Julia Rachel Barrett's Blog, page 13

Dear Mom, the dead relatives stopped by for a cuppa.

(I only know what a cuppa is because of Orphan Black – Season 2 coming soon! OMG I’m shaking… Vikings is like, killer enough! You go Lagertha.)

So my mom has known me my whole life. She knew I saw ghosts way back when. The truth is, she does too, she just doesn’t like to talk about it.

And as my husband, Oscar, the ultimate skeptic, has experienced some of what I’ve experienced because he lives with me, says– It’s like this- You didn’t ask for this. You don’t go on television. You don’t try to...

When my hospice patients try to kill me.

It’s only happened twice.

It was nothing I said or did. Sometimes hospice patients hallucinate. Might be the meds or the illness or terminal agitation. Sometimes it seems to me it has to do with memories. For instance, a number of my patients have relived their experiences in WWII. Those who saw the worst combat occasionally have a very bad time of it as death approaches.

Or… The occasional patient is prone to violent outbursts and when his usual filters break down because of a terminal illness...

The dead man, the minister and the comfy couch.

A dead man and a minister walk into a bar…

Actually it was a living room and they sat on a couch.

I received a telephone call from an hysterical wife. Her husband was nearing the end of his life and she needed my help. Of course I helped her, that’s what I do. It was a difficult situation because her husband was actively dying and she was not coping well. She refused to enter the bedroom.

I took care of him. He was fine. Nothing dramatic happened. He died peacefully shortly after I arrived. I ma...

Dogs and Cats and Hospice Care Equals Love.

You can read about my experiences as a hospice nurse in my nonfiction book- One Foot In Heaven, Journey of A Hospice Nurse.

I’ll be doing a promo in a week or so and I thought it might be fun… Hmmm, maybe fun is the wrong word when one is talking about death. I thought it might be interesting to add a few more stories. Who knows? Might could end up in the next book.

Here is a truism. Hospice patients love animals. Cancer patients, the elderly, sick children, all bond with animals in a way they...

Why I’m Fixin’ to Close My Yahoomail Account.

So from time immemorial I’ve had a Yahoo mail account. This was before the advent of Google.

I use it for a few important contacts – business contacts, my husband because he prefers Yahoo although I cannot for the life of me imagine why, our March Madness brackets, airline miles… All that stuff unrelated to my writing.

But over the past year I’ve begun to hate Yahoo.

1. It freezes all the damn time.

2. At least 3-4 times a week, usually more often, I cannot load my email and instead get an error...

Two Right Feet and a Low Resting Heart Rate Do Not a Homicidal Maniac Make.

My husband called our dog a criminal.

I beg to differ.

And then he claimed he (my husband) is a sociopath, and possibly a homicidal maniac, because he has a low resting heart rate.

This is mi vida loca.

Again, I beg to differ. Sociopaths plan ahead, anticipate, know how to lie, get what they want via manipulation, read other people very well. Sociopaths, for the most part, lack empathy. I’ve known sociopaths and honey, you ain’t no sociopath.

This is what comes of listening to NPR.

I guess the hubs...

In the name of all that is holy! My husband is not a woman!

I married him for his big…

MUSCLES!

I think men can be men, women can be women, gay men can be gay men, lesbians can be lesbians, bi people can be all bi, asexual people can be asexual, transgender people can be transgender, nudists can be nudists (I just don’t want to play volleyball with them), dogs will be dogs, cats will be cats (and they secretly rule the world and we are their minions – This cat has a history of violence! Sorry, that 911 call was just toooooo funny. I’m thinking the cat h...

A Bad Country Song Entitled: Another Sleepless Night.

So last night the hubster comes to bed about 11:15– I’m already upstairs with the ice bag, still working on the WIP, and he says, “I have to get up real early, like 5:50, to get Jake out for a walk and make it to my meeting in Oakland on time.”

And I’m like– “Seriously? It’s still dark at 5:50 (especially now that daylight savings time has begun) and Jake will be asleep.”

And he’s like– “But I gotta because you can’t walk him.”

We kind of went back and forth like that, with me saying I’m taking...

Two Books and Two Authors I should have mentioned ages ago!

Author number one is Toby Neal, a resident of Hawaii, and her exotic enticing addictive mysterious Lei Crime Series,which is set… guess where? In beautiful Hawaii. The latest installment, Shattered Palms, is so luscious it is to die for. I love the opening chapter, especially the references to the cloud forest, having spent a great deal of time hiking through the beautiful cloud forests of Costa Rica. They are special secret places.

Maui is lush mountains, cloud forest and exquisite birdsong—b...

I planted my garden.

Bed One:

A single tomato plant which will, as they are wont to do in California, take over the world.

Volunteer red potatoes. Volunteer parsley. Volunteer garlic. Hey, never look a gift horse in the mouth. If something volunteers it gets to live. Unless it’s mint or oregano. Mint and oregano do not respect boundaries. Kind of like Russia.

Arugula.

Purple beans.

Cylindrical beets. You know, the long kind, not the round kind.

Bed Two:

Two asparagus patches which have been producing for two weeks. Yay...