MORNING COMMUTE:
Im late this morning. I was too exhausted last night to do anything. I visited my father last night. He’s doing super. I think I figured out why he is at the hospital he is at. It appears that his doctor at the nursing home works there. I knew there was something familiar about his name! I used to work at Maryland General Hospital as a Medical Technologist and would get samples from his patients all the time. He has a very unique name. I think he is Filipino. I believe the situation is as my father said. He is soley there to use there equipment. Nursing homes usually just have basic medical equipment. Like at Northwest Hospital he was not hooked up to any sophisticated medical equipment. His doctor said he expects him to be out in a day or two. I

WHAT IM WEARING:
Today, I have on a heavy pink and white hoodie, blue jeans, and Dr. Scholls Attribute tennis shoes.

WALKING LOG
STEPS....9696
MILES....3.67
CALORIES BURNED....395

MORNING COMMUTE:
It is extremely cold outside this morning. The simple tactic I employed to be on time for work appears to still be working. The simple tactic is to bathe and iron my clothes the night before as oppossed to during the morning. Again the #20 driver was a woman who looks like Pearl Bailey with a small afro. When I got to the light rail station at 6:08 I was feeling apprehensive. The reason being was that there was not a single soul in sight. The reason for this I assumed was that the train had arrived earlier than scheduled. I was relieved a few minutes later when people started to arrive at the light rail stop. Then I looked down the street and saw that a train was on its way. It looks like I will be on time for work three days in a row.

DAD IN ICU
Yesterday, I visited my father in the ICU of Maryland General Hopsital. He appears to be doing well. I gave him the cookies I was going to bring him at the nursing home. He was in good spirits. He was breathing normally. In my opinion he was the least sickest person in the ICU. When I left I saw the ICU doctor he told me that they were going to move him to a room on the floor. This is good. That means they may release him soon. According to my niece who is an ICU nurse she says that once he is on the floor they will observe him for 24 hours then determine if he should stay or be released.

I had not stepped foot in that particular hospital since I used to work there a decade ago. I felt a little disturbed that the nursing home refused to tell his ICU doctor what medicines they were giving him. Eventually, they relented and told him. I feel this is extremely odd. For all we know they could have been giving him the wrong meds and not bothering to check what they give patients. This is very dangerous. My father is a heart patient he also had a bad reaction to a heart medication called Coreg. I am 100% positive that he will be released soon. I will visit him again today with Pepprich Farms oatmeal raison cookies.

Oddly, yesterday I was trying to call my cousin Darlene to tell her what happened. The only thing was that I had misstyped her number into my computer. Luckily almost as if by magic she called me up. Then I told her what happened to my father.

AMERICAN IDOL
I missed watching it yesterday because of the drama that was going on at the nursing home with them not telling where they had moved my father. Tonights installment featured the women. In my opinion almost all the female singers were horrible. The reason being is that they made poor song choices that did not suit there voices. I still do not have a favourite male or female singer.

WHAT IM WEARING:
Today, I have on a blue tweed zip up funnel neck sweater, a blue knit turtle neck, blue jeans, and Reebok Walk Steady shoes.

WALKING LOG
STEPS....10052
MILES....3.80
CALORIES BURNED....416

MORNING COMMUTE:
Despite going to bed later than usual it looks like I will be on time for work two days in row.

Yesterday, the light rail driver that stalled at each stop made me just a couple of minutes late. The bus driver today of the #20 bus kind of reminded me of Pearl Bailey with a mid sized teeny weeny afro. The Republican nominee for city council in my district got on the bus. He usually takes the bus everywhere. I believe he is developmentally disabled. I think it was brave of him to run for office despite the odds. My district is predominently Democratic and African American. This morning my right hand is not tingling like it was yesterday. I believe I found out the cause of the tingling hand when I went to visit my father yesterday.

NURSING HOME SHOCK!
Everyday after work I head over to the nursing home to check on my Dad before I start dinner. His nursing home is just up the street from where I live. So its not an out of the way place for me to visit. The total walking time from the nursing home to my home is about eight minutes.

Anyway, I went to visit him as I usually do and found to my shock that he was not there. I asked the male nurse who works on floor and sees me daily. He asked my name. I told him. He checked his book and told me that he could not tell me where my father was because my name was not on the list of people who he was authorized to give information to. The only people on that list are my sister and my two nieces. This is extremely ironic because they rarely visit him. In fact they have never seen him since he moved into the nursing home. Im the only one who is there daily. I felt left out and dejected.

Maybe they all hate me and feel Im not worthy of knowing what is going on with my father. Im feeling miserable for being shut out. The only consolation I have is that my brother and my nephew were also left off the list. The male nurse was nice enough to see the situation that was going on and gave me my nieces phone number to call. He told me that they had contacted her this morning to tell her they moved him. I was surprised by this because her phone has been disconnected. It was her super secret cell phone number that he gave me. The only way I can get contact information from her is not from her but her sister. I feel that she does not for some reason like me. I wonder what it was I did to maker her shut me out of my own fathers life as well as her own. Whenever I come over to visit she usually hides out in her room. Everyone says HI in the house except her. Why does she hate me?

Anyway, I e-mailed my other niece and she told me that she did not know anything until she came in. She got a text message from her sister but it did not say what hospital my father was in. I was paralyzed with fear. I was stuttering when I was talking to the other sister. It was so severe that my niece thought the phone was breaking up. She had no idea that when nervous, frightened, etc. I stutter.

WHAT IM WEARING:
Today I have on a 3/4 sleeve light blue v-neck sweater, a blue and white pinstripe blouse underneath, and stone washed jeans along with Athletic Works Joanie running shoe.

WALKING LOG
STEPS....11738
MILES....4.44
CALORIES BURNED....496

WALKING LOG
STEPS....10142
MILES....3.84
CALORIES BURNED....439

MORNING COMMUTE:
As previously predicted I am slightly out of it this morning. I stayed up late to watch the Academy Awards. I am both late and sleepy.

WHAT IM WEARING:
Today, I have on black slacks, a yellow ochre mock turtleneck, a dark multi-coloured v-neck sweater with slight bell shaped sleeves. On my feet are black leather lace up shoes.

WALKING LOG
STEPS....8546
MILES....3.23
CALORIES BURNED....349

SUNDAY
Today I missed Church. Instead I visited my sister and bought over KFC and played with my grand niece, Shay.

As I was half way up the street heading home from there house I realized that I left my handbag at there house so I had to turn back and retrieve it. Sadly, I missed my bus and had to wait an hour to catch the next one. I had intended to be downtown to visit my father around 6pm. I did not get there until after 7pm. I bought three boxes of cookies for him, Lorna Doone’s, Nilla Wafers, and Peppridge Farms Oatmeal raisin cookies. He immedialty selected the Lorna Doones. I suppose he likes cookies that are not too sweet. His other favorite cookie are graham crackers. He told me to take the other boxes back because he was afraid that they might attract mice or something. I did not get home until around 9:20. I got home in time to see Tilda Swinton win for Best Supporting Actress. I never realized how tall and pale she is. I have a feeling I will be later than usual tomorrow for work. In years past I would take the day after the Academy Awards off because I like to watch it until the bitter end. I did the same tonight but I forgot to schedule the following Monday off. I suppose I will be half awake tomorrow...

WALKING LOG
STEPS....14221
MILES....5.76
CALORIES BURNED....627

SATURDAY
I was supposed to have come into work this morning but I overslept. I ended up visiting both my sister over her house and my father at the rehab/nursing home.

While visiting my father I told him that the doctors told Alexis that they are thinking about releasing him in eight days. It all depends on how he progresses. I was surprised that they had not bothered to tell him.

LATHCHIN
Also today I watched YouTube to see if anyone had posted any videos about the latchin’ technique for tightening dreadlocks because I was about to wash my hair and I am sick and tired that everytime I wash my hair I have to re twist it and it takes about an hour to do it. I would like to wash my hair without having to re-twist all the hair near the root.

I found tons of videos but none on how the latchin technique is done. I do not want to pay $16 to download a manual that may or may not contain pictures. And if it contains photos they might be grainy dodgy looking ones where you can barely make out whats going on. I did find a video of someone using a latch hook to do hair. The probelm with that video was that it had very bad lighting. You could barely make out the steps used in using the latch hook. I bought a latch hook a couple of years ago intending to use the latchin technique via the directions Ive read on some websites. The problem is that they are directions without pictures or diagrams. I need to see a visual to ensure that I am doing things correctly. Words are not enough I need pictures too. This makes sense because people like myself who have Aspergers Syndrome are known to be visual learners.

WALKING LOG
STEPS....9282
MILES....2.75
CALORIES BURNED....293

MORNING COMMUTE:,Br>It actually was snowing this morning. The weathermen are calling for an ice storm later in the day. A lot of people called out from work. I came in because it did not look too bad. Besides, I plan on leaving before the ice storm started. I told my father yesterday that I would not be able to visit him today because of the storm that was supposed to hit.

STORM POST MORTEM
It turned out not to be as bad as the weathermen said it would be. Later in the day it was just regular drizzzle with the drizzle washing away the couple of inches of snow that fell. I stayed at work for about an hour. My job provided subs for us. I like coming in on snow days because the vibe tends to be laid back also a lot of people dont show up.

WHAT IM WEARING:
Today, I have on stone washed jeans, my suede and rubber snow boots, pink tweedy looking funnel neck sweater that has three buttons near the chest and neck, and an olive green mock turtleneck.

WALKING LOG
STEPS....8331
MILES....2.39
CALORIES BURNED....287

MORNING COMMUTE:
I felt extremely apprehensive about leaving out this morning. Last night it was snowing and as I came in the steps were covered with a sheet of ice. This of course freaked me out what with falling down the icy steps last week. So I salted them down using up all my table salt. The snow was not sticking to anything on the sidewalks just our marble steps. I did not want to have a repeat of what happened last week. My bum seriously hurted for days after the fall last week. So I was late nervously watching the news reports of school closings and delays and street reporters telling to be cautious of icy streets and sidewalks. My heart was filled with terror and dread as I opened the front door. Miraculously, the sidewalks were devoid of snow and the steps were filled with salt, all the ice melted. I was struck with panic over nothing. I do not think it wise to remove the salt just yet as another wintry mix is predicted for tomorrow.

AMERICAN IDOL
I do not watch much TV in real time. My primary TV is my laptop. I love the accesibilty of watching shows at my convenience. The only show that I actually make a point of watching in real time is American Idol because I know the next day morning DJ’s will be talking about the show and I like to have an idea of who they are talking about.

My favourite part of the show is when the actual competition starts. I tune out during the audition phase. Its not as exciting to me as the actual competition. So far I do not have any favourites. I did like that Castro/Noriega guy. I wonder if he is related to the famous Noriega/Castro guy?

WHAT IM WEARING:
Today, I again have on my suede and rubber boots primarily because of fear. Baltimore county schools are delayed an hour. Im not sure what the weather looks like in the counties and I feel its better to be safe than sorry. I do not want to fall again. I also have on blue jeans and a tweedy dark multi coloured v-neck sweater, along with a yellow ochre turtle neck pullover.

WALKING LOG
STEPS....10280
MILES....4.27
CALORIES BURNED....477

MORNING COMMUTE:
I decided to bathe the night before instead of in the morning. Im still late mostly because I found myself dawdling around. I just could not make myself leave out on time despite having everything ready and laid out. I will try again tomorrow.

WHAT IM WEARING:
Today I have on my rubber and suede winter boots because today the weathermen called for snow. I also have on a black mock turtleneck and a turqouise v-neck sweater.

WALKING LOG
STEPS....10175
MILES....4.23
CALORIES BURNED....482

MORNING COMMUTE:
This morning I am late for work.

BIG NEWS!
Fidel Castro has resigned as the presidentent of Cuba. This is a historic day. Maybe one day Cuba will be free. In the meantime his brother, Rauol, is still in charge. When I was visiting my father today and told him about the news he seemed underwhelmed about the whole thing. I suppose he has bigger issues to think about.

WHAT IM WEARING:
Today I have on blue jeans, Reebok, Walk Steady walking shoes, and a long sleeve hoodie/pullover of dark blue with a heather grey sweatshirt underneath.

WALKING LOG
STEPS....9634
MILES....3.64
CALORIES BURNED....400

DAY OFF
Its Presidents Day. I took the day off in advance. On my day off I watched Cloverfield online. It was OK. Also I visited my father. I now feel a bit worried he told me that they were going to release him sometime this week but they never said which day. So now Im worried that they are going to release him without letting the family know when. I do not want him on the streets alone. He is still weak. What if he goes home and no one is there to let him in and he ends up getting pneumonia? I hope they let us know what day they will release him so that someone will be there with him.

WALKING LOG
STEPS....8090
MILES....2.30
CALORIES BURNED....250

SUNDAY CHURCH DAY
Today, I went to church then afterwards I went to the Adult Aspergers meeting. Another woman showed up at the meeting. She was as chatty as I am. Which translates to she said next nothing. Oddly, the men were more talkative. Total people at this meeting was six. The guy that leads the meeting, Ari, is going to introduce bullying legislation in the Maryland State Senate in Annapolis on Wednesday. I hope he will be successful.

After I left the meeting I visited my father then went home to watch the episode of Ashes to Ashes. As usual Gene Hunt rocks!

WALKING LOG
STEPS....8122
MILES....2.31
CALORIES BURNED....258

Today, I visited Dad. Then afterwards I watched more of Firefly on Hulu. To find out what Hulu is all you have to is Google the name... or click the Hulu link.

WALKING LOG
STEPS....2969
MILES....1.12
CALORIES BURNED....101

MORNING COMMUTE:
Today I am late for work.

GENEALOGY
Yesterday, I amped up my genealogy research. I joined Ancestery.com. I plan on cancelling my subscription in 13 days. I found out my grandfather Edward Willis’ first name is actually Orick. I also shockingly found out that on his WW 2 draft card he is listed as white. He was bald and had hazel eyes. So I suppose if he had grown his hair out they would have listed him as colored or negro.

It turns out we are descendents of Farmer Willis. The woman Delia Willis would be my great great grandmother. I was angry at her for naming one of her sons Farmer Willis. The man who fathered her children was Farmer Willis. I was angry because well she didnt even know his real first name or maybe Farmer was a nickname? Her son Farmer Willis was my great grandfather and he in turn named one of his sons Farmer Willis also. Farmer married a woman named Betty who died before 1910. Knowing my family medical history. I suspect she must have died of some form of cancer.

My next goal is to find Bettys maiden name. They all lived in Gloucester, Virginia in the Ware township which is named after the Ware River. Also Delia is sometimes in the census listed as M for mullato. Uncle Percy who was my grandfathers brother was listed as mullato in a census book from 1920..

WALKING LOG
STEPS....9837
MILES....3.72
CALORIES BURNED....431

DAY OFF
Today, I have the day off. Im taking the day off because I hate Valentines day. Im sure a lot of the women at my workplace will be having tons of bouquets delivered from there significant others. Also at work I saw these posters up for delivery of candy that was $1. It was sponsored by I think the morale committee at work. How is candy going to increase morale? If anything it will ruin it. It harkens back to my grade school days when everyone would get a valentines card but me. I do not want to relive the humiliation so thus I skip coming to work on Valentines Day, my least favourite holiday.

WALKING LOG
STEPS....732
MILES....0.27
CALORIES BURNED....6

MORNING COMMUTE:
This morning I slipped and fell walking down the steps. It appears there was an icestorm this morning. As a result of this I decided to come in after the ice had fully melted. My left side feels sore. I left out at 9pm. There was still patches of ice on the steps and sidewalks and I was afraid to venture further. I left out at 10pm and the ice was gone save for a couple of patches of slush. The 10pm bus was extremely crowded. I wonder if this was a result of people like me who decided to leave out later than usual on account of the ice storm.

I hope the soreness I feel on my left side does not multiply in intensity after I wake up tomorrow. I feel shell shocked after falling down this morning. Thus, I feel it best to be cautious I do not want to risk falling again and having my other side be sore or worse a broken leg or twisted ankle.

HALF A DAY
Yesterday, I left out early from work. It was prescheduled for election day. I did not visit my father. I told him I would not be over there yesterday because of the wintry mix the weathermen were calling for. Ironically enough, it only seemed to have rained only when I left out this morning. That was when I soon learned that the seemingly innocent rain was the hallmark of a dreaded ice storm! All I did yesterday was watch more of Firefly. I also watched the movie based on the show, Serenity. The last time I watched Serenity was in the movie theatre. I saw it without having prior seen episodes Firefly. I saw the movie primarily on the good reputation of Joss Whedon. The movie was as good as I remembered it. And after having now seen episodes of Firefly I can see how it fits int.

OBAMA WINS MARYLAND
Im happy Obama swept my state as well as the other mid Atlantic states. I voted for him so I feel great. Obama makes me proud to be alive at this point in time, at this point in history.

WHAT IM WEARING:
Today, I have on new blue jeans, rubber and suede winter boots, a light magenta pink hoodie made of thermal underwear material with a white top underneath.

WALKING LOG
STEPS....9709
MILES....2.16
CALORIES BURNED....254

MORNING COMMUTE:
Im late for work. Its extremely cold this morning. When I walked out the door I was surprised to see a dusting of snow on the ground. I had no idea it had snowed last night. They are calling for a wintry mix today. I told my father that I was not sure if I would be able to make it out to the nursing home to see him.

PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY
Today is election day in Maryland. I already voted a couple of days ago via absentee ballot. I did this because I do not trust the voting machines. I refer you to Blackboxvoting.com

My mistrust of the voting machines started with the fiasco over Bushs first election ...um... selection by the Supreme Court.

Today, in honor of election day I am leaving early from work. I did this as a safeguard so that I would have more than enough time to get out to vote then a couple of weeks after scheduling a day to leave out early I decided to get an absentee ballot. The Clintons are friends with Bushs father so I got a paranoid feeling that they might rig machines in Hillary’s favour so I thought it best to vote for Obama via absentee ballot. As fas as I know there is no way to rig absentee ballots, there is a paper trail.

NEW iPOD
Im really enjoying listening to my new iPod shuffle. Just learned it can hold 240 songs. Last night I added a lot of music from my personal cd collection onto it. I added a lot of Elvis Costello from his two disc greatest hits cd, The Clash from there Singles cd (next time I think I might add music from their box set), and the soundtracks to Rushmore, and Grosse Point Blank. Rushmore is among my all time favourite movie soundtracks as is Grosse Point Blank.

I already have a lot of music meaning more than three or more songs on my iPod by Linkin Park, Beyonce, Akon, OneRepublic, Maroon 5, Three Days Grace, Chris Brown, and Marshall Crenshaw.

WHAT IM WEARING:
Today, I have on a pink blouse and a pink v-neck sweater that has a hood on it along with blue jeans and my suede a rubber boots. I have the boots on because yesterday the weatherman was calling for the all time mystery weather of a wintry mix. Will it snow? Will it rain? We are not sure lets just call it a wintry mix. So I have on the boots just in case.

WALKING LOG
STEPS....4898
MILES....1.85
CALORIES BURNED....213

MORNING COMMUTE
Today, I am yet again, late for work. This morning it was very cold outside. I walked down to the light rail station so that I would not get frostbite waiting for the bus to come. When the train finally came it was short by one car.

THE GRAMMY’S
Last night I did not watch the Grammys in real time. I am going to see if I will be able to watch them on the ABC website. I already know that my favourite train wreck, Amy Winehouse picked up a few. She is very talented but I wish she would get her bleep together. Her and her husband are like the white Bobby and Whitney. Her life, like Whitneys went downhill after she met her husband, Blake. Also my boy Kanye picked up a couple of statues.WHAT IM WEARING:
Today, I have on stone washed jeans, a blue tweedy long sleeve sweater that has a zip up funnel collar, a blue knit turtleneck, and Dr. Scholls Attribute tennis shoes.

WALKING LOG
STEPS....10689
MILES....4.04
CALORIES BURNED....433

SUNDAY CHURCH DAY
Today I went to church for the Founders Day service. It was another creative service. Somehow I thought these would cease after Allison left. We are dedicating the parish hall to Enoch Pratt.

The creative aspect during the service was when they pretended to build a time machine and bought Enoch Pratt back as well as the man who was pastor at the time Pratt was a member of the church. I even stayed afterwards to go to the parish hall for the dedication ceremony. I believe this is the second longest time I have been in there since Ive been going to that church. Total staying time thirty minutes. After the ceremony I promptly left for the post office, then lunch, the library where I met a genealogist, and then to the supermarket, and then to visit dad.

Mr. Philip, my father’s room mate in the nursing home was there. He came in to the room and sat beside me and watched dad along with me. Im not sure if he knows who I am or where he is at. Mr Philip has alzeheimers. it was kind of funny. It was like he was visiting Dad too and he would echo phrases that I said. Dad tells me that Mr. Phillip was a sanitation worker. He sometimes empties out trashcans around the facility and gets yelled at because of it. He still thinks he is a trashman. Its funny and sad. My worst nightmare is getting Alzeheimers and not being able to remember anything stuck in some weird time loop.

WALKING LOG
STEPS....12097
MILES....4.58
CALORIES BURNED....492

VISITING DAD
I visited my father at the rehab center/nursing home. When I got there cousin Darlene was there with her sister. Sadly, I can not tell Michelle and Lawanna apart. Ive known them all my life but to me they look like the same person. I wonder if they have noticed that I have never once refered to either of them by there first name. The only one I can tell apart is Darlene. The other two have distinct personalities one is very sweet the other I can not get a read on.

Im deathly afraid of calling them by the wrong names. So for the past 30 or so years Ive avoided calling Lawanna and Michelle by there first names. I think they would feel deeply insulted that after all this time I can not tell them apart. I know there faces when I see them but the names I am afraid of mismatching. Darlene on the other hand I know. She is the eldest and has a different body shape than the other two. My aunt Gloria used to call them the girls.

When they visited my father they bought over a pair of reading glasses for him. When I left out of there around 7:30pm it was raining. I had no idea it was raining outside when I was in the building also I did not bother to bring an umbrella. When I left out to visit him the weather did not give the slightest hint of rain.

MY iPOD SHUFFLE IS DEAD
Its official my iPod shuffle of four years is dead. I feel a since of lost as though another family member has passed away. Ironically enough it died on the one week anniversary of my aunt Jo’s funeral. I do not feel I could bare to go a weekend iPod-less. My only recourse is to go out and buy a brand new second generation iPod shuffle similar to the ones I bought my nephew and grand niece last Summer.

So this evening after much contemplation I went out and bought a new second generation iPod at Sears. It is similar to the ones I bought my nephew and grandniece last summer.

I went home after visiting dad to get an umbrella then took the #44 Quick Bus that seems to run every fifteen seconds to Security Square Mall. The bus showed up at 8:18 the mall closes at 9:30. Since it was a Quick Bus I made it to the mall well before closing time.

I got it in my new iPod in my favourite colour, purple. At first the guy said that they only had two iPod shuffles left in orange. I was crestfallen. Then I supposed he called downstairs to customer pickup and it turns out that they still had purple available but I would have to pick it up downstairs at the Merchandise Pick Up area downstairs. Apparently, the two orange iPods was all that was left on the floor in the electronics department but they had different colours available for pickup downstairs. I suppose they might have shipped in today and had yet to be moved up to the electronics department.

An iPod shuffle is not exactly the type of item I associate with as with as a Merchandise Pick Up item. Whenever I went to that part of the store it was usually for large items that had to be loaded into the car like a TV set or sofa. Oddly, enough when I gave them my phone number the account is still tied to my fathers name. So that was kind of cool. To the best of my knowledge he still has a Sears card.

WALKING LOG
STEPS....8447
MILES....3.19
CALORIES BURNED....344

GAIL’s FRIDAY MUSIC VIDEO

AGAINST ME! playing THRASH UNREAL

My new Friday Music Video of the week is Thrash Unreal by Against Me! The song comes straight off of my my iPod/iTunes Playlist. The song Thrash Unreal is by a punk rock group based in Florida called Against Me! Gotta love a band that has an exclamation point in their name! I first heard this on WTMD’s Friday night music show in December. The song rocks! I love it. I have been playing it non stop at work. It really pumps me up.

MORNING COMMUTE:
This morning I am running late.

DISTANT COUSIN?
Yesterday, I was reading a magazine article in Glamour Magazine and noticed that one of the contributors to the article was a woman I went to high school with, April Garrett. So I got home and googled her name and found that she owned a company and on the board of directors was a man named Andre C. Willis. He reminded me of my late Uncle Randolph. This of course made me raise an eyebrow. Could he be one of my New York cousins? I tried as hard as I could but could find not find any information about where he was originally from. I could only find listings of the schools he taught at. Interesting enough I found that his wife was also on the board. She has her own website on which there is a photo gallery. I gasped as I looked at pictures of her. She looks a little like one of my cousins. She states that she is lifelong New Yorker. Could it possibly be that they are distant cousins who have unwittingly married each other or am I seeing things in nothing at all. My great great grandmother Delia Willis had 9 children. Im sure that over the years the descendents of those family have most likely lost touch with who is who. Then again for all I know I might not even be related to Andre C. Willis. Also women tend to change there last names when they marry. I remember running into a fellow Willis online and she emailed me a photo of herself and I was struck how she seemed to resemble another family member. This makes me wonder if you gather up all members of a family will there be a similar look or thread that runs through it. Would we have similar medical histories, looks, etc. Are there professions we seem to gravitate towards? Also would it be feasible to try to piece all the nine families back together?.

VISITING DAD
Yesterday, I visted my father at the rehab center/nursing home. He seemed OK when I saw him. When I walked in he was eating a beef dinner with mashed potatos and gravy. He had on a black knit cap which is the sign that he had been given a bad haircut. It was nice that they gave him a shave and cut his hair. He looked pretty decent. I hated what they had on him. It seemed to big. It was a short sleeve grey t-shirt and grey sweat pants. He seems so thin and malnourished. I hope that he picks up more weight. He said that the move was unexpected. They moved him yesterday. He has a room mate who seems to have alzheimers. His relatives seemed to be angry at him and bossing him around. I could not tell what relation the two women were to him. I did not like that there was no privacy and you had to share a visit with another family in the room. Darlene wants to move him into a better facility. Im not that up on what is a good or bad facility as I have never visited a rehab center/nursing home before. The place did seem a little desperate looking. I hope that he does well. They said that they expect for him to stay there for three weeks. As Ive written before he has told me that he is not against staying in a nursing home the only issue is that he want to able to keep some of his money. Hes not up on signing all his money over to them. He wants to keep a little something for himself.

WHAT IM WEARING:
Today, I have on blue jeans, Reebok Walk Steady shoes, and a black v-neck sweater that has a white t-shirt peaking through.

WALKING LOG
STEPS....9631
MILES....3.64
CALORIES BURNED....421

MORNING COMMUTE:
This morning I feel like a zombie. Last night I got only three to four hours of sleep. I found it difficult to sleep because I was worried. My cousin Darlene called me last night to tell me that my father had been moved out of the hospital and into a rehab center downtown. This is good for him and me because I can visit him more often because he is now right in my hood. The other reason I am worried is because I heard this from Darlene and not my sister or nieces. Are they not talking to me? Did I do something wrong? Also Im worried about the family mortgage payment and their BGE bill and whether or not they have heat. I wish I made more money so that I could help them and not worry so much about them. Anyway, because I got little sleep I am late this morning. Two days in a row this week I was on time.

STEINER ON...
Yesterday, it was nice to hear local NPR talk show host Marc Steiner back on the radio after he was let go from WYPR. He has had a show for 15 years on that station.

The show I heard him on was the Ed Norris Show. Ed Norris was a frequent guest on his show before he got locked up.

I am positive that Marc will make it back to the Baltimore airwaves. Yesterday almost seemed like an audition.

With Don Geronimo retiring in May I feel it would be a good bet for WHFS to hire Steiner for their local talk lineup.

The Troy Johnson show could use a little improvement. It feels like his show features nothing but second hand guests from the Ed Norris Show. Norris has them on first them Troy has them on again a couple of days later. Also I noticed a couple of weeks ago that the WHFS shows have had NPR people on experts. Aniban Basu, the chief executive of the Sage Policy group, on Ed Norris doing finances. Mario Armstrong, the technology expert, on Troys show. Perhaps Steiner loaned them out because he would soon be at WHFS?

WHAT IM WEARING:
Today I have on a light blue v-neck sweater that has silver metallic threading running throughout it. Under that I have on a dark blue mock turtleneck and blue jeans. On my feet are Doctor Scholls Attribute shoes.

WALKING LOG
STEPS....11099
MILES....4.20
CALORIES BURNED....458

WALKING LOG
STEPS....8296
MILES....3.14
CALORIES BURNED....362

FAREWELL AUNT JO
Today is Aunt Josephine’s funeral. I am feeling very sad and reflective. Some of the things I remembered about her were the presents that she gave. One time when I was a kid she she gave me several big cardboard boxes chock full of childrens books. She could do this because she was an elementary school teacher. My all time favourite Christmas present from her and Uncle Leon were the Koala bear slippers and these Colorform cling ons.

Ever since getting those slippers, the Koala bear has been my favourite animal. I also believe they gave me a Raggedy Anne Doll for Christmas one year. It was a dress me doll where you learned how to tie shoes and zipper up and botton up things on the doll. Im not sure if they were responsible for the Mrs. Beasley doll or if that was my parents. One thing I vividly remember about Aunt Josephine is that she used to like wearing blue eye shadow.

Today is a day that you do not look forward to. I wish I could wave a wand and make there be no more death in the world. I wish we could all live forever. Then I remember from my Church’s annual Day of the Dead service, What ever is remembered lives. So as long as she is remembered she lives on. I left out of the service asap... it was extremely crowded. There was double parking on the street. The cab driver remarked that she must have been have been well liked. I would have to agree. Good Bye Aunt Josephine, you will always live on in my memories.

WALKING LOG
STEPS....4378
MILES....1.65
CALORIES BURNED....175

Im off work today for bereavement leave for my aunt’s death. I did not know that they give you a day off for the death of a family member. Im feeling sad also because I learned that Marc Steiner was fired from WYPR. I liked listening to his shows. I hope that he is quickly rehired by another radio station. All I did today was work on my cold praying that I do not end up sneezing throughout the funeral.

WALKING LOG
STEPS....520
MILES....0.19
CALORIES BURNED....6