STEPHANIE:

On Saturday May 24, 2008, this intelligent and beautiful young lady, 24, received her ”Pin” and her Diploma which certifies that she, Stephanie, is now among the many who have gone before her in one of the most prestigious of professions.  A Registered Nurse.  Clara Barton and Florence Nightingale would be very happy.

Just what is so special about Stephanie?  She never wanted to be a nurse while growing up.  She watched her mother working very hard as a nurse for 40 years who still continues in her profession.  Her grandmother, whom she is close to, was also a hard-working nurse until retirement.  Her great grandmother was a nurse whom Stephanie learned about from her Mother and Grandparents.  And… her maternal Grandfather is a retired Physician, now in his nineties.

Stephanie’s medical interests were sparked in high school while learning emergency care and working with injured athletes in physical therapy.  Having heard the downsides of nursing while growing up,  Steph saw her Mom very tired after her 12 hour hospital shifts and then she had to go on Missions of Mercy with her insistent mother (who gave up vacation time) to help in disasters such as Hurricane Katrina.

I met Stephanie after she completed her college pre-reqs and was wait-listed for the Nursing program for two years.  I was horrified to learn of the Nursing Staff Instructor shortage througout the country.   The country is already aware of the severe nursing shortage.  Not from Santa Barbara, Steph came here from northern CA to attend school.  While wait-listed, I took her under my wing determined to somehow get her working in her chosen field as a medical assistant somewhere in SB.  Success.   So, to have 5 years fly by, it is with great pride to see Stephanie graduate with honors and to continue her medical profession but now as a Registered Nurse.  She will have her choice of positions here in SB and will be able to go anywhere in the country (or elsewhere) to practice nursing while continuing her education for a higher degree.

In her personal life, Stephanie recently became engaged to be married to her long time best friend and love, Dan.  Graduating as an Electrical Engineer at UCSB in 2007, he has completed his first year working in a very good company in his chosen profession which he really loves.  Both Stephanie and Dan have worked very hard getting through schools while working at the same time to support themselves.   They are the rare couple today who now have the world by a string and the future for them is extremely bright.  I am proud to know both of them.  They are role models for all young people who come from small communities who can and will work hard to achieve their goals.  They have no fear, wonderful family values, very traditional and extremly nice people.  They really have their heads on straight.  Good for them and all those you know who are like them.

Photo in ‘edit’ to come.

If you were a child living in a less than warm climate, how many times would you hear your mother asking, “WHERE IS YOUR HAT?” 

With me personally, it was always the  ‘outside’ hat and then it was the SUNDAY hat we females had to wear to Church.

I never understood the ‘old timers’ wearing hats all the time, everywhere. I would spend an hour fixing my hair only to sit a ‘hat’ on top of my nicely styled do?  No Way. I loved the breeze blowing and tossing my curls.  And the Queen of England’s hats?  A constant source of amusement for me.

Vintage movies employed ‘tricks’ showing a perfectly coiffed Grace Kelly removing her hat in the film “Rear Window” when she visited the wheel-chair bound Jimmy Stewart. As kids, we did not know about the ‘cut’ in a film. 

Growing up and escaping my mother’s “Where is your Hat” (while my brothers escaped, “Where is your Sweater?”) I simply moved from one coast to another where I would be warm and not have to ever think about a hat again. 

About a decade of peace and quiet regarding hats came and went so quickly I was stunned one day to hear, “Where is your Hat?”  My husband took my mother’s place with that demand regularly when we began spending a lot of time in the cold climate of Yosemite National Park every Winter.  I always shrug off the inquiry.  My husband is not my mother.

Married for 32 years now, we have been traveling to National Parks to take photos, adding to our extensive Yosemite National Park photos for our website.  Last year, we made it to Zion, Bryce, Yellowstone and Grand Teton.   We were very happy with the trip and the ‘captures.’  We were so taken with the Grand Tetons, we vowed to return this year to spend a longer period of time there in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

We departed for JH in time to see the Fall peaking of the foliage and hoped to get a dusting of snow on the Tetons as well.  We truly lucked out with both.  Landscape Photography is my husband’s fascination; not exactly my cup of tea, but I will join him from time to time.  This year we met with a group of pros so it was imperative to begin shooting at sunrise when the temperature would be as low as 20 degrees at that hour but warming to 70 degrees later in the day.

Day two was the first ‘cold’ day for me and I was really shocked to feel what I will describe as an “ice cream freeze” to my entire head.  Wow!  I had never felt wind chill nor felt cold to the core of my brain.  No hat.  It was in the car keeping the seat warm.

The next day, I had TWO hats with me.  I was amazed how much a hat helped keep me warm.  I own 3 hats; that is all.   They are acceptable rather than annoying.  And, they’re fairly fashionable.  One is totally utilitarian for taking photos in below freezing temperatures.

After the fourth day, we were done with the group and I no longer had to contend with the cold so the hats were left in our hotel room.  (Or so I thought.)  I knew where I left them last and believed them to be sitting on the bedroom upholstered chair and never gave it another thought for the balance of our two week visit until the night before we were to depart for home.  Mental inventory told me I had not seen the hats of late so I went to the bedroom chair and the hats were not there.  I then tore the 2 bedroom hotel condominium suite apart.  Then I enlisted the aid of my husband who is a great sleuth for all things misplaced by me in my advancing years.  Don’t turn 40; nor 50… that’s as far as I’m going.

Well.  No hats turned up.  I resigned myself to having to purchase one of the two but was horrified at having lost the other; my Black, NIKON D200, baseball style hat given to me as schwag by my camera guru in SB.  I was crushed just thinking about reporting my loss as I KNOW they are difficult to come by.  Not only that, but they are a status symbol in my little world and I was the envy of the ‘men’ who coveted my hat.

Well, I decided to cheer myself up by going down to the bar for our last night of Pizza made incredibly well in JH as it compared favorably to all the New York Pizzas I brag about no matter where I see a ‘pizza’ sign.  I realized I was preoccupied because I ‘ordered up’ a second pizza which I managed to eat in its entirety.  Another ‘new’ thing for me.  Depression eating for the first time.  Over a hat.  Wow. 

I stopped at the Concierge desk to ask them about their “Lost and Found.”  They more than encouraged me to be sure to notify the front desk upon check-out of my lost items. Of course I forgot….  But not for long.  One-half hour down the road, I called the Hotel and spoke to Kevin.  I told him my plight and said, “They are not valuable but I love them and described one as a soft, black warm hat with white trim and the words “Yosemite” in white on front.  The second I said, “Black baseball cap with “D200” in gold on front and “Nikon” on back.”  I told Kevin to please check the laundry because I saw the maids pile pillows on the chair when they were cleaning our place, exactly where I had last seen my hats

We arrived home after driving straight for 17.45 hours and went to sleep.  When I finally woke in the afternoon, my husband excitedly came to sit with me while I sipped my morning tea and said, “They Found the Hats!” 

I was thrilled and asked, “How, Where?”

He said, “The Bellman saw the Maid walking in the parking lot wearing my warm Yosemite Hat and her boyfriend had the D200 Baseball Cap on backwards!”

When asked where they were going, the Maid said, “I found these hats in one of the suites yesterday and was just going to turn them into the lost and found!”

©MTC108