2 Less Fish in the Sea

"I'm about to burst with song; I can't keep quiet about you. God, my God, I can't thank you enough."

Psalm 30:12

I've got great news: I finally get health insurance next year!!!

I'm sorry, maybe you don't understand my excitement, so let me explain. Since graduating from Linfield 6 years ago, I have never had normal health insurance provided by an employer, nor have I had a paid sick day. that means I have to purchase emergency insurance every six months that has a $5 million deductible and is so limited it basically only covers me if I get hit head on by an ice cream truck on a Tuesday.

OK, maybe this needs more explanation. I am going to be getting health coverage because

I'M GETTING MARRIED!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I've been dating the love of my life (TLOML) for the past 6 months and on Sunday we got engaged. Here's how it went down. My family rented a cabin at Black Butte for a long weekend because we've gone there every year for the past 20 years or so and it's basically the greatest place on earth. . .or at least in the US. . .ok, the continental US. . .bottom line, it means a lot to me. We drove up Friday afternoon where it snowed in the pass.

Friday we climbed to the top of Black Butte and even got to climb the US Forest Service watchtower (which has a "no public access" sign which made it even cooler!) Up there we met Scotty, a forest ranger, who was shutting the tower down for the winter. It was 19 degrees outside of the tower, below 0 with the wind chill but inside it felt like 90 degrees (even though the thermometer said it was 33.)

TLOML, me, Linds, Ryan after delayering in the (literately) freezing ranger tower.

It was a long hike just to get up the tower AND there were ice chunks on the stairs.

From the summit: the meadow with Three Sisters mountains in the background.

And then Sunday morning it all went down. . .

We (TLOML and I) decided to walk through the meadow and watch the sunrise. How did I feel about this? totally awesome. He was going to score major bonus points. . .even if I woke up earlier than I have to for school and it was below freezing outside. So we walked through the meadow once & the sun wasn't up. So we walked back, fed & petted some horses.(feeding horses as it gets lighter)

Sun still wasn't up. But the partly cloudy sky was starting to turn from pink to orange to yellow. I'm now absolutely freezing but still highly enjoying myself as we just stand and hug and sway. (Girls: think of the end of Pride & Prejudice and you will get an exact replica of the scene!)

And ACTION!

Jon: so you had a pretty good weekend, huh?
Laura: yeah I did!
Jon: what did you like about it?
Laura: well, I'm pumped we rode our bikes, climbed Black Butte, danced in the moonlight by the lake last night (awesome!) and now we're watching the sunrise in the meadow.
Jon: well, you're going to be even more pumped because your boyfriend is going to ask you to marry him.

CUT!

It's at this point that I enter the Twilight Zone and basically freaking out. I could apply nursing school to this situation and diagnose myself with the following: Patient is at risk for humiliation related to marriage proposal, as evidenced by screaming, crying, jumping & incoherent speech. Yes, he got down on one knee to ask. Yes, I said yes. And after several minutes of saying "ohmygoshohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh" and continuous screaming, crying & jumping, Jon was able to hold my hand still for 2 seconds so I could have a ring on my finger.

Stay tuned for an event in early August!

The future Mrs. & Mr. Small. (Be careful what you wish for. .many times I have wished for a simpler last name and now I have it!)


Does Jon know what he's gotten himself into???

$0.65

That's how much is in my checking account as of this very moment.

Kinda depressing. . .guess I shouldn't have bought that $2 old fashioned, super cute but non-working alarm clock yesterday. I could be rich!

Tuesday Night Lights

Last week I went to a very intense, highly attended football game where the 2 team colors were green and orange. No, it was not the Civil War (I wish!) but it was a battle of the Podunks. (I really do mean that in a nice way. I love little towns)

Last Tuesday, I had the privilege of attending my very first junior high football game. I'm sure these existed when I was in junior high. . .oops, middle school. . .but frankly, I didn't really care. Plus there's the hassle of not having a car, or a license and cell phones didn't even exist back in that day to call mom and have her pick you up.

I arrived just as halftime started which allowed me to carefully pick my seat in the stadium without missing any of the action. Here's what you look for in a good seat: no junior highers around you. That was my only criteria. I nabbed a bleacher in the row 2nd from the top, which made for excellent people watching.

Here are some of my observations from a small town football game:
*The "cheerleaders" (these would be the girl friends and girlfriends of players) were bigger than the players
*I am trying my best not to pass out from the extreme use of cologne by the junior highers running in front of and next to me.
*Some players have yet to discover the correct running form. It is very popular to run with your arms down at your side. Do they know something I don't? Will this get me farther than the traditional elbows bent at 90 degrees?
*One kid was "shocked" to learn 2 of his friends were "going out" and what was even more shocking was this had been going on "for a whole week!"
*Let's talk about the # of subs on each team. I counted 7 for the home team (who I was cheering for) and "The Poose" (don't even go there - it's short for Scapoose) had at least double. I couldn't get an accurate count though because there was a ton of them.
*Here's an interesting technique that I need to discuss with one of the coaches and whether they work on this in practice or not: if the guy with the ball is bigger than you, and there's no way you are ever going to bring him down by tackle alone, than just grab on to his foot and don't let go. He may drag you for a while, but not for very long.
*Oh, one of the Poose Players snapped his wrist and the ambulance had to come onto the field, so that was pretty sweet to watch.

Ahhhhh. . . .

I just spent the last hour sitting on my deck, under the stars, listening to someone I like a whole bunch play the guitar & sing. Just cause. Not because I desperately needed to de-stress. Not because he had to impress. Not because it's a ritual. Just cause.

I'm pretty sure this one's making the cut of my life's greatest hits.

And all was right with the world. . . .

Third Times a Charm!

I saw/heard/read this quote THREE times today, in three completely different settings: a house, a church I visited today, and a book. Being a nonbeliever of coincidences, this leads me to believe I need to learn something from it. I'll let you know what I come up with. I'm sure it will be profound, whatever it is.

"It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blookd, who strives valiantly. . .who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who have never known neither victory nor defeat."

- Teddy Roosevelt

Frustration

I want to be a nurse, I want to be a nurse. . .

I find myself muttering that phrase over and over lately, constantly reminding myself that school is the means to an end. That there's only 15. . .ok, really 14 months left. That this process is pointing out just how inflexible I am and that I should try harder to enjoy the journey because how many people would kill to be in my spot? (hundreds actually. 800 people applied. 48 of us got in. wow. i just got an actual jolt of motivation writing that.)BUT things have been awfully frustrating lately. First, I have my dream rotation: Tigard High School. then on Tuesday it was changed to a charter school in SE Portland. NOW I'm at the Salvation Army. Meanwhile, there are classmates going to other schools who, I'm sure, have no intentions of being a school nurse. AND, I just got 2 papers back today. they were graded by the same person on the same day. Both papers were your basic, 2 pages double spaced of reactions to 2 different videos, so basically the same style of writing. One paper said, excellent job. The other said, "You need to see [Linfield's Director of Academic Advising] for help on all your clinical papers." WHAT? Seriously?! And, I'm wondering, what good is a study guide when all it lists is the section breaks in the chapters that are bolded & underlined already?

At times like this, I like to quote the great philosopher Jimmy Buffet:
"If we couldn't laugh we would all go insane."

Can't end a post on a negative note, so let me leave you with a picture of my date (the cutest boy at the event) at our 10-year-high school reunion last weekend. I can't even begin to explain how much freakin' fun was crammed into 8 hours. The reunion post is in my head, but I need to pick my words carefully so that will be coming later.

above: just a couple of MR fishes (check out those senior pictures on our name tags!)

Score!

It's official! I nabbed Tigard High as one of my clinical sites this semester. Look out 4 corners, senior benches and other new places that didn't exist when I was there! I'm on a mission to rid your institution of learning from soda!!! (and other things that I actually have to do for class. . .)

And here's another reason why I'm so excited: From the front page of Tuesday's Living section of the Oregonian:

http://www.oregonlive.com/kiddo/index.ssf/2008/09/the_nurse_will_not_see_you_now.html

NikeStore Eugene

HERE IT IS!!!!!!!!!!!!

My first sight of it from the parking lot.

The grand entrance where you are greeted by a ginormous video wall.

Can't find your size or the color you want? Just use NikeFind. "It's so easy!"


This picture is clearly of better quality and clearly taken from the Eugene Register-Guard newspaper.

Design your own shoe while sipping wine.

It's so pretty!!!!

Read all about it.

Too funny

I laughed out loud when I saw the following pictures for the first time. (At least I'm not the only uber-competitive person in the world.) Here is the play-by-play. . .

Jon sees that the garter has fallen way short of the first row of eligible bachelors and begins to run for it. . .

He only had to dive head first into the dirt to get it. . .(I'm in the back row. 2nd from the left in a green dress & white cardigan doubled over from laughing so hard.)

Success! Now it's time for the bouquet toss. . .
So my thinking is, "He grabbed it, so now I HAVE to snag the bouquet. And if he did a running head dive for that thing, it is perfectly acceptable for myself to throw some elbows or basically do whatever needs to be done in order to snag myself a souvenir." So, like any seasoned potential bouquet-catcher would do. I line myself up behind the bride's spine because no matter how she's angled, that' the direction it's heading. I just have to worry about it falling short or going over my head. . ." (welcome to Patheticville. population: me)

OK, so it went a little over my head and I had to jump for it.

Success! Thank you, thank you.

Seattle or Bust

Very rarely do I post, "hey, look at what I did this weekend" posts. But this one was too cool to pass up.

The place: Seattle
The occasion: Jon's 28th birthday (yes, that's right, I'm dating a younger man or "robbing the cradle" if you will)
The cost: Priceless. (wait, does that even make sense?)

So here's an embarrassing confession: I've never been to Seattle. I mean, technically I have. I've driven through it a number of times and seen it from I-5. I've also been to the port when we had to leave on our Alaskan cruise. My freshman year of college, we begged our coach to let us have some time at the 3-story Old Navy. but that's it! I've never actually parked, got out of the vehicle and walked around.

So Saturday was a day being a tourist and all my traveling habits kicked back in: tons of people watching, uber-protective of my purse and completely paranoid for pick-pocketers, extremely thrifty with my money, except to splurge on food, and never putting my camera away because you have no clue what's around the corner. . .like a parrot doing a back-spring handstand in the palm of his owner's hand. (seriously)

So, first thing's first. . .

My mothership: enjoying a Venti Americano with room in the original Starbucks!

Above: Half of our breakfast: an apple cinnamon roll. (The other half, a spinach, cheese & egg peroshki was consumed too quickly to get a picture. It was devoured before we got our coffee.) My camera couldn't quite zoom in enough to pick up the drool. And it may have stopped working because my drool got into the innerworkings of the camera. Don't you hate it when that happens???

After debarking, next on the list was right across the street: Pike's Place Market. Flying fish, millions of samples of flavored almonds & hazelnuts, belt buckles, tempting t-shirts for sale that said, "trust me. I'm a nurse." (life rule #492: if you can make it at home with an undershirt and magic market, don't pay $10 plus tax for it.) AND, the most gorgeous flowers I've ever seen:

Seriously. These things are rediculously gorgeous. I'd go broke buying flowers all the time if I lived up here!

And then we come to the main event: the Yankee game. . .oh, whoops, sorry. I mean the Mariners game. I was just slightly confused because there seemed to be more people in NY garb than Seattle garb. And because it actually was Jon's birthday, and because I vowed not to waste money on any greeting cards until after I graduated, I sent him some b-day wishes on the Safeco Field jumbotron (this is also my submission piece for Girlfriend of the Year):

It was pretty sweet seeing his name up there.

Guess I better throw up one of the birthday boy since he was the reason for going up there!

Even though the Mariners lost (but won on Friday and Sunday), the game was a BLAST!
9 innings of baseball can be fun? Who knew???