So I'm home tonight. I just felt awful this morning but managed to struggle through the day... it kind of looks bad when you take a sunny Friday off just before you take vacation. ;-) Plus.. I had stuff to do at work.

So... the past few weeks in a nutshell:

After the McKesson/ALI Acquisition BBQ and Celebration at UBC's Museum of Anthropology I was supposed to go to the weekend outdoor portion of a St. John Ambulance Wilderness First Aid course... but I had a monster sore throat, so I rescheduled for August. I spent the weekend curled up in M.'s bed while he made me tea and brought me cold medication... all the while with me protesting "I should go home, I'm going to make *you* sick." What did the greatest guy in the world say in return? Something wonderful along the lines of... "No, cuz then you'd be all alone and we're going to make each other sick sooner or later, anyway. You're staying." Can I say melt? Oh yes, indeed. The "cold that never manifested" turned out to be a nasty case of strepp throat, which I realized on Tuesday morning at about 1:30am. The pain started on the previous Thursday night.. but me thinking it was just a cold coming on... didn't go to the doctor until I couldn't swallow or sleep for the pain at 1:30 in the morning. Resourceful me, I found the phone book and discovered that we have a local hospital with an emergency room. They gave me pain drugs (that didn't really work, but the fact that I had started to take care of the problem helped me sleep) and antibiotics and a prescription for more.... My throat is a bit sore again... because I didn't *quite* finish the antibiotics. I hope I didn't mess myself up big time. I'm finishing them off again. All the bloody way this time.

Last weekend's Wilderness Survival Course:

This was a hoot, except I think the antibiotics made me a bit ill... because both days I felt nauseous and light headed during and after hiking. We learned what we should bring on a day hike in case we are stuck out overnight and we learned to improvise what we didn't bring... where to find/make/set up shelter, getting water, saving food, etc.. We set up tarps in all sorts of different ways. The weather was perfect, unfortunately..... we would have learned even more had it been nasty out. This did afford a gorgeous view of the nearly full moon and stars from a ridge near where we stopped. I saw two shooting stars and tons of sattelites lying on my back on the spongy dry moss. Fantastic. Magical. Wish M. had been there to share it with me. Slept pretty darn well in my tarp shelter, too.

Coming up:

The bike tour of the Gulf Islands that became a road trip to Calgary via Nelson, BC. A road trip because I haven't got enough recent mileage on my bike to be able to ride far every day and enjoy it and because I want to see Kim and Ed. Nelson because my birth mom lived there when I was born and because M. grew up near there until he was about 12 or so... We are going to stay just a few minute's walk from their property. We'll explore the Slocan Valley a bit maybe a day and a half's worth... and then drive over the Rockies to Calgary to see delicious and juicy Kim! She, as you know if you read her blog (which you should because it's infinitely more entertaining than mine and I link it to the right over there.... --> ) is getting married in September and all of her bridesmaids live miles away. I'm the closest and I'm on the west coast of B.C.! I figured it would be awesome to see she and Ed before the hustle and bustle of wedding week and I want to introduce M. to everyone!

But time for bed. I'm tired and still sick. I want to be healthy for the trip!