Certifiable!!!

Yes, once again, I am certifiable. I passed the CPHIMS exam yesterday. It was not an easy exam and required me to put on the old thinking cap. Lots of questions that forced you to eliminate 1 of 4 answers: "A-1,2,4 only B-2,3,4 only C-1,2,3 only D-1,2,4 only" or putting a sequence of events in correct order, etc. I was challenged considering I didn't study using any of the recommended guides and I didn't pay for the practice exam. The cutoff for passing was 65. I scored 68! But, 66 is still passing and all that matters is that I passed!!! I am now a Certified Professional in Healthcare Information and Management Systems (CPHIMS) and will be for another 3 years. I won't have to take that exam again as long as I maintain my continuing education credits. I can now add to my signature lines on Outlook and work is ordering new business cards too! Glad I didn't have to retake the exam since that $300 would have come out of my pocket. Iatric paid the 1st round! If you are on Facebook, you probably saw some of my friends getting the CPHIMS exam confused at first glance with a CHIMP exam. I guess that explains a lot about my friends over there too ;-). Regardless, I will take the jokes since the pressure is now off. I would have felt like a CHIMP had I not passed the first try.

Nl: Drivin' n' Cryin' "Honeysuckle Blue", can't wait to see them tonight at The Handlebar! Getting pumped for that show. Should be a perfect summer night for music too! I just found out that Dickey Betts from Allman Brothers fame (he was a founding member and part of the group for their first 31 years) is coming to The Handlebar in October. That will be a packed house!

I finished something today that I started over 10 years ago: the 50 State Quarters map. The Montana quarter had escaped me for too long and I had to place an order on eBay to finish the collection. That was worth the $1.98. We have the completed map up in the boys' room. Somethings take a while to complete and that's the lesson I was working on with the boys today when we finished the map.

Tomorrow marks 20 years since my first Grateful Dead LIVE experience: 7-12-1989 at RFK Stadium in Washington, DC. My high school friend, Marty Proctor, and I drove up there and had life journey in the process. I knew the tunes for the most part having initiated myself into Dead tapes and albums the 2nd semester of my freshman year at Clemson. My entire summer revolved around that trip to DC. I was determined to make it after not getting a ticket to the Atlanta shows that spring. I didn't have a car then either! I had a few hundred dollars in cash just itching to be spent on anything and everything in the parking lot. Back then, the Dead were crash cities for a few days and bring the entire travelling circus of campers and parking lot carnival along with them. This was the last tour they were allowing concert goers to spend the night in the lots after the show. It got ugly after this tour with cops pushing us out not long after the music was over. But, for this weekend, we had the circus lot all to ourselves after the music. I'm sure 1/3 of the lot Deadheads never made it into the show or ever had a ticket, other than a miracle or two each tour. Any way, on the way to DC, we stopped at a hotel in Northern Virginia to sleep before hitting the show. I got paranoid (I hadn't been away from home too much at this point) and put my wallet in my pillowcase in the hotel that night. Of course, I didn't remember the wallet until we had gone about 5 miles down the interstate the next morning. Long story short, I never got the money or the wallet back. I did get my license and Clemson ID sent in the mail a few weeks later. The hotel owner felt sorry for me and gave me $20 for gas. We used that $20 to drive to Richmond to find an ATM that Marty could use. These were the days of no cell phones and regional ATMs (remember that headache?). We made it to Richmond, got some money and headed back to DC. This was NOT how I envisioned my trip to Mecca!!! But, I think it was also part of God's plan to keep me from going on the rest of the tour that summer and keepin' me tied to home.

Since the band was still in Philadelphia, the travelling circus had not arrived in DC yet for the most part. We spent the day before the 1st show walking around DC and riding the subway, my first experience with that big city mode of transportation. By the time the music started on that 2nd day in DC, I think Marty and I were about cross eyed from lack of sleep and way too much of everything else. One of my Clemson buddies found us in the lot (don't know how that even happened). Despite all the hassles and fried brain cells, I do remember an incredible sense of joy when the band took the stage. There was magic in the air and it wasn't just that strong odor we all smelled either :-). This was when Garcia was focused and his playing and singing on target. The band was loose and tight all at the same time. The mass of people swirling around that open air stadium rushing the field, running from the security, the loud music and colors everywhere were imprinted on my brain for life. One large Garcia smile punctuated by Phil's bass lines and the 2 drummers were all it took. I ended up seeing the band another 39 times until 1995 when Garcia passed away. My last show was Memorial Day 1995 in Portland, Oregon. In my mind, complete bookends. The uptight insanity and confusion of the East in 1989 compared with the peaceful mellow vibe of the West Coast spring in 1995. The band had changed and so had I. What happened in those 39 shows (and a few more where I didn't get a ticket and spent the night running from cops on horseback (only in Washington of all places)), I can't do justice with words in this blog. It was a great way to see the country with friends, the ones on stage and the ones travelling the highways with you. My summers at Clemson were milestoned with Dead shows, spring breaks too. I would see the band in the DC area a total of 7 times; but, there was never another one like that first in 1989. In other words, what a long strange trip it turned out to be...

See ya!