We Are Called Fudge

Why My Big Brother Is One of My Favorite People

2010-08-26T00:20:00.002-05:00

As I come out past the security checkpoint and into the main airport and approach the chair he's seated in, all of which he fails to notice:

Me (loudly): Dude. quit texting and look around for your sister!!
BB: I'm not texting, I'm on Facebook...

and then mere moments later:

BB: Did you bring any baggage with you this time?
Me: Oh, I'm afraid so...

Let the alcohol consumption commence!!

Here and Gone

2010-08-07T15:28:00.003-05:00

I had been looking forward to this trip for many months, one of the bright shining beacons in my current, doesn't-feel-mine-right-now life. And then I had the trip from hell in getting here. Now, just when I'm getting my Danish groove on, it's time to go.

It hasn't really felt like I've been in another country. Maybe cuz Dad's been here the whole time, translating even when there were folks around who spoke English. It hasn't felt like it's been ten years since I've been here. Even though there are a few new things, the city feels largely the same. It doesn't feel like it's time to go yet. Even though I know I have a life I need to get back to.

I need to figure out a life where I can come back here more regularly. I know, there are a million other places I need to get back to which I haven't yet, and a million more where I've never been and want to explore before I die. It's a big world out there. But family makes it a little bit smaller, and for them -- I need to get back here sooner than 2020.

Am I On Candid Camera??

2010-08-05T15:03:00.002-05:00

It's late, it's been a hell of a journey, and I'm typing on a Danish keyboard... but there have been just too many things that have happened in the last 24 hours. At least, I think it's been about 24 hours...

The good? Well, I'm here with my dad, o'course. Will get to see the brothers and Mia and the nephews and niece tomorrow. I got a burger and shake at a McDonald's in O'Hare for about half what I should have paid, cuz the kid took my order wrong. And, I'm in Copenhagen, so how bad can it really be?

Well... this bad. My first flight from O'Hare to London was delayed, apparently because Obama came into Chicago for his birthday, which I know I'm going to have to swallow a lot of shit about from the Republican friends. That, and assorted other acts of asshattery on the part of American Airlines made me miss my connecting flight out of Heathrow, where the people sound so lovely, but then really aren't all that helpful. I had to scramble to try and figure out a way to get a message to my dad that I wasn't on the flight he was going to meet -- thank God, my stepbrother checks his e-mail!! And then, once I finally got here... yeah, apparently my bag is still in London, so I's stuck wearing the same t-shirt and jeans I've had on since after work yesterday.

Oh yeah -- and I have a zit. What is really going on, here??

Of course, there is more to tell, of a more random and ludicrous nature. But it's 10:30pm local time, so I'm going to save that for later, when I can hopefully see the humor a little better once again.

2010-08-04T20:14:00.001-05:00

With Age Comes Wisdom

2010-04-09T13:18:00.002-05:00

In the midst of what was, in all fairness, a very polite and reasonably rational political discussion by two people of opposite viewpoints...

He: That's just how it is for me, I'm a Republican, I've always been a Republican...

Me: You HAVE??? Really??

He: Yeah, I have. Always.

Me: And I slept with you anyhow?

He: Apparently so, yes.

Me: Wow... it's like I had some whole other set of priorities as a teenager...

What?? Already?????

2009-11-12T08:41:00.002-06:00

The surgery days are done. There are a few kids who are spending the night in the hospital tonight, and are expected to be discharged tomorrow. Since we had a lighter schedule for the last day, we finished around 2pm and then packed up all the boxes of OR supplies that need to be sent back to the US. My work at the hospital is done. I am admittedly somewhat relieved (although that's really just my fatigue talking), and yet so totally amazed. How did these days I thought wouldn't end individually end up flying by so fast cumulatively?

But, now I get to be a tourist. A handful of us spent this evening at the happy hour on the roof of the hotel (Ladies get their first drink free, and the rest after that are $3 US till 9pm!), just relaxing and enjoying each others' company. As with any group that shares a common ground of work, of course, we ended up talking quite a bit of "shop," and... wow, people are saying some REALLY nice things about me. Saying them TO me. The clinical coordinator has already asked what I'm doing in February, because she's going to India and wants me on her team. One of the fundraising bigwigs told said coordinator that she "needs to get this one on as many missions as possible," and points at me. Aside from the obvious ego boost, that's very validating to me professionally, and comes at a time when I'm very much in need of that kind of external confirmation. I know I love what I do, and that I'm good at it. To hear somebody else say it... is like hot cocoa with marshmallows and a snuggly blanket.

On deck for tomorrow -- SHOPPING!! The local volunteers are going to take us to the Silk Village (I hear there's also a lot of shoes, silver, and baskets nearby), and then to an area outside of town where they do a lot of pottery. The plan for Saturday is an all-day trip to Halong Bay, on the Gulf of Tonkin. I'm hoping I might get to see Ho Chi Minh's mausoleum and some other sights on Sunday, we'll just have to see how that all comes together. And then... that long plane ride home. It will be hard to leave all these new friends, but good to be back home as well. Aside from the 17-hour plane ride, o'course.

I Have NO Idea What Day It Is Anymore...

2009-11-10T08:51:00.002-06:00

In our morning meeting today, our clinical coordinator noted that today was "surgery hump day," and cautioned us about fatigue setting in for our remaining surgery days. While I understand why she needs to make this statement, all I could think was, "Wow, I can't believe this is almost over already..." Today was the third surgery day of five, which means that there will be two more surgical days, a half day of packing up, 48 hours to see the sights, and then home again, home again, jiggity jig. How does it all go by so quickly?

Today I noticed that one of the anesthesiologists in particular will always say to the parent, "I will care for him as if he were mine," as she is taking the child from their arms to go to the operating room. This is such a difficult moment for both parent and child, and her choice of words says so much about why we are here. As the parents are getting their stuff together and leaving the pre-op play area, several times I have made a point of asking our volunteers to translate this doctor's words to the parents. As much as her tone and her face convey what she hopes they understand, sometimes they need to hear the actual words, too. And after all, that's what Child Life is all about!

Of course, after three surgery days, we are now also seeing some of the results of our work -- there are those kids who have made a special impression on us at some point along the way, whether it was the baby with three nostrils, or that kid who had us going through every toy, crayon and bubble container we had. They are now becoming the post-operative patients who are getting ready to go home. To see the changes (to both the child's face and the parent's!), to hear their attempts at an English "thank you," and to know that I personally took part in that...

This is long, sweaty, and emotional work. There is a cauldron bubbling just under the surface, emotions swirling and colliding and bumping up against a crust that will, no doubt, eventually give way. I'm not sure where or when that will happen, or what it will even look like when it does. But I know it hasn't fully hit me yet, and it's still coming.

On the shits and giggles side, we finally got that team dinner tonight that they'd talked about... at last, some Vietnamese food, instead of all the westernized crap I'd been eating at the hotel!! (Really, it's been very good, and I highly recommend the spaghetti carbonara... but really, is that what I came here to eat?) A chance to relax and spend some time with my teammates was also most welcome. And for those who are keeping score (who, me??), I had another mother come to me today, translator in tow, to say thank you and goodbye before she took her baby home. That's two in two days, people! Go, me!!

Halfway Point

2009-11-09T08:32:00.002-06:00

No, that isn't a site in Vietnam... but I can't believe that already, this trip is half over. At the same time, I can't believe we are only halfway done.

Saturday was a tough day, what I have written in my notes is, "Waiting, Frustration, and THE ANNOUNCEMENT." We had only a handful of patients left to screen, the surgery schedules were supposed to get posted around 1pm, and then we'd have a free afternoon to go shopping and have dinner together. Sounds great, right? Well... we were done with the patients by about 10:30am, and all is going according to plan. They let us know the schedule may be a little late, but still expect it to be done by 2pm. Waiting on lab results, hope to have them by 3:30pm, that's how it goes sometimes. I'll cut to the chase here -- the schedule wasn't released until just before 6pm.

Now, keep in mind here, ALL of these families are waiting for the schedule, to see if their child has been chosen for surgery or not. Some of these families have come from quite a distance, and probably not by something as modern as a car, in order to give their child the chance to have surgery. And about 1/3 of them are actually going to get it. Half if we are really, really lucky.

It being my first mission, I felt like I had to be there, to experience this stage as I had all the others, to hear the list being read, to face these families and their reactions. But I have to say, this was the most uncomfortable I've been in my time here thus far. This felt like it should have been an intensely private and personal family moment, that had been forced onto a very public stage. Yeah, I get that we have to work within the limits of time, money, and staff that we have. Uh-huh, I understand the way you get people to donate is by actually showing them the families that we can't help. But none of that means I have to like it.

Fortunately... in spite of no shopping, no dinner, and a dented self-respect, the day did end well. As a gift to all the OpSmile team members, our hotel left an artfully arranged plate of fruit, a bud vase of lovely orchids and some amazing tiramisu cake in our rooms for us. And, since my mysterious, not-on-the-roster roommate has never shown up... you got it, two pieces of cake for Janine!! Woo-hoo! Although my first thought when I saw the gifts was, "What, did my mother call????"

Yesterday was our first day of surgery, and it truly did feel like we were finally getting to the meat of why we're all here. Let's make a tangible, visible difference, shall we? It also felt better to me because rather than the grazing, wandering mobs of screening, I'm working with parents and kids four at a time, as they are about to go into surgery. I'm able to make more eye contact, connect a little more directly with each of them, give them an opportunity to ask questions through the translator, and feel like they're really understanding what I'm there to do.

Of course, I'm doing all of this from a small corner at the top of the stairs, just below the fire extinguishers... but hey, we're Child Life, we don't need no stinkin' room!!

Oh, and did I mention the humidity? I think there was an old television ad about somebody's deodorant failing them by 10am... yeah, that would be me. I won't raise my hand for acknowledgement.

Today's highlights were two: first, the Speech Pathologist made a point of saying to the entire room at team meeting that, "I've gotta point out, this is Janine's first mission ever, and she is doing an amazing job with those kids and families." You know, you don't do a job like this for the kudos... but it sure is nice when they come. Even bigger, though, was late this afternoon as a young mom was preparing to take her baby home. I was knee-deep in whatever else I was doing at that moment; this woman found a volunteer to translate, and purposefully brought him over to me, so that she would be able to say thank you to me before she left for helping her baby through surgery.

Um, yeah... THAT'S why I'm here.

Surgery continues through Thursday, and they keep promising us we're going to have some free time to shop and see some sights. I'll keep you posted, but that's all for now!

Swarm of Humanity

2009-11-06T08:50:00.002-06:00

Payin for internet, y'all, so I only have about 10 minutes left to write... I'm an idiot and forgot to cut and paste what I already wrote for the Operation Smile blog....

So, today was a full day of screening patients, and I swear to you, for most of the morning hours it felt like I was front row at a Who concert... every time someone came to the door to admit another family, they would all press towards the front, jockeying for position, trying to ensure that their child would be next. I wanted to somehow reassure them all that everyone would be seen, everyone would get in sooner or later... but even without the language barrier, that didn't seem to matter to anyone anyway.

And while basking in my personal space that could be measured in dog hairs, I had parents who would hold their forearm up next to mine, as if pointing out how much lighter my skin was than theirs. A couple of them played with my hair. (The volunteer says, "they're interested in it, because it's a different color than ours.") One asked how old I was, and when I asked how old she thought I was, the answer came back, "26." OK, maybe that part wasn't so bad...

Screenings are just about done, tomorrow is planning out the surgery schedule and setting up all the different areas, and the actual surgeries will begin on Sunday. (Um, today's Friday, right? Yeah, OK, then Sunday.) I'm really excited to see how the surgery days are different from screening, and am hoping I get a bit more "one-on-one" time with the children then, instead of the herding cats of today. Plus, I get to pull out all the toys I've been saving -- yay!!

Since we'll have some free time tomorrow afternoon, we're hoping to get a little bit of touring in. May not blog tomorrow, but will definitely have lots to report on Sunday!

Day One: It Begins

2009-11-05T08:41:00.002-06:00

Even when you have co-workers who tell you all about what it's like to go on an OpSmile mission, nothing fully prepares you for the first time. There is no replacement for actually being in a faraway place, working alongside such dedicated people, meeting the children and families who need our help.

Today was our first day in-country in Hanoi, my first look at our surroundings in the warmth of daylight. (And I'm not gonna kid you... yeah, 20 hours of air time is brutal, period.) So far, I'm finding it alternately calm and chaotic, but in a beautiful and absolutely fascinating way. The streets are a tangle of green space and crazy angles, and "direction of traffic" seems to be just something that someone maybe suggested, once. Even the buildings are a sensory explosion of jutting angles and inexplicable combinations of opulence and dirt. The language, too, is full of clipped, staccato tones that frequently feel rushed and demanding, as if everything has a life-or-death urgency to it.

The day started out with meeting our Vietnamese partners, while still working on learning everyone's name! We then prepared for a half day of screenings, where I ended up being the "point of entry" for all the children and their parents. Some of these families were here 3 hours ahead of time, and waiting your turn can be a difficult thing to do at times. We did our best to calm frayed nerves even through the language barrier, as the students blew bubbles while I explained to process to small groups at a time, and our local volunteers translated everything for us. What we would do without the help of the locals, I truly don't know. Within a few hours everyone had been seen, but the group today is one fourth of what we are expecting to see tomorrow. At this point, there is a lot of work ahead of us!

Off to bed with me, then... tomorrow will come all too quickly...

Blah Blah, Ginger

2009-11-02T05:46:00.002-06:00

Think I've got the blog/Facebook thing sorted out... this is just a test to see if it works.

Arising From the Ashes

2009-11-01T06:23:00.002-06:00

Wow, it's been almost a year since I posted anything here!! I knew it had been a long time, and I readily admit that the 140-character limit of Facebook seems to suit the randomness of my life a little bit better, but jeez!

It is November once again, however, which means Nablopomo time... It also means that, the day after tomorrow, I board three planes and end up in Hanoi, Vietnam for my first Operation Smile mission. The folks at OpSmile love people who blog, and asked for volunteers to write a few sentences each day about their experiences, so I raised my virtual hand and signed up. And I figure if I'm gonna write for them, it's not that much more work to cut and paste to post here as well.

Who knows, I may get REALLY ambitious, and even try to figure out how to connect this blog to my FB page so y'all can see it there... will wonders never cease...

Next stop, Hanoi!

Friend or Felon

2008-11-17T22:54:00.002-06:00

I've been doing my best to get things transitioned over to this new apartment -- changed my address with my employer, my car insurance, my driver's license (for which the state of Ohio issues a postcard that I'm supposed to "keep with my license..." Seriously???), and of course, the post office.

In the two weeks that I've been here, I've received my own forwarded mail, as well as mail for no less than five other people (although there are two Karens, so I'm wondering if The Karen Who Used To Live Here got either married or divorced during her tenure here).

So, do I cross through the addresses on all of those envelopes and stick them back in a mailbox with "Not At This Address" written across them? Or do I just say tough shit to these people, who apparently did NOT file a change of address form with the post office? The latter is easier, of course, but isn't preventing delivery of mail to its correct addressee a federal offense or something?

If I Ignore It, Will It Go Away?

2008-11-16T21:05:00.000-06:00

Ugh... they are predicting snow showers for overnight and tomorrow morning. I know it's getting colder and it's got to happen sooner or later... and they're not talking about any accumulation whatsoever, so it probably won't be a big deal... But I'm just so not ready for snow before Thanksgiving!

What I Learned Today From Eddie Izzard

2008-11-15T22:01:00.002-06:00

It's been a gray and rainy Saturday, the sort of day where you want to just curl up on the couch and watch DVD's and eat soup. Well, OK, I didn't have much in the house in the soup department, but DVD's I have aplenty, so I picked out a fave Eddie Izzard disc and settled in for an hour or two of hearty giggling.

He was doing one of my favorite bits about the Heimlich Maneuver (hoocha-hoocha-hoocha... and lobster), with Gunter waking Hilda in the middle of the night, and I decided to find out what Heimlich's real first name was via the internet. Perhaps it wasn't such a crazy idea -- after all, anybody who has seen Eddie's "Stripped" show knows that he loves him da Wikipedia!

But given Eddie's encyclopedic brain and penchant for small and random details, you can imagine my surprise to find out that Dr. Heimlich is not named Gunter, his name is Henry -- and he was born in Delaware! Went to Cornell! His wife is not Hilda but Jane, and Jane Heimlich (nee Murray) was the daughter of dancing instructor and entrepreneur Arthur Murray! Last but not least (and we're almost adding insult to injury at this point), Wikipedia reports that of all things, Dr. Heimlich is a cousin to Anson Williams, who was best known for playing Potsie Webber on "Happy Days!" Good Lord, you don't get much more white-bread American that THAT!!!

The Wiki article goes on to describe some relatively disturbing things about Dr. Heimlich, such as questions about sharing credit with other physicians who helped his research on the maneuver (he didn't), and taking part in mass trials of infecting people in Africa with malaria as a way to "cure" them of HIV and AIDS (he did). Apparently his own son has a website that documents and discusses what the younger Heimlich describes as "50 years of medical fraud." Yeah, remind me not to spend Thanksgiving around THAT table!

Eddie's bit was recorded back in 1998, so I'll cut him some slack for it being the pre-Wiki era. Besides, his version is clearly way funnier than real life. And that's just what you want on a gray, rainy Saturday.

Falling Behind

2008-11-14T10:45:00.002-06:00

Whoops... I have not kept up with Nablopomo so well this week!

I'm not exactly sure what happened. I had a really crappy nagging headache the first few days of the week -- you know the one, not bad enough to make you nauseous and call off of work, but still enough to make you feel like you're slogging through unhardened concrete all day. On Wednesday, it took me well over two hours to write a newsletter article that I really should have been able to slam out in under 30 minutes, and even then it wasn't my best work. And Thursday... Thursdays are hard. My work schedule on Thursdays is to be there by 9AM, and to leave hopefully by 8PM... although in reality, I'm often there till about 8:30 or 8:45. I'm getting used to it, and the tradeoff is that I only work a half day on Fridays, but... as you can imagine, I'm pretty brain dead by the time I get home, and blogging just doesn't get too high on my priority list.

So, those are my excuses. But I'm back now, the headache has gone away, and I have located all of the necessary Thanksgiving recipes, including Mom's pumpkin pie, so I'm good to go.

Onward, and upward.

Where Did I Put That?

2008-11-11T22:12:00.003-06:00

November being Nablopomo (thanks for the name, Melissa!) is a wee bit serendipitous for me this year, as I moved into this new apartment on November 1st and therefore can get away with posting about my first month living here. Things are really beginning to come together, and I am loving the new digs. Yesterday I put the first nails in a wall, in order to hang an antique mirror in my front hallway, and I also got some of my books shelved. (Shelving books is not a one-day thing for me. Several of my friends who helped with the move bitched about my copious amounts of reading materials. I know PA can relate.)

The unserendipitous part is that Thanksgiving is two weeks away (!!!!??!?!!?). I will be spending it this year with my Danish brother and sister-in-law, who have only celebrated this American holiday when my father and stepmother would cross the pond to be with them. As such, they don't have a whole lot of traditions -- or recipes -- of their own. My dad and other brother will be there as well, and I'm thrilled at the opportunity to get to cook and play around in the kitchen, but cookbooks do fall into the "books" category.

Did I mention the copious amounts of reading material...

Is This How the Zombies Get In?

2008-11-10T22:54:00.002-06:00

This really bizarre thing has been happening to my computer lately. The little clock, down in the lower right corner, the one that every computer everywhere has? Well, it seems to... get a little ahead of itself. For example, right now, it's 11:54pm, according to my watch, my cell phone, my DVR, and the automated time stamp on this blog post. The little clock on the computer says that it's 12:10am, approximately 16 minutes fast. An hour or so after I turned the computer on, it was about 4 minutes fast. An hour ago, it was about 7 minutes fast. And tomorrow morning, when I turn the computer back on again? It will be correct once again. It's sort of like my own personal little time warp, or like the drummer to my life is rushing the beat just ever so slightly.

That is truly jacked up, yo.

Fair Warning

2008-11-09T17:46:00.002-06:00

It's starting again.

That tiny little tickle that you barely even notice for God knows how long... until it becomes more of an itch, and by that time you know it's too late, it's going to become something gnawing and raw, there's just no stopping it.

Maybe it happened sometime this week, with all the election revelry. Maybe, but I don't think so. I think it's been going on longer than that.

The travel bug is biting me again. That's right, my wide-load rear end wants to sit on a plane for 8 hours at a clip and go somewhere new and exciting again. Funny, cuz it's been exactly one year since PA and I departed for Italy. My tolerance for lack of travel appears to be getting shorter.

Not that I'm in any position to do anything about this, you understand. I think realistically, it's going to be at least another six months before I can even begin to make any plans. Although, it is possible that I'll have enough time off saved up to perhaps go on an Operation Smile mission. Very different feel than the other trips I've taken, of course, but it would certainly tide me over.

And I know that, at least right now, I'd probably be looking at a trip on my own as well. I've done that before, and it's not necessarily a bad thing, but... I also know that my Sisters of the Dole would probably want to come with me, and I would feel bad for making them feel bad if they couldn't.

But I'm telling you now. The bug, she has bit.

The Strange and Random File

2008-11-08T22:51:00.002-06:00

So, with the new digs comes learning a new neighborhood -- where to buy gas, where to order Chinese, where to go grocery shopping. That last one is going to be a bit of a transition, because the closest supermarket to my old place was, in a word, AWESOME. Huge. Took Zes there at least twice during her long weekend visit. You can buy furniture there. You can buy sushi there. You can buy jewelry there. Love.

But, since it's one of only two stores like that in the city, I have to learn to satisfy my needs with a smaller store. The other big chain in town is the store closest to me, but I checked them out last weekend (I needed toothpaste), and was not impressed. Today's excursion fared better, and I think this will probably become my regular store.

Unless I see this one woman again the next time I go. This lady had the shopping cart with the race car on the front, and two school-age kids wedged together into the car part. There was also a toddler in the cart seat, who looked like she was just barely big enough to sit up there by herself. The strange and random part comes in, though, as I watched this woman put TWELVE cans of Pledge into her empty shopping cart. First of all, what in the hell needs to be that clean? And second, how does one come to have priorities that say you've got to by mass quantities of any cleaning product before, ya know... FOOD???

Ugh

2008-11-07T15:50:00.001-06:00

I am just SO tired today... I have no plans for this weekend, and believe you me, I won't be making any! TGIF = nap time!

Collect 'Em All, Suitable For Framing

2008-11-06T06:22:00.001-06:00

OK, this?

http://obama2008.s3.amazonaws.com/headlines.html

Is pretty frakkin' cool...

It appears that it's alphabetical by state, until you get down to the end, there, and then you're on your own, because I have no idea what sort of order they're in. Click on any individual pic and you'll get a closeup of it.

Happy Days...

2008-11-05T21:54:00.002-06:00

No idea of this is coincidence or not... but yesterday, Obama gets elected (Yes, we can!), and today I put 5 gallons of gas in my car for $10. That's right, sports fans, $1.99 a gallon. I can't even remember the last time I saw that.

(Actually, I saw it for $1.95 a gallon, but I would've needed to rely on the reflexes and reaction time of the driver behind me being lightning-sharp for me to make the turn without getting plowed into... I decided not to hedge my bets.)

You CanNOT Be Serious!

2008-11-04T19:18:00.002-06:00

Of course, I am glued to all the election results, I've got NBC on the tube, and am continually refreshing CNN on the computer, and speaking aloud quizzically to no one in particular when what I'm seeing and hearing don't seem to jibe. (Hey, it's one of the benefits of living alone, too bad if you don't get to!)

This is a momentous day no matter what happens, but ya know... sometimes you just gotta love the serendipitous nature of television. Mere moments after Brian Williams and Tom Brokaw were discussing the huge numbers of exit polls showing that we as a nation are more concerned about the economy than any other issue facing us today... comes an ad for Wal-Mart. A CHRISTMAS ad, full of snow and jingle bells and holiday deals.

So, the economy is tops on our minds. But screw it, let's go shopping.

24 Hours Left!

2008-11-03T21:29:00.002-06:00

Thank the Lord, tomorrow is Election Day... Memories of the 2004 election weigh heavily here in Ohio, and they've never done early voting here before, so people are anxious and the ads are just absolutely pervasive. I'll be SO happy when all that crap goes away!

Since I knew I would be moving 3 days before the election, I went ahead and voted early under my old address to avoid any bureaucratic asshattery, and thought that would help me to ignore all the crap floating around the airwaves for the last few weeks. Yeah, not so much.

I think what drives me bonkers the most, on both sides, is all these ads that keep harping on points that, if you've paid attention at all, you already know are false. A relatively quick perusal on factcheck.org will clarify that the Iraqi budget surplus is not $70B; that the "average American" isn't really going to save $2500 with Obama's health plan; that we don't import $700B in oil every year from "countries that don't like us very much;" and don't even get me started on the "sharing the wealth" crap.

But tomorrow, it will all be over. Finally. Of course, if you haven't done so already, I encourage you to get out there and vote. Those of you who know me also know who I'd prefer you to vote FOR, but... the important part is that you exercise your right to have your voice heard.

Movin' and Groovin'

2008-11-02T21:48:00.002-06:00

Well, the house-move is now complete, and even got done in a reasonable amount of time... although, no thanks to the guy at the U-Haul place on that score.

OK, maybe it wasn't entirely his fault. The U-Haul rentals are actually just one counter within this mom 'n' pop convenience store, so there were other customers present, and this particular guy was, in fact, there before me.

What I DO blame the convenience store management for is putting the U-Haul counter right next to the porn magazine rack. Yeah, I had to wait to rent my truck because the previous customer was having a tough time making his weekend titty selection. His trucker cap and multiple tattoos apparently belied a very discerning porn palate, as he spent 10 solid minutes having the convenience store guy show him half the magazines there.

"So, what do you have in, say, a slutty cheerleader?"

"Well, this just came in yesterday, I understand it's very nice."

Dude, pick the first cover picture that gives you a boner and move on. I've got people waiting, eh?

A Little Bit of Recommitment

2008-11-01T05:28:00.002-05:00

In my last post, I think part of what I was feeling was that I didn't use this blog enough, let alone any of the other "connect with people" sites that are out there. My thanks to those who replied through comments and e-mails, for you helped me to remember that there really is a big world out there, and perhaps more folks are paying attention than I think. The TurtleHerder also just reminded me that along with NaNoWriMo, November is also Post To The Blog Every Day month. (I'm pretty sure there's a more official name for it, but damned if I can remember what the hell it is.)

TH thanked me in her post for planting the seed in her mind so that she will be more attentive to her blog this month, and I'm gonna lob that shout-out right back to her -- thanks for reminding ME! I too am going to try to reconnect once a day this month, so we shall be sisters-in-arms.

For the moment, though, I have just under two hours to get myself up and dressed, get the computer and the TV disconnected and organized, do some last minute packing, and go pick up the 17' U-Haul truck. There have been some SNAFU's with that already, so I'm really anxious to get through this day as quickly and painlessly as possible. More details in tomorrow's post -- the cable people are supposed to come to the new apartment between 4-7pm (by which time all should be over except the screaming), so I shouldn't be out of reach for too terribly long.

Wish me luck!

What're We Doing Here, Really?

2008-10-08T09:50:00.003-05:00

OK, so maybe I'm just behind the times. Granted, it's been 5 months since my last post, so I suppose it's not surprising that the Blogger dashboard page looks way different... they'd been talking about making some changes, and I guess they have. But in feeling that five month time gap, I find myself wondering just what, exactly, am I trying to do here.

I went to church a few weeks ago with my cousin's family (stay with me, here, it isn't a religious rant), and the pastor's sermon was discussing Facebook. The point ultimately was about what God's Facebook page would look like, feeling connected to him, blah blah blah Presbyterians. But she began by asking first how many in the congregation knew what Facebook is, then how many of us actually have a Facebook page. As you might expect, no one over the age of 18 raised their hand for the second question. (Although, to be fair, it was a skewed audience -- the median age in the room was probably somewhere in the mid-60's.)

Do I need a Facebook page? I find myself struggling for things to say here, feel almost guilty about these large time lapses between posts, like I'm somehow not keeping up with my own life. Do I need another site on which to offer up nothing new under the sun? I have friends who Twitter.... maybe I'm missing something about the basic premise of it, but I totally don't get why the world needs Twitter. Am I to presume that I lead an interesting enough life that people will "follow" me around all day, just waiting to hear what I had for breakfast or what the license plate of the car in front of me in 5pm traffic was?

I have heard the arguments for Facebook or MySpace of, "it's so great, I've reconnected with so many old friends..." Sure, there are people who have crossed the path of my existence who I would like to find again. But I remain unconvinced. I've Google-bated myself. There's stuff out there. You Google my first and last name, you will find this blog, links for Classmates.com and Reunion.com (don't remember signing up for that second one, but it doesn't really matter, as both are inactive cuz I'm not giving them my money). You'll find a link to Zes's blog where she's got me listed, and some old stuff from the church I used to be active with in Austin. You'll find the web page of my employer, with my work phone number right there for anyone to see. And you'll find some movie links to the actress Grace Zabriskie. What're ya gonna do.

The point is, there's enough information there that, if you don't already know how to contact me, you can still find me. I don't have the largest of web presences, even among my circle of friends, but there's enough basic info there. Sure, goofy and quirky things happen in my day-to-day life, but by the time I find myself able to sit down and find the words to blog it, the moment has passed. I forget to bring my camera with me at times when I really should, so there's not a lot of spontaneous "me and Chill-Zee at the X-Factor rage!" sorts of snaps around. I work in an HIV clinic in a major midwestern hospital, so basic confidentiality (not to mention HIPPA) prevents me from posting much in the way of words or pictures on that subject.

Don't get me wrong, I'm very happy with who I am and my place in the world. I'm a good person, one who tries to make a difference in small ways with the people I know and the families I work with. I'm just not sure that it's all that interesting a life to anyone other than me. Do I need a place that's going to remind me of the mundaneness of my own existence? Is anybody out there REALLY trying to find me?

Eddie Is the New Jon

2008-05-13T22:27:00.003-05:00

Since the Snotties are all going to see him the day after tomorrow, I was suckered into promising that I would not reveal too much about seeing Eddie Izzard live and in person this evening. But I can't possibly say nothing at all, as it is contrary to my very nature, so here goes...

First and foremost, single-ticket sales can be a beautiful thing, and a big, BIG shoutout to LaCa for arranging that for me... my designated 18 square inches were all I could have desired without someone requiring a kidney for down payment. Added to this, the nimrods who had the two seats directly in front of me didn't show up (!!!), so my view was clear and unobstructed for two solid hours.

Not sure if it was the lighting, my imagination, or perhaps the safety tinting on my contact lenses, but I had no idea Eddie's eyes were quite that strikingly blue. Seriously.

He got heckled in French.

There was a line that he deemed to be a "four-person joke." I was one of the four people. NO doubts on this, probably even the strangers on either side of me would confirm it.

He has an iPhone, and doesn't leave it in his dressing room... which makes me wonder who he would actually take a call from while on stage.

A couple of things I might have expected, I saw none (or at least very little) of. If you know his stuff well, there were references that I believe had to be deliberate, but not obvious. Overall, the reactions I heard from others in the crowd as we filed out were very positive, and I myself laughed myself into a hacking cough regularly. Even took a couple hits on the pneumonia inhaler that I'm still carrying around, hoping that might help relieve some of the hacking. It did not.

Pondered hanging around at the back of the theater for a while to let the crowd thin out and maybe catch a glimpse or a 'graph... but the beefy bouncer boys appeared to be taking their jobs very seriously, so I decided against it. Did I miss out? Possibly. But I'll just have to live with that.

What the hell IS the Pope's real name, anyway?

Enjoyed the Columbus stuff he opened with, curious to see how it changes when he's playing in Chicago.

Brace yourself ladies, he is all boy in this one. Well, not ALL boy, he's still Eddie, but... Dude. Was. Smo. KING.

And this is all VERY tightly scripted.

So... yeah.

What Can You Say?

2007-12-05T14:35:00.000-06:00

Sometimes, there just are no words. I've been waiting for a few days now for the words to come to me, and they just aren't.

While still working through the grief of Larry's death in October and preparing to go to Arizona for his memorial, I received a voicemail message from my father on Saturday afternoon. He was calling to tell me that my stepmother had died. She was not old. She was not sick. I was not ready.

When Larry died, the words came to me immediately, and I posted them here. Larry had been in my life for 12 years, and I knew just exactly what I wanted to say about what I was feeling. Astrid has been my stepmother since 1973, and our relationship can probably be most kindly described as complex. And I have no idea what I'm feeling now.

I posted a picture of Larry, taken only a couple of months before his death, and less than 2 weeks after I last saw him. I could post a picture of Astrid, but it would be either taken by somebody else at a time and place to which I have no real emotional attachment, or so old as to not have any real relevance to it anymore. Such was the nature of our relationship.

If there is a gift to be had, it is that through all of this, both of my parents have each expressed a concern and a sympathy for the other that I honestly didn't think possible. A couple of people have wondered if this is perhaps some sort of karmic sign that my parents should be together again... I must ask forgiveness when I laugh at that. One co-worker asked if that was a fantasy that had died long ago. My answer was no, that was a fantasy that had never existed in the first place. If there is one thing I can be certain of, it is that that is not the path the universe has in store for either of them.

But beyond that... I don't know what to say...

Looking Back

2007-11-25T09:35:00.000-06:00

So, we are now back at home, pictures have been posted, wine has been drunk, and my body is beginning to figure out this night vs. day thing once again...

It's weird, though. We had a lovely, albeit somewhat frigid time, met a bunch of fun people, saw priceless art... but now that I'm back home, I sort of feel like, Italy? Check. Which is new for me. Every other time I've traveled like this, I've hated to leave and wanted to turn around and come back as soon as it was over. Now, I feel like OK, been there, done that.

Maybe it was because the weather was not all that conducive to wandering the city streets and exploring lots of stuff. Maybe it was that the emergency car repairs constrained my budget, so I wasn't shopping for everyone I've ever met or seeking out five-star restaurants. Maybe it's the lack of any familial connections. Maybe it's because Larry died ten days before I left. Or, maybe I'm just comparing apples to oranges, and Italy just doesn't speak to me the way other places I've traveled have done. Whatever the case, I feel like I'm bracing myself for returning to work tomorrow, where I'm going to get the, "So, how was your trip?" at every turn.

In other news, however, I should mention that my friend Erin's record of 8 scoops of gelato in a single day still stands -- I think I only ever got as high as 5. I can unequivocably say, however, that visitors to Venice should stay away from the gelato offered in the shops on Piazza San Marco. It was the least creamy, had noticeable ice chunks in it, and is clearly there only to cater to a tourist market that doesn't know any better. Seek out Gelateria Nico, even if you have to take a vaporetto completely around the city to get there. It's worth it. If you find yourself on the island of Lido, there was also a great little place there, right on the main street, where the scoops were humongous and they gave you a little wafer cookie with it, too. Yum.

In Florence, we did sample the wares at Vivoli, although did not get over to the competition at Perche No. (I think this was due in large part to the weather being at its coldest in Florence, making walking about unappealing and gelato as a reward unmotivating.) I had read in one of my guidebooks that gelato in Florence is generally sweeter than in other places, and based on my Vivoli experience, I can see where one could make the argument, but it was still damned tasty. The texture was a bit softer, so it got all melty a little faster, but the staff were very helpful in explaining the myriad of flavors available, and overall, I feel I can recommend Vivoli as an enjoyable experience.

The absolute winner for me, though, was Giolitti in Rome. These people have been around for over 100 years, and the place has sort of an old-time elegance to it... it's like black-tie gelato. They didn't seem too keen on offering gelato in a cup rather than a cone (I didn't see the option offered anywhere), but their cones are chocolate-coated, and their gelato was the smoothest, richest, creamiest, and most luxurious of any that I had during the entire trip. If I ever do find myself in Italy again, I'm going to try and get there to sample some more flavors.

Not sure that's enough of a reason by itself to go back, though.

My Ass is Freezing on the Beautiful White Marble

2007-11-16T10:14:00.000-06:00

PA and I have agreed on many things, of late... Italy is fun, gelato is yummy, espresso is addictive, Italian men are overwhelmingly hot... but I think the one thing we agree on most strongly at the moment is that Zes was somehow destined to not make this trip with us. It is COLD here, and she would not have appreciated God's little meteorological thumbing of the nose.

That said, it is also beautiful. The whirlwind touring of Wednesday afternoon did not diminish the beauty of this city by any measure. Yesterday, we were on our own to scope out precious works of art, sample local gelato (yes, apparently there IS a difference between cities!), experience an Italian laundromat, and take a short beauty break. Today was Pisa, which... for all the pictures you've seen of a building that tilts and what's the big deal... was really kinda cool. Not to mention the church and the baptistery that are right next to it that you NEVER hear much at all about -- it's a new perspective on all of that, really. I felt similarly to how I did upon seeing Mt. Rushmore live and in person. You know what it's going to look like, but somehow, the experience of actually being there makes it altogether different.

On the down side, the clouds rolled in and the wind kicked up, and this was probably the coldest day we've had yet. On top of that, we just missed a shuttle bus that would take us back to our tour bus to come back to the hotel, and we were unaware that we'd arrived at the bus stop just exactly as the shift was due to change... so, yeah, our butts sat on those white marble bus benches for just over half an hour before we gave up and decided to walk. An unbeknownst adventure, as even the tour director wasn't sure how to get back to our bus on foot! It didn't take long, though, till we were safe and warm on our comfy big green bus, and back on the road.

Oh, and PA and I also got insulted by one of the Nigerian illegal immigrants who walk around selling fake Pradas and shit!! Yeah, the hilarity continues...

Dinner in Fiesole tonight, then on to Orvieto and Rome tomorrow morning... which means I'll have to pack after dinner. Better be careful how much wine I drink!!

Aaaaand.... We're Walking

2007-11-14T12:17:00.000-06:00

Only mere moments available for this post, but for now, we have arrived in Florence, seen the Duomo, learned about leather, bought a sweatshirt, and realized how fabulous hot chocolate is here. Oh, and our feet are damned tired.

But, we've found the internet here, so more soon!

Buonasera!

2007-11-13T10:51:00.000-06:00

It's evening here in Italy, and for the record, PA and I have decided that time passes MUCH too slowly over there in the States. We've been tooling around Venice all frakkin' day, and when she asked me what time it was in Chicago, the answer was, "Oh... 10am." That just doesn't seem right, somehow.

In the two full days here (not counting the day of arrival, when we were heavy on the gaping and glazed looks), we've covered a lot of territory, thanks in part to the purchase of 12-hour vaporetto (waterbus) passes. It's interesting... I didn't really use public transit at all whilst in Central Europe. I think that was both because I had local relatives to take me around Budapest, but also because I did more of the optional trips and therefore had less free time. But I also think that perhaps, somehow, in her own quiet and unassuming way, PA pushes me to get out there. Which... is a good thing when one is thousands of miles from home! But perhaps we've overdone it just a tad for one day -- sitting here at the keyboard, we are both feeling like we're still on a boat. For God's sake, somebody stop the rocking!!

We depart for Florence in the morning... looking forward to warmer weather (or at least a lack of wind coming in off the water), and are debating Italian haircuts. We'll see... stay tuned to this station for updates as events warrant!

9/18/38 - 10/30/07

2007-10-30T19:18:00.000-05:00

Larry loved trains.

Larry loved his grandkids.

Larry loved Arizona.

Larry loved Carl Sandberg.

Larry loved his son.

Larry loved the Yankees.

Larry loved classical music.

Larry loved his job. Most days.

Larry loved giving up his job and being retired.

Larry loved his life.

Larry loved Annie.

And we who are left loved you back, dear one. Go in peace.

We'll Be Back After a Word From Our Sponsors

2007-10-27T13:10:00.000-05:00

Yes, yes... I have been woefully neglectful of this little piece of web space... I was reminded not too long ago that I have not put anything up here since June.

But fear not!! PirateAlice and I journey to Italy just two short weeks from today!! And from there, my friends, there will hopefully be blogging aplenty! At the very least, you'll have lots of pretty pictures to look at...

Memories of a Former Life

2007-06-30T20:54:00.000-05:00

As I sit here jamming out to all 75 Police tracks (OK, most of them... I skipped a few) in preparation for the concert next week, the wise and mighty iPod has seen fit to shuffle them in such a way that "Hole in My Life" is the last song. It reminds me of how, back in the day, Sting once said that the group would always close their shows with "So Lonely," because he loved the irony of closing out a gig in a massive stadium full of people with a song about desperation and feeling isolated. The irony here in my living room is similar.

I'm excited for this concert not just because it's going to be ass-kicking music from a group that I never believed I'd see on stage again. The Police were the defining music of my early college years. They were the end-all and be-all to this tender and as yet unbattered 18-year-old, at a time when I was still struggling to figure out who I was, and my place in the universe. Certain songs bring me immediately back to a time and place when the world was my bitch, anything was possible, I just had to figure out where I wanted to go, and how I wanted to get there, when I had no preconceived notions about what the universe might expect in return. Sometimes, a chord change is all I need to smell the cold Syracuse night air.

My introduction to the blonde trio came from a friend I'd made my freshman year of college. She lived down the hall in the dorm, shared a similar taste for biting sarcasm, and let me crash on her floor when my stuck-up bitch of a roommate was intent on having sex whether I was in the room or not. We roomed together the following year, visited each other during the summer, and when I moved to Chicago to find what it had to offer at the age of 20, she followed eighteen months later. She was my best friend and confidant for the next fifteen years, and even my ex-husband once told me, "You two have something that I just know better than to get between." It was me that took her to the airport when her father died. It was her I called when my marriage fell apart.

And then, in 1999, she cut me off. Broke my heart. Left for reasons I will never understand.

I've made my peace with it, with the fact that what happened will always be unknowable to me. But I've also had to find a comfort level in being OK with her being part of my past, that there are things in my world, important things that I don't want to let go of, that will just always be inextricably linked to the memory of that friendship. Like listening to The Police.

It's funny, because it really seems that her departure was the starting point of when things really turned around for me. I moved to another city, found new friends, went to school and embarked on a whole other life that is wonderful and fulfilling in ways that 18-year-old couldn't possibly have imagined. I realize now, in retrospect, that she had a lot of negativity, her world was so full of things she couldn't do... Hers was a life filled with holes. And mine, now, is a life of anything but.

So, by this time next week it will all be over except the ringing in my ears. I expect to have a completely righteous, rockin' good time, as part of a long weekend spent with people I love, because life is good.

And here's to you, Jane. I hope you get to see Sting 'n' The Boys when they come near you, wherever you are. I hope jamming out to "Regatta de Blanc" takes you back to a time when happiness came to you a little more easily. And I hope your life has a few less holes these days. Mine sure as hell does.

Raise Your Voice

2007-06-24T10:27:00.000-05:00

OK, people, there's only about 12 days left to cast your vote for the New 7 Wonders of the World! I just read an article that says most of the votes are coming from Asia and Latin America, with a much lower response rate from the US and Europe. So, let's get on it!! You can read about each of the top 20 sites (and the Pyramids of Giza, which are going to be included no matter what, since they are the only remaining Wonder of the Ancient World) right here:

http://www.new7wonders.com/index.php?id=315

You get to pick your top seven, so it's not like you're making Sophie's Choice or anything, here...

And we'll all find out who the winners are on 07/07/07! Yay!!

I Need More Friends Who Blog

2007-05-19T19:04:00.000-05:00

OK, the rules as stated to me are:

1. Each player starts by blogging 8 random facts about themselves.
2. At the end of the post, you tag 8 friends and post their names.
3. You leave a comment on the blogs of the aforementioned 8 friends, telling them they've been tagged, and instructing them to read your blog.

Random facts about Sister Madness:

1. I was given the name Sister Madness by La Cabeza Grande.

2. I have visited, driven through, or otherwise been to 32 states and the District of Columbia.

3. My parents have, between them, three marriages and one long term relationship. Through all of that, I have never had a sister, a half-sister, a step-sister, or a pseudo-sister.

4. Of all the children I refer to as nieces and nephews, only three have direct blood relation to me, and they are actually first cousins once removed.

5. I could read at the age of 4. The first book I read by myself was Dr. Seuss's "Hop on Pop."

6. I didn't learn to ride a bike until I was almost 9.

7. I won a prize for "Most Adorable" in the annual Halloween costume contest of the village where we lived when I was 3. I was a yellow gingham sunflower (handmade by Mom, back when she did those things), COMPLETELY adorable, and have spent the last 38 years trying to win the title a second time.

8. I was just puked on by a kid at work for the first time this past Thursday. Considering what I do and where I do it, I'm rather surprised that it took this long.

OK, Missy and Bridget? I don't see that anyone else has tagged you (and if they did, then you haven't posted!), so you're the only two left on my list that I can tag. I'll also mention that Zes has been tagged, and I am anxiously awaiting her post.

The Kraftiness Kontinues

2007-05-17T21:07:00.001-05:00

OK, major accomplishment, here!!

Little Alex is due to arrive next week, and I'll be headed to the post office on Saturday with a box containing three of my standard, all cotton poop-n-puke blankets, which I have been making for beloved babies the world over since 1985, and three (Count 'em!! Three!!) little delights for the delicate newborn noggin. Check 'em out!

Counter-clockwise from the upper right, the first is the previously blogged first foray with circular needles, with a pompom added for a little fun and flair. It is completely precious, but I was concerned that, even for the most newly-arrived melon, it would be a wee bit wee. So, I took another stab at it, doing complete and utter "whim-knitting" for the second go-round. And around I went, to the tune of 96 stitches per, in a 5 knit-1 purl pattern. For Lucky Number Three, I found some larger needles on sale and undertook Vintage Knits' Rolled Brim Baby Hat with Top Knot. All told, I ended up with three hats that appear to be all of varying sizes, so here's hoping that at least one of them will work for the little bugger!

And I got 'em all done before the baby arrived!! Go, me!

Mr. DeMille...

2007-05-15T18:39:00.000-05:00

So, I come back to the office around lunchtime today, minding my own business, when I see there's a message on my phone. I've got a few minutes before my next meeting, so I check the voicemail. It's a woman from the Marketing/PR department of the hospital...

I took a class a couple weeks ago from a local magician/comedian who wanted to teach interested hospital employees a few basic tricks, which we could use to break the ice and connect with kids who are feeling anxious about being at the hospital. Since Child Life is all about distractions and helping kids to engage their own inherent coping skills, many of us have signed up for the class, but it just so happened that my class was the very first one.

It seems that the local paper has gotten wind of what's going on, and wants to do a story on it. They are going to profile the guy teaching the class, and also want to interview somebody who has taken the class and can put the value of it into everyday use. The Marketing/PR lady called my director, who pointed her my way. Said director then advised me that I should "be prepared for pictures..."

ACK!!! There's essentially no wiggle room in my budget these days, and I need an emergency eyebrow wax! Dammit!!

Sister M's Krafty Korner

2007-05-06T19:43:00.000-05:00

I don't know what hit me this particular week... but I'm somehow channeling all of my junior high school home ec classes. It started, I guess, because I needed to fix a pair of pants for work. The seam was coming loose, and, well... a blowout in a room full of preschoolers would probably be a bad thing. So, I got the sewing machine out.

Once it was out and set up, I decided to tackle the under-sink curtains for my half bathroom. I'd bought the material not long after moving in here, and it has just sat for months. Meanwhile, the space under the sink has been useful for storage, but stuff has sort of piled up under there, and it's really not much to look at. So, a bit of ironing, a few pins, some meticulous measuring, and some simple straight line sewing, and voila! Now the bath is festive and fashionable!

(The hand towels will need to be replaced with some fingertip towels that match the color scheme a bit better, but... all in due time!)

Next, I decided to make another small object for baby Alex, who will be arriving at the end of the month. This is strictly "on a whim" knitting, and I'm totally making it up as I go along, but I'll be sure to take a snap and post before I send it off. The purple fingerless gloves are still a work in progress as well, but I think I was in need of something I could start and finish quickly in order to recharge my juices for tackling them again.

Stay tuned!! More krafty stuff to kome!

The Highs & Lows of Vehicle Ownership

2007-03-17T22:29:00.000-05:00

Well, I did it. Gave up one of the last vestiges of my Texas life. Oh, there's still a burnt orange tassel hanging from my rear view mirror, and a "Texas Exes" sticker in my back windshield (which I don't really deserve, because my membership has expired), but the Texas license plates are gone. In their place? Some lovely Ohio vanity plates (I have ALWAYS wanted vanity plates!!!) that complement my gorgeous little Bluebonnet to a T. Lookie, lookie!

On a more frustrating note, a couple of days before this, some kids were apparently in the parking lot of my apartment complex with some eggs, and wee Bonnie was one of the victims. Now, I'm not sure I'd make all that big of a deal out of such a thing... was I annoyed? Yeah. Did I want to be outside at 11pm cleaning sticky goo off of my car? No. But did it warrant calling the police and filing a report? Apparently so to my next door neighbor, who made sure that the entire surrounding area knew it was "dem kids from over the way, dey always wanna be playin' wit Shayna, but Shayna sixteen, and dey just KIDS..." I have my own opinions about Shayna AND her mother, but... that's another blog entry. Anyway, she gets the guy who lives across from us to come over and help clean up the eggy mess. Now, I don't really know this guy at all, but he's always seemed just a little too eager to be friendly for my taste, so... I generally give him a wide berth. But there he is, cleaning off the cars, offering up the services of his friend Vince's car detailing place, and bemoaning that I'm gonna need a new paint job because of ONE egg. Take a look:

I mean, seriously. A whole new paint job?? For this??? Do eggs really do that much damage to a car? Anybody wanna weigh in on this one?

On a happier note, the knitting is going well! I've tried to take it sort of slowly, just learning one or two new skills with each project. The baby hat was my first stab at circular needles, and doing decreases. Now, I'm working with double-pointed needles to make fingerless gloves out of this GORGEOUS silk/wool blend (courtesy of LaCa, natch!), and when I get to the thumb gussets, I'm gonna have to learn to do increases.

Wish me luck!

Feigning the Metier

2007-02-28T21:45:00.000-06:00

OK, I admit it... a long weekend spent with LaCa, and the knitting bug has bitten me once again. Of course, it doesn't hurt that the first outing on the first afternoon I arrived was to her chic new neighborhood yarn store, where she loaded me up with goodies!

And so, I present here, my first foray into knitting on circular needles -- a bonny wee hat for a bonny wee Alex, who will make his debut in May.

It's not perfect (and naturally, I can see all the mistakes), but I think it's still pretty damned darling.

Beware the Rabbi, He Only Takes Tips!

2007-02-22T22:52:00.001-06:00

OK, so since I work in an HIV clinic, I decided to take a look at a recent news article.

It's important work about a scientific study that could have significant impact on how the AIDS crisis is handled in Africa, but this quote just made me laugh out loud:
"This is an extraordinary development," said Dr. Kevin de Cock, director of the World Health Organization's AIDS department. "Circumcision is the most potent intervention in HIV prevention that has been described."

Dude, either work on something else, or change your name before you enter the field...

Huzzah!

2007-02-07T09:10:00.000-06:00

It's Eddie Izzard's birthday! Penne a la arrabbiata for everyone!!!

Pardon Me While I Freshen Up...

2007-02-03T16:32:00.000-06:00

Wow, I hadn't realized that we're already into February, and this is my first post of 2007!! With all the things that have been running around in my head that I might post, I admit to being a tad incredulous that I haven't actually done it.

But here I am, conscientiously staying indoors to avoid the instantaneous snot-freezing that's taking place outside, so I'm strolling about the internets, pondering the upcoming trip to Italy, getting in line for Harry Potter, and finally landing here at Blogger. The site encouraged me to upgrade to their new stuff, so I did, and from there, it was clicking aplenty. They lured me in with the "give your blog a fresh look!" thing, so I did it... and have reverted back to the original gray tones that I had way back when. I played around with some of the colors to make it not quite so funereal, but can't figure out how to change the top and side colors like I had 'em. Not to worry, though... In less than two weeks, I will be dropping in at Casa Cabeza, and I'm sure she will help me fix it. (Please, K??)

Meanwhile, life is grand but frigid here in central Ohio...

Christmas Donation or New Hire?

2006-12-26T21:09:00.000-06:00

Came in to work today to find my cubicle already occupied. Apparently, Kermie likes the Lego blocks...

Yes, yes... I'm sure the AADL is going to have something to say about this...

The 10PM Haiku

2006-12-12T05:41:00.000-06:00

Crazy day at work
Body betrays me again
Home. Ahh, stretchy pants

On the Other Hand...

2006-12-09T12:36:00.000-06:00

Even with chocolate, there is too much of a good thing.

After last night's post about the sumptuous and delectable Lava Bar, I remembered that I'd come across this a few weeks ago at the clinic where I work...

In an office where a fair portion of the patients are homosexual men, this somehow takes on a whole different light... And, ew.

Only Natural

2006-12-08T21:35:00.000-06:00

I think a blog titled "We Are Called Fudge has to be all about this, don't you??

When Last We Left Our Heroine...

2006-12-08T12:23:00.000-06:00

Yeah, OK. Tried to do the "posting every day in November" thing. Did pretty well for a while there, too -- until Thanksgiving, that is. The folks were here, the house nearly burned down, then Zes was here, and now here I am, barrelling my way into the holidays. Life happens, what're ya gonna do?

So, the rather cute volunteer guy was here again last night... he stuck his tongue out at me as he walked by. I, of course, responded in kind. Then, he pretended (facetiously) that we had never met to the supervisor a while later (Note: supervisor then went about introducing us, which leads me to believe she didn't catch any of the previous antics). She caught on that he was bullshitting her when he bowed to me and kissed my hand...

I only have two or three weeks left where I'll be around when he is... after the first of the year, I will be upstairs in the clinic on Thursday nights, and our paths will rarely cross. Suggestions?

The Curse of the Thanksgiving Pies

2006-11-22T22:54:00.000-06:00

Mom arrived today, and since my cousin wants to have dinner early tomorrow, we decided we'd better make pies tonight. I conceded the fat-free half & half thing... although, I will say, the pumpkin pie doesn't seem to be quite the appropriate color that I think it should. We'll just have to see how it tastes tomorrow.

The apple pie went in first, as it needed the highest temperature to begin with (and gets turned down to the same temp as the others during baking). After the pie had been in the oven for some time, some juices began to bubble up, and Mom realized she hadn't put any flour in the mixture... which meant it was going to be extra-juicy, and gunk up the bottom the oven. Argh.

The pecan went next, and we noted that, in spite of using a standard-sized pie plate, it seemed a bit full. I should have known right there... The folks left just apple pie came out of the oven, and things seemed under control -- I just had to wait for the pies to finish baking, and take them out to cool. No biggie, right? Five minutes after they left, the pecan pie starts puffing up to the point that huge chunks of it are dripping off the plate. After seeing one whole pecan (fully coated with Karo syrup and gook, of course) slide off, I decided that done or not, the pecan pie had to come out. So, that one may be a bit gooey still in the middle.

I got it out just in time, though, because as soon as I repositioned the pumpkin pie in the center of the oven, the crap at the bottom started to catch on FIRE. Don't worry, the house is still standing... but I felt the safest thing to do was turn the oven off for a few minutes while the goo on the oven floor carbonized and burnt itself out. Good God, do I have a mess to clean up.

But, so long as the pies don't taste like my entire house smells... it should be fine.

Now, on to the cranberry sauce.

A Moment of Silence

2006-11-21T19:30:00.000-06:00

If you please, today we take a moment to honor a dear and faithful friend, whose demise was reported thusly in "Variety:"

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117953955.html?cs=1&s=h&p=0

Farewell, ye steadfast Vertical Helical Scan. You will always hold a special place in my heart... and in my closet.

Home for the Holidaze

2006-11-19T22:40:00.000-06:00

It seemed like such a great idea at the time. And, really, I am excited that my mom is coming for Thanksgiving. It's been a crazy rollercoaster of a year, and the last time I saw her, the insanity was just beginning. It will be nice to see her, to show her my new home, to give her a tour of the hospital so she can see what it is that I do. That will be cool.

But there is still the Thanksgiving dinner to be considered... One of my cousins who lives here in Columbus is hosting the dinner, and so will take care of the turkey and stuffing. She and I discussed it, and decided that Mom and I will handle side dishes and desserts. Great, I've got some fun recipes, and it will feel good to cook for a bunch of people -- I love to do that, and don't get to nearly often enough. But, Mom has prepared a grocery list...

Splenda instead of sugar. No better way to suck all the life (and taste!) out of your holiday pie. She insists that you can't taste the difference. She's wrong.

Multi-grain bread, "for sandwiches after." I guess I should be grateful she's not in charge of making the stuffing. Bleuch.

Low-sodium mushroom soup for the green bean casserole. OK, I'll grant you, this one doesn't really taste all that different, but it IS significantly more expensive.

And fat-free half & half... which... first of all, since traditional half & half is a blend of whole milk and heavy cream, I can't even begin to figure out what a fat-free version of that IS. Skim milk and... water? And secondly, it's ThanksGIVING, for fuck's sake. Can't we just let it go for ONE day???

Yeah, and it was MY idea that they stay until Monday, instead of leaving on Saturday... somebody be sure to remind me of that next week, m'kay?

Nothing Wrong With Ohio?

2006-11-18T22:18:00.000-06:00

Ya know, I've never been all that into football... But, when I lived in Texas, I started to gain a new appreciation for it, I guess. It's important to the people down there. Once I started at UT, I was more concerned for the quality of my education, but I did start to root for the Longhorns. Not to a level of some of my warmer-climate friends, but still.

Now I'm here in Columbus, home to THE Ohio State University. (Yeah, whatever, they call it that, I could really care less.) This week is the OSU/Michigan football game, which apparently is... uh... significant.

OK, I understand rooting for the home team and all, but... this is BEEF, people.

Seriously.

Distractions Galore

2006-11-17T22:35:00.000-06:00

Me: So, you're supposed to write 100,000 words by the end of November?

She: No, I think it's 50,000. I'd be doing better if I would get off my ass. And if I could think of something to write. And if my laptop battery lasted longer than 5 minutes. And if I had a desk with a computer that was set up in the office, instead of sitting in the dining room where I can see the TV.

Me: Jeez, all you need is for somebody to construct a brownie bakery in your garage, and you'll never accomplish anything ever again.

She: Oooh, brownies!

Me: Yes, exactly.

Hang in there, PA. You'll make it.

Channeling My Inner Flirt

2006-11-16T20:05:00.000-06:00

This evening, I was at work, training new volunteers and having the freedom to go into a fair amount of detail, because there were no kids in the Clubhouse. Since we still had no kids when I finished the orientation, I decided to take my two healthy teenage assistants up to our main office to help me get one of the larger pieces of equipment that we had planned to move into the Clubhouse. (If I told you we were putting in a train table and taking out the magnet table, would it make any more sense to you? I thought not.)

I had paged the evening supervisor, just to let her know what we were doing, and check if she wanted to be involved, not realizing she was occupied with the guest Etch-A-Sketch artist just a few yards away in the main lobby. She came over to the playroom to see what I needed, and a few steps behind her was one of the Thursday night volunteers who I've met a couple of times. He pressed his face and hands up against the glass of the front door, and without even thinking, there I am, blowing this rather cute guy a kiss...

Where the hell did THAT come from????

Damn

2006-11-16T09:38:00.000-06:00

I realized at about 12:30 last night (which, of course, would have actually been 12:30 this morning) that I hadn't posted at all yesterday... so much for my attempt at posting every day this month. I got home late, then my mom was online and we were discussing Thanksgiving foods, and then I was foraging through my piles and piles of recipes. I swear I used to have one for a totally awesome cranberry-pear relish, but I can't find it.

So, maybe I'll try to post twice today in penance. And if anybody out there has an awesome cranberry-pear relish recipe, pass it along, there, wouldja?

Telephone Disconnect

2006-11-14T22:05:00.000-06:00

Last month, I decided that I needed to make a definitive move towards really settling in here in Columbus, so I talked with the good folks at Sprint about changing my cell phone to a local number. The woman was very helpful, but noted for me that A) if they reprogram my phone with a new number, then I'd lose everything that is currently programmed into my phone book, and 2) I was only two days into my billing cycle, and it would be easier to do at the start of a cycle. So, we agreed that we'd do it at the start of the next cycle, which is tomorrow.

It seemed like such a reasonable idea -- the people who need to call me the most these days are here in Columbus, and the numbers I'm calling most are here as well. Of course, when I mentioned it to my dad last week, his response was, "WHY? It doesn't matter anymore, just leave it..." Which made me rethink the whole thing, and to be honest, I'm still wavering.

Thanks, Dad...

RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!

2006-11-13T09:27:00.000-06:00

This guy obviously has no idea of the imminent danger he has placed himself in... although, I suppose the AADL (the Amphibious Anti-Defamation League) might feel that the Maryland Terrapin has been cast in an unjust light, here.

A Fond Farewell

2006-11-12T20:33:00.000-06:00

Last night, I said goodbye to the internship-graduation bottle of Becherovka.... But weep not, my friends, for I acquired another bottle on the last trip to Chicago. I am, however, trying to think of something cool and crafty to do with the pretty empty bottle!

Hey, and it took six months to finish it, that at least gives me some concrete proof that I don't have a drinking problem!!

Home Again, Home Again

2006-11-11T22:09:00.000-06:00

OK, yes. I blogged that I had not much of anything to say on Thursday so that I could do the "off to Baltimore" thing on Friday, knowing that I'd have all of about 8 available seconds in which to post... Trying to spread it all out, since I'm only 1/3 of the way through the month, you understand.

But now I've gone and come back, and there's lots to tell you about!! It's been a hell of a 36 hours, so I'm not sure I'll get to it all tonight, but... I'll try and hit the high points, and perhaps some of the rest will be fodder for another day. Mental exhaustion, or clever manipulation? You'll never know, now, will you...

The trip east was fairly unremarkable, except for the stop over in Newark, NJ for a couple of hours where I had lunch with my dad. I can now truthfully say that I have seen my father more recently than Pirate Alice has. It was wonderful to see him, although a bit disconcerting to realize he genuinely looks older in person now than the mental image of him in my mind. I think this is the first time he's seen me with visible gray in my hair too, though, so maybe it felt that way for him as well.

Since I had to lay out the cash for this trip (to be reimbursed later), I was striving for not much past "clean & comfortable" in the search for a motel near the test site in Baltimore. Certainly, I knew I wouldn't be getting a place of Shag Bag caliber. Well... I tried. It wasn't horrible, but I'm certainly not sorry that I only opted to stay the one night the boss would pay for. Fortunately, the best thing about the place was the restaurant, and I did, indeed, order the seafood platter, complete with crab cake. It wasn't quite as ultra-fabulous as the last one I had from a restaurant in Ocean City, but it was still pretty damn good.

The taxi ride to the test site this morning was... I think the words we used after stepping out of the car were "moderately harrowing." I could see the speedometer, dude was pushing 80 most of the way, and took every single cloverleaf going at least 65, easy. I'll give Homie the Cab Driver his props, though, he was a damn sight better than the fuckup who was supposed to pick us up to go back to the airport... but, that's another story for another day. Hee.

And, brief as the trip was, I arrived back home with a few very nice mementoes. Dad was kind enough to provide me with a CD of photos of the Denmark crew, complete with a few snaps of the new baby, born just a week and a half ago. As I was walking through BWI, I happened upon one of those fabulous little tech-gadget stores, so treated myself to a charger for my iPod, so's I don't have to lug my big ole tabletop clock/radio thingy with me on trips in order to recharge the damn thing. (Not that I WOULD lug it, but it's nice to not have to!) Since the only reading material I'd brought along was study books for last-minute exam cramming, I also got myself one of Jennifer Weiner's paperbacks to enjoy on the trip home... And, last but not least, for the price of getting home about an hour later than I originally would have, I now have in my possession a $350 voucher for future travel with the good folks at Continental Airlines, and tales of an interesting cab ride from Cleveland to Columbus. Not a bad haul for a one-day trip, eh?

Off and Running

2006-11-10T06:42:00.000-06:00

Just a quick one here, as I am walking out the door to head to the airport. Only one night in Baltimore, so don't anybody expect me to be bringin' home a case of crabs or anything...

Nothin' To See Here, Folks...

2006-11-09T22:13:00.000-06:00

So, in my effort to post once a day for the month of November, does it count if I post to say that I don't really have much to say today??

Let's Not Get Cocky...

2006-11-08T22:31:00.000-06:00

Dems win! Dems win!

When I went to bed last night, the Democratic majority in the House was a reality, and there was reason to hope that perhaps the Senate would go that way as well.

I didn't get to surf the 'net all that much today (10 kids in the Clubhouse tonight, it was CRAY-ZEE!), but returned home to find that not only had we also regained the Senate, but Rummy had decided to throw in the towel as well. It's like my birthday, Christmas, Cinco de Mayo and winning the lottery all on the same day. (AND K-Fed is about to dissolve into obscurity, too?? Somebody pinch me!)

But I'm remembering an evening at my church in Austin a couple of years ago, when a state Congresswoman came to speak with us. She talked about how at one time, even when their policies and beliefs differed, there was still a level of civility and respect between the two parties, and how in recent years that has all but vanished.

We've scored some major victories. We are hopeful for real change that will make a difference in the lives of real people. But with victory comes responsibility. Let us not be smug, and fall into these same traps.

Just sayin'.

I Love Baseball...

2006-11-07T22:42:00.000-06:00

...but I'm sorta glad it's over, and now House is back on Fox.

That crotchety bastard in his motorcycle jacket is one of the hottest things on two feet. Yum.

Brush with Greatness

2006-11-06T22:41:00.000-06:00

Have I mentioned that there's a guy who's doing writing for "The Colbert Report" who I used to work with at Starbucks way back when?? I haven't a clue as to whether he would even remember me or not, but he was always a funny and talented guy, has worked his butt off for quite some time, and I'm thrilled to know he's affiliated with one of my fave shows. Go, Peter!

Off-Color Commentary

2006-11-05T16:51:00.000-06:00

I'm an ice skating fan... enjoy watching it whenever I can, or at least whenever I remember.

Just after his remark about how female skaters today "point with their fannies," it seemed that, ever so briefly, commentator Dick Button (yes, he of the filthiest name in broadcasting) got his microphone turned off.

Proof positive that the US Figure Skating Association is anxious for Dick Button to die, so he can shut the hell up. Good to know I'm not the only one.

Today...

2006-11-04T09:22:00.000-06:00

...we wake up in a world where Doogie Howser is gay, and Walter Cronkite is 90.

I don't know about you, but I'm feeling a bit tenuous about it all...

Day 2

2006-11-03T09:42:00.000-06:00

In looking over a few recent posts, it seems I managed to post on three consecutive days in October, so Day 2 of NaBloPoMo for me is not, as yet, so impressive. But it's all about the building blocks...

Just wanted to recap Halloween for you briefly. The night terrors over the midget scarecrow prison worker are pretty much a thing of the past, but I did dress up for Halloween this week for the first time in many years. I'm not one of those people who decorates the Halloween tree and sends out Halloween greeting cards and sits in a field awaiting the Great Pumpkin all night, but I'm not a "we don't celebrate these pagan holidays" party pooper, either. I can see, and even enjoy the sense of fun in Halloween, but my previous life wasn't necessarily conducive to walking around dripping with fake blood or sporting a red rubber nose. Now, it's actually part of my job, and we did, in fact, have fun with it.

But for the record, even in a children's hospital, it's difficult to walk around with anything remotely suggesting dignity or professionalism when one is dressed as a Dalmatian.

Commitment-phobic no more!

2006-11-02T14:25:00.000-06:00

OK, so right now is just not a good time to take on the NaNoWriMo, although I have every respect for Zes, PA and The Turtle Herder, and plan to cheer them on tirelessly. I've got my big, career-dependent exam in 10 days, though, so I just don't have the brain space to dedicate to the Great American Novel.

However, I have just discovered NaBloPoMo... and since I DO want to devote just a wee bit more attention to this here little space o'mine, and there are no word limits or other high expectations to be strived for and disappointed by... yeah, OK. I'll give it a try.

Even though I'm already a day late and a dollar short...

Dammit!

2006-10-20T20:09:00.000-05:00

OK, I'm enjoying Columbus and all, but... TLC's programming tonight had the uber-delicious Take Home Chef in Chicago, and the ever-fabulous Stacy and Clinton in Austin. They couldn't have done all this six to twelve months ago??? Sonufa...

Since We're Doing the Meme Thing...

2006-10-19T21:01:00.000-05:00

LaCa has had this one up at her place for a while, and I've always thought it interesting and wanted to do my own... If it's in bold type, I've already done it.

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain -- yup, Sunrise Mountain at Lake George, when I was a kid
04. Been driven around in a Ferrari
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said 'I love you' and meant it -- I've never said it and not meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped -- not without a court order, I'm not!
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea -- how about crossing the Chesapeake into an oncoming hurricane?
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game -- huge as in major league? Or huge as in critically important? Cuz I've been to major league stuff...
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa -- ask me again in 13 months!
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg.
19. Slept under the stars -- whattaya know, Girl Scout Camp was good for something!
20. Changed a baby's diaper -- although, you'll be interested to know it's NOT part of my job!
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon -- I'm not sure I want to... the whole heights thing...
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb -- how about a piglet?
33. Seen an eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster -- yes, but I don't like them. Again with the heights.
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day -- only one? That's barely even trying, eh LaCa?
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment -- nowadays, it's a way of life for me. I highly recommend it.
39. Had two hard drives for your computer -- I keep meaning to put the old drive onto this one, but I haven't actually done it yet.
40. Visited all 10 provinces or all 50 states -- I think I'm up to 38.
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country -- yup, and so has Pirate Alice!
44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign -- I didn't do the actual stealing, but I was aware it was going on, and I still have it.
46. Backpacked in Europe -- we weren't backpacking, but we stayed in a hostel, does that count?
47. Taken a road-trip -- love to, when do we leave?
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving --- see #10
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer then you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger's table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your cds -- you mean everyone doesn't do this? How do you find anything?
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke -- air-banded, but never karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day -- oh, please! It's why God created weekends!
60. Posed nude in front of strangers
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites -- some of that Viking shit is pretty damn old...
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie -- how about if the guy I was married to was in a movie?
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest -- I was three, I was a sunflower, I was adorable.
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice -- again, check back in 13 months!
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake River -- um... no, thank you.
82. Been on television news programs as an expert
83. Got flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music
87. Eaten shark
88. Had a one-night stand
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone.
92. Buried one of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship -- it wasn't going anywhere at the time, but I've been on one!
94. Spoken more than one language fluently -- no, but I speak several languages badly!
95. Performed in aisles at Rocky Horror
96. Raised children -- not my own, o'course, but I'd like to think I've had significant influence on several.
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour.
98. Created and named your own constellation of stars
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn't stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an illness that you shouldn't have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication - does broadcast journalism count? It does for me, LaCa!!
106. Lost over 100 pounds -- not all at once, but over the yo-yo course of my life, absolutely!
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Petted a stingray -- uh, I'll pass... RIP, Steve Irwin...
110. Broken someone's heart -- not that I know of
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a body part of yours below the neck pierced
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild.
118. Ridden a horse -- no, and I think it's because I have some vague memory of my brother falling off a horse.
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours -- Yup. It's called mononucleosis.
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states -- someday, I hope!
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone's mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed -- see #10
132. Petted a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad - and the Odyssey
135. Selected one important author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions -- I was doing so well... but I went to my 20th.
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you're living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn't know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair -- I've assisted at one, but never my own.
146: Dyed your hair
147: Been a DJ
148: Shaved your head
149: Caused a car accident
150: Saved someone's life

In Case You Cared...

2006-10-18T22:31:00.001-05:00

OK, LaCa got tagged and made reference to me twice. Which means I'm up next, right?

1. FIRST NAME? Janine

2. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? Nope. I'm the first girl on my dad's side in four generations, and I have an older brother. I was supposed to be Kevin. They hadn't even picked a girl's name.

3. WHEN DID YOU LAST CRY? Full-on sob action? Prolly that week that I went from Chicago to Texas to Columbus in a matter of days. But I've been known to tear up at the random Hallmark commercial, and I'm sure that was more recent.

4. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? If I'm really trying or doing something for the kids, yeah. But grad school really did a number on it, and if I'm just writing a note to myself, it pretty much sucks.

5. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCHMEAT? Gotta be a nice, rare roast beef.

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? Every relationship has its ups and downs, but most days, I already am friends with me.

7. DO YOU HAVE A JOURNAL? Started several, never lasted more than a few days.

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? Still have everything but my wisdom teeth.

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? Not without a court order, no.

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? Depends -- I get cravings. Sometimes it's frosted shredded wheat, sometimes it's Life, sometimes it's Cheerios.

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? Not many of them tie anymore except for my sneakers, but yeah, I have to untie and un-velcro them to get them off.

12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? I was told once, in a very deep conversation, that I am, by someone whose opinion I trust implicitly.

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR? Moose Tracks or Coffee Heath Bar Crunch.

14. SHOE SIZE? Depends on the shoe, usually it's an 11.

5. RED OR PINK? I've been told I should be more of a red person, but I prefer purple.

16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? I have difficulty seeing in myself what others tell me is there. And I can be a bit paranoid sometimes.

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? In no particular order: LaCa, Pirate Alice, Zes, Rick, Dallas & Will and their girls, Fat Kitty Frank.

18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU? Well, I'm not mailing it out, so they can't very well send it back!

19. WHAT COLOR PANTS, SHIRT AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? Still in my work clothes -- pale yellow shirt, khaki pants. Shoes are off, but I wore the chocolate brown Birkies earlier today.

20. LAST THING YOU ATE? Strawberry licorice.

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? Stephen Colbert is rattling on about something or other.

22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? A deep, almost-black plum purple.

23. FAVORITE SMELL? Crisp fall air, lilacs, cut grass, gasoline.

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? Talked at all? The security guy at the hospital, to get an escort to the parking lot. Conversation? Rick, last night.

25. THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE YOU ARE ATTRACTED TO? Eyes, hair, brains, butt, hands. In that order.

26. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON you stole THIS from? Love her to pieces, but worry about the pieces.

27. FAVORITE DRINK? Becherovka & Coke... although, I'd be perfectly happy with the mango margarita!

28. FAVORITE SPORT? Ice skating, gymnastics, Yankees baseball, Lady Longhorns basketball.

29. EYE COLOR? Gray, with an inner ring of yellow that sometimes makes people think they're green.

30. HAT SIZE? Not a clue, but about average.

31. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? Almost religiously. My eyes are what I like best about my face, and my glasses not only obscure them, but they're old and don't really suit me anymore.

32. FAVORITE FOOD? Creme brulee, chicken paprikas, and the peanut sauce at the now-defunct Bangkok.

33. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? Happy endings, unless it makes a really cool movie trite and stupid. Not into the scary stuff at all, although for someone who doesn't like scary movies, I've seen a fair number of them.

35. SUMMER OR WINTER? Rather be cold than hot... but I'd prefer to avoid the extremes so, fall, really. I can handle both summer and winter in limited doses, but in that respect, I'm not sorry to have left Texas!

36. HUGS OR KISSES? Yes, please!

37. FAVORITE DESSERT? Creme brulee, again, or warm chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream and hot fudge.

38. WHO IS MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? No clue.

39. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND? Ditto.

40. WHAT BOOKS ARE YOU READING? Psychosocial Care of Children in Hospitals, and Child Life: Theory and Practice. The exam's four weeks from Saturday!

41. WHAT'S ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? The Dell logo -- I haven't invested in anything other than what came with the computer.

42. WHAT DID YOU WATCH LAST NIGHT ON TV? Six Feet Under reruns from Monday night, and the Daily Show/Colbert Report combo.

43. FAVORITE SOUNDS? Children laughing, friends laughing, power guitar chords.

44. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? Huh?? What the hell kind of Sophie's Choice question is that???

45. THE FURTHEST YOU'VE BEEN FROM HOME? Budapest.

46. WHAT'S YOUR SPECIAL TALENT? Being a Child Life Specialist.

47. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? New Brunswick, NJ

48. WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? Copped from LaCa's blog.

The Things I Do for You Kids!

2006-10-12T19:49:00.000-05:00

One of the responsibilities our staff all share is donation duty -- about every four to five weeks, three of us are the main people in charge of taking in the items that people want to give to the hospital, distributing them among the patients, writing thank you notes and what have you. This week is my week. No, I do not want your old Barbies, board games with half the pieces missing, or stuffed animals. Yes, people bring that shit in all the time. No, we can't give it to patients if it's used. Yes, we throw it away and don't tell them.

We were notified last week that people from a correctional facility in the next county would be bringing us a large donations of pumpkins today. Apparently, pumpkin farming is the latest in rehabilitation programs, and these guys have been making donations to us for a few years now. I've been so enthralled with living in a state where there actually is an autumn again (complete with crisp air and trees changing colors!), that I didn't really think much about it. I'll be in a meeting, page me when they get here.

Since I had to extricate myself from said meeting, my two donation duty cohorts were already assisting the delivery guys when I arrived on the scene. At first glance, it was sort of cute. Two of the four guys were dressed up as a scarecrow and a lion, they had a little nylon pumpkin with candy in it that they were handing out along with the pumpkins to passersby, there was a big heavy duty wagon thing to transport the pumpkins from the haywagon (seriously, a haywagon!) into the lobby of the hospital... this was going to be well-orchestrated, and perhaps even a little fun. (Although, seriously, I would love to see the face of some parent who wasn't there as their barely verbal kid tries to explain that there was a lion in a truck at the hospital who gave him a pumpkin...) In the spirit of entertainment, I snapped a shot or two with my handy dandy cell phone.

And then it occurs to me... these are Prison Pumpkins... and these costumed guys are affiliated with the prison... how, exactly?? God bless my co-worker Katie, who had forgotten about the whole incarceration aspect of the situation, and started asking questions about how long they'd been doing this, did they own a farm, blah blah diddy blah. The scarecrow explained to her that the pumpkin patch was on-site at the correctional facility, the inmates plant the pumpkins each year by hand, and the donations they make are part of their community service. Whew. OK. Not inmates themselves, then. Just guys who work with them. Everybody has their own calling, I suppose.

During all of this, the lion and the scarecrow have been making good use of both a digital and a video camera. Scarecrow tells us it's good for the ~~jailbirds~~ ~~hoods and thugs~~ inmates to see the end result of their labor, and rather sneakily segues from there right into, "So, how about a picture of you girls..." Y'all know how I love to have my picture taken. But, it's for the greater good, so... OK.

At which point, Scarecrow hops down from the haywagon that he's been sitting in looking relatively normal (he IS in a scarecrow costume, after all!) this entire time, and someone must have invisibly sliced through him at the knees with a self-cauterizing light saber as he was doing so, because suddenly, dude is like, four-foot five, max. Katie and I look at each other in wonder of how, exactly, we lost control of this situation. She's shorter than I am by a good few inches, and I could tell his diminutive stature made her somewhat nervous as he moved to stand next to her. Imagine my delight in realizing that, as he then pulled me into the shot, the top of his head came just exactly to my chest. I'm about to be photographed with a scarecrow who has my right boob to his temple and his hand at the small of my back.

Funny, I don't remember "getting felt up by a midget scarecrow prison worker" being in my job description....

Rainbow in the Rearview

2006-10-03T08:39:00.000-05:00

OK, so I've always been one of those "everything happens for a reason" sort of people. I like to think that I temper it with enough "you have to pay attention to the universe" 'tude that I'm neither annoying nor expecting shit to just fall in my lap without having to work for it, but... it is possible that my friends just don't tell me these things, either.

But then things like today happen.

First, a wee bit of backstory. When my grandfather (a man of the pulpit for over 45 years) died in 1989, a guy friend invited my cousin and I up to Evanston for free ice cream from the store where he worked, because ice cream makes all things better. As Jen and I were transported by the Purple Line, we looked out the window and saw a rainbow out over Lake Michigan. Reminded that the rainbow is a symbol of God's promise to the world, I was sure that this was visible evidence of Grandpa's spirit taking its rightful place. Ever since, all rainbows make me remember my grandfather.

So there I am, driving to work this morning, minding my own business, trying to stay a respectful distance behind the trucks without having the dickheads in Beemers driving up my ass... I'm rounding the ramp onto the interstate, and I see it. In my rear view mirror, bright and clear as you please, a beautiful, sharp, well-defined rainbow. By the time the ramp straightened out onto the highway, the angle had shifted and it was gone, hidden by billboards or trees or buildings.

But for just that moment, Grandpa stopped by to say hello.

Happy Birthday to me.

I Feel FABULOUS!!!

2006-09-06T09:34:00.000-05:00

OK, so one of the things that suffered most during the winter of my underemployment was the personal care stuff. Haven't had a haircut since December, or had my eyebrows waxed since I don't know when. Not that I didn't WANT to do these things, but when your income is basically zero, they become luxuries that are out of grasp.

I'm now back to having a regular paycheck, and I'm headed to Chicago this weekend for a wedding, so I figured that was as good an excuse as any to splurge on myself a little. After investigating on the web a bit and asking around, I took the advice of a co-worker and booked an appointment for this morning at the Charles Penzone Grand Salon. After parking my little Chevrolet in amongst the Benzes and Beemers, I reacted exactly as this friend predicted I would upon entering the building -- the gut response was, "Dear Lord, I can't POSSIBLY afford this..." Plush carpeting, comfy chairs, soft ambient music, humongous cathedral ceilings, a free beverage bar, all the makings of a bona fide spa experience.

Turns out, I can afford it. For a mere fifty bucks later, my hair and my eyebrows look better than they have in ages, and I'm remembering that taking care of these things is not splurging at all, but something all of us need to do for ourselves every once in a while.

I look, but more importantly I feel just great. Excited to go to work this afternoon and show off kind of great. Confident that not getting to see a certain someone in Chicago will be his loss and not mine kind of great. “Screw you, world, I have a sassy haircut,” kind of great.

O’course, who knows what my hair will see fit to do tomorrow…

Curses!!!

2006-08-25T07:38:00.000-05:00

After the long dry summer of no cable television and internet access only while at work, I am giddy with excitement that my new apartment and subsequent hookups are now only about a week away... But upon checking one of my regular subscription sites this morning, I find out that on Monday, September 4th (my first weekday with digital cable), The Daily Show will be pre-empted.

Those bastards!!

So Much to Blog, So Little Time

2006-07-31T19:25:00.000-05:00

Actually, so little computer...

I have lots and lots to tell you guys about, from the surreality of traveling through six states in about three days, to the joys of Columbus, to why a rerun of the "Sex & the City" finale made me a wee bit weepy, to the surprise of impending aunthood... but I don't have a computer of my own for about another month. I can only get on line at work, where I don't really have enough time to write in any sort of coherent (let alone entertaining) way, and I'm always paranoid that someone is walking past me and thinking, "What's with the new girl, surfing the 'Net all the time???" A little paranoia is a dangerous thing.

So, I'll get to it as soon as I can, I promise. It just might be a while, is all I'm saying. But I'll back date everything so it will feel chronologically appropriate, OK? You'll barely even notice, I swear.

And yes, feel free to insert snide comment of choice here about how I hardly ever blog when I HAVE a computer, but now that I don't, I feel the need to every other frikkin' day...

New Job, New City, New Life

2006-06-26T00:23:00.000-05:00

Well, here we go.

I've been on the verge of tears more times than I can count this week. Transitioning is not something I do well. I'll get through it, I always do... but damn. This is a lot.

Tomorrow morning, I leave Chicago. Again. I've packed up all my stuff, said goodbye in one form or another to almost everyone, find myself disappointed in all the things I didn't get to do and people I didn't get to see (or didn't get to see more than once) while I was here. I love this city. I love everything about it. Love the way I feel about myself when I'm here. To all of the amazing people I have here, I've got to tell you -- I would not be who I am today if any one of you hadn't come into my life, and for what you've done for me over these last six months, thank you will never be enough. I'll be back to visit regularly, and back for good just as soon as I can.

On Wednesday, I will fly to Austin to get all of my melted and semi-liquid belongings out of storage and bring them to Ohio. Yeah, not looking forward to that part so much. And there again, I will have one more round of goodbyes. In January I didn't really think I was going to be back for any length of time, and then in May it looked like I might, and now it's a certainty that I won't -- I'll spend less than 48 hours there. But for all of those ups and downs, I have once again had wonderful people who have loved and supported me through it all. You guys know that in my heart, I never really fully felt at home in Texas, but you opened your hearts and your homes to me anyway. It will not be difficult at all to leave the city, but it's very hard to know that I will be living so far away from you indefinitely.

So, by this time next week, I will be in Columbus, and about to embark on a whole new life, learn a new city, work at a new job where all of my past experience doesn't really count for squat. Starting over, this is. At MY age. Whose idea was this, anyway? Oh, yeah, it was mine...

Ya know, my mother has called me out on more than one occasion for wanting to know what to expect, wanting to know what to do, wanting to know how I'll react in a situation before I even walk into the room. She's my mother, it's not like I can argue the point (although I DO hate it when she's right about shit like that). I can't know any of that ahead of time here, and the idea of, "Holy shit, somebody has actually hired me to do this job, to be this person," is a bit daunting, to say the least. Yes, I know I have a Master's degree. I know that, in there somewhere, my brain has absorbed a lot of information over the past three years. I know that ultimately, I'll not only do well, but love what I'm doing just as I have loved learning about it.

But tomorrow, I begin to leave behind everything I already know and am comfortable with.

It's a tad scary.

Ya Got Me

2006-06-15T17:44:00.000-05:00

OK, OK...

I've received this in e-mail form a couple of times and never responded to it, mainly because I couldn't come up with a single word for the people who sent it to me. But, what goes around comes around, so...

Describe me in a single word. And I'll work on e-mailing those other people back... (Most of the friends on the right side of the page are in on this too, so if you know them, describe them, too.)

Should be interesting...

A Random and Incomplete List

2006-06-11T18:48:00.000-05:00

Wandered about the Old Town Art Fair this afternoon at Zes's behest... and in amongst the jewelry, the pottery, and the stuff that I couldn't believe Zes couldn't even look at, much less photograph to say, "Look at this CRAP!" there were some lovely photographs that a guy took as he obviously spent many months wandering about Italy and France. Of course, there was a huge shot that I coveted of Provence, a myriad of lovely greens and purples that immediately made me go, "I wanna go there..."

So, in the midst of evaluating all the other art in terms of its Provencity (pronounced "proh-VAUGHN-sih-TAY"), I began rattling off a list of places where I have never been that I want to see before I die. (Hey, I've accomplished pretty much everything else I've wanted to in my life, unless you're gonna hold me to that "having a job" thing!) It was decided that I probably should write such a list down, so here it is, in no particular order:

1. St. Petersburg (Russia, not Florida)
2. San Francisco
3. ~~Budapest~~
4. Vancouver, BC
5. Alaska
6. ~~Prague~~
7. Switzerland
8. Italy
9. Paris (and most likely Provence, since I'm there)
10. China
11. Scotland
12. Amsterdam
13. Macchu Picchu
14. Australia
15. Egypt
16. Jerusalem

So, there ya go. This is not a complete and final list by any means, and certainly doesn't account for places I've already been and want to return to, but... it's my game plan for the next umpteen years. Anybody who's interested in any of these sites is welcome to come along -- just lemme know where you wanna go, and I'll let you know when I'm planning a trip there.

On a completely different note, I pulled my hair back today to avoid any sunshine-walking sweaty neck difficulties, and believe, much to my dismay, that the gray is evolving from the way cool streak or two to a more generalized ickiness. And me with no fundage for beauty maintenance, dammit. Whaddaya think?

What are the Odds??

2006-06-04T19:59:00.000-05:00

In her usual Sunday morning check-in, El Bee informed La Cabeza Grande today that, due to having hit the Pick 3 numbers not once but twice this week, there was an undisclosed surplus of pin money in her kitty. Since everybody knows that not only is luck genetic, but these things always happen in threes as well, The Head and I decided that we were feeling decidedly lucky ourselves.

LaCa: There's a couple of different ways to play that increase your chances...
Sister M: Yeah, there's a straight and a box and a 3-way... I'm not sure what's what, though. Gee, maybe that explains my dating difficulties, too...

We were two intelligent women in need of more information, so we did what any red-blooded American females would do -- we got on the web. After poring through the charts and graphs that were so nobly provided by the Illinois State Lottery Commission (where we were also encouraged to Have Fun! Play Responsibly!), we calculated what would provide us the greatest chances of winning with the smallest outlay of cash, selected our "significant" numbers, reviewed the correct terminology, and wrote it all down.

Since I was a) already dressed and b) headed to the corner gas station anyway to support one of my less endearing habits that we're not even going to discuss now, I was the designated purchaser of our Tickets of Great Fortune. Note paper and cash in hand, I went around the corner and approached the window, where I discovered the major flaw in the design of the lottery commission's web site: although it provided me with the appropriate terminology for our Great Master Plan, it failed miserably in translating it into "Rapid Mumblings of Girl Behind Bulletproof Glass-ese."

Girl Behind Glass: You want da fitty cent play, or da dolla play?
Sister M: Erm... the dollar play. For the six-way combo. And this one's a quick pick.
GBG: You want da fi' dolla play on dat?
Sister M: Uh... I... guess so... it just called it the six-way combo.
GBG: OK, den. Dat's sisty-fow dollas.
Sister M: Uh... no, then that's not the one I want. They're supposed to be six dollars each.
GBG: Oh, OK. Dat not the fi' dolla play, den. Dis yo' firs' time?
Sister M: (resisting the urge to break into her best West Texas accent and say, "It shore nuff is, ma'am, and I rightly do 'preciate you heppin' me a-out...") Um... yeah.

So, I sure as hell hope those numbers at least give us a little sumpin' sumpin'... cuz, ya know... otherwise I'll have wasted my virginity and all...

What the Hell Happened?

2006-06-02T01:36:00.000-05:00

Holy crap -- I've only got 28 of the top 100 albums of all time! (Well, according to the Brits, anyway...) I counted it if I have it in any form -- vinyl, cassette, CD, or MP3. I'll just have to console myself with the fact that there are some on here that I just haven't gotten yet, and I have bits and pieces of several others...

Oh, and... no Police? No Robbie Williams??? This is the BRITS doing the voting here! Damn, I thought the Brits were all over Robbie Williams....

I need to go shopping -- how about you?

01. Definitely Maybe, Oasis
02. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band, The Beatles
03. Revolver, The Beatles
04. OK Computer, Radiohead
05. (What's The Story) Morning Glory?, Oasis
06. Nevermind, Nirvana
07. The Stone Roses, The Stone Roses
08. Dark Side Of The Moon, Pink Floyd
09. The Queen Is Dead, Smiths
10. The Bends, Radiohead
11. The Joshua Tree, U2
12. London Calling, The Clash
13. The Beatles (The White Album), The Beatles
14. Abbey Road, The Beatles
15. Up The Bracket, The Libertines
16. Never Mind The Bollocks Here's The Sex Pistols, Sex Pistols
17. Four Symbols (Led Zeppelin IV), Led Zeppelin
18. The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars, David Bowie
19. A Night At The Opera, Queen
20. Is This It, The Strokes
21. Hot Fuss, The Killers
22. Pet Sounds, The Beach Boys
23. Grace, Jeff Buckley
24. The Holy Bible, Manic Street Preachers
25. Bat Out Of Hell, MeatLoaf
26. Appetite For Destruction, Guns N' Roses
27. Employment, Kaiser Chiefs
28. Rubber Soul, The Beatles
29. Rumours, Fleetwood Mac
30. The Libertines, The Libertines
31. Urban Hymns, The Verve
32. American Idiot, Green Day
33. A Rush Of Blood To The Head, Coldplay
34. Parklife, Blur
35. Thriller, Michael Jackson
36. The Wall, Pink Floyd
37. Automatic For The People, R.E.M.
38. Franz Ferdinand, Franz Ferdinand
39. Tubular Bells, Mike Oldfield
40. Achtung Baby, U2
41. Wish You Were Here, Pink Floyd
42. Exile On Main Street, The Rolling Stones
43. Bridge Over Troubled Water, Simon and Garfunkel
44. Led Zeppelin II, Led Zeppelin
45. Parallel Lines, Blondie
46. Brothers In Arms, Dire Straits
47. Blood On The Tracks, Bob Dylan
48. Hunky Dory, David Bowie
49. X&Y, Coldplay
50. Who's Next, The Who
51. Hopes And Fears, Keane
52. Parachutes, Coldplay
53. Arrival, Abba
54. Different Class, Pulp
55. The Velvet Underground & Nico, The Velvet Underground
56. Forever Changes, Love
57. What's Going On, Marvin Gaye
58. Let It Bleed, The Rolling Stones
59. Elephant, The White Stripes
60. Doolittle, Pixies
61. Absolution, Muse
62. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Elton John
63. Sheer Heart Attack, Queen
64. Come On Over, Shania Twain
65. Sign 'o' The Times, Prince
66. Ten, Pearl Jam
67. Kasabian, Kasabian
68. Dookie, Green Day
69. Origin Of Symmetry, Muse
70. Hounds Of Love, Kate Bush
71. Blonde On Blonde, Bob Dylan
72. All Mod Cons, The Jam
73. Blue, Joni Mitchell
74. White Blood Cells, The White Stripes
75. Dog Man Star, Suede
76. Metallica (the Black Album), Metallica
77. Dare!, Human League
78. Closer, Joy Division
79. In Utero, Nirvana
80. Back In Black, AC/DC
81. Funeral, Arcade Fire
82. Up All Night, Razorlight
83. Ray Of Light, Madonna
84. Born To Run, Bruce Springsteen
85. Physical Graffiti, Led Zeppelin
86. Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, Arctic Monkeys
87. A Day At The Races, Queen
88. The Lexicon Of Love, ABC
89. Spice, Spice Girls
90. Violator, Depeche Mode
91. Final Straw, Snow Patrol
92. Electric Warrior, T. Rex
93. Jagged Little Pill, Alanis Morissette
94. Unknown Pleasures, Joy Division
95. Kid A, Radiohead
96. Out Of The Blue, Electric Light Orchestra
97. The Smiths, The Smiths
98. Electric Ladyland, Jimi Hendrix
99. Rage Against The Machine, Rage Against The Machine
100. Hotel California, Eagles

Gulping for a Life

2006-05-21T22:45:00.000-05:00

Good Lord, it's once again been over a month since my last post... and I really have no excuses this time. Things have happened, even things that are amusing and blogworthy, but... just haven't done it. There's not a lot happening at the moment, though, so I'll take a few minutes and catch you up.

The internship? She is over. Cinco de Mayo was our day of liberation, and I have hence described the entire experience as both the longest and shortest four months of my life. It was not without its bumps and bruises, but the main reason for being here was to learn this profession and be able to go out into the world and do it, and for that, it was a stellar experience. What's happened since then? Well... not so much.

Seis de Mayo was a rollercoaster of a day. Friends and family had been invited over to Casa Cabeza, and we celebrated the end of the internship with good food and much tequila. No, seriously, a LOT of tequila... Mike was the only Y-chromosome brave enough to darken the doors (well, although Rocco was there, too), and he not only performed admirably as the representative of his gender in the face of heavy criticism, but also stayed just as long as the Snotties did. I think Mike deserves to have a shot of tequila drunk in his honor. Gulp.

The day was marred, however, by the passing away that morning of a dear friend in Texas. Tom had only just been diagnosed with leukemia on Wednesday, and left us in the wee hours of Saturday morning. I talked with a couple of friends who were also close to him, as well as to his wife Kathy, but... the swiftness of his death is still jarring. Tom, I know there was a greater plan in calling you home so soon, but I miss you, buddy. Every day. To you. Gulp. Gulp.

The most painful part of Tom's passing was that there was absolutely no way for me to get back down to Texas for his funeral, as I was already committed to flying to Columbus on Sunday for an interview for a Child Life Specialist position. I cried over having to miss the service, but the interview went very well, they told me flat out they were very impressed with me, and before I even left the city (I stayed an extra day to visit family there), they were checking my references and credentials. It was all looking very positive, and I was even going so far as trying to figure out when and how I would get to Texas, get all my stuff out of storage, and truck it all up to Ohio. Gulp.

Alas, it was not to be. Apparently, I was the number TWO choice, and their number one selection accepted the position. Gulp. Gulp.

And so, here I am. Without an internship, without a job, and the bills piling up. Gulp. In her infinite wisdom, LaCa has noted that she believes "not getting the Columbus position did a lot more damage than [I] realize." There's probably a great deal of truth to that. Gulp.

I'm still sending out resumes, both for Child Life positions, and for other more generic positions that would at least keep me in the healthcare field and make the nearly 12 years of experience I already have work for me. Trying not to wallow in a "poor me" attitude. Playing a lot of computer games. Hoping both to myself and out loud that something, ANYthing would just hurry up and come through for me. Gulp. Gulp.

So, what's up with you?

Here's Where It Gets Interesting

2006-04-15T11:38:00.000-05:00

OK, so there are three weeks left of this internship and, sadly, probably not much more than that left of my stay in Chicago. My life becomes this big, gaping black hole after that, until such time as I find gainful employment using all my newly-acquired knowledge and skills.

In the interest of avoiding being sucked into the abyss, I sent out 9 applications during the second week of March, and another 12 about ten days ago. I'd originally only gotten a nibble from Cinncinnati following the March group, and they were very clear that while they might consider me if they decided to go with "new grads," they were hoping to hire someone who is already certified and experienced. Not a problem, Cincy doesn't hold much thrall for me anyhow.

After sending out the subsequent slew, I've been waiting patiently (OK, maybe not so patiently) for the phone to ring, or the inbox to show new mail... One response, from Houston (good hospital, but who the hell wants to live in an armpit like Houston??), for a part-time position. Argh. The maw of the hole gapes wider and wider.

Then, in the last two days, the sun has begun to shine on my world. San Diego wants to "review" my Spanish speaking skills (I told them in an e-mail that I'm functional but not fluent, but I guess they want to really hear me speak it or something). Philadelphia and I played a little bit of phone tag, and we set up a phone interview for next week. Then, while waiting for Philly to call back, Columbus, Ohio called -- and they're going to fly me there for an interview the week after the internship is done. So, from famine to feast, just like that!!

Of course, this means I'm obsessing over things like looking at apartments, gas prices, benefit options, and so on. I really should know better, because the picture isn't getting any clearer. Philly would be the best in terms of being in a big city (and one that I've been to before, although it's been over 20 years), but the hospital is part of Tenet Healthcare, which has been in the news over bribing doctors to refer patients there, some Medicare ugliness, that sort of thing. None of it pertains to this particular hospital, but in this the age of Enron and World Telecom, you've got to wonder how stable the corporation as a whole really is. Columbus looks like a really nice hospital, they've got a GREAT benefits package, apartments seem to be reasonably priced, and I have family there, but the pay is on the low side of acceptable. San Diego is, hands down, the best hospital of the three, but there isn't any indication of what their pay scale is like, and apartments there are CRAZY expensive -- as in, twice as much as what I would expect to pay in the other places. Even if their pay scale is good, I seriously doubt it's going to be twice as much...

So, which do I want most? I don't know!! I'm still sort of holding out hope for Boston, which would offer most of the same positives as Philly but at a better hospital. I'd really like to hear from Johns Hopkins as well... just because it's Johns Hopkins...

And, I'm not faring any better at attempting to distract myself by thinking about another trip to Europe, which I've been saying I want to plan once I'm actually making money again. Can't decide between Spain, Italy, and a meander through Germany, Austria & Switzerland. I've polled the Snotties, just for some more objective input (although you KNOW I'm going to try and entice them to come along!!), and their answers are just about as evenly split as mine... although they do seem to be narrowing it down to either Spain or Central Europe. I need time to get a job and save up some money, so I don't think it's reasonable to plan anything before next fall. Perhaps if I suggested that, for a couple hundred dollars more, we could celebrate Pirate Alice's birthday over there???

Oy, decisons, decisions!!!

Breaking News

2006-04-08T21:13:00.000-05:00

I have just received confirmation that my favorite restaurant on the planet has closed. I know it's a tempestuous business, and one of the things I liked about the place was that it was never too terribly crowded... I was fortunate enough to get to eat there one last time when I was here for my internship interview this past November (although Zes would seem to disagree -- I just think she didn't drink enough), but had I known... I would have gotten a double order...

No more Sesame Chicken.

No more Mango Margaritas.

How does one continue on after a blow like that????

Freaks Redux

2006-04-07T01:15:00.000-05:00

OK. LaCa has been delighting of late in my puzzled expressions and mutterings of, "You people are freaks," in response to her rampant obsession with all things related to the needle & fiber arts.

Granted, her yarn purchases seem to make her happy in a world that she feels deals with her much more harshly than my world does me. So, I let it go. But I don't get it. I'd even go so far as to say, I don't WANT to get it...

Yes, I understand why Christian needs to be an alpaca herder.

Yes, I understand that the things one makes from said needles and fibers are lovely and wearable and fun. (Although one could argue they might get done a lot faster if not for the breaks taken to photograph the yarn purchases or troll the 'net seeking out the ever-elusive Fibrous Holy Grail...)

Yes, I'm totally down with the fact that she produced a hat for me in a matter of hours for one of my cancer patients, an act of selflessness that will continue to score high on the charts for a long time to come.

But sniffing the yarn? Rolling around in a bathtub of it? Please.

Yeah, I've read the comments to her post, the rationalizations ("you have to rub it on your face, otherwise you'll never know how soft it is") and the character assassinations ("love your yarnless friends, yes, but never trust their judgment"). But I ask you. Are these the people who are going to have to face the consequences of their enabling stances? Imagine the scenario, if you will...

Police Officer: Well, what we seem to have here is a case of self-snuffing. Yarn suffocation. Twenty-two years on this beat, never seen anything like it, myself. Friend who was staying with her says she came home from work, found her like that, with the pinkish-purplish stuff right up on her nose, like some sort of woolen Bozo wannabe or something.

Sister M: It's not wool, it's Jaeger Cashmina.

El Bee: Oh, my baby, mah BAY-beeee. You were staying here with her. You were supposed to look out for her. How could you let this happen?

Sister M: Well, her blog friends said you have to smell the yarn to be able to...

El Bee: (wails loudly)

So, you see? Yeah, where are all these "yarnies" then, huh? Only fun till somebody gets hurt, then they vanish into the ethernet. Yeah. Don't WANT to get it. Want nothing to do with it. Truly.

Now, If Only I Knew What It MEANT...

2006-03-02T23:29:00.000-06:00

Here are my results from this quiz I found, testing with which sci-fi crew I would best fit in....

You scored as Serenity (Firefly). You like to live your own way and don't enjoy when anyone but a friend tries to tell you should do different. Now if only the Reavers would quit trying to skin you.

Serenity (Firefly)

75%

Babylon 5 (Babylon 5)

75%

Galactica (Battlestar: Galactica)

69%

FBI's X-Files Division (The X-Files)

63%

Moya (Farscape)

56%

Deep Space Nine (Star Trek)

56%

Andromeda Ascendant (Andromeda)

50%

Millennium Falcon (Star Wars)

50%

Enterprise D (Star Trek)

50%

SG-1 (Stargate)

50%

Bebop (Cowboy Bebop)

44%

Nebuchadnezzar (The Matrix)

38%

You can take the quiz for yourself here.

We Interrupt This Homework...

2006-02-25T21:22:00.000-06:00

OK, yeah, so it's been a while, and some have expressed their concern that I haven't really blogged much since getting here. So, here's a brief recap of what's up.

To skim over the trip up here (since I promised I would talk about it): Moving out of my apartment was exhausting and awful, and I am eternally grateful to all of those who helped in getting it done. Seriously. The cleaning out got finished about 2pm that Monday -- and I'd hoped to get on the road by about 9 or 9:30 that morning! So, that put me in Joplin, Missouri at about a quarter to one in the morning, somewhat later than desired. On the way there, I had a brief emotional moment as I was driving north through Austin, as I passed the University of Texas campus and could see the UT Tower from the highway. Crazy and unexpected, that was. Mainly because I'd had rather an emotional rollercoaster for much of the previous week in saying goodbye to various people and places, and by that time, I thought I was done with that sort of thing. Go figure. The rest of the trip was essentially uneventful. There were a few things that amused me along the way, and I now know for sure that it is possible to make the drive in two days, but three is better. But in looking over my notes in retrospect... eh. I was, of course, damn proud to be driving through the land that birthed Zesmerelda, but other than that, it doesn't seem all that blogworthy now.

Since then, it's been positively wonderful to be back in Chicago, although I haven't done much other than drive back and forth to the hospital each day. But my drive takes me up Lake Shore Drive every morning, and down it again each evening, and I just look at the skyline and think how much I love being here. I don't know what the future will bring, or if I'll be able to stay here once the internship is over, but I'm really enjoying the time that I have. Now, if I could just find the time for a bit more socializing...

Which brings us to the internship itself. It's been six weeks now, and some of the frustrations are beginning to make their way to the surface... Don't get me wrong, I'm excited to show up at the hospital each day, I love what I'm doing and am amazed at how much I've learned already. It's just that the best days are when I get a little bit of guidance in the morning and then check in as to what I've done at the end of the day, and am left to my own devices in between. I've talked a lot with one of the other interns, as well as my mother the Early Childhood guru, and I'm pretty clear in my own mind that the issue lies in having to do things the way somebody else would do it, and not in the way that my own gut instincts (or the children's responses) lead me. Once somebody hires me to actually do this as a job, the expectations will be different. And that's not to say that a reasonable amount of the input isn't valuable -- it most certainly is. But to spend an hour with a child, only to recap it for someone and have them tell you, "Well, I would have done this instead," after the fact is frustrating, and at times feels rather counter-productive as well. But, I'm here to learn, and I AM most definitely doing that. For ten more weeks. And Mom says she'd worry if I got all the way through without feeling this way, so that helps, too.

And what, you ask, of the living arrangements? Well, of course La Cabeza Grande would have to have her perspective considered as well, but from my view things are working out exceedingly well, considering we are two people accustomed to having our own time and space without somebody else around to casually observe our daily quirks. We laugh a lot here in the Condominium of Muddled Accents, and often think we should be blogging much more about the randomness that comes out of our brains and mouths... but, sorry, folks, somehow it just doesn't translate as well to those of you who aren't here in the moment. Can't explain it, can't recreate it. Sucks to be you. But it's damned funny.

I have not turned into a blue Sister Madness popsicle, but am really rather enjoying the colder weather in spite of temps in the negative digits last weekend. Again, it's been a fairly easy winter all things considered, and I know that, but... overall, all is well, I just wish I had a bit more free time to spend with the nears and dears here. If some of you (and you know who you are) would just CALL ME!!

I'm Working On It!

2006-01-26T20:59:00.000-06:00

Yes, I know, I'm supposed to blog about my road trip from Austin to Chicago. It's started, but... it's not done yet. I'll get to it soon, I promise. Maybe over the weekend.

Just the Facts, Ma'am

2006-01-26T20:53:00.000-06:00

This blog depicts actual events. The names have been changed to protect... well, you know...

She #1: I'm trying to like her. She's not so bad. She's just... 22. You remember being 22, don't you? Ya know, back in the 80's?

She #2: Yeah, I vaguely remember back that far.

She #1: Hell, when I was 22, I was sleeping with the married pharmacist with the coke problem.

She #2: When I was 22, I was bedding the married stockbroker with the coke problem.

She #1: Well, it WAS the 80's...

Do I Have Time for This?

2006-01-05T14:37:00.000-06:00

Holy crap, I was just playing around with some stuff, and realized that I haven't posted anything to my blog since before Thanksgiving... Much as I might wish this was attributable to holiday gluttony, I'm afraid that's not the case. December just got away from me, guys -- final papers, graduation, a trip out to Arizona, a minor surgical procedure, and BOOM, it's Christmas.

And now, of course, I'm in the throes of getting the apartment packed up after four years (where did all this CRAP come from??), and doing my best to avoid the fact that while I'm terribly excited to be in close proximity to dear friends once again, that means that I'll be very far away from some others. I really have no idea how I'm going to say goodbye to all these people...

But, in all likelihood, the next time I post here -- CHICAGO, BABY!!!! Yeah!!!

Who Would Have Thought?

2005-11-23T17:50:00.000-06:00

Certainly not me (especially the way I answered some of the questions), but according to the Dante's Inferno Test:

The Dante's Inferno Test has sent you to Purgatory!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	High
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Moderate
Level 2 (Lustful)	Moderate
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	High
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Very Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Low
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very Low
Level 7 (Violent)	Moderate
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Moderate
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Low

Take the Dante's Inferno Hell Test

Spirits in the Material World

2005-11-23T15:24:00.000-06:00

Weird thing this morning... and kind of sad.

I was in that misty twilight of not-really-asleep-but-not-particularly-awake-either, just beginning to gain some cognizance of what day it was, and that I had to get up for work, and that the alarm was going to go off in about four minutes. Through the fog, a repetitious sound penetrated my still-addled brain. It was a cat meowing.

I have mentioned here before that Fat Kitty Frank shuffled off the feline coil in June, after having spent fifteen years with me as VP of Purring & Napping. There was also a cat that lived downstairs that drove me nuts just after Frank died, as it would meow all the time and make me miss her all the more. That cat (and, presumably, its family) moved out a couple of months ago. Since then, this little section of the apartment complex has been quadruped-free. So, a meowing cat, while not particularly noteworthy in the grand scheme of the universe, is no longer something I hear or attend to every day.

So here's the crazy part. In that still-dreaming-but-not-entirely state, I somehow managed to convince myself that I had left Frank in the care of someone else whilst I went trotting off to Europe. As is often the case with dreams, I can't remember now if the person in question was someone I actually know, or that nameless, faceless, somnolent "them." But known to me or not, I was absolutely certain that I had overlooked going to fetch my dear kitty, this shameless, ruthless person was now keeping her and not intending to let me have her back, and I needed to get up, drive over there like I was out on the autobahn, and retrieve the beloved which was rightfully mine.

Hell of a reality to wake up to, once I finally got there...

All Right, I'll Bite...

2005-11-12T20:24:00.000-06:00

Since I'm still in many ways recovering from this year's birthday, and just had the last of my celebratory dinners last night, I think it's appropriate that I cop this from my dearest LaCa:

Your Birthdate: October 3

You are more than a big ball of energy - you are a big ball of hyper.

You are always on the go, but you don't have a type a personality.

Instead of channeling your energy into work, you instead go for fun and adventure.

Witty and verbal, you can have an interesting conversation with anyone.

Your strength: Your larger than life imagination

Your weakness: You tend to be pretty scattered

Your power color: Lime

Your power symbol: Lightening bolt

Your power month: March

You Probably Don't Deserve It...

2005-10-25T00:42:00.000-05:00

... but today, I resent your gender. Screw you. Yes, you. Bastard.

Maybe tomorrow...

An American Duty

2005-10-19T06:10:00.000-05:00

Lifted directly from Pirate Alice --

Yet another meme, but this one sounds cooler than most...The American Library Association released its list of the most "challenged" books for 1990-2000. The question is "which ones have you read?" My list is as follows:

3. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
4. The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
6. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck*
7. Harry Potter (Series) by JK Rowling
8. Forever by Judy Blume
13. The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger*
18. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
22. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
23. Go Ask Alice by Anonymous
26. The Stupids (Series) by Harry Allard (I don't think I've read the whole series, but I know I've read at least one or two)
32. Blubber by Judy Blume
36. Final Exit by Derek Humphry
39. The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
41. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee*
42. Beloved by Toni Morrison
46. Deenie by Judy Blume
47. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (I'm not sure I've read the whole book, but I know we read some abridged version of it in junior high school)*
51. A Light in the Attic by Shel Silverstein
62. Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
69. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
70. Lord of the Flies by William Golding*
71. Native Son by Richard Wright
77. Carrie by Stephen King
88. Where's Waldo by Martin Hanford (OK, I have NO CLUE why this is a banned book...)
89. Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
90. Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman
96. How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell
98. The Headless Cupid by Zilpha Keatley Snyder (I'm not 100% certain I've read this one, but I know I LOVED her books when I was in the upper elementary grades, and I read a ton of them, so the odds are good that I did.)

The books marked with an asterisk are those that I read courtesy of my New York state public education. Guess those blue state liberals were pretty radical back in the day. But like PA, having read only 28 out of the 100, it's obvious I've got some reading to do... AFTER I get done with grad school...

But If You Try Sometimes, You Just Might Find...

2005-10-14T15:51:00.000-05:00

Google knows what you need!!! Just Google your name with the word "needs" following it, as in, "Daphne needs..." and the wisdom of the Google will tell you how to make everything right in your world. With thanks to Zes and LaCa, even though I don't know what the hell to make of half of these...

-- Janine needs less float of inventory to meet demand (I've read that one five times now, and it still doesn't make any sense to me)

-- Janine needs yoga and she needs you too!

-- Janine needs someone who will positively promote contact with her half-sister (my WHAT??)

-- Janine needs to find a way to distract the gardener

-- Janine needs a room she can go wild in

-- Janine needs to design a database (and the other Snotties need to help her!)

-- Janine needs a list of items from each commissioner of things they have done to save the state money (...)

-- Janine needs to cut her hair short again (NOT!!)

-- Janine needs to warm up to them still

-- Janine Needs Help!!