To My Journal (July - Dec 2002)
![[Flag Campaign icon]](http://a1032.g.akamai.net/f/1032/81/30m/www.gamesville.lycos.com/art_gv/ribbon_small.gif){kind=small}
Click on the Picture above to Vote for my Site
YEAH! My new glasses came I today!
All be glad for tomorrow to arrive when the Salvation Army comes to pick up a load of stuff – the pile just keeps growing and growing!! A lot of ‘stuff’ accumulated over these past 22 years in this house!
The house is starting to look bare as I am trying to pack some each day. I even managed to get one of my desk drawers cleaned out (it’s the desktop I’m dreading! Lol)
We had house inspectors come over this evening – we were expecting them not the real estate agent and the new buyers here for over 3 hours – I was a wreck with the questions and having to entertain the wife & real estate agent – the husband and Wade stayed together - I told Wade no more for me! I know that they are excited, but I just can’t handle that kind of pressure for long periods of time! The least they could have done was call and let us know that they were coming along too! They are very nice people, still strangers to me I just felt uncomfortable. – Also I missed the DASN Int’l board meeting, so that had me on edge thinking perhaps they’d leave so I could at least catch part of it.
In the midst of all this chaos a very old friend dropped by, one we had lost touch with since his wife’s funeral a few years back. It was very good to see him again and hear that he is doing well, quite a lifestyle change for him and his two girls (19 & 11), but it seems that things are working out for them all. It was very devastating to lose his wife to cancer – she was only 37 a very much a partner in his life and business. Just happenstance ( or an angel’s guidance ;) ) that brought him by today.
Apparently I knocked one of the connections loose and we are without our cable, so we watched a video again tonight (last night was Harvey with Jimmy Stewart) tonight Zorro with Anthony Hopkins and Antonio Bandares - both favorites. But I’ll bet that fixing the TV will be on Wade’s priority list for tomorrow – he does miss his remote control! LOL
Got some laundry done today, an absolutely beautiful day with temps in the high 80’s. I was tempted to turn on the air conditioner, but spent most of the day outdoors and cooled down in the pool.
I have been trying to call folks to let them know about our move and invite them over for next Saturday, but find when they don’t answer the phone I am just as happy, quite frankly I’m tired of talking about the move and the particulars – Tina has sent out invitations, so I am glad to leave it at that.
What a nice surprise this morning, our cousin Maranda, dropped in for a visit and took us out to breakfast.
One of our neighbors with a 6 month old set of twins is moving tomorrow so we went over for one last cuddle with Tristan & Hunter.
All in all a rather quiet day.
What a great evening! Thank you very much to Ted Diesel for hosting us at the Roy Clark concert. What a fun evening. Mr. Clark is a very gracious entertainer, sharing the stage with his group and highlighting their talents as well. And my goodness what energy he has – he never stops once he steps on stage a GREAT 2 hour concert, I really appreciate Ted inviting us - - what a talented man. He ends his show by asking the audience to go out and do one good deed, even if it is only sharing a smile – he feels good things in life are contagious and will multiply as we share – great philosophy!
Seems there is no end to this packing! I am avoiding my desk like the plague, but I know I need to get in here and get it sorted through soon.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my big brother Alan ! I do so hope you have a wonderful day, we wish we could be there to share it with you.
I want to thank friends who are sponsoring me for the Memory Walk. My cousin Steve Copeland has seen to it that Boeing made a VERY nice donation of $5,000. Jamie Aguilar (theRibbon.com - an online support newsletter) made a donation of $25. to my online Memory Walk page, and added a heartwarming message. ( you can see it by going to ocwalk.com and looking for my name – Jan Phillips, or our team name Phamily & Phriends) Jane Thees a long time friend sent a check for $100, and our broker at Re/Max Online, Phil Limon gave me $50. I thought when they set up this site I was going to be able to add on donations sent to me since they have a notation of online and offline donations --- I understand now that I will have to mail in the $$ and someone else will update it for me. I am going to suggest that they change this next year so that I can give credit to people right away and keep track of the $$ better.
We have been busy going through closets and trying to downsize. Tina and Miranda helped me this past weekend with a yardsale. I have given a good sized load to the Cancer foundation and have Salvation Army and Association of Retarded Citizens scheduled for this week and next.
We signed the paperwork to list our home on Thursday, they put up the sign on Saturday, and Sunday the second couple through made an offer for the full asking price. What a mess the place was , with us being in the middle of the yard sale and all – I had thought people wouldn’t be by until after the weekend - Almost too easy!! Lol Had two moving companies over : 0 YIKES! Would you believe they are asking over $6,000 to move us?! And that is with us doing ALL the packing, and the boxes are not even included in that price!! Welcome to the real world! Lol Sure is interesting having 4 properties in escrow at the same time – thank goodness I don’t really have to deal with any of it, just packing and chucking!
We had an enjoyable evening at the home of John & Cherie Morris Sunday evening (Thank you VERY much!) they hosted a cocktail hour in their magnificent home overlooking the Pacific ocean for the Alzheimer’s Association. I was able to say goodbye to many friends, and invite them to visit us in Oklahoma. I also connected with Don Powers the president and a few other board members of the Orange County Alzheimer’s Association and got them to promise that they will seat a PWiD on their board this coming year – I sincerely hope they follow through! Allan Miller will be taking my place on the Patient and Family services committee, I think he would be an excellent addition to the board.
Wade has traded the DeLorean for a Dodge 2500 Diesel truck and a 20’ enclosed trailer. And changes just keep happening!
Well, the offer we made on the Checota/Henryetta KOA has been accepted, so within the next two months we will be moving to Oklahoma. So odd that there seems to be no connection for me – just another set of chores to be done in packing and closing things up here. I think more than anything will be the fact that we are so far from Tina & the kids that will upset me, and yet since their move an hour and a half south of us we have become more and more distant. I am sure the phone bills will be high and we will look forward to school breaks so the kids can be with us.
I contacted the Alzheimer’s Association and asked if my directorship on the Patient and Family Services committee could be filled by a very good friend, and advocate, Allan Miller. Allan was also diagnosed with dementia, but insists it is only a ‘speed bump’ on his highway of life, and his travels continue on successfully. His optimism is contagious ! It has been a struggle getting ‘consumer’ representation within the chapter, I hate to see our PWiD voice lost. Guess I will have to engage myself with the Oklahoma City chapter. I wish that there was a way for me to come back for the Memory Walk in October, but somehow financially I just don’t see that happening - again it may be the OKC Walk that I am part of this year.
Gosh, so many little ends to tie up! I (sadly) had to contact the Pharmacology Research Institute (PRI) and cancel my appointment this afternoon – I really was hoping to be part of the study they are doing on Aricept and Memantine. The afternoon was spent on yard work as the real estate agent will be here in the morning to take outside shots of the house. Tina said she’d come up Friday after school and help me this weekend with a yard sale – clean out some of the accumulation of 22 years before we ready the house for an ‘open house’ next weekend. Very surreal . . . .
Our DASN Int’l board met this evening and we discussed the upcoming election and preparations for the ADI conference in Barcelona.
Strange feeling not being aware of time. It is almost like our trip was just something that was mentioned and never happened. There are moments I do recall but by and large it is gone from my memory – very perplexing… I know it is part of the dementia and yet it is hard to fathom even for me.
We did not get the park in Texas and have since made another trip and looked at 4 more parks. We made an offer on one in Oklahoma. Jake went along with us, and we had a good time.
Dave and Mary, good friends from Oklahoma City (Mary is also a member of DASNI) met us at the park in Checota and we were able to visit for a bit. She brought some home grown tomatoes that we really enjoyed!
I came home to a computer full of email and a stack of snail mail bills, but tucked among the bills was a priceless treasure – at least to me. David Hyde Pierce had written me a thank you note for being part of the Alzheimer’s video for the Memory Walk … I will cherish the thoughtfulness of this most kind and generous man.
Also we received an invitation to a ‘sunset celebration’ for the 20th year of the Orange County Alzheimer’s Association and to welcome their new CEO Heidi Shurtleff – we are honored.
Our lives are rather chaotic, this move has not really sunk in for me – it is just words. (It also doesn't help that I have aquired a doozy of a head cold and broke my glasses on the trip.) But around us changes are in place, as two of our properties are in escrow and we are trying to go through 22 years accumulation of ‘junk’, deciding what will stay and what will go. I am unable to participate as I should be in our DASN International group – we have been gone so much and I find myself in a state of confusion as to what is when and what I should be doing. I have obligations that I will need to remove myself from, locally and internationally in connection with DASNI, the Alzheimer’s Association and Alzheimer’s Disease International …. I fought so very hard to become a part of their advisory committees, I feel rather guilty in leaving and yet know that I have no choice. But I do leave knowing that I have been effective in my endeavors. I am not too sure what is in store for me but I know that I can trust in the Lord that my path is going as it should.
My Journal (January thru June 2003)
