. . . And now you know . . . the rest of the story.

On March 30th I entered what appeared as an innocuous post titled "Whew".  Vicki completed her refresher course to get her nursing license back.  Feedback showed people as being excited and happy for Vicki  but no one asked why she went back.  As Hugh Nibley said in "Leaders and Managers, the Fatal Shift."  regarding a controversial prayer he had said at a graduation, "Well, some knew the answer already, and as for the rest, we do not question things at 'the BYU'."  In the article, Nibley was relieved that he could explain himself and likewise I am too.

Vicki has been trying, for the past four years, to get her RN license activated.  This past year she has felt especially impressed to complete this.  She has known ever since we were married that someday she wanted to go back to school but never pursued it because of the family situation.  This past fall, she received answers to her prayer that now was the time.  I usually respond with something like "That's nice.  Whatever you want Honey."

Since that time little miracles have occurred.  Vicki was called before the Nursing Board in June 2009 to discuss her issue.  After she laid out her case as to why her license lapsed, the board told her that they would grant her a temporary license as soon as College of Southern Nevada's (CSN) admitted her into their refresher course.  Upon completion of the course they would issue a license without stipulations.

Vicki had applied to CSN in 2008 and they told her they had a four year waiting period.  Suddenly, in August 2009, they had a spot open up.  After she passed the challenging paper course in early December, she had to wait for a preceptor so that she could work for 120 hours free in some hospital to prove her competence.  All the age 30 something nurses were placed quickly and we watched week after week as nothing came up for the "senior" nurses. 

In early March Vicki got a call to go to work.  She had said before that there was no way she could work a graveyard shift and no matter how unsavory, would be willing to work any Sundays just to get it over.  She figured that it would take 15 days to finish.  When CSN called, they told her she was assigned to a 12 hour shift.  Her preceptor did not work any graveyards and they didn't have any Sundays  scheduled and she would be done in 10 days.

In January and February, Vicki started investigating on-line universities.  She was very thorough as she looked for a school that provided a masters degree in nursing.  The further she looked the more she determined that she wanted a program that would offer specialties in Nursing Education and Leadership and Management. Also, she was adamant that the school be accredited by an appropriate accrediting institution.

Vicki had about 6 schools that were close to what she wanted but bit by bit, each school fell out for one reason or another.  It was then that in my mind one of the biggest miracles happened.  Although very frugal, Vicki has a knack of walking into a store to buy something and when she finds the perfect item it is always the most expensive.  Doesn't matter, shoes, dresses, china, fabric whatever, she always like the priciest.  But this time,  she chose the best university to meet her needs and it was the most reasonably priced.  A two year program at just $9,000 a year. Others ran $14,000 to $18,000 per year.

Now I didn't know how we are going to swing $9k but it's better than $18k.  She has continued to get all her transcripts and paper work together and submitted to Walden University.  Once everything was in place, they called her last week to congratulate her for her acceptance into Walden University.

And now you know the rest of the story!

Almost.

Back in late February Vicki saw that Walden had a full scholarship that they offered to a person.  The scholarship was based on an essay with the topic of How my Walden education has made a difference.  Vicki wrote a very nice essay and sent it in.  Then she looked at what the past winners had written about.  She saw the divorced and abused women who were helped and the women who had overcome cancer and how the education provided an unanticipated opportunity to progress.  At that point, we wrote off any chance of the scholarship.

But, you remember that in an earlier paragraph, I said "one of the biggest miracles."  I didn't say the biggest miracle.  That happened Wednesday when Vicki got a phone call from a Walden administrator congratulating her on being awarded the "Project Working Mom"  FULL scholarship.

And now you really know the rest of the story. 
Really!

Nice Friends

Vicki developed a friendship with a scouter during our recent scout-expo experience. As they were talking, she happened to find out that he does repelling trips.  Vicki mentioned that Spencer needed to repel 30 feet to fill one of his camping merit badge reqirements and of course our new friend invited us along the next time he went.

This morning we got to his house and he was covered a few things regarding safety and the area to which we were going and then said "So you need to repel 30 feet.  30 feet; 150 feet what's the difference?"

Ben was already a pro from previous experience.

Spencer got to be quite the pro.

And Vicki?  What a mom!

I made it down a couple of times myself but camera duty called and I made sure that objective evidence for the merit badge counselor was recorded.

I hope that we can be nice friends like Loren is to us.

Aussie Style.  FAIR DINKUM!

TTFN
-Ron

Gehry's Revenge

Frank Gehry said he would NEVER design a building to be built in Las Vegas. Well as the old saying goes, never say never.

Visitors walking into the Lou Ruvo Cleveland Clinic from the parking lot are greeted by this inviting bench made from rock, but driving up from the opposite corner of the property  Da da duhm....

GEHRY's Revenge

Now living in LasVegas, there is a whole new world of lingo one must learn.
LasVegas doesn't have gambling, it has gaming.
LasVegas doesn't have alcohol it has spirits.

The bank role behind this building is a man who has spirit, has spirits, sells spirits and makes a lot of money from spirits.  The reason behind this building was that his father passed away from the affects of Alzheimer's.  Larry Ruvo had a dream to find a cure to the disease by attracting a prestigious national medical research facility to study neurocognitive disorders a group to Las Vegas. Ruvo arranged a meeting with Frank Gehry.  Gehry had previously vowed to never design a building for LasVegas because Las Vegas has a ". . . cacophony of high-rise casinos and condos forming the spine of Sin City's sprawl."  but Ruvo pressed on because of his dream

Ruvo was able to get Gehry to renounce his vow "Vegas Vow" because Gehry's pet cause of curing Huntington's disease fell under the umbrella of  the clinic.  Working with Gehry's name he was able to attract the Cleveland Clinic.

Ruvo and Gehry came up with the concept of having a building with two distinct parts.  Part one is the fund raising wing and part two is the clinic.  The fund raising wing is why Ruvo sought out Gehry. Ruvo a distributor of "spirits" had an aha moment when he was thinking about the building he wanted to have.  It is said that one day he was thinking of his building when he realized that although he had over 100 different types of Vodka in his warehouse, four of them make up 90% of his sales.  Now I am told that all Vodka tastes a like so the only difference is the packaging.  Ruvo wanted a package that would attract fund raising dollars. The main eye catching portion of the design  is a 9000 square foot open structure where activities can be scheduled.  The room rents for $5,000 per night on weekdays and $10,000 per night on the weekends.
  

The clinic portion of the building has no lobby's for waiting rooms.  People as they come in are either escorted up to the medical imaging section or upstairs straight to one of 27 examining rooms.  Each examination room is different.  All design is based on research done on patients who are in varying stages of the disease with the primary goal of making them as comfortable as possible.  Ruvo's whole purpose is to "keep memory alive".

So there you have it.  Gehry's revenge is not the building in Las Vegas but the means to find a cure against neurocognitive disorders.

P.S.  I chose not to mention the irony of  alcohol use to brain function because the potential affects of Alzheimer's is all to real to me.  And, I am grateful for what this may mean to my family.