Inside My Dreaming Brain

There are lots of mornings I wake up and want to tell someone about my dreams. Simply because, they. are. so. weird.
Last night was maybe a little crazier than most.
It started with dream that John called me and said, "You'd better hurry and come pick me up because I think I'm...." and then the phone hung up. I thought gangsters were getting him, and it actually scared me enough to wake me up out of a dead sleep.
When I went back to sleep (three whole minutes later), a wooly mouse was running through our hospital and it was very important for some reason to catch it (and save it or kill it, I'm not sure). All I know is I followed it outside amidst some security guards and a person wearing "LDS people are Hispanics too" with the letters made out of those kiddie magnets on refrigerators.
This was, of course, followed by a family vacation of all of us riding flying jet skis over Phoenix. Dreamland Phoenix looked a lot like a cross between Disneyland and the Candy Land board game. Brad was upset that we couldn't fly a little lower and go exploring more, and I kind of wanted to, too, but my dad really wanted to get wherever we were going. I think Brad and I took a little detour anyways.
When I woke up, I was exhausted, even 8 hours of sleep. At least it was an adventurous night.

Hip de Dip

So I've been wanting a new comforter for awhile. Not that I want to permanently get rid of the one I have, but I needed a change. Unfortunately, this is the kind of change that is usually expensive and has to be just perfect, you know? And most of the ones I've looked at are too much of an investment, and I only kind of like them. Yesterday I was at Marshall's and found this one!!!

For $90, it came with the bedskirt, the comforter, two pillows, the sheets, and two shams. I threw the sheets away. I think they were like 50 thread count. Seriously. But I had expected that. Luckily, the nice sheets I had already matched great. The comforter is also a tiny bit scratchy, but I washed it in the washing machine (and it survived) and put fabric softener in it, and now it's fabulous, too. So now my bedroom looks a little more modern, and my comforter for the summer months doesn't weigh 100 pounds. Yay!

Geriatric Love

Last Friday night, I was looking through etsy when I came across vintage jewelry. Vintage jewelry that was listed as "Vintage Estate" jewelry. At which point my little brain put two and two together and I thought, "How is it possible that live so close to Scottsdale and I've never been to an estate sale?" and "Tomorrow is Saturday!!"
So I googled estate sales and was even more pleased to discover that an estate sale featuring Danish furniture was taking place in Sun City just the next morning. Now, Sun City is a remarkable little place. Twenty-five miles northwest of Tempe sits this town of 38,000 entirely created for retired grandmas and grandpas. Literally. The entire town. This is a town where signs like this are on nearly every street:

The lawns are perfectly manicured, and all the trash cans are underground in the yard so you can just throw your garbage bags in without hurting your back. It's lovely, really.
And there are a lot of estate sales.
For those of you not familiar with estate sales, they generally go like this: Someone dies, and their relatives let you go through their house and buy their old stuff. In some situations (like in North Scottsdale or Paradise Valley), this amounts to great art collections and vast amounts of jewelry. It was somewhat different in Sun City.
First, at the first one I went to, it was the third day of the sale, and it was $2 for anything you could fit in a plastic bag. It was all well and good except I didn't want mozart LP's or her old books. So I went into her closet. At which point I realized maybe nurses shouldn't go to estate sales. Because we are much too AWARE of things. Like the arm sling hanging next to her dresses. Did she fall and break her arm? Was it the beginning of her unfortunate demise? Of course, I still got two cute little vintage dresses that I realized yesterday are much too small for me, but I still think of her closet whenever I look at them.
I ended up driving around the neighborhoods and finding three estate sales (apparently, not so hard to find here). And seriously people. DON'T TRY TO SELL THEIR BATHROOM STUFF. Throw away the tweezers and the hemorrhoid cream and the nail clippers. People who don't know each other shouldn't share this stuff. I know what old people nails look like and this is gross. Aren't there rules for this somewhere?!?! It's tacky and it's gross and I really wanted to tell someone, but then I felt bad because maybe they were grieving and obviously not thinking straight. I almost slipped it all into a garbage can for the sake of everyone's sanity. Maybe next time.
Because there will be a next time. Because despite the obvious lack of tact, there were some excellent moments.
I got a great little tablecloth, some cute little vintage handkerchiefs, and at the last one, I hit the jackpot.
This again, is where being a nurse made things too real. I picture too much the cute little old guy that lived there and his shoe size and what he ate for breakfast and I kind of feel I'm trespassing. And then I bought two of his shirts, his suit, a fabulous leather suitcase, two chairs, and two retro couches. All for $33. Now, the chairs are great wood and need to be recovered. The couches and the suitcase are for Brad. And the couch, despite it's amazing yellow velour-ness, really needs to be recovered.

But Brad is really good at that kind of stuff. And I think the cute old guy would be glad his stuff lives on with someone as cool as us. (Even though John was not thrilled at driving back up to Sun City with our friend Phil's truck to go back and get all these treasures. Luckily we got bungee cords from the 99 cents store...)
I gave Lena one of the shirts last night because it's super sweet. I get to borrow it at will.
I went through the suitcase and found two vitamins and a glipizide. It was a low dose, so I guess he was a newly diagnosed diabetic. Really. Maybe nurses who love old people shouldn't do this sort of thing.

(The suitcase says "free & easy" which also happens to be one of Brad's favorite country songs.)

The Dailey Method

So I was a pretty good cross-trainer in the month of May. I swam, I did yoga, I did Zumba, I lifted, and I did the Dailey Method. The Dailey Method is a fancy-schmancy Scottsdale class that also happens to be in Paris. It's loosely based on ballet and is a lot of moving your body 1 inch at a time. Supposedly it gives you very long lean muscles.
It is true that I couldn't walk for about 2 hours afterwards.
But I wasn't sore the next day.
And I totally looked like a football player next to those girls.
And I was reminded that North Scottsdale is its own special place full of lots of money and lots of plastic.
And I had to buy 3 classes to go so I have two more of these magical experiences. Whoo-hoo!

Self Workout

So the other day I was thinking I would like to use the cable machine more but I wasn't sure how. And then this workout was in SELF this month! Perfect!

I've done it twice, and it's fabulous!

Phoenix's Camelback

On my list of 100 things in 1001 days is hiking Boise's camelback and Phoenix's. So far I've done Boise's twice, but until Friday morning I hadn't done Phoenix's. Mostly because I didn't want to hike it alone, and schedules always seemed to conflict. But John took me on Friday morning. Because it's already 100 here (110 today to be exact), we had to get started early. He came over at 7 and we got already with our sunscreen and our 6 bottles of water and our energy bars and headed out. It's only a little over a mile long, but its 1200 feet up. There's a lot of bouldering, which is very different from any hike I've ever been on (and it's in the middle of a huge city, which is crazy). There were a ton of people hiking it; some in terrible clothes, some in terrible shoes, some running it like it was a track. We had a blast, though, and the scenery was fabulous. Here's some pics!






The last picture that looks like just a bunch of rocks is actually the "trail" down!

The Deeper Things in Life

Ok, so really, not deep at all. But very fun. First, I got grey nail polish, and I love it. I think it looks very classy.
The color is "You Don't Know Jacques!" and it's everything I thought grey nail polish should be. (I blurred out my bathroom stuff as to not be distracting....)


Secondly, I am about to move in with roommates, one of whom I went shopping with the other day. Here is what she talked me into buying. I still don't know quite how, but I do know I'm wearing them to church today!!

AND... Banana Republic is having a deal this summer (until August 31st) that if you buy ANYTHING in the store (even a $3 chapstick), you get a $20 giftcard if you shop on Tuesday. And even with this deal, it's taken me a month to be able to get there on a Tuesday. I thought I was going to get a pink shirt I had seen earlier, but it was a little blah, and I still always feel the need to spice up my wardrobe from what I usually wear. Hence, the zebra tank. I love it.

Two more things: Nordstrom was having a sale, and I almost never ever shop there. But they have fabulous shirts that are at least as great as SHADE shirts called STEM that were on sale for $17, so I bought one in purple and one in yellow. They are basic and similarly boring as much of my wardrobe, but also very soft and organic cotton and therefore cooler. I also got this crazy shirt there that I really think is great for dinner dates and maybe for occasional church with a black shirt under it and a black skirt. This is just me trying it on in the store:

And I finally got adorable flats. See, we have this friend we lovingly call Polly, as in Polly Pocket. She's the tiniest girl I know. And she is very fashionable and can wear a lot of things that would look very awkward on me, although I always always dream of having her sense of style. I think these shoes are the one thing that we could both wear, and I think of her every time I do.

And they were on sale and are so comfortable. And now I don't have to wear converse tennis shoes with my gray cardigan anymore. Whew!

Inspiration

The day after I got back, I went running around Tempe Town Lake. Kind of a half-run, half-walk. You know how it goes. Anyways, I see this older guy with all this stuff on his bike looking at a map. Not "homeless guy" stuff on his bike; "Athlete" stuff on his bike. Wearing biking shorts and a racing jersey and looking crazy in shape. With a Chinese symbol tattoo on his left calf.
So I asked him if he needed help, even though it looked like he knew much more than me.
"Yeah," he said. "I just need to know if this road goes all the way to Power Road."
I was surprised because it was so far (I always take the freeway). I was like, "Yeah, but it's pretty far. It's about 10 miles."
He didn't care how far it was. He didn't care because he started in SAN DIEGO and was going to be stopping in the FLORIDA KEYS!!
This man apparently took up biking at age 62 when he retired and he biked up a 12000 foot peak in Colorado. Then he biked from Antarctica to Argentina and from Finland to Norway. And now it was time for America. He's from Michigan. Very cool guy. He was finding it expensive to stay at hotels all along the way, and I didn't think to tell him about couch-surfing networks until after my run. I spent 45 minutes trying to find him later, but he was already gone.
Probably in New Mexico.
I think I ran a little harder after that.

I knew I forgot something....

I kept feeling like I was forgetting to blog something about Idaho. And, ironically, this blog posting is ABOUT forgetting something. Something rather important.
Like checking the gas gauge before heading out on a 4 hour trip.
Please do not ask how on earth I could have forgotten this. I never have before. I certainly wouldn't have done it on purpose. I made it exactly 2 miles outside of American Falls. Now, I checked my fuel gauge 12 miles outside of American Falls, but that didn't do me much good. I just hoped and prayed and ran out of gas.
I had rented a cute little Chevy Aveo from Enterprise (again. I love these little cars.). It is very light and two miles isn't all that far, so I started pushing it. That only lasted about 2 minutes before someone stopped.
Enter Bill & Libby.

Bill & Libby are best friends who have lived together for 5 years. Bill has been married five times. Libby once. Her 18-year old son was shot and killed in November, and she gave me the program to his funeral out of the glove box. Bill & Libby are Mormon, and Libby made sure to tell me when Bill was out of the car that he is such a good man and has never even "offered sex" once. Apparently folks in American Falls like to gossip.
Libby kept saying how blessed I was and how Heavenly Father put them in my path. I'm sure He did.
We drove to their little home, we got a gas can, we filled my car.

On the road again!
Thanks Bill & LIbby!