weekend

this is what i did this holiday weekend. at tcc i took a math assessment test and placed at the college math level, which i suppose is okay, seeing as how i never took even a math class in college and hadn't done a math problem since 1989. i just haven't lost any ground, i guess, since graduating from high school, though i haven't gained any either. i spoke with a rather dizzy academic advisor and signed up for an intro to biology class - it starts on june 23. monday and wednesday evenings, with a lab on wednesdays after class, so i won't be getting home until after 10 pm. that could be rough on me. i also acquired an application to do a job shadow in the cath lab at the hospital. for that, mostly i just need to prove that i've had all my shots.

yellow came back from the vet pretty darn stoned. one of his molars had to be removed because it was so decayed, but i think the experience has only brought us closer together. and i thought he'd be woozy and sleepy from the anesthesia but he was high as a kite. he walked in circles, back and forth, quickly, wobbly, and brushed against and sniffed everything as if it were new. and since then twice a day i grab him up and hold his limbs while kara opens his mouth and gives him pain meds and antibiotics. well, he's out of his pain meds now, so i hope he doesn't have any more pain. he has a couple more days of antibiotics, but he's taking them well.

over this weekend i coughed a lot. my sore throat is intractable. i'm on nyquil, dayquil, and lozenges. oatmeal and coffee feel good on my throat, as does ice cream.

i mowed our front lawn. it looks nicer now. and i read a very bad novel: end of story by peter abraham. sorry, but it was just bad. i'm onto connie willis now, and she's good. i've liked her books.

we watched a documentary about a real american hero: desmond doss, the conscientous objector. that was very moving, and a fitting program for memorial day weekend. and we watched cloverfield, about a space alien or something rampaging new york city. i liked it a lot more than kara did. we also watched the diving bell and the butterfly, a true story about a guy who suffered a debilitating stroke and was almost completely paralyzed. it was good but kinda slow, though what should we have expected in a movie about a guy who can't move?

yesterday i worked. i typed some medical reports. of course, now that i'm signed up for a class and everything, taking steps toward becoming a cardiovascular tech or whatever, i feel more content to stay where i am, as a transcriptionist and a would-be writer. i'd be happier as an actual writer, but the point is, i'm not sure any more that i want to bother with school. my job now is okay - at least today it is. but i'll take this biology class and see if i get hooked. i thought about signing up for a class for the fall term already, but i might hold off on that until i see how i deal with this biology thing, and with witnessing a catheterization procedure.

this job shadow deal multicare has seems kinda cool. i wonder if i could get in to see other surgical procedures through this program.

today i'm off. i'm taking it easy today, trying not to think too much about anything.

thursday morning

kara's new job is going well. this will be her 9th day at it. she's already interviewing clients, gathering information from them, confirming their stories. she's drafting legal documents and filing them. she's arranging her office. she likes it. and it's possible i'll get to do some legal transcription on the side.

i'm going to call multicare's volunteer services this afternoon, see if i can watch a cardiac catheterization, maybe get a feel about whether i could do something like that for a living - as an invasive cardiovascular technologist. after that i'm going to tacoma community college and see if i can hook myself up with a basic biology class to take over the summer.

but before that happens i have to work for a few hours. and before that happens i have to take yellow to the vet to have his teeth cleaned under anesthesia. poor yellow with his schmutzy molars. he's hungry; neither cat has eaten since last night. when i get home i'll feed eliot, anyway.

oh, and last friday, the 16th, kara and i and a friend went to a strip club here in tacoma called fox's. the experience was largely disappointing. the dancers just don't dance. they just sort of walk around the little stage, pose pathetically, jiggle their glutes, and press their breasts together. it was depressing. one of the girls came to our table and talked with us for a while, fielded our questions; she was the only one there with anything resembling pep. but still she didn't dance. it's hard to imagine that this is what most guys want to see. just nudity? that's enough? we might have to wait a few years for the tides in the stripping world to change. or maybe we'll seek out a genuine burlesque show. i think there's probably something in seattle worth checking out.

otherwise ... i'm fighting a sore throat. i've had it for 3 or 4 days. it's not getting better or worse. i've got sugar-free lemon-flavor lozenges.

and the grass in our front lawn is about a foot tall. i mowed about a month ago, i guess. if the weather clears up this weekend, and if it's not hot like it was last weekend, i'll attack the grass with our salvaged mower. it's not a very good mower, though. it was left behind by the previous owner of the house we lived in before this one.

wake up #37

well poo. it's my birthday. again.

here's a stupid joke, but one i like:
why is 6 afraid of 7?
because 7 8 9.

i'm 37 today. to me, 37 seems significantly older than 36. see, the 6 has its center of gravity low and to the left. it's hanging back, in a way, holding onto the past, solid and comfortable. in contrast, the 7 juts like a spear into the future, high and to the right (though not politically, at least in my case), thrusting me forward, into the unknown.

paris blues (1961)

my mood lightened considerably over the weekend while watching this movie. it's a little light on story, sure, but it's terrific seeing gorgeous young paul newman, joanne woodward, and sidney poitier play some cool jazz. they're fun to watch and it's just a fun little riff. it's also wonderful seeing louis armstrong playing his horn and laughing his laugh and mopping his face. if you like any of these actors (well, satchel-mouth wasn't really an actor, but he's probably the happiest person you'll ever see) or if you like jazz at all or if you like paris, this is the film.

but it's not to be confused with paris, texas (1984) or paris france (1994), which are also excellent films, but in extremely different ways.

proz

finished the wideman, on to mamet, for whatever that's worth. the wideman was a little overwrought but it got its point across. it was strong.

i went to see my doctor on friday. my lipid levels are as wonky as ever, but he didn't focus on that. mostly he just talked to me, about my job and my not sleeping and my inability to make decisions about anything, and i walked away with a prescription for fluoxetine. how about that? it wasn't what i was expecting. i hadn't been thinking of myself as particularly depressed. funny, though, the fact that he thought prozac would help me kind of brought me down.

i don't know if it's what i need. i don't know if any good will come from it. and i won't know, for a few weeks yet. i've only taken 2 pills so far, one yesterday, one today.

several things

i've several things to report today. first and foremost. kara got a new j-o-b. oh she's been looking for years, trying to get out of multicare, and she's finally done it. mostly. she got hired on as a legal assistant (or legal clerk?) for a defense attorney here in tacoma. she'll be working on the waterfront! she's going to learn a buttload, i am certain. among her varied duties will be interviewing clients, which will include alleged murderers. wow! how cool is that? i'm really very proud of her for landing this job. anyway, that's a 20-hour a week gig, maybe sometimes more, maybe sometimes less. so she's actually keeping her multicare legal-clerk job, but she'll be drastically cutting her hours (to 10 or 15 a week, probably), so that will make that situation considerably more palatable. plus she'll have stories for me about the killers and rapists and other violent offenders with whom she will be interacting. (i'm sure there might be some filing and clerical-type stuff she'll have to do as well, but that's part of the package.) it's really wonderful news. she starts that job on may 12, a week from today.

two. my dream of becoming a diener is stalling. i talked to one of multicare's pathologists as well as an autopsy technician ("autopsy technician," "autopsy assistant," and "diener" apparently all mean the same thing, but "diener" is considered derogatory, though i still like it) for pierce county last week. it's true that there's no formal training required to get started doing this macabre work, but job openings are quite rare. the multicare pathologist said he would call me the next time he does an autopsy, and i'll get to watch. unfortunately, multicare performs maybe 5 or 10 autopsies a year (most are sent to the county), so who knows when the next one will be? and if it's months down the road, who knows if he'll remember to contact me? in the meantime, however, there's little i can do to become a more attractive candidate.

three. maybe i'll get another bachelor's degree. in biology. and do whatever spawns from that. it's something i'm looking into.

four. maybe i'll become an invasive cardiovascular technician, and assist with cardiac catheterizations and even open-heart surgeries. of course we all know of my distaste for needles, and for flowing blood, so this on the surface sounds like a silly notion. still, i think the heart is a mighty cool little machine, and there's an informational session about the associate's degree program next week that i might attend, just for scuz.

five. i finished the yellow house (about van vogh and gauguin) and read factotum (a novel by charles bukowski). all told, 3 struggling artists, sort of. both books were good, actually, in extremely different ways. i'd never read bukowski before and he's very raw. but i liked the book. and yesterday i started reading brothers & keepers, a memoir by john edgar wideman and so far it's very good too, though i'm only on page 8.

six. my own writing stalled a little bit over the weekend, with my despondency over the diener news and glee over kara's achievement, but i'll get back into that this week.

seven. on friday i got a new driver's license, as my old one expires next week, and in the new photo i look like i just got goosed. yowza. also i look huge, so we're getting serious again about diet & exercise. at the moment we have low-fat burritos in the oven. actually, i think they're ready now.

eight. may 2nd was my sister jennifer's birthday, may 3rd was my aunt mollie's, and tomorrow is mom's. so happy birthday, blues and rothwell. many happy returns.