I’m mostly afraid of the typhoid

I leave for India in 15 days and I am freaking out! It is not that I have never travelled before, but that I have never travelled somewhere that is so intent on killing me ( and my bowels). The malaria, the typhoid, the hep A in the water, the spicy food and only just a hole in the floor to poop in!

To conquer my growing paranoia I am going to become super organized and productive. I have decided to start packing today.

stethoscope and TP is all you need!

I have thus far decided that I need copious amounts of anti-shitting medicine, toilet paper and my stuffed manatee.

Ta Da! Manny the Traveling Manatee!

Ta Da! Real life Manny! I’d carry it in my backpack and spray it with water whenever it looked limp

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good thing I have found a lovely website called herpackinglist.com that was so much more informative than ‘pack toys’.

**I have since renegotiated with Manny about his participation in this trip; after reading about bed bugs and lice and all other crawly thingy’s that would love to cuddle up in his fur. I’m starting to  think I should shave my head before I go to for the same reason.

More to come after this regularly scheduled nap…

Snow falling on Atlas

this lake is wet

As you can see, it is winter again and we are still at the lake. We had planned to move into an affordable loft downtown but as luck (and inexperience) would have it, we were swindled. Left without a down payment we didn’t have many other options, so we stayed. I guess it’s not too bad, we aren’t able to save any money, but we did find an awesome roommate who likes to have snowball fights and movie nights.

this nose is wet

 

 

 

For those of you who are not from around here, Michigan winters are incredibly frustrating. The day you plan to go skiing it is 40^o and raining, and the day you plan to go for an evening jog it is 5^o and blizzarding. So as usual, I was surprised on my drive home from work/school today that it was super icy and I had no control of my brakes and could barely see the bus I almost careened into.

 

 

 

these trees are wet

 

 

The best part of winter is snow

Falling snow is silent. Birds aren’t chirping, traffic is muffled; its like wearing cold headphones or having frozen cotton balls in your ears.I love walking slowly as it drifts down around me. Sometimes when it is really late at night and the sky is clear I imagine that I am an astronaut floating around in space, fully absorbed in the peace it brings.

 

I’ve got a lovely bunch of coconuts

Dee da lee dee!

I will be heading to India in June!!!!

Bouncing into Retirement

Today, I am officially too old to be in a bounce house.

I was frolicking with my niece, Evelyn, at the local Jimmy Buffett themed bouncey establishment, when out of nowhere, I felt a grisly *click*. Anyone older than 30, may know this feeling as that of their youth being violently ripped out of them.

In other words, I put my back out, while bouncing! I have since ordered anti-aging cream, slippers and a life insurance policy bequeathing everything to my dog, Atlas.

To be fair, I don’t know for sure if it was Jimmy Buffett themed, but there was a parrot and it made me uncomfortable.

So, while I recover from my humiliating back pain, I will bestow upon you, photos of the last few months along with various amounts of excuse for not writing sooner.

Noah and I fed a giraffe, while this nice zoo man recorded us…hmm, I have never seen that footage, maybe he didn’t work for the zoo after all…

John put a hat on a cat, John put a cat on a hat. John no longer has hat or cat privileges.

Barbara, Celeste, Ko and I brought holiday cheer to Depot Town! I also brought the santa beard and my sweet triangle skills!

I enjoy pretending John is famous and I’m his paparazzi. Look! John pumps gas, just like a real person!

Oh, and I went to class and wore a lot of mustaches with my friend Danielle

2012 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 1,900 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 3 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

Stabby Stab Stab

I love nursing school! However, I may have forgot to consider my gut-wrenching fear of needles when I applied.

Here is how my first poke went.

I think I need to practice arranging my face a bit

Historic Baseball in Detroit

Hello fellow paddlers! My journey through nursing school has resumed with the beginning of the fall semester, so I apologize in advance for the sparse attention to my blog. Barbara do not throw the ipad, I will try my best to at least post a photo here and there until I can clear some space in my brain for creative pursuits.

noah wrote the dictionary!

So here are some photos of John, Noah and I enjoying Greenfield Village a few weekends ago, during the Historic Baseball Playoffs. A special thank you to Celeste for getting us a special parking spot. wink, wink.

john ruined my plan of petting/stealing them

i love the socks the most!

old timey car with old timey driver

Food Carts and Castles

sipping coffee pensively in Little Italy

china town

lovely green things

Well, I’m back to finish weaving you the tale of Toronto!

One of the great things about this city is the extreme diversity, one minute your walking next to a family from Alberta(Canada), the next you are sharing a crosswalk with tiny asian schoolgirls. The multiculturalism can be appreciated especially with the food choices. We ate amazing greek food from The Healthy Greek, fantastic fish and chips from The Big Fish, and incredible teas and coffees from Manic Coffee in the little Italy neighborhood. However, with a 13% tax on everything I found myself eating crusty veggie hotdogs from food carts.

beautiful picture of a dry and disappointing meal

Still somewhat wary of food carts, I found myself bravely standing in line at an ice cream truck and redemption was found! John was not impressed though, when 10 minutes later I had to be introduced to surgeons and fellow scientists with ice cream dribbled down the front of my shirt. They must of thought he brought me as some weird social program- Scientists matched with disheveled street children to introduce them to civilized society. I must now work on my english accent and curtsy for when I meet the queen.

Casa Loma- House on the Hill

My favorite part of the trip was my excursion to Casa Loma, a castle built from 1911-1914, by wealthy businessman Sir Henry Pellatt. A quick subway ride from our hostel and a jaunty climb up 109 stairs led me to a great afternoon of snooping.

Disclaimer: I love houses. I love the different ways people decorate and remodel their homes. I love home and garden magazines and t.v. shows, and I have been known to look into strangers windows while walking the dog. I have even taken advantage of the recent economic turmoil as a way to continue this creepy hobby by peeking inside foreclosed houses just to see what color they painted their kitchens.

So, forgive me that most of the following pictures are of the rooms and furniture of this beautiful house.

I think a lot of sitting happened here

fancy room for doing fancy things

library: perfect for cell phone acoustics

hallway used in the X-men movie

conservatory for fancy plants

secret passageway leading from study to upper level

precarious stairway leading to scottish tower

inside scottish tower- 3 thousand degrees fahrenheit and where my camera died

T is for Toronto; C is for Crime

Recently we went on our much anticipated otolaryngology international conference held this year in Toronto, Canada. Personally, I was excited just to visit a city that I’ve heard so much about and yet had never before been. Being so close to Canada, it is almost a right of passage to visit their largest city. My sisters 7th grade class went, friends going to concerts went, I think even my grandparents went. All of their returning tales were similar, ” Best city EVER!”, ” Super clean and SOOOOO SAFE!”, ” Can’t wait to go back!”.  I was pumped! This long awaited break from mundanity was going to be such an adventure. So, perhaps it was with this exaggerated anticipation that destined the city to be a whopping disappointment.

taken inside Casa Loma

 Just a bit more pessimism and than I’ll tell you the good bits: Toronto happens to be experiencing an uncharacteristic crime wave of gun violence, and a summer heat wave that topped out at 113 degrees F ( 45 C ), which made sight seeing a test of human fortitude. Everything closes at 7pm. They have a 13% tax on purchases and if you use your visa card you can add a 4% fee on top of that. So all in all we were uncomfortable, leery, and horrified as our first impressions. Oh yes, and our hostel had no air conditioning, perfect for romance.

an unwanted advance of his personal space

So now the good bits- Casa Loma has secret passageways, homeless people gave good directions and had interesting life stories      ( yes, I got a little lonely one day while John was being a smarty pants scientist), the chocolate is just as good as the U.K., and we found the best fish and chip shop outside of Sherwood Forest ( not making that up, Nottingham, England has a wonderful chippy shop just up the hill from family friends Stewart and Christina).

Winston Churchill and his feathered ‘friend’

Once we realized that we couldn’t just wonder around downtown after 7pm, we did a quick google search of things to do at night other than sit in a pub and stare at each other. We went to a discounted show at The Second City comedy club, I recommend this highly, I’ll give it a totally made up rating of  5 diamond paddles. We are still quoting and laughing about the skits we saw. We also met a lovely couple from Halifax that recommended we come be best friends with them, and may have invited us to crash their anniversary night, I’m a little fuzzy on the details what with the Canadian/American language barrier

” and now white people doing stereotypes”,says only black actor.

The search for cheap entertainment also lead us to walking 9 miles to a park to watch a ‘ pay what you can’ Shakespeare play. I had blisters for a week but loved the play, loved the park, and loved the nighttime walk back along the beach with my sweetie.

a silly interpretation of A Midsummer Nights Dream, featured Canadian mounties and a crazy speed-walking Helena.

 

south side skyline along Lake Ontario

Stayed Tuned for part 2 of our Toronto adventure, I have to go pee now.

 

 

 

 

Escape to CanadaLand!

I’ve been under a lot of stress lately, what with planning out the rest of my life and what-not. So, I did what I do when I am bored of hearing myself think, I escape.

I believe this to be the best solution to most of people’s problems. Don’t wanna pay the mortgage? No problem! Sleepypaddler says I can just run away!

Think you may have made a bad career move? Just flip off the boss and go buy something pretty!

Realizing you should have never had children at your twins third birthday party? I can help! Pack a suitcase and drive outta the country!

Goodbye U.S and the endless political debates!

AHHH! rye whiskey and fries solves everything!

Lake Huron sunsets are the best

Bob outdrinks me, then tells dirty jokes, perfect day at the marina

Tuko-puppypaddler!