Freaky Friday Monster Post

Lots of ups and downs today, ending in a sort of blah feeling (but after writing this, a good feeling--go figure!).

I got up early, showered, and was excited to ride my bike into work this morning--but I couldn't start the damn thing! It is still chilly in the morning here, around 45 degrees, even though the afternoons are a perfect 70 degrees. I've done quite a bit of research this evening on starting techniques, because I really want to be able to ride to work. Also, if I can't start the bike in sub-50 degree weather, it'll pretty much be useless in Seattle.

Ended up giving up and drove the Exploder to work, bitching and moaning along the way. Made it to work to see a super-easy schedule, with the last patient showing up at 1pm. I wasn't scheduled to stay late, so it looked like an early departure for me. Then Chris (bossman) asked me if I wanted to go work down in Carson City today, because they had two people call in sick. I didn't hesitate and said, "sure! why not?" It meant working longer, but I could use a few more hours, and it would also give me a chance to swing by the house and try to start the motorcycle again.

I swung by the house and tried again, with no luck. Jen came home from running an early-morning errand (coffee?) and tried to help me jump the motorcycle, which turned out to be quite the trial. We were pretty clueless, staring at my instruction manual for minutes at a time, but we finally hooked everything up correctly and the motor turned over--then died. BAH! I get lots of wheezing, but no start in the morning. In the afternoon it starts up just fine. Maybe it needs a heater blanket??

I grumpily drove the Exploder the 25 miles to Carson City. I was hoping to have a big smile on my face from riding the ninja down, but things didn't go according to plan. Then, there turned out to be construction on Highway 50, which would have sucked for me riding the ninja. Big pot holes, big bumps--so in a way I'm glad I didn't ride the bike down to Carson. Like I said, lots of ups and downs this morning!

When I got to the Carson Clinic, I wasn't really sure what to expect. That clinic is the busiest of the five, and I didn't know how similar their check-in duties would be to SLT's. It turned out to be pretty similar, and I recognized a few familiar faces that work in SLT on certain days of the week. To me, the big difference between the two offices is first and foremost the staff. Pretty much a no-brainer that the staffs would have different feels to them, but I didn't know what to expect.

I worked check-in, while Donna worked check-out right next to me. She was a lot of fun and was cracking jokes all day long. I think she is in her late 30's, and talked constantly, including a bit about her kid with ADHD (wonder where he got THAT from?). She was bouncing off the walls most of the day, but it was a fun change. I don't think I'd like working there every day, but it is a fun little twist.

Another difference was the setup. They have a glass sliding window between check-in and the office, that for some reason the office staff liked to keep shut. It felt pretty awkward to me, but if the office wanted to joke around, it made sense to have the window shut. But to me, having the window shut just made for an unfriendly atmosphere to the patients. I tried to keep it open as much as possible.

The workload was a bit tougher, but for Carson it was a light day. The heavier workload was able to be handled by A) Not paying much attention to any of the information, and B) A much better filing system. At Carson, the medical records staff got most of the charts ready, then the front office just had to add profiles to the non-updated charts. Much easier than at South Lake. Part A troubled me a bit, because a lot of the things that have been impressed upon me as VERY IMPORTANT, Donna would just say, "Meh, we don't do it, and it hasn't been a problem."

I envied her attitude, but I'm pretty sure it is only acceptable because she's been there so long. Something tells me that a lot of people have to do a lot of work to cover her ass.

Teresa, the smoking-hot physician's assistant, made the day fun too, I won't lie! She seemed about my age, and looked like a cross between a Russian Bond Girl and my ex-Sara. Teresa talked a bit about her upcoming day-hike tomorrow to June Lake, which of course just made her more attractive. I pegged her to be around my age, but I'm pretty sure when Donna and Michelle were trying to figure out if they could actually be Teresa's mother, I heard her say she was only 18 or 19. A little too young :)

The funniest moment of the day had to be Teresa in our office, trying to have a professional discussion with a patient on the other side of the open sliding glass window. Donna kept messing with her, from behind, where the patient couldn't see. I had the side view, and Donna's combination of tugs down on Teresa's scrubs, butt pokes, and back of the knee pokes--and Teresa somehow keeping a straight face and trying to keep the conversation going unmolested was a sight to see. She'd twitch and flinch with each poke, try to keep her scrub bottoms above her waist, and swat behind at Donna, all while smiling at the patient and answering the patient's questions. Eventually the butt-poking became too much, and Teresa swung around and yelled at Donna to stop, but with a big smile on her face.

I stayed until about 4:30pm, and everyone was very appreciative of me coming down to help out. It was a fun change of pace, and I was on my best behavior for the new crowd. My attitude swung a lot today, but whenever my attitude swings I always seem to come back to the fact that I enjoy being a nice, happy person. I have my lazy times, and I have my mean times, but even though being nice usually requires more effort, I prefer it.

The big question that keeps popping up for me is 'what motivates me to be nice?' Today, I think the incentive was the introduction to the Carson office. I knew if I made a bad impression, it would get back to the South Tahoe office. In all honesty, I don't really care what the Tahoe office thinks about me, because I know they are desperate for help, and the chances of me being fired are slim to none. I like my job because of the free time it provides, but a full time job probably wouldn't be extremely hard to find. The incentive to be in the Tahoe clinic's good graces is for a few reasons. I don't want a sucky work environment, and I'd like some good recommendations when I move back to Seattle and start looking for a job. If that means taking over shifts, working longer than expected, working down in Carson--so be it. Time isn't a huge issue right now for me, and I have plenty of free time lying around (hence all the blogging!).

Onto the juicier side of incentive--to be nice in the presence of women I find attractive. Now, I have no clue if Teresa is already in a relationship. I can't help but assume she is, because she's smart, attractive and funny. Not knowing has its ups and downs. The mind can run wild... but usually I prefer to know as much as possible (in life in general). If she was closer to my age, and for sure single, I'd be a bit more excited~

Being single, when I meet a woman that I deem attractive, and think I have a shot with, my mind is like a fireworks show. I'm almost always happy, and my thoughts are filled with ways to show her what kind of guy I am and ways to make her smile and laugh. When I met Sara for the first time, it was playing ultimate frisbee at Jefferson Park during the first few weeks of summer vacation, the summer before my senior year at UPS. I knew that she went to UPS, and she was nice, funny and attractive--and played frisbee... can't get much better than that! The bummer came when I talked to Mike about her, and he also had the hots for her, and had already made his move.

I backed off for the next few frisbee sessions, until Sara called me on it. That twinkle in my eye had been missing, and she could tell. I hinted at not wanting to step on Mike's toes, then she said she wasn't interested in Mike, she was more interested in me. Of course, that gave me the biggest, shit-eating grin I've ever had in my entire life, because no one had ever told me anything close to that! The fact that I felt the same way about her was doubly amazing to me at the time.

(As an interesting aside, Stacey and I had a similar conversation ((albeit, online)) a few weeks after we started talking more regularly. She was chatting with lots of different people at the time, and understandably not paying that much attention to me. I fired up a game of Yahoo Pool and paid less attention to her. She noticed the slack of attention on my part and asked what was up. I told her that I would only put as much effort into our friendship as she would. I didn't really mean for it to sound harsh or spiteful, I was just being honest. Six months later, when we were a few months into our relationship, she confessed that this particular chat, and the fact that I called her out, gave her a lot more respect for me. I hadn't really related the two moments, but I'd say they were both very important parts to the beginnings of those two relationships.)

I didn't feel bad about stepping on Mike's toes since I knew he had no chance with Sara. In hindsight, it didn't look really good to swoop in, but I can't really see me doing anything else differently. Mike and I weren't great friends, and if I had to choose between the possibilities with Sara, or a friendship with Mike, it would have been Sara. And I think he'd probably think along the same lines if our roles were reversed. I hoped that I could be with Sara and still be friend with Mike, but that was harder on Mike than I anticipated. I think they only had one date, which was enough for both of them to draw their polar-opposite conclusions.

On a side-note, Mike also felt the need to point out that I am not religious--which is something that he found extremely attractive about Sara (that she was religious). Religion ended up being our one and only fight, which led to her suggesting we "take a break." I made up my mind that night that we wouldn't work. My actions were pretty harsh, but what she wanted, I could not provide (to put it bluntly: a three-way with God). Mike knew this from the start, and I shrugged it off. Part due to thinking he was jealous, and part due to me not believing religion would be a big issue (hah!).

As an epilogue (why not?!), Mike and I are still long-distance friends. He's never going to be a Tyler, Marc or Andrew to me--we're just too different. We play online games occasionally and joke around quite a bit. As for Sara, last summer when I was in Seattle having a hot tub with my Dad, he said that he still talks with Sara on a regular basis. They had gone on a few hikes, and she'd been over for dinner a few times. At first, this obviously weirded me out to no end. But after thinking about it more, it made sense. Sara was close with pretty much all of her ex's and their parents, and my dad really liked her. The BIG shocker of course was my Dad mentioning that, "Oh, and Sara let slip that the thing that caused you two to break up... whatever that was... is no longer an issue. I'm not really sure what she was referring to, but..."

Thanks Dad. You know I've been seeing Stacey for over two years, and I'm still seeing her, (at the time) right? I thought about it for a while, and it didn't really make any sense. My Dad said that she had seen a few different guys since me, but none of them seemed serious (his subtle hints were very subtle, wink wink). The only thing that made sense would be if she ends up marrying some guy who isn't religious, and doesn't want me to think she was lying to me at the time? I'm quite certain that she wasn't lying at the time of our breakup, and for her sake, I would hope that she doesn't sacrifice her beliefs and her wants for a relationship.

Exhale.

Well, it felt good to write all that out, but I hope way back up there that I explained well enough the amazing sparks I emit when the possible beginnings of a relationship start up. I'm not searching for a relationship right now, because I don't want anything to keep me from moving back to Seattle in September. If a situation comes up where a girl I like is able to travel, then I might go for it--but that is a long-shot right now. Also, I've been enjoying, and I'm looking forward to enjoying, a summer by myself. As much as I want to be up in Seattle for the summer with old friends and new, I know this summer in Tahoe will be an experience like no other (which is a big influence to blog as much as I have recently). And, there will always be more summers in Seattle :)

I wasn't really sure what to do tonight, so I hopped on the bike and grabbed a bite to eat, then headed towards Carson City to get some food-shopping done at Trader Joe's--but saw a side road I hadn't been on yet near Cave Rock. I did a U-turn and climbed the side-road to a few nice vantage points, snapped a few pictures, then headed home and began writing this.

Tomorrow is wide open for me. I called Dirk about going for a hike, but haven't heard back. Sacramento is calling me. I want to make a spontaneous ninja ride to go play frisbee there tomorrow morning, which I still might do, but we'll see if I can start the ninja with my newly learned ninja-tactics. If I don't hike tomorrow, I will Sunday--expect some pics :)

Speaking of pics, here are three from today:
1)Window-painting at a coffee shop near where I ate dinner
2)Crooked Bench (which looked a lot like a chairlift chair?)
3)Lake View #6