a Schvitz

The Scholar is on Spring Break, so we all headed off to spend a day taking in a hot soak. Along the way, we stopped and hiked up and down crude mountain steps 0.4 mile to Toketee Falls. Doesn't it make you want to jump right in?

We crossed the fallen log with our supplies for the day and made another short hike to the hot springs.

The springs sit midway up the mountain overlooking the beautiful, rushing stream we just crossed. We relaxed and talked and ate. There was only one moment of tension when jc brought up the factor of stress in infertility and I got a little edgy and sulked for a bit. He said all the right things afterwards to comfort me.

We drove down the mountain a little before stopping for our picnic dinner of spicy Korean Ramen, kimchi, black beans, sardines, spam, and homemade jerky. A few sojourning Korean young men studying alternative medicine in L.A. joined us with a bottle of soju, something similar to gin. One of the boys wanted to give me a lesson in eating with chopsticks. I wasn't very good at it, but jc can do it just right.

On the drive home, we stopped to look at the stars twinkling in the night sky.

Rose

The Prestige- movie review

link

I had to watch this twice before I "got it". If you guessed that someone in my household likes magic, you'd be close. If you knew that it was jc, you were correct. This was a perfect movie for the Scholar to watch, because it kept even him guessing.

The plot is so multi-layered and unexpected that it surprises at every turn. You can believe nothing that you see. The story follows what seems on one hand to be a senseless, destructive passion; yet the humanity of the characters shines warmly through, leaving you with the hope that just maybe there is some good to be salvaged.

A must see if you don't mind working for it.

rc

Spinach Pancake

Ki'il and the Scholar came by tonight to view The Prestige, which was much better upon the second viewing. I had a stomach bug yesterday, so Ki'il made me a comfort meal of spinach pancake, featured below, and rice porridge with a little zippy soy sauce. It was delicious, as her meals always are, and here are the pics to prove it.



Rose

Sleeping Quarters

Shadow likes to cuddle when she sleeps. Here she is gives jc's foot a hug. Kitties have an excellent sense of smell & they seem to love their people's stinkiest parts.

rc

Pictures of me

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Copied from Tim and Jules

Kierkegaard- Quotes

Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.

The thing is to find a truth which is true for me, to find the idea for
which I can live and die.

People demand freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which
they avoid.

Life has its own hidden forces which you can only discover by living.

Soren Aabye Kierkegaard (1813-1855)

Moving Underway

I'm writing from the new place, using the wireless signal from the old place. The cordless telephone picks up the signal here, too. Ki'il helped me move everything from the kitchen this afternoon after we signed the lease. Then jc and I each grabbed a kitty and walked across the street. Shadow cried the whole way. She's still under the impression that she's being tortured or something. Ailleanach is relaxing in the sun in the bay window, enjoying the wraparound view. Now I'm going to cook our first meal in the new home.

Rose

laundry day images

a new basket

kitty bed

Big Move

We saw a "For Rent" sign on the house across the street earlier this week and stopped to inquire. We got approved today and plan to start moving in this week, if possible. What a psychic load has been lifted from my shoulders! Landlady complained that the house was "a mess" when she showed it last week. We're ready to steal back the good luck that she took from us when we moved in here.

rc

taking the NCLEX

In response to many hits that I receive from RN students worrying about the licensure exam, I will share my specific experience with it. As do most of you, I graduated in the beginning of May. Throughout two years of nursing school, our instructors required us to review something like 500 questions a week from an NCLEX review book. The CD-ROM accompanying the book makes an excellent study tool. It will ask you questions about the specific area of nursing you are studying in class at the time. Our instructors tried (and succeeded, in my opinion) to make exams for the course more difficult than NCLEX. I also found the review questions harder than NCLEX. This doesn't do anything for your confidence, but boosts your test-taking ability a great deal.

After graduation, I took a one week NCLEX review course. These courses are full of information on test-taking skills and some overview of basics. My favorite part of the review course was a quiz they gave us which used English sentence structure and nonsense words. Using the test-taking skills we had learned, we could answer the nonsense questions correctly.

I took the NCLEX in a different state from where I went to school, as that was where I would be practicing. This probably slowed paperwork down some, but I scheduled the test as soon as I could. That turned out to be about 6-8 weeks after graduation. I spent the intervening time studying the review books. A week or two before the test, my grades on the review tests started slipping into the 60-70% range. That made me want to panic. Instead, I realized that I had over-studied. I put my books away and enjoyed my time.

The morning jc dropped me off at the testing center, I was suddenly overwhelmed by confidence. I felt sure that I was prepared with what I needed to know, and I couldn't wait to finish the test. I went inside, registered my thumbprint and took the test. There were questions that I had no idea about, but I used my best test-taking technique. The questions seemed to get harder, and the test shut off after the minimum number of questions (range is 75-265). I knew I had passed.

I called jc to come pick me up. He was schocked that I had finished so quickly. It was something like two hours. We had to wait a few days before checking the internet to find out that I had indeed passed. I did the biggest happy dance of my life. I already had a job lined up, but they wouldn't let me start working until the paper license arrived in the mail.

I'm still thankful for the tough program the professors at Penn State Altoona put me through, because it prepared me to pass the test.

Rose

Drinking and Dining

1. Monday- A coworker invited us over for dinner. Her husband is a chef, and she purportedly learned everything he knows, so we were looking forward to it. I should have smelled trouble when I saw that the table was set with two sets of wine glasses as well as beer glasses. We started out with red wine, had white with the salad, more red with soup, beer with the entree, and more than one glass of port with roasted walnuts and imported cheese after dinner. It's hard for me to remember, but I think the food was good. Mr. Chef drank way more than me and talked a lot with considerable braggadocio. Mrs. Chef was wonderful, as she always is, and sat on the porch with me while I puked in the yard. jc was very patient and managed to get me home and in bed in one piece. Ailleanach came to see me the moment I got home to make sure I was okay.

(Confidential to XBFRN- Mrs. Chef shares your surname. Do you believe in coincidence?)

2. Tuesday- A client that jc helps out gratis once in a while took us out. I swore to sobriety and moderation. I had a lovely green salad followed by calamari almandine with delicious vegetables and fried ravioli on the side. For dessert there was airy angel food cake topped by strawberries in sauce. The waitress had never heard of the mineral water I requested, but she managed to drag out a bottle of my second favorite. No espresso machine, though.

As an interesting postlude to the dining adventures, the local dented can store had my ultimate favorite mineral water today. Sipping it, I'm reminded of my first taste, when I met jc in Naples, Fla.

Rose

Driftlog

Partially intact roots of

huge driftwood log.

rc

Canoe Crabbing on a Spring Day

The day was beautiful,

so I met Self Powered Man to go crabbing...

by canoe.

SPM wanted to pick trash off the jetty.

We got 3 soda bottles, 1 juice bottle,
a Mary Kay bottle, a volleyball
and one red rock crab.

SPM portages the canoe at journey's end.

Rose

Random Images

Having finally gotten around to uploading

my pictures from the past several days,

I present them in no particular order.

Sails on the River

Roosevelt Elk

Shoddily digiscoped Black Phoebe


Under the Crab Dock-
extreme low tide



Driftwood

a Jetsomed Tire

Rose

Google photo meme

where you grew up

where you live now

your first name


your grandmother's first name

your favorite food

your favorite drink

your favorite song

your favorite smell

Search Google Images for: Place you grew up. Place you live now. Your name. Your grandmother's name. Your favorite food. Your favorite drink. Your favorite song. Your favorite smell.

Copied from Badgerings.

Rose

Oatmeal Raisin Chocolate Chunk Walnut Cookies

As a bonus, here's our littlest one:

Rose

Traffic Court

I never even made it to the courtroom today. All that was involved in traffic court was marking "Not Guilty" and signing the summons on the back. They'll send me a new summons for a hearing in the mail in four to six weeks. At any rate, I'm prepared for them now.

Rose

Civilized Girl

Dinner with Civilized Girl and Civilized Man turned into three hours. We had salad rolls, green curry, red curry, pad thai, and sticky rice with a fresh mango to crown the meal. After that we walked around town and chatted. It's special when you find friends that you fall into such an easy pattern with as if you've known them forever.

Rose

jumbled thoughts

I feel tired after a full weekend of work. We are meeting new friends this evening for Thai food. Tomorrow I have traffic court for a speeding ticket. I spent today on the telephone, running batteries dead on all the cordless phones. Thoughts go out into the universe for a close friend who fourth pregnancy coincides with some major changes in life.

Water is falling from the sky.

Rose

Jazz- book review

That I have loved only you, surrendered my whole self reckless to you and
nobody else. That I want you to love me back and show it to me. That
I
love the way you hold me, how close you let me be to you. I like your
fingers on and on, lifting, turning. I have watched your face for a long
time now, and missed your eyes when you went away from me. Talking to you
and hearing you answer- that's the kick.

~Toni Morrison Jazz

The descriptive and imaginative writing is bound together by an ever present thread. In the end, it is an improbable love story that rings true on many levels.

Rose

Little Miss Sunshine- movie review

Anti-Hollywood

Individuality

Family

Unconditional Love

Inspirational

Spring Is On Her Way

Brownie- dream journal

We were on some kind of school bus trip. Everyone but Brownie and I had gone somewhere and it was just the two of us on the bus cuddling. Just like always, it didn't go anywhere at all, but it felt very comforting and companionable. Then I confessed my lack of rhythm and he offered to teach me to dance.

(Brownie was the boy I had a schoolgirl crush on for so long I'm embarrassed to admit it. We were barely friends, probably because I was too tongue tied to speak in his presence. I heard that he's married with a bunch of kids now.)

Sronnoc Esor

lazy day

I was put on call both days this weekend. I got called in at 0500 Sunday to work for only a few hours. I had just gotten to sleep when they called and I didn't feel like going to bed when I got home, so I stayed up all day, taking a short nap in the afternoon. I guess that justifies staying in bed all afternoon, right? The only problem is that my hands are cold from playing on the computer. What I need is computer gloves, right?

I did speak with Mother and Father. This is the second week now that they've been mum about their pastor leaving, which I found out from Big M. I wonder how long they'll wait to mention it. I wonder what Father's role in it might be.

Our housing situation is moving. I can't say anything because I don't want to jinx it. I'm keeping my cold fingers crossed.

Rose

My Inheritance

I received this beautiful framed needlework in today's mail. Granny made it and it always hung on her wall. It will always be a lovely reminder of her.

Rose

The Illusionist- movie review

link

I'm a real sucker for a love story, and this is nothing if not that. Add intrigue, mystery, suspense, and just plain confusion and you've got a winning story. The sets, costumes, and effects were pleasing to the eye. jc felt that it was pretty slow in the middle, but I saw no such lack. The story leaves enough ambiguity at the end for the viewer to believe what they wish, and spend a little extra time wondering about it- maybe even watch it again....

Rose

A Walk in the Rain

Skunk Cabbage

Skunk Cabbage- again

the Lighthouse

Misty Lake

Rose

The Science of Love

Check out this story from CNN for modern day, MRI explanations for why being in love feels so good, why breaking up hurts, and why sex has less to do with it than you thought.

rc

Clawed- dream journal

I pointed out a red-tailed hawk to a friend. She lured it with a treat, which it came and ate. Then she wanted to touch it. It came close and she and I both touched it gently. It reached over, seeming to want to return the gesture, and touched me on the hand. As it removed its foot, its claw caught in my hand and the skin tore. All the layers of skin tore off my hand like a glove, leaving a bleeding piece of meat. I saved the skin, approximating it as closely as possible, and applied a pressure dressing. I wondered whether to go to the emergency room or wait for office hours and go to the doctor's office. I remembered a clinic nearby and went there. A nurse practicioner sewed my skin back on. We had just moved into a new house and I was giving a house warming party. I couldn't cook anything because of the injury, so there was nothing to eat. While the guests visited with each other, I was busy trying to clean up the nastier messes that the previous owner had left.

I decided to go back to Africa for the summer. I signed up with the same group I went with before. They accepted my application and we started having preparatory meetings. Part of the training was learning to play softball.

Sronnoc Esor

Songcatcher- movie review

link

A delightful story about a music professor from England who discovers ancient preserved ballads among the mountain people when she goes to visit her sister in Appalachia after a professional disappointment. The characters are well developed and believable and experience real personal growth throughout the course of the story. The costumes and sets are well done. But most of all, the music is great. Reviewers treated this movie harshly, but I enjoyed it completely.

Rose

More Options

What if we bought a commercial building with attached living quarters and jc opened a personal training gym?

I'm all for it. How soon can we move in?

RC

creepy class- dream journal

I must have been a teacher's aide for a third grade class. Both the teacher and I were brand new at the job. Strange things were happening. Then the teacher discovered an old yearbook hidden on a dusty shelf. She looked up the third grade and the faces were all the same as the students we had now. Somehow we both knew that this was a very bad sign.

I woke up startled. And with a good idea for a ghost thriller.

Then I walked many miles to the house of people I used to know. There were two big black dogs in the yard. One was barking, but the other one looked mean. I knocked on the door and asked the woman who answered if she knew where the Jones family was living now. She looked at me strangely and tried to get me to leave. I told her that I was there on almost a daily basis when the Joneses lived there and she invited me right in. When I looked around the house was completely different from before.

Another sequence involved driving through a field filled with slushy snow and something about religious books.

I got tangled up in the Christmas tree lights. Most of them weren't working anyway.

Sronnoc Esor

Why so Quiet

I haven't felt like posting much lately, mayble largely because I've been doing a lot of thinking about our future. We now have only two and a half months to find somewhere to move into at the end of April. We've been spending a few days a week scouting a neighboring town.

The town we've been living in for the past two years since we moved to Oregon is starting to show it's seamy side. The Mill used to be the major employer; since it closed five years ago or so, the town has seen a steady downward spiral. Now everyone either draws welfare or gets their check signed by the state, with some exceptions. We hear numerous complaints about how much better life was when the Mill was still here. The dropout rate at the school is high. Top activities for kids are skateboarding and duning (ATVing). There is a paucity of nice restaurants.

We had fine tapas at a restaurant in Neighboring Town this week. I had a cheese plate and jc had, according to him, the best chowder he's had in Oregon. We walked around the shops and just generally enjoyed ourselves. There's nowhere to do that here.

I've also been doing some serious thinking about my career. I've always been interested in labor and delivery. The hospital I work at now doesn't deliver babies. A move would make exploring that career path possible, with the option of becoming a midwife if I find that I really like it and want to continue in that direction.

If we buy a home in Current Town, we're no longer confident that property values will rise in a satisfactory manner. The homes in Neighboring Town are selling for similar prices, but the neighborhoods are much nicer and the homes seem nicer.

People from Current Town have always scorned Neighboring Town as being too "uppity" and "expensive". We're still looking for options, but we're obviously leaning in that direction.

Rose

I made a Zwinky

PMS is over

For once, I feel better now that my period has arrived. I went canoeing with Self-Powered Man today. I've stayed comfortable all day with just a Thermacare wrap for my back. SPM then came to the house (he treated us to Japanese food) and we watched a movie. I got hungry and baked an applesauce spice cake. Now we're comfortable and happy and the kitties are playing.

Rose

More Sundries

Work- I showed up at work Saturday with a headache after minimal sleep. Various staff members were making loud jokes about a difficult patient who had just been discharged. I interrupted to remind them to be discreet. Coworker ZsaZsa walked into the middle of it and piped up that her sense of humor allowed joking publicly about patients. We locked horns on that one. I reiterated my position and stated that I wasn't trying to cause trouble. I hoped that everyone else couldn't see how badly I was shaking. Nothing but the silent treatment from ZsaZsa for the next several hours. Dr. ChickenFarmer came back and asked for extra help in the ER, and I took the opportunity to escape momentarily. Morgen, the ER nurse, was nice enouh to notice that I looked shell-shocked. After a bit, I had a moment to sit and sip a cup of tea, and thus recovered.

PMS- The past several days I've had a nearly constant headache, combined with the expected breast tenderness and general moodiness that served to make the above described situation into a catastrophe. jc is the picture of understanding.

Smoker- Our Meco barbecue smoker arrived Friday. A pork roast has been smoked. Look for news on the pending turkey smoke.

Rose

Twelve Monkeys- movie review

link

If you don't buy time travel, stay away from this one. I personally get a big kick out of messing with the space/time continuum, preferably when it doesn't involve a time machine or a spaceship. Wormholes, unexplained phenomenon, stuff like that: it's all great. Twelve Monkeys completely sucked me in, entertained me, jarred the cogitator, there was even a little intense bit or two. I had to rewind the first ten minutes or so and watch it over because I wasn't paying close enough attention.

The best part of it all, perhaps apart from Brad Pitt's wacky impersonation of a lunatic, is the choose your own ending. (Spoiler here) Since James Cole is present at the airport at age 8 and also as an adult, even though the adult is killed, the boy can grow up, go underground, and come back to try to save the human race for a limitless number of times, potentially until he gets it right. Who knows, after enough attempts he may even live happily ever after. On the other hand, all Witchy Lady Scientist has to do is slip a little poison in Bioterrorist's champagne, assuming that is, that he didn't already release the virus, which he almost certainly did. But that would potentially save al the other cities. Just pretend Philadelphia is a house with termites and tent it.

Rose

Miscellaneous

A) Living Arrangements- Following a friend's tip, we made the short trip to a nearby town to look at a house for sale. We're still basically at the drive-by level at the moment. The house is in a development planned by the home owner's association. All the landscaping is au natural- native trees and shrubs. The homes are relatively new, most not visible from the street, and on largeish lots for the area. We're waiting for a call now to move forward, but let's just say that it looks promising. One way or another, we're out of here in the end of April. If the house doesn't work out, we rent somewhere else.

B) Employment- With the impending move comes the choice of commuting to the old job or looking for a new one. There aren't so many hospitals around here, so looking isn't too involved. I had tossed around the idea of signing up for a 13 week travel job including housing/stipend. That doesn't look like it's going to pan out unless I'm willing to majorly relocate, which I'm not. (Confession: Got a little snippy with the recruiter who called at 8:20 AM today- says she makes all her calls at that time. I let her know that it's just basically rude to call before nine.) I'm looking forward to the possibility of working somewhere that delivers babies. I'd like to have the option to get into that area at some time.

C) TTC- I continue to use the progesterone cream during the luteal phase. In addition, I just started taking Vitex Agnus Castus aka Chasteberry. It is supposed to have the effect of balancing estrogen and progesterone. That's been shown in studies to relieve PMS and possibly allay menstrual pain. An undocumented claim is that it promotes fertility. The hypothesis is that Vitex also reduces prolactin levels. Hyperprolactinemia is a known culprit in infertility, although little talked about. Basically it prevents implantation. If Vitex lowers the prolactin level to normal, pregnancy may be possible for me. To be frank, that's a tenuous hope, though. We're in cylce 33 this month since I went off BCP's. Statistically, that gives us a pretty low likelihood of success. And I'm pretty okay with that. I decided awhile ago not to be emotionally crippled by infertility or childlessness. Our life is too good for that.

D) Birds- A Great Blue Heron got an awful fright today when I startled a Red-Winged Hawk into flying over it. Great Blue flew off and squawked like a chicken before settling its gangly legs into the mud in a nearby spot. Red Wing sat there as if nothing at all had happened. After all, Great Blue is a bit big for him.

Rose