Anxiously awaiting a miracle

Happy new year! We spent the morning and most of the afternoon at Golden Gardens watching people do their new year polar bears and having bonfires with their Christmas trees. It was a beautiful first day of the year as well :)





I was really relieved to see Gaza break out of her shell at the bark park as well. She still stayed near me for the majority of the time, but she did play with the other dogs for a bit and let random people pet her. I was amazed at the transformation :) I really, really hope tomorrow goes well with the behaviorist. I want to keep her so badly...

And for the benefit of all, please note that when you incorrectly type in www dot homtail dot com, you will most certainly not get redirected to hotmail. Jeez.

Waiting for Munoz to get into SEATAC

She had a rough night. Actually, we both did. I got in touch (thanks to some tearful phone messages this morning) with a few local behaviorists. One is coming on Wednesday to get started. In the meantime, I'm keeping Gaza with friends and family when I'm away (bless you a zillion times over, you guys!). She has severe separation anxiety unrelieved by anything I can possibly think of... and Xanax. That's right, we've only been together nine days and already I'm drugging my dog for her own safety.

Now is the time for my heartfelt apologies to dog owners in the past whom I've silently judged when they say their dogs have separation anxiety: Dude, I am so sorry and I feel for you!

So life has been quieter than usual of late, what with being homebound or carting a dog around. Went to see the Paperboys last night- amazing as usual :D Somewhat not as cool given the scenario awaiting me back at the homestead, but the Paperboys didn't disappoint at the Tractor. I need to learn to dance. Seriously.

Just so we're clear

Got it? Seriously though, how much wear and tear do these signs possibly have to withstand?

...and to all a good night! Except Gaza.

The good news first- I got Christmas day and night off! I made it to Christmas dinner with my aunt and uncle's family, so that was a nice surprise!

The bad news- it's too much to expect a dog to be perfect, and I found Gaza's issue. She has major separation anxiety. When I came home Christmas morning, she had chewed through the heavy-duty plastic crate and had bent the hinges of the metal door! She was frantic and looked awful when I walked in. It broke my heart :( The breeder, vet, and I are trying to figure out what to do so that she doesn't hurt herself. I know she'll get used to it and end up just sleeping while I work at night, but the transition is tough. I gave her some xanax (per the vet) and made her sleep out of sight last night when I stayed home. She seemed to do ok, and tolerated me being out for fifteen minutes at a time. We'll see how tonight goes. I know she can do it.

And so I leave you with a picture from Christmas Eve at work. I bring you... Megan with her amazing flashing (mangled) candycane headband! Wee! Merry Christmas!

Shameless run of Gaza photos

I'm going to indulge in a little self-pity here. I have an abundantly blessed life... but I still wish I could be home for Christmas. This is the second Christmas I've spent away from family and I don't like it :(

However, I got to spend Thanksgiving in Indiana and now have a dog to come home to, so my pity party is over :) Besides, it's not like I'm at The Forefront anymore. This Christmas will not end with Katie and me crying in the parking lot and then going home alone again...



The shaved left eyebrow (from an encounter with a raccoon?) is so haute cuuture, don't you think?



Please note my amazing purple leather chair :)



Ducks? Ducks?? Ducks!!



Oh well hey there.

Watching Gaza running in her sleep :)

I don't have a single complaint about Gaza, but I think I may have started a bad habit already...

She is perfectly well-behaved on the leash- no tugging, barking, or craziness. In fact, I had her run alongside my bike this morning around Greenlake a few times so that she'd be too tired to complain when I left her alone for errands. Except for a few birds that caught her attention, she did fabulously!

She waits for me to go through doors first, patiently waits for her food, lets me rub and position her however, and is just a mellow dog through and through. However, the first night she let out a soft whine and was comforted by my voice. A while later she did it again because I think she was cold from still being a little damp. I had to convince her it was ok to get on the bed and under the covers, and then she slept like a baby. Last night we did the same thing only not under the covers because she got hot. This morning when I got up, she was splayed out next to me fast asleep... and hogging the bed.

I think I may have created a monster.



In other news, it appears that the Griswold family has taken up residence next door:



The other neighbors, a church, has a boys choir performing Christmas music tonight. It's actually very pretty, but it has this eerie quality by the time it makes it up the street and down the alley to my window. It's growing on me, though. I almost wish they did it more often because it makes the neighborhood feel a bit more like a community.

I think we're in for some good adventures this year!

Woofda Gucci Ragazza (Gaza for short) is home! We've spent the last thirty-six hours walking, napping, and getting to know each other, and I am beat. What a great dog :) She's very mellow- even Peanut likes her. More to come I'm sure...

This is the only picture I've taken so far! Ha, as I'm typing this she's running and wagging her tail in her sleep :)

No real form to this entry...

Worst idea of the month: stick rolls of tourniquets in our modules that require each tourniquet to be pulled off at the perforations. Dude, they're elastic- I about took my eye out with one!

As I was driving up "Pill Hill" to work last night, I noticed that the personal belongings that had been scattered in the street the past week were finally cleaned up. I had been amused at the area the things had managed to cover; it was as if whomever they belonged to had exploded. Wait, that's kind of gross actually. Anyway, that section of James that crosses under I-5 is a colorful stretch. There are always panhandlers and every morning I get on the freeway, I see clumps of people sleeping under the on ramps. One of my favorite things I've ever seen in that area, though, is the pigeon man.

I first saw the pigeon man this fall, strolling down the hill with his cart of worldy belongings. He had a bag of what I assume is birdfeed from which he would draw handfuls of seeds and scatter them around him as he walked along. He did it very mechanically, though I've seen him smile a time or two. What amazed me are the pigeons (*shudder*) that flocked on and around him. As he walked along the sidewalk, nobody could pass by him without walking through a wall of feathers, and even the cars were swerving away from the curb! I couldn't take my eyes off of this man who was just walking along with zillions of flying rats. I'm obviously not a fan of pigeons, but for a second I found myself wanting to walk alongside him in his bubble of birds.

As a closing note, I've given up trying to figure out who is reading this from the ClusterMap. My geography isn't that good and I think a few random people have stumbled upon my rambles.

The name game

Like KT, I'm a sucker for nicknames. I find it interesting that being called something other than your real name can endear somebody to you. Throughout my life I've morphed through Scooter, Wenikio, Wendy-o, Wends, Nee-Nee, and Nork. I won't tell you all their creation stories, but I will answer how this blog's namesake came about:

Dee and I were superdorks growing up and used to quiz each other on states and capitals over dinner with our varied map placemats. Apparently food wasn't entertaining enough. Ah the foolishness of youth! While spending time in Hawaii, we acquired personalized placemats with all sorts of fish on them- perfect for I Spy! (Ha! You'll never guess that I'm referring to the pink dot on the dorsal fin!) There must have been some sort of Hawaiian theme going on because we ended up with "Wenikio" and "Kalikio." I know, commence with the groaning. Out of curiosity, I Googled the name and discovered that it doesn't exist in the world of Google! In fact when I first did it, I inadvertently (and successfully) Google-whacked! Now, however, I am singlehandedly populating the results of "wenikio" on Google. The Google-whacking glory was shortlived.




So there you have it.

Cold and starving

I left my window cracked today with the fan on to let some fresh air circulate. I figured it would cool the place down, but I didn't expect it to cool down as much as it did! So now I'm sitting by the fire with toe-cicles and willing myself not to shiver. I can't bear the thought of crawling under cold sheets just yet....

I was telling myself for the millionth time that I'm truly an embarassment to the state of Alaska and then reminded myself for the millionth time that since we moved when I was nine, I can be forgiven this abomination. But seriously, even in Arizona I was frequently cold. I justified it by the fact that people cranked the a/c in the summer and we did get frost (sometimes) on winter nights, but I think it's time I was honest with myself- I really don't have any temperature regulation.

As I put the cookies in the oven just now and the heat wave hit me, I had to laugh. It reminded me of a winter evening in the Erie house (AKA the blue house). We probably had a heater but more likely didn't have the money to run it. Either way, we spent that Arizona evening in front of the oven, basking in its heat. Given that we were from Michigan, Indiana, and Iowa, I think this is particularly shameful. That oven was right below the cupboard from which beastly cockroaches would scurry out. In fact, I think the cupboard might even bear a shoe mark from when Sarah threw her shoe at a notably sized roach. *shudder* I had nightmares for months. Give me snakes, spiders, cats, or rats- shoot, give me all of them at once!- just keep those horrid things away from me!

Speaking of cooking in the oven, one of the few times I've ever cooked an actual meal was in the Erie house. Let me tell you, it was nothing to write home about. Actually, it sort of was but only in the I-nearly-burned-down-the-house-but-at-least-I-smoked-out-any-small-vermin sort of way.





And you wonder why I don't cook. It's for the good of the neighborhood, people! Think of the children!

I kissed men goodbye

Actually, I didn't. I'm still looking/waiting for the right one, but in the meantime I've found a steady companion- Ragazza! What's that, you ask? She is a two year old, forty-five pound, pre-trained, amazing labradoodle! At least, I think she's amazing (I have it on good authority that she is). I'll pick her up from the breeder in the coming weeks. I'm so excited! :)



And speaking of cooking, my fridge is even worse than previously mentioned. The contents now consist of:
six (!!!) sticks of butter
two Ensures
one package of English muffins
half a bottle of syrup
half a bottle of rice milk
one jar of preserves
The interesting thing is that its contents have barely made a dent in my eating habits. That is to say, my freezer is well stocked.

Changing gears here, this past weekend was great! Shawn and I went to see the Paperboys up in Bellingham on Saturday night (don't tell them, but the John Butler Trio was sold out and they were next on the list). Despite the fact that it was freezing up there, we had a good time. Bellingham seems like a cool town, and Pepper Sisters hit the spot for dinner! WARNING: gushing ahead:

Seeing as how there were only five people on stage instead of more than ten this time, I figured the Paperboys would be good but maybe not as good as the first show Laura and I had gone to... I was so wrong! The Wild Buffalo venue is more intimate than the Tractor- as in, I was next to Tom Landa at the bar! *swoon* We talked about how Shawn got his hands on his first tape, which Tom himself doesn't even have, and some other things that I don't quite remember because I was still processing the fact that we were even talking :p During the intermission we talked again (with Geoffrey too!) and even got a picture together! Sort of. Shawn's camera lost the photo and threw me into unspeakable despair :(

The show itself was a lot of fun. The people at the Wild Buffalo are a different sort than at the Tractor- they were a friendly crowd, all dancing with abandon (one women with a little too much abandon...). A woman I had spoken with briefly in the bathroom shouted across the floor "this one's for you Indiana!" when Tom dedicated part of a singalong to the Midwest (a la John Cougar). Wee! That definitely wouldn't have happened in Seattle! I have never wished I could dance more than during those three hours :)

Laura called me a groupie and she might have a point. I felt like such a teenie-bopper, but seriously? It was The Paperboys and they are amazingly cool in person too! I just can't help smiling :)

Waiting for my sheets to finish drying

Holy smokes! I've reached over a thousand visitors to the blog! I don't know how I feel about that. I'm suddenly feeling very conscious of the fact that people across the world are reading my idle ramblings. I don't write anything I wouldn't want the world to know, but it's still weird to think people across the world do know... even if they are just my friends :)

Seattle has been stereotypically Pacific Northwest this past week. Lots of rain and gloomy out. However, "gloomy" isn't part of my normal vocabulary anymore. Terms regarding light have been simplified to "night" and "day," so this gloomy has been outright bright for me! Speaking of redefining- a month later, I'm still finding myself winding down and catching up on sleep. I find myself going through one of those cycles of life, trying to get back to who I think I am but then finding that of course I can't regress in personal growth. I don't even want to be who I was! Even so, there are aspects of personality that are enduring, and sleep deprived lunacy isn't one of mine. Lunacy, yes, but not sleep deprived.

In my mind, certain things are part of Seattle's personality as well. A few months ago Shawn and I went biking down to Golden Gardens and Shilshole and saw one of those aspects:



In an odd sort of way, it reminded me of Set.

Continuing my babysteps into the 21st century

I took the Facebook plunge (myspace is, like, so passe), and now I've joined Skype- and been pleasantly surprised by both. I got to talk with Miki in Japan tonight, and she came across crystal clear! In fact, even her yawn was contagious from across the world and she could hear the catfight from my alleyway! Ahh Miki. I miss you :)

Now for your random picture of the day, Grandma's new cat, Peanut:



We were laughing last night about how funny it would be if she turns out to be a big cat. Grandma would totally be the old women doting on the fat, cranky cat named "Peanut." I don't think that'll happen, though. She's a sweet kitten and Grandma feeds her just the right amount.

In other news, I got moved to evenings again this week and for most of next week! Hooray! I'm still feeling better every day as I get to sleep at night.

Evenings again this week!

I admit it, I'm a list person. If it's not on the list, it won't get done, and if I lose my patient's report sheet, my brain might as well have just walked out the door. I do have fun finding old lists, though. This morning I found a yellow scratch pad with the directions to Steff's home in Iowa, the beginning documentation of our trip to Seattle, a mention of Minooka, IL (I have no idea why), more directions to unknown locations (I should really label them), letters, and songs that I like. On one of the back pages, there's a note to ask Dad for the "celery photo" of me. I actually got it last week, so that's another check off the list!



There's an explanation to this picture, though maybe not a good one. Dad got a new phone and wanted pictures of people to show up when they called. We were taking family pictures when he went into the other room for a phone call. Seizing the opportunity (and vegetables from the nearby vegetable tray), we had some fun :) For the next year, the office girls would answer his cell phone laughing at my picture. I think it's sort of freaky.

As Katie would ask, why am I not married? :)

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

While I did set my alarm last night, I didn't save it and it went off this morning at eleven instead of nine. Even so, I managed to get a hike in with Rachel and Katie. We went to Discovery Park (yes that counts as a hike) and got quite a surprise- snow! And lots of it!



I would say we got well over an inch, but I'm a terrible judge of age, height, group size, and snowfall, so add or subtract a bit as you will. By the end of the hour and a half, we were pretty cold and wet, but it was worth it :)



It really did stick on the ground, though. It's now 3:30am and most of it seems to have melted, but there are still patches of snow. The roads were pretty bad earlier in the evening. My back porch was reminiscent of Chicago last winter but to a much lesser degree:



On the subject of snow, there's a tree in front of the elevators at work that's decorated with fake snow and tinsel. It's also decorated with no less than six cardinals. The cardinal is the state bird of Indiana, and I've never even seen that many in the woods behind our house on any given day! The tree is colorful though :)

Idle thoughts

Tonight was my last night doing evenings (day doing evenings?). Come Sunday, it's back to nights for me. *sigh* I'm really actually feeling better every day (more peppy and happy and such), so I feel all strong-ish and ready to take on the night, but I know it'll slowly eat away at my soul again. Or maybe just my body and mind, but you know...

Some randomness I felt compelled to note:

Evel Knievel died today. The only things I really know about him are from Brian Regan and short clips floating around the internet, but I still feel some sort of loss. He was a daredevil of yore, complete with the cool cape and all.

I got Zach's newest musical self-portrait today. It actually makes me happier that maybe is warranted, but I've listened to an old one for years and love it. This new one is good so far- seeing as how the first song is by Amos Lee, I would expect no less. Thanks, Zach! I think the whole idea of a yearly music self-portrait is actually a good one. I am retarded when it comes to self-awareness and expression, and music has helped me a lot in this regard. Alternatively, you could go all superdork and just write a book about your life (otherwise known as an autobiography...) like Ben and I did.

I took this picture the other day at Gas Works Park with my cousin Katie. Somebody had done this to all the bricks around the sundial at the top, and it made me happy. Sort of reminds me of my brain this week:



I live a short walk away from the park and it's my favorite view of Seattle at night. As per Wikipedia, the park "contains remnants of the sole remaining coal gasification plant in the US." Coal gasification. *snerk* Gas Works is perhaps my favorite park of all time. I like the kite hill, the grassy field for frisbee, the cool old buildings and structures, the views, and the famous Gasworks Kite Shop just up the road. I could do without the creepy bums who lurk in the boiler and pump house, but such is the price of such an awesome park.

One last lighthearted picture from home this past week:



I'm a scrooge when it comes to work clothes. I refuse to spend more money that absolutely necessary on clothes that are going to get all MRSAfied, VREed, and CDiffed. The scrub tops we had to use in nursing school are actually good quality, so I set about pulling out the "College of Nursing" stitching when I was at home. Not sure it was worth the effort but ah well. I seriously contemplated leaving it like this to see what remarks it would get, but in the end Mom gave the thumbs down.