and

i feel like most stuff is "and" now. and i did this. and i saw this person. and i finished this and ate this and went here and, and, and. i am still writing on the poetry blog, and i start rehearsing for my next driftwood play on sunday, and i set up and hosted a pet food drive for the food bank, and i broke 2 christmas tree stands, so now i have a decorated tree leaning up against the wall, and the puppy got adopted to a great family in seattle, and i need to do some deep-cleaning at my house to get cat hair out of the most ridiculous places, and i took a second job as backup karaoke host, and then i got offered two more jobs (as a banker and as another karaoke host) neither of which i have time for, but the money would be nice, and, and, and! it's on and on, and i love it, but boy howdy, good luck keeping up with it all!
what a ride!

i still exist!

not in a poetic mood right now, so i'm giving the poetry blog a break and getting back to documenting the madness beyond the middle of nowhere...
i was quoted in the King 5 News Blog today since they wrote a piece about my foster dog and her puppy. little miss came in to my office from the local shelter, filthy, emaciated, parasite-ridden, and just as terrified as she could be, even after a couple of days of loving care at the shelter. she stayed terrified throughout her exam, during which it was discovered that she has a horrible heart murmur. She was skinny enough that the vet could see the murmur "buzzing" through her ribcage. she figured little miss to be about 8-10 years old, and in serious need of some medical care. so she called me in to talk about old dog haven. when i walked into the room, little miss practically sighed with relief, stopped trembling, and climbed into my arms. when i tried to set her down, she clung like velcro and gave me "the look". so i told the shelter volunteers that she was going home with me, and i'd see what i could do about getting old dog haven sponsorship. so i had three dogs. old dog haven came through, so we were able to take x-rays of her heart. imagine the shock when x-ray revealed that she had a puppy inside! just over a week later, little gigi showed up at my house. 4 dogs, 3 of which are chihuahuas. how in the hell did that happen to me?
i'm down one kitty - twilight went to "fat camp" and fell in love with her "unky art". so she's there indefinitely, and shadow has taken the opportunity to come out of his shell!! my formerly feral hiding-cat roams around in daylight, sleeps in dog beds, lets me pet, scruff, check teeth, and play "wheelbarrow" with him. so i have a sneaky suspicion that his sister has been bullying him his whole life and i didn't know... but she's happy at art's house, so i guess it all works out.
reasons i've not been blogging: the last theatrical posts involved the tender trap at driftwood theatre; well, the show was great, and i made new friends, and i won the theatre company's best supporting actress award, and i just started rehearsing my next show with them - i shall play a.e. in excursion fare. at the same time, i'm rehearsing for my directorial debut with nana's naughty knickers here with stage west theatre (i'm acting in the play too). so there are rehearsals more than half of my nights.
the other nights: ...so i mentioned a boyfriend. that went south, suddenly and horribly, and i got very depressed and shut down for a while. didn't eat, didn't sleep, all that fun stuff. i lost 15 pounds and my dr. got all concerned and put me on like 6 prescriptions. turns out i really got my heart broken, and a mitral valve was acting up, and my liver didn't like that, so it did all kinds of stupid things with my system. also, i grew a goiter (which i learned just means a growth on the thyroid gland, and not necessarily something that can be seen). so part of how i dealt with feeling physically and emotionally horrible was that i started a poetry blog. i brought out all my old notebooks and copied/edited a bunch of stuff, wrote a bunch of new stuff, and i think i found my "voice". after a few months of that, and some gentle nudging from friends, i decided to self-publish. so i formatted and edited again and went to lulu.com for help. turns out it was pretty easy to get it all together. books went on sale online about 3 weeks ago, i got my first shipment in last week, and they're actually selling! the one wacky woman shop in ocean shores has 'em out with a "local author" sign, and i'm just pleased as punch. didn't think i'd ever really use the phrase "pleased as punch"...
fairly soon after i started the poetry blog, i went on my third world vets trip, to guatemala! i kept a trip blog. and just before i went on the trip, i met a guy. he's frikkin awesome. have you ever had someone just think you're amazing? i think we both have that, so things are really good so far. it's been over 4 months and still smiling.
so pretty much looking up, keeping busy, getting things done, oh, and did i mention it's huckleberry season again? teddy and i went out picking today. i got a couple of handfuls of berries and a weird spine-thing in my leg. i went to a tool sale yesterday and got a saw and (finally) a power drill! i've only wanted one of those forEVER! and i get to play driving instructor the next few months - someone has to log 50 hours of driving time to get her license...
the goal was to get sugar cookie dough made, finish dishes and laundry, work on some lines for the nana's play, clean the house, and so on. did i do all, or even a major portion of this? of course not! i played on the internet. and played with critters. and talked on the phone. and took pictures and videos of the puppy. speaking of puppy, she's just woken up from her nap on my lap, so it's time for puppy food.
g'night blog!

Guatemala

... and here's a link to my Guatemala trip blog:
www.spayguatemala.blogspot.com

New Blog

not that anyone's likely to read this blog since i haven't posted in months, but part of the reason for that is that i've started a new poetry blog. feel free to check it out:
www.dayiranaway.blogspot.com

sleeping through christmas

can anyone guess what i did the majority of my holiday weekend? no emergency surgery assistance, no extra dogs to babysit, just one get-together with friends and a LOT of snoozing. then back to work in time for a shortened work week and another long weekend. i slept for about 13 hours last night, and woke up still exhausted. can we ever really catch up after insomnia?
can't believe in just over a week i hit 1 year of home-ownership. and i haven't destroyed the place yet, despite consistent effort by the critters to assist in said destruction.
still got the writers' block i guess - this post really isn't going anywhere.

catching up

in the juggling of a million things, i'm learning that some things fall through the cracks. this wasn't a problem before my ocd spontaneously cured itself almost 2 years ago. but now. oh, but now…
how to judge which things matter most? my cats miss me. they talk to me more now, when i'm home. and that isn't often. i'm out doing worthwhile things. i performed a heartwarming show. i helped decorate an art gallery. i cooked and baked and made people smile. i signed up for another international spay/neuter project. i connected with old friends and went to the beach to connect with the world at large. and i sat around dinking on the internet for a while too… bittersweet musings, but i feel like i'm going somewhere.

the "to-do list"

i get a couple of days off next week. to "relax" and "regenerate" and all that stuff. so i made a to-do list. and it's RIDICULOUSLY LONG! there is no way i will ever get all that crap done in two days. so i started this afternoon to try to get a couple of things done. i cleared out a bunch of salal in the trees in front of my house (thank you, new machete!) and got all ready to paint a board for shelving. oh yeah, then the mist rolls in. i called the bank to finish setting up my hoa online banking. oh, but they can't set it up in one day. so despite the fact that i told them exactly what i wanted back in june, they still haven't been able to put it together. phone tag is really, really old by now. other fun things today: i took hobbes and teddy to the old folks home again. boy do they have fun! and the old folks like the critter fix too. and i got to help take care of a fawn. that had been hit by a car. on SUNDAY. note that it is currently tuesday, and that someone let the poor thing lie in her yard for nearly three days before calling anyone about it. so i'm a little bit sad about that. because i was in a vehicle that hit a deer on sunday, and we didn't wait - we called the police right away and had the poor broken thing shot asap. i felt bad that it took the cops a half hour to arrive, and this poor little guy was hurt the same day... NOT such a fan of humans now. and then when we get there it turns out i know the person. *grits teeth* poor fawn.
fun things since my last blog: too freaking many to remember them all. great reason not to wait months at a time in between, hey? some toppers include a camping trip to mt. rainier and becoming the passenger on a motorbike. also, enter: the boyfriend! wow, it's only been about 11 years since i've had one of those. i think i like it!
did i mention that i got a car. that really works? the heater and spedometer work too! and some menfolks glued rubber duckies to the hood.
which reminds me - those same menfolk stuck a rubber duck on the front end of our cardboard boat, of which i was made pilot. i capsized fairly early into the race, but i rescued the ducky.
i played the part of "sylvia" in the tender trap at driftwood theatre in aberdeen. i've just been cast as "caitlin" in over the river and through the woods, and following that, i've been asked to be "rita" in educating rita. yep, i'm getting back into the drama thing, fairly big time.
and my enthusiasm just disappeared with my blood sugar or something so i'm gonna go get a snack now. yep.

life is good

i'm sure you've seen those t-shirts: they have stick figure doing some activity and they say life is good. then the people who like that activity buy the shirts. so far i haven't seen any shirts with a billion things at a time on them, but that's when, like now, i notice that it is very good.
i haven't done any fascinating adventures lately, or had a ridiculous mishap, or any of the things that normally make for an entertaining story. just good interactions with good people, fun times in a fun place, and of course, critters being critters.

responsibility

has anyone else ever been roped into babysitting an adult? i went to dinner with a group last night, and during dinner some people had beer. someone had a bit much beer and decided that there needed to be more drinking after dinner. by the end of the night, only two group members were left trying to minimize the damage. i think we prevented two bar fights and nobody had sex with anybody at the bar itself, so that was a success i think. i didn't even know this troubled individual before the group got together for dinner, and yet somehow, i end up feeling and taking on the responsibility of making sure she didn't get arrested or injured over the course of the evening. why would i do that? biologically, why would a human need to preserve another human that is not part of its own "herd"?
as ridiculous as the evening was, i did enjoy bits of it though.

sore throat

so i got a sore throat on sunday. no biggie, i'd had a really long shower (i sing in the shower and sometimes i get really into it) and i thought it would go away by monday. monday rolls around, and whoops, still kinda sore. i get to work and not only is another coworker out with the sickies, but our acupuncturist/chiropractor has called in - i guess she came down with it on saturday. so she feels guilty about exposing us all... so my boss sent me home after about 10 minutes. i was functional, just not comfortable. so i went home, had me some theraflu, and went back to bed. for 2 days. the fever set in, i got all achy, started congesting and coughing... blah! getting better now though. so i should be able to work again tomorrow. which is a half day. and after taking part of friday off for a migraine and the last 2 days for this silly flu thing, yeah, i'm not making a whole lot of money right now. but at least i've been able to avoid sickness on performance days (so far - knock on wood!). so today, after i started to feel better, i went to driftwood for my first read-through. i don't often get nervous about things lately, but i was for this! don't tell anyone there though - i tried to play it cool, and i think i pulled it off. we perform in july. until then, i'll get to do lots of driving, but i think it'll be worth it.
and other than being sick and going to aberdeen, the big news here is that i put my foot down, and won (sort of). i have been working with a nonprofit group for about 2 1/2 years, and recently started trying to make some changes that i believe would have been beneficial to the critters involved (yeah, so it's an animal group). anyway, the "old guard" as they are called, made it pretty clear that no changes were to be made - by saying they'd change and then not changing. also by lecturing me about you can't expect volunteers to do as they're told anyway. so i offered an ultimatim: either stop one specific action, or i walk. and they decided to let me walk. so there went a huge load from my shoulders. i no longer have to feel responsible for what they're doing. on the other hand, now i need to come up with some other activity to occupy my time. hmmmmmm. perhaps i could take up darts?

made it to the big leagues

sort of. i auditioned for a part with the driftwood theatre company in aberdeen. they're cool enough that people who don't personally know cast members go to see their shows. and i'm in. i shall be sylvia in the tender trap during the month of july. we do our first read-through on tuesday. i'm more nervous about that than i am about the remaining 3 narnia shows. combined. butterflies in the tummy. and something in the throat. i'm pony today (a little hoarse, get it?). heehee
but seriously, i'm out of popsicles again, and this isn't cool. i really would rather not lose my voice prior to a stage performance.
in other news, the cocker spaniel has gone home after a month at my house, and it is so wonderfully peaceful here now. and i spent most of the day watching the office again. great way to relax after a week of basically nonstop events. which i plan to duplicate again this week. and i don't have rehearsal on monday or wednesday. made plans for monday, but i've still got to fill in my thursday evening schedule. any ideas?

backstage shennanigans

today i got a cast member's brother to tell me, not only which other cast member the first cast member was crushing on, but also the specific type of axe the cast member was wearing to attract said other cast member. so i kept walking around sniffing and asking everyone except the perp who was wearing "the new axe - what'sitcalled - excite? i really like that one!" until he fessed up. then i pointed out how obvious it is that he is crushing on said other cast member. his poor little fallen face... but don't worry. i promised not to tell her.
and then there was much sword fighting and we played stop'n'go while the new lights were installed - i.e. motion was only allowed when lights were off. each little freeze-frame offered a brief glimpse at just who might win the epic tweedle beetle puddle battle. of course, i "won" when i slammed my foam fake sword over the crossed swords of the other two contestants. my sword snapped in two and one half went flying across the stage and into a tree. yeah, we have a bunch of fake christmas trees on set.

prom-crashing

so we've heard of wedding crashers (shoot, i've been one...) but has anyone else in their upper twenties crashed a high school prom? me neither, but don't tell the other stage west folks that!
long version of the story:
ashley and i arrived at the play venue early saturday afternoon to paint the set backdrop. we were surprised to find a venue full of balloons, lights, streamers, and other party paraphanilia. said stuff didn't quite block our painting area, but we were told by what turned out to be a prom prep person that, because of the fumes our non-fume paint would cause, she "don't want no painting" there today. so we took the moveable props with us and went to paint them in a convenient garage. while painting, we mused on how awesome it would be to crash the prom dresseed as rival-school people or some such nonsense. which would have been awesome except that we don't know who this school's rival is, if they even have one. so we discussed crashing the prom regardless. then someone mentioned that we didn't need to ruin anything for the kids, because is isn't their fault the planning lady was rude. so the compromise was to arrive at midnight to paint, but to spread the story about how we put on dresses and crashed prom and didn't get caught (our painting was behind a curtain, after all...)
so if anyone asks you where i was on saturday night: prom. backstage. with a paintbrush hidden in my purse.
heeheehee!

after such an illustrious beginning

the blog-drive has faded, not the incidents about which to blog. for instance, just yesterday i got attacked by a vampire (i'm not all that far from forks, after all) and escaped with some neck slashes - i don't think he really broke the skin though, so no sparkles for me. ok, so really it was a flailing irish setter who clocked me with a hind foot, but it looks like vampire fang slashes on my neck. and the kids at rehearsal sure found the story entertaining. speaking of kids at rehearsal... the other day, an unnamed source let go a really raunchy fart backstage and blamed it on one of the kids. yeah, that was pretty low of whoever it was. shame on them!
we are getting ready for opening night a week from today. i showed up in costume last night and the kids said i looked twelve. i was thinking, gee, pigtails and a sports bra will do wonders, but then one li'l guy said that it was because taht outfit "wasn't really working" for me, so i looked younger.
backstage antics are hilarious, as usual. the majority of the cast is convinced that i am fluent in asl because of random sign flashing. if only i knew what the heck i was "talking" about, that'd probably be pretty cool. also, there is a pretty narrow hallway behind the stage - narrow enough that i was able to brace against both sides and "climb" the wall. super awesome. i got in trouble for that one though - liability or something. sheesh.
mister is being much better behaved since the cocker spaniel came back. we're on week 3 of random frantic whining and rushing about bumping into furniture and other critters. during week 2, she tried to eat mister's breakfast. teddy intervened and a fight broke out. while the dogs were rolling around brawling on the floor, li'l chubby twilight came flying in hissing and growling and slapped the hell out of poor ladybug. mister's food has been safe since then. go twilight - the kitty police!

lazy weekend

so i finally really started using a calendar. old dog haven sent me theirs, and i like looking at it, and ever since my ocd mysteriously disappeared last year i've been struggling to remember all the things i used to double-check relentlessly. until now. how freaking easy is it to just write stuff down? pretty easy, and it's kind of nice to not live in a panic all the time. i even wrote down my major expenses for the month in the margin, so i can cross them off as they get paid. voila. instant peace in the brain. and it's such a busy calendar! there are rehearsals, meetings, workshops, pet sits, social events, and all kinds of crazy stuff on there. but somehow today managed to avoid all of that, and the only thing on the calendar is to make amish bread, as the goo has fermented on my counter long enough. which means, by default, that today should be the day i clean my house. will this happen? we shall see... dun dun duuunnnnnnn!!

the problem with being a sucker

is that i end up with things like a clingy cocker spaniel at my house. trying oh so very hard to be in my lap. also that i deal with poo-coated mister on a daily basis. okay, so i deal with mister daily. sometimes he does other annoying things besides throw a techno poo party in his kennel. i couldn't actually find the main chunk of poo - i think it had all been reduced to kennel, blankie, feet, and face smears. except for the dab right on his id tag. and i think it was ground into his fur some. i washed him off in a tidy cats bucket in the shower. the kennel was left to soak, and i was late for work. he is the danged cutest little thing though. and the most endearing little weirdness-noises come from his bed when he's rolling around all happy.
he behaves wonderfully for everyone except me. i think he's making me out to be a liar.

in the meantime, our spay/neuter clinic was a success. 32 critters owned by low-income families in my area will no longer have the opportunity to reproduce. we did the math. we prevented about 1200 dogs and about a billion cats from needing homes here in the next few years. pretty good deal. so maybe we can focus a little more on finding good homes for the critters already here - and maybe educate some people about better care for the animals they have (like that an obese animal isn't "happy and healthy"). yeah, that.

also, i have the best insurance guy ever! i gave him all my car specs yesterday, and today i got a whole packet of coverage comparisons, with suggestions and explanations and all kinds of stuff. and i found out that if my car was in "fair" condition (without significant cosmetic damage, and all the parts working) it would be worth about $1100. so if i totalled it as is, i might get about $20 towards a new car. if i get a low deductible. methinks i'm gonna go with just liability coverage here...

some fun things i've done lately

i had friends in town. which was awesome. also, we got out and did stuff while they were here, which is even more awesome. a reason to not spend the evening dinking around on the internet has got to be a plus.

i went hiking out at griffiths priday state park. it's got standard woods and dunes and such, as well as a creek, a dead end road at the edge of a cliff that eroded all away, and my favorite cold-weather beach ever. i tromped around in dune grass, built a slide out of logs to get down a cliff to the beach, felt the wind (and felt amazing) at the beach, tromped around in sitka pine woods, saw a baldy, followed the copalis river for a while, and then tromped around in what turned out to be a sulphur marsh. eewwwwwww! good thing my asics, socks, and pants below the knee are washable!

i went to the pacific science center in seattle center. the current special exhibit is all about star wars! they made sure to tell us ahead of time that there is no re-entry to the exhibit. also that there are no bathrooms in the exhibit. did i think about much else besides potty while i was in the exhibit? yes, by sheer willpower. also the star wars stuff was cool. i got my picture taken with darth vader and built a magnet-lego car that didn't slide along its track as well as most of the small children's magnet-lego cars. after star wars, and a visit to the coolest public restroom i have ever seen (complete with bright, colorful cartoons and random entertaining urine/feces facts posted on the walls), i went to the fake dinosaur exhibit. the fake dinosaurs roar and electronically jerk about fakely. i noted that the "apatosaurus" is finally admitting that it is "also referred to as brontosaurus" since that was the ORIGINAL FREAKING NAME!! seriously! for some reason, at this point i was introduced to charlie the unicorn. also, the fake dinosaurs were scaled down significantly - horse to elephant sized instead of real sized. one of the features of the exhibit was the fake dinosaur skin that patrons were allowed to feel - so we would know just what fake dinosaur skin might have felt like if people had any idea what it was really like. after the dinosaurs i went around the rest of the science center and participated in multiple random science thingies: i turned on a lightbulb by pedaling a bicycle, demonstrated how tides work by dumping ink into the water in a topographical-ish 3-d map, watched naked mole rats burrow around in plastic tunnels, made a silhouette on a shadow wall, found out that my eyesight is, indeed, horrible - by reading the E and the next line below it on a sight chart... and more cool stuff like that. made me wish i could do fifth grade (or 6th form) again. then i got cotton candy as we left the science center.

while in seattle, i indulged and got INDAN FOOD! it's been about two and a half years since i've had real, non-pre-frozen indian food, and goodness, it was wonderful! now i'm craving more, despite the frozen version i ate yesterday and today.

i went to astoria and visited a bunch of goonies sites. the houses are real, and currently inhabited, so they don't have tours. the residents are pretty good sports about it. there was a guy pruning his yard at mikey and brand's house. he ignored us, but i'm sure he's used to random tourists in pirate garb photographing his house. yes, we dressed up as pirates. arrrrgh! i broke my first fake cutlass on the... um, the air while i was prepping for the trip. so i got another cutlass on the way out of town. i went to the county jail, which is now a film museum, the bowling alley, mikey's dad's museum... and haystack rock, which, despite being depicted as close to astoria in the movie, is really about 15 miles away. teddy and mister had gone along on this day trip, so they got to go out to haystack rock and explore the beach and tide pools with me. mister got lots of funny looks. i don't think people are used to seeing a chihuahua running around at the beach.

a different day, i flew a kite on the beach, for the first time since i moved to the home of the national kite people champion-thingies. guess i should have tried it earlier. my kite flew for a total of about 43 seconds all together, in between multiple repairs and reinforcings. i probably should have gotten it somewhere other than the dollar tree, what with the winds gusting at ridiculous speeds that day and all. also, it was raining. some park rangers stopped by and suggested, as my kite whimpered along the ground like an injured stingray, that today might not be the best day for kite-flying. i agreed that it was stupid, but said thanks and i'd stick to it anyway becuase it was fun. i think they think i'm retarded.

speaking of which, i had had dinner with the park rangers the previous night. lots of people didn't show up to a spaghetti and game night, so the rangers got invited over for food. they did not stay to play uno.

that was april first - the same day i masterminded the best april fool's day prank ever: my coworkers and i prepped a dummy medical chart, told the vet that she was going to check a dog's ears, and sent her in to an exam room where she found waiting... the state park's mascot: Eager Beaver! he got his annual exam, and we took pictures for the local paper. there was much laughter.

another thing i did: i purchased new laundry bags in flourescent colors that say things like "grimy" on them. i didn't notice until i was emptying a bag into the washer that the bags' tags say they are to be hand washed only. yes, the grimy bag from the dollar store is just that delicate.

i made amish friendship bread a few times. every 10 days the bag of starter goop quadruples, so i have to pawn the goop off on other people. i'm running low on people i hang out with who want goop any more. some random clients and church ladies have taken some. next victims: volunteers at the spay/neuter clinic tomorrow. there are 31 patients lined up. here's hoping they all show!

i have slacked

so i've got a few minutes between my workout and rehearsal, and i haven't blogged for a while, so what the hey. yes, i said workout. they got me hooked down there at curves - not that i'm a huge fan of the workout itself, but after a month i feel healthier and more in control of my muscles - i can tell where my muscles are. so i signed up for a year. we'll see how that goes. i got miss connie adopted out just over a week ago, so i'm down to 2 dogs now (and i'm bound and determined to keep it that way! 3 was too many for my lifestyle and little house). theodore is still an immensely good dog with medical issues coming out his ears. well, no the ears have been okay lately, but he has the flaky skin and a bad tooth, and i've had to change his diet, and now we're going to see if we can wean him at least partly off his prednisone. yep, my dog is on roids.
not sure if i mentioned that the next play is the lion the witch and the wardrobe, or that i've been cast as one of the children. yep. i get to be a twelve year-old. as my boss says, "that'll be a stretch, usually she acts about ten". speaking of boss, she's in ecuador with blue and colleen on another world vets project. world vets also has teams in belize and japan. i'm insanely jealous of the team in japan. if i had more time, i'd blog all about the tsunami and whatnot, but i'll have to come back to it later. my public awaits...

...and i'm back

so my laptop got broken in the move somehow and i've been using computers at work to keep the world updated via facebook. until now. i have purchased a new hp laptop. at the expense of not having purchased laundry machines. yet. so i'm listening to pandora again and i watched a bunch of better off ted yesterday. that was fun.
i crossed an item off my list of goals - i entered fudge in a recipe contest at the chocolate festival last weekend. i contend that they must have lost mine as they somehow failed to award it the first prize. but winning wasn't the goal. entering was, and i did that. it's amazing, really. just over a year ago, my boss told us all to write down some goals: short term, long term, in between. and i set some. and then a few months ago i found the list, and darned if i didn't get to cross off a few items that i actually did. and that was pretty darn empowering. so i got all motivated and did some more goals. and now here i am entering fudge contests and going to the gym. yes. i did. i was given a gift month at curves and made it three times in the first week. go me. woooo.

mister

got a new old dog haven dog. he's terribly cute. and i have to admit that he is both a chihuahua and currently wearing a sweater. i know, but he was shivering, and he seems to like wearing clothes... about 12 years old, failing kidneys, but he doesn't know about either one of those things. also, his name is mister. see, you'd thought i was crazy for that weird title, right? or just thought i was crazy anyway.
so the little football is fitting in really well at my house. the cats don't like him much, but they don't like any dogs, so that's to be expected. speaking of my house...
i loooooooove my house! mostly unpacked. still need to purchase an additional closet and a shed so i can finish putting stuff away. but oh! despite some more boxes, my house is incredible. i sleep in the loft, where the whole south wall is windows. when i wake up in the morning, it looks like i'm in a treehouse - just birds and leaves and clouds... my kitchen is wow. just that. wow. super space efficient, super modern and fancy. and the shower... i could go on. and in. and stay there. ahhhhhhh.
not having carpets is incredible too, especially with a bunch of senior critters. yesterday, for example, when i had to clean up every conceivable bodily function at least twice, i did not curse at all - the messes simply wiped away. none of that shampooing and worrying about stains. bliss, i tell you!
in further adventures, i learned that if you tell a fancy hotel front desk that hotels.com told you that you would get free breakfast, they'll give you a free breakfast? in their fancy restaurant? made to order? i didn't know that for sure until last weekend. and after paying a whopping $4.15 for the room (no, i am not kidding), i'll just go ahead and call that the most economical work trip EVER! also, the conference itself was at a marriott, and the catering was ridiculous - local cheeses paired with appropriate fruits and wines, grilled asparagus, mushroom quiches... quite the spread for a free event!
then i went to ikea and faced the grim reality of living in a small town and how that makes dealing with large crowds and commercialism a bit much. i didn't like all the people. there were too many things. too much moving around. by the time i left i was sick to my stomach. and i used to enjoy manhattan for crying out loud. bah - i gotta get into some more cities more often. or just never ever leave shores again.

being a real grown up

so the mortgage finally went through. and escrow closed. and the title got recorded. and then they decided that i'd put down too much earnest money and i got a check back. and my first payment is due in march. so i have funds to purchase things like a laundry machine and mattress and table and oversized recliner...
and then as i'm contemplating these purchases i hit some black ice (i was driving at the time. on the highway. fast.) managed to spin around so that when i slammed into the guardrail the engine didn't get damaged. i lost the bumper and all of my rear light covers and the use of my trunk. i'm uninjured except that i jammed my finger while stuffing the damaged bumper inside the car. so now my poor trooper of a car is even less pretty than it used to be, but still chugging along.
and there are so many other things going on, but those are the two biggies.
that's it for now.

xolo xmas

rain, wind, emergency eye surgery assisting, "sleeping in" until after 8am... some of the many joys of today. not that it was bad. not that i didn't enjoy my shopping bag "stocking" or cauliflower casserole. and having neil around for a sleepover was fun. and i got lots of stuff packed/shifted around. the spare room is mostly cleared out - just gotta take care of the futon. and clean the carpet. and touch up the paint where shadow stretched out his claw muscles...
and for some reason i'm listening to love the way you lie repeatedly.
on the theater end of things: there is much debate regarding our next performance. as in, what play is it going to be. "nana's naughty knickers" was submitted and very nearly approved (i.e. everyone except the artistic director loves the idea). so now we have to come up with something else by about next week so we can start rehearsing.
what a weird christmas.

so many things

the plays were awesome. great cast, great audiences, awful review (someone didn't like the actual scripts, and decided that meant the entire review had to be negative), and while we were striking the set i struck my face. with a hammer. i caught most of the blood on myself (hands, clothes, etc.). thank goodness our president had an awesome first aid kit. yeah, it was awesome.
for some reason, i also had really misbehaved dogs during the weekend. destroyed items include food and laundry. also, teddy pooped on the floor. hobbes behaved well. i am confused.

wig problem - solved.

did i mention that on saturday my wig fell askew part-way through rehearsal? my co-actors just about died laughing, and i'll admit i lost a few chuckles myself. costume malfunction, but hey, there have been worse. so i went out and bought a giant squeeze bottle of mega gel and made a do-rag out of a knee-high stocking. ta-da! i now have post-play crusty head, but the wigs stayed put. of course, i got to rehearsal all dressed for the magi play, and we were practicing the hillbilly play first, but dad-gummit if i didn't just play a hillbilly in my fancy 'do - because there is no way i was going to try to recreate the madness in between plays. for the real performances i'll do the wigs play first. now i just have to figure out how to de-gunk and make some braids in the 5 minutes between plays. oog.
on a side note, the dollar store frozen pretzels i've been snacking on are mighty good.

sleeping

the intention was to go to work after rehearsal today. the reality was that i went home and went back to sleep. for nearly 4 hours. woke up to a hobbes face about two inches away from mine. there are worse ways to wake up. teddy and connie both got up on the bed for some snuggling, and teddy laid on top of hobbes and made him squeal. the joys of critters.
speaking of joys and critters: i started all the cats on a diet - as part of purina's project pet slim down because twilight was a tad on the portly side. okay, i admit it, she was fat. when she was lying on the floor she became a circle with legs and a face. very fat cat. so anyway, the cats all eat out of the same dish, so everyone had to go out on a diet. my estimation on her weight loss over the last 3 months is about 2 pounds (that's like 30 human pounds). she's leaner, faster, and obviously more comfortable moving around. she's jumping more and getting into things, and this morning she actually played and wrestled with shadow for several minutes. she hasn't done that in years, and i didn't realize it was connected to a lack of comfort with moving around in her royal fatness. don't get me wrong - she's still a tubby little thing. but oh, it's nice to see her happier. so i recommend purina OM to anyone with a portly pet.
and on that note... i'll go feed the critters.

holidays alone

welcome to my first holiday season without relatives. i basically went straight from my family to shaggy's, with a quick christmas in new york in between. i've never not had a tree or stockings. i've played santa ever since i was twelve. and now the dillema of (and i know this grammar is terrible, but...) now who do i play santa for? i already bought myself some fancy chapstick, but do i really make a stocking for myself? and a tree? if i was already moved in to my new house, no question, i would get a tree. but i'm still camping and living out of boxes at this apartment. yesterday i made my annual chocolatey meringue stars - usually the first on my holiday baking list. so now do i keep baking? i'd have to unpack a bunch of baking supplies to do that. worth doing? maybe.
or should i just sleep through the whole season?

things i'm thankful for today:

my critters! hobbes' mischevous sense of humor, snotty cold early morning kisses, and heart of gold. balloon's clingy-velcroness and sweet biscuit making. twilight's gritty meow and new found love of play (thanks to purina OM and project pet slim-down!). shadow's, well... shadow's relative lack of fear lately - he's taken to hissing at the dogs as he walks by them, instead of hissing while he flees from them. theodore. so many things about my teddy boy. his sweet face and gentle nature. the fact that he tries so hard to be a good boy. his patience, his "inside voice", and his happy smile. such a good dog. and of course, the foster connie. she really needs a home of her own, but i'm thankful i can provide her a place for now.
speaking of place. i know i complain about my leaky roof, but i am so thankful to have this apartment right now. it was perfect for this time of change - being this close to work this cheaply was incredible. i got lots of amusing stories and lots of "this is how to fix problem x" experience. now i can take care of just about any problem i might run into as a homeowner (or at least i know who to call if i can't), and i got to practice painting on somewhere they'll probably repaint as soon as i move out anyway...
my car. holy smokes am i thankful for my free car. the engine is just about the only thing that works on it, but that's all i need. heaters, pshaw. speedometer, pshaw. door locks, trunk seal, gas cap that opens properly, pshaw. i love having a car i can put bumper stickers on. i love having a car that's mine. i love the freedom of being able to just go in to town on a whim, or purchase more stuff than i can fit on my bicycle.
my bicycle. holy smokes am i thankful for my bicycle! it's a purple electra with all the fixin's and i just love it to bits. my last couple of bicycles (which were also purple, but much cheaper and less awesome) got retired by being tossed in the dumpster at whichever apartment complex in san diego i was moving out of at the time. yeah, not too fancy or anything. this smooth ride... ahhhhhhh.
speaking of smooth, i am thankful for my dutch cocoa. it's dark and smoky and practically sinful. mmmm.
i'm thankful for food. for yummy food, cheap food, yummy and cheap food (macaroni and cheese, among other things). the flavors, the textures, from cocoa krispies to a garlic-buttered artichoke. can we say i love my food?
i'm thankful for the fun places i can buy food. trader joes is incredible, though a little far away. clauson's liquidation! wow! i got a 5lb bag of raw sugar there for 5 bucks yesterday. they've had truffle oil, gluten free bread mixes, chestnuts, cases of gatorade, veggies galore, and all kinds of fun candy stuff, all at ridiculously low prices. grocery outlet. again YUM and very cheap.
i'm thankful for my paychecks. they're not a ton, but they are sufficient and i'm grateful to have them. i'm thankful for a boss who appreciates the work i do and doesn't mind me putting in a bit of ot to get a project done. i'm thankful that i get to be silly at work.
speaking of work: can anyone imagine a better job for me than the one i have? not by much! i get to work directly with animals, i get to help awesome people and hold stupid people accountable. i get to organize things and track statistics and be all anal about that. i get to bring my dogs to work with me. i get to talk about things like animal behaviors and new medical breakthroughs and go to trainings that build me up personally as well as professionally. i get to do all that stuff and i get paid for the privilege. not a bad deal at all!
i am thankful for my coworkers! i work with some amazing people, and it is amazing to me to be able to interact with them on the level that i do. there is no petty sniping. we don't wear our poopy potty pants to work, and we don't have to deal with any of the normal girl-type snitty stuff. instead we build each other up and help each other learn and share the workload like no place i've ever been. what an incredible team!
i am thankful for my freedom. from government oppression. from societal and economic oppression (maybe living in the middle of nowhere has something to do with that). from any kind of oppression. what an amazing country i live in, where a bunch of idiots in washington (d.c. of course) pretend they run the show, but in real life we all go on living our daily lives as we choose to do. my travels this year have really reminded me how amazing it really is to be an american citizen and i'm proud of that, regardless of how silly we can be.
which leads me to being thankful for our soldiers. our troops. our marines, airmen, seamen, whatever you want to call them. the people who wear a uniform to ensure our safety and security. my hat is off to them and their families.
i'm thankful for my personal freedom of choice. i'm thankful that this year, i was able to really get to know myself, and realize that i really am kind of cool. i kind of always thought i had some good stuff to offer, and now i know it. yay for realization! what an amazing feeling - i like myself. i like who i am and what i do, and i am proud of the choices i make. i don't care if i don't have a huge impact on the world, but i can make a small impact on lots of lives, and i choose to do that. i've learned that it's more important to be happy than to be "right", and i am so glad i can choose to be wrong sometimes. because i am happy.
i'm thankful for words, written, spoken, non-verbally expressed. i love communicating, and seeing how different kinds of communications work. i like to see how people interact with people, critters with critters, critters with people.
*i'm thankful for melanie and eric who just brought neil by to say hi and happy thanksgiving! i do love that dog, and i'm sooooo glad that he is happy with them!*
i'm thankful for the good deeds i'm able to do. once in a psychology class we held a debate as to whether any action could be truly altruistic. i argued no. good deeds are rewarded, and i think people have an innate sense of that. i got to foster poki the broken-legged weiner dog last winter. i didn't get any money or fame from that, but it felt so good to see her with her new family.
i am thankful for the internet and my telephone that keep me connected with the outside world. it is amazing that i can be back in contact with people i knew years ago in other countries.
that said, i love living where i do. my favorite stores are far away, but that makes it even more special when i get to go there. most people i know are in other states, so it's that much cooler when i get to see them. i am thankful that where i live helps me appreciate what i have.
i am thankful that i've been approved to purchase my cabin. i'm finally going to be legit and own a house. i'm really going to live here, not just rent or squat. i'll really belong somewhere. wow. that's a load off my shoulders. i am so excited to be a real grownup and pay a mortgage. i am thankful for government programs that make it possible for someone without a big down payment to be able to buy a home. i am thankful for my realtor and loan officer who are making this happen. and i'm thankful that the builders made such a cool little cute cabin for me to buy.
i'm thankful for my laptop. it was an amazing gift, given at a very opportune time. i'm thankful that it was missed when the majority of my other electronics were stolen.
i'm thankful for my layers and layers of clothes, including my frontline fuzzy jacket and my ridiculous hat that are keeping me warm(ish) right now. i'm thankful that my boss told me to take home an additional heater from work, so that i was warm enough last night to really sleep. i'm thankful that i was able to sleep in today. really sleep in. the poor critters didn't get breakfast until about 10:30. then i went back to bed. i'm thankful for a paid holiday! i'm thankful that i'm getting a chance to rest and let my body admit that i'm sick, so i can start to get better. stupid head cold... i'm thankful for ricola and halls lozenges, for theraflu and the dutch theraflu-ish stuff i got there, for hot cider and lemonade and herbal tea. i'm thankful for vitamins and excedrin and tissues (especially the ones with lotion in them...).
i'm thankful that i have enough money in my bank account that i don't have to freak out about black friday or camp in front of anywhere to get something cheaper. i can get what i need, when i need it, and if something is expensive, i can budget and save for it. i am thankful that i have the security and stability to be able to do that. i am thankful for my absence of debt (until i get the mortgage).
finally, i am thankful that i know there are other things i didn't list, but that i'm going back to bed again, so they can stay in my subconscious for now.

... because i can't resist

jibjab christmas

more pirated romania photos

a mix of photos from dan and laura's cameras...
the night of the blind people party, there was a dance at the hotel restaurant. i do not know this dude's name, but he danced with several of us.
and as we were waiting around outside the clinic, i got this itch inside my nose...

apparently it was a really, really bad itch:

while at the mud volcanoes, i had fun leaping from peak to peak. then i got a tad cocky. surprised i didn't fall down at this point:

and a random stone lion "got" me at castle pelles. yes, i am a ham, but i didn't mean it like that!

still catching up

so i got as far as the spay/neuter clinic. we started early (i got there about 5:30) and people started showing up with their pets a little before 6am. at a little after 6:30 i started calling the people whose pets weren't there yet. we got most of 'em to show up. then surgery started at about 7. as per normal, the food brought in by volunteers was awesome, and boy, did we earn it! i think the clinics are getting more and more popular - we had so many volunteers this time that i stationed one person with the boss' and my dogs in the office to pet and love on and keep 'em happy. it was great to get all these incredible people together and introduce them to other people who love animals. and we did good deeds at the same time! double win!
so then i finally got to relax a little bit on sunday, after helping work with an agressive puppy. then monday was a real monday, and tuesday went really smoothly until the end of the day when i got to start driving. see, i got to go to an inventory/osha training on wednesday and thursday up in everett. yeah, long drive (also that's where the ex lives now. awkward!). so i drove up on tuesday, got there about 9:30, and checked in to my motel 6. sort of eeew, but i had a freebie coupon, and we know i can't pass up a freebie. first the heater wouldn't get warm, then it got too warm, but altogether not too terrible. the training was awesome. webster veterinary supply has a webster university program, and this was the first time i'd gone to any of their classes. there were only about 15 of us, with a great instructor, and i think we all learned a lot. plus, all the other people there were veterinary office managers, so we got to talk shop and help troubleshoot each others' issues and whatnot. got some really good advice and met some great people. they fed us too, which is always a plus in my book. hot breakfast and lunch at the courseroom, and then they took us all out to dinner on wednesday to an italian bistro. yum! can we say tirami-awesome-su?
finished up with osha stuff on thursday at about 1. just in time to go to the irs office to get copies of tax returns for my loan officer, and then hit trader joes and big lots before the first time homebuyers class i had to take to get a deal on my down payment. since they don't offer those classes out here, i scheduled it for thursday evening while i was in civilization. great class, and i learned a lot, but i didn't start the drive back until almost 10.
so then there was a little bit of sleep before i got up to take my car in to the shop. i swung by the new house on the way there. it seems the cabinet guy had a family emergency, so it's still almost done... at least everybody's ok and it should be ready by closing (maybe dec. 15th?). i took the dogs along for the ride, so that we could all walk back from the mechanic. i think they had fun, at least on the walk back, since teddy's not a huge fan of riding in the car. then i left 'em at home because the rain was picking up, and i went to work. once i'd caught up on most of my piles of stuff, i realized that it wasn't just a scratchy throat that had been bothering me - it was full-blown achy/fevery/swollen neck glands and grossness throat. so i got kicked out of the office a couple of minutes early. like that did much good because i had to drive in to town again anyway. at least i got some sleep after i got home.
so on saturday i felt a little better (yay) and (gulp) went and watched harry potter. i know, i know. i haven't wasted theater time on any of 'em so far, but hey, i'd already gone bowling and scoped out the volunteer recognition thingy at the convention center... it was definitely a harry potter movie. partly weird, partly obvious (does anyone else think malfoy is going to pull a darth vader and turn good in the next movie? guess i could read the book and find out...) and harry's just a little full of himself again. so it's not okay to steal necklaces unless harry does it, in which case whoever tries to stop him is a bad guy? animal farm much? just a tad frustrating that this series was a whole huge thing and that masses of children have idolized these books and now have been "taught" (or at least had it reinforced) that it's okay to feel entitled and that people should just help them in their quests, regardless of whether or not they agree, and that fighting is an acceptable solution as compared with rational discussion, etc. etc. not a huge fan of the potter kid, i know. and that was my tangent for the day.
finally almost caught up to today, in which the snow fell, blew around, stuck, melted, stuck some more, and turned the world all magical for a few minutes. then i got really cold, hence my 3 layers of socks. hot cocoa time!