:: Cowgirl Up

This past Saturday was the final day of the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo and I was privileged enough to attend with my very favorite family :) For those who are unaware of what this event is, it's a three-week extravaganza that includes livestock auctions, commercial exhibits, bull-riding and the largest indoor rodeo in the world. For the final auction that we attended, kids from all over Texas breed and raise steers to sell annually. Companies bid on the livestock by the pound and the kids receive every penny to either put toward cattle for the following year, their college tuition, or both. The Fort Worth Syndicate is a group of businessmen who push for the companies to purchase the cattle for more than they're worth...If a steer is worth around $2 per pound, the Syndicate urges companies to purchase for $5-$10 instead so that the kids make more toward whatever they're saving for. They make a LOT of money for the kids' futures - Saturday's Grand Champion steer sold for $250,000. All in all, it's a very charitable event and a really fun thing to experience firsthand.

Stock Showin' It Up with Mr McMichael

I know it sounds like a silly Texas stereotype, but between the company I was with and the Stock Show itself, I felt more at home than I have in a long time. Aside from the family oil business, my dad bred and raised Santa Gertrudis cattle and Quarter and Paint Horses when I was younger, so my childhood was split between our ranch in East Texas and the Fort Worth Stockyards. In my early 20s, I veered away from everything country for as long as I could, but the older I'm getting, the more I'm beginning to re-embrace my roots, from the soulful Texas country music to the cowboy hats and boots to even loving the scent of horse stables. Everyone has their happy place and it's very hard to put into words the feelings of joy and peace that I experience when I step back into that lifestyle, even if only for a moment.

As for the rest of my week, I've more or less spent it in bed. I'm going on day five of a nasty stomach virus that even the infamous CF appetite couldn't touch until last night, when I finally ventured back into solid food with a few pieces of smoked salmon sashimi (as unappealing as that may sound, seafood has always been easiest for me to digest) and today, half of a grilled chicken sandwich, half of a bowl of soup, a cup of fruit and some lemon Jell-O. All accompanied with nausea and sharp, shooting pains, but keeping it all down is progress in itself. I have my follow-up with McDonald, the Infectious Disease Specialist, on Monday to see home IVs for the Aspergillus on my lungs are necessary, but I don't see my CF Specialist, Davis, until the 22nd. Hopefully between the stomach bug, the increased shortness of breath and the 102.3 fever I fought off a couple of weeks ago, they'll activate their Wonder Twin powers and figure out a way to fix me up good.

Sleep, come easy to me tonight.