In a Western Place

… and Happy NaBloPoMo eve.

I participated in NaBloPoMo successfully back in 2006, unsuccessfully in 2007, completely ignored it in 2008 — and now I’m back for another attempt in 2009!

Why? Because I’ve been terrible about posting and I’ve got a lot to show and tell. I’ll be posting photos and brief descriptive snippets of our adventures throughout the month of November, starting tomorrow. It’s about time.

Standing nearly 10,000 feet tall, can you believe that we couldn’t see this darn mountain during our first pass? (It monsooned as we drove from San Francisco to our first stop in Fort Jones.) Thankfully, we got a good glimpse on our way home. Beautiful. I can’t think of a better Grand Finale for our trip.

I had the day before our wedding all planned out: go to acupuncture, get a massage, finish packing, drive up to Jenner, meet with the wedding coordinator, rehearse, eat dinner, meet and greet with the early arrivals, then relax. Imagine my surprise when I had to make an unexpected trip to the Emergency Room for a suspected deep-vein thrombosis.

Yikes, scary!

Long story short, it wasn’t a clot (thank gosh) — an unknown cyst that had developed behind my knee ruptured, mimicking the classic symptoms of a DVT. And while I couldn’t seek treatment for the discomfort (I had someplace to be!) I was relieved to hear that I wasn’t going to stroke out on my wedding day!

M made a few calls to family and the rehearsal dinner was moved to a later time, my helpers Erika and Becca packed up the cars while we were at the hospital and thankfully, my wedding gown was long to hide my grotesquely large right leg the following day. See? Things always have a weird way of working out in the end.

M took this camera pic of me before I was wheeled into ultrasound. That gown was hot.

The rainy season is upon us — yesterday’s downpour flooded a few of the underground Muni stations, suspending service. Check out Van Ness: