I'm here!

I've arrived in Grand Junction! Joy and Jubilation!

My sweet sweet AC is now Amanda's, and is having a time of catching up to the heat inside her apartment. When I arrived I think she was looking over my shoulder during the "I'm so glad you're here" hug to make sure I really brought it. Thanks to a leaky cooler, we spent about 20 minutes getting strawberry juice off of (and out of) the unit before being able to haul it up the stairs and install it. And by we, I mean that I hauled it up the stairs. All 22 of them!

I drove from K Falls to Salt Lake City yesterday. And you know what? Salt Lake City smells funny. Maybe it's the smell of a certain religious group that doesn't drink any caffeine or alcohol. A body just can't run right without any of that stuff in it.

Driving across the Great Salt Flats was still pretty boring. Props to Amanda's friend Heather for telling the "Beaver Divers" SCUBA story on demand. Laughing at that kept me going long enough to see a stunning sunset (pics to be posted in the next day or two) and keep on to SLC. I holed up in a LaQuinta hotel for the night and caught some seriously well air conditioned Z's with Pooh King and Oz-fest before taking off this morning.

Today's big scene (besides seeing Amanda eyeball the a/c) was driving by Devil's Canyon and Spotted Wolf. Again, pics later. I've done a whole series that I call "Pics at 70" where I took them while I was driving 70+mph. Did you hear my mother scream just then? They're pretty cool.

That's it for today. Amkanda's putting in the dogs that she's sitting for. Then I think we're off to dinner.

Tootles!

Sorry...

It's that time of the season. End of "Survivor, Klamath Falls" and on to Farmville, VA, next. Go ahead. Google it. Then sit back and laugh. Hey, at least this time I won't be in a trailer park! I am packing like mad, and will take off Sunday morning on the cross country trek. I'm scheduled to arrive in Grand Junction, with my sweet, sweet a/c (see Amanda for details) on Monday. Her apartment temperature and general demeanor will improve greatly with my arrival. Two days there, then I'll head off to St. Louis, planning to arrive on Friday. Two days there, then off to see the parental unit and do some storage unit rearranging. I'll head to Farmville (45 minutes west of Richmond for those of you who don't Google) on the 9th and start working on the 10th. Should be an adventure worthy of lots of blogging, so I'll do my best to keep you posted from the road. Until then, I'll leave you with an amazing sunset over Upper Klamath Lake...

Scenes from Wizard Island

The topand the reflection
another of my favorites
the red lava side of the island

So pretty!

more from above Crater Lake

You can see the rocks under the surface of the water just off the tip of the rocks.
This is from near the top of the hike DOWN to the boat deck.

This might be my favorite picture. You could turn it upside down and not know it wasn't right side up.

Pics from Crater Lake

Crater Lake has the highest clarity rating of any lake in the world. The water really is bluer than the sky. It's amazing!
My friend Jennifer and I went hiking before taking the boat out to Wizard Island. We were rewarded with stunning views!

That's Wizard Island... which was soon to kick my ass. It's a long, hot, exposed climb to the summit. But well worth the torture. Pics will be on soon.

It's a thousand degrees outside. I spent the day hiking at Crater Lake and out onto Wizard Island. I was hot and sticky, and slightly sunburned... SPF 45 has nothing on an albino girl in the beat-down sun. I had a quick shower. I had dinner with a friend. There was an electrical storm.

Now I have no electricity. And again I'm hot, and I'm sticky.

I'll have the amazing pics of Wizard Island and Crater Lake tomorrow. As long as I have power.

Oh, and I'm moving to Virginia. Farmville, VA, and here's their website... hope you enjoy my new town...

www.villageprofile.com/virginia/farmville/

more wedding pics, and another story

Mike, Mitzi, Tom (the officiant of their wedding, and very dear friend), and Gena

Mike and Mitzi during the toasts

The first dance
Michelle and her Dad cutting a rug

Michelle and about 1/4 of her family (there were a lot of hobbits around!) and boy do those Sandersons dance!

And now, ridiculous Tiffany story number 2:

For the rehearsal party, and I do mean party, I had purchased a very cute black and white skirt, a new white shirt, and new black shoes that are fabulous and appropriate for outdoor parties. Since it was fairly cool, I also wore my white hoodie. My favorite piece of light casual outerwear. My hoodie that I've had since PT school.

So, I get to the party. I look GREAT. For about 10 minutes. Because I opened a bottle of wine about 9.9 minutes after arrivel... red wine.

Now, one would argue that I should have been smart and had the chardonnay. No stains with chardonnay. Another may argue that I should have poured from the open bottle of Merlot. Not me, though, I don't especially like Merlot. But there, there is the bottle of beautiful Zinfandel that I like! Hooray! And, I'd like to point out, not white zin... it's red zin. Hey, where's the corkscrew? What? Time broke BOTH of them? And now they're stuck in another cork? Both of them in one cork? And there's only this weird cork-puller-outer-thing? Hell, as long as it gets the cork out.

And it did.

Sort of.

It got the cork out with such power, that red wine splashed out of the bottle, into the air, and rained down on me. On my hair. On my face. And ALL OVER my white hoodie and white shirt. I looked like a Zinfandel dalmation.

Ten minutes into the party.

That's what I get for being fancy.

Stories from the road

This is Bobbi's new cat, Emerald. Of course, she does a great Dr. Evil's Cat impression. I like to call her Queen Emmie, 'cause she's the new boss around that house. She is very entertaining and quite personable for a Persian. She deemed me acceptable to enter her kingdom, and spent some quality time on my lap.




Got to spend some quality time with my friends, Anna and Scott, their boys (who I love) and their baby girl (who I had not met yet!) Like so many things during the trip though, our time together was too short. We had great fun making a sign and taking gag pictures to harass Aunt Amy with. Kiss it Amy!








On the way home from Mike and Mitzi's after her pedicure (more on that another night!) I saw this big moose...








Then out into the clearing came her baby! Moose babies are so ugly they're cute!








This funny story, you ask? Look closely. Bobbi and I went to a Korean restaurant one night, and inadvertantly stumbled upon Korean karaoke. It was a riot. This guy is the owner/chef in the restaurant (which, by the way, is below the bowling alley.) First he came out in this horrible, big, black, curly mullet wig. Then, when he went to dab his face with the towel on his apron, it lifted to expose a giant penis and testicles! Not his, of course, but a stuffed nylon panty-hose kind of thing. Even had little pubes colored on it. He would get right in some little old lady's face and shake it right at her. The little old lady would scream and hide her face for what I'm sure was an appropriate amount of time, then tuck money into the band of the apron. They even passed the hat for donations for him. This could be the only time in my life I REALLY wished I understood Korean. 'Cause I'm sure whatever they were saying was a riot!

I'm back! The trip was great and the wedding fabulous. Now my ass is draggin', my cell phone is in the mail (should arrive by 3 on Wednesday), Pooh King is at my feet, Oz is on my lap, and I need to sleep! I promise that I will download pictures tomorrow and write stories of hilarity and hijinx. Send me an email if you need to get in touch, since I won't have a phone until Wednesday!

Weird things happened to me in Bend, OR.

First, I saw the Trojan Bear.









Then it tried to eat me.









Then one of my first (and one of my favorite) patients ever, from my first days in Fairbanks, was at the restaurant I had dinner at. That's him, Les, on the left, with his wife Kim (also a former patient of mine) and their daughter, Courtney. Courtney was the lucky recipient of one of my rescue kittens, Sinatra. He has since been renamed "Chi Chi the Bandit". I can't wait to hear that story. It was so unexpected, and wonderful, and bizarre to see them there! They live in Bend now.

Anyway, they saw me walk across the restaurant and Les said "Kim, that's Tiffany, my therapist from Fairbanks!" They sent Courtney over to the table to make sure. I was so tickled to see them. When Kim said she was stunned that Les recognized me, "'cause he doesn't pay attention to hardly anything," Les responded that you just can't forget the woman who spent hours torturing you, and who made you able to walk again.

I was humbled, and honored, and I almost cried. What an exceptional way to be reminded of how much I love what I do, and how important it is in the lives of my patients.

On a side note, I will be in Alaska until next Monday, so probably won't be blogging until then. Happy trails!

Aaaaah, beautiful downtown Ashland.

I took this picture on the way home. As I drove east to Klamath Falls, I looked into the rearview mirror. The site was breath-taking. So, I pulled over and watched the sun set over Green Valley. It was stunning!

A few hours after setting up the A/C, Pooh King and Oz-fest were living the high life. They actually could stand to touch each other without overheating. Pooh would like to point out that he did not enjoy it, but merely tolerated napping with the cat. Oz says he's a liar.

Good company to ride over the hill with... $Free

Tank of gas... $Left Arm

Sushi at a real sushi restaurant... $doesn't matter. It was good

Strolling the streets of Ashland... $Free

Damage done to bank account at cute shops and Petsmart... $None of your beeswax

Finding an air conditioner at Costco... $worth any amount of money they'd like to charge

Sleeping in an air conditioned apartment...$Priceless!

and there's not a single air conditioner available for purchase in all of Klamath Falls. I tried.

You know it's hot when...

• I'd sit out in the car just for the a/c, but it's too expensive to run the engine and not be going somewhere
• Pooh King won't eat a scooby snack after a walk
• Pooh King isn't interested in sleeping on the bed
• Oz will hang endlessly on the security door waiting for the breeze to blow
• I'm sweating while sitting half-nekid on the couch
• It's too hot to sit out by the broken heart hot tub, even in the shade
• I can't handle hot coffee

Let's hope this breaks soon. Like tonight.

It's true. This is how she starts every day. That hair is wild. Ma-na-ma-na!
Check out my rockstar sister's blog for the whole story...

That poor guy had no idea what he was up against!

www.livinginamandaland.blogspot.com