The Good, the Bad, and the Really, Really Sad

I'm going to start with the Really Really Sad since that's where I'm at right now.  My cat Sophie, as many of you know, has chronic kidney failure.  We've been managing pretty well for almost 2 years now.  Recently she had a kidney infection, and while she seemed to be getting better, the week or so before I left she started to seem a little off.  But, you know, she's a cat so I figured that cats are sometimes sleepy, etc.  So I didn't do anything about it.  Apparently, since I left, things have gotten worse and Pete had to take her into the vet today.  I guess her numbers are through the roof (not good) and she had a lot of constipation (also a sign of kidney failure).  So, the vet's keeping her for the weekend, and if she gets to come home she has to have daily fluid injections.  Overall, it's sad news.  I hate that Pete has to deal with this by himself.  I hate that I didn't do anything about it before I left.  I hate that Sophie is dealing with this.  I hate that I'm not there.  It's hard, and it's not fair.  I had a feeling something was up with her ... We do have a great vet, which I'm happy about, but this is really tough.  Your thoughts and prayers would be appreciated (which I know might sound silly), but Pete and I are really attached to her.  Especially me.  And if you've met her, you know she's a great cat.  It's awful that there's nothing I can do about it and that I can't be there to help her feel better.

In less dramatic news, I managed to give myself big blisters yesterday walking up the hill in my conference shoes, so today wasn't super comfortable.

The good (which honestly seemed way better before the Sophie Issue) is that I had dinner with a girl who is from this area.  She's a friend of the girl who was teaching me Basque in Chicago.  She's really nice and lived in Chicago for two years, so it was really nice to reminisce with someone who's lived in Chicago.  She seemed really friendly and I hope we can be friends in real life.  I need to try to head to bed now, but hopefully a more substantive (and less sad) post will happen tomorrow.