Cedar!!!

I absolutely hate it. I first found out the I was allergic to cedar during my first winter here in San Antonio. I used to live here when I was very young but who can remember that far. So it was roughly around January when I started getting extremely congested and itchy eyed. I really didn't know what to think of it because I've never really had to deal with allergies before. So I let time go by and just dealt with it, till I could wait no more. I called Dr. mom and asked her what medicine I should take. She told me that my dad would get really bad allergies around this time when we lived in S.A. and now where he comes to visit. I asked her what this obnoxious allergen was, and she told me it was the cedar trees. She passed the phone to my dad so I could ask him what he recommends to take to help ease the symptoms. He told me to use some nasal spray and some over the counter allergy medicine. So I do this and everything seems to get better. Well not for long. We had gone up to Kerrville to visit with Natalie's family and I felt like I was going to suffocate. I had no idea when the s*** hit the fan, but it did. So remembering what my mom had said about cedar trees I asked Kevin (Nat's dad) what trees were in the area. He told me that we were SURROUNDED by cedar trees. So as you can imagine I was in shock, not anaphylactic  shock… yet. But I knew it was going to be a long week. Some how I managed to survive without epi pens and just a health dose of nasal spray.

So now we are in 2010… January… My symptoms are back. As I knew they would be. I was ready for them this time. I had my nasal spray and some Ny-quil ready on my night stand for the first sign of symptoms. Well I had the wrong nasal spray. It had menthol in it. So instead of helping to calm my sneezing it drastically increased it. I would have about 3 sneeze attacks every minutes or so consisting of about 6-7 sneezes. My handkerchief didn't stand a chance, nor did the other 5. haha. So finally I deduced that my spray was the cause of my misery and I got a new plain bottle. So for the most part I am doing relatively well. Till this weekend.

Natalie and I went out of town to celebrate our engagement. There is a little bed and breakfast owned by a fellow puppy raiser from GDTx. We heard great things about them from staff member and we thought we would try it out. So we head over there and I had already looked at the street name so I could put it into my gps… Well the street was called…CEDAR HillS… The name didn't really click and we were on our way. I knew I was still going to be suffering my allergies so we packed medicine and other supplies to help keep them at bay.  Well I wish I would have had my own E.R. team on call for me. We got to the place, but right before we turned on the street, the gps called out "turn left on cedar hills." The nightmare began. I realized this wasn't a name they picked out of a hat and stuck it on a street it was actually hills with nothing but cedar on them. So We get into the room and I'm already getting congested so I take some medicine and just try to live with it. So night time comes and I'm doing decently, and I go ahead and take a tylenol pm. It might as well have been a placebo. I woke up the next morning with a nose that felt like it had been sealed up with wax, and an eye that felt like it had just been introduce to Muhammed Ali's fist. It was horrible. This is kind of mean, but I thought it was funny when I found out Natalie was allergic to cedar too. It was another thing we had in common. Her symptoms were nothing compared to mine though. So I take some more of the placebo, and some nasal spray and prepare myself for a lousy day. So after I had done that it was time to feed Egypt and take her out to do her business. She took her time finding the perfect place to go, and while she was I was wondering if they put colostomy bags on dogs, haha. So after she is done and I'm starting to seize up, the inn-keeper comes to give us the best breakfast I've ever had. So I stay out to talk to her a little bit and I told her I was allergic to cedar, and she delivered the same dreadful words Kevin told me a year back. We were surrounded by cedar, and most of the furniture in the place were were staying in was made of cedar. Feeling thoroughly depressed I asked her what she recommends for a remedy. She had mentioned to me that she was allergic to cedar too, and that she practically lived off of Benedryl. I had heard good things about Benedryl, like it was a good goodnight juice and it helps when you babysit, but I never knew there was one for allergies. Since I had already taken some medicine I didn't want to o.d. on over the counter medication so I decided to wait till later to go buy and take some of this miracle medicine. Later on after all of our shopping Nat and I went to wal-mart to get some medicine, and some movies. We got back to the room and I took a Benedryl, and before i knew it the sandman had thrown a mud rock at me. I was out cold, I felt pretty bad because I was in the middle of watching a movie with Nat. Morning came and the first thing I said to Natalie was… "I love…. Benedryl" hahaha. I always tell her good Morning for the record. But I haven't been able to breath at all this month till this morning. It was great. So now I'm not going to take Ny-quil allergy or that lousy Tylenol allergy… maybe Day-quil, but when its night time I'm going for Benedryl. If it wasn't considered arson, I would go and douse some cedar trees in gasoline and light a match. Of course I would plant some kind of tree, but it would probably die. I'm terrible at keeping plants and fish alive. huh. If there is ever a fire in a cedar forest, it wasn't me.

What a Great Day!

It was. Natalie and I had just gotten engaged and it was about an hour later and we were at home. She was chatting away with her sister and I was relaxing waiting to go out to eat with Nat. So I was sitting on the bed and listening to music on my laptop. It's such a great laptop. So I was scrolling through the music waiting till I found a song I liked when all of a sudden a song from Kings of leon came on, so I listened to that. After that song another song from the kings came on and I thought to myself "what luck". Then  ANOTHER song from them came on. I wasn't suspicious yet but took it all in stride. Then a cover version of Metallica's Unforgiven came on. It is done by a string tribute band. It sounds awesome, it is a bunch of violins and a chelo playing all aspects of the song (except the drums. So I thought to myself "man! this is a good day I get engaged and my laptop is playing all my favorite songs." So I let the music keep rolling and eventually I get curious why it's playing good music it never does this… Not even my ipod does that. So about 30 minutes roll by and still good songs. So I finally investigate. Well it turns out that while I was scrolling through my songs, I must have switched the playlist to "25 most played songs"  on my Itunes window. So I felt pretty dim after that.  I decided to tell Nat about it later on, fully knowing I would be made fun of. Can you blame her? If it was her I would make fun of her all day and ask if she could D.J. the wedding lol… So for the past few days thats the playlist I've been listening to. Every once in a while I'll run into a chapter from my Harry Potter audiobook, I didn't realize I listened to it that much. Its got the highest play count out of every song at like 14. I'm surprised it beat any Metallica song considering they are my favorite band lol.

You shouldn't keep secrets!

Good Advice! This past month has been one of the most deceitful and stressful months of my life. It all started on christmas. My mom was driving me back to my apartment after we had done the Xmas with the family, and I figured this was the best time to bring up the convo. We had been talking a little bit about Nat and I, so I thought I'd ask my mom what she thought if we got married. She said she though it would be great, and started asking me questions of how I would take care of Natalie and what told me I was ready for that  commitment. Now she wasn't asking me about the readiness because she didn't want me to, she was just making sure that I was being fair to Natalie and not just doing it on a whim. So after I gave her my reasons and my thoughts of everything she told me that I had the right mind set for a marriage. she didn't say that word for word but that was the gist of it. So with that down It was time for me to talk to my dad. I had told Nat that I had talked to my mom to show her I was serious about our relationship, but I told her that I wouldn't tell her when I would talk to my dad or her parents. (apparently she wasn't paying attention to this bit of information, you'll find out later) So I had went to Alice (I wouldn't be surprised if no one knew where this was at), but this is where I'm from. So new years rolls around and we were getting ready for a new years party and I decided this would be the best time to talk to my dad before we all got trashed. When I approached him I told him that I needed to talk to him about something, and asked if my mom had told him what we had spoken about on christmas. He told me yes, so it saved me a lot of time and breath loll. I asked him what he thought and his serious tone came in. He only does this for meetings and times when he is trying to show off, haha kJ. So he told me that he thought Natalie was a very great woman and that she takes very good care of me and she has relieved a ton of stress from him and my mom. He said that he was very happy with our relationship, and that we had his blessing for a marriage. I would have done it even if he said no haha.

So two down and two to go. My time with Nat's parents was limited because of the day I wanted to ask her and the fact that they live about 4 hours away and it would be a long walk for me if I wanted to see them. So luckily they had come for a week to a town close by to spend the new years and relax for a bit. Sadly Nat's mom went up to waco for a few days to see her mom so that cut my time a little… It's not your fault lol. And on top of that we find out on Tuesday that Nat's uncle is getting married the coming saturday, talk about short notice haha..  So it is saturday (wedding day) everyone is together so I finally have my chance. so I discretely disappear with Nat's dad to ask him if we can go for a drive, but he has to ask nat's mom to come because I had to talk to them. He agreed so we reappear and he asks her if we can go for a drive. Well Natalie decides to impersonate a bad cases of hemorrhoids and  lingers around me so it is kinda hard to shake her off. So I tell her we are going to go get something to drink and ask her if she wants me to pick anything up for her. Well Ms. nosey asks why her mom is going, I tell her I dunno her dad just asked her to come. So we are about to take off on our drive, and they almost forget me! Lucky I realized this or it would have been a loss haha.We take off and I told her parents that no family outside of my own has been so accepting of me and loving towards me (at least I think they do) and I asked them if I would be able to join theirs and marry Natalie. There was no answer but I could tell her dad was excited. He turned back and asked mama(nat's mom from now on)  what she thought. She didn't answer, but then I realized she was crying. (I didn't know she hated me that much) lol. She said that she would be happy if I did. So I was thrilled and her dad said ok and shook my hand. So to give the eyes a little time to not be so puffy we got some gas. When we got back Ms. nosey asked why I didn't get anything. I hadn't realized I was empty handed so I told her that I was looking for a fairly rare soda, and that they didn't have it. She said ok and I was secretly thinking to myself "fool!" lol. Now that the easy part was down… (wish I was making that up) It was time to find a ring.

So I made up a story that I had to go home to see a doctor for some therapy I do. And Natalie bought that story too. So it was a few days after I talked to her parents and I was home. It was actually 2 weeks from today that I went. I had the perfect jeweler in mind so I utilized my great guide dog and walked to his shop. Well he was out of town. haha. But lucky for me a woman that worked there called him and told him what I was looking for so he went to the place where he gets his diamonds from and he hand picked a few for me. The next day he came into town and luckily he was at an office right next door to where I was and he gave me a ride to his shop. That is the greatest customer service I have ever had. Hand picked diamonds and a ride to the shop? Did I mention he is practically family? haha. So we arrive at his shop and Natalie starts texting me. So to cover up and assure that she wouldn't call I told her I was talking to a cousin that I hadn't talked to in a long time and that she likes to talk. So I got the ring and diamond picked out. It was a Marquise diamond on a cathedral setting with a white gold band. So I had to wait for a few days to have the ring built and prepared. It was done and my parents picked it up for me because I was in San Antonio by this time. So then the next challenge was to figure out how to get the ring in right under Nat's nose. Well with the help of my great (awesome not old) grand parents the ring arrived in S.a. Luckily Natalie had a class where she was going to been gone for at least an hour so my grandma could bring me the ring.So Natalie left the apartment and in less then a minute I was on the phone with my grandma asking her if she would be so kind and bring the ring over. She did and I was like a 5 year old waiting for christmas. Then finally it arrives. I told my grandma thank you very much and hurried back inside to check it out and hide it. My hiding place was second to none. Under Egypt's crate. haha. It has an area kind of like the bottom of a dresser but the front was covered up. I slid it over just a bit so I could stash the box underneath, making sure that when I slid the crate back it lined up perfectly with the impressions on the carpet.

Natalie comes home shortly after and we just hung out for a while. Then some how we got into the engagement conversation and she asked me if I had talked to her parents. I told her no because I hadn't had a chance to talk to them. She argued with this lie by saying that I had a perfect chance to talk to them around the time of the wedding. Little did she know. Then she asked me if I had talked to my dad and I told her I hadn't again she told me I could have talked to him when I went for new years.  Then I told her that I forgot about both times and she was right that I could have talked to them. If she had been paying attention to me on christmas she probably wouldn't have been so upset. haha. She got her feelings  hurt because I had "forgotten" and I felt bad because little did she know she was standing literally feet from her ring. So after a while I went out and started beating around the bush and asked her what she liked for a ring, partly to cheer her up but also to make her think I hadn't started. Yes guys can play mind games too. So we start looking online for some ring ideas and she tells me she kind of liked the princess cut diamonds. I could have shot myself ha. So we did that for a while and then I told her I would start researching things.

So mission accomplished Then saturday rolls around. My oldest sister came into town and she was staying at my brothers house. it was going to be an all sibling night over there. So I was very excited because this meant I could show them the ring so they wouldn't be left out. they already knew I was planning on proposing by the way. So I asked Natalie if I could spend the night there, but forgot in all the excitement we had a date that night for our anniversary. Could you blame me it was like a minute that all this happened and world war three almost started. So Natalie got extremely upset, and so was I because It was our anniversary dinner. When I was trying to explain to her all I could do was lie, yes that sounds bad but I couldn't tell her. OH! I want to go so I can show my brother and sisters your engagement ring! that would just ruin everything. So I get yelled at for a while, and retreat. I tell Natalie's sister what had happened so she wouldn't be mad at me because I thought Nat had told her what had happened, and I also wanted some advice on how to apologize because there was nothing I could say to fix it, and I sure wasn't going to tell her the truth. So while I was talking with Erin, Natalie was getting more upset because I went and talked to Erin "behind her back" as Natalie thought. The war just started… Poor erin. So after Erin and I get yelled at, I try and make things better. I have no idea how I did it but I made Natalie feel better and not be mad. Natalie said all I had to do was apologize and mean it. If I didn't it would have been a really awkward dinner.

So now we pass some excruciatingly slow days to tuesday our 2 year anniversary. I told Natalie I wanted to take her to the San Antonio botanical garden so we went. I had my whole speech planned out to lead me up to the proposal. So we were going around the gardens and Natalie was going crazy on her camera taking pictures of dead plants haha. Then I told her I wanted to get to a swing we had seen close to the entrance of the park. I told her this because it would give me some time to build up some courage to start my speech. Well there was a flaw in the plan… I was standing about 10 feet away from a bench so she told me "Why don't we sit at this bench?". I wish I had a bat so I could have broken it so we wouldn't have had to sit there. To bad I didn't. So we sit and I start my speech on how I can compare a relationship to a garden. I thought it was a good speech but Natalie told me later that her and Erin thought it was corny. She's lucky she got a speech and not a ring box thrown at her while I run away screaming the question instead. So after my clever comparison I told her I had to ask her a question, while I was saying this I got up and was beginning to kneel down. I had pulled out her ring box from Egypt's treat bag. That was the only Place I could hide it. I cleaned out the treats that morning. Poor Egypt she did good work that day too, but I made up for it.  So throughout the day I was walking with a ring in my dogs treat bag, and one time natalie got to close to it so I moved it to the other side of my waist. I was paranoid. So After my proposal she told me " Ah no you didn't, no you didn't" I told her I did lol, and then she told me yes. So after that we called mine and her parents to tell them. Her mom put her on hold, my mom didn't answer her dad didn't answer, but my dad did. He never gets calls so I'm sure when he heard the ring he leapt across the room to get his phone haha just kidding dad. So later on we are driving back home and she confessed to me that she was looking at my pants pockets to see if I had any bulges that should be there. I'm not stupid enough to leave something like that out for her to see. Later we went to this awesome restaurant called the melting pot. It's amazing. They gave us a toast to the engagement and free wine glasses. I told Nat we could use the glasses at the wedding, but she had to burst my bubble and tell me the glasses said The Melting Pot on the side of them haha. O well. So that was the worst/best month of my life. It was hard lying to her and making her cry, but I told her I would make it up to her. I promised that. Hopefully it was enough haha.

Stories from GDB

So now I have Egypt, and wow what a dog she is. I have never met a dog that is so calm, obedient, and not stupid in my life. From minute one I knew we were a good match. So the first few hours we got to bond, and we had a few lectures on how to keep up with their hygiene and other tide bits about care. Then after a day or so we were issued our harness and essential equipment for work. Then we went to downtown San Rafael to learn basics and the feel of our dogs. Egypt blew me away the first minute I told her forward, she took me down the hall and to the exit doors to await the bus. We got outside she showed me the stairs and took me straight to the bus' doors. It was a slow ride simply because the anticipation of the new adventure was too great. But eventually we got there. When it came my turn to make my voyage I was nervous, but I knew I'd be alright because I had Egypt, and an instructor to keep me from getting lost. And we were off!!! Honestly if you were watching from the side you would probably get bored, we don't walk fast huh. It was thrilling for me though, so many new doors were opened for me, I know all i was doing was walking to the curb, but if I was somewhere else with a different destination it would be the best thing ever.

Egypt's work was amazing she showed me every curb, could care less about other people cooing at her, and kept a close eye on me. we walked a few city blocks and then went back to the downtown campus.

The next few days are pretty similar to this so we could get more accustomed to our dogs and signals they give us. It was still fun though.

My all-time favorite training scenario was the chase scenario.

Our instructor gets into the donated hybrid vehicle and try to run us over. Just kidding, but the urge to dive out of the way was always in the back of my head. So what they do is they will have the guide team walk across a driveway type entrance on a sidewalk, and the instructor will be waiting in that driveway for us to pass. Then they back up and pretend they were a driver backing up and they don't see us. Now of course they aren't going to run us over (they'd lose their driver's license), but the dogs don't know this. So here is where Egypt comes in. She notices that car coming and she rockets out of the way. This caught me and my instructor by surprise because we have never seen her move that fast. So I was still holding the handle by some miracle and she tugged me to what she felt was a safe distance. I though it was kinda funny that she almost ripped my arm out of the socket, but it was comforting to know if that should ever happen she'll drag me out of harms way.

Also during that bit of training they would have us start crossing the street and pull up in front of us to see how much distance the dogs would give us between the cars and ourselves. The dogs could back up if they wanted to or just stop and wait for the car to stop moving and for our cue to resume walking. Egypt and I had the furthest buffer. We had roughly 12 feet in between us and the cars, and everyone else averaged 6 feet.

It is great knowing that I have a dog the watches out for me, yeah right she just doesn't want to get run over.

I just wanted to say I am going to put a paws (spelled p a w s) on my guide dog school stories for right now. I have a friend heading to GDB next month and I don't want to spoil any surprises for her. Sorry friend I know you want to hear more stories, but I promise I'll put more stuff up when you're at the school so we can compare notes huh.