A return to normalcy...sort of

It's been over a week since I posted last, and I seem to be doing pretty good. I spent the weekend visiting with family and friends in Waco. It was such a shot of joy to see them, tell stories, laugh, and even do a bit of exercise! I took my mom's cocker spaniel out for a run, or should I say she took me for a run. It was a nice break form the lounge chair or couch a TV. I forgot how hot it gets in Texas. Not the best idea to go running in the middle of the day. If something had happened, I am glad to share the dog would have eventually pulled my body to the house! The visit with my friends was a real joy. One of my dearest friends was celebrating his eldest daughter and son's birthday party, so I stopped by for a visit and was able to catch up with some other dear friends from college that even sent me a cookie bouquet, well actually two bouquets, as the delivery person delivered it to the wrong house, and when the home owner found it, the bouquet had (and I mean this literally) melted and the cookies, which were still edible, had fallen off of the sticks and broken into pieces to some degree. The company redelivered the next day a new one with a balloon! What great friends! My weekends in Waco are never complete until my great friends and brothers get together for a 3-4 hour session of Rock Band. It is non-stop fun, and was a great healing dose of love before returning to the real world. I was glad to leave Waco when I graduated college, but now it is sometimes hard to leave with the family and friends who live their lives there now.

I have a hilarious story, well at least to me hilarious about getting back to work. I started back to work on Monday, and it was kind of a slow day as I was getting back to returning phone calls, and trying to catch up on emails from my absence. There was a short meeting at a facility not far from my office to inform some of the employees about supplemental insurance options for us. After the meeting, I returned to my building and office, when I was asked about my FMLA papers (FMLA is the Federal Medical Leave Act). My time off was under this, so I have to have paperwork filled out by my doctor to get my leave approved. It had not been completed, so I left a message with my doctors nurse about the paperwork, and did not get a call back. The rest of the day went fine. Ok, here comes the funny part. I returned on Tuesday to the office and as I walked in, I noticed that we were having a staff meeting, so I ran to my office to grab a pen and paper for the meeting. As I walked in, I was intercepted by our office Administrator Pat. Pat is like the worlds best grandmother! She is so sweet and full of wonderful stories. Well, Pat quickly pulled me from the meeting and asked if I had a note from my doctor to return to work. I immediately assumed she meant the paperwork to be filled out. I said I had not heard back from the nurse. She said, she was sorry, but I could not be at work. I gave her a confused look and ran to my office to call the nurse. When I phoned, I asked for my nurse, and the receptionist informed me that my nurse was out of town for the week, and left me another nurses name and transferred me to he voice mail. I left an urgent message for the nurse to call me back. As soon as I finished, Pat came in with a sad but serious look on her face. She said, "I am sorry Jeremy, but you will have to leave the premises immediately. You cannot be at the office until we have a note from your doctor saying you can return to work." At first I was shocked, and then I got mad. I was like what the heck is going on. Again, Pat said someone from the Corporate office had just called and said I had to leave the building right now. I was mad at this point. I was thinking, I don't want to go back home and sit on the couch or recliner anymore. I want to work, but they won't let me work. As I walked out, Timeka, our office assistant at the front door was confused at me leaving as I had just come in. I was thinking, "I am getting escorted out of the building!" I left the office and was pretty upset. I drove home fuming, then a thought popped in my head...You just got escorted out of the building by the grandmother of the office. At the point, I started chuckling, then it broke into a giggle, and then into full on laughter by the time I reached the house. I finally got home, and quickly realized I could call the surgeon. I reached his nurse, and she said she would be happy to write me a note. Well, within an hour, Pat called me and said I could come back to work. Now it is a pretty funny topic for the office as I 'claim' to have been escorted from the office by Pat the sweetest, kindest grandmother ever. After that, everything was fine at the office.

I also started back to school this week. I have two classes, one is Old Testament history, 1 Samuel to Ecclesiastes. The second is Angelology, Harmiotology, and Anthropology. It has been a year or more since I have sat in a class. I have been taking online classes, and I am so excited to be back in a classroom with people around me to talk to. I can't tell you the number of times I dreaded being online watching video and reading someones paper. Unfortunately, the Old Testament class will be a hard class to NOT sleep through as the professor is very monotone. Good, applicable information, but presentation is missing quite alot. The second class will be the highlight of the year! This professor is amazing and exciting, and he loves what he is teaching, so it may be hard to finish all he wants to talk about. It should be good.

Overall, I am feeling pretty good. I was able to be pretty active this past week. I rode the bike a couple of times, ran some, and even played tennis with some good friends. I am seeing a bit more of tiredness during the middle of the day, but for the most part, I feel full of energy and excited about what is ahead. The only strange thing for me is that I still cannot sing, and I feel like I have something stuck in my throat. Thankfully, many people remind me that it has only been two weeks since the surgery, so I cannot expect to be back exactly where I was before all of this.

Once again, I want to thank all of you for your prayers, cards, thoughts, messages, texts, and support throughout this time. I can literally feel the prayers affecting me everyday! I will do my best to write more frequently as time allows. Blessings!

J