Merry Christmas to all

Merry Christmas! I hope that everyone had as lovely and relaxing a holiday as I did.

My little tree had more ornaments this year!

On Christmas Eve, I was supposed to work a 12 hour shift, but hoped I might draw a good number in our Home Early Lottery. I didn't draw a good number, and pretty much gave up hope. To make the day even better, I had to circulate a Neuro case in which the critical piece of equipment (which had been requested a month ago) was 'not ready yet.' There was understandably a LOT of anger from the surgeon (not directed at any of us, the responsible party of course had the day off)...which resulted in everyone walking on eggshells for the ensuing 4 hours. Anyway, everyone survived the case, nobody cried, and I ended up being sent home at 4 pm :)

I met up with Jon and Kara, Heather, and Nelson (Amy's new fella) for dinner at a Thai restaurant...then we all drove together to the candlelight service at Nelson's church. It was nice, lots of carols and such by candlelight. At the end of the service, a lovely British woman came up and read The Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado to all the kiddos. Not sure if you're familiar with the story, but there is one line that says, "She was an old cow." And when I heard that line read by a British woman, I could not help but interpret it in a way that Max Lucado surely didn't intend. And the absurdity of it made me giggle. Then I felt that hysterical kind of laughter that bubbles up from my gut in inappropriate situations (weddings, serious lectures, etc.), and I had to stare at the wall and take deep breaths and try and think of sad things (or dead puppies, which only makes me laugh harder now). It was an hour past my bedtime at this point and I was feeling punchy, but I managed to not burst out laughing.

On Christmas morning, I woke up while it was still dark out, and couldn't go back to sleep. When the sun finally did come up, it revealed a clear blue sky.

View from my balcony. You can see the mountains just over the tops of the buildings to the west.

I prepared and ate a delicious breakfast of cheesy eggs and pancakes, then skyped with the fam (my parents, Jeff and Amie and Xavi) and opened presents with them. It's kind of crazy that we live in a time where you can live thousands of miles away from the people you love but still share special moments with them quite easily. Not that it's the same, but still better than nothing. After that, I got to skype with Jeremy, Shannon, and Irene for a bit. Then I went and took a walk on the beach, and I must say that my Ugg boots are by far my favorite footware for walking on sand. Perhaps I will take them with me to Hawaii next year.

I spent the rest of the day lounging around my apartment watching movies, beginning with Elf, which is my favorite Christmas movie and makes me cry every single time I watch it.

Yesterday, Heather and I went downtown to REI to return some ski pants that were too big. It was my first time visiting the flagship store, and I was pretty impressed. I think all shoe-selling establishments should have an all-terrain test course for customers. It would probably save me from buying many unnecessary pairs of shoes.

It was a really beautiful day (53 degrees and sunny), and we were already downtown, so we decided to have lunch at the Space Needle. I had a walnut-crusted chicken sandwich that was quite tasty. And the tiramisu was absolutely fabulous. I am drooling just thinking about it.

View from our table when we sat down.

I would like to eat lunch at the Space Needle on every lovely day.

I never get tired of sunlight sparkling on the water...it is beautiful and always makes me think of Reepicheep sailing off to Aslan's country in his little coracle (and wish that I could go, too).

Fun day!

The Pacing Asian

It's the last weekend before Christmas, and I really don't want to leave my apartment...at all. There are just too many people around. I think it's worse since I live right next to a post office (with limited parking) which equals the streets clogging up with people who don't understand the concept of walking a block or two from an available parking spot. Or perhaps they just can't spare the extra 3 minutes of time that would take. It's easy to understand why so many people hate the holidays... everything about the 'holiday season' is frustrating. Except the pretty lights :)

Work has been a little trying lately. One of the nurses I work with recently moved (to Missouri, go figure) and upset the balance of things in the O.R. The nurse who makes assignments

told me, "since S--- left, I need someone else who can do Neuro," (dundunDUN...musical notes of doom). Now, the neurosurgeons that I work with do some pretty incredible things. If I or someone I loved needed a brain tumor removed or an aneurysm clipped, I would definitely recommend them. And during casual encounters they are totally nice people. But when a patient rolls into the room, it's like a switch is flipped and the surgeon is suddenly convinced he is God, and whatever he needs should have been ready five minutes before he asked for it. And they ask for a LOT of crazy equipment, which frequently requires the nurse to be crawling under things attaching cords and foot pedals...and it's not fun. To be fair, they are working on a human brain, and I get that things should happen in an as quick and efficient manner as possible. But it would be nice if they would realize that the fact that they don't know what my name is indicates that I have not worked with them very much (if at all) and therefore am not very familiar with he 13 different machines in the room which can all malfunction in different ways. I bet your stress levels climbed a little just reading that.

The people at my bus stop are sort of driving me crazy. There are three of us out there every morning; me, the pacing asian, and the eastern european shuffler. So, the pacing asian is in his mid to late 30's and mildly attractive. He's always there at least 10 minutes before the bus comes. He paces around, seemingly unable to stand still, then refuses to get on the bus first when it pulls up, even though he's been standing there the longest. The eastern european shuffler is a woman probably in her mid to late 50's who actually lives in my building. She is usually the last one to arrive at the bus stop, but always greets me with a heavily accented "good morning" as she shuffles her way to the front, and always gets on the bus first. It's like a choreographed routine that we have, and is often accompanied by crazed angry ranting inside my head. It sounds something like this: "Stop pacing! Oh my gosh, how hard is it to just stand still? It's too early in the morning and I HATE IT WHEN YOU PACE!...oh great, here she is. Here it comes..." "Good morning" "Go ahead, just shuffle your way to the front, pretending to be friendly. It's not a good morning. It's still dark out, and it's raining, and I'm here at the bus stop with you two, AGAIN!" I'm totally cranky until I get to work, but once I get past the hobos who linger around the emergency department and into the coded-entry safety of the operating room, I become my normal chipper self. Maybe a parking spot would be worth the exorbitant monthly fee...

Dreams and Other Inconsequential Things

A lot of my dreams lately follow a similar vein. I am in some sort of massive complex (shopping center, water park, convention center, hotel...to name a few), and making my way either towards or away from something. Sometimes I'm scared and hurrying, but mostly I'm just moving purposefully, maneuvering around the various obstacles and people (there are almost always LOTS of people around). Last night's version featured a giant black gorilla that I had to get away from. I've realized that whenever I have these dreams, I always wake up and

remember them fondly. I like the sense of purpose, and the destination, and the act of maneuvering through the obstacles. I think this means I am too sated by life as I'm living it. I probably need to take up some sort of dangerous and exciting hobby. Any ideas?

I will start with snow skiing. I'm really too close to mountains to not do it, also I'm going to meet up with Jeff and Amie and some of their friends in Colorado in February...and I definitely need a refresher on the mechanics. So you can expect some stories about face-planting in the snow and/or broken femurs to come.

A few weeks ago was the MLS Championship. Although we were sad that the Sounders didn't make it, Jon, Kara, and I went to cheer on LA Galaxy in their game against Real Salt Lake. It was a remarkably clear night, after a couple of weeks of steady monsoon rains :) There was extra frou frou pomp and circumstance before the game, including a Coast Guard helicopter that came pretty close to getting nailed by celebratory fireworks. All spectators also received a free green rain poncho on entering Qwest field.

You really can't tell from this picture, but there was a LOT of confetti on the field. It was sparkling like a vampire in the sun.

The night got chillier and chillier, and I had a flashback of frozen extremities and cold buttcheeks from my childhood (although the seats at Qwest field are plastic, and therefore infinitely better than the metal bleachers at Soccer Park).

This is Kara's "I can't believe this is going into penalty kicks!" face.

It was a fun game to watch, both teams were pretty 'on' and the caliber of play was impressive. The crowd positively exploded when Beckham's name was announced during the recitation of players at the beginning. There were nice cheering sections for LA and Salt Lake, but the majority of people were wearing Sounders colors :) The game was tied 1-1 at the end of regulation play, and the overtime and penalty kicks were quite exciting (although not a very satisfying way to end the MLS Championship game). There was a regrettable lack of bending from Beckham...and let's not even go into the penalty kick that Donovan completely biffed. Anyway, I am excited for next season (when we will be full season ticket holders!).

We had a stretch of nasty rainy days (right now we're in a stretch of sunny but frigid days, which I prefer), and I did lots of hibernating. And also met my doom in the form of a 1,000 piece Thomas Kinkade Christmas puzzle. It was the most difficult puzzle I have ever had the misfortune of starting. Someone could write an (incredibly boring) epic poem about my dogged struggle to conquer each smeary-colored piece. Here is the innocent looking puzzle that I purchased at my local Barnes & Noble:

And here is the finally vanquished beast, after many a late night with bleary eyes, and puzzle sawdust all over my table...

Here's my Christmas present to you all: do not ever attempt to put together a Thomas Kinkade puzzle. No good will come of it.