It's a beautiful Saturday afternoon and I'm blogging about a table......

As the title suggests it is a gorgeous and sunny Saturday. You may wonder why I am inside chronicling something as boring as my kitchen table on a day like today. Well, two reasons. First I was on call last night and had to go in at 12:30am to do a case that lasted until 9:30 this morning. It was horrible - let me tell you. Having a career that requires call is a nuisance at best. You all know how much I love this new job and consider myself lucky every morning I wake up and get to go work with this group. However, it takes over your life to some degree no matter how much you try to make sure it doesn't. You can't plan anything - a simple weekend getaway or a night out with friends loses it spontaneity when you have to check the calendar and try to trade days with a co-worker, sometimes stooping to bribing or guilting them into taking your call. And like today - I'm not on call - I should be enjoying myself and the cool things going on this city as I had planned instead I'm recovering from an all nighter.

Second, concerning the table, I am so proud and happy to finally have this done. You may recall that when I first moved to Austin I spent a large amount of time refinishing the furniture that I brought to decorate my apartment.
I put many woman hours into the little wooden table I want to use for kitchen/dining. I stripped it not once but twice, sanded allll the little nooks and crannies with my new power sander and I painted it a cranberry red. A red that goes with NOTHING in my decor. I have stared at this table for the past 5 months and wondered what I could do with it to make it better. I spent weekends dragging friends around to Goodwill and antique stores looking for just the right chairs but couldn't make a decision, much to their chagrin. (they are troopers - i love them) But finally after tearing it apart one more time, sanding allllll the little nooks and crannies again (couldn't bring myself to strip it), stealing some cream paint from a previous renter and coating the little table with 3 coats and then using brown accent paint and finally just these past two days putting a coat of clear varnish on it a dining area is born.




It is so nice to have a place to call my own (sorta) and be able to decorate and make mine. I missed that a lot in the last couple of years and maybe THAT's why this table is such a big deal to me.
Nap time for me! Have a great weekend.

Experience Austin!

Hello everyone! I've been telling you all how much I love Austin since I got here but I really haven't put too many pictures of the city to show you just exactly why I love it so! This summer I mean to change that.
Exhibit A: Basically....this is my backyard

Even before I moved here when I would come to visit - we would drive over the Lamar Bridge or any other bridge taking you over Town Lake and I would see people kayaking and I would think - "OMG - someday I want to do that!" But it's harder than you would think getting someone to go with you. I finally broke down my friend Christian this afternoon. I got off work early - it was a glorious spring day and so we jumped on a canoe - the first time for both of us. It was fun and exciting and we laughed and got scared by some type of water snake. But we didn't fall in which is what I secretly expected to happen - so I give us an A+!

It's raining - I'm bored

What a switch in weather I have this weekend. Spring has been here for weeks and it couldn't be more beautiful here in Austin, Tx. But today! augh a nasty cold front has decided to flub up Easter weekend and it is raining and cold and reports are threatening a FREEZE! Can you believe it?

I am all for a thunderstorm and as always am on the lookout for my first sighting of a tornado. Do you guys have a list for things you want to see and do before you checkout for that big vacation in the sky? I have only one thing on my list and it is to see a tornado. I'm not sure why exactly it is so important for me to see this dangerous natural phenomenon. When I was a kid I was terrified of being caught in any sort of bad weather. I can remember being very small - perhaps 4 or 5 years old and living in Gruver, Tx a block away from my grandparents. It could be my imagination cooking up images from stories I've been told but I seem to recall walking (or being carried by my dad) across the street in the dark to the house my grandparents lived in which has a basement. A very scary basement. Even to this day I can come up with a thousand reasons not to go down there. The only other thing I can remember about that night is sitting around in a circle with my parents, my grandparents and a few other neighbors in dim light most likely candle powered and I was SCREAMING and crying. I wouldn't have known to be so scared except by what other people were saying about the situation so I have to place the blame on the adults that were there. My grandmother tends to be real dramatic about the weather so
I assume that is where I get it. The storm passed in the night and I don't know what kind of damage the town suffered but I remember that the electricity was out for at least a day if not more. My terror for tornadoes may have subsided a little as I grew a little older but then my dad hammered the last nail in the coffin when I was a teenager by creating a whole new facet of weather danger to fear. By this time we were living in Dalhart, Tx. There was a utility closet in the back of the house which had a covered opening leading under the house. I never saw what was actually in the hole but one day dad crawled underneath there and came out all dirty with cobwebs hanging from his hair (again, probably more imagination than truth) and proclaimed that were we as a family to be in danger of a tornado then under the house into the tomb of terror we would go to hide. Nothing could have scared me more and from that point on I watched the clouds, I watched the news. I became an expert on weather patterns, what ingredients were necessary to create a supercell storm cloud. I knew every county in the Texas Panhandle by site. I used hook echo and dry line in everyday conversation. And when I heard even the lowest rumble of thunder I would get clammy and nervous, unable to sleep until the news had cleared me from certain death by tornado or claustrophobia.
Eventually I became less terrified and more entranced by the power of thunderstorms and tornadoes. Do you have any understanding of what enormous organization must occur for an anvil shaped supercell to form? A dance between positive and negative energy, warm and cold air, unstable atmosphere and how much moisture is coming up from the gulf. And so I was bitten by the weather bug and for 10 years now I have been on a quest that sometimes borders on dangerous obsession to come in contact with a tornado. I have driven on many a country road blaring Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon (great thunderstorm soundtrack) risking hail damage and high winds to see a funnel coming down from the sky. And to this day all my efforts have been in vain but each spring I think "Is this the year?"

And so those are my thoughts on this rainy day in Austin - which I intended to be a post about the going's on for the past few weeks but instead turned out to be why I am a nerd and a secret closet meteorologist.

Do you have an "ah"ccent?

I have traveled a bit in the past 3 years all across the country. I have heard many accents! When I was in Massachusetts it was such a shock to hear these new inflections given to old words that I felt like I must be in a different country listening to a foreign language. Massholes (which goes into a whole other facet of the East Coast experience - and is a term taught to me by my friend Barb) put r's in places that aren't there for the rest of the country - such as aorta - it's a term I hear several times a day - in the east it's pronounced aorter, idea is idear, deer......ah, it's dea. Anywhere I have traveled people always ask where I come from (even here in Texas it's a common question) and when I tell them I'm from the Lone Star State (and proud of it) it always surprises the questioner and they always say "But you don't have an accent". I guess it would be fun to have an accent that binds you with your community and gives a hint to others your origin. Anyway, I thought this quiz was kinda fun and reminded me of all the different accents I encountered on the road.

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You probably are from the Midland (Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri) but then for all we know you could be from Florida or Charleston or one of those big southern cities like Atlanta or Dallas. You have a good voice for TV and radio.
The West
The South
The Inland North
Philadelphia
Boston
The Northeast
North Central
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Changed the title to: PLEASE don't tell my grandma

Listen to what happened to me yesterday morning! I had a case that didn't start until 10am so I decided it was the perfect oppurtunity to walk around Town Lake before work. I waited until 7am when it was light outside and started down the trail. There were several people out jogging and walking, not as much as in the afternoon, but plenty to make me feel safe. I took the hour long route and was about 30 minutes in when I met a guy walking the other direction. I noticed him because he was in jeans and a jacket and was obviously not walking for fitness. On I walk, with headphones in my ears and my hood pulled over my head because it had started to sprinkle, when I hear footsteps in the gravel behind me. I noted that it was a walker and not a runner which irritated me because I try to keep a fast enough pace not to be passed by a walker. But nobody passed me and I thought I had sped up enough until I heard it again but this time the footsteps were more of a jogging pace. But STILL nobody passed me so I decided maybe I should turn around and check out what was going on. I turned a little to my left and the guy I had passed earlier in jeans was RIGHT behind me - arms length away. I startled him, he startled me and he started jogging away. "WHAT THE $%*@ are you doing?" I yelled and he ran away even faster. My only thought is he must have been trying to snatch my ipod which was in my right front pants pocket.
I have heard the advice before: always be aware of your surroundings, carry mace, look people in the eyes etc.... and for the most part I do those things but this just goes to show that no matter where you are or what you are doing you really need to be conscious.
I don't write this to scare anyone or to cause anyone to worry. Really, it was a very ridiculous situation with this little pipsqueak trying to sneak up behind me and then to run away. But I will definitely be using a little more caution from here on out.

The truth is out there

Prologue
Every night when I go to sleep I turn the radio on to Coast to Coast. I listen to the weird program and drift off to sleep (unless there is a particularly scary topic being discussed). While I was traveling the country it was the one constant in my constantly changing lifestyle. A reminder of home if you will. The show was started by Art Bell to bring light to paranormal topics usually skipped over by mainstream media. C2C covers everything from highly scientific findings to UFO abductions, conspiracy theories, psychic experiences, bigfoot sightings - if it's weird or new age chances are Art is going to do a story on it. In 2001 Art took a lighter schedule and George Noory became the host Monday through Friday. Don't get me wrong, I know that 85% of this show is BS but it is good entertainment and some of the guests are really intelligent and have interesting ideas.


About a month ago I read that George Noory is going to be in Austin. I did some research and found that 590lbj - the radio station I listen to at night is hosting a "Talk Fest" and joining George is Neil Boortz and Clark Howard. So last Saturday even though it was a gorgeous warm and sunny day in Austin, Tx I went to the Convention Center to listen to these guys do live programs. It was an interesting experience. Neil Boortz did his program first and although I have never listened to his show he had some great things to say about the Libertarian party and the Fair Tax plan. I guess I was put off a little by his attitude which seemed to me a little pompous and if there is one thing that turns me off it is a self important, egotistical radio host.

Next to do his 2 hours was Clark Howard. I also listen to Clark's show nightly because he precedes C2C. Clark's motto is "Save more, spend less and avoid ripoffs". He deals with getting people out of debt, into good investments and other general financial help. My favorite idea of his is to keep from running up your credit card (in lieu of cutting the sucker's up) is to place the card in a glass of water and putting in your freezer - the next time you are tempted to use the card it's a block of ice - and hopefully you leave it there but if you think you HAVE to use it you'll have to wait for it to thaw out and by that time maybe you can talk yourself out of the purchase.

Last but not least to grace the stage was George. He got a standing ovation from about 400 people (although I heard him fib last night and say that "thousands of people showed up") and one alien who may or may not have been just a guy in a painted rubber suit. George is a very intelligent and soft spoken man. He admitted to the audience that most of his guests and callers were probably delusional but it wasn't his place to make that judgement and he wanted to show everyone the same respect.
At any rate - I highly recommend the show - I know I have at least one fellow faithful listener out there reading this. I wish he could have met George with me but I took this crappy picture just for him:

Heart to Heart

Today I experienced my first ever (but first of many, I'm sure) heart transplant surgeries. It was SO AWESOME! I was not able to get much history about the person who received the heart, however, I know that this day will change her life forever. This woman had been implanted with a ventricular assist device in October. Although the new pumps are more mobile than they were in the past (the device is implanted into her body and a cord runs from the device and into a machine that is in a rolling suitcase) it must be such a heavy burden to not only be chained to a machine that is doing the work of your heart but also to be waiting for a chance to get a new heart and not knowing if and when that will happen.
I was on the team that got the recipient ready to receive the new heart. Another team flew on a helicopter to the city where the organ was harvested. I also do not know the history of the donor of the heart but believe that this person had been in a car accident. Our two teams kept in close contact through phone calls so that we could time each step to insure that as soon as the heart was brought to the OR we would be ready to transplant it. Getting the woman's old heart and VAD out took about 3 hours. We went on cardiopulmonary bypass to do this. When the team came in with the heart we packed it in ice until the doctors were ready to inspect it and begin the 5 anastomosis that would give this woman a brand new lease on life.
The recipient was in her 40's and the donor was 23 years old. The donor heart was beautiful and after all the tissues had been sewn together and we let it start to beat it took off just like it was the most normal thing in the world.
I was really amazed at how adaptable our bodies and organs are. The doctors I worked with were aware it was my first time and took extra care to tell me exactly what they were doing and why they were doing it. They were very patient with me and it was evident that they were excited to be doing this type of work and cared very much about this woman's outcome. I just love my new job and the people I work with.

Yoga class

I love yoga. I have been doing it now off and on for 5 years. I first began by signing up for a class through Amarillo College. It was held at the Polk Street Methodist Church and when I went in for my first day I realized that, not reading the fine print, I had signed up for a 55 and older age group. A lot of the people did the poses in a chair. But, the teacher, who was an older woman herself let me stay and I learned a lot in that class. I loved those old people and I didn't mind their farts or their veiny wrinkley legs. Eventually, though it was time to go. Then I moved on to a group who predominately held classes at the Downtown Athletic Club. I loved that teacher, too and really learned a lot about proper alignment and the reasons for each pose. But then I began to feel like I needed a more advanced class because I had been going for a couple of years and these classes were still geared toward beginners. So I moved on to Terry Rudd who is a naturopathic doctor and teaches tai chi as well as yoga. I loved his classes the most. He had a way of working you out hard but leaving you energized instead of tired like you would think. I think I was in the best shape of my life when I was doing his style of yoga. But around that time in my life I started traveling with my job. I was so excited to be able to go to actual yoga studios instead of church meeting rooms or health clubs. I tried one studio after another, advanced classes, kundalini, hot yoga, ashtanga, ayurvedic and I never found a studio I liked in Albuquerque. Worcester, MA had a wonderful studio right down the street from me and that has probably been my favorite of any place I've gone. The teacher was very kind spirited and you had such a good feeling when you left there. I also went to a very well known yoga retreat center in the Berkshires while in that area and had a great time. It is so beautiful in that area.
So, on and on I'm searching for the perfect class but it's so hard to find. I just finished a one week trial at a yoga studio here in Austin. It is a style (Baron Baptiste's power yoga) I've liked in the past and it's a "hot yoga" class which means they heat the room anywhere from 90 to 100 degrees and it seems as if you can get more into your poses if you are well heated. I went to 4 classes in 7 days. Each class was harder and harder. Not because of the physical exercise but other factors. Such as: the person next to me ALWAYS has a cold and they sniff and clear their throat or get up to blow their nose a million time leaving tissues between my mat and theirs. There always has to be one loud person who breathes loud and grunts to show that he is achieving a higher level of enlightenment than the rest of us. There are always a few people but at least one person right next to me who doesn't know what personal space is - so maybe they are in front of me and when you lay down their feet are in my face or when you are kicking your leg up you have to dodge to not get kicked in the head (incidentally, I have had someone fall on me in Tacoma, Wa). The heat and the workout make a tiny room so stuffy and smelly. You never know from one pose to the next what you are going to be inhaling. Maybe you think that yoga is supposed to make you more open and forgiving of these little annoying traits that people bring to class. I say give me a Fellowship Hall with the Senior Citizens any day of the week because yoga studios are on my bad side today.

Good News

I spent good time with a lot of friends and family over the holidays. One of my very best friends, Andy Hopkins (that's Srgt. Andrew Hopkins officially) was visiting from Germany where he is now stationed after spending a year in Iraq. I have known Andy since the 2nd grade in Dalhart, Tx. Then, when we were in high school, Sierra moved to town and we've all been best friends ever since. We call ourselves the triangle, mostly because we are dorks. This visit marked the first time in 6 years we 3 have spent time together and it was as much fun as I had anticipated. However, what I did not see coming was an engagement of 2 out of the 3 of us. Andy and Sierra, finally after 13 years of friendship came clean and are now waiting for Andrew to get out of the service and come home so they can start a life together.

It's just one more detail that has fallen together so perfectly these past 3 months. I've never felt this way in my whole life. A perfect contentedness that every little thing is exactly how it is supposed to be. I am 100% certain that I am in the right city, living in the right little apartment, working in the most suitable job. Life is so grand and I could wax philosophical about how timing was everything here......was it karma, is it destiny, is it dumb luck....but WHO CARES about the cause , I just want to enjoy the effect. All I'm really thinking is "It's about damn time."

Happy New Year

2007! Around work during the first week of January I heard many people saying "oh, I just can't believe it is 2007 already!" My thought was "Why?" Didn't those people go to the same math class I did. The 6 always seemed to precede the 7 (not that I claim to be a mathematical wizard) so a new year didn't come as a surprise to me. Then one night last week I was laying in bed thinking of that exact subject and it dawned on me....."7, hmmmm 7 I was born in a 7, 1977...oh my gosh that makes me 30...crap I'm 30!" And then I joined the ranks "I can't believe it's already 2007"