cinema done right

Last weekend, we were looking for a movie to go to and saw that Tarantino's new film 'The Hateful Eight' was playing at the Hollywood. When we got there, we saw there was already a line and apparently it was a line for people with tickets already. The show was sold out for a number of showings throughout the week already so I bought tickets online for tonight.

We got there an hour early and stood in line for a while before we were let in from the cold. It ended up setting the tone nicely for the film which takes place during a Wyoming blizzard. The film had a 4-5 minute long overture before it and a 12 minute intermission built into the film. The intermission worked well with the action and the pacing and it helped with the movie-going experience. I took the picture above as the guy was introducing the film. Apparently, Tarantino had stopped in a few days before to introduce the film and praised the Hollywood Theater, which has the biggest screen capable of showing 70 mm films. If I'm going to go out to the theater, this is how it should be done.

What else?

We maxxed, walked, and then bussed to Victory's NYE party but didn't stay until midnight because we didn't want to leave Ava in the kennel that long. We had a nice brisk walk back to the house afterwards as well. It was a nice and chill way to spend the holiday.

coming out of the dark

 

It's been a rough time for me these past couple of weeks which is why I haven't been posting (also, the holidays are crazy-busy). It's been rough due to a number of things, primarily the weather, the dark days, and my busted ribs. 

My bike accident three weeks ago ended up hurting longer and more than I had anticipated and caused me to work shorter work days. I'm very lucky to be in a workplace where that's possible. Mostly, I would have to bail after 6-7 hrs and go home and medicate with pot. What's also been hard for me is not going to the gym. I was on such a good streak before this but any lifting was discouraged by Dr Google plus it hurt when I did minor lifting at home so I skipped the gym for three weeks. But I returned today!

Over the weekend, I felt better and at the last minute today, I decided to go in and see what I could do. I didn't bench and I couldn't do my inclined sit-ups but I managed to do all of my free-weights, albeit at a lower weight. Still, I feel good for going in and this way I'll be able to get in almost two weeks before I go back to Nebraska! My new thing was bussing (and then walking) to the gym.

What else?

Most of the days, my new thing was a new work contact but I'll touch on the highlights:

On Tuesday, 12/15, my office mate brought in her baby who is about 6 months old so I couldn't help but pick him up a few times (and parade him down the hallway).

On Wednesday, 12/16, I finally finished "A Tale for the Time Being." I really need to read more books and less comic books this next year.

On Friday 12/18, I DJ'ed the work party for Ashes. This is the first year in seven years that I haven't DJ'ed the client party for GW so it felt good to have one gig. It was nice and chill and I got to get better acquainted with people that I had only met briefly before. Plus there was a pug.

On Saturday, 12/19, I went to Tim and Sophia's and we played a bunch of games. I tried Exploding Kittens and we also played 'werewolf' which I had played years ago as 'mafia.' I was originally only planning on being there for a few hours but I stayed all day because I liked the new people that I met.

On Sunday, 12/20, I spent most of the afternoon working on Hayleigh's x-mas present. I can't go into more detail because I haven't given it to her yet.

On Monday, 12/21, I tried two new-to-me dark beers at NWIPA's dark beer fest, one of which had coffee in it. I don't think I slept that night except for maybe two hours.

On Thursday, 12/24, I walked all of the way home from work which was only possible because A) we got out early for Xmas Eve, B) it wasn't raining, and C) Andrew worked from home that day so he was with Ava. It took me just over an hour which isn't too bad. Also, for dinner, we went out for Bejing Hot Pot. Neither of us had done Hot Pot before so it was quite an experience.

On Christmas Day, I got up early-ish and made coffee in the house! Since we've been living together, we have never had the capability to make coffee in the house but Andrew bought a French press the day before so I made coffee (and pot chocolate chip cookies) first thing. He got me a bathrobe, underwear, and a new vape pipe. I got him a shirt, a sweater, and rain pants. It was nice just to have an easy Christmas morning. Afterwards, when we were both high on cookie dough, we walked around Tabor with Ava. We took her into the dog park quick and she did not attack another dog! It's a Christmas Miracle!

On Saturday, 12/26, we tried to go to the new Tarantino film The Hateful Eight but it was sold out. I had to buy tickets on-line for almost a week later (New Years Eve) instead. However, we did go to the upper part of Sam's Billiards to have a drink.

On Sunday, 12/27, it snowed! Plus I went to Tim and Sophia's where we played Power Grid. It was fun but I don't have a strong inkling to play it again.

the ornament

 

Every year at Christmas, there's a small box under the tree for each of us kids. They're our ornament gifts. My sister gets ornaments featuring cats, my brother gets angels, and I used to get drummer boys but then had to switch to snow men. For the last 14 years, I've been getting the Snow Buddies pictured above which had snow men and a cute animal together.

When I was home for the summer, my mom asked me about the ornaments and I said that I had them all but I don't put up a tree so they just sit in a box. I told her that I would get them out this year tho. I should have 39 ornaments but only counted around 36. I guess a few got lost over the years or they're still with my parents (my mom shipped the ornaments out a few years ago to me). Today, we bought our first holiday tree. It's the first time I've had a live tree since I've been an adult. It's a small 3-4 foot tree so I only used the snow buddies to decorate it and put the rest of the ornaments on a shelf. I also hung the stockings on a book case.

I haven't been too big on Christmas and definitely not decorating. It typically seems so wasteful to me but the tree's not plastic and we bought it at a school fundraising site on Hawthorne. Plus I had the decorations and it looks good. It glows and puts me in the mood for holiday cheer. Now I just need presents under it!

What else?

We saw the movie Brooklyn tonight at Cinemagic, walking most of the way there and all of the way back. It was a wonderful movie and great exercise! 

i coulda been an engineer

 

When I started my job almost two years ago, I went for a home visit with one of my supervisors and he had a phone holder attached to his windshield as pictured above. It's a simple fix and I'm sure it's been around for a while but I went over a year without having a car so I never had one. When I got my last car, I got one of these things and it's been great. However, if you stop or accelerate suddenly, the phone flies out of the holder.

While I was heading to a customer's house in Washington County a few weeks ago, I set my work phone to give me audio directions in addition to the visual map. I was listening to music over the radio through my personal cell but I had the work phone up loud enough to hear the directions. I hit the brake early on in the trip and my phone went flying out to the holder and in between my seat and the console. My seats in this car are big and the spaces are small so I couldn't get to the phone. However, I would still hear "In 200 feet, turn left" shouted out from under my seat.

A few days later, my personal phone flew out of it, hit my cup holder, and scratched the screen. At that point, I had had enough. I came up with the solution above a few months ago and just never acted on it. I even have had thumbtacks at work but keep forgetting to take them out to my car. Well, today for some reason, I thought of it and it worked! Occasionally, I come up with some simple and satisfying solutions, even if it does take me months to act upon them.

sweet 17

 

Overall, I'd say that Portland has great mass transit. However, the North-South lines tend to be few and far-between. Because of this, I haven't commuted to work via mass-transit only since I started nearly two years ago. Today though I was willing to give it a shot.

Andrew's home sick so that lets me off Ava duty. Since I'm still injured from my bike accident, I decided biking wouldn't be the best way to get in and I'm still leery about my car so I took the bus. There is no close route. If there was a good North-South route anywhere between 60th and 82nd that circumnavigated Tabor, I would be able to get to the MAX line where I could bus in from there but, since there's not, I was forced to go downtown.

The 17 stops a few blocks from my house and less than 1/2 mile from my work. I just have to take it thru SE, SW, NW, and into NE Portland to get there. It took about an hour which makes for a long ride but I was just glad to not have to drive. I'll probably do this more often. There are routes that are less than 10 minutes shorter but I would have to transfer and I'm not on a time-crunch so I think the 17 will be my ride.

What else?

Yesterday, my new thing was using Virtual DJ to extract the audio from a movie. I've got a secret project I'm working on!

this year's wreck

Today was the wettest day in recorded history for Portland. It seemed like a hard rain but it didn't seem that bad so I decided to bike in it.

On the way to work, I was driving and dropped Andrew off near the MAX stop so he could head into work that way. It works out well cuz it's technically on my way to work & the traffic would be ridiculous around his office. Anyway, my car made a couple of new noises which made me real nervous. This weekend, it didn't want to start while we were out running errands. We opened up the hood and determined it wasn't a glaringly obvious problem that could be fixed by two mechanically disinclined gay guys so we closed it. I tried starting it and it miraculously worked. I'm not a complete idiot tho so I know there are problems just waiting to surface. So, when I went home at noon to let Ava out, I switched car for bike.

At first, it was a great ride. There was a definite solidarity with the few other cyclists I saw and the warm rain felt great on my face. I was making good time and headed down the incline on Lincoln towards 50th. The light was still green but I saw it was going to turn soon so I sped up to make it but so did an SUV that I could see out of the corner of my eye. I think he made me nervous or my foot slipped off the pedal. I knew I lost control before I hit the ground. I yelled "Oh shit!" and bounced off the pavement with my ribs and thighs taking most of the blow. I wasn't wearing gloves so it was fortunate that I didn't slide & tear up my palms. My right leg got trapped between my frame & my handlebars tho so I took my bike with me.

Somehow, my left shoe flew off and I got up quickly and hobbled down the road to pick it up. There were a few cars around but nobody stopped. I sat down on the step on the side of Yoga Union and caught my breath. I put my shoe back on and did a quick visual inspection of my bike. The seat was crooked and the bell (pictured above) was busted but it otherwise escaped unscathed. I continued on slowly to work and put in a couple more hours. My supervisor offered to drive me home but I knew I could make it, even if I did have to go very very slow.

I think I may have fractured or bruised my ribs. I don't think they're broken. My right thigh also hurts as my keys were in my pocket when I landed flat on the pavement. I also managed to scrape the skin off the side of my big toe on my left shoeless foot. I've had worse falls and worse injuries but I'm really too old to keep banging myself up like this.

just too much

The pic above is of John Paul. He was one of my favorite guys at GW. Last summer, he was hit by the MAX train and was killed. I have many John-Paul-isms in my head and think of him quite frequently. Whenever someone says my name with a W instead of an R or whenever I hear the phrase, "baby boy", he's the first guy that come to mind. I was looking for a photo to illustrate my emotions right now and this one comes close because I'm feeling heartbreak.

Yesterday, I toured a facility, very much like the one that JP used to attend at GW but it was very nice and organized and I didn't have the baggage with it like I have at GW. I also found out that GW is no longer serving clients in their stores starting in January. This will have an impact on many people I know and care about and it makes me furious.

Then, today, there was another mass shooting. This one was at a facility like the one I toured and like the one that I used to work with JP at. Last I heard, 14 people were dead. It's awful when there are shootings anywhere but this was just so random. And it's killing me. I don't want to keep reading about these things. I don't want us as a society to see about these on our Facebook feeds, have a moment of silence, and then scroll past. I don't want prayers and I don't want people to move on. I want to not feel like this is a threat. I want to feel like this isn't commonplace. Fuck, I mean, our last major mass shooting in the US was just this last weekend at a Planned Parenthood. Goddamn it!

I'm just sickened and I don't know what else to say.

rendezvous

We left the beach today with Ava feeling much better. And I feel better too. I feel recharged and ready to face the world again.

On our way back, we stopped at Rendezvous in Tillamook for brunch. It was good and I'd go back. One of the many reasons I like going to the beach with Andrew because he's motivated to leave early so we get back to the house with some daytime remaining. I used this time to eat a pot cookie, put up the Christmas lights, do laundry, and make our Thanksgiving dinner. It didn't turn out that great since the tofurkey was thawed and refrozen and then somewhere in between when I cooked it. Also the gravy was a bit thin but for the first time, I roasted garlic and then made Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes which turned out to be heavenly. 

cape lookout

 

Ava's tail is doing better today so we went for a 5 mile hike to Cape Lookout. It was definitely more about the journey than the destination. There were many beautiful views (such as the one above) that were available along the path and when we got to the end, it was so crowded with people that we didn't really stay long at all.

The long walk was good to tire Ava out too so we went to a pub in Tillamook and played darts for a bit and then grabbed a slice of pizza and a salad. It was pretty much perfect.

LTS

I wasn't prepared to deal with dog medical issues yet. After having an older dog who couldn't walk very far for his last few years, Ava seemed like she was invincible. She had boundless energy and pain never really seemed to register with her. She would get tired after long hikes but she was always up for another walk if the possibility came up. Well, yesterday, she apparently pushed herself too hard and her tail paid the price.

The term for the affliction facing Ava right now is Limber Tail Syndrome. It's kind of like a sprain. She can't raise her tail and it just sort of droops there, looking comically pathetic. I only say that because it's supposed to bounce back in a few days. Otherwise, I'd be mourning the loss of her wagging tail. It's also affected her lower back. She wanted to run on the beach still but when she was hauling a log out of the ocean, she came back to the beach, dropped, and sat down like her back legs weren't functioning appropriately.

Apparently, LTS is caused by either over-exertion, cold weather, or being too used to a kennel and not being as active. Ava experienced all three of those things. We went into Tillamook to get her some baby aspirin as an anti-inflammatory. It's good to know that it's a limited time thing because I don't want to deal with chronic dog issues already. I need another few good years of a healthy dog.

What else?

Yesterday, I beat Andrew by more than 2x his score in 10,000, earning myself the first drink off the game.  I collected at The Schooner which has a great porch with glass walls and blankets available to cover yourself while you dine which I did.

thanks anyway

For the holiday weekend, we rented a beach cabin at Oceanside. It's been years since we've stayed here (and it was the only affordable place that still had vacancies) so we booked a place here quick. I had a plan to start thawing out the tofurky roast yesterday before I hit the gym and it would be ready to pop in the oven when we were able to check in at 4pm. I even made the marinade ahead of time.

We got to Oceanside around 1pm and spent the next few hours walking on the beach. Ava was greeted by a larger cocker spaniel who was off-leash and Andrew quickly took Ava off leash to help deter a confrontation and it worked! Ava did not attack the dog. She's just done so bad lately that a lack of violence was a cause to celebrate!

Then we headed to the cabin. It's a bit further up the cliffside than I had thought but it's got an amazing few. The biggest problem is that it doesn't have an oven; it only has a microwave and a toaster. I would have settled for a toaster oven but nope. Just as an FYI, it's highly recommended that you don't cook a tofurky roast in the microwave. I thought that surely some punks somewhere had tried it and managed to get it to turn out to be a success but every page I found online said "don't" so I didn't.

We don't have a microwave so we didn't bring microwave food. Fortunately, the previous renters left two cans of vegan soup and we had bread and cheese for sandwiches so my Harvest dinner was microwaved soup and toasted cheese sandwiches. Still, I'm thankful. I'm thankful to be at the beach. I'm thankful for this break from work. I'm thankful for Andrew and Ava and Amaretto. It's a change of plans but I can roll with it. And hey, I get a vacation from cooking.

we need this laziness

At any point in my job, things could go to shit so I really have to appreciate days like today where it's easy going. After helping my customer go through crisis last week, I am perfectly happy just to go through with the same-old same-old. 

While we were walking around Tabor Saturday, high on pot cookies, Andrew was telling me about how my work stress is on a different, more personal level which he appreciates (but I think is glad he doesn't have in his job). It's nice to hear because (while maintaining confidentialities) I vent a lot about my stresses at work. Today tho, I didn't have a thing to talk about work-wise and that's a good thing. My new thing today was talking to a new VR counselor which isn't exciting but I'll take it. I'll take and enjoy it.

What else?

Yesterday, my new thing was sitting in a booth in a different part of O'Malley's bar. Again, that's just fine by me.

techno-boost

Every time I've updated my computer, I've gotten rid of the previous one, typically because it stopped working. This time tho, I just decided to treat myself. During our work party last weekend, we got our holiday bonus. I've been good about saving money and I haven't been a person who's had money burn a hole in his pocket for quite some time but I've been due to update my laptop. It's over four years old and some time ago, I dropped my external drive from the book shelf, it landed on my keyboard, and popped out my "o" button so now when I type 'o", I get 'i", "p", "l", "9", or nothing. In addition, it's just gotten really slow. I like my kindle and I've just been using that instead but there's a lot a kindle can't do so now I got another Acer.

It's a good machine. I was looking for something with a solid state hard drive because that's all the rage and I really like it on the kindle. I also wanted something with a large enough hard drive to hold all my iTunes music and something with a proper HDMI port for the projector. The Acer was the only computer that fit all my requirements and still came within range of my bonus. I wasn't looking to spend this much money but I really like it and why not? What good is the money doing in the bank? I don't have outstanding debt so I may as well put my funds to use.

The really nice part about having the other laptop still is that I don't have to make the transition all at once. I still use my other laptop for certain functions and, as time goes on, I'll use it less and less but it's nice to have time to get used to my new precious. Today, I started really getting into it. I ordered it on Monday, picked it up on Thursday, and haven't had a lot of time with it until today. It's got a touch screen which I'm still getting used to. Anyway, I look forward to writing more because it's so much quicker and I don't have to constantly retype my "o"s.

crisis season

When I was applying for this job as a PA, I stated that one of the reasons that I wanted to leave my job at GW and have this job is that I wanted to be help clients/customers out with all aspects of their life, not just their work skills. Well, I've got what I wished for.

I've spent the last month helping one of my more quiet customers with a crisis situation. Until yesterday afternoon, I thought it was all handled. There was a bureaucratic speed-bump or two but I thought we were in the clear. On Thursday, my new thing was supposed to be working a short day and spending the rest of the day with my new laptop. However, after I picked up the laptop and brought it home over my lunch break, my supervisor called me back into the office. Without going into details, my customer was facing homelessness because of an interpretation of wording in state guidelines. I worked quick and reserved a motel room with the company card for the customer and made a plan for a home transition the next morning. I didn't get out of the office until 6:15 which never ever happens.

Today, before I finished parking my car at work, I got a text from my supervisor to call the regional crisis person ASAP. It turns out that the med orders for my customer weren't up to code for the home we were looking into so I ended up getting on a first name basis with two different receptionists at the hospital as I sent and resent the doctor's note, trying to get everything fixed. My final problem ended up being our fax machine. I cannot believe that we still have to use these damn things. Finally, two hours after our home transfer meeting was supposed to start, I got everything lined up and we were good to go.

I won't lie. It's taken a hard toll on me. I knew that I could do it but I question the fucked-up system that makes it so hard. I know there are rules in place but I was seriously considering bringing my client back to stay in my spare bedroom because I was not going to allow my client to stay in a shelter just due to some unclear guidelines and murky med orders. Yesterday, I finished work at 6:15 and stayed in the office for an extra five minutes looking through Craigslist job ads. This is a pretty manageable job most of the time but then there are times where you realize that you have real lives that are significantly impacted by your work but it's not all hard times. After I got my customer's paperwork squared away at the house, my customer was so happy with the new place. It was a safe and friendly home which is something that my customer hasn't known for a bit. It sounds cheesy but the joy I saw on my customer's face made it all worth it.

Last year, I had my first customer transfer off my caseload and into an emergency home due to health issues right around Thanksgiving. It was the first time that the customer was ever taken care of. The hoe had a TV, a warm bed, a full fridge, and people with a sincere interest in the customer's well-being. That customer passed away after a few months but at least I know that when I was allowed to take full advantage of the state's resources, I was able to make their last few months comfortable. 

I hope that these issues don't come up more than once a year because I can't take the stress of it all but I think that I did better this time around and next year, if it happens again, I'll know a bit more and it won't be quite as stressful. At GW, I did feel that I was making a difference in the client's but at this job, I feel that I'm able to help give them a different and better life all together.

What else?

I can't tell you what the new things this last week have been. I do know I've done a new thing every day tho. On Saturday, one thing of note is that Andrew and I saw 'Room,' I have never cried so much in a movie and I can't recommend it enough. The acting, the story, the cinematography, everything was just perfect with it.