Double dates all over the place

Excellent Saturday!!! 

First was breakfast as Ricky's. A new favorite place! It's like a really nice Denny's. It's reasonably priced (for Vancouver, which is not reasonably priced) and very delicious. Plus right across from the apartment! So, delightful.

Then we got Max a haircut!!! He was getting a little mountain man-y, and was long overdue for a haircut. He had it cut a lot shorter than usual, but it means he'll get to avoid the place for even longer this time around. Plus he looks really sharp :)

Max headed home for some work as his first term is wrapping up this week. I went for some shopping! It's been months since I'd gotten any new clothes, and I was feeling itchy. Plus it's getting chilly here and I am not prepared. I snagged a haircut as well. I was trying to remember the last time I had a haircut. I think it was around last Thanksgiving!! I didn't get it cut before the wedding since I was just doing an up-do. I trim my own bangs on a regular basis but it always becomes time for the rest of your hair to be trimmed up.

Dinner plans next!!! Max's good friend Taylor from VFS lives a few blocks over from us. We met up with Taylor and his girlfriend Marisa for some dinner and drinks. 

They laughingly told us they were taking us to McDonald's, weren't sure if we'd heard of it. We actually went to Elephant & Castle which has a couple of pubs around Vancouver and across the country. It was delicious food! The drinks didn't measure up quite as far, but still a great spot.

From there we headed to Granville Street for some crepes and people watching. Saturday nights bring out the best worst side of Vancouver all over Granville. There were street magicians, 3 cos-players (exactly 3, it was very odd), gals with large advertisement backpacks, folks on first dates and tons of locals hitting the club scene. The crepes were delicious though. Max and I split a cinnamon sugar crepe and enjoyed every last bit of that thing. 

It was great to be out with friends. That was the first thing we'd done together with folks we've met here. Quite the splendid evening.

Burgess Family Infirmary

This weekend wasn't what we were expecting.

We had plans to go down to Seattle for the three day weekend. Visit Michael, see the Space Needle, visit the site of the World's Fair. All the Seattle things. 

But things were working against the Burgess clan.

I've been having constant stomach pains since Sunday night. They got worse at night, when I moved around or lied down. They got better when I ate. Sometimes the pain radiated through to my back. I finally gave in to go see a doctor on Thursday. He told me I have mild pancreatitis.

He then told us I should eat really gentle things for a few days to give my pancreas a break and let it heal itself. You know, steamed vegetables, bananas, mashed potatoes, rice. All of the things that I don't eat. Great. 

I did some internet medical research on my own and figured out that an all-liquids weekend was probably the best thing I could do for it. The doctor also gave me some pills that are essentially Prevacid to help calm down my stomach. 

After we got home from the doctor and propped me up with a heating pad, tomato soup, and tons of pillows, we noticed Loki was keeping his right eye closed. Because we weren't already up to our elbows in ailments. 

We called a vet to make sure there wasn't anything more seriously wrong with him. Initially we got the all clear, with instructions to bring him in if it didn't clear up. 

Friday night, of course, it hadn't cleared up. 

We'd already decided to stay in town for the weekend. My pain was getting worse, and walking around Seattle all weekend really wasn't in the cards. 

Loki had a trip back to the vet. He asked us a series of questions and we were initially hopeful as our answers were all "no." He hadn't been sneezing, or coughing, or itching at the eye, eating less or not drinking, there was not watery or gunky discharge. Evidently these were not the right answers and only made the vet more concerned. 

He gave Loki some drops to "freeze" the eye (still not sure what that was, but he said it would help with the pain he was having). Then he dropped in some dye that would stay in any scratches. Then he had to flush the eye with water.

Now, even with humans, flushing an eye with water is not an easy or pleasant experience. With cats, even worse. Loki hated every minute of this. The vet had a very large syringe without a needle so that he could repeatedly squirt the water at poor Loki's eye. 

The final step was to turn off all of the lights and use a florescent flashlight to look for any dye remaining in Loki's eye. To our horror, a spot the size of a pea shone bright green on his cornea. This is a corneal ulcer, one of the largest the vet had seen. Holy moly. 

He said the pain would be very harsh and it was odd that there had been no discharge. It would have started with a small scratch while he and Amelia were playing, or while Loki was grooming, or with a small foreign body, such as dust. The most important thing now was making sure that any treatment avenue we chose worked as fast as possible.

The vet brought in a gel-like eye drop antibiotic, dropping one drop into his eye and making sure it spread across the whole eye. This would need to be done every 2 hours for 24 hours, then every 4 hours for another 24 hours, then every 6 hours for 4 days. However, if there was no difference in the first 12 hours, we would need to switch to a stronger dose of two different antibiotics. 

Welcome to the long holiday weekend.

Wedding pictures!!!

I got oodles and oodles of wedding pictures from the amazing and incredible Christy Archibald (Facebook here) over the weekend. In fact, we were watching the second Cloud 9 vs. Curse game at PAX when I got the email with the link!!! Max was very tolerant of my non-participation while I poured over our pictures!

She set them up in four albums, and I loved it so much I kept them when I made my own hard copy books! That is what I'll be sharing here! When you click on the link, you'll be taken to Picaboo's website to view a preview of the book I made. I've set them to open a new window this time since it's sort of an exhibition. Tab through the pages for the full experience :) I know I put some in here, but for the full experience, check out the books!!!!

The first is Getting Ready. I've added a couple of my favorites from there.

Then we had the Ceremony! There's also some of that below.

Portraits were taken before and after the ceremony, but they fit well all in their own book. I even added some of these.

Our Reception was the best party we could have ever imagined! TONS of reception photos (we got almost 1000 from Christy in that album!). Ok, for these you HAVE to go look at the book! I'm sorry! I just can't pick out any to share over all the others!!!

Wedding bells

Ross and Britelle got married!!! It was beautiful, romantic, wonderful, and overwhelmingly happy!

It was great to be there for the big day! Britelle looked absolutely stunning in her dress, and Ross and the groomsmen looked dashing in their suits. The dresses Britelle picked out for her bridesmaids flattered each of them very nicely. The moms on both sides were positively beaming, and everyone seemed to get along just fine.

They had these adorable pint-sized jam jars with little purple birds, their names, and the date printed on them. They each had Hershey's hugs and kisses in them, and were presented in a big apple basket with a label instructing each of us to share hugs and kisses! It was precious.

The two are pretty well traveled, and had family and friends coming from all across the world, so they used an amazing world atlas as their guest book! Max and I found the page with Vancouver and signed our names! It was really fun to be able to sign somewhere out of the country (if only by 30 minutes!). 

The church they held the ceremony in was positively gorgeous! Huge stained glass windows depicting several Biblical stories. A large front altar with choir rows. It was stunning. They offered communion to all the guests, which I thought was really special. The bride and groom stayed at the front, so all the guests came up and took communion along side them. It was amazing. The song choices were beautiful. They had friends from the orchestra playing most of the music, with a trumpet piece from one of our friends, Keysto, for their recessional. The whole things was incredible. I cried! Max didn't cry, but couldn't stop smiling! 

The whole thing was simply unbelievable! I'm so happy for the delightful couple! Their relationship is really a blessing to this world and an incredible inspiration to those of us lucky enough to know them. Their love has withstood the tests of time and distance, and has only grown stronger. They love truly and honestly, and I know they will do great things together.

Popcorn please

When we went to see Godzilla, Max had a very amazing interaction with the kind woman working concessions.

First of all, Max and Jake had decided to split a popcorn for us all to share. I had picked up a water bottle and an apple juice so I set them on the counter so I wouldn’t have to hold them. Jake looks at me and with a completely straight face asks “do I know you?” The kind woman muttered something about serving all customers if we would wait patiently in line. I became surprisingly flustered, even though I knew he was joking. The woman’s reaction was what really sent me spinning. A few moments later I interjected with “I really do know him!” She gave us all a weird look and sort of shrugged. Her faces said “I do not get paid enough for weird shit like this.”

Alright, so we’re all caught up of what had happened before. Kind woman already thinks we’re all crazy. Jake isn’t paying attention anymore. It’s a 10 something showing so it’s sort of late already.

Now. For the real part of this story. The theatre had collection cups, one of which had some of the different M&M characters on it. Max wanted that cup. He was going to have that cup.

He approached the woman who was already in love with all three of us and said he’d like to order one of whatever gets him that cup. She said yeah that’s fine, would you like any popcorn.

This is where Max breaks down.

I ordered the souveneir cup with popcorn.

Blank stares from our favorite worker at the movie theatre.

I want the cup.

More blank stares.

This is where I step in.

Max, popcorn is not served in the cup.

What?

Can we get the cup with root beer in it and a medium sized popcorn?

This was a language she could understand. This was something she could deliver for us.

Max asked me if we were still getting the cup. 

Home alone

Our dear friends Ross and Britelle are getting married this weekend!!!! Max left this morning to hang out with the guy folk before the big "I do." His flight left at 8:55 am this morning, so as we have learned, we left the apartment at 5:15 to get to the airport, through security, and through customs in time! I went with him to the train station. The station right next to us doesn't start running until closer to 5:45 am, so we just took the 10 minute walk over to the station where he would pick up the line straight to the airport. I got Starbucks and Maxwell got on the train.

This city speaks right to my heart. That sounds cheesy, I know, but I'm just in love with it. At 5 in the morning the sun is already up and the birds are singing beautifully. Everything smell fresh, there's a light breeze that sweeps across everything and fills you with a light of hope for this day and every day. The people work and live as a holistic community to fill every need, every niche. The view itself from our apartment sets within me a fire for this life.

That leaves me home for a few days with just Netflix and Jake (when he's not at class). Once I got back this morning, I slept for another couple of hours. Once I re-arose from the deepest of slumbers, I rustled up my Hulu queue to see what was new in the world. The Bachelorette has started, which is super exciting!

This has been exactly the new chapter I needed in my life. It seems a world away from Tulsa, and in many ways it is. It's rooted in the same world I grew up in, but it's different enough in the most perfect ways. I find the atmosphere here infectious. There's an attitude a big city possesses, though the one Vancouver gives off is one of compassion, dreams, innovation. I'm not sure I'll ever find all the right words to describe it here. It's still such a beautiful dream.