Home again

Hey everyone who actually reads my blog!

I left Grenada at 730am Friday. I was up all night prior and early that morning packing my stuff and cleaning up the apt. I am happy to say that the apt was look'n pretty nice when I left. However, during the cleaning process was getting somewhat irritated and frustrated because there seemed to be so much to do and things just weren't going well. I found that one of the cats pooped in the bathroom sink, then I think my roomie's dog peed on the bath mat, so that ended up being more work, and at 1 in the morning there isn't exactly a washing machine that I could just easily go to and clean it up at. But everything got cleaned, and I think I packed everything I meant to pack. All the furry kiddies got taken care of, so I believe it all worked out in the end.

Dexter, the taxi driver, came and picked me up around 600 and took me to the airport. There were already a lot of people in line waiting to check in. Everyone looked bleary-eyed from lack of sleep whether due to late night/early morning partying, packing, or some of both. We flew from Grenada at 730 on American Airlines Flight 5077 to San Juan, Puerto Rico. I was able to switch seats from my assigned seat to the front and ended up sitting by 3 of my other classmates. The first half of our flight, all of us crashed. We tried, however uncomfortably, to snatch what little sleep we could. When the flight attendant came by with juice and Doritos though, we woke back up and couldn't sleep again so we spent the last leg of our flight gabbing about classes, complaining and ranting against the Social and Behavioral final exam (another story in and of its own), Dr. Amuleru-Marshall, recapping and comparing S&B to Biostats, raving about Dr. Keku, and what not.

We arrived at San Juan and here, most of us parted and went our separate ways. Only 2 others went with me to Miami. My flight to Miami was uneventful. I flew a new type of plane I had not flown before. Arranged with double seats on the wings and 5 seats in the center. My seat partner originally was an older man, who seeing me converse with a fellow classmate sitting 2 rows in front offered to switch seats so that we could sit together. That was really cool of him. A few minutes later, we noticed that there were two empty rows behind us so my classmate, Carrie, moved to the empty row behind me giving us both a double to ourselves. Very nice I tell you the simple things in life :) I was able to spread out a bit more comfortably and both of us zonked out before the plane even took off. Vasco, as usual, remained "calm" and quite throughout the flight. Maybe he slept, maybe he didn't. Either way, there was no way for me to tell from the silence at my feet.

At the Miami airport, Carrie and I said our farewells. I was headed to Atlanta finally. Boarded and ended up in the window seat of a triple with a middle aged lady to my left and a guy to her left. Flight was fine. I again slept most of the way. However, when the flight attendants came by with the snacks I to my great misfortune deviated from my norm request of a cranapple juice to a sprite. An hour before landing I was most regretful for this choice of beverage as my stomach and intestines began to writhe. I attempted to sleep through it, and was successful for about 20 minutes but after which nothing helped. The fact that the pilot turned on the seat belt sign and announced for the flight attendants to prepare for landing and for us passengers to remain seated didn't help since that meant I was trapped. My poor seat buddy must have been quite perturbed at my constant squirming and tightly clasped hands. Maybe she thought I'd be sick, and she had no idea. Even better was the roughest landing I have ever, and from what I overheard, the flight attendants as well ever experienced. As soon as the pilot turned off the seat belt light and after counting to 10, I headed to the rear of the plane to take care of issues. heh.

I was the first to pick up my luggage at the baggage claim in the Atlanta airport, which was cool since I was the last one off the plane. However, not having a cell phone and not thinking to arrange prior to leaving Grenada with the family about where to meet, I had to make several phone calls and travel through a bit of the airport before finally meeting up with my waiting family about 30 minutes later. They seemed happy to see me and Vasco :)

We loaded up the car with my lone suitcase that I spent 30 minutes the night before repairing (ripped corner during incoming flight) and Vasco's crate. Then we were off and headed to a Chinese buffet my dad said he had been to once when he had come to Atlanta for one reason or another. It was a nice, well stocked, almost ritzy buffet. Had both a Mongolian Bar-B-Q and sushi bar in addition to about 6-7 individual hot and cold bars. Our attendant that took care of us didn't seem to really care much about doing his job. When I found an eyelash in my soup he just kind of shrugged and took it away without so much as even an apology. Humph! But no matter, the food was good. Prob the most expensive buffet my family other than myself has ever been to. For the 4 of us the total came to $50, and all we got to drink was water! I was surprised and even kind of impressed that my dad volunteered to take us here (yeah, materialistic, superficial, shallow, etc of me, I know). But if you know anything about typical Asian families, you'd be surprised and impressed too.

So yeah, now I'm home. Met Mateo for the first time and that boy is one crazy bundle of energy. He's pretty much been spoiled by my bro, doesn’t seem potty trained in the least and pretty much does what he pleases. Boy does he need work. Faith has gained more weight since I left, mostly as a result of being neutered and not having the advantage of the helpful hormones... Hope's about the same. All in all, it's pretty crazy having 4 dogs at home. Amusing too considering we started with none, moved to one, and slowly but surely have gone from no dogs allowed to dogs everywhere.

I know I have really not been good with updating my blog so I'll attempt to keep up with it at least ever couple of days. Show some love and support and who knows, maybe I'll be so encouraged to do so more often :p now I'm sounding like my dad. pooey. heh. okay, I'm off now. latas all!

You know you're losing it when...

you start dancing for your dog and think it's the greatest thing in the world and are vastly amused by it. but hey, it was fun! :)

The end is near...

Kate had her baby yesterday! Isaac Thomas-Allen Gardenghi was born yesterday at 8:38pm, weighing in at 8lbs 8oz. For more details please see
Kate's Blog and Paul's Blog. I'll try to blog more on that when I have time... but the experience was incredible. I'm still in awe of Kate. She was so incredibly strong and brave. When I first heard Isaac cry... words cannot express... they fail to express the sensation that overcame me. I cannot imagine what it must have been like for Paul and Kate. He is so beautiful. Not at all like some of the other newborns who come forth wrinkly or discolored from the birthing experience. He was beautiful.. Perfect. I'm still grasping for words to describe those 18-19 hours in which Kate was in labor. But I will attempt to do so hopefully in the near future. While it is still fresh in my mind... though I do not believe I shall ever forget. Paul too was very strong. He thinks he did not do much, and perhaps comparatively not so much, but he was strong for Kate when she had such need for him to be so. I could tell it hurt him to see her in so much pain. But he did not desert her or wallow in helplessness. He was there, holding her hands, supporting her, whispering encouragment, breathing with her, kissing her, rubbing her in reassurance. Love cannot be more evident.

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Sadly, I myself am so bored and looking, hoping for, yet dreading distractions right now. I'm attempting to study for my last, and prob most massive final in Social and Behavioral Health. It's very slow going. I've barely made any progress. Barely started studying until today and the final's tomorrow evening. *sighs* I'm just kind of at a state where I don't want to care, but I'm afraid to completely give into that level of apathy. I'm just so mind weary. Just one more day... it will be over soon.

Doggie Beach Day

So yeah, I'm procrastinating again.. it would seem that the only time I actually update my blog is when I have something else I should be doing. heh. oh well, that's me.

So yeah, my roomie's been gone since sometime early this week. She went back to Barbados to visit family, being originally from there and all. So I'm here babysitting her kiddies (2 cats, 1 dog). Since today was a holiday (Corpus Cristi) and we didn't have classes, I had a little more free time (okay a lot of free time) and decided that Vasco was starting to look a bit chunky and could prob do with a good run. So I took him and my roomie's dog Cassie out to the beach for a nice stroll.. Well, I forgot that today being a holiday, the beach would prob be crowded.. and so it was. Lots of people. Now Cassie's not that much of a people person, though she tolerates them. but she cannot stand other dogs. She's def alpha female quality stuff. So she goes nutz at the sight of every dog, slipping her collar once even. But no big trauma, she just chased that dog into the water. So I took the kiddies to a relatively more isolated section of the beach and let them play around in the water and Vasco went a little crazy happy running around. But it was good for him. Good for them both I think. I had another ulterior motive, that being trying to work on getting rid of some stark tan lines on my back, but I doubt an hour in the sun will do much for them...

Anywho, so here's some pics of the furry kiddies we have at our place

Bella

Minchi
(Jap for: "Ground Beef")

Cassie
(don't let her calm exterior fool you, she's a trained killer! :p )

and of course...


Vasco!

run, Vasco, run!

mmm... salt water... tasty

just having some fun

Cassie and Vasco each "enjoyed" a nice bath upon thier return and some good grooming. So now they're both soft, clean, cuddly fluff balls. Let's see how long that lasts *grins*

Tooth Fairy

Hey everyone! My baby lost his first canine today! I know, I'm really pathetic now :p

Wonder what the tooth fairy'd give me for that... hmm....

Little Accomplishments

Guess what? Last night, Vasco took the spiral stairs to and from the apt all by himself! Okay, so mst dogs could prob have done it by now, but for him, it's an accomplishment. So yay! My baby's getting all grown up. He's prob grown about an inch or two since we've gotten here. So next time you see him, be sure to give him a pat on the back :)

Word's Out...

Morgan Freeman is on de Island! Now I dunno how accurate my roomie's source is, keep in mind this is just a sighting, but apparently she was driving behind him (he is said to drive way too slow lol). Word out is that he also likes to hang out at Bananna's. Now I'm not one really for spreading rumors and rumors of rumors but this seemed worthy cause for procrastinating. I know, I know, pathetic :)

okay, back to work.

Catching up is hard to do...

Okay, okay, I know I've haven't updated in a while. Things have been a bit hectic and I've been a tad swamped with group projects and individual projects and presentations... But I promise I haven't forgotten. I'll prob end up getting to it after this term's over or when I'm further procrastinating on something vitally important :p So anyway, here's a start...

Thurday, May 25 - Dodgeball

To celebrate the end of midterms, our MPH program organized a Dodgeball Tournament that took place on the basketball courts in front of the Student Center. I had heard that the first tournament, held 2 weeks ago, had been a great success so I was interested in participating. It was scheduled to begin at 9pm and I arrived about 9:30 and it was in full swing. There wasn't as large a turn out this time as last time, but it didn't take away from any of the competitive spirit among participants. It was relatively organized with some semblence of teams, ball handlers, and even a ref with a plastic whistle.

I joined right in and pleasantly surprised myself by not being half bad :) I remember in elementry school, I loved playing dodgeball in gym class but I wasn't really that great (couldn't throw, couldn't catch, etc) so I had some trepidation, but either everyone else was pretty bad or I just improved with age and lack of practice, I did a decent job. Still can't throw, but I can catch. yay! I even got picked over other guys and if you're a girl you know how it is always being among the last to get picked for a team because you're a girl and so people think you're whimpy, etc. blech. So that was cool and def a boost of the good 'ol self esteem. Hah.

Belmund, our MPH rep, had it in for me that night because I got him out several times. Several vocalizations of "Grace is an Animal!" and "You're dead, Grace! I owe you!" heh were yelled throughout the ensuing games. By the end though, an addition of "I'd go to war with you, Grace!" joined the other vocalizations. I think that was a compliment, but well, Belmund if you ever read this maybe you can clairfy with a comment :p

So that was a nice, fun, sweaty/active activity. About time.

Belmund's the dude in the red T, and blue shorts :p
(Be not fooled, there were more participants)