Ding! Berek wins the bonus prize! The word was supplement. And it doesn't even start with Sub. I'm a dolt! :-)

Coyote & Nobody: I want my PhD in Forensic Psychology. Intersting enough stuff to cross over with the BA in Creative Writing, but useful enough to actually help me obtain a worthwhile job, unlike said BA. ;-)

Nobody: I think every job I've ever had I could have done straight out of high school, but all of them since then have at least pretended to use some stuff I learned in college, even if they didn't necessarily need the actual BA. In this case, though, I work alongside a very nice girl who has 2 years of seniority on me, but is 6 years younger than me, and started working before she graduated high school. She was hired for the position I currently hold, but was reclassified a year ago into a much nicer branch of the department, which comes with many more opportunities for advancement. So, I guess the point is...I'm doing stuff that I could have done out of high school, and would have been hired for, and by now I would probably be making about $20K+ more than I currently am, based on the promotions I would have achieved in that time, dependent entirely on seniority. DOH!

That said, I don't have much to write today, but I do have a request...

My aunt's husband suffered a massive heart attack yesterday. They gave him an 20% chance of surviving yesterday, but predicted next to no brain activity would be present if he did. He woke up at the hospital last night - which shocked everyone. Since then, my aunt has been allowed to go in to see him for 5 minutes every hour, and each time she goes in, he tells her he loves her somehow (he has been using some sign language, as I understand it, because there are tubes down his throat and he can't talk - he knows sign language because he has 3 deaf aunts and 1 deaf uncle, if I remember correctly). What THIS means is that he's retained a great deal more of his mental capacity than anyone anticipated, and the doctors and nurses are amazed at his strength.

Those of us on the family side, with no medical knowledge to speak of, are convinced that he is hanging on by strength of love. I can't really explain Bill and Aunt Lynn's relationship, because you really have to know them to understand what they mean to each other, but I can say that it's something you don't see all the time.

That said...despite his good turns since yesterday and his strength, his heart is completely destroyed. He is on a heart pump, and every time he wakes up, they sedate him becuase they don't want him doing anything that will make his heart work at ALL on its own. If he does well today, they are going to arrange to send him to Pittsburgh, where he will stay on a transplant list until they find a donor, if that happens in time. Heart donors are hard to find (obviously), and they aren't something that any Good Samaritan can jump up and offer to provide. It's not a kidney, and it's not bone marrow - you only get one of these.

Bill is the only uncle I have who enjoys comic books and sci-fi/fantasy like I do. He's the only uncle I have that I can sit and chat with about things other than the formalities of how things are in the family. He's the ONLY one in the entire family that I can talk about gaming around and he doesn't look at me like I'm out of my mind. He's also the only one who's really made my aunt Lynn happy, and most of you know how much I adore her.

So, admidst all of this rambling, I have one simple request. Will you please keep Bill (and the rest of us) in your thoughts and prayers? If you don't believe in prayer, that's fine, but what could some positive thinking in this direction hurt?

Thank you.