Awfulness is a black hole composed entirely of dark matter

Last week, there was a day of awfulness. This day was November 18th, now known as "Wicked Wednesday". So many awful things happened to me this day, that they couldn't all fit in oen day, and so one of them spilled over into the next day.

The things that happened (in order):
- I woke up feeling awful with a cold
- many babies who made appointments did not show up
- the one baby that did make it in was really fussy and had an awful time, which makes us all empathize and feel awful too
- a paper I submitted for publication was rejected **(GRRR!!)**
- a dance performance I was scheduled to go to the next day was canceled
- my car was towed and impounded ***(HOLY @&#%ING GRRR!!!)***

I actually did not find out about the car impounding until the next day (Twisted Thursday), but it was actually towed on Wicked Wednesday. Please, don't ask me any questions about the car. All you need to know is that it was a silly error on my part, and it hardly seems fair, but it happened anyway.

Why did all of this happen? Well, after thinking about it, I may have come up with an explanation. My dear friend Meredith Meyer defended her dissertation on Thursday (which, for her, was actually Terrific Thursday). Bridget and I had made her a gift package/card, and mailed it on Monday. In this package, I made a card with a Dragon on it, and sent Meredith "the luck of the Dragon". I now realize that this was the source of my woes. Sending Meredith the luck of the Dragon indeed imbued her with the felicity of 1,000 men, but this luck had to come from somewhere. I believe I was depleted of all luck, and possibly others around the world were as well. With none of my own luck, misfortune could send her barbarous arrows my way and I would stand defenseless. Alas, it was all for a good cause, as Meredith is now a doctor, my bad luck has passed, and I still have my health.

But, this week should make up for all of the awfulness! I am heading down to Eugene Wednesday morning for American Thanksgiving (it's just like ours, except they do it on a different day!). Bridget is flying into Eugene on Tuesday night, so we will have an extended vacation together in our old hometown. I already miss the Eug, so it will be good to be back, and it is so nice to be able to see Bridget again for a four day weekend.

As a sign that this week is already better, I also received a birthday package in the mail today from the one, the only, Greg "The Bone" Toller! The package was filled with many delights, including terrible movies, crappy stickers, a homemade Mutorcs doll (you can rip him in half or rip his head off), and many other wondrous things. Thanks Bone! By the way, do you have a baby yet? A one word answer will suffice, a sentence is appropriate, and paragraph is welcome, but a document is out of the question.

It is wonderful to still have friends like The Bone from high school. They help me remember my past, and are just darn incredible people. As an example, Greg also found a great website for me, which has graphics from one of the best game franchises ever created, Mortal Kombat. I will share some with you tonight. My teenage years came effectively be summed up with these (and some other) graphics:

Smackdown!

Goddammit, the rain wins. The weather forecast: 80%-60% chance of rain, for 5 days straight, highs around 45 F. Today was an 80% chance of rain day, and as far as I can tell it rained 100% of the time. Downhill streets had waterfalls! My rainproof stuff is pretty darn rainproof, but with 4 bike trips in the rain and one high wind dragonboating session, they were pushed to the max, and perhaps leaked a little.

This weekend involved another fantastically awesomely super-duper wicked visit from Bridget, which ultimately always ends in a horrible, terrible, gut-wrenching, tear-jerking departure back to SD. This time it was really tough. Last night I woke up in the middle of the night and was really confused about why she wasn't there - and then I remembered she had left and got sad. Pooh. I WANT IT TO BE OVER! But, sadly there are many more months of this.

However, while she was up, I got an awesome package of birthday gifts in the mail from my in-laws! The birthday never ends!!! Here is a photo of some of the excitement:


Pictured in the bottom-right corner are the chocolate chip love cookies - I made these for Bridget on Friday (love = pink food dye). They are the first batch of cookies I have ever made! What's next? Digital domination. An especially exciting gift (although ALL of the gifts were exciting) was new rain pants, which will help in crappy weather like this!

It should be noted that I was not the only one who had fun at this birthday party:


Also this weekend, I constructed a Plesiosaurus and a Tyrannosaurus Rex, from Japanese blocks that my brother in law, Jon, got me for my birthday. Thank you, Klest family, for all of your awesomeness!

But otherwise, this week is a busy work week. So, I'd better go do some work.

Life is good?

The last two days have been very stormy around here! Crazy winds, torrents of rain, and thunderous claps. I love a good storm, but after a few days it gets a little tiring. Especially because it is interfering with my television reception! Seriously, last night I had no channels coming in. Today I only had one channel, but it was so choppy that it was unwatchable.

Last night, I asked Emily and Karen to hang out, and they couldn't because they had too much work to do! Emily is doing her generals next week, and Karen has a paper due for a class (she is doing her Masters while working full time!). Not only was it no fun that they couldn't hang out, it is no fun for anybody to have to work on a Friday night. So, to alleviate boredom and increase their productivity, I decided I would surprise them with donuts. And not just any donuts: Top Pot donuts, Seattle's hand-made gourmet donuts. I brought them 15 (I asked for a dozen, but since they were closing, he gave me more)! Karen was ambivalent about getting so many, and so I ate two and she made me take two home. I did not mind. Turns out, I like doing things like this for people! It feels really good to put smiles on people's faces. And in this case, I also get to put calories in their belly.

After that, I came home and watched "The Midnight Meat Train". It was an excellent horror flick, adapted from a Clive Barker short story. It was thoroughly disgusting, including scenes of decapitation, evisceration, eyeball pulling, teeth extractions, and fingernail removal. Am I a monster for liking this kind of stuff? Definitely.

Today I decided to sleep in and skip dragonboating. I needed the rest. But, I did go for an 8.32 mile jog, and did it at a 9:10 pace! Woot!!! I haven't run that far and that fast in a really long time. It feels good to be back in the running groove. No more injuries!

So, a good last few days. At work, things are also going well: both of my ERP study and my first infant study are turning out as predicted! Yay, yay, yay! I may actually be a real researcher.

But, even after all of this good and fun stuff, I cannot escape the realization that being away from Bridget is really, really hard. She is the love of my life, and she is 1,255 miles away. I cannot hold her. I cannot spend quality time with her. It just isn't fun. I want it to be over!