Moving Forward: August 2014

I'm on the last day of my 2 weeks of vacation, and I start my Small Animal Surgery rotation tomorrow, so I'm writing a quick post before sh*t hits the fan and I have no life for a month. I'll try to keep it short and sweet, but if you've been following along, you know that brevity is not my forte. But I'll try!

Yosemite

For the first week of my vacation, I drove down to Yosemite to meet up with my family for our yearly camping trip. In my last post, I mentioned I had some hesitations about going, but I decided to put my reservations aside and just go for it. Brandon couldn't come because of work, so he stayed behind with the dogs while I made the 12-hour drive to the park. (It was supposed to be 11 hours, but a big forest fire had the Hwy 120 entrance closed, so I had to go around.) The trip had a strange vibe this year. Usually we have a big group of people, it's sunny and hot, and it's basically just a big party, but not this year. I missed Will and Bodie, so it was just me, my mom and Ed, and Cat and Josh. It was still hot, but the whole valley was smoky and dark due to the fire. Everyone's energy was a lot more low key too. I'm not sure if it's because we're getting older, because there were less people, or just because everyone feels a little low these days, but it was a much more relaxed, slow-paced vacation. I'm not complaining though... our family vacations are usually focused around doing as much as possible, so it was nice to just lay back and not feel guilty for it. Plus, I got through 2 1/2 books and a 16-hour audiobook, so I feel somewhat accomplished.

On Wednesday, we drove up to Glacier Point, which is something we do every year. First, it was so smoky you could barely see Half Dome! Then it started getting really windy and pouring rain. Josh was going to propose to Cat on the Panorama Trail (which we all knew about, but she had no clue), so every time she tried to back out, we gently nudged her back into doing it, telling her the weather would clear up really quickly. Fortunately it did clear up about a half hour later, so while those two were on their hike, I took my mom and Ed on a short hike to Taft Point and the Fissures. Brandon and I had gone there a couple years ago, but in all the years my family has been going to Yosemite, my parents have never seen that spot! I took a lot of pictures, but it's honestly one of those places where pictures can't capture its beauty. After the hike, we drove back down to the valley and waited for Cat and Josh to get back and announce their big news. That night, we went to Curry to celebrate their engagement with pizza and beer (well, salad and water for me... stupid gluten), then turned in for an early night. I just want to say a big congratulations to Cat and Josh. I'm SO happy for you guys, and I can't wait for your wedding!

Half Dome through the smoky haze

The fam at Glacier Point in the smoke and rain

Cat & Josh pre-engagement

Half Dome after some of the smoke blew out

El Portal fire in the distance

Some crazies were tight-rope walking across a fissure

One of the fissures

Taft Point

Taft Point - Not bad for 4 months out of a wheelchair!

Mama & Eddie at Taft Point

After a lifetime of going to Yosemite, I finally convinced my family to go horseback riding. We chose a 2-hour trail ride to Mirror Lake and back, and it's just my luck that everything went wrong. First, Cat was terrified to go and was basically having a panic attack the whole time. Then, my mom's horse was misbehaving and not wanting to go on the trail. Then one of the horses on our ride fell down. Yes, he fell completely down onto his side, and when he stood back up he could barely put weight on one of his legs. The sad part is, it wasn't his fault at all. The rider was a totally ignorant Chinese man who was pulling up on the reins the whole time so the horse couldn't see its feet, and he slipped on a sandy rock and went down. Fortunately the man wasn't hurt, but I felt so bad for the horse. To make it worse, the two trail guides were just young summer workers who had no idea how to handle the situation. My mom got so scared that she ended up getting off her horse and walking back while the man who fell rode her horse. My horse, Peanut, was a total angel, but needless to say I don't think my family will be horseback riding with me any time soon.

Gathering at the water trough

Eddie riding Charlie Brown

Josh on Goliath (appropriately named)

Me & Peanut heading up the trail

I think I mentioned this in my last post, but since Brandon and I were supposed to get married in Yosemite last summer, my wedding band is engraved with the GPS coordinates of Yosemite Valley. I wanted to take some cool pictures of my rings while I was there, so I turned into one of those weirdos posing my rings on pieces of granite and old fallen trees. I think I got a couple cool shots though.

I think that's all the major news from Yosemite. The rest of the trip was just hanging around camp, riding bikes, sitting by the campfire, and playing games. Pretty chill. As much as I love Yosemite and cherish the memories I've made there over the years, I think it's time that we, as a family, branch out and explore some new places. There's so many parts of this country that we haven't seen yet, so it's starting to seem like a waste to go back to the same place year after year.

A couple days in Reno

After Yosemite, I drove back to Reno for the weekend just to visit. I got my hair cut, did some shopping, had froyo with Rachel, and had a BBQ with the family. I got to visit with Bodie and Will for a little bit on Sunday morning too, which might be the last time until next year! I can't believe how big Bodie is getting. I swear every time I see him he's a different kid. His new thing is to tell you, "Be right back." So you have to sit there and wait for him to go get something and come back. If you try to get up, he'll run back in the room and say, "Sit! Be right back!" It's pretty cute. He's also in the stage where everything is "mine"... my dogs, my house, my trucks, my bed, etc. I can't believe next time I see him he'll be 3 years old already!

New haircut, courtesy of the wonderful Michelle Parsons

Bodie eating his bunny cookies

Clearly he was not thrilled about sitting for a picture with Auntie May May

Also while I was in Reno, I adopted a couple rats! I've been wanting rats for a while, but I was waiting for Brandon to give me the go-ahead, and he finally said yes and sounded excited about it. It was actually sort of an ordeal. I drove back and forth to the humane society 3 times on Sunday and went to 2 pet stores and 2 thrift stores before finally getting them home. They're so cute! We named them Sloppy and Joe, and they're 4-month-old boys. Sloppy is a lot more outgoing and active, and Joe is pretty timid and quiet. Hopefully over time they'll get used to people a little more. I had my first mishap with them earlier this week. I had them out of their cage and was playing with them, and Joe escaped and ran under the bed. I tried for half an hour to get him out, sticking rolls of wrapping paper under the bed trying to push him out. I finally gave up and waited for Brandon to get home. Another 45 minutes, 2 rolls of wrapping paper, a broom, and some poster board later, we finally got him back in his cage. It was pretty stressful all around, and I won't be letting them escape again any time soon.

Sloppy & Joe

On Monday, I loaded up the ratties and drove the 9.5 hours back to Corvallis. (It would've only been 8ish, but due to yet another fire, I had to go a different route again.) I am seriously sick of driving now. If I knew I'd be driving 30 hours by myself for one vacation, I might have reconsidered. Between the road closures, road construction, accidents, and just general traffic, I was about ready to kill someone. But don't worry, I didn't. :) Before I left Reno, I made sure to spend some time with Tao, our last remaining family dog. She's 17 years old now and has a lot of health problems, so she'll likely have to be put down sooner than later. It was bittersweet leaving her; I know she's in a lot of pain right now, but it's weird to think that I'll probably never seen her again. So, here's some pictures of the sweet old gal...

A different kind of doctor

In medical news, I'm totally off my fentanyl patch! I took my last patch off last Monday in Yosemite, and I haven't been taking whatever pain meds my pain management doctor gave me because I don't trust him, and honestly, I'm so jaded at this point that I only listen to about 20% of the advice my doctors give me these days. I was worried I'd have major problems with withdrawal because I have in the past, but nope! I had no issues with depression, anger, or any of the other ugly things I've had before. The only problems I've had are that my legs have been really achy for the past couple weeks, and I've had a never-ending headache. It's not like a muscle ache in my legs, it's deeper, like it's in my bones or something. I'm assuming it's from the nerve damage, but I'm determined to stay off pain medicine, so hopefully it'll get better soon. I've been hiking quite a bit lately, so maybe by building strength they'll start to feel better. I just hope they don't hurt really bad when I start surgery tomorrow!

I had yet another doctor appointment a few days ago, but this time it was the gynecologist. Don't worry, I promise not to go into detail about this one. I just wanted to mention that I had a discussion with my doctor about tubal ligation (getting my tubes tied) since I shouldn't get pregnant, and she thought it would be a good idea. Aside from my genetic disease, I just have so much scar tissue in my abdomen that she thought pregnancy would be too dangerous. I already knew that, but it just confirmed it hearing it from the gyno side of things. Anyways, next year when I do my bowel obstruction surgery, I will likely have my tubes tied at the same time to avoid yet another surgery. (That's actually kind of misnomer considering they usually just remove your tubes completely.) I told her that Brandon and I are leaning towards adoption, but I asked her if getting my tubes tied would preclude me from doing IVF with a surrogate, and she said absolutely not. My ovaries would still produce eggs, so if we decided to go the surrogate route, then I could still have a biological child. Nothing is happening yet; it's just some more food for thought. Also, I think it's funny that I can talk about penises and vaginas all day if it's an animal, but as soon as it's a human, I clam up and get totally awkward.

Random Musings

I've come up with a few very important life questions on my hikes lately, so I thought I'd share them with you to wrap up this blog post. If you know the answers, please enlighten me!

Were hamburgers ever made out of ham? Why do we use names like turkey burger, veggie burger, salmon burger, etc., but we don't call it a beef burger?

Do attorneys and judges ever get called to jury duty? Can an ex-con serve on a jury?

If pico de gallo mean's rooster's beak in Spanish, then why do we use it as a name for salsa?

What's the difference between tortellini and tortelloni?

This one is a riddle... What goes around the world but stays in a corner? Give up? A stamp!

Lastly, here's a joke (courtesy of Brandon): What did one tectonic plate say to the other when they bumped into each other?
It's your fault!

Ok, that's all folks! You probably won't hear from me for the next month, so cross your fingers that I survive this dreaded rotation!