why leave the couch?

2003-05-09T13:48:00.000-04:00

the nerve test was very surreal. basically, they just sat there and gave me electrical shocks to my hands/wrists/elbows for 20 minutes. and i thanked them when i left! how strange that we thank doctor-y people for toturing us, when really i wanted to deck her afterwards, if i could get my hands to cooperate....

i hate web based email. its just an annoying way to interface with email.

2003-05-08T21:12:00.000-04:00

ahhhhhhhh, good news. such a relief to have that settled. now i have to find a school to work in, but there are lots around here.

tomorrow i visit the neurologist to get a nerve test done on my wrists. surgery is looming--i may be leaving the land of the primates for a few days. thank god for interns at work!

2003-05-05T09:10:00.000-04:00

yah so if the interview went so great why haven't i heard from them? i had a brief email exchange about scheduling follow-up interviews with potential mentor teachers. i think this is in the works, which means i'm in, but they haven't actually *said* i'm in, which i guess i need to see in print. i'm not good at the limbo parts of life. i'm very much a "J" on the meyer's-briggs.

the car is fantastic. i'm still not sure if i like knitting--some days i want to break the needles or stab someone with them. it is portable. actually, at this point, that's its only asset.

going to portland, or next week to see the family. probably will stress me out, but that's what family is for!

2003-04-21T16:08:00.000-04:00

i don't know *why* i was nervous about my interview this morning. i could have pooped on their desks and they would have loved me! they adored me! this is as it should be. looks like i'll be attending the upper valley teacher institute this fall. now i just need to get the feds to hand over some grants to pay for this....

2003-04-19T12:25:00.000-04:00

i just bought a 99 VW golf TDI. its so cute and it runs like a dream!
ok, gotta go back out and drive some more...

2003-04-10T14:16:00.000-04:00

is it inevitable that my toenails are just going to get thicker and harder to cut as i age? no one warned me about this. no one warned me about chest hair either. i knew i'd "mature" into an ever-increasing beard and mustache, but i didn't realize i'd start sprouting inch long hairs from my chest. granted, they are very fine and soft and blond (and really not visible except in just the right lighting), but still.

i got a call from a teaching credential program i applied for. after 2 teaching-related rejections this spring, i was starting to get a little nervous! but this is a normal school, the kind you pay; i'd forgotten that when i'm paying them, the admissions go a little easier. i have an interview in two weeks. i really need to get a car that runs.

2003-04-07T13:44:00.000-04:00

i borrowed my friend's car and drove an hour to the nearest knitting store, only to find they are closed mon and tues! this definitely qualifies as a bad week. however, this gallery that i want to get my weaving into apparently is really looking for a weaver to showcase, since they have none! the pressure is on!

2003-04-06T13:12:00.000-04:00

my friend taught me to knit last night. wow! i tried it once many years ago and hated it, but boy i love it today. don't know if i just have better finger control from weaving, but its fun fun fun!

2003-04-05T10:27:00.000-05:00

turned out to be ice pellets and a little graupel mixed in with the snow. its not nearly as fucking charming when you have to drive to the dump in it. my wipers don't work all that well (actually the passenger one is making an escape attempt--its halfway off already), nor did i seem to have much traction. i live in a rural area--the dump is open sat from 0700 to 1200, and i'm only around every other saturday. i wind up going once every 4 to 6 weeks, which is fine in winter, when i can store my rotting garbage outside in my truck. summer is going to be tough. we don't have city water either--we get our water from a stream up the hill, complete with plentiful rocks and hair snakes, these weird string-sized worms that come out of my shower head in fall and spring. my landlords just get them in the toilet, but in my house they seem to migrate to the shower water pipe.

on my drive home, my brakes seemed a little soft and the brake light just came on. owning a car is so much fun! can i even drive it to the shop without having an accident? can i drain the brake fluid myself and fill it without getting any air bubbles in it? can i just keep bumming rides off my friends, so i don't have to deal with my car?

oh, and did i mention i'm getting audited! the feds claim i owe them a little under $10k.

2003-04-05T09:16:00.000-05:00

i'm making cinnamon rolls. i don't really feel like baking this morning, but i'm going to a potluck tonight so i have to get something produced. we got about an inch of snow overnight, and its still snowing (moderate intensity). i have to say it still takes my breath away to wake up and look out at a dreamy, snowy landscape. even after 6 endless months of winter with 2 to 3 storms a week, i'm still charmed by a fresh snowfall. my landlord isn't, since his plow truck broke.

i changed the sparkplugs, oil/filter, and air filter on my piece-of-shit car yesterday and i think its running worse now. its as though i unmasked new problems. i have never seen oil as nasty as what drained out yesterday. it looked like melted chocolate.

turns out my stepsister's baby is fine. a little early, but no big deal. i can't even get into the random dysfunctionality that caused the comms breakdown. i think living 1500 miles away does help! physical distance can mean emotional distance!!

2003-04-01T14:25:00.000-05:00

i kid you not: lightning struck our wireless internet antenna, rending us nearly incommunicado for 5 days, since it fused most of our phone lines to the automated NOAA weather radio. i found an old 14.4 modem in the closet and we have limped back online, although i'd rather peel my face off than surf at this speed.

my stepsister had her first baby this week, almost 5 weeks early. she has been unavailable since the birth (did lightning strike them too?) and we are all worried.

i recently started taking omega 3 fatty acid pills. i tell you, its like a fucking miracle. i am a whole new person. anyone out there with short term memory problems or mood swings/irritability should SERIOUSLY look into these magic little gelcaps. try some different brands, tho--some give you bad fishy burps, others don't.

one of my old fuck buddies called me twice last week. you never can tell with these asshole types. i will soon be seeing him regularly at work. i will also be seeing my ex, which will be really humiliating for a few days, i'm sure. hopefully i'll get over that soon--he'll be up here every day all summer.

2003-03-15T09:15:00.000-05:00

glorious, wonderful, wet, snowy fog! my view of weather is so skewed from working here--whatever makes my job easier is what i like best. my friend kim informed me that every time i leave a building i look straight up. i was not aware of this. it took only a few weeks to break myself of the habit of noting precip beginning/ending times while sitting around my cabin, off-duty.

in addition to loving bacon, i have been known to eat a lot of cheese-its here at work. so many, in fact, that i'm made fun of for it. this shift, i'm switching to goldfish.

2003-03-14T13:08:00.000-05:00

weather sucks today. winds are topping 100 mph. i got blown over this morning, smashing both (mercury) thermometers on the psychrometer and causing me to panic while trying to replace them in time to finish the ob. oh, and getting mercury all over myself and blown into 6 watersheds in the area!

i have, however, managed to re-automate an hour-long segment of my job (which used to be automated, until all our phone lines burned up).

the safety of the summit seems illusory today. i'd been thinking--hey, at least i won't get shot up here, like i was afraid i would in NYC this weekend. getting thrown around by the wind presents its own danger.

2003-03-13T16:19:00.000-05:00

i think i have carpal tunnel. i've been denying this to myself--who wants to have such an unsexy ailment?

good weather today, altho i seriously mis-forecast for the summit--the fog rolled in this afternoon as i was shoveling the deck. fog is good. fog and low winds are even better. its like a vacation, yet i still get paid!