Loss and Life

In the time since I lasted posted, a few things have happened.

A) I went to Texas for a fabulous 10 days split between family/friends in Dallas and best good friend time in Austin with Sarah. While it was a whirlwind of a trip and left me pretty exhausted, I had a great time. There's something beyond comforting about being "home."

B) I celebrated my 26th birthday. Several times. I went to Portland with some girlfriends for a weekend of Blazers basketball and just hanging out being girls. It was a lot of fun :-). I got some pretty awesome gifts. A Blazers cap, some awesome Bath and Body Works stuff, a snuggie (tho that might've been a late Christmas present), a Brita water filter (love it), the Metric "Fantasies" CD, and a cast iron skillet is on the way. I can't wait to use it.

C) I've helped several OTHER friends celebrate their birthdays. There are a ton of birthdays in January, apparently. With all this celebrating, I've had a couple of drunken debacles, but all is well now. Luckily the other person involved is a really, really understanding person.

Probably the most notable event was the passing of my sweet Beagle, Luna. The whole thing has kind of thrown me for a loop. I got back from Texas on a Friday, and the following Saturday Luna and I spent the day at Elijah Bristow State Park, and then a friend came over that night to cook dinner and hang out.

At about midnight Luna was acting strange, and we kept an eye on her while we played Trivial Pursuit. It was pretty late (or early, depending on how you look) when I decided to call the emergency vet and tell them her symptoms. While I was on the phone, Luna was suddenly unable to use her back legs. So we immediately took her to the vet. Apparently a degenerated disc (a common problem in beagles) had slipped out of her vertebrae and into her spine, causing the sudden paralysis. I had several options: immediate surgery in Portland, leave her at the clinic for a couple of days while they medicate/monitor her, or take her home and medicate/monitor her. All of these options came with a pretty negative prognosis and warning that euthanasia was an imminent possibility. Surgery (a minimum of $5,000 with no guarantee of it being fixed) was out. Luna has separation anxiety and likes to be close to her mama.

So I brought her home, and we spent Sunday with each other. It was a pretty emotional day. Towards the end of the day, she had still not being able to relieve herself, which is something the vet had cautioned me about. So I took her back in, and it was then that I had to make the decision that it was time. While it was the most difficult decision I've ever made, I was comforted to know that she would not be in pain nor have to suffer the inability to run and play and be Luna. The following couple of weeks were pretty difficult, and I sunk pretty low a few times. Luckily, I've got a fantastic support group of family and friends. Also, I've recently started working out at the gym with a friend, and that helps immensely. It is so hard to sit at home without Luna, and I can't bring myself to walk through the neighborhood without her. So, the gym and working out is a great and beneficial distraction.

I definitely think I'm on the upswing as January comes to a close. I've done a lot of thinking about a lot of different things. Luna, life, goals, friendships, etc. I'm kinda counting on the Chinese New Year to be my new year. I feel like a real transition is coming on.

i've reached that point...

where all the christmas cards I get are photo cards of my married friends and their children, whether the child be human or dog.

that's ok. i love seeing these photos. i love the idea of photo cards.

i just didn't realize i was to that point in life yet.

I <3 My Ducks

civil war game tonight. I'm gonna get my game watching on at Rennie's, where my roommate works. He's sharing his 35% discount with me tonight, so $2 beers are now $1.30. Plus he's driving me to and fro. Holla. Here's a video that I *just* can't get enough of.

I smell rooossseeesss....

smartz

I have (for tonight anyway) come to the conclusion that the internet, or rather my obsessive use of the internet, has made me dumber. I have vast amounts of information quite literally at my fingertips, and it's so easy to find that perfect sentence of information that answers any random question I might have. As opposed to finding a summation, paragraph, or essay that prods and pokes my brain to think about what the answer could be.

The internet also provides me with enormous opportunity to procrastinate doing things like reading books, talking with folks about ideas and thoughts, and sitting around thinking, which I used to do quite often. And now I still do, but my thoughts are monopolized with inane daydream scenarios or....what to tweet.

While I may KNOW more things, I honestly feel like my capability to think abstractly has diminished. Though -- I also feel this might be largely in part due to working an 8-5 job. I do think working 8-5 has also crippled my attention span. It was bound to happen.

But I love the internet for its endless bounty of musical exploration. Lately I've been into the New Moon soundtrack, The XX, Neon Indian, Hockey, and ...well as usual...Girl Talk.

And now back to reading Another Roadside Attraction by Tom Robbins, which has proven to be really thought provoking, even though I'm only 44 pages in.

Busy!

I have been TERRIBLE about updating my blog. Admittedly I attribute this in part to the feeling that the wonderful things about Oregon I have loved are no longer a novelty to me, though I continue to enjoy them. Perhaps I should change the name/focus of the blog.

But truth be told, I have been busy. Work has been lively and productive, and I have had the opportunity to tackle new projects. We are gearing up for a huge trip in February to the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. I will be accompanying 50 high school-aged youth and 8 adults, who will be serving as mentors/chaperones, for a week in Vancouver. It is definitely an exciting and adventurous prospect. The three Oregon-based mentors (myself and two of my friends) will be taking a quick trip to San Francisco in a couple of weeks to meet the youth and other mentors. Since we're all friends, we decided to make a weekend out of it and see a bit of San Fran and stay with one of the mentor's sister in Carmel-by-the-Sea.

I've also been busy outside of work with my book clubs, a Pilates class I recently started, volunteering at the KLCC radiothon, going to Duck games, and planning upcoming events! This weekend I'm hosting a few friends at my house for a Julia Child's cooking night, going to a Pumpkin Food Social at the UU Eugene church (all food will have pumpkin in it), and heading to Portland for a matinee of either Where the Wild Things Are or Paranormal Activity and going to a preseason Blazers game against the Nuggets. Tonight I hope to start an applique project for my friend's soon to be born baby. I also hope to make a pumpkin dish for the pot luck tomorrow. I'm debating between pumpkin ravioli and pumpkin muffins.

The fun doesn't end there! But you can see I've been pretty busy, and as a result I feel like I've neglected some of the simpler things I enjoy, like finding and purchasing/downloading music, writing, etc.

Ok, now that I've enjoyed a quick break from working, it's time to get BACK to work.

Moved!

Well, I've moved again! Let's have a rundown of the places I have lived in the past year and a half, shall we?

I lived at my parents' house in Arlington, TX for a year and a half before moving to Oregon in May of 2008.

Once in Oregon, I subleased a room for two months, sharing the house with two law school students. This was definitely a time of adjustment, as I learned about Eugene and tried to make some friends.

For the month of August, I lived in a boring house on the boring side of town. The exciting part was that my roommate was kind of crazy! I GTFO as soon as I could.

From September 08 through Sept 11, 2009, I lived back in my old Eugene neighborhood (the Friendly Street Neighborhood) with Susan and her two dogs. A cute house (albeit in shambles), a roommate very similar to me, and VERY dog friendly. It was a good place to live, and I have lots of fond memories here.

My landlord decided to put the house up for sale, so I began looking for new places to live. It was unlikely that Susan and I would find a place that would accept our combined three dogs, so I looked for other options. I found a house in Springfield that was in my budget, would take Luna (without a deposit!), would provide me my OWN bathroom, and was a nice, clean house with a normal, responsible, easygoing and friendly roommate. I jumped on that opportunity!

So here Luna and I are, living in a new house...again. The biggest adjustment this time was the two cats that my current roommate has. But Luna and the cats seem to have chilled out a bit and are getting along wonderfully. I'm still able to get out and about in Eugene, though I really miss being able to walk to the organic food market by my old house. I also miss my old neighborhood, but this new one has an excellent walking/biking path right by my house. Luna loves it.

Hopefully I will get to stay here for awhile, though I know it's not permanent. Who knows where life will take me next?

math sux

I just realized in the last post about three-year cycles, I went from 1995 to 1991. Did I mention that in 2000 (presumably an "off" year) I failed algebra? yawp.

I move next week. A lot of people are moving. Mostly....moving away. My favorite gas attendant is one of those people.