The Offer And The Acceptance

bigphoneWednesday I answered a phone call from Brennan, The Talent Acquisition Manager at KU Med.  He offered me a full time job with benefits and I accepted it.  I start training May 3rd to be a Patient Service Representative!  I’ll be checking people in when they arrive for their doctor’s appointment.  I also received an official offer from the hospital via email.kuofferletterI realize they probably send this letter to everyone who is hired, but when I read “You have impressed us with your skills and background…” it felt personal in a good way.

Lost The Cent

orangecentAdd the cent sign to the list of “Things I Thought Would Always Be There.”  It’s still possible to make it with a pencil or a pen.  Here are the instructions:  write the letter “C” and draw a vertical line through it.  However if you want to type the cent sign, the key isn’t there anymore.  The process involves a manual and the proper tools.  Make sure you have a ruler and plenty of thumbtacks.  If that doesn’t work, try holding your tongue a different way and you might be able to produce something that looks like this: ¢

Inside Van Gogh

insidevangoghThis year I’m going to step inside a painting.  It could be Starry Night (above), it could be Sunflowers, I don’t know how many I will experience, but I’m willing to try all of them.  An Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit is coming to Kansas City and I’m on a waiting list for tickets.  This is actually the kind of experience I would like to create for audiences.  I’d like to make a space where people go in and something happens and they are changed… like apples dipped in caramel.

Spinach On A Cymbal

spinachhihatLook!  There’s a boombox, spinach leaves, a hi-hat cymbal… it’s the stuff that dreams are made of!  I could live in a world like this.  This particular piece is titled Communication With Departed Souls Via the Amplified Sounds of Spinach Leaves Dropped on a Hi-Hat.  My friend, Bryan Voell, has a steady hand and a cool imagination.  He is the creator of this and other illustrated works.  You can see more of his drawings and collages on bryanvoell.com.

Four Year Old Jam

adelynnlincolnThe sky was blue and the grass was dry.  Conditions were perfect for an outdoor birthday party.  Last Saturday Adelyn and Lincoln, turned four together and a handful of us came outside to celebrate the milestone.  The birthday kids played with their cousins on the playground next to the shelter, after that they sang The Wheels on The Bus, and then they opened their presents and ate birthday cupcakes.

Numerical Memory

hawkeyeradarI’ve looked at hundreds of case numbers on my contact tracing job over the last three or four weeks.  The names used to stand out, now it’s the numbers.  I write down the last four digits of a patient’s case file to keep things straight with my quality assurance checks.  When those numbers look familiar I can’t help but notice.  Yesterday a different number jumped out at me and wrestled me to the ground.  I entered data from the 4077th row of the spreadsheet and told three of my co-workers.  Two of them knew the significance of that number.

Something Old, Something New


After hearing this you’ll swear the Man in Black is singing from the grave– but it’s really Marty Stuart. This song is only three months old!

The Electric Grandmother

This grandmother started out in Ray Bradbury’s imagination when he wrote I Sing The Body Electric in the 1960′s.  She cooks, she cleans, and she can squirt orange juice out of her index finger.  NBC originally aired this sci fi children’s program in 1982 about a robot grandmother who cares for a family after their mother dies.  You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you’ll wish you had your own electric grandmother when you’re done watching this.

The Recycled Music Show

Bandmates? He don’t need no stinkin’ bandmates! All this guy needs is a tennis racket and a typewriter! Massimo Tortella aka Porcapizza does more with a Pringle’s can and a butter knife than most musicians will ever do on an electric guitar.

Water, Fertilizer, And Music

Plantasia-B3If you play it they will grow.  45 years ago Mort Garson recorded Plantasia, an album for plants and plant lovers.  Sunday afternoon my old bandmate, Danny Firestone made a post about it on Facebook.  I listened to Symphony for a Spider Plant, and I couldn’t stop smiling.  See if you can say that three times fast!  When hard times come my way I’ve got a plan now: put on a pair of headphones and let these electronic sounds from the 70′s work their way into me like a Calgon bubble bath.