by Justin
I'm sitting on the couch watching House and relaxing. As soon as it's over I'm going to bed. Why am I going to bed at 10pm tonight? Well for the last four weeks I've been working one of my nursing rotations for the quarter at Harborview Medical Center. The hours are long (and start early) and the work it tough. I'm having some great experiences at the hospital and I'm being exposed to some very interesting people.
Every day I'm coming home with interesting stories. Unfortunately there's a problem. While I suppose some of this stuff would make great blog material. But the entry would have to read like this:
"So at work one day I had this patient and he had this condition. It was pretty bizarre because he got it doing something somewhere. Since he didn't come in for a week we had to do this procedure. But he's doing well now and once we do something else he can probably go home."
The federal government has some very strict rules in place regarding privacy of patients and what goes on in a medical setting. So in order to follow HIPAA I can't really talk about what goes on at work. Yes, I'm exaggerating a little bit. I can talk about things as long as I'm very careful to include nothing that can identify the person...and unfortunately for publishing on the internet that's a lot of detail to weed out.
What's it all mean? If you want to hear some interesting stories...and if you aren't terribly squeemish...and you're willing to come over to my house for dinner then maybe, just maybe, I can edit down my day into something I can legally talk about.
But I won't promise anything. It was a heck of a day.
Posted on January 30, 2007 @ 9:27 PM |
4 comments
by Kat
Our training run this weekend was about 2.5 miles shorter than planned. Though I stand by Justin's decision to cut it short due to the fact that he felt like he'd been hit by a truck, I still feel a little guilty. I know I can just throw in an extra three miles sometime this week, but it doesn't quite make it up. It was a beautiful day yesterday and we ran a decent pace but sometimes it just doesn't happen... and when my sweetheart has stomach problems, knee pain, and low energy, I won't push him to make himself sick.
But we did our 8 miles at near the same pace we've been jogging, even though both of our energy levels were flagging. With luck and practice, we'll be able to keep it up. This weekend is supposed to be a shorter run, before we jump into the high numbers on alternate weekends, and I may make it a *touch* longer just to keep racking up distance.
We've got our plane tickets for Amsterdam at the end of March and I just now realized this means we'll be doing one very long run along the dikes of the Dutch countryside. Well, I can't complain. As long as the weather cooperates, it will be beautiful and very scenic-- they've got a great warren of bike paths we can use to our advantage. Alls I have to do is use
Wayfaring to plot the route on a Google map. Funny thing is, the last time we ran 19 miles for training, we were in Glacier National Park. We must be destined to run the 19-er in exotic locales!
We had a very busy weekend besides running-- dinner Friday AND Saturday with friends, shoe shopping on Saturday afternoon, saw Eleanor perform at a recital in Wallingford yesterday, and watched two movies... Pan's Labyrinth and Children of Men. Pan's Labyrinth was interesting, but not as strong as I'd hoped. Children of Men was really good. I've got the same complaints as the critics, but I could have kept on watching for at least an hour more. Sadly, as a by-product of movies and shoe shopping I'm now broke, so I must sit on my ass until I get paid on Thursday. Hurrah. :)
Posted on January 29, 2007 @ 10:00 AM |
1 comments
by Kat
When I first asked Justin for a guitar as a Christmas present, I knew that though I wanted to play, it would be challenging for me to keep up a practice routine without external motivation. Though it is true that I've only plucked at it half-assedly over the last few weeks, I do now know how to play notes on four strings, a hand full of chords and can pluck out some very, very basic tunes... I just with I'd known 3-string Jingle Bells before the holidays were over!
The thing is,
I want to play well I really do. And I'm sure if I kept at it long enough and made it pretty much my sole hobby (which means tossing out watching House, American Idol, and Mythbusters) I could teach myself. But I just don't have that kind of perseverance. So today I took the initiative and walked myself down to Dusty Strings in Fremont to sign up for some lessons.
To those in the area who have never ventured into Dusty Strings, I say wait no longer! It's an acoustic music-lover's paradise! All sorts of stringed, fluted, and drummable-instruments to play with, books, accessories, CDs, you name it. They have lutes for Chrissakes, LUTES! And nice ones, too!
They've set up a reference station for would-be musicians in search of lessons. I thumbed through the guitar section but gravitated immediately to the flier for a man who was working the front counter. As another staffperson walked by, he confirmed my thoughts with a recommendation and introduced us. I talked to him for a while and signed up for my first lesson, next Thursday after work.
I admit that he was cooler and somehow less friendly and more teacherly than I expected. I suppose this makes sense, as he's taking me on as a student, but it wasn't helped by the fact that I'm flat-out terrified! I've always loved learning by taking classes but at some point along the line I must've developed a deep-seated fear of music lessons. Oy. I suppose I can thank my parents for forcing piano recitals upon me and thank myself for pretty awful vocal lessons when I was trying to force my alto voice into a soprano range. Oh yeah, and let's not forget one MISERABLY failed clarinet solo in middle school. Ugh.
But despite all that, I do love music and I desperately want to get back into it. I'll have to kick my old phobia in the butt and grow a new appreciation for music teachers now that I'm taking the initiative to use my own time and my own money to learn. It's very different for me to decide that I want to learn guitar from some dude in Ballard than for my parents to ship me off to my piano teacher's house every week, kicking and screaming. Like I said, though, it gets my heart racing just thinking about it! Eep! Time to practice!
(See? I'm motivated already.)
Posted on January 25, 2007 @ 2:58 PM |
6 comments
by Kat
I spent almost the entire weekend at the Seattle Conference center, which was abuzz with ALA-related activity. I've had narrow experience with industry conferences and this was the first I've been to that's aimed at libraries. I have nothing but good things to say about the slew of events and sessions and I was truly, truly impressed by the quantity and quality of vendors on the exhibition floor.
I guess comparing ALA to SES is like apples and oranges, especially because I've only been to one of each-- but from my limited observations, I have to give mad props to the library folks for putting on a good show. ALA midwinter is eye-poppingly huge and I was repeatedly told by other vendors and attendees that the annual summer conference is much, much bigger. At SES San Jose, which is supposedly the most vibrant SES show, the agenda was full but the exhibition hall surprisingly lacking. I did hear commentary to confirm that it was abnormal AND the show is a heckuva lot "younger," but it wasn't nearly as impressive.
I'm partially geeked because I had an amazing time. It wasn't party-party-party-- the only truly "social" event I attended was my company's reception on Friday and then I was playing hostess-- but it was crazy in other, more subtle ways. First, I had no idea I'd see so many publishers there... from big names like Random House and Penguin, to small local presses like Sasquatch. There was even a small section of one of the floors dedicated to comic presses desperately trying to get libraries interested in passing on their goods to patrons. Dark Horse, Viz Media, and DC Comics had booths, as well as several smaller niche presses with whom I wasn't familiar. Then, in the middle of it all, was Terry Moore, author and artist of my favorite graphic novel growing up,
Strangers in Paradise!
I started reading SiP at the tender age of 12 (yeah, the content was a bit mature) when my best friend Lesley and I swiped it from her dad. I'd just found several old comics and graphic novel installments of it in boxes from my parents' house. And on Sunday there was Terry, drawing a panel! I looked like such a fangirl, wringing my hands with glee. He signed all my books, including the full set I bought from him (what can I say? 50% off is a good incentive!) and even drew me a little doodle, which is gorgeous, in the inside cover of book one. I haven't read the series for years, and now I have five of what will be six total books. I've got catching up to do. What a totally unexpected treat!
So, as I said, Friday was the reception at our company's office. Saturday morning we hosted a breakfast at the Hotel Monaco... prior to which I rose at 5:30 AM and spent half an hour waiting for a bus that never came. Then I worked at the booth for a couple hours before going home to crash. Seriously, what a draining week. Work stress, personal drama, hormonal... stuff, etc. I passed out for five hours straight and then went to bed at 1 AM not to get up 'till 10 the next morning.
Justin and ran a refreshed 10-miler for marathon training and maintained a pace consistent to what we've been setting down: 1:41 for him and 1:43 for me. If I can keep this up (again, that's a big *IF*) I'll PR by about an hour. But in the more likely event that I've got to slow down, relax, and take a breather, I still expect to PR by about half an hour. Exciting!
Both Justin and my mom joined me at ALA on Sunday. I managed to procure Justin an exhibits-only pass, and my mom works in a Bellevue library, so she was there on business. We walked around a bit and ogled some people's setups (like ProQuest's 2-story booth with a barista bar serving free coffee on top). Librarians are apparently more excited about collecting swag than the average exhibition-goer, because we saw people wandering about dragging SACKS and rolling carts FULL of it. Thankfully, though, most booths refrained from giving out truly useless things like T-shirts and stuck to goodies that librarians find useful... lots and lots and lots of pens.
The best part of the exhibition for those in search of books is the publisher booths because they sell books at 50%+ off. Then on Monday many of them discount the prices even further or simply give them away. Before we were scheduled to work at the booth, Jeff and I visited several book vendors and got some teen-lit and manga for my younger sister, a few free pre-released copies of chick-lit for me (which will probably make me laugh, gag, or both), a kickass cookbook, and an ARMLOAD of graphic novels from DC Comics.
I'd poked around the DC booth with Justin when he was on the floor, but they were neither selling nor giving out their stock. The girl at the booth seemed somewhat surly about it but told me to come back on Monday and she'd be giving out one to each who asked. When we did come back on Monday, surly girl had been replaced by another booth babe who was happy to give us over $150 in books for free in exchange for a few of our logo'ed umbrellas. Holy crap, Batman! I swear, all I wanted was Kingdom Come for Justin, but she kept laying them on me. I guess they decided they didn't want to take any boxes back to New York after all. Whoo!
All in all, it was most excellent. I met a ton of people from a diversity of companies, including several higher-ups at competitors. Jeff graciously introduced me to many folks he knew. I think that our reception, breakfast, and booth were really well received. What I hope most of all is that the new collateral (product catalogs and brochures) we've spent the last few weeks and all our energy designing is really as exciting as people say it is.
Now that the conference is over, work has taken on a much more relaxed pace, as I suppose it will remain for the next few days. Then it's onward and upward... getting ready for the next conference, the next RFP, whatever. Hurray for working life. >_<
Posted on January 23, 2007 @ 4:07 PM |
2 comments
by Kat
Another day that's left me clean wiped, and with the goal of getting to bed before 11-- tomorrow will be a thirteen hour day, all told, with an early meeting and a reception running til late. Yay conference time. I have mixed feelings about conferences. On one hand, I like to opportunity to travel, which I don't get to do because this conference is at our home base. On the other hand, I don't like being confined to over-air conditioned conference centers and hotels, which I can avoid this time because ALA is in Seattle.
I get to work the expo floor this time rather than attending sessions as I did with my last job. Although I'm not sure exactly yet what I'll be doing, I think it'll more suited to my personality type because I get to interact with people rather than sitting through talks in dark rooms that, no matter how interesting, always put me to sleep.
And then there are the parties-- every industry's got 'em, it seems, and ours is no exception. Apparently librarians have a reputation for being crazy drunks at conferences. This surprises me, because I would have expected it from SEOs, who are often stereotyped as dodgy types, but not from bookish reference desk folks. Hm. I guess we'll see. My company is hosting a reception tomorrow night and though I'll miss the perks of being on the complete receiving end of complementary snacks, schwag, and booze at such an event, it'll be fun to play hostess. I also get to show my mother, who works in the City University library, where I work. I just hope I have the stamina to survive the weekend.
Posted on January 18, 2007 @ 10:22 PM |
0 comments
by Kat
I've been having a rather low-energy week, which is unfortunate because what's being asked of me at the moment is more than I have in my reserves. My company has been preparing for the
ALA Midwinter conference for the last 3+ months and this weekend it is upon us, right here in Seattle. That means long hours in preparation for events, seminars, parties, et cetera. Marketing and sales have the toughest weeks leading up to conferences... so I am spent, with good reason. But I like what I do, and for that I am grateful. I've been working on some graphic design for publications and collateral, some event planning, a bit of logistics, plenty of press relations, all with the other 9-5 tasks idling in the background. It's all interesting and involved work, with people who listen and give real feedback. And I've yet to be tasked with anything that could be done, as a friend of mine likes to say, by a monkey fucking a football.
As ALA is in town the 19-22, I'll be working at least partway through the weekend... ... and there's no rest for the weary. It's back to the grind as soon as the conference is all over to churn out another big project just in time to start getting ready for
ACRL in March.
However, if I can figure out the ticketing, it looks like I'll be visiting Amsterdam again during "spring break," just in time for tulip season! I guess that's one good thing about working hard-- it certainly makes me appreciate the breaks.
Posted on January 17, 2007 @ 10:34 PM |
5 comments
by Kat
Justin's ring tone woke us both at 5:25AM. He was scheduled to get up five minutes later and leave the house at 6:15 to be at his Harborview clinical by 7AM. But his clinical instructor was on the phone telling him she'd called off the session for the day due to snowfall. We slogged out of bed to the window where the street was bathed in fresh white, flakes swirling past the streetlights. After such a jarring wake-up call we laid in bed for a while just watching the snow fall quietly in the dark. When I woke up at 7 it was still falling, though it was the heavy kind of snow that signals two things-- good snowmen and a warm day. Sure enough, it's *almost* gone this evening. And though sad that will be because I miss snowy winters, I got the camera out for one last hurrah on my walk to work. There are a hand full of
snow pictures in the gallery... a few of my favorites are below:
Posted on January 16, 2007 @ 8:30 PM |
3 comments
by Kat
Ahh, another Sunday spent too hung over to do our weekly marathon training run. I'd planned to exercise some self-restraint and do the 9-miler fresh on Sunday morning but was tempted too much by the prospect of endless free booze and time with friends. I recall thinking at some point in the evening before we closed down Tini-Bigs that, well, I can run nine miles any 'ol time, but have a wild company party with quirky co-workers I cannot.
It may be personal bias speaking, but I think Justin hand-over-fist bested everyone at karaoke for his rendition of Six-Mix-Alot. Not only was it hilarious, it amazingly did
not suck! Somehow he didn't sound like the dorky white boy he is (love you, hon) and did a fairly true-to-life impression. I hate to say it, but I bet he practices in the shower.
Anyhow, though I refrained from getting wasted, I had a bad mix of drinks and was cripplingly sick at an inopportune time. Thankfully, I think only one or two people saw so I may retain my dignity yet. (Wait, what dignity?) Needless to say, Justin and I spent Sunday on the couch, NOT on the run, though we did enjoy napping in the bright winter sun.
It's been a snowy week and to my delight, there is more snow predicted for tonight. It looks like that will be the last of it and then we're back to the same-old-same-old... BLAH RAIN. Funny enough, though the city sees fit to turn off the drinking fountains around Green Lake (and therefore deny us water breaks while running), the building maintenance for the office complex below my work has YET to shut off their sprinkler system. Not only does it seem superfluous to keep it on during the winter at all (November was record rain, right?) but it also means that they've been creating black sheet ice in the street near my gym every morning. It's not a big deal, but it doesn't seem particularly smart or safe.
The other morning, the sprinklers had left lovely little icicles all over the plants outside my building:
This evening after a long day at work for me and a relaxing MLK holiday for Justin, we hauled ass to Green Lake, twice around the outside, and back home for a satisfying 9-mile run with a time of 1:34:14. The cold and dark coupled with the promise or warm, pre-made dinner must've motivated me to run faster than usual. It felt good and I'm sure I'll be reminded of it tomorrow. Next Sunday we'll to 10 and then it's onwards and upwards from there!
Posted on January 15, 2007 @ 10:46 PM |
2 comments
by Justin
We just got home from Kat's company's holiday party. Yes it is past Christmas and New Years...I guess they like to do things differently. But they do one thing well...they had karaoke at the party. After I enthusiastically pointed at a song in the list, Kat told me that I
had to sing it. She even offered me $20 after I expressed some doubt. Now since I live on a $100 a month budget in my starving nursing student world I couldn't turn that down. What can I say...
I Like Big Butts.
It received rave reviews. No one expected that Kat's metrosexual white fiance would know all the lyrics cold...
Good party.
Posted on January 14, 2007 @ 2:54 AM |
6 comments
by Kat
I haven't wanted to blog much the past month, so I've been glossing over a lot. The thing is, there really isn't much going on in my life besides going to work and coming home to play Guitar Hero or watch the newest DVD from Netflix. Life now isn't like it was in college, where even if I wasn't
doing anything, I always seemed to have something on my mind to talk about. I suspect that my cerebral lapse is due in part to the routine of working life, in part to a steady and satisfied life, and in part to the calmness of having a mind no longer addled by depression and anxiety.
The one down side to having my seratonin issues in remission is that I miss the emotional rawness that came with depressive episodes. When I was depressed I always withdrew deeply into myself and became very thoughtful. It was rarely a positive thing but it did cause me to explore a lot of life issues and question the very fibre of my being. I always wrote the best poetry, and likewise the best blog entries, when I was depressed. Now, though I still experience a normal and full range of emotions, I don't feel like doing that so much.
[This is the primary reason that my
old blog is a downer to read-- I tended only to write when I was feeling particularly pensive. When I was happy, I just went outside and enjoyed myself. I didn't blog.]
I've been feeling a bit like writing these last few days but finding that I have very little to write about. I don't want to discuss politics or finances... that's never really been what I'm interested in. There's nothing momentous
going on in my life, and I haven't really thought about anything ponderous lately. I've just been... doing the day to day and enjoying it.
I guess the best solution is to take more photos and post them. That's why I have my
magnificent beast of a camera after all. I haven't been doing nearly enough photography lately, and maybe it will help me get back into seeing outside the mundane into the beauty of life. I'll make it a post-New Years resolution: more photoblogging to make up for the lack of "contemplative naval gazing." Howzzat sound?
Here are a few random shots from the past month, the first two taken with my point-and-shoot and the last shot (by Justin) with the SLR:
A participant in the Lil Diva Dash didn't quite make it to the finish
Justin caroling with my co-workers on Candy Cane Lane
Theater Simple performing one of Suzan Lori Parks's 365 Plays
Posted on January 09, 2007 @ 10:07 PM |
2 comments
by Kat
Until today, it was just another Mac Rumor, speculated upon by Apple fans familiar with the company's patent history. But now it's real, unveiled only hours ago at the
Macworld keynote.
The iPhone!I'll be the first one to say that I hate the trend of sticking lower-case "i" or "e" in front of things to make in HIP and DIGITAL. It's tired, ok? But I'll put up with it in this case because I WANT ONE. The iPhone has a little bit of everything: multi-touch, gps, voice-recognition, music, video, camera, widgets, web browsing. Plus, it's slim, sleek, and sexy. Who knows if it will work as promised. MY bet is that it's going to be full of bugs and Apple will be in over their head supporting it. Plus, it's still pending FCC approval and won't even be for sale until June. It might be deigned too radioactive for anyone to put near their head by that point.
Then there's the price point. I can't gripe that they've paired the device with Cingular because I'm a customer, but I'm not really motivated to pay $499 for the 4gb model WITH a 2-year contract, OR $599 for the 8gb. OUCH. Even though I predicted the price that high, talk about price gouging.
I'll give them a year to drop the price and make it work correctly, and then I'm all over that sunnovabitch. Also, they didn't release it today but I'd say that a plain-old wide-screen iPod will be available by midsummer.
Apple unveiled additional some new gizmos in addition to a name change: no more Apple Computer, Inc. Now they're just Apple, Inc. As if we... really... cared. They released the Airport Extreme, or as I like to call it, X-TREME!! Again, I roll my eyes at the name selection. Someone in their marketing department obviously thinks Extreme is a good moniker for something badass. I think it just sounds stupid.
Then we have
appleTV, a completely useless product for computer-challenged idiots. For $300, you can buy a box that will
allow you to play movies you download on your computer on your TV. Yes, it solves the problem of huddling around a computer monitor (a cinema display does that too ;), but, y'know, I solved that problem with a FIFTEEN DOLLAR S-video cable that both Justin and I can plug our laptops into. Hurr.
OK, OK, I realize that not everyone has a laptop and wants to move their desktop to the living room. But that brings me to the next problem-- getting the movies FROM the computer TO the box. Who wants to move the box? Well, obviously Apple can't expect that of their customers, so they've implemented wireless transfer. I admit, it's a pretty sweet idea for lazy people, but they have to be patient as well as lazy. Moving the computer to the living room will honestly take less time than streaming an entire MOVIE over WIRELESS into the appleTV. Whoo-boy.
The presentation, which was recapped live online by Macrumors.com and TechNotes, did an excellent job of firing up the public, such that Apple's stock rose $2.50 during the preso and over 7% during the day. According to TechCrunch,
"Competitor Research in Motion (Blackberry) is down over 6%, wiping $2 billion dollars in market cap off the table. Palm, maker of the Treo, is also down, nearly 6%." No matter if it's all hype... I give Apple props for rapid ingenuity. They've come up with some amazing stuff over the last seven years and all the hype has brought them back from the brink of extinction to the new God of computing. Right now, it's good to be Apple.
Posted on @ 11:45 AM |
3 comments
by Kat
I'm only slightly sore from the run yesterday; more fatigued than anything. I ended up with a few battle scars, however, from personal neglect more than anything. For distance runs, I swear by
Body Glide to protect me from chafing and irritation along the seams of my clothing. When you run long enough, your skin can chap even from rubbing against itself, so it's worth it to slather Body Glide on your inner thighs and even between your buttcheeks. Yesterday I ran wearing my new Patagonia tights, which are a delightfully warm waffley fleece material. The pants have a rather unique feature which lends itself to their purpose-- running in cold temperatures. There is a zipper that runs the entire length of the crotch from front to back for easy access, I suppose, when one wants to pee in the woods and no freeze one's butt off.
The zipper, while wonderful, was the source of my problems yesterday. Around five miles it started to chafe and I knew that I'd regret not wearing Body Glide. The pain was tolerable as long as I was running, but when I stopped it started to sting. Mercifully, the crotch on the pants is low enough that I wasn't scraping my girl bits, but I do have some very red and jagged welts on both upper inner thighs. They don't hurt any more but man do they look vicious.
My left calf muscle is aching this morning, but not from running. Yesterday afternoon, Justin and I attended the Tops & Tails rope bondage workshop at the Seattle Sex-Positive Community Center (SPCC, better known as the WetSpot). Our favorite
Mistress, and her lovely partner
Max, demoed "tops & tails" ties for the face & hair, and for girl & boy bits. We attended the subsequent party afterwards and had a chance to practice a bit. At the end of the evening, Max strung me and my sister (who made her debut at Matisse's New Years party) from the ceiling in physically taxing positions. I spent the first 20 minutes on one leg, hence the calf pain, and the rest of the hour 5 feet off the ground with my arms behind my back. Wheeeee!
Justin and I haven't been much involved with the Seattle kink scene since the last time we went to Folsom Street Fair to help
Monk sell his rope. In that time I've been more or less consumed with work, and I spent a long few months learning to deal with my depression and anxiety. All in all, I was left with very little energy to pursue romping in or out of the bedroom. So I have to say that the last week has been a fun re-introduction to a world that makes sex seem, well, anything but boring.
Between this and distance running, I might just be walking funny more often!
Posted on January 08, 2007 @ 10:12 AM |
6 comments
by Kat
It's been a productive weekend... the sort of weekend that last weekend, as the last of my vacation, intentionally was not. We were supposed to "officially" start our training for the Eugene Marathon on New Years Eve day but between Justin catering Matisse's party and my chest cold, it just didn't happen. It's probably for the best, too. Who wants to hack and cough for seven miles? I didn't feel too bad cheating by breaking my pre-New Year's resolution by skipping the run as we'd gotten a head start by jogging six miles around Greenlake on Christmas Eve day.
This morning it was time to put our noses to the grind and get into it in earnest. We woke up early (and grumpy) after a late night. It was raining hard and windy at 8 when I hauled myself out of bed but thankfully dry when we left the house. By some miracle, we weren't rained on, though we did have to push hard against the wind both on the way out and the way back.
I'm proud to say that this is one of the few times I've run eight with miles without stopping to rest my muscles-- happily by far the easiest and the fastest. Our estimate of distance may have been slightly over, as there is no zero mile marker on the Burke Gilman trail and it always takes us longer to get to the one mile marker than it should. With stoplights and drinking fountain breaks, we hit just about a ten-minute-mile for a total time of 1:23:29.
Part of me is still disappointed that I can't run a faster per-minute pace during distance runs, but I have to remind myself that I haven't been doing this long and every time I run, it gets easier to go farther. It was 2004 when I ran my first 5k, which was much scarier for me at the time than the marathon was in October. And I'm no longer breaking the record for the farthest I've ever gone with each training run-- this is just a recap. My goal is still to make it to race day without injury and complete the Eugene Marathon successfully, whether I set a personal record or not. My hope, however, is to run faster and breathe easier, enough so that I PR without effort. A marathon is still a long way to run, over three times what we ran today. With race day still months away, I've got to keep pushing hard and with a little luck it will be good going all the way.
Posted on January 07, 2007 @ 11:54 AM |
1 comments
by Kat
Well, I had a festive New Years Eve, how about you?
2006 was a year of measured change, filled with the sort of give-and-take one experiences as the cycle of years turns again. It felt like a good year, and happily, a year not too unlike any other. Even though 2006 was filled with big events, the majority of those events-- with the notable exception of our engagement-- were the kind of things that seemed immeasurable when they're happening and yet in retrospect revealed themselves to be just another milestone. Here's a look at the year in review ( The 2005
recap is still available, if you're interested):
In January 2006, I...In February 2006, I...- Met Jeff, a longtime blog reader who relocated to Seattle and just recently hooked me up with my awesome job
- Got a giant payraise at my old job and started work on The Web 2.0 Awards
- Got the title to my first car, a 1995 Oldsmobile Silhouette. Van-tastic.
In March 2006, I...In April 2006, I...In May 2006, I...- Traveled to San Francisco for a business trip with my boss and got stupid drunk with folks from Yahoo!
- Attended (and photographed) my cousin's wedding in Michigan
- Started feeling like maybe, just maybe, I didn't fit in with the crowd at work
In June 2006, I...- Visited Dallas, Texas for a client's investor conference and stayed at the posh For Seasons hotel. YUM.
- Got gussied up for the wedding of Justin's longtime friend, Jaye, in Spokane
- Celebrated the Summer Solstice Fremont style
- Snow-camped at Surprise Lake in the Cascades
- Took Rupert to the vet for the first of several emergency trips relating to urethral blockages caused by crystals in his urine
In July 2006 (which wins the prize for Most Eventful Month), I...- Spent two weeks in Europe, visiting my aunt and attending a conference in Amsterdam, then meeting very-extended family in Germany
- Camped in the Drift Creek Wilderness with the Llamas. Hilarity ensued.
- Started training (late, at 13 miles) for the Portland Marathon, my first!
- Interviewed Suzan-Lori Parks, a Pulitzer Prize award-winning playwright
- Attended Search Engine Strategies in San Jose with my co-workers and two days after returning...
- Decided that the company I was with was not the place I needed to be. The feeling was mutual and the door didn't hit me on the way out
- Took my 7th annual trip to Glacier National Park with Rachel and Micah, where Justin asked me to marry him on a back country trip!
In September 2006, I...In October 2006, I...- Ran my first marathon in Portland, OR, with a finishing time of 5:25
- Celebrated writing the current rendition of this blog for one year
- Protected my reproductive future by getting a copper IUD inserted
- Was solicited for interviews by three companies for jobs I hadn't applied for-- I turned down one I wasn't interested in and another that required me to work remotely for a company in San Fran, and accepted the offer of the third
- Turned 24 years old and started my new job on the same day
In November 2006, I...In December 2006, I...- Registered and started training for The Eugene Marathon
- Celebrated the holidays with new friends in Seattle
- Had a very Merry Christmas, complete with guitar, iPod shuffle, designer jeans, and terrycloth bathrobe. Huttah!
Posted on January 02, 2007 @ 6:28 PM |
4 comments
Cory, at
9:32 PM, January 31, 2007
, at
11:04 PM, January 31, 2007
