Sunday, May 30, 2010

Good days and bad days...



Today has just been a really bad day. It started off at 2 AM this morning I woke up and I was burning up. I have an electric throw around my shoulders and one across my legs so I don’t have to turn the heat way up in my room. My brother rigged to outlets in my room that I can turn on and off with the computer but the blankets were plugged into the wrong outlet so I could not turn them off. I turned the air conditioner way up to 66° but that did not help. A friend of mine was also on face book at 3 AM and she was sad because she had just lost a friend to cancer. While Robby and I were cruising along the cliffs to dogs lunged at him, one of them made him jump in front of me and I ran over his back foot. The owner of the dog just kept saying “I’m so sorry” over and over... I don’t really know what to say to that so I just ignored her, check out Robby and went on my way. Why do people take their dogs on the cliffs or out in public if they are aggressive?? While we were cruising along I ran into one of my neighbors who works for Santa Cruz Parks and Recreation. There was a bunch of people around looking over the cliffs so I asked him if they were having a party and he said “no a funeral”, I feel really stupid and just kept on going.

Today I took Robby to Santa Rosa to get him re-certified. I have been so nervous for the last couple of days just hoping that he would pass. He has a problem with people and animals coming up to him. Most of the time they are already on him before I notice and then I feel bad telling people to leave him alone, I need to get over that and just do what I’m supposed to do. We got there a little bit early and although I was so nervous I forgot to introduce my aunt, who drove me there, it was so great to see Andrea, she was one of the trainers at team training. She met us at target and had us do a couple of commands. Sit and down he did really good at but when she dropped food he kept jumping at her, he wasn’t interested in the food at all but he was just so glad to see her. I dropped some keys on the ground and he retrieved them just like a pro. She walked over and around him and although he jumped a little bit he did really good with that one also. she watched me load him into the van, he did perfect. When we got back to CCI she had me have him jump on the counter and he did a great job with that one also, usually he will try to jump on my lap. I was thinking about it on the way home and I have them pick some stuff up off the ground that I think when he has something in his mouth he wants to put it in my lap instead of jump on the counter and hand it to somebody else, we’re going to have to work on that. She said that he did a really good job and he passed for another year but I need to work on him not leaping at people. After we got back to CCI and we were chatting with James, who trained Robby and kept him during the night while I was in the hospital, Lauren, who kept him during the day, and Meredith came to say hello... it was really great to see them all. We had dinner in Santa Rosa and came home, it was a really great day.
On the way there we talked about getting me a new van. my van has been a really good van but it is a 2000 and it is so low that every time we go over a driveway and scrapes on the bottom, so much so that the door does not close all the way anymore and it’s always a gamble whether the battery is going to be dead or not on the days that I use it. For a while I thought about just keeping this one because I really don’t use it that much, everywhere that I go in Santa Cruz I can just cruise there by myself but there are a lot of times that it would be nice to have a reliable van.

Friday we went to see La Mission. It’s playing at a really small independent theater and it was a really good movie. Benjamin Pratt is in it and when it first came out he came here to Santa Cruz to premiere of the movie and hold a question and answer session after and I really wanted to go but I had a lot of family here. Last night my nephews from Modesto, Robert and David, showed up in the evening to spend the night... what a really nice surprise. They went to a concert at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium and had a really good time. They went out to breakfast with my mom and then had to get back home.

Robby and I went to our Sunday puppy play date and Robby, as always, had so much fun. It’s only for an hour but they are exhausted by the end of the hour. I was going to cruise down along the cliffs but there was too many people so we cruised down by the boardwalk and ended up just coming home because the place was packed, it’s a good thing we didn’t drive anywhere today because I would’ve taken forever.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Melia's first birthday party weekend...






Today we went to see the movie “Just Wright” it was a really good movie, good choice Aunt Kathy. We’re going to try to go to the movies every Friday, I miss going to the movies. During the movie Robby came undone from his hook and started wandering around, not too far but I wasn’t paying attention and he ended up laying down behind me and when the movie was over I panicked a little bit because I could not see him.

On May 1st a bunch of people trashed some buildings downtown, I went down there the day after and it was really heartbreaking. Today they were replacing the Windows and Wednesday when I was there I noticed they put some statues of sea animals, I just love going downtown.


My brother Stanley and Corinne are coming down for the weekend. We are going up on Bear Creek Road for my cousins daughter’s first birthday, it’s always so beautiful up there in the mountains. the party isn’t till late in the afternoon so I’ll probably take Corinne to the Greek Festival, in his downtown this weekend.


On Saturday instead of going to the great festival the girls decided they wanted to cruise along the cliffs and go to the surfer museum at the lighthouse, that was a really good choice because it was beautiful. We got back just in time to load up and head to Melia’s birthday party up in the mountains. The weather was beautiful, the food was awesome... I ate way too much and it was really good to see everybody again, some of the people there I have not seen in a year or more.

On Sunday Corinne and Sierra, Corinne’s friend, went with Robby and I on our Sunday play date at the elementary school. I’m always amazed but grateful that there isn’t anybody on the playground and in the field so we don’t have to worry about the puppies bothering anyone, although they are adorable and who wouldn’t want to play with them?

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Human Race...




Ever since I moved to Santa Cruz I wanted to see about getting a support group together, I heard they didn’t have one. I e-mailed the guy named Roger from Dominican rehab and he said that he had one but he just got too busy to keep up so it was forgotten about, I told him that I would do anything he needed me to do to get one started again. This Friday I have a meeting with one of the therapists from Dominican rehab, Terryn, and the rehab nurse from Dominican home health, Julie, here at my house to see if we can get a bunch of people together, I am SO excited. Last Saturday was the human race in Santa Cruz. My mom dropped off my aunt and I in the morning and we found our group and started out. It was a beautiful day and it was great to see everybody. We started at the rear entrance of the natural Bridges State Park and walked along Westcliff Drive, turned around at the lighthouse and walked back and then walked home. I got a T-shirt and Robby got a bandanna and we all had a good time.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

The Eagles concert...

On Monday my uncle Ronnie, aunt Patty, cousin Eric and his wife Jill came to visit from Arizona. I have not seen them for several years and it was really great to see them. On Thursday afternoon my brother David came from Georgia and my brother Stanley came Thursday evening and his wife Janet and daughter Corinne came Friday evening. On Thursday we went to the wooden nickel in Watsonville for dinner. My uncle Dick and aunt Kathy go there once a week for lunch and EVERYTHING there is awesome, it is always a real treat to go there although it’s very small so I don’t go there a lot. On Sunday we went to my cousin Rich’s house up in the Santa Cruz Mountains and it was really beautiful. Everybody that was visiting has at one time or another lived in that house and had really fond memories so we all had a good time, almost everything had changed but everything stayed the same. The week went by really fast and by Monday everybody was gone again but we have a lot of fond memories and hopefully everybody that took pictures will forward them to me so I can put them on face book for everybody to share.

I call the DMV to find out if they could mail me a form to renew my identification card and they said my wait would be 10 minutes. After saying that about six times it change to “your wait will be longer than 10 minutes so we suggest you call back another time or come down to the office”, really??

Last Saturday I went to an Eagles concert in San Jose. I used to go every year when I lived there and I can talk one of my brothers into going, it wasn’t that hard because they love them as much as I do. Of course they put on an AWESOME show. Some new stuff as well as a bunch of classics. I went with Susan, my massage therapist, and her husband. Before the concert we went to a place called the grill for dinner, it’s inside HP Pavilion and the food was really good. I had halibut with shrimp over rice with a garlic and butter sauce. Susan had stuffed chicken and her husband, Eric, had prime rib... everything looked really good. I had never met Eric before but it was really comfortable and we all had a great time, we are all excited about doing it again next year.