The Decision and The Smell

I decided to compost. I went and got a little black garbage can on the cheap from craigslist. (By the way, ACE hardware carries the exact same garbage can that is in the compost entry from last week. I would probably have gone with that one had I known.) Anyways, so it's been sitting at my house for a couple days while I waited to borrow a drill. And today Brian came over. AND HE HAD ONE!! So he brought it over and held the garbage can for me while I drilled huge holes with my new drill bit (And yep, his arms look amazing in this picture. We're still not going to date.) Now, it looks more like bullet holes are in my garbage can than the cute design I initially pictured,  but it's still cool. 

I just filled it up with some food. Some food that I put in a plastic bag about a week ago on my porch. It totally smells so gross right now that I almost puked. I hope that's just because it was in a plastic bag. Now I'm thinking, "I hope no weird bugs or mold are in it that will ruin my sweet compost soil. I mean, do you think I should start over? 

Who knows...

Bottom of the Barrel Omelet

With all the working I've been doing lately, I've had very little time for the grocery shopping. Which means I laid in bed this morning thinking, "I have no milk, no bread, no jelly, and icky cereal. What on earth am I going to eat for breakfast?"
So I rummaged through the fridge to find the following:

• 3 eggs 
• Green Onions from last week (I think), questionable parts removed
• Mini Bell Peppers, slightly wrinkled, about 2 weeks old
• Mushrooms, 5 days old
• Gruyere, I don't know how old but there was no mold on it
• 1 Avocado, too ripe for words and about a week old

Despite the fact that it all sounds terrible, it made for a pretty good omelet. Served with a Whole Foods local organic grapefruit, age indefinite but greater than 1 month, no icky spots apparent. 

 I know, I have no shame. 

Precious

I look like what? Bridget and I were just talking and suddenly she goes, "I know what you look like!" Huh? "She's like, "Ever since I met you, I'm always like who does she remind me of." I think this gets me back for telling Melissa she looks like Violet from The Incredibles. I have a harder time seeing it now (and we had a hard time taking a picture), but the resemblance when I was four is a little more obvious.

Bridget

This is my new roommate. With Brad. They were dating until today and now it's more complicated (see facebook) than exactly dating. Whatever. I like Bridget. She is cool. And she is staying in Brad's room for the summer while he installs security systems in Chicago (and is moving next week to Philadelphia). Anyways.
Bridget walked into Elder's Quorum at church one of her first Sundays here and wrote her name and phone number on the board and basically told her home teachers to get their butts over to her house. This is also the moment when Brad started thinking she was super cool.
Now we eat ice cream together and watch How I Met Your Mother, and she's also the one who I ran Pat's Run with. So, meet Bridget my new friend and roommate for the summer.

Check Out My Tan Line!

All right, really. Who am I kidding. I don't get tan lines. This is my sunburn line left over from a sunburn from a bike ride I took exactly a week ago. I was on my good exercise kick and strapped on my bike helmet at 1:30 in the afternoon, determined to find the little greenbelt around here. It took about a half an hour to find the greenbelt, during which time I'm thinking to myself "Holy crap; It's so freaking hot outside. I hope I don't die." Once I finally got there, though there were lots of little lakes and grass and it was really nice. So I kept riding for about another hour. I ended up under a sweet bridge and around the lake. It was all very nice, but I was always worried about heat exhaustion. I stopped about 5 times and even laid on the grass for a minute about a mile from home. I almost didn't make it.

When I got home, I checked the weather forecast. I had just biked for an hour and a half in 109 degrees!!! No wonder I was so hot! To top it off, the "Valley" was experiencing its most random weather pattern in 100 years, according to the news. The next few days, it was 90, 80, 70, and then rainy and 54. Any other day of the week would have been better. Oh, well. You live, you learn.
Another tidbit for you all, Target Sport Sunscreen is SPF 15. Right next to the Coppertone Sport Sunscreen that is SPF 50. What athlete on earth is like, "I'm going to be out all day long sweating up a storm, I'd better put my SPF 15 on!" Somehow, I think thanks mostly to my bike helmet, it did, however, work, and the only burned up part of me is my lower back, which I didn't even know until the hot water from the shower blasted down upon it. Yoowouch!

Perspectives in Aging

One of the best parts of my job are the perspectives I get on aging. These are from people who haven't completely trashed their bodies; they're just getting old. Here's a few stories for you:
I had a patient a couple weeks ago who was in his late 80's and just found out he had cancer. I was all worried about how he was doing, so I asked. He said, "Well, my family and I are meeting with my oncologist next week to find out how long I want to kick around."
Against all nursing rules, I offered my opinion without even thinking, "Well, I kinda like you, I think you should stick around as long as you can."
"Mmm..I don't know," he says. "See, I'm 87 now, I figure I only have about 3 years left of my life expectancy anyways at this point. I don't want to be like this guy at church. He made it to a hundred and he looked all wizzened out. I don't want to look like that when I cash out."
All I could do was laugh and wish him the best.
Another lady last week was 89 and totally with it. Walking around and stuff. Mostly blind, though. She had me go through all 40 of her business cards with her looking for the assisted living place she lived so I could come visit her. Every place I read off she had a comment, "Oh, I need to call him. Oh, I should save that. That little stinker." So funny.
And then she was my tour guide to Arizona when she found out I was new. Like we don't have Highway signs these days. I was like, "Oh, I've never been to Globe." She's all, "Now, get on the 60, that's the freeway. And go around the mountain, and over a few hills, now you might see a mining shaft on your right after about an hour. The town is growing so much these days now that the price of copper is going up. You see, it used to be 60 cents, then it was 2 or 3 dollars and now it's $15 dollars and they are offering $2000 sign-on bonuses and $12 an hour or $5000 bonuses and $21 an hour for skilled labor. Anyways, then you'll get to this place, you'll see the sign called Oak Flat. You can camp there. Or you can...." We spent hours over a few days talking like that. Apparently I need to go get a map of AZ from the Chamber of Commerce put out by the Highway department that shows me all this stuff. Oh, and the North RIm of the Grand Canyon is the best, but according to her, I should take a mule instead of hiking. :o)

Hitting the Wall / I am Not Your Drug Dealer

Last week I worked 5 thirteen hour shifts in a row. I've done this before, and I definitely thought I could do it again. I mean, seriously, I'm only taking care of myself and what about all those single moms of the world that work 3 jobs and take care of 6 kids?
What I learned is that I am not that mom. Friday night I was cranky, and I was busy, not happy, and stressed out. I didn't want to eat, I didn't want to be there, and I was so up against a wall and not going home for 10 more hours.
Along the same train of thought, I really like people generally speaking, but there are some patients, I swear, who I would like to .....maybe that's not printable, but whom I certainly can handle for one night and not for three or four. I am NOT your drug dealer. I am here to relieve your pain, not to send you on a trip. And I love you, cute old lady, but if you don't stop talking soon, ain't nobody on this floor gonna make it through the night.
See ya!

Special Place In Hell

Is there a special place in hell for people who hang up on telemarketers for Deseret Book? Because if there is, I'm there.
Because he was from Deseret Book, I let him talk about 1 and a half minutes longer than I would have anyone else. Even after my night shift when I was attempting to drift off to sleep.
After about 30 seconds of the schpeal, I'm like, "Stop reading the script to me, and tell me what you're doing."
"Huh?" he says
"Never mind. Go."
"So then you could buy x number of movies, blah blah blah..."
"No thanks."
"Or just one."
"No thank you."
"Or you could just..."
CLICK.
Sorry dude. I need my sleep. I don't care who you work for.

To Compost or Not To Compost

I probably first asked my mom about composting about 15 years ago. "Gross," she said. "Do you know how bad all that rotting food would smell? Disgusting." I never really brought it up again. Until Jessica mentioned it (she's such an Earth Crusader these days!) . And then this cute picture was in SELF magazine with this cute happy girl in her little Manhattan backyard sitting on her compost bin. I can't get it out of my head!
I mean, she's so cute. And the healthier I eat (meaning, all my salad this week) the more compost I have. I threw away so many pieces of vegetables today. Inside a plastic bag! And how long would it take to turn that into dirt in this weather? A day and a half? And apparently, I can get a free "recycled composting bin" through the city of Tempe. Hopefully this doesn't mean I get traces of other people's food in it! But really, I'm running out of excuses here...
Anyways, here's a link of a newscast I found while searching for this picture and another link to the City of Tempe's helpful composting site.
Video Of Same Girl On Bin

Tempe Composting

Random

• I made Whitney's salad from her blog tonight. Even with shrinking the recipe it feeds 10. Ten heaping servings. It was really really good, but I still don't love cilantro (I used about 1/4 of what it called for)!
• Called Isac Simpson last week, who visited my ward. We are going out in August, which should be fun. (The one who went to Hillcrest who I don't know at all who is going to school down here :o) Brad and his little brother were friends. 
• Talked to my friend AuBrey from Idaho who I've been friends with for forever tonight for 3 hours. I don't think we've talked in a year
• Relief Society slumber party at my house in two weeks. Ahh!!
• Completely forgot to ride my bike today. I'll bike and swim tomorrow :o)
• I organized all my radio stations! (This is where I am a total dork.) While at red lights, I wrote down all good radio stations I scanned through. Then organized them by number. Now FM1 has mostly stations in the 90.x range and FM2 stations are 100.x. Only one Spanish station. No repeat stations. NPR is in. Christian rock is out. Why this calms me so much I don't really know, but it feels great.
• I love Vanilla Cream Muscle Milk. mmmm.... (I had it for the first time today...good when running late to church...again)

Girls' Night In

Tonight was a fun Girls' Night In. First, I woke up and had to go swimming. But all I have is a bikini, which Ariana told me was dumb to try to swim laps in. And she was probably right. So I went on a 2 hour long search for a swimsuit, which does nothing for one's self-esteem ever, really. But I found a great Nike one at Sports Authority that is really flattering..not that I'm about to post that picture up here...it was on a great sale, which helped, too! I was stressed at this point because Ariana was over and I was like, "Work out or be social?" This is really like my one night off. So I told laid out some options for Ariana and she was like, "Go swimming. I'll wait (aka I'll call my crush)." But he wasn't available and just then she remembered she had a swimsuit in her car (I don't know, either, but it made me happy.) So we just run to the little pool in our complex and jump the fence (people keep vandalizing it...anyways) and then after a few minutes Bridget got home and was like, "I want to swim!!" So the three of us all swam together and it was so much fun. I can't remember the last time I went swimming with friends and I was so glad not to have to sacrifice being social to work out!! Then I made them the rest of the hamburgers from the night before (I had already eaten) and we went grocery shopping for the salad ingredients. I had looked forward to this salad ALL WEEK LONG. Somehow my mind had inserted the words, "Baby Shrimp" instead of "Baby Spinach" into the salad, and I was shocked to see it didn't actually call for any. But I added them anyway.
So we all ate the salad, and then watched Sleepless in Seattle (Ariana's first time- remember, she was 3 when it came out :o) ) while we ate Blue Bell Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream. All in all, a perfect Girls' Night In.
p.s. Brad Skyped with us all. I'm adding that because it makes him feel like a nerd.
p.s.s. I told the cashier about Blue Bell. I swear they should hire me to be their spokesman. I even gave him one of my coupons!! You're welcome, Chris!
p.s. again Look at the picture on my calendar on Saturday. funfun.

Flying Jumping Jacks

This week was one of the productive ones. We all know by now that consistency is not my strong point. Every 3 weeks or so I have a week like this. I try to tell myself that my stomach will be so flat and my butt so perky if I could keep this up. :o)
A little run down. I made great dinners this week for myself. I'm trying to find good fast recipes so I can workout and eat before work and still be on time to work!
Sunday I made shrimp linguine. Wednesday was Mahi Mahi with herbs and tomatoes (the tomatoes left over from the pasta), Thursday Lemon-herb Chicken with Caesar Salad (Romaine left over from a dinner party) (unfortunately, I used anchovy paste and didn't rinse out the bowl very well. Sorry Bridget!), Friday was Buffalo Burgers and last night I made this salad:
Baby Spinach and Raspberry Salad
Fantastic. I used a pear white balsamic vinaigrette (it's weird the stuff I have "on hand" these days since these dinner parties!) It was so good! But I'm getting ahead of myself.
So, this week, my house was relatively clean and I worked out every day with an "X" on it. Because I had it all planned out, i felt great and was so motivated. But the second day, I'm doing Intense Moves, a fantastic step aerobics video circa 1998, and Bridget's hot friend Brandon arrives to help her move her desk. Sweet. So I'm like, "Hi. So yes, I totally feel like a dork right now but this is the only time I have to do this before I have to go to work so I'm going to go ahead and keep it up." So I did. Luckily he was out the door before I had to start doing the flying jumping jacks. A girl can only be so uninhibited.
You know what? Saturday night deserves it's own entry. See above.

Craig the Storage Guy

So on Wednesday, Bridget and I were productive. Actually, I guess it started Tuesday night when we cleaned up a bunch of Brad's stuff and decided to haul out some of mine. We decided it was time to get a storage unit. So Wednesday morning we headed out and found this little dive of a storage place and went inside. As we walked inside, the smell of Camel cigarettes was a little overwhelming. I know this because it smelled exactly like the apartment of a certain convict I used to know. (Some of you think I'm kidding. I'm not.)

Anyways, Craig was in his 50's and super nice. He hooked us up with the student discount and got us a good storage unit. But not before he asked us where we were from and Bridget offered him a Book of Mormon. You go girl. (Converts are the best...she's been around for 7 years.) He totally said that would be cool and he'd read it. 

On Thursday, when she came back with it, he seemed really excited to see her and even showed off a sweet magnet of the Salt Lake temple he had from back in the day. 

You never know...

This is a really all the stuff we brought that first day. It seemed like a lot in the car.

Boring...

So the other day my dad says, "So your blog's been a little slow lately." A little slow.. hmmm... does that mean my life is boring??!!?? I mean, I have a job. I have to work out. And keep my house clean. And my new roommate Bridget just moved in. I mean, what, exactly, do I have to do to keep my life interesting. Josh stopped by. That was exciting, and yes those pictures are 14 months old, what do you do?... 

All right. I've rambled long enough. Here's the scoop on the last few days. 

Warrant Officer Josh Olson

Josh was sworn in today as a helicopter pilot/warrant officer for the army, which is why he's in Boise this week. It's something he's planned on and waited for for a long time, so it's very exciting. I'm generally scared to death about this, but I found out today training is 3 years in Kentucky, so maybe the war will be over by then. Anyways, here's a few pictures of the army guy from the last couple years. Congratulations!!

(obligatory reminder: formerly known as boyfriend. Currently known as very good friend in Colorado)

Why Americans Do Not Ride Bikes...

I rode my bike today for the first time. And I know now why Americans are all fat and lazy. Because they are terrified of getting hit by all the freaking cars on the road! Here's a play-by-play:

I rinse off my bike helmet. It has, you see, been in storage for about 3 years. And, as Josh the ex-boyfriend (who was here for 3 hours during a layover to Boise yesterday-- FUN!) noted, there is a lovely dusty haze over the valley entitled pollution. From all the CARS. Which brings me back to the ride. 

I put on my bike helmet and decide I look like an awesome dork. So I pull my hair back, put on some jeans, and decide to take the tennis shoes out so my flip flops don't get me into my first wreck. 

And then I put on the dorky bike helmet and head out. The first obstacle is a left turn onto University. There is no getting around this, and it's a busy 5-lane road. One that I had to hang out in the "suicide lane" in for a little while. Suddenly I am very grateful for my dorky little bike helmet. I don't have to stop until McClintock, when I realize the toe traps- I mean, toe clips-- are another obstacle. They make this awful grating sound until you get your foot in, which takes a little while. Finally I'm in. 

Another mile under way. I realize my hands hurt. I practice different hand positions, but none  is really better than another. One more mile. Passing a weird intersection. Grateful it's Sunday and traffic is really sparse. My butt hurts!! Ouch. I thought this seat was comfortable. Nope. It hurts. Next time wearing different underwear. And maybe a really thick maxi pad for cushion. And maybe not jeans. 

Going around the lake. I'm finally there. Lots of little fun hills & no traffic. Think the obligatory thought of Lance Armstrong. What an ego trip to think that almost everyone who gets on a bike thinks of you for at least 15 seconds. 

It starts blowing really hard. I wonder if I possibly chose one of the 20 days of the year that it rains here to ride this thing. (No. I didn't.) 

The ride home was relatively uneventful. I realized that Rio Salado, just south of University, is much more calm. Except for the closed bike lane. And the fact that the seat grew more and more uncomfortable by the minute. I finally scooted back a bit and things felt a lot better.

As I pulled into the parking lot, a guy in a red Mustang shouted, "Good for you, baby."

Yeah. Good for me. 

 

Randy Rocked My World

Randy is in my ward. He and I were chatted at FHE the other day and I mentioned that I needed a bike for my triathlon. Little did I know that he was both a bike guy and a craigslist guy. And the very next day I got a text from him to call a lady with a bike. This lady had bought her bike for $600 5 years ago for a triathlon and hadn't been on it since. And she's 5'3". And she sold it to me for $250. I had it all cleaned up and tuned last week. So this, my good friends, is my new triathlon bike. :o)!!

Camille Thinks My Car is Cool

Camille is in my ward, and she's taking a photography class. For an assignment, she chose to take pictures of people in their cars. Really, I think these pictures are super cool. And I love my red car. Don't I look totally All-American? :o)

The Wedding Pictures are Here!

Spun Sugar

Tonight's dinner party. Oh, good times. We spent a lot of time cooking. Everything seemed to take forever. Maybe we got started too late. Anyways, salad was grapefruit pistachio chicken salad (better even than it sounds). I poached chicken for the first time, which was great. It was very tender and flavorful. I tried to poach salmon once and did a horrible job. It was all dried out and nasty. The difference is to turn the water temp way down. 

Next! We had Whitefish wrapped in bacon asparagus and a lemon mayonnaise sauce. Excellent. 

And, the most fun dessert ever would be "Floating Islands." Not the most decadent, but enough fun to make up for anything. Soft custard with floating poached meringues (Brad's part) and spun sugar (my part. Spinning the sugar was super awesome. It took forever to boil that stuff, but more fun next time.

Company included a new friend Theressa (we actually just met but she graduates next week with her Nurse Practitioner and we totally click already which is fun.) Also, the Glass brothers, including Marshall from the Camping Pictures and his brother Jordan. Also, Russell, Candace A., Natalie, and Bridget. Good Times. 

Brad's moving to Chicago on Tuesday for the summer. Sad times. Dinner parties are on hiatus until then, but Theressa said she would host one for me sometime so we'll see. 

All These Things Shall Give Thee Experience

I gave a lesson on this book today in Relief Society. It was written by Neal A. Maxwell, and is really really beautiful about God's omniscience and how our experiences in this life are known to God and how they build us as individuals. Anyways, maybe I'll do spiritual entries on Sundays, so this is the first. Also, Jessica, I don't think you have any Mormon books on your list, which is an obvious deficit. You might want to look into this one... :o)

Gem Stones and Chakras

A few years ago, Jessica had had some crappy things happen right before her birthday. And everyday, I drove by this little gem shop which gave me an idea. I went inside and asked the lady working if she had any gemstones to help with sadness. She did, and they seemed great, but when I asked her how much they were, she told me to hold it in my hands, close my eyes, and it would speak to me and tell me how much it was.
Oh no she didn't. No sir was I going to be like $30 when really she would have charged me $3 had I just shut up. So I left and went to another gem shop where they told me the freakin' prices.
Today I went to a Healing Touch International conference. And I will be spending another 9 hours there tomorrow.
It was the closest I've been to going back to that gemstone store.
But it was really fun. I learned about magnetic clearing and chakras and even that every chakra has a musical note and color. We had to sense people's energy fields and stop when we felt them. And it felt great. I wanted to go home and buy a fountain and some yoga pants. I did buy a CD.
There's some great case studies of patients who have done really well after their sessions, and I think it will be good with some of my anxious patients.
These are pictures of our altar (with a rain box, a chakra bear, and a Tibetan bowl of intentions). And a picture of the beautiful fountains at the Cancer center where it was held. The hospital put this on, and even paid the class fee for me! Yay!

Queen Helene

This is Queen Helene's Cocoa Butter. Byron first introduced me to this in 2003. Every time I see it or use it, I can hear his name in my head, "Queen Heleeeene's Cocoa Butta." Or something like that. Anyway, it makes me smile. It's his favorite.
Somebody brought some to work this week, and I was like, "Crap...this stuff totally works." And you're supposed to be able to put it on your face. Now, I don't know about you, but this dry skin doesn't normally moisturize for $3.49 for 32 oz. Not even close. And I've tried.
But I haven't tried this. I'm a little nervous, but think of all the dollars I could save!!