Photos and stuff

I didn't get much sleep last night because I spent the night in Vivian's room. A nurse comes in every two hours to check on her, and while Vivian doesn't wake up during these checks, and the nurses are really quiet and very quick, I'm a light sleeper, so...today was caffeine-fueled, to be sure. I am at the Ronald McDonald House now, and although I should turn out the light, this blogging is too therapeutic to skip.

For the first time tonight I helped myself to some of the free food available to me here at Ron McDon. As my heating pad was in the microwave, I checked out the leftovers fridge and found just what the doctor ordered: two Kraft singles and a slice of bread. Just then it was heaven to me, better than anything Whole Foods dished up yesterday and without the attitude. Thank you, Ronald McDonald House!

Vivian had another good day although she was complaining of discomfort at bedtime. It's hard for her to fall asleep in a bed that's at a pretty sharp incline while she's pulled upward up by an apparatus attached to her head and anchored by weights. In the daytime, though, it's a sight to see her cruising around on her walker, and I do mean cruising. She gets a lot of attention as she scoots around the hospital and approximates zero-gravity, and, a performer at heart, she likes the audience approval. The docs and nurses and other parents tell us stories about overconfident and dangerously acrobatic kids flipping the walkers over and crashing to the ground, so I'm constantly running after Vivian and cautioning her to slow down on the turns.

Here she is, levitating. Safe enough.

Today the physical therapists added another pound to her stack of weights. Each weekday they will add another until she maxes out at 15 lbs. If you're a 35-lb kid, that's a lot of weight to have suspended from your head. Right now she's at 6 lbs. Whenever I think about this ritual, my mind turns to Giles Corey, the Salem man arrested for witchcraft who, in protest of the "trials," refused to plead guilty or not guilty and so was sentenced to death by pressing, which means that he was crushed by rocks. Defiant to the end, his last words reportedly were, "More weight!" Giles Corey was a badass, and so is my daughter.

More weight!

I'll bet Giles Corey didn't have one of these, though, or maybe he did and that's why people thought he was a witch:

It's a noon box, decorated by Vivian before we left Tacoma. Every day at noon, we check inside, and there's a surprise for her. Sorcery!

Today there was a lollipop inside. Vivian found a place on her walker to stash it:

Finally, I thought I'd share some pictures of the grounds of Shriners to give you an idea of what we look at every day.

Here is where we eat lunch:

Here is a little bench that we walk to. It's surrounded by trees and plants, and no one is ever around.

This photo gives you a sense of Shriners' location in the hills. That's all of Salt Lake City below:

We can see the mountains, too:

And this is our room from down below. I like that red tree a lot.

Well, it's quite late now, so I will say goodnight to August 4th and to anyone who happens to be reading. Oh, and please forgive me for being inconsistent with my responses to texts and emails. I appreciate your notes so much, but very often I cannot respond immediately and then am too tired when I've got a moment; also, most of the day I'm limited to my phone's 3G, which is fine for checking fb but lousy for writing emails. I'm all thumbs.

Good night.