The Long Awaited Update

On the morphine drip
Originally uploaded by Susie Barber

OK, so sorry for not updating in so long, but I have my reasons. Firstly, I did manage to send in two entries to the Wonderlust and Lipstick travel writing contest. I wanted to do more, but I'll get to that in a minute. At Erika's suggestion, I sent in the 'incompetent guide' entry from my time in Chitwan. And while I could have picked from so many great memories (the elephants and camping on "the beach" in Thailand, spending some of Ramadan in the Middle East, the African safari), I sent in another Nepal story. What can I say? Nepal was just my favorite place and my time with Prem staying in that small village warms my heart every time I think about it. It's probably the most "authentic" experience that I had (meaning least touristy). We'll see how it goes.

Now, you might wonder, why only 2 entries. Well for those of you who don't follow along on Facebook or Twitter, I had a bit of a cycling accident. I won't bore you with the details -- Sarah wrote it up very nicely here. The damage: 4 broken ribs (numbers 3-6 in back and they're not very clean fractures) and a cracked collar bone. We'll ignore the bruised shoulder blade for now. After some hours in a San Luis Obispo ER, they let me go back to Santa Cruz (with a friend driving). After a day at home, I had some muscle spasms that made it nearly impossible to breathe and I thought that I had punctured a lung. So after a quick call, Patti took me to the ER and I was admitted into the hospital for a few days. And, since we found out that morphine makes me itch really bad, I was strung out on both morphine and benedryl for some time. Who knew benedryl could be injected into IVs? Patti took me home for a couple of days after and since, I've been back home getting by with some help from my friends. And pain killers. I saw my doctor yesterday and get to start PT in a week or so. I get to pedal the bike on the trainer as soon as I can get someone to help me set that up. So things are looking up. The job search is just a bit on hold for now.

Anyway, I was remiss in getting more contest entries in. Hope you understand.