Diction

http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2979895296/tt0058385 "The Rain in Spain stays mainly on the plain..." is a line from a movie that came out when I was in the 4th grade! Professor Higgins does his best to get the guttersnipe Eliza to become a lady.

Being in television and/or radio was always a dream of mine. Never afraid of the stage, nor a sufferer of 'mike fright', I majored in Broadcast/Journalism in college, right out of high school. http://920kvel.com/index.php

Years later I realized my dream, by working first for a mid-sized market TV station. I had a weekly interview show, which was a blast for me! After that stint I went to work as on-air talent for the sister stations KVEL and KLCY in Vernal UT. I am a big deal there, just so you know!!! http://klcy.com/ I still have fans!

I was live on the air 4 hours every weekday and did 8 newscasts a day. I also introduced concerts, emceed events and was the queen of live remotes!

Then I relocated to Tucson AZ to take a position as the Business Development Director for 4 radio stations in that market and my on-air presence was minimal.

During all this experience a couple of things happened. I lost much of my 'Chicago dialect', developing a smart-ass, smooth (in my opinion)persona with lazy language peppered with slang and made-up words! It has stood me well for nigh onto 10-15 years!

Now an odd thing happened with my language skills recently that I didn't notice right away. My diction has sharpened. Where I used to slur and accent my words for effect, I find I am unconsciously speaking more clearly. My consonants are becoming crisp. In a state known for lazy speech, mine is snapping to attention! If you listen to me, give you our toll-free number, for instance, you will hear me pronounce the 't' on the end of every 8, in 888.228.1798. That's a lot of '8's'!

As I start The Listening Program for the 2nd time through, I am seeing my speech and language skills improving and I'm wondering what effects will be evident in the next weeks from repeating TLP at a higher level of functionality this time...

Stay tuned!!!

Heart attack protocols

My son, Adam drove me to the hospital late at night. No one asked us why we were there for 25 minutes. If I had really been worried I would have put up a stink. They took my info and description of what was happening and moved me right into the cardiac bay in the ER.

I was having chest pains that went all the way through to my back and radiated across the middle of my torso, under my chest. Then I had a numbness in my right ring finger, little finger and hand and a vasculare headache in my forhead. I know most heart attacks involve the left side of the body but I also know that women have different sympoms from men. Given my family history, I didn't mess around.

The 2 previous times I went through this, I got an EKG and blood oxygen tests which always looked fine. This time, they did those tests and more, but first I have to share Adam's experience watching Barbara put my gi-freakin-normous IV in the inside of my right elbow. It hurt and I told her so! I also felt something warm running down my arm and he back of my hand. Was pretty sure I was bleeding.

Adam said, he saw blood spurting out of my arm, spraying the side of the bed while forming a pool on the floor. The solution? Throw a towel on the floor!!! EKG came back fine. So the did more tests this time. They did a CAT Scan of my chest and abdomen and then another one with contrast. Iodine injected into my IV created one of the weirdest experiences of my life! My hands got hot then it felt like my pajama pants caught on fire, then the rest of me, then I got cold and it went away. About that fast.

Later they did an ultrasound of my gall bladder in case that was having an attack.

Six hours after the first EGK, they came in and did another one and took more blood. Apparently the blood on the floor couldn't be used.

All this time Adam is trying to sleep in a chair. Poor kid doesn't have his license yet. He only has a permit, so he can't drive without me in the vehicle. He was stuck, witnessing all this. Kindof rough for a 17 year old, but he handled it very well. He had to leave the building to get phone reception to pass on to his sibs the updates. And while he was doing that, Danica, 14, was home watching 2 year old Matthew, my grandson, with no adult there to help her, as she worried about her mom. Remember we thought I was having a heart attack or 2...

I have always like taking tests as I seem to do well on them, but these tests, even though I kept passing them, were not my favorites!

The next tests were glow in the dark. Since they would not let me drink water all night long, graham crackers were impossible to eat! They made me drink whole milk, Gross. When you don't drink milk it tastes like drinking meat while smelling wet fur. Gross. However, at that point, liquid was good. They said the milk and crackers would help my body assimilate the radioactive isotopes they were going to put in my IV. WHAT?