined in a room with 10 other people (no, I did not make a mistake-- we only had 11 jurors on this jury! Isn't that strange?). Maybe I should make a third list of books that I read in bits and pieces? Old favorites...chapters in non-fiction... Nah, probably not. The list would be ridiculously long.

I am about half way through Angelology and falling into it deeper and deeper with every page. It took me a while to get into the story, but I blame that on the circumstances of the past two weeks. Now I find myself walking around with the book in my hand, similar to what I did with Discovery of Witches, except I haven't reached the point of cooking and reading quite yet...

A Discovery of Witches-- Deborah Harkness

The University of Oxford. The Bodleian Library Reading Room. Rare books. Incunabula. Parchment. Cradles. Research. Call slips.
A ticking clock. Fingers tapping on computer keys.
The occassional shuffle of papers or creak of a chair. The feeling of eyes staring at the back of your head.
Witches, Demons, Humans, and Vampires.
Everything about this book had me hooked within the first few pages, except for the Vampires, which I generally avoid reading about. After about an hour, even they were holding my attention.
This story played out on various levels--social commentary included. What a great story! Suspense, action, romance, occult, and historical themes all melded together to create a rich read. As the story progressed, my reading speed slowed down further and further. I did not want to reach the end... in fact, last night found me cooking dinner with one hand and holding the book with the other. A bad omen for dinner.

The second volume of the All Souls trilogy-- The Shadow of Night-- isnt being published until mid 2012.

California Characters

As I flipped thru the table of contents of this book, I was hoping to find Ruth Norman (aka Uriel, high priestess of Unarius Academy of Science in El Cajon, CA. Jackpot!!! Mrs. Norman has an entire section dedicated to her in the beginning of the book, but this author calls her "Spaceship Ruthie". I dont think I knew her by that name. As a matter of fact, I don't remember knowing her by any particular name other than her own. She was just the woman from Unarius with the entourage of well-muscled tanned boys who accompanied her everywhere she went.

I saw her often in the late '70s and early '80s-- she was a very visible character in town. Her Unarius Academy of Science was across the street from where I was going to school. (In fact, Unarius took up lodgings in the very same shop that my grandmother used to shop for her nicer dresses.) You can Google Unarius for a more in-depth look at just how colorful the Unarians (?) were.

One night while having coffee with friends at El Vaqueros on 2nd St., I specifically recall Mrs. Norman making her entrance with a handsome young man on each arm. She was dressed like Glenda the Good Witch, complete with crown and scepter, and at this point she had to have been in her 70s. She was all smiles (I would have been too...the queen of la la land with a hunk on each arm). Awesome.

The rest of the book was entertaining, but honestly, I read it just because it included Mrs. Norman. Many of the other characters in the book seemed to be blasé compared to her. And my territorial prejudice my be showing up a bit, but I was not that interested in areas outside of my home town area. I read a little bit of every profile, but if I lost interest, I moved on to the next one.

D'Archon

I was so disappointed in Archon by Sabrina Benulis. It was not what I expected. The story was extremely dark and depressing. I don't mind dark gothic tones, but this was just too gothic and I lost interest pretty early on. All that the main character could think about was killing herself, but she was unable to die. Again and again and again.
I found myself losing my concentration and then struggling to get back into the story. The effort was partially due to the insane genre busting character names which drove me crazy. The lead male was "Kim"(full name "Kimberley"). "Troy" is a female. "Lucifel" (read Lucifer) is really a female. Benulis was inventive, but the sad part of the attempt was that it felt like she was out to shock the reader. Her names did little more than confuse me, and ceretainly did nothing to endear the characters to me. I wanted for them to come alive for me. They just depressed me.
The good thing about this book is that it is most definitely not a piece of fluff to be blown through. It requires time and effort. And for me, the story was stunningly visual. I may reread later it in order to give it another chance because I was really looking forward to a story that placed the protagonist in a situation in which she is "torn between mortal love and angelic obsession".

48 more to go

I finished Primary Inversion by Catherine Asaro. I have read a couple of her other titles and enjoyed them, but PI is my first foray into the Skolian Empire. I think I am hooked. What I really enjoyed about the book was the deeper reaches into the mind of the main character, Soz.  She has family obligations and demands that are enormous. She has lost a younger brother that she was very close to. She is a mechanized jaugernaut dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder. She is part of a royal dynasty but wants to maintain her anonymity. She is looking for love. She is a multifaceted woman with an action filled life.

Another quick read that I found on my Kindle and finished this week was The Prometheus Project: Trapped by Douglas E. Richards. This is the first book in a trilogy, and is a good, fast paced story that held my interest. It reminded me of books that I read when I was in junior high-- the kind that allowed me to insert myself in the story and experience the action right along with the main characters. Very reminiscent of A Wrinkle in Time... The story begins with a brother and sister who have been uprooted from their home in San Diego (!) and transplanted to a place in upstate Pennsylvania (ha!). They are bored to death in their new home. They soon find out that their parents, who are scientists, have been relocated to Pennsylvania to work in a top secret facility where something really weird is going on. The excitement only continues to grow... This is an excellent, total page turner of a book to get kids excited about science and mystery and other worlds, and the question "what if?"
I couldn't wait, and have already started to read the next book, The Prometheus Project: Captured. There is no doubt that I will be reading the third book as well!
                                     

50 books in 2012?

Can I do it?

I do read a lot.

Usually I keep track of the titles I have read in my journal that goes everywhere I go (so I have a list of what I which authors/series I want to read more of and which I want to avoid). But curiously, I have not kept a strict count of the books I have read. Someone on one of the blogs I was reading this morning took the challenge last year and only made it to 49 books as of their latest post.

Am I crazy to think of trying this? Probably. 50 books is A LOT of reading. With a two hour train commute to and from work every day spent reading, what the heck though, right? I've already started a couple of books, so I'm going to see what happens. And yes, I am only happy reading multiple titles at a time....