Ethan’s Journey

 I needed to take a mental break from work and decided to scroll social media. I stumbled across a heated debate. The question posed was “when you get in the shower, what part of your body do you wash first?” It’s funny, I never thought about it before, but apparently I have a routine.  There were many different answers that people have. One person said her neck. Someone said hands and face. One answer was armpits. Someone else said they started from their feet and worked their way up. People were debating and arguing over which is the right way. Sooooo….what is the right way? Well, there was never a “right way” stated. Isn’t it all the “right way” if we walk out fresh and clean? I did get curious about what other people do. It didn’t even dawn on me that people may have a different routine than I do.  The first thing I wash is my hair. I asked Ethan and he also answered with he washes his hair first. I asked Avery, the answer was hair. Is this because I taught them? ...

 Today I worked A LOT! 11 interviews plus going through endless resumes. Such a glamorous life I lead. I took a break to eat dinner and spent the evening going through résumé’s and sending outreach. My calendar is booked tomorrow as well. We had some activity with the barndominium project. We had equipment show up. There were men staking things and there were materials dropped off. Moe was not a big fan of strangers on his field. He put himself between me and them. His guarding was a sweet gesture but he was not left unattended. I don’t trust him to make good choices. Before dinner the dogs and I worked on our fitness. We did two laps around the field. Moe’s activity tracker had his top speed measured at 19 mph. Yikes! He sure had fun running his brains out. Look how happy he is. All the dogs did two laps. Even little old man Ferguson did two laps happily. I put a cop show on in the background while I was combing resumes this evening. Ethan and I both like this show. It is called “...

 Paul and I were productive today. I did meal prep this morning, swapped out the dog bedding, my normal Sunday chores. Boring!m I did find a stick bug which was cool. It is very delicate and elegant at the same time. It was a very neat discovery. Ethan and I watched it move in awe for about 20 minutes. Paul and Ethan have a project they were working on together in the garage this morning. It wiped Ethan out. I came inside after mowing and found Ethan fast asleep on the couch.  His bloodwork came back that he is a little anemic but not overly concerning. Anemia goes hand in hand with kidney disease. Kidneys are responsible so ke for releasing a hormone called erythropoietin. That is a mouth full. Erythropoietin is like a cattle prod to the bone marrow saying “ok time to make more red blood cells”. When the kidneys are damaged, they don’t always do their best at this task….and the body becomes anemic. I am glad Ethan listens to his body and takes these rests. I went to our frien...

 Sometimes I have difficulty reading. It’s not that I don’t know how to read. It is just that my brain rearranges words and numbers on me. I was reading a number out loud to Ethan. We both could see the number.  “$2809.00” I said confidently “Want to check that again?” He asked I paused and looked at the number “$2809.00” I said again. That is what I was seeing. “Look again” he said “Oh….$2103.89” I said. The numbers were clear as day. How did I screw that up? At least the kids and Paul have seen this occur enough to double check things.  I went over to Avery’s place today. She needed a hug and a little push of encouragement. I offered to do some laundry for her. She has to pay to do her laundry at the apartment complex.  The plan was I was going to take it home, wash it, dry it and then bring it back to her with a few other things from home that she has been missing. I completed all the tasks except bringing one of the loads of laundry back. Darn it. I told them I w...

My drive home was peaceful. The Jeep I drove was comfortable and I enjoyed the drive. The fall colors were blending together to make a picturesque back drop. It was quite stunning. Park of my drive I can see the lake. The colors were framing the lake and made it look like a picture from a magazine. When I arrived home immediately my dogs started bothering me. Don’t get me wrong, I love them all but Moe was acting like a bulldozer, Ferguson was barking, Jiminy was licking any piece of skin he could find exposed and Penny was licking her lips CONSTANTLY. Ugh! Everyone just go away for a minute. Ethan was home when I walked in and we chatted a little bit. Tomorrow he goes for bloodwork, so we have to set an alarm. It’s a timed test and if we don’t get there at the right time, we risk the results being a little off. In the morning I will take Ethan for his blood draw and I promised his I would get those yummy apple fritters. I will likely get some donuts and cider as well. Mmm…..then it wi...

 I was sitting on the couch this morning… and then I stood up. A shockwave of searing pain went through my back and radiated through my hips. Awesome.  How do I incapacitate myself going from sitting to standing?  Thank god for muscle relaxers. They helped me get though. Luckily it was muscle pain and not nerve pain, so I should heal quickly. I rode to camp with my Aunt and Uncle. I am driving their car home and they are bringing home their RV. We went to dinner and bumped into our shoreline friends. They ended up chatting with us and then joined us after we were done eating.  It will be my last time at camp for the year so we said our goodbyes. “See you next year” felt really weird to say. We got back to camp and started watching TV. I suddenly became tired and my back had had enough. Time to lay down.

 The older I get, the more I think about how easy it is to die. That’s morbid right? All of the car crashes I read about lately are devastating. It just seems like any activity I drive to, could result in an accident. It isn’t something that will keep me from traveling by car, it just makes me respect defensive driving.  I don’t mind letting people in front of me. I don’t mind waiting my turn or even being overly cautious. I may have a potty mouth for other drivers in my own car, but would never take to road rage because people may not be mentally stable and retaliate in an unfavorable way. It’s just not how I want to go.  Years ago we (mostly me) started collecting quotes from people we love. I started writing things down with the intention of making a compilation of sayings from people our family loves. It is actually great fun. When someone says something off color or what we think is funny, I will hear “add it to the quotes”. We have had many times when we were sittin...

 Today went well. It was busy but in a good way.  One of my coworkers reached out and helped me with some things and I totally appreciated it. Sometimes small gestures help SO much! Ethan got home from work and spent some time in the garage. He has a knot in his mid back that has been bothering him. I tried to help him make it less painful. I could feel it moving around under his skin.  I was able to take time tonight to go through mail and file it from the past month. I put away laundry that was washed a couple weeks ago and tried to catch up on some maintenance around the house.  By the end of the evening, I felt accomplished. It was a good day.

 Ethan’s experimental blood test came back. Ethan is in this experiment because they haven’t been able to develope a blood test that can be used to measure rejection on someone that has had more than one organ transplanted. If this experimental test gets enough data, it could help other multi-transplant patients in the future be able to avoid biopsy’s. The way it works is that it looks for DNA from the transplanted organ in the blood stream. If they notice an increase in the donor’s DNA. If there is an increase in donor DNA, it indicates rejection and medical intervention can be started.  The lower the level the better. The “goal” is 1%. Ethan is measuring in at 0.8% and his doctor is HAPPY with that. Yay! We chuckled when she said Ethan’s number was not a “typical baseline”. Of course it isn’t. He can’t follow medical rules. Luckily it was lower than what was expected. Lower is best in this scenario. After what felt like the longest day ever…it is time for bed. I made an aero...

Jiminy…..doing Jiminy things.  I woke up and took the dogs for a walk. I was comfortable in sweatpants and a sweatshirt. The sun was already peaking out its head to warm things up.  We did a short half mile walk just to get the morning potty taken care of. Then off to coffee. As the day progressed, the boat came out. Then the dock came out. It looked a a community ordeal, finished with a celebratory beer to finish the season. While that was going on, I did another half mile walk to do the mid morning potty and finished packing up the car. The dogs are pretty good riders. They have their blankets, Penny has her sedation, and all is quiet. Everyone sleeps except Moe. He looks out the window. Occasionally I roll the window down so he can give the outside a good sniff. I can’t imagine what it smells like at 60 miles per hour. All those smells pummeling your nose, mixed with a heightened sense of smell…. We made it home with little incident which is always celebrated. The rest of t...

 Husband and wife chats. This one we were laughing at the absurdity at. Me: “It’s windy out.” Paul: “it’s not windy, it’s breezy” Me:………….. Me: “what is the threshold in miles per house that changes it from being breezy to windy” Paul: “it’s a relative measurement.” Me: “if it’s a relative term then can’t it be windy and breezy at the same time?” Paul. “No” Me: …….”well that’s crap” Me: “put a miles per hour on it. At what miles per hour does it change from breezy to windy?” Paul: “really?” Me: “ YES!  because I feel it is windy and you disagreed. You need to defend your stance.” Paul: “the wind has to be blowing 15 miles per hour to change from breezy to windy.” Me: “can you run 15 miles per hour?” Paul: “probably not.” Me: “it seems to me the only thing running is your mouth.” Paul: “you are something else.” This is what 26 years of wedded bliss looks like. Paul and I rode the jetski’s for a bit. we anchored on the side of the island that didn’t have wind/breeze. My uncle br...

 I was thinking about the frustrations of my job today. It’s so much different than being a licensed veterinary technician in a clinic. My biggest stressors as a recruiter are : 1. why didn’t somebody answer my call when they scheduled the appointment the day before? 2. Why would you have a number that doesn’t accept unrecognized numbers when you are interviewing? 3. When I provided the number I was calling from, why didn’t you program it into your phone so your phone recognizes it? 4. If this “happens a lot” why aren’t you investigating why? 5. If you schedule a meeting 3 hours prior, how do you forget said meeting? I was getting frustrated by multiple factors. The landscape of interviewing is so different than from 20 years ago. Our local heart transplant friend is not doing well. He had his heart transplant in NYC a year or two prior to us. He is around Ethan’s age. His Mom is doing as well as one would expect. She shared that Rochester doesn’t do transplants on patients that ha...

 Lucy stopped by to say hello and eat some walnuts. I suspected the chipmunk was helping himself to Lucy’s food. I caught him red handed! Damn chipmunks! He is not welcome.  Lucy seemed excited to see me. I haven’t seen her in a few days. She happily jumped on me and got the zoomies. She was running up and down my body skillfully gripping my clothes. She sat on my hand and ate her snacks. She holds the walnuts in her little squirrel hands. Her fingers are so delicate. I enjoyed seeing her.  Avery shared that kitten Pluto spent the morning chasing a fly. He finally caught it. He was then very vocal and was complaining because there were no more flies to catch. Hard day for little Pluto! Such a good hunter. I stopped by the thrift store briefly and found a couple of Halloween costumes for the annual party we attend. I am hoping the one costume fits Paul. It may be a little snug. He will love that. I might tell him he has to wear a leotard. Ha!  Ethan got his results of...

 What does one do if their white-ish dog likes to sunbathe? Do I just prepare mentally knowing he will get skin cancer at some point? He is enjoying himself. He begs to be a sun worshiper. Once he is out, he quietly enjoys the sunshine. Simple and blissful.  Poor little Jiminy was unsettled. He was pacing all morning. He finally vomited. He vomited an entire almond. The poor thing. An almond is enough to cause a blockage for that little guy. He slept after he got that out.  I finished my day job and headed to my evening job. This one poor animal had a nasty abcess and their neck was swelling up because of it. It looked so painful. My partner and I fixed this animal up pretty good. We shaved the hair and scrubbed and soaked the wound with an antibiotic scrub.I hope the poor thing feels better quickly.  When I got home, I wasn’t very chatty. I just needed some quiet to recharge. Jiminy was helping by taking his pre-bedtime slumber. Penny convinced me that she should sl...

  Ethan woke up and when asked how he felt, he said “fine”. He was not uncomfortable from yesterday. He didn’t even take Tylenol. Tough kid! There were no Lucy sittings today, however, the walnuts kept disappearing. She should be almost done stopping by routinely. She should be venturing off finding her way and preparing for winter. I did some relief work at the vet hospital tonight. It does feel good to help people and their pets. I like to find the least stressful way to do so.  On dog had a sore and the owner helped hold onto the dog while I shaved it and scrubbed it up. The owner was happy the dog didn’t have to leave the room. The dog was happy to have the owner near it. I was happy because the dog ate all the treats I had. The dog got all fixed up and then was ready to go home. Yay! We got done a little earlier than usual and I was home by 8:15 pm. I am ready for bed. It was a long (but good) day. Happy Birthday Carrie!

 We got to the hospital and checked in. It is nerve wracking and stressful. The parking, the idiots in the parking garage that don’t understand parking garage etiquette, finding and taking the correct elevators and what are they going to tell us or find today? We had just checked in when the fire alarm went off. This has happened throughout my life. I take it as a sign from my dad. It is kind of cool how often it happens. Hi Dad! We checked into the cath lab area. We met with Ethan’s nurse practitioner who is worth her weight in gold. She is on the ball and wonderful. While we were waiting, I asked Ethan if he wanted to go back to the prep area alone or if he wanted me to go back with him. He preferred me to go back in case they asked him questions or suggested doing something, I would know what they were saying. This is frowned upon. I know it. No one likes the plus one….while they are trying to get things situated. The nurse was very kind. When they called him back the nurse didn...

We left our alumni event and headed to camp for a few hours. We got there before 9am and had coffee with the neighbors.  Paul had some chores to do while I weeded the garden, trimmed some over growth and went for a walk. Another neighbor kindly alerted us that they had just seen a porcupine. What? I have never actually seen one in the wild. I went on a brisk walk to find it. I respectfully kept my distance as I have seen and have been the person that has removed multiple quills from a few dogs under anesthesia. Porcupines are no joke. Look at this beauty! What a gift! I actually watched him for a bit. He was curious of me. He even stopped and sat up when I made some kissing noises at him. He kept waddling on his way. It was very neat! Paul and I made it home. I became useless. My brain needed some quiet time. I did a little laundry, cuddled with the dogs one by one and unpacked some things.  Paul also needed some time to collect himself after a fun weekend. He napped on the co...

 Our group woke up by 8 am and filtrated out of our rooms and all had coffee together. Late morning a group of us ladies walked main street to find unique things for purchase. I picked up a few funny gifts for people. Our group was having a Chinese auction. They called off the winners. Paul won a gift basked and he was pumped. I didn’t win a basket, but I did win by enjoying the weather. We had dinner with two other couples over looking the river.  It was our St. Lucia crew again. We ate dinner at the place we birthed the idea of a group vacation. We discussed what a vacation in 2027 would look like. Afterward we had a tailgating situation for an hour or so. We then headed to a local bar. There were so many people.  We were blocking the entrance to the bar. The bouncer was very even keeled and was able to manage people appropriately.  Heather and I decided we were going to pose in interesting ways in the background of people’s photos. We kept a close watch on people ...

  This little girl has grown so much. She has been released but has been coming to visit daily for the past 9 days. Her coat is so much better, tail is bushy and bright. She has meat on her bones. She can hop, jump and move quickly and is quite agile. I am so proud of how well she has done. Yay Lucy! Paul and I met up in the afternoon. We had Dateline on and listened to Keith Morrison. I was elated. Paul had to run into the store at one point. I was into the story. I made him go alone. “Well you have to tell me what happens then.” HA! I have him hooked. We arrived and saw multiple people we knew. It is pretty cool that we have been out of school 30 years and we still enjoy visiting with one another and the sense of humor community. Our entire hotel was full of college people. It was just like college to walk out of our room and see someone familiar. Some people were familiar (but I could not tell anyone what their name is).some people I have never seen. There were a mix of young an...

 Today is Friday Eve! Phew!  I started very early and got through the day with lots of phone calls. I had a stage 5 yapper that was just going on and on. It was difficult to keep this person on task. I almost had to fake diarrhea to get off that call. After work Paul and I packed up some things and made a plan for tomorrow. We have a fun weekend planned and we are looking forward to it. I did spend a little time working on a project for a friend. I am excited about trying to help her. I am hopeful my help with be fruitful. I will be so happy. I was thankful today for the temperature and being able to have fresh air spilling in my open windows. We have been sleeping with the fan in the window and it has been glorious. I do have 9/11 close to my heart today. I was thinking of all the people involved in the incidents of the plane crashes. I also have sadness in my heart that people are rejoicing over the death of a man. Even through he was outspoken,  no one deserves to die....

 I met with an old coworker this morning. It was good to see her. We realized it had been a year and a half since the last time we met for coffee. Yikes. How time flies. We were chatting about her new career goals and how things seem to work out even when they seem scary. We also laughed at how perspectives change as we age. We talked about working together 15 years ago.  I got back to the grind of my job. I finished up for the day, quick ate something and then went to the animal hospital for a relief shift. It was short. I have a few more over the next few weeks. I enjoy seeing the people and consider it my socialization. After that job I sat on the couch and chatted with Paul and Ethan about current events. All the senseless death happening. One of the murders from a repeat criminal. It is infuriating. We brain stormed ideas about what the solution should be. We talked about how consequences need to be more severe. We didn’t have any solid ideas that would be considered lega...

 Paul and I woke up in the middle of the night smelling campfire. We had the fan in our window blasting us with cold air…and then apparently campfire smoke. I thought, why is someone having a campfire at 2 am on a Monday?  Not to be judgy…..but I was a little annoyed and a little jealous. If I had no responsibilities, I would also have a campfire at 2 am. Paul’s response you ask? He got his phone out and immediately looked on the weather channel. 😳. “What are you doing?” I asked “Looking on the weather channel.” He said “Why?” I asked “ to see which way the wind is blowing so that I can try and figure out who is having the fire.” He said. I never thought to go that in-depth with it. It’s funny the different reactions we have. Who cares who is having the fire. It is none of our business. Just when I feel like I am not making a difference for my vet practices or fellow veterinary peers, I get a gift from life to direct me. I had a person reach out to me. This person has been in...

 I am so frustrated with my work situation. I was feeling like a failure today (which I know I am not…I was just feeling like one). This work load is unsustainable, inefficient and overwhelming. It is undeserving. At the end of the day it is not fulfilling. I meet with my boss tomorrow to reiterate my displeasure with the situation.  I do like my boss and I know she has someone above her giving direction. Part of me wants to prove to myself I can juggle this and the other part of me wants a fair workload.  I am sick of being frustrated about it though. I am trying this week with a different structure with more admin time. We will see how it goes. Lucy came by today. She ate her snacks. There is a naughty chipmunk that has found her snacks too. I need to set up my have a heart trap. Quit eating LUCY’s food you jerk chipmunk!!!!!!! She hid some snacks in my shirt. Spoiler alert! They WONT be there later. After her snacks she was playful. We were play rough housing. She flip...

 Paul came home today. He has been at camp putting finishing touches on our leach field. I was happy to stay home and recharge quietly. I continued to clean, cook, bake and launder. All the pups got a bath. Their bedding was changed, they were brushed and nails were trimmed and filed with the Dremel. I made a few Stromboli and packaged them up to freeze for quick snacks. They were delicious! I did two pepporini/sausage  Lucy didn’t spend the night last night. She is out partying like a teenager. She showed up around noon.  She was hungry and thirsty. She ate a lot. After eating she becomes playful. She really likes playing with hEthan. She gets the zoomies but up and down our clothes. She hung out for a while in the lilac tree, running all around. Then she was off to meet squirrel friends. I was able to change all my couch pillow covers to more of a fall theme. They are different shades of arrange with leaves and pumpkins on them. They are festive. I also lit my apple pum...

 I was so excited to get a jump start cleaning, my body woke me up at 2:00 am. I was UP! I made the best of it and did some cleaning and vacuuming, laundry and emptied the dishwasher. I also started cleaning both bathrooms.   I did go back to bed around 4:30 am for a few hours and I think that was a great decision. I was able to meal prep several meals for the boys. I gave them options and tried a new beef and broccoli recipe. I hope they like it. Avery and I chatted as she caught me up on how her first week went. It sounded VERY busy. She has a hard course load. She is thinking about her future plans after graduation and how she will fulfill her STEM duties to NYS to not have to pay back her scholarship money. She is a junior. She still has time to think things through. Ethan worked in the garage doing some sort of either sanding or welding that made a bad smell. He spent the evening online with a couple buddies playing a game they were all logged into. He had his tunes on. L...

 So Lucy has stumped me again. I have just given up trying to contain her. She is now able to Houdini her way out of the cage. I am now just leaving the door open for her to have a warm bed and food/fresh water. Today, even though I tried to block off the hole to escape the screened in porch, she escaped anyway. I noticed she was gone and walked outside to find her. I called her and heard her click back at me. I saw movement in our Japanese maple tree. Poof! Like magic, she appeared. She crawled onto my hand and onto my shoulder but I encouraged her to go back to the tree.  I left the area to the screened in porch blocked off. I figured she felt she was ready to venture off, so let’s do this how she wants to. A few hours later, I checked in again and saw this: Lucy had found her way back into the screened in porch and tucked herself in between two blankets for a nap. She stayed in her cage for several hours with the door open. Snug as a bug in a rug. How does she know to do th...

 I find that regional communication differences are so fascinating. I don’t consider myself rude (usually). I feel like I blend well with other adults. I have gotten feedback in the past (a few years ago) when I partnered with someone in the south, that I was rude. I had no idea I was perceived that way OR no intention of being perceived that way in that instance. The past few years I have been overly aware of that incident and been choosing my words more carefully. Today I met with someone from Maryland. It was a veterinary professional not a interviewee.When I told her I lived in New York, she said “that makes sense, that is why your questions are so specific.” It made me wonder how other people around the country would get the information I needed about the topic we were talking about. It was a hmmmmmm moment. So interesting. If we were in person, I would have explored her comment a little more just out of curiosity. Another weird thing that happened Lucy escaped her crate yeste...

 Everyday that passes is one day closer to the mess that is my job right now, to become a little less chaotic and overwhelming. Each day that comes to an end is leaving me mentally drained.  With the overwhelming tornado at my work, I had forgotten about a text a good friend sent me. I read the text. I responded to the text saying “I will call you soon.” I then forgot all about calling, fairly quickly.  This friend was reaching out and asking for help/emotional support. I didn’t show up for it today. I got lost in the work and became self absorbed. I was bummed that she wasn’t able to count on me today. Of course she wasn’t upset with me, because she is such a kind person. I look forward to the weekends because it is a break from the constant mental exercise. I am not alone on my team. Others have been feeling the same way.  I finally had to shut my computer after hour 11 of work. Even though I wasn’t finished with my tasks today.  I scheduled extra time for the...

 My mind has been loud today. Lots of “don’t forget to do this…don’t forget to do that…” I made a list to try to stay on task. This was for at work as well as chores for this weekend. I was able to double down and knock several weekend chores off the list today. It did help quiet things. This evening, Ethan and I were in the living-room and saw a big flash of lightening. Cool!!!!! I quickly let the dogs out so that they could pee, just in case it decided to rain outside. It didn’t and I was a little disappointed that there wasn’t more lightening. I was able to get several loads of laundry washed. I am working on my bedding so I can change my sheets later in the week. You know….adulting. So fun. Lucy did well her first night outside last night. It was chilly too. She needs to acclimate to the weather. She did spend some time out of her cage and on a tree. She is getting good at jumping and getting a feel for how far she can jump. I am hoping when she is released, we gave her the bes...

 How did it get to be September already? Another pretty day. Paul and I decided to spend the majority of the day at camp. When we are there, we don’t have to do real adult things like open the mail and laundry. Frick and Frack (Penny and Moe) went on a run with me on the bike. We go about 2 miles at top speed. It was a perfect temperature out for that. Not too hot and sweaty. Penny can run faster than Moe. Moe’s top speed so far is 17 mph. That was measured on his tracking device. Penny, with much shorter legs will run beside Moe, but if prompted, can surpass him with little effort. Her 12 pound body can outrun his 52 pound body. Lucy was given the chance to play on a smaller tree today.  She was able to run up and down the branches several times and jump from one branch to the next. She has some practicing to do. She discovered eating lilac bush leaves. She had a feast. She has been spending time out of her cage a little bit more. She sticks close, but did try to do bigger ju...