Reg is our coach.

The good, the bad, the Curly.

The good: I GOT THE JOB. My schedule is Monday - Friday (some Saturdays) from 9:30 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. Yeah. It's going to take some time to figure out sleeping, working out/running and working, but I'll manage. Now I can afford to get fitted for good running shoes, and I won't be in pain anymore.

The bad: I still haven't been working out.

The Curly: I had Curly Joe in for his post-surgery bile acid test yesterday. This afternoon, we dropped him off at the NW Vet Specialists. They'll call me tomorrow before he goes into surgery and again when he's out of surgery and in recovery. It was hard dropping him off. He was having such a great time being around all the other dogs in the lobby, but when we said goodbye and the tech took him in back, he didn't want to go. He looked back at me like, "Why aren't you coming with me?" and it KILLED me. I cried when we left. I'm a nervous wreck already and they haven't even started operating yet. I shouldn't feel bad, I know. Despite the risks, he had to have this surgery or he would have died.

When they called to offer me the job, they said I could either start September 29th or October 6th. I picked October since it would give me about two weeks to look after Curly while he recovers from surgery. He's going to need careful monitoring to make sure there isn't any fluid collecting in his abdomen again.

-:- Happy thoughts for Curly. Positive, happy thoughts. -:-

A voice from the end of a leaf.

Hey. Whaddya know? I’m alive. I haven’t run in I don’t even want to know how long, but I haven’t given up. I’m still a runner, I just haven’t had time to hit the track for a while. A lot has been going on, some of it (a very tiny amount) good.

Tank and Curly Joe have finally settled into a nice friendship, though I’ll be damned if I can figure out which one is dominant over the other. Seems like they take turns. Curly has gotten a little bit bigger, though he has lost a couple of pounds recently. As you know, I had lab work done on him and his liver values came back funky. My vet suggested I take him for an ultrasound, so I took him to VDIC last week. Turns out Curly Joe has a problem with his liver shunt. Intrahepatic are harder to fix, and that is what he has. I took him to see a soft tissue specialist at the Northwest Veterinary Specialists this past Friday and we had an incredibly long talk about Curly Joe and how we can go about fixing his liver. All this time, we thought he had seizures and brain damage from being poisoned when he was three months old, but it turns out those are all symptoms of shunt problems. Quiet demeanor, head pressing, staring off into space. Those are all signs and symptoms. It even stunted his growth; he’ll never grow to full size because of this.

This will eventually kill him, so there is no choice but to operate. I will be setting that up sometime this week. For now, I’ve got him on special food (low protein) for his liver. He loves it, though he has been having diarrhea for the past couple of days (another symptom). Aside from a bad patch a week or so ago, Curly has been doing really well. He’s got such an amazing spirit, nothing gets him down. He reminds me of Luke so much. A couple of weeks ago, we were walking down the kitchen stairs when Curly spotted a cotton ball. He dove off the stairs and landed head-first on it. He’s a crazy puppy. (Holy crap is it raining right now.)

So that’s what’s going on with the puppy.

Now for the good news: I’ve got a lead on a job. My friend, R, told me about a position opening up at her work and said she would pass my resume on to her manager. I got a call from said manager a couple of days ago and have an interview with her tomorrow afternoon. The only downside to this job is that it’s in NE Portland and it’s the night shift. Stephen King night shift, yo. But I don’t really care about that. Traffic won’t suck at those hours, plus I’d get a $1.50 shift differential. I would also get benefits (medical, dental, life insurance, 401k, free lab work for my pets, etc.). So right now the pros are outweighing the cons. The biggest pro being MONEY. Steady paycheck. Paying off bills. Getting out of debt. All good things. I really hope I get the job. It’s going to do wonders for my crazy brain. I need routine and stability and working very, very part time (from home) for a transcription company wasn’t good for me at all. It was and it wasn’t. I would still do it part time as needed, but I can’t live on eight cents a line.

Exciting! My sister even bought me a little bento lunchbox (just in case). Aw.

Hawkeytown
Originally uploaded by orclimber

Finally, and this made me so incredibly happy, I dragged my sister to the Winter Hawks’ season opener last night at the Memorial Coliseum. Cheap seats were six bucks; how could we not go? I got the tickets yesterday morning and spent a few minutes going over the seating chart with the guy at Fred Meyer. (They sell Ticketmaster stuff in the electronics section.) At first he offered me some seats right behind the goal, but I passed because then that big damn net would get in the way. I aimed for seats to the left of center, in the nosebleeds. If you look at the picture up there, all the way up at the top left, that’s basically where we were sitting except at the opposite end of the rink. Pretty good seats (as I mentioned in the voice post).

The whole place is so much smaller than the Ice Palace; even from where we were sitting, we got a great view of the entire game. It wasn’t even close to being full capacity, so when I sat down and a pole was blocking the goal, I moved a couple of seats down. No biggie. Sis was a little concerned about the Hawks’ mascot, Tom-A-Hawk. He was wandering around below us, and she was convinced he was going to come over and she would have to push him over the railing. I told her he wouldn’t leave the main floor, but a few minutes later, he walked up the stairs and started mingling in the nosebleeds. At that point, Sis jumped out of her seat and moved to the other side of me. ”If he comes this way, you deal with him.” Lucky for me, he stayed away, but she and I argued for a while over whether or not he was a chicken or a hawk.

The game itself was fun. Nothing exciting, but I’m a bit spoiled. I’ve seen the bulk of my hockey games during the Cup playoffs, so I’m used to a completely different type of play. There were a couple of scuffles each period. Nothing major, but one or two ended with a guy from each team spending two minutes in the box. The Hawks beat the Chiefs (ooooownnzuh!) for shots on goal, yet they didn’t get a single goal.

Midway through the game, the Jumbotron (or, as I like to call it, the Minitron) fritzed out and then went dark. Oh, and there was the blimp that flew around and dropped paper (coupons?) on people. The one at the Ice Palace doesn’t go very far, but this one went allllll over the place. At one point it was floating in the air, pointed directly at us. Felt like Close Encounters. And then there were the two guys in the Hanson/Chiefs jerseys. So awesome.

The Chiefs won 3-0 (the third goal was scored during a five-on-three power play) and with 3:12 left in the third period, one of the Chiefs hit a Hawk. The Hawk took exception to this and shoved the Chief. The Chief shoved back. The Hawk hauled off and popped him right in the face. Then there were helmets and gloves all over the ice and the crowd was roaring. It was beautiful. It went on for quite a while. Not a bench-clearing brawl, but there were three fights going on at once. The goalies stayed out of it. At one point I looked at my sister and she said, ”Ok. Fights ARE fun!” They put two guys from each team in the penalty box (one of them practically had to be dragged) and then the captains spent a few minutes talking to the ref. Eventually, three guys from each team were led off the ice, and there was much cheering. I tell ya, when those players walked by without their helmets, I was struck by how young they are. BABIES! The lot of them! The oldest on both teams was 20 and the youngest was 16. Oy.

Anyway, the rest of the game played out and everybody went home.

All in all, a very good night. Even though “my” team lost, I still really enjoyed my first WHL game. There’s a person in this internet hockey community that mentioned enjoying the high school and beer league games more than the Hawk games, so I’m hoping to find out when and where those local beer leaguers are. So I can go to the games. She called them old-timers. I hope that means there’ll be lots of fights.

The Hawks play the Vancouver Giants next Saturday. I reeeally want to go.

So that’s what I’ve been up to. Hope you are all doing well. If I get this job, the first thing I’m doing (after paying off some bills, of course) is going to get my feet evaluated for good running shoes. I miss running. A lot.

Almost.

I've been back from Colorado for a week now, and I have yet to work out or run. I guess I underestimated how much a puppy would change my life. I assumed Tank would jump right in and be a big brother, thereby taking a lot of pressure off of me to keep the little squint amused, but nooooo.

Just kidding. I know it'll take a while for Tank to get used to having another dog around, especially after all this time alone, and especially after spending these last few years with elderly dogs who weren't in the best shape for rough housing. In the meantime, Curly Joe is terrorizing the cats. I don't think he's figured it out yet that they're cats and not actually puppies like himself. All it'll take is one or two smackchops and he'll learn his lesson, but so far none of the cats have gotten to that point.

I took Joe to the vet yesterday for lab work. I was worried about his kidneys because he seems to drink and pee a lot more than the average dog. Turns out his kidneys are fine. It's his liver that's messed up.

Now, I adopted this dog because he had health issues from being poisoned when he was three months old. He's been doing so well, I guess I fooled myself into thinking all of his issues had resolved themselves. No such luck. The vet thinks it could be one of three things:

1. Toxins from being poisoned.
2. Hepatitis infection.
3. Some sort of shunt problem.
   

She recommends that we do a clotting profile, and also take him in for an ultrasound/biopsy. I'm going to find out how much both of those will cost me and then do some planning. Right now, Joe appears to be in good health. He doesn't have heart worm and everything else came back normal. I need to call around and find a good puppy class to enroll him in. He's a smart little bugger. I already taught him how to sit, and he's pretty well potty trained. He hasn't figured out that if he has to pee, he should go to the front door, but when I take him outside, he does his business and waits for me to give him a treat. He's been really good about chewing, too. Sometimes he'll try to eat a catnip toy or a sock, but he hasn't eaten any wires or furniture or anything, preferring to chew on some of Tank and Luke's old Nylabones. He hasn't figured out "come" and "stay" yet, but that's fine. That's what classes are for.

As for running, I'm going to start on the elliptical and do strength training the rest of this week and hopefully get back on the track next week. I still need new shoes, but I've got the Yoga for Every Body DVD from the library, and it looks pretty doable. I think it will help. Also, my sister is looking at used pilates machines, so I can start doing that as well.

I just have to keep sending out the old resume because everything is pretty much at a standstill until I get some money in the bank.

I'm scared that I won't be able to do Week 2 at all next week. Must keep positive about running and Curly Joe. I do, however, hope something nasty happens to the sick fuck who poisoned this puppy. He more than deserves it.

Riding the storm out.

Okay, it's not so much a storm as it is a massive heat wave. We've got a Red Flag Warning going on over here, which basically means you can burst into flames if you're out in the sun too long. Just kidding. But not really.

I got up extra early this morning so I could walk the dogs before it got too hot. It was 80° at 7:30. Oyyyy. Now I'm at my mom's house. I had to get Freddie's thyroid meds. I'm cooling it for a few minutes before I head out again. A few weeks ago, my sister got one of those water coolers for the front hall; I'm going to swing by New Seasons and get a refill. We're going to be drinking a LOT of water this week.

Things should start cooling off by Sunday, which is good because there's no way in hot holy hell I'm going to attempt any sort of exercise in this heat. Call me a wimp, but it ain't gonna happen.

Colorado was a blast. LS&C are wonderful kids, and I really enjoyed meeting them. Curly Joe is quite a little spitfire. He’s coming along pretty well with the house training, and maybe a couple of years from now he’ll get over the excitement every time a cat walks past him.

He’s a good pup, full of spirit and curiosity. He's not old enough for the training yet (they have to be a year old), but I'm going to try and get Curly Joe certified as a therapy dog. When we're out walking, people flock to him. I shit you not. He has a gentle way with people, it's like he was born to be a therapy dog. I really want to do this so I can take him into nursing homes to visit with the elderly. I love old folks, and I miss my Gram. It would make her happy to know I was trying to help some old timers feel a little less lonely.

Tank doesn’t really know what to make of him yet, but sometime soon, he’s going to kick Curly’s ass, and Curly is going to LOVE. IT. Now that I’ve gotten a good look at him, I’m positive Curly Joe is a Corgi/JRT mix. Probably some German Shepherd, too. He’s got a Corgi face, Terrier legs and the GSD Stink Eye:


That right there is the exact same look Luke used to give me right before he had a meltdown. The message conveyed went a little something like this: "I love you and I don’t want to do this, but in a few seconds I’m going to go postal.”

It was one of the many reasons why I loved that dog so much. He was a ton of love stuffed into 95 pounds of scary.

Here is Curly Joe trying to help Tank overcome his carsickness.



Here is yours truly enjoying a (totally vegan) VG Dog from VG Burgers in Boulder, Colorado. It had the works: sauerkraut, onions, relish and mustard. I asked for no ketchup (because ketchup on hot dogs is blasphemy) and got some “cheese” on it instead. Sooooooooooo goooooooooooood.





The bad news is, VG Burgers is the only vegan restaurant in the entire state of Colorado. The good news is, the owner told me they are going to be opening up a couple of stores in the Pacific Northwest. It’s an expensive meal, but I’ll shell out the dough to walk into a joint and enjoy a vegan hot dog and milk shake. Oh, yes. I totally will.

Anyway, Colorado was a blast. Took lots of pictures, but I haven’t finished updating my travel journal yet. I am lazy have ADD.


Look for more running blogs next week, when the temperature goes back to normal. Sheesh.

The road so far.

As you can see, I haven’t run at all this week. Too frazzled, too busy, too overwhelmed. Too full of excuses. I’ll be back next week, though. I promise.

Sis and I are leaving for Colorado tomorrow, so I decided to create a separate travel journal so I don’t clog this thing up with non-running blather. Check it out. We’ll have my sister’s laptop, so I’ll probably be updating pretty frequently. There’s a link in the sidebar if you want to keep checking back.

I finished Hockey in Portland the other day (you know, when I was busy not running) and was delighted to read that Mark Messier’s father, Doug, used to play for the Portland Buckaroos. Know who else used to play for them? The oldest rookie in the NHL: Connie Madigan. Some of us know him from Slap Shot. He played Ross “Mad Dog” Madison of the Syracuse Bulldogs.

In other news, it was 11 years ago today that I was reunited with (most of) my birth family. My sister and I drove up to our uncle's house in Michigan and met (for the second time, I guess you could say) our birth mother, grandparents, and our uncle and his wife and two little boys. Here is a picture from that day: me, my birth grandfather, my birth mother and my twin sister:


I’m just barely five foot one, and I had to lean over to hug her (and my grandmother). Crazy! Also crazy: we have the exact same handwriting, and she used to be a vet tech, just like me. We met the rest of the family (our aunts and all the cousins) in Florida the summer of 2000.

Ok, here’s me signing off. I’ve still got a lot to do. By this time Saturday, I’ll have a puppy! (Here’s a picture his foster mom sent me yesterday):

Week 3, Day 24

I'm so lame, I don't even feel like updating. I ran today. At least there's that. I got up early and took my mom and sister to this street festival and we (hopefully) got into the Guinness Book of World Records for largest group of people playing the kazoo. There were somewhere around 5,300 of us there, all kazooing "Do Re Me." Got to see Portland Taiko, too.

Afterwards, I dropped my sister off at her house and then went to get a hummus wrap at the pub. I went home and bummed around for a couple of hours, did some laundry, pulled some weeds, took some photographs, then finally decided to head down to the track.

I'm still having calf pain, and I have to admit, I'm feeling really discouraged these days. I even did some pre-run yoga poses before I left, but I don’t think they did much to help.

Anyway, it was 68°F and breezy, so I was really comfortable out there. Recovery was good, but my calves are still so stiff after the runs. I'm just really fed up and frustrated.

The tentative good news is, there may be a job opening at my friend's work. Hopefully she can put in a good word for me and I can finally land myself a job. If so, I'm going to the Portland Running Co. for a GOOD pair of running shoes. Custom-fit.

Sis and I are leaving for Colorado this Friday; at least I'll be able to get in two (what I assume will be hellish) runs before we go. We get back Monday night. I plan on running the following Tuesday, but I guess it all depends on how well Curly Joe is settling in.

Reg, my "new" camera is still working nicely. I took it along on one of our walks the other day. Here's Tank tracking something in the neighbor's pasture.

Tired and hungry. See you Tuesday. (It's supposed to be 94° that day, so if I don't run in the morning, it's gym time).