Ethan’s Journey

 Paul and I had a leisurely Sunday morning. We laughed at the dogs and sipped coffee. Later Paul shared that he was feeling a little funny. He said he was feeling “whacked out”. “Maybe it is the coffee?” I proposed. I have been mixing our normal coffee with a little bit of espresso each day (since Thanksgiving) just to use up the bag of espresso. I haven’t noticed too much difference but Paul immediately accused me of “trying to kill” him. Seems a bit dramatic to me. “How am I supposed to know you can’t drink espresso like a real Italian man?” I asked.  Cue the Italian swear words and the hands flying in the air…and I just sinisterly giggled. I didn’t realize the coffee was causing him difficulty. I am not a mind reader and today was the first time in two weeks he has mentioned it. I will avoid adding the espresso….except if he pisses me off…..ha ha just kidding…..ish. We went to a friends house to watch the Bill’s game with the “gang”. Yay! Bill’s won.  I don’t pay too m...

 Phew! I slept the off the asshole cloud that surrounded me yesterday. Thank goodness.  I spent the day getting my life in order. I put items in the freezer for food prep, prepared herb ice cubes with leftover herbs (thyme, cilantro, parsley) things I knew were going to go bad.  I made some cookie. I had a counter surfer just waiting for the right moment for me to turn my back. Luckily I am a pro (today) and he didn’t get the opportunity to help himself.  He was trying to “play it cool”. I knew what he was doing! I cooked up the rest of the bacon and placed it in the freezer for adding to broccoli side dishes, quiche and more.  Most needed of all, I spent the day by myself. Thinking, cleaning, getting things orderly. I puttered. Wrapped presents, bathed the dogs, changed the sheets, typical weekend projects.  By the end of the day, I felt so much better and accomplished. Ethan and Paul were off doing their own things today. They stayed out of my way and I s...

 I had a complete meltdown this morning. The entire day I was a curmudgeon! My meltdown was obnoxious. I couldn’t even stand myself for it. If I were anyone else, I would have punched me in the face. I had a physical therapy appointment at 7 am. I was ready. I went to go start my car and was disgusted with the process. How do people do this every day! How did I do this everyday.  Walk outside in the cold, start the car. Ugh! Trudge back in and wait. Brush the snow off, more cold. How stupid! I have really become so appreciative of not leaving the house. Poor Paul heard my mouth start running about ridiculous things. “The physical therapist should be required to come to the house when it is below a certain temperature.” - not the most efficient business plan. “It should be illegal for people to have to leave their homes if there is snow!” -ridiculous rule, I know. “ This is the worst!” - seriously, I have been through far worse….this is not the “worst!” “This is my last time go...

 As a Vet Tech I often will get pictures of various parts of friends pets asking for my thoughts on things.  Sometimes I get diarrhea pics, sometimes I get vomit pics, sometimes it is wounds…..today it was animal crotch pics. I received two animal crotch pics from two different people. I don’t mind receiving these in the least. When I get them, it helps me feel useful and  like I am helping in some way.  One of the male crotch pictures was sent for me to identify the gender of a cat, the other pic was to evaluate an incision (which didn’t look all that good-I made some recommendations). What was the most fun, was telling Paul I received two “dick pics” from two different people just to see what his face did as he processed that information. He sounded like an owl when I told him. “Who?….. Who?” He said I did video the event. Here are some lousy screen shots from my showering of information on him. I ordered a pair of water shoes for myself that were on sale. The pair...

 Tuesday morning, there was a mass break in of cars at Avery’s apartment complex. Avery’s car was “hit” by robbers. The lady at the apartment complex called me. I saw her name pop up on my phone and answered immediately. She let me know what was happening and that she was unable to reach Avery. She told me that she suspected Avery’s car was left with the door open and suggested she do an inventory of her things, and call the police if anything was stolen or damaged. She didn’t want to touch anything. I was able to connect with Avery. She went out and found her door wide open. Nothing was missing except $25. She kept that in her car “just in case”. There was no damage. She did share that it felt violating that people were just going through her stuff. We were very grateful that the cost of this robbery was only $25. The thieves could have smashed windows, broken locks and really screwed up the cars. 45 cars were hit in the complex keeping the police very busy I am sure. It was and i...

 Today my coping skills of avoidance really kicked in. I have a work issue  that I haven’t been dealing with because avoiding it is easier. One of my co-workers pointed out that it should be dealt with.  It could go either way for me. I don’t see resolution on the horizon even if I do try to tackle the issue.  My coworkers is so passionate about it, I don’t think she is capable of letting the issue die. I don’t see it an efficient use of my time. So for now,I am going to continue to avoid, until I feel the appropriate support is in place for me to tackle the issue. So that’s fun. Maybe tomorrow? I was able to meal prep tonight. I made some lemon chicken as well as stuff chicken wrapped in bacon. Yum! Paul went to bowling and I puttered around the house picking away at chores. Totally non-exciting day. Just the way I like them to be.

 It was a busy Monday today. I kept a list of things for me to stay on task. Some days that works better than others. Today was a pretty good day for checking off the boxes. Yay! After work, I grabbed my large order of groceries from one store, made my weekly stop at the Liquor store to support my community small business and purchase a box of Paul’s support wine. Stopped at the third store and went back home. I can do all of this and be home in less than 45 minutes. I put groceries away, had to do a few more work related emails. I was able to slice up some chicken breasts and beat them to prepare for tomorrow’s dinner. I am going to rolle up some broccoli and cheese and wrap it in bacon. This will not be a safe meal for Ethan. But I am excited for how it will turn out. Avery and Kendall stopped by in the evening. Avery needed to pick up her car because Paul took it, lubed it, placed snow tires on it. Acts of love. Avery has her finals later in the week. She was pleased that she wa...

 Sadly, Sarah and my shopping weekend came to an end. Boo! The staff was chomping at the bit for us to leave as we finished our last show on HGTV. They even knocked on our door 10 minutes before we checked out, seeing if we had left. We left on time and weren’t late. I came home, unpacked the car, showered, did laundry, mopped, vacuumed all prior to going to the light parade in Brockport. Work hard, play hard. We arrived at the meeting spot for the parade and our friends were on their way. Avery and Kendall met us there as well. Ethan decided he wanted to go with us. I believe this is the first time Ethan has attended this parade since 2019. He has been trying to avoid crowds but also has some mental health things he has been working on for the past 5 years. It was so exciting having him there. Small baby step wins! It is a sign of progress! Yay! He hung out with kids his own age there. Kids he has grown up with but withdrew from. It was small….but such a big deal! We watched the p...

 Sarah and I woke up super early due to our early bedtime. Ha!  The hotel provided breakfast. It was actually pretty yummy! We decided to go to the mall. I have not been to a mall is years. This mall is the fancy mall in Rochester. It wasn’t too crowded which was nice. Everything was decorated and cheerful. One may use the word Merry! We stopped at a few shops, browsed and even found some good deals to take advantage of.  We made our way down to the exciting world of goat snuggling. They can have all my money. It was worth every penny. You walk up to the goat and scoop it up. I rotated goats and snuggled them to sleep. More importantly, we didn’t stop smiling the entire time. We helped the small children by placing goats on their laps. We were feeding them. There were a couple naughty goats that were chewing on Sarah’s hair. A couple tried nibbling on my purse. There was one lady goat the was a bully. She was head butting me in my back with its small nubbin horns. It was ...

 Zero more sleeps to the most wonderful time of the yes….you can sing that to the Christmas tune. Today is the day! Today kicks off the shopping weekend. Our gift to each other celebrating a friendship that started over 20 years ago as Sarah walked into the vet hospital as my new co-worker. We quickly bonded. Two little introverts with a sick sense of humor. Yay! I started the day by reading  a funny little blurb by someone saying:  “I don’t know how much Tylenol my Mom took but I hate crowds,  small talk, people who don’t stand on. I will die before I believe anyone over my gut instinct. I also talk to animals and have a favorite spoon.” I laughed. I agreed. Ha! We are all on the spectrum in our own ways.  Obviously I talk to AND for animals. They also have their own voices. Totally normal.  I have a favorite spoon. I actually have a favorite spoon for eating certain foods. I have a soup spoon, cereal spoon and yogurt spoon. They are all different. I also ...

 I woke up this morning excited for my shopping weekend, which started today. Nope! My brain played an evil trick on me when I realized it was Thursday instead of Friday.  What a jerk my brain is! It is my karma being served to me. Last night Paul used the bathroom and I slipped a plastic baby into his wine glass. He was sipping away at his wine for about 30 minutes until the plastic baby touched his lips. He had a grandiose and hysterical reaction. The best part was that I was on autopilot when I did it and had forgotten all about it. Yep! I guess I deserved the trick my brain played on me.  I like to make sure Paul is always on his toes. It keeps him young. I don’t want to be married to an old fart! 💨 who has time for that. I caught Moe sleeping today with his tongue out. I wondered if humans did this. I am certain it is only someone with an XY chromosome would have this happen. It isn’t very lady like to do this as a lady. Of a lady did do this…..deny deny deny! Altho...

 It has been 11ish months since “the incident” with Moe and Jiminy. We have done formal training and been hyper diligent regarding any food and treats. Moe can only have food or treats while separated from the others. My family wanted to give up on Moe. I don’t blame them. Jiminy is our prized little perfect pup. I just couldn’t give up on Moe at that time. Fundamentally he was/is a “good” dog. Some dogs are just wired wrong and are dangerous. Moe is extremely cautious but once you have gained his trust, he shows his silly and loving side. I am proud of how far Moe has come. He has been quite the project. He still needs work. He was able to be around family at Thanksgiving. There was only one growling incident that was corrected immediately. Of course it was with a man that he didn’t know. We will never be to a point where we can leave him unattended in our yard like Phineas. We have to protect Moe by not putting him in that position. Today I walked in the den and found him resting...

 With my position as a recruiter, it never ceases to amaze me what people say during an interview.  I spoke with someone yesterday in a different part of the country that had been in the industry for 9 months. “I pretty much have done it all” they said. Knowing this is not the case, I started to assess their skill level.  “Have you drawn blood?”  I asked. “No” “Have you monitored anesthesia?” I asked “No” “Do you understand medical shorthand, terms like BID or NPO?” I asked “No” This tracks, as someone with this minimal experience has not “done it all” in 9 months. It takes about 5 years to become what is considered as “skilled”. I am 28 years in and have NOT “done it all”. This person asked for the highest wage offered within the range without the experience to back it up. We discussed financial expectations with pay and that the high end of the pay scale was for someone that has learned the skills previously mentioned. It is a fine line for setting expectations and...

 December 1 st.  We start the decent upon Christmas with scents of cinnamon and pine swirling around. Those are the scents in my tart warmer.  Monday’s after a holiday weekend are rough. Things are still pretty rough at work. I do find myself saying bad words, becoming snippy and wonder who the genius is behind the decisions that make things harder for me. I try to hide all of it and save the complaining for Paul. What a lucky man! Ethan and I got talking about a local family that lost their entire home to a house fire yesterday. They live not too far from us. Luckily, no one was hurt.  We all have things that are sentimental to us. I can’t imagine losing all of them in one day. I can’t imagine the celebration of no one getting hurt. It was a good chat to have with Ethan as he expressed his empathy for the situation. I was able to get some chores done tonight. They are overdue.  The countdown has begun for our big Patti and Sarah shopping weekend. We tell our hu...

 We celebrated my Mom’s birthday with brunch this morning. My brother and sister in law came as well as Ethan and Avery. Brunch was delicious.  We then went back to my Mom’s house for cake and ice cream. We decorated their Christmas tree and visited for a bit. It was a nice morning. Afterward, Ethan had his buddy over and they went out to do target practice. Don’t worry, they had a proper “stop” so no one would get hurt. I don’t even know if that is what it is called. They had something that would prevent bullets from traveling a mile and killing someone the next country block over. We put up our Christmas tree and we decorated it. Avery grabbed some decorations for her apartment. I hit a wall and needed to sit quietly for a few hours. This is my time to rebuild up energy before my full day of talking tomorrow.  Paul built a fire and had some chores he needed to do. The dogs were happy to have us home. They aren’t typically home alone very often. They were full of it. I b...

 Today we gathered at the in-laws and did our annual trek to Pittsford Dairy. The smell of this place alone is what holiday candles try to capture.  All the Christmas trees are stacked and placed neatly creating small walkways  which felt like you were in the Forest. We did some Christmas photos. Jiminy also had some photos taken. He did have a few people come up and pet him too. We got to see some family and honorary family members. In fact we ate dinner with most of them. It is always good to catch up with family and honorary family. We helped Nana and Papa put up their Christmas tree. We decorated it and enjoyed making a balanced tree. We had to get going because the dogs had been home alone for a very long time.  A good day was had by all.

 Happy birthday to my Mom!  She turned 25 again this year. ❤️🥰 We are always trying to eat healthy, but we do each chips, ice cream, unhealthy snacks and more. So I cleaned out my fridge of all the healthy foods and blended them together for a healthy soup. This is going to be considered my meal prep.  Turkey vegetable soup with protien pasta. No salt. Sounds gross, but I have added fresh rosemary and parsley for flavor and will add in no salt spices and seasonings. I even added avacado to the soup. Sounds gross. But it is blended into a puree and will be undetectable. It will silently lower everyone’s cholesterol. I had my trusty floor patrol waiting silently for anything to hit the ground. He also was trying to look extra cute and may have gotten a piece of turkey because of it. I am a sucker for puppy eyes. My soup looked a little bit like vomit. But I know it will taste good and will be low in calories. We headed over to the in-laws to visit. We gathered for lunch. W...

Our power went out for a bit this morning, which made me start working on Plan B for the turkey cooking. Luckily it came back on within minutes and we were all set for the rest of the day. The festivities started at 2:00.  Avery came over a litter sooner. I was not upset by this. We spent the morning joking with one another as we prepared our meal. The turkey was divine! It was cooked perfectly and fell off the bone. It sat in a brine for 24 hours and was funny hydrated prior to cooking. It was fun sharing a laugh with one another. We were victim to the prank war. My cousin Andy, planted an intermittent noise device in our house. Every so often it would make a crazy cat screaming noise. Maybe like once every 12 minutes. Definitely difficult to locate. After everyone left, I went through my shoes, coat pockets, hats and gloves to find the device. I got down on the floor to look under our shoe rack and glanced up. It was stuck to the bottom of one of the shelves on the shoe rack. Ha!...

 Today I went on YouTube and pulled up a live bird feeder cam. It was quite an active bird feeder. I had it on in the background as I worked feverishly to catch up.  Early this morning I gave our turkey a bath. I cleaned out the orifices with 7 eyeballs watching me, hoping I would just drop a turkey neck. I did not. Next on to the turkey brine. I am soaking this bird for at least 24 hours. Yum!  I put together my potatoes, chopped up my ingredients and prepared as much food as I could tonight to make tgings easy peasy while the bird is cooking. As I was winding down from work, I received an unlikely video call for help from one of my practices. It is a practice I don’t know that well. I hopped on the call and talked this person through their scenario. We then got chatting about how her daughter was at the Emergency Room last night due to a concussion. She shared how the injury was making her daughter act very differently.  Luckily her daughter is going to be fine. Th...

 I am finally getting some help with my work load. While I am not able to give up one of my regions, I am able to heavily off load it. To put it in perspective, another person on my team has 30 positions to fill and I have 94. I am thankful that our small team is so willing to help. I have been feeling especially snarky this week. I let it come out in spurts around my safe people.  Lucky them!  The ultrasound was inconclusive. I saw that coming from a mile away. I am annoyed because they want us to schedule more imaging! That is what I pushed for originally. Grrrr!   I wonder if it would be out of line to say “we will do it your way, but if we end up doing it my way because your way didn’t work….you owe me $1000.” I sometimes say this to Paul. He owes me A LOT of money. He even has a shirt that says “if at first you don’t succeed,  try doing Patti told you to do the first time.” Here’s the kicker….i didn’t buy him that shirt! Note to self. Find that shirt so Pau...