In the past couple of weeks, I’ve been busy- first traveling and then settling back into life. I often say after a vacation that I need a vacation from vacation before I can really get back into my normal, day-to-day routine. There is so much to catch up on and do when you return. Thankfully, my sister dropped the dogs off at the house for us, so that was one less thing for us to fit in at 9:30 on a Sunday night. We still had to collect our bags, find our car, get home, make food (and of course, there is no food in the house because we were gone for a week). Inadvertently, I tried to burn the house down by not realizing something was on the bottom of the oven when throwing in a frozen pizza, so we had to then let the oven cool down, clean the oven and then actually make pizza. The following day, there is a mountain of laundry, plants that desperately need water, the fridge needs restocking. You need to mentally prepare yourself to return to work (or if you’re Justin, you do have to return to work and leave the other things to your girlfriend). It’s exhausting to come home from a trip.
We went to Montana. I’ve wanted to go to Glacier National Park for a while. (Many people say it’s their favorite park, and the glaciers will be entirely gone before we know it.) We were supposed to go a year ago, but COVID derailed those plans. Instead, I attended last year’s scheduled continuing education lectures virtually from the corner of my living room and was simply glad for a couple of days away from the chaos that was work at the time. As soon as I knew both Justin and I would be fully vaccinated in time for the CE this year, I signed up.
We usually do a decent amount of our trip planning on the fly as we go. This time, we made sure to book all of our lodging and figure out a rental car as soon as we knew we were going. Travel is pretty popular right now, as people get vaccinated and COVID restrictions lift. International travel can still be tricky, so a lot of people are staying within the States. Glacier is always one of the most visited parks, even in normal years. Rental cars are currently hard to find, and there were none available at the airport closest my CE and West Glacier. We ended up landing 5 hours away and driving. (We had a direct flight that way, which is always preference. Plus, we enjoy a good road trip, and Montana is a beautiful state.)
The views certainly did not disappoint. (I promise, someday, I’ll get photos actually shared.) The hiking was phenomenal. Wild Horse Island is a special place, and even though I’m guaranteed to develop a melanoma on my lower right leg because of the terrible sunburn I got kayaking there and back, it was a worthwhile experience. Avalanche Lake is breathtaking, and the Many Glacier area of the national park is like nothing else. Also- people actually stop for you when you’re at a crosswalk in Montana. I think they all believe I must have a disability or handicap because of how long it would take me to trust they were actually waiting for me. The pie at the Iron Horse Cafe and Pie Shop in Three Forks is absolutely delicious, and the food in general at Last Chair Kitchen and Bar in Whitefish is superb.
Since returning to Southeastern PA, I miss nice people and fresh mountain air. I enjoyed being a bit out of touch with the world for a week, not really paying much attention to the news, not being cut off constantly while driving (or sitting in traffic), not worrying about any patient outcomes or unhappy clients or what the reopening plan for the hospital is. I did miss my dogs, but they were very well loved and taken care of while at my sister’s house. I wasn’t worried about Elliot or Felix because they were also in good hands with my receptionist and her son. Although I’m sad to be back to the grind, I’m trying to keep all of the good things I have in my life in check:
-I made an extra student loan payment for the first time in a couple of months, and my loans just seem more and more manageable all the time.
-Even though I have to work this coming Saturday, it sounds like our current modifications make Saturday the most pleasant day of the week to work.
-My practice manager left me flowers on my desk last Friday because apparently Veterinary Appreciation Day happened while I was away. She certainly didn’t have to do that because I never would have known that the other doctors got flowers the previous week. I’ve been enjoying their bold colors in my kitchen all weekend.
-In a couple of weeks, I took a random day off, mid-week, for my birthday. If all goes according to plan, we’ll be hiking at my favorite place in PA that day, and I can’t wait!
-I get to start planning our next trip any day now, giving me my next thing to look forward to and keep me going through the summer craziness in a veterinary hospital.
-We just got a whole bunch of new plants for the yard yesterday. The space hasn’t been looking so great since a tree fell almost 3 years ago now and took out a bunch of flowering bushes with it. I’m looking forward to getting them all in the ground and hope they all live.
-I’m somewhat impatiently waiting to get my sister her “Thank You” gift for watching the dogs, because I really think she’ll like it and to seeing our youngest niece open the birthday gift we found for her at a little toy shop in Whitefish, for the same reason. (I already know that the gift for the reptiles was much appreciated and can’t wait to hear about the fun day it’ll bring.)
-It looks like both of the masses I aspirated on Rookie on Friday are probably benign.
Really, I can’t complain too much about my life. It’s little things, for the most part (like the oil stain in my driveway because I failed to notice for 3 weeks that the oil cap was left off at my car’s last oil change or that I continue to expect too much of Rook and Magic some days and set them up to make bad decisions by not taking their stressors into account or leaving treats on the kitchen island while training the other dog or Facebook failing to actually upload my Montana photos after spending way too much time trying to upload and organize them). Sure, there are things that regularly irritate me at work, and I might consider selling a kidney to be adequately, not even fully, staffed, but I read enough about other people in the field’s work situations to know that mine isn’t nearly that bad.
In short, I miss vacation and Montana, but I’m lucky to have the time and money to be able to go out there and enjoy it. Life is always going to have its ups and downs, the little highs and the annoying things that you just have to do. Today, it’s easy for me to see the good things and appreciate them (probably because I was off from work feel like I had a productive day). Tomorrow, may be harder for any number of reasons. I’ll just take it one day at a time and try my best to move on from the less than ideal things that happen in each day.
“You can find poetry in your everyday life, your memory, in what people say on the bus, in the news, or just what’s in your heart.” ~Carol Ann Duffy
