Thursday, February 23, 2012

Tom Cat

why hello there. it's almost been a month since my last post...in fact, it's been exactly a month since my dad visited. how does time go by so fast?
anywho, some new updates on our lives here in the rose city:
i don't know if any of you remember me taking a poll on whether or not i should adopt a cat from the portland humane society bc it would only cost $12 (everything included: neutering, shots, free vet visit and a microchip) but once i talked with jarrod, it was obvious that wasn't going to happen no matter how much i wanted it to, so we passed up those cats. (i'm still slightly sad about that...haha) the topic came up at work though, bc of my facebook status and wouldn't you know it, one of the managers (monica) had a cat that she was looking to give away for free and with an automatic litter box. i texted jarrod that night (bc i was at work with monica) and he said he wouldn't mind that since we were getting him from someone we knew and they know his personality so he was less likely to be psycho (was that the truth? i'm still unsure....) so 2 weeks ago, i brought Thomas (Tom) home and boy was iris happy! yeah.


the first day we got him, he just hid under the bed all night and the next day he finally got up the courage to come out and explore. when i got home from work on the 9th, tom was hiding under the couch. i left him alone and sat down on the couch to watch tv. while watching tv, tom came out, crying and he came right up to me to be pet. he was rubbing up on my hand when out of no where, he bit the hell out of it (excuse my language, but it's true). i think the reason was bc he had just the previous week been neutered and i was rubbing near his tail and he probably still wasn't very comfortable with people touching back there. anywho, he bit me so hard i was in shock for probably a good 5 minutes before i could actually move. the blood seeped out of my hand so quickly i'm surprised it didn't drop on the floor. i managed to grab a tissue to apply pressure while staring at tom in shock. finally i went upstairs to wash the bite out. actually looking at it made me dizzy- he bit so deep! once i was done washing it, i applied gauze and texted jarrod telling him tom had bit me and my hand was hurting really bad and wondering when he would get home bc there was no way i'd be able to drive myself to the er (bc yes, i was considering that at the time). jarrod got home probably an hour and a half later but i decided i could make it through the night without going to the er. we both decided if the bite looked worse the next day we'd go to urgent care. i woke up friday morning and yep, the bite was worse so we headed to urgent care. the bite was infected and swollen and there was a line of infection in my veins up to my elbow the docs didn't seem too worried, but told me that if i started running a fever or the bite looked worse by saturday that i would definitely need to go to the er and be put on iv meds. they gave me a tetanus shot and x-rayed my hand to make sure there were not tooth fragments left and then i was on my way. i got put on doxycycline antibiotics to help fight the infection- i'll get to the complications of those awesome meds in a bit.
pics of my hand!:




so you would probably think that i would have given up tom after that, but i played his craziness off to stress and kept him...and yes, we still have him. he's gotten much better; likes to lie down on my chest all of the time. i'm still terrified of being bitten though, so i'm very careful around him though i probably don't need to be anymore. i would like to never go through this again though. haha. but you know what's funny? this is probably the worst thing, medically speaking, that has ever happened to me and it took 22 years- that's pretty good! so i'm thankful for that and grateful that it wasn't something worse. :) i'm one lucky person! hahah.
i'll tell you a little bit more about tom and iris before i get to my meds... tom likes to follow iris around and it really aggravates her. she chases him off all the time and still he comes back. he's definitely not the brightest crayon in the box. i think it's hilarious that iris always wins the stand offs though, bc tom is quite a large cat. she doesn't care- she's one tough kitty!!! they still don't really get along, but as long as they're not too close to each other, they stay calm and composed. haha.
alright so onto my medication: a warning to those who may take doxycycline in the future: always take it with food, even though it says not to AND most importantly DO NOT lie down until at least 30 minutes after taking it. sunday night i was falling asleep when i realized i hadn't taken my second dose of my meds for the day, so i took it then went right to sleep again. 2 hours later i woke up with chest pain and the feeling of of a pill stuck in my throat. nothing helped make the feeling go away- i drank lots of water, ate some bread, drank some tea. eventually the chest pain went away and if i didn't swallow, nothing felt wrong, so i was able to fall asleep for another few hours....4 hours of sleep total that night then right to working at the theater at 9am on senior monday/presidents day. terrible. anyway, once i woke up i could still feel the pill in my throat so i called urgent care to see what i should do. i was told to come in after work, so i did and they did nothing for me. they had no equipment to look down my throat or anything, so i left, still having to take the meds. ugh. i was told to go to the er bc they would have the equipment i need. i decided to pass that up bc i was feeling much better since sunday night so i figured it would go away on its own. whelp, i'm still stuck with a pain in my chest when i eat and it's radiating to my back...but i finish the meds tomorrow (thank god) so hopefully everything will clear up in a few days. i really don't want to go to the er or a doctor so let's hope this is gone by next friday, yes?
alright...that's about the most exciting thing that's happened in a while. OH except i have another job (only part-time. the island won't give me up yet and i really hate that...)- i work at a public accounts office doing general office duties. today was my second day. it was pretty cool. i wish i had gotten the full time position (that's what i originally applied for. in the end, it came down to me and another girl and she had more experience, so she got it, BUT he was so impressed with me that he wanted to help me out by getting me some office experience! so that's pretty awesome!!!! :D)
so there you go....all caught up.
only about 2 weeks till JENNY BATES gets her booty out here so we can have the time of our lives! :D
oh, i'm coming home may 30-june 6th, in case you still hadn't heard. i am WAY EXCITED!!!!!! :D haha
that is all.
-sarah-
oh! more tom pics:




he is pretty cute, even if he killed my  hand.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

the new year

my first post of the new year and it's on the first day of february...i guess you could say i'm running a bit behind. yeah. haha. let's do a quick catch up since my last post:
december 19-22 quenton pegues (piggies) was here and we had an amazing time together. :) we did the usual tourist stuff- downtown, voodoo donuts, hawethorne, grilled cheese grill, rocky butte, powell's, saturday market, etc. by the end of the trip, pegues finally understood why we moved to portland and why we love it here. idk why people don't understand how great of a city we live in, apparently a lot of our friends don't think there is anything here worth the risk, but we'll show them...we will show them all! haha.
december 23-25 jarrod flew out to meet his family in new mexico and i worked my booty off. i had the 23rd off and then closed christmas eve and pulled a double christmas day. after getting home from work around 1am christmas night (or early the 26th), jarrod and i opened our christmas presents and stockings together and then it was off to bed. the next few weeks we worked a lot. new years eve we both had off though, but we just stayed home and watched how i met your mother until midnight. the next day i worked another double. the next few weeks were pretty much the same: just work.
until: january 15th when we got a group of friends together to head to cannon beach. our adventure was taken elsewhere, however, bc it had started snowing and the roads were getting icy so our back up plan was to go to washington park and walk around for a bit.




 after a bit of hiking we headed to the falls...




and that was the end of our adventure for that day. we are going to attempt another beach day soon, just don't know when yet.
the next exciting thing to happen was me getting the most amazing tattoo known to man, which happened on the 17th:
yes, it hurt pretty freaking bad, but it looks so awesome now! was it worth the pain? undoubtedly!
then it was back to the usual until this last thursday when my dad came to visit. :) i picked him up from the airport after work and then we went straight to dinner and my favorite place: the grilled cheese grill! haha. and wouldn't you know it, right down the street was Tonalli's Donuts and Cream, so guess what we had for dessert? haha.
death by chocolate on top, cake batter on bottom. yum, yum, yum!

green tea and pistachio
after our lovely evening out, we came back to the house and just hung out. it was a laid back evening, but still amazing nonetheless.
friday we got a late start- didn't leave the house until after noon. our first stop was rocky butte, one of my favorite spots in this city.








by the time we were done marveling at the beauty around us, we were starving so we took jarrod's suggestion to heart and headed to Slappy Cakes (http://www.slappycakes.com/) and had the best breakfast anyone could ask for!
jarrod's chorizo, white chocolate chip and butterscotch chip pancake in the upper left, his white chocolate chip and butterscotch chip pancake in the upper right. daddy and i had bananas in our pancakes.






after eating a large breakfast, we realized it was time to walk it off. we headed downtown- powell's was our first stop. we were there for probably an hour and a half, but daddy was so overwhelmed, he didn't end up buying anything, so we left and headed to voodoo donuts.



and then it was time to walk off the donuts, so we went walking down the waterfront and over the hawethorne bridge.






after our walk across the bridge, it was almost time for jarrod to go to work, so we headed back to the car, but on the way there, we still got some nice pictures:



we headed home so jarrod could go to work. daddy and i then turned around and went back downtown to see Demetri Martin. HILARIOUS!!! and we both had such a good time. :) when the show was over, it was time for dinner, so i took daddy to the best fast food place around: burgerville. haha. what a delicious dinner!!! then it was back home to watch more demetri martin on netflix and then to bed we went.
saturday: BEACH DAY!!! we got to cannon beach around 1:30 and had lunch then we walked around the shops for a bit until we wandered upon the beach.



















what a BEAUTIFUL day! it was absolutely gorgeous out there! i love cannon beach. anywho, we headed home around 5:30. once home, we ordered pizza hut and watched more demetri martin. haha
on sunday, it was raining but my original plan was to go to the falls, and so that is exactly what daddy and i did. my pics haven't loaded yet, so onwards! the rest of the day we stayed home and watched movies all day. a great day, indeed.
on monday i went back to work and daddy stayed home with jarrod. i heard they watched Louie all day. haha. once i got home, i took daddy down hawethorne and we stopped the red light exchange. daddy bought a button up shirt there, which wasn't too wild! haha. after that we headed to the Bagdad Theater (http://www.mcmenamins.com/219-bagdad-theater-pub-home) to eat some cajun tots and watch Drive. that was also a great time. ;) after the movie, we headed home and watched more demetri martin until we were so tired our eyes could barely stay open. haha. 
tuesday: i dropped daddy off at the airport. :( and now he's back in texas. sad days.
so....now we're caught up. :) haha
that is all.
-sarah-