Silly Summer Haircut

Mom's day

It was a nice Sunday today. Took my parents breakfast, then my mom and I went to coffee. She got to meet a little more of the Village and see people she knew and likes and doesn't get to see very often. She reported that she had fun, and I believe her (I did, too). We got to spend some quality mom-and-daughter time while Maggie dad-sat (he and I got some time in over lunch, too, don't worry). In the afternoon I went to a friend's graduation party, which was at this brewery in town which is pretty unique. All they serve is beer, so they actually encourage you to bring food in - so we moved in with our pig-pickin' and potluck (which was originally scheduled to be in a park). And they advertise themselves as a "kid and dog friendly" establishment, which meant I got to bring Maggie. She ate some pork, got lots of love and attention, met some other dogs, and thoroughly wore herself out.

All in all it was a good day, with family, friends, and even some time with my own "baby." Can't beat that...

Nurse Maggie

Madness

So yesterday, one of my parents left the door open to their apartment. My mom went to dinner, and my dad was still home. My dog, however, wandered out, down the hall, off to have herself an adventure. Nobody knew she was missing until my parents' neighbor found her on the ramp leading to the dining room.

There are two things about this story which amaze me.

One, my dog had the good sense to not go into the dining hall. Because dogs in there are explicitly and strictly forbidden. My parents would've gotten in a lot of trouble if she had gone in. I have no idea how she knew that was a bad idea. Because, from her perspective, it seems like a GREAT idea - there's food, my mom was there, all of Maggie's friends were there...

The second...I still can't figure out...my parents live on the third floor. The dining room is on the first. Somehow, some way, my dog made it downstairs.

On the elevator.

That's pretty much the only way she could've gone down!  There's a stairwell, too, but no one ever uses it and thumbs are definitely required to open the door. I can imagine someone came up on the elevator and she went in, and then someone downstairs pushed the button for the elevator and out she went. But...but.....I mean...I know some of these people are really old, but....wouldn't you notice that there's a DOG coming out of the elevator?!! And everyone in their building knows her...

Or hell, maybe she just pressed the buttons herself.

After all, my dog *is* pretty amazing...

Patriotic pup

wo

The dog ate my post.

No she didn't. But Blogger did. I have no idea what happened to the - short and relatively uninteresting - post that I wrote yesterday. But, like I said - short and uninteresting, so, not really a big loss.

It's been a nice weekend. Lots of time with friends and with my parents. Maggie finally got a bath yesterday. We went to a new groomer - a friend of Garth's - who was fantastic, and who rides a motorcycle. She was great, and Miss Mags is all fluffy and good-smelling and soft again. It's lovely.

Bill had a gallery showing yesterday, which was a lot of fun. He's been taking a photography class, and one of his submissions won in the class competition in the Abstract category. It's a beautiful macro shot of bubbles in amber glass. So they had a little reception and showing for all the winners in the college library. A bunch of us went to support him (except for the two of us who were at two separate funerals. Which I fine eerie). It was neat, and some of the photos were really fabulous. (I'll be honest. A few left me thinking, "I've got much better shots than that...")

I did get out on the bike for a minute yesterday. Something still doesn't feel right. I don't think it's just anxiety. Garth and Bill have both offered to ride it for me and check it out, and I'll probably take them both up on it. We'll see, I guess. Alls I know is that two miles I rode yesterday was hell for uncomfortable.

Today was mostly errands. Coffee, then laundry, groceries, etc. More time with friends and family.

All in all, a good weekend. I could still use a little more, but then, when is that not true....?

Sleepy Kate

Fireside puppy

Orton Pup

Another week down

Yeah, so, I didn't get too much done today.

Mags went with me to coffee this morning. Her boyfriend Eddie came along, too.

It does bother me a little that my dog has a steady and I...have a dog....

But nonetheless. Eddie - whose full name is Eddie the Neurotic Wonderdawg, if that tells you anything - was SUCH a good boy, and it was his first time at the coffee shop. They had fun together. The humans enjoyed it, too.

We got some lunch, I went to the gym....and then I'm not sure where the rest of the day went.

I had a really restless workout. Ten minutes on the elliptical, ten on the bike, ten on the treadmill, five on the rower, twenty on the other treadmill. Fuss, fuss, fuss. I came home, putzed around, finally got around to showering, did some laundry, did some dishes...I don't know why I'm so uneasy today...

I also missed the fact that it was the 19th, not the 18th, which is what I'd been thinking. Which means I also missed yesterday - as of yesterday, I've had Maggie for SEVEN YEARS! That's crazy!!! Also awesome. And lucky, I think, for both of us. She's the greatest dog ever. Even if she does have a better love life than I do...

Pup and shadow

Mags hangs out

Drawn to a close

Ahhh, another week down.

Mom's home. She's feeling better and her lip is back to its normal size.

Maggie missed her.

 

It was a full and yet very unproductive day. I had a good time at coffee this morning. I picked up my mom, her prescriptions, and some lunch and then headed back to the ranch. I had a good workout. I ran a couple of errands. I took Maggie back to my folks later in the evening so she could say hello and I could do my mom's pill boxes. We watched some SVU. I didn't get my laundry or my dishes done. I didn't get half the work done this weekend that I wanted to. I never made it to Costco.

You know? It's just fine.

Progress

What a nice Sunday.

Maggie went to coffee with me this morning, which, she had so much fun playing with the owners' kids (who are like 18 mos and maybe 4 and just the cutest things ever). Our other friend brought her dog as well, but she and Mags didn't seem to care much about each other.

I then spent a good portion of the rest of the day unpacking boxes from the kitchen. I'm not quite done yet, but I made a lot of progress. And the tiny little kitchen? Is rather cozy, it turns out. Plus, we have dishes again. Plates, bowls, glasses, the whole nine yards. And silverware! It's like I actually live here or something. Huh.

Had dinner with the folks, did some laundry, hung out with the dog. Sometimes it's nice to have a fairly boring day..

In the (new) doghouse

Ai ai ai...

So my dad's back in the hospital. Doing okay, in pretty good spirits, but his blood pressure's a little low.

Mine, however...

Mom, on the other hand, is doing pretty well. Did great in PT today, getting up better, etc. There was a big thunderstorm today while I was at work and Dad was at the hospital. My mom says, "Maggie was jumping all around and really upset about it."

"Aww, poor thing," I said. Because, you know, my dog is terrified of thunderstorms. "Sounds like that was upsetting to you, too. But," I reminded her, "you can always say 'go to your bed' and she'll go get in her crate."

"Oh," my mom says, "She was in her crate. But I knew she was scared, so I told her to come out and sit by me. And she did, for a while, and then started jumping around. I felt bad for her."

This I love.

This post is brought to you....

...by the letter "T" and the letter "D". For, technical difficulties.

I'm terribly sorry to have worried anyone out there! My wi-fi hasn't been working at Shady Pines, and I've been too exhausted to remember I can update the blog by phone. Oy.

I'm thinking my Blog 365 qualification for this year is over...which is actually fine. I'm still planning to post daily, but maybe I won't stress about it if I miss a day here and there. ::sigh::

Things are actually going pretty well here. Mom and Dad are both home at the Home. I have an air mattress so I'm no longer sleeping on the floor, and honestly, I'm thinking I'm not going to have to stay there a whole lot longer. My mom is needing a lot less assistance these days, so once she can get out of bed by herself at night, I should just be able to come before and after work. Dad is doing well, too. They're both getting PT daily. It's nice.

Here's the best thing that's been going on - my mom has always been terrified of dogs. She's been pretty tolerant of Maggie, but, like, when we lived at home between residencies, Maggie and I lived in the unfinished basement because she wasn't allowed in the house. When I got frustrated by the basement and started sleeping upstairs, she had to stay in her crate except when we went outside. Mom was really not a fan.

Maggie, however, has officially won my mother over. She's been staying out of her crate during the day, even when it's just her and my mom. My mom's still a little too skittish to touch her, but has been feeding her whatever's left of whatever meals she eats in the apartment. Maggie, of course, adores my mom, but being the really good girl that she is, is very respectful of Mom's personal space. It's completely adorable.

So the other day, my friend Laurie offered to keep Maggie while I was staying at Shady Pines. And I said to my mom, "Wow, isn't this nice? My friend Laurie from work says Maggie can stay with her while I'm here, if we want."

My mom looks over at the dog, thinks for a second, and says, "No, I think Maggie wants to stay here."

A definite win, I think, for me, my mom, and my dog. We gals have to stick together, after all, right?

The best laid plans...

We had a great day planned. It didn't work out so much.

So my mom's doctor called, because someone finally got around to reading her MRI three days later and was like, oh, hey, look at that shower of embolic-ness. Maybe we should do something about that. So her doc called my mom and was like, come on in. So we packed her up and I loaded my mom in the car and we went off to my old stomping grounds (where I went to med school). It was a significantly less pleasant day than we three had originally intended, but, my mom was a trooper, my dad hung in there, and I? Am tired.

The nurses were awesome, and the neurology resident who admitted her was very kind. He pulled me out and went through the MRI images with me. I'm actually starting to figure out that I'm better at reading these things these days. Which, sometimes (like today), might actually be a disadvantage. The MRI's not horrible, but it's also not okay...but I was really grateful he let me see it, and walked me through it. She's getting an MRA tonight, though, poor thing, so back in the scanner.

Keep thinking good thoughts.

Bleh. Did I mention I'm tired? My own brain is grinding along, and so, I think I'm going to take it to bed. But to brighten this dreary post up a little bit, I give you....my cute dog. In a cute picture, seen through the lens of my friend Bill.

See, now, don't we all feel better? (Except now I'm worried about my mom AND I miss my dog. Whoops.) She's staring ever so intently at a crust of bread I later handed her, which she promptly dropped on the floor and walked away from. Silly dog. But so cute though...

More weekend, please.

I had such a lovely day.

It's the first day of spring, of course.

Mags and I had a nice lie-in, enjoying the sweet spring breeze coming through the window. We snuggled, read email, eventually I dragged myself out of bed. And then we went to Jen's for brunch, which was wonderful. Jenny has this remarkable group of people with whom she surrounds herself, and I'm really honored to be a part of it. There were almost 40 of us there this am, and I stayed a lot later than I'd planned. I always get kind of anxious in groups of people I don't know very well; there's a core group of her friends that I know, but being me I generally forget people's names (I remember stories, ideas, faces; I suck with names). And then there's always a bunch of different, if fabulous, people who I don't know, and that always makes me a little nervous. But it was lovely, of course. I met some great new people, had good conversations with ones I'm coming to know, and had a generally very good time.

So did Mags! She got to come with me today. She met Jen's puppy, Crazy Eddie, or as he is sometimes also known, Eddie the Neurotic Dawg. They were instant BFF. Like, seriously.

Picture it: Durham, North Carolina. A glorious spring day in 2010.

Eddie: Let me in!!!! Let me innnnnnnnnnn!!!!!!!! I'm trapped outsiiiiiide!!! I can't see you if I'm outside!!!!
Maggie: What's with him? 
Eddie (clamors through the opened door): Helllllooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hi! Hi! Hi! Hi! You smell like a dog, strange new redheaded woman I've maybe met before. Wait! Wait! You smell like THAT dog!! Hi, Dog!!
Maggie: Hi. I...wow. You smell fun. 
Eddie: You're my new best friend, okay? 
Maggie: Okay!! 
Eddie: Let's play! Let's play! Let's play!!!
Maggie: Tag! You're it!! 


And then much wrestling and wagging and joyful tap-dancing ensued.

Jenny's ex-husband's new girlfriend came over later, with their three big dogs. There was a lot of sniffing and marking and jubilant giddy play, until everyone got a little overstimulated. New girlfriend and I distracted them for a while and wore them out a bit more. We went in, and poor Maggie was at the back door being all "save meeeeeee!!!! They're crazy!!!" so she got to come in and hang out with the humans, being that she is all calm and dainty and respectful of small people who are scared of her but end up making friends with her before too long.

I so very love my dog.

She was totally worn out by the time we got home. She's slept like a big furry log pretty much ever since we got home.

I had an agenda for the afternoon - work out, shower, blow dry, go to Starbucks and do some work until it was time to meet the crew for dinner. The residents have been going out monthly for whomever's birthdays are that month, which is mostly an excuse to go out to dinner. We had a really good turnout, and a heck of a lot of fun. There was a good mix of folks, good conversation, and a lot of tomfoolery.

Tomorrow will have to be more productive. But today was really quite lovely.

Happy spring, everyone!!

Less stuck

I finally made it home (it's quarter to 11), safe and sound. And don't worry, sadly enough there was no TWD involved in the last post. It was a lot of typing while parked on the I-40 (they do a lot of road construction at night, here, which is great during rush hour. Less great when you're stuck for-EVER when you don't expect to be and are already getting home late).

Maggie was excited. And I so totally love our dog sitter. I left him a note that today was her birthday and she was nine; he wrote back saying she got extra treats and he sang her happy birthday.

She really is the best dog ever. It worries me that she's getting up in years. Not that she knows that, so don't tell her. She still acts like a crazy puppy.

One of my patients had a great moment in therapy today. It was really phenomenal. 

Sparrow is an aunt!! Her little niece hatched today. She's very cute in pictures. Sparrow's flying south tomorrow to snuggle her in person. I'm a tiny bit jealous.

Oh! And! Today was Match Day, so we got a whole crop of new soon-to-be-interns. I think we got a really good group of incoming colleagues.

Tonight was also my last Mindfulness class. That course wound up being better than I expected from the first few sessions. It turned out to be an interesting bunch. I wish it had been a few weeks longer, because I feel like we were just starting to really hit our dynamic.

Today was actually kind of rough, but on the whole, I kept being reminded that I have really good people in my life. Which is what I'm choosing to take away from today.