The Amazing Case

The Amazing Case is a sweet urban treasure hunt/pub crawl sponsored by Summit brewing company. Janet and I did it two years ago with her brother and sister in law and had a ton of fun. This time, we were back in business with our team, the "Cheesy Poofs." My bro, Derek, Janet, Mitch and I ran from bar to bar and did various challenges ranging from pole dancing to pin the tap on the keg. There was also a photo scavenger hunt where the boys got a Hooters girl while Janet and I coaxed the valet at a fancy hotel to let us in to photograph some fancy cars.

We had a great day and made it successfully to the finish line. I should have stopped drinking a little bit earlier, though, because I was hurting the next morning at work. Also, I hadn't thought about the fact that it was night and I had biked there, leaving my car at my brother's house. Which I was far too drunk to drive. Luckily, Joel went to get my car and pick me up!

Tracy came out to meet us at the finish line and celebrate.

Halloween Comp

Lynn as "Dot" in the first annual Halloween Costume Comp at Lynn and Kris's wall. Kris set a ton of awesome problems for the comp and we had an absolutely perfect day for it.












Jess and Trinh (the Asian beetle).

















Rocco as the cutest little dinosaur monster ever.






The wall may not have won the "best woody" contest in Urban Climber, but it is surely way cooler than most of the ones I have ever seen. Or the ones that won for that matter, although apparently painting clouds on it makes it better.

"Hula Joel" did win best costume with my bikini top on.














And my M&M costume was awfully hard to climb in. But the day was super fun!! If I'm not in MN next year, I'll have to try to come back for the tradition . . .

Med II, My Last Rotation!

Whoo hoo!! I am done with medical school! It has been a long haul, occasionally rough but mostly pretty fun. Inventing the exclamation point t-shirt, though, might have been an easier way to make money and make people feel better. My last rotation was half ICU, which was fun because to try to manage the Uncle George's that come in and still kind of overwhelm me when I see them in the ER. I got to practice breaking down their problems into manageable problems. Working in the ICU makes you REALLY not want to be full code, after seeing so much money and resources be spent on patients with a maximum of 6 months left to live. The thing is, it is great to be able to prolong life. But medicine can't fix everything and ultimately, you have to accept death. And I don't want a tube down my throat so I can stay in the ICU for thousands of dollars a day too doped up to be conscious of my last 6 months of life. I'd rather accept death. I know I can't make that decision for everyone, but I do know that its frustrating when you try to ask patients' families if they are full code and they get all offended, like you are telling them that their grandmother's life isn't worth saving. I want very much for their grandmother to live, but the fact is she's going to die soon. I may be able to give her a short artificially prolonged indian summer of life before death, but . . .

Fall Climbing

Newly legal, Sandstone is some of the best bouldering in MN. Some of the boulders are located on private land and access is a bit tenuous, but how can you help but get obsessed with these sweet lines? Here is Lynn on a cool V5ish problem.

Me on the same problem, I don't know the name. The area can be kind of wet and mossy, but its really beautiful.



Here's Joel on the 30 degree wall. The wall itself isn't especially photogenic, but look at the gorgeous forest you are climbing in!!











Here's Lynn on our favorite proj, Pocket Hercules, V8. So good.















Brotherman at Taylor's Falls, tearing it up.



















He's more powerful than I am at bouldering for sure. If he worked on a little finger strength, he'd outclimb me one of these days ;)













Rocco at Willow River State Park, one of his favorite places second only to Hueco Tanks and Petie's house. He can smell when we're getting there, he huffs his little nose in the vent and when he figures out where we're going, he stands up and gets all psyched.






Jess at Sandstone on the warm up boulder.

















Lynn and Jess hiking in on the beautiful banks of the kettle river.

Psychiatry Madness

So, I can't really put up a picture of the awesome psychiatrist that I worked with because of HIPPAA and privacy and laws and such. So, let it be known that all names and details have been changed and modified to protect the identities of my fair colleagues and patients. But, I thought the comic was pretty good.
"They'll never find me, I'll just tell them you're Dr. Martin and I'm Dr. Chang," Dr. Martin joked, pitting me against a patient's pugnacious family. Their son was in here against his will, it was illegal, this place was a crap-hole, he didn't do anything wrong . . . of course, I think by now in his career, there is absolutely nothing that Dr. Martin has not heard. And he maintains the same acidly unaffected sarcasm throughout. His patients seem to be unable to affect him, yet he is somehow able to change his patients in the course of 15 minutes. He is of the school of dialectical behavioral therapy, wherein he gives his patients back exactly what they give to him and teaches them to modify the way that they interact in order to have more interpersonal success. So, he is bold and sassy. He will swear back at patients. And by the end, the belligerent youth with an attitude problem who made the ER doc cry and was yelling at half the nursing staff was repeating the words, "Keep my words sweet like sugar in case I have to eat them" and writing an apology letter to the ER doc. Talk about an abrupt change. I think Dr. Martin is amazing.
And he deals with some amazing and amazingly difficult individuals. He wanted us to really just "marinate in the craziness" of the psych ward. And that we did. Sheila had pickled her brain with alcohol and couldn't walk without her walker, but was so excited that she was going to join a basketball team. And there was Peter, who had his first schizophrenic break and was a cybertronic robot with metal for bones who you might catch near the wall "recharging." And Sally's make-up and outfits typically got darker and more flamboyant as the day went on--in parallel with her emotions. And Kara's hypersexuality, where you might find her naked on the bed screaming at the demons to "get off her." There is never a dull moment in the Regions psych ward. I learned a ton and I definitely have a lot of respect for both the people who struggle with mental illness and the doctors, nurses and support staff who help them in their struggle. My favorite image, of course given to me by Dr. Martin, is that of dreams invading your reality. And how sometimes you need drugs to help keep those thoughts in your dreams where they belong. Or you can write a book about it.

Joel Reunion

Though Joel was not so psyched to be back from Squamish, we had a nice reunion weekend of fun before "the grind" starts up again. We relaxed on the lake at Joel's brother-in-law's cabin near Hudson where Rocco was excited to see the water again! He swam like a mad-man, this time of his own volition.

He's always liked the water, but would never swim on his own until Joel and I left him on the shore while we went sailing last year. He howled for awhile, then decided he was a swimmer and would swim across the lake to the boat. And he did. Now, he loves the water and it was fun to watch him swim again. Although sometimes, its literally a pain in the ass when he decides he doesn't want to swim anymore and decides to climb onto your butt.



That night, we enjoyed the chill music of the Solstice Festival. The bands rocked and the atmosphere was really relaxed with people just chilling on blankets. Perfect for a broken foot.












Rocco had a crazy tiring weekend with swimming and skateboarding with Joel and wrestling with his new doggie roommate Petie. They get along wonderfully and like to play nonstop in the giant backyard that is now my own.










Joel and I (well, mostly Joel) climbed on Lynn and Kris's sweet bouldering cave that is now my backyard while Rocco and Petie ran circles around us.

Rocco Reunion!!

While I was out of the country, my wonderful Aunt Cindy and Uncle Jeff took care of my beautiful baby dog, Rocco, and gave him so much love that I was afraid he wouldn't want to come back with me. I drove down with my mom to pick up my baby monster and our reunion was momentous. He saw me out the window and couldn't contain himself. My mom held him back so that he wouldn't knock the gimpy me, still on crutches, down. I sat on the couch and he showered me with sandpaper tongue doggy kisses until my face was raw. He definitely remembered me! Here is him in his favorite chair at my aunt's house, looking out the window.

and here he is leaning over the back of the couch as he likes to do. he was so happy to have all of his people in one place at the same time. he followed me everywhere, afraid i was going to leave again. he remembered all of his tricks, even the ones that my aunt and uncle hadn't been practicing with him (i guess i forgot to tell them). he has a ridiculous memory!

Here's everyone (Aunt Cindy, Uncle Jeff, Aunt Rita, Uncle Jim, Pat, Mom and me) at the Apple Haus, one of the shops in this cute little German village that we visited called . . . I forgot what its called. Long something. We had a great time visiting and it made Aunt Cindy feel a little bit better that Rocco seemed to want to go with me. He didn't even want to go to the bathroom before he left; he just kept pulling towards our car, afraid he was going to get left behind. I promised I would take good care of the Rocco pie and take him back to visit soon.

D and EZ's Engagement Party

The picture doesn't do it justice; Danielle and EZ's house looked lovely decked in lavender and white, the wedding colors. We all matched the party, including EZ, who we'd found a button down shirt with purple and grey pinstripes.

Danielle, Kelly and I, sporting heart bindis.










Lots of crazy fun going on in the kitchen . . .










. . . while I tried to chill a bit more in the living room to keep my foot up so my toes didn't turn purple again.






Peanut enjoying the party with her lei.











Danielle's brother, Corey, and his girlfriend Shana making margaritas and being jolly.






Danielle's mom and grandma taking jello shots.








Danielle, Deb (neighbor) and Chuck with the funky sky in the background.







Peanut, cashed after a long night of entertaining and being fed pork bits and rice krispie treats.

Banjo Billy's Boulder Bus Tour

That's alliteration for you. The night before Danielle and EZ's engagement party, we all went out for Banjo Billy's Boulder Bus Tour. This is a crazy adventure, wherein you ride around in a redone schoolbus that now looks like a ramshackle hillbilly hut and get to hear the ghost stories and brutal murder stories and get a generally rousing and crazy tour of Boulder. Ye haw!! This is Danielle, taking her job labeling the jello shots very seriously.

And here's the gimpy me, adding enough alcohol to negate the need for pain killers one day post-op on the foot.



Here's EZ, psyched to begin the tour.










danielle and i, listening intently to the story of john paper, who haunts the cinema while enjoying our jello and also heckling the bystanders.

Even Danielle's grand- parents enjoyed the jello shots. Her grand- mother got a picture of the young stallion that mooned us. What a hip grandma.

Matt rode the saddle like a rock star . . .
















. . . while EZ kept us cool in the sweltering 103 degree heat with the "air cond- itioner."








here's all of us in front of that crazy contraption. for the actual wedding, we'll have to take the denver hillbilly tour!!

The Foot

I got a copy of the xray, but it doesn't open on my computer. I guess I need some radiology software or something. So, I found one google that is kind of similar. Mine is a little bit more distal. It looked like this initially, with some slight medial displacement. When I came back to re-xray, it had moved about a centimeter, and was displaced both dorsally and medially. The doc said it would really affect the mechanics of my walking and I would likely get a lot of pain if I let it heal like that. I was really disappointed when he told me I really should fix it because it means I have to start over. No weight bearing for two weeks at least. I was having minimal pain, and had been trying to walk normally, but I did have a funny inverted gait that . . . I guess I didn't want to have forever. And its easier to fix it now rather than later. So, on Thursday, I had surgery and they put two pins in.

Here's Danielle and I after the surgery, pretending to be a couple. We were joking that the doctore probably thought we were together since she came to all of my appointments with me and asked lots of questions, showing more interest in my foot than your average friend.

So, we went on Banjo Billy's Bus tour the day after my surgery (see next entry). I had forgotten to take antiinflam- matories before I left, had accidently stepped on it once while drinking, and had had it down most of the night. When I got home, it was swollen, painful and my toes were purple. So, I cut off the splint, figuring that I could just put sterile gauze on it and keep it clean. However, it looked like this, with these funny plastic pins in the top two incisions and gauze sticking straight out of the incicion. I am a little bit terrified that it will get infected. But, I am watching it carefully and so far so good. I will drink less jello shots so I can better combat impending infection.

More BC

It's tough not to think about moving up here. We went up to Pemberton, a small town nestled in the mountains a bit north of Whistler, to engage in more alternate activities, considering my gimpiness and all. So, we went berry picking. And ate approximately 5 pounds of raspberries and blueberries on the way home. It was kind of disgusting, but amazingly didn't translate into bathroom distress.

Here's Joel and I, outside of a little cafe and vineyard that unfor- tunately didn't even have wine tasting. We ended up not even eating there because it was too expensive.

We also stopped in Whistler, an incredibly touristy resort town that was about what we expected. Joel has been to Squamish for 3 seasons now and has never made it up to Whistler. We stopped to watch the mountain bikers come down the crazy jumps. We couldn't believe that they rent bikes to engage in these shenanigans; supposedly, they have quite a few deaths each year. We did find this one really cool store, however, that sold fossils and petrified wood. For the bargain basement price of 26,000, you can be the owner of a 3x4 piece of petrified wood. I'm only being slightly facetious, they actually were beautiful.

This is me on one of the only boulder problems in Squamish that I could still do. (Bojo Jones, V3, a lowball right heel hook problem). Maneuvering through the forest on crutches got easier, though it was quite taxing on the buttocks, which are evidently essential for the balancing on one foot on uneven terrain. Joel definitely helped a ton with the piggy backing.

Here's Joel on Baba Hari Das, V7, another right heel hook problem that I really wanted to work this year. Unfor- tunately, it is tenuous and tricky and would require a lot of falling on the broken left foot.

Joel on Encore Une Fois, V11, a not-very- asthetic problem that has really cool movement. I really wanted him to get it while I was there so I could say I was his muse or something. But, alas, not yet.

Lee, the other half of team Minnesota that has done an amazing number of long trad routes up the chief this summer, came bouldering with us one day. He is a champ at off-widths and crack climbing in general, but hasn't really gotten into the whole bouldering thing. Here he is on one boulder problem that was a crack climb, called Buns Up and Squealin'.


It had been two weeks and I had been religious on the crutching. But my foot had improved a ton and it wasn't hurting at all. So, I started walking on it. I had a bit of a duck walk, with the weight more on the heel and inner foot. But, as long as I stayed on flat terrain, it did pretty well. It wasn't swollen or green anymore and it sure did make it a lot easier to get around. So, we did what any reasonable person would do--we decided to do a multi-pitch crack climb now that I could actually get to the climb base without an intense amount of piggy-backing. Here's me on Calculus Crack (5.8), which was by far the hardest 5.8 I have ever done. The knee-pad helped and I did do some heavy-duty knee jamming on the off-width section. We were a bit afraid that we'd be the slow group, holding up people behind us. But instead, we spent most of the time waiting for the group in front of us!

We also went to Murrin Lake for some single pitch routes. Here's Joel on Sentry Box, a classic 12a. His fingers didn't fit in the crack, which made it especially hard. It is a sweet looking climb, but I really wasn't able to find a heel hook way to get through the crux section. I'll have to try again next year. By this point, I was able to put Joel's largest climbing shoe on my left foot and use it only for heel hooking. I did do a bunch of climbs where I heel-hooked the hell out of all the crimps.