Whoa.
I just got this from my dad, with the caption "wow... I feel like a chump. Not a dry eye in the house".

Check it out:

(it's a story about a (75yo) dad who was run 85+ marathons, pushing his (45yo) disabled son in a wheelchair... then they finally rigged something up so the son could communicate, and he said all he wishes is that one day he could push his dad... Anyway, there's a video at the end, and it's a tearjerker.)

Ok, and on a TOTALLY unrelated note...
Can someone please tell me what 'hyphy' is? Context: now playing: "blah blah blah song: hyphy remix"
Apparently it's some new fad in music... but I'm lost. Even listening to it, I can't tell exactly what it is.

So, there's this girl at work... I've sort of never liked her. Probably b/c I'm jealous, but I'm not sure. She's very pretty, and very stylish. Very designer-everything, which is sort of the opposite of me. But we've been on call together for the last few weeks, and actually it was kind of fun and I realized she's not so bad. She gave me a ride home from work yesterday, and Paris Hilton's song came on the radio, and she said "ugh I hate Paris Hilton" and I mumbled something and she said "well I was dissed for Paris Hilton" and I asked what she meant, and she said that Nick Carter dumped her for Paris. She said she'd been wondering why he was being weird and not returning calls- and then she saw them on the tabloids in the checkout line or something.

But anyway, so yesterday she invited me out with her... I felt like the nerd who had been invited to hang out with the popular kids... I was kind of psyched. I even bought some sexy shoes, b/c my usual jeans and a sweater wouldn't cut it in her scene. (and I got compliments on the shoes (zebra striped stilettos) ALL night, even from girls. Score!)

So my other friend and I went to Blu Mirage. She picked the place and said she'd meet us there, so we went there. Well she didn't show. She called from Soho instead, and said to come there, but we didn't feel like walking that far. So the nerd got stood up by the cool kids, again. Ugh. But we had fun anyway.

It was an interesting night... Ended up at Mother's til 5am. Some girl tried to strangle my friend for talking to her boyfriend. Like seriously left scratch marks on her throat.

And I got introduced to these two guys, Andrew and Ryan. I didn't think much of it, they didn't seem interested in me, and I wasn't so interested in them. But girls were all over them all night....

I learned later their last names are Peters and Miller, and they are Sabres. I don't think they liked that I didn't know who they were, and didn't fawn all over them all night. Whatever.

Then some guy bought me a drink, and we talked most of the night. He was cute. And it turns out that he's good friends with my Work Crush #2- who later showed up. Small world. People kept telling me all night how into me he was. And he had no power/heat, and was kind of hinting about needing a place to stay. Everyone was giving me winks and nudges. So I said he could crash at my place. So he did. And we didn't even smooch. He ended up leaving a little while ago, and didn't even ask for my number. Hmm. I was kind of surprised, b/c I had definitely been getting the feeling that he was interested.

I wish I wasn't so socially retarded... I just don't know how to play the game. At all. I can't flirt to save my life. I mean I don't know that I'm super into this guy or anything, but he was cute and nice and I would have let him call me, but I think I gave him totally cold vibes, without meaning to. Blah...

Ok, back to my regularly scheduled hangover.

Sorry I'm so chatty (yet boring) lately...

-J

...I speak for the trees.
Oh, the poor trees.

On my way home from work this AM, now that a lot of the snow has melted and the roads are mostly dry, I was able to get an idea of what a mess it is out there. So I took my camera with me as I went to do errands, and then I cruised around the 'hood surveying the damage. Bird between claremont and ashland is amazing. So here are some pix, and the rest are here


You've seen this one. 5pm thurs. Just getting going.


2am friday.


Saturday afternoon- on ramp to the 90


Forest and Elmwood (psych center in the background)


Ouch (on Richmond)


Richmond and Potomac (the house I almost rented)


Claremont and Bird


Bird

I hope everyone is safe and warm!! (and if you need help, ask your friendly neighborhood peeps! Please!)

-J

I hate that I am so internet dependent. Ugh.
I keep calling my house to see if my answering maching will pick up, and it does, so I guess I still have power. Which makes me happy, as several of my colleagues do not, and I am starting to see them trickle back into the hospital, looking for maybe a warm bed, or at least a warm shower. Scary to have to imagine even for a second what it's like to be without, and what we take for granted, and what some people don't have... but anyway, so there are more people than usual populating the little 'wing' of call rooms... and there's a desk with two computers. One has a sign on it that says "do not use this computer". And I finally thought "why the hell not? I'll shut it down when I'm done." So I booted up and went to log in... and this computer has a non-QWERTY keyboard!! It's so weird! I've never seen anything like it. All the letters are in the wrong place. There are letters on the top where the numbers go, numbers on the right, W on the bottom... I figured maybe that's why we're not supposed to use it. I think the lady whose desk it is had a stroke and can only use one hand, so maybe that's it. So I was trying to type on this crazy thing and kept screwing up- til I finally realized it actually IS a QWERTY keyboard, just mislabelled. Yikes.

This storm is depressing me. I keep wandering back to the tvs with the weather channel on. One was talking about the "snow ratio"- said this snow is 5:1 snow to water, and that 1 cubic foot weighs 20 lb. That "normal" snow is 20:1 and is 4lb per cubic foot. That plus the leaves is major tree damage. Up to 90% of the trees in buffalo they said. And that the big storm a few years ago was 87 inches of snow, but caused less than 1/4 of the damage this one has. Said this is actually one of the most devastating storms in buffalo history. Wowie wow wow wow.

I thought this was just an annoyance... snow too early... but this is like a big deal, peeps!

And have you heard the name? "october surprise".

LAME.

Ok, back to wandering the halls aimlessly, I suppose...

Sorry for the boring post.

Stay warm... and if anyone needs a warm place, you're welcome to swing by. Well, after I get home tomorrow. (I'm guessing my haircut appointment is a no-go, what do you think?)

Wow... I am astonished at what a mess this storm has turned out to be. I mean, i was thinking "wow, it's snowing, that sucks." Had no idea how serious it is! Now they're saying we're going to run out of water! Last I heard there are 400,000 people without power. A guy at work was calling around to look for a hotel to stay in since he has no power/heat. I didn't realize how lucky I am to still have power.

It took me an hour to get in to work this morning, and I was still the first one here. Reluctantly, I admitted defeat and left my poor little car in the snow, and accepted a ride in my landlord's big mean SUV. I guess being stuck in a place with heat, power, showers and internet is not so bad. But get this- since the hospital is in disaster mode, all "non-essential" employees don't have to come in. Apparently the cafeteria is non-essential. So not only is there nothing for employees to eat- they're not even making food for the patients!! i guess they're just feeding everyone cereal and boxed lunches.

the trees make me sad though. When I was coming in this morning, around 6:30, it was still a mess. It was like an obstacle course... we kept having to re-route to get around roads blocked with trees, and downed power lines. And there were abandoned cars all over. Even in a 4WD truck we were slipping and sliding. But we ended up going down, what is it, Lincoln parkway? Into the circle bye gates, then down delaware. But a lot of the gorgeous old trees in the middle island are all broken and splintered. :(

Well peeps, I hope you are all warm and safe.

-J

P.S. (e:ajay) did you make it to town? did you make it to goodbar last night? i did not. sorry if I missed you!