Daffodils and other nonsense

So daffodil debacle...there's this place outside of Little Rock called Wye Mountain...I'm not sure why it's called that because it's definitely not a mountain...I don't even know if it qualifies as a hill. There's probably some sort of significance behind it, but I haven't taken the time (and probably won't) to look it up. Anyway, our little Arkansas book talked about how in the spring, there are thousands of daffodils blooming there. So two weeks ago, Simon and I planned to go check it out. It was a bad day from the start...it was cold and there were random patches of rain, I was tired and irritable, and I read the directions wrong on how to get there...driving us at least 30 miles out of our way, because once you start going the wrong way on the interstate, there's no turning around until you get to an overpass with an exit attached to it. So I'm cursing (probably saying shit a lot), and Simon is sitting supportively in the passenger seat, probably wondering how I could have been idiot enough to read the directions wrong. So by the time we get turned around I'm so irritable that I don't even want to see the damn daffodils. So we went home for a few hours to see if it would quit raining. It kind of did...so we got back in the car and headed out to Wye Mountain once again...this time in the right direction. We were about 2/3 of the way there when it started raining again (shit). But it wasn't raining too bad, so we pressed on. We got to Wye Mountain, and there really were thousands of daffodils...it was so pretty! It got out my camera to take a picture of Simon and some of the flowers, and my camera wouldn't turn on. Dammit all to H-E-double hockey sticks, I never put the battery back in it after I had charged it. So there we were, in the middle of a field of daffodils in the drizzling rain with no film. So we got in the car and went home. Fast forward two weeks to this morning...we got up early (after I hit the snooze 4 times) to make another attempt to see the daffodils with our friends Suzie and Matt. It's cloudy, but thankfully not raining. We get out there...AND...most of the daffodils are dead. So we took a couple pictures with the dying blooms and drove back home. Apparently a good experience with Wye Mountain just wasn't in the cards. And then I proceeded to make 18 cups of rice.


I hate the post office. You want to know why? Of course you do. Actually, I shouldn't say that I hate all post offices, just the one that's within walking distance of my apartment. First of all, they don't have one of those automated postage thingys that weigh your package, calculate the postage, print you a stamp, and provide you with a place to deposit the package. So quick and easy! You're instead forced to wait in line for the one teller that's working...all the while the second teller stands there in the background drinking her giant pop from Taco Bell...hop on a register why don't you? Otherwise hide out of sight from the long line of disgruntled post-office patrons who think you're lazy. If you're taking a break, please don't do it where we can see you...waiting in line is all the much more irritating whilst watching someone that could help you just stand around and gossip to the person that IS working...thereby slowing them down. The only envelopes this post office has to choose from when mailing a package are the military envelopes (which would be helpful if either my mom or Dana were in the military, but they're not) or flat rate envelopes, which I have issue with. I'd rather not over-pay on postage to send my mom a souvenier tshirt from Oklahoma. Maybe I'm just cheap, but I don't see the sense in over-paying for something, particularily when I have to wait in line for a half hour in order to do it. So I left. This is the second time I've walked out of this particular post office without mailing anything.

On the walk home from the post office, Simon and I were discussing all the ways that we use the word 'shit.' And surprisingly enough, I never use that word to describe poop. Shit is an expletive, not an excrement. Although, in some cases when describing a particular bathroom blow-out (someone else's, NOT my own), I will use the word shit for dramatic emphasis. Saying, "there was SHIT all over the wall" sounds so much more dramatic than "there was POOP all over the wall." But poop and/or shit on the wall rarely comes up in conversation...well...I shouldn't say rarely, because I talk about poop all the time, but not always in relation to it being on the wall. It turns up in all sorts of other places though. For instance, the other day I stepped in Cooper's poop. It was a somewhat poorly lit morning, I was tired, and really wasn't paying all that much attention to where I was walking. And the stupid thing is, I was watching him poop, and thinking all the while to myself, "I need to make sure not to step in that when I walk back this way." And what did I do? I stepped in it...with flip flops on, which made it all the more disgusting because that meant the actual poop was REALLY close to my bare foot. Sometimes I'll use the word crap, but that's usually at the end of a 12-hour shift when someone loses their bowels in their bed at 6:55, which is 5 minutes before I'm supposed to leave...example: don't you love it when someone craps their bed 5 minutes before shift change? The average bed change in the case of a code brown takes at a minimum 10 minutes, so you can see the issue. Not that I have issue with the actual cleaning up of the poop (crap), it's just the timing that's so poor. I'd have to say though, if I crapped my bed at 6:55, I would appreciate someone being in there at 6:56 to wipe my dirty bum, whether that makes them late to getting home or not. So yeah...I really got off on a tangent there. What I was getting at, is that I don't use the word shit to describe poop. I guess that's all I was trying to say. Shit is quite versatile though...it can be just about anything.

I've got 5 shifts left here in Little Rock, and I have to say, I'm going to miss it here a little bit. Little Rock itself is nothing I would write home to mom about (even though I do), and I wouldn't recommend it for a vacation, but the surrounding areas are so pretty and Arkansas itself has a lot to offer, especially if you're the outdoorsy type that likes throwing the tent in the trunk and the canoe on the roof and driving to any number of state parks and rivers to play around in. It's pretty here too...all the trees are flowering right now, the daffodils were up (story regarding daffodils to follow), and all the other little flowers around are starting to bloom. The trees are starting to get leafy, but the grass is still brown, despite warm weather and a decent amount of rain. I'm told that the grass is a certain variety that stays dormant until the temperature is consistently around 70 or 80. Being from Minnesota, I found it so weird that it could be so warm and the grass was still brown. Now it all makes sense. This trip has also been one of the better ones for my social psyche. On the first day of orientation Simon and I had the pleasure of meeting a few like-minded individuals that we hang out with at least once a week, if not more. Last night we had a "cleaning out the cupboard" dinner. We've resolved to buy nothing but produce from here on out and to make due with what's in the cupboard. Last night we had spaghetti with wheat noodles, green beans, several different varieties of beer, and snickerdoodle cookies. It was good! I'm guessing that the fare will start to decrease in structure and palatability as we get to the end of the week and into next week and start to run out of options, but that's what the Chinese place down the road is for. :) We still have a few places that we need to eat before we leave...The Whole Hog-for BBQ, the Flying Fish-for catfish, and Kobe-for sushi. Today I made 18 cups of rice...hahaha! That ought to sustain us for the week and through the weekend. I love rice.