"The two books of Maccabees relate the exploits of a family of Jewish heroes who deliver the Jews from the persecutions of the Syrian king Antiochus Epiphanes and establish a line of priest-kings, which endures until Herod the Great. One of these heroes, Judas, wins big against the Syrians, enters Jerusalem, and in 165 B.C. reconsecrates the Temple."

I think I should name my first son Antiochus Epiphanes. Sounds grandious, don't it?

Quote of the day:

"Can I borrow your fork and your pot pie?" -Andrea

Andrea, I will miss you so much while I am away. Continue to grow and change and be your wonderful self. And don't let anybody ever have the best of you unless they really, really deserve it, because you are something special. You are an amazing person, and I'm happy to be able to call you my friend.

Then looking upwards
I strain my eyes and try
To tell the difference between shooting stars and satellites
From the passenger seat as you are driving me home.

"do they collide?"
I ask and you smile
With my feet on the dash
The world doesn't matter

When you feel embarrassed then i'll be your pride
When you need directions then i'll be the guide
For all time
For all time

Death Cab for Cutie, "Passenger Seat"

By the way, I saw movies 1 and 5 on my list. I highly recommend both of them to anybody with a strong stomach.

I also saw The Ring for the first time. It was pretty good, considering I've been around for all the hype. Jeff and I are supposed to watch "Ringu" when I'm down in LA, because he (for some reason or another) has it.

So, Wedding Crashers, and Proof need to be seen before I leave the States.

Two weeks. That's all I've got to do all that I have to do. This is going to be a long haul.

i wanna see some movies.
1. The Aristocrats
2. Ladies in Lavendar
3. Broken Flowers
4. March of the Penguins
5. Boondock Saints

Everybody has a good side. For some it's the left; for some it's the right. It's the side you should use for having your picture taken, or for the first time you meet a person, or for when you are trying to get something you want or need.

I've determined that at least for now, my good side is my right side. The problem with this is, any interactions that take place through the driver's side window always exhibit the left side. The natural extention of this discovery is that I can no longer go through drive-throughs, and if I ever get pulled over by a cop (knock on wood), I will most certainly get the ticket.

All of this was thought as I was pulling away from the drive-through at McDonalds.

i'm in Illinois right now, chillin with relatives. leave a message after the tone.

Seriously, though - I have my cell phone. So you can still call me. Yes.

My little cousin Eddie says "ha" when he means "yeah" or "yes". And the rest of his speech is quite hard to interpret. I swear he speaks Japanese, and a really cute version of it at that. And his sister Emma really likes my grilled cheese. She looked up at me with wide eyes when I suggested it for lunch and said, "you can COOK?" hehe... I'm old enough to cook, but young enough to play. That's why babysitters are so loved and adored...

We have a family reunion this weekend at Mark Twain Lake. Should be full of visiting with people I've never met. Maybe I'll meet a guy.

HAHAHAHAHA I love redneck jokes.

This post is deteriorating in quality (how can the quality deteriorate when it wasn't any good to begin with?), so I'm signing off. Adios!

JEFF IS HERE! yay!!!!!

yay for hiking! This weekend was unique. We went 18 miles, compared to the 17 of the first weekend at Mt. Rainier and the 13 of last weekend at Mt. St. Helens. The views were not as breathtaking as the five-mountain view on top of Goat Mountain at Helens, nor were there as many varied landscapes like those at Rainier. But we did have a spectacular campsite on Lake Boulder, where you woke up and exited the tent to find yourself at the edge of a beautiful lake surrounded by tree-covered hills. The weather was clear the entire time, but not too hot, so the 10 miles on the first day went pretty fast. And the second day was a heavily-wooded 3.5 miles until we hit the hot springs, which were amazing.

Of course, I absolutely love hiking. It's great because you don't remember the bad moments, when you look back at it. You don't remember your aching knees as you decend into the river valley, or the bug bites, or the wet sleeping bag, or your blisters. You remember hiking through snow and quaint alpine meadows. You remember the hilarious story about a research group in China asking their native group leader for kerosene to make fire, and getting a Soviet WWII era flame thrower instead. You remember sitting in the flashlight-lit tent, teaching cribbage to the only group member who doesn't know how to play, and having to mentally track your score. You remember seeing the deer, elk, hummingbirds, rabbits, and grouse. You remember making a delicious curry sauce to go with your rice for dinner. You remember the newts sunning in the shallow end of Deadmen's Lake. You remember the mystic beauty of Ipsut Pass in the fog. You remember the laughs, the songs, and the mishaps.

You remember the good times.

Working today at the office, I realized there is something I really, truly hate.

Now before I go on, I have to say that normally, working at the office makes me feel happy. People are there working to recover from injuries and surgeries, and the physical therapists keep their patients' health as top priority. Spirits are almost always high, and we do our best to deliver excellent patient care. Such should be the goal of every medical provider.

But of course, medical insurance companies do their best to rear their big, ugly heads and deny coverage for everything. Today, there were two people whose insurance I called to check benefits, only to find that they had so much deductible left that they wouldn't see a cent from the insurance until after several visits to our office. One of them even had an allowed amount that was smaller than the deductible!!! Imagine having your insurance company put a cap on visits which you yourself are paying for!! Now that's just adding insult to injury. Literally.

So naturally, we are not seeing either of these fine folks in our office again. Thankfully, one of them was only a one-time visit anyway. But the other person really needed the PT and won't be getting it. It's a shame, folks - it's really a shame.

In other, more upbeat news, I got the new Harry Potter book on loan from a friend who has already finished it. I read it at lunch today while I was eating and then working out. Speaking of working out, I can't decide whether I should go do that, or go clean my room. I'm thinkin I should do the cleaning, seeing as how I will soon be having guests staying in my brother's room, which has much of my crap in there. So the quicker I get my room clean, the faster I can put my college junk from my brother's room into mine... ah, it's going to be a headache. Maybe I should just give all of my worldly possessions over to Goodwill.

Well, whatever I'm going to do, I'd better get started. Better than wasting time here on good ol' Compy. Btw, Jeff, what's the link to your brother's blog?

freakin' emo! sheesh!

In this life, you gotta smile. You gotta laugh. All those things that piss you off, or that you think are totally unnecessary, or are a waste of time, or are sad - you just gotta turn around and laugh at them. It's the only way to keep your sanity.

Unfortunately, in doing so, people will judge you. Walk around with a big smile on your face, and what do you get? Less respect. Isn't it a tragic catch-22?

You know what's dumb? Freak dancing. I think it's really only an American thing, too. In other countries, people actually dance.

Hiking this weekend will be at Mt. St. Helens. A guy that I haven't seen in 2 years will be coming with us. Cool, huh? I hope so.

There were a few moments there where I considered deleting my post of two weekends ago. Of course, I didn't do that. Why amend what's on my mind? No one else does. Really, no one reads blogs. My faithful readership is a prime number less than 4. It's funny that this one doesn't make any splash at all until... oh, man. Free speech is a double-edged sword, I guess.

I can comment on it, though. I won't delete, but I'll comment.

I understand that I wouldn't have been invited on a fun weekend if my company wasn't desired. I never felt like I deserved any of it - probably the exact opposite is true. And that's why I felt the way I did - since I didn't deserve it, there must have been another reason.

I did try to socialize. And I enjoyed hanging out with the people I did, when I did, for the most part. It's just that on the last night I wasn't feeling very social, and I felt that wasn't acceptable. Doesn't everyone deserve some space when they need it? I think it's reasonable for me to publish these sorts of feelings on a blog. Hey, there are worse outlets, right? This is a good place to be critical. And I criticize many things that I'm a part of, for example America, UW, Olympia, and Seattle. I think if I'm a part of the drama, it's good to criticize it, rather than shove it underground and pretend like it didn't happen.

Speaking of outlets, I may need to find another if I keep getting messages on my phone. I guess there's no need to share those messages, but then again, there's no need for them to be left on my voicemail. If it's such a moot point, why was there a second message?

I guess I call all of this "high-school drama" because it only involves people from high school. And it's not the people. It's the connections. Think about it - he said that she said that he heard that she said. How does all this word get around? Because everyone knows everybody else and they all have each others cell phone numbers, and various senses of loyalty to one another. The same sort of thing happens in offices, in small towns - similar settings. The fact that this all happened on the weekend that it did is really just a coincidence. It involves people from high school, and nobody else. Anyone else notice this trend? If it were just the people, I would live with those girls in a heartbeat. We all know that it's the connections that change the atmosphere, and that's precisely what drives me away. It gets to be too much for me. I'm afraid - afraid that I wouldn't be happy. Afraid that I'd be trying to please everyone all the time. Afraid that I'd side with someone when I shouldn't, or not stick up for someone when I should. I guess that's why I run from it. It's the easy way out, I guess... but why would I go the hard way?

So now, some people have opinions on what needs to happen next. I guess this is the part where I stick to my guns and do what needs to be done, not what other people think I should do.

I hope I'm strong enough?

After my small dinner party tonight, I'm a tired girl. It'd be best if I go to sleep now - gotta get up early for work tomorrow.

I recommend getting your heart trampled on to anyone
I recommend walking around naked in your living room
Swallow it down (what a jagged little pill)
It feels so good (swimming in your stomach)
Wait until the dust settles
You live you learn
You love you learn
You cry you learn
You lose you learn
You bleed you learn
You scream you learn

You Learn - Alanis Morrisette (back when she was good)