I'll take you in my backpack

5/28/11 Today I ventured out to a new eatery called Sugarnomics. This place was fantastic!!! For lunch I had a grilled cheese (3 different yummy cheeses) and peppered bacon sandwich. The beverage was called a Milo Dino and it was amazing. Dessert was salted caramel chocolate cake, and a mint brownie to take home for later. It's my birthday I can splurge today. Tomorrow I will be attempting to work some of that off! Salted Caramel Chocolate Cake Milo Dino I realize my reading has been slack...I'm working on it. It's tough to read when one eye isn't functioning properly! Books Read:  Russel Brand's Booky Wooky The Last Ridge

5/25/11 I finally dedicated some time this evening to capturing the beauty that occurs almost nightly in the sky...enjoy!

5/23/11 Much like in Japan, Guamanians (or perhaps their Japanese tourists) are fascinated with Spam. It's basically considered it's own food group. I thought that Spam came in a single flavor/variety. Upon entering the largest KMart in the world (conveniently located across from my hotel) I learned differently... Holy Spam! My favorites: Spam Island (special edition), and Spam Bacon

5/23/11 Today I had a follow up with the ENT specialist. He was a bit more personable, although still didn't provide much information. I had to ask the tough questions, like "does it look better", "has the condition of my ear canal improved?" So, there is slight improvement, however at the 2 week mark with these antibiotics if it has not fully recovered (and fingers crossed the Palsy gone away) then his recommendation is the surgery/drain insertion. He said the flight home would be miserable without it. I'm almost willing to take that chance! On my way out of this lovely establishment I walked straight into a group of prisoners and their prison guards. Everyone has medical needs right? Only difference is they are getting theirs for free while I'll be paying for mine for many years. Such is life. Makes you wonder just what kind of "quality" medical care you are getting if the establishment is also one that serves the incarcerated. Not like...

5/21/11 Today I went on a WW II tour of Guam. It was an all day affair, which wouldn't have been bad had I been on a bus with air conditioning the entire time rather than standing outside for the majority of it in the heat of the day. Oh and hiking through the insect ridden jungle with 3000% humidity (while still sick and on 2 different very strong antibiotics) was probably not my favorite! There were lots of cool things about the tour, got to see several caves where the Japanese hid out and attacked from. My favorite part of the tour was the discussion of the War Dogs. Literally dogs that were trained and utilized throughout the war. These dogs are credited with saving hundreds of lives because they could alert the Marines about the Japanese approaching long before they ever arrived. There is a cemetery here on Guam for the War Dogs who were casualties of the war, unfortunately that was not part of the tour. I saw all kinds of creepy crawly insects along the way, even some...

5/18/11 So it's only fitting that I've been reading Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day all week to kiddos...today turned out to be my very own day of that sort. So it was ENT specialist appointment day (yay). I should preface all of this by saying I'm a huge baby, I hate doctors, I have severe anxiety, will cry at the sight of a needle, and didn't attend a single doctors appointment by myself until it was just impossible to have my mom come with me (i.e.-college and she couldn't make the commute for an annual checkup. When I was about 23.) I put on my big girl pants and drove to the appointment. Upon arriving was informed that they hadn't contacted my insurance yet so I would have to pay 20% up front (not like my crappy insurance will cover much if any). I go to use the restroom pre-appointment only to find that someone has defecated in the trash bin DIRECTLY NEXT TO THE TOILET. They then proceeded to discard all of the paper tha...

5/5/11 Let's start off on a festive note, Happy Cinco de Mayo. Unfortunately I was not celebrating in a joyous fashion, you know the kind they advertise on the radio with margaritas, music, and other such happiness. For the past 2 weeks I have been pretty sick here in Guam. Knowing that my insurance 1. sucks and 2. certainly wouldn't cover something that isn't in "the lower 48" I resisted and resisted, convincing myself that I was getting better, and I honestly thought I was. I cycled through an array of symptoms, sore throat, congestion, no more congestion but my glands swelled up looking like I had golf balls in my throat, back to congestion and a seeming upper respiratory infection, to finally a few days ago when all congestion was slowly going away, all swelling was going down, and I FINALLY thought I was in the clear. Enter Wednesday (that bitch of a day that I don't like even in full health). During the work day I started to get some pain in my rig...