Driving Miss Mortality

I'm so fundamentally exhausted; it'll be an early bedtime tonight. On days like this, I feel like I've lived three or four days in the span of one. I presented my St. Fozzie's action plan to the other execs today and it went beautifully. I have about 3 hours of paperwork to complete because of it, but I'll chalk it up as a major success. Then our local Congressman visited the ER today, to present us with $150k for increased monitoring capabilities. Because of the Chicago market, this is a great thing. So I went to a 2010 budget overview meeting, presented for senior leadership, and met the Congressman, all before lunch.

After lunch, I went and found Sister Monica again, to reconnect with the Mexican family from yesterday. We had to create a document that petitions entry into the U.S., for the few remaining family members. They did decide to transfer him to inpatient Hospice, but they do not want to remove the ventilator and other life-support until the family can arrive and say their good-byes. This is hard to endure, because the doctors document the patient's suffering in the chart.

While helping Sister Monica with some of this paperwork, I couldn't help but think about the shortness and temporary nature of life. We're mortal beings. This may come to YOU as a regular thought, but despite the medical circumstances through which I've come, I still consider myself rather invincible. Just this morning, I caught myself flying along on the Tri-State, weaving in and out of traffic like those yahoo's I used to swear at under my breath. I realized that I've become one of those crazy Chicago drivers I hated (yes, that quickly). However, I also realized that I could easily wrap my car around a lightpole or snag someone's bumper and go rolling down the ravine.

Life is short. Drive fast. Ooops, I mean, life is short, live well.