Sunday, May 24, 2009

Tiana's Home


On October 6, 2008 I had a header in my blog titled, "Tiana's Gone." Now I am so happy to write that Tiana's back home again, nearly 8 months later. Tonight she will sleep in her own bed, use a flushing toilet and be able to wash up using warm water. She will be able wear a watch again and nobody will collect her shoes before bedtime. In losing so much structure, she will be gaining freedom and independence and the ability to make choices. All of us are optimistic.

Yesterday was mostly about a long, hot drive through Eastern Oregon and Washington. We left Bend at about 11, headed north on 97 and rolled into Cle Elum at a little before 6pm. We got Tiana some good driving time, and she did well and has probably already forgotten about the accident on Saturday. We had dinner at El Caporal and played cards until about 10. We all went to bed early.

This morning Tiana was up by 830 and Savi shortly thereafter. A quick breakfast and we were out the door, with Tiana getting her first real freeway driving ever. Traffic was heavy until almost Easton, then broke up and was fine the rest of the way. We rolled onto 73rd and I must admit I got a little teary eyed as our good old house came into view, as did Tiana. She was very excited as we stopped the car and she saw the sign I had put on the front porch.

We'll all sleep better tonight....

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Day 2, Bend Oregon

Today started out great, turned kind of ugly and ended reasonably well.

We all got up fairly early, including the girls, and had a wonderful complimentary breakfast in the motel's dining room. I mean this was fantastic, with a full-on buffet, including thick-cut bacon, eggs, all kinds of fruits, muffins and potatoes, waffles--you name it. And delicious coffee.

After that I walked along the river for a while, watched a couple guys that were fishing and just soaked up the sun. At around 11, we went shopping at the mall across the street. I got some shorts at Macy's and Tiana got a few things as well. We then went to an area south of downtown called Mill Town, where they had a great selection of interesting shops and restaurants, even a new REI store. That was fun.

Then we decided to go up to Mt Bachelor, but had a lot of trouble finding the way, for some reason. Tiana was driving and we explored some nice country roads (most of them loaded up with bicyclists), but ended up back in town when we kind of got lost. As usual, Tuuli was nagging Tiana the whole time and it just wasn't fun for any of us to be in the car. Sure enough, Tuuli asked Tiana to pull over so we could look at a map, and before you could blink we were over the curb, across a little grass mound, through a heavy chain, over a steel post, back over another curb and into the adjacent parking lot, amazingly missing a couple cars. Of course Tiana was devastated, Tuuli was screaming and the whole scene was very traumatizing. I felt so bad for Tiana--it was a bad mistake, of course and just shattered her confidence. When the two of us were alone at the last parent weekend she drove nearly the whole time, well over 200 miles without the slightest problem. Within 10 minutes yesterday, Tuuli had already critiqued and corrected her more than I did in three days.

It would have been rather hilarious if not for Tiana's hurt feelings. The car was hardly scratched, the chain wasn't broken and I set the post back up no problem. You could hardly even tell a car had been there. Even though it was in a busy area, nobody approached us and we just drove away.

We finally got home and I took a nice long walk, while Tiana stayed in the room. This is just the kind of thing the therapists warn us could trigger an event, so I hope she is able to get over it. But any more driving for the rest of this trip is out of the question for her. Not because she can't do it, but because it just makes for such an uncomfortable environment in the car. Tuuli just can't relax and can't shut up--she simply can't do it. And I had so looked forward to having Tiana drive. It's fun for me, and it's fun for her. Very disappointing.

After dinner, Savi and I went to a roller derby event in downtown Bend, while Tiana just chilled in the room. It was a very good time and just what I needed. Of course now Tuuli isn't talking to me, so some things never change. I guess I'm exploring that classic definition of insanity....

Friday, May 22, 2009

We Pick up Tiana, May 22, 2009

Well, today was the big day. After arriving in our Sublimity hotel at a little before midnight, Savi, Mom and I got up reasonably early on this bright, beautiful morning, had some coffee and a very mediocre breakfast and headed south for Santiam. We got a little crossed up in our directions, but at about 1105 we rolled into the campus's drive and a moment later we saw a beaming Tiana emerging from the A frame, with bags and bags of her stuff on the porch.

After a few hugs and kisses and a final walk around the lakes, we were again off, possibly for the very last time, with Tiana driving. We worked our way up to the Bend highway and in a couple hours were at Sisters, a smallish touristy town of about 2000 at an elevation of 3200' or so. We walked around for a while, had a nice lunch, bought some fudge and ice cream and Tiana and I got a couple coffee drinks at an espresso shop. It was fun, but hot!

Mom took over the driving, as she had been an incessant nag on the way to Sisters, and we rolled into the Riverside Hotel at exactly 4. We checked into the sprawling hotel and found our room (#249) and were soon settled in. None of us was hungry because of our late lunch, so we screwed around until 730 and then headed into the old part of downtown. We found a very nice pizza place (http://www.pizzamondobend.com/) where we had pizza and salad. We walked around town for a while, went back to the hotel and for the most part were in bed by 11pm.

That's it for now!