Graduate Services

So I've decided to keep Thursday mornings at the massage school. Thing is, I'm not going to be able to train my clinic manager replacement effectively with only being here 2 days a week. In addition, I won't have to pay for my benefits if I keep over 20 hours a week. The reality of it is that I'm not going to be getting more work at the chiropractor's until my credentialing comes through with American Whole Health, and that won't be until November 1st. Things just seem to be changing so quickly. Anyway, I spoke with my (current) boss yesterday and she said that the only way she could guarantee me 20 hours a week once my replacement started to do clinic management full-time would be to take on graduate services. So, for the time being, my title is "interim graduate services coordinator". In addition, I will still be doing technique evaluations, admissions interviews and assisting in that office, human resources stuff, and doing clinic supervision.

I'm just taking it day by day because I'm hoping my neck and arm will hold out. The steriod shot has done wonders and even though I still experience numbness and muscle weakness in my right hand, the pain has dramatically decreased. In addition, rehearsals start September 23rd and I don't want to be worrying about money during that process. Ly is still looking for a part-time job, and hopefully will be able to secure something. We're also trying to financially plan for me having surgery in the next 5 or 6 months. I don't get sick or vacation time, and so we will have to have some money saved up.

I had a really great Buddhist meeting last night. There's just something about chanting with a group of people that makes it so much more impactful. I also think I have a crush on a cute girl who's about to receive her Gohonzon.

For More Info on the Soka Gakkai

. Anyway, we shared a gongyo book last night and it was good. It was very good.

It's finally starting to feel fallish in Seattle. This makes me very happy. I love that fresh, wet rain smell. You can just feel the tiniest bit of chill in the air, and every once in awhile, one can get a vague scent of a fireplace roaring some place off in the distance. I love fall. I love Seattle in the fall. Everything is just so cozy.

Ah memes

Alright, I'll bite:

7 things I want to do before I die:

1) Heal someone by just placing my hands on their head
2) Get another tattoo on the top of my other foot
3) Go on a vacation ANYWHERE outside this country
4) Own a home
5) Have a thriving practice in massage
6) Become certified in craniosacral therapy and structural integration
7) Adopt a child/children


7 things I can do:

1) Twist my tongue to both sides (I just had to leave my hound's answer in here and interject - THANK GOD!)
1) Decrease people's pain with my hands
2) sing Christmas carols after drinking 1/5 of tequila with tree ornaments dangling from my nipples, and have the ornaments stay in place
3) Do almost anything stoned
4) Sing - and I thank the Gods every day for this
5) Draw semi-effectively
6) Listen
7) Make people laugh


7 things I can't do:

1) Bear children
2) Whistle
3) Be a Mormon again
4) Go into any enclosed space
5) Bungee jump
6) Sing like I used to
7) Lie to myself


7 things that attract me to the opposite sex:

1) A sense of humor
2) Being completely and utterly able to get me OFF
3) A touch of the feminine
4) Nice hands
5) Honesty
6) Being able to laugh and have fun
7) Interested in theater/movies and bodywork


7 celebrity crushes:

1) Clive Owen
2) Catherine Zeta-Jones
3) Catherine Deneuve
4) David Bowie
5) Mark Lanegan
6) Kate Winslet
7) Bono

7 things I say most often:

1) Knock on wood.
2) Fuck me.
3) LIIIIIIYYYYYaaaammmmmm(in that whiney will you do something for me voice)
4) Shitballs.
5) Nam myoho renge kyo.
6) Nuh uh.
7) Yes Ly, we DID lock the door.

7 people I want to "tag" to also complete the lists:

1) Ms. Krause
2) Honkybullshit
3) D_Arte
4) My mamma, if she dares read this
5) Ly's daddy if he's around
6) The Wee Katy
7) Anyone who cares to really

Hey Krause

Hound and I finally saw Kiki's delivery service last night. What a quaint and sweet little movie. Seriously made me want to be a witch. I do love Miyazaki's work. You can see how his other work has evolved from this movie. Was this his first?

I can't remember if it was Russian or not, but Kiki is a nickname for Christine in one of those eastern block languages.

Utah Rave Raid & Fascism

Shitballs The Mo's Have Guns

Fucking hell! Saddened, but not surprised.

Punctuation Infatuation

So I read blogs, and I marvel at the skill and precision with which some of my cohorts, my hound dog being one, use punctuation. I swear I missed that week of 3rd grade. I mean I fantasize about the correct way to use semi-colons, but alas, in the end, it is only a fantasy. Ly tells me all the time when and how the hyphen is suppose to work, but in practice, I freeze, grow increasingly obtuse, and end up with, yet another misplaced comma. I seriously long for the day in which I can correctly type a sentence using a semi-colon, hyphen AND parentheses. Yes, I'm sitting here anxiously staring at Shrunk and White's Elements of Style as a large pimple forms on my ass. Opening that book, for me, is akin to a new software program's help section. If you don't know the right question to ask, how the hell are you ever going to get the right answer?

For now, I content myself with grammatically incorrect musings on the human body, and all that can be done with it. I'll leave the hard work of phrasing the language to the writers and English teachers.

In other news, the boy and I went to Hempfest yesterday. About 24 donuts, one bag of popcorn, one veggie burger (all fortified with the happy hemp) later, the hound and I wandered through the sea of tye-dye listening to the "legalize" cry from a number of different podiums. The boy didn't go to Hempfest last time and so I wanted him to get an idea of what it was like. It is true, I walk in past the gate, and can only spread my arms in thanks as I sigh, "My People!"

Ah memes

"We all have things about our friends that make us slightly envious. Not in a bad way, but in a 'Wow! I wish I had that person's hair/eyes/money/relationship/toenails/whatever.' So tell me what about me makes you envy me (if there is such a thing), then post this in your blog and see what makes me envious of you."

so many needles

well the epidural is over. They didn't put it in my lumbar spine however, they put it between my C7 and T1 vertebrae. I was face down on the table bolstered by a towel on my forehead. They draped my upper back with plastic, and then put some antiseptic goo on my back. Then they slipped a heart moniter on my finger and then gave me 2 lidocaine shots in the area to numb things. They had a big x-ray scope in front of the table showing my spine and everything in between. They began to insert the big needle and before they got too deep I had a huge vagal nerve response. My heart rate dovetailed, I got the cold sweats, and I almost puked. They said, well, it's a good thing that you are in the anesthesia and pain clinic because we have something that will make that not happen. Of course it was another shot, but the drugs keep your heart rate up, cut the puke feeling and end up giving you a nasty bout of dry mouth. Once they gave me that we tried again. This time I just chanted and breathed really deeply. Thing that sucked is that I knew a lot of what they were talking about which made it even harder to not feeling nauseous and faint. "Yes, Bill, pull the needle a bit more to the right in the lamina...", "No, not too close to the nerve or we're going to have problems..."

So I just breathed more loudly and tried to go to my happy place. It took about 5 minutes for them to get the needle in place and to drip the steroids into my spine. Thank God it was finally over. They offered to go to pediatrics to get me a lollipop, but I declined saying that I would somehow go on without the sugary treat. I sat up, gathered myself together, and went home. In about 2 hours the lidocaine started to wear off and my upper back continues to ache like a bitch, but they say I should start feeling some effect within 24 hours and the full effect of the steroids within one week.

Steroids anyone?

As much as I hate to be on them in my heart of hearts, the prednisone that the doc put me on yesterday has made all the difference in the world in only 24 hours. Knock on wood by all means. Today is the epidural. A question I have for all mommies that have had one done, before they stick the big needle in your spine, do they do a topical analgesic to dull the area before the stick the big one in ya?

Big Ol' Poor Me Post

I'm finding I'm becoming increasingly more depressed about my neck and arm issues. I am tired of hearing myself bitch about it and so I KNOW others are. I just am at the end of my rope with this. I now have a fairly constant numb patch on my forearm and daily pain. Some days are worse than others but I am still ending up taking at least one percocet a day. I take them in halfs, but that's still more than I want to be taking them. I'm tired of being a slave to this pain. Well I just got off the phone with the spine doc about this continued numbness in my right arm and he wants me to come in asap. So I'm headed to the hospital presently. Updates soon.

Back in my saddle again

Ly and I are back from our oh too brief stint on the east coast. I must say that it has been heavenly being away from a computer for that long. I wish there were a way to phone in posts. My other blog has a phone in option but it's for "paid accounts", which mine is not.

The wedding was a delight. Ly and I looked hot as hell. I can hopefully post some pictures as soon as his father sends some by email. Despite the soul-crushing humidity, the reception went off swimmingly. Dancing, drinks, a large buffet, good friends and family made for a lovely evening. Get this, I even sat talking with my father-in-law and some mafia looking muthafucka (a very nice muthafucka to boot) about golf and the physics of golf swings. Who would of thunk it? I hate sports and golf most of all. I guess the 3 greyhounds I had helped me a little bit. During the toasting part of the evening - gotta love those non-Mormon weddings in which people actually can toast - Ly's mother got up and called Amy (my new sister-in-law) and I up to the front and put her arms around us both. She then proceeded to read a tear-jerking paragraph about sons and the women they marry and how lucky she was to have us both as daughter-in-laws. I only found out later that night that the entire first part of her toast was from the latest romance novel she devoured. It was lovely. I spent a good portion of that evening babysitting the newlyweds 3 year old child. We began with some Shrek 2 (I LOVED Antonio Banderas as the little kitty with those sad-sack little eyes) . The little one then went to the I'm-so-tired-I'm-just-crying-and-have-the-dazed-I-don't-know-my-ass-from-my-elbow look and so aunt Stine picked her up in my arms, rocked her and hummed a lullaby for the next 1/2 hour. It put her to sleep though. It is good to know that even though I won't be bearing children of my own, I still haven't lost the touch. All that Mormon upbringing dun taught me gud.

The day after the wedding Ly and I headed off to Mystic Connecticut. His parents bought us two nights at the Hilton for our anniversary. The day after we arrived, we went out to go "do the town", and as we drove through the tourist-infested streets, we realized a few things: first, we were poor, second, the heat was enough to kill small animals, and third, we spend so much time running around like chickens with our heads cut off that all we wanted to do was go buy some vodka and bloody mary mix, swim, order room service, watch cable, smoke the happy, and fuck. So we did just that for the next day. The rents, niece, bro and newly sis-in-law met us the next day to go to the Mystic Aquarium. Dude, sharks are scary. They also had this spider that had a body that I swear to Christ was the size of a large golf ball. It was the Amazonian bird-eating big ass scary fucking spider display. The niece had a blast though and it was so cute watching her react to the various sea-life in front of her. Speaking of sea life (note to all stoners and cable watchers everywhere) the default setting is ALWAYS Animal Planet. At least that's what Ly and I decided.

We then went back to Rhode Island. All in all, Ly and I spent every day but two in the sun and in some sort of water. That said, my legs still only look as normal people's do. They still, only now after all that sun, look as though they have normal leg color. My back, chest and face look pretty tan though. Yay for Seattle legs!

The ride home was a travesty. I will say this, United airlines can kiss my ass. The last two times I flown with them, it has been nothing but trouble from the first moment. I won't go into the gory details, just suffice it to say that I won't be flying with them again.

Currently I am trying to stop sabotaging my matriculation into my life again. Reality is always a bitch to face when one gets back from vacation. I will say this, Ly and I are very seriously considering moving to the east coast within like 5 years. I love Seattle and it will always be my home, but due to a few things that have happened here in the last year, good supportive family out east, and other factors, I think I may be feeling a transition starting. Stayed tuned.

There much more but the mind is willing, the hands are weak. Ta!

Buh bye!

Off on vacation. Have a lovely week everyone. I'm going to try and stay the hell away from a computer while I'm gone. I'm off in search of the color that escaped from my legs ten years ago when I moved to Seattle. Ly and I are going to look hot at this wedding. I just need to figure out how to post pictures to this here sight.

Red eye flights are good I've decided. Get on the plane, sleep, and boom, you're there. Of course the minute we get on the plane the order of the day will be klonopin, 1/2 percocet for arm spasms, and a cocktail - not necessarily in that order. I'm not an addict, I just play one on tv.

Ta!

An Angel

Went to go see 5 hours of Shakespeare in the park yesterday. Got a lovely little sunburn on my upper thighs. In the middle of the angry pink burn is a blue-white (my previous skin color) shape. The shape is that of an angel spreading it's wings. I'm not kidding. Weird. I had nothing on my upper legs while I was watching the performances, and yet here this is like a stigmata. I have been pondering my next tattoo. Yes, I AM crazy, but I am going to get another mandala on the top of my other foot. That way, I will be balanced - one does what one has to.

This pointless post was brought to you with the intention of fully wasting time and not getting my bookkeeping done.

6 days, 6 days.