So today has been kind of an emotional rollercoaster.
I got accepted to University of Hawai’i’s Geology & Geophysics program!
They want a $200 tuition deposit by March 1, and I won’t hear anything from Boulder until probably mid-March at the earliest, unless an admissions counselor gets really ambitious with the stack of applications on her desk.
*sigh* What to do?
Did I ever tell you guys about my wisdom teeth debacle? I got them removed when I was a freshman in high school. The procedure itself wasn’t painful—I was under full anesthesia—but when I started to come out of the drug-induced fog, I had the uncontrollable urge to cry. I wasn’t sad, or upset, just physically needed to cry. My mom told me she experienced something similar when she’d had general anesthesia for her tonsils, so I didn’t panic too much. Actually, I was still way too drugged up to experience any strong emotions.
Recovery sucked. I couldn’t eat solid foods and quickly got tired of herbed mashed potatoes. I was in a lot of pain, and the painkillers I was prescribed made me extremely nauseated and I had to resort to Advil or something, which did NOT cut it. Eventually I healed up a bit, my face wasn’t swollen anymore, and no one else could tell that I had big stitched up wounds inside my mouth. I went back to school; things seemed to be going well. Then, at least a week after the surgery, when I felt great and pretty much healed and everything…
I was on stage rehearsing our fall play, “Charlotte’s Web”. I hadn’t done anything unusual—hadn’t gargled acid or gotten punched in the face—I was just standing there on my marks. And then. My mouth FILLED WITH BLOOD. A gushing stream of warm blood was coming out of one of the upper wounds (which I had thought was healed). I had to run off-stage to the bathroom to spit out my mouthful of blood and shove some toilet paper up in the oozing hole and wait it out.
I don’t really remember the immediate fallout of the mouth o’ blood incident, but I do remember that for months afterwards, when I sneezed or inhaled with my mouth just so, I could feel cold air going in my mouth, up through the hole in my gums and jaw, through my sinuses and out my nose.
Everything is fine now (well, mostly – have I mentioned the possible problem with one of the nerves in my face?), but when Ellen sent me this animation, I couldn’t help but experience some very strong sense memories. Maybe next time I’ll tell you about the other time I ended up with a mouth (and throat) full of blood. Fun times!
as our plane angled across nevada towards las vegas, I looked out the window and saw something unexpected. we were flying low just above a cloud bank, near our final approach, and the window was filled with fluffy white. and there, pacing us, was the perfect shadow of our airplane, spotlighted by a triple full-circle rainbow.
the sun was directly to the right of the aircraft, leaving me (window seat, left side) in just the right position to see the shadow. as we passed different clouds the shadow moved closer or farther away, the halo expanded and contracted, sharper and fuzzier, the colors got softer and then became more vivid. I wondered how many people on the plane noticed it too; I wondered how many humans had ever seen this unusual and beautiful phenomenon.
today mom and I went to a taping of the ellen show. the guest for our show was portia de rossi, but her segment was pre-taped. we got to watch it, but we aren’t in the audience for that part of the show. our show will be aired tomorrow, thursday november 4. we also got to be there for the pre-taping of mario lopez’s segment for next week, but I’m not sure when that will air. he was promoting his new reality show, and brought on his girlfriend and their new teeny baby, gia.
autumn has arrived in LA – lots of wind, crisp air, darker skies. maybe we brought it back from oak glen? today I bought an apple cinnamon candle. holed up in my room with the new taylor swift album, lit the candle, and boom! I might be in illinois for all I know. …also probably in high school what with the taylor swift, but whatevs 🙂
be sure to rollover ‘notes’ to see photo captions!
I had a month off between semesters, Eric had a whole week off for a Japanese holiday (he works for a Japanese company). So – last-minute camping trip! Eric found an available campsite at Patrick’s Point State Park, just south of Redwood National Park, and it was a done deal.
I drove up to San Francisco on Sunday, and fought terrible traffic the whole way. The light at the end of the tunnel was the promise delicious pizza and lasagne at Piccino. Afterwards, Eric and I got supplies at Whole Foods to make dessert – gourmet pearl sugar waffles, ice cream, fresh berries. INSANELY good. Watched some anime and made shopping lists.
Monday we packed up my car and got supplies at REI and the grocery store. Had lunch at the Counter, then drove up to Sonoma. Checked into our cabin, named ‘Make’, at the Andiron seaside inn. The cabin was adorable – filled with old craft kits, patterns, a paint-by-numbers wall, paint and crayons. We drove up to Fort Bragg and explored the glass beach – the remains of a bottle factory and had dinner at a really good little Thai place.
Tuesday we hiked a bit at Russian Gulch, then had lunch at the North Coast Brewing Co. restaurant. Dessert was Cowlicks ice cream, a much-celebrated local brand – and for good reason! Probably the best ice cream I’ve ever had. Drove to Eureka for groceries, continued on to Humboldt County, and got our first look at California’s giant prehistoric trees. They. Are. Huge.
Made camp at Patrick’s Point and cooked dinner and made s’mores. As we were cleaning up we found a little slug on our picnic table; s/he was after some hot chocolate that had spilled and soaked into the boards. Read in my sleeping bag for awhile and finally got to sleep after having some quiet mini-freak-outs about some suspicious noises that sounded like someone being bludgeoned to death.
Wednesday morning – no police, no suspicious activity, so I assumed no one had actually been murdered. Had breakfast at camp, then drove up to Redwood National Park. Got some maps and guide books then hiked a few hours through old-growth redwood forests. Hiked around another campground too, tried to view the Klamath River from an overlook, but the pervasive fog was too thick.
We returned to Patrick’s Point in time to hike down to the tide pools at Palmer’s point, at the south end of the park. Eric and I spent hours exploring the tide pools – a vast expanse of flat, rocky beach, shrouded in fog. Even with a family exploring nearby, it was eerily quiet and bleak – like an alien landscape. We saw a lot of kelp, snails and anemone, some barnacles and several starfish. After the tide pools we made dinner at camp (fajitas!) then had some s’mores and retired to our tent.
Broke camp on Thursday morning, drove down the coast to Humboldt Redwood State Park, and did some more hiking. Made it back to SF without incident, and arrived just in time to see the fog roll in.
from my twitter: OMG you guys – I just ate an heirloom tomato from the farmers’ market that was so good I almost thought I was back in the Midwest. #foodgasm
…for letting my car battery die on a day when I have hours of free time, instead of when I was trying to leave my apt at 630am to get to class or something like that. I recognize the good fortune of this timing and am extremely thankful for it.
no embarrassing incidents!
4.4 in pico rivera (about 18 miles from me) about 10 minutes ago!