TGFI

I've got a lot to be thankful for. I'm thankful my family still loves and supports me, despite the fact I'm over 2,200 miles away. I'm thankful for my friends, old and new, who always lend a listening ear and are great to talk shop with. I'm thankful I have a job I truly enjoy. I'm thankful for Luna!! I'm thankful for a LOT of things.

But this Thanksgiving, I am especially thankful for health insurance. As you probably know, I've recently been attacked by a nasty rhino in the form of a virus. Either I'm a huge wimp, or it was a charging beast, but it sort of did me in.

Yesterday I woke up with a gross cough and difficulty breathing, although most of the pain and sinus pressure had weakened. I decided to find a doctor, because I was concerned I might be getting a bronchial infection. She told me my problem wasn't an infection, but that the cold exacerbated my asthma!

She refilled my Maxair, prescribed me a new inhalor, gave me an OptiChamber, and let me pop a couple of pills. She told me which pharmacy was the fastest and cheapest. After a distressed phone call to my mom (I've been feeling way too cooped up in my house, and there's not a darn thing I can do about it -- I've reached a point near insanity), I headed to the pharmacy. The inhalors would've cost THREE HUNDRED DOLLARS without my insurance. With insurance, they were only $80.

So TGFI. Thank god for insurance!

I hope everyone had an enjoyable Thanksgiving. I did. Last night I was getting some leftover apple pie, and Luna somehow managed to commandeer the plate! So, I guess she had a good one too. :-)

enferma

I don't like being sick.

I dislike missing work.

My head feels like it's going to implode from pressure.

My throat feels like someone has lodged a throbbing ball where my lymph nodes used to be.

My poor nose is sore.

I thought yesterday would be the worst of it,

but I was wrong.

Today is the worst.

I vow to be spritely tomorrow.

But at least through all of this, I've learned that I'm pretty good at feeling sorry for myself.

Rejoicing and Being Glad in the Day the Lord Made

I never fully appreciated the glory of a Saturday until I had my first hangover in college, and I realized I could languish in my bed listening to music and sipping on Vanilla Coke -- at least until someone knocked on my door to drag me to lunch.



My gratefulness for Saturday evolved when I discovered the amazing show lineup KERA had on PBS on Saturdays. From about 11 am to 4 pm, I could enjoy shows like Daisy Cooks, Mexico: One Plate at a Time with Rick Bayless, America's Test Kitchen, Ask This Old House (I love love love Kevin O'Connor), and my favorite lazy Saturday show: New Yankee Workshop. I would watch these as I read, wrote papers and then prepared for an evening at the Blue Door Cafe waiting tables and goofing off with my pals.














Now that I am a contributing member of society with a regular 8-5 job, I have a whole new deeply affectionate feeling towards Saturdays. It's not that I dislike my job, I actually love it! There was a time when (Dallas job) I would suffer from the Friday at 4 pm twitches, craving vodka to wash away the tensions of the previous week. Saturday was a day reserved for recuperation as I watched Curb Your Enthusiasmwith my dad before I went out to drown my stress again.

But here I am just pleased to have large blocks amount of time to do things I enjoy or need to accomplish. It's only 11 am, and I have already managed to type a little bit on a story I'm developing. I ate breakfast. I'm enjoying Fleet Foxes music, and I have downloaded some songs I adore. And I still have an entire day to accomplish:
1. going up Spencer's Butte or Mt. Pisgah with Lunar Module
2. sweeping, mopping, dish washing and other domestic tribulations
3. lunch
4. baking a dessert for a night of dining with girlfriends
5. stop by the library
6. read a little in my book
7. girl's night!


I love Saturdays!!!!!!!

(Not So) Common Sense

If you have a bell pepper that's been in the fridge a few days (read: longer than a week) because you used part of it to make a previous dinner, do a thorough inspection. If any part of it is brown, soft, wilting, or looks like a corpse Tony Soprano once dealt with, don't eat it. DON'T pull a Brooke and cut off "the better looking part." Unless you enjoy vomiting.

And when you have occasional bouts with asthma, take your inhalor with you when you exercise. Even if you've done the route a million times, you never know when your airways will constrict and the wheezing will begin. Because, like Brooke, you might find yourself a mile and a half away from home and a long, wheezy walk back home.

what a night.

Deer in the Headlights

I almost hit a buck deer pulling into my driveway tonight. He merely looked at me, and if he had shoulders, he would've shrugged them, and he strolled to the neighbor's yard.

What he doesn't know is that I love venison.

Spencer Butte Morning

Some pics from hiking up Spencer Butte this morning... I'll have to go back when it's not so foggy and take pictures of the city.

Portland

While I love Eugene and the many wonders it has to offer, I also adore (and miss) big cities and all THEY have to offer. So today while I was looking online for a book called The Lost Steps, and I discovered that Powell's in Portland has it, I decided to head North.

I've been to, through and around Portland. I've been to the airport three times and the Rose Arena once, and that pretty much covers my experience with Portland. Being two hours away, I really need a good excuse to go, and I also need a nice list of things to occupy my time while I'm there. Because while I might drive 3 hours to see a lake in an old volcano, driving 2 hours to go shopping is a bit ridiculous.

My first stop was Powell's bookstore, which I have heard a bit about from people in my book club. For those of you who have been to the Half Price Books on Northwest Hwy in Dallas....you ain't seen nothin' yet. Powell's is ginormous. For those of you who have been to Booked Up in Archer City, TX....you're on the right track. The store itself is actually several different buildings housing several "types" of books. I mistakenly went into the Technical Books building first, but I walked out with a cool gift for a coworker for secret santa and a book for myself called Coma. Eventually I made it to the main store on Burnside. Because of the Wordstock Festival going on, the place was beyond packed. Lines to get in, lines all over the place. I really had been looking forward to aimlessly wandering around with my mouth slightly ajar and drool dripping onto my shirt. But with all these hipster Portlanders around, I had to keep my cool. Plus my parking meter was going to run out soon. The book I needed was on the first set of shelves, so I grabbed it and found a parking place in line.

I decided to get a little lost in the Pearl District on my way back to the car, and ended up going to Lexi Dog, which was enticing because A) I have a dog named Lexie back home in Texas and B) Luna is spoiled. It's a "boutique and social club" for dogs. They had a wide variety of treats (organic and homemade) and special birthday-ish treats. Apparently you can actually host a dog birthday party there for a nominal fee of $110. I think Luna enjoyed her day at the arboretum just fine. I walked out with a relatively cheap package of Duck and Potato treats for the dogs at home. The election gear for dogs was half off, but there were no Obama shirts for Luna, and she is not a member of the Democrat or Republican parties, and that's all they had.


Then I called my friend (actually the girl who lived in my room before me) to see if she wanted to grab some dinner at Al Amir, an Eastern food restaurant my old roommate suggested. In the meantime I decided to cruise around Portland, and I almost killed a biker (it totally wasn't my fault...but he still fell off of his bike and cussed me out, which I probably would've done too if I was him. But I maintain that it wasn't my fault). I found my way easily to the restaurant, with no bikes stuck on my front bumper. I really enjoyed the food! I got the Lamb Shawarma and hummus. Then we went back to her house, where I met her roommates, and we all watched some TV, sipped some homemade pear wine, and then I left.

All in all, I got a decent dose of city life, although I wish I had stopped in a couple of art galleries. I always feel guilty for not buying when I go into them though.

Waiting on the World to Change....

I've done my part. I hope you've done yours.