Happy Birthday to Me (and Biscuit)

It was just my birthday and I had a great time with friends! I had been wanting to get a piano for a few years. I took lessons as a kid and thought it would be fun to try to learn again. I found a cheap one on craigslist and my boyfriend, Rob, bought it for me. It desperately needs to be tuned, but I’ll schedule that and in the meantime practice on it anyway. It’s nice to play again.

Now I have a piano just like my mom and my grandma do, and in about the same tune… haha

During the day I got to relax and work on gardening projects. I celebrate my birthday with Biscuit, my dog, who I adopted 11 years ago on my birthday (best birthday present ever.) Biscuit is now 12 years old and we usually go for hikes or walks on our birthday, but this year it was too hot out and he can’t walk very far anymore. Instead we drove to the frozen yogurt shop up the road and I brought along some turkey for him and we got yogurt and toppings and ate it outside in a little outdoor seating area. Biscuit had peanut butter flavored yogurt with caramel sauce and reese’s pieces and turkey on top. I think he had a good day.

Biscuit eating his birthday frozen yogurt

My new raised garden bed the Rob and I made

On my birthday some friends and Rob and I went to the Arizona State Fair. I’ve lived in Arizona for 9 years and actually never went there before. It was really great. I loved seeing all of the animals and LOVED the petting zoo they had set up. I think Rob and I spent more time in there than most kids. We ate shitty nachos and corn on the cob and drank beers and played stupid fair games. My friend Foz wanted to get me an “old timey” photo for my birthday and so me, Foz and Turner got dressed up and got our photo done. It was awesome! Weezer was playing at the fair and we got to see them for free. It was really cool. We road the ferris wheel afterwards.

 

I loved the petting zoo!

 

Rob and a new buddy

 

Rob playing fair games

We will seriously kick your ass!

Weezer show was great

 

La Grande Wheel is the largest portable ferris wheel in North America

Me, Rob and Turner in the car of the ferris wheel

Other friends in the next ferris wheel car (Foz is flipping us off)

View from the top of the ferris wheel

 

In the spirit of enjoying every day to the fullest I will happily say that my birthday this year was one of the best days of my life! I look forward to the next year and look forward to learning to play the piano and continuing to enjoy every day as much as possible.

I secretly think I’m hilarious!

WordPress gives me stats on number of views per day and where in the world people are viewing from.  Who reads my blogs?  The answer: not very many people.  Thank you if it’s you who does, I appreciate that.  It’s funny sometimes I was thinking about what is appropriate and what is not appropriate to blog about and what will my readers think?  I do care what they think, but honestly that is really like 5 people.  I don’t even think my boyfriend reads my blogs.  Anyway it doesn’t matter, I found out that what I care about more is what I think.  Yesterday I retrieved copies of my old myspace blogs, which I kept from 2006 to 2008 or so.  I read them.  I thought they were fucking awesome!  I amazed myself by my wit and hilariousness.  I laughed, I cried, I stood up and cheered.  I patted myself on the back for a job well done.  Someone may as well congratulate me, so what if it’s me?  Well…. I liked my old blogs anyway and I also found that they were fairly good record keeping or basically journaling for myself.  And myself is really the person that I want to amuse more than anyone!  In the future days ahead I’m planning on re-blogging some of my old blogs from myspace that I thought were more interesting.    

So, anyway, I decided that my purpose of this blog is more for me than you, so sorry, but if you would like to join me for the ride I’d be ever so happy for you to crawl into my brain with me.  

The Resistance, by Muse

 

I was listening to the album “The Resistance” by Muse today.  The album is so great.  For me I feel like I can appreciate it for its instrumental content, amazing music, and its lyrics.  I took piano lessons and violin lessons as a kid and in high school and college I played in an orchestra – I appreciate a lot of classical training within this album.  Also, the lyrics of the entire album seem to be inspired by the book 1984.  Not sure if that is true, maybe it’s what I imagine.  

In any event, I find the whole album amazing.  I find it inspiring.  It makes me want to be a better person.  How many music albums can I say that about?  Not too many.  

 

The Caboodle

Any american child or teenager of the 90’s probably had or wanted a caboodle.  For those who may not know it is a hard plastic makeup case, somewhat like a mini treasure box that is colorful.  They were very important in the ‘90s.  It was important to me anyway.

I was out to breakfast with two of my girlfriends this morning and somehow caboodles came up.  We laughed about them for a bit and I told my friends that I still had mine, and used it.  I got horribly ridiculed.  “Why do you have it?” “What do you keep in it?”  The jokes about keeping my banana clips, scrunchies, topsy turvy hair ties, hair crimpers, aqua net hairspray and Sassy magazine clippings flew around the table.

I came home and got to thinking…. what the hell do I keep in it?  I really do use it, but for what exactly?  I pulled it out and really looked at it.  It’s actually amazing.  I think I got it when I was 10 or so.  I wrote on it in white out and the writing is still there.  It says “Melissa’s caboodle,”  “Caboodles” and (my personal favorite) “I ♥ ?”  It is green and pink and purple.  I opened it up and looked inside.  The contents consist of spare razor blades (which is really the only thing I remember using it for recently), jewelry from Africa, jewelry from Nicaragua, jewelry from ex boyfriends, an electric razor, other jewelry I never wear.  That is pretty much it.  It’s basically a glorified storage box now.

I wonder why they lost their popularity.  Looking at it now, I still think of it as useful.  It would make a nice makeup box.  I could store my hair crimper in there.  But I’ll have to get a second caboodle…. this one is full.  

This was me with my caboodle back in the day!

Life at a crossroads

I’m probably having a life crisis….  I think (hopefully) it’s too soon to say “mid-life” crisis, but maybe a 1/3 life crisis….

 

After quitting my job in June and traveling through Central America for almost two months.  I came home to almost immediately break my foot.  Pre-occupied with foot healing and inability to work, I concentrated on healing and didn’t really have time to consider what I want to do next with my life.  My foot healed just in time for a road trip with my friend Sven.  I met Sven on my 2010 journey through Africa and he finally came to the U.S. to visit.  This trip gave me another excuse to pre-occupy my mind.  Now my Central America trip is over, my leg is healed, my American road trip is over, Sven is gone, I am out of money and unemployed.  Now is the time for full on post-travel depression.  Reality is setting back in.  Turns out reality sucks.   

I’m trying to figure out how to make it not suck.  I feel like I prefer living in this fantasy travel world of vacation and time off.  People are always happy and having a good time.  I feel like there should be a way to meld this with a career for myself.  There has to be a way.  There has to be a way to work in a field that I really get excited about, that has a lot of time outdoors, preferably camping or backpacking, and involves happy people.  I have worked 8 years as a small animal veterinarian in daytime and emergency practice.  The idea of going back to this does not thrill me.  I love the animals and I love helping animals, but talking to stressed out owners about money and possible death fills me with dread.  I feel like I would like to take break from that.  I need to try doing something happier.  One time in 2006, when I was very stressed from working at my first job as a veterinarian, I went on a rafting tour vacation with my mother in West Virginia.  We had a great young tour guide named Stu.  Stu was handsome, outgoing, strong, capable, happy and fun.  He told us that he thought he had the best job in the world.  He got to be outside on the river, meet new people, and be a happy part of their vacation.  I envied Stu.  I still do.  I want to do something like that.  

The very good thing about being a veterinarian is that I will ALWAYS be a veterinarian, no one can take that away from me.  I have the ability to try something else and come back to it later.  This is a very good aspect of being a veterinarian, and hopefully I can use this to my advantage.  

I feel like I’m at a crossroads of my life.  It’s stressful, but I remain optimistic.  I have a few factors to consider.  I am in a relationship and I have dogs.  Some of my job choices may be hard on a relationship and also difficult to do when I need to take care of dogs on a daily basis.  I also have a large amount of student loans that I need to continue to pay.  These are all things I need to consider.  Job ideas that I have considered are working as a tour guide, trying to work with endangered animals like California Condors or bald eagles in the field, teaching biology at a community college or in a vet tech school, working with mules in the Grand Canyon, or leading hiking tours.  Ideally I’d like to do something that combines animals, the outdoors, educating people and working with people who actually LIKE what they are doing at that moment.  

My boyfriend is supportive and just wants me to be happy.  I just need the courage to take the plunge into the unexplored and try something new.  I believe I can do it!  Let the search begin!  I hope I don’t punk out.  

25 Random facts about me

Maybe I should list this in my “about me” section?

 

1. I have never kept a blog until this one. 
2. I like to watch random documentaries. I recently watched “hanging with the sloth.” it was good. 
3. I am obsessed with Phoenix’s light rail system.
4. I wear size 7.5 shoes
5. I love the national park system and would like to see all of the national parks in the U.S., but then get very overwhelmed and depressed, because there are so many that I’m not sure I’ll be able to see them all.
6. I sing in the shower. 
7. I want to live in another country for at least 6 months, and I don’t really care which one. I may chose Argentina, Nicaragua, Germany or Switzerland if I was forced to pick, but really… I don’t care.
8. I really like rats.
9. I love dogs, but hate doggie kisses on the mouth… I know what dogs do with their mouths. 
10. I’ve hiked to the bottom of the grand canyon twice, and if I could live in the bottom of it, I would.
11. I sometimes fantasize about permanently living in a tent. That would be so cool.
12. I love hummus.
13. I like star trek. I rode the light rail to a star trek exhibition in downtown phoenix. The exhibition was okay, the light rail was awesome. 
14. I am realizing as I list these random things about me that I am really a weird nerd.
15. I don’t care that I am a weird nerd. 
16. I love the full moon. Some of my favorite nights have been sleeping in a tent under the full moon. I, by definition, might be a lunatic.
17. I like the band The Bloodhound Gang. 
18. I have grown out my hair and then donated it three times to “locks of love” for children cancer patients. I prefer to have short hair and am currently debating whether or not to grow it out again.
19. I really like to sleep.
20. I am obsessed with world travel and geography.
21. I perform A LOT of rectal exams on dogs.
22. Cystocentesis is one of my hobbies.
23. I like Queen. I sing the song “Your my Best Friend” to my dog, Biscuit. He especially likes it when I sing the the following lyrics really loud and with all my heart: “I’ve been with you such a long time and I want you to know that my feelings are true, I REALLY LOVE YOU…. AWww. your my BEST FRIEND” (he really enjoys this).
24. I like to kayak.
25. I can’t touch my toes.

Here’s a better link to my video

Adventures with a broken foot, see previous blog for description.

Adventures with a broken foot video

I’m going to try to incorporate a link to a video I made.  This blog doesn’t seem to let me upload it directly.

On August 18th I broke my foot.  It was nothing spectacular or really noteworthy that I was doing.  I was on a camping and kayaking trip with a group of friends and in the morning we got up and made breakfast.  We were all goofing off at camp when I noticed a ball stuck in the branches of a pine tree.  Of course we decided to try to get the ball down by throwing rocks at it.  I was running forward with a rock in my hand and tripped on another rock and twisted my ankle and went down.  When I landed my foot landed sideways on a rock and it snapped my 5th metatarsal bone inside my foot.  I heard it snap and knew it was broken right away.  I didn’t go to the doctor until the next day, because I didn’t want to have to go to the emergency room and pay higher fees on a Sunday.  Turns out I had a Jone’s fracture, which unfortunately takes 8-12 weeks to heal.  

I had previously planned to visit with some friends in San Diego.  I was tempted to cancel.  My friend Amy told me to come anyway.  What was I going to do?  Sit around my house?  She told me I should sit around her house.  I agreed.   I got to hang out in San Diego.  Amy’s neighbor let me borrow his wheelchair, I was carried into a Charger’s game, we explored the city.  I got to hang out with friends and my boyfriend as my bone continued to heal.  I ended up having two casts and a walking boot before I got better.  I bought a wheelchair off Craigslist after I returned from San Diego.

It was nice to have great friends to help me with my foot.  Everyone was very supportive.  It wasn’t always fun and it definitely wasn’t easy.  I wasn’t able to walk even one step for 8 weeks after I broke my foot, and when I did it was in a walking boot.

I have never broken a bone before.  It was an interesting experience.  It was painful and overall NOT fun!!  I have never taken so much ibuprofen in my life!  I highly recommend NOT breaking a bone.  I was wearing sandals when running around in a rocky area.  That was a bad move.  I will be more careful in the future.  As of today my bone is still healing.  I can walk, but I still have a severe limp.  My poor unused leg shriveled down and became grossly skinny, but it’s on the road to recovery.  The doc says I’ll be “normal” by the first of the year.  

http://www.youtube.com/edit?action_reinstate=1

I hope you can see that video.  I apologize because it is long, but I had a broken foot for a long time!  😉

 

Try the above link, maybe that’ll work

Starting a blog, first entry

Alright, I’ve done it, I’ve set up a blog for myself.  I have been meaning to for a while.  Maybe this can give me a chance to get some thoughts out and also occasionally post excerpts from my books that I am working on.  Maybe it will also motivate me to write with more frequency.  

Recently I was in bed reading and I thought to myself:  as much as I aspire to be a writer, I seem to be more of a “reader” than a “writer” and I should try to work on this.  I need to just sit down and focus on writing with more frequency.  

I’ve been “working on” three books.  Really most of the work has been on one.  Ideas circulate my head for the other two.  The book that I’ve been working on is a dual perspective travel memoir of my boyfriend Rob and myself as we traveled through Europe in 2011.  It was an epic adventure and we both kept detailed journals, which we discovered along the way were pretty entertaining to read side by side.  We (mostly I) have been working to compile these entries and create them into a book.  It’s harder work than I expected and the going is slow.  

Well, I figured I could also use a blog to sort out some thoughts about all sorts of subjects and life in general, which is something I haven’t figured out yet, but have had some fun trying and I intend to keep at it.  

So, I’m not really trying to solve world problems yet in this blog entry, mostly I’m just trying to set up the blog itself, and it seems to require that I write something, so I am.