Snippets of Seattle

Last week as I was leaving work, a mildly suspicious looking but very articulate woman approached me and said, "excuse me, ma'am, do you have a quarter?" My response was awkward, for several reasons. First, because I am so used to saying "Sorry, I don't" to every crazy person on the street who asks if I have a (insert increment of money/bus pass here). Secondly, because I keep a change purse full of quarters in my locker at work and was trying to remember if I had any in my wallet. I was close enough to the hospital that I would have felt comfortable digging into my bag to find a quarter to give this woman. So I responded kind of slowly and awkwardly, "sorry, I don't have one on me right now." Almost before I got the words out the woman hissed, "LIAR" and walked away. 

There is a special man at my bus stop every morning. He is probably in his late 50's-early 60's, is fairly overweight, and has coke-bottle glasses and a grayish/brown mustache. Every day he is dressed all in black, with a long black trench coat and one of those ski hats that covers your head but has a hole for your face. He has several black utility belt/fanny pack-ish articles strapped across his waist/back/chest. He walks with a black cane. I imagine several different scenarios for him: 

-he believes he is The Guardian of The Realm, who must hold back the forces of darkness

-he is a retired spy who has never acclimated to normal life

-the cane is just a prop and he is really some sort of vigilante/ninja who fights crime in the city at night

-he read somewhere that black is slimming and over-accessorizes because he's insecure

There's a new man in my life. We met last weekend. Isn't he beautiful? Conrad Xavier (Xavi).

We had such a good time together...lots of cuddling.

Here's Irene with some 'movie star' eyes. Beautiful baby niece AKA Droolygums McGee, who's probably cutting teeth based on the amount of time she spent gnawing on things this weekend.

Here's the Boomer-razzi and his well-trained minions. I would estimate the total number of pictures taken in the I house that weekend to be somewhere around 2 million.

The Chronicles of Rachel Continue

Sorry that it's been so long since my last post. To bring you all up to the present...

- The city began the Great Thaw on Christmas Eve. It took a couple of days for everything to melt completely, and all the buses to get back to normal. I had to walk 10 blocks up an enormous hill to the hospital, which caused me to wonder if one's heart can explode within one's chest. I should probably work out more...

- Christmas Day was pretty low-key, but good. I woke up and opened my presents from my family, then skyped with them and watched them open their presents from me. Then my friend Keri (who I work with and is also a transplant from the midwest) came over and we ate lots of food and watched Christmas movies all day.

A picture of my Christmas tree taken on Christmas with my new camera. And one sliver of my face.

- For New Year's Eve, my roommate Kara (pronounced Care-uh) and I went to a party that my friends (via my friend Amy), Kara (pronounced Car-uh) and Jon were having. Fun times were had, and the night seemed to fly by. It always felt like an eternity to reach midnight when I was younger...but we didn't even have time for the 3rd round of the Name Game. 

My roommate, Kara, and I getting ready to go to the party. It only took me 10 minutes of trying to figure out how to set the timer on my camera :)

Kara (the friend), and I, post-midnight. I kept the electric-blue noisemaker as a souvenir. 

It's weird how 'the holidays' are different when you don't get a solid month off from responsibilities. With my job, I'm lucky to even have the actual holiday itself off. It made things more stressful, but also more meaningful, if that makes sense. 

Lately I've mostly been working and hibernating. Everything is gray and rainy all the time, and that makes being snuggled in bed exponentially better. Work continues to drain my mental reserves. There are only five weeks left of our orientation, and we are now expected to 'do it all' (within reason...if it's a huge case we've never seen before or a persnickity doctor who has strange preferences, then we still have help). I'm trying to strike a balance between work and the rest of life, but right now it's kind of hard to do.

I had a dream the other night that included several top-notch dream components: flying, the beach, and a celebrity. In my dream, I was flying (only a couple of feet above the water) along the coast. The water was clear and a vivid turquoise color (like I've only ever seen in pictures), the sand was yellow (like in west africa), and the sky was deep blue (like in seattle on a sunny day). And Jamie Lee Curtis was flying a few feet in front of me. It didn't make sense or have much of a plot... I wasn't trying to go anywhere or flee from anyone, just flying because I could. I woke up smiling. 

My new hat from Target. I find that hats shaped like this one are the best for keeping my glasses dry on days when it's not raining hard enough for an umbrella...which happens a lot.