Good Afternoon, Taylor.

I hope you’re feeling a little less exhausted today. It’s very nice outside right now, but not as warm as it looks. And I am so sore right now.

The week has been pretty uneventful. I come out for lunch. Sometimes I help clean. I do showers now, too, and I really enjoy them. Not much has been going on.

Friday I got to buy my own groceries. Like, everything. I chose the lunches I wanted to make, she made sure they were safe for us to eat, then took me to a grocery store and let me buy whatever I needed for it. Except for a few minutes where she needed to pick up some frozen food, I got to pick and choose everything myself. I loved it, and I’m glad she’s putting her trust in me to do it.

The weekends are where I have my fun. Last weekend it was coffee and reading by the lake. But I’ve been doing a lot of coffee and eating and reading. I wanted to do something different so i asked to go out in the forest again. She let me decide where I wanted to go, and then checked to see if we could do it. We decided on a waterfall deep in the woods.

Ragdoll woke up and took a shower and we were on our way. As we got close she started feeling hungry and asked me if I wanted to have breakfast somewhere nearby. I decided I would like to have breakfast so she took me to a diner nearby she likes. I remembered what she told me about ordering stuff I couldn’t make at home, so I had a sausage burrito that was more food than I could eat in one sitting. It was good, and I saved half for later, which I’m eating right now.

There was a problem, though. Just as I was finishing up someone recognized Ragdoll and wanted to talk to her. I panicked and put her back in and hid. She was kind of stunned, but recovered and talked to the person for a while. Another one of her friends was coming later. She paid for breakfast and left after talking with them both.

I felt bad about that, but she told me not to worry. It was a one in a million chance, and it was good to know that in an emergency she could take over and not be too surprised or shocked. But we would need to be careful in case it happened again.

From there, she drove me to the forest where the waterfall was. I had checked the website and it looked like a fun hike. Ragdoll checked on it to make sure her body could do it, and it all looked good. We both should have checked better.

My plan was to walk to the waterfalls and enjoy the hike and the water. Then Ragdoll and The Oracle would walk back. The hike was kind of short. About a mile. But we didn’t think about the hills. And this body is not in shape at all. I’ve never felt so out of breath and tired before. Ever. Also, I hurt Ragdoll’s foot on the way up, but she says it’s something her foot does when she walks a lot.

The forest and trees were wonderful, and I got to see lots of doggos, but I spent more time sitting on logs and leaning on trees trying to catch my breath. When we got to the waterfalls, it was on a flat bridge, and I spent a lot of time there getting pictures, but also just catching my breath and resting.

I let Ragdoll out for the trip back, and The Oracle joined her, but going back was worse. The body was already so tired and achy that she took almost two hours to get back to the car. At one point even The Oracle took over because Ragdoll was exhausted. That’s almost never happened.

We got back to the car after a while, and just rested and drank a lot soda. It should have been water, but Ragdoll had soda with her. She always has soda with her.

It was exhausting, and very hard. But I got to talk to a lot of people on the way up. There was one lady with a baby who was so so so encouraging. She’d walk up ahead, and wait for her husband and I would catch up with her. We talked for a little bit, then I’d go ahead and she’d catch up later. And the people who encouraged me going up, encouraged me when they walked back. I was interacting with people. Talking with them. And they might even remember me.

I’m real.

Once we got back and rested up, Ragdoll took me to learn to drive. She has places that she takes people to learn and decided that since she can’t really be there to teach me, that she would set up her phone to give me directions and hope for the best.

The first drive ended right away when the road she wanted me to go down was closed off.

The second road she took to she said “drive to where the pavement ends then come back.” But the pavement ended right away.

The third road she took me to was closed for the season.

So we decided to come back home and get some dinner. But that’s when she took me to a fourth road. “Follow this road until the pavement ends, then come back and wake me up.” And the road went forever and forever. I think it was eleven miles until the end. There were curves and hills and bumps and a little bit of traffic but was mostly quiet. I know why you talk about how driving a car takes some time. I kept getting distracted because the scenery was beautiful. Also, I took a turn a little fast, so I had to remember to slow down. But it was good practice. And the drive was so long.

On the way back, I pulled off at a place to get a little picture and to relax. I got out of the car, sat by a river for a while and enjoyed the moment. Then got back in, started it up, and drove back to our beginning point.

I put Ragdoll back in, she grabbed some dinner, and she had the rest of the night to herself. Which is okay, because my day was amazing.

I’m paying for it now. But Amazing.

I need to get the body into shape. I want to do more hiking and walking, but it is really out of shape and has a lot of medical issues that I think can be worked around. But today I’m going to take it easy and relax a little. Everything hurts.

In a good way. 🙂

–Andrea