Camping Disaster

Jason and I tried to camp this past weekend at Padre Island National Seashore.  I say try because it seemed we had one disaster happen after another.  The drive down to Corpus Christi was great...no problems and we found cheap gas and finally a salsa we love.  Once we got there, it was after dark, so we couldn't see the water or any of the surroundings.  We drove into the park and tried to figure out where to set up our campsite.  At Padre Island National Seashore, you can drive on the beach up to five miles with a two-wheel drive car and lot further with a four-wheel drive vehicle.  Big mistake.  We got stuck in the soft sand.  Tried to dig ourselves out (without a shovel) with no luck.  After quite a few tries, a ranger drove up, making his usual rounds.  Thank goodness!  He pulled us out and we went straight to the actual campground.  Not gonna bother with primitive camping at this point.  So we pull into a campsite and walk around.  The sites were a little bumpy, so I walked around to another one.  I had on water shoes that were now totally filled with sand after digging the car out of the beach and my feet were burning like crazy.  Then my arm pits started itching.  I just tried to ignore it as we were setting up the tent.  Just as we were putting the final touches on the sides of the tent, Jason realized he stepped in an ant hill and was getting bit!  Hence, why my feet burned.  We found more piles of ants and just got in the tent immediately to get away from them.  It was HOT in there and of course I started sweating immediately.  I felt miserable, but I thought, "I'm just going to lay down and try to relax."  WRONG!  As soon as I laid down, my top lip swelled.  If you haven't experienced this, it's a VERY odd feeling.  I'm like, "we gotta get out of here!"  Jason wasn't feeling too hot either.  So I just drove.  I drove all the way back to Corpus Christi and thought I'd go to Walmart or something and get some sort of medication.  I wasn't really thinking clearly and ended up checking into a Motel 6 and took a shower.  By then, I had hives all over my body, mostly in spots where I sweat the most: arm pits, scalp, inner thighs, etc.  Not fun!  After that, I was worn out and just fell asleep, hearing in the background that the Heat won the NBA finals (boo).

The next morning, my hives were pretty much gone and my upper lip was just a little bit swollen.  We went a couple places and then headed back to our campsite.  We checked out the area a little better this time and decided to move our tent onto the beach.  No ants on the beach!! Yay!  Now we were sittin' in butter.  Got everything good to go and had a pretty good day.  We boogie boarded (not sure that is the correct verb) and enjoyed the beach.  We cooked a yummy dinner and walked on the beach after 11 p.m.  I've never been on the beach that late and been able to sleep right there!  We didn't walk far though b/c all the crabs come out at night and they are kinda creepy in the dark.  What if they got our toes?!  I doubt they'd do anything and they were a lot of fun to watch.  Their little legs go SO fast!  Some are teeny tiny and some are huge!

Saturday was decent except for our picnic table being under water 95% of the day.  This weekend Padre Island had the highest tide it's had in years and our tent was just spared.  The day was relaxing and just hanging out by the water, walking on the beach and more boogie boarding.  We started making dinner and it got really windy.  So windy that our tent wouldn't stay down.  At this point, we gave up.  We had planned to stay another night, but the wind was just too much and what if the tide was even higher?  I guess it was remnants of a tropical storm brewing in the gulf.  We packed up and got the heck outta there!

Sunday, we stopped in San Antonio and ate a picnic lunch right outside the zoo and I even got to stop at the Vera Bradley store.  Too hot and not enough money for shopping!  Unfortunately, there's a lot of work when you return from camping.  We are doing a little bit each day to get everything cleaned up and I hope to get organized a little better with my storage.  All in all, it was great to get away and be by the water and hey, at least we tried.

I can now say that the swelling has gone down in my left foot (one with the most ant bites) and it might not hurt to wear a shoe tomorrow.  I just have to not scratch!

Paul McCartney

I still can't believe that we saw Sir Paul McCartney in concert!!!  It was really amazing.  I'm ashamed to say that I have not been a die hard Beatles fan.  But I think I could be!  Actually, I went through a phase where I acted like they really weren't all that great.  My parents only listened to oldies music my entire life, so I got sick of it and was bitter I was missing out on all the current music of the 80s and 90s.  Now, I have come back around and I have learned to appreciate all those classic songs and groups I grew up listening too.  Too bad I'm still trying to catch up on what I missed in the later decades.  So back to Paul.  I just love the Beatles and their music and it's amazing how many hits they put out during the time they were together. 

A lot had been going on leading up to the concert, so it was kind of surreal even when we were on our way up to Detroit.  My dad found a station that was playing only his music and talking about the concert, getting us pumped up.  Here's how dumb I am, I didn't even realize that Paul McCartney had another group called Wings...I just knew it sounded like him, so I figured it was the Beatles.  We had seats in three different areas, so my sister and I sat by ourselves and Mom and Dad sat together.  I didn't mind sitting by myself b/c there was plenty to enjoy!  He came out and sang Hello Goodbye first.  Soooo good!  OK, so I'm going to say that most of the songs were so good, so here's the ones I remember him playing:
Hello Goodbye
Lady Madonna
Eleanor Rigby
Jet
Heltor Sketor
Yesterday
Hey Jude
Band on the Run
Live or Let Die
Get Back
Blackbird
Paperback Writer
Day Tripper
Imagine
Let it Be

Obviously, there were a lot more, it was a long concert and I'm sure Rachel can remember them all :).  The highlights were Band on the Run - love the tempo changes; Hey Jude - went on for a long time, whole crowd was singing the na na na's and swaying hands in the air (totally gave me goose bumps); Live or Let Die - fire bursts off the stage and fireworks behind during the big parts of it (SO EXCITING)!  It was just so neat to see him and hear him talk about different things.  He's a left handed guitarist and changed guitars about 1,000 times.  He used a ukulele that George Harrison gave him!  Oh it was just so good!  I loved it!!!  Rachel, I can't thank you enough for making this happen for our family!  It was something I won't forget and definitely in my top two concerts ever (other is Elton John).

*I'm still trying to upload pics from my phone.  Just so you know, they'll be poor quality if I can get them up here.

Back in Texas Y'all

I made it back after logging 3,000 miles.  There's a lot that I could share about my trip, so I might have more than one post on it.  Some events justify their own post!  I did end up having fun and it was good visiting people.  It was hard b/c I didn't have much time to visit as many people and places as I would have liked.  Of course I came to Ohio during their hottest week so far and it even hit 100 degrees.  My hope was that I could get a bit of relief from the 100 degree temperatures we've been experiencing in Austin since June 1st.  But no!  It wasn't too bad most of the time, but in Toledo, it was extremely humid and my parents don't have AC.  Luckily they have a pool, so I was in it quite a bit.  They have a window unit in their bedroom so one night I even slept on the floor in there.  Thank goodness for AC at most places!  Temperatures in Texas won't be going down anytime soon and we're still in extreme drought.

It was great to finally meet Rufus and hang out with my family.  Domino (Rachel's cat) seemed to like me; or at least like the fact that he had another person to hang out with.  He's a really sweet kitty.  Also, I got to meet her new chickens.  Unfortunately, I must be allergic to long haired cats maybe or something...b/c I was miserable part of the time.  Other highlights were seeing Rachel's band concert, my cousin's wedding, the Cincinnati Zoo, and....................WE GOT TO SEE PAUL MCCARTNEY IN DETROIT!!!  I still kind of don't believe that we saw him.  It was really really good.  It was a lot of driving, but it's so nice to have my car so that I can tour the state and see more people.  I'll put some pictures on here and more on Facebook probably.

Miss You

This has been quite an emotional week already.  Monday morning I learned that a dear friend from Miami passed away.  It's been hard to think of much else since then. I met Corrine my sophomore year of college and quickly became pretty close.  She was always someone I could talk to as a student, after I left Miami and when I came back as staff.  This news was so shocking, it was always her husband who was going in for another heart procedure.  Corrine always had a smile on her face and said things straight up, she was nice to my friends and family and she felt like family to me.  She's been the secretary in the Miami Men's Basketball office for the past 26 years and will be missed by so very many people.  I wish that I could be there for the services, but everything was so soon and I couldn't make it happen.  She wouldn't have wanted people to make a big fuss over her anyway.  But this week and always she'll be in my thoughts.  Love you, girl!

Happy Easter

It's about that time, for another post.  Happy Easter everybody.  Still truckin' here in Austin.  Wish I could have been with my family today.  I went to a great service this morning at Riverbend Church.  The music there is just amazing and the sermon was good too, about 1 Corintians 1.  My kitties are sitting here with me now, surprising that they are both on the same couch during the day, just napping.  Normally one is in the closet or under the bed or something.  Guess they are really starting to come around.  Bette Davis (the little one) really likes me now and always comes to me when I am home and she's become really friendly.  Daisy (the orange one) doesn't like me as much, except when the food dish is empty.  She's still nice though and lets me pet her.  I bet that eventually we will seem like a family.

This week though, there were two incidents of bad cats in the middle of the night.  Tuesday, I woke up to find a broken glass jar all over the steps that previously held sand and shells from a beach I went to...what a mess!  Wednesday, I woke up to find my flip flops with many many teeth marks in them.  Tally used to chew flip flops all the time, so I knew to put them up high where she couldn't get them every time I took them off.  These cats never seemed to go near them, so I didn't think it would be a problem.  Well, I left them out and of course the next morning they were all chewed up.  :-(  I thought my days of ruined flip flops were gone!  At least now I have an excuse to shop for new ones!


In sad news, I just read that Dr. Shriver passed away last night.  He was former President of Miami University and a wonderful guy!  I'd met him several times, I worked with his daughter for a long time at Miami and his son was our announcer, so I worked with him at all of our home events.  I feel sad for their family!  They were all really close.  He will be missed along with all his Miami history stories that he told.

Tally

I miss my kitty so much.  I had to make a VERY difficult decision to give Tally away.  I feel bad about it, but with the circumstances, I didn't feel like I had another choice.  She was having lots of accidents and not using her litter box.  After months of thought, I couldn't let her continue to make a mess of my apartment and not having another place to live, I let her go.  The first few days were extremely hard and now that it's been almost a month, I still find myself wanting to talk to her and snuggle.  It's so weird not having anyone around normally and it's especially hard now that I'm having a hard time and feeling alone as it is.  I'm still trying to clean up all her messes and it's going to take a long time.  I decided I'm not going to put my tree up this year and just concentrate on cleaning the carpets.  I did put out my nativity and a few other decorations as well as switched to my Christmas dishes.  I feel extremely guilty and miss Tally so much.  She was like my kid for so long and I just turned my back on her when I felt I didn't have anything else to do.  Guess I won't make a good mom ever if I just give my kids away.  Good thing I don't have any human kids!  I'm already looking into getting a new cat, but not until everything is cleaned up and my apartment is in better condition.  I watched a few cats over Thanksgiving, so it was nice being around some felines.  I called about volunteering at a cat shelter, but I haven't heard anything back about times to volunteer.  I thought maybe giving back to other cats would make me feel less guilty about Tally.  This is really difficult for me to talk about, but I thought maybe I should just share.  Maybe getting it out there will help me deal with it a little more.  Just trying to get through each day at this point!  I miss her so much!

Can we please be done with the funerals for awhile?

The past couple of weeks have been busy. More specifically, the last week was quite a whirlwind of shock, sadness, tiredness, love and lots of other emotions. The past three weekends, we've had football games in West Texas, so that was lots of long work days and travel. On Sunday, April 25, I was selling tickets at a game in Big Spring, TX and got a call from my mom.
1. She rarely calls me, I normally call her. 2. She knew I was working at a game at that moment. I knew she probably didn't have any good news when calling in a middle of a game. The shock was still immense. She told me that Uncle Chuck died and my heart might have skipped a beat. I didn't understand, I had just seen him a couple of months ago and he was fine. He's a really energetic guy, always busy with something and upbeat. For everything he's involved in and does, you'd never think he was 73. My parents had dinner with him and my other aunts and uncles just a week earlier and he was fine! She proceeded to tell me briefly what happened as I began crying hysterically. I had to put the phone down a couple of times to wait on customers and felt embarrassed and how I must look to the random strangers. A headache set in immediately and I finished the work day, not really remembering the details of what happened to my dad's brother.
I got the whole story on the way back to Austin and just can't believe it. A blood clot killed his intestines and then started to kill the rest of his organs and his heart was unable to compensate and he passed within about 15 hours of his initial symptoms of chills and body aches. Unbelievable.

Everything just happened so fast. I booked my flight Monday night (without second thought; it wasn't an option to not be there with my family) and was on a plane at 7:00 a.m. Tuesday. The visitation was Wednesday and Thursday, so our family was there the whole time. I know this is getting really long already, but I want to continue. Thursday was the Last Alarm ceremony with the Toledo Fire Department. It was a really nice way to pay tribute to Uncle Chuck as a retired firefighter and paramedic. Lots of retired and current firefighters were there and they all filed past the casket as one rang the bell until they all went by to pay their respects. The funeral home was packed.

Friday was the funeral, which began with bag pipes and time for everyone to pay their last respects to the body and a prayer with the family before the service began. Everyone was really emotional and touched by the music. I started to realize that this was harder than most of my grandparents' funerals b/c it was so sudden and he was healthy and not really that old. Uncle Chuck was one of my closest uncles out of all my dad's siblings and their spouses.
The funeral service was nice, a couple people read scriptures and shared some really nice memories and everyone who spoke was emotional. We sang hymns and listened to a touching sermon. After filing out of the church the bag pipes played again on the lawn and one of the tunes was Amazing Grace as they loaded the casket into the hearse. Heart-wrenching.
The final portion (excluding lunch) of the service was the processional past Fire Station #25 behind an antique fire truck. All the Toledo fire chiefs were standing outside saluting as the processional drove past. The drive concluded at the church where we enjoyed lunch and time with the extended family.
One kind of funny thing that happened was that my aunt and uncle who now live in California both thought that I was my mom. I guess it was good for me to laugh at them not knowing who I was right away rather than be highly offended that I was mistaken for someone over 60. At least they thought that I had lost weight and looked great, right? Apparently, I look just like my mom when she was my age. Yikes. Lol.
Anyway, I'm really going to miss Uncle Chuck and how he gave me a hug or two every time I saw him. Christmas is going to be really weird without him there. I feel blessed to know and be related to such a wonderful man and that he took the initiative for us becoming a closer family about 10 years ago. He touched many lives and we will always remember his stories, with the embellishments of course. My heart goes out to my aunt Bev and my dad and the other aunts and uncles who have lost two siblings in just two months.

Rachel described her grief about Uncle Chuck on her blog and it's a really good post.