Anyways...

My Purely Material Christmas Post

2010-12-25T16:52:00.000-08:00

This is our first Christmas in Wyoming. There isn't any snow on the ground other than what is left in the shadows from the little bit of snow we got last week. Reid's parents came up from Castle Valley, UT to spend Christmas with us. That was nice! They also brought a truck load of gifts with them. Also nice! We went from having 3 gifts under the tree to more gifts than could fit under the tree. I must say I have no complaints. It took the pressure off the tree to be pretty, which is difficult for it since it is the cheapest plastic tree Walmart had to offer. Christmas trees don't grow around here and so they have to truck them in from...somewhere...and charge way too much for them. By the time we got around to looking at trees there were just the Charlie Brown trees left, but for $3 more we could get a fake one with the lights already on it. I really hate putting lights on a tree. Even though Reid usually does it I don't even like to watch him.

Anyways, back to the point. I got a bunch of stuff that I want to show off to people to make them jealous, but rather than bombarding facebook with my crappy cell phone pictures I thought I would be polite and just do a side post. (I know the 'jealous' thing may be a stretch on some items as not everyone has such refined taste in gifts as I do).

The first thing I opened today was my new ammonite mug Reid got me. Nerdy! He was replacing my favorite mug that broke in a Tommy related mishap in which an entire box of our mugs was dropped before it even made it onto the moving truck in Seattle. I was actually able to salvage my favorite mug and use it as a pencil cup, though. The gaping holes in the side where the handle used to be attached just don't allow for it to retain liquid anymore. Reid had me open the ammonite mug because we were about to have Grandma Tenney's infamous hot chocolate. I love it, but I can only handle it in small quantities. It has like 4000% of your daily recommended dose of dairy in one sip. Yep. That is a completely accurate fact. Well regardless, my digestive system believes this to be true.

Reid's mom made me a dinosaur quilt. I LOVE it! I can't believe she spent so much time to outline various dinosaur shapes for me in thread on fabric. Wow! Apparently when she was working on it she had her friends ask if she was making it for a grandbaby and she had to respond that, no, she was making it for her daughter in-law. Heh. I have already been informed that I may have to ship the quilt back to her in February so she can enter it in a contest. It will win. I have no idea what any of the contest rules or regulations are, but it will win. Anything that is this full of awesome needs a prize!

Continuing with the dinosaur theme Reid's sister Ashley got me a nice little dig a dino, a dig your own treasure kit (not dino) and a dinosaur marionette. Kona is incredibly interested in the marionette. She desperately wants the marionette to be in her mouth, but we are good at keeping it safe. I don't ever plan to let Kona have what I have termed 'mouth snuggles' with the puppet. It doesn't tend to end well.

Reid was very cute and in addition to getting me the ammonite mug I also received an ammonite canvas bag, an ammonite tank top and ammonite postage stamps. Whaaa? Postage stamps? Yes! So if I send you actual mail you better appreciate the stamp. The one bad part about the awesome postage stamp gift is that I have to give them away.

And you know what? You know what? I got a Doctor Who TARDIS cookie jar. When you open the lid the light on top lights up and it makes the very characteristic TARDIS wheezy whirring noise (that I'm not even going to attempt to spell) of a machine that is just about to travel in time, or in this case give me a tasty treat. Who loves me and is willing to make the kitchen clash for me? Reid does!! When Reid first put it under the tree he told us not to touch the gift and I didn't understand why. Unbeknownst to me Kona kept knocking into the box and causing the TARDIS noise to go off. I don't know how I didn't hear it. It's fairly loud and will be a nice indicator to me for when (not if) Reid thinks he needs to get into my treats.

Chrissy also sent me a box of goodies for Christmas. When it arrived I had Reid's mom look in it in case the items weren't wrapped. They weren't. So we got to keep it in Avon box it was shipped in on the other side of the living room as it was a terrible eye sore to have near the tree. Just kidding. We only kept it about 5 feet away from the other gifts. We got a Ben original painting and some clothes for me! With the clothes came a note from Chrissy saying "I'm not sure if you'll like the vest, but it will look good on you, so you have to wear it." Awww feel the love. Also when Ben gets older we will have a discussion about his use of white space. Or is that interior decorating? Oh well.

Reid and I also received an assortment of wonderful gift cards that we will DEFINITELY be putting to good use. We also received a lot more than I listed, so please don't be offended if you got me something that I didn't list. I promise I loved everything I got! I won't be returning a single item! heh I just got lazier and lazier as I was typing. You know how it goes.

I hope everyone had as lovely of a day as we did. Happy New Year!

Growing Up

2010-10-16T13:59:00.000-07:00

You know when you're young and at a theme park and you're stuck waiting in a long line to get on the ride...and you are watching the ride and scoping out which seat you want to be in for whatever ride you're waiting for? And you're imagining the reasons why that seat is the most awesome seat on the whole stupid ride. Well anyways, I caught myself doing that the other day when I was watching my bus doing a U-turn to come pick up my stop. Growing up is lame.

Inconsiderate bus riders

2010-01-21T12:07:00.000-08:00

Dear girl on the bus,

I hope your decision to put your backpack on the seat next to you while I walked down the aisle was really worth it for you. I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the guy that came on the bus at the next stop who made you feel obligated to move your bag so he could sit. He looked like he hadn't showered in at least a week. I bet he smelled good. I showered this morning. Just thought I'd point that out. Maybe I will see you tomorrow.

~Melissa

Coupons and Mer-people and Bigfoot, Oh My!

2009-11-24T19:55:00.000-08:00

Friday was an interesting day at the museum. We definitely have our fair share of crazies, but it seems they tend to travel in flocks and all come in to visit us on the same day. Maybe I should be paying attention to the moon calendar and I might find some correlations. Anyways, the first story for the day was more of a difficult customer than a crazy. She came into the museum with her husband and 2 kids (one of which was younger than 4 years old which made her free) and she had a buy one admission get one free (of equal or lesser value) coupon from the Entertainment Book. As I always have in any coupon situation, I made the cheapest admission the free one. In my mind this is standard practice pretty much anywhere you go. Well the lady pitched a tissy fit saying that whenever there is a coupon that says 'equal or lesser value' that the most expensive option is ALWAYS the free one and that what I was doing was WRONG. Oh I very much hate being told I'm wrong, especially when I know I'm right. Clearly this lady has never shopped with a coupon before either at a restaurant with an entre, or to the Payless BOGO (buy one get one) shoe sale. I was being a good employee that day and I bit my lip and just let her have her way as there were people coming in the door behind her. Her husband was standing a good distance back pretending not to pay attention to what she was doing. Poor guy.

Then of course she had a large bag. It is the museum's policy to hold large bags behind the counter unless they contain emergency medications. I told her that we needed to hold her bag behind the counter (and I wasn't being snotty about it or anything!) and she must have presumed that I was retaliating for letting her have her way with the coupon fiasco. She aggressively pulled out her wallet and almost everything out of the bag and tucked them under her arms to take with her, muttering how she didn't trust me with her stuff. Then she pushed the bag toward me and said "Well you've made this so pleasant I'll be sure to never come back here again." Haha. I hope she never does. I wish I could have gotten that in writing. At least when she turned around she instantly switched moods and was nice to her family. That was one of the first visitors for the day.

A little while later I was helping a couple of visitors that came in with their home school children. On the other side of the counter an older lady approached, interrupting asking me where my office was. I told her that my office was the desk that she was currently leaning against, but if she was looking for the 'office' for the business side of the museum that it was on the opposite side of the building (then I gave her directions). She started talking to me as I continued to help the visitors in front of me. I was only half listening to her, but I kept hearing her talk about her drawings throwing around phrases like "mer-people" and "bigfoot" and I would turn my head to her each time, hoping I was hearing her wrong. Then she was mentioning ammonites which was much more normal for our natural history museum, and that made me feel better. Before I was done helping the visitors she had disappeared from my desk and had traveled to the back 'office' of the museum. Now on the weekdays there is an awesome back desk receptionist that is a friend of mine and we both always have our gmail open and are constantly linked via gchat (instant messenger) which comes in handy in situations such as these. The following is just a copy and paste of our conversation:

Receptionist: can you call {our boss} and tell him i have a strange lady down here trying to sell people her drawing
she's not pushy, but needs to be gently told to go away
or tell him
me: he's on his way
Receptionist: thanks
Receptionist: crazy lady went in the cafe
me: ah
good to know
can't watch her there, though
or save the poor patrons that get stuck talking to her
Receptionist: i know
shes gentle about telling everyone that we should live in peace with the mer people at least...
me: haha yeah actually she was up here and I sent her downstairs... my bad... I was busy with people and she asked me where the office was... I was hoping I misheard her about 'mer' people
then she started talking about ammonites or something so I thought...maybe relevant?
Receptionist: she thinks she found an ammonite walking across the street in marysville and says she told us about it and she has a drawing of us living in harmony with the mer people and other animal spirits she's trying to sell
me: lol
I really do love people
Receptionist: yeah
me: I think I heard her mention bigfoot too
Receptionist: yeah, he was illustrated in the picture
me: should have made a photocopy of it on the copier
she probably would've charged, though
we could have hung it on the fridge in the hallway there

It was nice to have instant messenger for her to be able to contact me (silently) as speaking code over the phone to try to tell someone there was a strange person in front of her doesn't always work. Other things the drawing lady mentioned were that she had met a mer-person in her youth and had decided to be friends with all of the mer-people after that. She also mentioned that she had always had this uncanny ability to solve people's problems. She was very nice, just definitely not in the same reality as the rest of us.

I guess earlier in the week we had a gentleman come in claiming he had a fossilized dinosaur eyeball (among other things). You know, because we all know that it's the soft parts that fossilize. Then he went on a contradicting rant...something about how he didn't believe in dinosaurs. Then he went on to say that he did believe in dinosaurs and that they were hunted to extinction by humans. Oh goodness sometimes my soul just dies a little bit. I was not working when this gentleman was in, though, so this is just a third person story.

And if you are still reading at this point, that is your little glimpse into why it is so much fun to work at a museum. At least that is my opinion. :)

McDonalds Put a Job Application in My Food Bag

2009-11-10T18:11:00.001-08:00

I don't feel like being coherent right now so I'm just going to go ahead and throw it all out there.

Last week Reid and I went and stayed at Dad's house as Chrissy, Chris, Ben and Tiffany came up to visit. It was a lot of fun. Ben is huge and more like a toddler than a baby. He sounds like a cute little girl when he chatters to himself saying 'mamamamama' and 'dadadada'. He also learned to clap while we were there. He always yells when he's clapping and looks angry, but we all just think that it is due to everyone always clapping and saying 'yayyyy' to get him to imitate us. It's his anger clapping. Chrissy informed me that at the Denver airport he was practicing his clapping at strangers.

The last couple days of the trip I got a cold. I still have it. I really hate being sick. Reid has been taking good care of me! He even bought me 2 varieties of juice last night. V8 Splash and grape juice. I suspect the grape juice was actually for him, but I'll let it slide ;) Also I learned that blowing my nose causes my glasses to fog up.

On our birthday we went out and played putt putt golf and then the day after we had a dinosaur birthday cake with our names on it! It was so cute..and tasty too of course. I like being a big kid. For my birthday Reid bought me a Motorola Droid. It is very exciting. Reid got one for himself too of course, which is a good thing so now he can tell me how to work it. He went to the store at 6am on the release date for the phone planning on buying 2 of them. I guess they told him I didn't qualify for an upgrade on the phone since I'm not the primary person on the account and it would cost $600 for me to have the phone. He came home to wake me up to tell me that he didn't get me a phone...which he didn't. He wasn't tricking me. He bought himself a phone, though. He said he was sorry and I told him to go away as at that time I needed to mope. Anyways, while I was in the shower he had gone back to the Verizon store and found a way to change the account so that we wouldn't have to pay the ridiculous $600 for the phone. Five or six trips to Verizon stores later we now both have working Droids with cute little cases. Sorry Reid. MANLY cases.

My newest obsession has been the Pioneer Woman's blog (thanks Liz! I just REALLY needed something else to keep me online for long periods of time). Basically there is this woman who was a city girl that randomly fell in love with a cowboy. She'd never even met a cowboy before in her life. It's the true story of her life and it is addicting (and funny...overall very entertaining)! I highly recommend it. I almost wish it wasn't all true because I kind of feel like a stalker. So here is the link to her love story and here is the link to the other random blogs she posts that aren't necessarily related to the love story, but are related to her life on the farm. Barbie I really think you'd like this!!

The dogs have been really clingy since we got home. I definitely think they have developed abandonment issues. It's cute but also kind of annoying. Oh well. At least Kona only ate the one thing (poor little Zoey's bed). I don't think Zoey's noticed yet.

Oh and since Reid went to Office Depot tonight I was reliant on McDonalds for nourishment. They put a job application in my food bag. I thought that was funny.

Not much.

2009-10-07T14:26:00.000-07:00

So I've started working full time at the Burke Museum. I really do love it. Me saying that is probably getting old, but I can't help it. We are in an interesting transition right now as our store buyer just retired unexpectedly and the museum doesn't plan on rehiring for her position (which means that her duties will probably just be spread out amongst current employees). We have also been losing employees as they are finding new jobs (full time jobs that will actually allow for them to pay bills). It will be interesting to see how we delegate things in the coming months.

Lately I've just been reading a lot. I've been addicted to the Sookie Stackhouse novels (there are 9 thus far in the series). They are fast reads and are very creative and actually keep my attention. These are the novels that inspired HBO's True Blood series. The books are a lot different from the series as they are actually funny. The show is very serious. Reid hates it. No surprise there ;) Also I've gotten Reid addicted to the sitcom The Big Bang Theory, which is hilarious and I recommend to anyone that appreciates science.

Dang this is why I don't update, I don't have anything interesting to say! I think there is something fundamentally wrong with me in working only one job and by that I mean that even though I should be done with all my temp shifts at the University Bookstore this quarter I keep picking up more shifts. I am working tomorrow night after I get off work at the museum until around 10pm. Makes for a 9am to 10pm-ish day. Yes. Something is wrong with me. The event that I'm going to be selling books for seems interesting. It is a speaker named Richard Dawkins who is going to be talking about his new book about evolution. His last book I believe is called "The God Dillusion" and this one is called "The Greatest Show on Earth: Evidence for Evolution." When I first signed up for the shift the people at the bookstore told me it was a sports guy talking haha. This is just a slightly different sort of topic. It'll definitely be more interesting to me than sports, though. Oh but the sad thing is that I will miss Jim and Pam's wedding on The Office. This is of greater concern to me than necessary. Reid will save the day and record it for me.

Reid and my 3rd year wedding anniversary is coming up on October 14th. We are going to go to a lecture at the Burke Museum on the 15th about solving the mystery of King Tut's death. That will hopefully be interesting. On November 12th we're planning on going to another lecture at the Burke (meaning I'm dragging Reid to this one) about dinosaur fossils in Antarctica.

The most exciting part of my near future is that Chrissy and Chris and Ben and Tiffany are going to come up for the first week of November!! Reid and I will take a week off and go over to Spokane to be with them. Dad and Barbie are going to have a full house! Chrissy and I will be able to celebrate our birthday together which we haven't done for years. Oh and we're going to have an early Thanksgiving. I have already mentally prepared myself for coming back to Seattle with several extra pounds of winter weight added to me. It'll be worth it, trust me. If you've ever been priviledged enough to have Barbie cook for you then you can only imagine the happiness that a Thanksgiving type meal will bring.

Better than Miley

2009-09-19T13:58:00.000-07:00

For anyone that's heard the Miley Cyrus ('Hannah Montana' from the Disney channel) song that made it on to normal radio play "The Climb", this version is better! Same song, just Kelly Clarkson and her backup singers playing around doing their version.

I Got the Job!!

2009-09-12T18:36:00.001-07:00

As most people that would be reading this already know, I will be starting full time at the museum on September 30th. I am ridiculously excited about it! I've been wanting this since I first started working there over two and a half years ago and it finally happened. It didn't happen before this because a full time position didn't exist. Creating a position on the University of Washington campus is not a one step process as one might imagine. Anyways, it came to existence and I got it! I will be working Wednesday through Sundays (as they need someone to be working the weekend) and hours will be something like 8:30am or 9am to 5:30pm. The job I will be doing is pretty much the same I do now, but possibly more integrated with PR and membership. The only unfortunate thing about taking this job is knowing that I am taking most of the other hourly employee's hours for the week :-/ Basically they were cutting back all the hours so that it was taken by just the one position and they'll have hourly people on my days off and on weekends and busy days (first Thursdays). Obviously I'm happy that I got the job or it wouldn't have looked good for me! I really do love the museum and I know I will be great at the position.

This also means that I get to quit Office Depot! I only need one job now. ONE JOB. What am I going to do with myself?? I gave my notice already at Office Depot and I've already begun to train a new person in the cash office. It's a bit tricky as I am not the most easily replaced person in the building, but really it won't be my problem. I know that sounds terrible, but it's true! I am training the best I can and the person I am training is competent, but it still won't be the easiest transition for the store. There are a lot of things that I do that ONLY I do. I have people that cover me for my days off, but they don't get a chance to do everything. Not that they're missing out on fun or anything. It's strange to be leaving Office Depot as I just hit my 5 year anniversary a couple of months ago, but I also got gyped on my raise so the store could save money so my sadness is not at its full potential. Under appreciated? Yeah, pretty much. Could have been worse, though as it has been in the past with the first Office Depot store manager I had to work with.

I'm still toying with the idea of remaining on the temp employee list for the University Book Store for some extra money around the holidays (gift wrapping) and things like that. But it's nice knowing that I don't HAVE to.

Other things that have been going on: Not much. Well actually I had to get permanent glasses instead of the part time glasses with an upped prescription. I got different frames as my old purple ones were heavy and the nose pads hurt my nose. Now I have navy blue plastic framed ones with no nose pad that just carve a nice line into my nose, but it's still less painful than the nose pads. I like the way my old ones look a little more than the ones I have now, but being in less pain and being able to see better is nice and not overrated.

Reid's parents came to visit this week which was nice. It was nice to see them and also Reid cleaned his room (the spare room that serves as his giant laundry pile).

Also Chrissy, Chris, Ben and Tiffany will be visiting in Spokane in November and Reid and I plan on being there!!!!! Something to look forward to.

I put this link on my facebook, but here it is again! The super cute song about being a paleontologist that will be stuck in your head all day as it is mine. Enjoy!!

Moving Rocks!

2009-08-05T18:53:00.000-07:00

And not 'rocks' as in another word for awesome. Basically the Burke Museum geology dept. has a huge moving project going on so they can get new and earthquake safe storage. The Burke Museum blog posted a video that they made starring Ron Eng (the collections manager for geology...he's awesome!). He can explain it better than I can. The rooms they show are rooms that I don't get to go into too often (as it is not part of my job to be in there), but I love to get in there and play whenever I can! There is also an older woman shown wearing a green shirt pulling out a specimen drawer. That's Ruth! She's a grad student and is also awesome. These are two of my favorite people at the museum! Ruth was also a TA with me when I TA'd the Dinosaurs class at the UW a couple of years ago. We have also done little excursions (one in which I obtained my mammoth tusk). She can climb a cliff wall better than me! It's ridiculous... Anyways, you should watch the video! Only 2 minutes and this one is much less likely to be removed from YouTube for copyright issues as all of my So You Think You Can Dance videos are.

Yay!!

2009-07-17T15:39:00.000-07:00

Yeah, not feeling creative with the title today. So the other day this magical new job listing at the museum showed up. It is basically the exact job that I already do, BUT full time!!!!! Of course I applied! I'm so excited and obviously really hope that I get it. I LOVE the Burke Museum. Maybe I would only have to work 1 or 2 jobs instead of 3 in the near future! The job starts September 28th and goes Wed through Sun. The job seems too good to be true, so I'm trying (unsuccessfully) not to get excited about it. The wonderful thing that the museum did when setting up this job was to only allow applicants that currently work at the Burke Museum and have been there for at least one year. This way me and the few other people that will apply don't have to compete with hundreds of applicants. Very exciting potential here. The really sucky thing would be if I DIDN'T get the job because basically come September when this new job starts, there will be pretty much no hours for anyone. They created this new job to cut down on hourly positions and money so most of the hours goes to this new position. There will be a couple of other shifts available here and there, but barely anything. Very scary. I'm trying not to think about that particular 'what if'.

On So You Think You Can Dance this week was one of my favorite dances ever! It was so hot! Even Reid agreed with me with my use of the word 'hot' and he never uses that word unless he is describing the weather (like today at almost 92 degrees) or me of course haha. See it below!! 1 minute and 58 seconds of your life. :)

Pennies!

2009-06-29T18:45:00.000-07:00

This morning when I was counting cash I came across a penny that I had never seen before. It was a 2009 penny with a picture of Abraham Lincoln on the back of it sitting on a log reading a book. It really threw me off as I had never seen a penny that was different on the back except for pennies that were made before the 1950's in which it just says 'one cent' instead of having the Capital Building. I looked it up and found that they released 4 different penny back designs for the celebration of the bicentennial of Lincoln's birthday and the 100 year existence of the one cent. This is really going to ruin my ability to quickly spot and separate out Canadian coins...

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things!

2009-06-26T14:59:00.001-07:00

My new water bottle! It has a nautilus on it. It's so cute it tricks me into drinking water, which is a good thing because normally I'm not a fan of drinking water.

My favorite dance of the week on So You Think You Can Dance. It's the butt dance! All about the booty, but in a classy way. And with my favorite dancers of course.

My new favorite song of the moment! "I'm not a robot" by Marina and the Diamonds.

It's that time again!

2009-06-20T20:09:00.000-07:00

My favorite summer show, So You Think You Can Dance, is airing! Yay! There have only been a couple of real episodes that have aired so far (not including the audition shows). I have jumped to early favoritism of dancers with dancer Evan. My favorite! He's a dancer with a Broadway background. He's also vertically challenged compared to the other dancers, so they had to stick him with one of the shorty girls. The following clip is my favorite performance of the first episode.

And the next clip is my favorite from the second episode.

These are both contemporary/jazz routines and are kind of sappy, but I love it! The second clip is much better quality, but you can only do so much with YouTube.

Obviously nothing very interesting is going on in my life right now. Reid and I painted the dog's room. It's kind of a shade of tannish yellow. The room had come with brown trim and when we painted the room from it's previous lilac color (it was gross...hopefully it was a little kid's room at some time in the past) I realized that we had just created a very 1970's colored room. My new goal is to paint the trim white, which makes it look much cleaner and much less like I should be adding lime green shag carpet. I spent quite a while at Home Depot staring at different color swatches for different shades of white. That was a headache that most people have to endure at some point in their lives. I eventually settled for marshmallow white. I've painted a small section, but it's difficult as the trim is very thin and not very straight, so using painter's tape isn't helping me keep a straight line as well as I'd like. I am currently on the computer procrastinating getting any further painting trim. Hence the new post.

Artsy Craftsy

2009-05-31T14:52:00.000-07:00

The other day I was having an ambitious moment and decided to upload pictures of some of my artwork that I've done over the years. I put them up on a folder on my flickr account called Artsy Craftsy. I also posted a couple of pictures of my new hair cut. Reid doesn't like it, but it's not like he has to do it. I like it! Anyways, that's it for now.

Memorial Day

2009-05-26T21:42:00.001-07:00

Reid and I decided to go to Spokane for Memorial Day. Nothing beyond that was planned really, except that Alicia was going to cut our doggies' nails. She's now a dog groomer at Pet Smart and it is convenient for me to just make her work without pay to my benefit. The doggies always have a lot of fun with Dad's 2 mastiffs. Zoey just kind of hangs back while Kona has the most fun being ADD with Sasha. Dad probably wouldn't mind if we gave her a tranquilizer, but then who else would make Callie bite their face in anger?

The traffic was terrible on the way there and the way back. On the way there Snoqualmie Pass had a 20 mile backup. My friend Danielle was also making the trek from Seattle to Spokane and was going the I-90 Snoqualmie Pass route. She left at 5:30pm and I was texting her for information as Reid and I had to work a bit later. At one point she told me it took them 1 hour to go 9 miles. Reid and I decided to go north and go over Steven's Pass and through Leavenworth. We hit a bit of a backup for a while, but it was mostly due to there only being one lane and a constantly changing speed limit. Danielle left at 5:30pm and arrived at 12:30am, Reid and I left after 8pm and arrived at 1:30am.

The traffic on the way back also had a 20 mile backup over Snoqualmie Pass. We went I-90 anyways. We left Spokane at 4:30pm and arrived a couple minutes before 10pm. Which was MUCH better time than we anticipated, especially once we first hit the backup. We literally put the jeep in park in a 70mph zone. Below is a photo I took where you have a good view of the lineup ahead of us around a curve. Reid opened the sunroof and I just stuck the camera out there.

Kona wasn't that bad. I think it had a lot to do with her being exhausted from playing with Dad's dogs. Right after we got home she promptly plopped herself down on the rug in the living room and we had to step over her as we unpacked.

Oh yeah! And my identical twin Chrissy started a blog!!! Now we don't really have a reason to talk on the phone except for her to have me listen to the noises that Ben is making.

Twitter!

2009-04-04T16:13:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure if I fully understand what's going on yet...but I'm all signed up! Ok, so I'm positive I don't fully understand. The basic idea is that I can write little updates about what I'm doing or thinking all the time without having to post an entire blog. I can also do it from my cell phone!

The top right hand side of my blog is where my twitter updates will show up. I'm still working on the formatting, but it seems to be limited because I have a preset format to my blog, but it's probably just me limiting myself with my lack of programming skills. It should show up with the 3 most recent posts. I think the only way to see my previous posts will be to go to my twitter page http://twitter.com/paleomelissa.

It's just something new and something fun (I think). Everyone else should get twitter too so that I can stalk you all as well! And so that you guys can figure out how to work it better than me and then you can explain it to me. :)

My museum has a twitter too! There are some 'celebrities' that have twitter as well that everyone can read. Some of the celebrities I'm reading are David Hewlett and his sister Kate, Michael Ian Black, and Rainn Wilson (Dwight from The Office). There are a lot of other celebrities that have it to, but their's weren't as interesting to me (meaning not that funny).

Anyways, that's it for now!

Port Angeles Adventure

2009-03-23T00:09:00.000-07:00

On Sunday my friend Allison and I went on a day trip to Port Angeles. Our motivation was to visit a rock shop Allison had previously visited and thought was awesome and worth going to again. I was up for it. It's not like I don't enjoy myself a good rock shop ;). We left at around 10:45am to catch the 11:30 Edmonds-Kingston ferry.

A bomb sniffing dog checking out the cars in the ferry line.

We made the ferry just fine and then drove to Port Angeles. The Woolly Mammoth Rock Shop was our destination. We arrived there to find that the gates that lead to the parking lot of the shop were closed and locked. On their business card that Allison had it said that Sunday hours were noon to 5pm and it was around 2pm. So I went ahead and called the phone number on the business card to double check what was going on. A guy answered who sounded a little disgruntled and unprofessional mumbling about a 'retarded owner' and 'bull****'. He then asked if we were the ones parked out in the driveway (he could see us from the shop) and I said yes. He decided to come out to give us his new business card as his rock shop was going to be moving into his house. As he got to the gate I guess he decided we seemed like nice gals and opened the gate and said we could just go ahead and look at the shop anyway, even though it was closing and they were in the process of moving it out. The whole time he keeps rambling about the owner of the property, who also happened to be his business partner. Many choice words muttered as I'm sure anyone can guess.

Allison and I were very grateful that we didn't come all the way to Port Angeles from Seattle for no reason. We start looking around the shop while the gentleman that let us in keeps disappearing taking phone calls from his soon to be ex-business partner in which his voice keeps raising and profanity can be heard. The gentleman's wife eventually comes out and kind of lingers around as we are looking and starts talking to us. She was very nice and kind of stressed out that her husband was having such a bad day and she was also very apologetic to us for having to experience it. She also let us know that we were going to be the last customers ever to the store and that she would give us a deal on anything we wanted to buy. At some point another gentleman enters the store and it turns out that he's the brother of the property owning business partner and according to the gentleman that let us in he was there to possibly 'rough him up' or scare him. The gentleman a little bit later comes back in and is telling his wife that the other business partner called to tell him that he called the police because the gates were open and I guess since he was the land owner he was able to decide that the other guy couldn't have customers on the property? I'm not really sure. His brother probably told him.

After that everyone got more tense and antsy. Allison and I decided to pick up the pace so we could leave just about the same time that the wife told us we may want to leave soon as the police were now there. So we both picked out a pair of earrings that were made from a meteorite that fell into the Gobi Desert in China (cute and nerdy) and she took $6 off the price which was nice of her. We then left and said goodbye and waved to the police officers (who waved back) who were talking to the wife and the property owner (and his brother). The original gentleman that let us in escorted us out to the car and apologized about everything that was going on. He was understandably embarrassed about the whole situation and how he was responding to it. Anyways, so that was the rock shop!

On to lunch! We circled the town I think 3 times? Since the whole town is one giant one way circle...so once you passed something you had to go all the way around until you came to whatever it was again. We had lunch at a cute little restaurant Chestnut something. Chestnut Inn? We ate and then went down to the water front of Port Angeles. There are a bunch of random art sculptures down there.

There was also a nice little pier with a look out tower at the end that we climbed so we could get a little higher and take some pictures.

Semi-lastly, we found the actual Italian restaurant (La Bella Italia) in Port Angeles from the book Twilight. They are definitely milking the publicity, but I would do the same thing if I were them! It's not quite how I pictured it, but it worked. There was also an article in the window where apparently Stephenie Meyer (the author of Twilight) paid the restaurant a surprise visit in June 2008. Oh, and they also offer a special with the mushroom ravioli. You order the mushroom ravioli and you get a free coke. Twilight fans will get the humor in that.

In the end I had Allison stop at the Walmart in Port Angeles so I could see if they had any copies of the Twilight dvd left for sale. They did! I just thought it would be cool if I bought my dvd from Port Angeles. Ok, so not cool, but for me it was more exciting. They were out of the special delux blahty blah version so I had to settle for the normal 1 disc $17 version..which is the one I would've gotten anyway. That Walmart also had a ridiculous quantity of random Twilight merchandise strategically positioned right next to the dvd fixture. In the parking lot Allison's car wouldn't start, but I guess it has that problem on occasion so she just has to wiggle the connections to the battery. Her car did this again as we were trying to start the car when the ferry line was moving to board the ferry, so poor Allison has to rush out to pop the hood and wiggle the connections in the pouring rain so that the people in the cars behind us didn't have to wait. Very dramatic. Then we came home and the adventure was over. The end. More photos of our adventure can be seen in my flickr photostream.

Dino Day 2009!

2009-03-17T20:34:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture my friend took of the lucky museum employees that got to work Dinosaur Day 2009. It is our busiest day of the year. This year we had over 3000 visitors smashing our last year's totals of around 2100 which was our previous record for attendance. I'm sure there were fire codes broken for maximum occupancy at some point. Also, we were all given free t-shirts for working the day (the shirt sported by all of us in the photo). One of our dinosaur focuses this year was on Triceratops which also makes its appearance on our shirt. Some people weren't fond of the color of the shirt, but I loved it! But then again I've never really been fashion forward...

Zoo Butts!

2009-02-08T19:04:00.000-08:00

So Reid and I went to the zoo today with Reid's friend Don. Don's girlfriend is a zoo keeper there and so we got a behind the scenes tour! It was a lot of fun and very informative. I got to feed tapirs and birds (and of course I got pooped on) and pet snakes and see where all the animal's food comes from and eat at the zoo food court. That last one is something anyone can do, really. We also got to see animal butts! For non butt photos see my flickr photostream.

Hippo butts!

Wallaroo butt!

Zebra butts!

Guinea something butts!

Jaguar butt!

More hippo butts! They couldn't be bothered to get up to do their business...

A Movin' and a Shakin'

2009-01-30T20:41:00.001-08:00

Here are the exact texts that Reid and I exchanged early this morning.

5:31am Melissa: Was there maybe just a really small earthquake? The bed was shaking but the washer's not going...the shower door was shaking a little too.

5:32am Reid: washer probably stopped before you started listening...i do that a lot

5:33am Melissa: did you have it running at 5am?

5:34am Reid: sorry...want it to go in the dryer when i get home

5:36am Melissa: you suck...i thought my life was more exciting

6:27am Reid: ha we DID have a 4.6 earthquake...good job you're exciting again

6:29am Melissa: I'm awesome...5:25am...I KNEW I didn't hear the washer...=P

6:30am Reid: ;-)

Back at the Burke

2009-01-13T19:33:00.000-08:00

Finally I get to work back at my happy place! After two and a half months of having to cut my hours to work only on Saturdays (and then the last couple of weeks of not working at the museum of all) I am finally able to work at the museum again. Basically my job as an underling only allows me so many hours I can work per year and last year I started out working too many, so by the end of the year I had run out (my year starting with my hire date which happens to be January 11th). I had to pick up a 3rd job at the University Book Store. The job was decent, even if the pay wasn't.

So anyways, when I came in to work the back desk receptionist showed me a hilarious picture. Basically our PR (public relations) person for the museum was doing random searches online for pictures that people have posted that related to the museum. What she found was the following.

Now as you can see, the picture in itself is not that funny, BUT the description the guy gave to the photo is. The person who took this picture has no affiliation to the museum and doesn't know who was in the picture. The gentleman in the photo that the guy so kindly refers to as 'douchebag with no coat' is my boss. So the PR person printed out a copy of the photo and circled my boss and jokingly wrote "Who's this douchebag?" and put it with the bask desk receptionist for all to see. My boss has a good sense of humor and thought it was funny. Actually he was the one who told me to go and look at the photo since I missed it on my way in. A great way to start the day. Oh, and he didn't really get hit with the snow.

Booksies!

2009-01-03T21:05:00.000-08:00

Escape. I loved this book! AND significantly to me, it is one of the few non-fiction books I've read. Don't judge me. I like to use reading as an escape from reality, but this book was so far beyond reality as I know it that it didn't seem real. For lack of motivation to write a stylized personal review of the book...this is what the google synopsis says the book is about...

"The dramatic first-person account of life inside an ultra-fundamentalist American religious sect, and one woman’s courageous flight to freedom with her eight children.When she was eighteen years old, Carolyn Jessop was coerced into an arranged marriage with a total stranger: a man thirty-two years her senior. Merril Jessop already had three wives. But arranged plural marriages were an integral part of Carolyn’s heritage: She was born into and raised in the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS), the radical offshoot of the Mormon Church that had settled in small communities along the Arizona-Utah border. Over the next fifteen years, Carolyn had eight children and withstood her husband’s psychological abuse and the watchful eyes of his other wives who were locked in a constant battle for supremacy.Carolyn’s every move was dictated by her husband’s whims. He decided where she lived and how her children would be treated. He controlled the money she earned as a school teacher. He chose when they had sex; Carolyn could only refuse—at her peril. For in the FLDS, a wife’s compliance with her husband determined how much status both she and her children held in the family. Carolyn was miserable for years and wanted out, but she knew that if she tried to leave and got caught, her children would be taken away from her. No woman in the country had ever escaped from the FLDS and managed to get her children out, too. But in 2003, Carolyn chose freedom over fear and fled her home with her eight children. She had $20 to her name.Escape exposes a world tantamount to a prison camp, created by religious fanatics who, in the name of God, deprive their followers the right to make choices, force women to be totally subservient to men, and brainwash children in church-run schools. Against this background, Carolyn Jessop’s flight takes on an extraordinary, inspiring power. Not only did she manage a daring escape from a brutal environment, she became the first woman ever granted full custody of her children in a contested suit involving the FLDS. And in 2006, her reports to the Utah attorney general on church abuses formed a crucial part of the case that led to the arrest of their notorious leader, Warren Jeffs."

My favorite word to describe this book is 'fascinating.' I couldn't stop reading it. In fact I pretty much read this book straight through The Dark Knight. I really admire her fleeing an abusive/unhealthy relationship based on a religion of which was her whole world and the only thing she ever knew. I can't imagine how difficult that would be. Something that really ticked me off was her oldest daughter Betty who not only made the escape incredibly difficult for everyone, but then when Betty turned 18 (four years after they had left) she decided to return to the FLDS. Yeah, that's a smart lifestyle choice. I'll hold myself back from going into a rant about that.

Other books I have read (somewhat) recently that I enjoyed were The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff, The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield, The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory, The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, Snowflower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See and of course the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer because I'm a dweeb.

Let's Balance it Out..

2008-12-12T17:41:00.000-08:00

In contrast to my last post I thought I would list some things that make me happy--just to prove I'm not always a downer.

--I love when it gets dark at around 4pm. Some people find it depressing, but I really like it! Then it gives people more of an excuse to turn their Christmas lights on outside which I also really enjoy. I'm just glad I don't have to help put them up or take them down.

--I thoroughly enjoy the smell of books. It's not just a paper smell; I have more than enough experience working in a copy center and that smell doesn't make me happy. I'm a book sniffer. It comes with a lot of funny looks from any witnesses, but I'm ok with that.

--Lighting candles all around the house. Not only does it mask the smell of our lovely canine friends, but it gives a happy atmosphere.

--The guy that lived in this house before us never cancelled his subscription to National Geographic nor changed his address. Reid and I have quite the collection sitting in the bathroom. Free maps are cool.

--My stepmom Barbie taught us how to lamp work so now I can make my own glass beads whenever we can get to Spokane! AND I miraculously didn't burn myself in the process. I've been wearing my 2 beads that I made during our last visit lately as they both turned out red and I own a lot of green clothing. Holiday spirit and all, but this is my way of doing it without a garish sweater covered in sparkle snowflakes and pom pom snowmen. Or snowwomen. I don't discriminate.

--I love watching What Not to Wear. I love watching Stacy and Clinton make fun of people before they get helped. It is hilarious. Reid says he doesn't like it, but he secretly does.

--There's a lady who works at the bookstore with me (I'm not sure which department as it is a BIG bookstore with a lot of different sections) and my first day I was in the breakroom at the same time as she was. There is one little trash can with a tiny amount of counter space near it. She was hogging both the counter space and the little trash can by peeling her orange. I needed to unwrap and throw away the packaging for my microwaved 'gourmet' meal, so I set my stuff on the closest table and unwrapped it there still waiting for the trash can. When she was finally done she turned toward me and her eyeballs popped out of her head and she said with her teeth all clenched up "I'm sitting there." Apparently I had sat my stuff right where she was planning on having her lunch while I was waiting for her. I said, "Sorry...I was just waiting for the trash can...I'm moving." She didn't move at all or tuck her eyes back in her head and said "I'm sitting HERE." I kind of laughed at her because at this point she was clearly and undeniably psychotic and socially retarded. I left her alone and she ate all by herself as it seemed no one else wanted to sit next to her. Every time I've seen her since then she looks at me like she's both scared and angry and it always makes me laugh. Some people are special. She only looks like she's in her 40's so she's not one of the crazy older people that work there...not sure what's going on there.

--Reid has made some really yummy REAL mashed potatoes a couple of times now. He got a bag of potatoes for under $2.00 I think. He was really excited about it. He's been such a good boy babying me as I whine and don't feel good. I love you Reid!

This is already too long for people to want to read it so I'll shush.

Whining.

2008-12-11T20:43:00.000-08:00

Some things that annoy me are as follows:

--This stupid computer I'm on and it's inability to function properly. It told me it autosaved a draft for this blog I just wrote (right as I hit publish post), but turns out the last time it saved was an hour and twenty minutes ago. So that was some excellent time wasted. I love when blogger lies to me.

--When you look on the back of the book to see what it is about and all it has are reviews and/or descriptions of why the author is a great author. Also, when you for some reason have not given up on finding out what the book is about and flip to the inside jacket and find more blah blah blah about the author or a 10 year old picture of them when they were skinnier and had hair. Why would I buy a book when I don't know what it's about?? The cover art would have to be magnificent.

--Not having any money in which to buy gifts for family for the holidays. The one year I finally have learned to wrap presents and I have none to wrap. Hope you are excited about the matching crochet mittens and ear muffs I'm making for you Dad! Just kidding. I wouldn't do that to you (unless I was a really fast crocheter and could whip them out in a day...then I would do it just for the mere 30 seconds in which you first open them and have to pretend that you like them...that would be enjoyable...your favorite color is pink, right?).

--Having 3 jobs.

--People who complain about the free gift wrapping I am doing for them or telling me I'm doing it wrong. I took a 1.5 hour gift wrapping training course...I am soooo an expert.

--Being in constant pain and having the only people that can supposedly help me (the GI clinic) tell me that the earliest appointment they can get me into is February 12th at 7:45am. I told them that since my pain seems to be getting worse on a daily basis that I would probably be dead by then, but they could go ahead and pencil me in anyway and if I were to die I would at least be giving my appointment to someone else. Maybe. I then told the lady that I knew I was being over dramatic and that I know it is not her fault.

There were more negative things that were lost that I can't remember. On the plus side we have a nice smelling real Christmas tree and Kona and Zoey only almost knock it over like twice a day. Zoey thinks it is her hiding place since she can fit under it and Kona doesn't know that she doesn't fit under it. The Burke Museum had their annual holiday party last night that I was able to go to. It was actually a lot more fun than I had anticipated. I entered a silent auction and 'won'! I paid $2.50 for a cute little dinosaur toy for Chrissy's baby. It was an auction for stingy people. It was an auction I could afford. The sad part was that I didn't even have that much cash on me, so I had to write a check.

Ok bed time.

Birthday!!!

2008-11-04T14:45:00.000-08:00

It's my birthday! Reid says I'm having a quarter life crisis. Also he seems overly excited about the idea that I can rent a car at a cheaper rate. Wohoo.

I just finished crocheting a dinosaur for Chrissy's little boy, but I'm not posting a picture of it since I want it to be a surprise. It's actually cute! Reid was really whiney about me not letting him post a picture of it. His effort was setting up my crocheted stuffed animals in front of a white screen he created and taking photos. My effort lasted days. I will, however, post photos of the squid I crocheted! I may have gone a little off the pattern. For example, he was only supposed to have 10 legs, but he ended up with 19 :S Oops. He's actually much cuter than the original pattern was supposed to be. Good thing I'm good at screwing things up. I decided that I'm now going to classify him as a seamonster rather than a squid since anatomically he is no longer accurate. Dad helped me name him Sigmond.

As you can see his eyeballs are a bit wobbly, which is why he will not be given to Chrissy's boy for a possible choking hazard.

Alicia is here right now. Last night we dyed her hair back to a closer version of her natural hair color. She had previously bleached her hair blond which I think most people feel was not a good color on her. Now it looks better! The dye we used was that cream stuff that was not supposed to drip. It actually didn't! In fact I could mold her hair to be whatever shape I wanted. I decided she needed a shelf on the back of her head. Since it was hair dye holding her hair together I felt it would not be a good idea to test the durability of this shelf by putting items on it.

Reid's birthday present to me is that he's buying me a plane ticket to go and see Chrissy and the baby when the baby exists in a world outside of Chrissy! Reid won't be able to go since he is teaching that quarter. Now I have things to look forward to again. Yay.

I'm Here for the Weather

2008-09-30T19:36:00.000-07:00

This is something I stole from my friend Dena's blog. It just struck me the right way and I thought I would share it with you all! I'll dot dot dot through some of the text that I didn't find as interesting. It was written by Tom Robbins as he explains why he lives where he lives. He too happens to live in the Seattle area. Enjoy!--hopefully...

I'm here for the weather.

Well, yes, I'm also here for the volcanoes and the salmon, and the fascinating possibility that at any moment the volcanoes could erupt and pre-poach the salmon. I'm here for the rust and the mildew, for webbed feet and twin peaks, spotted owls and obscene clams (local men suffer from goeduck envy), blackberries and public art (including that threatening mural the smut-sniffers chased out of Olympia), for the rituals of the potlatch and the espresso cart, for bridges that are always pratfalling into the water and ferries that keep ramming the dock.

I'm here because the Wobblies used to be here, and sometimes in Pioneer Square you can still find bright-eyed old anarchists singing their moldering ballads of camaraderie and revolt. I'm here because someone once called Seattle "the hideout capital of the U.S.A., " a distant outpost of a town where generations of the nation's failed, fed-up, and felonious have come to disappear. Long before Seattle was "America's Athens" (The New York Times), it was America's Timbuktu.
...
I'm here for the forests (what's left of them), for the world's best bookstores and move theaters; for the informality, anonymity, general lack of hideboud tradition, and the fact that here and nowhere else grunge rubs shoulders in the half-mean streets with a subtle yet pervasive mysticism. The shores of Puget Sound is where electric guitars cut their teeth and old haiku go to die.

I'm here for those wild little mushrooms that broadcast on transcendental frequencies; for Kevin Calabro, who broadcasts the Sonics games with erudite exuberance on KJR; for Dick's Deluxe burgers, for the annual Spam-carving contests, the cigar room at Dolce's Latin Bistro, Monday Night Football at the Blue Moon Tavern, opera night at the Blue Moon Tavern (which, incidentally, is scheduled so that it coincides with Monday Night Football - a challenging overlap that the first-time patron might fail to fully appreciate); and I'm here for the flying saucers that made their first earthly appearance near Mount Rainier.

I'm here for Microsoft but not for Weyerhauser. I'm here for Starbucks, but not for Boeing. I'm definitely here for the Pike Place Market and definitely not here for Wal-Mart or any scuzzball who shops at Wal-Mart. I'm here for the snow geese in the tide flats but not for the snow jobs in the State House. I'm here for the tulips but not the Tulip Festival (they're flowers, folks, not marketing tools!). I'm here for the relative lack of financial ambition (which, alas, may be responsible for some of those Wal-Mart shoppers), for the soaring population of bald eagles, and the women with their quaint Norwegian brand of lust. "Ya. Sure, ya betcha."

But mostly, finally, ultimately, I'm here for the weather.

As a result of the weather, ours is a landscape in a minor key, a sketchy panorama where objects, both organic and inorganic, lack well-defined edges and tent to melt together, creating a perpetual blurred effect, as if God, after creating Northwestern Washington, had second thoughts and tried unsuccessfully to erase it. Living here is not unlike living inside a classical Chinese painting before the intense wisps of mineral pigment had dried upon the silk - although, depending on the bite in the wind, they're times when it's more akin to being trapped in a bad Chinese restaurant; a dubious joint where gruff waiters slam chopsticks against the horizon, where service is haphazard, noodles soggy, wallpaper a tad too green, and considerable amounts of tea are spilt; but in each and every fortune cookie there's a line of poetry you can never forget. Invariably, the poems comment on the weather.

In the deepest, darkest hear of winter, when the sky resembles bad banana baby food for months on end, and the witch measles that meteorologists call "drizzle" are a chronic gray rash on the skin of the land, folks all around me sink into a dismal funk. Many are depressed, a few actually suicidal. But I, I grow happier with each fresh storm, each thickening of the crinkly stratocumulus. "What's so hot about the sun?" I ask. Sunbeams are a lot like tourists: intruding where they don't belong, promoting noise and forced activity, faking a shallow cheerfulness, dumb little cameras slung around their necks. Raindrops, on the other hand, introverted, feral, buddhistically cool, behave as if they were locals. Which, of course, they are.
...
Romantic? Absolutely. And nothing to be ashamed of. If reality is a matter of perspective, then the romantic view of the world is as valid as any other - and a great deal more rewarding. It makes of life and unpredictable adventure rather that a problematic equation. Rain is the natural element for romanticism. A dripping fir is a hundred times more sexy than a sunburnt palm tree, and more primal and contemplative, too. A steady, wind-driven rain composed music for the psyche. It not only nurtures and renews, it consecrates and sanctifies. It whispers in secret language about the primordial essence of things.

Obviously, then, the Pacific Northwest's customary climate is perfect for a writer. It's cozy and intimate. Reducing temptation (how can you possibly play on the beach or work in the yard?), it turns a person inward, connecting them with what Jung called "the bottom below the bottom," those areas of the deep unconscious into which every serious writer must spelunk. Directly above my writing desk there is a skylight. This is the window, rain-drummed and bough-brushed, through which my Muse arrives, bringing with her the rhythms and cadences of cloud and water, not to mention the latest catalog from Victoria's Secret and the twenty-three auxiliary verbs.

Oddly enough, not every local author shares my proclivity for precipitation. Unaware of the poetry they're missing, many malign the mist as malevolently as they non-literary heliotropes do. They wring their damp mitts and fret about rot, cursing the prolonged spillage, claiming they're too dejected to write, that their feet itch (athlete's foot), the roof leaks, they can't stop coughing, and they feel as if they're slowly being digested by an oyster.

Yet the next sunny day, though it may be weeks away, will trot out such a mountainous array of pagodas, vanilla sundaes, hero chins and god fingers; such a sunset palette of Jell-O, carrot oil, Vegas strip, and Kool-Aid; such a sea-vista display of broad waters, firred islands, whale spouts, and boat sails thicker than triangles in a geometry book, that any and all memories of dankness will fizz and implode in a blaze of bedazzled amnesia. "Paradise!" you'll hear them proclaim as they call United Van Lines to cancel their move to Arizona.

They're kidding themselves, of course. Our sky can go from lapis to tin in the blink of an eye. Blink again and your latte's diluted. And that's just fine with me. I thrive on the certainty that no matter how parched my glands, how anhydrous the creek beds, how withered the weeds in the lawn, it's only a matter of time before the rains of winter come.

The rains will steal down from the Sasquatch slopes. They will rise with the geese from the marshes and sloughs. Rain will fall in sweeps, it will fall in drones, it will fall in cascades of cheap Zen jewelry.

And it will rain a fever. And it will rain a sacrifice. And it will rain sorceries and saturine eyes of the totem.

Rain will primitivize the cities, slowing every wheel, animating every gutter, diffusing commercial neon into smeary blooms of esoteric calligraphy. Rain will dramatize the countryside, sewing pearls into every web, winding silk around every stump, redrawing the horizon line with a badly frayed brush dipped in tea and quicksilver.

And it will rain an omen. And it will rain a trance. And it will rain a seizure. And it will rain dangers and pale eggs of the beast.

Rain will pour for days unceasing. Flooding will occur. Wells will fill with drowned ants, basements with fossils. Mossy-haired lunatics will roam the dripping peninsulas. Moisture will gleam on the beak of the Raven. Ancient shamans, rained from their rest in dead tree trunks, will clack their clamshell teeth in the submerged doorways of video parlors. Rivers will swell, sloughs will ferment. Vapors will billow from the troll-infested ditches, challenging windshield wipers, disgusting intentions and golden arches. Water will stream off eaves and umbrellas. It will take on the colors of beer signs and headlamps. It will glisten on the claws of nighttime animals.

And it will rain a screaming. And it will rain a rawness. And it will rain a disorder, and hair-raising hisses from the oldest snake in the world.

Rain will hiss on the freeways. It will hiss around the prows of fishing boats. It will hiss in the electrical substations, on the tips of lit cigarettes, and in the trash fires of the dispossessed. Legends will wash from desecrated burial grounds, graffiti will run down alley walls. Rain will eat the old warpaths, spill the huckleberries, cause toadstools to rise like loaves. It will make poets drunk and winos sober, and polish the horns of the slugs.

And it will rain a miracle. And it will rain a comfort. And it will rain a sense of salvation from the philistinic graspings of the world.

Yes, I am here for the weather. And when I am lowered at last into a pit of marvelous mud, a pillow of fern and skunk cabbage beneath my skull, I want my epitaph to read, IT RAINED ON HIS PARADE, AND HE WAS GLAD!

Big Ole' Can of Crazy

2008-09-28T20:12:00.000-07:00

That's basically what describes my current state. Not a little can, though..just to be clear. Let me start from the beginning... oh yeah..and note very importantly that I am definitely NOT pregnant since that's the conclusion everyone jumps to first. Also this is not the Reader's Digest version of my week.

On last Monday on my day off I decided that the best meal plan for that particular day would include one very large very questionably old piece of pizza and dairy. And later it turned out that the milk I had been drinking that day was expired. So about 3am Tuesday morning my body decided to tell me how much it hated me for that. I never got back to sleep and ended up going to work anyways even though I was miserable. I rode the bus and about half way there I almost had to have the bus driver pull over so I could get off and vomit. I didn't, though. Then I got to work and found out that my super awesome boss...the only reason I still work at Office Depot...is being transferred to a different store. This comes at a bad time as I had to cut back my hours at the museum since I am only allowed to work a certain number of hours per year and I'm already getting close to my limit and the end of my 'year' isn't until January 11. This means that I probably have to take a month or two off of working at the museum and pick up Office Depot full time (if I work over the allotted number of hours at the museum the payroll system automatically fires me). BUT now my super awesome boss is gone from Office Depot. Don't get me wrong, there are still some really cool people that work there, but when the boss is not cool it makes it a lot harder to be happy. The new guy they are replacing my boss with has never been an Office Depot store manager before. He had some Best Buy stores he was at before--but that means that he's used to working with like 20 employees at the same time...not just a small handful of 5 or 6. He has the unrealistic expectations (that include punishments) of a crew of 20, though. He's also already shown that he has no problem yelling at employees for really dumb reasons. Yup! Sounds like an awesome new working environment is in the makes. I'm seriously contemplating following my now former boss to his new store, but it would be a commuting nuisance.

Back on topic....I managed to do a little bit of crying in front of all the managers in the district that happened to be at the store when I found out my boss was leaving...so that was wonderful...then I almost fell on my way out of the store very nice and embarrassing like in front of everyone too...also awesome. The crying had a lot to do with me feeling like crap and having been up since 3am and having no sleep and the odd attachment to my boss I have formed these last couple of years. Then I went up to the museum where I was met with our yearly chocolate fair. Basically we lure the incoming freshman into the museum with chocolate and then try to show them how awesome the museum is. Also there is chocolate so we're just working the psychology angle and giving them happy associations with the museum. At this point I really hadn't eaten anything this day since I was so nauseous so I was like...chocolate! yay! life isn't so bad anymore. I waited in line at the chocolate fountain where there were trays of rice crispy treats and cookies and graham crackers and other fun things to dip into chocolate. By the time I got to the front of the line the only thing left to dip into the chocolate was pretzels. I HATE pretzels!! It was traumatic.

After working at the museum I went out to dinner with Reid and his classmates as they were celebrating the finishing of their first year talks. I hitched a ride to the park and ride with Reid rather than taking the bus. I started feeling really sick about half way home. Almost opened his door at the drive through at Jack in the Box to vomit on the beauty bark. I didn't. Got to the park and ride and almost did it again as I went from his car to mine. I didn't. Driving home was special as I had the same feeling come over me except this time I was operating a vehicle. No incident.

Worked at 6am on Wednesday and only had a half day so I went home at around 11am. Reid didn't have class that day so he made us some eggs. Then a half hour later we were still hungry so we had hamburgers. I had two. Then I fell asleep on the couch for like...6 hours? Reid told me I was being a useless human being. I told him that I was going to tell everyone what he said and make sure it was out of context. So there it is. When I woke up it was still pretty late and I was not hungry at all so I didn't eat.

Thursday morning I was still feeling really barfy without the actual barfing and so I couldn't do my usual reading on the bus which doesn't start the morning out great. When I got to Office Depot I did a bunch of dry heaving. I spent a lot of time hovering over trash cans for that particular shift. Then I went up to the museum and managed to not do any of the dry heaving, but still felt really bad. I actually left work early. I never do that. My boss at the museum thinks I'm overworking myself--which is probably true, but what's a girl to do when you need to pay the bills.

Friday I worked a half day at Office Depot and then went with Reid to do all of his miscellaneous errands he needed to run before leaving for Taiwan. I was feeling a little better, but had moved into a feeling light headed and dizzy. We also learned that the pills I had been taking earlier in the week to help me feel better expired 04/04. I really just wasn't meant to be healthy. I can only blame my own stupidity.

Saturday I was feeling nauseous all day and developed a weird feeling that I could only describe as a lump at the bottom of my throat. I think there's a lymph node or something down there. Blah! Then I took a 48 minute lunch and talked to Chrissy and we diagnosed that I'm just crazy and that I've probably just been having a prolonged anxiety attack due to all the things that have kind of happened all at once. I tend to have a lot of separation anxiety and with Reid going to Taiwan and my boss leaving...and all the what am I going to do for a living thoughts going on; it wouldn't be too much of a stretch. Basically yesterday and today I've just been antsy and I have the same exact feeling I would get right before I would do a very important presentation--except there's no presentation. Usually right after a presentation I instantly feel better, but since there's no 'event' that I'm dreading or having anxiety over I don't know when I'm going to be feeling better. I think honestly I feel a little better just being fairly certain that most of it is in my head. I know it started out as a real illness, but then progressed into me making myself sick for other reasons. Go me!

Saturday when I left the museum I went back to work at Office Depot for an hour. I always enjoy sandwiching the museum shift between two Office Depot shifts. When I went home I spent at LEAST 1 hour scrubbing all the dishes Reid left me in the sink before he left just so that I could put them in the dishwasher. Then I convinced myself that since I already had a sponge that I should go and clean out the shower which took about a half hour. After that I ate some dinner and passed out on the couch.

Sunday was supposed to be my day off, but instead I volunteered to work the museum's annual Bug Blast event. It's a lot of fun, but crazy busy for us. We had over 1000 people in and it is our second busiest day of the year (after Dino Day of course). We had a bug chef in who did 3 different cooking demonstrations. He also has a cookbook. There were lots of bugs to be eaten that day by all. Not me, though. A lot of bug experts come in and set up tables with live bugs (tarantulas, stick bugs, millipedes and creepy beetles, etc.) and dead bugs that are on pins from our collections. Also we always have a big section of plants that eat insects (venus fly traps, etc.). A bunch of arts and crafts stuff for the kiddies. Learning is fun. Tomorrow is my one day off this week so hopefully my body will just chill out and I will be a normal person to return to work on Tuesday! Reid called me at around 3pm and left me a message nagging me to keep my phone with me especially on my days off. When he goes over oceans I guess he forgets when I tell him I'm working. Tsk tsk. And of course since I was already working on my day off I decided to also work at Office Depot before hand. Yeah...I am crazy.

Pointing out the obvious this is a long post. I'd be surprised if anyone gets through it. No pictures or anything. You're welcome!

Oh and something funny I saw when I was driving home from work today was a gentleman walking across an intersection in a cross walk (he had the white 'go' signal). A car turning left almost hit him. I guess the guy in the cross walk saw this coming because he was ready. As the car passed in front of him at very close range and crosswalk guy spit this MASSIVE loogie onto his back window. I thought this was hilarious! Good for crosswalk guy. Kind of gross...ok, really gross, BUT the driver of the car almost hit him! He wasn't keying the guy's car or anything and a loogie isn't permanent damage, but it made a point. Little bits of justice in the world. End post.

This is Better!

2008-09-07T20:18:00.000-07:00

All right, so the video I posted of Conan was ok--really made me smile at the time--but this video I found made me laugh! People walking by as I was watching it probably thought I was having an episode. Basically comedian Norm Macdonald was on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire playing for charity. I had forgotten how smart he is. He is hilarious and really makes Regis's job difficult. It's not the best quality video, but it's all edited so you don't have to watch anything but the funny parts. After the Who Wants to Be a Millionaire stuff there are some funny clips of Norm on Conan which are also hilarious (although some of that stuff gets a little inappropriate for younger viewers, even though it did air on NBC unedited). Even Reid thought this was hilarious and he usually doesn't laugh when I force him to watch video clips that I find funny. Enjoy!!

Please welcome your host--Conaaaaannnnn O'Brieeeeennnnn!

2008-09-05T19:14:00.000-07:00

I had forgotten how much I love Mr. Conan O'Brien. Ok, so I could never forget that, BUT I do have a renewed enjoyment of him after playing around on YouTube and finding different clips from his show. The following is not from his show, but from when he was hosting the Emmys a couple of years ago. Something for everyone (almost).

Kids May Love Dinosaurs.....

2008-08-28T20:14:00.001-07:00

But dinosaurs love kids more.... (insert scene from Jurassic Park with Lex and the jiggly jello spoon after seeing the velociraptor shadows and then the t-rex attacking the children through the giant glass sunroof of the cars....all done with the movie announcer's dramatic voice). This is an advertisement I saw on the SciFi channel yesterday. I found it hilarious. For once Reid was actually amused at the same time and for the same reason as I was. I also found it was funny that they're making a semi-big deal about playing Jurassic Park on the SciFi channel when the movie came out 15 years ago.

Anyways, I had one of my more accomplished Wednesdays yesterday. Wednesdays I only work 6am to 9:30am (or a little later) at Office Depot. I got out about an hour late and then went to Fred Meyer for a little grocery shopping (and I needed shampoo and soaps which are a bit cheaper there than at the grocery store). I got onto the escalator in front of an older gentleman (maybe in his 70s) and he was trying to be charming saying (loudly) how lucky he was to be the only one on the escalator with me. And then there was a creepy guy in the frozen food aisle that said "Hey babe...you from Woodinville? I think I've seen you around..." I did not find this as charming as he looked to be in his forties and was trying to put on the sly smile (which did not work due to his very yellow teeth).

So that was Fred Meyer....then I got home and called the bank and had them change my address to where I actually live instead of having all my mail go to Father Dearest's house. You're welcome Dad! I made other phone calls to services that are boring and not worth more than this sentence. Then I read a little bit...and then watched What Not to Wear where I fell asleep for a couple of hours without having disturbing dreams which was a nice change.

After Reid got home we decided to cut the dog's nails. Ok, so WE did not decide this, but I have known for some time now that the doggies could use a pedicure. Needless to say this took us over an hour! Oh my gosh what the heck were we doing, right? Well our dogs are wussies. I decided to do Kona's first because I figured she would be less dramatic and I could practice (since I have never trimmed doggy nails before). Reid had to put his entire body weight on her to hold her still after the first paw. She wasn't whining or anything...just extra flinchy which of course is not optimal nail cutting conditions. Reid was feeding her treats the whole time so eventually we got her all done. Zoey was the pain in the butt. For a 17 pound dog I swear she could probably escape a bear if the bear decided not to use its claws or teeth. She is ridiculously strong and resourceful. She is also ridiculously dramatic--yipping without me actually even touching her paw. It was SO annoying. Her nails of course were much thinner and easier to cut, but the struggle to get to the cutting part was the problem. I did make one of Zoey's nails bleed (but I had the powder so it was ok) because she squirmed at the wrong time. For her last paw she was being such a pain we wrapped her in a blanket and had her one back leg sticking out. Reid couldn't manage to hold her and at this point I just gave up so she has just one little claw that is uncut. It's her extra long velociraptor claw.

The whole evening I was watching a Ghost Hunters marathon which was great!! It made me happy. One of the episodes was the one where they visited the Stanley Hotel in Colorado which was Steven King's inspiration for The Shining. One of the best episodes ever. My biggest problem with Ghost Hunters is Reid. He is a non believer. It bothers me much more than it should. All I ask is that he is open to the possibility of ghosts or paranormal--not necessarily believe in them, BUT every awesome thing on the show that they find as proof Reid rolls his eyes at. He says he just does it to bother me, but I feel that it is just an added bonus for him and not the sole reason. So he's the skeptic Scully and I'm the believer Mulder. I'm supposed to be the sexy red head dammit! Rant over.

Lately

2008-08-11T14:19:00.000-07:00

A couple of weekends ago Reid and I (and the pups) went to Spokane to stay at my dad's house for my friend's wedding. It was fun! I always hate that we have to do little short trips to Spokane, but that's what having no money will do to you since we could only take off a couple of days of work. It was fun to see my friends again. The wedding was fun! A lot of dancing...not that I participated, but it was fun to watch.

The next day Reid and I went to bug Barbie at the fish store. There's an octopus for sale!! Reid said I couldn't have it. I said it would be awesome because who has an octopus for a pet?? Reid said he didn't want to be married to that person. I said that if he kept that up then he wouldn't have to worry about being married at all. Then Reid and I headed over to Bowl and Pitcher sans octopus, which is just a little 'scenic' area in Spokane that is a couple big lumps of basalt and water and a bridge. It was nice. I was mostly on the phone with Chrissy. Then I faked like I was climbing a really big rock wall as Reid took pictures that gave the illusion that I was being athletic, where as I was really only 3 or 4 feet off the ground.

Chrissy and I are discussing koolaid.

Look at me being deceptively athletic...

After all that we went back to dad's where we systematically tortured the dogs by forcing them to swim in his pool. At least we know they can swim. They both go spastic once they're wet.

Kona running full speed at Zoey as Zoey shakes off.

Saturday night Dan and Allison came over and we barbecued hamburgers and played the dvd version of trivial pursuit. I won! After a long time, that is. It was a fun night. Oh and on my way home from work I saw a squirrel running across right in the middle of a cross walk...as though he was a person. It was very cute.

Yesterday Reid and I just sat on our butts all day and watched the Olympics. It was more entertaining than I remember. The gymnastics girls were kind of funny with their falls, but once they stopped doing that they were very good. That's about all for now.

Weddings and the Dances that do not Relate

2008-07-23T19:07:00.001-07:00

Nothing too interesting to report. I just cut my fingernails so I can type better. Very exciting stuff. Reid and I are going to Spokane on Friday after work for my friend TT's wedding! Well, she's actually already married, but they are having the official ceremony on Saturday. That should be fun. I'll get to see a bunch of people that I haven't seen in a long time (and people that I actually want to see too!). I dropped my dress for the wedding off at the dry cleaners this morning as the last time I wore it I got food stains all over it. I should never be allowed to look pretty and eat at the same time. It doesn't end well.

Oh, and the side explanation of my friend that is getting married--her name is Amy, but I've called her TT since..high school I think? Basically TT stands for Terminator Trudnowski because when she wasn't paying attention to her stance sometimes it just looked like she was ready to whoop some ass. You'd have to see it to understand. Anyways, so TT's new last name is Papajohn (also fun!) but you can see that that would now make her nickname TP, or, toilet paper. In high school she had all of her friends sign a t-shirt that she brought in and I had constructed a little poem that went something like "When TT goes PP she uses TP" and included a little sketch of a roll of toilet paper. Was it prophetic? No, but it amuses me nonetheless.

Last week I was walking to the bus stop and a homeless gentleman, rather than asking for some cash, asked me..."sweety, do ya have yourself a debit er credit card I could borrow?" It was very difficult to say no with a straight face. I was definitely thrown off by his question, but I thought it was funny and with the times. How many people really have a lot of cash on them nowadays anyhow?

Poor little Gev got kicked off of So You Think You Can Dance last week. Here is his last dance. 40 more seconds of your life (but worth it!!).

So I know he wasn't the best overall dancer as he was more of a street dancer, but he was definitely the most entertaining solo to watch. Unfortunately you only got to see the solos when the dancers were in the bottom 3. Anyways, America also kicked off one of the most popular female dancers Kherington. People just forget to vote for the right dancers I guess? I really enjoyed watching her dance, but I didn't like her as a person. She's the stereotypical popular girl that you don't like in high school that can get away with anything because she's popular (and probably rich too...unfortunately I'm just stereotyping her all over the place and guessing she's rich by her name and her expensive shoe addiction haha). I guess when she was playing soccer she punched another girl in the face because she "got in her way." It's that sort of thing that really bothers me, but I should quit complaining because she's off the show. Speaking of which the show will be on in a second so I have to go and watch it.

Mt. Rainier

2008-07-14T15:35:00.001-07:00

Yesterday Reid and my friends Dan and Allison and I went on a drive down to Mt. Rainier. It was a lot of fun. We left around 9am and didn't back until about 10:30pm. It was a beautiful day and so the temperature was perfect actually up on the mountain. We did a little hike up on the northeast part of the mountain leaving from the Sunrise visitor center. Off in the distance it looked like one of the nearby mountains was erupting, which is what I was hoping for. It turns out it was only a forest fire, so that was a little sad.

Dan helping Allison to not fall in the water.

After Mt. Rainier we went to Randle to eat (which is where Dan lived for 4 years). Then we drove a long way out of the way to a road that was supposed to lead to Spirit Lake so we could see the destroyed car and the other iconic sites of the Mt. St. Helens blast, but we arrived at that road and it had gates across it saying the road was closed. That really sucked, but at least the ride was beautiful. Some of the not so beautiful things we saw were a biker who had his spandexy suit front all zipped down exposing his chest which should have really been left covered and a women that looked to be in her mid 50's at a scenic viewpoint that felt the best attire for being on a drive would be a swim suit.

Reid taking the map from me to try to prove me wrong (I couldn't find something and said it wasn't on there). It wasn't on the map. I won.

Oh yeah, and all of my Mt. Rainier pictures turned out way over exposed because I suck at photography which is why I didn't really post any. I'm sure Reid will be posting all of his perfect pictures on his blog within the next couple days so you can go and look at what I saw but couldn't capture on his site. Nope, not bitter.

Next month we're all planning on going camping to watch a supposedly really cool meteor shower. All details have yet to be decided on, but that's something to look forward to.

Speaking of views and mountains, I decided to take pictures of and share with all of you how Reid does his laundry. He washes his clothes just fine, but that next part in which you fold your clothes and put them away is something he has not done more than a couple of times since we lived in the dorms. I have folded his clothes and put them all away for him once since we've lived here just to get him started in the process, but it didn't last. He will go and put his stuff away when we are to have his friends over, but that's it. I do want to acknowledge that Reid is usually pretty good about keeping the kitchen clean and taking out the garbage--and sometimes mowing the yard haha (and spider killing...that's an important part of home maintenance here). I would just really love to have a spare bedroom back and not feel we need to close the door when there is company. :) Love you Reid!!

Kona in the background giving scale to the mountain of clothes on the spare bedroom bed.

Days Go By

2008-07-12T21:37:00.000-07:00

I haven't really had too much going on, so not much to talk about (not that that will stop me). I've been working a few really long days between the two jobs this past week. 7am to 8:30 or 9pm twice this week and my normal long days are usually only 7am to 5pm. I'm really enjoying this year's season of So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD). Watch Gev dance for his life! It's only 38 seconds of your life. I'm a sucker for a spaz dancer.

I'm excited for the X-Files movie to come out later this month. I really don't think I remember much about what happened in the later seasons, but I imagine they'll dumb it down so we forgetful fans can remember. I'll at least try to find the last episode so that I can semi-refresh my mind. Also, the last Stargate SG-1 movie comes out at the end of this month. Life is good in geekville.

My friend Tommy brought me home some fry sauce from Arctic Circle in Idaho since they don't have that fast food place anywhere on this side of the state. That definitely livens up our fridge.

In a couple of weeks I get to go to Spokane for my friend Amy (TT)'s wedding! Reid and I are going to bring the pups and stay with Dad and Barbie. I'm interested in seeing if they enjoy swimming in their pool. Gosh I'm exciting.

Goodnight General

2008-07-01T19:46:00.000-07:00

So there will probably be only one or two people that read this that will know who I am talking about, but on June 29th actor Don S. Davis passed away due to a massive heart attack. This depresses me more than it should and warranted several texts to some friends with large quantities of sad faces. Don S. Davis played General Hammond on my favorite show Stargate and also played Scully's dad on my past favorite show X-Files. I never met him or anything, but through watching A LOT of dvd extras (and watching the show for 10 years) and behind the scene interviews he really seemed like a true gentleman and an awesome guy. RIP Don S. Davis--wish there were more people like you in the world.

This morning I started to ride the bus again. Gas is too expensive so I gots myself a bus pass. There is a park and ride about 6 minutes from the house. Well, not so much as an official park and ride as a church parking lot that allows commuters to park there on the weekdays (not like they're using the lot, right?) which I find very nice. It's about a half hour bus ride and I'm very happy I don't get motion sickness so I can read while on the bus. Also, its really nice to not have to pay attention to rush hour traffic.

Yesterday the temperature was in the mid 80's so Reid and I took the puppies to the creek that's behind the house. Its not directly behind the house as you have to take a few different roads to get there, but it is in the same general direction. Kona loved it, not a surprise. Zoey loved it too! It was very cute. She forged the creek like a champion and was very proud of herself. She was almost to the point of swimming. Not on purpose of course, but she had a tendency of just walking and not watching where she was going so she would be hitting deeper parts on accident and hence almost swimming.

I have a lot of pictures from Georgia that I didn't post--mostly out of laziness and how a lot of pictures I take need an explanation of some sort. Maybe I'll post them. No promises. While Chrissy and I were in Georgia Reid let me use his flickr account. I have my own special folder just for that vacation that you are welcome to look at HERE

Ignore the face. I was workin' it.

Its a sign of the times...

2008-06-17T19:02:00.000-07:00

Chrissy and I have seen a few interesting signs while we have been down here.

Also, here is a giant doored restroom inside the lighthouse visitor's center.

Oh yeah, and here's the lighthouse. Its supposedly haunted which makes it 10 times more awesome.

We rented bikes today. They even came with baskets. No handlebar tassels were available. I asked.

Chrissy had to pull over when Chris called her so that we could avoid an accident.

And just because I can, here is a picture of Chrissy airing out her armpits as bike riding is serious workout business--but mostly this was due to it being 96 degrees out.

Sunday

2008-06-15T19:01:00.000-07:00

Today was a much slower day. This morning Mumsy made us breakfast that consisted of bacon, eggs and biscuits. Then we took a while getting ready to go to the beach (ok, so I took a while and everyone was getting impatient with me--in my defense its not like the ocean was going anywhere). We have one beach chair and two towels. The problem was that mom wanted to be really close to the water, but it was all very wet and wave rippled sand which doesn't pose the best situation for the towels. I tried not to be on my towel for too long since the water was seeping through. Chrissy and I went out and swam for a little bit. The water was actually too warm...that's right...Melissa is saying that something is TOO warm.

There was a guy about 30 feet away from us fishing and while we were there he caught a baby black tip shark. It was comforting to know that there was someone that close to us actually trying to lure fish into our area. He was just catching and releasing things with his son or grandson and it turned out that that same baby shark had been caught before since it had a different hook in it's mouth. The fisherman took both hooks out and threw him back into the water.

Our fisherman beach neighbors.

Chrissy and I spent a little bit of time starting a hermit crab rescue shelter in a tide pool. This basically consisted of 5 hermit crabs that we pulled out of shallower areas and put them in a deeper area so they could crawl around on each other, which they did. Actually I think they were just checking out each other's shells to see if anyone was home and if it happened to be an empty shell they would have inspected to see if they wanted to make that their new home. They kept grabbing and rolling each other's shells with their little bitty claws. It was cute. No names were assigned.

Once I was tired of laying on a wet towel I went back toward the condo and then decided to swim in the pool (where there were available lounge chairs for me!) and there was no one else in the pool at the time which made it more appealing. Chrissy and Mom followed. The water in the pool was cooler than the ocean and was very refreshing. I was very content. Mom and I also compared skin color on our legs. I think it is very apparent I have Dad's skin tone.

From the pool we watched a storm start to roll in which included a lot of thunder to be heard, but only a few lightning strikes to be seen. Also, a giant ocean liner thing floated on by really close to shore. I don't know how I didn't see it coming, but I was a bit startled by it just appearing in my line of sight.

It pretty much rained the rest of the day. Chrissy and I walked in the pouring rain to the little shopping village about 20 blocks away. Chrissy got herself a purse. It was all very exciting. Then we went back to the condo for a little while and then we had Dairy Queen for dinner. And that is pretty much it for Sunday. Happy Father's Day to my Daddy Dearest.

We be cruisin' ya'll

2008-06-14T22:06:00.000-07:00

Today (well, Saturday) we went on a 5 hour gambling cruise. To be able to gamble here you have to get into international waters which took about a half hour. We almost missed the cruise and would have for certain if it weren't for mom's speeding...and the employee letting us in a locked gate and escorting us down to the boat (where a different employee proceeded to yell at us and tell us that we could get arrested for doing that rather than telling the escorting employee they did something wrong). Then when we got onto the boat I realized that I didn't have my ID with me which was required. I had left it in my carry on bag since I had just been through all the airport fun on Friday. Lucky for me I have an old non-valid ID in my wallet with my old last name on it. I keep it in my wallet because my last name on that one matches what it says on my debit card since I haven't gotten my last name changed with my bank yet (because it requires both of my parents to sign and fax things or for me to get an entirely different account--and I'm lazy) so I have it if anyone ever decides to card me when I use it.

This was the gate that was locked that the employee let us through on our way on the ship.

It was pretty fun...just like a casino except when you get bored you go out on deck and watch dolphins and jellyfish in the water. They also fed us buffet style. The whole cruise cost $10 each, so that's not bad. Also, all 3 of us shared a special bingo card and won $100! Ok, so there were 3 winners so they gave us $35 and an ugly bingo t-shirt, but still... And there was a little bit of drama with Chrissy and her bingo pen that she bought and having to let mom use it, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Us on the way home.

On the way home Chrissy (like a lady) needed to spit a loogie out the window. She was in the front seat and it didn't get very far as it splatted itself across my back seat window. It was pretty gross so I will share it with you.

We then got blizards from DQ and went back to the condo where Chrissy and I proceeded to the beach access stairs even it was high tide and they were submerged. We just sat on the stairs and let the waves hit us. It started to hurt after a while since we were being flung back against the stairs so we gave up. Then we were cold and went into the jacuzzi tub together since it is ginormous (bathing suits on..nothing creepy jeez).

Later there was lightning off in the distance and I spent a while trying to figure out how to use Reid's old camera to do pictures of it on long exposures, but as I had tried to explain to Reid I didn't have anything to set the camera down on since I was literally standing IN the ocean as I was taking them. I took some with the camera on the dock, but it wasn't at a good angle for where the lightning was coming from since there were buildings in the way. Tomorrow is supposed to be stormy all day so maybe I'll get some better shots.

Artist's portrayal of how a picture of lightning would look if one didn't have a tripod and was standing in waves. Notice the Scottish Terrier taking offense to the pink lightning above his head.

Georgia

2008-06-13T18:44:00.000-07:00

I'm in Georgia right now. My hair is pulled back, but it looks like I got my hair wet, then it dried funny...and then someone rubbed a balloon on it (incidentally just the thought of someone rubbing a balloon on my head makes me cringe much like nails on a chalk board).

Anyways, I made it here, but my luggage did not. That didn't surprise me as I had to run to make my connecting flight in Atlanta to Brunswick since we sat on the ground in Seattle due to some unforeseen 'emergency' that needed to be taken care of with the equipment for about a half hour. Also, I'm crazy about the whole satellite tv available on the larger planes. It made my 5 hour flight go by much quicker.

Mumsy's condo is...awesome. She is just in it for a few months and is not buying it, but these condos go for $1.6 million. It is very nice...I've never been somewhere quite like this before, mostly because I don't usually go places that are nice. I'm sure I'll post pictures later of all the stuff I'll talk about, but right now I'm on Mumsy's laptop because mine is in my lost luggage. I'm really paranoid that it's broken. That was pretty stupid of me to put it in my checked bag, but I did the best job I could wrapping it so I guess we'll find out. At least I had Reid back up everything on my computer before I left so I could have been dumber.

The Atlantic Ocean is ridiculously warm. It's like wavy flowy bathwater with sharks. And dolphins. We've already seen dolphins just from being here at the condo. Honestly I just thought that was something mom exaggerated when she was telling me this and I was very surprised to find out that it was real.

The guy delivering my late suitcase just called and is on his way, so I'm going to get off here now and sit with anxiety waiting for it.
Update: My laptop is fine.

Today

2008-06-06T16:52:00.000-07:00

It is June 6th. It is currently 57 degrees. I'm wearing sweats and my slippers and I'm covered in a blanket. I have to say I'm still a bit chilly. There's really not much more to say.

Kiss Me Goodbye

2008-05-31T20:34:00.000-07:00

Whenever Reid leaves for work or school before I'm out of bed he always gives me a kiss on the cheek and says bye to me. Apparently at about 4:40 am on Friday morning after he kissed my cheek my response was to say "Did you burn yourself?" and then fall immediately back to sleep. Now I really wasn't awake and don't really have any recollection of this, but when he questioned me about it later in the day I was able to remember the dream I was having when Reid was saying bye. I was having a dream about Reid trying to use a curling iron on his hair in the bathroom and I was telling him it was a bad idea because his hair was too short. So when he came to kiss me I was thinking he was coming to tell me he hurt himself. I was right, though...his hair is too short and he probably would burn himself.

Dr. Jones! Dr. Jones!

2008-05-24T19:57:00.000-07:00

I think I would still write "I love you" on my eyelids. I have to say that I really enjoyed the new Indiana Jones movie. I won't ruin it for anyone that has not seen it yet, don't worry. It was all around just a fun movie, and funny and all that other stuff I look for in a movie. I'm not going to pretend that the plot was the strongest of any movie I've ever seen, but really what Indiana Jones movie has had that? Reid got us a large fruit punch and I drank way too much of it. I had to pee about 20 minutes into the 2 hour movie, but I couldn't bring myself to leave because I didn't want to miss anything and Reid does a terrible recap. It sucked. There were so many waterfalls and things that flowed that were constant reminders. But I made it! I had plenty of practice at field camp avoiding going to the bathroom out in the field.

And I got my glasses! I'm still getting used to them, but I think they work for me. That's all this time around.

Pedestrian Problems

2008-05-21T21:56:00.000-07:00

Something that annoys me with walking along the sidewalks of the UW is when you come across a group of friends or whatever that insists on walking in a line. Not single file, mind you, but side by side 4 or 5 people wide which causes them to take up the entire sidewalk. This in itself is inconsiderate, but what is more annoying is when you are walking toward them and they don't break apart, expecting you to walk in the road to go around them. I'm just whining now. It happened to me today, but I wasn't about to jump into oncoming traffic so they could left/right flirt with eachother. I just kept walking until they realized at the last second that they had to break apart. I made some pretty good shoulder slamming physical contact with a girl that was wearing too much perfume and makeup, but I just kept on walking as if nothing happened...just as they would have if I had to jump into traffic. The only situation in which walking in this manner is justified is depicted below.

On my way down the stairs from campus my foot was hovering in mid-step when an overweight campus rat darted out of the brush beside the stairs to right where my foot was about to step. My foot barely missed his tail. This is much more dramatic if you imagine stringed instruments and a slow motion zoomed in camera shot happening during this 'incident'. Note: I deem almost all wildlife on campus overweight. Also, there are 113 stairs that I go up and down every day that I work at the museum. End note.

Honey Honey Honey

2008-05-18T18:34:00.000-07:00

I have reached a level of contentment that I did not think possible with my Alberton's shopping experience. Anyone who is familiar with my eating habits knows that I consider myself a honey mustard connoisseur and that my all time favorite honey mustard sauce is the sauce they serve at Tony Roma's (they sell their barbecue sauces, but not the honey mustard). I like to say that if it was socially acceptable I would drink it with a straw. So I was at the deli counter and saw a little tub of honey mustard and decided to try it. I win! It is the closest honey mustard to the Tony Roma's honey mustard that I have found yet! My life is small so I get overly excited about things like this.

Today was a really nice day. The temperature got up to around 75 I think. I got to work today, so I didn't really get to enjoy it too much. There was the U District Street Fair going on one block away from the museum so I got to go to that for about 15 minutes. Other people walk too slow. I think I've been conditioned from when I was a student walking with a purpose to classes. I become frustrated fairly quickly with people who are just leisurely strolling along so I gave up on it and finished off my break at the museum.

Today is also Mount St. Helens Day! And my grandma's birthday. :) And also I'm very excited about The Indiana Jones movie that comes out this week. That's a movie I can probably even convince Reid to take me to see! Getting him to see a movie is a difficult task. That's all I have to say about that...

Two Monacles with Frames Please

2008-05-16T15:26:00.000-07:00

This morning I went to Costco for an eye exam. As anticipated, I have the same problems that Chrissy has. A mild astigmatism in both eyes and farsighted. The optometrist was really cool and actually wasn't lame. He was making fun of himself and his cheap $20 squeaky shoes, etc. Anyways, so the verdict is that I get to have part time glasses (not full time, yay!). I picked out some frames that I like. They are purple (Barbie I think you'll like them!) only because they didn't have green in a frame that I liked. The employee that was helping me at the frames section didn't really speak English that well so we had some major communication issues and there was a lot of pointing and other hand gestures on my behalf so I could make sure to not have things get messed up. In less than two weeks I should have them. I'll be able to read/see like a normal person again! I'm very excited since I spend a lot of time reading.

These are the kind of glasses I got. I'll try to change my wardrobe so that I will be able to look as fashion coordinated as I am in the picture. I'm joking by the way, but this has to be one of my all time favorite pictures of myself. Most of you have seen this picture before, but I'll try to overuse it as much as possible.

After my Costco adventure I went and picked up a book at the library that I had put on hold. It's incredibly nice out right now. About 77 degrees. Reid will be in complain mode since he can't handle anything above 70. He starts getting all dramatic saying that we have to pull out all the fans. All he needs to do is just not wear 6 layers of clothes and he'll be fine.

Earlier I was watching A Haunting which is a ghost show on Discovery Channel. Yes I love that kind of crap. Anyways, this episode was about a couple of grad students in Seattle that went to the UW that got married and then moved away from the U-District and moved into a haunted apartment in Ballard. It was very exciting as they used a lot of UW establishing shots and they ALMOST showed the Burke. It was very exciting--sort of. Well for me it was anyway. The acting was terrible as always, but the story was kind of cool as the apartment was being haunted by a couple of ghosts where one killed the other over a drug deal or something. Good stuff.

Call Waiting?

2008-05-11T19:06:00.000-07:00

Sunday drivers are TERRIBLE. Seriously. But back to the point of this post. Today is Mother's Day, so while I was pricing books in the basement of the museum I gave mumsy a call. It turns out that she had been on the phone with Chrissy when I called, but switched over to me when I beeped in. Apparently that's all that mom knows how to do with her cell phone. She can't switch back to someone once she's switched over. According to mom she was first on the phone with her friend Lynn, then Chrissy beeped in and mom switched to her and then I beeped in and mom switched to me. The part that is so annoying is that when mom switches over to someone else the person she was talking to is told 'hold on' as opposed to I'll call you back later. During our conversation I heard the telltale click noise that indicates that the person you are talking to has got someone beeping in on the other line. She gave me the pattented 'hold on' and left me in silence. Now since mom had told me all about her inability to switch back to a caller I hung up. Then I called Chrissy who it turns out was the person who mom had switched over to when I was pushed out of the conversation. So now Chrissy was talking to me and mom was left in silence and as it turns out, Chrissy is also incapable of switching back to someone who is on hold. So then Chrissy and I talked for a little while and mom was left by herself. We're wonderful daughters. Happy Mother's Day.

A (not so flattering, but the only one I have on the computer) picture of mumsy and her daughters.

..and the verdict is...

2008-05-07T19:38:00.000-07:00

So I have been summoned for jury duty in Spokane County on June 16th, 2008. I should plan for a full day. They've even given me a parking pass so that I can put it on my dashboard while I make important decisions. Sounds like a good time right? Well what's wrong with this (which is probably already apparent to most of you reading this) is that I live in Seattle, not Spokane. The last time I was living in Spokane was at my Dad's house for one summer while I worked at K-Mart in 2003. My drivers license has been registered for Seattle for a long time and I'm even registered to vote here, so I don't get it. It says they chose based on licensed drivers and registered voters sooooo....???? It also says I cannot call in to tell them I can't make it (as my parking permit did not include a complimentary plane ticket) but I have to submit this 'claim' in writing. At least I have plenty of time to procrastinate that.

I guess now that I think about it I wouldn't even be in Seattle on June 16th but in Georgia with Chrissy and mumsy. That's right. I'm going to Georgia in the summer so that I can be incredibly hot and have hair that's even frizzier than it already is if that's even possible. You all can look forward to me having pictures of myself looking like Monica from Friends. By June I figure I might actually have figured out how to post pictures properly.

I just saw a commercial advertising the Emerald City Comicon for this weekend (a comic book/sci-fi convention). The only person I recognized was Gigi Edgley. She played Chiana on Farscape (which used to be one of my favorite shows). She was my favorite and I always thought it would be awesome to dress up like her for Halloween. But alas...I don't have a full crew of make up artists to work on me for 3 and a half hours at my disposal. Oh yeah, and I don't have a chest either. That seemed to be a part of the costume. Below is a picture of her because I'm playing with the picture uploader thing. PS. I fixed the comment thing so that you don't have to sign into anything or try to figure out what the picasso numbers/letters are to prove you're not a robot.

Brandi Carlile rocks my socks off

2008-05-04T21:55:00.001-07:00

Ok, so this isn't a video of her rocking per-say...and I guess she doesn't really do rock music. Anyways, this video is from a concert of hers that she did in Seattle on November 2nd, 2007. I should have gone! After seeing this song I really regret it. I had the choice to go as a birthday present, but I decided that Reid and I would be too busy packing for me to go since we moved on my birthday (November 4th) to the house we live in now. This is an incredibly rare performance by her since she is a gee-tar girl all the way and as far as I'm aware has not ever played the piano during any live performance. She has so much emotion when she sings it always gets my attention. Reid really hates when I play this song because I play it so much. Baby =P haha. Anyways, watch it and then you can tell me how much I suck for making you watch it, but watch it!! Oh yeah, and it's a 6 minute song, but don't let that stop you :)

Video: Brandi Carlile - Seattle - 20071102 - 21 - Hallelujah

Mushroom Maynia

2008-05-04T19:59:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know how to spell mania but this is how it was advertised for the museum. Will the cleverness ever end? Anyways, it was a fun event. I can't say mushrooms hold a particular interest for me, but I think I may have learned a couple of things. One or two perhaps. The museum didn't cater for the employees, but it did for the volunteers. I did try some bread with mushroom butter at one of the tables and I was surprised that I actually enjoyed it. Enough to eat 5 pieces. Some might think that's selfish, but I would like to say that there was a huge tray FULL of them. The people in charge of the event on the museum's side gave the volunteers an estimate to expect 1200 people. That's about the number of people we get on our second busiest day of the year which is Bug Blast (Dinosaur Day is our biggest day at around 2000 visitors). I think it was a ridiculous estimate to give them being that the event is on a Sunday and also isn't really a children oriented event. We had around 370 attendants. It was because of this retardo estimate that there was so much extra...everything. Food, volunteers, brochures, etc. I just feel bad because they were very misled and wasted a bunch of money. Oh well, more mushroom butter for me!

One of the mushroom volunteers was wearing hammer pants with a mushroom design. I then had to explain to my coworker what hammer pants were. He is Alicia's age and there is a bit of a generation gap between us. I also had to explain to him what MST3K was (Mystery Science Theater 3000) and then had to further explain that the show is much funnier than the description of it would make it seem.

When I got home Reid was obsessively cleaning his car in the driveway. I asked him when he was going to clean my car. No reply. Then he proceeded to spend forever photographing it. More pictures of his car. Gosh that's exciting. All the while the dogs were out in the yard putting on their saddest neglect faces (where they look like they are next in line to be euthanized) and whining because they both had to be on their ropes. BOTH of them are no longer trustworthy to be in the yard without constant supervision. It used to be only Kona. So I decided that since today was actually nice out that I would pay the dogs a bit of efficient attention and used the furminator (special grooming brush) on the doggies out in the yard. Kona really enjoys it and it confuses Zoey. Then Reid and I had sandwiches from Jersey Mikes for dinner. I highly recommend these sandwiches.

Saturdays are Sundays

2008-05-03T16:25:00.000-07:00

Right now my days off are Friday and Saturday which shifts the idea of what I call a weekend. It's not so bad. At least I get two days off in a row. One of the sucky things is that most of the people I would hang out with have the whole Saturday and Sunday off days. Saturday night is the hang out time, but I'm lame and I work Sunday mornings so I always hang back. Sundays aren't the worst Monday because I work only one job and it's the museum, so I get to gently ease my way into my work week. Really the only stress that can come on a Sunday is that the weekends have a lot more visitors and then we have dinosaur birthday parties that also run at the same time. I don't think we'll have birthday parties tomorrow since it is one of our special days called "Mushroom Maynia." It's a special day with a mushroom theme, obviously. I wonder if they'll cater it for the employees? They do that sometimes on special days. That would be nice.

So Chrissy called me this morning to tell me that coincidentally before she had even read my previous blog post where I complain about my vision, she had gone to the optometrist this morning. She had all the same symptoms and complaints that I had and apparently it turns out that she has a mild astigmatism in both eyes and will now need to wear permanent glasses. My guess is that this will be the outcome of my yet to be scheduled visit to the optometrist, but maybe I'm wrong. Who knows. We're very twinny sometimes.

That phone conversation caused my cell phone to beep its 'I'm dying' beep about an hour later, which is ridiculous considering the phone had been charging all night and that was the first conversation I had had. It's a very dramatic phone. It thinks its over worked. Reid and I need a new phone plan and cell phones anyway as ours changes at the end of the month.

I'm learning a lot from I heart the 80's on VH1. For example, I did not know that Jaws III was made as a 3-D movie. I always thought it looked a little funny. Mom used to make us watch quality films like that all the time.

Already Irritated

2008-05-03T00:05:00.000-07:00

As the title implies I am already annoyed with blogging. Mostly because like most Americans I dislike things I do not fully understand. I'm just trying to figure out how everything works, but I'm not going to pretend I'm good at the whole computer operating thing. You can ask any poor customer that comes into the copy and print center and has a file that for some reason isn't just the straight forward 'file', 'print', select printer. They look at me like I'm supposed to be some sort of magician. I know the whole store dress code makes me look 'magical' and I come off as slightly schizophrenic (with people constantly talking in the ear piece that has to be worn at all times), but the pen I have attached to the cord of my walky talky ensemble (because I have nowhere else to put it as I do not have pockets) is not a magic wand and I cannot change the fact that you made your original file on a mac and our computers are not smart enough to handle that! And speaking of dress code there is an entire issue at the moment with wearing a red apron that I think is bull and makes my face a matching color to said garment, so I will hold off on my pirate language for the moment and save that thought for another time.

Anyways, I feel the need to tell everyone that the letter p key on this keyboard is malfunctioning and has to be pressed very hard. This problem showed itself right after Reid had borrowed my computer for a while. He claims he did nothing to it and gets really angry when I try to accuse him of damaging my computer. I feel it is a rather large coincidence that suddenly right after Reid uses my computer there is something physically wrong with it. I'm JUST saying....

So hopping around in thoughts here I'm hoping I can actually keep up with this blog a little better than my last one. I go through phases with my down time. I'll either read for months at a time, crochet for months at a time, paint or watch movies, write in my journal, and now I can add blogging to that list. Right now I'm in the reading a lot phase, but I'm coming to the end of a really good book and am for once not feeling motivated to go out and get another one right away...which gives me my clue that I'm changing phases. Also, I think I might need glasses as in the last month or two my eyes are really feeling strained and I've even done the old person thing where I've upped the font size on my screen so that all the web pages I visit can be read from 10 feet away.

The really good book I was referencing is Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See. It is historical fiction and makes me eternally grateful that I am not a female in 19th century China. No foot binding for me that makes my feet look like mutant lilys that are only 7 cm in length!

And speaking of China there was a really good issue of National Geographic that came out this month that is all about China. It is one of those special issues that comes with a big fold out map on the inside. The gentleman that lived in this house before us had a subscription to almost every magazine imaginable (yes, including Playboy) and apparently all these companies haven't realized yet that he doesn't pay his bills so we get A LOT of magazines each month free to us! I get all the cool ones like National Geographic and Reid gets all the boring car ones. We usually just throw away the Rolling Stones ones (and others that are similar that I can't remember the names to right now) because neither me or Reid are cool enough to even touch those. They would spontaneously combust upon us opening them in protest anyhow. Not worth the effort or the possible fire.

And I welcome myself... :)

2008-05-02T23:13:00.000-07:00

Ok... so I have entered the world of the blogging years behind everyone else, but wide world of inter-web here I come! Well, I guess it wasn't behind everyone else as I had a blog several years ago that I never updated and I'm pretty sure it was deleted from my lack of maintenance. Life goes on.

Here are some of my concerns about having a blog (which is mostly one reason--and the same reason as to why I have not had a blog for a long while). Anyone who has met me knows that I have a tendency toward bluntness (I feel one of my more 'charming' qualities). In the realm of my little Melissa-centric universe this attribute is mostly well understood and is somewhat tolerated, but it has the potential for me being judged in a not so positive manner. My friends will obviously not be bothered by this, but other persons that may know me from a different realm of my reality may not expect it. So this is my WARNING! My blinking sign that will remain on if the power goes out. This blog will hopefully be a fairly accurate representation of ME. I'm not asking that you like it, just that you don't secretly/passive aggressively hate me for it. And if you do decide to do the latter please inform me so that I can make a mental note to not care. That's all. Oh yeah and I was recently told that I swear like a pirate hooker, but usually the swearing comes as an 'in the moment' verbal release and I don't plan on being that worked up while blogging (plan being the operative word).

Oh, and another one of the reasons why I haven't set up a blog is because I feel Reid will be constantly telling me how I could improve stuff on my blog as he is an expert, after all. That annoys me. Actually, I think it is just the idea that he's telling me that what I have done is not to the highest level of perfection achievable. I am Melissa and therefore perfect, right?? Haha. I have to laugh at my own jokes a lot to keep my self esteem up. Anyways, he hasn't even said anything yet and I'm already living in my world of scenarios and getting worked up about it. Nothing new there.

This blog is getting long. I usually become disinterested in posts that start to become this long, so perhaps I will start a new post just to be annoying like that. It makes me feel as if I have accomplished more, ok?