Tuesday . June 10 . 2003 . 11:00pm country roads, take me home The most stressful thing that can happen after getting back from a weekend of whirlwind travel is to get an e-mail from the employment office of the hospital stating that I haven't handed in all the forms that I need to start work on schedule. I chuffed at their folly--how could I not get forms in on time?--until I looked at the back of the employment orientation folder and noticed that they were totally right. There, hidden behind glossy pamphlets and deceptive welcome letters, were reams and reams of paper remaining for me to fill out, and only the most stressful kind of paper. Tax forms, medical insurance forms, life insurance policies, medical exam clearance, all due more than a month ago. For a neurotic like me, this is a flat out disaster. I mean, I can always claim the "I got married and then was basically out of town for a month" excuse (which is really quite good) but in my mind, I know that I dropped the ball. And then I had to read the forms and figure out what I should do with them. Should I pay extra for accidental death and dismemberment insurance? Yeah, losing an arm would suck. But I want money now. Should I enroll I the financial planning network? What would I ask the financial planners? Would they just laugh at me? What, I have to subtract for 6 from row 7 and then subtract the amount in row 8? I was told there would be no math. And where exactly is this cup I'm supposed to pee in so that they can test for traces of the crack cocaine? I have to run up to campus tomorrow to get this all sorted out, a prospect that I'm not relishing. But for now, why not enjoy some entries that I wrote while we were in Colorado? I received my handy dandy new Pocket PC in the mail the afternoon before we left, and made good use of it on the trip. Saturday . June 08 . 2003 I am writing this entry on the plane using my new toy, which came in the mail yesterday. So far, I'm having great customer satisfaction. Admittedly, this is mostly for the fact that I installed Scrabble and Tetris on the device to play during the flight, but no one has to know the lowbrow extent of my interest in portable technology. When did they stop serving meals on planes? On our flight today, they have what is billed as "bistro service," which basically amounts to, "grab a bag of raisins from a bin before you get on the plane." And I don't like raisins. So now I'm hungry and sleepy and the flight attendant won't let me hold my purse in my lap because we're sitting in an exit row. Life is hard. I'm reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, which everyone has told me is just so amazing that they JUST COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN (caps my addition, but imagine eyes bugging out as they're saying this), not even to sleep or eat or anything. I don't know, I guess I'm still waiting for it to get that good. Later... We had lunch at Carl's Jr., which I guess is this fast food chain they have here in the West. At first I was pretty sketched out, since we were just outside Colorado Springs, which, according to Fast Food Nation, is the capital of evil fast food chains that serve you McFeces. But I was so hungry from the, uh, "bistro dining" that we had on our flight that I just did the old force-yourself-not-to-think-about-it trick. I ordered a burger, and you know what, E. coli or no, it was the best one I had in a while. I did feel slightly ill a few hours afterward, but I think that's mire because I'd exceeded the fill capacity of my stomach. Colorado really is amazing. It looks like the pictures of America that you see on postage stamps, or nationalistic propaganda programming, all blue skis and white clouds, fields of green and gold, purple mountains majesty above the fruited planes. We're staying right near Rocky Mountain National Park, so maybe we'll get up close and personal with all that nature tomorrow, before the wedding. Sunday . June 09 . 2003 Joe just realized that in the rush of packing for this trip, he actually neglected to bring a button-down shirt to wear inside his suit. We went into the town of Estes Park, but they only seemed to sell Nalgene water bottles, Columbia sportswear, and various "authentic" "Indian" tchotkes here (anyone want a half-price dreamcatcher?) so he's just going to wear the same shirt he wore to the rehearsal dinner and hope no one notices. We went to Rocky Mountain National Park for the day and did some light hiking, walked around Bear Lake, looked at some elk. It was a good time, but afterwards, we were pretty tired. I'm not sure if the fatigue was due to the altitude or to our general wimpiness, but since Joe was tired too, I'll blame the altitude. The B&B we're staying at is pretty cool. Not only is our room much larger than the one we stayed at in Carmel (which was only slightly larger than the bed), but we have our own bathroom, which has a two-person shower and a skylight. I am obsessed with this shower. It has two shower heads, so you get sprayed from both directions simultaneously, and it just makes me feel as though I'm getting extra clean. Also, the innkeepers have a bunch of full candy dishes lying throughout the premesis, so that makes me happy. I'm still full from Carl's Jr. yesterday, but I cannot say no to jellybeans in a jar. The wedding was really nice. It was outdoors on a lake, and the ceremony was really short, lasting probably about 5 minutes, maybe less. It was just a very non- fussy wedding in general, which I appreciated. The reception afterwards was the same, not a lot of pomp and circumstance, but really elegant and a lot of fun. For example, the bride and groom didn't do a "first dance," but they hired swing dance instructors to show the rest of us how to get our grooves on. And their cake was really amazing, this multi-tiered colorful creation that looked like some thing out of a Dr. Seuss book or some hippie acid flashback. There were a number of the bride's Israeli family in attendance as well, and let me tell you, those people know how to party hearty. They didn't quite get the whole ''YMCA" thing, but honestly, who does? I think it may have been move fun than our wedding, come to think of it. And I definitely got to eat more. Monday . June 9 . 2003 We had a real nice morning hiking with Dave, Joe's friend from college. It was a pretty easy hike, only a little more than 5 miles total, and even I, the most non-outdoorsy person on Earth, had an OK time. There were some more difficult moments, where the footing was tricky or the incline a little steep, but there were all these old grannies and little grade school-aged kids scampering everywhere, so it can't have been too hard. There have definitely been moments on this trip when I thought to myself that it might be nice to live out in a more rural area like this, with all the wide-open spaces and natural beauty to behold. It would be nice to be closer to all this green and less dependent on city-life. But then I think about no take-out Vietnamese food and the possibility of living next door to rednecks that get it into their heads that beating up a gay kid and tying him to fence might be a fun way to spend an evening, and that's when I want to get back to New York. I shouldn't generalize like that, I suppose, but that's what obnoxious urban snobbery is for. One substantiated claim that I have heard from a local, though, is that they have a big dog disappearance problem around here. Apparently bears or mountain lions or whantnot wildlife like to eat them. Based on that alone, we are never moving here. In the evening, we drove into Boulder to have dinner witn Dave and his lovely fiancée Danni. We went to their favorite sushi joint, favorite nor only for the food, but because one of the chefs there is also the sensei for their karate classes. Their knowing the chef was a pretty sweet deal for us, because he kept sending over free sake to our table and along with special sushi selections he thought we might like to try. I'm not much of a sake person (I feel some things should not be made into spirits, rice and potatoes among them) but I thought the sushi was really good, especially after our latest takeout debacle when we ate the Worst Sushi Ever. From what little I saw, Boulder seems like a nice college town, a little in the hippy-trippy hackey sack side, not unlike Madison, Wisconsin. They are seriously into the outdoors here, that much I carted you. Dave was telling us that he and Danni were considering going ice camping for that honeymoon in January. As was explained to me, ice camping consists of finding a giant snowdrift, digging a hole in it, and setting up camp in said hole. Basically, to live like a rabbit. It sounds pretty interesting, and maybe even fun in theory (IN THEORY), but I think that I would be wanting a hot shower and a non-snow bed in short order. I guess I'm not into roughing it. Tuesday . June 10 . 2003 Speaking of roughing it, we had to wake up at 2:30am (you heard me) this morning to get to the airport in time to return our rental car and to catch our flight. Driving through the mountains at 3:00am with not a house or another car in sight, I was morbidly preoccupied with the idea that we were going to hit some moose with our car, flip over, crash into a ravine, and not be found until years later by some hapless nature enthusiast backpacking through the area. Good luck to the forensic scientists charged with identifying our bleached winter-white bones, long since picked clean by wild rodentia. We slept for the entirety of the first leg to Dallas/Fort Worth, and the movie on the second leg into LaGuardia was ''Chicago," so the whole traveling experience was actually somewhat less painful than usual. We were also pleasantly surprised to find that the weather in New York, after months and months of gold, grey wetness, had finally decided to become seasonal. In the sunshine and 80-degree weather, we took a cab straight from the airport to the kennel and picked up the Coop, who was happy to see us, though slightly sticky from all the other dogs she'd been playing with. (Speaking of sticky, the last time we went to the vet last week, Joe asked the guy, with a totally straight face, if Cooper's latest incontinence problems could be secondary to some aggressive male dog doing the humpty dance with her "around the corner" of the play area at the kennel. The vet paused for a long time, blinked, and then said no.) We're back! xo Michelle |
the underwear drawer. every day of the week. |
monday |
tuesday |
wednesday |
thursday |
friday |
saturday |
sunday |
Tuesday . June 10 . 2003 . 11:00pm country roads, take me home The most stressful thing that can happen after getting back from a weekend of whirlwind travel is to get an e-mail from the employment office of the hospital stating that I haven't handed in all the forms that I need to start work on schedule. I chuffed at their folly--how could I not get forms in on time?--until I looked at the back of the employment orientation folder and noticed that they were totally right. There, hidden behind glossy pamphlets and deceptive welcome letters, were reams and reams of paper remaining for me to fill out, and only the most stressful kind of paper. Tax forms, medical insurance forms, life insurance policies, medical exam clearance, all due more than a month ago. For a neurotic like me, this is a flat out disaster. I mean, I can always claim the "I got married and then was basically out of town for a month" excuse (which is really quite good) but in my mind, I know that I dropped the ball. And then I had to read the forms and figure out what I should do with them. Should I pay extra for accidental death and dismemberment insurance? Yeah, losing an arm would suck. But I want money now. Should I enroll I the financial planning network? What would I ask the financial planners? Would they just laugh at me? What, I have to subtract for 6 from row 7 and then subtract the amount in row 8? I was told there would be no math. And where exactly is this cup I'm supposed to pee in so that they can test for traces of the crack cocaine? I have to run up to campus tomorrow to get this all sorted out, a prospect that I'm not relishing. But for now, why not enjoy some entries that I wrote while we were in Colorado? I received my handy dandy new Pocket PC in the mail the afternoon before we left, and made good use of it on the trip. Saturday . June 08 . 2003 I am writing this entry on the plane using my new toy, which came in the mail yesterday. So far, I'm having great customer satisfaction. Admittedly, this is mostly for the fact that I installed Scrabble and Tetris on the device to play during the flight, but no one has to know the lowbrow extent of my interest in portable technology. When did they stop serving meals on planes? On our flight today, they have what is billed as "bistro service," which basically amounts to, "grab a bag of raisins from a bin before you get on the plane." And I don't like raisins. So now I'm hungry and sleepy and the flight attendant won't let me hold my purse in my lap because we're sitting in an exit row. Life is hard. I'm reading The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, which everyone has told me is just so amazing that they JUST COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN (caps my addition, but imagine eyes bugging out as they're saying this), not even to sleep or eat or anything. I don't know, I guess I'm still waiting for it to get that good. Later... We had lunch at Carl's Jr., which I guess is this fast food chain they have here in the West. At first I was pretty sketched out, since we were just outside Colorado Springs, which, according to Fast Food Nation, is the capital of evil fast food chains that serve you McFeces. But I was so hungry from the, uh, "bistro dining" that we had on our flight that I just did the old force-yourself-not-to-think-about-it trick. I ordered a burger, and you know what, E. coli or no, it was the best one I had in a while. I did feel slightly ill a few hours afterward, but I think that's mire because I'd exceeded the fill capacity of my stomach. Colorado really is amazing. It looks like the pictures of America that you see on postage stamps, or nationalistic propaganda programming, all blue skis and white clouds, fields of green and gold, purple mountains majesty above the fruited planes. We're staying right near Rocky Mountain National Park, so maybe we'll get up close and personal with all that nature tomorrow, before the wedding. Sunday . June 09 . 2003 Joe just realized that in the rush of packing for this trip, he actually neglected to bring a button-down shirt to wear inside his suit. We went into the town of Estes Park, but they only seemed to sell Nalgene water bottles, Columbia sportswear, and various "authentic" "Indian" tchotkes here (anyone want a half-price dreamcatcher?) so he's just going to wear the same shirt he wore to the rehearsal dinner and hope no one notices. We went to Rocky Mountain National Park for the day and did some light hiking, walked around Bear Lake, looked at some elk. It was a good time, but afterwards, we were pretty tired. I'm not sure if the fatigue was due to the altitude or to our general wimpiness, but since Joe was tired too, I'll blame the altitude. The B&B we're staying at is pretty cool. Not only is our room much larger than the one we stayed at in Carmel (which was only slightly larger than the bed), but we have our own bathroom, which has a two-person shower and a skylight. I am obsessed with this shower. It has two shower heads, so you get sprayed from both directions simultaneously, and it just makes me feel as though I'm getting extra clean. Also, the innkeepers have a bunch of full candy dishes lying throughout the premesis, so that makes me happy. I'm still full from Carl's Jr. yesterday, but I cannot say no to jellybeans in a jar. The wedding was really nice. It was outdoors on a lake, and the ceremony was really short, lasting probably about 5 minutes, maybe less. It was just a very non- fussy wedding in general, which I appreciated. The reception afterwards was the same, not a lot of pomp and circumstance, but really elegant and a lot of fun. For example, the bride and groom didn't do a "first dance," but they hired swing dance instructors to show the rest of us how to get our grooves on. And their cake was really amazing, this multi-tiered colorful creation that looked like some thing out of a Dr. Seuss book or some hippie acid flashback. There were a number of the bride's Israeli family in attendance as well, and let me tell you, those people know how to party hearty. They didn't quite get the whole ''YMCA" thing, but honestly, who does? I think it may have been move fun than our wedding, come to think of it. And I definitely got to eat more. Monday . June 9 . 2003 We had a real nice morning hiking with Dave, Joe's friend from college. It was a pretty easy hike, only a little more than 5 miles total, and even I, the most non-outdoorsy person on Earth, had an OK time. There were some more difficult moments, where the footing was tricky or the incline a little steep, but there were all these old grannies and little grade school-aged kids scampering everywhere, so it can't have been too hard. There have definitely been moments on this trip when I thought to myself that it might be nice to live out in a more rural area like this, with all the wide-open spaces and natural beauty to behold. It would be nice to be closer to all this green and less dependent on city-life. But then I think about no take-out Vietnamese food and the possibility of living next door to rednecks that get it into their heads that beating up a gay kid and tying him to fence might be a fun way to spend an evening, and that's when I want to get back to New York. I shouldn't generalize like that, I suppose, but that's what obnoxious urban snobbery is for. One substantiated claim that I have heard from a local, though, is that they have a big dog disappearance problem around here. Apparently bears or mountain lions or whantnot wildlife like to eat them. Based on that alone, we are never moving here. In the evening, we drove into Boulder to have dinner witn Dave and his lovely fiancée Danni. We went to their favorite sushi joint, favorite nor only for the food, but because one of the chefs there is also the sensei for their karate classes. Their knowing the chef was a pretty sweet deal for us, because he kept sending over free sake to our table and along with special sushi selections he thought we might like to try. I'm not much of a sake person (I feel some things should not be made into spirits, rice and potatoes among them) but I thought the sushi was really good, especially after our latest takeout debacle when we ate the Worst Sushi Ever. From what little I saw, Boulder seems like a nice college town, a little in the hippy-trippy hackey sack side, not unlike Madison, Wisconsin. They are seriously into the outdoors here, that much I carted you. Dave was telling us that he and Danni were considering going ice camping for that honeymoon in January. As was explained to me, ice camping consists of finding a giant snowdrift, digging a hole in it, and setting up camp in said hole. Basically, to live like a rabbit. It sounds pretty interesting, and maybe even fun in theory (IN THEORY), but I think that I would be wanting a hot shower and a non-snow bed in short order. I guess I'm not into roughing it. Tuesday . June 10 . 2003 Speaking of roughing it, we had to wake up at 2:30am (you heard me) this morning to get to the airport in time to return our rental car and to catch our flight. Driving through the mountains at 3:00am with not a house or another car in sight, I was morbidly preoccupied with the idea that we were going to hit some moose with our car, flip over, crash into a ravine, and not be found until years later by some hapless nature enthusiast backpacking through the area. Good luck to the forensic scientists charged with identifying our bleached winter-white bones, long since picked clean by wild rodentia. We slept for the entirety of the first leg to Dallas/Fort Worth, and the movie on the second leg into LaGuardia was ''Chicago," so the whole traveling experience was actually somewhat less painful than usual. We were also pleasantly surprised to find that the weather in New York, after months and months of gold, grey wetness, had finally decided to become seasonal. In the sunshine and 80-degree weather, we took a cab straight from the airport to the kennel and picked up the Coop, who was happy to see us, though slightly sticky from all the other dogs she'd been playing with. (Speaking of sticky, the last time we went to the vet last week, Joe asked the guy, with a totally straight face, if Cooper's latest incontinence problems could be secondary to some aggressive male dog doing the humpty dance with her "around the corner" of the play area at the kennel. The vet paused for a long time, blinked, and then said no.) We're back! xo Michelle |
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