I'm back, and have I got some drama for you!!!
As always, my life and the lives of those close to me never cease to be exciting. Let's start with Tuesday, May 24th, shall we?
Tuesday, May 24th
When I got to my car in the garage, it wouldn't start. Not a great start to vacation, but things worked out. It's fine, but I did have to be picked up by my dad at the dealership after riding with the tow truck guy. All in the past, though...
Stayed up until midnight packing and such.
Wednesday, May 25th
Woke up a little after 4am to finish packing, was picked up ~6am to drive to airport, boarded plane at 8:30am, arrived Denver, CO ~11:30 am Mountain Time (MT) on a separate flight from my parents and the other couple traveling with us. Went through some amusing drama as the girls (Ms Jan, my Mom, and I) waited at the loop (where only shuttle buses and taxis were allowed) for my Dad and Mr. Alan to come pick us up in the rental van. For a few minutes we thought there was a slim chance they'd sneak into that loop to get us. My Mom did a hilarious impression of a possible conversation between the two men (Alan: Uh, Jimmy, I don't think we can get in there. Jim (Dad): Where's your sense of adventure, Alan? Alan: I don't know, Jimmy... and so on...). We ended up going down a floor, and they pulled up in the rental van moments after we arrived at the other loop.
We drove about half-way to Colorado Springs and stopped at Castlewood Canyon State Park. Decided on an ~2 hours trail to hike. Mr. Alan was in top form (humor-wise) with genuinely sincere (to drive his intent home) comments like "Wow! This is like we're out west!" and "This makes me think of ponderosa." These comments were answered by my mom and dad respectively with "That's because we are out west, Alan." and "These are ponderosa [trees]." Mr. Alan got sunburn that day on his face and head (thanks to a bit of receding hair, etc.) and I was forced to lend him my aloe gel for the next few days.
Met up with Tim when we reached C-Springs and walked next door to the Old Chicago restaurant from the hotel for dinner. Afterward, there was some confusion about when the season finale of Lost would air, and after turning the tv on to see an ad announcing 8/7c (remember we're in MT), Tim said he thought it was be on at 8. So, Mr. Alan, Ms Jan, Tim and I left Mom and Dad back at the hotel to run to the grocery store for some water and fruit. We returned at 7:40 to find out, to my persona horror, that Lost came on at 7. Mom filled me in during commercial but I vowed to watch the tape when we got home anyway.
Lost ended. Bed time.
Thursday, May 26th
We parted ways with Ms Jan and Mr. Alan the next day. They took the rental van to Rocky Mountain State park (a good 8 hour trip with stops various places in the park) while the Bauer clan went to the Eisenhower golf course in the morning. Tim got a cart for my mom and I to get around (since I'm the unofficial caddy of the group, I drive and keep score, wash balls and clean clubs, rake sand and put away clubs, etc., etc.) as he and Dad walked the course. It was a memorable experience. First, if you were hitting/putting toward the mountains, the ball would stop sooo much shorter. If putting away, it would roll on and on. This proved frustrating to Mom and Dad on several occasions. Second, my poor mother was playing with men's clubs, which were definitely too long for her 5'4 3/4" self. So, she got silly instead. By the last few holes, she was singing showtunes as we rode on the cart. It was so cold and windy that day that I literally took my shoes and socks off and ran my white-from-the-chill toes under hot water in the ladies room after the first nine holes. It was a fun day, though.
We finished up, ate lunch, and thanks to my brilliance, decided to go see Star Wars that night and get ice cream afterward from ColdStone (not quite as good as Maggie Moos but definitely close) Creamery. Good night, but I couldn't help but remember some of smor 's comments about dialog. It certainly made it amusing. ;)
Somewhere along the way I'd missed three phone calls/voicemails. When we got back to the hotel, we discovered messages on the room phone and on my cell from my aunt, uncle, and parents' next door neighbor. The story goes something like this: Said aunt/uncle dropped my grandfather off at home (my parents' house) at 2pm that day so he could pack for the trip to CO. My other uncle was going to be over a few hours later to pick him up, but in the meantime the 17 or 18 year old boy from next door was watching the house and dog. He was currently cutting someone's lawn (roughly the 2-2:30 time frame). Instead of packing like he was supposed to, my grandfather decided to walk the dog. (Note: My parents have repeatedly told him he's not allowed to do this. He's fallen in the past, as she gets a little excited by all the animals that run through and around the woods and she'll pull. To his slight credit, the guy has vascular dementia.) Well, what do you know but a squirrel or rabbit runs out as soon as he reaches the asphalt of the court they live on, and Molly pulls, and Granddad goes down....and right smack into a curb. Enter Ryan, the boy watching the dog/house. He finds my grandfather a minute or two after the fall. Blood's everywhere, Granddad's face is swelling, and Ryan has to help him into the house. He calls his mother, who is a nurse at John Hopkin's downtown. She tells him he should definitely call 911. So Ryan does so, and he also gets together all of my grandfather's medications and such. They paramedics arrive and take him to St. Joe's Hospital. He's there briefly before they move him to University of MD hospital because they have a special ward that deals with facial...stuff... My aunt and uncle, who'd been called by Ryan, eventually make it to where they've moved my granddad. His face is now swollen to about four times normal size and he's lost quite a bit of blood. They runs some tests, take x-rays and the like, but put off any surgery because of his various heart conditions, his age, and the simple fact that they just couldn't make things out under all the swelling. All trips out to CO via plane (two sets of aunts/uncles, grandfather, and grandmother) are currently on hold. By the time we got all this information, my mom was a wreck. We knew my granddad wasn't in immediate danger, but she was upset about him walking the dog when he wasn't supposed to, that this put a huge kink in things CO trip-wise, and that it was going to be a huge set-back with his dementia. At my insistence (it took a few reminders), she finally called our pastor and the lady that starts the prayer chain at our church. Jan and Alan show up at the hotel room. We relay the story. They're very sympathetic. We all part ways and go to bed.
Friday, May 27th
Tim had obligations at the Academy that day, so he'd gone back the night before. We wanted to get an update on things before we went out for the day. In calling my grandmother, my mom found out both good and bad news. The good: The swelling had gone down so much over night that the doctor's were amazed. Miraculously, all the bones that had broken in the fall were still in place. He could go home later that night or the next morning as soon as they got him back on his normal meds. The bad: My friend Melissa, who's wedding I was in back in November, had been hit head-on by a school bus on her way to school (she's an elementary school teacher). She was in MEDIVACed to the same ICU unit as my grandfather the previous day. I hate to think of the details we learned later, but it had happened so recently that this was all we knew. I was sick to my stomach with the thought that I might lose my friend who I'd know since I was born. All I could do was pray. We called the Pastor and the prayer chain lady yet again.
Despite all this the two couples plus myself (Tim had obligations at the Academy) traversed over to the Manitou Spring/Pike's Peak Cog Railroad which would eventually get us to the peak. For me, it was a chance for distraction. Took lots of pictures with only one bad one which consisted of a blurred tree blocking the view of the mountains. This was promptly deleted. We ate the really greasy but really good donuts on the trip back down from the peak. The view up there was amazing! The guy that provided comments on the cog trip came by during the descent to answer questions. We'd seen two birds soaring on the way up. Because we'd used a pair of binoculars we knew they had white under the tail section and rounded wings. Well, he denied that they were any sort of eagle or hawk and generally thought we were crazy, stupid tourists. He told us that they had to be some sort of raven. How wrong he was...but I'll get back to that. There were also these cute little groundhog relatives called something-yellow-something marmots. Ms Jan and I couldn't help but make exclamations of "Aww, look! He's sunning himself on the rock!" and "Isn't he so cute!" everytime we saw one.
We eventually made it back to the hotel to meet Tim for dinner again. I think this is when we went to the Italian place. When back at the hotel later, we got an update on Melissa, in which we learned the gruesome details of her injuries. In fact, I kind of lost it when the aunt and uncle (Jean and Tom) and my grandmom that could come out to CO for the graduation arrived and my mom started to tell all for the third time. She might not be disturbed by that sort of thing having been a medical assistant in the past, but it was too much for me to hear about again especially in regards to my friend. I went to bed while they got filled in. I was still worried about her and mostly her family and relatively new husband Greg.
Saturday, May 28th
Tim was with us that day. We drove to Cripple Creek (urgh...car sick...) and were bombarded by casinos. I discovered I have my dad's luck (or lack of) and lost my free $5 on a nickel machine having only won one spin (a whopping 10 cents!). My mom, on the other hand, won us $15 by the time she decided to stop. We used this for lunch. They also had this chili contest thing going on, which meant lots of booths and food (and chili obviously) and live bands. The one we heard a portion of was 80's rock. Crazy man...in a good way. The woman in the group had a great rock n roll voice, too. I got a peanut butter milkshake - doesn't surprise any of you, does it?!
Then were were going to drive down to Royal Gorge and meet up with my aunt and uncle in their rental car (they're perpetually late, so we left before them with intentions of meeting up later), but there was some confusion with route numbers and maps and such, and both they and our group got turned around heading back where we came from and without our realizing. Road signs would have been a great help. Thanks Colorado. So, we ended up at Mueller State Park instead. We drove through and stopped at the Visitor Center and various look-out points. The ranger there told us that we'd seen a mature golden eagle the day before on the way up to Pike's Peak. We knew it had been something like that and came to the conclusion that though the other guy thought we were crazy, stupid tourists, he was really the stupid one.
Eventually, both groups returned to the hotel to freshen up and change. Then, the whole lot of us (9 to be exact) went out to eat at Texas Roadhouse. One word: delicious.
Tim and I sort of claimed the hotel room I was sharing with my aunt and uncle to watch some anime on his PS2. If you're even the slightest bit into this, you must see Last Exile. It's easily in my top 3 as far as series go. It may even be ranked second next to Cowboy Bebop. I need to watch it again, though, and I'm so looking forward to it.
Anyway, on to Sunday.
Sunday, May 29th
Tim and I left a little before the rest so that he could change into his uniform for the Baccalaureate service at the Air Force Chapel. The service was wonderful! The first guy to pray - "Chappy" - was dynamic. The speaker talked about the last line of the oath Tim would be taking in roughly two days (at this point) - "So help me God." And you couldn't help but be wowed by the architecture and such of the chapel building itself.
We'd all planned (sans Grandmom who was taken back to the hotel by my dad) to hike up to Eagle's Peak on the Academy grounds after the service. The day seemed perfect for it, too. Tim thought it would take us about 2 hours (he'd 'run' it before in under 40 minutes with other AF buddies, but we had a middle-aged group in high altitude to deal with) to go up to the peak and return. About halfway up, our blue sky disappeared and was hidden the rest of the day and through the night. The weather out there is so fickle, we pushed on despite the constant mist and drizzle and hoped that it might pass over by the time we reached the top. When we reached the 'plain' Jan and Alan decided to wait as my aunt and uncle, parents, Tim, and I all moved into the final ascent. About halfway through this portion my aunt's cellphone rang. She and my uncle had planned to meet up with a good friend of hers who lived in the area and was pregnant with her first child. Well, the hike was turning out to take a heck of a lot longer than originally anticipated, and they were now near the top of a mountain when they should have been arriving at her friend's house (*cough* perpetually late...) They opted to turn around. Everything was still covered in cloud. The four of us left moved on a little while until we were probably less than a 1/4 mile from the peak. We also opted to turn around as two couples had deserted us and because we wouldn't have been able to see a thing (maybe your hand or the person standing next to you, but that's about it) if we did get to the peak. So, we turned, eventually caught up with the other two descending groups, and made our way down the steep (very, very steep) rocky trail. Tim and I moved ahead. It was raining pretty hard now and thundering. Mountains aren't a great place to be in such conditions. Both of us had shorts and t-shirts on and were moving our arms in weird fashions just to convince ourselves they were still attached. We finally made it back to the trailhead and jogged up and walked up (I know, this is sort of backwards, but if we'd jogged downhill, my legs would have hurt from the cold and impact combined) the hills on the road back to the Academy Visitor Center. We must have been a sight for the masses - drenched, shivering, chattering, numb individuals staggering into the building in groups of two or three. Again, I ran appendages under hot water - hands and fingers this time. Mr. Alan made another funny comment: "My legs are shaking...and I'm not Elvis." (The next day I found one of those fake celebrity IDs of Elvis and picked it up for him as a joke.)
We all (minus the late aunt/uncle) went back to the hotel, took hot showers, and ordered some pizza. I called Melissa's grandmother for an update and was very relieved to find out she was going home that night with a only walker (fractured pelvis) and a patched up face. Thanked the Lord for that! Tim and I watched more Last Exile goodness. :D
Monday, May 30th
Tim had gone back to the Academy the night before because he was supposed to march in the Memorial Day parade with all the other cadets. He was hoping it would be canceled. Sorry Tim! The rest of us (without aunt/uncle again - repeating Jan and Alan's Rocky Mountain Park trip) went to Cave of the Winds because the weather was still a completely wet haze. Pretty cool. I threw a ponytail thing in this mound of coins and hair ties in hopes that I'd be married and pregnant by next year (or so the superstition would dictate). I'm not really superstitious, so, yeah, whatever...
Then we hit the gift shops. Picked up lots of neat little pieces of pottery with cultural significance, hooked my mom on vanilla lattes from Startbucks (*sigh* they really are everywhere), and found the Elvis ID for Mr. Alan.
Went back to the hotel, made a run to Burger King (they've got a great caesar salad, by the way) only to find that the particular one my dad and I chose had lost broiler function. Oh well....you don't broil salad, do you! Tim did pick Dad up a burger from Wendy's on his way to meet us at the hotel. We all ate fast food and eventually took Grandmom to ColdStone (again for the rest of us). She loved it. My mom, though, got the same exact thing as last time. She single-handedly defeated the purpose of multiple ice cream flavors and varieties of candy choice by getting vanilla ice cream with heath bar...again... I 'yelled' or more like 'lectured' her about the injustice her choice. She fake pouted and said she'd never come again. I told her she could but that we'd force her to get something else.
But I digress...a little...Tim and I enjoyed more and more Last Exile until my aunt and uncle returned later that night. Then he went back to the Academy. The graduation parade was the next morning.
Tuesday, May 31st
All bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, we made our way over to the parade field just in time to get the last free (unsaved) section of bleacher seating right in front of where Tim's squad would be. Took a bazillion pictures there, too. We wore the Team Tim t-shirts I'd worked laboriously on prior to the trip. We got pictures of the fronts and backs with us surrounding my brother. His friend/roommate Rich thought they were hilarious. Everyone was coming up to members of our group to compliment them. I must say, I was feeling well chuffed.
The whole group got a personal mini tour of the Academy courtesy of Tim. Then, all the middle-aged-ers retreated while Tim and I took care of some book-shipping and room-packing. We met everyone back at the hotel after those various errands.
That night all the women got all dolled up in our formal wear while the men sported suits. Tim was in 'mess dress' uniform complete with bow tie. He looked very snazzy, I must say. Mom, Dad, Tim, and I all went to the parents' dinner in Mitchell Hall. We sat with Rich's family. Rich complented my mom with a "You look nice." and me with a "And you look very nice." (heavy emphasis on the very on Rich's part) Again, I was beside myself. We had a fun dinner with their group and were forced to part ways to go pick up the rest of our group off-base before going to the graduation ball and eventually the commissioning. The ball was fun, too. Tim and I really don't dance (we kind of can't as opposed to a simple refusal), but Rich pulled me out for a bit of swing, in which I managed to screw up some of the spins, and another female cadet/friend got time on the floor. My mom and Ms Jan were having a grand time, and Mr. Alan was funny to watch as he attempted a line dance. Still makes me giggle thinking about it.
Then we moved off toward the Field House for Tim and the other Firsties (seniors) in Tim's squad to be commissioned as Second Lieutenants in the Air Force. Tim was the first take the oath of service at midnight. Very touching, but I didn't cry. I can't say the same for others in the group, though. ;) I think I was too dehydrated and tired to boot.
Wednesday, June 1st
Tim stayed at the Academy for one final night. The rest of us braved the crowds to get to the stadium for graduation.
We had great seats. We munched on hot dogs and cracker jacks while waiting for the start at 10am. VP Chaney's convoy had the roads closed down at some point so everyone had to arrive by 8:30 or something. The speech was inspiring I'm sure (we heard later that Tim, his friend Bobby, an Rich had all closed their eyes as had I during a portion) and it took a good hour even at the rate of 12 cadets per minute to get through the 906 graduates. They all threw their hats in the air (got a picture of that) and the Thunderbirds (amazing!) did a fly over at that precise moment.
An air show followed (after VP Chaney made his way off base) and man, was it impressive. The music they played during the show...very good. Tim was definitely happy to have everything finalized. He was going to catch a shuttle bus back to the cadet area of the Academy, but the line was so long that when he saw Mom and I heading for his car, he and his friend Bobby flagged us down for a ride. As we approached the check point to get into the cadet area, Tim handed his ID over to the cadets on guard and was offered a "Congratulations, Sir" along with a salute. As we rode on, he commented: "Now that felt good." ;)
Dropped the boys off. Mom and I returned to the hotel so we all could get some rest while Tim finalized packing back at the base.
A phone call on the cell awoke us sometime after 5pm. My dad went to pick Tim and his stuff up. Those two packed the car up, and Tim and I said our goodbyes as we began our road trip back to MD. We stopped in a little rundown motel in Burlington, CO for the night. We watched a little more Last Exile. Just thought you might like to know.
Thursday, June 2nd
Roadtrip commenced. We drove and drove and drove some more through boring Kansas countryside. Eventually, we made it into Missouri and stayed in Columbia for the night.
Friday, June 3rd
At some point, despite technical difficulties (which were fixed thanks to two Radioshack guys somewhere in Kansas) with the cd player converter equipment, I had Tim listening to Harry Potter PoA from where he'd left off reading. We made a slight detour to check out Onondaga Cave. It blew Cave of the Winds to pieces. Simply amazing. If anyone is anywhere remotely near Missouri, you MUST go to Leasburg and take the 1 1/2 hour tour.
Drove and drove...more Last Exile in a Dayton, OH motel...sleep...
Saturday, June 4th
Drove down the road to the Air Force Museum at the Wright-Patterson AF base. It was a fitting end to the trip. I basically followed Tim around as he was able to identify most of the planes (from all eras) on sight. I was reduced to reading the captions or asking him questions as I was rather clueless. I could tell he was quite impressed with the museum.
Drove and drove until 7:45ish pm that night at which point we reached my house.
Did a tiny bit of unpacking, took funny pictures of my cat Fenny thwarting my plans to make my bed up with a new set of sheets. Went to bed, but my poor roomie was still stuck at work (on a Saturday, too!) in a nice start to lots of Spring/Summer time overtime she'll be putting in on a contract.
Sunday, June 5th
Church. :)
Little cousin David's dedication [service] at my Aunt Pam and Uncle Andy's house. He (Andy) asked me to sing something earlier that afternoon. No problem; Keith Green is always in reserve.
Went home to have a total of three people (myself, roomie Michele, and Louisy) come for our small group. We socialized, at hot dogs cooked in the toaster oven, and then picked up some Rita's Italian ice for dessert. Yum... Louise left to meet up with another friend of ours.
Michele and I watched Napoleon Dynamite. It was her first viewing, and I'm happy to report she thought it quite funny. Then we sort of made our way toward bed...but it always takes the two of us awhile when we're both home. We talk too much when thrown together. Did make it to bed eventually after listening (both of us) the entire Franz Ferdinand album. Michele had been in distress because her copy was ruined while I was away.
Monday, June 6th
Now I'm here at work. And I have a dentist appoint at 3pm today! I like the dentist, so this is a nice way to ease back into a normal work week. Plans with Tim later (he's cutting our grass) to have dinner. Then I've got band practice for church.
Other notes (of congratulations):
I commend you if you made it through this entire post. It's undoubtedly the longest I've ever written on LJ. I don't think I'll necessarily be looking at all of your backlogged entries for the time that I was away, but expect me to come back full force tomorrow with my normal silly comments and some such. I hope all of you had a lovely couple weeks while I was gone! Oh, and Melissa seems to be doing well considering it'll take some time for her pelvis and face to heal. Continued prayers are appreciated for both her and my grandfather!