Series of thoughts

Moving: Who would have thought that putting your worldy possessions in to boxes could be the source of such consternation. I've spent hours this past weekend emptying the contents of my closests, drawers, dressers into Uhaul boxes. Somehow magically by the end of this week, everything in one apartment is going to end up in a new apartment. And then I'm going to have to open up all the boxes and empty their contents back into closests, drawers and dressers. Despite feeling slightly stressed about moving, I'm looking forward to getting settled in a new place and living with my favoritest person.

Lucy: In other news, Lucy Olive is losing her teeth. She's missing a few on the bottom and top. For some reason, I was amazed to learn that dogs had puppy teeth and stronger grown up teeth, just like humans. This is good news because Lucy broke a tooth that's now a brownish color rather than pearly white. We're also starting puppy classes with a great local trainer. Last week was the first class but since I was in Brazil, my current roommate and the lady boarding Lucy for the week brought her. Apparently she was the most "energized" and curious dog, finding and eating dust bunnies in a corner of the class room. She was also the only one who suddenly decided to go potty in the middle of the room. And also the only one who thought it was really fun to pull plastic off some package (they had to spray it with bitter apple.)

Brazil: Justin and I finally made it to Rio this past week. Most of the apprehension was relieved when we made it past the check in, a critical step we failed the last time around because we didn't know we needed visas. Despite weather.com forecasting thunderstorms the entire week, I really couldn't have asked for a better time. I would not mind if I was reborn a Carioca (native to rio de janeiro) in the next life. On our first day we went to see a local soccer game at Maracana. We spent time at the beach and exploring neighborhoods. Among the touristy things which we didn't really do much of, we visted Christ the Redeemer in Corcovado where you have a panoramic view of the city. One of Justin's friends from college who grew up in Rio happened to be there at the time and was a big part of us having such a great experience. I would also highly recommend Wallpaper travel guides published by Phaidon. It's very discriminating and gives you a distilled version trying to pass along the best of the best (for the "design conscious.")

Diabetes: My a1c this past round was 6.3, which is up a lot from the 5.4 it was previously. There was a period where my blood sugars were going high and I wasn't sure why. I was doing everything that I was doing before, but my readings weren't making much sense to me. I was high for no obvious reason and taking a bunch of correction shots throughout the day. One piece of the puzzle was probably my Lantus. I keep it in my purse with me (so at room temperature) and it was due to be replaced after using it a little over a month. I also started increasing the units 1 at a time until I was waking up again from 100-130 (so now I'm taking 14 units instead of 12.) It was scary not having things "work." To use an analogy, diabetes is like an unwelcomed guest in my home who will never leave. If he's is civil and cleans up after himself most of the time, I guess I don't mind having him there. But if he's going to cause a big commotion and wreak havoc, then there's going to be an issue.

Since Lucy has had almost all her shots (except for rabies), we've gotten the go ahead to visit dog parks and other high dog traffic areas. I get very excited meeting other goldendoodles, just as I kind of get excited when I meet someone else with type 1 diabetes. When I bought literally 50 fiberful fruit leathers from trader joe's, I was explaining to the check out folks why I was buying so many (because they're really great emergency snacks for my diabetes), another trader joe's employee piped in about his wife having type 1. The next day on the plane, I sat next to an older gentleman and exclaimed when I saw his pump "I have diabetes too! Type 1." He responded, "Well that's the cross we bear I guess." It's strangely therapeutic to see someone else testing their bloog sugar and hearing the machines beep within a few seconds of eachother before meal time. If he can host his unwanted guest for so long, hopefully I can too.

Things to look forward to: These past weeks I've been realizing my list of things to look forward to, which included going on vacation and a bunch of weekends in tahoe. Also being able to bring Lucy to the park... I like keeping a list of things to look forward to (highly tangible / in the short term), so here goes the top three: 1) Finding a fantastic, luxuriously comfortable sectional couch for our new apartment and falling asleep on the chaise lounge part of it for the first time while watching a movie 2) Eating at Michael Minna's for our 2nd anniversary 3) The onset of warm weather and returning to the outdoors

Other exciting news: After a long journey, my dad and his wife found out that they're pregnant. So hopefully I will have a new brother or sister in the year of the golden pig. Congratulations!!