The Vacation is Burning! (Daisy Has a Hernia)

August 3, 2007. Ryan and I slept in till late morning. Nice. Daisy had an appointment with the vet that afternoon. We had noticed a little lump in her bottom left mammary back in Dec. We took her to the vet in Astoria who told us it was probably just a fatty cyst and if it got any bigger, we should have it biopsied. I hadn't really liked the Astoria vet's casual attitude about it, so we decided to take Daisy to my mom's vet. Ry and I were going to visit Eddie that day, so mom volunteered to take Daisy to her appointment. Ry and I set off for Bloomington, IL and the Illinois Shakespeare Festival to see Eddie around 11:30am.

It's always weird to see an ex. I haven't seen most of mine since we broke up, but Eddie and I have made an effort to keep in touch. Over two years had passed since we'd seen each other. A couple of months ago, Eddie asked me to come see him at the Festival. He wanted to hang out with Ryan as well, which was cool of him, but also made the visit seem a little surreal. We got to Bloomington (my birthplace incidentally) around 1pm and decided to go to lunch. Ryan and I ordered a duck breast salad. Obviously we've lived in cities too long. We were both stunned when the salad came with deep-fried lumps of duck meat on top. Eddie had sort of warned us that we were brave when we'd ordered it...

Anyhoo, things were going along just fine when Ryan's cellphone rang. He excused himself from the table and came back looking a little, well, stressed. Apparently he'd gotten a call from my mom who very gaily (?) informed him that "Daisy has a hernia and needs surgery!" We finished lunch and got a cup of coffee with Eddie, but then we split in an effort to get to the vet before they closed to plan Daisy's hernia surgery. We had to cut our visit short, but I think Eddie and I might have been a little relieved, though. The first time you see an ex after a long time is a little strange. Hopefully next time will be more comfortable and without an emergency intervening...

Ryan and I booked it back to Sandwich, but missed the vet. On the upside, we thought we'd at least get another relaxing night on the barca-loungers, but my brother, called and wanted the two of us to join him and his girlfriend Wendy for dinner and bowling. Up until last year, my brother was the guy who was going to live in my parent's basement until he was 30 and never have a real job. Now he's out of the basement, owns a condo is Naperville, owns a Mercedes and he's still under 30. He lives with his super fashionable and hot girlfriend Wendy and their two dogs, Baby and Mocha, and is the No. 1 salesperson for Bebe in the country. Yes, that Bebe. And no, he's not gay. So, we headed to Naperville, and had a bitchin' good time with Jonathan and Wendy. I was kind of surprised when Jonathan wanted to go bowling, because he's not really the let's-play-a-game-that-requires-us-to-rent-shoes type. He's more of a Gucci loafers guy. The bowling alley was one of these new bowling alley/hipster lounges called Lucky Strike. They got 'em all over, I guess. We has such a good time, we were kind of surprised when they turned the ugly lights up and kicked us all out at 2am. We bowled until closing time. Good times!

The next day, we met with the vet who suggested Daisy get the surgery pretty quickly, as her hernia was pretty well ripped. We were supposed to drive up to MI on Monday, August 6, pick our friend Shelly up from the airport, and then head up to Ryan's cabin in the UP, but the vet could only fit the surgery in on the 8th or 10th. Either way, we'd have to drive all the way up to the UP only to turn around a few days later and leave our friends alone at the cabin. We called everyone to tell them, and pretty soon, they were all backing out. The guys didn't want to drive all the way from Boston for just 3 days of vacation, and Shelly was going to cancel her flight... Our vacation was turning into a disaster. Once again, Ma came to the rescue. She stepped in and volunteered to take Daisy in for the surgery on Friday and we would come home on Saturday when Daisy got back from the hospital - saving our vacation and giving Daisy a safe place to rest up for her surgery. I actually think Mom was pretty psyched about getting a week with her Granddog. She really needs a dog of her own. Or a grandkid. Or both.

We spent Saturday laying around recovering from our bowling night. Jonathan and Wendy brought Mocha! and Baby over to the parentals that night and we all got some pizza and watched a movie while all four dogs ran around like crazy. Then, Sunday night my parents took all of us out for Ryan's birthday dinner. We had a really nice meal and my dad was only slightly embarrassing. I had to keep reminding him to use his "inside voice." My dad enjoys making really bad jokes and then laughing heartily at them himself. It's pretty funny, actually, for all the wrong reasons. It was a really nice dinner, and I have to say, I'm really enjoying my family these days. It wasn't always easy growing up, but everyone seems to be in a pretty good place these days, for which I am very thankful. So, after a bit of a set back, we were ready to set sail on Monday morning for MI. Problems behind us... Right?