First, my great grandma was doing amazing…she got out of hospice (who gets out of hospice?) and was taken to a recovery center where they said in three weeks she would be good enough to go back to her apartment. By the third day she stood and brushed her teeth. The next day during breakfast she had a heart attack and unfortunately she is back in hospice. Sunday when I visited her she had suffered three additional heart attacks and was coherent, but at times very confused. It has been a very emotional roller coaster. I thank everyone for their support and kind words.

Second, my grandma Rose this Monday went to Mayo, surgery for cancer. As of yesterday she was doing well and was in recovery.

Third, my stupid cat ran away last night. I apparently didn’t hear her sneak out when I let Evie out. I don’t know how I missed that, she has fucking bells on her collar. So, my wonderful boyfriend searched this morning and afternoon for her. And that’s why someday I might marry him in London

Fourth, I got yelled at today by an arrogant, jackass. Who belittled me and interrupted me.

And some good news:

This weekend is the Deb-turns-fifty-Chicago-Celebration! I need some time away. We are going to see Wicked, do the tourist-y thing and shopping! Can I get a Hallelujah! This girl needs some series shopping right now.

The Olympics were fantastic and I watched so many things. And I’ll watch anything…like I know nothing about diving, but I’ll yell “Oh, bad splash”…”He didn’t go in vertical”, what the fuck.

Tropic Thunder, good, Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Cruise (yes, Tom Cruise) were fantastic.

– Bahri Tanrikulu (TUR)

Back on the road, drove through a lot of country towns and got to Morton (Jackpot Junction, reception site) at 1:40. We quickly unpacked/got ready and headed to Morgan for the 3pm wedding. The wedding was very nice, Derek, Jeff and Nathan were groomsmen. Afterwards we hit The Ditch (liquor store outside of Jackpot Juction) for some pre-reception drinks…not a good idea. Led to some very awful dancing from yours truly. Then we headed to the reception for the cocktail hour, free drinks until 6. Of course we took advantage of this. I was pretty much hammered by the time dinner is served and then came some cigar smoking and dancing. At some point I royally fucked up my knee, but it was worth it. And after two hours of wearing his new shoes, Nick developed awful blisters. Around midnight I passed out, Nick partied some more.

Next morning had a pretty good breakfast at the Casino’s restaurant, headed back on the road for 2 hours to Minneapolis. Last time I stayed in Minneapolis I was 12(?). I was looking forward to really experiencing it this time. Well, the plan was to go to the art festival, dinner and the bars but by the time we got to our awesome hotel (with awesome view) I crashed for three hours. We never made to the art festival instead we did pre-dinner drinking and walked to dinner (Nick had to trade shoes with everyone because of the blister issue) We ate dinner at yummy Japanese/Sushi joint called Nami (which oddly enough doesn’t allow guns?!). I ordered Chicken Teriyaki and Tempura. However, my “chicken” tempura actually was shrimp and I didn’t realize until I took my first bite (less than 1/4″ big) I remember trying to understand in my mind why my chicken had a tail…then sheer panic…I’m allergic to shellfish. I’ve never had a piece of shrimp before so I didn’t know what my reaction would be. With regular fish I just get very stomach sick and that is apparently what happens with shellfish also. So after dinner we headed to Drink, which is way cooler here than in Des Moines. I immediately vomited my dinner, had a shot and danced the whole night with a bum knee, sick stomach and dizzy head. It was awesome, I had a great time. So, again I passed out around midnight and around 2:30 I couldn’t find Nick. Eventually he got back to the hotel room and could not speak and got sick until 3:15.

Sunday, around 8:00 I headed down the street for some Starbucks before we headed back to Des Moines…however the Starbucks was closed! So, Minneapolis is a “small-big” city and I love it. The traffic was quiet on Sunday, just perfect size. Headed back to Des Moines and got into town around 2pm. What a great little weekend.

My Pictures
Derek’s Wedding Pictures
Derek’s Minneapolis Pictures

Wednesday - 7/30
Grandma had surgery today (postpone from yesterday), everything went well. She’s in ICU, so no visitors…going up tomorrow.

Sunday - 8/3
On Friday Grandma started taking a turn for the worse, all her organs started shutting down that night they put her in hospice.

Friday - 8/15
Grandma has gradually been getting better! In fact, she is now out of hospice and in a rehabilitation center and she has three goals and if she gets those done she can move back to her apartment. They are thinking around three weeks. Holy Moly! What a roller coaster ride of emotions this has been. She is an amazing woman and so strong.

We got into town around 4pm, my parents left an hour before us and got there two hours after us due to their car over-heating (this week mom bought a new car!) We stayed at the Blue Door Cottages, which were super cute, the entire family rented three, one large, one medium and one small. We stayed in the small cottage, which had a king-size bed alcove that my parents took and a queen-size bedroom that nick and i stayed in. It also had a bathroom, kitchen and living room. We were right by the fire pit and near the pool.

Pretty relaxing time, we hung out, played games, swam, played cards and Nick and I saw Dark Knight at the Drive-In, which was fun. Love Drive-Ins! We had a great time and it was wonderful seeing everyone.

One small traumatic story, I was shucking corn, being a good little Iowan and I see a brownish/whiteish spot on the corn. A little odd, so I ask mom if we should keep it, she says “yeah” I look closer and a bunch of larvae are crawling all over the corn and on my hand now! Yuk. I fling the corn and dramatically run my hand all over the benches. That was the last corn I shucked.

P.S. a lot of Indiana looks like Iowa.

Pictures!

Pictures

–George W. Bush

One: The public smoking ban started, which is so liberating to me. I can finally walk into a bar without getting a headache and my sinuses acting up. I know this is controversial subject and half of my family is affected by this, but I can’t help it, I LOVE it. In fact if I don’t have to work this weekend (yes, I might actually have to work) I’m heading to the bars. WhooHoo!

Two: July 1st marked six months that I’ve been doing my Daily Photo Project. I am so glad I took on this challenge. I will have a documentation of everyday of my life for a year, how cool. The one thing I learned very quickly was to not upload your picture everyday, it became very annoying, very fast. Instead I wait usually until Sunday and do a week’s worth and that seems to be working out. I think everyone should do this, it is a lot of fun, well, I think it is fun.

Some favorites:
Caucus Night
Random Envelope at Work
West End Salvage
Puck U
Grandma’s Door
Daisies at work
Walk Now for Autism

Tim turned 50 on June 10th, we celebrated with a low-key grill out at mom’s, friends/family. It was a chill, relaxed time.

Dad turned 50 on June 28th, we celebrated at his place with a grill out, friends/family and some beer…it got funny.

Next 50, Deb in August and we are heading to Chicago for that one. Can’t wait!

Pictures!