What I Have Been Up To

The Girl

The Boy

My Honey came up for a very short visit this week. It was so wonderful to see her. We had hand dipped corn dogs, wandered about town. I even got her to drive my car. After the first few jerks she got the hang of a stick shift very well.

I got all but two Christmas items taken care of today. I need to get Honey her gift still but she knows that it is going to be a combo Christmas/Birthday gift. The other thing I need I forgot when I was at the store. Word M*rket is right by the gym and I can pick up the last piece for my friend T there.

One of my best friends got me a new pussy. I don't know yet if she has gotten me the girl or the boy. They are only 31/2 months old, so I have them currently living in the litter box closet. I do take them out to play with, hold and pet. However, they are a bit shy and have only been here 2 hours. I will leave them in there tonight so that they know it is a safe place to go and hid if needed. Also this will give them a chance to get use to the different smells, and sounds of their new environment.

The shelter had named them Ariel and Sebastian. That is not going to do. I will be looking for names for them. The markings are so similar that there is no doubt that they are litter mates.

I hate coming up with titles

I know I have not written anything in months. It is not that I don't want to it is just when I sit down to write all of my ideas seem to go out the window.

I have had ideas on health care, books, gay marriage, things that have been happening and not happening.

I guess right now I just feel lazy, I am going to try and do better and get into a habit of writing again.

Drunk Drivers

I have, thankfully never lost a loved one to a drunk driver. I have known a lot of drunk drivers and in knowing them I think that the drunken driving laws of my state need to be changed.

With the advent of cell phones there is no need to drive drunk, buzzed, or high. The laws are too lenient. We have vehicular assault that is when a drunk driver hits someone and injures them. We have vehicular manslaughter that is when a drunk driver hits someone and kills them.
Vehicular assault needs to be changed to attempted murder, and vehicular manslaughter should be premeditated murder. I know that these might sound harsh, but think about it.

With all the ads, news stories, campaigns, and even books there is no reason for a person to go out get drunk and then drive. There is enough information out there to show the potential of what could happen.

Knowing that a person is going to choose to have a few then drive home that is premeditated. Thought out, planed. I have taken care of some drunk drivers who actually think what they did was funny. It is not funny; there is nothing funny about risking the life of someone else. One of my patients had been in jail for vehicular assault, got out, got drunk and hit someone else.

The laws need to be harsher. Cab, bus, or call a buddy for a ride.

Mermaid

Most of the time being in a long distance relationship is OK. Phone calls, email, video chats help. We play games together, read to each other so that we are sharing things and learning what we like and don't like.

Sometimes, this time being in a long distance relationship is like that picture. Curled up alone, in a safe place with a few treasures for company. The memory of being held, the pearl a moment of laughter. The passions of getting together. Yet, the knowledge that what is wanted needed is just out of reach. So tonight I feel like that mermaid. I know that in the morning it will be better, it always changes like that. From everything is fine, to a feeling of loss so deeply that only crying makes it better.

So tonight I miss Honey so much that it hurts. Tomorrow I will miss Honey, and it might not hurt.

Burnt

I have been sick enough that the doc put me on an antibiotic and another pill the size of a horse. He also put me on leave from work so what does a girl like me do with the weekend off? I go to pride!

I did not think that I was going to get to go as I was to have worked. I should not have gone. Because of the antibiotic I am just a little sun sensitive. Well, I am anyway being , a night shifter Irish, and from the Pacific Northwest.

Lets just say the first reaction people have when they see me is OUCH! I don't think that my shoulders are that bad but I do know they are the color of fire engine red.

Oh well, I did get to pet a lot of dogs, see kitties on leashes and one guy with a bunny. Gotta love Pride.

Alive

Yes, I am alive. No, I have not given up on blogging. I have just had a lot of things going on in the past month or so. Much of it has been good fun things.

In early May I flew down to CA. Honey picked me up and we drove to San Jose to see The Eagles play. The concert was wonderful, it was three hours of just The Eagles. There was no opening act just them, they did take a 20 minute break half way through the concert.

On Saturday we got up late drove around lost looking for the Winchester Mystery House. We decided that for all of the size of the house the mystery is that it is imposable to find. I did learn that the T.V. shows do not give the house justice. That place it beautiful. The house is beautiful and Mrs. Winchester did things back when she was living that was unheard of for her employees.

On Sunday we drove into San Francisco and when to the Science Museum. There I saw upside down jellyfish, sea dragons and beautiful butterflies. The best part of those three days was spending them with Honey.

I knew leaving her that time would not be bad as in a few weeks we were both going to go to Tucson for a week. My son graduated from high school with honers and after the ceremony, the three of us spent most of the time we were there doing touristy things. Honey, K and I went to the botanical gardens, San Xavier mission, Tucson Sonora Desert Museum, shopping, and Colossal Cave. Now, we did not do all of this in the same day. When we went to the mission the keys to the rental got locked in the car and we had to wait for AAA to come and pop the lock.
That time leaving was harder. I am still working thought that leaving, I know that part of it is because my whole family lives in Tucson and I am the only one in Oly. I also know that Honey and I have yet to have plans for when we are going to see each other again and that makes the leaving harder.

This month I have also turned 40 and then I got sick so sick that I had to go to the doc and get an antibiotic. So I am still alive, there is a lot of stuff going on, working through, and as I start to work on things I will be here more.

Last Saturday of the Month

There was a line outside of the bar, not for entry but for the hot dog stand that takes up a small part of the store front. I knew that I should not have worried about the way I looked in my new outfit that I was understated. That alone is and understatement, in line waiting for veggie dogs were two people dresses up as hot dogs. Across the street were walking mushrooms and giant ladybugs. Little girls with butterfly wings, and little boys dressed up as dogs, cats, alligators.

I got downtown at the end of the Procession of the Species. That is not what I went down there for but next year it looks like I might go. The procession looks like it is a lot of fun. No, I went down there to go to Jake's on 4th. The last Saturday of the month is the drag queen show. I have never been to one before and so I meet some friends down there. One of the girls got there at 5pm when the show does not start until 8 at the earliest. If you are not there by 5 you won't get a table and ours was right next to the stage. It was loud and it was fun.

I love going to Jake's, watching the show was great fun. But watching the crowed was even better. There were queers of all kinds there, leather, skinny, not skinny, buff, buxom, straight, and the list goes on.

As well as the Drag Queens there were three Drag Kings, and they were well, wow! Some of those Queens have smoking hot legs, in face one of them had legs almost as good as Tina Turner. What I want to know is how do they get those legs.

The show lasted until 11ish and I left when the floor opened up for dancing. I do love to dance but I told someone that I would drive them to their car as they had to park blocks away and I got one around the corner.

I got home ate some sweet potato fries as I was craving them and was asleep by 1am. The only thing that would have made the night perfect was if Honey could have been with me.

This + That

So this past week at work was one for the books. It was the usual same old thing, whiny knees, and hips. finding out that a 88 year old who was "OK" when they came in goes into a SNF (skilled nursing facility or nursing home) because they were just holding on at home then the anesthesia pops their dementia into the for front of their lives.

What made the week so worth reporting was what happened to me. I was leaving a PT room when I felt something poke me on the underside of my tata. I went into the bathroom to investigate and found that my under wire had broken and poked through the fabric.

That was not going to work for the next ten hours. So I did what anyone with my training would do. I stole some foam tape and fixed it.

When I got the chance to go downstairs and talk to the nursing supervisor I asked her not to laugh at me. She got the giggles, when I told her that if the foam tape did not work I was going to have to go home and change.

So here for your enjoyment is a pic of the patch job, and yes it did last all night.

Bragging Rights

Camlin has a great post on music and it gave me the idea to put up some bragging rights.

I don't often post about my son, but her post gave me the idea so if you want to blame someone...

My son is now 18 and going to graduate High School in May. When he was in the third grade he came to me and said he wanted to learn to play the saxophone. Being the mother that I am I said no. I made him play the clarinet. He hated it and me, for years and year. He played that clarinet up until his 3 year of High School.

There were times in band when he was the only clarinet player, because all the cool kids played sax. I did not care. Play the clarinet.

Then when he was a Freshman he wanted to not tell the band leader that he played the clarinet, he wanted to tell him that he played the bagpipes. So me being me looked at the boy and said you can play the bagpipes you just have to get a few thousand dollars and lean how to work the bellows.

He of course said I can't play them. Me being me I went out and bought a chanter. That is what is used to practice the pipes so that a thousand dollar instrument is not ruined. I handed it to him, along with the book of sheet music and told him to play me a song.

Boy: I can't.

Me: I spent $40 on that thing if you don't play me a song I will chase you around the house with it until you do.

He picks it up and what do you know he can play it.

Boy: MOM MOM I can play it!

Me: DUH! I made you play the clarinet because if you learn to it you can play most woodwinds.

Boy: Cool!

Well, the boy went to his new HS and learned 3 years of guitar in 6 months. So he now plays chanter, clarinet, guitar, bass guitar very well. He can play sax, tin whistle, harmonica, and a few others.

Sapphistries

I am reading a book called Sapphistries by Leila j. Rupp . While it is written some what like a text book with the foot notes and the indexes, it is a fascinating read. I have been taking my time with it, enjoying all of the little bits of information that is there and that is not there.

What is not there is more fascinating than I would have thought. There is just enough history to know that women have a history of loving women. I am up to the chapter 4 it is called In Unlikely Places (500BCE - 1600CE). There is very little on women in this time frame but what is there is an eye opener. One Bavarian nun wrote to her lover and there is just enough of it left to tear my heart.

I feel what this nun wrote hundreds of years ago the longing, the desire, the pain. These are the words that this woman wrote sometime in the 1300-1400: . . .

It is you alone I have chosen for my heart....
I love you above all else,
You alone are my love and desire...
When I recall the kisses you gave me,
And how with tender words you caressed my little breasts,
I want to die
Because I cannot see you.

Mabon

I need some help from people out there who have had cats before. I am ready to take Mabon back to the pound. I have never had a cat so I don't get what is going on with her and I have had it. She will only use her litter box twice, then if she has to go she will go on the floor. Yes, I do scoop it out every morning, and yes I am using the same litter I have sense I first got her.

If something does not change in a week she will be going back on Saturday. Oh, and she has checked out with the vet. If I catch her going to the bathroom on the carpet she will then again use the litter box.

Oh, and she has checked out with the vet. So, if anyone out there has any ideas at all can you let me know. Maybe, I am just not meant to have a cat.

Monarch Park Pics

I Love this Dragonfly.
She was one of the last to be seen on the path out of the park.

Can you spot the diver?

This one was hidden in the Monarch Maze.

I just could not pass up getting a picture of this little girl playing with the butterflies.

Hidden behind a giant croquet set I found this path.

Flower bed. Nuff said.

Monarch in the park, at the entrance to the bird houses.

Posting

I am a sporadic blogger at best and this winter I have been at my lowest in blogging at least I think that I have. That is mostly because I don't have a lot to talk about. I work, I sleep, I sleep, I work, I go to the library and grocery shop. Wooohooo exciting stuff.

That I have decided is going to change and it started last time I had a run of days off. I know that I live in one of the most totally awesome parts of the country if not the world. So I am going to start doing the things that I have wanted to do but have always put off.

Last week I went to Monarch Park. It was a wonderful drive out there. The sun was out and it was just warm enough to have the window down on the car. The fresh air felt good, as did seeing the start of spring.

I got some great pics of the park and some of the country side. Next time I plan on going out to to Mima Mounds.

Friday

Friday I went to the library. I love going to the library when I have the time to brouse the books and see what I am going to find. I found a book called Celtic Astrology How the Mystical Powers of the Druid Tree Signs Can Transform Your Life by Phyllis Vega. The book looks great, I have flipped through the pages and can't wait to read it.

I did read the tree sign for Honey she is an Birch, and mine is a Hawthorn. However, it makes me gag reading the book. The thing is I work in an almost sent free environment, none of the staff wears perfume, they have to smoke 3 floors down and about 1/2 a block from the hospital. That means that by the time they get back upstairs the smell is almost gone.

This wonderful book that I so long to look at smells like old cigarette smoke. It is so bad that just opening the pages makes me want to gag and my eyes start to water and get itichy. I am going to have to take the book back unread and hope that in a few weeks I can get it back and see if I can read it then.

This is only the second book that I have been unable to read that I have gotten from the library.

The Eagles and other stuff

I have not been here in a while and I know that as a sporadic poster I can do better. I don't know if I will try or not.

Last week was not a good one. I injured my shoulder at work, and on the 18Th will start physical therapy. The worst thing about this is not the pain or even the worse much worse sudden pain when I sneeze, it that I cannot get any over time. Not to mention that with the pain came good old Auntie Flo, and this time she was in a weepy, self pity mode.

Then to top it off the heater in my car has been sporadic is not working at all unless I get on the freeway. I will one day have to get that looked at. It is really strange the fan works just fine I just don't get any heat unless I am going over 40mph. Whatever...

I am going to be reloading my iportablemusicplayer in a few days so I am loading all of my Cd's onto my laptop. I need a bigger laptop. I am finding a music treasure that I did not know I had.

Also a big thing has happened with Honey and myself, no we have not broken up. We have both come to the conclusion that even if I move down to where she is at we will not be able to be together the way that we want to be. Her mom is well, her mom.

The other big news that I have is that on April 30Th Honey and I are going to see The Eagles in concert. Wooohoooo!!!! I can't wait and all of this excitement is not about seeing The Eagles, most of it is about seeing Honey again. November seems so far in the past.

Time to try and get in a nap.

Ranch House BBQ Yummy

I love me some good food. I really don't care what kind it is as long as it is fresh, tasty and yummy. So this past week a friend of mine and I went to the Ranch House BBQ. All I have to say about that place is OMG!!

OK, I will say a bit more about it. I will try to get my facts right but I might get some wrong it is not deliberate it is just because it is midnight and I need coffee.

First some history of the place. The Ranch House is run, owned by Amy Anderson and partner Melanie Tapia who has won several awards for their BBQ and has also been on the Food Network. They have competed under the name Mad Momma & the Kids, the awards include national, state, and they have even gone on to the World Championship in Ireland in 2000.

They opened the restaurant in 2004 about 10 miles or so out side of Olympia heading down HW8. Then in December 2007 disaster struck. The restaurant was taken out by a mudslide, still just inside Thurston County the ladies were not on the FEMA list for help, and the sites insurance did not cover "land movement". Many people were ready to say good by to the restaurant.

Just days after the disaster the Governor Hotel in downtown Olympia gave lease free the use of their empty restaurant space, and a fund was set up at a local bank to help with the rebuilding.

Feb, 2009 they were able to reopen on the original location, and the place is going strong. What does this have to do with food?

When I ate there I had the brisket sandwich with a side of coleslaw with vinegar and a side of beans. I could have licked the bean pot clean if they had let me back in the kitchen and beans are not my favorite. Also H and I split a platter of garlic cheese fries my mouth is watering just thinking of them. I was the only one who was not listening to how full I was and ordered a slice of home made BOURBON PECAN PIE. I died and went to BBQ heaven. I will be going back there are a lot more items to try.

If I were a food critic this restaurant would get 200 stars out of a possible 10. So anyone who is heading up this way wants a good place to eat and does not mind a short drive Ranch House BBQ is the way to go.

Some People

Last week I worked on a floor of the hospital that I get to work on every once in a while. I like working there it is busy, it flows and the nurses have time to help with patient care. So last week Patient A (now going to be referred to as PA) was admitted. PA is 97, has dementia to the point of only being oriented to self, and is jaundice. None of those is a cause to be admitted to the hospital.

I should explain that oriented to self means that the person does not know where they are, what year it is, who anyone is. All they know is that they are there, no one or nothing else exists. This is a very simple definition but it works.

So, back to PA. PA is in for a blood transfusion that is it, the patent is not eating, hardly drinks anything and just hollers for CG. PA yells for CG so loudly that the shouts can be heard over the entire floor. Now, there is a CG (short for caregiver, a personal one) none of the nursing staff has ever seen this CG the entire time that PA has been in the hospital, and it has been over a week.

I am telling you this is that CG is getting the entire staff at the hospital angry with him. Why?

The reason is simple, PA is in the last stages of life, and needs to go on to the Summer land. What we at the hospital are doing is worse than torture. PA does not understand the reason behind turning so not to get bedsores, does not understand taking of blood for labs, or the machines that peep all the time, or why strangers come in and out doing things. PA does know that this is scary and has no control over what is happening.

PA's power of attorney is CG. CG is a paid caregiver not a relative. The longer PA is alive the more money CG will get. The Dr. said that the only reason PA is in the hospital is because CG wants the money, and that CG is tired of dealing with PA. However, if PA goes into long term care then CG gets no cash ola.

OK so this post does not make a lot of sense. I just wanted to rant about how some people need to get their heads out of the money train a$$, and take a look at real life.

I am a Gemini

I think that my twins in the realm of Gemini are more like sextuplets.

On New Years Eve, a friend (H) and I went to Tugboat Annies for an Irish Hooley, that involves music, food, and drink. The Hooley started at 2pm and was to get over at 4pm midnight in Dublin. On the way there I decided to take the freeway, wrong choice it was dead stopped. So off to the surface streets I go. Now, H and I were to meet up at 12:45 to get to the restaurant by 1:00.

I hate to be late, hate it hate it hate it. So off on the streets I go. I have 10 minutes to get to her house and then ten to get to the restaurant. I will make it. Nope. This is what happened and shows just how crazy this girl can get.

At the first traffic light I come to I am the second car in the line. The light is green and the car in front of me is sitting there with the left turn signal on. We, are in the GO STRAIGHT lane. My phone rings and here is what I can remember of the conversation.

"Hello", I say.

"Hi." Its my brother. "Did you pay something on the ----- bill?"

"SONOFABITCH!!! Yes I did but I did not have the code so that I could not see the full amount."

"That is great, I went to pay it and most of it was taken care of." he says.

"Good how much was left on the bill? MOTHERFOGETTHEHELLOUTOFMYWAY!!" HOOOONK!!!!" Do I have to pay anymore or is it OK for now?"

"No its good. Are you honking your horn?"

"Yes, some DIPSHITFCKWAD is in the lane in front of me and won't go. He wants to turn left from the straight lane." HOOOOONNNNKKKK!!! "MOVEYOURASSYOUBASTARD!!! Shit the light just turned red."

"Oh OK, good to see that drivers are the same everywhere."

"Why the hell can't he pull up and turn around in the store on the corner?"

"I think that would be to easy."

"WOOHOOO! The left turn light just turned and he turned left in front of an SUV came inches from being hit."

"Well, thanks for paying on the bill, I will talk to you later."

"K. Bye."

Yippie!!!

The holidays are over. Life can get back to normal and I will fell like a human again, able to go and hang out at the bookstores and not get mobbed, get a cup of coffee and not have to rush because everyone else is in a hurry.

I worked the holidays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and I work again tonight. I don't mind I mean it is just me and the animals. So this year I did not even decorate, kill a tree or any of that. It felt wonderful, I do admit that I missed the smell of the tree in the house but then to get that smell all I have to do is open the windows.

Mabon is becoming more relaxed around me. I don't know if her past owners were mean to her or not but she is just now starting to play with other things besides the red bug.

I hung my new calender up today. Honey got it for me for Christmas it is a Nene Thomas I love her art work.

I have been exhausted, the management decided that it would be a good time to trim all of the trees on the property. That is great but they did not give notice that the noise level was going to explode, if they had I would not have picked up extra shits. If I call out on an extra shift the hospital won't let me work over time for a year. Arrrggg!!!! It frustrates me to think about it. Oh well, they are not here today and I am off to bed. Night all.