a place for every thing

although we claim to have rid ourselves of our material trappings, the truth is that we live in an aluminum tube packed to the gills with clothes, books, and baby paraphernalia. tiny oddities lurk behind every conceivable space waiting to fall out at us. these cubby trolls had become a plague upon our self-satisfaction until yesterday. a few hours with a drill and some metal storage containers and we exorcised the demons of clutter. our space was also troublingly devoid of irreverent psychedelia, so we added some polka dots.
here's airstre-naut sauls in her first mission under the desk.
stella seems to lke the new flowers and frogs. finding places for the diapers, pajamas, blankets, books, toys, cups and stuffed animals has been an interesting experiment. as as far as we can tell, we've succeeded. we even found a place to put sasha.

poor sasha, she fears no man; but the faintest whiff of thunder and she shakes like an old clotheswasher and heads for the smallest space she can find. we're thinking about breeding her specifically for airstream owners as the first self-packing dog.

when i try to describe having a baby to nonbreeders i use the following analogy: imagine waking up to find a 95 year old bed-ridden short-tempered lithuanian with insomnia in your living room. as a fellow human you are bound to compassion but the unintelligible screaming and bodily fluids will test you a bit. that being said, i have to point out that stella has really been a lot more flexible than we have. between the road trips, bicycle trailers and generalized mania that seems to characterize our life she has gotten very used to being strapped to something and bounced along to whatever's next. this short blog is a tribute to her spirit of adventure. i was idly flipping thr pictures tonight and realized that at least half of them were poor little stella tied to some type of moving contraption. this first shot is her in her car seat where she rides between the front two seat fo the van and sings to us while we drive.

swinging is always a good time. the faster the better it seems.
in the gulf of mexico, stella says "safety first, everybody".
strapped into the bike trailer. i thought she would enjoy the breeze of the open trailer on a nice evening until i realized that she was getting pelted with dirt from the back tire. "gritty" and "baby" are two words that mothers seem to object to when placed in the same sentence.
how did babies survive before plastic? this picture is plenty cute, but if you could see her impassioned but ineffectual kicking it'd break your heart. hopefully all of this nonsense kindles an adventurous spirit but if she grows up and decides to collect stamps i can't fault her.

idle hands

with its time defying flourescent lights and perpetual chaos, the ER is a lot like las vegas without the show girls. we specialize in bad odds, old folks, and irrational hope. tonight, with the exception of this strange lull, has been like most nights, a lot of people looking for reassurance and few in need of genuine help; dirty jokes with the nurses, some fig newtons when there's time and a whole lot of paper work. i only have 16 shifts left here, the only place i've worked since i finished residency 3 years ago. i've mostly thought of that as a blessing; since i've been here the work has doubled and most of my favorite coworkers have quit. (my interview for this job was a hike on a farm with the former medical director). the thing that occurs to me tonight though, is that this is also the place that i've learned to feel comfortable calling myself a doctor. i think the main thing you really learn in med school is how to walk into a room full of strangers and fool yourself into believing that you know what's going on and what to do about it. but the longer i get to do this the more i realize that if you genuinely want to help somebody, they can tell, and that matters as much as knowing the answer. when i was little, i stayed with my aunt jeanette a lot and i was kinda snotty about being a "smart kid". she always said "little smarty had a party; nobody came except little smarty". similarly, the nurse manager pulled me aside after a few months of working here and told me "sometimes you're a real asshole". (you have to know jaque to appreciate this; she gets to the point) it's easy to get your feathers ruffled by rude and demanding patients who can't understand why their narcotic addiction is less important than the heart attack 2 rooms away, but the satisfaction of blowing them off is a high-fructose treat and fails to sustain. being nice, being kind, being patient...it doesn't cost anything

i'm gonna go see if i can put this high-minded rhetoric into practice, my least favorite patient just showed up. usually his family video tapes me so they can sue me when i'm wrong about something. i guess i just challenged myself to do it different tonight...damn karma

allright...we are just north of atlanta after an all night marathon drive and the inaugural trip in our new foundationless house is winding down. all in all a success, but we have made a few discoveries along the way.

1) just because something works after you kick it, it's not necessarily "fixed".
2)hanging diapers to dry on line strung from the front to back of a moving trailer is even a worse idea than it sounds.
3)if you live in a trailer but have the option to sleep in a house, do it.
4)if mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.
5)florida drivers have no respect for laws, even those of physics.

tonight we should make it back to kentucky and plan to land in winchester, hopefully directly into a hot tub.

the clearwater doctor and the fuzz
manta shuffle through the shells
while the erchin urges surgin'
to the heron in the swells
judge manatee says "please approach the beach"
couselor firefly says "not without a peach"
four sisters and a brother
five brothers and sister
if i'd 'a caught a bridesmaid
i surely would have kissed her

sanibel wedding bell

i first met my friend dan about 12 years ago while working as a river guide in kernville california. it was the summer that set the standard for feeling alive; living outdoors with challenging work and charming folks. dan seemed to have been born with a postmodern zen that allows him to have his finger on the pulse of everything modern but only for the purpose of enjoying life and sharing his enjoyment with others. if dan had a rocket ship, it would look like a giant pair of flip flops. yesterday we went to his wedding on the beach, barefoot and basking in the contagious smiles of well-wishing family and friends. i can't help but feel giddy at weddings (a not-so-secret shame along with my enjoyment of musicals) but this was the extra-rare treat of seeing dear friends happily joined on a perfect day.
sanibel is equally beautiful by day or by night; wading in the warm water under a full moon has washed off the lingering effects of a broke-leg winter. cousin sam and marintha showed up yesterday and joined the wedding celebration and wound up swimming in the ocean with us at 2am after an education in local culture at the american legion.
out of order as usual , here's the wedding scene. the ceremony was short, but long enough to attract a floating and bobbing crowd of curious beachgoers in the surf.
i could do a gallery exhibit of pictures of dan holding a red stripe and smiling over the past few years.
dan and his brother adam fueled the dance floor at the american legion. cheers to adam for being both a ring-holder and a roadie without a wrinkle in his overall smoothness.

it came from the sea

here's stella's first foray into the untamed deep. after months of rigorous training, she dove to a depth of 3.5 inches and retrieved a shell long thought to have been lost forever. she plans to donate the find to a museum or van.
here's a still frame from her first documentary where she explains how babies first evolved from sea cucumbers.
here's me fishing at the beach. i've been using a 2o pound blonde bait to catch spring break hotties. catch and release unfortunately.

thank gourd for tiff's med school friends; we haven't paid for a meal in two days. Brandy and Delan hooked us up with a much needed shower and a brief tour of statesboro GA, at least all of the parts between their house and the mexican restaurant anyway. After dinner I asked Delan what he had to do the next day and his response: "I may or may not being doing surgery". i appreciate this zen approach to patient care. Cheers to Brandy for hanging out with us the ngiht before finals and hooking us up w/ the first piece in our new airstream art collection.
stella checks out the beach from the van in her new swimsuit.
many were the hot chicks in my van at the beach
back on the road; we're headed to orlando today hopefully to meet up with my cousin mike and his family. happy birthday to my friend Barry. If i had any battery left i'd write him a poem and give him what he's ode.

deep south

after an auspicious start with pouring rain in the appalachians we made it to Folly beach outside of charleston and met up w/ an un-hairy krishna for rooftop drinks (grilled cheese for stella; everybody needs some type of indulgence after a day on the road) and a long walk along the beach under the moon. stella, who has been subject to a looped recording of malibu beach her entire life as a sleep-aid went unconscious immediately. we learned a little about the RV scene and now can talk about "full hook-ups" and the relative merits of "pulling thru" vs "back-ins" w/o sounding naughty.
we got to meet up w/ Stephen and Adrianne in Romansburg. Adrianne has two buns in the oven and one well-formed and well-mannered loaf named William. He gave stella a nice hug and kiss and showed her how to do a summersault in a restarurant booth.
here we are in south carolina well-ensconced in marshiness. fishing is big here. i tried to talk fishing w/ a ten year-old and i couldn't even fake it.
stella kickin' it on the boardwalk

quisenberry lane

nala and mamie high on the hill here at quisenberry lane at casa Sewalls, the finest in driveway living. we've learned how to turn on the stove and we're getting the hang of trailer life more or less. the recycling and trash tend to pile up a bit. the van has become my (josh's) room and the bar/lounge. the trailer is the kitchen and stella's playplace. stella's bed on the floor only has three surrounding walls, so when she wakes up she just crawls out. we're trying to learn how to play "beautiful brown eyes" on guitar and banjo and conley, travis' daughter has been accompanying us on harmonica and singing. we're almost ready to go on tour.



this is the gate decoration for the across the street nightbor, named bart. bart is the evil proprietor of a private golf course and is threatening to make quisenberry lane a resort destination. bart built his nefarious empire by selling golf carts. supposely we are also near the bittersweet alpaca farm, but i have yet to see or taste one.