Razorback Nation

What is it with all the Apple snobbery lately? ‘My ipod is better than your Zune,’ ‘My iphone is better than your Blackberry,’ etc? What are we, in third grade again? Who gives a rip? Personally, I think anything Apple is just over-priced trendy technology, and isn’t any better than anything else. I couldn’t rationalize the cost of an Apple if I tried. Granted, I know that for certain professionals, Apples probably do outperform PCs…I get that. What I don’t get is the layperson shelling out $1700+ for an imac or an ibook when all they do with it is email. I have an ipod nano that I got on super clearance because they were liquidating their old nanos in preparation for their new, smaller nanos. Not that I wanted one, but I felt peer pressured to get one. I remember getting comments like, ‘You don’t have an ipod??’ accompanied by an incredulous look of surprise. So I got the ipod…and I still don’t know how to work it. I’ve tried. You know what I think would help? A clearly marked on/off button. I can never figure out how to turn it on, so I just keep holding down buttons until the screen lights up…I know that there are only 5 buttons to choose from, but I still don’t know which one turns it on. Then, once it’s on, I again can’t figure out how to turn it off. The button holding commences once again, usually without success…so then in frustration I just leave the damn thing on and the battery eventually dies. My ipod is always dead. There’s always quite a lapse in time between usings of my ipod, because usually when I want to use it, it’s dead and I don’t want to take the time to charge it. If I had figured out with the previous use both how to turn it off and/or on, that knowledge has since been forgotten and I start the button pressing all over again, frustrated that I own a device that I don’t know how to operate. I know all you ipod users are scoffing and laughing at me…but seriously! Is there anything wrong with an on/off button?? I have issues with things that aren’t clearly marked…like watches…if there isn’t a tick mark for every hour on a watch face, I don’t know what time it is. I must have perceptual problems…or I just an idiot…maybe a little of both.

Since starting this new assignment in Arkansas, I’ve been on a weekend rotation, meaning that I only work Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I know, it sounds horrid when you first hear about it, but when you stop to think about it, it’s perfect. First off, I always work three shifts, and then have four off. This is the only schedule where I could always have this consistent of a rotation. It’s awesome! I go in, do my time, and then I’m off for longer than I was on. Second, it gives me all kinds of time to go places that I need to go and do things that I need to do without fighting the weekend crowds. I love my days off during the week. And with four days off in a row, it opens up lots of opportunity for going places without having to adjust my schedule. I would love to stay on this schedule for always, but the only reason it works here is because I don’t have any friends down here that work a 9-5 M-F schedule. It wouldn’t really make a whole lot of sense to work just weekends when living near friends who were always doing fun things on the weekends. So I’ll enjoy it for now. The sacrifices I make for my buddies…if they only knew!

Along with the travel nursing front, I hear pretty much everyday from permanent staff nurses that “now is the time to travel, before you get married and have kids and whatnot.” And I think to myself that that makes sense, but from a social standpoint, I have to wonder if this really is the right time to be traveling. I’ve been doing this for three years now, and at the end of this year I’m thinking about throwing in the towel (however, I say that every year…I think I have commitment issues when it comes to the idea of having a permanent job). But here’s the thing…for the past three years, all my friends have either been married or single, most of them had only one child or none at all. Now that we’re getting further up there in the age spectrum, everyone is having kids. My point is, once people start having kids, that doesn’t give them a whole of free time to do things with friends…namely, me. I know, that sounds selfish, but it’s really not…it’s just me coming to terms with the logistics of the situation. I got a taste of it when I was out in Denver doing an assignment…my friends Denice and David lived out there and have an 18-month old little darling named Braydon. It didn’t even occur to me how much coordinating it took for them to get out on a random weeknight to go out for a drink or something to eat. Either they had to find a baby-sitter last minute (and baby-sitting age kids these days have a lot of stuff going on in the evenings during the week…I can’t remember me having that many activities), or we brought the little guy with us. He was usually pretty well behaved, but every now and then he would have a bad day. Most of the time we just ended up staying in and getting a pizza and watching a movie…or catching the latest TiVo episodes of Oprah…hahaha! To be honest, I really enjoyed those evenings in a lot…probably more than I would have enjoyed going out. So the point I was trying to make is, there will be no more calling people at 5pm to meet up for drinks at 7pm. Volleyball will have to be a coordinated event where either each family gets their own babysitter, or a parent takes turns sitting out each week to watch the little ones. And people always say before the baby arrives, “We’re still going to go out and we’re still going to do this and we’re going to get babysitters…nothing will change.” But it does change. And in a way, I’m almost envious of the change. My friends that have become moms are so different now, but different in a good way. They seem so at peace with themselves and the lives that they now lead. They’re so happy being moms…it’s really a very extraordinary thing to see. They don’t miss a lot of the things they used to do before they had the kid…life took on a new meaning. And they still make an honest attempt to make it to all the get togethers, they just need a little prior notice to get a sitter or drop the tike off with grandma and grandpa. So is this the right time to travel? Will things really change all that much for me once I’m living around my friends and they’re all having kids? I guess time will tell. One thing is for sure, I will not be babysitting. I love it that people want to have kids, but kids scare the crap out of me. I’m finally getting to the point where I’m comfortable holding babies, but it’s taken me a long time to get there. I’m working on the toddler thing, but there just aren’t a whole lot in my life right now to practice on. And really, any self-respecting parent probably shouldn’t lend out the services of their toddler for me to practice on…that sounded dirty…I really didn’t mean it to be…hahaha!

The other night, Simon and I were all settled in for sleep when we heard a commotion out in the living room. I, of course, thought someone was either trying to get into our apartment or already had. I instantly cursed myself for leaving my pink bat out in the Jeep…what good is it going to do me out there anyway? I have no idea. So anyway, I’m lying there in the bed, being as motionless as possible, just listening. And then the noise happened again! Simon woke up this time, sprung out of the bed to investigate. It was just Lady, knocking something off the coffee table. So after we got back to bed and I was lying there in my bed, I got to thinking about what would happen if someone really broke in and decided to off me. What would happen to all my things? Who would take care of all my unfinished business? I started mentally coming up with a list for divvying out my things, making sure the right stuff went to the right people. And when I got up the next morning, I seriously thought about typing up a sheet and saving to the desktop of my computer so that it would be easy to find should something happen to me. Is that weird? Is it part of my anal organizing personality to have all my ducks in a row should I die tomorrow? It doesn’t feel that weird to me. Over the Christmas break I made out this big long list of all my internet banking sites, my social sites, my email addresses, and random others. I included all the passwords and gave it to my mom, in the off chance that something would happen on the 5-hour drive either to or from Simon’s mom’s house…that’s a long way to drive in the December when you don’t know what the weather is going to do. I just wanted to make sure that my finances would be taken care of in the event that something happened to me, and I wanted to make sure my mom had a way to get in touch with everyone that she needed to if something happened. What if I die and some of my friends don’t find out? That would be horrible…I think. Well, I won’t know because I’ll be dead, but I think it would be horrible. I would feel horrible if one of my friends died, and I didn’t find out until months afterwards because their family members either didn’t know about me at all or didn’t know how to go about contacting me. And, in the event of a death, I doubt family members are concerned with contacting that person that I met that one day on spring break that I still keep in touch with after all these years, you know? Hmmm…all this because my dog had to go and knock something off the coffee table in the middle of the night.

I had to buy dress pants recently to do hospital orientation at my latest job. Yeah, I was pretty irritated about it. When am I going to wear dress pants again? I decided that Simon and I will have to go out somewhere nice one of these days so I can wear them again, just to legitimize the purchase. I had the luck of getting them on clearance though, which helped. Where I was going with this is, when I bought the pants, I had to buy a size XS. I am not an XS. And what made me think about it even more, is that I have friends smaller than me. They wouldn’t be able to even shop in that store because the sizes are so bloated, yet they have little size tags on them. I’m continually amazed and slightly irritated by the whole thing. What it boils down to, is that clothing manufacturers realize that we’re getting bigger but we don’t really want accept that we’re bigger, are making clothes bigger but are putting smaller tags on them, thereby making us feel good about ourselves because after all these years, I for some reason can fit in a size I haven’t worn since 6th grade, despite the fact that I’m probably a good 50 pounds heavier now than I was then…not to mention 6 or 7 inches taller. I bought this book recently called the ‘9-ince plate “diet,”’ and it’s all about how our portions are much too big…and not just our portions…everything. There was one line in there that I just had to stop and say, ‘whoa’ to…it went something along the lines of this: one-third of Americans cannot comfortably fit in the average airline seat, and about one in twelve can’t fit at all. We’re huge!! We as Americans just keep getting bigger and bigger, and yet the industries and corporations keep making allowances for it, convincing us through subtle devices that we’re really not. Bigger movie theater seats, bigger plates, bigger bagels, bigger coffees. I think the book summed it up perfectly when it said, “the large became the medium, the medium became the small, and the small became the child’s cup.” It was a fabulous read…I highly recommend it. Don’t expect to learn a whole that you don’t already know though…it’s a pretty common-sense book, I just need things spelled out for me, you know? Like turning the ipod on and off…..

Simon and I went to four different grocery stores down here before we were able to locate bags of frozen peas and green beans. However, there seemed to be a surplus of frozen broccoli, which I found kind of strange. Do people really eat that much broccoli down here? I got a Sam’s club membership with the intention of buying a monster bag of peas and green beans, and my choices were broccoli or corn. Hmmm. I have since found peas and green beans, only to realize after a trip to Target that I could have gotten them cheaper there. Dammit. We’re finding that we get the runaround down here quite a bit when it comes to grocery shopping, probably due in part to my fickle grocery needs. To break it down, we have decided that we will go to Walmart for produce and cereal (well, just one kind of cereal…honey-nut shredded wheat…yum!), Target (it’s not a Super Target, which is the mother of all grocery stores) for dry goods and frozen stuff, and Kroger for my fancy cheese and flax bread. Three grocery stores for one grocery trip. This is why having days off during the week comes in handy…I would not be going to three different grocery stores on a Saturday…that’s just asking for a bad day.

There’s a little Pomeranian here at the complex whose owner thinks it’s appropriate to leave it outside for extended periods of time, allowing the damn thing to bark the entire time. Even if there’s nothing for it to bark at, it still barks. Simon has actually talked to the woman twice about it, and her response? He should get some ear plugs. All I have to say is, that woman is lucky she was talking to him and not me when she said that, because the rest of the conversation probably would have gone differently. EAR PLUGS??? How about you go outside with your dog instead of tying it out so that it doesn’t bark the entire time? Or maybe, when you hear it start to bark, you bring it back in right away. I think it’s incredibly rude for people that live in apartment complexes to allow their dogs to sit outside and bark like that. We’d like to say something about to the office, but we don’t want it to be found out that we have three dogs living here when we’re only supposed to have two. Oh, and it’s suffice to say that in three months my three dogs combined probably won’t bark as much as her dog does in one day. Completely ridiculous. Simon and I thought about ex-laxing the dog so that it would crap all over her apartment, but that’s a case of misplaced blame…even though the dog sucks, it’s the owner that is definitely at fault. If only we could find a way to ex-lax the owner. Simon wants to get a tape recorder and record her dog barking, and then set it up outside her apartment at 3am. Not a bad idea. Oh, and another thing she told Simon (this is priceless…and crazy), she told him that if he wanted to buy her a muzzle for her dog, she would use it. People might say I’m a crazy dog lady because I have three dogs, but I think I pale in comparison to this woman. Maybe we need a new term…how about “batshit crazy dog lady?” That has a nice ring to it.

In other dog related stuff…when my dogs are out of water, Brie jumps into the bathtub and makes all kinds of noise in there. She’s made the association that water can be found in the bathtub, and therefore we should make the association that if she’s in the tub, we need to fill her water dish. Making a commotion near her water dish would probably have the same effect and require considerably less effort on her part, but you can’t tell her that.

Last but not least, I learned the most amazing thing over the weekend! Here in Little Rock, they have a lot of nurses here from the Philippines. I was working with three Pilipino nurses the other night, and they were talking in their native language. I could tell they weren’t speaking English, so I just kind of zoned them out for a while. After a beat, I think they felt that bad that I was sitting there so silent, and they started to explain their language to me. There are a lot of different dialects in their language, but these three girls all spoke a dialect from the southern part of the country…and it’s Latin based! To be more specific, it’s a version of Spanish. Totally unexpected. They count in Spanish, a lot of their words are Spanish…after a while when they were talking to each other, I could pick out words that I knew or had heard before in Spanish. It was so crazy and I was so taken aback by it. I guess I had just assumed that their language would be closer to Japanese or Chinese or something of that sort. The things we learn. I’ve been telling everyone about it, just because I find it so fascinating and unexpected. So now you can tell people you know about it.

Arkansas, part 2

1. Arkansas is much nicer that I would have thought. There are lots of trees, rivers, and lakes, and I hear the hiking is awesome. Can't wait to get out and do some of that. Little Rock itself has been nice as well...once we have a day off we're going to go downtown and explore.

2. I have this thing called a shopping habit, but I have myself convinced that if I have little to no credit card debt, that it's okay.

3. I think Jason Statham needs to try a role that falls outside of the badass/transporter persona. I think all of his movies probably could have been called the Transporter. Same with Kate Hudson...can she even play a role that doesn't involve her being the girl next door that every guy in the film wants to sleep with? Don't they get bored playing the same character over and over again? To be fair, I haven't a see film with either of them in it in years...the previews usually give enough away to discourage me from wasting money on a film I've most likey already seen.

4. Metallica should wrap it up and call it day. I heard a track off their new album recently and it took me back to 1997.

5. I'm currently reading the book "I'll Fly Away," a book written by prison inmates in a women's correctional facility. It is editted by Wally Lamb, who is one of my favorite authors. It's sad to hear about how 80% of these women were raped as children, or how they killed their abusive spouses in self-defense and are now serving life sentences for it.

6. I still hate to exercise. I do like to walk the dogs though, and I count that as exercise. I also live on the second floor of the apartment building, which is almost like the third because I have to go up two flights of stairs from the parking lot to get to my front door. There are also a lot of hills around here, so that's a bonus, I think.

7. I love my Jeep. Never have I paid so much money for a car, but it's worth it because I love it. Don't ever lease a car...unless you love it and don't mind paying $5,000+ extra for it in fees.

8. Billy Blanks is insane, but I do love Tae Bo...when I'm actually motivated and able to keep up.

9. I'm still disturbed by the fact that one of my dogs ate the other's poop the other day. I still wonder who did it. Brie has pretty much been ill since we got here, so I'm thinking it was her, but I don't have any proof.

10. Augusten Burroughs is brilliant. Someday I want to grow up and be just like him...without the whole gay man part...I've finally accepted that I'm a woman (and that I will never be able to pee my name in the snow) and should probably stick with that.

11. I love Nathan Lane's character in The Birdcage...one of my favorite movies, yet I still have yet to own it. I should probably get on that. I ask for it for Christmas every year, you'd think someone would get it for me one of these days!

12. I am going to go to Boston this year...twice.

13. Had I known there was going to be so many rivers and lakes in Arkansas, I would have brought the kayaks down here with us. Unfortunately, Arkansas has no travel guides that I've been able to find, which made planning for the trip difficult.

14. I had just about given up on the idea of thong underwear, and then I went out and bought some dress pants. I hate the idea of a visible panty line more than the idea of a little piece of material riding up my butt, so I purchased a couple at Target last night.

15. I wish I had the energy to sit down and journal, but I love emailing so much more that I do that instead. I'm thinking that I'm going to save all my emails, print them out and stick them in a binder instead. That way it's like a journal with outside commentary.

16. Simon and I are getting a washer and dryer and a new mattress for the bed today. I'm anticipating both with more excitement than is necessary. Four nights of bad sleep on a crappy mattress will do that to a person, especially while sleeping on pillowcase-less pillows because the pillowcases smell like gas from the scooter-leaking incident.

17. I was quite upset to learn that the best buffalo wings in Little Rock are to be found at Pizza Hut. :( Apparently they aren't big on the buffalo down here. They are big on barbeque though, which may or may not be an adequate substitute for the time being.

18. Sometimes I miss living and working in Rochester, and then I go there for an extended period of time and remember why I left in the first place. I don't think anyone in that town can speak a whole paragraph without mentioning Mayo. I think I was like that when I lived there too. Funny how getting out of there has made me see there's a great big world outside the hallways of Mayo, and that people can get really good care in hospitals all over the country without having to go to Rochester for a second opinion.

19. I'm working on getting into the habit of flossing my teeth everyday. So far I'm doing okay...I flossed everyday the first week after going to the dentist, and I've flossed everyday for the past two days, so I guess I'm doing all right.

20. Little Rock is not a smoke-free town, which sucks.

21. I am completely enthralled by black people. I want to know everything about their hair, their skin, their culture. Unfortunately I'm not sure how to go about that without sounding completely ignorant. I'm just curious, I guess.

22. Sometimes I struggle between wanting a small-town life in a little town and a big city life in Minneapolis. I wonder about the ablitiy to combine the two.

23. I miss owning a house. A friend of mine told me yesterday that she refinanced her house at an interest rate of 4.8%, dropped her mortgage term to 15 years, and is now paying $50 less a month. WHY am I not in the right place to buy a house right now?? Had I been smarter, I would have bought a house in May and rented it out to my friends Dana and Chester. I'm always a day late and a dollar short.

24. I hate the drivers here in Little Rock. If I make it out of this assignment without getting in a car accident, I'll be impressed. Anyone that knows me knows that I drive fast...I'm a grandma compared to these people. It's funny because with the whole southern drawl and the stereotypically slower pace of life down here, you'd think they'd drive slow, but that is definitely not the case. I've already been warned to stay as far from the roads as possible when they get their ice storms in February. I'm frightened.

25. If there was one food in life I couldn't live without, it would be peanut butter. I love peanut butter.

So here I am in Arkansas...

So here I am in Arkansas, I've officially been here a full 24 hours now and have a few observations and things to say about the whole thing.  

First: WORST...DRIVE...EVER.  Thanks to my parents, I've basically been going on road trips since I exited the womb, so they're nothing new to me and are usually quite enjoyable.  This one was not one of those enjoyable trips.  To start out the trip, the weather people completely screwed me at the last minute, and the clear, chilly morning they had originally predicted quickly backfired into 3 inches of snow and blowing wind.  Oh, and to add to that, freezing rain at the Iowa border.  Perfect.  It took over four hours for us to get to Des Moines, and I can usually make it in three.  There were periods of time where I was going 30 miles an hour on the interstate.  Getting passed by a semi put me into such a blizzard that I thought for sure my life was over.  Somehow, we made it through there intact.  

Second: a road trip is no place for a moderately stressed-out girl to get her monthly visitor.  Enough said.  

Third: A scooter leaking gas in a covered trailer very quickly makes everything in the trailer with it smell like gas.  Yes...all my belongings smelled like gas.  After half a bottle of Febreeze and some lengthy time hanging outside over the deck railing, most everything is back to a tolerable scent.  There are a few things though that are going on a much needed trip to the laundromat.  Hefty doses of Clorox 2 are in order...that stuff is the best invention ever...really gets the stink out.  The scooter appears to be fine, by the way, not sure what the leaking was all about but it appears to have stopped.  

Fourth: Arkansas is very pretty.  Granted, we came in at night and didn't get to see a whole lot, but the town of Little Rock is surrounded by those woodsy river valley bluffs that I spent so much time living amongst in college in Winona.  The Arkansas River goes through Little Rock, and it's actually quite a large river.  After growing up so close to the Mississippi, most rivers seem small to me, but I'd have to say the Arkansas gives the ol' Mississip a run for it's money, at least in this area...I don't think it's that big for as long as the Mississippi is.  We're kinda wishing we would have brought the kayaks.  Our apartment is on the far west side of Little Rock...we still have a Little Rock address, but we've found that our location isn't even included on some of the city maps.  We're in the "urban spawl" area, if you will.  Our aparment sits at the top of a hill, and we're completely surrounded by pine trees.  There's a big open-air mall about half a mile away, but you'd never know it living where we do...it feels like we're living in the middle of the woods.  I was a bit disappointed at first when I found out how far we'd actually be living from downtown Little Rock, but I could get used to this rustic feel.  I think I was originally expecting the worst of suburbia...tiny trees, a Starbucks on every corner, everyone driving a Hybrid or a minivan (no offense, I like both of those vehicles), and golden retriever for every 1.25 people.  If I didn't know better I'd think I was either in Flagstaff, AZ or somewhere in northern Minnesota with a lake just around the corner...that's what it feels like anyway.  Drive a half mile down the road and you've got a movie theater with IMAX, a coffee shop, laundromat, Petco...all the essencials and then some.  

Fifth: The drivers down here are idiots.  I almost t-boned someone already, and it was totally and completely not my fault.  Then, Simon and I almost got run down in a Target parking lot...by someone that appeared to have no intention of stopping.  Still don't know if they saw us or not...it wasn't that dark out.  To lay it out a bit, a lot of the main roads around us are three lanes going in each direction, and there are stores on both sides of the roads with drives entering on to the main roads...and these are high traffic roads with 45 mile-an-hour speed limits where everyone is going 55, and people making left-hand turns are basically taking their lives in their hands.  Also, the right-hand lane is always coming and going, forcing whomever is in it to turn right into a parking lot with no warning ahead of time, forcing people to swerve around or turn right where they may not have wanted to...that's pretty much how I got into the Target parking lot in the first place.  It doesn't feel very safe and it's making me quite nervous to get the Scoot out.  I might just have to drive it around the parking lot a few times just to make it worth the hassle we went through to get it here.

Sixth: I realized tonight that this is the first travel assignment I've taken where I'm completely on my own.  In all the locations there was always someone there to help me find my way, to find the bars with the good wings, the malls with the best stores, the restaurants with the best burgers...someone to basically help me navigate the city without getting too lost and without ending up in the wrong part of town.  Simon and I are completely on our own this time, and we have to figure all that stuff out for ourselves.  It's exciting and daunting at the same time.  We're going to visit the Department of Tourism tomorrow and pick up some pamphlets and whatnot and find some things to do.  There's also a Little Rock forum I might join to get some insider information...I have to know where to get good buffalo wings...that is definitely a priority...all other things can wait.  

Seventh: this wouldn't be a note from me without some sort of poop talk.  So we got here last night, Simon and I are about ready to kill each other after the stressful trip.  Mostly we just had a lack of anyone else to scream at...not that either of us blamed the other for any of our trip mishaps.  So Simon was outside messing around with the trailer, and I was inside trying to figure out where we needed to return the trailer.  Cooper pooped on the floor...I didn't see him do it, but I know it was him...he always poops in a scatter, never in a neat little pile like the other two, and this was definitely a scatter.  So, with a lack of anything to pick the poop up with at that point, I put my head in my hands, ground my teeth and just sat there for a minute.  When I picked my head up, the poop was gone.  I hadn't imagined it because I could still smell the turds in the air.  Apparently one of my dogs ate it.  I don't know who, and I didn't go to any great lenths to find out (this sounds terrible, but a part of me was glad that I no longer had to deal with it).  I have not accepted kisses from any of them since.

Eighth: I have no idea how I did it, but somehow I managed to bring almost an entire walk-in closet full of clothes with me...in only two suitcases.  I thought that since I had trimmed the clothing down to two suitcases that I had done pretty good with the over-packing problem I usually experience.  By the time I got done unpacking the little suitcase I was quite sure that I had brought too much and could probably have left the big suitcase at home.  I'm quite sure I could go for over a month and not have to do laundry and still have plenty of clean clothes to spare.  I've gotten so good at packing and organizing things in boxes and bags that I've become my own worst enemy...I no longer have a concept of what its too much because I've gotten so good at compressing things into smaller and smaller areas.  One would think I'm bringing less, but in fact I am bringing the same as before if not more.  Luckily, Simon doesn't have this problem and doesn't seem to mind my monopolization of the closet...and the dresser.  He was quite impressed though with the quantity of things that managed to make it down here with us though.  

Rocky Mountain High

So Simon and I have been out in Colorado for over a month now, and I figure it’s about time I get to writing a little bit about what’s going on out here. 

First and foremost, it’s gorgeous.  I love waking up in the morning and seeing the sunrise coloring the snow on the mountain tops...I never tire of that view.  The sun is always shining, and the sky is always blue.  Well, today it’s overcast and there’s no sky to be seen, but I think this is the first day since we’ve been here that I haven’t seen the sun.  The sun is intense too!  On a 50 degree day with the sun beating down, your skin feels like it’s at least 80.  I’ve gotten used to putting sunscreen on when I know I’ll be outside for any length of time.  Definitely a change from those terrible Minnesota winters!  

I realized upon arriving here that I had grossly overpacked.  None of you that know me well should be surprised by this.  I’m heading back to Minnesota next week to do some job training, and I’ve packed up two suitcases to take back with me and leave there, since I really have no use for 20 pairs of jeans, 10 pairs of shoes...5 of which that are heels, 5 button down shirts, 3 sweatervests, 36 t-shirts, 45 pairs of socks, 63 pairs of underpants, 5 sweatshirts, and 4 sweaters.  Why did I ever think I would need that much clothing (I should add that I have about this same amount of clothing left behind in Minnesota...)?  I could practically go the entire three months I’m out here without doing laundry more than twice.  Haha.  Silly me.  So what do I do...I pack the suitcases, then proceed to buy 10 t-shirts off my favorite tshirt site, vintagevantage.com (check them out...their shirts are my absolute fave and I’ve been a fan since 2003!).  I really couldn’t help it...they were having a huge sale and they’re the softest tshirts the world had ever did see...how could I not?  I got 10 shirts at just under $8 a piece...tell me that’s not a bargain!  Okay, so I splurged on tshirts...that happens, and really, it’s been a while since I got a really good zinger of a tshirt.  Then, the other day, Simon and I went hiking south of Denver and we took Lady with us.  She came back from that little trip a bit of a mess...mud almost from head to toe...belly for sure.  So we took her to PetSmart to pay someone else to bathe her because I hate bathing her.  For an extra $15 they brushed her teeth...how about that!  So, while we’re waiting for her to get done with her spa treatment, we wandered around the little strip mall to kill some time.  I wound up leaving with 2 books, a scrapbook, and 3 pairs of shoes.  I know!  I don’t now how it happened either!  I told Simon that we should avoid the shoe store, but after wandering through REI, Michael’s, Office Max, Christy’s ski and patio furniture shop (I know, I don’t get it either), and chips and guac a Wahoo’s, we really had no other place to go except the shoe store, and there I found myself surrounded by bargains aplenty!  I got a pair of Rocketdogs (one of my favorite shoe brands) for $11!  I could hardly contain myself!  And look over there, yet another pair of Rocketdogs (in my size!) for $19!  And look at these...a cute pair of beige satin t-strap Kenneth Cole’s of his (my favorite) Unlisted line for $20!  I ask again, how could I not?  Simon was beside himself but supportive, as a good boyfriend should be.  And just as we were checking out, Lady was done (talk about timing), and she looked quite marvelous if I do say so myself.  They used a whitening shampoo on her, so she no longer looks yellow.  And she smelled good too, which is a great accomplishment when it comes to her.  She brings the funk and the noise most days.  So, the moral of this story is, I should never downsize, because I just feel the need to replace.  And I never truly downsize...it’s not like I took anything to Goodwill, I just put it in a suitcase...my clothes and shoes hadn’t even left the apartment yet and already I was getting replacements.  It’s a sad world I live in.  

In other news, after a tax return, a paycheck, and some left over money, my credit cards are now paid off.  It’s taken me 2 years, but I’ve done it!  It’s a wonderful feeling.  If only I could do away with the rest of my debt.  I really don’t feel the need to pay off my student loans because the payments are low and I like the tax breaks...and I like to enjoy my money...as is evidenced by the above paragraph.  I don’t want to be lying on my deathbed someday in ratty old togs, thinking...I should have paid off my student loan sooner.  No, I want to be dressed in my favorite pair of barely affordable jeans, my favorite tshirt topped by my favorite hoodie and say to myself...I wonder if there are any sales going on right now?  I could use a new pair of Rocketdogs.....

And now the job.  It sucks.  To be delicate, I hate the pants off it and would love to quit, if only it wouldn’t leave a black mark on my work resume.  The thing is, I love my coworkers...they’re awesome...they’re so supportive and nice and very smart, but the unit is so understaffed that it’s borderline unsafe.  I try to do the best I can, but somedays I leave the unit thinking....thank God all my patients are still alive.  It’s added a degree of stress to my life that I haven’t felt in a long time.  For a while there I felt like it was putting a strain on my relationship with Simon, as he was the one I was projecting most of my stress on to.  It’s definitely been different...we went from living and working in different places to living and working in the same place.  But it’s also been very comforting.  He’s able to bring me up from my lows and bring me down from my periods of mania better than anyone...and he puts up with all my shit.  He’s a saint.  A saint with a dynamite ass.  I say that because he’s currently bending vacuuming the baseboards, so I have a bird’s eye view of what his momma gave him.  

Today is the first day we’ve vacuumed since we got here.  Well, I shouldn’t say we, since Simon is doing it.  Living with three dogs leaves the carpet a bit furry, and while I’m decently content to live in a certain degree of squalor, this is Simon’s first experience in living with dogs...dogs that shed....a lot.  At least they’re little, and their hairs are little.  It’s not like we’ve got a pack of huskies running around here.  And Simon is not content with once around the carpet with the vacuum as I would be...he’s got the attachments out, is getting the cracks in the tile, vacuumed the baseboards, the kitchen, the bathroom.  He even shook out the rugs.  I’m sure if we had a mop, he’d be getting that out as well.  All while wearing a shirt that says on the front "women, you can’t beat ’em."  And here I sit...typing on my computer.  Where’s the justice in this world?  I do the dishes...and I pick up...sometimes.  Sometimes I cook.  I’ll just quit right now.

Now the snowboarding...not my crowning achievement.  I tried...once.  It didn’t go well.  We were going to go today but we decided that sleeping in sounded better.  I think if I had had a better go at it the first time, and if I was more motivated to learn, I would have pushed that we go today.  But here I sit instead.  Am I quitter?  A little bit.  I think I’m not all that motivated to learn to snowboard because I know I can ski.  If the whole snowboarding thing doesn’t work out, I’ve got that to fall back on.  I thought that snowboarding would be a good challenge, but I don’t take challenge all that well, so it may not have been such a good idea after all.  And it’s hard to learn out here...it’s at least a good hour and a half to the closest ski hill, and lift tickets out here are pretty ridiculous.  I wish that we would have gotten more snow in Minnesota before we moved out here so I could have practiced on the little hills there without feeling like I was getting my wallet picked to spend the day on the bunny hill out here.  Then again, I might just be making excuses...hahaha!  So yeah, I’ll keep the board for now and give it a few more tries, but I can honestly say that there might be a set of skiis in my future...which is all right.  Snowboarding...skiing, it’s all the same, right?  I don’t even like winter that much to begin with, so maybe taking interest in a winter sport was a doomed idea from the beginning.  Time will tell!

Simon is going to the gym without me.  I hate the gym.  Sometimes I go, but most of the time I don’t.  I should, because we’ve got the Grand Canyon trip coming up in about 3 weeks or so, but I’m not overly worried about it.  Maybe I should be.  I’m looking foward to it, at any rate.  We went to Castlewood Canyon on Monday.  It’s a canyon-esque area south of Denver and it was really fun.  We scrabbled around on rocks, climbed up stuff, jumped across the little creek.  Amazingly enough I didn’t end up in the drink.  We have a video of me trying to fall in...I’ll post it on my page if I can figure out how to do it.  I’d rather do that than work out...I can’t stand the idea of walking on a treadmill only to not get anywhere...that’s my excuse anyway...I’ve got a million of them to get out of working out...hahaha!

Last night we had a little piece of Minnesota...we grilled out with David and Denice and had beers and brats...complete with sauerkraut!  It was delish!  I do miss Minnesota sometimes.  I miss my friends more than anything...all my buddies.  I had quite the network.  Hopefully my travels will take me back that way for the summer.  I want to sit outside on the Mayslack’s patio and have a ranchero burger and some tots.  Mmmm....nobody does a burger and tots quite like Mayslacks.  Maybe we’ll participate in the meat raffle this summer.  I hear the Twin Cities meat raffle phenom made the travel channel the other day.  It is what it sounds like...a raffling of meat.  Weird.  Although, I wouldn’t mind paying a little bit of money for some meat...it was good meat.  Maybe we could play bingo with some blue hairs while we wait for the numbers to be called out. 

My family came out to visit in early March...it was nice to see them...and their 3 dogs.  We had six dogs and 5 people living in my one-bedroom apartment for a few days.  It was a bit cramped, but we made do.  We went to the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, which was pretty cool.  Stephen King got his inspiration for the book The Shining at the Stanley Hotel.  Turns out the hotel had plenty of ghosts of its own before that story even came about.  Interesting history.  Those Stanley boys were some interesting characters.  They also masterminded the Stanley Steamer car, if you remember hearing about that at all.  They broke the land-speed record in their day at 127 miles per hour with a steam car.  After a day in Estes Park we went to the Red Rocks ampitheater, a natural rock formation that was been turned into a concert venue.  It would be so awesome to catch a show there sometime.  Their first show isn’t until after we leave though, so that’s a bummer.  That’s the thing about being out here in the winter...if you’re not a skiier or a snowboarder, there’s not a whole lot to do outside that’s open in the winter.  Hiking and off-roading trails are closed, a bunch of the higher elevation mountain roads are closed, areas of the state and national parks are closed.  Denver itself has a lot of stuff to do though...we spend most of our time in Denver.  We’ve got trips to Boulder, Fort Collins, and Colorado Springs planned though, probably later in April when hopefully more things will be open.  Brewery tours....yummm...can’t wait for those, hiking, driving around, sight-seeing.  Lots or pretty things to see out here. 

All righty, I think this has been long enough!  I haven’t written in while though so I’m making up for lost time.  I hope this finds you and yours well and happy...and warm for those of you in Minnesota!  Toodles!  

Leaving the Desert

And so begins my last week here in Arizona.  My last night of work is Tuesday night.  I honestly can't believe that 13 weeks has gone by this fast.  At times it felt like time was crawling by and that this week was never going to arrive.  Now that it's here, I feel like it went too fast and that there are a lot of things that I didn't do.  Although, a big part of not getting them done was simply a lack of someone to do them with.  It's not that I didn't want to get out and explore, but it's hard when you're in a new city by yourself and don't know very many people.  Dana, Brent, and my brother entertained me when they could, but they all have full-time jobs and there were a lot of times that our hours just didn't quite match up.  I tried to make the best of my time though.  I’m also trying to work on being more outgoing.  I’d like to think that people are just as skeptical of me as I am of them.  Once you’re out of the college scene, I feel like it’s really hard to get to know people outside of the work environment.  And when you have a boyfriend, it seems somewhat inappropriate to be making new guy friends, you know?  The problem is that I’ve always had more guy friends than girl friends, so therein lies the problem.  To pass the time when the heat got a little too much to be outside, I started scrapbooking, despite feeling like I wasn't creative enough to make colorful collages out of random pictures and pieces of construction paper.  But somehow I muddled through it, and even enjoyed myself...it kinda felt like art time in kindergarten, not to mention my pages look like someone in kindergarten put them together.  I was going for that effect, really, I was.  Then there were the dogs, who always keep me busy.  They're always waking me up and wanting to go outside and making messes in the apartment...not potty messes...they'd leave their toys everywhere, chew up my underwear, hump each other, drool, fart, shed, snort, and do all those other wonderful things that dogs do.  Despite all that, I can't imagine life without them.  I think I would have gone insane and would have taken up talking to myself...oh wait, I already do that.  Well, when there's a dog in the room it doesn't seem as weird, because I can just rationalize that I'm talking to them...they don't know what I'm talking about 90% of the time anyway. 

So I'm leaving with mixed feelings.  Phoenix itself isn't overly inviting, but it makes up for it by having a lot of things to do.  In March I went to a few spring training games which was a lot of fun.  Who can beat sitting outside in March in a tank top while watching a baseball game and eating a hot dog?  And you get to sit so close to the action!  You can hear them swear and everything.  I never really knew how tall baseball players were either.  They’re always so little on the TV that I assumed they were average-sized guys, but they’re actually quite large.  And after growing up watching baseball in the Metrodome, I have a new appreciation for watching baseball outside, the way it’s supposed to enjoyed.  There's a lot of hiking to be done with impressive views of the city and the fabulous houses in the foothills.  I did a lot of hiking in the earlier months of the year, but in the summer months it's just too hot to do it…unless of course you get up at the buttcrack of dawn to beat the heat.  There were days that I would get off work at 7am and the temperature would already be 98 degrees.  7am!  I'm sure there's crazy people that hike in the dead of summer, but I wouldn't try it.  The thing that I appreciate the most about the Arizona heat, is that it’s not a suffocating heat, as some might think.  It feels more like a baking heat, if I can describe it like that.  And no, not like a tanning bed.  I don’t know…it’s like the heat penetrates your skin and warms you right to the core…it actually feels really good if you’re just sitting around doing nothing.  Any sort of physical activity in that heat though, is death (at least for me…and the pugs).  And don’t be swayed by those people that say, “it’s a dry heat.”  A dry heat it may be, but 115 degrees is still 115 degrees.  I don’t care who you are, that’s a bit too hot for the average person.  But, when you put it into perspective for those of you from the more humid climates, 115 in Phoenix feels better than 95 degrees with 60% humidity.  It’s a horse a-piece, really.  As far as what the city has to offer, I would say that the bar and restaurant scene is one of the best I've ever experienced.  There's so many different types that it's impossible to see them all or even pick a favorite...although I'm partial to Giligin's, a pirate themed bar that has little attractions every night of the week.  My personal favorite night is Wednesday night when they have "Wheel of Fear Factor" hosted by a big Jewish guy and a Mexican midget.  Basically the contestants play a mix of Wheel of Fortune and Fear factor...there's lots of obscene language, vomitting, and racial slurrs...none of which is to be taken seriously...it's a lot of fun.  They do have a disclaimer at the beginning of the show though, giving those that are easily offended the opportunity to bow out before the profanity starts flying.  They even offer to buy your drink!  My brother and I were contestants pretty much every night that we went.  I always wanted them to make me eat something gross, just to see if I could do it, but the hosts have different ideas for what the ladies have to do to get points.  There’s a loophole in the game for the ladies…if they show their stuff, they win the game.  I always refused to show when I played, which always drew ridicule from the audience.  I was approached one night by a guy after the game that congratulated me on not pulling up my top for all to see, which I thought was nice.  My most memorable night there had a topless woman jumping on a little trampoline.  I don’t believe I need to tell you who won that round…and who went back to her seat with a grab bag full of candy and army figures.  Then there's the Dos Gringos Trailer Park, which isn't a trailer park at all, but an open air bar serving Mexican food and good times.  You can also bring your dog there until dark on most nights.  Dana and I brought the pugs there one night and they were a huge hit.  With her love of beer, Brie fit right in.  Then there’s Mickey's hangover, which boasts big couches and chairs to lounge in while you drink and usually stays open until the wee hours of the morning...best of all, the kitchen stays open until closing time. I remember my first trip to Mickey’s the year before moving to Phoenix…it was like Scottsdale’s best kept secret.  The atmosphere was chill, quiet, and lit by candles.  You could actually have a conversation with someone without screaming or being spilled on by passersby.  By the time I moved there, the word was out and the whole tone of the bar had changed.  Now it’s full of loud, rowdy college kids and people old enough to know better than to act like loud, rowdy college kids.  And they close with all the other bars now.  Sad!  Four Peaks is a local brewery that I believe is owned by some people from Minnesota judging by all the Vikings memorabilia in both of their locations.  The beer is great (I'm a fan of the Kiltlifter) and the nachos are superb!  Everything on the menu is pretty much a slam dunk.  Seriously, if I could eat at only one restaurant for the rest of my life, it would be Four Peaks.  You can also order jugs of beer to go...they're called Growlers...grrr!  It’s amazing how quickly a group of three people can go through one of those things.  You get it, and you’re like, “this is so much beer!”  An hour later you’re scrounging around the fridge for random Bud Lights, which are a poor substitute, by the way.  Mill Ave is fun...it's near the ASU campus in Tempe and is a string of bars and college shops that run for several blocks.  Always a good time to be had for a shop-a-holic such as myself…there are all kinds of local boutiques and fun little random stores to browse.  There are several restaurants to choose from, and a dynamite piano bar…one of the best I’ve been to thus far.  In the late hours of the night and wee hours of the morning, there's an abundance of drunk college kids to point and laugh at...it also brings back fond (?) memories of when I was a too-drunken college kid trying to walk and puke at the same time...while still hoping that the young man I picked up at the bar was still interested.  In all reality, I was just praying that I could make it home and eat some pizza.

Living experiences in the Phoenix metro really seem to vary based on where you live or where you go.  Scottsdale was a little too uppercrust for me.  I found that you need fake boobs, blonde hair, and a luxury car to even get a second look in that town, which is sad.  Even the cashiers at the WalMart seemed stuck up.  I remember looking at myself in the mirror at one point and thinking that my boobs were small.  The last time my boobs were what I would describe as small was probably 1998.  It’s weird how being around all that silicone, day in and day out, can affect a person’s perception of themselves.  Greater Scottsdale is not to be confused with Old Scottsdale though.  Old Scottsdale seems to be greater Scottsdale’s afterthought, filled with cute little shops, mostly low-key bars, and restaurants that have more on their mind than the latest foodie trends.  You’ll also find a lack of chain restaurants and bars in Old Scottsdale.  I never had the chance to live near Old Scottsdale, which I think I would have really enjoyed.  Once I ditched Scottsdale and relocated to Tempe, I was so much happier!  Tempe is very low key and it's more my style.  I like it here.  From my apartment, I can walk to the grocery store, Target, the post-office…and if I’m really ambitious, I can walk to Dana’s apartment, but I haven’t done that yet, and I probably won’t.  That’s just a bit too much exercise for this girl.  Maybe if I had a bike…oh wait, I do have a bike…that’s still sitting out on the balcony in the same place it’s been since I moved here.  Whoops.  Well…if you saw how the people drive down here, you’d be afraid to ride bike on the street too.  Might as well not even wear a helmet.  That’s my 
excuse anyway.

Seeing as this was my first big move away from home, it was definitely difficult.  I guess for me the biggest bummer about being down here is that I miss my family, especially  my grandma.  I miss my cute little house in Rochester, and I miss my giant friend network.  I had something going on every night of the week when I was in Rochester.  It's hard to meet people down here, and with being a transient, it seems that people are less likely to extend the extra welcome because they know that I'm going to be leaving anyway, at least that's how it seems.  I guess I look at it the opposite way…every new person you meet has the potential to be a friend…if not a friend, then someone to casually keep in touch with from time to time.  I’m of the feeling that there’s nothing wrong with having a few contacts in every place that you visit…makes it that much easier to get the “insider’s” view of the city, and then you know someone when you come back.  But don't get me wrong, I've met some really awesome people down here.  By far and away the best part about being down here is being close to Dana, and my brother Chris.  Dana and I haven't lived in the same city since our undergraduate days in Winona, and I've missed her so much.  In our time apart, we've both grown so much and have fine-tuned our personalities and interests.  We realized that we’re actually quite different now, but when the two of us get together, it's just like old times, which is so comforting.  I wish I could pack her up in a box and take her back to Minnesota with me!  Maybe she'll decide to come back.  Or, maybe I'll realize that I don't miss Minnesota as much as I thought and I’ll come back to Phoenix...who knows??  Life is an open book and I'm ready and willing to turn to the pages.
  

So yes, I honestly will miss Arizona...and I’m not closing the door…I might be back someday, much to Dana and Chris’s delight.  I feel like moving down here was a big deal for me.  It was my first time living more than an hour from home, and it was my first big risk since buying a house.  I had to sell my house, because I knew the first time things got tough, I’d make a beeline for home rather than to just tough it out.  I left my friends, I left my job…I basically left everything I’ve known and learned up until this point and just stuck myself out there.  I feel like it's helped me to grow, and it's put a lot of things into perspective.  I do have to add that I couldn’t have done it without the constant support, encouragement, and advice from my friend Jeff, who’s been living his own transient experience in the Peace Corps.  His whole outlook was, “If you don’t like something, home is always going to be there; you can always go back.  But you’ll never know if you don’t try.”  Seriously, words to live by.  I don't know how long I'll be living this transient lifestyle, but for now I'm enjoying it and I look forward to what lies ahead.  Despite not having a place to call home or anything remotely permanent, I feel like I'm more adjusted now than I've ever been...weird, eh?  I guess it’s true that you never know until you try…odds are, you might even surprise yourself.