AUGUST ROCKS!!!!

August is starting off to be a grand month, and will continue on the same pattern. Saturday Lindsay and I got up at about 0715 and got ready for our day of farmer's marketing and family unioning. We ended up going to two FMs (Zionsville and Broad Ripple) and found everything we needed. I even took the opportunity to talk to the hog farmers that I buy my pork products from and learned a little bit about what I am putting into my body. Turns out, it's all good! WAHOOOO! We brought all of our goods over to my house to do the weekly "house swap" and we were on our way to granny's house.

We arrived on time as always, and to Lindsay's surprise almost everything was already packed up and ready to go. This is a once a year event and the family spares no luxury to make all go over well, so we headed out to the rented shelter house, fully equiped with electric and bathrooms with running water. *In a later post, I will describe my family's version of a reunion in a shelter house.* Did I mention there were vases, flowers, table cloths, a sharpie to write your name on your cup, and bowls of chex mix/M & M's??? Cause yea, there were. We spent time with family, I met some out-of-towners, hiked, and then decided it was time to bail; we had later plans for another cookout/party (where my beloved Sony Cybershot died a horrible death). I had a great time with Lindsay's family. I remember when we first started dating I was so eager to get to meet her family and see what they were all about. I've spend more time with her family that mine in the past eight months, mostly due to my family is at minimum an hour away and her's is a ten minute drive from her house. It's a great to be invited and EXPECTED at family events, now that I am part of the family too. I fit in VERY WELL with all of them and have never felt more at home. I know that this is where I belong and I love that about Lindsay and I's relationship. I love her more and more everyday. She is my life.

As for the next week and a half, I'll just be working. I made a deal with the devil to work a million hours pre-vacation, so here I am. Speaking of vacation, god..I cannot wait! I've already told Linds that she CANNOT make fun of me if I maybe get a little teary-eyed on the plane. Ya see, I get a little emotional sometimes (maybe all the time) and going on a vacation, let alone going somewhere on an airplane IS NOT something I get the chance to do very often. So....no making fun of me! I can't wait to get to Portland and be so in love!!! We'll be there from Saturday-Wednesday, so I'm sure we'll have lots to talk about. We actually don't have anything planned other than we want to explore EVERYTHING we can and take lots of pictures. Several people have asked us WHY we picked Portland. Well, it kind of just happened, really. We knew we wanted to go somewhere that has public transportation so we didn't have to rent a car. The destination also had to be gay-friendly. Lastly, we wanted to go somewhere that neither of us had ever been. So, we literally googled a map of the US, did some looking, discussing, researching and BAM!!!! Portland jumped out at us! I'll be blogging on it when we come back, so stay tuned!

As for when we come back, it's back to school for the both of us. After some financial crises, breaking a foot, surgery, changing jobs to fix the financial crisis, moving 2 times in one month, and then ANOTHER surgery...I decided enough was enough with trying to finish medic school. I completed all of the necessary classes for the program, not to mention I did it with a 3.4 GPA. Not the best, but hey...I was ecstatic about it! Anyhow, I had an internship left and I would be done. The only kicker about it, was that my instructor gave me about 3 months to do so. REALLY??? 3 months to do 400 or more hours on an ambulance, in Bloomington...all while working 5 days a week? No can do, sir. So, I cordially announced my decision to quit the program. It was just too much to be complete on time. I have 8 days off a month. Even if I worked 12 hour shifts all 8 of my days off, I would have been at least 100 hours short. So, here I am now, going back to school! I can't imagine wasting all of the time, money, and effort I have put into school and just letting it go. I decided (with a little bit of motivation from Lindsay) to go back to school, finish my associate's and then from there I can make more decisions. I know I LOOOOOOOOOOOOVE working in healthcare, so I will definitely stay here. I just have to take it one day at a time and make smart decisions about what to do! Wish me luck!