It's been a week since the scandal broke in Happy Valley. Needless to say, people have not been very happy around here. Actually, heartbroken, dismayed, shocked might describe it. I watched the Penn State/Nebraska game on Saturday. Nebraska won. Both teams started the game with a joint prayer for the victims. I heard there wasn't a dry eye in the stadium. I was fighting back tears at home. Joe Paterno was fired and this was the first football game without him as head coach since the 60s, I believe. The coach (then graduate assistant) who witnessed the abuse but did not report it in 2002, was placed on administrative leave. This meant that Joe's son, Jay Paterno, coached from the sidelines. It was great to see him there! I'm only an acquaintance of him and his wife, but they are really nice people and I'm sorry they are going through this. At the end of the game, Jay broke down when asked what he put in the letter he had delivered to his dad before the game. He then said, "I love you and wish you were here." He then walked away. I can't imagine what that family is going through.

Work is still OK. It occurred to me tonight while I was listening to a story from "This American Life" that I really miss working in healthcare. I don't know if it's the idea of helping people or what. But, I do. I still volunteer at Centre Volunteers in Medicine every Monday morning by drawing blood and that gives me great satisfaction. If you click under the tab 'For patients', you can see me drawing a guy's blood. Anyway, I would love to be back working in the hospital, but right now, there are no jobs in my field. I would love to give it a try to get into administration, but I'm probably not qualified to do so.

And to end this post on a happy note. I love having a cat again. Midnight is so precious. She has to sit in my lap every chance she gets. However, she is going through the destruction phase. Oh boy! I had forgotten about that!

I just finished "The Help." Awesome book. While our family didn't have a maid while I was growing up, my mom and dad had one early on in their marriage (before I came along). My mother worked and the maid would come to the house and take care of my sister. My mom would come home to a clean house and dinner on the table. When my family moved to Northwest Arkansas from southern Arkansas, the lady wanted to move up there with them. Of course, that was during the years of the Sundown Towns, and the town they lived in was one of them.

When I was a kid I was fascinated by different churches. I would ask my dad what the different denominations believed as we drove by on our way to our church. Of course, there were no Blacks in our church. It always bothered me. Why didn't Blacks and Whites worship together? If God made us all, then why couldn't we all worship Him together? He loves us all the same, after all. I was much older when I realized that these barriers were man-made.