Ok, most of a day.

I must say, the Philadelphia Museum of Art is amazing. Beside the excellent collection of painitngs, scattered througout the museum there are little rooms tucked away set up, furnieshed, and panelled according to a particular period’s decor. So there’s a room that was moved out of a 16th century English house, and one taken from a 17th century Italian villa, and several more. It’s really quite excellent. You get to see the pieces of art in their “natural habitat” as it were.

I only made a cursory sweep through the mueseum, though, because I know that I’ll be back again, and soon, too.

So last night I got to follow a fellow-shaplain around the hospital to see what he does of an evening. So far, it seems like what we do is walk! Walk walk walk! The hospital is spread out over several buildings, and so there is a great distance to be covered if one is called to the Neurology building from the CPE office.

As it turns out, last night the two most important things going on were happening in the same room. Two hispanic males with very large families were being taken off life support, and it wasn't until they were moved from the one room into separate rooms that anyone outside the families could keep them all straight.

This was my first look into hospital life, inasmuch as one sees great sadness. The families were very, very distraught, and to see such pain is to know that there is nothing anyone can do. As the chaplains, there was even less we could do, since the families were really large enough to take care of themselves. So, we just stayed around, being available.

So, there's nothing for it but to head on in. I'll probably have my first on-call this week, which means staying at the hospital from 4:45pm to 7:45am. More details on that when it happens.

Today, however, I'm going into town to do some sightseeing. I think I'll hit up the Philadelphia Museum of Art since it's supposed to rain.

It would appear that the time has come to keep one of the much-fabled and well-beloved w'blogs, or whatever the young people call them.

After nine hours of air travel (that would be a "direct" flight from San Diego, by way of Austin and Orlando), I arrived safe at the Philadelphia airport. Amazingly, all three landings were early by 20 minutes or more, which allowed we small faithful band of thru-fliers to stretch our legs and go off in hunter-gatherer bands to find sustenance beyond the meager provisionings of the Southwest Airlines flight crew. Man does not live on peanuts alone.

And so, after filling Carol and Randy (my wonderful godmother and the priest who baptized me) in on my general doings and thinkings, and catching a brief glimpse of the Stewart and the Colbert, I slept.

And now, on this last friday before the CPE begins, I'm getting ready to roll into Philly for my shadowing orientation. Having not spent much time in the world of hospitals (I've spent way more time in the hospitals of television than of the real world, thank you Dr. House), I'm a little apprehensive about what I'm getting myself into. I have some reassurance in that many others have gone before me in the world of CPE, but I nevertheless am a bit nervous. Hopefully some of that will be resolved after tonight, when I actually get to see what this whole business looks like.

Meanwhile, I chill here on Michigan Road, and play with Inky the cat.