Fair pictures!

Another week has passed and I have not been good about blogging.
:( I apologize to my loyal reader(s)!

I have officially made the transition to night shift. I miss normal circadian rhythms!! But so far I've had decent shifts so I guess I can't complain too much. Seattle weather has rapidly turned to fall (highs in the 50s, cloudy, occasional rain showers), so it makes for good sleeping weather, at least.

I wasn't planning on blogging at the moment... I sat down at the computer to do some bill-paying as it is pay day. But for some inexplicable reason, the Bank of America website is down. Which worries me in light of recent events in the financial world! I know, I know, it is unrelated, but still, makes one wonder. So since I can't pay my bills yet (should I trust that the website will indeed be back up "in a few minutes"?? Haha.), I thought I would do a quick blog.

There really hasn't been too much going on lately besides work. On my days off I do lots of boring things... pay bills, do laundry, clean my apt, etc. :) Last week I did do a couple fun things. Rob and I went to the Puyallup Fair on Saturday. It was a lot of fun even though it rained most of the day!

As always with a fair, I particularly enjoyed the livestock. :) I think Rob's favorite thing was the roasted corn on the cob. Sadly, there was a noticable lack of fried things on a stick... but I guess I have been spoiled in the past by the Minnesota State Fair and the North Carolina State Fair!! (As though my diet really needed fried food on a stick, anyway.)

Poor little 4-H project!!

In the evening, we went to the concert at the fair... Steven Curtis Chapman and Michael W. Smith. Definitely a great concert... at some points much more like thousands of people worshiping together rather than just watching a concert. Pretty cool. :)

Well, I'm annoyed that I still can't log in to my bank accounts. Time to go put the laundry in the dryer (which works now... YAY!! No more underwear hanging on a rack in the living room to dry!). And maybe rustle up some lunch.

Costco, Part 2

Wow, it's been a while since I wrote... the post on Costco got such a huge response that it is hard to live up to!! Some of you may know that I use Google Analytics on my blog, which is pretty awesome. And I can say with certainty that my Costco post got an insane amount of traffic... 45 unique views the first day, 25 the next, 26 the day after, and 28 the next day!!! Wow. I wonder how on earth that happened? Guess I am not the only one who loves Costco. :) (Actually I know that statement is not true, based on the "anti-Costco" sentiments I have received in the last week... but since it is MY blog, I get to delete them!)

I vow to write more later. I'm busy uploading lots of pictures from the last week or so!! Last weekend, Rob and I went hiking at Mt. Rainier and took a whole bunch of great pictures that I need to post. And of course, yesterday was Rob's birthday, so there are some fun pictures from that. :)

I Love Costco

Every time I go to Costco, I feel inspired to blog about the experience, but thus far have refrained from it. The time has come, however, for me to declare my love for The Warehouse.

Let me start by saying that I have pretty much been a life-long shopper at the wholesale stores (I shouldn't even mention the names for fear that I will be struck by lightning, but as a child my family had a Sam's membership, and my parents still are BJs shoppers... haven't converted them yet!). So it's not like I have just discovered warehouse shopping or anything. But today I was thinking about how much I enjoy it, and decided it was the perfect topic for today's blog!

Now you may wonder why a single 27 year old woman is even shopping at a place like Costco. I mean, how much could I possibly use of any one item that I would need to buy it in bulk? And that is where you are wrong (or perhaps just naive)!!

Full disclosure time. I must confess that I do have a vested interest in Costco, and maybe am not totally objective. Furthermore, since my membership was a gift, I am only reaping benefits... but I've done the math and I suspect that I would easily recoup the membership fee in a year!!

Now to the reasons that shopping at Costco makes me happy. Let me take you through a typical trip, and share with you Why I Love Costco.

* The parking spaces are gigantic, at least at the Shoreline store. My hypothesis is that people buy so much at Costco that they need to have bigger vehicles, and so the spaces are built larger to accomodate the SUVs/Hummers needed to tote home all the wonderful wares. For someone like me, who drives a Nissan Sentra, this is wonderful, because the first moment of the Costco experience is pleasant.

* There is never a shortage of shopping carts. Compared to my experiences at BJs, where you have to drag one across the parking lot to the front door, only to find that it has a bum wheel, this is great! Do not underestimate the little things.

* Upon entering the store, you are immediately faced with a plethora of beautiful TVs on one side, and on the other side is what Costco insiders know as "The Fence". Now you might be tempted to get caught up in the stream of shoppers heading into the rest of the store, but I encourage you to hold up the whole group (don't be shy!) because there is some cool stuff on The Fence! Today was a selection of coats/vests... I don't need a winter coat, nor does anyone I know, but I was really tempted to buy one anyway, because the price was GREAT! Ah, the power of The Fence.

* Once I've moved past the entrance into the body of the store, I have never once been able to make a bee-line to the item(s) I came for. (Well, except for that one time I went with the Wilson family, but that was just because I was trying to make a good impression!) I must meander through the aisles. Each and every one. Because you never know what you might find. Today I was pleased to discover that Costco sells what they call a "super-ream" of paper. 800 sheets for $6.55! Bigger than just a little pack of printer paper but way less than a huge box (which they also sell but I would never be able to use).

* There are some things I know I am almost always going to buy on a routine trip. Milk, coffee, salsa. But then there are other things (like laundry detergent, toilet paper, paper towels, or chewing gum) that I buy on a less-frequent basis, so I pretty much always come away with quite the haul. :) A few of my favorite items:

• Milk in the double pack. Costco even has their own special oddly-shaped milk jugs (I assume they stack better on a pallet or something), so when people open my fridge, they are immediately aware of my loyalty to The Warehouse.
  
• Seattle Mountain Blend whole bean coffee (exclusive to Costco). $9 for 2 lbs and really good coffee!


• Kirkland Signature Tortilla Strips... while one might be intially reluctant to buy the store brand at a normal store, at Costco it is different. Many "store brand" items are actually just special packaging of "brand name" items, if you look closely. For example, these chips (3 lbs for $3.39!!) are made by Mission. And they are amazing. Particularly with my giant jug of salsa ($4.25). :)


• Tribe Hummus in the snack pack. Little containers of hummus (16 for $4.99), perfect for lunches at work. Yum. I have gotten more questions about it at work... everyone is jealous of my hummus!


• Clothes. You might be shocked to discover that Costco has some cool clothes sometimes. Granted, they usually have much better men's clothes than women's, but still. I've found some good stuff at decent prices.
  
• Did you know that Costco sells wine and beer (at least in some states)? I didn't know that until I moved to WA, where it is legal to do so. There are some great deals to be had, if one is in the market for such items. I admit, I have succumbed to the siren call of the Mike's Hard Lemonade variety pack for $21.99. Pretty competitive pricing!
  

There lots of other deals I could mention, but this post is getting long! Some other time, I suppose. But Costco also apparently has great deals on gas, tires, kitchen remodels, vacations, funeral caskets, mattresses, prescription drugs, eyeglasses... and churros. Mmmm.

I could also discuss some other things I enjoy, such as the little older ladies with free samples, or the fact that the checkers always tease me for dating an employee just to get into the Costco Wholesale Family. (Apparently my membership card makes it public knowledge!)

Have I mentioned that I love Costco? :)

Beautiful Day

It is a beautiful day in Seattle! And I feel like I had a very "Seattle day". This morning, after sleeping in and enjoying my coffee and watching "The View", I went for a walk around Green Lake. By myself. And it was wonderful! It's been a while since I exercised (sadly), so instead of pushing it and trying to run, I just powerwalked and listened to TWIT. Today was one of those cloudless days, where the sun is shining and people remember why they live in Seattle! Green Lake wasn't too crowded, surprisingly. (Actually, maybe not... school has started and it is a Wednesday!!) And it was a great power walk.

Then, after a shower and a snack, I walked up to Starbucks. Spent a bit of the afternoon there, enjoying my venti nonfat no-whip mocha and reading my book on Christian womanhood and my Bible. It was wonderful! And exactly what I needed.

Eventually, I decided I couldn't stay there all afternoon, so I headed over to QFC and picked up some groceries, put them in my reusable-foldable grocery bag, and walked home. (See what I mean about a Seattle kind of day? :) And what did I buy? Yogurt, garbanzo beans, and carrots!)

September is a good month in Seattle... here's a picture I took nearly a year ago (September 11, 2007), but it could easily have been taken today!

I have said it before, and I will say it again. Moving here has been good for me. The last year has been really tough at times, but the Lord has been faithful, and I wouldn't change my experiences if I could! I know that today's post might sound super cheerful (especially compared to recent ones), and to be honest, I don't feel like blogging in detail about the big things that have happened in my life this week.

What I will say is that this week I experienced God directly answering my prayers. Seriously... I have rarely had the kind of immediate answer that I experienced on Sunday night, when I sat in church and began to cry as I was praying so intensely and just opened up my heart to God... and then a few hours later felt like God handed me a response to those prayers (and many months of prayers). What an encouragement it was to realize that He does indeed hear our prayers!!

Things are changing, and there is a lot of uncertainty ahead as we look for a new church. But our God is an awesome God, and He will provide guidance, if only we trust Him with our lives.

Sunset on the beach at Carkeek Park last Saturday

Frozen Peas and HD

Thank goodness for frozen peas. I'm currently holding a bag to my face in an effort to prevent/reduce swelling, because I am a total klutz! Here's what happened. I have sequestered the Roomba (my new best friend) in the upstairs bathroom so it can be on kitty litter patrol. I decide to check on its progress, and go to open the bathroom door, which gets caught on the throw rug. I bend down to tug the rug out of the way... at the same time still attempting to push open on the door. Which swings open at the same time I bend down. Thus smacking the doorknob into my right cheekbone. OUCH!!! I actually started laughing because it must have looked ridiculous, but wow. It hurt. So now I have a big red mark on my cheek, just below my eye and it is starting to swell up! Which brings us to the frozen peas. I think you are supposed to put steak on a black eye but I am too poor for such things... if I HAD a steak, I would eat it, not use it for first aid!! The peas have gone uneaten in my freezer for months, so time to put them to good use. :) Hopefully they will help!

I went to the Comcast Service Center off Aurora today (sketchy!) and successfully got my multi-stream cable card! For free! :) It took longer on the phone to activate it than it did to install it, but nevertheless, I am officially in the world of HD. I still need to procure an HDMI cable so the quality is as good as I can get it, but even now... holy moly. I think that my previous cable box was not HD (even though they claimed it was) because now I get all the HD channels that I was supposedly getting all this time (and wasn't). Here's how good the quality is... I literally found myself sitting on the floor in front of the TV, watching some program on ESPN2HD about the 2007 Green Bay Packers. For an extended period of time, before I realized that I didn't care about the content of the program!! WOW. I am stunned. The quality is insane. And now with the HD Tivo working... man. I might never leave my couch again. :)

Now to less exciting things like cleaning and organizing. Trying to be productive today before I go over to hang out with Ingrid tonight!

A couple clippings...

In my family, we often joke about "clippings" that we send... as in newspaper clippings we think someone may be interested in. (Not toenail clippings or hedge clippings or something else gross!) In that spirit, here are a few recent articles from the Seattle Times/PI that you may (or may not) find of interest:

Hard Rock Cafe to Open in Seattle

Nurses Picket at UW Hospital

Old 520 Tollbooth in a Second Career

Well, I should get moving on my day rather than goofing around on the internets. :) Lots to do! Hopefully get a couple cablecards from Comcast, go grocery shopping, wash my car (got attacked by seagulls at work this week!)... maybe even work on a quilt or organize the 1000 pictures on my computer! Haha. Probably not that ambitious, but there are some possibilities. :) Oh yeah, and I really need a haircut. Hm.

One Moment at a Time

I'm not sure what to write tonight. Not feeling like I am really in a blogging mood, but yet still want to write something. Worked a 12 today... not too bad, but like I said yesterday, I've become rather apathetic. Not bad, but not great either. Today at work the nurses' union was picketing outside the hospital. My coworkers all went down on their breaks to join the picket line, but I managed to skip it. I'm not in the union, but I'm covered by the collective bargaining agreement, so the contract negotiations affect me as much as anyone, but I don't know. I did learn more about them, thanks to the flyers I was handed as I crossed the picket line to come in to work. Apparently there are lots of issues at stake but the one that caught my eye was that nurses at our hospital are paid 8% less than other RNs at comparable hospitals in the area. With no pay raises planned beyond the state employee's 2%. Wow. Interesting. It was pretty awkward when my patients were asking about it, as they each had windows that overlooked the picketers. Hopefully they will be able to work something out before the current contract is up.

Aside from that, not much else going on. Tonight I'm really struggling to stay positive and hopeful... and I know that it is made much worse by the fact that I am tired. My current Facebook status says that I am taking it one day at a time, and that's pretty accurate. Today's been a long day, and I am not convinced that the next few will be any easier or shorter. Sigh.

I've noticed that I can start a day really in a good place, having spent time with God. This morning I was singing along with the Christian worship songs on the radio on the way to work! And I felt like I was trusting Him with everything, without worry. But now, at this moment? I am a little more shaky. I know that I have to trust Him, because I can't make it on my own... it's just tough sometimes. My heart is aching. :(

Well, I better get to bed soon... another long shift tomorrow. Maybe tomorrow's post will be a bit more positive-- this one was kind of a downer. Not intentional, just a reflection of my mood, I guess.

As Promised

I keep vowing to post pictures, so here are a few recent ones:

My room today (closet contents EVERYWHERE!). Note Smokey sleeping in the middle of it all on my bed. :)

Smokey snoozing on my bed while I clean! :)

Me and my cousin Jen at the top of the Space Needle



Me on top of the Fremont Troll last week :) Jen and I sought shelter from the rain under I-5 but found we had some company!

The infamous flat tire... and a very wet Alison jacking up the car! :)

27 candles :)

The aforementioned ridiculously frivolous red dress!

And September Begins...

So I have been pretty awful about blogging lately. Seriously. It's one of those things that gets marginalized to the bottom of my to-do list until I forget completely!

This weekend, I worked on Saturday and Sunday... no long weekend for me! But of course, my work schedule is pretty wacky anyway, so I end up with random numbers of days off at any given time. I actually have a three day weekend coming up this weekend... Friday, Saturday, and Sunday off. Whoo-hoo! As you might be able to tell, my job is stressing me out. This always happens. I have a couple of bad shifts where I get all stressed, and then a few okay ones where I think its not so bad, but then wham! I get slammed again. This weekend wasn't as bad as it could have been, and certainly not the worst that I have had, but I think the thing that gets me is that my method of gauging each shift is "how BAD was it?". What does that tell you?

There's a difference between loving your job and not hating it. Or only sometimes hating it. I seem to be in the latter mood tonight. I mean, I am sitting at home and already am feeling anxiety over having to go to work tomorrow! And looking ahead to reassure myself, okay, there are only 2 shifts to get through before you are off again. Sigh. Probably not the best way to live one's life, but that's where I'm at right now.

I have found that the best way to deal with the stress of work is to have really enjoyable days off, and to make sure that the time off is what I focus on. To quote one of my coworker's oft-spoken phrase: "Work to live, don't live to work!" And so that has been my goal. Yesterday I had a really good day with a friend... even though things didn't exactly go as planned, we had the opportunity to spend lots of time talking and having meaningful conversations... as well as completely silly fun, too. It was the kind of day that makes the rest of life worth living. :)

Today has been pretty boring. I decided this morning that it would be a really good idea to completely empty my bedroom closet of all of its contents. And then sort through them. Of course, my enthusiasm waned as the project dragged on, but my closet is amazingly clean now. The bedroom is slightly messier, though, as there are some things I hauled out but don't feel like dealing with! But it was nice to do some "fall cleaning". I decided that since I have lived here a year, if there is an item that I have not used since I moved, then I need to get rid of it. Which is tough sometimes when I think about the time/money/effort spent to move it all the way here! But in the end I think it is more beneficial to just chuck these things.

The one neat thing is that my stacks of clothes that need to go to the Goodwill are now huge towers! It's sad when there are pretty new-ish clothes (and especially scrubs) that I have to get rid of because they don't fit, but on the other hand, I don't ever want to be those sizes again. It was good for my ego today to try on some clothes that a year ago I wore regularly, and now they look absolutely ridiculous because they are so huge!

I also finally rustled up the courage to call Comcast to try to get cable cards for my new Tivo (so I can use it!!). Sadly, the guy on the phone was a total loser and sent me on a wild goose chase to the Comcast counter at Best Buy. Luckily, the manager at BB was way more helpful and told me exactly what I needed to do... of course, at that point it was 6 pm and the Comcast store on Aurora was closed, so it will have to wait until Friday. But the good news is that the Comcast website is wrong, and I can indeed install them myself! Yay! Just not until later...

Not too much else going on... my daily life is pretty boring. I've been reading some books on Christian womanhood (or whatever you want to call it), and that's been good. The other night I couldn't sleep and spent a lot of time in prayer and reading my Bible, which was also good. I have spent quite a bit of time in prayer lately, come to think of it. Which is wonderful. I just wish it wasn't hard times that have driven me into that mode. :( I'm trying to be patient, to avoid resentment and anger, and I'm praying that God will provide wisdom and direction. One day at a time. That's about all I can do right now.