Oops

I was getting out of the gym today after work when I noticed that I had a missed call from my boss. I thought that was strange, because they usually only have license to call after-hours if you have a story that is running in the following day's paper. I didn't. Somehow I had magically slipped through today and just worked on other stuff.

Well I found out why when I listened to by boss' message: Because I am stupid. I accidently slated my story for Thursday for tomorrow. Seeing that, Craig didn't need to ask me for a story. Since I thought I had one more day, I hadn't written it.

Right now, I'm sitting at home wrapping it up so there isn't a big white hole on the page tomorrow.

Lesson learned: Pay attention to the days on your weekly schedule.

Call for tech support

I have two problems I thought all you brilliant friends out there might be able to help me with:

First, my iPod — which is only about six months old — won't hold a charge. I'll plug it in for hours before it's done charging, then when I go to use it it won't turn on. Is there anything to be done before I either throw it across the room or take it in to a store miles and miles away?

Second, every time I try to log into MSN instant messenger, it tells me I need to update to the newest version. I've done it twice already, but it's getting old. I've opted just to stop using it altogether. Any ideas?

Thanks.

Bonding time

You know what I love about Sarah? She has the wisdom of a 50-year-old in a 27-year-old's body — which is very useful for me with all the drama I stir up. She is battling a disease that makes her very tired and chronically sick, yet she faces life with tireless bravery and strength. And she has this relationship with God that I admire and aspire to.

Sarah and I met about a year ago. I had been going to church for about six months and was convinced that there were no young people there. Then one day she came and sat by me. We started talking and eventually she invited me to a Bible study.

Things have been so crazy for us both this fall that we haven't had much time to really hang out. This weekend we made up for that, albeit accidentally. Saturday we were supposed to go help Jenn and Paul renovate their house. We were all dressed up in our grungiest clothes when we found out neither Jenn nor Paul were in town. Paul was returning from an unexpected trip out of state, and Jenn was going to pick him up at the airport.

So instead, Sarah and I went Christmas shopping, went to dinner (mainly for dessert) and then rented a movie. Today she picked me up for church, then we went to lunch with a couple friends. We did some errands together afterwards.

Anyway, I was fun to spend some time with her. Just her.

Lesson learned: I need to hang out with Sarah more often.

Thanksgiving marathon

Sarah's family does Thanksgiving right. Instead of a sprint, they make it a marathon. We had "dinner" at noon, with crystal, table cloths, and every traditional Thanksgiving side ever thought of. (I must say one of my favorites was the sweet potatoes with marshmallows. This was never a dish on my family's holiday table when I was growing up, and I had a hard time believing it wasn't a dessert.) Then we took a half-time — enough for after dinner conversation, a movie and a walk down to the park — before eating a dinner of leftovers again. We played the game "Deal or No Deal," then we had a schmorgasbord of desserts.

So this is what I'm saying. Instead of gorging on one meal, eating until you are too stuffed to sit up, why not spread it across the entire day. It's like a sporting event. Those who can't hang slip off into a turkey-induced slumber. The rest of us are there till the bitter end, and there were prizes. Okay, not for being able to eat all day, but Sarah's mom, Sue, always seems to have gifts.

Lessons learned: Turkey sandwiches are great on Thanksgiving too.

Stir crazy

I wish I had something new and exciting to report. But in order for that to be, I would have had to leave my couch in the past four days. I'm getting over the incapacitated feeling of my cold/flu, and now I'm just stir crazy.

I'm going back to work tomorrow no matter what.

Lesson learned: You can only watch so much TV and sleep so much before you want to go insane.

So much for flu shots

Usually you get a flu shot to try and prevent the flu during the winter. Apparently, my body is a little confused about that notion. The newspaper I work for had visiting nurses come give us free shots on Friday. (Notice the timing — that way if you get sick, you have the weekend to recover.)

Well, that's exactly what happened to me — although they say it's impossible for the vaccines to cause the full-blown flu. Whatever I've got, I've been camped out with it on my couch the entire weekend with an assembly of cough drops, tissue, soup and tea on my coffee table. But this bug seems to want to foil my employer's plans: It's Sunday night and I feel worse than I did yesterday.

I woke up yesterday morning with the standard swollen glands, headache and achy muscles. I felt sick enough to cancel plans with Steve to go for a bike ride, but I didn't really take it seriously. I thought the feeling would pass if I just took it easy and watched Grey's Anatomy all day. So I did — no kidding, I watched seven episodes — but this morning I woke up feeling worse.

I had a meeting with the team I am going to Japan with this afternoon. Fortunately, I was in Sonora. It was difficult to get up, but I downed some cold medicine and went anyway. The medicine worked enough to fool me into thinking that I was getting better. Nope. Right now I'm in that between time where the DayQuil has worn off, but it's too early to take the night time stuff. I haven't felt this achy since I had malaria in Africa.

Lesson learned: I will never get a flu shot again.

Seeking winter clothes

It's getting cold here, and I came to realize that my collection of winter attire is scant, especially what I can wear to work. Tonight after the gym I decided to go shopping.

I'm not much of a shopper. In fact, I really hate it. I've been doing it too much lately. I also don't like to spend the little money I have on clothes. Most of the clothes I have now I bought in college. Just how long it has been came to my attention the other day when I looked down and saw I had a hole in my shirt.

So I thought it was time I replaced some of my wardrobe.

Tonight I made a trip to the dressing room with an armful of clothes. After narrowing them down, I realized something else. I had in my hands a skirt, a pair of high heals, and a t-shirt — nothing that will keep me remotely warm and nothing I can wear to work. Just to make myself feel better, I bought a jacket too.

I have about eight jackets.

Lesson learned: I guess this means I should go shopping tomorrow, too.

Just charge it

I had the closest thing I've ever had to a shopping spree this afternoon. The Rotary is giving us $500 to buy "uniforms" for the trip to Japan I'm going on next spring with a team of regional professionals. It was my job to pick out basic items, like a suit, kaki pants and a variety of shirts that we will all wear while we are there.

I had to drive to Modesto today to try on and pick up some of the big ticket items. It was crazy to just run my card for hundreds of dollars of clothing — knowing I don't have to pay for any of it. Thanks to the Sunrise Rotary for that.

The best part is that we get to keep all of this stuff. I'm sure I will be able to find a use for it, even though my newsroom is pretty casual.

Lesson learned: It's not cheap to dress up.

As the snow flies

As if to take some of the monotony out of Dodge Ridge orientation Saturday, it actually snowed. It made the season seem a little closer. Lately I have been wondering if it winter was coming at all this year. Fall seems to be resisting its departure.

But we got to watch the swirl of the snow flakes outside the windows of the main lodge at the ski resort, where I am planning to teach snowboard lessons again this year. Last year was my first year teaching, and I had such a good time that I thought I would come back. This year though, I am promising myself that I won't pull up any more students who can't get up, especially ones twice my size. Why do I have a feeling I won't be able to stick to that resolution for long?

Steve is also teaching again, so we went up to orientation together. We brought our bikes thinking we would go for a ride afterwards. When we saw the snow, we decided maybe we would need to drive to a lower elevation, where it would be raining. Then orientation went late and it was pretty cold and wet by that time, so we scraped the whole idea and went for a drink instead.

Lesson learned: Biking season may be coming to an end.

Sleeping in on a weekday

I woke up this morning feeling strangely refreshed considering that I stayed up later than I'd planned. When I rolled over and looked at the clock I found out why. It was 7:30 a.m., which coincidentally is the time I have to be at work. I have very vague memories of my alarm going off, but I don't remember what happened after that.

I made it there only 15 minutes late, feeling a little groggy and out of it. I don't even think my bosses noticed since having reporters come it late is nothing new.

It took me about an hour and some caffeine to start feeling normal.

It's funny, but I think I may be starting to have an addiction. For the longest time, I would go for a couple months drinking coffee, then abruptly stop. I never had any problems with withdrawals when I did, and always wondered why. It turns out black tea is the gateway drug for me. I started drinking that just because I like something warm in the morning. Now I have a hard time functioning without it, which is funny because it really doesn't have that much caffeine in it.

Anyway, I'm just glad it's Friday.

Lesson learned: I need to hide the off button on my alarm.

Time for plan C

Yesterday was a million things packed into one day. Today it kind of crumpled apart.

Last night was, of course, election night, so we had the morning off. Steve and I took the bus up to Sierra Village, then did a long ride down the ditch. There is something about that place in the fall. The leaves are all a collage of colors, some still hanging stubbornly to the trees, some in a rainbow on the ground. The water in the culvert (a.k.a. the ditch) that the path runs along makes for a peaceful soundtrack. At the end, it comes out on a long, paved roller coaster ride down to town with a panoramic view.

There are a couple sections we have to walk our bikes on their back tires across the culverts on thin planks. Some extend for at least an eighth of a mile. There is one Steve calls "the canopy walk" - for good reason.

So after 30 miles, I headed into work for a 10-hour shift. There is something about covering elections. It's long. It's a lot of waiting. Of course the results never come in on time. Then we have the awkward job of calling people and waking them up to tell them they've won or lost. And then there's the rush of deadline when your bed is calling from home. But there it's exciting about finding out the outcome of these races first after all the campaigning. It's one of the rare times we keep the TV on the whole time, and we get free pizza.

Then there was today. Already I was tired, drawing my energy from a latte and a banana. So I was browsing through the paper checking the stories about the other races when I realized something was missing: my story. The page designer had just forgot to put it in. How does that happen?

So much for staying up till midnight the night before and waking candidates up in the name of the "deadline." Oh well, we all make mistakes.

Then I had plan B — the second source to replace the first one who backed out for my seniors in isolation project — cancel as well. My solution: I came home and slept for three hours.

Well there is always tomorrow.

Lesson learned: There are going to be some curious school board members today.

I vote no

I'm just sitting here staring at my mail-in ballot, as my eyes glaze over. That's pretty much all I have done for the past half hour: look.

Lucky I have my voter guide handy though. I've read about a half page of the 188 page book. It has some pretty fascinating stuff, like "The department may promulgate and adopt regulations to implement, interpret and make specific the provisions of this Article pursuant to the provisions ..."

The ballot isn't really helping a lot either.

The whole thing contains an awful lot of zeros that come behind dollar signs. I did the math. If Californians passed all of these initiatives and propositions, it would allow the state to spend $758.9 kajillion dollars. That's way more than I make in a year.

Lesson learned: I have some tough decisions to make tonight. Thank God for the Internet.

Get your own street cleaner

Can anyone tell me what use you could find in a giant army vehicle with a trailer? I ask this because the neighbor at the end of the block just got one.

This is really just the newest addition to her collection. She also has a beat up police car, the front of a semi truck, a street cleaner, a trailer and electric van that doesn't work — I know this because "Does not run" is written on side door in crayon. Where does one find this stuff?

And what is the motivation? "Wow, that's a great deal on a street cleaner"?

So I was walking home for lunch the other day when I noticed the army truck. It's one of those boxy ones with a pull-down door in the back, something you would see in MASH. I can't figure it out.

I shouldn't be surprised. I can't really figure the lady who lives there out either. She's actually kind of young — I would guess early 40s. I see her out there all the time gardening — all the time, once at like 2 a.m. She has been doing a major overhaul of her expansive yard, throwing brush into a pile out front and putting up fencing. The funny thing is, nothing ever seems to change. It looks the same as when she started at least 2 and half years ago — when I first noticed.

Anyway, it makes for thought provoking lunch time walks.

Lesson Learned: A street cleaner doesn't help with gardening.

Sugar high

It's that time of year again. I'm not talking about fall. Nor the cold. And I don't mean Christmas either, though I do blame that holiday to some extent. I mean the time of year we all get a renewed sweet tooth and gorge on everything made with 50 grams of sugar or more. For some reason lately, little bowls of candy are popping up like wildflowers on everyone's desks. My mom has gotten that bug again — the one where she must feverishly bake until all the chocolate chips in her house are gone, then she graciously sends her products my way. (By the way mom, thanks for the banana bread, it's delicious). And today was cake day at our office. The first of the month our company buys one of those sheet cakes big enough to serve as a table cloth and with enough frosting to coat a small car. Right now, I actually feel like I have a sugar hang over.

Lesson learned: I need a salad.