Shortly thereafter...

...a door dropped open and a little green man landed on my counter.

Rain or shine, I have rainbows in my apartment. Cool!

My computer won't even boot up. Not so cool. Things will be slow in coming until I get it up and running again. Obviously.

Wandering in thought

Sorry for the last post. I know it was kind of gross, but still true, no?

So I did two sixteen hour shifts in four days. Understandably I slept for eleven straight hours when I got home yesterday... and only because my alarm woke me up at 8:15pm. I think I remember rolling over once. After visiting my grandma and her new kitten (a two pound black kitten named Peanut), I went to a close friend's house to eat Chiangs (hooray!) and watch Firefly (double hooray!!). Sadly I fell asleep for several more hours. Good Lord, I'm turning into a sloth! Shortly moss will start growing on my body.

On my way home at three this morning, I saw the nearly full moon over the Olympics. The weather has been clear the past day and half, so the moon lit up that part of the sky. It was so pretty and I drove really slowly to try and take it in. I would have gone for a walk around Greenlake if anybody was awake to go with me. Then I remembered the pack I'd been lusting after for months is in the back of my car and got this incredible urge to take off into the Cascades. My dad told a story about stashing Spam and some other food in a hollow tree there once. We all know Spam will survive the nuclear holocaust, so I figured I'd go try to find it.

As John Steinbeck said, "In Spanish there is a word for which I can't find a counterword in English. It is the verb vacilar, present participle vacilando. It does not mean vacillating at all. If one is vacilando, he is going somewhere but doesn't greatly care whether or not he gets there, although he has direction. My friend Jack Wagner has often, in Mexico, assumed this state of being. Let us say we wanted to walk in the streets of Mexico City but not at random. We would choose some article almost certain not to exist there and then diligently try to find it."

Exactly. I've met some of my best friends this way and lived some pretty fun stories. Now, where is that Spam?

After the first twelve hours, it's all a blur...

I'm not sure I trust myself to say anything coherent after sixteen hours (even with the last seven hours of coma-sleep). I do have a question, though. Since when did "chemical peel" and "microderm abrasion" not send up red flags to consumers- especially in regards to their faces?

Let's peruse Google images, shall we? Exhibit one: chemical



Exhibit two: peel



Exhibit three: microderm (this one is fine)



Exhibit four: abrasion

Just kidding. Too gross. Skin *shudder*

I'm just sayin'...

Born in the wrong century

Is it just me that has a phobia of leaving phone messages? I would avoid them at all costs growing up. I've learned to deal and to actually embrace the fact that I have to leave a tracing of my voice in the radio waves of the world (radio waves, right?), but I still feel weird and unsure what exactly to say without the usual prompting by the other person. So either it comes out as "I'll meet you there at this time" or "so, I think we're still meeting at (such and such), which reminds me of (such and such). I think I told you about that, but if I didn't, let me know because it's a good story. Oh, and do you still want to (such and such) because it'd be fun and maybe we could do (such and such) as well? See if (whatsherbutt) wants to come along too because she would like that..." And on and on until I realize this is getting long and end with, "ok so that's enough rambling. I'll see you there at this time."

Who needs therapeutic free association when we have voicemail?

Under the weather

I'm stumped. I've had this fever since early Saturday morning (and yes, I still went outside because staying inside for over 24 hours alone might just kill me). I don't know what it's from. I feel crummy, but it's not like I'm coughing or anything. What gives?

Hmm, now I need to post something less depressing. How about this? I don't know who painted it, but it's titled "Strangers with candy." I like it.

Thoughts on a sunny day

So I felt awful last night and stayed home. I read on the couch and ate and drank and drifted in and out of sleep. Totally trippy.

Today, though, I woke up at noon and couldn't get back to sleep. A knock at the wrong door finally got me out of bed. As I sat on the porch in the sun, I felt less grouchy and while not physically much better I felt a little clearer in the head. I decided to take a leisurely ride down the BG trail because today was a beautiful Seattle day- sunny, warm-ish, colorful, and alive. I dragged myself down to Ballard and sat on the banks of the Lake Washington ship canal watching all the sailboats, kayaks, and motorboats heading to the locks. It was a nice mini vacation without a phone or any obligations. You know how when you're watching the sunrise you feel like you're in on a secret? I sort of felt that way today because I wasn't in bed where people would expect me to be. No, I don't think I'll ever get over the fact I'm working nights because I'm a day person with every fiber of my body.

As I sat there, not trusting my bike to not tumble over onto the rocks, I watched all the people on their boats and heard the bikers and runners up behind me. It was very peaceful. There were a few ducks that were hanging around too. One mallard swam up by my feet, looked right at me, and then started up with his throaty quack. I think he didn't like me there. As he swam away, he started flipping out. I mean, the thing started thrashing about and bobbing around in the water. I had to laugh out loud. He frantically swam a few feet and then stood up on a rock I hadn't noticed a few inches below the water. Balancing on one foot, he took the other and scratched the base of his neck. I didn't know ducks could contort like that! A few minutes later another duck hopped up on the rock for the same purpose. Funny, the ducks have an itching rock.

I started wondering if ducks flip out when they go through a spider web too, just like humans. That reminded me of Brian Regan's clip about spider web flipouts. I could only find part of the skit and in poor quality, but here you go:

Note to self

When shoes are showered with gunk (ie: poop, phlegm, blood, and the like), do not attempt to clean said gunk with the purple top sanitary wipes. It takes off the waterproof polish and dye as well. As Archie said, I'm now the proud owner of red, stonewashed clogs. Hmm.

What concerns me more is the next time goo lands on my shoes, they will potentially absorb it, right? I mean, with no protective polish? Hmm, well moving on...

I need to stop with the overtime. It's putting a cramp in my style. My stonewashed clogs style.

Thoughts

I've been lucky with my commutes to work in my past three hospitals. Driving up to Scottsdale Shea in the mornings during nursing school was beautiful as the sun came up behind the Superstitions. I looked forward to the drive as much as the clinical site that I really enjoyed.

I was filled with dread most days as I drove along Lake Shore Drive (LSD, hehehe) to The Hospital, but the drive was also very pretty in the summer with Lake Michigan and the beaches as the sun rose. During the evenings when I drove home, there were people flying brightly colored kites and running and playing volleyball. It was a welcome change from all the sickies at work. Ahh, the days of working, well, days.

My new drive home takes me on I-5 now. The commute doesn't seem to take any longer and is the same distance, but I have my concerns about driving I-5 anyway. However, today I could see the Olympics capped with snow to the west and the Cascades to the east spotted with rays of sunshine. The depth perception was neat and the sky is pretty clear. It's going to be a good day :)

I was thinking how much I'm loving all the fall colors and how i wish fall lasted longer when I saw... a palm tree. Since when do palm trees grow in Seattle?

It's a jungle out there

...or a metal jungle anyway. This is part of the storage room at work. We call it "the ballroom," but I couldn't exactly tell you why. Maybe because it's so big? I suppose you could have a dance in there- you know, sashay around the coolers, code carts, sling scales, and other contortions of plastic and metal.



Last night wasn't so great for reasons that won't be mentioned. I will say that it was Drew's last night, though, so that made me sad :(

Crafty, eh?

Laura and I made cookies today and watched the last two episodes of Grey's Anatomy they tivo'd (no comments from the peanut gallery!). Since Monday was Canadian Thanksgiving, we decided to make the cookies into Canadian flags. Et voila!



Unfortunately, these cookies got a little smooshed on the trip home, but you get the idea.

And if all the other dog butts jumped, would you?

I'd never been to Ikea before last week. I was actually sort of proud to say that, but I wasn't sure why I should be. And now I know. Ikea is a madhouse. Ok, it's cool to have so many options for cheap, and there are in fact some cool things to buy, but on the weekend it's not a whole lot better than Walmart! The flip side of that is if you're in the mood for it, the people watching is great. One particular excursion had a really interesting character:

A dude brought over a hearse from the UK, refurbished it, painted it bright yellow, and drives it around. It gets better- he also bought a casket and painted it John Deere green and secured it in the back. On the passenger seat (our driver seat on this side of the pond), he stuck this creepy looking skeleton dude. I thought, well, maybe he's in the Halloween spirit and got it together early. But in the course of taking a photo, he stopped by and chatted with us; let me tell you, it was no Halloween stunt- he's just that weird. Also, since when does a hearse fit in a "compact" car spot?



In the way of merchandise, there was no shortage of amusing stuff either. For example, what are those things on this rug?? Seahorses with legs? Dragons? Roosters? Perhaps all three?



Personally, I'm a fan of this one- a mosh pit of dog butts. Yes, that's what I said. They're actually mountable so that their tails serve as leash hooks... but dog butts? I almost bought one :)

There's more where those came from...

Hooray! There's a new Bravia commercial! I'm still partial to the bouncy balls, but this is great :)

Team Hoyt

Ok if you don't even cry a little, I think you might need some help. It's nice to see things like this :)

Midnight snack

It occurred to me that the famous peanut butter and cottage cheese toast has never been captured on film (or memory card, for that matter). I give you tonight's midnight snack: tea and The Toast!


On a side note, why do freezers never have lights in them? Does Maytag think midnight eaters don't go for the frozen stuff? Hear this Maytag: I eat frozen berries before bed at 3am! In the dark! No thanks to you!

Or, you know, something like that.

Probably funnier than it should be

...and yet I can't stop laughing :)