...stay this way as long as you can.

Today the mail brought me:
Oh Inverted World by The Shins
$20 check from the state of Oregon for my prescription costs

Email brought me:
$50 Flight voucher from Jetblue for my inconvenience from their delayed flight on Friday.

Text brought me:
Smiles and comfort

Raseny brought me:
Rent money, and groceries.

Weather brought me:
Sun, however brief.


I haven't slept in 27 hours and counting, but I'm riding the high of a gentle and easy going wave. May the good times keep rolling.

Current Music: The Shins

It's 11pm, and Raseny isn't back yet from Detroit. She was supposed to come back today, and there is not much of today left. No word from her on a delay, either. Troubling, that's the word for it.

Earlier it started snowing again. I haven't been outside in many hours, but it looked like at least another inch or two. More troubling news.

I have some groceries for another day or two. Hopefully the snow won't get in the way of my rides to dialysis. Tomorrow, if it's not still snowing, I will try and walk to the grocery store. That should be... fun.

Nothing more I can do tonight I suppose. Soon I'll try and sleep.


UPDATE: Raseny called. Her flight was delayed, but she's back in Portland and she's safe.

I'm headed for the airport soon. On the way I'm going to stop by Jerry's Wood Fired Hot Dogs because they are awesome. I had one earlier, and it was, by far, the best hot dog I've ever had. Damn good.

My flight was delayed, so I'm not leaving Orange County until close to 8pm. I'll arrive in Portland around 10, where it will be really fucking cold.

It's been a great 9 days. I may blog about it later, I might not. It was memorable, and all of it in good ways. It's a New Year, though, and even things that happened two days ago seem a lifetime ago. After the poo-storm that was 2008, I'm excited to see what 2009 has in store. It sure won't be more of the same.

"It will always be pussy cow to me!"

WIN!!

or FAIL, I can't tell which.

I have created 2 new drinks. The first is a new twist on an old classic.

1 shot of vodka
1 shot French Vanilla Kahlua
a touch of milk
pour over 1 ice cube in a martini glass

I don't have a name for it yet.

The second drink is similar, but different. I haven't measured the amounts yet.

Grey Goose vodka
French Vanilla Kahlua
Vanilla ice cream
blend it until delicious. It won't take long.

This also doesn't have a name yet, but patent pending mother fuckers. This brilliant concoction is MINE!

Ok Orange County peoples, I am here, and the night of Tuesday the 30th I'd like to get together and have some food. Maybe some drinks even. I'm at a loss place for where to go, though.

Recommendations?

The dialysis unit I'm going to here is awful. Not the worst I've seen, but close. Chairs are stacked almost on top of each other - and I mean that literally. Dialysis chairs have little tables that fold out from the arms where nurses put their supplies (gauze, needles, etc.), and the the table of the chair next to mine was on top of the one on mine. I've never seen chairs this close together. The guy sitting next to me was close enough to smell his breath. Not that I can smell, but I imagine if I could that's probably what I would have been smelling. And this lack of personal space was not even the worst thing about the unit.

Apparently they don't use lidocaine. Wait, let me rephrase that to properly illustrate the absurdity of this. They don't have lidocaine anywhere in the building. If this is your first venture into the world of medicine, let me explain. Lidocaine is a local anesthetic. It's used to numb the skin when they're doing things like stabbing you with big, sharp needles, or giving you stitches. The kind of thing you really don't want to feel because pain sucks, and big sharp needle pain sucks a lot. Especially when they have to do it twice. So, as a courtesy to people who have to get stabbed 3 times a week with big sharp needles, they numb the skin around where they will be stabbing. It's a nice thing, and one I appreciate.

Well this place doesn't. Apparently the patients of the unit get a prescription for some type of cream that works to numb the skin before they go into dialysis. No one thought to tell me this. If they had I would have chosen a unit that was less, I don't know, crazy. And mean. Because forcing the patient to buy and administer their own local anesthetic is just fucking rude. And mean. Very very mean.

Part of my surprise at being told, "We don't use lidocaine. You're supposed to numb yourself before you get here." is that this is a Davita clinic. So far Davita has been really good to me. I've found their policies sane, and their treatment of patients exceptional. That's in Oregon, though. Apparently every company in California gets away with being douchebags to dialysis patients, and they embrace such allowances. Fresenius, Davita, Kaiser; all companies that exist in Oregon in stark contrast to how they exist in California. Well, not Fresenius so much. Those guys are assholes everywhere.

I have to put up with a few more treatments at this place, and I'm not happy about it. At least they have lidocaine now. In their defense, after trying to badger me into not using lidocaine, they did send an employee the 5 miles over to the Tustin unit that does have lidocaine to bring some back. That was nice of them.

I have never read Watchmen.

I know. I should be ashamed of myself, and I am. In hindsight it comes from my youth as a blind and devoted Marvel Fanboy. I did not read DC comics. Once I read The Killing Joke, and Arkham Asylum, and I felt like I had cheated on my girlfriend. There were occasional DC/Marvel crossovers that I allowed myself to check out. They sucked, and I blamed it on DC. So I ignored Watchmen when it was first released. Over the years I heard I should read it, that it was awesome, and that I was missing out.

Yeah right. It's just another comic.

This is me admitting I was wrong. I do that sometimes, the wrong thing. This was one of those times.

The Girlfriend went out and bought me one last present to surprise me with when I got here. It was wrapped and waiting for me under a little tree on her table with a big sticker - DO NOT OPEN UNTIL CHRISTMAS! I hungered to open it. I could see it was a book, but what book? Did I have any books on my Amazon wishlist? Well yeah, but none this big. What could it be?

She got home from work at 8am. I woke up as she climbed into bed. I smiled, kissed her, and asked, "So can I open my present now?"

It was Watchmen. It wasn't on my wishlist, but she had seen me eyeing it and touching it in Barnes and Nobles the last time I was in town. She had remembered, and she surprised me. It feels as good as I always thought it would, to be surprised by a gift. 30+ years of life, and I cannot recall the last time someone cared enough to notice something I wanted better never talked about. Certainly not my family, including my mother, none of whom are able to think about what to get someone if not provided with a lengthy, detailed list of options to choose from. The gift was sweet, and even better, it was fucking awesome.

I started reading it after she went to asleep. That was 10 this morning. I took a break around 3 when Ellen picked me up to go to the relatives. I got back around 8, and I just finished reading it.

I cried. I can't think of any graphic novel that made me cry before. I had no idea what I was in for, and it blew away every idea I had about what Watchmen was about. Fucking awesome. Those are the only words that come to mind when I think what I just spent the day reading.

And I can't imagine anyway to make it into a good movie. Not a movie that does it justice. In some ways I think I would have been better off not reading the graphic novel until next Christmas. At the same time I wish I'd read this 15 Christmases ago.

So that makes The Girlfriend 2 for 2 when it comes to Christmas presents. Difficulties and drama aside, she makes me pretty damn happy. Even when she's not buying me stuff. That's just gravy, and my love of gravy is well documented.

Dear "linksys,"

Whatever you are, you confuse me. First you are open network, easily allowing me access to the internet with no strings attaches. Then you are locked, denying me access and leaving me in the cold. Now you are still locked, but somehow I have gained access to the internet again. You confuse and confound me, linksys. I think I love you.

I'll have a full update later, but I'm currently at my uncle's house and I wanted an excuse to escape my family. Not that I'm not having a good time. In fact I'm kind of enjoying this dinner, but, well, my relatives and I are still akward around each other. Part of it is my bad hearing, another seems to be my family's inability to relate to each other well. We all kind of stand around akwardly looking at each other, unsure of what we have in common and what to say to each other. My mom and her brothers and sisters are good, but the the younger generation, my cousins and I, look at each other like we're all from different worlds. Maybe we are. There are the brothers, my uncle Tom's three sons. Then Kai and Tess, my aunt Donna's two kids, then me.

Kai and Tess are currently bein home schooled, poorly, by my aunt. The Brothers are products of your typical Orange County public education, and then there's me. Each of us the products of environments that seem to have similarities, but enough differences to cause alienation. The brothers stick together. Kai and Tess are each in their own little worlds, and I... well I'm in here typing on a computer rather than fail yet again to involve myself with any of them. They are two young, or two normal, or both, and I am comfortable enough typing or reading instead of attempting to engage the yung'uns in conversation.

But don't be fooled. I've enjoyed this Christmas. More on the day later.

Stage 3 ended at 6:35pm when I landed in Beach, 2 1/2 hours later than planned. The flight was not good. I can't say it was bad, because it could have been worse - I could have been on Horizon, or Delta, or United. Jet Blue has the benefit of letting me watch tv in a comfortable chair while I bounce around through 2 hours of turbulence. Like I said, it could have been worse. The final act of Stage 3 came 10 minutes before landing, as we began our descent into Long Beach, and I spilled a cup of Coke all over my pants. I landed in Long Beach wet, sticky, and kinda cold. Not that I have anything against ending up like that, but I had planned on that later. Not when I got off the plane.

Ellen picked me up from the airport, and instead of being the end of my journey, it was the beginning of what I call The Bonus Stage: Orange County. We had reservations at Maggiano's for dinner, but we had already missed that time by over an hour. We swung by The Girlfriend's work place to pick up the house key, and on the way I got once again marvel at the wondrous monstrosity that is Orange County. The rain has come through again, so it all looks clean and bright. You know, the way it never looks 350 days out of the years. Huge neon signs, row after row of well lit streets, all gleaming and shimmering under a huge desert sky. The concrete rolling under tires as natural as the grass under your feet. When you first land in Southern California, the place is magical.

But I lived here, and although I am occasionally charmed by the illusion, I know better. I allowed myself the moment of awe on our way to dinner. Our destination - the Macaroni Grill. I really wish we'd chosen somewhere else.

So after a bad meal in sticky pants, Ellen drove me to The Girlfriend's place, and that's where I am now.

The adventure is over. Christmas is here. It's been a beautiful day in Orange County. The sun was shining, and it was bright and glorious. I see out the window now, and the wind is picking up. The sky is cloudy, and it looks like rain.

Rain, heh. I imagine there are people worried about this. It ain't snow, and compared to the streets I left, there is nothing to worry about. Well, ok, Southern California drivers, sure, but at least nature is on your side. This rain will probably pass in an hour or two, while folks in Oregon will spend the next few days trying to dig themselves out of the snow.

It's good to be here. So far my holiday is great.

It was all so easy... too easy. Yes, after days of uninteruupted, on schedule flights (or nearly on schedule) Jetblue now has a delayed flight. It is, of course, mine.

The Big Board showing all the flights in the terminal shows my flight as delayed until 3:30. The gate, however, just shows DELAYED, and offers me no information of when, oh when, I will finally escape this snowy prison. Jet Blue's website shows the estimated departure time as 3:41. That's 11 minutes later than The Big Board! I no longer know who to trust, or what to believe. The lies, oh the lies!, when will they end?

I left Gate 5 (heretofore referred to as: My Gate) and walked away from the crowded, huddled masses of displaced, late travelers. I passed the United gates, and they are a fucking mess. No, really, I'm not just being snarky. There's a plane; I think it's boarding. There's a line to the door, then there's 3 other lines to the desk in front of the gate. All of them go all the way back to wall. Travelers who missed or lost earlier flights I guess. It's the zoo I thought I was going to have to fight through earlier. They were just late. Probably due to the weather. Anyway, I'm on the other side of all that now parked on the floor so I could find a power outlet to charge up the laptop. It's quiet over here. I like it.

So now my flight is delayed until... later. Probably 3:30. Who can argue with The Big Board? I may get in around 6 if I'm lucky. Ellen made reservations for dinner, because she likes restaurants where you make reservations. Hopefully we can make them, but I'm not worried if we don't. After all, then I get to go to In n' Out burger, and that's always a win.

I'll head back to My Gate in an hour, when hopefully the mass of Wandering Lost has dissipated around the United terminals. Until then, I'll be reading forums and charging my phone. Wish me luck.

Stage 3 is nearly complete. I am now sitting at my gate in PDX passing the time, and waiting for my flight. Jetblue has not reported any delays, and all looks good for my eventual arrival in sunny Long Beach. Or rainy Long Beach, whatever. It's not snowing, that's what's really important.

The trip to this point was not easy though, despite what the above paragraph may lead you to believe. Oh no, I spent a good hour of stress of worry getting here. Not because of the situation here at the airport, no, but because the news led me to believe there was a situation here at the airport. I started watching the news when I woke up at 8 to try and gauge what things were like here. The one or two reports from the airport focused on the canceled flights, and the people still stuck. No information about how long waits at security were, but they showed long lines at the Continental help desks, and shortening lines at Alaska. They reported that flights are moving, and lots of people were no longer stuck. In the background I could see long lines that appeared to be moving towards the security gate. Just in case, I rushed over here at 10 to try and make sure I made it to my gate.

From the time I stepped into the shuttle to the time I sat down at my gate was 23 minutes.

Fuck you, Portland news team. I could have sat at the hotel and enjoyed another bacon and cheese omelet. But no, here I am at PDX waiting another 2 hours. I want federal regulation of truth for you lying bastards.

Anyway, I'm here. I'm bored. Soon I'll be there, and not so bored. Happy Holidays!