They found it!!!

My car has been found! I got a call this morning from the Milwaukie police department to tell me that Portland police found my car last night. My insurance adjuster talked to the impound yard and they said the ignition was punched out, but it sounds like there’s little or no body damage. It’s being towed to a body shop today and the adjuster and I are going to look at it on Monday.

I’m shocked. I really didn’t think I’d ever see my car again. As long as the cost to repair the damage isn’t too high (in which case the insurance company will of course call it a loss and give me a check for the not-so-high value of my car), I’ll have it back in a few weeks. I’m cautiously optimistic. Monday can’t come soon enough.

Another contest

Early in the year each year, the Oregonian newspaper has a travel photography contest. This year they got more than 16,000 entries. Holy cow! I entered five photos in the Pacific Northwest category (which received 5,522 entries), and while none of them won, my Japanese Maple picture was a finalist (sort of like an honorable mention). The category finalist photos weren’t in the paper, but they are on the website. Cool!

Book group

I went to the first meeting of a librarians’ book group last night, and it turned out to be quite fun. Most of them were subs like me, or had been at one time. The only person there that I had met before was the hostess, though everyone else I met there was great. (It’s fun to occasionally hang out with other young librarians socially….these are my people!)

For our first meeting we all read a different book and introduced it to the group, as well as saying who we would recommend it to at the library. I heard about ALL SORTS of interesting books from them last night. After talking about our books, the conversation soon morphed into other good books we’d read, what was on our nightstand right now, our #1 book of all time, etc. Put a bunch of librarians in a room to talk about books and we can go on for hours. And we did!

We’ve decided for future meetings to continue each reading a different book, but to have one genre each month. So next month we’re reading a banned/challenged book, and in the coming months we’re going to read award-winners and local authors. It’s a great way to read something we wouldn’t normally read and to hear about some different books, especially since we all have different reading tastes. Now I have to make the hard decision about which challenged book I want to read!

Just call me Jennie Jelly Bean

I had a rough morning dealing with a work issue, so let’s turn to something a little light-hearted, shall we? You’ve probably seen something similar to this before, but there are all sorts of variations. This kind of thing always makes me laugh. (Leave a comment if any of your “names” are amusing enough to share!)

• YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet and current street name)
  • Elizabeth Waverley
• YOUR MOVIE STAR NAME: (grandfather/grandmother on mother’s side first name, favorite candy)
  • Jennie Jelly Bean (This one is my favorite, hee hee!)
• YOUR “FLY GIRL/GUY” NAME: (first initial of first name, first two or three letters of your last name)
  • C. Hil
• YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite animal, name of high school)
  • Dog LaSalle
• YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born)
  • Louise Oregon City (yeah, that town doesn’t work well for this one)
• YOUR OPPOSITE SEX NAME: (name of dad/mom, cell phone Company you use)
  • David Verizon
• YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (first 3 letters of your last name, last 3 letters of mother’s maiden name, first 3 letters of your pet’s name)
  • Hilackcha
• YOUR JEDI NAME: (middle name spelled backwards, your mom’s maiden name spelled backwards)
  • Esiuol Kcanhcs (how do you even pronounce this?)
• YOUR STAGE NAME: (middle name, street you grew up on)
  • Louise Holly
• YOUR SUPERHERO NAME: (“The”, your favorite color, the first thing you see when you look to your left)
  • The Blue Bottle

Okay for now

Grandpa was discharged from the hospital after a few hours yesterday. The tests they ran were inconclusive. They said he probably did have a mini stroke on Sunday, but it was minor enough that it didn’t show up in their tests. They couldn’t find an explanation for his pains yesterday morning. But he’s home and resting and feeling as okay as you can expect an 82-year-old man to feel.

Everyone I know has been so nice and supportive these past few days, with everything that’s been going on. I have such great coworkers and friends and family. If that permanent job I’ve been seeking comes up in someplace other than Portland, it’s going to be hard to leave all these great people, just like it was hard to leave behind all the great friends and classmates I got to know in Vancouver.

They happen in threes

First Dad got attacked by a bull. Then my car was stolen. Now my grandpa is in the hospital with chest pains (this is the same grandpa whose farm the bull incident happened at last week). And we also found out that he was having some slurred speech and severe headaches yesterday. Can anybody say stroke?

But did he call his family or 911 yesterday? No! And who knows if he’d have done that this morning either, with the chest pains, except that he told Deborah (who is still living there, but was not there over the weekend), and she called my mom. From what I’ve heard so far, it sounds like he’s okay for now. They’re going to do a cat scan this afternoon to confirm the stroke thing. My mom is probably a wreck. She’s been really stressed out because of my dad, and she’s worried about me and my car (although that’s pretty minor stuff compared to everything else going on), and now her dad is in the hospital. Note to universe: ENOUGH ALREADY!

80s Hits

I was channel surfing this evening and came across the final segment of VH1’s 100 Greatest Songs of the 80s. Over time I’ve seen pretty much every part of this series except this last part covering 1-20. It was very much a blast from the past. Apparently the songs were chosen and ranked by how people voted on VH1.com. Curious what the top 20 are? Here ya go!

20. “Jessie’s Girl,” Rick Springfield, 1981 (Yeah, two years old when this came out. Not familiar with this song at all.)

19. “Time After Time,” Cyndi Lauper, 1984 (Blah. I don’t get why this song was a hit.)

18. “Come on Eileen,” Dexy’s Midnight Runners, 1982 (All I can say is that I can’t stand this song.)

17. “Here I Go Again,” Whitesnake, 1987 (I don’t remember this one from my childhood, but I like it okay now.)

16. “Need You Tonight,” INXS, 1987 (Who doesn’t know that classic guitar riff?)

15. “Jump,” Van Halen, 1984 (Annoying, I hate that synthesizer, though it’s apparently they’re biggest hit.)

14. “Walk Like an Egyptian,” The Bangles, 1987 (A catchy song whose lyrics I mostly can’t understand, but you can’t sit still when it’s playing.)

13. “With Or Without You,” U2, 1987 (Total classic, I love this song. I love cranking this song up on the radio while cruising down the highway.)

12. “How Will I Know,” Whitney Houston, 1985 (I remember hearing this on the radio as a kid; it’s kind of catchy and fun. Too bad Whitney’s music sucks now.)

11. “Don’t Stop Believin’,” Journey, 1981 (One of the commentators said it was the ultimate karaoke song. Uh….okay.)

10. “You Shook Me All Night Long,” AC/DC, 1980 (I may have only been a baby when this came out, but it’s such a classic that even I know it!)

9. “Walk This Way,” Run-D.M.C. & Aerosmith, 1986 (Who doesn’t love immitating Steven Tyler “screaming” those lyrics “WALK THIS WAY!”)

8. “Like a Virgin,” Madonna, 1984 (As a girl growing up in the 80s, I was very aware of Madonna’s music, though of course I was MUCH older before I understood songs like this one!)

7. “Sweet Child O’ Mine,” Guns ‘N Roses, 1987 (I don’t dislike this song, but I’ve never been able to get into GNR’s music, not then, not now.)

6. “I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do),” Hall & Oates, 1981 (Are you kidding me? This song makes me want to run from the room screaming! This isn’t rock; this is easy listening. It’s the kind of crap you hear in waiting rooms.)

5. “When Doves Cry,” Prince, 1984 (Good ol’ Prince. He’s a total weirdo, but this song IS a classic and he is pretty talented.)

4. “Billie Jean,” Michael Jackson, 1982 (Michael Jackson is a sad story, but his 80s music is pretty awesome. I loved it when I was kid, and the stepping-on-blocks-of-light music video is classic.)

3. “Hungry Like a Wolf,” Duran Duran, 1982 (I was too young to be obsessed with Duran Duran, and I like some of their music, but I’ve never been a fan of this song.)

2. “Pour Some Sugar On Me,” Def Leppard, 1987 (This may be the “stripper’s anthem,” but it’s got a great beat. This is another one I love cranking up in the car.)

1. “Livin’ On A Prayer,” Bon Jovi, 1986 (Gotta love Bon Jovi, and this song is catchy, but I wouldn’t choose it as the #1 hit of the 80s. I think it’s great that he’s still making music, though, and he still looks pretty great!)

Now I’m watching a show on the Travel Channel about the greatest water parks in the U.S. Oh man, I’m so ready for summer!

(Un)happy St. Patrick’s Day

When I looked out the window this morning to check on what the weather was doing, I happened to notice something rather alarming: our assigned parking space was empty. This is the space where I parked my car yesterday evening, and this morning it was gone. My roommate informed me that it was still in the spot last night at midnight when she got home. So it disappeared sometime after that. After calling the security patrol and the after-hours emergency line to determine it hadn’t been erroneously reported as a car needing to be towed, I called the police department and began the process of reporting my car stolen. They came to the apartment, filed a report, gave me a case number. I called the insurance company, then took the bus to work.

My car is a 1996 Honda Accord. It is very easy to break into (has happened twice already) and I hear they’re easy to steal. My car is either a pile of parts right now, or it’s sitting abandoned somewhere in the countryside with an empty gas tank. Even with insurance to help, the potential financial impact of this is completely crushing. My car was paid off, but I am very broke right now and cannot afford monthly car payments again. My sister has reminded me I shouldn’t jump ahead, that I should cross that bridge when I come to it. But when your job/financial situation is as tenuous as mine, you can’t help but think about how things that happen to you are going to impact you financially. Besides, that was a good car with some life left in it. It had around 110,000 miles on it, and I had every intention of taking it to 200,000 miles.

I will keep you posted.

Scary

My dad got mauled by a bull out at my grandfather’s farm yesterday. My grandpa is too old to farm anymore, so he rents out some of his pastures to the neighboring farms. The cows in this particular pasture belonged to one of those neighbors, and among those cows was an especially aggressive bull. My dad has been planting trees and puttering around the farm ever since he married my mom 30+ years ago. So he’s been around lots of cows and normally has no problem with them. But no one told him about this aggressive bull in this one pasture, so he didn’t know he was in danger until it was too late. The bull pretty much caught him unawares and sent him flying three times. By some miracle, he didn’t break any bones and managed to get away after the third time. He got over the fence to where his truck was and drove to the front of the farm where he told Grandpa what happened, then drove himself to the hospital 30 minutes away. He might have a cracked rib, but other than that, he’s just really bruised and banged up. It could have been so so so much worse. The bull didn’t have horns, thank God. I shudder to think….

I was at work while all this was going on. So on my break in the span of five minutes, I listened to several voice mails informing me of what happened up through the emergency room prognosis that he was going to be okay. It was an intense five minutes. I’m intensely grateful and thankful for how this has all turned out. I talked to Dad this evening after work and he’s doing pretty good. He doesn’t even have to take the Vicodin all the time. He can get himself around the house, and he’s going to spend the next few days resting. It looks like he’s going to be okay again in a few weeks, maybe less. This whole thing has really brought home the fact that you just never know what life is going to throw at you.

YUM

I went out to dinner with friends last night. We went downtown to the Lotus, which I’d never been to before. It was surprisingly uncrowded for a Saturday night, though maybe the crowds come later (we got there at 6:30). My thai chicken pasta was fabulous. Peanut sauce can be done quite badly, but this was quite good. My peach martini was delicious too. I love peach-flavored anything. I’m going to have to remember that place.

Afterwards, we watched a DVD of the best of George Carlin, who cracks me up. And then I got to try out the Wii for the first time. I’ve heard a lot about this game, and seen some pretty hilarious pictures of people in the midst of some crazy wii action, but I had never played it myself. So we tried some bowling, and I got the hang of it pretty quickly. It was actually easier than real bowling, where I tend to get a lot of gutter balls. My final score was 131, which would be a minor miracle for me to get in real life. I can definitely see where the wrist strap on the wii controller would be necessary. Just like in real bowling, you have to throw forward with some strength, and if you let go of the controller while doing so, you might find yourself minus a TV!

The virtual bowling brought back fond memories of the bowling league my friends and I participated in senior year of college. We weren’t fantastic, but we had a lot of fun competing against our fellow students (all the teams were from the school). I forget how fun bowling can be. I could probably count on one hand the number of times I’ve gone bowling since I graduated from college.