June
June: by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore
Everyone has “that perfect summer.” You know the one that is magical in your memories. That kind of summer where love blossoms and love fades. The kind where grand parties are held on sprawling lawns, and the lemonade is perfect with Amantha’s secret recipe. These grand and glorious memories are often in the mind of the participants, but also become memories of the very house itself. Or at least that was true of Two Oaks and that magical summer of 1955 when the movie crew came to town. When there was love and magic, betrayal and revenge, dead bodies and dead babies, and what seemed like all the time in the world.
Or so the house thought. Until time dried and flaked its glorious paint off, and many a rain showers put a hole in the roof that birds and bats took advantage of, and of the last time Jack and June brought love to Two Oaks, with its overgrown gardens and unkempt lawns. Until it became 2015 and Cassie brought life back to Two Oaks.
Cassie inherits this run down yesteryear mansion that she is in love with, and in turn, the house and its ghostly inhabitants are thrilled to see her too. So much so they show themselves as they were the last party at Two Oaks, and scare Cassie so much that the house decides it needs to be still and patient. The day will come when Cassie’s eyes are open wide and once more Two Oaks will be the talk of the town. Cassie of course comes with her own broken past and unpaid bills. Reclusive until descended on by realatives of this consuming romance between Jack and June.
This magnificent novel does a superb job of bouncing between June 1955 and June 2015. As intricate and elegant as an empty spiders web, slowly Cassie begins to unwind the events of that fateful summer in 1955 when Jack met June and the whole world seemed right. When Lindie would climb up Two Oaks and get June for a midnight getaway ride on her bicycle, enjoying the night sit and sounds of crickets, and mostly June’s hands around her waist. Linda Sue (Lindie) was the first to tell June that Jack Montgomery was coming to film his next movie right in their very own small town.
As I read back and forth in time, solving each new mystery right beside them, I found myself drawn to Lindie and her boyish dressing since in the 1950’s people were not so kind on such matters. Younger than June, but with brains and spunk to match, she was an irresistible character.
Cassie inherits Two Oaks after her grandmother dies from a brain tumor.Following the clues left behind from a romance so powerful, so secret, so seductive and dangerous Cassie slowly learns of her grandmothers past, and a love so hot it consumed everything around it.
For me, this novel was captivating. The characters were so vivid and like able, that even though I am not to fond of romance reads, it held enough magic, haunted houses, and mystery that I have rated this fantastic book a 5 out of 5 stars! Any less, and Two Oaks would be dismayed with my review. Everyone knows you don’t make a haunted house angry!
*****Thanks to Blogging For Books, and the author as I was give an ARC in exchange for an honest review! *****
From Nurse to Patient...in Aneurysm Flat
Defining Yourself
HOW DO YOU DEFINE YOURSELF? WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE DEFINITION YOU THOUGHT WAS RIGHT CHANGES? DOES FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN INVENT WHO YOU ARE? DOES WHO YOU ARE DEPEND ON WHO YOU ARE AROUND? WHAT DO YOU DEFINE AS THAT WHICH IS YOU? THE UNIQUE YOU. THE HAPPY YOU. THE REAL YOU? CRAZY QUESTIONS THAT POSE A LONGER LINE OF THINKING, LIKE WHO ARE YOU REALLY?
WHEN I WAS A LITTLE GIRL I WANTED TO BE THE FIRST FEMALE THUNDERBIRD PILOT FOR THE AIR FORCE. I SUPPOSE THAT THIS SUPPORTED I SEE MYSELF AS STRONG AND UNIQUE. THAT I WOULD HAVE THE ABILITY TO FIGHT AND DEMAND THAT AS A FEMALE I COULD FLY A FIGHTER JET JUST LIKE A MAN COULD.
IN REALITY, I WAS TOLD THAT WOULD NEVER HAPPEN, THE NAVY CAME A COURTIN, AND I DECIDED THAT MAYBE MILITARY WOULD NOT BE THE WAY I WANTED TO EXPRESS MYSELF. (THOUGH I LIVE WHERE ALL THE NAVY JETS LITERALLY FLY RIGHT OVER MY HOUSE SO CLOSE SOMEDAYS I THINK I SHOULD HAND A CUP OF COFFEE OUT THE WINDOW TO THEM!) BUT MAKE NO MISTAKE, I AM A HARD CORE MILITARY SUPPORTER, AIR FORCE BRAT, SISTER TO AN ARMY SOLDIER WHO SUFFERED FROM IED EXPLOSION IN IRAQ, AND MARRIED TO AN ARMY PARATROOPER WITH SEVERAL COMBAT TOURS.
SO THEN I DECIDED THAT BEING A PEDIATRICIAN WOULD BE THE NEXT BEST WAY TO EXPRESS MYSELF.
WELL GOOD THINGS COME (I BECAME A NURSE), AND GOOD THINGS GO (I DROPPED OUT OF MED SCHOOL BECAUSE I DECIDED I WAS NOT CUT OUT TO BE SLAVE TO A PAGER).
YET. I STILL DEFINED MYSELF IN THE CARETAKER OR HELPER KIND OF DEFINITION. ANYONE WHO MEETS ME WOULD SAY THAT I DO TRY VERY HARD TO LOVE ALL PEOPLE DESPITE ANY DIFFERENCES IN THEIR DEFINITION OF SELF THAT MAY PUSH MYSELF BUBBLE A BIT OFF COURSE.
I HAVE COME TO REALIZE THAT ANY DEFINITION THAT FITS AT THAT MOMENT IS AN OK DEFINITION OF SELF. MY DEFINITION OF MYSELF IS THAT I AM AN EMERGENCY AND TRAUMA NURSE. I HAVE BEEN SINCE I GRADUATED SCHOOL.
BUT, I ALSO MUST DEFINE MYSELF AS A PATIENT. ONE WHO IS SICK AND FRAIL AND HAS TO GIVE UP THE REIGNS OF CONTROL OVER ME AND BOY DOES THAT PISS ME OFF!!!!!
I WAS TAUGHT DO UNTO OTHERS AS YOU WOULD WANT THEM TO DO TO YOU. I AM A KIND NURSE. I AM PATIENT, AND OBSERVANT. I NOTICE WHEN THE PATIENT OR THEIR FAMILY IS IN DISTRESS OVER WHAT A DOCTOR JUST TOLD THEM. I SIT WITH MOTHERS THAT HAVE JUST LOST THEIR CHILDREN, AND FAMILIES THAT HEAR THEIR LOVED ONE IS GOING TO DIE. AND EVERY MINUTE I AM HONORED TO BE THERE, EVEN WHEN I HAD NOTHING LEFT TO GIVE.
I FIND DEFINING MYSELF AS A PATIENT COMES WITH ITS OWN SET OF DEFINITIONS. I NOW AM THE ONE THAT IS WAITING TO BE SEEN. UNLIKE THE REST OF THE PEOPLE I TRY TO UNDERSTAND PEOPLE AREN’T GOOFING OFF, THEY ARE SAVING SOMEONE’S LIFE AND I SHOULD BE thankful NOT angry THAT I AM HAVING TO WAIT. BUT I DO GET THE ANGER NOW.
AS I USED TO SEE PATIENTS COMING IN NIGHT AFTER NIGHT, I BECAME HARDENED AND LABELED EVERYONE WITH SOCIAL STIGMAS. I DIDN’T MEAN TOO, BUT SLOWLY OVER TIME IT HAPPENED. NOW I FIND MYSELF BEING LABELED AS ONE OF those PATIENTS. OR AS THAT NURSE.
I GUESS WHAT I WANT TO CONVEY FROM THIS POST IS THAT WE ARE ALL HUMAN. WE ALL HAVE OUR CROSSES TO BEAR. MAKING SOMEONE ELSE’S LIFE MISERABLE JUST SO YOU CAN DEFINE YOURSELF AS POWERFUL AND IN CONTROL IS BULLSHIT!
WHEN YOU GET UP IN THE MORNING WHAT DO YOU SEE? I’M SURE THAT YOU HAVE THE SAME IMAGE AS ME. JUST A PERSON TRYING TO MAKE IT DAY TO DAY IN THIS CRAZY TIME AND KEEP SANITY AS A PRIORITY AS WELL. THIS HAPPENS ALL THE TIME. WHEN YOU PUT SOMEONE DOWN TO LIFT YOURSELF UP YOU SHOULD BE VERY AFRAID OF KARMA. SHE’S A BITCH.
I AM PUTTING MYSELF OUT THERE BECAUSE I AM WATCHING THIS HAPPEN TO PEOPLE THAT I LOVE. IT IS HAPPENING TO ME AS A PERSON. NO ONE SAID YOU HAVE TO LIKE OR EVEN LOVE EVERY PERSON YOU MEET, HOWEVER YOU DO NEED TO PRACTICE TOLERANCE AND UNDERSTANDING, BECAUSE ONE DAY IT MAY BE YOU.
STOP THE MADNESS!!!! JUST BE KIND TO ONE ANOTHER. WE ARE ALL HERE FOR SUCH A SHORT TIME AND WE SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO DEFINE OUR SELF AS HAPPY. I KNOW, TALL ORDER RIGHT?!?!?! IF SOMEONE NEEDS YOUR HELP, RATHER THAN BE AN ASS, OR AN I’M BETTER THAN YOU, REACH OUT YOUR HAND AND HELP PULL THEM UP, NOT SHOVE THEM DOWN.
***The inspiration for this post came from a sharing of coffee and troubles. You know who you are, and you know what an amazing person you are!***
~J
From Nurse to Patient...in Aneurysm Flat
Legend
Legend: The Incredible Story of Green Beret Staff Sergeant Roy Benavidez’s Heroic Mission To Rescue a Special Forces Team Caught Behind Enemy Lines by: Eric Blehm
This review could not start anywhere but the end. The end is all people want to know. The end is the dramatic part. The end is…well…. the end quite frankly. So I have started this most honored to be written blog with the end. There lies not only one of our American Heroes, but the author that wrote about him, and FOR him, seeking the recognition this hero so rightly deserved. This story occurred “behind the wire,” in one of many missions our Special Operations Groups entered into willingly, without second thought. nor with trepidation. The story itself you will find many heroes in, but the focus of this book is SSGT. Benavidez. The power of this book lies in that it is OUR history. One as Americans people take for granted. Right now there are many SOG groups, faceless and nameless, operating on their own to keep us free.
The author cleverly starts with the end as well. Grab your attention. Keep you reading. Skillfully, Mr. Blehm guides you along the path of meeting Roy Benavidez, a young Texan who was a bit wild, a bit rough around the edges, but who ultimately enters the Texas National Guard, but quickly finds he has a knack for the military. The structure and duty lead him to not want to renew his Guard contract but rather to enter the world of the Army’s Paratroopers. Being short in stature, but HUGE in ego, SSGT. Benavidez starts a path that will ultimately place him in Vietnam……twice.
Being rather personable, and good at being a soldier, he is quickly sent to Vietnam with his friends where he learned from many people how to survive the jungle, and also faced his first almost career ending injury. While on patrol in the jungle, SSGT. Benavidez had the misfortune of stepping on a well hidden “Bouncing Betty” land mine, which didn’t detonate properly. Luckily for SSGT. Benavidez, the land mine did not explode where there would have been no remnants of his person, but instead, blasted the flat metal plate at thousands of miles an hour into his back, sending him into what he later “called “The Darkest White.”
“Med-evaced” out of Vietnam, SSGT. Benavidez finds himself in a state of in-between. Told he would never walk again due to a twisted spine, and under threat of a medical discharge from the Army he loved so good, SSGT. Benavidez set about refusing to hear the word “no.” Each night he would roll out of bed and practice trying to stand up, just asking for more time. In he summer of 1966, he walked out of Brooke Army Medical Center, of his own power and was desperate to return to his 82nd Airborne unit at Ft. Bragg. Do to his injuries, he was returned to a desk job, but he had learned from his time in the jungle, “always look for a way out.” This he did daily while filing papers until he forged a few documents and was headed off to Green Beret “Q” school, despite his medical limitations.
Sporting the coveted Green Beret, SSGT. Benavidez longed to get back in the action. While the Army was deciding whether to send him back to Vietnam, (where the mortality of a Special Operator Group or SOG was 100%,) or to South America due to his fluency in Spanish, his friends were being stripped of all identifying information and dropped into Cambodia, the war the President swore we were not in. SSGT. Benavidez was finally told that he would be returning to Vietnam, to a unit on the front line, the hot bed of warfare, but would also be rendezvousing with old friends.
Without spoiling all of the encounters, and so you too will read this incredible man and his teams obstacles, I will not reveal how bad the situation was, but needless to say a small group of operators became cut off and were surrounded and even attempts to quick grab them by helicopter were unsuccessful.
I will say that I could not read this book all in one sitting. The lives and deaths of these brave men were hard to read. Many times I found myself wanting it to be anything but what it was. I wanted to sneak them more ammunition, fix their booboos faster, and I wanted a happy ending. There are no happy endings in war, and the toughest part of this book when you read it is that it is REAL. These brave men did what they did without question, and knowing death may be the only way home.
I rated this book 5 out of 5 stars as it may be one of the best novels you read this year. I recommend it to everyone, as it is our history. Honor those that went and gave all so you can sit and read this review without fear.
**I was given an ARC by Blogging for Books and Penguin Random House in exchange for my honest review of this book.**
From Nurse to Patient...in Aneurysm Flat
When you hear that call……that one over the radio, advising that the inbound unit to the ER is coming in lights and sirens, the patient critical, CPR is in progress….there is an adrenaline rush you get thinking, “ok, do I remember my algorhythms? Do I have the right drugs to help bring this patient back from the brink? Will I be strong enough to perform CPR if needed, and what happens if we can’t bring them back?”
A million thoughts race through your mind at a million miles a minute. You think about your family, your other patients that will wait, and you think about yourself. Can I? Will I? Should we?
Then as quick as your thoughts begin, the patient is rushed in, laying on a cot, with someone sitting on top of them pushing doing CPR, someone yelling out the situation, people scurrying to and fro to get IV lines in place and that first blood pressure in less than the first minute of arrival. Doctors start crawling out of the wood work. The ones that never return your pages are suddenly there plus more! The adrenaline is so thick in the room it is palpable. Everyone is nervous and scared, but pulls together as a team to get the job done.
This adrenaline cycle happens over and over until it becomes just rote memory. Then as a nurse, doctor, pharmacist, whatever role you played in the crisis, you are expected to bounce back immediately and resume caring for the patients that you were assigned prior to the emergency. So for an ER nurse the highs are very high and the lows are very low. Rarely do nurses eat, pee or even think about themselves while they are at work, because, patients and satisfaction scores are our top priority.
Adrenaline for me was always a constant part of my daily job, so feeling a little more pumped up that morning made not the slightest impression on me. And then I got sick….at work…taking care of patients on my birthday.
I’ve always prided myself on giving good patient care. If that meant I had to battle a doc, well…..game on! Nurses by nature always think ahead and can almost diagnosis anyone they meet along with treatment plan and meds….except themselves. Well, maybe I ignored a FEW warning signs…..like the tiny amount of profuse sweating….
Or maybe the TINY amount of blurry, double and tunnel vision with a cold blue extremity…..
Or maybe that small headache and teeny bit of chest pressure…….
Given all of these facts, that EVERYONE over looked at my job, (Yup, we are trained professionals here people….just don’t let work get in the way of gossip…sheeeesh….,) I would have made myself a priority as life and limb are priorities, and I was both. The sad state is, I was not, and treated like there was nothing urgent so I sat in the waiting room EIGHT plus hours before being seen. (Now I know why patients always came back cussing, screaming, yelling mad.) That time elapse allowed the damage being done to my brain just extend.
Since by that time everything was going wrong, they decided MAYBE they should take me back…..so they could do scans and CT’s and MRI’s and pulse checks…..yes….will talk about that next time. For now boys and girls, mind your manners, don’t cuss your nurse, because you’ll never know if she’s having a stroke and a brain aneurysm while caring for you!
~ J
From Nurse to Patient...in Aneurysm Flat
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From Nurse to Patient...in Aneurysm Flat
Happy Mother’s Day!
A GREAT BIG HEY AND HELLO to anyone who has never been to one of my blogs or book reviews. (I kinda feel sad for you….you’re missing out on all kinds of cool books and fun facts!)
So I thought I would take a minute and do the “down and dirty version” of me and why I am doing what I do.
I started writing this particular blog to do book reviews as a way to remain busy. I had just had a stroke at work, and many other bad things kept popping up, I started using writing as my solace.
Over time, I have shared more of me with you as well as the book reviews too. I’ve started a very small online store as well as sell on Ebay :
https://pnjsdventurebooks-com.3dcartstores.com
You should go take a look. There is TONS of great additions to your reading such as body lotion, body mist, kits, several books……the list goes on and on. The best part is I add more EVERY time I’m on!!
To beat all, I just won a writing contest with a new hosting and domain site as well as a more focused writing agenda. (Thanks again Ramsay should you be reading this!)
Yes, in fact I do think every one of these was me at some point!
If you read my page often, then you know how desperate of a situation we are in over here in Aneurysm Neverland. Besides those nasty strokes and the huge aneurysm that is in a place that would be hard to get out, we know are watching the kidneys and adrenals because of a tumor that affects the adrenal glands called pheochryocytoma as well as paraganglioma. Just saying those disease processes makes me need a drink………of Dr.Pepper, come on now!
This is again the time that I press upon you, and count on your acts of kindness, as these horrible conditions need a specialist, and well……I guess we just aren’t very special here……but we do have style!
So if you could kindly go ahead and visit this link below, the donation for medical treatment link, I know my kids will be thanking you for it. Anything will help and know that your money will be assisting my family to get me to Duke University Medical Center, (notice the blue?!?!) where we found a specialist that deals in the pheochryocytoma as well as the paragangliomas. If we can remove the one tumor a lot of these symptoms will be resolved, however the paraganglioma carries with it a nasty near fatal diagnosis….we need to get this out people! You’ll be saving your daily comedy, a mother, an Emergency Nurse, and person that would, and does, extend their hand out to assist others…… SO, y’all dance on over to this link and help us get the funds we need for not 1 but 2 major surgeries…
You know I thank you and the kids do too….so here’s your link :
Saving your Nurses from tragedy One dollar at a time!!
Alright my favorite people! I’m out of here with my wordy self for now…..so I can write all these book reviews up!
As always, I wish you peace and happy readings!
~J
From Nurse to Patient...in Aneurysm Flat
The Never Open Desert Diner
Driving the long and winding desert Route 117 has been what Ben has just done. When the other big companies pull out of that area, Ben is the only big trucker that will still deliver goods to the residents of Route 117.
Ben has come to a point where he knows all of his clients by name, and brings them personalized or requested items from town or far away. This is a good route in his life. From Ben’s perspective it is a beautiful existence, though due to the shutting down of the town’s major source of income, the money has started to dry up. Ben’s truck if even in jeopardy of being repossessed. Through all his troubles, he continues to deliver to people on Route 117, as he has found a bond with them and their quirky traits.
Along his delivery route is the Never Open Desert Diner. There are many rumors about what happened to the diner, and the diner’s owner, Walt, does nothing to disway the gossip of the surrounding town folk. The sign is always “closed,” and Walt himself is a mean spirited and reclusive man.
During one particular visit to drop off goods to Walt, Ben finds that he must visit the restroom pronto. With nobody around the diner, he notices something that he had never seen before: a neighborhood with only one house. Though it had been mapped and graded out for roads and other houses, there stood just the shell of one model home. While Ben is relieving himself on the side of the house, he notices a most beautiful girl through the window, playing an imaginary cello.
Claire fascinates Ben, and soon she is all he can think about. Clarie also carries secrets. She becomes the central mystery in the book. Who is she? Why is she living in abandoned house? More importantly, why is Ben suddenly being followed, or bribed? What happened so long ago at the diner that has caused a huge rift in time, and in love?
To not throw those spoilers out there, I will say that Ben’s journey down Route 117 is one of the reopening of old wounds, and the healing of some of the same. Ben, in simplicity has become just what was needed to tie up those loose ends at the diner, and allows much needed healing to occur for the diner, the town, and Claire and Walt. He was the sunset that painted the desert the brightest.
For me, this was such a powerful story of how past and present intermingle, and how choices we make never really leave us. I was undeniably drawn to the characters, and felt I too was vested in the diner.
In my humble opinion, this is a book that you should read if you are missing hope, carrying grief, or just love a good book that brings everything together like a brilliant symphony.
I think you should go and listen to the beautiful music that is played at The Never – Open Desert Diner, by James Anderson.
I was given an ARC of this book by Penguin Random House through Blogging for Books, in exchange for my honest opinion which I have given trying to not give away too much of the diners secrets.
From Nurse to Patient...in Aneurysm Flat
One Day at A Time
Hit play and watch the sway. Cause when that fog horn blows I’ll be coming home to you. Until then, I wanna rock your gypsy soul…..way back to the days of old.
From Nurse to Patient...in Aneurysm Flat
One Day at A Time
The Real Doctor Will See You Shortly by:Matt McCarthy
Oceans of Books 