These shoes suck!

This morning we had two options. I wanted to go see "Wanted", because there are few joys in life as awesome as an Angelina Jolie summer flick. David wanted to go to Six Flags and ride some roller coasters and make further use of our season passes. I decided he had a good point, so we did that. I've been working night shifts, so I usually go to bed about 10am, but I figured I could "stay up late" and get in a few hours at the park first.

So we get there, and the first ride we come to is closed. Whatever. We walk over to the next, and the car is stuck on the first uphill section and they are starting to unload the people stuck on the track and walk them down. Hmmm. So we decide to skip all the mid-level stuff and just walk over to the big guns. Superman? Closed. They are running empty cars along, so apparently something just happened there too. We walk around to Batman. Someone just threw up and they are cleaning it up. OK, this is ridiculous, but how long can it take to clean up a little vomit, right? So we wait, and as people start leaving the line we are moving up faster than than we probably would have had the ride been running, since all the rides at Six Flags are pathetically managed. After about 20 minutes we get up pretty close to the front, and then we hear they are waiting for maintenance to arrive to do some test runs. Why? To make sure the seat dries first? Well we already know that maintenance is already tied up on the other rides, so we leave and go get on a water ride. The line isn't that long, but as usual it takes FOREVER because the entire staff of the park is completely incompetent. Way too much frustration for what is supposed to be a fun little outing. I mean, we have season passes so we can go back later, but what a disaster for a family wanting to spend a fun day at the park and paying through the nose for it. Disney, I will never cheat on you again!

The best part was while we were waiting in line these two butch black boys, maybe 16, start singing that internet "Shoes" song. "Shoes. Shoes. These shoes cost $300. These shoes cost $300!" It was bizarre and hysterical. Even funnier, they were careful to skip over the swear words in the song, but they were totally acting as flamboyantly gay as they could, much to the delight of the girls they were with. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why David and I are going to be able to get married. Someday. The kids just don't care.

I still want to see "Wanted". Maybe tomorrow. Next weekend more likely I guess, although that is a holiday weekend, huh? Well, it won't be long.

Really. I mean, really?

Really. The Federal Marriage Amendment was reintroduced by David Vitter and Larry Craig. Really. I realize that as soon as David and I file a joint tax return the world is going to end and all, but still, THESE are the two guys you get to introduce your crap constitutional amendment? Mr. "I have a wide stance" and a guy with a penchant for repeatedly cheating on his wife with hookers? Good thing those two are on the case of defending our "values".

My heat hurts. Really.

Summer dancing

Summer Dancing Pt. 2

I love the format of SYTYCD. I love that while America gets to chose the bottom three couple, the judges, who should know better, get to pick who actually gets to go home. I love that the dancers get one last chance to "dance for their life", and to show what makes them so special outside of perhaps just picking a bad dance out of the hat. It is good television, and it spares us the drama American Idol gives us from "Vote for the worst" spoiler campaigns. In theory, I should pretty much be pretty satisfied with what the judges decide, because they SHOULD NOT BE SO STUPID. I rarely understand their rationales, but booting Chelsea this week was totally lame. All of the dancers are great, I'm not bagging on either of the other girls, but Chelsea, to me, is one of the top competitors. The judges seem to have an inferiority complex about the beat boys and girls, and tend to keep them around way longer than they should. Comfort has plenty to offer, but I don't understand keeping her over the super fun Chelsea. Plus, she is probably the most gorgeous girl the show has ever had. Well, next to Cat anyways. I thought the biggest problem of her dance was the totally bad music choice. I mean, Phil Collins, are you serious? How is anyone supposed to enjoy that?

Otherwise, I was glad to see Chris go. He is a real trooper, and really went for it with all that he had, and I totally admire that. But it was still all a little deer-in-the-headlights for me.

Thayne and Comfort? I don't see that working, but let's hope.

Twitchington is still my favorite. But Mark and Chelsie had some pretty darn terrific choreography to work with (Again!), and really made the most of it. (see video above, the dancing starts at about 2:30 in) Mark is totally weird, but he looked great in that suit.

Matt should never, and I mean never, wear the ninja mask again. Don't get me wrong, I love ninjas as much as the next guy who loves ninjas. But it somehow just came off as a creepy attempt at personality. I cannot look at Thayne without thinking of the movie "Strictly Ballroom". He just looks Australian to me, which I know is weird, but there it is. He is a bit over the top for me, but I love the way his body moves when he dances.

Oh, and the wacked out opening number was probably my favorite opening number ever. Weird, and it is always frustrating that you can't always tell who the dancers are with all the costume and makeup and quick camera edits. But even at their worst, these group numbers are always far more entertaining than the embarrassing cruise-ship medleys they make the American Idols sing.

No. More. Shenkman.

Time for a change

It was time to repaint folks. Hope I don't have any autistic readers who can't cope with change, but if you hate change that much I'd hardly be your favorite person anyway, right? It is summer, and all that orange was bugging me. Green is better. For now, anyways.

A friend, for some unknown reason, sent me the soundtrack to "The Accidental Tourist". I've never seen the movie, but that is what I am listening to right now. I little John Williams never hurt anyone. Next in my iTunes queue is "Adrift In Macou", an Off-Broadway musical that a friend of ours was in. I at least hope his songs are good!

Last night we went to a cabaret of original songs. My favorite song was called "Googling Your Ex", which was pretty funny. Funny is never wrong. Cute can go either way. Clever can go either way. But funny is always a hit.

So this couchsurfing thing is really taking off. We're already in touch with a few people we might be able to stay with in Canada. And a French Au Pair is staying with us over the weekend of the 4th, and then a guy from Ecuador just after that. We'll see how hosting goes, though I'm not really anticipating any trouble. Travelers like these will be out exploring most of the time. At least that is what I would do. Who wants to sit around a strangers house? And since I'll still be working nights, either me or David will be here at all times. We had two other people write us, a guy from Russia and a girl from Spain, but they all wanted to be here at the same time so we had to tell them no. Who knew we would be so popular?

Right now we have a huge tent set up in our living room. David wanted to see what it looked like, but then he neglected to take it back down. I almost thought he was going to sleep in it last night he was so excited about it. It is bigger than I thought it was which is nice. Now I just hope those Canadian nights aren't too cold! We've got some good blankets, but I know from experience how hard it can be to get up in the morning from a warm sleeping bag into the cold air. And we're gonna have to get some early starts on this trip to cram in everything we want to do.

I'm working an overtime shift this week, so I'm gonna be a bit tired-er than normal. Schedule wise my body has adjusted to night shifts, but my brain hasn't quite caught up. It sucks that I have to go back to day shifts for the vacation, because I'm abandoning the night-shift experiment before I've had time to really adjust to it. I've been terribly unproductive staying up all night, but I'm not sure if that is the way it would always be or if I'd start getting more energized as I got more used to it. I sure love my morning runs through the National Mall.

Oh, and Happy Birthday Cody! Enjoy your last year of being young!

I am now a dancing internet sensation

The video is out! If you pause on the Washington DC clip, which is towards the end, in the back left of center you can see me and David, I'm in orange and he is in blue.

Even though we are now officially famous, I promise we won't, you know, change. What i mean is, we won't forget all you little people who helped us get to where we are today. So, where is my internet money???

Just for reference:


Seriously. This is Matt's job. He started dancing because he was a little bit of a geek, and now it is practically his career. Don't you just hate him?

So You Think You Can Dance?

Loving. It.

Faves: Kherington and Twitch's gorgeous waltz. She was stunning in that dress. Afterwards I thought Mia was getting a bit on the cranky side with her critique even if I could see where she was coming from. But I bet she totally regrets making the comment.

Gev and Courtney lucked out with the good Mandy Moore routine this week. They are a great couple, his weirdness makes her interesting, and she gives him an anchor.

Mark and Chelsea lucked out with a very fun and sexy tango. They are a great couple, his weirdness makes her interesting, and she gives him an anchor.

Yes, I said it twice. But I said it because I'm right.

The less-favorite: Thayne and Chelsea in the bad Mandy Moore. I LOVE her, but that choreography was lame, and the costumes were lame, and the dancers ended up being lame. Thayne is a little much for me with all that mugging for the camera, but otherwise I find them both very enjoyable.

OK, Marquis and Susie's Tango wasn't the best. But they did, by far, have the best trick of the night. We rewound it four times and finally had to watch it in slow-motion to figure it out. Awesome!!

But then came the Krump. ::sigh:: I will give Chris credit for enthusiasm and effort. But please, never, never make a suburban white boy ever do something like that again. I mean really. I would have died of embarrassment, but he never faltered for a moment. So, despite the fact that I find him pretty dull and boring, I have to love him for that. No apologies, no regrets. Comfort, on the other hand, didn't shine like I was expecting. I don't dislike her, but I have yet to see what the judges seem to have seen in her.

OK, can we talk again about the awesomeness of Cat Deeley? I don't even need to give examples. You totally know what I mean. She is totally, um, buck. (See, I'm hip too!)

Elimination Night: Not terribly surprised with the bottom three. Thayne and Chelsea are great dancers, and as expected, easily make it through. Susie, whom has toned down the make-up and is fabulously sexy, gives a great Dance-For-Your-Life. But again, the judges see something in Comfort that I just don't see and save her. Not surprising, but I hope Comfort gets a chance to shine for us soon. Then we have Marquis, who gives what for me is one of the best solos ever. Everything he does is ridiculous, and I am gasping through the entire thing. Chris, well, smiles a lot. But last week Nigel did say they would always pick personality over technique, and apparently they think Chris's smiles and awkward mugging is personality. I mean, honestly, I don't see any of these three boys (or girls) even coming close to winning this thing. But it is a shame to lose such an amazing dancer so early. When Nigel says "You did too many tricks" I wanted to give him a boot to the head. I love dancing, but I always want tricks. And his "tricks" weren't easy but showy backflips. They were RIDICULOUSLY HARD DANCING TRICKS.

But whatever. So far, my final four are Twitch, Kherington, Joshua and Will.

Which tower is the leany-est?

Check out this site which is displaying the top ten winners of a visual illusion contest. They are all pretty darn cool. I like the brain one.

Video fun with Ferris

I love that there are people out there with the free time to spend making entertainment for me. Kyle, have you seen this one?

I'm hoping to meet the professional juggler in New Hampshire, or perhaps the glass-blower in Halifax...

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, but how on earth did we ever survive without the internets? So I'm researching our trip to Canada, and I come across couchsurfing.com, which is a website that connects travelers with traveler-friendly people who don't mind letting you crash on a couch for a few days when you are in their city. In exchange, you let people crash on your couch when they are in your city. When you are traveling, not only can you get some free accommodation, but you also get to meet cool locals who can at the very least give you some tips on what to do and where to go. And when you aren't traveling yourself, every so often you might offer to host a traveler and live vicariously through their adventure, and share whatever your area has to offer. It is a total win-win situation, and I can't believe I've never thought about looking for something like this before. When I was backpacking in Australia, I was treated to some amazing hospitality by virtual strangers. Some I met by luck, some were friends of friends I was introduced through. But in each case I had way more fun meeting them than just staying in another hostel. (well, I had some good hostel experiences too, but don't let me detract from my own argument. lol)

Anyway, so we are very excited about perhaps getting to meet some locals on our trip up to Canada. Yes mom, there are the obvious caveats about staying safe and all that - but from my experience most people in the world are pretty awesome when given the chance, and this seems like such a perfect way to travel. We still bought our camping gear today, because we still think that will be fun, especially in Acadia. But meeting some friendly Canooks (am I spelling that right?) could prove to be a lot of fun. I'm not sure how many of my backpacking buddies read this blog, but if you do, you should go sign up!

In other news, I went on my early morning run yesterday. I walked over to the Capitol Building and ran all the way across to the Lincoln Memorial, then turned around and managed to keep running until I got back to the Washington Monument. I think I ran about three miles, and walked another three. I'm feeling it now, but in a good way. I may only have a few more weeks of night shifts, but I'm definitely gonna make that run again. It was gorgeous out, and I was early enough that I only saw a handful of other runners/walkers. I expected to see more people actually, but I guess it was a Saturday. Probably more people are out during the week before work.

I'm ready for my close-up Mr. DeMille

My siblings, being the responsible family types, send my mother nice, formal family pictures that she hangs on the wall. Mom asked me for a picture of the two of us to complete her display. So I sent her this.

Almost time to see if we made the hot tamale train!

Also, I'm too lazy to remember the actual date, but Dancing Man Matt's new video will be coming out next week. This is the one where David and I are sure to be featured prominently*, so it should be a lot of fun! Link to follow as soon as I get it.


* and by "featured prominently" I mean of course that you'll have to take our word for it that we were in the crowd of the DC clip. If that clip doesn't get cut. Which it might. But if it doesn't, well, I wore orange on purpose!

So how soon before I get to be a bitter and jaded old-timer that doesn't have to care about work after he gets home?

I know it is weird, but I have to admit I'm a little shaken up by the death of Tim Russert. His biggest moment in politics ("Florida, Florida, Florida!") came at the height of my own burgeoning political awareness. I can't say I've spent much time watching Meet The Press or anything, but he was always on the radar, and even if he seemed a tad bit biased at times, he was still hugely preferable to any of the "political commentators" that make a living by fanning the flames and being outrageous. And, frankly, he was just much too young. Just sad.

Also sad was my latest night at work. I had an admission, a young guy that weighed well over 600 pounds. I felt so bad for him, our beds just aren't designed for someone of that size, and he was terribly uncomfortable all night. He wanted to sit up, to lay down, to get up to the chair, to get back to bed, to get up to a different chair, on and on. Thankfully all of my other patients were sleepers, because I spent 45 minutes out of every hour in this guys room. The worst part is that he wasn't trying to be difficult, he was just truly miserable and needed help. So then I start feeling guilty for being frustrated, because I need to give some attention to my other patients, and yet this guy needs a lot of help, and other nurses are talking to me about "setting limits", a phrase I kinda-sorta hate, because if someone needs help going to the bathroom, even if it is repeatedly, you can't just tell them to hold it. (At least I don't think so.) Anyway, it was pretty rough, but I got almost everything done that I wanted to get done, and a better bed was ordered. But I wonder what the rest of his stay is going to be like, day shift won't possibly have the time to give him like I did at night. Well, I'm sure I'll hear about it when I get back, but I'm gonna enjoy my three days off!

It is 2am now, I'm looking forward to about 4:30 or so, when I'm gonna take a run out to the Lincoln Memorial. Actually, it has been weeks since I've exercised at all getting my schedule flipped to nights, so I'm not sure I'll make it quite that far. But that is the goal anyway. Yesterday I realized that while sleeping during the day sucks, I don't actually fall asleep until 8:30 or so, so I might as well do something at night instead of just watching TV. Thursday morning I went out and took a walk just as the sun was rising, and was surprised at how many people were up and about that early. I love early mornings! I get such a jolt of energy.

Should I be embarrassed that I have Yanni in my iTunes?

One of David's coworkers recently moved down the street from us, and tonight she came over to watch SYTYCD with us. She is even a bigger mega-fan than we are, having gone to the SYTYCD tour show two years running. But at least she is able to retain a bit of cool detachment by admitting that she has never voted either. ;)

It is way too early for me to have decided on any real favorites, although I really enjoyed Kerrington and Twitch together. In fact, they are the only two names that I know. My favorite dance was the Mia Michaels one which I thought was gorgeous, and David preferred the war one. (I liked him a lot, but I still feel the jury is out on her.) The good thing is that there was no one who stood out as needing to leave, I thought everyone did at least ok. There are a couple that are too young or naive to have much personality yet, but sometimes that can be learned (I'm talking to you Danny!) so we'll see what happens. All I know is that for now there are just too many people for me to keep track of, so a little thinning of the ranks will be good by me.

After she left we went on a walk in the neighborhood. It has been pretty hot and humid the past few days, but tonight was just perfect out. And my inner child, who is never more at the surface than when I'm out walking around, was absolutely delighted to note the reappearance of the fireflies. Woo Hoo!

Night shifts are going well. Last night I took a break about 3am and just went outside and sat on a bench for a few minutes. It was still rather hot and humid after an earlier thunderstorm, which reminded me of Singapore. It was a nice feeling, the air was fresh and smelled like rain, but was also like a big warm blanket that snuggled right up. I might have to start taking breaks more often.

The only problem I'm finding with working nights is sleeping days. I'm not getting anything done! I'm awake all night, but can't really get motivated for much. The gym is closed, I can't go anywhere, so I'm watching way too much Food Network. (I've decided that in another life, David would have been the BEST cake decorator ever, that Ace Of Cakes guy has nothing on him.) Anyway, I might have mentioned before, but I'm going back to days on the next schedule to get ready for vacation. I love working nights, but for now I just don't think it is really working for my schedule. I will miss having my weekends off with David, but at least I'll be productive again. I could of course go to scheduling myself on weekdays, but I have a hard time rationalizing getting paid less for working so much harder. That differential is sure making a difference in paying off those student loans! Getting those paid off is my number one financial goal, so I might try going back to nights during the winter when it is too cold to go outside and do anything during the day anyway, although the idea of sleeping through the few hours of daylight makes me wary of whether I could really handle it or not. But that is a decision for another day.

Did I mention? Fireflies!!

You'll always be cute to me babe

Today was our one-year anniversary here in Washington DC. It is hard to believe a year has gone by already, even though student life in Albuquerque seems terribly distant, and being a working nurse still seems shockingly new. But the calendar doesn't lie, so to celebrate we had dinner at our favorite local pub, Mr. Henry's, which we ate at not only the first night we moved in, but also the first time we came to the neighborhood looking for houses. I won't actually hit a year at the hospital until the end of July, so that is coming up fast as well.

This year has been all about just trying to find my bearings at work - the likely goal for the coming year as well. Once that happens, the world will start to open up to us again, and who knows what we will do. Three years here isn't out of the question, but of course I love nothing more than considering other options.

Speaking of options, I think we've made our decision for our summer holiday. Now, deciding something like that is never a straightforward proposition for us, there is always a train of thought that takes us around some options first. Let me take you on the journey. At first we were thinking we'd go visit David's family in Idaho, but plane tickets were pretty overpriced. Just in finding comparison tickets we realized that either Central America or the Caribbean would be half as expensive, with plenty of opportunity for awesome adventure. But the more we thought about it, we figured we should do something close by, to take advantage of our location, since it is rather unlikely that we will ever move back to the North East once we move away from here. We briefly entertained the idea of Europe, but those plane tickets were even more ridiculously priced. So then we thought, why not make a road trip? I won't be happy with my American travel until I've stepped foot into each and every state, and I still have 16 to go. (Well, some of those I actually have been in as a kid, but I decided not to count the ones I couldn't actually remember.) Anyway, we started planning routes, up to Niagara Falls, over to Mount Rushmore via Fargo, that kind of thing. At one point we thought we'd drive all the way to Seattle and fly back. But the logistics of such a trip were a bit daunting, not to mention expensive thanks to the price of gas nowadays. So in the end we decided - I think, don't blame me if we change our mind again if we get a better offer - to drive north and go hang out in Maine. I'll hit the last three New England states I haven't been to yet (VT, NH, and Maine), and we will probably push up into Canada, for sure Nova Scotia and perhaps, if we have time, run up to Prince Edward Island.

We still have the details to work out, but at this point we've bought a Lonely Planet Guide to Nova Scotia, so we are financially committed to that extent. I got permission to take two weeks off from work, and David will be on his summer break, so we will have 14-16 days to play. We're thinking we'll buy a tent and sleeping bags and camp where we can, which should be a lot of fun. It looks like there will be some pretty spectacular hiking along the way, which is always something we love to do (I'm looking at you Acadia!). It will still be a lot of miles on the car, but it isn't like gas is going to get any cheaper, so we might as well do it now.

So I have to open the floor - have any of you ever been to the area? I welcome all suggestions if you have them.

Tonight at dinner we overheard one of the waiters talking about his recent 26th birthday. David turned to me and said "When the heck did we suddenly get so old? There is still so much I want to do!" I said, "What do you mean, we still have plenty of time to do things", and he said "I know, but I want to do them while I'm still cute!"

Friday night

We've had three patients die on my floor in the past several weeks, which is very unusual. I hope the trend is over. The latest was a poor guy I'd been taking care of for several days, over 70, breathing around 40/min, and eventually it just wore him out. The thing I will remember most about him was the time I went in, and he took my hand and whispered "I love you". I have no idea who he thought he was talking to, as he was very confused the entire time, but still it was pretty darn sweet.

Tomorrow Hillary is giving her concession speech at a museum not far from our house. I totally want to go, but I rather suspect it will be a madhouse, crowded with mostly media-types. As much as she has made me a little mad over the past few months, I still have to admit that when she is on, I still find her very inspiring. I don't like all her policies, and I certainly don't always like her methods. But still, she is a smart woman with a lot to offer under the right circumstances. It will be interesting to see what kind of circumstances develop for her now.

Walked over to the Capitol Building tonight to hear the first of the military band concerts they do on the steps all summer. As a bonus, on the way back we spied our first firefly of the season. Woo Hoo! Simple pleasures.

Thinking aloud at 2 am

Fact: the two of us can fly to Costa Rica for the same price that one of us could fly to Idaho. Does anyone else think this is weird?

I was always thinking that I would get all involved in the politics of the presidential election this year. I mean, it is all historic, I'm super excited about one of the candidates, and no matter how it turns out, things are going to get better than they have been. But with this long, protracted primary, I've just been thinking, well, I'll get around to it once the nominee is official. Now it is, yet STILL it really isn't, since Mrs. Clinton won't concede. I'm just tired of it at this point. I want to celebrate, but part of me is still waiting for her other shoe to drop. Anyway, we'll see if I get back into it. For the moment, I still just can't deal. Once it is all sorted out (which one would assume would be soon), perhaps I'll start talking policies.

I know I should also say something about California. I mean, in a few weeks we could actually get married, which is pretty fantastic. I mean, that is something I've been waiting for for a long time. And if it were happening here in DC, or if we were still living there, no doubt I'd be all over that. But the idea of taking a vacation to California just to get married, and then to come home and not have that marriage recognized anyway, well, is less than exciting. I mean, I want my marriage to be about family, not about making a political statement. Don't get me wrong, I think it is totally awesome, and will be affirming to many, many families out there. Since it may well be a limited time offer, perhaps we are foolish not to take advantage. But I'm just so resistant to making what should be a public affirmation of a personal vow turned into any kind of "statement". And besides, what kind of wedding could you plan in this short of time? You just know all the good ice-sculpturists are booked. ::grin::

My body is still not really adjusting to night shifts, but I sure like actually working nights over days. I had a patient the last two nights that is a doctor, and while he was actually ok, his wife, who never left his side, was a pain in everyone's side. The day shift had headache after headache dealing with her petty demands. "It is ABSOLUTELY UNACCEPTABLE that this meal tray is still in the room two hours after dinner!" she seethed. Er, really? But for me, once I established that I wouldn't ignore her (and took out the offending tray), they both settled down and went to sleep for seven straight hours. Awesome. On the other hand I had another patient in alcohol withdrawal. It took 18 mg of Ativan spread out over the shift just to keep him from trying to leave the unit. Just as I left they were putting him in restraints, which I had avoided, but day shift has too much going on to watch him like I did. (I felt really bad for his roommate, shared rooms simply suck.)

So do I have any SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE fans? I've decided that Cat Deely is my favorite reality show host after Probst. She isn't afraid to get in there and mix with the contestants, even if she is eight feet tall and witheringly gorgeous. I'm finding the judges are starting to get a little elitist, which in their defense is a shark Idol crossed a lot earlier, but still it is a little disappointing. That said, the show is still much more focused on the really talented people over the mentally ill or fame whores. Some of those dancers just take my breath away. Can't wait to find out the top 20! Also, yay to more Mandy Moore! She was my favorite choreographer last season, I hope we see much, much more of her! (And please, please, less of Adam Shenkman.)

We also watched the first episode of the LEGALLY BLONDE casting show. It is just fun seeing people you know on TV. I'm not sure where they are going to go with the show, I mean, are the girls going to have to do lame challenges? They seemed to get a lot of the singing and dancing auditions out of the way pretty quick. But I'm hoping for the best. I mean, it can't be any worse than the Grease one, right? Just keep them singing and I'll be happy.

We tried to go on a walk tonight, but we were driven in by a storm. Guess a tornado touched down not too far away. Freaky! We just got a lot of rain. Now it is supposed to be in the upper 90's the rest of the week. Talk about a quick adjustment into summer! But I won't complain. 98 is far preferable to 48.

I work again tomorrow night, and then this weekend we want to do some shopping, which is something we haven't done in a long time. Just a bunch of little projects we need to get finished. Plus a big, TOP SECRET one.

Six Flags! More fun!

We saw Indiana Jones on Saturday. I had very low expectations, so ended up totally enjoying it. Yeah, maybe some of it was a little hokey (I'm still not sure how I feel about the ending), but overall it had the same feel as the other films, and I had a great time. The sets, the action (and there is plenty of action), it was all a lot of fun. I still feel like I shouldn't like Shia. He is just the kind of actor I generally don't like, and him dressing up like Marlon Brando was pretty silly. But then, he sort of pulled it off. He is a better actor than I give him credit for, apparently, cause despite the hair I pretty much bought his character.

Today, enjoying my first weekend off without company since January, we went to Six Flags. It seemed really crowded at first, but once we got walking around it actually wasn't. The lines on the rides weren't too long, although they were far longer than they should have been thanks to the woeful inefficiency of the staff. Guess we we've always been spoiled at Disneyland. These guys were rather pathetic. But like I said, the lines weren't too long to begin with, so a half-hour wait wasn't too hard to get through.

I actually got a little depressed at first, because the first two coasters we went on I really didn't enjoy, and I started getting afraid I was just getting old. They just jerked you around more than anything. But as we got deeper into the park we found the good rides, and boy were they awesome! The Superman and the Batman were my favorite. The Batman you lie down in the car and then they flip it upside down, so you are staring down at the ground and it feels like you are flying. Hello, where has this coaster been all my life??? Totally. Awesome.

Almost every other person at the park today had tattoos. I have no idea what that means. But I definitely felt very...suburban.

It's only been two weeks but already I can't sleep at night anymore. Of course, I still can't sleep during the day very well either, so my sleep is pretty much whenever I can grab it. But otherwise, so far, I'm enjoying the night shift.

We've started planning our summer vacation. Still tossing around a few ideas. Planning for vacation is fun!!