Suburban Musings

My middle child, aged 18, was in a horrific car wreck on Thursday. One of the paramedics who airlifted him to a trauma center commented that they were expecting multiple fatalities as they approached the scene and were amazed that of the 5 kids involved, 4 walked away from the scene. No broken bones. Some stitches and a couple concussions. Bumps and bruises. How could it be? The car flipped over and over 5-6 times at over 50 miles per hour before landing in a field, 25 feet from where the car battery landed. The airbags did NOT deploy. There was not a straight piece of metal left on the car, nor a full window. Somehow they were all spared. Don’t ever believe people’s excuses for not wearing seat belts. For every one story of a life saved because they didn’t wear their seat belt, there are probably 500 stories like this, where it was clearly a lifesaver. In fact, one of the kids wasn’t going to wear his, and the others forced him to….he owes them for that!

These are 5 wonderful kids, among the best and brightest graduates of their high school. Two are headed to Purdue as science majors, one to IU’s Honors College, and two on full academic scholarships to other private universities. They don’t drink. They don’t smoke. They don’t do drugs. They play music and watch Pixar movies. God is good. He let us keep them for awhile longer.

Now let me tell you about two parents and the frantic drive from a seemingly normal day at work to a hospital trauma center nearly 2 hours away, knowing only that our son “was talking” to the paramedics and he was about to be Lifelined to another city. Panic, despair, anguish, fear….the English language simply does not have words to convey the feelings, as you see your child’s future come crashing down. And the flood of relief when you walk into the ER and see that he’s going to be okay. We are so lucky. We are so blessed.

God has plans for them! They were spared!

And now, amazingly…..life goes on, as if nothing ever happened and the world didn’t stop for awhile on Thursday.

Day One went quite well at the Indiana State Museum.  Its an exciting time to join the museum marketing department, which never even existed until recently.  We are poised to launch a new “branding” initiative, and really start marketing the whole museum, which is somewhat unknown and confused with another Indianapolis museum just down the canal.

Here is a fascinating factoid:   on the outside of the museum is a “92 County Walk”,featuring separate icon sculptures for each of Indiana’s counties.  Some are quite amusing, such as Delaware County (below).  Muncie is the main city in that county; the home of the famous Ball Jar company, and Garfield, everyone’s favorite lasagne-loving feline.  Check out their icon below,  then click here to see the rest of the counties.  Very interesting…..I like this one, too

A line from an old poem I wrote…”time slips by so very fast, and before you know it, the present’s past…”

How true when it comes to our children!  I’ve starting to feel very sad about my son growing, graduating, and moving on, like my mothering duties are finished.  His girlfriend is where he gets all his advise and has all his conversations with now.  I miss him.

At the same time, my daughter is all grown up, graduating college and starting a job already.  *sigh*  They really do go so fast.  My fragile self esteem is hurting, from being discarded by my employer and to some extent, now my children.

Week 8 of unemployment…how time does fly, and yet drag, at the same time.  The museum job still looks like it will happen;  had a great meeting with the president the other day!  But lots of “red tape” to slog through first….could be another 2 weeks before they get approvals, make the decision and get me hired. *sigh*

Meanwhile, a few random things from the week:

• Touch-up painted trim throughout the house;  wall touch-ups next
• Cleaned out fish aquarium;  I hate that job!  Looks much better.
• Took neighbor to the airport and Gramma Pat clothes shopping (there’s a whole ‘nother story )
• Had a couple great long walks with the 3 dogs (they like me being home)
• K3, the youngest, is every bit as awful at age 14 as he was at age 2, lacking respect for me, etc..
• Finished my master’s class on Communication Data and Research
• Read an entire book in 2 days;  “Remember Me?” by Sophie Kinsella
• Got invites to K2’s graduation party created, printed, addressed, and mailed out.

Whew….that’s what I remember, anyway.  Add in the laundry, vacuuming, etc…..who has time to work?

Had a great interview today at the museum…with the president! I was very impressed with him; interesting career history of corporate and museums. His vision for the museum is branding it with “Indiana’s Museum of Science and Culture” and I totally agree.  Even the Indiana Business Journal was impressed with him (read here). I think this was the “courtesy step” and hope to hear back from my potential boss tomorrow…..and hopefully they have figured out a way to pay me more than what was suggested last week.

I think the job would be great, so I am very excited…..everyday learning and always new things going on.

I’ve enjoyed time at home; painted, organized, took Gramma Pat shopping (!), will pick up the temporarily-handicapped next-door neighbor’s family at the airport tomorrow, etc. etc. But the money has run out; time to get back to work! Gotta pay for private school, college, and a wedding…..