Happy Halloween

I had written a whole long post, but somehow accidently deleted it. Sigh. We went to a Halloween Party last night. P was... Death or a Scary guy and I was a Pirate. Our friends made all this lovely food and it was a very nice time. Halloween has always been pretty much, hands down, my favorite holiday.

We're back

Picture 1: Berkshires in Mass
Picture 2: Quechee Gorge in Vermont
Picture 3: Hiking down to Bash Bish Falls
Picture 4: Buildings on MIT Campus
The vacation passed way, way too quickly. Yesterday we drove back from Niagara Falls. They sure are awesome. I've included a few pictures of my trip. Thankfully I'm off today to recover and I am going to hit the gym, grocery store, and of course, do laundry.

Day 6 of Vacation

I am back taking a little break after a full morning of walking around Boston. P has a dinner at MIT and I am going down to meet him at 5:15 or so and attend with him. I am so so proud of him. It's hard to say in words, but I get teared up just thinking about it.

I explored a bunch of places today. Among them, I made it over to Harvard. Wow. Words can't even justify how impressive the school is as a physical place. I disembarked from the Subway and crossed the street, which immediately put me right in the middle of Harvard Yard which was inexpressively beautiful and historic. My jaw dropped open at how impressive it was. I walked around for a bit and took some shots. It's leafy and green, manicured, and stately. Just like you imagine it to be or have seen in movies, it is exactly like that. I have been fortunate to see a lot of things in my life, and Harvard really, really impressed me. Perhaps I wasn't planning on being that impressed. I plan on going back tomorrow morning. If Harvard is posh and perfect, MIT is more like the shed in Grandpa's back yard. It's scattered about on one end of Cambridge and very uniquely styled. It reminds of the 1980's computers for some crazy, odd reason.

Since I've been in Boston the one thing I notice above all other things is the number of policeman and police cars. They are at every corner, pulling people over constantly, directing traffic at every intersection, supervising every construction project, and eating in every restaurant. I see Boston police, Cambridge police, MIT police, Harvard Police, and Traffic Enforcement Police. Is Boston a police state or what????

Day 4 of Vacation

This time is going by very quickly. I am up early (always) and P is sleeping. We are at a B & B in the Adironacks in Upstate NY. Absolutely beautiful region with outstanding fall foilage. We spent the night before last in Sackets Harbor New York, and before that in Toronto, which I had never been to, but loved.

You see some crazy stuff when you are on vacation. Crazy additons to double wides, weird houses, usual assortment of homeless people. Yesterday, in Star Lake, NY we saw a Suburban made into a hearse (not very well I might add) parked outside a little funeral home complete with curtains in the rear windows. In Toronto we saw tons of crazy stuff. A strange looking man walking around the city with just one beat up golf club. Just one. Also in Toronto - we went into this highly rated authentic restaurant in Chinatown. It was crowded and we got the last table. At this point, I will also add that we were the only Caucasians aka non chinese in the restaurant. Well, we sat and sat and finally they brought us tea and menus. Then, the ran around taking care of the other patrons, and even the couple sitting a foot from us. But for us - nothing. Not a look, not a nod. 30 minutes at least went by. I drank my tea. Finally I said to P - we're leaving. We got up and I made a beeline for the door (leaving P to deal! - yes, this was planned :) and the waiter wanted to 'take our order'. Well - were the hell were you for the last 30 minutes? P said that we couldn't get anyone to take our order and we were leaving. He had to repeat this several times. It's funny that when we went to leave and perhaps not pay our bill? that we suddenly got their attention. I hope they did plan on making us pay for the tea, either. However, I can't help but wonder that we comitted some major faus pas in the Chinese community - perhaps we were supposed to wave them down when we wanted to order? We tried! Oh well, it won't be the last time I walked out of a restaurant and it wasn't the first. Oddly enough, the last time was for the same issue in a Chinese restaurant of all places.


Well - onward to Boston today. The 5 plus hours of driving each day aren't too bad when you stop and also when you have satellite radio and great books on tape to be honest.

Fall is here

Well after the 90 degree weather we had, it finally turned cold in which it seems like overnight, and the sandals got put away for the winter. Finding socks and shoes in the mornings takes a bit more attention than sliding on sandals.

Tomorrow we start off on our big trip. We are driving out to Boston since P has an OPen House at MIT. I really haven't taken many big road trips in my life. Thus we are going to go through Toronto, 1000 islands, Adironaks, Berkshires and Niagara Falls. I am going to take the laptop since most places we stay have wireless and it is nice to check the weather and restaurants and such.

Send us good wishes for a safe trip and healthy digestive systems and I'll keep you posted.

rest of post

I have to be honest. I haven't blogged in a while because I all ever do is complain on this blog. In addition, I have felt so poorly I don't have the energy or the inclination. I had a follow up apt at my GI doc on Wednesday. He was pretty useless and said since my stomach issues had improved so much on my wheat free diet, I didn't have to come back for six months. Whatever. I had resigned the fact that i was going to have to go to Mayo clinic or something else to get some answers and some help. Well, my iron tests came back so low and my hemoglobin dropped to 10 even with the iron supplements and the deceased diarrhea that the crap (pun intended) finally hit the fan and he called me urgently. The new "plan" is to do both the upper and lower GI scope on the same day. I just had a lower last November and have had three uppers! Can't they do the CT Scan of my pancreas first? I can't believe it. He also mentioned my pancreas again where I have to eat like 100 g of fat for three days and then collect all my stool. I don't think I have celiac at all. I don't know what they are looking for, I really don't. I started worrying about cancer and all sorts of things today.

All I know is that I am taking a cross country trip in one week and I feel like hell again. I am nauseous, no desire to eat, and so weak I can't go to the gym anymore or today even get off the couch for the most part. Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers that this is sorted out soon. I can't believe it is still going on and what an impact it is having on my day to day life. I am pretty down about it too because I am high energy. I like to be active, and I like to eat, both of which I cannot enjoy anymore. We were at a wedding tonight and I got sick and had to come home. I am really nauseous and I felt like vomiting. The frustration, anxiety, worry, and fear are really mounting. I'm really scared, to be honest. I want my life back.

the braces pic as promised....