Category Archives: Friends and Family

Long day at the hospital

Posted in Friends and Family, Me Me Me! by

Whew! It’s hard spending time at the hospital. They’re kind of like airports, where there’s this strange smell in the air and everything is decorated in a “designer-generic” kind of way. Today Mom and I spent almost 12 hours in the hospital with grandpa, but by the time we left this evening he was finally asleep.

Grandpa was brought in by ambulance on Saturday morning and was diagnosed with a GI bleed. We were told he would probably be ok, but they took him to the Critical Care Unit so that he could get scoped the following day. So yesterday, the doctor told us that they had tried to repair the large ulcer in his stomach but that he would probably continue bleeding unless he underwent surgery. Unfortunately, his chances of surviving surgery would be very low, and even if he did survive, he would probably be put on a ventillator, and the recovery time would be very long, very painful, and very frightening for him. Due to his dementia and the pain he was in, he had been yelling his head off for about 48 hours in the CCU. He’d yell out that he needed water (which we couldn’t give him), that he was tired, that he wanted to go home, and “George Pataki” among other things.

We needed to make a hard decision. We decided that his chances of surviving surgery and the recovery were really low, and that it would just prolong his suffering. So, we had him taken off his treatment (blood transfusions, because he was losing so much blood through the ulcer) and opted for comfort care. We were finally able to unhook all the monitoring equipment and tubes, give him what he wanted to eat and drink, and make him comfortable with morphine. He stopped yelling, took a couple naps, did a lot of smiling, made much more sense when he talked, and now has no pain and is comfortable. We moved him to an intermediate care room, where hospice is overseeing his treatment. Everyone we’ve met has been so attentive and compassionate, has given us much-needed support, and we feel like we made the right decision.

Grandpa will continue to receive morphine and valium (to help with his anxiety and to relax him) as needed. Because he is losing blood at a rate of about a pint per 6 hours, he will probably pass away sometime tomorrow afternoon or evening. There’s always a chance he could stop bleeding, but I’m not expecting that to happen. I’m just glad that I can spend some time with him so that he’s not so afraid, and that I can be there for Mom. This has been tough on her, but I think we’ve done the best we can do. Think good thoughts for all of us – it will be another long day at the hospital tomorrow!

What a week…

Posted in Career, Friends and Family, Me Me Me!, Updates by

Whew! A lot happened this past week. Ok, first of all, I know you’re all wondering about my job search – my application for the Army Corps job (mentioned in the previous post) fell through, so now I only have two applications out, both of which are long-shots (and not really want I want anyway, truth be told). It’s so much work hunting for jobs that I’m kind of getting discouraged by all this rejection and am wondering if I’ll ever find a job.

In the meantime, I signed up with a temp agency, which will hopefully keep some money rolling in for me while I’m job hunting. I also signed up with Arbonne as an Independent Consultant, so you can look forward to me pestering all you friends and family out there to buy their stuff from me. Seriously though, Arbonne sells really great skin care products (all botanically based, no animal products, no animal testing), and they’re the only products I’ve used so far that have been able to help me with some of my dark spots and fine wrinkles (yes, I’m getting wrinkles!). If you’re curious, ask me about it.

And it’s weird how people come and go in life. I broke up with Bob this week, but also this week, my old childhood chum, Tina Junk, wrote me an email from out of nowhere. It turns out that she lives only about 10 minutes from me! She’s married, and a stay-at-home mom with four kids. We’re going to get together on Wednesday for lunch.

My grandfather (on my mom’s side) went into the hospital yesterday, and was diagnosed with a GI bleed in both his stomach and esophogus. On top of that, he has pneumonia, which isn’t very good. He had surgery earlier this morning to fix his stomach ulcer, and I think he’ll be ok, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed. And Teddy Bear had a cold this week too – he won’t even eat his wet food! But I think he’s getting better.

That’s about it – I have some exciting things planned for this week, so just you wait for the next installment!

Mom’s in the doghouse because…

Posted in Animals, Cats, Friends and Family, Me Me Me!, Non-cats by

She’s got a new dog! Yesterday, Mom went to Petco to buy her cat some stuff and came home with a new dog (which indeed is not the “cat stuff” she originally intended to buy). His name used to be Poncho, but Mom is renaming him Bailey. He’s two years old, some sort of border collie mix (I think maybe with Australian sheep dog or something), and seems to be fairly well trained and obedient. A bit goofy, too.

Of course, Leo (Mom’s cat) can’t stand him, and Michael (Mom’s parrot) has already crafted a handful of plans resulting in Bailey’s demise (which mostly involve a lot of pecking and biting). I introduced Teddy Bear to Bailey in neutral territory – the grass island on Fairway Park – and things seemed to go pretty well – Teddy growled, they sniffed each others’ butts, and then ignored each other. However, when Mom brought Bailey into my place, Teddy went ballistic and ran out from under the bed, barking, and charged Bailey. Zoe, my cat, puffed out immensely. Ok, so we have some territory issues, but that’s ok. Things will work out well between the two of them, I think!

Mom seems to be very excited with her new companion, and I hope it works for her. Her house is now officially a menagerie of animals (all of whom hate each other), and if Teddy and I ever stay with her again it’s going to result in some real chaos. I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we have to!

That’s no woman, that’s a MAN, man!

Posted in Friends and Family, Humor, Me Me Me! by

Bet you’re wondering what’s going on in the above picture, huh? From left-to-right, that’s Jessica, Mulva, and me. On Tuesday some friends from work and I went to Lips, a drag club in Hillcrest for dinner and a show. I’d never been to a drag club before but it was pretty fun – we got there entirely too early (we were expecting more traffic), so we had a few drinks before dinner. And drag queens can actually serve up some pretty good chow, let me tell you! There were two shows, which each consisted of a “hostess” and three drag queens who each lip-synched to a song and gave random people in the audiences lap dances. It was a very mixed crowd – people celebrating birthdays, a table of old ladies, and us. Not bad for a Tuesday night, eh?

A fine day at Point Loma

Posted in Day Trips, Friends and Family, Me Me Me!, Travel by

During Bob’s visit we went to Point Loma, which overlooks San Diego and the bay. It was a beautiful day – a nice cool breeze with lots of sunshine, and the views from the point were amazing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Point Loma is part of Cabrillo National Monument, which commemorates Cabrillo coming to southern California and claiming the land for Spain in the 1500’s.

In the 1800’s, a small, squat lighthouse was built on the top hill at Point Loma. Unfortunately, fog and clouds often hid the light from the lighthouse, so it was eventually decommissioned and another lighthouse was built near sea-level, so it would shine below the fog. But the original lighthouse still stands, and you can see how the lighthouse keepers and their families lived.

Later that day we visited Old Town San Diego, which I had never been to before. It’s modeled after the original settlement near the Presidio, and has some very good Mexican Food. I had difficulty walking out of the candy shop without buying anything, especially the hand-made salt-water taffy. We had dinner at Casa Guadalupe, and a word of warning: the large margarita is boat-sized, and you practically have to climb in and drink your way out of it.

Is this my day off?

Posted in Friends and Family, Me Me Me! by

My cousin Hanna, on her way to attending school in L.A., is staying with my other cousin Beth for a couple of months. I invited both of them to come to the Wild Animal Park so that we could catch up and enjoy the 100 degree weather.

I was able to take Beth and Hanna down to the tiger stairs, where we had a great view of Malacca enjoying her weekly rabbit. Yummy! We walked the rest of the Kilamanjaro Safari Trail, ate lunch at Heart of Africa and saw the cheetah, hung out at Lion Camp, and rode the train around the field exhibits. But I think my cousins’ favorite part of the day was visiting Lorikeet Landing and feeding the birds – Beth and Hanna were covered with them, and were only minorly covered with their “leftovers” after they flew away.

Scottsmen in kilts: cold shower, please!

Posted in Friends and Family, Me Me Me! by

A couple of weeks ago my mom and I went to the Scottish Highland Games in Vista, California. Did you know that, for the most part, all Scottish athletics involve tossing some sort of heavy, very cumbersome object? Usually in a kilt? And, much to my surprise, the kilts were quite becoming to most who wore them (mmm mmm good…).

A glimpse at Scottish Sports:

So for those of you who don’t know, here are the main sporting events: The caber toss (with the big pole), and two other tosses that involve a big weight attached to a chain. In one, the weight is flung horizontally as far as possible, and in the other, the weight is flung directly above, over a pole, and then the flinger runs like hell in order to not get whacked by it on the way down.

Look at all those delicious be-kilted men-folk!
What’s under there, anyway?

In addition to these fine events, we found that the Lewis family (my Granny on my Mom’s side) is part of the MacCleod clan, watched some bagpipers and sheepdog trials, and enjoyed some pseudo-scottish festival food. Yummy! I had a pretty good time – it was a nice day out, and the people-watching was top notch. I know you’re jealous, you bloody blighters!

Look out New Orleans, I got my mojo workin’!

Posted in Friends and Family, Me Me Me!, Travel, Vacations by

My friend Jeremy sent me to New Orleans at the end of May to represent Freshwaters Illustrated at the NABS annual meeting in New Orleans. I picked up a nasty cold there, but met up with a lot of friends and explored the French Quarter and the Garden District. I had a good time, even though I wasn’t feeling my best. (This is a picture of Rue Royale, one of my favorite streets in the French Quarter.)

I got to spend some time with Toben and Brenda, two of my very best friends who now live in Minnesota. It was great seeing them, even though I was running a fever and wasn’t up for going out much.

Julie and I worked on our M.S. in Ecology together at Colorado State and it had been a long time since I’d seen her.

I set up the booth for and represented Freshwaters Illustrated at the NABS meeting in New Orleans. I thought it looked pretty good, and I got lots of really great feedback about the organization.

Bob flew out to meet me from Miami, and we stayed at the New Orleans guest house, which was awesome. The building was the color of Pepto Bismol, and the courtyard was guarded by a rather friendly (and ancient) orange kitty. We ate at many fine establishments, visited the St. Louis Cemetery #1, and the aquarium, but our favorite part of the trip was exploring the garden district and looking at all the beautiful old houses.

The New Orleans Guest House – we had the Red Room!