Okay, I Had Something Completely Different In Mind to Post About...

Then I was directed HERE.
Even if you don't make your own hero? Bonnie Tyler's I Need A Hero blasting in the background makes it worth the visit.


And if like me you just NEED to watch the original video, complete with shoulder-shimmy and big hair and back Fx? Here you go:

Ode to the Forgotten Banana

Yellow,

And just ripe enough to color my fingernail

But not so ripe as to attract the gnats

That so recently have invaded our work area.

Banana, 

How I miss you,

Waiting diligently on the counter

While I sit here morose...and a little hungry.

(I guess I should be grateful it was only my banana...I left my entire bag right by the door yesterday morning.  10-hour work days are just not in me anymore.)

New Mug!

One thing that should probably go on one of those "3,000 quirky/cute/scary things about me" list is that I really hate losing things...either because they are misplaced, stolen, or broken.

I think this stems from not being able to replace such objects when I was a kid.

Even though this is no longer the case? I still kinda freak out a little inside (and maybe outside sometimes) if there is a chance, no matter how minuscule, that I can re-obtain the object that is no longer in my possession (I'm super thinking of the night I lost my scarf "somewhere" in Fremont...such a bad night. Yes, I did find it again...yes, I am am a little scary.)

Anywho...mug!

I draw the line at trying to glue shattered ceramic back together again. No, really! I swept up the mug pieces Sunday morning and gave it an unceremonious garbage-can burial. The only thing that brightened my day about it was that I knew we were going to the Sci-Fi Museum and I just knew they sold cheesy mugs in the Seattle Center shops so I might find something to my liking to fill the now empty mug spot in the cabinet:
I have to say this is much cooler looking than the one it is replacing.  Although part of the coolness of the broken mug was that it was free...this one, not so much, and maybe kinda overpriced, but lalala not gonna think about it, I have a spiffy new mug!

And the museum was kinda cool.  They have tons of really old sci-fi novels that pull you into the worlds created by authors and movie makers and dude they have both Robby (originally made for Forbidden Planet) and B-9 (from Lost in Space) Not to mention Zora's raincoat and Rachel's and Sebastian's outfits from BladeRunner.  And yeah, tons of props from old TV shows and movies.  I liked it a lot...but the "Hall of Fame" is really only a wall...and maybe I miscounted...are there really only 5 female authors on that wall?  A post for another day, I think.

Extra bonus?  The Music Experience/Museum is part of the same entry fee.   Not so much into the music thing...I know, you're shocked :).  But it was amusing to see how many of my favorite bands from the 90s have Seattle roots.  I had no idea.  

Chocolate-Thirty

You know how there's that "beer-thirty" phrase/excuse people use for justification of a cold one at just after noon?

Is there such a time for when chocolate consumption should occur?  

Just a random thought as they've started out my Monday morning with chocolate offerings at work.  I'm not so much complaining as wondering just how bad it's gonna be if they're already plying us with sweets at 8 AM...

If it had been coffee cake or danishes I might have been the first one to get my share...but chocolate?  At this hour?  I must not be as big an addict as I am portrayed :).

Omens...

- A very bad dream forced me out of bed just a bit ago.

- While I was making coffee to distract myself from the dream...I smashed one of my favorite mugs to pieces.

- Coming into this room to lament about the cup and think about not thinking about the dream...the lightbulb blew out as I flipped the switch.

If I were full-blown superstitious I might crawl back into bed right this minute.

Instead I choose to thing of the "bad things happen in threes" scenario. I'm done for the day, nothing but rainbows and lollipops from here on out, right? Right.

ETA:
Okay, the yarn I picked for a prize was already chosen....but I'm totally gonna ignore that one because I'm going to have a good day, damnit!

To brighten anyone else's Sunday that is going into the pooper: Seth Meyers on the Michael Phelps thing...

"The knuckles! The horrible knuckles!"

-Terry Pratchett The Light Fantastic

Yes, I might be rereading the series, but only as a reward for reading through the last of those vampire books. Besides, the discworld books seem to have far fewer holds on them than some of the other books I'd like to be reading. Workin' with what I can here.

Anyway...so you know when you knit something and give it away, but you took a picture of it(!) for posterity and of course, the blog! And were so proud you remembered! And then you go to post it and realize that maybe, unless your eyes are deceiving you, there might be a bit of a goof up in your work:

Darkside Cowl (ravelry link here).

Do you see my big oopsie? Look dead center, one of these rows is not like the other ones...

Of course being positioned where it is, maybe it's a feature! Something to make it unique! Or something.

See, my coworker was going off to the bay area to go be a bike-riding grad-student. Having been a bike-riding grad-student about ten years previous...maybe 12...in almost the same area, I knew her big ol' super cool woven scarf might not quite be as useful...i.e. too hot and yet unless it's summer, it's not quite warm enough to go out and about exposing your neck and stuff. Besides, a cowl is less likely to get stuck in her spokes...consider me a cautionary tale on that one and move on.

Specks:

- So technically this is my last knit of 2008. Yep, it's taken me almost 2 whole months to post about it...I know! Bad! For shame and all that.

- I pretty much followed the pattern using Lambs Pride Superwash Bulky (grad student, 'member) in Pine until I almost ran out but wasn't done yet so I grabbed a similar Pine that was not bulky but held two ends together to fake it.

I like the fit, and I would have had the recipient model it but she received it still damp as her plans shifted to have her leave two days sooner than I thought she was gonna...but it fit, she told me later.

I'm thinking I need to try the pattern again with maybe the yarn that had only recently been a much too loose cowl...Not that I need a cowl for my bike riding...seeing as there hasn't been any bike riding...still need to get my bike fixed. I know, I know, it's been almost 6 months...but I've got a couple more appointments with my new best friend the Osteopath to see if I can make my hip not hurt so much when I do things like walk. Details!

Learning to Save Me from Myself...

Or is it myself from myself?  Me from me?  I'm sure the grammar nazi's will help me out there :).

It is February!  When did that happen?  I'm a broken record, I know, but I swear, I was just in January and that went zipping by way too fast as well.

And now February is almost a week gone!  (Well, it seems like it anyway.)

It's the J.O.B.  I feel like 2 weeks of every month are taken from me as I disappear from the world and try to keep afloat.  They are not consecutive weeks, however...and sometimes an extra week of frantic run-around is thrown in just for shits and grins...

And no, I will not be raised from this position to be dropped into something just as frantic but with better pay.  It's not official, but being in the place I am, with access to the gossip mill I do...I know they've hired someone, and that someone is definitely not me...  But really, I knew two weeks or so ago what my chances really were... and really?  I'm fine with it.  No, really.

When the news came my way it was broken with a whole bunch of reasons why that job was poopie and my job was better...  

- Such as: My current position will only get better as the "new guy" becomes the "not-new guy."

- And: That position is only good if you're planning on never getting a job outside of this industry/particular NGO seeing as you will not exactly gain "marketable" skills in US accounting.  But if I were to say, move to Kenya, yeah, I suppose that would be helpful.  

- Also: My team loves me more.

These phrases and bits of information really were kinda nice to hear.  See, me, I don't suck, that job does!  Yeah, that's it!  My job is the bestest!  Yep, sure is... Sure would hate to be that new person they hired, yessire, Bob!

And why yes, it's not even noon and there is a whole bunch of ink splotched onto my arm already, why do you ask?

I know, I know, if the sarcasm were any thicker we'd all need some windex to try to read the screen more easily.  See, I'm still learning to save me from me, after all.  I fully admit to that.  

I'm not making any proclamations here, I just know that this year marks my 35th year on this planet.  I'm not saying it needs to be a landmark year or anything...or maybe I'm just thinking back to that palm reading I had done when I was like 15...I sometimes refer back to it when I'm super not sober... MM said something big would happen in my mid-thirties...how mid can you get but 35?  And having been stuck in super-nostalgia-land (nothing forces you back there more roughly than peeps who you went to HS trying to "friend" you on Facebook) lately, I'm torn between dwelling on those years and shaking it all off and trying to, I dunno, LIVE my life now.  In the now?  For the now?

I sense change coming, now matter what...maybe so minuscule you all won't even notice...maybe so huge we will all feel the reverberations.  2009, the year of shaking off the stagnation...or something.

Bloggers' (Silent) Poetry Reading, Year the 4th

Almost missed it this year....go here for details.

LIFE IS BUT A DREAM

by: Lewis Carroll (1832-1898)

BOAT, beneath a sunny sky
Lingering onward dreamily
In an evening of July--

Children three that nestle near,
Eager eye and willing ear,
Pleased a simple tale to hear--

Long has paled that sunny sky;
Echoes fade and memories die;
Autumn frosts have slain July.

Still she haunts me, phantomwise,
Alice moving under skies
Never seen by waking eyes.

Children yet, the tale to hear,
Eager eye and willing ear,
Lovingly shall nestle near.

In a Wonderland they lie,
Dreaming as the days go by,
Dreaming as the summers die;

Ever drifting down the stream--
Lingering in the golden gleam--
Life, what is it but a dream?

Finally...and Pre-Coffee Humor

Don't you just love it when blogger reboots itself and you have what look like 200 new posts that are all about year+ old?

Yeah, me too. Moving on:

Hey look! I did knit something!


Details...Um... "Ripples" Socks from Sockamania's December 2007 Sock of the month pattern. Yes,  I sure did start these back in December of 2007.  I think I may have blogged about them but socks that take over a year for me to knit are not the proudest of things for me to shout about...

Although, that was when the tendon damage came about and there was no knitting and much lamenting and on and on and on and now they're done (well, drying...I kinda couldn't wait to take a picture and post them...so long in the making).

They are for my mom, made of Panda bamboo...and um...cotton?  On US2's.  I'm becoming quite the fan of the decoration of the sock only being on the leg.  I did it for the boys and the baby socks and now my mom's socks...but it is rather mindless and you have to be extra careful about that whole laddering issue...

What else can I say?  I have no notes and can't find the pattern anymore...bad knitter.

***

Okay, pre coffee humor (i.e. probably only hilarious to me because I was so not awake):

So Andy and T went snowboarding this morning.  Apparently the appointed time to leave had been 7 or 8AM when they last spoke yesterday.

This morning at 5:30 T changed plans and said they should go now as he couldn't sleep anymore.  I'd already gotten up (early bird gets the limited parking on big meeting days...as it were).  But Andy as zombie boy was ripped away from sleep and was rushing around to get his act together.  It's still brutally early when he's finally all set and is so not awake as he almost dials a friend in Vegas at a little after 6AM so I stand close ready to punch the big red button on his iPhone if need be and manages to call Tim.

"Where are you?" asks Andy.

In a total deadpan voice you can hear T, "Parked behind your car."  

As Andy hangs up he adds, in the same deadpan voice, "Watching you."  

It was a "you had to be there" moment but I swear it was so much a "The-call-was-coming-from-inside-the-house" moment that I just had to share.

I know, I'm a dork.

Positivity Man....

- Though I was told not to get my hopes up...my would-be boss-guy is not "closing my case." In fact, he's going to have another meeting with his group and/or his boss lady to see if there is something else that can be done with my situation. Because as he said, "Even if you're not under my direct supervision, we are still all one group."

- I like where I work and with whom I work, even if the job itself is sucky sometimes.

- Having sushi with friends after a bad day makes everything better.

- Holding L&L's baby makes me very happy. She was sweet and lovable until just exactly 8:30 PM, her bedtime. Will make a note of that.

- I like the way peoples' faces light up when I give them knitwear...and yeah, I did not take a picture of the hat I gave L last night...I just realized this and may have made a "doh" sound...bad blogger...but I give myself extra props for it matching her new winter coat without me realizing it.

- After sleeping in, I am drinking coffee, surfing the web, and not having to wrack my brain because it's Saturday and "no work til' Monday" is exactly what I am humming...

Catch-22, Yur Init...

Yesterday did nothing but reinforce my never-flagging doubt that meetings are bad, m'kay?

I ignored all the signs: my wrist was awash in purple ink, the recruiter was nowhere to be seen, the peeps I might have worked with were not looking me in the eye.

It wasn't so much of a rejection as a "status" meeting. What is a nice way to tell someone they are in last place? Don't bother, I don't think there is one. After the series of unfortunate events that has comprised my life these last few months I was just not as cool as they thought I was...I may have cried a little.

Mostly though? It was from frustration. What makes me not compatible with this position is the same one that will keep me stuck. I don't have enough book-learnin' to prove I can do the work. Somehow having a certificate/degree/mandate(?) proves that someone else can dictate policy better than me.

I'd believe that if I didn't already have a BA and MA under my belt. Let me tell you world, just because I proved to the university that I can sit through classes and write papers does not mean any of the stuff stuck. 'Member, I even WORKED IN MY FIELD after I grajeeated! If I'm not proof positive, how about the mouth-breather that just left the department? Tell me how helpful all her schooling was for how well she did.

Yeah, I'm bitter this morning. Which is better than sad and mopey and a little leaky...in my book.

But the problem at hand? His advice, as has been my team leader's advice from the start: take classes. I couldn't hold it in. I had to ask, "How do I take classes if I can't afford them?" Yes I did. I basically admitted that one of the reasons I was interested in the job was the higher wage because then I could actually afford to take a class or seven to help me out. But now it comes out that I need classes to get the higher position...that I can't get because I can't afford classes...

I knew from the beginning this might be a long shot...for that very reason, but I let people convince me that my experience was enough (almost 5 years of accounting stuffs!) to compensate. Or maybe the fact that a whole bunch of what I do now right now is review and dictate policy and keep things booked where they need to which is kinda closely enough to what I'd be doing...maybe...

So hey, forgive me for being a bit delusional when I thought that I might be able to compete with the edumicated...cuz having a Master's Degree from Stanford might say to someone that yeah, it's in the wrong subject, but um, maybe she's smart enough to like learn it on her own the way she's learned all about her current job? Hmm?

But you never know, the others on their list might spontaneously combust, or something!

Random Wednesday

I've got nothing cohesive today...and I'm kinda late for work...but the butterflies are trying to keep me home...

I think I'm going to be "let down easy" today.

Fine, I've said it...it's just...a generic letter from the HR system saying "thanks, but no thanks," would be easier for me to handle than a 1/2 hour meeting with peeps to tell me they think I'm cool but not right/qualified/cool enough for the position.

Of course, as my boss-guy said yesterday, the meeting actually could be to tell me I got the job....but I'd rather not dwell on the positive since it'll just sting that much more...

So instead some random:

- They're re-keying all the locks in my apartment building but have already issued us the new keys...heavy, new keys, so that um, yeah, we can feel safer, or something.

- My mom has decided she wants to live to see her great grandchildren. This puts a big kink in my plan to lead the life of excess and infamy once I've buried my parents. In fact, if her calculations are correct, she is planning on outliving ME...in that "I don't want to live that long" philosophy I have.

- Just for clarification, my niece turns 6 this week.

- My hip hurts, but differently. I'm hoping it's a good hurt, but really? What do I know?

- These pictures have nothing to do with anything...more like left-overs:
From that post I was going to write about when in LA and looking for yarn in all the wrong places South Pasadena with my mom. Isn't it fun and bright! It still reminds me of the heat of that day... I really am surprised we didn't die of heat stroke.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake Muffins...I made them for the office a while back for the first time ever and I want one right now...but instead I'll finish my piece of plain toast and get ready for work.

Happy Wednesday!

Violatd...

Just some preface:
I live in an apartment building which professes to house young professionals and PhD/graduate students from the U down the street. Not upscale so much as some-day-I-will-make-real-money scale or I-am-a-poor-student-now-but-just-watch scale. So pretty much we're all on the same side of the money tree...

In a way it reminds me of what my dad's home town used to be like. No one locked their doors because everyone had the same amount of no-money and so, why steal from one another?

Then the economy went into the toilet.

Soon their was a notice stating that anything stolen out of our vehicles was not the responsibility of the management...because peoples' cars had been broken into, in our locked parking garage, with all the cameras and everything.

So we stopped leaving anything "shiny"/tempting within eyesight.

Then another notice about bikes...and using the bike rack at your own risk as we have a nice one behind the locked storage area doors...because bikes started disappearing.

So we all put our bikes in our storage lockers.

Friday late (Andy got home from the airport around 3PM and there was no note there), a generic note taped to the apartment doors of renters of storage lockers saying we might want to take a look seeing as the storage locker area had been broken into...

All I keep down there is my bike. After August 25th of last year, we all know the state of my banana-bended tire and twisted BRAND NEW basket...but Andy??? As he was exhausted from his trip back across the tundra-y wastelands, I said I'd go downstairs and look.

I decided not to take a picture, but this is what the lock should look like. Nothing fancy, after all it's behind a BIG METAL DOOR. False sense of security anyone? The locks are all intact, it's the backing plates that look like they were pried off with a crow-bar. Twisted metal dangling from one end.

When I first looked into the pile that is Andy's stuff? The first thing I noticed is that both bikes were still there and lots of boxes (more on this later) packed all over but...the plastic bins looked like someone had pulled them around to dig through them. But, I thought to myself, that might have been Andy rooting through his old computer parts box looking for a cable or seven.

So I go upstairs and report that I can't tell. We go downstairs together and, again, at first glance he wonders if maybe the would-be robbers were spooked, because his stuff still LOOKS like it's all there. That's when I notice the Styrofoam.

Andy keeps all of his boxes and the original Styrofoam packing because, hey, it's easier to move and not damage things if you pack them up they way they came, you know? So the storage locker is filled with a lot of empty boxes that become super useful once a year/two years when Andy pulls up stakes. So really, the storage room is actually packed to the brim with air and empty boxes...except for the two or three full boxes of old cables, modems, camping gear, and a 5.1 surround sound speaker system.

Andy had decided his five-year-old 5.1 surround-sound speaker system was too big and ridiculous for our itty bitty living room, and instead of tripping over it in our itty bitty apartment, he'd chucked it in storage with the idea that he'd sell it on eBay/Craigslist/freecycle it before he had to move it again...I guess that won't be a problem anymore...

The box was still there...but empty.

So I looked deeper. It's still early yet, but the other thing they took was an ancient cd-burner. I found the box for that as well, you see...

For a while we thought they'd also taken his ten-year-old snow-boarding boots. But he's since found them and pretty much ruined my vision of what these cretins were all about. Or maybe what they looked like. One of them having to be a size 11 poor snow-boarder who burns cd's on a burner so old you could hand etch them faster while listening to them in surround-sound glory on possibly popped old speakers. Or something.

So really, no big financial loss here. But emotionally? I'm not doing too hot. I was happy to live in this building because it's a stone's throw from actual houses. As I stated above, not too big a disparity in the haves and have nots. Quiet neighbors and a quick walk to the park and the liveliness of Fremont were also big perks.

Now? Not so much. Now all I see is people thinking that if I live here I must have stuff worth stealing. Neither my car nor my bike nor the crap in my storage locker is safe. What's next? They've made it past locked front entrances and locked storage areas...will they be breaking into apartments next?

Oh, before I forget, can someone tell me why the generic management note states we might want to inspect our lockers and figure out what was taken when there is yet another new sign down in the storage area which tells us the management is yet again not responsible for lost or stolen items in their storage lockers? Silly me but I'da just come out and said in the note instead of sounding like they gave a damn and we should contact them if we needed to.

Car Talk & Jeans, the New Memory Foam

So Wednesday....

Of course I woke up with absolutely NO pain in my hip just hours before my Dr's appt.  I joked in an email before taking off to Lake Forest Park that yeah, I may as well be my old '89 Toyota Camry...every time I took her to see the mechanic?  What ping? What squeak?  What grinding sound?  

To keep the analogy going, when I met with the doctor he started to explain the human skeletal system as an engine.  Really.  So the shocks and pistons and gears and such?  Yep all gone wrong in my hip area.  And him?  The equivalent of my dad tightening the timing belt vs. Mike the Mechanic with all his bells and whistles and shiny compressors that tighten the bolts too much.

Okay in English?  He said he'd try a "manipulation" with just his hands (and the muscles behind those hands, mind) and if that didn't work, we'd cross that MRI/physical therapy bridge when we came to it.

Yeah, kinda scary to me too.

I have to say that it didn't actually hurt until the very last "pop and pull."  And that one happened so fast that I don't think my body knew it was supposed to be outraged at the dis/re-location of various joints all at the same time.  

However, about 20 minutes later?  When I got out of my car to get to work?  Imagine everyone else walking/talking/being/revving at 55 miles an hour in the office and I'm barely making it to 3...

I'd kept a very straight face when he said, "Take it easy today.  The nicer you are to yourself, the less it will hurt."  See below post re: closing the month.  

So I was slow and careful, but worked the whole day and even ended up at L&L's house that night for dinner.  

I am nothing if not a masochist, it would seem.  But there was a home-cooked meal and a baby to play with and a doggie to keep my feet warm...What can I say, I'm a sucker for these kinds of things especially when I'm feeling not-so-well.  It was an early night, promptly falling asleep about 8:30 and that was me just barely making it home.  My knees felt like jell-o and my hip was still not sure what had happened it it.  Poor thing.  

Basically I've be mis-aligned for over 3 months and if all works well, my body will correct itself after the adjustment.  But 3 months is also a long time to be out of whack so the muscles, having memory and all, may want to stay (jump back?) into the bad place/misaligned state.  (My follow-up in February will confirm/deny this.)  Keep your fingers crossed that I have lazy muscles and tendons who are happy to be put into new configurations and STAY there, yes?

But speaking about memory...

You know how denim, um, shrinks to fit?  Yeah, well, it being Friday/casual day/bust out the jeans day...I pulled mine on and ran out the door as is my rush-rush Friday routine...and it wasn't until I got to the car that I noticed that my right side was having issues with the jeans. (As in the waist was actually riding up, but only on that side.)  Apparently my jeans have also spent three months "molding" themselves to my damaged hip configuration and are not playing well with my "new" old hip.  I feel like I'm wearing someone else's pants.

Happy Friday!

Hello, Tuesday, Where Did You Come From???

I'm only half awake right now...but I thought I'd check in.

See, it's that closing time of the month. And if I get that job I'm eyeing in the "brother" department of mine, it's not like it'll get any easier at this time every month, but as Andy explained, it's not like I'll get a raise, I'll just be actually getting paid for the overtime that doesn't get approved.

So....how'd it go? Interview-in' and such? I don't know. There was a lot of laughing...and I think most of with was WITH me. These are my colleagues after all. There was a super tense moment when the X-accounting assistant came up...you know that favorite question, "Think about a time you had to work with someone you didn't get along with" style? (Can't remember the exact wording, after coffee maybe.) We finished early even. I talk fast, what can I say? I said something stupid along the lines of, "See, hire me, I make everything efficient."

I don't know what happened to the weekend. If there had been heavy drinking on Friday night I'd understand...but nope...just lots of "Heroes" Season 2 watching and reknitting (hat & baby socks...best not to ask) and oh yeah, helping Andy get ready for the Antarctic-like weather of Ohio...he missed the freezing temperatures of Seattle as he'd been in Cali., so he was kinda afeared of not being prepared for the weather.

I love dressing my friends. No, let me be super clear, I love dressing my guy friends & family. I'm sure this stems from my weight/bump/puberty issues. You know, the after puberty I had to start wearing girl clothes cuz boy clothes no longer fit and being a tom boy and NOT a girly girl, I hated my life and my body and still kinda do? Yeah, them issues.

ANYWAY....we went off to Andy's most hated destination, THE MALL, and found the "almost out of season" sections of the stores. Hi, it's JANUARY, why are they all getting ready for SPRING already? We were all, "My kingdom for a sweater!" And who sells COTTON sweaters in the PNW?

My new goal is to finish knitting him that sweater I started like two years ago. The one that is almost all back to yarn cakes? Yeah, that one. We got him some swank stuff that I hope will be warm enough for the office, but um, yeah, I think a Weasly-esque thing might have fit the ticket much better for the actual weather he'll be seeing (through the office window, I hope).

That brings us to yesterday...which was just lots of running limping (dr.'s appt. tmrw!) around and getting paper from one end of the office to the other...yeah stuff happened in the middle, but when I look at my job from an outsider's perspective I just have to shake my head and drink copious amounts of caffeine.

Trying Hard Not to Vomit...

I just needed to get this out there...hopefully it's not jinxing me in any way...

I applied for a higher level job at work a few weeks (months?) back and promptly put it out of my head.  (Having worked in HR and knowing just how many RECs are open and how overworked they always are, it's best not to hold your breath when applying to any job.  It might be months before you get word yey or nay.)

Well, last week I was asked for more information.

Monday interviews were scheduled.

Today...interviews.  But when I left last night they were (to me) two easy-peasy one-on-one 1/2 hour interviews with the recruiter and he-who-would(/might)-be my new boss guy.  What do I have to lose?  If I don't get the job it's not like EVERYONE will know and it's not like I'm not like I'm losing anything but a bit of time and gaining a bit of interview experience to add to my arsenal, right?

This morning the butterflies started up when I read the updated invite from the recruiter...  I will be meeting with the entire team, all at once and for what will seem like an eternity of time.  I am trying my hardest not to freak out.  Panel interviews are not exactly my forte...

Total FAIL...

Ooh, look at me, I'm using modern lingo in my blog...I guess I'm not teetering toward the geriatric crowd just yet.

All I can say is...or maybe scream? Yes, screaming is good, "MY HIP HURTS."

Combine that with the utter exhaustion of training a new co-worker, and I've thought myself pretty good if I don't fall asleep (on the couch it would seem) before 9PM. Right, so no pretty Rosca de Reyes picture this year. I know, I know, I disappoint.

Oh and a note to myself:
DON'T sit in the hard chair for hours on end when training. Like you did yesterday. You will not be able to get up. Your hip will make awful noises. Your knee will give out later in the day.

Yes, this is still to do with that bit of bother at the end of August. When that big truck and my wee little bicycle collided? Fun. But I get to see someone new and more specialized on Wednesday. At first I was scared it will hurt far more before I get better...after hobbling around this morning? If he suggests cutting out my hip, I will supply the hacksaw.

Does It Count If We Celebrated with a Meal Out?

Happy Twelfth Night, um eve? Or is this the actual night tonight? I always get those confused. (Mexico celebrates Noche Buena January 6th, but I suppose we could start counting from midnight on...to be on the same page as you Epiphany/twelfth night-ers.)

Whatevers, party on peeps! I am going to bed.

Yes, I know it is but 9:06 PM. I know I didn't even try to make a King Cake/Rosca de Reyes to take to work tomorrow...yeah, I'd been thinking about it. I suppose, technically, I can still get away with making something tomorrow evening to have with my messican hot chocolate and take the rest in to work a day late/dollar short, I'm pretty sure no one will reject the baked goods on the counter just because it's no longer Epiphany or whatnot. Ah, this is the freedom of simply using all these extra celebratory-type days as excuses for even more sugar.

Oh sugar...I've just been asked to cut back. Yep, today was my dreaded yearly where I got some good advice about how to lower my triglyceride levels but, sniff, if I want my Kings Cake, there's gonna have to be some trade offs at Casa de Tactless... You know, no Kahlua Fudge that L made lurking about or yummy 'nana muffins or homemade chocolate covered marshmallows that C & J left me if I want that cake... We're a big girl now and must learn...sigh...moderation.

Well, I guess I'm starting by moderating how much time I am awake. I seriously can't keep my eyes open. Say "hey" to Balthazar for me, 'kay? Tell him mine's the boys size 6.5 gray Vans sneaker by the hat stand.

They Really Are Snow Headaches...

I don't know why I'm so weather obsessed, except for the fact that when the pressure plummets my brain expands and tries to crack my head open...or maybe it's just sinus pressure, whatever, I'm not a doctor :).

Anywho funny story (in that not ha ha but maybe boo hoo, for me way)....friends C & J were visiting from my "The City" (San Francisco) this weekend and when they went online this AM to check-in, instead of the happy "print your boarding passes" page, they were instructed to call the airlines, immediately.

This was a bit worrisome as their evening flight had already been changed/moved/delayed an hour to really be a night flight, so what was next? Outright cancellation? So after being on hold for 15 minutes, C finally gets to speak to someone who mentions that actually the flight was delayed a bit longer, could he be convinced to go on an earlier flight?

As much as they love me...getting home earlier rather than even later sounded much better to them. So, even if it meant they could not sit together, they took the offer of an earlier flight.

Fast-forward to that afternoon as we are driving to SEA-TAC airport:

"Wait," says C, "Is that SNOW?"

That would be a big yes. Not sticking or anything, but cute little flakes were coming down around us on HWY 99. Oh what fun...

Once dropped off and headed back north? The temperatures started plummeting again; my temples started throbbing; and the cute little flakes were now real big ones...but happily they kept mixing with the rain. Wet sloppy flakes and rain. Yes, of course there was a quick dash to the grocery store, just in case. I'm getting good at this sort of thing.

We're to get one to three inches of snow tonight. It may all melt off with the coming rain, or turn to horrid ice with the coming rain and plunging temperatures. I wonder if the tapering of my headache means it really will turn into rain...just call me barometer girl.

Right, so C just called a bit ago as Andy and I were plotting moving his car off the hill, just in case.

"Forty-five degrees in San Francisco and J isn't even wearing her coat!" He chimed as he and J were walking home from the BART station.

Just for fun, he'd looked up the status of their original flight...delayed again, possibly another couple of hours...as in, not leaving until almost 10 PM...when this snow is supposed to, maybe possibly, turn into rain/ice. I told him he was very lucky about the earlier flight cuz as much as I love them, there was no way I'd go driving in the mess that is the siren-filled streets.

Oh yes, many sirens since the snow that wasn't even supposed to touch the asphalt started sticking...again.

Better Living Through Chemistry...

So I know you all are dying to know how I spent my New Year's Eve, right?

Right. Or maybe just, ri-i-i-ight.

If we stretch the genre a bit, we can call it a science-fiction-double-feature-picture-show. If it hadn't been for Andy's Netflix, you know I'da joined the thousands out there watching The Sound of Music followed by some quick channel surfing ( I only get 2 stations...) to find the ball dropping/a televised count-down show as is the New Year's Eve thing to do... Even Network tee vee has quirky traditions.

So the plan was for me to stay entertained/up long enough to walk the block+ to Gas Works at just before midnight and watch the Space Needle fireworks from there...and no, my sinus headache never went away. I was sad and pathetic and fell asleep halfway through the commentary for Logan's Run. Yes, that Logan's Run. Andy and I had watched the actual movie the other night and were super curious as to what the folks behind the movie had to say for themselves, especially the costume guy... Apparently there is only so much of Michael York spouting on and on and on about the magic that is acting and movie making, that I can take.

But I hit a second wind or something when Andy made Johnny Depp appear on the screen. Had there not been the need to remind/relay/clear up the plot points (or lack there of) for Pirates of the Caribean 3, I might have dozed off again. Yes, that's right, I was so sick last night that even Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow (one of my most favorite characters for him) could not keep me from succumbing to that sleep your body makes you have when you hurt just that much.

About 10 minutes before midnight I realized there was no way that I could a) get off the couch without having my head explode out of my eardrums, b) if I succeeded in standing up, bending over to put on my shoes without causing my eyes to pop out of my head from the pressure, c) convince anyone else to put on all the coats, scarves, and hats necessary to go out and stand in the windy sprinkly rain to catch some fireworks.

So I closed my eyes and listened to Captain Barbosa speak pie-rate talk, argh! And some time past midnight realized it was no longer 2008.

I know, you are so very jealous of me at this point.

Today I souped up on Alieve and Sudafed and was able to get most of my chores done before they wore off and left me feeling like death warmed over. But they did the trick. The apartment is pretty much clean! My desk is as organized as it's going to get! My papers are semi-filed! I even balanced one bank account! So that, yey! I can pay bills tomorrow. Good lord, someone kill me now before I bore someone to death.

Anyway, I'm on just the pain killer (Alieve/naproxin sodium) right now and I think I'll be able to skip taking anything else before collapsing into bed...what a way to spend my first day of '09, I know. Bodes well for me, I'm sure...were I superstitious and such. Oh wait, I am, damn it all.

I hoped everyone else partied hard so I can live vicariously though you.

Last Day...

Okay, I've been reading a number of "blog365" bloggers...AND YET, how is it the whole "Last day of the year" thing has snuck up on me?!?

Ugh.

I don't have a year in review.  As much as I love sitting here writing about myself and my exploits, I actually don't reread much of what I post, if I did I could see myself re-editing for grammar and content a la all those college essays I could never finish...  I think that's what I like most about this "by the hip" bloggy thingie.  It's out there and unless it causes familial discord, I probably won't take it back cuz I can't.  It's cached somewhere whether I like it or not.

Here's another whopping realization for the year though, when I work 10+ hour days, I tend not to blog.  Shocking!  I know!  Really, there isn't anything to write about unless you're interested in the scintillating details of domestic accounting.  Yeah, me neither.  So I fell off the face of the earth again after the 26th.  Sorry about that, I'm still here, yep, just me and my overworked self...moving on...

I knit 90% of a cowl, then realized it didn't work with the needle size I was using and yes, had my cathartic moment as I transformed those yards and yards of an almost finished something back into a pretty ball of yarn.  This sums up my knitting for the year.  It's the process more than the product, it would seem.

I seem to have a "snow" headache this morning...which bodes very badly.  It is dismal and grey and looks like snow again...but I'm hoping it's just wishful thinking on the part of my sinuses what with reconnecting with some Tahoe folks lately.  Hear that Mother Nature?  No need for the white stuff to cover Seattle again, really!

And I have no plans for tonight.  At this point I will be very pleased with myself if I can make it through the work day and collapse in a heap on my bed by 8PM.  I am sad, I know.  I don't even think there is any champagne in the apartment.  Some Hornsby's Hard Apple Cider (crisp apple, yum!) will have to suffice.

Seriously, if I could have?  I'da hibernated this winter.  

Happy New Year's Eve and stuff!

Called for Rain...

So now the big threat is the coming flood.

I'm pretty sure I asked for clear skies and maybe a little sunshine for xmas...but who ever listens to me?

Oh the Weather Outside Is Frightful...

...but unless you're still under the covers? It's not all that delightful in here...I'm wearing my pea coat as I write this.

I know, I know, I sound like that Massachusetts Snow Diary lady (much foul language, you have been warned).

If you did not get a present or xmas card from me this year...I tried, I really did, it's because I never made it to the post office due to the ice and snow (I seem to be the only person who still goes INTO the post office to buy such silly things as STAMPS you see).... I'm taking the more traditional route. Xmas is all about Jesus' b-day, right? And 12th night/Noche de los Reyes Magos/5th/6th of January is when the gifts and greetings really come into play, so that's where I'm at. Seriously, maybe the roads will be clear enough for me to go to work/post office/store by then?

Happy and safe holidays to you all.

Stay warm!

This Time with Pictures!

Andy got home just in time for the aftermath of 6 inches of snow. So that he wouldn't fall asleep at 6PM (and be up and AWAKE at 3 AM on a Monday morning/workday), we went for a walk to check out Gas Works Park and complete his exhaustion.

These are not sepia prints...this is pretty much what the world looked like as all the city lights reflected off the snow and the clouds, no flash, and hours past sunset...trippy eh?

So industrial, yet, so...pretty. It really is lovely what a layer of pristine snow will do to even the most toxic of monuments to our past.

So what he'd wanted to do was that whole "ta da" thing one does with your arms when presenting something big...as in "Those black dots behind me? People SLEDDING down Kite Hill."

When I showed him the picture though, Andy was all, "Okay, let's try again," but this time he apparently wanted to grow wings to prove his angelic innocence....ahem.

Snow Diva. Can't have a Snow Week Day without one.

Someone had a whole lot of time on their hands...or are maybe planning on someplace warm to spend the night. Not your traditional ice bricks, but dude, how cool! Igloo! No, I did not go in. I am young at heart, my knees, however, are ancient.

Ah, um, yeah, I wouldn't make this one full sized if you're unfortunate enough to be at work just now, cuz that lower right-hand um creation? NOT a baby snowman as I first thought as we were coming up from the bottom of the hill. My thought went from, "Oh, a whole snowman family" to "OH, my. Isn't someone creative! And/or possibly as juvenile as I am."

Homeward bound...and starting to snow...HARD.

It was still snowing when I went to bed...so we've got somewhere around 8 - 10 inch pockets of snow in places out there...about just below my knee in depth in others...and it's really hard to get off of slacks before it freezes your leg...just ask me how I know.

Snowed In...Yet Again

I know, the story is getting pretty old, especially without pictures. I will try to rectify that bit after a foray into the winter wonderland...maybe.

See, I think I've mentioned my super-human strengths and weaknesses enough for you to nod knowingly when I say, the pressure is making my head explode.

Snow storm = low pressure. Combine that with 24-hours of heated air blasting through the apartment and I can't tell if it's allergies from all the mold and dust, or the storm.

My eyeballs feel squished. No amount of Netti-potting is making them feel any better...or my brain...which feels like it's got an ice pick sticking out of the left temporal lobe. I love sinus issues, don't you?

Anyhow, we got 3, maybe 4 inches of snow over here right by the water/Gas Works Park. All the extra insulation is awesome, really, since the temperatures are shooting up to like 30 degrees!

Did I mention I have a window that pretty much makes up the whole of one living room wall? Or a door to my mini deck which is entirely made of glass? Or HUGE windows in each of the bedrooms? I am freezing in this apartment that was NEVER meant to experience temperatures in the 30s for more than a few hours at a time. As I explained to my mom the other day, Seattle = NO SUN. So when they make buildings they make HUGE PICTURE WINDOWS and lots of openings to the sky to let Mr. Blue Sky come in and not have a whole city fall into such moroseness and despair as to visit all of the bridges (and we have lots) to take flying leaps!

Where was I? Right, watching the backs of my hands get all purple-veiny from exposure. This is a new and rather odd experience. I grew up with girls that had .0001% body fat and on days when we'd have PE outside and it'd be a little chilly (Los Angeles chilly, mind) I'd see their arms and legs go all splotchy purple and always wondered why and how seeing as my firmly padded self never got that way.

No, I have not lost weight. My body mass is still pretty much the same as it's always been. In fact, at almost 35 I'm a good 20 pounds heavier than I was at my lightest (i.e. fencing weight), and yet hello purple arms! (I can't see my legs just now but if they are doing the same thing under so many layers I am doomed.)

So yeah, any time the weather would like to turn up the heat, even just a little? I'd be super grateful.

And I'm sorry I've been super whiny of late...I know the rest of the US is in the middle of much worse ice and snow storms (hee hee, typed out "snot" first...I am 12), but as horrific as it got in Tahoe during bad storm weather? I never felt this COLD or helpless. Seattle is as prepared for this kind of weather as LA is for rain. (Don't even get me started...) I think it's safe to say that there is such thing as Global Climate Change and maybe cities should start investing in such "luxuries" as snow plows and salt for these kinds of instances? (And of course, cooling shelters and extra water for the horrible stuff we see in summer at the other extreme of all this...) But hey, that's just me talkin'.

Okay, So Maybe NOT Sunday...

Stir Crazy...

I'm starting to lose it.

I just got off the phone with my mom and I couldn't help whining and lamenting how LONG I've been stuck in this apartment (the sidewalks are too icy for someone of my graceful ability *cough* to navigate) when she says, "Mija, it's only been a day and a half."

Has it? Jeebus help me, it feels like FOR.EV.ER!

My boss's boss gave us all remote access to the server. Even though I'm "officially" on sick leave/vacation/whatever leave code I'm supposed to use for not being at work, I can't not keep working...aside from it being a sickness, if I don't keep at the paperwork, I will fall so far behind that I will go even crazier!

But you know what? At work? There are so many distractions that I just had no idea. There is tea to make, mail to pick up, documents to sort, there are people to interact with, emails to share and/or delete, things to do that take you out of your chair and far away from your computer. Physically farther away from your office chair than the length of my apartment...waaaaaaaay farther.

I've found I need that separation. For one thing? My chair here at home? NOT the most comfortable thing in the world. It was a clearance item at some office supply store and sucked from day one, but it was cheap. I found I could do work for about 20 minutes then I needed to take a break.

I took the trash out today, just to have something to do.

Then I checked the mail.

Then I went through the apartment looking for enough recycling to justify yet another trip down the stairs.

I have promised both my mom AND Andy that I will not leave the apartment tomorrow if the streets and sidewalks are just as icy. What with the high today peaking at 24 degrees? I am so doomed.

Andy has been out of town, driving down to mid-northern California and now back, but he promised to chauffeur me in his studded-snow-betired 'rolla on Sunday as long as I did not do anything else that involved my car and ice and the streets. Even if it's not in his plan, I think this will include taking me to go buy chains for my Matrix so I can actually make it to work on Monday if the predicted snow does show itself on Sunday night and the freezing temperatures continue to be so stubbornly low that the ice becomes something we have to live with instead of something we just endure every so often.

Did I mention that the other day when it was 34 degrees out I actually undid my scarf because it felt so, um WARM?

I am Stooooopid, But Still Alive

I need to listen to my inner wuss a whole lot more.

And maybe even other people, like Erin, who stated quite plainly that I should not go out in all this....WEATHER.

See, the flakes got itty bitty. My road is a "secondary SDOT road" which means though it's not likely to be plowed, it's pretty highly used and not buried under a fresh sheet of snow. Which means my inner Calvinist-Work-Ethic convinced me that I should put in an appearance and make sure STUFF GOT DONE.

Please everyone, remind me I am the smallest of cogs in the system. Me not being there? No big whoop. But anyway...

I figured I'd go in, get payment requests ready, and leave before the sun (hahahahaha, yeah I know we haven't actually see the sun in a while but you know what I mean) went down and ta da! Everyone would be happy and life would keep moving briskly along.

Using the snow-driving skills I honed in Tahoe, I got there in one piece, no biggie. The parking lot was ALMOST EMPTY. This should have been a sign. It started to REALLY snow then and I was all, "tra la la, no worries, it'll go away soon." In the time it took me to open my passenger door and grab my bag, the entire seat was covered in flakes. I looked like Frosty the Overweight Snow Beast when I got to the door (did I mention I was wearing 3 layers of clothes as well as my pea coat?), and yet, instead of turning right around, I went in.

I think I was there about 45 minutes when I realized the snow flakes were NOT getting smaller. In fact, the rooves (roofs?) across the way were quite blanketed and looking THICK. It was at that point that I realized I was being reckless and not thinking of my mother again (this thought usually pops into my head just before I get into worlds of pain--bike accidents, sailing into storms, hiking across volcanic rock with no water, etc.). I was going to have to drive BACK in all that, what the hell was I thinking to venture out!

So, I dropped what I was doing, gathered up materials that I knew I could work on at home, and left as quickly as I could.

I only just made it in one piece. Mostly because the temperature started dropping pretty much as soon as I entered my work, it had to have. When I parked the thermostat read 33 degrees. When I skated to a stop about a mile from my apartment, hello 27 degrees! We were all driving on ice. All of a sudden I felt like I'd inadvertently driven into a bumper car arena...Especially as the guy behind me stopped centimeters from my bumper. The fact that I could see the "OH MY GOD" expression via my rear-view mirror makes me think possibly millimeters.

My favorite part was turning into the driveway of my building. I was only going 10 mph if that, mind...but yeah, goodbye traction and hello BRIGHT YELLOW PYLONS that divide the driveway and protect intercom/machine where you punch in the code to open the garage door! This is where I think instinct or past lives must have come into play.

I grew up in Southern California. We have no seasons, much less snow and ice. Yet, from the first time Andy took me out in his little 'rolla to "teach" me how to drive in the snow and ice of Tahoeland? I got it. If you asked me to explain what I would do if a car went into an uncontrollable spin, I could not tell to you how to fix it, but I will turn the wheel in the correct direction and touch the breaks in just the right way to counter and control the car in real life. This really is my one superpower.

I kept my back end from hitting the pylons and skated (did I mention the ice) under the garage door--and that bit was just dumb luck...I would have HIT the closed door if I hadn't pressed the remote opener with anticipation as I do every day coming home from work...there was NO stopping to wait for it.

Yep, white-knuckled and the adrenaline rush was nice...but I think I need a nap now.

Remind Me to Hold Off on the Sarcasm Next Time

Oh yeah, it snowed. Is snowing still. Well, lightly. But this is not Kings Beach. We've officially accumulated snow and yeah, all quiet on the western front here.

And yet, how surreal is it for me to watch from my closed glass deck door, two small children decked out in outfits akin to the little brother in "A Christmas Story" dragging toboggans behind them?

After a few seconds standing there clutching my coffee cup and making my brain work, I realized they are headed over to Gas Works Park, obviously, and not the nearest hill...which would be the street. Which would be why my inner wuss is winning the debate as to why I am not trying to get to work just this second and am instead surfing the news and posting on my blog....that weeee little hill that sits just outside the driveway of the apartment building.

So innocent. It curves just so, and is therefor your standard dangerous blind curve on a non-snow day. Really, it's just asking for someone big and driving too fast to ram into my car as I make the right turn to go to work.

An active imagination is not always a good thing to have.

Winter Storm Watch '08....um Take 2!

So the storm of the Seattle Century that was supposed to happen on Saturday with the snow and the winds and the ice and the pain...brought the super cold weather (the ice and the pain)...but really? Not much more than a bit of bother.

But now, boy howdy, people are a pumped! Bread shelves are empty! Bottled water was scarce! (I actually wasn't looking for either, just happened to be in those aisles as I wandered lonely as a cloud through the market wracking my brains for a good xmasy style gift for my older brother and SIL. Alas, I failed...

But I was able to buy some rice and beans and tomato sauce, no runs on such items in this neighborhood; so even if I do get snowed in tonight/tomorrow morning (STORM OF THE CENTURY! and all) I'll have my comfort food at hand. I'm actually really craving fideo (fee-day-oh)...a kind of um, pasta dish that is actually cooked like mexican rice (long twisted angel-hair noodles are broken up, fried in a bit of oil, and then cooked with water/stock and tomato sauce in a sorta kinda 3:1 ratio and after salting, set to simmer for 20 minutes but not drained, never drained) and is yummy with cooked chicken thrown in for the protein and maybe a side of mole...

If I can't have my mom's tamales, I will suffer with comfort food of the non-assembly line variety.

BTW, if it is about 30 degrees in your home because the heaters have been off all day and you just happen to have your housemate's aromatherapy-lavender-and-who-knows-what-all-else stuffed shoulder-drape-able-bean-bag thing (that you stick in the microwave and then put on sore muscles?) that was bought on a whim because a "hot chick" was selling them from a mall kiosk around? Dude! 3 minutes on high, wrap that sucker in a towel and stick it in your bed 20 minutes before you get in.

Heaven.

But back to the post...right, so we are supposed to get snow, again. 1 to 5 inches this time, as it's better-safe-than-sorry to tell us that 1" part seeing as last time they INSISTED 6 inches!!! Cuz yeah, hello? Metropolitan Seattle? Are you sure? And we all laughed at them when the .5-1.5 inches did fall. Seriously? 1 inch of snow is enough to shut this town down. AND YET my work believeth not in snow days. So we'll see.

So the Problem with Making Fudge for the Workmates?

Is that you're up until after midnight as you must taste it to make sure it is not poisoned. This stuff is SO not for the sugar-challenged. (I use the recipe on the back of that marshmallow pooffy/fluff stuff. I think it made me diabetic.)

And here is my "it snowed" picture. Yes, I know, there are many Seattle-based snow pictures from last night/this morning around the internets...you'd think this being the third winter in a row that I've dealt with snow in the land of "oh it NEVER snows here" that I'd be all whatevers about it. But as my lil' bro said something about his never getting a chance to see snow and I am a brat and sent him a picture of what I could see out my window, I thought I'd share it with you all as well.

Hmm, how hard would it be to chop this baby up (I live on the 3rd floor) and have it be my xmas tree instead of my tortured little pine thing?

DEEEEE-NIED...

Bob the Builder (there is sound, no I don't know how to turn it off...I would if I could), the original "Yes we can" man is sold out.

Everywhere.

What is up with that? I have a days-away-from-being-four-year-old for whom those die cast builder um buddies? Construction vehicle's with faces, would be perfect for.

Last year it was Thomas. Seriously I had to fake the Tar-jey $1 basket dealies into looking like old Thomas cuz there was NOTHING.

This year? What kind of Thomas can I get you? We have rows upon rows of displays, die cast, wooden, ye olde plastic, you name it.

But Bob? Goooooood Luck!

As one very helpful, very young, and obviously was last around the pre-school aged when she was said, "There's Manny though. I know he's not Bob, but do you think the kid will really notice?"

The look on my face was enough for her to lead me on to the "Home Depot" toy selection as the "other end of the spectrum" alternative to soft, big, pre-school hand sized construction toys. No faces on these things whatsoever. A good alternative, yes, but also not worth buying as I could just see his little face fall as the little construction pieces were taken out only for them NOT to be Bob's building pals.

Fanaticism in small children will be the death of me.

So tonight I'm going to shop for puzzles and coloring books and fat markers and anything and everything NOT Bob related...sigh.

Horror Movie...My Life As...

So if you wear glasses and they have semi-small frames and you perch them lower on your nose than usual, do you ever get the sense that you are "watching" your surroundings as you do, say, a TV/movie screen?

And maybe because you could not sleep thanks to a freaky sinus infection that is making your ear pound and you toss and turn and toss and turn ad infinitum until you play tag with your snooze bar at far too early in the morning, the world, even through your glasses and a cup of coffee, still seems fuzzier (and therefore more video-tape quality) than normal?

And that fake/tee vee-like setting is leaning far more towards horror movie than say soap opera thanks to the gray and overcast and altogether poopie weather you've been having and did you all know they are forecasting SNOW for Friday???!!!???

So as you meander through the hallways trying to look like you remember what you were doing (really now, my women's self-defense teacher would be so proud at how purposeful I've been walking around today...), you keep expecting something big and bad and scary to jump out at you and there will be axes and/or chainsaws involved cuz really those were the movies you just could not stand and had to leave the room when the motors started up and your older brother would tell you not to cuz it wasn't going to be so bad so you just cover your eyes and wait until he would say it was over AND HE LIED as you peaked through your fingers and saw really bad effects (by today's standards but you were 9 and really your imagination filled in the missing details far too well) and yeah, that would be my morning thus far.

And you know what?  This is me on NO Sudafed whatsoever.

Interlude...

See, I planned on writing about my failed trip to visit an uncle's house and filling in the time with my dragging my mom into South Pasadena and seriously walking much too far in the too-hot heat, maybe in the wrong direction, looking for, of all things, YARN, preferably of the woolen variety.

But now I don't feel like writing about the trip or the wool. Life is intervening again.

My great aunt has passed away and I'm at a loss as to what to say...and maybe I'm especially weirded out as my mom mentioned her during the endless walk from where we parked to the store (10 of those LONG LA city blocks...or would that be Pasadena blocks?). It was definitely a "keep quiet and listen to your mom" moment for me as I had to concentrate on not dropping from the heat.

Seriously, it's kind of a shock. My cousin just saw her last week! She was hale and hearty and now she's, um, not. No one's even sure what happened. Heart attack? Blood pressure induced? Brain aneurysm? We'll know more in a few days.

She's my dad's aunt. I haven't had a chance to talk to him about it. I know it was with her and my great uncle that my dad went to stay with when he first left home to make his fortune in the world abroad.

It's harsh, all this dying. But I suppose it's that time of year...extra stress + colder weather + older folks...all that noise. It's just...hard.

So today I leave you with something living...even through my torture:

I was going to try to make a few home-made tree decorations...but somehow I think anything more and I might end up pushing this poor little guy over the edge.

Part the Second...Sugar and the Masses

So first, some background:
I'm not sure how it started...possibly a very bleak, gray day wherein the Finance Team was overworked, overtired, and possibly on the brink of losing the proverbial "it."

What, pray tell, could save the day? Sugar, of course.

Someone busted out candy and it was manna from heaven. Dances of joy were performed, chatting replaced grumbling, mini-rant sessions calmed nerves, all pulled through.

From that day forth a "sugar altar" was designated and periodically all bring in tithes to sustain the masses. One of the commandments of this worship dictates:

• S/he who travels, must bring back treats for those chained to their desks left behind...
  

Or something. Wouldn't I make a good Historian?

Anywho, it's true, we ply one another with treats (candies, chocolate, cookies, chocolate cookies...) to make it through the more hectic times of the month. Some days one person contributes to our sanity, others...well we're not a very coordinated bunch, there have been times when the tribute has indeed overflowed and maybe lasted a few days...we are bad.

Knowing I was going to the land of Mexican Candy, also known as East LA, I asked my coworkers what I could contribute that they would eat?

Did I mention I work for a GLOBAL non-profit? We joke that Accounting takes the whole "global" bit rather seriously with our multicultural members, so I just knew someone somewhere would have a treat from the "motherland" that might fit into the same category as what I'd run across.

Sure enough:

So here we have de la Rosa "masapan" and La Colonial tamarind balls.

As my Philippine coworker chided, the masapan is a "cheap knockoff" of a favorite childhood candy of his. I'd'a been offended but yeah, his version, whose name I can't remember, involves chocolate powder. And as we all know things are better when you add chocolate... Except for masapanes. No way, no how, dude... These "peanuts confection" (how international they've become) is perfect as is, to me, who grew up munching their crumbly goodness. I guess if I'd grown up munching on the chocolate version, I'd have a different opinion, to each his/her own.

The tamarind was also a suggestion from the Philippine contingent as really, the Spanish brought a whole lot of the same stuff to us and them...but as another coworker stated, those balls are like crack candy! Which had actually been her suggestion when I asked what "delicacy" I could possibly bring back from East LA. Close enough.

What I don't have pictures of is my mom, little brother, and I searching for tamarind (not tamarind flavored) sweets. Who knew there were so many kinds and varieties and creative ways or marketing them! There was only one "miss" when we bought what we thought was real tamarind/chilie paste in what looks like one of those old play-doh dolls that you could add "doh" to and squeeze and "doh" hair would grow out of the top? Yeah, can you just see the Accounting Office sucking on those?

Me neither. So I left them with my lil' bro as he likes them a lot. Hmm, that would explain how he convinced us to buy them. Yeah, I'm a bit slow, I admit it.

I also don't have pictures of my mom, my nephew, and I finally locating everything and more at the local Panederia (sweet bread shop) and Carniceria (butcher shop). Yeah, my mom's 'hood has such places. Yeah, I'm a little amazed at how much the place has changed since I lived there.

I tried to get a picture of the sweet bread we bought, but um, yeah, it disappeared before I got the camera out...I'm not sure how it happened. Magic! Yeah, that's it.

Why I am a Bad Blogger, My LA Vacation...Sort of, Part the First

It's not that I want to keep my vacation secret from anyone...really! But um, yeah, you know those picture thingies that people share with one another?

Weeeeelllll, there weren't any. I know, I KNOW! I bought a new spiffier than I'd ever imagined camera to have on hand and take eleventy-million fotos...and I just didn't. In fact, my older brother took more pictures when he was checking out my camera than I did, the entire trip.

No really. I suck. I know. I had dinner with fellow blog-a-holic Richard, and yeah, NO BLOODY PICTURES!

I just finished going through the ones I can post (I don't do the "post family pics on the interwebs" as I am a conspiracy theorist at heart and I just know the wrong people are scanning through blogs to steal baby pictures and make them into parts of their own blogs or blog forbid, make something perverted and nasty). Besides, as they are not my children, I don't want to get anyone mad at me, you know?

When did I become my dad?

Instead I will share with you some highlights:

So, like a good paranoid traveler who over-thinks the whole packing/3-3-1/TSA deal, I showed up HOURS before the flight and there was NO ONE at SEATAC Airport.

Andy was all, "where are all the people" at the "the white zone is for loading and unloading only" (oh wait, they don't do that at SEATAC. Anyone who has ever been at LAX knows that electronic voice from hell of which I mock).

I digress.

So, no people and I am too undercaffeinated to remember I even own a camera, much less record a re-re-creation of "Abre Los Ojos" (or single re-creation of "Vanilla Sky"), of the EMPTY check-in area for posterity. No fewer than FIVE Virgin America um, attendants (?) asked me to let me let them check me in.

Security/TSA lines? A ghost town.

AND YET! When I had voiced one of my cajillion TSA-over-thinking concerns to Andy the night before, he said my best bet was just to do what the person in front of me was doing and let it be. I joked that I'd be behind the little old lady who'd never stepped foot in the airport...a 'yup. Though he was a little old man. And no, no pictures. I mean really, would you bust out your camera in front of the people who are looking for suspicious activity?

"Hello nice man who can keep me from my flight. Me? Oh nothing, just taking pictures to post on the intarwebs about how great security is here! For serious!"

Um, not with my luck.

Instead, waited until I was waaaaay past security and all the good picture-taking stuff before pulling out my camera. And by then I kinda had to, seeing as I still had no idea how to use it and was determined that I'd figure out all its ins and outs BEFORE imposing it on my family. So sit back, relax, and be prepared for my slideshow from the edge:
Can I go on your airplane? Hawaii, LA, no big difference, who'd miss me?

I love the wall-o-window of this airport.
Too bad I'm not a "Saturday Sky" participant. The sky was kinda cool. My goal, however, was to try to get a picture a plane taking off. (They go faster than you think! Yey for quick shutter-speed!)

Yes, these are the kinds of things that entertain me when on too little sleep and/or coffee.
I'm just about positive my seat mate thought I was super-dork. Check out my view:
Get it? Virgin America? An American flag on the wing?! So easily amused.

And then I decided I had to know if the zoom worked:
Seriously I am uber-dork. And um, geographically challenged...anyone know if this is Mt. Baker? Maybe?

And then we get to pretty much the last picture I took until maybe the last day I was in LA, when I made my niece, nephew, and mom pose for me...and failed miserably. My nephew hates pictures worse than I do. Family ties, I tell ya'. But yeah, this is proof positive that if I don't start using my camera more, the picture police are going to come and take it away and give it to someone more deserving:
See this mess? Still ON MY WAY to LA here, and about to land. Yeah, I know, I should not have had the camera out, slap my hand next time. To keep this picture from taking over blogger, the only thing I did was resize it to make it itty bitty (megabyte-wise, it's pretty big when you click it.)

Check out what happens when I center and crop and once again resize the image to be SMALLER:
18 years I lived in LA; 4 of those years I had monthly visits to an orthodontist whose chairs all faced this sign and not once in those visits with multiple cameras on hand, was I ever able to get such a clear shot.

***
The week flew by. I spent most of it playing with small children, yakking with my mom, and little brother, making lightning visits to scattered family, exploring parts of S. Pasadena to find some yarn (oh yeah, baybee), exploring parts of El Sereno for candy/confections for the folks at work, and staying up far too late watching my little brother's copies of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (seasons 4 through almost all of 6).

All of the "fun" (picture-worthy) stuff my mom and I had chatted about doing was totally canceled thanks to the fires and the smoke and the smog and the unbearable heat that gave me a TAN within minutes of poking my head/arms outside, and the hacking coughs the little ones ended up with. So instead we played with trucks and fire engines and colored and watched cartoons. I suppose I could have pulled out the camera to document these things...but I think I mentioned before about my suckage?

And how funny that I could have lied to you all and just said, sorry, can't post them, see above about crazy-tin-hat-wearing tendencies...I am a bit silly, I guess.

Next time, pictures that aren't of the airport, promise.

I Am So That Grumpy Lady at Work...

...Sigh...

I'm all for people being happy at work, really and truly.

But do you have to whistle?  So damned loudly?  When you're walking RIGHT TOWARD ME so I hear it full force?  Like you want me to stop what I'm doing at the copy machine, look up at you, and smile or tell you what a great whistler you are?

Let me tell you right now, I'm not going to.  EVER.

Call  me old fashioned, but whistling and busting out into song while people around you are trying to have conversations with outside businesses and the like?  So not professional. 

I mean, yeah, I have been known to hum while I wash my Tupperware IN THE KITCHEN...but not while, say, scanning the eleventy million credit card statements while inches away from people who are busy with other work stuff.  But hey, that's just silly old (grumpy) me.

This people, is why they invented ear buds, seriously.  Now if only I could get away with wearing them when I go off to collect my print jobs and make copies...

The Street Where You Live...

I have, what I feel, is an UNNATURAL need to watch "My Fair Lady" just to listen to that stalker song...mostly because I've only seen the production once, a long long time ago in a galaxy far far away...

No, I have not gone over the deep end and fallen into infatuation with someone; instead blame 3 years of HS choir that have obviously scarred me for LIFE.

It's that time of year when we gussied ourselves up and got ready to sing at masses and assemblies and the holiday concerts...practicing and practicing and memorizing the songs just in case the girl in the Alto section behind me ONCE AGAIN lost her binder and the music director made me go without because of course, I'd memorized the songs. Classic good-girl Catch-22 there. URGH.

If I'm not careful I break into a rousing round of "Christmas in Kilarney" while washing dishes...it's just awful.

So I've been absent a bit since coming back from Cali...(And yeah, have the LL Cool Jay "Goin' back to Cali" song in my head...But see how good I've been not linking to any of these tunes to harass all of you?? My 2 readers that is :).)

I fell into the "re-entry" dole drums and then it was Turkey Day; I contributed dessert:
Up front is an adulterated version of "Hazelnut Pear Flan" from a old Vegetarian cookbook I love so much I've dragged that thing literally THOUSANDS of miles these last nine years...but I don't like hazelnuts enough to hunt them down and then grind them into a flour...so I used Pecans, which were both easier to obtain and crush. And really, it's more like a cake than a flan...which makes it kinda harder to eat after a huge meal...oops...but maybe the extra "weight" is from the pecans? I never know just how changed a recipe is unless I make the original...and um, I actually never have with this one.

Of course at the back is your standard pumpkin pie. But I cheated without even realizing it...what I honestly thought was a can of organic pumpkin innards turned out to be "organic pumpkin pie" innards...so I only had to add the milk and eggs and I felt like I'd been cheated somehow...but everyone seemed to like it, so we're all good.

And now, maybe, that my post-vacation ennui seems to be ending (last night I dreamt of my cousin, and he stayed my cousin for the duration, yey!), and the SMOG-Alert sinus infection is healing, and the next couple weeks are back to the standard work, work, work, I might be back to posting more regularly...maybe.