Escapism edition

Wow, did the Horns ever escape Nebraska's onslaught! I can't believe how well they (and Jamaal Charles, the same man who lost us the OU game) played in the 4th quarter, too bad that was the only quarter they played, arrgghhh. I don't know how many more games like that I can take. I was screaming so loud I'm sure passersby were concerned, ha! Texas has to beat Nebraska or else I have to take it from the whole extended family. BIG sigh of relief! Hard to believe they moved up to 15 in the BCS.

Still adjusting to working full-time (well really only 4 days these past 2 weeks) but this is due to training. Tomorrow I train one more day then I'm in the on call position, meaning they call me if they need me. Not until Thanksgiving when I fill in for a girl on maternity leave will I have scheduled hours. My boss seems to think I'll work pretty frequently....we shall see. Got my first pay check, yay! Swedish Hospital charts on-line so reading the Dr's handwriting is not an issue, yay! And maybe now someone will read my note, ha. Rounds are really fascinating, in the neuro ICU a Dr. leads it and shows all of the disciplines the MRIs and chest X-rays when appropriate. I'm trying to become familiar with all of these neurological disorders, such as moya moya. It's so fun to say! It's a sad place though. Without giving too much information, there's a sad case of a woman who's 14 weeks pregnant with an inoperable brain tumor. She was nauseous and lost all this weight which everyone thought was due to her pregnancy. Swedish is basically a cardiac and neurological specialty hospital, there are a couple of other diagnoses sprinkled throughout but thus far, I'm already wondering if I'll get bored. You can only give so many cardiac diet instructions to 80 year olds who do not want to change..... The bus commute is easier now too, except that I have to run out the door some days to make it!

Work schmurk

I am officially a bus commuter. I love the idea but the reality of waiting and lots of stops is time consuming. My commute is only 8 miles one way but it takes 35-50 minutes and that doesn't include actually waiting for the bus and walking to the stops. Unfortunately, this is the only feasible option as it costs $12 a day to park in the garage!! I wish the city had a subway system to avoid the car traffic entirely. The upside is I get time to read and people watch!! I've met some interesting people and already have interesting stories. Such as yesterday in a meeting a man "coded", he is a nurse so was able to verbalize he was going into anaphylactic shock. Turns out he's ok, overreacted but sure made for an exciting meeting! The jury's still out on the job. My first day was not super productive in terms of showing me the ropes. I will say that I was led to believe I'd have some say in my schedule and immediately realize that I'm filling in full-time for someone going on maternity leave. Not a huge deal except that I was scheduled to work Thanksgiving and Christmas. Nice, huh? I said we might have an issue here. As an on-call dieitian (with no benefits) I had no intention of working those holidays when my family is in TX and NE!!!

House stuff has come to a complete stop now that I'm working. Which is not good as there is still a washer and dryer in our kitchen, the second bedroom still has some boxes, and stuff is not in its final place. We're still not sure what to do with the second bedroom. We need some sort of office space for the computer, files, books, etc. but want to have a bedroom for when people visit. Is anyone going to??? You might be thinking just combine the two but you have not seen how tiny it is! A wall bed would actually be really helpful, if I could talk Ryan into it. Good news, though: workers are currently installing our new furnace as I write. HEAT will be so nice!!! Temps in the 50s and rain has not made the house fun to come home to. The crew is currently pounding away in the basement and singing Beat It by Michael Jackson. It sounds like they are just under my feet. :-)

Settling in

So on the yuppie front....according to a former Seattleite, we are yuppies, but it's ok everyone is. As long as it's not the poor connotation associated with materialism, I'm ok with that.

Texas Longhorns won! About time!! And they took it to IA State but we needed that after 2 losses in a row. The K-State loss was rough, I have no idea what was up with Colt McCoy and our special teams. They looked awful! We gave up 2 TDs on punt returns and couldn't get a TO to save us! As much as I "hate" OU, this loss last weekend wasn't super tough as I expected to get spanked. Horns played really well, up to their potential. So now we have the Dish and a DVR, moving up in the world (further evidence of our yuppiness). Good thing, though, as we spent a lovely 3 hours this morning, during gametime, at the DMV. At least I didn't have to suffer through another game at Hooters! Hard to believe Nebraska lost so badly at home. I'm afraid to call my brother! Another crazy day of college football!!

Still having fun exploring the 'hood. We found another downtown area in Green Lake that we like, with some good restaurants and bakeries. The fall colors are really pretty!! Bright red and purple trees. Tomorrow's weather forecast has warned us it's the last nice day, rain's expected for the next 7 days. Just in time for me to start work riding the bus every day, should be a joy. I took the bus on Friday to go downtown to the Central Library (yes, I am a nerd, hey does this factor in to my yuppiness at all?). Ann Patchett (author of Bel Canto and new book, Run) gave a book reading and I took a tour of the library. Oh my god, I can't believe I'm admitting this. It was really cool, actually. Did you know Seattle is the most literate city? I believe it as I'm about to become a book reading groupie, I think. Many cool authors are visiting in the coming months, I get so excited about this kind of stuff! The bus was ok but a super smelly man sat by me when I got closer to downtown. It's definitely more diverse downtown that in my neighborhood, I didn't realize it until this trip. I wish everybody used Dial....

Granola (crunchy) or yuppie?

I'm having an identity crisis. Yes, I chose Seattle as it fits in line with my organic, natural, healthy lifestyle as well as my political and spiritual beliefs (I'm not going into religious beliefs in this post). I am most definitely a Democrat, although there are more independent and alternative types here. I don't have any piercings or tattoos and am not a vegetarian or vegan (although I do make vegetarian choices at home and in restaurants more frequently than meat). I frequent farmers' markets and am a big fan of buying local to protect the environment. I recycle like a fiend (although the City of Seattle makes you, the recycling bin is double the size of the trash can). Does this make me granola? Here's some more evidence: I've started acupuncture and taking Chinese herbs again, I've just joined a yoga studio, and I will be using public transportation to get to work. But I was just told I'm living in a yuppie neighborhood by a source that I trust! Can I be both? And why this box/category anyway?? And to further complicate or add yet another label to this mix, there's the category of DINKs (double income no kids)--but I'm not working yet, not until Monday. Or my new favorite: DINKYs (double income no kids yet). So can I be all of these (starting Mon. anyway)?? Help! I've already consulted Wikipedia and was unable to clarify this....

Still no heat (but there is red wine)

And it does wonders for keeping warm!! Unlike the rest of the US, it is cold in Seattle. Well, cold for me, at least. Most days are in the 50s-60s sometimes rainy. When it's not rainy, everyone takes full advantage of being outside. I'm not getting nearly enough unpacking/organizing done due to this fact. Walks around the lake have become my sanity! Our furnace won't be replaced for another 10 days so we've managed to lose electricity twice from the space heater which requires a trip to the scary basement to flip the circuit breaker. Ok, so Ryan did it once and then he dragged me into the scary basement to show me what to do. Doesn't he realize I could suffer from post-traumatic stress??!!

The house is slowly coming together. We rearranged our living room furniture a few times and Ryan has still managed to keep the awful reclincer. But if I get my way eventually it will be in the trash along with our overstuffed couch that takes up far too much of our precious living room space. I've already made a trip to the thrift store, so far 4 boxes and counting of stuff I don't need. I've realized I have enough kitchenware, pictures, and "trinkets" as Ryan calls it to last the rest of my life. And bathroom stuff. There is no place to put all of this stuff!! I don't need to ever buy anything again!!! Simplicity is fast becoming my mantra....

Locked out (again)

I do this every single time I move into a new place. I got locked out with no cell phone and barely knowing anybody. It was not as if I had planned to go out and forgot my keys. No, I was just stepping into the laundry room when the door that had been kept open with all of the boxes closed on me since there are no longer any boxes in the kitchen!! Thankfully, I was dressed to venture outside except for shoes....but Ryan left some (huge) football shoes so out I tramped to the local coffee shop, Cafe Lulu. Our neighbor owns it and was gracious enough to let me use her phone and hang out there while I waited for Ryan to save me! I better get some extra keys made and soon....

Unpacking is slow going....the only boxes left are in the 2nd bedroom which is going to be about as much fun to go through as a visit to the dentist. I've dawdled over organizing the kitchen and bedroom long enough I think. Even with all the unpacking, I am bored! We don't have cable so all day long I only have the radio/cd's for company as well as the occasional phone call. However, I've managed to take walk breaks to explore the neighborhood and bump into people to make random conversations to appease my social side. I need to start work to meet some more people!!

Boxes, boxes everywhere!

It's like Christmas here, haven't seen this stuff for 4 months!! There are not many places to put these boxes as the house seems small with so many of them....so our basement is doubling as empty box storage. Our 2nd bedroom became the catch-all for the stuff we don't know what to do with yet. So far everything is here and accounted for. Only damage is our step tansu has deep scratches so we will be filing a claim but hopefully we can touch it up without too much notice! The packers put such random things together, it's always a joy to find your bathroom towels in a kitchen box, ha.

Our movers show up with this huge truck for our 6500 pounds! So huge that there is not ample parking on the street so we met the neighbors right away knocking on doors and asking if they could move their car. Finally the truck fit and only a tree branch got knocked down. And Ryan saved the driver from a ticket. People complained about blocking the street! What are they supposed to do? I guess if the street's blocked for only a morning or afternoon it's ok but not the entire day. We enjoyed our movers, they were a husband and wife team in their 50s so he did most of the lifting. Oh yeah, and they loved the steep steps and the many trips for all of our boxes! The lady is also a seamstress and so made a makeshift curtain out of a sheet for our bedroom and our living room (to block the view of the beer cans from our neighbors!). She gave me her cell number:-) Back to the grind....