is there a pattern to the madness?

Last week some A-hole crazy person held hostages at Hilary Clinton's campaign office in New Hampshire. What a terrible news headline. Luckily it turned out to be some nutjob with a fake bomb taped to his chest who wanted treatment for his mental illness (uuh, sounds like a good idea).

This got me thinking...is there a correlation between presidential assassinations and party affiliation? My informal research is focused on successful assassination of sitting presidents.


Let's see shall we? Please mind the source: Wikipedia and Me

Successfully Assassinated Presidents:

Abraham Lincoln
James A. Garfield
William McKinley
John F. Kennedy

Ok, Abe was liberal. He may have been called a Republican, however we are all aware of the party shift. Garfield was also liberal. William McKinley was liberal, as was JFK.

Golly. That's interesting. Who knows what to make of the evident trend. I dont' want to jump to any conclusions based on such lacking information...but it's still interesting dontcha think?

ah the sugar quandary.

The idea: Sugar is bad; it will kill you. Artificial sweetener is bad; it will kill you. Now, when faced with such a predicament, what the hell is one supposed to eat?! Do we all need to eat boring unsweetened food for the rest of our lives? I'd rather not have a bitter existance myself. I personally use artificial sweetener because I car more about caloric content rather than this so-called artifical sweetener death sentence that may or may not exist.

Ordering food for an entire community with this idea in mind is quite a challenge. I've got people on the sugar side: is there any natural form of this food/drink? I've got people on the sweetener side: is there any diet form of this food/drink?

Answer: Probably! But I might just tell you otherwise. How about we worry about the things that really are going to kill us - like melting ice caps or super bug diseases (*nudge nudge). Science is advanced enough that we can live well into a regressed state of diaper-wearing as it is. Why would one want to live any longer than that anyway?!

The answer really is quite simple to me. Neither sugar nor artificial sweetener is going to kill you. Guaranteed - something else definitely will!! Think practically people.

Happy Day!

P.S. You cannot by any stretch of the imagination get MRSA from soda!

and I didn't sleep because why?

No comment my friends, no comment. Don't think sultry, think nerdy.

Everyone knows the feeling. The incoherent, stumbly fog. I'm all about it today. I didn't dare close my eyes on the bus this morning. There is not a doubt in my mind that I would have drooled all over and missed my stop. Instead I listened to the new Radihead really loud and fought through the goopy, sandpapery, eyes- on-fire-ness. S'all good now. Work was slow. I got everything essential done and simply sat and perused something called the "internet". It's this amazing thing which harbors gobs and gobs of useful facts. Pretty incredible. I wish I had thought of it.

This evening I spent an hour and a half doing 9th grade homework. Wait, no, I "helped". It's pretty amazing how relieved one feels after completing a high school assignment. It's a kind of relief that says "shit, I'm glad I can still remember how to do that!". Kid best get an A! No, I should really give more credit the Mr. High School, he pitched in.

The most exciting event of the day was getting my newest Threadless t-shirt in the mail. Threadless is good times, plus I love getting stuff in the mail. It's a win-win situation for me and myself. Take that.

That's all for today. Tomorrow should be much the same, however cut short. Yay for the Turkey Day holiday starting early!!

this'll be interesting.

I've taken the first step toward making myself look appealing to UW nursing school admissions. Last night at 11 I enrolled in North Seattle Community College. I'm going to take a night anatomy and physiology class. I think I might be out of my goddam skull!! However weird it might sound, I'm excited to go back to school even though I've only be out for just under a year. So, that's that update.

Here is a bit about something I experience on a daily basis; thoughts of an odd microcosm."Bus Culture" is what I've dubbed it in my own mind. Riding the bus can be tear-jerkingly boring if the "metabusrider" comes out in you. This is a big fat duh, but the average bear should not think about riding the bus while riding the bus our she will jump out the window, especially if the bus is inching along in delightfully sluggish traffic. I, on the other hand, don't mind. The other day I actually got to watch a guy finish reading Moby Dick. Now, it could have been his 2oth time reading it, but I will never know because I don't want to breech one of the contracts of "bus culture". This contract is: don't talk to the perfectly intelligent and capable communicators around you, our you will be punished. Although none of us really know the punishment, we all have a pretty good idea, which is enough to detour our chatty urges. I do wish that I had commented to the Moby Dick guy when he closed the cover to that giant classic, however part of me is just fine with my swallowed words. All in the matter of moments I thought to myself, "wow that's really cool, he read moby dick, i wonder how it was, i should ask him...wait, no, that might build some kind of fellow-rider report-a responsibility that I'm not sure I want-a commitment to obligated forced chatter every morning."

I know everyone thinks this way, but not everyone is wiling to admit it. We all like to think that we are that friendly exception. Wrong. I thoroughly enjoy listening to my NPR podcasts and music in the morning on my ride to work. I would not want to jeopardize this privilege that I have created-making fellow riders believe that I am anti-social and don't enjoy conversing-which is entirely untrue. It's a delicate dance really.

Now, the comedy portion. I LOVE watching people sleep on the bus. All are different in their style and seeming technique. One must be careful however. You never want to be caught by the sleeper or the sleep watchers around you. The various styles are as follows. The Arm Swinger. This is a person whose loses the ability to keep his arm or arms on his lap. It's a pretty funny one. The arm tension slowly slacks and eventually the arm falls with a grand swing. It may or may not hit something on the way down. I can tell how much sleep the person got the night before based on how many times his arm is quickly jerked back to his lap before starting the process over. After probably a dozen times of pulling his arm back to his lap he finally gives way to the relaxation of bus napping. Unfortunately for this poor sleeper, the arm isn't usually the only thing that ends up dangling. Just last night I thought I was going to have to catch a man as half his body was dangling over the side of the bench. Thank goodness for his wife; the active-ish dreamer. She is one who makes hand-motions as she sleeps. Common among vivid bus dreamers.

My favorite kind of bus napper is the one who tries with such effort to not be one of the dangling sleepers. She is the one who can sleep with her neck tense and head level. However graceful she sleeps though, she cannot prevent the inevitable belonging drop. I watch the bag under her hand slowly lose traction on the seat. And with smooth slide it hits the ground. Bam! It's actually not very loud, but I know the sleeper (who instantly wakes) thinks it may have sounded like a boulder thrown from a cliff. They look around and make sure that no one saw--although, we non-sleepers all know that every one of us watched the same event happen. We quickly look away as to not embarrass them. This usually only happens to a person once a ride. It's especially annoying for the sleeper when he drops his book and loses his place. It's interesting to watch how long it takes for him to find his place again.

Ok, that's about enough Bus Culture banter. I know it's hard to believe, but this is a tiny sliver of what unspoken things go on, on the bus...

the board of NORML..

I really do love Seattle. I fee fortunate that I get to go there everyday. Today after work I took a bus over to Ballard for a Huntington's support group meeting. There is such an energy around the city that cannot be replicated in the suburbs. My typical Monday evening after work was not so typical due to the excited Seahawks fans roaming about and the long concert line outside a club on Pike and 1st Avenue and the nutty drunk guy who didn't mean to get on the express bus and simply had to get off the bus. Aww it makes everything so much more interesting.

Speaking of interesting, I wanted to take a moment to recognize how fantastic a guy Rick Steves is. I always thought of him as a tiny bit of a goober with his tone of voice and goofy shorts. I have a great found respect for him now (although he does wear goofy shorts). After reading about him in the Seattle Metropolitan, I genuinely appreciate him. Not only is he incredibly intelligent, he is the most broad-minded person around. He invested his 1 million dollar retirement in an apartment building run by theYWCA. For 15 years the building will be used by the organization so that 24 women and their children are able to have a place to live. Who does that?! Then, on NPR this evening I was listening to part of his lecture that he gave in Seattle. I agree completely with his views of drug policy. He explained the out-of-the-box, progressive thinking of Europeans when it comes to drugs. There, people aren't arrested for using drugs. Somewhere in western Europe (I can't remember where) there is a program for Heroin addicts that actually allows them to use, and if I heard accurately, the drug is actually accessible to them through legal sources. These users end up quitting the abuse much sooner than those here and aren't involved in crime considering they don't have to wonder where their next fix is coming from. Now that...is food for thought. Steves later goes on to point out the US's F-ed up views of drug policy; you're either hard on drugs or soft on drugs. In the words of Steves, "I'm on the board of NORML". It's got a nice ring to it, don't you think? I'm sure there are a zillion RS followers who have known these things about him for years. I'm glad I'm learning about him now.

I can only hope to have the opportunity to be as giving as he. As well as be as pioneering and thoughtful with applying my life experiences to something beneficial to at least one and hopefully many.

back in the swing.

Alright, it's definitely time to start blogging again. First, a bit of catch-up from the last time I wrote: I landed in Phoenix after my 2.5 months in Europe and de-jet lagged during Aiden's (my nephew) 1st birthday. It was really great to be able to see everyone again and talk to them about my new experiences and views of the world. After a week of the hellish 100+ degree weather in Phoenix my dad and I trekked back to Washington in my little car. It was a really fun trip; a perfect ending to my time of living the life of leisure. I think my dad enjoyed himself as well.

After arriving in Washington I stayed with my parents at their tiny (yet posh) condo in Mill Creek for a couple of weeks. These weeks were spent writing my resume and cover letter so I could begin my job search. Apparently writing a resume can be absurdly overwhelming when one doesn't know exactly what she is looking for. I discovered that college is actually much easier in a way. The work of planning which classes to take, which assignments to do and what deadlines to meet are done for you. "Real life" feels much less structured at first when you don't have your plan right out of college. I decided to live life without a plan for a while, which was the best decision I could have ever made, until it came time to make a plan.

Things are going much, much better nowadays. I live with friends of my aunt and uncle, in their beautiful home. They happen to have an extra bedroom and a high school aged son who needs help with his math and english homework. Can we say meant to be? After 2 months of sitting on my tail, feeling overwhelmed and clueless about what to do, I decided to go to a staffing agency. I could kick myself for not doing that right away! The advice was given to me before I even left for Europe so I had long forgotten this valuable information.

I now work for a Public Relations firm called Porter Novelli in downtown Seattle. I drive to the park and ride everyday, then ride the bus into the city while listening to NPR podcasts and reading books along the way. I am now always well-informed about the issues! The work at PN is interesting. I knew nothing about PR when I first started working at PN a month ago. Now things are making a bit more sense. One thing that is great about the job is that it is downtown. I absolutely adore working downtown! Everything is so authentic and interesting everywhere you turn. There are dozens of fabulous local restaurants to get takeout from during lunch, and everything you need is within walking distance. After my travels I learned to truly appreciate my surroundings. Seattle is breathtaking. A goal of mine is to move there within 6 months.

So, as for the future, a five year plan of sorts. For the next year I will be looking everywhere for opportunities that will help me gain experience in the medical field. After this year I will be applying for entry into the University of Washington's MEPN (masters entry program in nursing). It's an accelerated nursing program designed for students such as myself who already have a bachelor's degree, not necessarily in a medical area of study. I really excited about it. I will undoubtedly have to work extremely hard to get into the program, considering that I have to apply to the UW graduate school, plus the nursing school, PLUS I just read that UW has the NUMBER 1 school of nursing in the entire country, beating all of the ivy league schools *nervous shutter*.

My mom has been involved with the Huntington's Disease Society of America for the past three years. I've tagged along to a few things, however wasn't overly serious about becoming involved myself. Things are a bit different now. My mom suggested I start an HD support group that takes place further north (there are several already, however they are held in Seattle and Renton). I am absolutely going to do it. A friend of mine actually has HD which is why my mom got involved in the first place. This will be good for her, as well as me mentally. Also, it couldn't hurt to have something like implementation of a support group on my application ;) The next step is to get a job in the field. I may leave this up to my staffing agency at first and if they can't find any positions, I'll then venture out on my own. This new job search will occur of coures after returning from my brother's 30th birthday celebration in Mexico in mid-December.

For whoever makes it to the end of this entry, my subsequent entries will most likely be substantially different. I hope to do short daily thoughts and updates on my progress. Thanks for reading!