You're guaranteed to give blood, pay taxes and die....

... was what my dad use to say to me growing up. Or at least he said it to me once and I remembered it. I only bring it up today as some of us are sitting around, playing a very, very silly Wii game and talking about beer. We're a crowd of delicious beer drinkin' Friday gals, enjoying the fine selection from Ballard Market when a friend in from San Fran lamented, "I love death and taxes" - which reminded me of what my father said - at least once.

I did give blood (it gets complicated any time you're in Africa for more than 10 days and get tattoos), I pay my taxes and inevitably one day I will kick it. (Today is not that day.) I did get a root canal though. I think I was more nervous than it was worth and was teary-eyed as soon as I walked in the door. It took an hour to numb my mouth and 12 minutes to actually clean the canal where the nerve ending was and fill it will a root canal filler. The sharp pain in my chin surprised me (because the roots go down into the bones of your face.) It's amazing how everything is interconnected. And really, it's hard to believe it's all about giving blood, paying taxes and kicking it. Surely someone forgot to mention root canals...

Friday... finally.

I woke up to a pre-warned snowy morning. Sure enough there was a substantial dusting on all the cars and a bitter wind greeted me when I left. (Our block also didn't have any power.) I stood at the bus stop for 25 minutes with about 35 other people as three buses didn't arrive. I gave up and went back home to drive to work (which with the crazy parking prices doesn't thrill me at all.) Every bus stop I drove by on my way in was packed - as obviously many north end buses were running behind or not running at all.

I'm glad it's finally Friday. It's not like tomorrow is going to be an easy day - I still have a gazillion things to do at work (until our event on March 26) and I have the thrill of getting a root canal. I'm SO NOT looking for to it. I have a super sensitive epidermis (no my word - some an internist said when trying to give me stitches once), thus making things like stitches and tooth work seriously painful. (Of course I also thinks it makes my pain threshold really high too.) So I get to wake up and go straight into a painful situation. TGIFY?

And there's still no sign of Friday the cat. There have been no additional calls. No random spotting of black cats, nothing showing up at the pound. There was a record of a dead cat a few days after the inauguration but there was no info (like where they found the cat, the sex of it, anything) and we just can't speculate that it was Friday. Lara has a friend coming in from San Francisco under the premise to "find Friday." I'm sure they're going to have a good time hopping around the city and if they happen to find Friday - that would be sweet.

Pool karaokoe, Getting to work, Missing the festival again...

I love my hydro fit classes on Tuesdays. It's one of those great combinations of a hilarious instructor to makes us cheers at the beginning of the butt kicking. She plays great music covering Johnny Cash, The Beatles, ABBA and others great songs at the public pool. Tonight she made us sing "Sweet Caroline" (she does karaoke) - while doing ladders in the deep end. (You're actually sweating in the pool.) I've rarely had an instructor of a class where you had so much fun and so look forward to it. So much so that you want to go to hydro fit after an exhausting day at work which is quickly becoming an exhausting quarter.

I find myself taking the bus religiously these days - like I did when gas was $4 a gallon. I would rather be 20 minutes late than deal with the cost of parking which had nearly doubled since February (from $1.50/hour to $2.50). If you don't want to park on the street and go to a paid lot, they're slowly sneaking up to $12/day - $22/day. I've been taking the bus late - I've got the schedule memorized. Unfortunately all of this is going on when they're talking about cutting buses routes - hundreds of them - to deal with the all of the budget crises. Which begs the question of how am I going to get to work...

Today is Mardi Gras - Carnival - the festival before Ash Wednesday - before Lent - celebrated all over the world from the oldest in the US (in Mobile, Alabama) to Brazil, Italy to Trinada. There are costumes, beads, king cakes and other types of fun. When I dance with the samba troupe, we celebrated Carnival with a huge performance at a hotel in downtown Cleveland. Since moving to Seattle, I've managed to attend two festival here in town, get dressed up and dance like crazy. These last two years I've barely noticed Mardi Gras come. And when I did realize it was up on me, I didn't have time to get anything figured out. So here I am at home, after hydro fit, watching a documentary on Public Television about the Mardi Gras in Mobile, Alabama - the black Mardi Gras and the white Mardi Gras - and there is a substancial difference. It's not the same as heading out on the town but it gives me some inspiration to hit the road.

* Hey Peas by Nataliedee.com

** I think our new President is awesome - just an FYI.

Building a car...

Tonight, before practice, Carnies got together to clean our "adopted street" - a few miles from our practice space and down the street from one of our skater's house. Half of us started at one end and the rest at the other with the intentions to meet in the middle. Because of scheduling, it's been 8+ months since we've been there. And it needed some attention. We picked up tons of cigarette butts, beer cars, plastic bottles, and car parts. We started joking about having enough pieces to build our own car - we found a tail light and bulb, windshield wiper, bungee cords, to hold on the muffler we found, an antenna and pine cone car freshener. Ok, it's wasn't enough to build a car but it was a lot of stuff. At the end of the day we had 10 bags worth of junk, a couple of "thank yous" from people driving by and a clean, adopted street.

The Charms of Jean Pennee

I have this charm bracelet from my grandmother Clare that is cram packed full of charms. They're beautiful and old and in serious need of cleaning. I finally bought a cleaning solution a few weeks ago just so that I could sparkle it up and wear it out. I've worn it before and had much success snagging my tights or nylons (don't wear it with a skirt) but it also was a great conversational piece. People told me about their mother's charm bracelet (which I also have) and their great aunt's, grandmother's, their own. I have two from my grandmother. One I think she did most the work collecting on her own and one was a gift from her fellow employees at Penny's - maybe her 25th anniversary working there. My grandmother worked for more than 50 years, on and off, at Penny's - and was often recognized for it. I remember a couple of times visiting her when she was working (and the hilarious antics my grandfather would pull on her.)

I have a soft spot in my heart for Penny's. Of course, as a kid, I wouldn't be caught shopping there. But as I entered my career as a poor-ass non-profit fundraiser, I found Penny's was perfect. Their "professionals" section is styled after people my age and isn't full of frumpy blazers and shapeless clothes. They have some great dance-dance clothes and I've bought more than one pair of shoes from them. I like Penny's. I like to look great and not spend so much money on clothes. Though I'm no longer the poor non-profit fundraiser, I still like to shop there because it's comfortable and I know what to expect. It's also affordable. And it's my best kept secret. When people ask me where I got "that great top" - I tell them Jean Penne. They give me that "I don't know that boutique" look and I reveal my secret.

Of course, now that I work downtown and "babysit" other clothing durning my lunch breaks, I don't shop as much at Penny's. I don't shop much anywhere. But when I read about their 4th quarter dip at the end of last year (down like 14% or something) I decided to go visit them on Monday - after working for a bit - for their President's day sale. I was pleased to see that they were well picked over and there wasn't anything that drew my attention. That made me really happy. I don't want to see Penny's go out of business. But that's because I'm sentimental about my grandmother... and some of the great things I've bought there. And how I was able to look stylish - when I don't really like to shop - even when I only made two nickles and a dime.

*photo of the aweomse Penny's dress I got for Carol's wedding last year for super cheap. I LOVE it. It's cute and fits me like a glove.

Meeting Elvis & Chasing kitties

Today Elvis came running up to us as we were playing our musical instruments of the kitty treats in the box and the fork on the tuna tin. Elvin came right up to us and didn't say a thing. He was black and lean, similar to Friday but was a bit smaller and didn't have his fangs. Also, he didn't meow when he saw us. He was a very quiet Elvis. We met a lot of kitty friends while trying to find Friday - some walked us to the end of their block and others just meowed at us from their porch - but none of them were Friday.

Pygmy and I were supposed get together for an afternoon walk after my nap (after going to work for a couple hours at 6 a.m. on my home from dropping Megan and Jarett off at the airport) but between my nap and Lucy's nap, our paths didn't cross. She called me just before dinner and asked if Lucy could come over and see the kitties. I'm not sure the kitties had as much fun as the rest of us. Lucy had a lovely time trying to find the kitties "where are they?" she kept asking and answering herself "they hiding." I would help her find them. Keep her from getting to close to a cornered Fezzy - who thought it was fun for about a minute. She found something amusing just about everywhere and made me want to create a box of fun things for Lucy... should she decide to come over and visiting the kitties again.

*Fezzy eating a sea creature finger puppet that we had taken out for Lucy.

Enjoying derby, sleeping in on sunny days...

I slept in this morning, extra late, for no particular reason. I didn't go out last night - just stayed in and watched Pineapple Express, which was pretty funny. I woke up at 7:30 a.m. and was thrilled to see an extra bright sparkly blue sky but decided I could use a little more sleep. And sure enough, when I woke up the second time it was gray and raining. But I did witness that the day had the best intentions to be bright and beautiful.

I went to hydrofit swim class again - different instructor (who was Heidi's instructor for the swim class.) He kept us moving... Megan and Jarett returned and we all went to Heidi's place for dinner (with Lara and I cutting out early to go to practice).

What a great practice tonight! We did a bunch of great drills - some of them more challenging than others but really it felt great to be working on problems together as a team. It's a great feeling to have - especially when you look up and it's time to go. I grabbed Megan and Jarett on the way back home and I'll be taking them to the airport at zero:dark 30. I'm planning going into work for a while... we'll see how that goes. I haven't had President's Day off since like high school.

*super cute picture of Fez sleeping.

End of the week...

Megan and Jarett returned from Hawai'i on a red-eye Friday as I finished a long week at work on Friday. Jarett stayed in bed with the flu and Megan wondered around Ballard. I didn't stay at work all day as I was pretty spent (never mind the fact that I had been out until 2 a.m. the night before for Katie's birthday.) Megan, Jarett, Lara and I went to a bowling fundraiser for my team - which was a great success plus a really great time.

Today after breakfast, they borrowed the car and headed up to Bellingham - I headed on a walk into Ballard. It was a perfect day for it. I went to this newer quilting shop for fabric for an apron I decided to make after spilling stuff on me while cooking Christmas dinner for my orphan friends and later went back to get frabric for dress I decided to sew (after finding a pattern on sale at JoAnn's.) I become very inspired walking around Ballard. I see cute little felted things, jewelry and purses. I don't have the talent to make many of these things but I can definitely sew and my goal is to sew something that I can actually wear to work as opposed to costumes.

The economy has twisted the arm of many businesses behind their backs and Mandrakes - an antique store of 19+ plus years, has finally cried uncle - literally. I saw the sign in the shop last week and walked by on my way to the quilt/fabric shop. It was is one of the more creative ways that I've seen a business reply with exaperation at the current economic situation. But it's too at the same time.

It a pretty nice day to be out and about - a lot of Ballard thought so too.

Roosters & Swimming...

I hopped onto another snowy bus this morning but couldn't stop thinking of Friday - the weather was miserable and I became obsessed with the idea if we didn't find him soon that he would become a feral cat. I emailed Lara and suggested that she call one of our friends whose currently unemployed and ask for her help and offer to pay her. Someone really needs to stop by during the day and look for him - look for this injured cat. She called her and she said she would be in the neighborhood and would look for him. She didn't find him but when Lara got in touch with the manager of the building across from us she discovered the injured cat had a home... and it wasn't Friday. And now we don't know what to do. Lara has given up home and I just don't know what else we can do. Bew.

However, when she called the pound today to hear the recording of found animals - they now had a rooster and a cockatiel. At the pound. If you're missing your's... try the animal shelter in Ballard. If you know where Friday is - let us know that too.

Today was another long day jam packed with meetings and deadlines and a board meeting in the evening to cap it off. I took the 7:45 p.m. bus home and decided I would go to Hydo Fit at 8:40 p.m. I got home in time to change and walk over to the pool. I had NO IDEA what to expect - I knew it would be a work out - but what a work out it was. And the instructor was hilarious. She had this 80's mix CD (yes, CD, not tape) and would sing parts of songs or tell stories while instructing us from the side of the pool. She was also familiar with derby (noticed my tattoo) and had been to the bout this past weekend. Unfortunately, near the end of class she slipped while trying to kick in some floaties to a swimmer and hurt her foot/ankle which she had just had surgery on. She sat in the chair and instructed the last 5 minutes.

I totally loved this class. It was completely different than lap swimming (which I love the sound of bubbles coming from my nose as I swim). And it will be good cross training for the Danskin Triathlon - which I signed up to do - again. (I didn't do it last time because of pulled hamstrings.) I am doing it with a coworker this time... we'll see if I do it this time.

*picture of Fezzy, whose missing his friend Friday, on the new orange sofa/futon.

Expectations of winters, commutes and derby...

I left this morning to cars cover with snow and ice on the streets, making my way to my bus stop I was careful not to slip as I didn't wear snow-appropriate shoes (did I tell you I don't have those anymore) plus I didn't know it was snowing until I was leaving and didn't have time to turn back. I tepidly crossed over a parking lot and street and made it to my bus stop. It was packed. I got the one seat left in the "joint" where second section of the articulate bus joined the first part. We picked up another gazillion people at the next stop and headed towards downtown Seattle in the new (since fall) bus lane on 15th. Lisa, the 15 Express super nice and cheerful bus driver, slammed on the breaks - people flew forward - an older man whose always on my bus actually flew thru the joint and bowled into the people standing in the front.

We all got our composure, helped up the man and eventually poured out of bus to grab another. Two cars had decided to pull into a parking lot in front of our bus. I guess they didn't get the public service announcement that it takes a football field for a bus to go from 35 to 0. Our bus driver was ok and eventually enough buses stopped by to pick of the throngs of people waiting on the side of the road. I need to send an email to Metro giving her props. The accident definitely wasn't her fault (and the bus wasn't damaged at all) but it would help for them to know how great she is.

This weekend my Peace Corps friends Megan and Jarett came in from DC. They were on their way to a wedding in Hawai'i and had a day lay over. I bought us all tickets to the Rat City Roller Girls bout at the Key Arena - which was pretty damn sweet. The jumbo-tron showed great hits and even more elusive penalties. The seats were comfy and we didn't have to arrive an hour early just to get a seat. We watch one game before we had to head out and grab something to eat. It was an impressive bout to take them to - as they had really no idea what to expect.

*drawing from Nataliedee.com.

Fridays, Lobbying, Crazies...

No matter how hard I try, I can't leave work early on Fridays. Any other day of the week I can slip out 20 minutes, 40 minutes and hour early to compensate staying late for meetings on other days. But not Fridays - there's always a message that needs to go out, something that needs to be written, the leftovers pile up and suddenly need to be done. And I never get out early. Today was no exception though I was absolutely exhausted and wanted to get out early, it didn't happen.

After deciding to stay in tonight (see "being exhausted" above), I cleaned up the apartment for Megan and Jarrett's visit tomorrow, ran up to Target to get some things and then Lara and I decided to look for Friday. She has put up another round of posters though the calls have tapered off and the cat trap hasn't resulted in a single cat - even with tuna and other delicious food out for him. So we took various blocks, calling his name and the "here kitty kitty." I'm super bummed over the siting of the injured cat and I can only hope that Friday is safely with someone. Though I wish they would turn him in so that he can come home. I miss him.

Yesterday was our Lobby Day at the Law Center. We piled into the car at 7:30 a.m. and headed down to Olympia. Our schedule was pretty full - we were going to hear the Domestic Partnership bill in committee in both the House and the Senate. It was pure luck that we were there when one of the three bills we're working on and supporting this session was dropping that day. Of course, we should have expected it, but the Senate hearing chamber was filled with crazy antis. They were trying to give us stickers that were anti-domestic partnership, anti everything. There were like 200 hundred people there. And their testimony was crazy and irrational. We had firefighters wanting to insure benefits for their partners should they be killed in the line of duty and these people were talking about judgement day.

We left the hearings and a senator stopped by who was super supportive of all of our bills. She's always been super supportive of domestic partnerships because she married a Filipino man and she said, "I heard all the same stories. If God wanted people from different ethnic backgrounds to get married he wouldn't have made them different colors.... bi racial marriage will destroy the fabric of society... blah blah blah." I went with a volunteer to visit our reps and senators in our district. One of them needs to go (and I've thought that all the times I've been down to lobby), one was in committee meetings and the last one we saw was new, full of energy and obviously hasn't been beaten down by the system.

All and all it was a great experience and I was glad to be there - even with all the crazies. They reminded me that I'm on the side of the issues where I belong.

What the psychic said...

A woman called Lara on Friday to give her some tips on getting her cat back so Lara called her back, curious, and hopeful for any advice.  She talked about setting a cat trap - which you can rent at Sunset Hill Pet Supplies (just up the street) for $5 a day.  You will most likely catch other neighborhood cats as well, but she got her cat back that way and so did another one of her neighbors.  One thing she brought up which I had never heard of but makes perfect sense, is that Friday could have been attacked by a raccoon or dog and could be confused and afraid - disoriented.  So if you set a trap (with an article of your clothing and food) - you just might get him.  She also said, "I know this is going to sound weird, but before you go to bed at night, visualize a golden orb or globe above where you live so to lead your cat home.  I have told that to many other people and their cats have returned.  I'm a psychic."  She's also a crazy cat lady but her idea turned out to be more common than we thought and there is no harm in visualizing a golden orb before bed.

Interestingly enough, yesterday a woman who lives right behind our apartment building called to say she found an injured, very skittish black cat who a gash at the base of it's tail.  She couldn't pet him or get him to come to her but she thought he fit our description of Friday. Lara went to the place and called for him but he didn't appear.  So today she went to the pet store, rented the cage, got food and set up the cat trap (after warning the neighbors that she's going to do this and not to let out "Bob" and "Patches.")

I'm kind of hopeful that this is going to work and that all of these nice people who have called with their advise and hints on "how to catch your cat" works.  I hope we catch him and he gets to come home - be dry and warm and snuggle up on the new futon.  I also wish the psychic had told me about my enormous car repair and impending root canal.  But if Friday comes home, that's a good start.

Opening Season two, 100 points and the Men's Bathroom

Last night was the opening bout of Jet City Rollergirls second season.   My team, CarnEvil, went up against the Pink Pistols - the 2008 champions.  It was a typical long day (except I wasn't in charge of much - and that was a relief - no lineups, no floor set-up, just a regular volunteer/skater for the most part.)  I wasn't sure what to expect - we felt ready - with a mostly new team of skaters, only three weeks worth of practice into our season - it was exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time.  And it was a tough game.  We started out neck and neck with points and at one point managed to pull ahead by 12 points.  By half-time we were down by 25 points - which is nothing for us as we're often down at the half.  We met them point for point in the second half, though we were never able eat out that 25 point difference and we ended up losing 100-132.   It was a great game and if we had been able to hold Molly Python, it would have been much closer.  We were thrilled by the game we played!  We put our heart and soul on the track skated away rather proud of how well we did.

I had a particularly good game as I got lead jammer status all but once or twice (which is one of my personal goals for the year) and was able to skate around, grab 4-5 points (sometimes 8-10) and call it off before they had much of a chance to gain too many points on us. It was a really effective jamming game for me and I was thrilled.  I am also so damn proud of my team - many of them skating for the first time ever and all of us really working hard.  It was also great for me and everyone, to have a full roster for once.  It's easier to play a cleaner and more effective game when you don't have to go in two or three in a row before a break. 

 

I sold some raffle tickets at the after party and got home around 1:30 a.m.  I had told Pygmy that we would go to Ikea before Jon went to a Super Bowl Party (I needed a new futon couch - badly and had been trying to make it work my schedule more than a month).  I managed to get to her place by 8:30 a.m.  We got to Ikea for their 3 day sale at 9:15 a.m. not realizing the store didn't open until 10 a.m.  - which cracked us up.  I had read about the restaurant opening at 8 a.m. and offering free breakfast...  I have done this to Pygmy before - waken her up and dragged her off somewhere long before we needed to be there - and she's absolutely not a morning person.  (I am neither a "morning person" nor a "not a morning person" - I am a carpe diem - when I'm up, I'm awake and it's time to start living)... however I didn't get in as much trouble as I have in the past because Lucie insures that Pygmy is up earlier these days.    We ate the free breakfast and loitered in the kitchen area.  Pygmy went to the bathroom and then I did and when she saw where I came from, she started laughing thinking she had used the men's bathroom.  We couldn't figure out where she had gone when a man next to us was shaking his head - smiling.  He laughed saying that he had seen Pygmy walk into the men's bathroom - thinking she would realize it.  Between the beating I took on the track the night before and general lack of sleep, I thought it was the funniest thing ever. 

The store eventually opened.   We did our shopping - managed some great deals - kept the impulse buys down to one each (pop up containers, 3 for $3.99) and came home by noon having had quiet an adventure in shopping.

*photo of Torture racing Jude O'Chopp to the inside line. photo by Edgar Diaz