Adventure Log
July 3, 2005
Welcome to the very beginning of our adventures in marriage. Having just gotten hitched on June 11, 2005, we are off on our maiden voyage as newlyweds. But this is no honeymoon. Toby was just offered a position as a Program Director at a YMCA camp in the San Gabriel Mountains of California. We will be living in the high, dry pine forests of Southern California, about 1-1/2 hours from L.A.
Life in Madison
All of this comes after less than a year of trying to make a go of life in Madison, Wisconsin. We were drawn to the Mad City by the promise of sparkling lakes, bike trails, farmers markets, a funky cultural scene, and nearby kin. We found all of the above. We also discovered a few things we hadn't bargained for, namely a cutthroat employment market and a strange anomaly in the veins of my brain.
While we have both been employed for most of the 10 months we have been in Madison, the process of finding and keeping fulfilling work has been a struggle. Madison is a city exploding with underemployed PhD's, and we discovered that even entry-level admin positions at the university -- the place we both hoped and expected to find ourselves -- are impossible to land. We have both found ourselves working with the local YMCA, an organization deeply involved in the local community and taking us in like family. However, during our time here, it began to dawn on us that Toby's best possibility for a career is in a YMCA involved in year-round, residential camping -- not an option with the YMCA of Dane County.
The university did deliver on another front in the end: fine, high-quality neurological care when I was flattened by what turned out to be a minor brain hemorrhage in April.
Cerebral Insanity
Despite their big machines and magic brain-dyes, those docs could find no source for the hemorrhage. It was a subarachnoid perimesencephalic hemorrhagic stroke. Pretty fancy, huh? Apparently, every so often, a vein or capillary has some sort of tear or weakness on it that isn't caused by anything. Like a birthmark. It bursts, heals, then that's it. Not like an aneurysm, which grows over time. NIH's National Library of Medicine says, "A small percentage of subarachnoid hemorrhages have a nonaneurysmal pattern to them. They occur spontaneously, and are usually localized to the area in the brain called the perimesencephalic cisterns. The usual outcome for this type of hemorrhage is excellent. Unlike the majority of hemorrhages that are caused by arterial ruptures, this type is thought to be caused by a ruptured vein or capillary." Translation: no long-term damage. This is very good news. The doc told me I shouldn't limit myself once I am recovered. "If you like bungee jumping, then go ahead and bungee jump."
Bungee jumping may or may not be my thing, but before I try it to find out, I have to get better. The recovery process has been slow, but that's all perception. I am doing remarkably well considering I had an explosion in my head, but I am an impatient patient. The long-term will be okay, but short-term damage is still a pain in the butt (not to mention the head). Fatigue and unpredictable headaches are the worst of it. Short-term memory loss, lack of concentration, vision problems and dizziness also strike without warning.. . but I guess that's not entirely true. They strike when I have pushed it too hard or am stressed out. The triggers are pretty clear. I've just gotten really good at ignoring them when I want to pretend life is all normal and I'm invincible.
Westward Ho!
So, when this offer came to move to the mountains of California, we had to jump on it. Toby will begin work August 1, but I will not look for work right away. Instead I am going to do what I know all of us wish we could do: take a month or three to sleep and heal. I am not sure I know how to do this thing called "nothing," but Toby assures me it's fabulous, so I'm going to give it a whirl. At least until I get a good case of cabin fever and start casting about for a way to spend time and earn money.
Toby, in the meantime, is going to be doing what he has been unknowingly grooming himself to do for the past dozen years: help run and improve a year-round YMCA camp. Camp ELK and Camp Coulter Pines, the two YMCA camps he will be working with, are woefully underused for being so close to L.A. He will be helping renovate and grow these two camps. He is already brimming with ideas, and we can't wait to see what comes.
The closest small town in Wrightwood, CA, whose finest dining establishment is called the "Grizzly Cafe," featuring the Grizzly Bear Burger. We have been advised to seek out the nearest Trader Joe's.
And we will continue to urge, encourage, and beg friends and family to come visit us. So, please consider the San Gabriels for your next family vacation!
Updated 7/12/05