Freshmen

Move in weekend starts tomorrow. Five thousand freshmen and their parents are descending on the campus. And to make it perfect, there is a busted water main right in front of the biggest froshie dorm, there's a soccer game tonight I got roped into working, so I'll be working 4:30pm to 7:30am tomorrow night while they all go drinking after mom and dad go to bed, and then we still have our burglary suspect out here, one more additional detail to handle.

There may not be a more annoying creature than today's helicopter parents. They come with the kids to the ice breaker activities intended for their kids, complain about dorm policies, buy the kids anything they want and then drag it all up into a room the kid will leave unlocked, etc. My favorite has to be parents who try to crash classes for kids, tied with the ones who feel they can file a police report for an item that they bought and paid for but gave to their child who did not secure said laptop while they went to the restroom or their bike while they ran back up to their dorm room.

I have years of experience with the parents at this point, so it won't be overwhelming. I'm also not on days so I will see more of their drunk kids than of the irate parents. One thing I really wish I had more experience with recently though is musical theater. Rock of Ages was a fun romp. It may not have contained original songs but I am a big believer in the found poem, as practiced for centuries by writers. I also believe in having a good time. 80's music holds a danceable, singable motivating power in it that will never die. As much as I'd never want to dress in jean jackets, neon and leg warmers to dance on Whitesnake's car, their music is undeniably fun. Put it on Broadway and I'm so there. It may not dislodge the sway of Phantom of the Opera (which has held strong since I was in 2nd grade, though the 2004 movie disaster almost killed it) but it did get deep down in there, further than Book of Mormon at least. ("Hello!" is an awesome opener and I thought I'd love it, but I can't handle the crassness that Matt and Trey threw into the rest of the show.) Yes. I am a theater geek. Sean took me to Rock of Ages and the first thing I did was quiz him on the lighting design of the traveling production. Gotta make sure he uses his Lighting Design degree a little at least.

I might just be a geek about everything. I could write another big paragraph about re-reading "Rocket Boys" this week, digging out the rocketry gear *I* had in high school. But that would be too much. Maybe sometime soon I'll have an actually interesting thing to talk about from school, but for now you get my musings.

I did it!

Now that I have recovered from all the sleep deprivation and driving involved in getting to the Bay Area, taking my work class that's paying for part of my travel, touring SF with Sean and THEN tackling the Nor-Cal Half Marathon, I can tell you I did it!

It feels so much easier looking back on it today than it did Sunday during or after the race. I was barely running the last few miles, running two minutes, walking two or more but I had made up for it in a steady pace to finish in 2:45:30, a pace of 12:45 min/mile about, which is much better than my scary dreams of six-hour finishes.

So woo hoo! Now back to waiting and Vet school prep....

And seeing Rock of Ages tonight on stage.

Pre-race jitters

I'm really worried about how I'll do in the half half marathon on Sunday. I dreamed last night that I was seeded into a 6-hour pace group. Gosh I hope not! This race will inevitably involve me walking a bit, but I'm hoping the same gut determination that got me through Baker to Vegas will hold out through this race and keep me running longer.

I've got eight hours left to pack and laze around the house before we leave for the Bay Area, and 64 hours till race time.

Pretty sure I'll be back here to break down at least once more.

Rememberances

I' realizing today that I pretty much let yesterday pass without much fanfare. It's not that I don't still grieve a bit for all we lost 11 years ago, but I'm actually glad I didn't mark it as much. Because it means those responsible have lost what remains of their hold over me.

Last year, I sang the National Anthem and God Bless America at the county-sponsored 10th memorial. It wasn't the first time I'd participated along with my Department's honor guard and those of the other local agencies. But it was the most moving.

September 11th, 2001 was a normal morning of 9th grade for me. I remember heading out to gym class and hearing Ms. Walsh say a plane hit a building. I didn't know what the WTC was or even where it was, and it seemed to be an accident, last we'd heard. The next hours would change that. And then the next weeks and months would be full of new words, new names, new realities.

Standing on the platform at that 10th ceremony, I felt deeply the loss of innocence, lives and much more. Many of us were too young to know many of the soldiers who served in the Gulf War. This time, it was my friends who went away. War, it's costs in humanity and in money will always be distasteful.
That day, I remembered the victims, the brave emergency services personnel who gave everything to save who they could. Many of whom were just like my co-workers today. And lastly, I remembered the awkward girl, still adjusting to high school and glasses. Am I still her, now at 25? Yes. But I fervently wish she had never had to learn the meaning of "al Qaeda" or hear the hate spewed from the mouths of friends and leaders. Had never had to be searched at the airport at 17 because she bought a one-way ticket and that meant she was just as bad as the men who orchestrated 9/11.

We can't go back. But we can go forward together. Go forward, leaving the hate filled years behind us, taking from this day only the good. The memories of those lost, the stories of heroism, these are worth marking each year.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Shopping!

How do you classify someone who goes shopping all afternoon and returns home with three shirts and a north face zip hoodie after spending a grand total of $13.67?
I love shopping but I always end up buying stuff from the thrift stores in this town rather than at the mall. Becoming athletic-minded has made me such an athletic-gear fashion horse! I want everything Nike Woman makes. With my race coming up this weekend I don't have time for new shoes, let alone new Merrell barefoot shoes (I run in conventional Nike Moto +8) that take 6 weeks to transition to and are probably a bad idea. Though after this race, it will likely be time for new shoes - there's maybe 150 miles left in my current pair and 50 in my training pair. I get 300 miles out of a pair if I am really lucky right now, but I'd rather save my feet than risk anything permanent.

Enough about my feet. The nasty part of graveyard shift has hit me full force now and I got mean this weekend. Fortunately it didn't stop me from going 3/2 in my five fights at Saturday's tournament and doing very well at practice on Sunday. I'm glad my fencing is improving - I hope it gets really good before I go so that maybe they remember me when I get back from school, I'd hate to lose all my currency toward the next award level. We don't have tests for levels, those of the level meet and discuss the lower levels and about once a year they choose to elevate someone based on a number of factors. With school looming I anticipate it will now be at least 5 more years before I qualify, and that is 5 AFTER I get back, if they elevate me at all.

Well, more better info tomorrow night... I'm off to make a t-shirt quilt!

A little hiccup

Ho boy.
I totally booked my tickets wrong yesterday. So much for a clear head at 6am. The good news is, if you get back to them in 24 hours, American Airlines will not charge you to change the dates as long as there is no difference in the fares on the new date. Yay for actual human beings! The hardest part was waiting 3 hours for there to be actual human beings available. I am once again learning the joys of being on an opposite schedule from the normal world.

While I may be on that opposite side from everyone, I do now have time before work while shops are open. This is really nice considering in Santa Barbara most shops close by 6pm. I now no longer have to do all my shopping/leisure activities on my days off. I wandered around Five Points mall for two hours today and didn't buy anything, but it was great. I avoided all temptation, including the pumpkin spice latte calling my name on a rainy day - it will have to wait for Friday, when Cat and I pamper ourselves.

Tickets

Tickets are expensive. But they are booked. Yay!

Back to Graveyards

Graveyards is the one shift where you can truly feel alone in the station. Especially now that our squad room is in the old rescue temp trailer rather than here in the building. In the time I've been a dispatcher, the squad room has moved from literally across the hallway from dispatch, to down the hallway and around the corner, to outside in an entirely different building (well, trailer.) I wonder some times if the moves were not so much about space but about getting further away from the requests of dispatchers. It's not like I can walk down the hallway to the squad, I have to stay here. And when I ring their phone they have the choice to not answer me, unlike when they were across the hall and I could yell at them through my sliding window. But anyway, it means that I am currently the only human being in the main station room.

I'm running on caffeine right now, as you can probably tell. I had a great rest of the weekend involving a trip to the beach with a good book (Girl With a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier) which left me with bikini tan lines so stark you can see where the string was tied at the back, another rock-out Guitar Hero sesh with Sean and some general relaxing. I topped it off with another run today, actually two split into one. I ran the 5k route from Five Points to my apartment, collapsed and re-hydrated, only to get a text from Sean suggesting I run to downtown and do the farmer's market with him and he would drive me home. So that was about another 1.9 miles. Not my best miles but the point is to be out there doing it, right?

I was supposed to get a nap in before work, but it didn't end up happening. We got sucked in to season 2 of Breaking Bad instead. That left me worried I would fall asleep here at work, but I've made it 7 hours so far, with 3 to go before I crash. When I did arrive at work, my radio console was apparently on the fritz, which made my day easier as all I had was secondary traffic due to my transmitter not working. About 3 hours in to shift I glanced at my console, which we had had a tech looking at during day shift. I noticed there was an unplugged cord, so I set about finding where it went, plugging it in and re-booting my DOS radio. Sure enough it came up like a charm. I can't believe our tech didn't see it, the darn thing has a label on it from a dot matrix printer. It could not have screamed "I belong to the radio console!" Any louder. But I'll take credit for being the fresh pair of eyes and breathe a big sigh of relief that our Centracom Gold Series has not crapped out yet. My eyes will not be so fresh tomorrow, as I recover from this caffeine fueled 24 hours of consciousness, but such is the life on night shift.

Lazy Saturday

I got so much done Friday I deserved a day off! I ordered tank tops from Target (favorite style tank in many colors) that were free shipping. Yay for working around the fact that there are no big box stores in 50 miles of here except Kmart and Sears. Speaking of which- I then went to try on coveralls at Sears. They had one size medium navy short sleeve in the smallest section in the back basement of the store. But it fit passably.

I then took my Honda in for an oil change and to schedule the 60,000 mile service and they totally had time on the Friday before Labor day weekend to do the service and replace my rear brake pads! While waiting for my car I had an epic cheeseburger as a treat and walked over to Alpha to do some thrifting. Boy did I get lucky, they had another Red Octane guitar controller! So now the total amount I've spent getting Guitar Hero gear to play with: $14.97 that's $3.99 for the first controller, $5.99 for GH 3 - Legends of Rock and $4.99 for my second controller. Not bad for feeding my addiction.

After that I went for an 8 mile run. Eight miles, while there were a few walk breaks involved, I turned in a passable time and it makes me feel better about the impending half marathon. Especially when I factor in the walk home and it comes to 9 and a bit. The best part was starting the run late, it was about 7pm when I set out and the sun set faster than I expected. There was a wonderful moon down on the waterfront however and it was balmy without the direct sunshine of midday. I also ran down State St. on a Friday, so great people watching was had too!

But this post is about my lazy Saturday, not Friday. I slept in all the way to 8:45am, not the best start for my transitional weekend for night shift, but I'll take it. Sean made eggs and maple sausages for breakfast and then we took off to play disc golf. If you've never played, it is so much easier than real golf and a great way to get outside for free. We have two courses in the area, the one we played is a 9 hole in the student community called the "Isla Vista Peace Course." After that, Sean made an even more delicious dinner of pork loin glazed in ginger syrup and maple spice rub with wild rice. I'm going to miss the home cooking in Grenada I think.