Today
Today has been crazy! I woke up to the maintenance people here at our apartments pounding away at the wall my bed is against. They're replacing all of the siding on our side of the building. When I finally got out of bed, I took the puppy to work because he hasn't been feeling very well. He had diarrhea yesterday and has vomited 3 times in the past 24 hours. Poor little baby!!!
When I got to work, I got a fecal, blood, and we took some abdominal x-rays. His bloodwork and x-rays were beautiful, but he had quite a bit of bacteria in his fecal test. I gave him 200cc of fluids, an ampicillin antibiotic injection, we gave him an anti-nausea injection, and I took home 3 different types of medications and some special food to help him feel better faster. He's been sleeping all day. Actually right now he is "playing" with one of the cats. Apollo doesn't see it as playing though haha.
Wow, I'm afraid to go outside today. There are fires in south central Oregon and south easterly winds are blowing them straight into the Willamette valley. The Lane Regional Air Protection Agency says the air quality is worse here than in Oakridge, which is a town 24 miles away from one of the biggest fires. I've never seen the weather sites say "Smoke" where it usually says "Sunny" or "Cloudy". The air quality has been officially labeled "unhealthy" and people can expect to face health problems because of it. Crazy! Apparently people in this area have been finding ash and soot on their cars. Also crazy!
Austin, Alex and I were originally going to go climb Spencer's Butte but it would definitely be too dangerous, since we'd be needing as much clean air we can get in order to cool down in this upper-80s weather. Ick!
I am about to head out to run errands and then get the hell out of here! The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality says our air quality index is 28 and the LRAPA says Eugene/Springfield's is 164.
Eugene
I'm here in Eugene with Austin. I never realized all the memories I have here in Eugene. Walking through Albertson's in itself brought back tons of memories with Blair and Lauren, like making cake at 2am, making a batch of almond poppyseed muffins and eating the whole batch together before it got a chance to fully cool, or living off of lemonade and limeade, or difficulties with the self-checkout. Or being checked out in the dairy section at 11pm at night. I miss doing penny drives with Blair all over Eugene and going on adventures. I miss laying around our apartment doing nothing in particular. I miss staying up until 4am being silly.
But I have so much to look forward to this year! I'm excited to find new favorite places in Portland. I haven't thoroughly explored Portland much (on purpose at least, other than getting lost!) and I'm excited to do that with my family and Portland friends.
Right now the boys are setting up their new HD cable box with Alex's new surround sound system and DVD player. We were going to climb Spencer's Butte today but the forest fires have made everything really hazy and muggy. Everything is cast in an eerie golden light, as if it's been sunset time all day. It's kind of pretty. The above picture was taken around 4:30pm, way too early for sunset lighting. The lines are from the blinds. Crazy!
One more thing!
Fall
I work tomorrow. I haven't worked for over a week and I'm excited to go back. I love my job. I have yet to come across something as rewarding as helping an animal feel better.
Although I really want to volunteer reading books to kids in a pediatric hospital. Katie suggested that tonight after I got sucked into the children's book section at Powell's. Soon Lisa and I are going to start volunteering for the Make A Wish Foundation. Maybe those two things will go hand in hand. I hope so!
After work tomorrow, I get to look forward to going down to see Austin on Monday! We'll probably climb Spencer's Butte and Austin hasn't done that yet. It'll be so fun to see what he thinks about the glorious view.
Ahh I am sleepy!
I woke up and watched the UO Utah game. Naturally, we broke Utah's 17-game winning streak, 31-24. YAY!
Then my mom and Katie and I went downtown for dinner. We parked at the Max station and I went to get a ticket. While I waited in line, a man came up and gave me his all-day ticket because he didn't need it anymore. He saved me almost $5! I love random little acts of kindness.
We rode the Max to Goose Hollow and walked two blocks to a tiny restaurant called The Leaky Roof. It's a tiny little Irish pub. They messed up my order (which I didn't mind, I'm sure anything there would be amazing) and felt horrible. They brought me really rich chocolate cherry cake on the house as an apology (still I kept insisting that I didn't mind). Aside from all of that, I loved the cozy, homey atmosphere. They made us feel like family, like regular customers at least. We joked about how I was going to have their special Guinness when I turn 21 in a few months. My whole family's going back there on Wednesday. When we left, the owner gave my mom a hug. Seriously one of the nicest places I've ever been.
Afterward, we walked to the street car station and went to Powell's. I found some amazing books there, but I can't go into detail because everything I bought there are surprise gifts for people Austin there's your hint! :) I found two books that I really want but couldn't afford. The first one is called Have You Ever Tickled A Tiger? (http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl/9780375843969.html) and the other is Favorite Poems, Old and New by Helen Ferris (http://www.amazon.com/Favorite-Poems-Old-New-Selected/dp/0385076967). LOVE them.
We almost went up to Tea Chai Te but decided to save that for next time. I loved spending time with my mom and sister, it was so nice.
Then I came home and ended the day talking to Austin, what a good end to a good day.
Flashback time!
If everyone experienced Dane Cook's comedy skits, the world would be a better place.
I saw Ray today. I missed her.
I took a nice long nap after school today, during which I dreamed about my family in a couple of years. Well, Charlotte was still adorable as ever, Baby #2 was a girl, and there were about 3 or 4 little 3-year-old boys running around. They were all blonde, like Charlotte's hair now. Katie & Aaron, John & Bonnie are very much brunettes. Genes are funny things. Wow, being an aunt to 5 or 6 would be - will be - amazing. Also, we were all at the hospital. That part scares me. But, as Mom pointed out, it was probably from waiting for another niece or nephew. hehe. And there was also a lady I've never seen before, but she was an important part of the family. I wonder if that's supposed to be me in the future. I loved this dream.
When I go to the beach, I love to stare at the ocean and marvel at all the different people who have touched the same water, and at all the major occurences that took place in the very same water. Magellan, Columbus, Ericson, etc. And also that the dinosaurs, essentially, drank from the same water, as did the Mesopotamians. Isn't that mind-boggling?
Tonight I went to Bullwinkle's for my mom's office party. It was fun, we played a LOT of mini-golf (which brought back certain OYCGA memories from last summer! HA!), during which my mom got a hole-in-one and several close ones, where the ball kept jumping over the lip of the hole at the last second.
Ich bin sehr, sehr muede. Ich will jetzt schlafen, guten nacht!
Pretty eerie, yes? I dreamed about "3 or 4 little 3-year-old boys running around" and here we are today with Charlotte who is 5, and the boys who are both 3. I remember what the mysterious lady was like in the dream. Thinking about it now, I was dreaming about my future self because I am now that "lady". And as for being in the hospital, well, that could allude to many things happening right now.
I've had prophetic dreams like this before; usually my prophetic dreams are more accurate and detailed. Like the time I dreamed about an earthquake 6 hours before we actually had one. The human brain fascinates me.
All that aside, I wonder what the point was of me having that dream. Really though. Why haven't I had another "future" dream? Or maybe I have, but in the dream it seems so different from what my life could resemble that I can't imagine it being my future. The other day, I had a dream that Austin and I got married but we were poor, but it was fun - that's a really blurred version because I don't remember many details. I can see that being a prophetic dream but still it seems so weird.
Or maybe most (all?) dreams are meant to be prophetic in some way, if not almost always symbolic of the future at the very least.
It's eerie how much this song reminds me of my life right now. It's called What I Wouldn't Do by A Fine Frenzy.
If we were children I would bake you a mud pie
Warm and brown beneath the sun
Never learned to climb a tree but I would try
Just to show you what I'd done
Oh what I wouldn't do
If I had you, babe, I had you
Oh what I wouldn't do
If I had you, babe
If I were old, my dearest, you would be older
But I would crawl upon your lap
Wrap a blanket 'round our frail little shoulders
And I'd die happily like that
Oh what I wouldn't do
If I had you, babe, I had you
Oh what I wouldn't do
If I had you, babe, if I had you
So lace your hands 'round the small of my back and I will kiss you like a king
I will be your bride, I'll keep you warm at night
I will sing, I will sing
It was now and we were both in the same place
Didn't know how to say the words
With my heart ticking like a bomb in a birdcage
I left before someone got hurt
Oh what I wouldn't do
If I had you, babe, I had you
Oh what I wouldn't do
If I had you, babe, if I had you