Browse Category: hm…

Silly National Bird

Tuesday (07.04.06)
We spent our July 4th in the Grand Teton National Park. After an awesome brunch of fajitas and fried rice that was prepared with all our leftover perishables, we took the campsite apart, packed up the minivan, and headed south to our destination. On our way there, we made a stop at the Mud Volcano Area where we almost got gored two days prior. There was no buffalo in sight but lots of stinky mud volcanos. We took the boardwalk path up the mountain side to find several of our big brown friends getting sulphur facials. It was mighty stinky there and I couldn’t stand how itchy all my mosquito bites had gotten!
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Once we arrived in Grand Teton NP, we had some drinks at Jackson Lodge, enjoyed the view, and then headed out on a bus that took us to our “Meal Float”. For a whoppin’ $60 per person, Bang said that he’s better be sharding himself from the spectacular food and view. Well, the bus ride was extra fun since I had two “special” lemonades on an empty stomach. We rode in a vintage bus with no A/C but plenty of open windows. At the meal site, we had steak and trout with all the fixins including beans, corn, and salad. We later dunked our dirty feet into the chilly waters of the Snake River and attempted to skip rocks. How sad…everytime someone would pick up “the ultimate skipping rock”, it would go “DOONG” into the water with no skip in sight.
Then it was pontoon time. We all had to learn how to properly don a life vest from a girl whose delivery was hilarious. Once on the pontoon, we floated 10 miles along the Snake River where we saw a bald eagle, osprey, ducks, Canada geese, and elk. Speaking of the bald eagle…I just have to say that it must be the most retarded national bird ever. I learned that they can’t see very well so they don’t fish very well, often have to be scavengers to the more superior osprey, and have poor parenting skills. If the mama eagle finds food for her eaglettes, she will just drop it off and the babies have to fight for it resulting in one of them starving to death. Awesome. Anyway, it seems appropriate now that I’ve met so many horrible parents in my line of work. Perhaps the Bald Eagle is representative of American people…basically retarded.OK. Let me step off my soapbox now. Back to the river float. The trip down the river was cool and our guide was cool. We also got to see a couple beaver lodges and witness an osprey dive from a five-story-high tree into the river to catch a fish. Overall it wasn’t spectacular enough to make Bang shard himself but it was still worth it.
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The drive home was a tiring one. We stopped in Jackson to figure out our route home and we got to see a bunch of home-based fireworks along the road. We also got caught in the July 4th traffic in Idaho Falls at midnight, which was rather annoying. With minimal stops for gas and potty breaks, we made it to Sacramento Airport 9 hours early. So, Jes and I caught the 10:30 am flight and home by noon. What a great trip…but I think I’ll fly straight to Jackson Hole next time.

Check!

I went to the first part of a 3-day workshop today and discovered that my instructor was deaf. I didn’t actually realize it until she started signing while she spoke. Huh? She’s speaking perfectly with just a bit of a Virginian accent. (I only knew it was Virginian because she told us.) It just sounded a little Canadian to me. (Pronounces “mouth” more like “mooth”). Anyway, it was amazing. I guess she was born hearing (which she loved), then became hard-of-hearing (which she hated), and then completely deaf (which she’s fine with). I suppose it’s better to be one or the other. She also had an interpreter seated in the audience to act as her ears whenever we asked questions. It seemed so natural. She was an effective speaker, an entertaining teacher, and as we saw in the video clips she presented, a great therapist.
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On a side note…much of today’s lecture was going over normal development of an infant from birth to 18 months. She had an awesome handout that laid out gross motor, fine motor, oral motor, language, and cognitive development for each age group (clusters of three months). It was a very good review and now I have something to easily refer to when I have my own rugrat. I can just imagine having a crumpled version of the handout tucked in my back pocket to constantly keep track. Oh…I’m sure the therapist in me will be feeding my baby and saying, “Tongue lateralization? Check. No rotary chew yet?! Oh no! You’re behind!” How annoying is that?!

The Value of Money

I want to go to Disneyland. As a kid, I practically grew up there and also worked there after high school as many other Southern Californians did. I also remember going with my cousin and being able to survive all day (including admission) with the 20 dollar bill that my mom dropped me off with. However, for the past 12 years, I haven’t really gone much and have been limited to about 0-1 times per year. Now that the 50th Anniversary Celebration is almost over, I’ve been itching to go. The question of the week has been: “Do I get ripped off at $79 for one day or do I pay $229 for the whole year?” Hmm…that’s about three and a half visits. Then that got me thinking about all our trips to Mammoth and Tahoe. Without even a flinch, we’ll pay $70 for a lift ticket on top of perhaps a $140 roundtrip flight and all the other stuff we spend money on in one weekend. It’s funny how money is no object with one activity and then feels like a rip-off for another. I still wanna to go to Did-nee-lan.

a little perspective

OK. I just got back from lunch with Jes at Wahoo’s. We ordered the usual fish taco combo and a side salad, which came out to about 8 bucks for the two of us. I’d say this was a pretty cheap meal – that was until I went to Thailand.
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I couldn’t get over how cheap the food was there. I had breakfast that consisted of rice porridge with Chinese doughnuts and a cup of coffee for 12 bahts…uh, that’s about 30 cents. For lunch, I could have a bowl of noodles and a Coke for about 30 bahts…that would be about 75 cents. Dinner? Let’s go a little crazy…I’ll have a family-style meal consisting of fried fish, tom yum goong (spicy shrimp soup), papaya salad, rice, fried fish cakes, and a Singha beer for about 100 bahts/person…that’s $2.50. Can someone explain this to me?!

a different world

We drove up even further north to Chiang Rai to visit some of the villages and see the “Golden Triangle” where Thailand, Burma, and Laos meet. We stayed overnight in this bungalow up in the hills where the temperature dropped to about 7 degrees Celcius. There was no heat and the bungalow was one large room with 10 small mattresses lined up on the floor. We had 10 people in our group so it worked out. We stayed near a village that was made up of Chinese refugees who ran away from China. As we were shopping for some tea, I watched the children who were playing on the roadside near where their moms were selling their wares. There were a few children that caught my attention.
One little girl was using a plastic Coke bottle that was filled with water as a doll. She wrapped it up in a jacket and carried it around like a baby. There was another little boy contently playing with a piece of string tied to an empty spool as he ate his breakfast. I also watched a couple boys no older than five years old building a fort or tent out of wood and a plastic sheet. It was so interesting to watch and really gave me perspective of our different their lives are.

Is that carrot or bell pepper?

If you had to choose between your abilit y to hear and your ability to see, which would you be willing to give up? I just had a conversation about this and decided that I would prefer to lose my hearing. I think I’d be ok with not being able to hear again. I’d be fine if I couldn’t use my iPod anymore and I would certainly have a lot more patience with the screaming kids at work. I couldn’t use the phone anymore but who needs to anymore with all the text and instant messaging available? I’d be so sad and lost without my vision tghough. I’d have to put my cameras away. I wouldn’t see the expressions on the faces of my friends and family. And don’t get me started about the number of falls and bruises I’d have. My proprioception is bad enough with my sight already compensating.
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Today I got an itty-bitty taste of life without sight when I got my eyes checked. In the middle of the examination, the optometrist asked me to take out my contacts and just toss them in the trash. She said that she’d replace them with a new pair once she figured out my new prescription. Well, I thought we were almost done so I didn’t think twice about the request. Little did I know that it would take another 20-30 minutes before I could see clearly again. The office was a total blur and trying to maintain eye contact with the optometrist was giving me a headache. Since I had to go back to work that afternoon, I had to return in the evening to get my pupils dilated. Well, that was another interesting experience. My pupils were almost the size of dimes and I could sort of make out distant figures but certainly could not see close-up. So when Jes and I went to dinner right afterwards, I couldn’t read the menu, I couldn’t see my food, and everything was a little lesss enjoyable. I was so afraid of getting a super Thai chili surprise in my mouth since I couldn’t really tell what was on my plate or spoon. So there you have it…my hunch was confirmed. I would lose my hearing any day. By the way, I’m typing with compromised vision at the moment so forgive me if there are typos.