Whoops.

Since I missed Wordless Wednesday, I give you this, which I just love. It's a photo essay on dogs in the military. The pictures are awesome, but the copy is useful too. Did you know war dogs in Vietnam were considered surplus equipment and left behind when the war ended?? Shameful. Fortunately, the military has since seen the error of their ways (at least about this; there's always room for improvement).

Thoughts for a Friday night...

A friend posted this on Facebook. I've seen it before, and it always makes me cry a little. And hug my puppy.

Don't leave!

Hullo

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!!

Good advice.

Be nice to those around you.



Because one day, you might not be the big dog anymore, you might just be the old dog.

Blehhhh, Monday.

Today, itself, wasn't too bad. However...I woke up at 3am, and was a little stuffier than usual. Went back to sleep a half hour later or so, woke up again when my alarm went off, started sneezing. And on the way to work, I couldn't stop sneezing. And by mid-morning, started to feel pretty darn crappy, had a little fever, etc. I got summarily dismissed from afternoon clinic, so I came home and slept after lecture. Had a milkshake for dinner. Missed Peng's housewarming party (I owe you a Riesling, hon). And am now going back to bed. I'm still holding on to the delusion that it's just a big allergy attack, but...

I did find this, though, that I think kind of sums things up:

"Nana's ready to have her picture taken."

Brr

Okay, it's not that cold. I'm still running around without a coat, here...

I get off the plane this morning in Chicago and walked outside into 41-degree weather. Thanks, guys. I'm guessing you ordered that up special, what with me coming into town and all. Fortunately for me and my lack of real cold-weather anything in my luggage, this is more or less an extended layover.

Currently? 84 degrees in Honolulu.

As is typical when I'm here on a Sunday, I met up with my old knitting crew today. I am consistently struck by how familiar that group is, including the people that have joined since I left. I can plop down in that Panera, pull out my needles, and it's like I come every week. For all the irritating moments and bad credit that came out of working (for yarn - hence, bad credit. Funny, my loan company wouldn't accept that in payment...) at the yarn shop, there were some seriously awesome things that came of it.

Clearly, the best thing I gained were the awesome people who might not otherwise have made it into my life. We were a motley little group, there. Sarah (of Theories of String fame, see the blogroll) and I used to joke that our shop had a weird concentration of the most over-educated knitting teachers, ever (she's a PhD candidate, I of course had my MD by then, and the other woman who taught a lot had I think two masters degrees). Add in the group of regulars that hung around, the quirky shop owners and their even quirkier families, the hired help that actually worked for money rather than store credit (mostly in the dye shop; I'm not sure they actually "paid" any of us that worked up front), the Man in Brown, my lovable and goofy mutt, and the dyer's ridiculous five pound Italian Greyhound puppy who used to escape and run up to the front of the store and pee on things...

That place was really something. Usually in a good way.

It was also nice for me, because as the yarn-dyeing enterprise gathered steam, they more or less let me run the day to day stuff in the store. Which was really eye-opening, and I gained a lot of insight and interesting skills that I think could be really helpful if I ever run my own practice. And convinced me that if I plan on running anything bigger than a two or three person practice (say, a residential treatment center for trauma related disorders. On the beach, maybe), there's probably some merit in getting an MBA...

...and in having a facility dog. The tiny one was...well, kind of evil. But Mags, man, she had a blast there. She did so well. And I think she sold more yarn than any of the rest of us, to be honest. I should've had them put her on commission...seriously, though, I so miss being able to take her to work. Having that energy around, that soft peace and unadulterated enthusiasm, was so wonderful. She misses the opportunity to be that social, too, I think. And she also knows good people when she meets them, so she was a huge, huge fan of the Knit Night group. Plus, you know, people would feed her things....

I miss very few "things" from my old life. But I greatly, deeply, often miss the people.

Fair October

Long day. Again. Of course. Happy October.

Read this.

Love it.

Know what else I love? My new Ashford Traditional spinning wheel, which I bought used from one of the nurses at work. I spun for an hour tonight, this roving that I got on the farm tour a couple weeks ago. It was cheap, and it turns out that it's not especially well-carded, but hey, it was $1/oz. And the wheel needs to be oiled, and isn't as steady on the carpet upstairs as it was downstairs on the tile (or the no-pile carpet in my office, which was the place it ran the best), so the thickness isn't super consistent...but what it's produced is this high-lanolin, slubby, thick-and-thin yarn which is just totally and completely gorgeous (at least to me). It's very folksy. I see mittens, or maybe a whimsical scarf.

And so I'm sitting there tonight, fussing with the wheel, watching House, and spinning yarn, and my dog is curled up next to me on the bed (the chair I was using ended up sort of up against the foot of my bed), and every now and then she'd lean over and nuzzle or lick me, and I was just like...hmm. This? This is pretty darn close to bliss. And once I get the motion of the wheel evened out...

Quite zen. Very therapeutic.

I bought this thing (and some cards and combs, etc, that are coming later) for about what the hospital bills for one of my therapy sessions. So the way I see it, after having put in a solid hour on it tonight, it's already paid for itself.

Bittersweet day

So, it's a day of good things, and one particularly sad thing.

First, the good. Today is both Claudia's birthday AND Annie's birthday.

Claudia, I'm reasonably certain is 29 (still).

Happy birthday to you both. Love you both, miss you both. Hope it was a great day.

In less happy news, my friend's 15 year-old completely awesome black Lab died. Barney was a good friend. He purred - no kidding! It was the darnedest little noise he'd make when you scratched his belly. And you could not leave a glass of beer unattended long, and especially not on the coffee table. Love you, too, Barnes. Have fun chasing squirrels in heaven.

Foow.

And now for a little Friday randomness....my cousin sent me this on Facebook. Watch. Consider.



I'm a little embarassed to admit this, but it made me cry a little.

There was a lot (LOT) of crying in my day today. Fortunately, this was the first time it was me tearing up.

But on the plus side, now we get HBO.

My poor dog.

I finally get home, and I go to pick her up at the spa today, at the appointed time. And the guy behind the desk, with whom I'm on friendly terms, says to the runner, "Take your time getting Maggie - I've got to settle up with her first." And I was like, that's weird. Did my credit card not go through? They usually call me when that happens (not like they don't have the single most important piece of collateral I own, but, nonetheless). And he says, "You've got an injured dog."

I...I....what??!

Turns out poor Miss Maggie got into a "fence fight." There was a dog baiting her from the other side of the fence, and she swatted at him, and cut her paw pretty badly on the fence. This happened Sunday night. So they bandaged it, and Monday took her to their vet, who sedated her and stitched it up. Oh, and she's on antibiotics. And she's been just fine, typical Maggie, eating, hanging out, just with a funnel on her head.

And then, PS, he says, by the way, you owe the vet $400. Because your credit card expired, and we didn't have the updated date to give them.

I don't even know where to start with this.

First of all, my dog is hilarious. She's fine. I think her paw hurts, but she forgets about it. She constantly runs into stuff with the cone. Cleo was kind enough to let me bring her over tonight when I went for dinner with the new second years, and she was a HOOT. My favorite part was when I caught her trying to drink out of Cleo's toilet with the cone on. And she was bouncing off the walls, and the furniture, and people, because her head is suddenly much wider than it was previously. To sniff the grass, she basically has to put her head straight down.

It was...oh, my God, it was so funny. She's just so cute....

But needless to say, the conehead hat came off for a while. I was starting to worry about Cleo's paint...

But I made her put it back on to sleep tonight. Because I cannot stay up and make sure she doesn't mess with her paw. She's currently sprawled out next to me on my bed and the collar is poking me in the armpit. She's dreaming at the moment and wagging her tail in her sleep, so she can't be that upset about the whole thing, I suppose.

So she has to go back to a vet - maybe OUR vet this time (you know, the place where we have VET INSURANCE, and discount prescription coverage, and things like that) - on Thursday to get her bandage changed, and again in 10 days to get the stitches out.

I'm actually fairly annoyed that they didn't call me. He was like, well, I didn't want to worry you, and it wasn't really an emergency. Fine. But a, if you're going to run up a bill like that, you call me first. You sedate my dog, you call me first. And more importantly, MY DOG HAS A CONE HEAD. My puppy hurt herself. No, I wouldn't have rushed back or anything like that, but, I'd like to know these things.

My one friend, who's local, takes her dog to a different daycare in town. They have webcams so you can see your dog 24/7 online. That's suddenly a lot more appealing...

My poor baby.

Joy and Sorrow, revisited

The conclusion of the tragic and amazing story of Tyler's friend came sooner than expected.



Keep the family in your thoughts and prayers. It sounds like they're holding up okay; a lot of mixed emotions. This is one of those things, you know - both awful and wonderful. A story of great strength, community, and love, and a life lost too soon.

Meanwhile.

I also mentioned that one of my college professors died suddenly. Here's the obit, due to be published tomorrow, posted today on Facebook.

John Steven Paul, 58, of Valparaiso, died Friday, July 10, 2009, at Porter Memorial Hospital. He was born February 22, 1951, in Fort Wayne, IN. He received a B.A. with distinction from Valparaiso University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in theatre and drama from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Joining the Valparaiso University faculty in 1979, he was Professor of Theatre and served for 15 years as department chair. He taught courses in dramatic literature, playwriting and screenwriting, drama and the church, and non-Western theatre. He directed more than 60 plays, musicals, and operas for the University Theatre, including Long Day’s Journey into Night, King Lear, The Yellow Boat, The Pirates of Penzance, Accidental Rapture, The Book of the Dun Cow, A Little Night Music, and The Magic Flute.

He was the founder (in 1987) and director of Soul Purpose, the University’s student liturgical drama troupe, which creates new plays and performs them in churches throughout the country. In 2001 he received Valparaiso University Alumni Association’s Distinguished Teaching Award. He served since 2005 as Program Director of Valparaiso’s Lilly Fellows Program in Humanities and the Arts, the largest national, ecumenical association of church-related colleges and universities.

He was an active member of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education and its religion and theatre focus group. He was a member of the Bach Choir of Valparaiso University.

He is survived by his wife of 29 years, Margaret Franson, along with his parents, Robert and Betty (Steffen) Paul of Fort Wayne, IN; two sisters, Jane (Reverend David) Boedecker of Marshall, MI, and Joanne I. Paul (Reverend Wendy Vander Hart) of Arlington, MA; two nieces, Sara Boedecker-Johnston (Kelley James Johnston) and Emily Boedecker; several beloved godchildren and many friends.

A funeral service will be held Thursday at 11:00 AM at the Valparaiso University Chapel of the Resurrection, Reverend Frederick Niedner officiating. Visitation will be held Wednesday from 4:00 to 8:00 PM at Moeller Funeral Home, 104 Roosevelt Rd., Valparaiso, and from 9:30 to 10:30 AM Thursday at the Chapel of the Resurrection. A memorial service will be held in September. Memorials may be made to the Department of Theatre or to Christ College, Valparaiso University.

He will be missed. Several of you know, this blog was named in reference to my class' Freshman Production, in which he was heavily involved. Go with God, JSP.

And I got some other news today I'm rather concerned about...

Oy.

But anyhow. I'm back on the road. Should be back in the Old No'th State tomorrow, in plenty of time to pick up Maggie. I have to remember to call them in the morning and tell them to give her a bath...

So let's end on something a little happier. And what could be sweeter than this?

Sadness

Our old buddy Kedzie, who lived with us for two years when I was in medical school, passed on today.

He was a good, good boy. Kedzie was my surrogate dog for a while. After Wolf died in my second year, I wasn't sure it was a good idea to get another dog. And then Kedz (and my roommate, his human) moved in, and he tried to be a good substitute. He was downstairs a lot, and we'd hang out, but in the end, he was always Jer's dog. And he made me want one of my own. Fortunately, he and Maggie got to be buds pretty fast.

Kedzie was a sweet dog. Crazy, and hated thunderstorms something fierce. And really, really, really loved his person. He also had a penchant for jumping out windows. Shortly after Jer and Kedzie moved out (because Mags and I were moving to NH), Jer and his fabulous bride-to-be went somewhere, and he gets this call. It was the downstairs neighbors informing him that Kedzie had jumped out the second story window.

He was fine (crazy, but fine). He broke his little leg, but he was okay. Which makes my favorite part of the story funny. Apparently, the neighbor was sitting next to the window watching TV when he saw this big brown thing go past the window. And he thought to himself, "Wow. That was a really big squirrel..."

Kedzie had one too few toe these past few years after losing one to toe cancer. Toe cancer!! Who gets toe cancer?!

He also was self-petting. You could be lying on the couch, or whatever, and stick your hand out, and Kedzie would back up until your hand was down his back about to his hip bones and then he'd wiggle his butt back and forth. Instant scratches.

He was a good roommate, and a great dog, and he will be missed. Rest in peace, my sweet, furry friend. There's lots of butt scratches for you in heaven.

Whew!

It's been a busy weekend.

Friday was Graduation. I, of course, was not graduating, but it was a really good time. There's a group of people in the program right now (whom I referred to several times as "the core group of smartasses") whom I just really like. Funny, smart, sassy, some are loud, some are more stealthy. And there are several of our faculty whom I just really enjoy both on and off the clock. I mean, on the whole, I work with really good people. But some of them are just particularly fun.

I was driving home Friday night and thinking, wow. I'm so grateful to be where I am. Several people in their graduation speeches referred to the department as "family," and, I agree. Things aren't perfect, and some days we like each other more than others, but when the chips are down, you know you can count on the people around you. I like that. It's a nice change. I was thinking how awesome it was that right now, things are hard because residency is hard work, not because the people who claim to have my back are busy sticking a knife in it.

Saturday was a lazy day, until Porkfest II (you'll remember last year's. The idea was, Mike made a few key dishes - including his phenomenal pulled pork. It's epic - and everybody brought something to share. But the caveat is, whatever you bring - salad, entree, side, dessert, whatever - has to have pork in it). Blogger, sadly, won't let me upload the pictures, so the full details will have to wait. But it was a good, good time. I got to meet May's girlfriend and June's boyfriend, both of whom I liked very much (I'm always impressed with people in residency who can meet and date people outside the hospital. And good people at that). A couple of Mike's local friends were there, as well as his roommate (whom I also like very much. He tolerates all of us remarkably well). We hung out and ate well and chatted and laughed and had a good time. Bernie's husband Scotty (who gets this pseudonym because he is - wait for it - Scottish) helped us out with our now-annual-tradition of prank-calling the crisis pager. Scotty told...uh...Scott (I didn't think this pseudonym thing through very well, but since Scott already had his...well, try to keep up), who happened to have the misfortune of being on call for Porkfest, that he was distraught over David Carradine's death ("Who's going to do all those Kung Fu movies now?!") and had been drinking for four days and now wanted to kill himself ("it should been meeeeeee in that closet!" he wailed). So Scott asks him who's with him. Scotty says, "my brother and my mum," and Scott asks to talk to his brother. So Scotty puts down the phone, talks to himself for a minute, and then picks it back up claiming to be his brother.

Scott may have gotten wise to us at this point, because he told Scotty, "I think your brother is suffering from multiple personality disorder. You sound an awful lot like your brother..."

But Scotty kept it up until we decided poor Scott'd had enough, and even at that Bernie and I practically needed to tackle him to get the phone back. I offered to bring Scott some food for being such a good sport. He was not especially amused by us, I think.

We, on the other hand, were totally amused by us. Oh, Lord, I almost wet myself...it was classic. Scotty did a helluva job, no joke.

We kicked around for a while after that. One of my favorite social workers showed up, which was a good time. I left around 1, and it was a good night.

Today, I got a lot done. I'd turned in around 3, and unfortunately woke up at 8:45. Bleh. So I stubbornly stayed in bed for another hour, and then got up, got dressed, and went to the State Farmer's Market, which is always a good time. I got a lot of fruit and absolutely no pork products (I'm a little porked out, frankly). I also bought a giant tomato plant, which I'm hoping to find a pot for (I think I may have officially killed the lemon tree I have that was older than me, although the other plant I thought was long since dead is showing some nice signs of life. And the other lemon tree has just exploded since we moved. I pruned everything today, so, we'll see). And then I went to the Fresh Market to get the rest of my groceries (still no pork). I did dishes, I did laundry, I washed fruit, I fussed. And then Sparrow called, and she and Maxine and Maggie and I checked out the dog park close to the hospital. We hung out there for a couple of hours, until all the involved parties were worn out. Maggie's been asleep ever since we got home. I've been finishing up the laundry and dishes and fussing and made dinner and she barely even lifted her head to pester me for my table scraps.

She's right. It's definitely time to go to bed.

And, as a bonus...

Click here and go over to Barb's blog and check out the videos of her new puppy, Austin. Even those of you who aren't necessarily dog enthusiasts (Mom) should go watch this, because the sheer and utter cuteness is off the charts.

I especially love when Scout is trying to teach the pup how to fetch the morning paper (which the cow dog only gets most of the time, himself...).

Plus, I think maybe Ana has a career in directing.

Well stated

(From I Has a Hotdog)

Seriously. It's never boring in psychiatry.

Had a long day. Arduous. Bleh. But then...my last patient of the day comes in, right? And she's blind. Cool. Had her guide dog with her. Sweet, sweet big 90-lb-ish German Shepherd whom we'll call Misty. So I get in the room, and the patient says, do you mind if I let her out of her harness while she's "off duty"? I said, of course not. So we talk, and Misty sniffs, is appropriately respectful when things get heavy, and then gets sort of playful towards the end. And my attending and I are getting ready to walk out the door, and....I see that look on her face.

I know this look.

I say, "Misty...where do you think you're going?"

But by then? Misty? Down the hall. Freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

A very comical chase ensues. Fortunately, we were running late, so most of the clinic had cleared out. And she just galloped and pranced and ran down the hallways, this way and that, with me trailing behind her and several other docs trying to head her off in various directions. I got a hold of her like four times, but she's solid, and powerful, and has four-wheel-drive, and so she just mowed me over. Finally, one of my fellow dog people caught her and I got a hold of her collar. We took her back to the room and let me tell you, the moment that harness went on, she was allll business.

I don't really think it's a lapse in training. I think she knew she was with kind souls who would permit her a bit of fun and enjoy it as much as she did.

It kind a looked like this...(Sorry I couldn't find the classic Benny Hill on YouTube...this isn't a bad recreation, though. Just imagine it in a psych clinic instead of a high school...)

Muddled

So....you ever have one of those days where there's just SO MUCH STUFF swimming around in your head that nothing cogent will come out?

No? Oh. Well, I'm having one of them.

Had intended to fly to the coast today, but it was foggy and there were too many people on the plane so I offered to not fly in the little tin can. It was a nice drive, actually. Foggy. I went out with one of the nurses, we found two of our four people, I was done by 1. Got some lunch, swung back, went to the gym. Had a pretty crappy workout - still trying to figure out all the reasons why. Came home, though, had a nice cuddle with my dog, and you know...that makes a lot of things all better.

So does a good night's sleep. I'm going to go pretend I might get one....