solstice scrooge

I think I turn into more of a scrooge every year.  Maybe I'm just getting more bitter in my old age.  Maybe I'm just growing up.  Anti-consumerism, anti-religiousness and anti-traditionalism make for a anti-celebratory me.

The rest of my house celebrated solstice today.  I pretty much avoided it.  When I got home though, we had Wii Fit in the house.  It should prove to be good exercise during winter's rainy days.  I played numerous games for the first time and I even set up Dean as a character.  It wanted to get his weight in the machine so he could work on getting fit.  The problem was I had to pick him up and step on the balance board.  It made me do it about seven times and still couldn't get an accurate reading.  Dean is a 90 lb beast so it wasn't easy and never worked.  It doesn't mind.  I don't think Dean planned on getting fit anyway.

daiya on woodchips

Daiya is a crazy fake cheese substitute that has to be owned by the mob because it's been taking over with most of the vegetarian restaurants and carts.  The first place I had it was Hungry Tiger Too.  Now DC Vegetarian, HomeGrown Smoker and El Nutri Taco have all switched over to Daiya as well.  Today, we went to Red and Black because they finally became friendly enough to bring back a grilled cheese sandwich and it was in Daiya form.  I had their special Steak and Cheese sandwich (for the 1st time) which was awesome but a large part of that was the Daiya.  As Ashes said, you could throw Daiya on woodchips and it would be good.

untitled dog post

Today was a good Sunday.  Drama's been heavy lately so it felt good to get away today with a walk in the park on a sunny morning with Dean, go to Gladstone Coffee for brunch for the 1st time, read A Lion Among Men, head back home, let the dog and cat lay on me and read the book some more.

I went to help work on Autonomy in the afternoon but it ended up being drama-free (yay!).  We finished the day with dining at Dicks.  I want more days like today.

drinking at the dragon

I had my 2nd staff appreciation get-together for the week today.  This was just a housing staff outing and, while the food and drinks weren't as good as Vindalho, I enjoyed the company more because it was people that I have been working directly with for the past three months.  Maybe I just don't know that all that well but there was nobody at this get-together that I don't enjoy talking to.  They're all great.  I can't say that about any other work environment that I've been in.

We went to the Green Dragon for a happy hour.  My supervisor bought the 1st round, the organization bought appetizers and a co-worker bought a round too.  It was a nice bar.  I don't think I'd make it a destination unless I lived near there.  It would be a good neighborhood bar.

Afterwards, we hugged it out.  That was nice.  These people are nice.  I don't go back in to the internship until the first week in January.  It's not that long but I'll miss it.

What else?

I was shown this video last night.  It's AWESOME (because it's true).  My favorite message in the video is that Portland is where young people go to retire.

I also had a great conversation with one of my clients at my work.  I've known this guy for six years and he's a favorite.  However, he's very highly suggestible and doesn't assert himself at all.  Today was one of the first times we've had a conversation about how he's actually feeling and not just how he thinks I want to hear he feels.  I thought of it as a breakthrough.

an insomniac's calling

2AM and I'm wide awake.  The drama of last night made for a restless sleep.  After waking at 2AM, turning around until 3AM and reading until 4AM, I gave up.  I took out the trash, did the recycyling, took Dean for a walk to 7-11, made breakfast and then filled out my holiday cards, all before 7AM.  I'm normally a morning person but this was a bit ridiculous.

destruction

This is devastating.

Yesterday, we took down the stage at Autonomy.  It was something that needed to be done for reasons that I can't write down.  Today, we came to the space to rebuild studios over where the stage was and found that the space had been vandalized.  There was no sign of forced entry and some of the people that are on their way out were pretty upset about the stage so I'm pretty sure it was an inside job.

Windows were smashed, messages of hate like the one pictured above were written all over the place, dry wall was punched in, a fire extinguisher was sprayed into one of the studios through a hole busted in the wall, paint was thrown around, one of the artists who rents a space there had his art destroyed and there was blood on the walls.  It was surreal.  Vandalism wasn't covered in the insurance policy and the cops wouldn't care enough to DNA test the blood or pull fingerprints so we didn't call the cops.  Instead we just cleaned it up.  Fortunately, a handful of our friends showed up to assist in the cleanup.

It's disgusting and I truly despise the people that did this.  Nothing can be proven but one of the people that pretended to be horrified later admitted to writing the crap on the boards which, just coincidentally, went along with the destruction that was done.  I can't really write anymore about this because it's too disheartening.  The space may be done for though.

vindalho

Now this is what I call appreciation.  My internship bought dinner for 40 plus staff members, invited me and had an open bar.  Hells yeah!  I've walked by Vindalho a number a times but today was my first time in there.  It's a bit rich for my blood so I was glad to go there when I wasn't worried about prices.

It was also a great time to be social with my co-workers.  I've only seen one of them in a social setting before and not the person that I work with the most.  This was good for me in more ways than I care to go into right now but I'm just appreciative that it went down like this and I can have a level head about things.  Sorry for the vagueness.

t date

I had a quick date today with a guy named Tom.  I met him on OKCupid and we met for tea to discuss work since he's new to town and looking to get back into work with adults with disabilities.  He was nice and I'd like to see him again.

I've been pondering OKCupid more lately.  I think that I'm looking for a particular guy: vegetarian, dog-loving, bicycling, easy going.  Yes, I'm looking to basically date me.  I need to be more open with who I'm looking for.  I have no idea about Tom's interests other than the fact that he likes working with people with DD.  That's a start.  He's older than me, like 16 years older but that doesn't phase me at all.  I don't know.  Maybe I'll see him again...

where the day takes you

While I think I've been better about getting out and about lately, I recognize that I typically fall back on my housemates for social plans.  However, they went to the beach for the night so I was on my own.  Knowing I would be by myself, I decided to make just enough plans to get me out of the house and I left the day open after that.

I started out at New Deal Distillery which is scary close to my work.  They were giving out samples of whiskey, gin, chocolate, coffee and cheese.  Um, yes please!

We spent the afternoon at the Night Light and headed up to the Belmont Food carts for dinner.  I tried Kitchen Dances for the first time.  We actually split two dishes from there and a margarita pizza from the nearby pizza cart.  All of it was awesome.  The night ended with a bunch of us playing Scategories and Apples to Apples.  I was glad that I just let go and let the day progress as it did.

dilation

Since I've been on my own insurance, I've been greatly disappointed with the medical community's ability to do anything.  I think this is partially due to the expectations put out there by medical shows that have a team of medical experts willing to research and explore various sources of ailments to figure out what the patient of the week's diagnosis will be.  Kaiser, on the other hand, has a had a history of saying, "We're not sure and there's no point of testing" but they at used least to give out Vicodin for everything that ails you.

However, today I met a new doctor in a routine eye exam.  I only get this eye exam done every year because it's a requirement if I ever want to get my lasik updated.  This is the one medical appointment that I have every year that I just want to be an in-and-out thing with no fuss and no muss.  Therefore, it stands to reason that it would be the one appointment that I've had at Kaiser in the past several years that took three hours due to complications that the doctor wanted to research.

I'm still not sure what exactly was wrong.  This new doctor was really thorough though and she seemed to enjoy her job.  I was her last patient of the day and she could have easily dismissed what she had found as a non-problem but she seemed to think that I could possibly be a candidate for the early onset of glaucoma so she dilated my eyes.  It made it so I had to squint a lot when I tried to take mass transit back home.  I took the 35 for the first time too.  I felt like the friend in Adventures in Babysitting that got lost in the bus terminal because her glasses were misplaced.

It ended up that the doctor is not sure that there is something wrong and she would like to optic imaging to be sure.  However, my insurance may not cover it so she's going to do some research to figure out how to get it past my insurance.  I don't think that Kaiser has changed.  I think that I just ended up with a good doctor.  While I don't want anything to be wrong with my vision, I am glad that she's taking the time to care.

just like a circus

After yesterday's melee of trying to setup and pull of the annual client party, we (clients and staff) wanted a typical easy day.  However, since you can't always get what you want, we got a literal circus today. 

A school's theater troupe performed today for our participants.  While we were all exhausted, we all enjoyed it very much.  The kids did a great job of performing and didn't hesitate because they were performing for an audience full of people who are differently abled.  The two adults of the group also did a great job incorporating our participants.  I had to sit by one guy, "T" (I'm going to run out of letters in my quest to protect their privacy) who was also the breakdancer from yesterday.  T kept interjecting his own jokes and comments into everything the kids did but not only did they not get thrown off by him, they brought him up front as a volunteer.  They also brought up a guy that we have who only has use of one side of his body after he said he could spin some balls like the guy in the first picture.  Some of us staff tried to subtly discourage them from picking him but they didn't flinch when they realized that he could only raise one hand.  They gave him a stick to hold to balance one ball on and then put a helmet on him with another stick on it and had him balance both balls that way.  I've never seen him smile so big!

While I think a party and a circus serve as great distractions from underlying problems at work, it also does appear that things are on the upswing.  I have confidence that we're going to make it through this rut and come out better for it.

my annual favorite workday

I love this day.  I needed this day.  After feeling like there was something amiss at work, today was a much appreciated.  Our work team pulled together to pull off another spectacular party.  It was more noticeable this year how many new clients we have working at the company now, probably because they were such awesome dancers.  One guy kept breakdancing while another one just moved around a lot.  He's one of the shyest guys I can remember having in the program but he was in his element on the dancefloor.

It was very similar to the years before with some slight alterations.  I screwed up on the macarena but fortunately another staff member (who experienced her first client party) got up on stage and helped me out.   I also got in there and did the train with most of the group for the first time.  My favorite guy, 'W' grabbed onto my shoulders and just kept hollering.

I think our team will be stronger after this.  I hope so.  I don't see how this couldn't be a bonding moment.

my sub for luv

DC Vegetarian wooed me with a twitter today.  I was downtown already, delivering reports for work when I got a twitter that DC's special was a bacon cheeseburger sub.  Oh heavens, I didn't even hesitate about calling there to order mine (and Ashes').  I love their bacon cheeseburger and a sub would just be larger and even more loved by myself.  Not suprisingly, I was more than satisfied.  If this became a regular menu item, I'd be there more often.

It was the second best part of my day.  The first happened when "G", my client that declared war, refused to go to last break because he was working on coloring.  Another staff member pestered him about it until he became unresponsive.  I was asked to come and sit with him while everyone else went to break.  "G" didn't want to talk, he just wanted quiet while he colored.  I dig him so I wasn't going to push him to go to break.  He wanted to be productive so I thought he should go for it.  It worked out well because I got to sit in absolute and comfortable silence for 15 minutes.  I need to take more breaks like that.

doing it myself

At BikeCraft yesterday, I went looking to make myself a more effective and weather-ready cyclist.  Even though I know they carry them at most stores, I was looking for a locally-made head-band-that-covers-the-ears thingy.  However, Sophia pointed me in the direction of ear cozies.  You slide them over the straps of your helmet and they cover your ears.  It was a very neat idea but I thought that the sizes looked too small and, for fifteen bucks, I could afford to take the time to make my own so I came up with the cozies pictured above.  I think I went a bit overboard with the back fur but it's too late now.  I might make some straight up black ones as well.  It was pretty easy.  I sat by the fire while we watched Six Feet Under episodes and hand sewed them.  It was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

What else?
Raven got this marble game thing that was fun to play.  We played several games before it got old.  Again, a nice way to spend the day.

Also at BikeCraft, we got a list of power foods from a vendor.  Greens like kale and spinach were at the top of the list so I made myself a spinach, mushroom, onion and pepperjack cheese egg scramble today.  It was awesome.