Car vs. Pole

Sigh. Anybody know a good autobody shop?

Had a little incident involving a concrete pole and the side of my car this afternoon. Yeah. I am not a happy camper. Pretty much mad at myself... I mean, not like I can blame anyone else! Hm. Maybe the guy that designed the parking garage, and the guy who parked so close to make the space smaller, and the dumb pedestrian that walked behind my car and distracted me... no, I can't blame any of them (although I would like to), because it was definitely my fault. Sigh.

Here is the damage, in all its glory:

At Bible study a couple of weeks ago, we were talking about thanking God and blessing Him in all situations, not just when things are good. Now, I know that scraping up the side of my car is not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of life... I mean, honestly, the car itself still works fine; nobody was hurt; and it is just a material object (and perhaps one I have been too obsessed over). But it is definitely not the kind of experience to put one in a good mood.

I thought of that this afternoon, and as I drove home in frustration, the song, "Blessed Be Your Name" came on my iPod (that infamous shuffle function strikes again!).

Every blessing You pour out

I'll turn back to praise

When the darkness closes in, Lord

Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord

Blessed be Your name

Blessed be the name of the Lord

Blessed be Your glorious name

Something to think about.

Piper

So here's what I ended up doing with my day:

I went running this afternoon! (Clearly, I am very proud of myself.) Did the usual course from Ballard to Gasworks... definitely did not run the whole 4 miles. I ran about 1.5 miles, though, from behind Hale's Ales to past Adobe. Landmarks I noticed, for sure. Haha. Walked the rest of the way to Gasworks, then sat on a bench near the edge of Lake Union for a long time. The sun came out, and it was beautiful to just sit there in the sun and think. I doubt I got a tan, although that would be nice. :-) But I did get a chance to contemplate some things, which was wonderful. I ended up walking back... would have loved to run part of it, but my legs were pretty much the consistency of jello, so I thought maybe it would be better if I refrained from injuring myself!

The Seafair race is on July 26. I'm planning to be able to run the whole thing... 8K, which is about 5 miles. Right now that seems like such a far-off dream! I can do about 1.5-2 before I am completely dead. How on earth am I going to be able to do 5?!? And not a completely flat 5 miles, either. Sigh. Lots of work ahead.

Tonight I went to the Mars Hill campus in Wedgwood to hear John Piper speak. I ended up going by myself, which I was somewhat apprehensive about, but it turned out to be OK. I found the Dickersons and the Lytles pretty much right away, so I had someone to sit with. God does answer prayers, even those requests that might seem silly! John Piper gave a really interesting talk about false gospels. I wish I understood half of what he said! He is a great speaker, although tonight's talk was pretty academic. Armenians vs Calvinists vs Wesleyans, etc. A lot of stuff was completely over my head, but the things I did understand were interesting. :-) Stretched my brain, and made me wish for a moment that I'd gone to a Christian college and understood these things better!! Oh well, it was worth it anyway.

Another day off tomorrow! What will it bring? Hm. Trader Joes, perhaps? Definitely a possibility!!

Goodnight!

~Alison

Endless Possibilities

Day off!! Hooray! One of the best things about my stressful career is that it makes me appreciate the time I have off. I was talking with one of my coworkers about this yesterday, and she asked whether I liked this job. I found myself responding without hesitation that I did... which is odd considering the number of times I have been just completely worn out and in tears. This coworker has been a nurse for a long time, and has worked on our floor for a long time, and we were talking about how the ways that we deal with the stuff we see on a daily basis. And she pointed out that you have to know who YOU are, and be confident in your knowledge... because there are times when your best is simply not enough, or when someone (ahem, first year resident?) will question your judgement or try to argue with you. So therefore you need to have peace with yourself first, and then try to approach the job. It was an interesting conversation, and definitely made me think. I know that a lot of my stress comes from my desire for perfection... which is not a realistic goal, so I get frustrated when I fall short. I lose track of the good that is accomplished, and become completely focused on the few things that don't get done. Julie, one of my former preceptors, asked me yesterday whether I was going to be able to leave on time... because she knows that my tendency is to hate passing stuff off to the next shift. It was nice to have someone remind me of my goals. :-)

Last night I was thinking about how nice it is to feel like I am fitting in at work. I've met some really cool people, and even though we haven't hung out outside of work (yet), I feel like this is the place where I belong. I struggled for years with the idea of "fitting in", and oddly enough, it's when I got older and realized that I needed to just be myself and not try to conform that everything fell into place and people started to like me for who I am! Weird. :-) On Sunday, I was walking into the report room, and came in just as two of the older, more experienced, charge nurses were talking about me. When they saw me come in, they paused, and then proceeded to tell me that they were talking about me, and said some really nice things. But the thing that stuck in my head was that they said that I was definitely a "true 6NE-er"... meaning that I was the kind of nurse that fit into the culture and acuity of the floor. Which was like the biggest compliment ever. This will sound completely conceited, but hey, it's MY blog. :-) But yesterday, after I was circulating nurse on the floor for the first 8 hrs of my shift, several people came to talk to me and say some incredibly nice things. I don't think I have ever gotten so many compliments as I have over the last few days. I'm sharing this here because I was just so blown away by their kindness. It just reaffirmed for me that God has a plan for my life, and I think that this is indeed where He wants me to be right now.

I spent quite a bit of time yesterday talking to another of my coworkers, Mike, who just moved here from Michigan. (Boy, when you read this, it sounds like I didn't do any work, that I was just yakking all shift! I promise, I DID work hard. :-) But it was a slower shift than usual. ) Anyway, I asked Mike what made him move to Seattle, figuring that he knew people here or something. And he told me that he decided to try something different, that he wanted to move someplace outside of Michigan, outside of his comfort zone... and after looking all over the country, settled on Seattle and UW. It was neat to talk to somebody else who had just picked up and moved, hoping to start a new chapter in their life. I was able to share a little bit with him about being a Christian and purpose in life; not a lot, mind you, but just enough that he knew I was a Christian. I was pleased that he didn't hear that and go running out of the room. I don't why I expected that, but it was cool to be able to talk a little tiny bit about what I believe, and then move on to another topic. Hopefully, there will be more opportunities in the future! :-)

Another thing we were talking about yesterday was I-90, since both Mike and I had driven across half the country this summer to move here. I ended up thinking a lot about that trip and remember the fun that Dad and I had (and Smokey, too!) along the way. Even though some of the pictures have been posted before and elsewhere, I thought about this one, and felt the need to post it again because it is one of my favorites. It's the Native American memorial at Little Bighorn, and I think the reason I like the picture so much is because the sky is perfectly blue, and the running horses make me feel like the possibilties are endless. They say Montana is Big Sky Country, and this picture definitely supports that statement! Anyway, just a random picture I was thinking about.


This was going to be a quick post before I got starting on accomplishing things today, and turned into a long one... oops. Sorry! Time to go running. Then perhaps some errands. John Piper is speaking at Mars Hill tonight, which is exciting. I'm hoping to go, perhaps after dinner with Shaira. We'll see what the day brings.

36 down, 29 to go!

As I logged in to compose this, I discovered that this is my 69th post! Motoring right along. :-) So much to blog about, so little time. Actually, there isn't anything particularly exciting to write about... I spent much of today just hanging out or watching a movie. Very relaxing way to spend a day off!

I do have one piece of exciting news to report. I have officially lost enough weight to get into a new tens digit! I had been frustrated last week by my lack of progress (ok, my LAZINESS) and so it was gratifying to see a little bit of work pay off. The official tally is up to 36 lbs! Wow. :-)

Today I was updating the Excel spreadsheet upon which I record such data (such a dork!), and I decided that it wasn't enough to have my little graph and the total amount lost. Nope, I decided to add another little self-updating box... the number of pounds left to lose. I decided last week that my target date is June 1. Which when I do the math, means that I have pretty much exactly enough time to lose the amount I want to lose!

Again, I am hoping that if I put it out here, publicly posted on the web, that I will have some accountability. I know that it has helped so far... since I opened my mouth and started posting about my weight struggles a while ago, I have definitely thought about it when I've hit a rough patch. Blogging has helped keep me honest about it, so here I am, posting my latest goal!

Of course, I'm writing about accountability, and what did I do today to celebrate the new milestone weight loss? Um... pizza and a movie with a friend. :-) But in my defense, it was the first pizza in weeks, and I definitely savored it enough to last a couple more weeks! Worth it to me. And a treat every once in a while isn't too bad. Life is too short to not eat Pagliacci's Pizza. :-)

Anyway, here it is... there are 98 days left until June 1. Which gives me about 14 weeks to lose 29 lbs. Can it be done? I think so. With lots of hard work! I was looking at what I affectionately call my "fat pictures" on the fridge today, and I am starting to see a difference. And I know I couldn't have done it without the support my family and friends have given me. Thanks to everyone who has provided much needed encouragement over the last couple months!!

I could definitely use your continued prayers... I've been going through some tough stuff lately, and I have been trying to turn to God instead of food for comfort. Which might sound silly, but it has helped me in so many ways. I've realized that time in prayer and in the Word is a vastly more productive activity than eating when I am upset. Besides, this body is God's gift, which I have not treated with the respect that such a gift deserves.

OK, this post has rambled on long enough! Sorry. Just been thinking about all this a lot today. I haven't weighed this little since...um... 2001? Which is pretty awesome. :-) Now if only I can get my lazy bones to work out on my days off!

Taxes

They say that the only sure things in life are death and taxes. And since I seem to deal with the former on an unfortunately regular basis at work, I decided to try to tackle the latter on my day off yesterday. What an undertaking that turned out to be!

I knew that my federal taxes would be more complicated this year since I am deducting moving expenses, etc. So I thought that I would try to knock out my PA taxes first, since it would be easy and make me feel as though I accomplished something. Sounds reasonable, right? Wrong!

First, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania mailed me the wrong form. Upon first glance, it seemed appropriate, but only after several minutes of reading fine print do I realize that I can't use the one they sent me, because I was only a "part-year resident". OK, I can understand that they wouldn't necessarily know which form would be appropriate... except that they mailed it to a Washington state address. Hm. By definition, I can't use it, because I am not a PA resident anymore!! I think to myself, "Whatever, I will just follow the directions on the front cover of the booklet and go to their website for the most updated info." Eventually I navigate the website until I find the part about personal income tax. Then I click through the FAQs until I find exactly what I am looking for... info about what form to use if you are a part-year resident. Wonderful! Until I get to the part that says to refer to my 2004 return. What?! Why on earth would I need to refer that far back? Then I notice the last time the page was updated... 2003. So the "most up-to-date information" the Commonwealth can give me is nearly 5 years old?? Wow. I am reminded, again, about how happy I am to be a resident of Washington State now. (Or at least no longer a Pennsylvania resident!)

Once I found the proper form (which honestly wasn't much more complicated than the original form they sent), I found something that amused me immensely. Gotta love the legalese... so here's how they define my situation:

"A person who either moves into or outside of Pennsylvania with the bona fide intention of acquiring a new domicile is considered a part-year resident for the part of the taxable year that the individual maintains a permanent place of abode within Pennsylvania."

Haha. That sentence made me laugh!

So I gave up on my PA taxes for the time being. Who knew filing for a flat tax could be so complicated?! :-) Then I started on the federal ones using Tax Cut. Great software, walked me through all my deductions for moving expenses and charitable donations. I haven't officially filed yet as I need to double-check everything one more time, but it looks like I will be getting a sizable refund!!

Very exciting. Perhaps I will have to go out for a nice dinner or something with part of it. :-)

Traffic

I've been enjoying the last 2 days off... and clearly haven't posted anything recently!! Oops. :-) I will write more later, but in the meantime, I thought I'd share some pictures I took this afternoon while stuck in traffic on I-5.

Not the most flattering picture of me ever taken, but clearly I was bored while sitting at a standstill. (Notice that traffic in the other direction is moving!) Also, contrary to how it may appear, I am NOT bald. Just have very straight hair that was in a ponytail!

In Seattle, this is what's known as a "sunbreak"!! Actually, it was about 55 degrees and mostly sunny this afternoon. Can't complain about the weather. Just the traffic. :-) Also, notice how dirty my window is!! Might be time to hit the car wash.

Did I say mostly sunny? Check out how blue the sky is!

So that was my afternoon on the freeway. Exciting, I know, but hey, it's a post! I will write more later, I promise. :-)

~Alison

Time

I sat down at the computer to post something to my blog, and thought it was a little quiet in the room, so I opened up iTunes and hit shuffle. The song that first started playing? The Rolling Stones, "Time is On My Side". Haha. I literally laughed out loud. :-) I have definitely not been feeling that way lately! But maybe it is a not-so-subtle reminder to just relax. At any rate, I found it amusing.

Work was crazy today, as usual. I was glad to have the same patients as yesterday, because even though 2 of the 3 had psych issues and tried my patience to the breaking point, at least I knew what to expect. My day would have been great if it had just been those 3, but I also had a fourth patient. Who decided to have a heart attack (or at least an episode of unstable angina) this morning. There's nothing like a rapid response to start off the day! Interestingly, this same patient was also confused and combative, and kept trying to throw punches. He managed to scratch up the charge nurse pretty good in one incident, which I felt bad about because the charge nurse was trying to help me out... and I escaped unscathed. I commented that I previously worked in South Philly, home of Rocky Balboa, where I learned how to duck those flying fists. :-) Oh, and by the way... did I mention that the patient in question was 97 years old? Yes, you read that correctly. Yikes! Oh, and the best part of all of this? The patient was discharged just before the end of my shift. Like I said, it was a crazy day.

OK, so now the second song came on... and I kid you not, it is a Backstreet Boys song entitled "Time". Weird. They say that God works in mysterious ways. Does that include iTunes? Something to contemplate.

Bible study tomorrow... I'll be honest. Haven't studied the passage yet. Read through it last week, though. But I have the day off tomorrow, so I will have time to look at it a bit more closely. Even though I don't always feel comfortable in those kind of social settings, I am looking forward to the discussion. I spend so much time at work amongst non-Christians that it is nice to have some fellowship to look forward to.

I really shouldn't put iTunes on shuffle while blogging! Next song? Avril Lavigne, "When You're Gone". Love the song, but it is so sad!! The video makes me cry... the part with the old man and the champagne gets me every time. If you haven't seen it, check it out at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPW70sgrHiY (Can't embed it, thanks to the record label!) One of my favorite Avril songs... at least at the moment. :-)

Anyway, now that I've gotten myself all depressed, I better go get some stuff done before heading to bed. Yes, I know it's barely after 8 pm and I am already thinking about heading to bed... but I am really tired. And this way, I can get a long night's sleep and wake up at a reasonable hour tomorrow. Which means I can make the most of my day off. I'm hoping the weather is nice so I can maybe spend some time outside!

And if the weather isn't so nice? Well, there is a copy of TaxCut sitting on my desk, just itching to be used, and lots of laundry piling up. Is my life exciting or what? :-)

Quick post

Just a short "stream of consciousness" post tonight, because I am exhausted! Worked a 12 yesterday and then again today. Definitely looking forward to working only 8 hrs tomorrow! :) Today was a much better day than yesterday, although I am still toying with the idea of cutting back my hours a bit for the sake of my sanity. It's a tough job and I don't always feel like I have the strength to do it day after day. Sigh.

It was a beautiful day today, or so I was told. The few times I was able to look out a window, it looked gorgeous! I hope the weather cooperates on my days off. What should I do this week with my free time? I feel like I should make the most of it. Live life. On the other hand, a lot of life is boring stuff, like filling out tax returns, paying bills, and taking the car in for an oil change. Haha. All things that need to be accomplished this week. :)

Ok, time for bed. If I hurry, I can maybe get 7 hours of sleep!!!

105 and Counting

It's been nice having the last few days off from work. I ended up not going anywhere crazy (Canada, Oregon, etc) but it was nice to just hang out and relax. I actually wasn't really feeling very well the other day, so I was glad I could just veg out on the couch without worrying about going to work.

Today I stopped by Ingrid and Chad's house to drop off Ingrid's birthday card/bottle of wine. We stopped giving each other gifts a couple of years ago, but I couldn't resist giving her a bottle of Barefoot merlot. :-) It was great to catch up with her since it'd been a while. I can't believe that she is 28!! (Incidentally, NOT 30, as a certain member of her family had said!) If she is 28, then I guess that makes me in my mid to late 20s, too. Haha! It's awesome that we have a friendship that has lasted 20 years. It's even better that God has worked it out that once again, we can live 20 minutes away from each other, despite everything that happened in the intervening years. What a blessing!

Honestly, I'm not looking forward to working the next 3 days. Ugh. Not that I hate my job, but some days are easier than others. And I never know what to expect on that first day. I better make sure the coffee pot is prepped before I head to bed tonight. :-)

I bought plane tickets tonight. I'm headed back to Philly on March 13 for a few days! It will definitely be a whirlwind trip, as I can't use any vacation time yet. Which means the week before, I am putting in a 56 hr work week! I am SO not looking forward to that. Hopefully, I will get a chance to relax a bit while I'm there.

I've had a lot to contemplate over the last few days. It's been an emotional couple of weeks, and this week I found myself regressing a bit and turning to food when I was upset or felt lonely. Total wakeup call last night about that. Today I realized that my weight loss has definitely hit a plateau lately. Haven't gained anything, thank goodness, but still, haven't really lost, either. Which is not a happy place for me to be! So I set some new goals for myself, and am trying to kick things back into gear this week. I still have about 35 lbs to lose before I reach my dream goal weight... and I've determined that if I can do what I did this fall, I could definitely lose that in a couple of months.

It is 105 days until June 1, 2008. That's my target date.

105 days isn't that long. I think I can do it. No, wait. I know I can do it. It will be really hard, but like most things that are difficult, it is absolutely necessary. And it gives me another reason to look forward to summer!

Greatly Rejoice

I know what you're thinking... 2 posts in one day?! Alison must not have had to work!! :-)

Just got back from Bible study at the Dickersons. I'm really glad I went, even though those kind of social situations are pretty difficult for me sometimes. It's been too long since I went to a Bible study, honestly. So I'm glad that I was talked into going. Continued through 1 Peter chapter 1... I spent some time contemplating the passage (verses 6-12) today, which made this evening even better, because I'd already started wrestling with it. I wish I had the confidence to speak up more. I was proud of myself for sharing some thoughts, but I was convinced that everyone could hear my voice shaking. Sigh. I guess the only way to get better at that is to practice. I was early tonight, so I spent some time praying in my car before I went in, which definitely helped.

On the way over there, I also swung past the old house, since I had time. Somehow I couldn't be so close and not drive past it. I could see a bit more inside tonight since they had a bunch of lights on... looks like Andy's old bedroom door is now blue! Looking at the house reminded me that time marches on. Things change. And yet, over at the Dickersons, singing songs in their living room and having fellowship with the folks from Hope, I realized that even though some things are different, there are other things that endure. Have I mentioned how glad I am that I went tonight? :-) I admit it, I wasn't exactly looking forward to it. But now I am excited for next week!

This afternoon I decided to go for a drive. I ended up at Volunteer Park on Capitol Hill... I don't think I've ever been there. Or at least if I have, it's been at least 15 years and I have no recollection of it! Just took some pictures (of course) and wandered around. Hiked up the stairs in the water tower to get that famously spectacular view of downtown. It was nice, but I definitely like Kerry Park better. After that, I just drove aimlessly through Capitol Hill, then through the U District, Wallingford, Fremont, Greenlake, and then up Aurora to Shoreline. Randomly stopped at Big Lots since I have such fond memories of shopping at Big Lots in Ohio and NC with Andy. Although I realized that the fun was really shopping with Andy, not the establishment itself!! Oh well. It was a fun way to spend the afternoon. Check out the pics I took today at: http://picasaweb.google.com/AlisonMeneely/February2008

Still trying to decide what to do with myself tomorrow. Tonight we were talking about trials and going through rough times, and how to rejoice in those times. Mike had asked us to think about something to be joyful about in the last 3 days... all I could think of was putting that 28 year old girl in a body bag. How can I muster up the energy to be joyful after that kind of experience? Through Him who gives me strength, that's the only way. Praise the Lord that He gives us strength and courage. And that He answers prayer. :-)