Risky Business

Six years ago today, I loaded a yellow truck with my belongings and drove off, alone, into early morning snow flurries. I was either doing the stupidest thing I'd ever done in my life or making a big, important decision for myself. I fiddled with the radio, trying to find anything decent between big cities in Ohio and Pennsylvania. I entertained myself with an station featuring mostly polka and a language I could almost understand from studying Russian. I listened to CDs that I knew well enough to sing along with so that the crappy cheap speakers I'd bought for my discman wouldn't annoy me as much. I made phone calls to check in from payphones (!) along my route. Hours and many miles of turnpike and highway later, I unloaded the truck into a spare room about a mile from Jen's house.

Depending on who I spoke to, I was either moving for a cool opportunity to do an apprenticeship with an outdoor education group, or I was moving to be closer to Jen. I'll let you decide which one was the more honest answer. I knew the outdoor ed thing would be cool either way, and just hoped that I wasn't making a foolish decision about this relationship that would later bite me in the ass. As it turned out, the job, or rather, a tick, was what (literally) bit me in the ass, while the relationship just continues to grow. Best decision I've ever made.

And some updates...

We made our third trip of the week to the pediatrician this morning. Natalie spent most of yesterday sleeping, and this alarmed us. As did her goopy, choking cough. However, she appears to be on the mend. Slowly, but improvement is improvement. She is clearly still quite tired, but she's making attempts to play! And smiling! And moving! Sometimes. When she really, really wants something. She pauses to put her head down, and still cries when we put her down sometimes, or for no apparent reason. But she has had no fever today, and is definitely improving from this and this (which sadly, don't even begin to capture the full misery).