Snow, anyone?

I took this picture at about noon today. It's been snowing non-stop in Boulder for hours. Hence, I haven't set foot out the front door. All flights in and out of DIA are canceled and all of the roads are either closed or packed with cars. Ohhhhh, blizzards are so fun. I feel a little better about sitting around in a vicodan coma, because there's not a lot I could do outside the house, even if I wanted to. You'll note that the next picture looks a little weird, it's because I took it through the screen since I no longer have any desire to even poke my camera out the door.

Also, you'll note that the snow on the railing is about four inches deeper that in the first picture. That's what 2 hours in Colorado will do for you.

We may get 26 inches by noon tomorrow. If so, I'll take more pictures and post them for those of you who might not have seen snow since Valentine's Day, sophomore year.

Oh, hot cocoa and warm socks all day. Stay warm.

Oh, and the nuggets are still playing tonight for some reason. Good thing we traded for Allen Iverson but he's not playing... and Carmelo Anthony punched that dude so he's not playing either...

Cheeky Monkey

1.) I'm really excited because I got all A's this semester.

2.) In case you think I'm bragging, my cheeks are fat(ter than usual).

Two teeth, or not two teeth

Well, this in interesting. For the past two months or so I've collected "Wisdom Teeth" stories from everyone I know. I got everything from a friend whose tooth punch through his bone and he thought he ruptured his eardrum, to using a blindfold instead of general anesthesia, to multiple infections and general bad post-operation judgment calls like beer and hockey, or motorcycle rides. Then there are people like Tim who like to brag that their jaws are big enough, or they were born with no wisdom teeth at all.

So maybe it's too early to speak, since I just got mine out this morning and there's certainly a possibility that I'll spend Christmas day battling four dry sockets, but this has just been a generally been a very weird experience.

All night last night I had dreams about getting the surgery and when I woke up, I was convinced that it was over. It's a little like when you get a new job and you dream about it all night and wake up just when you're supposed to get off work in your dream, so you essentially work two shifts...

It wasn't nearly that exhausting though, just disappointing. I've never had general anesthesia before, and I don't care how many times people say "you don't even know you've fallen asleep and then you're done..." I was still freaking out a little inside until I met my doctor... who was AWESOME. He talked to me about finding more little solutions to get rid of my headaches one step at a time, and then the last thing I remember is him saying to the nurse, "that's flowing really well," as he poked me with the IV. My legs got warm, my arms felt number, and I woke up an hour later with a mouth full of dry blood (yum).

So, even though my jaw is really sore and I can't eat anything without bleeding (again, yum), my notion that dentists are the best people on earth has been reaffirmed. I love them. I can't wait to have dental insurance so I can go to the dentist every month. It sounds crazy, I'm sure, clean teeth make me happy and I'm fascinated with anesthesia now. Oh, and I got to ride in wheel chair for the first time. (NB: "getting" to ride in a wheelchair= nothing like "having" to ride in a wheelchair)

Anyway, my face is in pain but it's fine. My Dad's taking excellent care of me (he made me his AMAZING homemade Macaroni and Cheese) and got me two kinds of juice, soynog, ice cream, Fresca and popcicles to make everything all better.

It's awesome to be back in Colorado. I psyched about seeing my family and friends whom I haven't seen in six months or longer. It is weird to be without Tim though, I haven't gone a day without seeing him since last November, when my Grandfather passed away.

Christmas is so weird. Break is awesome. My laws feel like crap, but really, I can't complain.

Oh, except that I also miss Kristin and I expect her to bake me sympathy cookies when I return.

long, straight, curly, shaggy, oily, flaxen, waxen

Okay, I just have to share... when you look at the profile for the movie Hair on amazon...


As you scroll down, you eventually come to this...

I'm not entirely sure anyone at amazon has actually seen the movie... just a guess. I find this utterly fantastic.

the ability to create a chuck wagon out of a nickel

This is the christmas list I got in an email from my dad. It's too awesome not to share.

"Hey Kiddo,

All I want for xmas is a new super-power- choose from this list:

My list for super powers

1. The ability to throw a large cheese over the hedge and no one would see me, even if I go around the other side to see what happened.

2. The ability to know what someone got for someone else for Xmas.

3. The ability to count the number of cars in a car lot with no time limit, and somehow it’s still impressive.

4. The ability to take pictures without a camera or phone.

5. The ability to know whether or not a bear wants to eat me.

6. Complete understanding of the metric system, and how it was that Jesus convinced everyone Satan is the devil.

7. The ability to make people think I talk to the President.

8. The ability to choose a good retaurant without having to think about it.

9. The ability to hold my eyes closed tight for three seconds and nothing happens, except people ask if I am okay.

10. The ability to know whether or not a turtle wants to eat me.

11. The ability to see a hamster- even when there is no hamster there.

12. I’d like to be the only person in the world who knows how to speak a foreign language- and see how everyone feels about that.

Love,

Dad."

One Gold Star is Not Enough

What a bizarre culture we live in. I just spent an hour rating t-shirt designs on Threadless (which, in case you didn't notice, is preventing me from doing anything productive since about two weeks ago), and it occurred to me, everywhere you go, people ask you to rate things in these weird, semi-meaningless scales.

Rate t-shirts, rate songs in your iTunes, rate movies, give (and receive) grades on a scale from F to A, from 0.0 to 4.0.

"Rate your server on a scale from 1 to 5, five being the best service you've ever received"
"Rate your pain on a scale from 1 to 10, ten being the worst pain you've can imagine" (Complete with weird little frowny-face chart)
"Rate your level of volunteer experience from 0 to 5" (on grad school aps, as if you have any idea what 2, 3, or 4 actually signify, 0 being "heartless cad" and 5 being "living in hut in darfur, handing out MREs and AIDS meds")

We evaluate our courses and professors on a sliding scale; everyone knows those little "never, hardly ever, unknown, often, always" scales... How often do you listen to this music? How happy are you with your job? How likely are you to shop online? Haw satisfying was the cheesecake?

You know what? NONE of these sliding scales actually represent the way I feel about ANY of these things. They NEVER do. I'm done with sliding scales.

Seriously, I have the hardest time with these things. When you have a blinding migraine, and all you want is for someone to induce a coma, do you say 8.5 because you can imagine that yes, if you also had a broken leg and a burst apendix, it might be worse? What if I like the idea but the design is shit? How do professors destinguish between an 89 and 90? What's the difference between 2 1/2 stars and 3?

Bullox. That's what I say it is.
Somethings simply don't fit on a sliding scale. Some things have more dimensions than that. On a scale of 0 to 5, the quality of our qualifying system is about a 1, and it's tiresome.

That's it. That's all I have to go on about. This has been one of those funny little epiphanies that don't fit into of the shoeboxes where I keep the things that fascinate me.