Wednesday, April 30

Today I wore a cute shirt, sat in the sun for 2 hours during 1.1s, bought some Ben and Jerry’s Oatmeal Chunk ice cream, and got my teeth cleaned.  That alone would have made for a triumphant day, but I also got to see Cirque du Soleil, specifically the show Corteo.  It was amazing.  If I were a tiny little gymnast type, I’d totally try out for Cirque.  Honestly, the tallest person on that stage, other than the guy who was probably 7 feet tall, couldn’t have been over 5’4″.  Ooh, I was also taken to a lovely Pacific Northwest/Croatian restaurant.  I’m not sure what that means either, but it was really good.  Thanks for pulling me out of my bad mood, Joel.  You’re a great boyfriend.

On my way home from “the Cirque” I was listening to NPR, and I learned that Albert Hoffman, the Swiss scientist who created LSD, died yesterday.  He was 102.  I find that incredible for all the same reasons as you. 

Tuesday, April 29

Getting my annual check-up over with.

Gwinn FINALLY serving oatmeal raisin cookies at lunch!

Lovely 1.1s with my PAs.

Sugar free peppermint and vanilla americano.  I know it’s nearly May, but tastes like Christmas in my mouth.

Random, on-again, off-again, sunshine and rain.

Getting a killer massage (Maryann, Danielle is excited to meet you!).

Walking around Cal Anderson Park, and randomly bumping into Cindy at her son’s baseball game.

NPR on KUOW.  I turn it on after 8pm and I have no idea what I’m going to hear, but I always love it.

Bible study…which reminds me, if you’re interested in what we’re doing, you can get a glimpse here.  I strongly suggest listening to the stories.  Shanna is delighfully theatrical.

And tomorrow I’m going to see Cirque du Soleil.  I am ridiculously excited.  I’ll tell you all about it.  And possibly take some pictures, although I’m fairly certain they won’t let me.  I’ll try to be sneaky.

Monday, April 28

The sun is now staying out until 8pm, and I had no idea until today.  It’s been overcast for the last two weeks, snowing at some points, and it wasn’t until I was out for a walk until almost 8pm that I realized we really are in the middle of spring.  Who knew?  I think I’m just so used to the idea that Seattle is SUPPOSED to be cloudy that it doesn’t even occur to me to look for the sunshine.  I’m not sure if that’s encouraging or depressing.

I wished my best friend Julie happy birthday today.  Her birthday was actually Saturday, but because <insert lame excuse here>, I neglected to call.  Julie, I love that I still make you laugh.  You make me feel special every time we talk.  I hope your ultrasound later this week goes well!

I got moderate amounts of work done today, did some investigating for my boss, and answered what felt like 423,349 emails.  It’s amazing how quickly they can pile up over the weekend.  And it’s amazing how easily distracted I can get by facebook, especially now that they’ve added that darn chat feature.  That reminds me: Margaret, how was your thai food?

This weekend I took the PAs out to Joel’s house in North Bend.  We hiked, we ate, we watched awful movies, and it was wonderful.  Here are some pictures:

        

They’re cute, aren’t they?

Thursday, April 24

Today we participated in a campus-wide lock down drill.  At 10:40am I got a text message informing me of the drill, which we all knew was coming because of two previously sent campus-wide emails.  I walked through the building in my house shoes, yelling “Lock down drill, go to your rooms and lock your doors!”  Most of the girls complied, but several of them gave me raised eyebrows.  A few walked out of their rooms to go to their on-campus jobs.

“You’re not going to be able to get into the building.  The whole campus is locked down,” I’d say.

“(shrug.)”

It was eerie to walk through the silent building, knowing that if there were a shooter I’d probably be his (or her) prime target.  I finished the walk-through and promptly locked myself in my office to get some work done.  The drill was over in about 20 minutes, and only when I walked back through to announce its end did I realize how many people were in the building to begin with.  They’d all received their own text messages, so as soon as they got the go ahead they threw open their doors and went about their business.  I guess it’s comforting to know they took it seriously.

Today I got an invitation in the mail addressed to “Ms. Paula Green (and Joel)”.  It made me smile.

I walked around Office Max for a good 45 minutes this afternoon, and all I left with was a package of stenographers notebooks.  That’s what I went in for, but I strongly considered buying a variety of office supplies, such as a post-it holder for my purse, and a magazine rack for my living room.  But I resisted the strong urges that fill me whenever I walk into an office supply store and walked out relatively unscathed.

Tonight we watched Grey’s Anatomy and LOST in HD.  It was glorious.  Here are some of my thoughts:

• Ellen Pompeo is much older than I originally thought.
• Intestine in HD looks even more realistic than in normal-D.
• WHAT THE FRICK IS GOING ON WITH LOST?!

The other thing that took up a good chunk of my time today was uploading pictures to facebook.  You can see the albums here, here, and here.  Enjoy my amateur photography.

And seriously, if you can tell me what on earth is happening with LOST, let me know.

Wednesday, April 23

Having a nice, chill area meeting with my partner and my boss.

Hanging out in the SUB for an extra hour, visiting with my colleagues and distracting them from real work.

Being told my hair looks like a manatee (Thanks, JJ!)

Chicken tacos that can be transformed into chicken quesadillas, with as much guacamole and pico as we want.

Finding out I have stalkers beyond my PAs.

Changing into my sweatshirt halfway through the day because I live and work in the same building, and I can do stuff like that.

Talking to mom and a very feisty sister Jennifer.

Realizing she and I are finally in the same place in life, and I like her more than ever.  And she gives really good advice.  Someone tell her I said that, because she’ll never read this on her own.

Walking to Trader Joe’s.

Ten tulips for $2.99.

Sunshine until almost 8pm.

Making chicken fajita pizza with my boyfriend while we talked about our days.

Being able to support someone I care about.

Having a boyfriend who lets me chatter incessantly.

Cuddling on the couch.

(Yeah, I said it.  I have a boyfriend and we cuddle.  Don’t make fun of me.)

Tuesday, April 22

I’m writing this early today because I don’t want a repeat of last night: me, hunched in my dark office at home, clicking and cutting and pasting and cropping those pictures until even my perfectionism could not defeat my exhaustion, sending me to bed with a mediocre product of a post.  I just fixed it, so the pictures should be bigger now, although you can’t read my very clever captions anymore…eh, still done.

I’m also writing early because my topic hit me first thing this morning.  As per my normal ritual, I turned on the Today Show and had it playing in the background as I got ready for my day.  I don’t actually WATCH TV in the morning; I typically just listen from the bathroom while I brush my teeth and whatnot.  There have been many times when I’ll see a commercial for the first time and be able to quote it verbatim because I’ve been listening to it for weeks, storing it’s dialogue in my subconscious. 

Anyway, this morning I saw a new commercial for Foster Farms chicken.  I take it they’re a northwest company, because all of their commercials emphasize the fact that their chickens are “locally raised” and not shipped from “across the country”.  And they take not-so-subtle shots at another national chicken company from an area of the US that’s particularly close to my heart.

Now, I understand the humor.  I understand that Arkansas is an easy target.  I’m not even a particularly huge fan of Tyson chicken.  But really, once the chicken is frozen, isn’t it all the same?  Didn’t you all raise the things with every intention of hitting them over the head with a mallet and ending their oblivious little lives?  And if it takes an extra day to make it from the chicken plant to your freezer, does it really taste any different?  I’m going to say no.

And good gracious, can we say stereotyping?  The pretentiousness that comes across in these ads makes me want to buy up all the Tyson drumsticks I can find and hurl them at the cars of the marketing gurus who came up with the things.  I drove by those stupid chicken plants everyday of junior high and high school, I toured them in elementary school, and I complained with everyone else when the summer sun caused Springdale to reek to the point that we all referred to it lovingly as “Chickendale” (it’s Arkansas, and we were in junior high; we weren’t particularly clever).  So if anyone has the right to make fun of Tyson chicken, it’s me and all the others who have suffered the unbearable stench of chicken feed for years on end, not the ad execs and FosterFarms tycoons who are trying to pull themselves up by taking hits at the little guy.  Er, maybe the big guy.  Whatever, it’s not nice.

End rant.

Monday, April 21

I changed the blog format because the old one was starting to drive me crazy.  It was all cluttered, like my brain, and I can only stand that very limited amount of clutter before I start to go obsessive compulsive on everything around me.

Speaking of obsessive compulsive, can anyone else who uses wordpress please tell me where they hid the spell check on this new dashboard?  PLEASE?  My facade of intelligence is slowly crumbling as everyone learns that I am actually the world’s worst speller…wait, I just found it.  Turns out I spelled intelligence wrong.  Good thing I fixed that.

Today there was sun.  It was glorious.  Honestly, I don’t realize how much I miss the sunshine until I see it after a long hiatus…and this has been a long hiatus.  Like writer’s strike long.  I think it’s making this quarter extra rough on all the poor PAs.  Normally at this point their residents would be outside, playing and causing trouble that the PAs couldn’t see and therefore weren’t responsible for, but instead they’re all cooped up together like parents with their 30+ children stuck in the house on a month-long snow day.  Today, though, I started to see the light at the end of the dark, wintry tunnel (no pun intended) (well, maybe a little intended), and hopefully that means that everyone’s spirits will start to pick up soon, too.

Yesterday I posted a few pictures of me and my sister in honor of her 25th birthday.  I scanned those pictures almost 9 months ago for something unrelated, and going back and looking at them again made me smile.  It also made me feel old because I realized my childhood is now “retro”.  Of course, looking at pictures from when I started working at SPU four years ago make me feel old, which could be a sign that I am, in all actuality, just getting older. 

Anyway, I thought I’d post a few more pictures from my retro childhood, which I realize is narcissistic, but nonetheless entertaining.  These are all courtesy of a beautiful scrapbook my sister put together for me for my high school graduation (hence the witty scrapbook stickers on a few of them), and of my parents, who most likely took the pictures.  And created me, thus allowing these pictures to be taken.  Whatever, I’m getting on with it:

   

   

    

Life was, and continues to be, good.

Saturday and Sunday, April 19 and 20

Happy birthday, little sister.  25 will potentially suck, but I think things get better from there.  I’ll keep you posted.

Friday, April 18

Today is April 18th.

Last Saturday the high was 78 degrees, a new Seattle record.

Today my car thermometer read 35.  And it was snowing.

Frick.

Thursday, April 17

It’s 1am. 

I’m sitting alone in my apartment office.  It’s dark, and a car alarm is going off somewhere outside my window.

I just got home from “Bible study girls’ night” on Capitol Hill.

I’m thinking about all the good things in my life: my wonderful boyfriend, my dear friends from work and church and Arkansas, the beautiful communities I’m privileged to be a part of, my strong and safe family that supports me even when they disagree with my choices.

I am, far and away, the luckiest girl in the world.