Even if you don't have the ridiculous Journey obsession I do, this is awesome! I swear there will be a movie about it someday...

The 21st.

Anna's Big Birthday is tomorrow. As I combed my mind for how to celebrate, my thoughts turned to how we would celebrate a wordly 21st. After seeing the following post on the "student affairs" website for Virginia Tech, I began to see what I'm missing for marrying the worthy gal I did:

The Risks:
One-third of women experienced a blackout during their 21st birthday celebration. To avoid blackouts avoid drinking quickly.
26% of women vomited. To avoid vomiting altogether consume fewer than 6 drinks.
30% of women had an estimated blood alcohol level = .28, putting them at risk for serious complications from alcohol poisoning.
To join most students who avoid these risks, take it slow, pace yourself, and take some steps to moderate consumption.
from: http://www.alcohol.vt.edu/21stbirthday/vtdrinkingfacts.html

Anna, the grass is always greener with you...Happy Birthday!! We better raise our blood chocolate milk level to at least .28 tomorrow!

One of the funnest parts of my job is seeing the cute, faithful spouses of my elderly patients. They're always so excited to ask how long I've been married so they can tell me about their 50, 60, 70 years together. Adorable--I can't wait to get to that point. So today there was another one of those moments...sort of. We got a call from the lobby from a husband of one of our patients (wearing suspenders, thick glasses, and carrying a cane) asking if he could come back to see his wife. But our ICU gets kind of confusing because we have three units all with the same numbering. So he, with very poor eye-sight, just asked to be guided toward bed 8. He found it, rushed in, and planted a kiss on the face of the patient lying there, only to find that it was not his wife! Rather, it was a young man! He was absolutely mortified, but I felt even worse for the young man...come in to get your pneumonia taken care of, and next thing you know, strange men are coming in to your room to kiss you! Luckily, everyone involved had very good senses of humor, so we could laugh about it.

Salt Lake

So Spencer and I just got back from a fabulous family reunion in Utah. I hope you all know I adore Tucson. Nothing beats the incredible lightning/thunder monsoons, the enormous rainbows, the desert smell, or the relaxed feeling that perpetually hangs over the city (since more than half of its population is retired) . But Salt Lake still strikes the "home" part of me because
-the mountains are so sudden and close they could almost fall on you

-the freshly cut lawns and flowers full of petunias or whatever make the whole city smell like a greenhouse
-the city is full of dogs, not cats...sorry Sally!
-December or July, you can always see snow somewhere
-it has a usable freeway!
-along with the greenhouse smell, there is always the BBQ smell in the evenings
-the tinkertoy downtown

-white streetlights (it sounds like a little thing, but they only allow yellow ones here in Tucson because of the nearby Telescope, so it always looks like the setup for a scary movie in the dim light...)
-brick or wooden houses with slanted roofs, ivy growing up the sides, a lawn in front, and a porch swing
-car radios blast country more frequently than Spanish rap
-there are actual creeks and canals, rather than creek and canal beds
-I walked to the gas station by my house for candy everyday of the summer until I was nine
-Saturday mornings you wake up to the sound of lawn-mowers
-Quaking Aspens
-the sound of crickets at night
-the view from Wasatch Boulevard
-and...not that I'm complaining, but getting above 105 is unusual up there!
Anyway, who knows where we'll end up--Tucson, Boston, Portland, or maybe Jamaica. But in addition to wherever I'm living, I'll alway call Salt Lake home...

Independence Day

Anna and I have become loners again. But we are alone together and life has never been better. After coming home from Utah I took off to Thatcher for a few days while Anna stayed to work in Tucson. After our time apart we realized how much we missed making fun of each other and have been in heaven ever since our reunion! We had a fun summer day yesterday. We woke up late, read books all day, ate watermelon and otter pops, watched the monsoon storms, strolled around the upscale "La Encantada" mall in the foothills in the evening, and watched the lighting roll across the valley. The monsoon season rocks!! We came home and I crashed as Anna stayed up till at least one a.m. finishing "The Kiterunner." Anna said she is glad to have read it, though wasn't always glad to be reading it. I felt the same. We woke up this great 4th of July at 4:44 am to go mountain biking at fantasy island. Last night's storm left the trail wet and we hopped off our bikes at the end caked in dirt! It was a ton of fun. We got home by 7:30 and had Orange Julius and are now preparing for fireworks (see pictures). Happy fourth everyone!

THE Dairy Queen

I love those moments in life that could fit perfectly into a disney animated movie. On Saturday afternoon we were finishing up 16 hours of cub scout camp over two days, in 100 degree weather, when we decided to take the cubbies out to DQ. Let me back track a little to set up the scene...
Anna had a busy week. She worked Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Three 12 hour shifts in the ICU with patients calling to attend to their every need, even if it meant re-arranging the pillow. But it's usually not that bad. Most of the time it involves cleaning up vomit or poop. And after her day, which involves nothing more than one 30 minute break when she must cram in lunch and all personal needs (and she still calls her husband), she then has the half-an-hour drive home in Tucson traffic. For all future visitors to Tucson, beware, this is traffic inferno. In fact, I think Dante received inspiration for his Inferno while having a vision of the future traffic in Tucson, or so the rumor goes. Anyway, Anna slept heartily Monday night and woke up at 6 Tuesday to head off to young women's camp for the next three days. She was THE leader on duty, in charge of everything and everyone in the ward. The three-day stint ended with an overnight hike out on the mountain with a furious, cold wind knocking down the girls' tents. Then she was whisked home only to jump into cub camp on Friday and Saturday. Oh, and in between this, she took a midterm for her online English course. Somethings are inherently exciting in life. Online English courses are not. So this brings us back to the story's climax of my own Dairy Queen...
With windows rolled down and the sun following suit, we headed West down Prince Road (ironic) to Dairy Queen. Unsure of its exact location, we kept a lookout. But with the week in the sun, we were simply lethargic. Kind of like when the Utes battle against Bronco's Sons of Helaman. So as we and the cubs were melting away in our four-door, pontiac grand-am, our vigilant Queen spotted DQ on the left-side of the road. With more energy than a firecracker, Anna shot out her arm and yelled out like our very own Mowgli in Jungle Book would do, "Dairy Queen!!! There it is!!!." And that, ladies and gentleman, was my golden moment in the setting sun. There to my right was my sweating Dairy Queen, who has worked harder in the last week than I ever have in my life. After pulling out the drive-thru, you can guess, we lived happily ever after...
...until our ice cream ran out.

DITCH!

We woke up Monday to a gorgeous day, definitely too gorgeous to be cooped up in a classroom. So, as we said in high-school, we SLUFFED! We packed a picnic and stole up to Mount Lemon. We spent most the time driving with the windows down, enjoying the cooler air, but we also played in the creek, walked a "tight-rope", climbed a tree, and hiked around a little bit. The only downside was that we had to come back!