so i work in a doctor's office...

one day a woman came in for a procedure and was rather nervous about the whole thing. she asked the OR boys if the doctor was LDS because she wanted a blessing. from what we can gather our doctor is a jewish, raised LDS, born-again christian so they told her no. she said okay, changed quickly, and waited patiently for her turn in the OR. once she got on the table, the doctor came in and she said, "i'm really nervous about this, can you give me a blessing?" in all of the goodness of his heart, the doctor turned around with his hands in the air and said, "yeah! i got this!" he grabbed the lidocaine and sprinkled some on the woman's forehead, put his hands on her shoulders, and said,"dear god, bless this woman, bless this room, and bless the people in this room...in the name of christ we pray." at the time, there were two guys (both returned missionaries) from the OR crew in the OR with him. one stood there holding a tray with his eyes wide open and mouth forced close. the other looked at him and said "i'm going to turn around and walk away right now." he did and we heard him muttering something about lightening on his way down the hall. this is exactly why i love my job.

the adventures of the blue coat; or, that which happened during my hiatus...

roommate got married and cancelled the internet. i can't lie...it was a wonderful time in my life. i actually had other hobbies. i read. i gardened. i traveled. it was heavenly. here are some of the adventures that i had.

who knew there were "slot canyons" so close to home? i didn't.

mom and i outside the smithsonian. neither one of us had slept more than 2 hours in the past 24...i thought we looked okay.

the renwick: my ABSOLUTE favorite museum in DC.

history hasn't ever been quite so real.

my one stipulation for the trip was that i HAD to see the ocean. this wasn't the ocean, but i DID see it. it was amazing.

happy easter! let's roll eggs...

yes. it even visited split mountain canyon via raft.

the blue coat has had some incredible adventures this spring and i do love it, but the next "adventures" entry should be the chacos...here's a preview of things to come.

easter 2009

this weekend rocked. it was a good weekend. i can't deny it. good friends. good food. bipolar weather(but there was sun in the end!). good times. church was AWESOME. i mean church is usually really great, but easter is all the more reason to have an AMAZING personal experience with jesus christ(watched the testaments and considered the faith necessary on his end to complete the atonement). the unexpected twist on the holiday was the impromptu star wars anonymous meeting just before bed. there was talk of sand monsters, light sabers, dedicated trivial pursuit games, and alternate endings, followed up closely by the standard youtube video. someone made the comment that easter 2009 would never be forgotten. 'tis true. it will not be forgotten...for many reasons.

venting...

*no, my name is not shanty, shancie, sandy, or shabby.
*why is it that i can buy 5 pair of regular socks for the same price i pay for one pair of nylons? i've been through 6 pairs of nylons since january 1 2009.
*if you are going to put me on hold, at least give me something decent to listen to.
*i've been home from chile nearly 3 years. is there any particular reason that NESTLE GOLD has JUST NOW re-entered my life?
*yoga is NOT for the unfocused. don't try to tell me it's easy.

wish me luck...

I'm going running for the first time since my vacation. I'm not taking rocks. Hope this works...

disclaimer: i'm allergic to dogs.

so i went running tonight-wait. let's back this up. last sunday i was talking with an old mission companion. she told me that she still carries rocks with her every time she goes running. i'm not going to lie...i laughed. that era of my life had completely left my memory. flash forward. tonight...i went running. as i walked out of my parking lot i noticed a few things 1) a father/20+ something-daughter duo walking their little (grandma'ish) dogs; 2) a pair of sisters (one toddler) walking on the opposite sidewalk; and 3) random dog running through the yards across the street. so it was a "stray" dog. it had a collar. it apparently has a home and an owner who loves it. the dog...being of the curious variety, ran past the little girls hesitating only to take a quick sniff (finding it unsatisfactory), and ran straight-shot to the dogs. long story short, the father yelled at the little girls and i both to take care of our dog while his daughter picked up both of their dogs. the combination of the mission, my animal allergy, and a few childhood experiences with my own father, have left me completely neutral to dogs. i don't particularly hate them, but at the same time, i have no desire to own one. for the time being, i decided that this tail-less creature with a choke-chain collar could join me on my jog if for no other reason to calm down the completely irate (grandma-ish) dog owners. he followed me for a few blocks and i thought i was going to lose him at the house with the over-sized white fur ball that likes to bark and stretch his chain every time i run by. i was wrong. he quickly reappeared. i then remembered the mission and the dogs that waited for us outside different homes and followed us around until we locked them out of our gated yard. then i remembered that i don’t have a gated yard. dang. that means he can’t follow me home. that meant i had to yell or do something to make him go away. i looked for rocks as my former companion had mentioned, but soon discovered that i have surprisingly clean streets in my neighborhood. there were no rocks to be found. that left the actually yelling at the dog. i don’t like dogs, but i don’t like yelling either. i’m what people would generally call non-confrontational-even if it is a dog. but more than non-confrontational, i’m not a dog person so the dog had to go. i opened my mouth to yell at the dog and to my shock (and secretly, pleasure) the word “sali” left my mouth. i was yelling at the dog in spanish. that made me laugh…quite a bit. i chuckled at that for most of the run home and didn’t even notice when my tail-less friend was really distracted by the over-sized white fur ball and i arrived at my house alone. looking back, the experience wasn’t too bad…perhaps i’ll have to keep running with the dogs if for no other reason than to keep up my spanish.

the weather (part deuce)

I'd like to announce that it is snowing. A LOT. Frankly, I don't care. I choose to appreciate it in all of it's glory. I think I may even run in it. Probably not. I'd probably die if I did. I will however dream of snow shoeing for the next week. Done. Weather appreciated. I think it might have something to do with the fact that my Samoas arrived today. Bless the Girl Scouts for bringing me 150 calories of bliss in 2 cookies. Yay for the Girl Scouts. Happiness in a box. Thank you Girl Scouts.