... that will probably only make sense to me! But I will need them for scrapbooking the pictures later!
10/15/09 - Where we viewed the sunset at the Grand Canyon was Mohave Point.
The tree needles were from a juniper tree.
Other tree I photographed was a Pinyon Pine.
We met the shuttle bus at Yavapai Lodge.
10/16/09 - The Grand Canyon is one of the seven natural wonders of the world.
Ponderosa Pine can reach 1100 ft. It's bark smells like vanilla.
The Banana Yucci plant (resembles the palmetto) grows fruit about every three years. The Indians used the sharp needle points and fibers to sew clothes.
Visited Moran Point.
It is 20 degrees warmer down on the Colorado River at Phantom Ranch.
Rangers have to rescue 350-400 people a year. There is a $3,000 charge for a helicopter rescue.
There have been 11 drive offs at the Grand Canyon since the movie Thelma and Louise, including one just in the last couple of months.
Visited Lipan Point.
The Grand Canyon is 14-18 miles across and over one mile down. It is 7000 feet above sea level. It is over 280 miles long.
The Colorado River carved the canyon. The river is 50-100 ft deep; 100-900 ft across; water is 47 degrees.
Visited Yaki Point.
North Rim is 1000 ft higher than South Rim (elevation).
Visited Duck-on-a-Rock and viewed Vishnu Temple.
Visited Desert View and climbed Watch Tower.
The Watch Tower was designed by Mary Colter. It is 4 stories tall. The top is the highest point at the South Rim.
Indians used these towers to keep a lookout for danger approaching.
10/18/09 - We got on the Apache Trail in Apache Junction, Arizona.
Saw Canyon Lake, Superstition Mountain, the town Tortilla Flat.
Area of the Lost Dutchman gold mine.
(See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Dutchman%27s_Gold_Mine)
10/19/09 - Desert Botanical Garden
Exhibit: Chihuly - the nature of glass
Saguaro don't grow limbs until they are at least 30-40 years old.
Sonora Desert
Saturday, October 24, 2009
September 2009 Roundup
What books did I read this month? Shadowfires by Dean Koontz (Audio Book); She Walks These Hills by Sharyn McCrumb
Magazines? Guideposts; People
What movies did I see this month? Psyho (TV/DVR); Ocean's Eleven (DVD) (repeat); Horton Hears a Who (Netflix); Gran Torino (Netflix); War (TV/DVR); What Happens in Vegas (Netflix); Treasure Island (TV/DVR); Lara Croft Tomb Raider (TV/DVR)
TV Shows? 24; Leverage; America's Most Wanted; John Edward's Cross Country; The Cleaner; Dog the Bounty Hunter; Army Wives; CMT Insider; Oprah; Medium; Monk; Criminal Minds; NCIS; NCIS Los Angeles; Two and a Half Men; Community; The Forgotten; 48 Hours Mystery; The Soup; Chelsea Lately; Dateline on ID; Golden Girls; Roseanne; Bewitched; Raging Planet; The Vampire Diaries
What special days did I celebrate and how? Mom's birthday - She came up for a visit. We had ice cream cake and planned our trip to Phoenix; Carolyn's Birthday - we celebrated at SDV with cupcakes, singing and gifts
What illness or health concerns did I have this month? IBS - bad attack on the 28th; had some skin tags removed at the dermatologist
What fun things did I do with friends and/or family? Attended Scrapper's Dream Vacation (SDV) in Norcross with Carolyn, Christy, and Stacey; took Stacey to lunch for her birthday and went shopping with her afterwards; cropping at Archiver's with Carolyn
What new foods, recipes, or restaurants did I try this month? None
What special or unusual purchases did I make? A magnetic board and easel to use for scrapbooking
What were this month's disappointments? All the rain and flooding... I miss the sun! And I did not finish reading Moby Dick... but then NO ONE in my book club did!
What were my accomplishments this month? Getting my routines back in place
Magazines? Guideposts; People
What movies did I see this month? Psyho (TV/DVR); Ocean's Eleven (DVD) (repeat); Horton Hears a Who (Netflix); Gran Torino (Netflix); War (TV/DVR); What Happens in Vegas (Netflix); Treasure Island (TV/DVR); Lara Croft Tomb Raider (TV/DVR)
TV Shows? 24; Leverage; America's Most Wanted; John Edward's Cross Country; The Cleaner; Dog the Bounty Hunter; Army Wives; CMT Insider; Oprah; Medium; Monk; Criminal Minds; NCIS; NCIS Los Angeles; Two and a Half Men; Community; The Forgotten; 48 Hours Mystery; The Soup; Chelsea Lately; Dateline on ID; Golden Girls; Roseanne; Bewitched; Raging Planet; The Vampire Diaries
What special days did I celebrate and how? Mom's birthday - She came up for a visit. We had ice cream cake and planned our trip to Phoenix; Carolyn's Birthday - we celebrated at SDV with cupcakes, singing and gifts
What illness or health concerns did I have this month? IBS - bad attack on the 28th; had some skin tags removed at the dermatologist
What fun things did I do with friends and/or family? Attended Scrapper's Dream Vacation (SDV) in Norcross with Carolyn, Christy, and Stacey; took Stacey to lunch for her birthday and went shopping with her afterwards; cropping at Archiver's with Carolyn
What new foods, recipes, or restaurants did I try this month? None
What special or unusual purchases did I make? A magnetic board and easel to use for scrapbooking
What were this month's disappointments? All the rain and flooding... I miss the sun! And I did not finish reading Moby Dick... but then NO ONE in my book club did!
What were my accomplishments this month? Getting my routines back in place
Phoenix/Grand Canyon Trip, Day 7, Tuesday, October 20
Traveling day... we stuffed everything into our suitcases (I think Mom had to jump up and down on hers to get it closed and zipped!) and prayed they wouldn't be over the weight limit.
We left in plenty of time to get breakfast (Chicken Minis again! LOL) and drive to the airport. Of course, the time flies by. We turned in the rental van and caught the shuttle to the airport. We even had time to do some shopping when we got there! Got checked in fine (no overweight suitcases!!) and went through security. Sky Harbor airport advertises itself as "America's Friendliest Airport" and that is true... except for the TSA people. They seem to either be bored so they choose random people to harass (Mom's theory) or they are on a power trip (my theory). Either way, they are not friendly.
We made it through and found our gate. The seats were right by a large plate-glass window. I must have gotten too hot because I proceeded to get sick and have an IBS attack right there in the gate area! I was so terrified that I would be sick on the plane. I did that once on a plane to Sarasota, and it was miserable... and scary. I do not want to repeat that EVER. Finally after two trips to the restroom, cold, wet towels on my face and neck, and sitting away from the window, I felt better. I was fine on the flight home, thank goodness. That was a close one!
It was another smooth flight and we even landed in Atlanta 15 minutes early. We got down to the baggage claim, and our luggage was already going around on the carousel!! Unbelievable for Atlanta! We made our way to the shuttle bus, got back to my car, and headed out. When I called Tracy, he said he was cooking spaghetti for us! WOW! What a homecoming. I headed to the house double-quick!
I am glad to be home (as long as the sun will shine!) and the cats were very happy to have their mommy home. It is wonderful to go, and it is nice to return home.
We left in plenty of time to get breakfast (Chicken Minis again! LOL) and drive to the airport. Of course, the time flies by. We turned in the rental van and caught the shuttle to the airport. We even had time to do some shopping when we got there! Got checked in fine (no overweight suitcases!!) and went through security. Sky Harbor airport advertises itself as "America's Friendliest Airport" and that is true... except for the TSA people. They seem to either be bored so they choose random people to harass (Mom's theory) or they are on a power trip (my theory). Either way, they are not friendly.
We made it through and found our gate. The seats were right by a large plate-glass window. I must have gotten too hot because I proceeded to get sick and have an IBS attack right there in the gate area! I was so terrified that I would be sick on the plane. I did that once on a plane to Sarasota, and it was miserable... and scary. I do not want to repeat that EVER. Finally after two trips to the restroom, cold, wet towels on my face and neck, and sitting away from the window, I felt better. I was fine on the flight home, thank goodness. That was a close one!
It was another smooth flight and we even landed in Atlanta 15 minutes early. We got down to the baggage claim, and our luggage was already going around on the carousel!! Unbelievable for Atlanta! We made our way to the shuttle bus, got back to my car, and headed out. When I called Tracy, he said he was cooking spaghetti for us! WOW! What a homecoming. I headed to the house double-quick!
I am glad to be home (as long as the sun will shine!) and the cats were very happy to have their mommy home. It is wonderful to go, and it is nice to return home.
Phoenix/Grand Canyon Trip, Day 6, Monday, October 19
Our last day in Phoenix... and there was sooo much we wanted to do and see and knew there was not enough time to squeeze it all in. After much discussion, we finally came up with something of a semblance of a plan.
First of all, breakfast. Another Chick-fil-A morning! I do love those Chicken Minis! Then off to Wal-Mart to buy another memory card for my camera... since I had already filled one and the backup I brought wasn't big enough to hold more than 10 pictures!!! Then we had to find the Mail Plus store to ship stuff home. I went ahead and mailed the scrapbooking stuff I had purchased since I wanted to be sure the paper wouldn't get bent. Mom had a plate she wanted to ship home; she was afraid it would get broken in her suitcase. We prayed that with getting this stuff mailed, our suitcases wouldn't be over the weight limit!
Aunt Evelyn and Ted had indicated the evening before that they would go to the Botanical Gardens with us, but we knew it was too much walking and would be too hot for them. So we went ahead ourselves. We were right - it was a lot of walking and it was VERY hot. It was a nice place, though. I took lots of pictures of the desert plants... so very different from what we saw at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens in March! They also had a Monarch butterfly house... I took lots of pictures in there.
We didn't linger at the Gardens... it was just too hot. Mom was even getting queasy from the heat. We decided to skip the zoo for the same reason. We started back across Phoenix to pick up Aunt Evelyn and Ted for an outing with them to the Challenger Space Center. Phoenix is a lot like Atlanta in that it takes quite awhile to cross town, but for a different reason. In Atlanta, it's the traffic; in Phoenix, it's just a long way across town! We only encountered two traffic jams while visiting... and one of those was due to road construction (also like Atlanta!).
While driving back, I got a phone call from ADT saying that the security alarm was going off at Mom's house! (Motion detector in the family room) We figured it was the cats, but told them to send the police over anyway. I told them "We are in Arizona; we're not going to make it!" So Mom tried to reach the lady feeding her cats. Couldn't reach her. Called ADT back and now the motion detector in the hallway had also gone off. We started laughing cause we could just picture her cats chasing each other through the house! Mom found out that the lady she left her key with had an emergency and had given the key to someone else. That person did not know to put the alarm in "Stay" mode so the motion detectors would not be activated. Someone finally went over and met the police and we thought it was all settled... until about 3 hours later when Tracy called to say ADT had called and Mom's alarm was going off AGAIN! It was a comedy routine, I swear! It finally got taken care of... but who knows what she found when she got home!
By the time we drove back, tried to find somewhere to eat lunch, and got gas, it was after 2:30 before we got back to Aunt Evelyn and Ted's house. (We did try Whataburger - pretty good.) This meant we were really late getting to the Space Center... especially since they close at 4!! We got over there and did a short walk through... Ted was really enjoying it since he worked for Boeing and worked on space ships... Aunt Evelyn, not so much. It was just too much walking for her. It pretty much worked out then. We went back to their house and took some pictures of all of us. Aunt Evelyn had pulled some pictures for us to look at. Unfortunately most of what she pulled was of Ted's family... and she wanted to tell us who every person was, their background, everything. I tried to lead her back to the Tapley family a couple of times, but she was having none of it! I finally got some pictures of her and Ted's wedding and one picture of her at 6 months old and counted my blessings that I got those. We went to dinner at a great Mexican restaurant (Ted almost licked his plate clean!! LOL) and then went over to Wal-Mart and I copied the pictures for Mom and me.
It was late by this time... 9 o'clock - so we took Aunt Evelyn and Ted home and told them good-bye. It wasn't long before Mom and I were asleep ourselves. We knew the next day would be a long one, what with the traveling and the time difference.
First of all, breakfast. Another Chick-fil-A morning! I do love those Chicken Minis! Then off to Wal-Mart to buy another memory card for my camera... since I had already filled one and the backup I brought wasn't big enough to hold more than 10 pictures!!! Then we had to find the Mail Plus store to ship stuff home. I went ahead and mailed the scrapbooking stuff I had purchased since I wanted to be sure the paper wouldn't get bent. Mom had a plate she wanted to ship home; she was afraid it would get broken in her suitcase. We prayed that with getting this stuff mailed, our suitcases wouldn't be over the weight limit!
Aunt Evelyn and Ted had indicated the evening before that they would go to the Botanical Gardens with us, but we knew it was too much walking and would be too hot for them. So we went ahead ourselves. We were right - it was a lot of walking and it was VERY hot. It was a nice place, though. I took lots of pictures of the desert plants... so very different from what we saw at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens in March! They also had a Monarch butterfly house... I took lots of pictures in there.
We didn't linger at the Gardens... it was just too hot. Mom was even getting queasy from the heat. We decided to skip the zoo for the same reason. We started back across Phoenix to pick up Aunt Evelyn and Ted for an outing with them to the Challenger Space Center. Phoenix is a lot like Atlanta in that it takes quite awhile to cross town, but for a different reason. In Atlanta, it's the traffic; in Phoenix, it's just a long way across town! We only encountered two traffic jams while visiting... and one of those was due to road construction (also like Atlanta!).
While driving back, I got a phone call from ADT saying that the security alarm was going off at Mom's house! (Motion detector in the family room) We figured it was the cats, but told them to send the police over anyway. I told them "We are in Arizona; we're not going to make it!" So Mom tried to reach the lady feeding her cats. Couldn't reach her. Called ADT back and now the motion detector in the hallway had also gone off. We started laughing cause we could just picture her cats chasing each other through the house! Mom found out that the lady she left her key with had an emergency and had given the key to someone else. That person did not know to put the alarm in "Stay" mode so the motion detectors would not be activated. Someone finally went over and met the police and we thought it was all settled... until about 3 hours later when Tracy called to say ADT had called and Mom's alarm was going off AGAIN! It was a comedy routine, I swear! It finally got taken care of... but who knows what she found when she got home!
By the time we drove back, tried to find somewhere to eat lunch, and got gas, it was after 2:30 before we got back to Aunt Evelyn and Ted's house. (We did try Whataburger - pretty good.) This meant we were really late getting to the Space Center... especially since they close at 4!! We got over there and did a short walk through... Ted was really enjoying it since he worked for Boeing and worked on space ships... Aunt Evelyn, not so much. It was just too much walking for her. It pretty much worked out then. We went back to their house and took some pictures of all of us. Aunt Evelyn had pulled some pictures for us to look at. Unfortunately most of what she pulled was of Ted's family... and she wanted to tell us who every person was, their background, everything. I tried to lead her back to the Tapley family a couple of times, but she was having none of it! I finally got some pictures of her and Ted's wedding and one picture of her at 6 months old and counted my blessings that I got those. We went to dinner at a great Mexican restaurant (Ted almost licked his plate clean!! LOL) and then went over to Wal-Mart and I copied the pictures for Mom and me.
It was late by this time... 9 o'clock - so we took Aunt Evelyn and Ted home and told them good-bye. It wasn't long before Mom and I were asleep ourselves. We knew the next day would be a long one, what with the traveling and the time difference.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Phoenix/Grand Canyon Trip, Day 5, Sunday, October 18
After grabbing breakfast and a not-too-quick visit to the Goodwill store, Mom and I picked up Aunt Evelyn and Ted for a drive on the Apache Trail.
The trail is a drive through the desert, starting in Apache Junction (a suburb of Phoenix on the east side of town). It winds up and down mountains, past a beautiful lake, through Tortilla Flat and on to the Roosevelt Dam (though we didn't go that far). It was an absolutely beautiful drive. Around every curve was another vista to ooh and ahh over. I stopped so many times to take pictures! Canyon Lake was an absolute surprise. Even knowing it was there was no preparation for the amazing site it is! Perfectly blue, with boaters and skiers, and an overlook to take pictures from. Perfect! Ted seemed to thoroughly enjoy himself - he was snapping pictures himself quite a bit. Poor Aunt Evelyn, I hope she enjoyed it - she said she did, but she couldn't get out of the car at every stop. We drove to about 3 miles past Tortilla Flat and turned around. We wanted to return them home before dark. We stopped briefly in Tortilla Flat and bought some magnets and postcards. The town is really just 2-3 buildings in the old West style. A restaurant/gift shop and an ice cream/gift shop. It was amazingly busy this Sunday afternoon. It was a beautiful day so people were out enjoying it, including us.
I took pictures of highway signs, the scenery, cactus, flowers, houses, you name it!
We ate lunch at Chili's before we hit the trail. Aunt Evelyn was very confused, thinking that the name "Chili's" and the commercials they have meant all they served was spicy food. But we reassured her, and she and Ted really seemed to enjoy their lunch. Ted can clean a plate! You would think he had not eating in weeks! Bless their hearts, they have been cooped up in the house for a year... since neither one can drive right now. Ted had Valley Fever earlier this year and it has a long recovery period. He is hoping to be cleared to drive again in the next couple of months. They have limited transportation to the doctor, pharmacy, and grocery store. Other than that, they are pretty much housebound. We did take them to the bank and the Sprint store when we got into town on Wednesday. And I can tell they are really enjoying these outings we are taking them on.
They insisted on stopping at their favorite restaurant, Coco's, for dinner. It seemed they knew everyone there and had missed them for the past year. After dropping them back home, Mom and I went straight to our motel, and I was too tired to even type this update! I fell asleep before 10pm and had to rouse myself enough about 10:30 to get up and take my contacts out!
The trail is a drive through the desert, starting in Apache Junction (a suburb of Phoenix on the east side of town). It winds up and down mountains, past a beautiful lake, through Tortilla Flat and on to the Roosevelt Dam (though we didn't go that far). It was an absolutely beautiful drive. Around every curve was another vista to ooh and ahh over. I stopped so many times to take pictures! Canyon Lake was an absolute surprise. Even knowing it was there was no preparation for the amazing site it is! Perfectly blue, with boaters and skiers, and an overlook to take pictures from. Perfect! Ted seemed to thoroughly enjoy himself - he was snapping pictures himself quite a bit. Poor Aunt Evelyn, I hope she enjoyed it - she said she did, but she couldn't get out of the car at every stop. We drove to about 3 miles past Tortilla Flat and turned around. We wanted to return them home before dark. We stopped briefly in Tortilla Flat and bought some magnets and postcards. The town is really just 2-3 buildings in the old West style. A restaurant/gift shop and an ice cream/gift shop. It was amazingly busy this Sunday afternoon. It was a beautiful day so people were out enjoying it, including us.
I took pictures of highway signs, the scenery, cactus, flowers, houses, you name it!
We ate lunch at Chili's before we hit the trail. Aunt Evelyn was very confused, thinking that the name "Chili's" and the commercials they have meant all they served was spicy food. But we reassured her, and she and Ted really seemed to enjoy their lunch. Ted can clean a plate! You would think he had not eating in weeks! Bless their hearts, they have been cooped up in the house for a year... since neither one can drive right now. Ted had Valley Fever earlier this year and it has a long recovery period. He is hoping to be cleared to drive again in the next couple of months. They have limited transportation to the doctor, pharmacy, and grocery store. Other than that, they are pretty much housebound. We did take them to the bank and the Sprint store when we got into town on Wednesday. And I can tell they are really enjoying these outings we are taking them on.
They insisted on stopping at their favorite restaurant, Coco's, for dinner. It seemed they knew everyone there and had missed them for the past year. After dropping them back home, Mom and I went straight to our motel, and I was too tired to even type this update! I fell asleep before 10pm and had to rouse myself enough about 10:30 to get up and take my contacts out!
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Phoenix/Grand Canyon Trip, Day 4, Saturday, October 17
Got up and got out of this town! Headed back to 100 degree weather in Phoenix, but at least they will have air conditioning!
We decided to drive back a different way and go through Sedona. Boy, am I ever glad we did. As soon as we got off the interstate, the scenery became breathtaking. We stopped at Oak Creek Canyon at a scenic overlook, and there were Indians selling jewelry. It was beautiful stuff, and of course, Mom and I had to buy some! And of course, we took lots of pictures of the view. In this area, there are plenty of trees with their leaves turning, and that made the view even more beautiful, if that is even possible.
As we continued to drive, we were going up a mountain and every turn brought some new amazing view to ooh and ahh over. We stopped as often as we could and it was safe. I took pictures of as many highway signs as I could... ones we don't have back east.
Then we came into Sedona. Traffic was backed up and the shops were incredibly busy, but we managed to find a parking space right on the street, so we decided to walk around for a bit. We had to say we had shopped in Sedona! :) We had lunch at a most excellent BBQ place. Then we walked and looked and shopped. There is a lot to do here, tours, etc. There is never enough time on a trip to do everything that looks interesting! There are a lot of art galleries here... but as I told Mom later, Sedona must not be the home to starving artists, but rather the ones who have made it and made it well! You can tell there is a lot of money here... the houses are huge and set on the side of the mountain. There is a lot of new age stores here, too. As a matter of fact, just this week, they had three people die in a "sweat box" as part of a new age retreat weekend. A sweat box is supposed to represent a spirtual cleansing... you go into this tent and they pour water over hot rocks to produce steam... and you sweat out your body's iimpurities. I actually saw Morgan Spurlock do this on his show "30 Days" while he was staying on an Indian Reservation. I don't remember exactly how long he stayed in there, but it seems like it was 45 minutes or so. The people who got ill and died in Sedona were in there for 2 hours! That does seem excessive.
As we left Sedona, we continued to stop at scenic overlooks and view all the beauty we could! It is red rock country (In Red Rock Canyon, actually) and after leaving the area, the regular desert mountains looked plain! Still pretty, but not as spectacular as they seemed just a couple of days before.
We stopped just before reaching Phoenix at a Pioneer Living History Museum... a recreation of a Pioneer village. We were disappointed because they were closing an hour early, so we didn't get to see everything. That ended up being OK actually cause it was very HOT (Phoenix hit 102 yesterday!) and the village wasn't as put together as we had imagined. Some of the buildings had been moved there... and that was all. They were gutted. No attempt had been made to renovate them for display. Many of the wagons sitting around were the same way... broken wheels, old lumber lying in them... What they had done was neat. And of course we took lots of pictures. I even used a hitching post as a tripod and got a picture of us together on the schoolhouse steps!
I have dreams of many scrapbook pages... some I can already see in my head. "Signs of Arizona" for the highway signs; Plants of the west (with all the pictures of cactus I have taken!); Pages upon pages of Grand Canyon pictures; even a Fall page with a picture I took of Mom in front of a tree in full fall color with orange leaves at Oak Creek Canyon. I hope these ideas will stay with me until next year when I finally get these pictures scrapbooked!
After leaving the pioneer village, we got caught in a good old Phoenix traffic jam. I think it was due to road work. This is another instance where my GPS has paid for herself many times over... we got off the interstate and she took us on a detour that got us right back on track on no time. We found our motel and checked in. Thank goodness for luggage carts and a/c!! LOL We went to dinner at Applebee's and had the nicest server... what a refreshing change! Then I was literally in bed before 10!! How can driving make one soooo tired?
And I will tell you that this desert air and heat does make you thirsty. I am chugging water and still I'm thirsty!
Now I'm caught up on my updates... even if I had to get up at 2 am (here) to do it! I guess I owe the drunks in the hall who woke me up some thanks for getting me out of bed to do this... nah, I don't.
We decided to drive back a different way and go through Sedona. Boy, am I ever glad we did. As soon as we got off the interstate, the scenery became breathtaking. We stopped at Oak Creek Canyon at a scenic overlook, and there were Indians selling jewelry. It was beautiful stuff, and of course, Mom and I had to buy some! And of course, we took lots of pictures of the view. In this area, there are plenty of trees with their leaves turning, and that made the view even more beautiful, if that is even possible.
As we continued to drive, we were going up a mountain and every turn brought some new amazing view to ooh and ahh over. We stopped as often as we could and it was safe. I took pictures of as many highway signs as I could... ones we don't have back east.
Then we came into Sedona. Traffic was backed up and the shops were incredibly busy, but we managed to find a parking space right on the street, so we decided to walk around for a bit. We had to say we had shopped in Sedona! :) We had lunch at a most excellent BBQ place. Then we walked and looked and shopped. There is a lot to do here, tours, etc. There is never enough time on a trip to do everything that looks interesting! There are a lot of art galleries here... but as I told Mom later, Sedona must not be the home to starving artists, but rather the ones who have made it and made it well! You can tell there is a lot of money here... the houses are huge and set on the side of the mountain. There is a lot of new age stores here, too. As a matter of fact, just this week, they had three people die in a "sweat box" as part of a new age retreat weekend. A sweat box is supposed to represent a spirtual cleansing... you go into this tent and they pour water over hot rocks to produce steam... and you sweat out your body's iimpurities. I actually saw Morgan Spurlock do this on his show "30 Days" while he was staying on an Indian Reservation. I don't remember exactly how long he stayed in there, but it seems like it was 45 minutes or so. The people who got ill and died in Sedona were in there for 2 hours! That does seem excessive.
As we left Sedona, we continued to stop at scenic overlooks and view all the beauty we could! It is red rock country (In Red Rock Canyon, actually) and after leaving the area, the regular desert mountains looked plain! Still pretty, but not as spectacular as they seemed just a couple of days before.
We stopped just before reaching Phoenix at a Pioneer Living History Museum... a recreation of a Pioneer village. We were disappointed because they were closing an hour early, so we didn't get to see everything. That ended up being OK actually cause it was very HOT (Phoenix hit 102 yesterday!) and the village wasn't as put together as we had imagined. Some of the buildings had been moved there... and that was all. They were gutted. No attempt had been made to renovate them for display. Many of the wagons sitting around were the same way... broken wheels, old lumber lying in them... What they had done was neat. And of course we took lots of pictures. I even used a hitching post as a tripod and got a picture of us together on the schoolhouse steps!
I have dreams of many scrapbook pages... some I can already see in my head. "Signs of Arizona" for the highway signs; Plants of the west (with all the pictures of cactus I have taken!); Pages upon pages of Grand Canyon pictures; even a Fall page with a picture I took of Mom in front of a tree in full fall color with orange leaves at Oak Creek Canyon. I hope these ideas will stay with me until next year when I finally get these pictures scrapbooked!
After leaving the pioneer village, we got caught in a good old Phoenix traffic jam. I think it was due to road work. This is another instance where my GPS has paid for herself many times over... we got off the interstate and she took us on a detour that got us right back on track on no time. We found our motel and checked in. Thank goodness for luggage carts and a/c!! LOL We went to dinner at Applebee's and had the nicest server... what a refreshing change! Then I was literally in bed before 10!! How can driving make one soooo tired?
And I will tell you that this desert air and heat does make you thirsty. I am chugging water and still I'm thirsty!
Now I'm caught up on my updates... even if I had to get up at 2 am (here) to do it! I guess I owe the drunks in the hall who woke me up some thanks for getting me out of bed to do this... nah, I don't.
Phoenix/Grand Canyon Trip, Day 3, Friday, October 16 (Continued)
Where was I? Oh yea, after the IMAX movie...
Mom and I decided to try out the local steakhouse for dinner. A woman seats us at the smallest table she can find... just drops the menus and walks away. I went to wipe out the seat and find that there is beer spilled on it. A boy who was cleaning nearby told us we could move over a table, but the sun was coming in strong on that one so we moved up two tables... still a small one, but fine. Then we waited to be waited on... and waited... and waited. Meanwhile a couple who had come in after us and were seated almost right across from us was waited on... for drinks and their meal order. Finally, the woman who seated us walked up and just said "You ready to order?" We kind of looked at her blankly, I guess, cause she added that our server was not there, but she'd take our order. (So why did she seat us where there was no server?) We placed our order. After delivering food to another table, she brought our drinks and Mom's salad. I then observed the woman go up to another table and greet those people nicely with "hello"! Did she take an instant dislike to us or what?! Then another woman leads a couple to one of the original tables we were at... again with the drop the menu and walk away. The couple remained standing, and we heard them wondering if they wanted to sit there since it was so close to the fireplace and it was warm. I spoke up and told them they may want to move anyway since we were told that there is no server for the area and it had taken us a long time to be waited on. Well, a man walked by who was either the manager or owner or something...he never identified himself, and spun around and asked me if there was a problem. So I told him everything that had happened thus far, and how the woman had told us there was no server for us, how long we had to wait, and further wondered if she had taken instant dislike to us. Well, he proceeded to inform me that if we had a problem, that was fine, we could leave if we liked, but we did not need to tell other customers about the problem!! I had to ask him to clarify if I had heard him correctly. I paraphrased back to him, "So are you telling us that we can just leave, but don't tell other customers anything?!" To which he replied, "No, but you don't need to tell other customers stuff like that." Mom and I both jumped up and began to walk out - the whole time this man is repeating that we didn't need to tell another customer anything! I told him that other customers deserved to know about their bad service. He said that our order had already been put in, and I said to that "Too bad, so sad." And we left.
Can you believe that?! That is undoubtedly the worst I have ever been treated in a restaurant. And I am not sure where things went wrong. While it is true that we now expect and receive very little customer service every where we go, this is an all-time low. This entire town seems to be there to serve Grand Canyon tourists. You would think they would appreciate the customers at least a little bit.
We ended up eating at Wendy's. The food wasn't great, but the guy who waited on us was super nice. That counts for a lot.
We went back to the motel; I was on my laptop all evening, and Mom watched TV. Went to bed, though the room was hot. That a/c wasn't circulating much cool air at all!
Mom and I decided to try out the local steakhouse for dinner. A woman seats us at the smallest table she can find... just drops the menus and walks away. I went to wipe out the seat and find that there is beer spilled on it. A boy who was cleaning nearby told us we could move over a table, but the sun was coming in strong on that one so we moved up two tables... still a small one, but fine. Then we waited to be waited on... and waited... and waited. Meanwhile a couple who had come in after us and were seated almost right across from us was waited on... for drinks and their meal order. Finally, the woman who seated us walked up and just said "You ready to order?" We kind of looked at her blankly, I guess, cause she added that our server was not there, but she'd take our order. (So why did she seat us where there was no server?) We placed our order. After delivering food to another table, she brought our drinks and Mom's salad. I then observed the woman go up to another table and greet those people nicely with "hello"! Did she take an instant dislike to us or what?! Then another woman leads a couple to one of the original tables we were at... again with the drop the menu and walk away. The couple remained standing, and we heard them wondering if they wanted to sit there since it was so close to the fireplace and it was warm. I spoke up and told them they may want to move anyway since we were told that there is no server for the area and it had taken us a long time to be waited on. Well, a man walked by who was either the manager or owner or something...he never identified himself, and spun around and asked me if there was a problem. So I told him everything that had happened thus far, and how the woman had told us there was no server for us, how long we had to wait, and further wondered if she had taken instant dislike to us. Well, he proceeded to inform me that if we had a problem, that was fine, we could leave if we liked, but we did not need to tell other customers about the problem!! I had to ask him to clarify if I had heard him correctly. I paraphrased back to him, "So are you telling us that we can just leave, but don't tell other customers anything?!" To which he replied, "No, but you don't need to tell other customers stuff like that." Mom and I both jumped up and began to walk out - the whole time this man is repeating that we didn't need to tell another customer anything! I told him that other customers deserved to know about their bad service. He said that our order had already been put in, and I said to that "Too bad, so sad." And we left.
Can you believe that?! That is undoubtedly the worst I have ever been treated in a restaurant. And I am not sure where things went wrong. While it is true that we now expect and receive very little customer service every where we go, this is an all-time low. This entire town seems to be there to serve Grand Canyon tourists. You would think they would appreciate the customers at least a little bit.
We ended up eating at Wendy's. The food wasn't great, but the guy who waited on us was super nice. That counts for a lot.
We went back to the motel; I was on my laptop all evening, and Mom watched TV. Went to bed, though the room was hot. That a/c wasn't circulating much cool air at all!
Friday, October 16, 2009
Phoenix/Grand Canyon Trip, Day 3, Friday, October 16
We got an early start this morning since we needed to meet our bus for the Desert View Tour at 9:10 am. We were so early that we had time to eat breakfast here at the motel and do some shopping at a couple of gift shops at the Yavapei Lodge and still be early for our tour! Much improvement over yesterday!
This tour was awesome! The driver/tour guide was named Bob and he has worked at several Federal parks and was a history major. He was a wealth of information about the park, its history, the plants, animals, other sights nearby, etc. He even takes great picture! LOL We SOOO enjoyed this tour. There were only 19 of us on the tour so the bus was not crowded. We never would have found out the tidbits or even known where to go if we had driven ourselves around. I took TONS AND TONS of pictures. So much to see and want to remember.
The last stop was at Desert View where the Watchtower is located. It is a recreation of a prehistoric Indian lookout. We climbed to the top (4 stories) and the view was breathtaking. We could see all the way to the painted desert. After climbing down, we walked to the snack bar and got some lunch. The weather was so perfect, we ate outside. A raven decided to join us, begging for food. But it is illegal to feed the wildlife within the park, so I just took pictures of him. He seemed to enjoy posing, and he was quite vocal, too!
After the tour, we took some shopping time. I even bought a "plant your own cacti kit" that the store employee assured me would be fine in carry-on on the plane. I wanted my own little piece of Arizona to take home. And I have bought tons of magnets... I always do. I've also bought myself about 3 pairs of earrings. Mom has bought quite a bit, too... we will probably be shipping some stuff home! LOL We even found scrapbooking items specific to the Grand Canyon.
After shopping, we were SOOO tired. The high elevation really does affect you. I didn't realize. It was about 2:30 - 3, and we went ahead and left the park. We did a little shopping out here near the motel and went to see the IMAX movie about the Grand Canyon. It was really good and you felt like you were THERE - on the river, riding the rapids to gliding in the air over the canyon. (Speaking of rapids, the tour guide told us that all other rivers have rapids graded on a scale from 1-5... except the Colorado River which runs through the canyon. It goes from 1-10!!) I barely lived going down the Chattahoochee on a tube... I would NEVER try it here!!
I am really tired now... so I will finish today's recap tomorrow night...
This tour was awesome! The driver/tour guide was named Bob and he has worked at several Federal parks and was a history major. He was a wealth of information about the park, its history, the plants, animals, other sights nearby, etc. He even takes great picture! LOL We SOOO enjoyed this tour. There were only 19 of us on the tour so the bus was not crowded. We never would have found out the tidbits or even known where to go if we had driven ourselves around. I took TONS AND TONS of pictures. So much to see and want to remember.
The last stop was at Desert View where the Watchtower is located. It is a recreation of a prehistoric Indian lookout. We climbed to the top (4 stories) and the view was breathtaking. We could see all the way to the painted desert. After climbing down, we walked to the snack bar and got some lunch. The weather was so perfect, we ate outside. A raven decided to join us, begging for food. But it is illegal to feed the wildlife within the park, so I just took pictures of him. He seemed to enjoy posing, and he was quite vocal, too!
After the tour, we took some shopping time. I even bought a "plant your own cacti kit" that the store employee assured me would be fine in carry-on on the plane. I wanted my own little piece of Arizona to take home. And I have bought tons of magnets... I always do. I've also bought myself about 3 pairs of earrings. Mom has bought quite a bit, too... we will probably be shipping some stuff home! LOL We even found scrapbooking items specific to the Grand Canyon.
After shopping, we were SOOO tired. The high elevation really does affect you. I didn't realize. It was about 2:30 - 3, and we went ahead and left the park. We did a little shopping out here near the motel and went to see the IMAX movie about the Grand Canyon. It was really good and you felt like you were THERE - on the river, riding the rapids to gliding in the air over the canyon. (Speaking of rapids, the tour guide told us that all other rivers have rapids graded on a scale from 1-5... except the Colorado River which runs through the canyon. It goes from 1-10!!) I barely lived going down the Chattahoochee on a tube... I would NEVER try it here!!
I am really tired now... so I will finish today's recap tomorrow night...
Phoenix/Grand Canyon Trip, Day 2, Thursday, October 15
We hit the road about 8:30 am. Got breakfast (at Chick-fil-A, of course!) and picked up 12 bottles of water at Wal-Mart (an absolute necessity in the desert). Then we stopped by the Goodwill... strictly for comparison to the Goodwills back home. And they win here. Clean store, lots of stuff, and reasonable prices. Thus began the thought process that accompanied every shopping experience on this trip: Will if fit in the suitcases in order to go on the airplane?? Or do we have to ship stuff home? Or will we have to do without?
Then we headed north to a couple of scrapbook stores. We got some cute Arizona/Grand Canyon things. They were nice stores. I even saw a couple of new things I had not seen yet. By this time, it was lunch, and they happened to have a Del Taco where we were! I miss Del Taco so much!
It was 1:15 and we were ready to head to the Grand Canyon. We had called this morning and made reservations for a bus tour there that began at 4:20 PM. More than one person we had asked told us it was 2.5 hours to the Grand Canyon. So we get in the car, I plug up the GPS, enter where we're headed... and it indicates it will take us 3 hours to get there! We are not going to make our tour. We make this entire wonderful, beautiful drive through the desert and cannot stop to take pictures of anything and have to worry the entire time about making the tour.
We pull into the park about 4:15... and the entrance line I pick to go through is slow as molasses. We finally get in and realize we are not going to make it. I call the tour desk and explain the situation. The helpful person on the other end of the phone says, "I would have left earlier." Well, duh?! Then he tells me to go to the first lodge we come to (Yavapei Lodge) and reschedule the tour with the tour desk operator there. We park, and I see a bus. So I think it's the tour bus, and I start rushing Mom and we go running toward the bus stop... but the bus kept going. We go inside and the girl at the desk was wonderful... she called for a car to come pick us up and take us to meet the tour bus! How awesome is that?!
The driver picks us up and the only thing he said to us the ENTIRE drive is when he pointed to the right and said, "There's the canyon." !!! Again, duh!! I so wanted to ask him if he was always like that or if he was ticked cause he had to come pick us up! LOL He pulls up to the bus, which is at it's first stop, and we run up to the bus driver with our ticket and I tell her "We're the late ones." She points to another bus parked behind hers and says "You'll be on that bus." So we start over there and THAT bus driver comes down the steps and yells to the first driver, "They have to go back to Yavapei Lodge - you need to take them." Well, the first bus drivers huffs and puffs, snatches the ticket from us and says, "Get on the bus!" I said, trying to lighten the situation, "I'm not feeling wanted." And she says that her bus is packed and he had room. Well, we get on the bus and there are 5-6 empty seats!!! What a witch. It really did not start the tour off well at all.
The scenery was beautiful, though. I know I keep saying this over and over, but pictures do not do the Grand Canyon justice. It is really something you absolutely have to see for yourself to feel the magnitude, how immense, how beautiful, how awe-inspiring. And the bus driver did get better... she even pointed out a rock formation for us. The tour was called the "Sunset Tour" so we did get to see the sunset. It was beautiful. I took so many pictures! I'll post some here later.
After the tour, we came on out to the little town where our motel is (2-3 miles out of the park) and ate at McDonald's (there are not a whole lot of choices out here). Then we went over to the motel to check in. And that was a whole 'nother adventure! We didn't realize there was a problem... until we got to the building where our room was and found it was on the second floor and there was no elevator! My mom's knees are bad, and after dragging the suitcases up the stairs and almost passing out myself, I decided this was NOT going to work for 2 days! And then I'd have to get those suitcases back DOWN the stairs when we leave on Saturday. So I called the front desk and told them that they should have asked us if a room on the 2nd floor with no elevator would be acceptable... I then told them if they suggest we move and move our own stuff, to forget it. But she promptly moved us to a deluxe room in the main building and sent someone to move our suitcases!! Then we found out that the air conditioner uses re-circulated air from the outside and will not come on if the outside air is cooler than the inside!! Does that make ANY sense??? So he just opened out window!!! Unbelievable! I'm all for going green but I am not sleeping with my window open in a strange place... or any place for that matter!! It did finally cool down in the room and I closed the window before going to bed. It wasn't as cool as I would like in here, but I'm sure Mom was comfortable!! LOL
So that's the story of a looooonnng day! More fun due the next one!
Then we headed north to a couple of scrapbook stores. We got some cute Arizona/Grand Canyon things. They were nice stores. I even saw a couple of new things I had not seen yet. By this time, it was lunch, and they happened to have a Del Taco where we were! I miss Del Taco so much!
It was 1:15 and we were ready to head to the Grand Canyon. We had called this morning and made reservations for a bus tour there that began at 4:20 PM. More than one person we had asked told us it was 2.5 hours to the Grand Canyon. So we get in the car, I plug up the GPS, enter where we're headed... and it indicates it will take us 3 hours to get there! We are not going to make our tour. We make this entire wonderful, beautiful drive through the desert and cannot stop to take pictures of anything and have to worry the entire time about making the tour.
We pull into the park about 4:15... and the entrance line I pick to go through is slow as molasses. We finally get in and realize we are not going to make it. I call the tour desk and explain the situation. The helpful person on the other end of the phone says, "I would have left earlier." Well, duh?! Then he tells me to go to the first lodge we come to (Yavapei Lodge) and reschedule the tour with the tour desk operator there. We park, and I see a bus. So I think it's the tour bus, and I start rushing Mom and we go running toward the bus stop... but the bus kept going. We go inside and the girl at the desk was wonderful... she called for a car to come pick us up and take us to meet the tour bus! How awesome is that?!
The driver picks us up and the only thing he said to us the ENTIRE drive is when he pointed to the right and said, "There's the canyon." !!! Again, duh!! I so wanted to ask him if he was always like that or if he was ticked cause he had to come pick us up! LOL He pulls up to the bus, which is at it's first stop, and we run up to the bus driver with our ticket and I tell her "We're the late ones." She points to another bus parked behind hers and says "You'll be on that bus." So we start over there and THAT bus driver comes down the steps and yells to the first driver, "They have to go back to Yavapei Lodge - you need to take them." Well, the first bus drivers huffs and puffs, snatches the ticket from us and says, "Get on the bus!" I said, trying to lighten the situation, "I'm not feeling wanted." And she says that her bus is packed and he had room. Well, we get on the bus and there are 5-6 empty seats!!! What a witch. It really did not start the tour off well at all.
The scenery was beautiful, though. I know I keep saying this over and over, but pictures do not do the Grand Canyon justice. It is really something you absolutely have to see for yourself to feel the magnitude, how immense, how beautiful, how awe-inspiring. And the bus driver did get better... she even pointed out a rock formation for us. The tour was called the "Sunset Tour" so we did get to see the sunset. It was beautiful. I took so many pictures! I'll post some here later.
After the tour, we came on out to the little town where our motel is (2-3 miles out of the park) and ate at McDonald's (there are not a whole lot of choices out here). Then we went over to the motel to check in. And that was a whole 'nother adventure! We didn't realize there was a problem... until we got to the building where our room was and found it was on the second floor and there was no elevator! My mom's knees are bad, and after dragging the suitcases up the stairs and almost passing out myself, I decided this was NOT going to work for 2 days! And then I'd have to get those suitcases back DOWN the stairs when we leave on Saturday. So I called the front desk and told them that they should have asked us if a room on the 2nd floor with no elevator would be acceptable... I then told them if they suggest we move and move our own stuff, to forget it. But she promptly moved us to a deluxe room in the main building and sent someone to move our suitcases!! Then we found out that the air conditioner uses re-circulated air from the outside and will not come on if the outside air is cooler than the inside!! Does that make ANY sense??? So he just opened out window!!! Unbelievable! I'm all for going green but I am not sleeping with my window open in a strange place... or any place for that matter!! It did finally cool down in the room and I closed the window before going to bed. It wasn't as cool as I would like in here, but I'm sure Mom was comfortable!! LOL
So that's the story of a looooonnng day! More fun due the next one!
Phoenix/Grand Canyon Trip, Day 1, Wednesday, October 14
Drove to the airport in the rain. Even with stopping and getting Chicken Minis, we made it to the Park 'n Go by 9:15 am. Our flight was due to take off at 10:45. Tracy had let me know there was no holdups on the highways or through security at the airport, so I knew we had plenty of time. Dropped the car off and headed off to the airport. Had no problems checking our bags (I had paid for them when I checked in for our flight the day before.) and breezed right through security. I even forgot to put my quart-size Ziploc bag in the tray to go through the machine!! They didn't even say a word.
Got on the plane... and it ended up being 30 minutes late taking off. Because of the rain, there was a long line of planes ahead of us. But the pilot was entertaining and made it his mission to make up some of the time... which he did... about half of it. The flight was the smoothest I've ever taken. VERY little to no turbulence. Great experience for Mom's first time flying.
We landed in Phoenix and I have NEVER gotten checked luggage so quickly! We walked out to catch the rental car shuttle and it was already there! Phoenix Airport has all of their rental car companies under one roof. Very convenient! Getting our rental car (mini-van) was very simple, also. So we hit the road to find us something to eat! The only thing they gave us on the plane was 3 crackers and a little bag of pretzels, and our stomachs were on Georgia time! And that time was 3 o'clock!
I was amazed from the first moment I saw Phoenix. It is beautiful here. SO different from anything I've ever seen! There are rocks in front yards instead of grass. There are cacti everywhere... just like the ones you would see in the old Westerns! The trees and flowers are different... it is so interesting. And it appears that the zoning is the same all over Phoenix.... adobe houses and roofs... the western "feel" and "look" all the way! Even the McDonald's fit the style!
We found a Jack in the Box on the way to Aunt Evelyn's house in Sun City West. We talked to a nice guy there who commented on my accent first thing!
After eating, we drove to Aunt Evelyn's house. It was my first time to meet her and her husband, Ted. Mom had not seen her sister in over 45 years! It was an emotional reunion. Since both of them have been unable to drive due to health problems, we took them on a couple of errands and then we had dinner at Olive Garden. We dropped them off at home (after some mis-communication with the directions... let me just say that Aunt Evelyn is all over the place and worries a lot and forgets even more) and went to our motel, which was nearby.
I was wound up and while tired, really did not want to sleep! Too much to see and do and I felt like I didn't get started today. The only picture I took was of Aunt Evelyn and Ted, which was great, but I was itching to take pictures of the area!
(Oh, and as I had feared, it gets dark earlier here... 6 o'clock today! I don't like that too much and it's harder when you're traveling in a strange place and have to find your way in the dark. That might be the deal breaker to keep me from actually moving out here to this pretty place! LOL)
Got on the plane... and it ended up being 30 minutes late taking off. Because of the rain, there was a long line of planes ahead of us. But the pilot was entertaining and made it his mission to make up some of the time... which he did... about half of it. The flight was the smoothest I've ever taken. VERY little to no turbulence. Great experience for Mom's first time flying.
We landed in Phoenix and I have NEVER gotten checked luggage so quickly! We walked out to catch the rental car shuttle and it was already there! Phoenix Airport has all of their rental car companies under one roof. Very convenient! Getting our rental car (mini-van) was very simple, also. So we hit the road to find us something to eat! The only thing they gave us on the plane was 3 crackers and a little bag of pretzels, and our stomachs were on Georgia time! And that time was 3 o'clock!
I was amazed from the first moment I saw Phoenix. It is beautiful here. SO different from anything I've ever seen! There are rocks in front yards instead of grass. There are cacti everywhere... just like the ones you would see in the old Westerns! The trees and flowers are different... it is so interesting. And it appears that the zoning is the same all over Phoenix.... adobe houses and roofs... the western "feel" and "look" all the way! Even the McDonald's fit the style!
We found a Jack in the Box on the way to Aunt Evelyn's house in Sun City West. We talked to a nice guy there who commented on my accent first thing!
After eating, we drove to Aunt Evelyn's house. It was my first time to meet her and her husband, Ted. Mom had not seen her sister in over 45 years! It was an emotional reunion. Since both of them have been unable to drive due to health problems, we took them on a couple of errands and then we had dinner at Olive Garden. We dropped them off at home (after some mis-communication with the directions... let me just say that Aunt Evelyn is all over the place and worries a lot and forgets even more) and went to our motel, which was nearby.
I was wound up and while tired, really did not want to sleep! Too much to see and do and I felt like I didn't get started today. The only picture I took was of Aunt Evelyn and Ted, which was great, but I was itching to take pictures of the area!
(Oh, and as I had feared, it gets dark earlier here... 6 o'clock today! I don't like that too much and it's harder when you're traveling in a strange place and have to find your way in the dark. That might be the deal breaker to keep me from actually moving out here to this pretty place! LOL)
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Testing and playing with my new SmartPhone
I'm checking to see how hard it would be to do a blog post with my phone. Not impossible, but I'd hate to write a long one this way!
This new phone is fun, but does have a learning curve that I will be riding for awhile!
Needed a new cell phone, but couldn't justify a Blackberry. So I ended up with this Nokia Surge. Full keyboard, e-mail, Internet, 200 text messages a month. All for only an arm and part of a leg. Am not looking forward to the first bill...but I'm having fun in the meanwhile!
This new phone is fun, but does have a learning curve that I will be riding for awhile!
Needed a new cell phone, but couldn't justify a Blackberry. So I ended up with this Nokia Surge. Full keyboard, e-mail, Internet, 200 text messages a month. All for only an arm and part of a leg. Am not looking forward to the first bill...but I'm having fun in the meanwhile!
Thursday, October 8, 2009
My other invisible illness
The illness I live with is Depression.
I was diagnosed with it about 1999.
But I had symptoms probably my entire life... at least since my teen years. It is heredity in my family.
The biggest adjustment I had to make at the time of my diagnosis was wrapping my mind around having to take the medication every day. My antidepressant was the first maintenance medication I ever had to take.
Most people assume that I'm fine. Or that it will pass. Or that I'm mad because I'm so quiet.
The hardest part about mornings is the feeling and memories all come flooding back.
The hardest part about nights is not being able to go to sleep. My mind won't shut off.
Regarding alternative treatments, I have tried quite a few in addition to the medication: therapy, group, journaling, meditation.
People would be surprised to know how often I have suicidal thoughts.
My illness has taught me that I can be quite good at hiding my true feelings about myself.
One thing people say that gets under my skin is "Oh, you shouldn't think like that" or "You shouldn't feel that way." I know all that, but this illness is in the brain and when I'm in a depression, I don't think rationally.
But I love it when people notice that something is not right and ask me (genuinely) "What's going on?". But that rarely happens.
When someone is diagnosed I’d like to tell them: This one is tough; it is a lifelong battle. Get all the help you can every chance you get. Just taking a pill may not fix it.
Something that has surprised me about living with this illness is how the slightest thing - a comment, a rainy day, or a TV show - can set a depression in motion.
The nicest thing someone did for me when I wasn’t feeling well was acknowledge my feelings, no matter how magnified they might be.
Society wants its people to be optimistic... happy... positive... certainly not negative and full of doom and gloom. Honest feelings (such as anger, sadness, or frustration) are looked down upon... we should not discuss such things. "We need to snap out of it. No one else wants to hear our problems." Many times, none of that is possible for a person suffering from depression. I don't have a broken arm to display; I have a broken mind. Mental illness is still taboo in many ways. So when I am depressed, I feel isolated. That adds to the depression... it's a vicious cycle. Most times I just want someone to notice... sometimes I don't want to talk about it. Sometimes I want to scream my pain from the rooftops... most times, I just want to hide in my house with a blanket over my head. I probably won't go looking for comfort... I want it to come to me. Many times, my feelings are genuine... just magnified. Just because I have an illness of the mind does not mean that my feelings are never correct or justified. A careless comment that deserves my anger or hurt may set it off, but in the end, I will figure out how it was my fault... how everyone would be better off without me. As they say, depression is anger turned inward. Most of the time, I can hide it; sometimes it is obvious. Most times, I can go months without a depression... and then when it comes, it can linger for weeks. I can't speed it along. But it will go as quickly as it came. Until the next time.
I was diagnosed with it about 1999.
But I had symptoms probably my entire life... at least since my teen years. It is heredity in my family.
The biggest adjustment I had to make at the time of my diagnosis was wrapping my mind around having to take the medication every day. My antidepressant was the first maintenance medication I ever had to take.
Most people assume that I'm fine. Or that it will pass. Or that I'm mad because I'm so quiet.
The hardest part about mornings is the feeling and memories all come flooding back.
The hardest part about nights is not being able to go to sleep. My mind won't shut off.
Regarding alternative treatments, I have tried quite a few in addition to the medication: therapy, group, journaling, meditation.
People would be surprised to know how often I have suicidal thoughts.
My illness has taught me that I can be quite good at hiding my true feelings about myself.
One thing people say that gets under my skin is "Oh, you shouldn't think like that" or "You shouldn't feel that way." I know all that, but this illness is in the brain and when I'm in a depression, I don't think rationally.
But I love it when people notice that something is not right and ask me (genuinely) "What's going on?". But that rarely happens.
When someone is diagnosed I’d like to tell them: This one is tough; it is a lifelong battle. Get all the help you can every chance you get. Just taking a pill may not fix it.
Something that has surprised me about living with this illness is how the slightest thing - a comment, a rainy day, or a TV show - can set a depression in motion.
The nicest thing someone did for me when I wasn’t feeling well was acknowledge my feelings, no matter how magnified they might be.
Society wants its people to be optimistic... happy... positive... certainly not negative and full of doom and gloom. Honest feelings (such as anger, sadness, or frustration) are looked down upon... we should not discuss such things. "We need to snap out of it. No one else wants to hear our problems." Many times, none of that is possible for a person suffering from depression. I don't have a broken arm to display; I have a broken mind. Mental illness is still taboo in many ways. So when I am depressed, I feel isolated. That adds to the depression... it's a vicious cycle. Most times I just want someone to notice... sometimes I don't want to talk about it. Sometimes I want to scream my pain from the rooftops... most times, I just want to hide in my house with a blanket over my head. I probably won't go looking for comfort... I want it to come to me. Many times, my feelings are genuine... just magnified. Just because I have an illness of the mind does not mean that my feelings are never correct or justified. A careless comment that deserves my anger or hurt may set it off, but in the end, I will figure out how it was my fault... how everyone would be better off without me. As they say, depression is anger turned inward. Most of the time, I can hide it; sometimes it is obvious. Most times, I can go months without a depression... and then when it comes, it can linger for weeks. I can't speed it along. But it will go as quickly as it came. Until the next time.
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