Friday, January 26, 2007

Six Weird Things About Me

My friend Waterfall had this meme on her blog, so I thought I would follow suit. I think that six is a low number, as there are many weird things about me. However, I will try to list the six weirdest things about me.

1. I count. I have been doing this since I was little. I count when I'm nervous, when I'm bored, when I'm exercising and when I can't fall asleep. It often happens unconsciously. I will sometimes catch myself counting and I'm already at 76 or 324. I don't count things like bunnies, sheep or the tiles in the bathroom. I simply count.

2. I don't mix my food. When I eat, I eat one thing at a time. I do not move onto the next thing until the first thing is completed. For example, if I have the following for dinner: fish, broccoli & pears, I will eat them in that order. I will not take a bite of broccoli or pears until the fish is gone. I hate it when the juice from one food item gets into another food item. This is especially difficult when eating at an Indian restaurant. Exceptions to the rule are as follows:
  1. If corn kernels and potatoes are on the menu, these must be mixed.
  2. If rice is on the menu, it can be mixed with anything (ie beans & rice, Indian foods like daal & rice, and Chinese foods). However, if there are two items to be mixed with the rice (eg daal & paneer), they will be mixed and eaten in turn.
  3. bread can be eaten at any time, and dipped into saucy foods.
  4. grilled cheese must be eaten with soup, preferably tomato soup, and can only be eaten after it is dipped in said soup and thoroughly drenched.

3. Laundry must be folded a certain way before it can be placed in the dresser. If it is not folded in the way that it is supposed to be folded, it is to sit in the laundry basket until such a time that it can be folded. If my husband tries to fold the laundry, I have to re-fold it because his way is wrong.

4. If the tines in the fork are uneven, I cannot use the fork.

5. I have been known to wear the same pair of socks for more than a week straight.

6. If my nose has anything in it, I cannot concentrate. If there is a dry booger in there, that's all I think about until I can set it free.

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Snow Day - Part II

When Navigator got home on Tuesday, we decided to shovel the walk and build a snow man. I got the camera and took a bunch of pictures. After spending 7 hours on Tri-Met, getting to play in the snow with my honey was a great reward! I was so happy he came home early!!

Navigator Shoveling snow off our front walkway


Our backyard & snowy deck

The pool
We played a game where we tried to lob snowballs over the fence & into the pool from across the parking lot. Navigator fared much better than me. I couldn't get any of mine over the fence.

We rolled snowballs down the hill and around the parking lot

Then I pushed them up the hill next to our deck.

It took both of us some time to get the second one on top of the first. They were HEAVY!!
We carefully molded the body of the snowman so that it looked nice & clean.
Navigator placed the head on the snowman...
...and we cleaned it up.

I went inside & found the proper accouterments for our man

And here we are! He towers over us!!

It turned out to be a fun day after all!!

School was cancelled on Wednesday, so I decided to go for a xc ski trip on the Fanno Creek Trail by my house. I created a trailjournal, which you can find here. Portland State is open today, but I don't have class until 4pm, so I have plenty of time to play in the snow before the rain comes and washes it away!

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Snow Day - Part I

It began snowing at 5:45 this morning. I was supposed to go to my practicum in Milwaukie. I called one of my cooperating professionals who told me that if the ESD isn't closed, then home visits go as scheduled.

My original plan was to ride my bike to the Tualatin Park & Ride, take the express downtown, then a bus to Milwaukie. Total time, 1 hour. Due to the snow, I left the bike home and left the house at 5:53, hoping to catch one of four busses to get myself to Milwaukie.

The #76 bus, to Tualatin Park & Ride, was due at 6:08. It arrived at 6:15. I got to Tualatin Park & Ride in time to catch the #96 bus at 6:35. I arrived downtown a little before 7:00. I stopped at a deli to get a bottle of water, and got to the bus stop for the #33 at 7:05.

I had forgotten to bring my camera with me, so I was at the mercy of my cell phone for pictures. Sorry for the crappy resolution. This is what downtown Portland looked like at 7:05am.


The #33 showed up at 7:13. We made it to Milwaukie without much trouble. I hopped on the #29 bus to find out that the bus driver was unsure that we would be going anywhere. She had a call in to Tri-Met for information. They replied that because of the snow issues, it would be at least two hours before they could get out to her and get chains on her tires. She decided to risk it. We headed up Lake Rd. at 7:40.

I arrived at the Clackamas ESD office at 8:10. This is what the road up to the office looked like:


I waited for Chris, the PT I was scheduled to join for home visits. He arrived a little after 8:30 and told me that he was going to cancel his home visits. He did just that, then drove me down to the Milwaukie Transit Center, so that I could pick up the #33 back to downtown Portland. I was on the bus at 9:00.

I made a few vital mistakes:

I called Teatree. This kept me from thinking straight. Because I was on the phone, I didn't realize that I left my gloves on the bus. Because I was on the phone, I didn't think "Hey, these buses don't have chains, I should hop on the MAX." Because I was on the phone, I got on the #12 bus to Tigard.

The #12 bus got me about 1/4 mile down the road before it hit a street lamp and a pole. It took 20 minutes to get that far. After demolishing the street lamp, and sliding to a stop against the pole, the bus driver said "You're all on your own!" and kicked us off the bus. I have a sneaking suspicion he drove us into the pole on purpose. This is our bus. The item the person on the left is stepping over is the street light. In the foreground, you can see the glass bulb that was once part of said street light:
Instead of heading north to the MAX line, I thought I could pick up another #12 farther south. That was totally stupid. I wasn't on the phone anymore, so I can't blame that for my poor decision. I can only blame my ambivolence to carbon blazing as the reason. I headed the way the bus was headed...

I crossed highway 26. This is what it looked like:


I wandered down some roads, passing numerous busses, each with their hazard lights flashing. One bus was crushing a Cadillac. I thougt to myself "I should have parked Grey Eagle downtown last night! Tri-Met could be buying me a new car right now!"

I continued up the road and looked behind me. I laughed at the stranded busses:


I called Tri-Met to see if the MAX was running. The number was busy. I called Navigator to have him check their website. He told me to call back in 10 minutes. I asked a bus driver standing on the side of the road if MAX was running. She said it was. I decided to head to MAX.

However, when I got to 5th, I saw a #44 bus. The #44 bus goes to Barbur Transit Center. That's halfway to my house. Once again, I made a poor decision. I walked down the street to find a bus stop.

While crossing a street, I slipped and fell. A woman helped me up. We got to talking and found out we were both headed to Tigard. Together, we hailed a cab. The cabbie asked where we were going. We replied "Tigard." He said "No FUCKING way," rolled up his window and left us. A #44 passed us. We tried to hail the bus. The bus driver ignored us. A second #44 came by immediately after the first. We hailed that one. It stopped. I hopped on the bus and reached into my pocket to grab my phone to call Navigator. It wasn't there. FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!! My phone fell out of my pocket when I fell. I had to get off the bus.

I had to retrace my steps.

I had to carbon blaze.

I didn't even know if my phone would be there.

FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!

As I approached the spot where I fell, I saw my phone poking out of the snow. Thank God! I grabbed it and saw that I had a new voice mail. It was Navigator. I called him back. He looked online for me and told me that MAX was running, as well as the #76. I decided to walk to MAX, take that to Beaverton, then pick up the #76. I headed back towards downtown.

In the meantime, I talked to my friend Jennifer and killed the battery on my phone. No more pictures.

I got to the PSU campus and picked up the streetcar, then took that to the MAX. It was 11:00 when I got on MAX - nearly lunch time! I was getting hungry & I had to pee.

I arrived at the Beaverton Transit Center at 11:25, wishing I had taken MAX the entire time. Why was I so stupid to try to take the bus, when the train is the only reliable thing in this town when it snows? Whatever, I had a bus to catch, and it looked like all the busses in the 'burbs were chained up. That was good news.

I waited....

........and waited........

.................and waited..................

......................and waited...............

The #76 showed up at 12:15. The bus driver was neither friendly nor apologetic. In fact, when she arrived, she said, rather abruptly "No one is to get on this bus until I get back!" and before you could say "I'm freezing my ass off!" she was off the bus, doors locked and trotting across the transit center like there wasn't any rush to get anywhere.

MOTHERFUCKER

Suddenly, I couldn't feel my feet. I could feel my core body temperature dropping. I was getting hypothermic. I just wanted to lie down and go to sleep.

OK, so I was being a little overly dramatic at that point, but I had been dealing with Tri-Met for six hours, AND it was past lunch time! Did I mention that I had to pee?

At 12:30, the bus driver returned. TWELVE FUCKING THIRTY! What was she doing for 15 minutes? No pee takes that long. She opened the door without an apology, then demanded to see everyone's fare. Fares are only valid for two hours. At this rate, your fare expired while you were on the bus. Thank goodness I have a pass.

My toes regained their feeling about five minutes before my stop. I sloshed through the snow in my crappy sneakers (because I seem to have lost my hiking shoes) and walked in my front door at 1:45. I immediately took off my shoes, socks & pants, turned on the heat and stuck my feet on the register. They screamed in pain. My toes were blue. I thought I was going to lose them. I wasn't being dramatic. They really were blue.

I cried.

Once I was relatively warm, I realized that my feet were slightly discolored by some old watercolor paint that had dropped on my crappy shoes one day when I was working. It stained my feet when my shoes got wet.

I called Navigator & made lunch. I recharged my phone. I began feeling normal again.

.....to be continued....

Friday, January 12, 2007

Exercise and the Grad Student

In a wild attempt to lose the 5 pounds I gained last term, and continue losing weight, I have decided to walk and/or ride my bike whenever possible. To help me with this, I have created a training log at Buckeye Outdoors. It's the same one my friend Nina uses to log her runs.

I did fairly well this week, and can only hope to do just as well next week. I have found that it's much easier to ride to school than to ride home from school. Unfortunately, the weather turned bitter cold on Wednesday, and I was afraid to ride my bike on icy streets, as Navigator cracked some ribs a couple years ago doing just that.

I'm also considering purchasing a heart rate monitor. My former roommate Bandanna has one, and she claims that it has turned her normally mundane bike commute into a super-fun workout.

My practicum is located in Milwaukie, which is quite a jaunt from here, but I found that if I take a 1-hour bus ride there, I can ride my bike from practicum to class, mostly on a bike trail. The distance is roughly 8.5 miles, which is an easy 45 minute ride. I'm meeting with the team I will be working with for my practicum this afternoon, so hopefully I will be able to work something out with them.

I have not yet decided if I'm going to sign up for yoga this term. Navigator thinks it will be good for me. I think it will be good for me, but I'm afraid I will miss as many classes this term as I did last term. We'll see. I'll keep you posted.

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Hiker Quiz

A friend of mine had a "How Well Do You Know Me?" quiz on her blog. I took it and scored 50%. I then created my own quiz, which is all about my hiking life. Take it if you dare! Good luck!

Leaderboard
Create your own friendquiz here

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

First Snowshoe Trip

On Friday, Navigator & I went snowshoeing with Sharon. We went to the Wind River area of Mt. Hood. It was my first snowshoe trip, and it was a blast. I was a little fearful at first, since we were simply walking wherever we wanted, and I had no idea where we were for most of the time.
We built a snowman before we headed home for dinner & beer at McMenamins. It was a great time! I can't wait to go back.
Navigator

I don't know why I try to take self portraits...I always look dorky.


Sharon builds the snowman's body!


Group pose with Pablo, the snowman


Snowy trees!