Saturdays

Now that I'm in school, I'm working a lot less.  There's just not a lot of time left at the end of the week to devote to more nursing.  I'm finding myself with a lot of Saturdays off, in part to an ill-experienced scheduler at work, and my own doing. 

I just want my Saturdays.

Doing what, I don't care.  Last Saturday I had my adventure. 

Yesterday, was a great Saturday. After relishing in our day at Little Buffalo last week, K asked me what I wanted to do for the next Saturday.  "I just want to have a fun day," I said.  And that we did. 

He ran errands in the morning, allowing me to sleep until 10:30, actually eat something (without the wrath of what happened on Tuesday),and sit in my basement room, soaking up the sunshine and watch two dogs play a little-too-aggressively.  K got home around 1:30, said let's go, and off we drove.  Our first stop was the Mall, for some Orange Juliususus, and browsing the perfume/cologne at Macy's.  An employee complemented me on my scarf.  Nice.

Next stop, Ashcombe's nursery. http://www.ashcombe.com/

We browsed country-style decorations, smelled candles, and he smiled while I oohed and aahed at all the little things that I saw.  How come this was my first visit, I'm not really sure.  But, that's not the point. 

The garden house---oh, my favorite.  A sunny room filled with budding tulips and daffodils, herbs, orchids, and lilies.  Seeds begging to be planted.  Birdhouses and feeders.  Birdies and bunnies in their cages, munching away.  I love it all.  I love nature.  I love gardening.  I ahhh, was so happy. 

I bought wooden labels for my soon-to-be-planted seedlings (more on that later).  He bought me an orchid in need of a little loving.  We picked out a bird feeder for the front yard and some house plants.  It was all very simple, but meant so much more to me.  It was inspiring--because gardening is just that, but more so, for the fact that someday, we'll be doing this for our own little place, and that's beautiful. 

Mmm...Orchid slime.  But kinda cool, right?

Then, we had hotdogs and chicken corn soup, and beautiful, moist yellow cake with chocolate icing.  Perfection. 




And then we went to the shitty PA Garden Show............ 


But, even that didn't touch our Saturday.  Our perfect, sunny, lovey Saturday.

Sicky

There are two things that I can count on every year:  1) In the late fall I will develop a sinus/ear infection, and 2) Between New Year's and Easter, I'll have some kind of food poisoning/stomach flu.

Every year.

So, I will save you from the gory details of the last 36 hours.  I had to skip my clinicals yesterday.  If I had gone, I would have probably been admitted.  The most difficult thing that I did yesterday was move to the living room from upstairs. 

My beautiful boy bought me the right color Gatorade, and even surprised me with gardening magazines.  What love I have in my life.

Today, I managed to get to class and take a test, but left as soon as I turned in my scantron. 

Oh what misery a stomach virus can bring about.  You avoid all food and water out of fear, curse the heavens that your book/phone charger/slippers/pillow were left upstairs, and you vow that once this passes, you'll stick to the most healthy, organic, conscientous diet known to man. 

God help us all when the nurse gets sick. 

Little Buffalo

Today, we went exploring.  

After K left for work, Lilly and I went to Little Buffalo, a state park about 30 miles from Harrisburg.  I loaded up the car with CD's, bought a map and batteries for the camera, and we made a final stop at Petsmart before venturing out.  Lilly gets a little anxious on longer car rides, so I bought her a toy to keep her busy. 

Waiting for me to hurry up already and give her the loaded toy.

I put this "busy bone" in the center of the toy, which it was specifically designed for.  It was consumed before we got on the highway.

K and I went to Little Buffalo last summer, swam all day, and had ourselves a picnic.  It was one of my favorite days from the summer.  The park is surrounded by lakes, has an outdoor pool, and lots of trails.  I wanted to go because our girl loves the snow, and I knew it wouldn't be crowded.  I bought her a new frisbee and a ridiculously long leash so she could just wander.

She was a trooper in the car ride. As soon as we were about 3 miles away, she jumped in the front seat, as if to say, "I've had enough of this back-seat business. I'm ready to be your co-pilot now."

The park was sunny and snowy, and we had the best time, just her and I, running in the snow, finding sticks (there is nothing she loves more), and chasing snowballs.  She didn't pay much attention to the frisbee.  Dang. 

We ran, and she ran some more, and I took pictures of everything that I could. 

She explored.

And when we were done, we had a drink. 

And I think she enjoyed our day. 

On the car ride back, I let her sit up front, but it was different than the last time.  She had such a hard time getting comfortable because she's so long now.  You could just see her eyes get heavy.  I reminded her that the back seat was much larger, but I think she was trying to tell me, "But, you're up here."

Admitting defeat, but finally going to sleep.....

It was a good day

Pittsburgh

I've been getting complaints that I don't have enough pictures of Pittsburgh on this blog (even though it's really a blog about Seattle). So, to appease my fans, here ya go.

One last note

We talked about oxygen needs today in class and the professor mentioned how oxygen pressure changes with higher elevation.  "That's why," she said, "you'll see people who climb Mt. Rainier wear oxygen sometimes." MT. RAINIER!!!!!

I was giddy, dancing in my seat, with the fact that she mentioned my mountain.

Sad with the fact that I was probably the only one in the room who knew the mountain. 

But nevertheless.

Friday

I got out of class a half an hour early today, stopped by Target just to look, ended up buying only 10 bucks worth of stuff (amazing, I know), then took a different way home because there was traffic on the highway.

The sun is shining, the snow is finally melting, except for the plow-made mountains (finally, mountains in PA!)

And I thought to myself: Why don't you drive anymore?

You see, when I was a 21 year old, living by myself in North Seattle, I would pick up and drive.  I'd leave my studio apartment, pack up a water bottle, sunglasses, and a bunch of country CD's, fill up the gas tank, and then head for the hills. Literally.  Nothing felt better than driving through the mountains, so every couple of months, that's what I did.

Highway 2 was my favorite drive.  I'd take the on-ramp out of Everett and drive 5 hours round-trip, ending my drive entering the Lake Washington tunnel on I-90, which reads, "Welcome to Seattle."

It is so beautiful. 

5 hours. Yes, I know. That seems like too much.  But it was just perfect enough.  I'd take those 5 hours and escape--and daydream.  No one knew where I was for those 5 hours and it was just me and my mountains.  Armed with an arsenal of great country music, because really, if you're on a roadtrip, that's the only kind of music that speaks to you.  I'd soak in the surroundings--rolling asphalt surrounded by rich, dense evergreens, each summit revealing a valley of bluish-green rivers, letting you know how cold and furious they are.  I'd open the windows, and the sun-roof, blare the music and sing, embracing my surroundings.

My last drives on Highway 2 were for research.  Trying to decide which direction was the best for my new boyfriend to witness.  I'd drive, and dream about a future trip with him, taking notes of what to point out, which music to play, all in the hopes that he'd have as much as he could to work with, in order to fall deeper in love with this place. He really didn't need to though. He was hooked for other reasons.

The smell of the mountains gets me everytime.  It's intoxicating and addicting.  And so there I would drive, hair in my eyes, sun on my shoulders, mountain in my lungs.

Which is why I asked myself why I don't do that anymore.  The simpliest answer is, "because there are no mountains."  Highway 2 is not here, I can't turn right at Leavenworth, get on highway 97, pick-up apples in Wenatchee, then race to Seattle and try to capture the city in the sunset. 

So, I drove anyways today.  I got in the car, turned on Miranda Lambert, who is the most underappreciated country singer ever, and picked a direction.  Because, even though I don't have my mountains, I can look for a replacement.  Today I drove, it doesn't matter where, but I did it.  And I felt that feeling again. I didn't smell mountains, but I felt that difference in my lungs.  I didn't see dense trees, only bare trees waiting for their flower buds, and what surrounded me where snow-covered fields. 

None of that matters.  I still loved it. 

Instead, I drove for an hour and a half, still sang, and rolled the window down for a bit to throw my gum out (don't judge).  I saw a white horse, munching on the small patch of grass that's pushing through the snow.  I saw a field of snowmen, gathering their little snow-bodies together in a elementary school recess field.  I saw spring on the horizon.  I saw fields that never looked so long before. 

Tonight, I'm making rub-with-love salmon, and going to the gym.  It's a very quintessential Catherine kind of day.  Hello you, welcome back. 

Pictures

I've added 6 new pages onto this blog (I've been a very busy bee this weekend, no?).

There, I will post all of my pictures that I've taken over the last few years. They're no where near professional, but I'm proud of what I've produced.  Not bad for a 300 buck camera with no filters or special lenses.

...

Oh, and Happy Valentine's day.  

What keeps me up at night

I am just enthralled with this blog that I recently discovered.  The pictures, the adventures, the raw emotion and honesty....ah, the beauty.  Someone needs to tell Oprah about this woman. 

http://enjoyingthesmallthings.blogspot.com/

K S and the Pursuit of the Trivial Pursuit

Last year, all K and I wanted was the classic Trivial Pursuit game. We searched everywhere, only to find: Trivial Pursuit and the 90s, Disney Trivial Pursuit, Dumbed-down Trivial Pursuit so you're not embarassed in front of your friends. We looked so hard, we even went to KMart (eeew).  No one had what we were looking for.  This took months until finally, I guess the makers decided to release the 25th anniversary edition and we found it everywhere.  Last night reminded me of that little adventure......


We made a pact before Christmas that we would pool our money and buy ourselves a Wii.  Our anniversary happens to fall the week before Valentine's day, so we usually combine the two events and buy one present. The plan was to save $100 each and buy the console, so last night K and I ventured out to Target to pick one up.  We were excited.  We vowed that this would replace eating out (not that you eat with a Wii, but we would save in other departments to compensate) and would be our primary source of entertainment for awhile. 

Target was out.

So we went to Best Buy.

They were out.

So we called Toys R Us.

And the other Target. And the Target in Mechanicsburg.

And the Best Buy in Mechanicsburg.

Gamestop, Costco, you name it, we called. And NO ONE had this Wii. 

Apparently, Nintendo is behind with making and shipping.

So we were really bummed.

Which made me think about how much I really wanted this thing in the first place.  Did I want to spend over $200 bucks on the game console, plus ala cart for every other damn thing it requires? Sure its fun, but what else could I do with that money (or a fraction of it?)......

1) Plant a very elaborate garden come spring, which I'm in the process of planning right now.
2) Take a weekend roadtrip once the weather warms up
3) Save it and make the next 3 months a little easier
4) Focus on the other aspects of life

And by #4, I mean screw the Wii, keep the time I'd spend in front of the tv, and live.

This winter snow has really got me thinking and dreaming.  Thinking about how nature and the sunshine affects my mood and who I am.  My blood flows better and I can breathe easier knowing I'm outside.  Dreaming about hikes, fresh sun-warmed tomatoes, about black labs playing frisbee in the grass, and about grilling. I don't want a Wii, really, I want to exercise outside, to take pictures of flowers and plants, and to grow what I want to cook. 

I want to enjoy my boyfriend in different settings, not sit next to him on a couch while we play pretend. 

So that's it.  I'm officially an adult.  I didn't make a frivilous purchase. I saved my money, thought about what's more important, and I have no regrets. 

Woot to me.

Hello 25

This is my 25th post. 

I view this as a very big accomplishment.  Even though I have all of, maybe, 3 followers, I'm proud of this blog. It's really not for you all.  It's really for my own therapeutic needs. 

And I know there are spelling errors. I know I talk funny sometimes.  I know that most of my posts are about how much I miss Seattle.  That's all okay with me.

I like how I talk and I love how I write.  I'm not doing this professionally, which is why I'm torturing myself through nursing school.  I'll get better and this blog will evolve.  So, right now I'm going to do a little giddy dance and celebrate my 25th post. 

Writing was always something that I enjoyed doing.  When I was in elementary school, I would write "chapter" books and create elaborate stories about love or solving crimes.  In high school and college, I knew that I was going to pass the class as long as I was given the chance to write a paper down the road. My proudest semester wasn't when I finished LPN school; it was the semester in which I had English 101 and got an A on every single paper. 

My point of this post is not to brag. It's to explain that I really love this little blog, for all it's quirks.  I love that there is an outlet and media in which I get to share my simple story. 

People journaled before the internet allowed mini-blogs. They did this in order to capture and keep their thoughts and memories. Maybe because there was a hope that someone would read it and understand them better.  I don't know if this is my goal. 

If all I do is write about good food, beautiful nature, and a cute black lab, then that's good enough. 

Update

Since I found my USB cord for my camera, I can finally share with you all the wonderful New Year's that we had in Seattle. 

Let's recap: The Christmas trip sucked, but this was the shining light during the week.  We had no plans, which was fabulous, except to eat at a Tom Douglas restaurant.  Reservations at Etta's were made, and a ferry we boarded.  We took a way-too-expensive cab, got there about 30 min early, and decided to walk around the city. 

Ahhhh....how gorgeous, right?  Look at the little raindrops! 

I had the most wonderful pork dinner, which is fully captured by this picture:

K got a steak dinner, which is horribly captured in this picture (which I am not responsible for in any way)

And did I mention we got free champagne? About 1/4 of a cup, but still!

Then we rode the ferry home, enjoying the night skyline.

Baby, it's cold outside

It's snowing again.

I finally found the USB cord for my camera. 

School's cancelled and I'm not working today, so I'm going to take this opportunity to be one of those people and post a long line of pictures of my "child". 

Today, yes it's still snowing

AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH

I have never in my entire life experienced this amount of snow. 

There have been many moments during my time here in Harrisburg, when I have openely said outloud, "Why do people CHOOSE to live here?"   I say it when the humidity is choking you at 6am in the summer; when you step outside and think, snifff "Did I step in something?" and realize how close you are to farmlife; everytime I try to merge onto the highway and the person in front of me breaks; and days like today, when I can't even walk outside because THERE'S SNOW UP TO MY KNEES!!!!!

And yes, K, if you're reading this (although I don't think you do anymore because we now officially live together and you don't really care to learn more about me at this exact moment) you'll tell me that Seattle ain't so hot.  And I would say, exactly.  Its not hot, its not even cold, and never in my life have I ever seen so much snow there.  Well, maybe last year, but that's was a freak incident.

This is like Utah snow.  Which, I've only seen pictures of from my parent's time living there (awhole different topic...).

The dogs love it however.  Once I finally find the cord for my camera, I'll try to show you how much they love it. 

My life is a metaphor right now. Snowed in, boxed in.  Too much snow, too many boxes.  Not enough breathing room.  Its suppose to snow more this week, like Tuesday or something, which means schoool will be all screwy and we'll have to make it up somewhere down the line, because that's how it is here, and to that I say, "Why did you choose to live here, self?"

Plus, I totally spilled milk on my computer yesterday, and the keys stick. Sigh.