workadian rhythms

There is a certain rhythm to a work week and a job in general. I don't want to say you get used to it, but you adjust to it just the same. The way you roll in in the morning. The general pattern of sitting down coffee cups and booting up computers. For me, the way I set up the clinic for the day and prepare myself for whats to come.

The past 2 weeks, my schedule has been arrhythmic. I have spent more of the past 10 days at the Park than at my own clinic. I have little idea of where things are or where they go, how things are set up or broken down, and even how and when to schedule patients. It is like staying with friends or relatives. They have different kinds of peanut butter and cereal, you can't figure out where they keep the extra toilet paper and, while you are welcome, you know you really shouldn't be digging through the medicine cabinet even if you are just trying to find the Q-tips. In the end, while it is nice visiting and all, you kind of miss your bed, your cereal, and knowing exactly where the toiletries are located. With that said, it is still really nice to finally have actual conversations about work issues, bounce ideas off of one another, and generally share some actual camaraderie. I won't miss the commute though. God I hate the commute. And then our clinic out in Gresham will go live. Best not to think of that at the moment.

Speaking of work, today was a hooky day! There is something grand about not being at work when you are supposed to be at work. To be fair, I had only 1 patient scheduled in the clinic (and that was not a time intensive one). Mostly, I was just wrung out though. So, Tia (likewise wrung out and playing hooky) and I spent the day at the spa getting massages and drinking tea and then headed over to 23rd for Happy Hour at the venerable Besaw's (who evidently hold the very first liquor license in the state of Oregon back in 1916), where we ate our fill of pretty damn good food, 2 adult beverages apiece, and dessert for under $35. Highly recommended.

Allergy shots part deux have begun with no ill effects other than a generally mild flare up of my allergies in the evening (which could be attributed to pretty much anything). But no anaphylaxis or large red bumps the size of citrus fruit on my arms.

Some random things:

- Wickles Pickles are truly amazing. Spicy hot, sharply vinegary and sweet all at once. Crazy addictive. And no HFCS or other odd ingredients to boot. Plus, you can get em at Safeway.

- Lana Del Ray and her song Video Games (diet mtn do is also good). Kind of going through a more mellow phase with music and her stuff does remind me a lot of Cat Power. Also digging the Bohemian strangeness of Lykke Li which reminds me in some ways of Mazzy Star (though the latter is far more ethereal).

- Reading a fascinating, if a little overly detailed, history of Scientology called Inside Scientology. Whatever you think of the 'religion', it is an intriguing account of it's creator along with the rather strange and illegal tactics they used to suppress negative press over the years. Yikes.

Til next time.

er, trying to think of something

I REALLY want to post more often, but I also don't want to post just because I haven't in some time. But, nothing extraordinary has happened that comes to mind.

We did try an interesting new restaurant called Cruzroom, which has the oddest/yummiest fusion tacos I have yet had. A typical example:
Mac Taco ~$3.25: Fried pickles, slice of applewood bacon, special sauce slaw, cheddar cheese, and onions all served on a corn tortilla.
Certainly not something you would find at Taco Bell. Overall, it was quite good with some bigger hits than others. As other people have written, the service is spotty and pretty slow. On the upshot, we ended up with some free sides because they just kept dropping things off at our table.

Continuing with the food adventure for the evening (Tia, Jen, and myself) we headed to the new and already jumping ice cream spot called Salt and Straw, which lives up to the Portland code of serving local and natural ingredients. Much like the Cruzroom, this is not your typical fare however. With flavors like pear and blue cheese, brown ale and candied bacon, and three berry bbq, there isn't a straight up vanilla to be found. However, most flavors were quite good, though a few we sampled I found rather unpleasant (the aforementioned strawberry BBQ). Still nothing topped the thai spiced ice cream I had at Cool Moon.

Accompanied Tia to the chiropractor the other day (partly because we have only the one car and I had to go to the Park to help out and partly because I was interested). I am not sure what I think of the whole thing after being in there. Is it legitimate or not? I guess we will find out soon enough, as Tia is supposed to be going in weekly for the next month with a promise of 'a 50% improvement' in her back pain. I am skeptical, but I hope it works.

Work is the same as always. There was a recent opportunity posted that looked appealing (3-12s working the floor at the Park), but more experienced candidates are already clamoring for it. I would very much like to drop my hours down (or at least move to 4-10s) to get some breathing room away from work, but it looks like it isn't in the cards at the moment.

Looks like we are going to break 90 for the first time this summer. Seems like a good time for a nap. Yay for central AC!

5K

The couch to 5K is complete. We actually didn't make it through the entire program as yet (we needed another 4 weeks or so), but we did both finish a 5K and that was the original goal. It bested, but a good bit, the longest I had ever pushed my crappy lungs to do. Our shared 'goal' was to finish it in under 40 minutes, a goal we both achieved. I had hoped to make it in under 35 if possible, and I managed to do that as well, finishing in 32m 37s, which surprisingly works out to a 5.7 mph pace. I definitely pushed it much harder than the normal 5mph pace we set on our jogs. The most difficult portion really was the inclines, of which we don't have many around our house. I am not going to exaggerate and call them 'hills' per se, but they definitely presented a new challenge. I am proud of us both for finishing and hopefully that will be a good start to keeping in better exercise routines..........at least until the winter hits and we hibernate again.

One of the many things I find peculiar about Portland is that it seems to be run by people with a certain disdain for cars. I guess that keeps Portland weird and prevents it from becoming to much like Seattle, which isn't a bad thing. On the other hand, it is a bit perplexing at times. A few weekends ago, they closed one of the bridges going downtown to roll out fake sod on it and have a picnic (I am not making this up) and this weekend they will be closing almost all of them on Sunday so people can ride their bikes on them. Evidently, the fact that people might need to get downtown to, you know, spend money and stimulate the depressed economy takes a back seat to the idea of pretending we live in some weird post-oil future where bikes are the only mode of transport.

Work continues its weird cycles. I find myself most recently torn between being the 'go to' guy and being the department bitch. It is a tough line to walk. On one hand, I am accruing responsibilities that make me more indispensable. On the other hand, I don't want it to seem like anything that can be given to me, I will gladly do. Most recently I have been tasked with going down to the Park to 'help them' as they are 'sinking' with the new EPIC conversion. I am not stating it is easy or without frustration, I know I dealt with a LOT of it. However, I also had no one to turn to in the department in general or my clinic specifically. So, I was forced to learn it on my own. They have all had the same training, and have all spent an entire day up at the clinic with me and NEVER work in the MP clinic with less than 3 total staff. So, ostensibly they could ask one another, the Epic staff that flit about the hospital, or call me. However, that is evidently not workable, so I am to go down there on Monday to help out. And then the following M, T, Th. and then, perhaps, the following Monday after that.

On one hand, I guess I should feel good being the person best equipped to teach them. On the other hand, their solution to me going down there to help is to just 'close' my clinic for those days, which makes me upset because it seems that we are doing damage to my job to preserve the MP clinic. Bah!

Got allergy re-tested this past Monday which wasn't exactly illuminating (I am allergic to stuff, and lots of it!), but will hopefully be a step in correcting or at least mitigating my hyper-histamine response to everything. Shots start in 10 days, and then go on for 3-5 years. Initially 1 to 2 shots a week and then spaced out as far as every 3 to 4 weeks or so. Not bad........I hope anyway. The response rate is about 75%. Lets hope I fall within it.

Time to get back to the never ending list of house stuff. More blogging when I can next hit the pause button.

grin and bear it

Sometimes in life you go through phases of 'grin and bear it'. I am kind of rolling through one of those now. Not that things are particularly bad because they certainly aren't, but with the perpetual unpacking, assembling, painting, and cleaning at the new house along with the training for the 5K and biking to work along with a relatively busy time in the clinic with the usual absentee level of assistance, I am just dragging. My body aches in general with my hamstrings taking the worst of the abuse and some days are certainly worse than others. I have been having a lot of headaches as well, probably related to the overwhelming amount of stuff swirling about.

All I can think of, and might need to soon pursue, is taking a LONG weekend. I am technically going to have one this weekend, but I am discounting it because: 1. I will not be allowed any antihistamines after Friday AM...............which is a sure recipe for a horrible weekend most of the time (fingers crossed it is a 'mild' one and I don't spend the weekend surrounded by an ever increasing mound of tissues and various sprays and drops) and 2. Monday, my extra 'day off' will involve 2 hours of allergy testing likely followed by a large dose of Benadryl (and then likely followed by an extended blackout-like nap). On the plus side, this will hopefully be the start of shots that will make at least a minor dent in my symptoms.........although they historically have not. Either way, it is worth a second shot with a new doctor and new set of ideas on treatment. Plus, this time we are taking other steps like having no carpeted surfaces upstairs, no pets in the bedroom, air purifiers, and a large plastic hamster bubble that I roll around in (and heck, its just plain fun for the whole family!). We shall see, and I shall post on it.

As for the house, it is starting to more or less resemble a place someone might live and less like a place that you might see on an episode of Hoarders. Gone are most of the boxes, totes, and assorted trash that we will start piecemealing into our weekly trash pick up like the main character from Shawshank Redemption, Andy Dufresne, taking pieces of his prison wall out to the yard in the rolled up bottoms of his jeans. Or just break down and pay the extra fees for the extra bags of trash. Tough call really. Thank god for garages!

Speaking of garages, getting power to ours will evidently not be as easy, nor as cheap, as we had hoped. So, it will also not be happening nearly as quickly. Maybe by the fall. Maybe. Shocking mostly because the garage is less than 2 yards from the house. But, as we found out when they came to hook up our DSL internet and found ZERO phone lines in the house with which to do so, its the little things that stymie. Of course, the phone situation was an easy fix, for $99 that is.

Not much other news to tell of other than we are (the royal 'we' as it is mostly Tia) now fostering a momma cat and her six 4-week old kittens. They are truly as adorable as they are smelly. People always ask 'how can you give them back?' The answer is generally pretty easily. Kittens are cute, but they aren't formed personalities..........so you kind of get what you get so to speak when they grow up. In between, you get a whole lot of torn up furniture, curtains, and the like. So, yes they are adorable, but no it isn't hard to hand em all back over and start with a new group.