I made it!

After over thirty hours of travel time I have finally made it to my hotel room!

il mondo guarda molto più piccolo da qui

Title: The world looks a lot smaller from here 

I never thought this day would arrive. It seems like just yesterday I was googling "Italy" and "Photography" in the same sentence and bugging the people of Florence on how I can get into their art program, when in reality it was four years ago. It seems like just yesterday I got the email confirming my acceptance while I was in a ski official meeting for the World Championships where I had to keep quiet and not squeal all over the place. It seems like just yesterday this day, the eve of my departure, was many not in view. 

But here I am. 

My suit case is packed tightly with hipster sweaters and oxford shoes. I have my flight itinerary all ready to be printed. I am physically prepared, but mentally it has not sunk in yet. 

It's bitter sweet saying goodbye to my friends and family but I know how fortunate I am to have this exciting and cultural experience. I am so lucky. (that one is for you Father.) 

This is where I will be posting my everyday experiences for the next four months. Follow my stories here. Bookmark it. Comment your email and I will add you to the mailing list. Follow Verbaledudette on facebook. Don't forget me just because I have changed countries! 

I leave bright and early tomorrow. Cheers to the experience of a life time! 

Ciao. 

ooh this dope nose.

Last thursday I underwent traumatic surgery. Okay, it wasn't that threatening but it was huge for me. It was my first time having an IV shoved in my veins, first time being put under, just the first time for a lot of hospital adventures. To me, this was a big deal.

I was scheduled to check into the hospital at 6:45 A.M. for my Septoplasty and Turbinectomy Reduction. In lame terms I was getting the middle of my nose put back into place and reducing swelling in the little side things that cause air flow. In lamer terms they were going to make it so I could breathe through my nose.

I went in, filled out papers, changed into this sexy little purple nighty (all you guys should be very jealous you didn't see me in this) with a blue thin surgical cap, and had my vital signs taken. After it was confirmed that I was not pregnant with my first pee in a cup experience, a nurse pushed a big ass needle of an IV into my right hand. Doctors came in, asked me the same questions, I answered with the same answers and next thing I knew some guy told me that "this will make you feel really good." (That sounds really dirty if you think in the gutter.)

I do not remember leaving my family as they pushed my bed down the halls to the surgical room, but I do remember waving and smiling to a bunch of old people who had more problems then a nose job to worry about. When I was pushed into the room, it was like I was getting pushed into a movie. I was quite out of my mind at this point and I felt like I was in a dream like state. They helped me move to the surgical table and a guy asked me to scoot up so my head was touching his hand. A breathing mask was placed over my mouth and I was instructed to take in deep breaths. I do not remember anything after that.

I woke up to an angel.

She was the most beautiful blonde I have ever seen while laying in a hospital bed after surgery. I was confused but felt safe- which is odd concerning I had no idea where I was and why there was a giant piece of gauze taped under my nose that i couldn't even tell was there. I slowly came to and the moment I did I felt cold blood drip down on my lip. That is when I realized what had happened (that and I recognized the guy eating a sandwich.) I do not remember getting pushed back into the patient waiting room and I do not remember how I got a glass of cold water in my hand- but like in the movies, it magically happened..

The next few hours were hell for not only me, but my family.

I was crying in pain, fear, confusion, and exhaustion. I had never felt like this before. Helpless. I was tired but I couldn't close my eyes, I had blood dripping from my nose which was laced with tenderness.

Thirty minutes after leaving the hospital I was packed into the front seat of a rapist van heading to Colorado. This might have sounded sketchy, but my family was on our way to Winter Park for the Concrete Rodeo Tour (aka the skate tour my father created and we all help produce.) For most recovering patients this is not you idea of a relaxing way to get over your surgical choas. It wasn't mine either. My parents wanted me to come. At first, I wont lie, I was kind of upset. Why would I want to go on tour when I would be uncomfortable and worthless? But once we got in the car and I heard the laughs and saw my families smiles, I knew that I would be lonely without them and would have regretted not coming along.

I spent the entire weekend laying down with my head propped up at an uncomfortable angle.

 I rested like this in the hotel rooms until passed check out time, in the car while it was parked in the skatepark parking lots, and in the car while it was moving. My head constantly pounded with sinus pressure. My teeth were sore from the swelling of my face. My mouth could only move so much before affecting my nose splits. I couldn't smile. I feared yawning and sneezing. I drank Children's Motrin like I was an alcoholic. I religiously sprayed my nose with Saline spray. I grew a sore throat from the constant heavy mouth breathing, the left over scrapes of tubes from my surgery, and my constant complaining of my discomfort.

 I consumed nothing but liquids for six days.

I felt like this for a week.

I felt like hell, until today.

At 1:45 P.M. i went  back to the ear nose and throat doctor. I laid back in a chair while my nose was starred at by a quirky man with a head lamp. Right in the little center part of my nose was a stitch that held in the splints and straws. The doctor had no problem and cutting it and pulling it out. My eyes watering and a disgusted look on my face was a result of the sharp pain this little stitch presented. Next he took tweezers and pulled out my splits. Now when you look at my nose, you would not think that these four inched straws would not be able to fit up my little nose. Well they did. And when the came out, gasps came from not only my audience of supporters but my self.

Both of the splints coming out was uncomfortable and quite awkward. I could instantly breathe. For the first time in a very very very long time I could feel air flowing in my nose. I took a few breaths on my new pipes and instantly turned pale. I got light headed and felt like I was going to faint.

 Too much oxygen in my brain caused my first new breaths to scare me.

My father, being quite the doctor himself, had me wave my arms like a bird and pull my knees up to my chest. After a few minutes of these aerobics, I was back to normal.

I walked out of the hospital and drove home smelling things deeper than I have ever smelt them.  13th was filled with a variety of fragrances. The first thing I ate was a Slurpie. I got my favorite flavor of Banana, but it tasted completely different. It sounds childish and strange- but I can smell everything. Food taste different. And I can finally breathe while I am eating. You cannot hear me when I chew. My mouth can stay closed when I sleep. Everything is so different.

I am so happy.

Currently I only have a sore throat, but it is on the road to healing. Hopefully I will feel perfect by this weekend to go to McCall Idaho and work with the skate tour in my last and only event of the season. Sooner, hopefully I feel well enough to go see Bright Eyes tomorrow with my friends.

I am so thankful for my family.

Although my sister thinks I have been faking it, I have really been in a lot of pain. My family constantly made sure I was comfortable to the best of the abilities. They constantly brought me hot drinks, cold drinks, soups, popsicles, medicine, sore throat candies, anything. My mom always had a smile and would find it funny when I tried to smile back but my mouth wouldn't move correctly. My dad shared his herbal remedies. And my sister would stay up and wait for me to get out of the shower and into bed because she didn't want anything to happen to me. My family did and keeps doing more than I could ever ask for.

 I am so lucky. :)

Have a goodnight! I know I will sleep for the first time in a week and breathe for the first time in many years through my nose.

xoxo

The title are lyrics from "Dope Nose" by Weezer 

FINAL DAY!!!!!!

Day 30: Favorite Song this time last year

"Zorbing" by: Stornoway

18 ways to really annoy people

1. In the memo field of all your checks, write "for sexual favors."
2. Specify that your drive-through order is "TO-GO."
3. If you have a glass eye, tap on it occasionally with your pen while talking to others.
4. Stomp on little plastic ketchup packets.
5. Reply to everything someone says with "that's what you think."
6. Make beeping noises when a large person backs up.
7. Signal that a conversation is over by clamping your hands over your ears and grimacing.
8. Disassemble your pen and "accidentally" flip the ink cartridge across the room.
9. Holler random numbers while someone is counting.
10. Staple pages in the middle of the page.
11. Publicly investigate just how slowly you can make a croaking noise.
12. Honk and wave to strangers.
13. Decline to be seated at a restaurant, and simply eat their complimentary mints at the cash register.
14. Buy a large quantity of orange traffic cones and reroute whole streets.
15. As much as possible, skip rather than walk.
16. While making presentations, occasionally bob your head like a parakeet.
17. Sit in your front yard pointing a hair dryer at passing cars to see if they slow down.
18. Sing along at the opera.

the list was originally 100 points long. I narrowed it down and edited to my liking. 

Now.... Day 29: A song from your childhood (almost done!) 

"I want it that way" By: The Backstreet Boys 

Enjoy your Tuesday! 

(P.S. I sent in my final forms for my VISA today. 27 days!) 

the ordinary mind is broken, you did it and you don't even know

Good morning. This post is being written from my kitchen table on an absolutely rainy beautiful day in Salt Lake City. Everything is so green. (Except for the section of dead grass over the fence and on the hill. It could rain all it wanted on that piece of dry straw, but there is no hope for grass to be its natural color of golfers green. Oh well.) I was celebrating this rain fall in the title of this post. I know it has nothing to do with rain, but it is indeed lyrics from the song "Rain" by Mika. Thus proving my point that it has something to do with anything.

I went to the gym this morning. It was a pretty typical morning for the ol'Body Wise work out center. 9:00 A.M. is "old people who should not be seen in spandex doing aerobics in neon spandex listening to the Black Eyed Peas while breathing heavily day because there spandex is too tight" time. I do not participate in this lovely event (although I did have my spandex on) but watching it while I sweated on the elliptical trainer gives me up most motivation and delight. (I did almost come to a puking point when the instructor bent over to stretch giving me a view of old, sweaty, saggy, old people bottoms.) I guess the moral of this paragraph is: the gym is a great place for me to get my morning sweat on AND for old people to get dates, work out and wear their spandex from the 80's.

This is a big week for me. Today I am going to finnish painting the kitchen. We (being my mother and sister and I) painted it a nice Tuscan Sun Yellow. (My mother calls is "Baby Poop," my sister calls it "Pooh Bear," my father calls it "Squash" and my Grandmother calls it "Different.") I will also clean my room and the hallway. It's a big day. On wednesday I will go to the dentist so they can knock my front tooth out and glue a fake one in its place. On thursday, I have nose surgery. See I cannot breathe through my nose, at all. I can smell (that seems to be the question everyone wonders when I say I cannot breathe, so i saved you the time from asking.) My nose is too small (ecspecially my nostrals,) I am allergic to everything that grows, and these little things that line my nose (they start with a "T" but I am too lazy to find out the precise name) are all swollen clogging my breathing passages. So this doctor is going to get his tools out and drill me some bigger holes up my nose and play around in there until I can breath correctly. Doesnt that sound delightful? Its like we are paying some guy to pick my nose for me for 45 minutes while I am unconscious until my nose is clear and air flowable.  

Now it has come to that time of the post where I do this Song Challenge thing. It used to be fun, but now it has become something kind of tedious and predictable. Take lasts posts for instance "A song you can play" and "a song you wish you could play" and then there is the "a song you like" "a song you don't like"  and "a song you want at your wedding" "a song you want at your funeral." We are just going down the list opposites. Do you really think someone is going to go back on to this site to find out what song I wanted to be played at my funeral? I think not. Its been real, but it has become real boring. But I will finnish the challenge.

Day 28: A song that makes you feel Guilty (not to be confused with "a song that is your guilty pleasure")

"Tempted By the Fruit of Another" by Squeeze

Now I personally love this song and it doesn't make me feel guilty at all, but I am sure it makes someone else feel guilty and it makes me feel bad for those who do feel guilty. (I guess? haha.) 

Happy Music Monday! I leave you with this fun song called "Whirrling" By: The Joy Formidable