Virginia heart attack

I was going to take this time to post about my short work trip to Virginia earlier this week (found here on my travel blog), but as I'm sitting in my mom's living room in Pennsylvania, it occurs to me how quickly things can change, and how you can find yourself under very different circumstances than what you were expecting.

I'm posting below what I shared on my Facebook page earlier this weekend...

After a particularly challenging work week for me that included a trip down south, my mom recommended that instead of trying to make my way through the endless hell of traffic on 95 yesterday, that I should detour through Kennett to have a bit of a pit stop before heading back to the office this morning.
After a lovely bottle of wine after dinner (you know how we Rutledge’s roll), she recounted that all week she’s been feeling my dad around the house, something that hasn’t happened really at all since she moved in. I thought this was quite serendipitous, as all week I’ve been thinking about my dad due to some crazy times at work.

Cut to 2:30 this morning, when she had me drive her to the hospital after waking up with numbness and chest pain. Good news is that everything is alright, but all I kept thinking today was that I shouldn’t have been anywhere near here. Most of you know that two summers ago, my mom, grandfather and I got into a car accident that ended up with us all in the hospital - which unbeknownst to us at the time probably saved my grandfather some future additional grief from an undiagnosed illness that was caught while we were all in the ER. We’ve joked since then that it was obvious my grandmother intervened because she knew Gramps needed to go to the hospital; since he was just being stubborn about seeing a doctor, she simply made it so he HAD to go see one.

Although I’m currently running on fumes, too much caffeine and only two hours of sleep, it’s now entirely obvious to me that dad and Grams have been conspiring the same way about mom, and maneuvered me here at the right time. He would make sure it was the weekend before Halloween too - if he was going to “haunt” my mom towards a doctor, there would need to be some ghost-related humor involved in the situation 👻

Thanks to Jennersville Hospital for their amazing service and staff, including the nurse who took one look at me this morning and made me a fresh pot of coffee from the nurses station. I’m going to give dad bonus points for that one too - he always made sure mom and I had our morning caffeine to start our day.

I'm not always the biggest believer in religion, but I am a believer in things happening for a reason. It just goes to show that when things don't seem to go to plan, maybe they're actually working out the exact way they're supposed to.

Heading back to Alfred...

Another quick trip in the books - be sure to check out my travel blog for my three day trip back to the Finger Lakes region of New York...

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Parting Stone

So excited for my friend Justin Crowe and his new venture, Parting Stone - be sure to check them out!

After 3 years of research into death and dying, I am so excited to announce a fascinating technology we developed with Los Alamos National Laboratory. Cremated remains can feel messy, gross, and meaningless. People don't know what to do with them. I thought this relationship with one of our most treasured possessions was sad. We developed a new form of human remains called solidified remains. Instead of receiving a box of ashes following cremation, you can now recieve a collection of stones. The solidification process returns the full amount of remains in a solid and clean form. Receiving stones allows people to feel connection with remains. Check out our full story in the video below and if you like it, please share and help spread the word! https://partingstone.com/

Thank you so so much to everyone who has supported me in this endeavor. The Parting Stone team is phenomenal, our advisors, investors, LANL support, retail partners, friends, family... I have felt incredibly supported and am forever grateful.

Letters To Alfred

Super excited to share this from two Alfred alums, and even more excited to be a part of it.

From Michael's instagram:

We will send each participant a piece of biodegradabe handmade paper embedded with seeds of wild plants that are native or naturalized to the Southern Tier region. You can write your letter to Alfred on this paer and retur it to us using the included pre-addressed stamped envelope. Your letter will be included in an exhibition at the Cohen Gallery in August 2019, reporduced in a book, and ultimately returned to the landscape to fully deliver the message and allow the seeds to grow and flourish. "Letters to Alfred" is open to anyone who used t live in the town of Alfred, NY for any amount of time and no longer lives there. You can choose to have your name associated with your letter or remain anonymous. This project is a component of "Won't You Be My Neighbor", an ongoing collaboration between Artist Michael Bernard Stevenson Jr., Cassandra Bull, Caitlin Brown curator of the Cohen Gallery, Emma Percy, and the community of Alfred...

Definitely excited to be a part of this, and I'm hoping I can get up to see the show when it opens in August.

California dreaming...

I swear, this year has been one for the ages lately in regards to traveling, especially in regards to the west coast. Hop on over to my travel blog (links below) in regards to my trip to California. I've also added some photos from my trip to my digital photography gallery - be sure to check those out too.

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