Day 30: Being Alive

I think it's public knowledge that my love of music came from growing up on musical soundtracks and renditions of musical numbers by the great Barbara Streisand and Bette Midler.  I'm thankful for music showing us the meaning of life, the nuances of the human heart, and for putting into rhythms, melodies, and words the things we all feel but can never seem to adequately express.  This has been one of my most favorite songs since I can remember loving music.

Here's Sondheim's "Being Alive" from Company.  And thanks to Bryann for being that "Somebody."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBBPKedba5o

Someone to hold you too close,
Someone to hurt you too deep,
Someone to sit in your chair,
And ruin your sleep...

Someone to need you too much,
Someone to know you too well,
Someone to pull you up short,
To put you through hell...

Someone you have to let in,
Someone whose feelings you spare,
Someone, who like it or not,
Will want you share
A little, a lot....


Someone to crowd you with love,
Someone to force you to care
Someone to make you come through
Who'll always be there
As frightened as you
Of being alive
Being alive,
Being alive,
Being alive.

Somebody, hold me too close,
Somebody, hurt me too deep,
Somebody, sit in my chair,
And ruin my sleep,
And make me aware
Of being alive,
Being alive

Somebody, need me too much,
Somebody, know me too well,
Somebody, pull me up short,
And put me through hell,
And give me support
For being alive.
Make me alive.
Make me alive!

Make me confused,
Mock me with praise,
Let me be used,
Vary my days.

But alone is alone,
Not alive.

Somebody, crowd me with love,
Somebody, force me to care,
Somebody, let me come through,
I'll always come through,
As frightened as you
To help us survive
Being alive
Being alive
Being alive

Day 29: Musicals

Also, Bryann's love of musicals - otherwise I may not get to see so many!!

Bryann is currently addicted to Stephen Sondheim.  Which means we constantly have "Sweeny Todd" and "Company" playing in the background of our lives.  He pulls up the movie of live production of either and it plays while we make dinner, or are cleaning, doing laundry, getting ready for bed.  It makes household tasks much more fun.  I've even caught him SINGING ALONG!!

We found "Sunday in the Park with George" and "Into the Woods" on Amazon Prime Instant Viewing, so I'm sure we'll get around to watching those this weekend, and maybe Bryann will get adicted to those soundtracks as well, but for now, we're catching up on some of the revival productions of "Sweeny" and "Company."  Bryann rented the 2002 revival of "Sweeny Todd in Concert" (starring the George Hearn -the original Sweeny - Patty LuPone, and Neil Patrick Harris) from the Marylhurst Library and we watched that on Tuesday.  Tonight we're watching the 2011 revival of Company with NPH and Patty LuPone again!)

Aside from watching and listening to soundtracks from musicals, we live in this wonderful city of Portland where Broadway Across America brings us amazing shows like Phantom of the Opera, Wicked, Rent, West Side Story, Avenue Q, Monty Python, etc.  There are also really excellent theater companies where we've seen outstanding productions of Sweeny Todd, Company (again with the Sondheim!), Legally Blonde, UrineTown, and The Putnam County Spelling Bee.

I love musicals.  I'm thankful they exist.  The music from musicals forms the backbone of my childhood music education.  I would hate to live without them.

Day 28: My Awesome Brain

I'm in a training program for my new job, and I'm basically back in school, only it's way harder than I remember school being.  When I was in High School, I had to pay attention to teachers all day long, and I had to be constantly learning and thinking.  College was way easier because I only had class for 2 or 3 hours a day and then I studied and wrote papers on my own time at my discretion.  In my CT (Credentialed Trainer) program, I'm in front of a computer learning different aspects of a new program, all day long.  AND trying to interpret the terminology of everything since I don't have a medical background.  And my brain is exhausted at the end of the day!  But I'm learning!  I CAN learn new tricks!  It's kind of fun to be back in "class" again in the student role.  Exploring, asking questions, figuring out how things connect to each other.  I'm glad to have the opportunity, and I'm thankful for the capabilities to learn new things.

Day 27: Homebrewing

As I mentioned in my Hobbies post, Bryann and I have recently taken up brewing our own beer.  Thanks to Annie and Aaron, their gear, and their know-how, we made a successful batch of our very first brew - Apricot Cream Ale.  I wrote a bit about it in my October Month in Review, but we went to the Portland U-Brew & Pub in Sellwood to get grains, malt, yeast, and hops.  They have super reasonable prices and the guy that runs the store was really helpful - he gave us a basic recipe for Cream Ale and walked us around the shop, giving us explanations on what stuff was and how different types of malt affects the taste of the beer.  We added Apricot puree to the cream ale to make it our own.

We started another beer on Sunday - "Hoppy Holidays IPA".  We went back to the U-Brew store, picked up supplies, told the guy what we were thinking of doing, and he gave us a basic IPA recipe that we just tweaked with some different hops and added spices to the boil.  It's currently fermenting in a carboy on our kitchen counter, and will be ready in a few weeks.

As we've discovered with the Apricot Cream Ale, the beer gets better with age.  It's been a few weeks since we started drinking the Cream Ale, and it's noticeably better and more flavorful since it's been aging in the keg.

I'm looking forward to tasting the new brew!  We won't know if it's any good until it's ready, so here's hoping!!

"Hoppy Holidays IPA" fermenting on our kitchen counter

Selection of malts

Add caption

Day 26: The Handy-Men in My Life

I wrote about replacing the sinks in our house a few days ago.  Thank goodness for my Dad and for Bryann knowing how to do all of that stuff.  I like to think I'm pretty handy and can figure my way around stuff, but I can't do things that require a lot of strength like pry out sinks from counter tops or lift cast-iron sinks into holes in counter tops.

We also had a gigantic clog in our drain after brewing a batch of beer and Bryann putting the steeped grains down the garbage disposal.  Gross, icky stuff was coming up from our master bathtub and made me gag a little bit when I saw it.  Thank goodness for Bryann who can stomach gross stuff. He snaked the drains, and got the clogs out.  I'm thankful he knows how to do all of that stuff so I don't have to worry about it.  It was nice not to stress about what to do when I realized the pipes were clogged.  I could relax, knowing that Bryann knew how to take care of it.

Day 25: Hobbies and New Hobbies

I need to reiterate how much I love Bryann and how thankful I am for his adventurous spirit.  He's always up trying new things, and he thinks life is too boring if you don't have hobbies to keep you interesting.  His love of trying out new things, developing hobbies and interests motivates me to try new things and develop new hobbies.  He's the reason I joined a choir again, and I'm so thankful for him!  I'm thankful we have things we're interested in and activities we pursue besides watching TV.  Bryann has several board game groups, and plays softball and flag football.  I'm in choir, go to Zumba classes (when I'm motivated enough) and have a book club with friends, sporadic blogging, and sometimes I'll even play board games too!  We both love camping, hiking, backpacking, skiing, theater & musicals, wine tasting, and our new hobby is brewing our own beer!  I'm thankful for this interesting and diverse life I live.

Day 24: ReBuilding Center

Our kitchen and bathroom sinks are pretty used and abused and we've been thinking about replacing them.  We went to Home Depot to look at sinks and faucets - which are fairly expensive, and with our current budget, unaffordable.  So we looked into buying a few used sinks.  Lucky for us there are several recycled goods stores in the Portland area.  There are Tool Libraries where you can borrow practically any household toll you can think of.  There's a ReUse Habitat for Humanity store that was closed this weekend, so we went to the ReBuilding Center.  We found a Kohler cast iron white kitchen sink for $25 that normally retails for $400, and an American Standard faucet for $10, that retails for over $100!  We also found two Kohler cast-iron sinks for both bathrooms, each $10, normally around $100.  In short, we saved a bunch of money.  They required a little elbow grease to get them looking clean and shiny, and some know-how to get them installed, but without places like the ReBuild Center, we wouldn't have been able to do these projects.

Here are some photos from installation day today:

Old, scratched up, shallow stainless steel sink

Ripped up and prepped

New(ish) Kohler cast iron sink with single handle faucet and soap dispenser!

Bathroom sink ripped out and prepped

Men working on man things like installing sinks!

Day 23: Grandma

My Grandma is a fun ol' gal.  She wasn't able to be at our Thanksgiving dinner because she's in a lot of pain right now (related to her back) and is currently resting and seeing a lot of doctors and trying to get the pain under control.  But if she HAD been with us, she'd have been hogging the ice cream and dibs-ing the first serving of pie, claiming that she's too old to wait around for others.

She's got a fascinating history, and if you ask her, she'll tell you all kinds of pre-war and WWII stories, or civil rights, medicine, technology, or spiritual stories.  If you get her talking long enough about spiritual stuff, you'll hear some amazing stuff about intuition and the special properties of our beach house.  If you don't quite believe in the same stuff, you'll probably think she's crazy, but we don't care.  I'm thankful I've always lived near her and could see her often throughout the year, and I get something new every time I visit with her.

Day 22: Thanksgiving

The reason I'm focusing on being thankful.  The reason we registered for wedding china.  :-P The reason we get together as a family every year and gorge ourselves on a giant meal.  I love this holiday, and I am thankful for being given the opportunity to focus on the things I'm thankful for.  It's an extremely helpful exercise for me, and the refocusing has helped tremendously already.

Here are a few photos from the day:

All of us gathered around the table for our T-day Feast

Dad and Poppy in there respective napping positions...  :-P

Thank you mom, dad, Adam, David, and Audy for gathering with us and warming our home with your love.  Reezy and Grandma - we missed you, we love you, and we're glad you had each other for a lovely Thanksgiving at the Mannor!  

Day 21: My Parents

My parents got in tonight and I'm already having fun visiting with them!  They brought delicious wines with them (currently drinking a Castle Rock 2009 Columbia Valley Syrah) and I made Red Curry Chicken over Jasmine Brown Rice for dinner.  It's always nice to play hostess and have them over.  I'm glad I have a good relationship with my parents, and that I actually enjoy spending time with them!

Day 20: My Health

With my new job at Providence came a new choice in healthcare.  I'm now signed up for an HSA that I can contribute pre-tax money into, and Providence contributes incentive bonus money towards as well.  All of my routine exams are covered at 100% by Providence, and anything additional, and/or prescriptions I pay for from my HSA account.  The money in my HSA also rollsover from year to year and throughout my retirement.

I had the option to continue with a traditional healthcare plan, but an HSA was MUCH cheaper for me month by month because I don't have to contribute anything to it if I don't want to, and I think will be cheaper for me in the long run because I don't have any health problems that require me to see a doctor often enough to justify the monthly payment.  Which brings me to what I'm thankful for today - my health.  I hope that if I continue to take care of myself, I'll remain this healthy for a long time.  I know crazy stuff happens and I come down with an awful condition for no reason, but all the more reason to be thankful for my healthy state today.

Day 19: Video Chats

My friend Jeff is attending business school at Dartmouth, so he and his girlfriend Amber moved cross country.  Fortunately, this handy invention called video chatting exists and I get to "hang out" with them for a little "facetime" (depending on which video chatting method you subscribe to.)  It's definitely a step up from talking on the phone, and it makes me feel like they're not so terribly far away after all.  

Day 18: Lazy Sundays

Today wasn't ENTIRELY lazy.  Bryann went to play flag football.  We cleaned and re-organized the office and the spare bedroom a bit.  We took Sammy for a walk to the park and threw the ball around.  But I didn't change out of my pajamas all day...  :-P

 I'm thankful that we're in a position to enjoy a lazy day every now and then.  It's good for my soul.

Day 17: My Fans

Consonare performed it's opening Fall concert at First Congregational tonight, and several of my friends (and even one of Bryann's board game friends!) came to the concert.  I feel so loved when people come to my concerts, I'm so thankful for their support - and the support of others who've attended concerts in the past!

Day 16: Our House Location

I know I wrote about this last year, but I'm still thankful for our house.  I love our home.  It's perfect for us, and as fate would have it, it's in a perfect location for both of our jobs.  Neither of us could have foreseen that we'd both be working on the East side, and our current job location wasn't a purposeful choice.  But I'm just a 10 minute drive from Providence Milwaukie, Bryann is 20 minutes from Oregon City, and neither of us have to fight traffic to get to or from work.  

Day 15: Mid-Week Dinner with Friends

We just got back from Tamara and Rian's.  We had some of Tamara's AMAZING chili, and we brought some cornbread and a quart of our home-brewed beer.  We weren't celebrating anything in particular, just getting together for a mid-week dinner and movie.  But we joked, and laughed, and lifted each other's spirits, and stuffed ourselves with delicious food.  I love this time in our lives that we're so young and free to have a mid-week dinner date with friends.

Day 14: Slow Cookers

Is it weird to be thankful for "things"?  

Our schedules have been way busier this fall what with my new job, choir rehearsals, and Bryann in class twice a week, so making dinner has been difficult.  We've taken to making slow-cooker meals lately and they've been a complete meal-saver.  I threw together a beef stew on my lunch break yesterday (I work super close and can come home for lunch sometimes) and it got us through dinner last night, lunch today, and dinner tonight.  

<3!!  

Day 13: Consonare Chorale

Tonight, we had dress rehearsal for our concert this coming Saturday.  Dress rehearsals are always a point of anxiety for most of us.  Are we ready?  Do we have the notes? Do we have the music memorized?  Are we comfortable enough with the non-memorized pieces to look up and watch Georgina for guidance in ambiance and the intricacies of the music?  I'm always a little nervous pre-dress rehearsal that the concert will be a disaster and I'll regret inviting everyone I know.

But dress rehearsal always works out the nerves and the kinks and eases our worries.  We're always ready. Because we're a high caliber group, and we're all passionate about music and performing to the highest of our abilities.

I love being a part of Consonare.  I was told in college to treasure the time I had with Chamber Choir because I would never again sing in a truly great choir again.  Well, that was before Georgina (a former WU Chamber Choir alumn) created Consonare and showed Dr. Long that truly great choirs do exist outside of college.  I love music, I love singing, and I love being a part of such an amazing group of musicians and people.

So thankful I took a risk last December and auditioned.  I'm so thankful I got in!  I'm so thankful I get to share my passion with like-minded and equally talented musicians once a week, 9 months out of the year!  :-D

Day 12: Flexibility of My New Job

I worked from home today and it was awesome.  I have a company laptop instead of a cubicle, which means I can (and often do) work from several different locations.  So far, I've worked from the Milwaukie Hospital, the Providence Office Park, Missoula, and my house.

I'm an hourly employee, paid on an 80 hour pay period.  Outside of classes I'm teaching, or meetings I have to attend, my managers don't care how I get in my 80 hours.  My schedule is super flexible and I can set my own working hours.  I worked 47 hours last week, so today, to fill in those 3 hours I needed for today, I stayed in my pajamas, made some coffee, and worked on some excel tracking stuff my team needed.  I think I really love this job.  :-D

Day 11: Bryann's Teammates

Bryann plays in a Men's and Co-Ed softball league as well as a flag football league.  His teammates (and their wives/husbands) have become good friends of ours.  They came to our bachelor/ette parties, to our wedding, to Christmas and holiday and birthday parties.  They're great people and I'm thankful to have them in our lives.

Day 10: Wine & Dine

We had November's Wine & Dine party at Katy and Travis's home tonight.  We got to try some yummy wines - the theme was "wines with people on the label" and my favorite was the Head Snapper Red - and play with Katy and Travis's new baby boy, Isaac.  

Our wine & dine group has been going strong for over 3 years, and I'm thankful for my fantastic friends who keep the tradition going!  

Day 9: Snow!

It just started snowing in Missoula last night.  And it's gorgeous here!  I wish it snowed more in Portland.  I miss the high desert, winter snow and mountains that I grew up with in Klamath Falls.  Luckily, we're not too far from Mt. Hood and we get over to the mountain a few times every winter to go skiing.  Nate is trying to convince me to try snow camping this year.  I do really like snow, but I really don't like being cold. Weird, huh?

Day 8: My New Co-Workers

I've always had pretty good luck with co-workers.  I'm in Missoula this week to help get the Epic training stuff started for the big switch in a few weeks, and I got to meet the rest of my team.  We've been out to dinner every night as a group, and spent tonight playing catch phrase with pizzas and beer at the hotel.

I'm thankful to be a part of such an awesome group!

Day 7: Election Results

I don't think anyone super conservative reads this Blog, so I'm not going to worry about offending anyone. I stay far far away from posting anything political on Facebook, because I've seen some of the nasty things people say to each other through comments. I have a lot of friends on FB that don't share my political views and don't see the point in arguing or losing friends over opposing views.

That being said, I'm glad Obama won, and I hope he'll use his second term more aggressively. I'm glad to see the first ever openly gay/lesbian candidate elected to the US Senate. I'm glad that four states elected marriage equality measures. I feel like marriage equality is at a tipping point and will start getting a greater margin of support in the coming years.

I'm a bit sad that over 6 billion dollars was spent on political marketing, and the country with the same balance of power, and someday I hope we will rework how campaign fundraising is done.

Day 6: Modern Transportation

I'm in Missoula, Montana for work this week and I'm pretty amazed at the ease with which I travelled 550 miles today. Bryann dropped me off (via our car) at the Max station this morning and I took the train to the airport. Then I caught a flight to Seattle, then to Missoula, where I picked up a rental car and drove to the hotel. Total travel time: 6 hours.

By foot: 7 days, 13 hours

By bike: 2 days, 6 hours

By car: 9 hrs, 43 mins

I did good. VERY thankful I didn't have to hoof it - though now I do wish Google maps gave travel time estimates by horse.

Day 5: Clean and Abundant Water

Part of this exercise is to think about the "have"s in my life rather than the "have not"s.  As I took my 10 minute, scalding hot shower this morning, brushed my teeth, made coffee, poured water for Sam, and then walked outside to the rain, I was thankful for living in a place where access to fresh, clean water was not something I ever had to worry about.

Day 4: Being "Laid Off"

And by "laid off" I mean let go by claims that they had budget cuts, allowed to collect unemployment, and learning later on that they'd re-filled my position and several others with someone else.  

But I hadn't been completely happy teaching, and I hadn't been at ALL happy at Cascade.  And I wasn't about to quit my job.  So I'm thankful that I was "laid off" and forced out into the unknown, with unemployment as a safety net, to explore what I was really looking for.  

I've heard the saying a million times about when one door closes, another door opens.  But I heard a comedian on the radio recently describe it more as an opportunity to purge your life of the old crap cluttering everything up.  To clean house in order to be really ready and open to pursuing whatever opportunities come next.  

And so far, I've really enjoyed what came next.  

Day 3 - Family

Family will always be on my list of things to be thankful for.  I have a loving, supportive, functional family, and I'm thankful to be in the same area of the world.  A lot of people live far away from their families (and by far, I mean not within a day's drive) and see them maybe once a year.  I have everyone I'm closest to all in the same state!  My parents are in Klamath, Grandma in Salem, and Reezy, David, and Adam in Portland!  I see the whole gang several times a year  - holiday dinners, brunches, tea parties, back yard BBQ's, birthday parties, beach weekends, etc. 

Granted, some people prefer only seeing their families once a year, but part of what I'm thankful for is that I actually LIKE my family.  No, LOVE my family.  :-) 




Backyard BBQ this past summer with the family!

 

Day 2 - My New Job

I'm enjoying my new role as a trainer at Providence.  Though I haven't actually started teaching classes yet, since my own training won't start until the 13th.  But I'm thankful to be in a healthier work environment.  I'm not being paid with someone's personal check anymore.  There's an HR department.  I have rights and responsibilities.  I didn't realize how PTSD I was from Cascade, but everytime someone says they want to talk to me or that they'd like to schedule a check-in via our chat system, I start having an anxiety attack.  At Cascade, whenever a higher-up wanted to talk to me, it was because they found some newfangled excuse to go on a power trip and make me feel like a terrible, undeserving person.  I'm still recovering, I suppose.  I didn't realize what an emotionally abusive and manipulative situation I was in until I was in something "normal" for awhile. 

Month of Thanks-Giving is Back!

It's that time of year again!  Time to quite dwelling on all the things I don't have and give thanks for all the great things I do have! 

#1 - Bryann Turner (you totally didn't see that coming, did you??) 

He's amazing.  :-) 

I've been hearing stories from the women at my new job about their ex-husbands or crappy boyfriends, or friends crappy husbands, and I often find myself wondering 1) why these women are dating such awful men, and 2) are there really not many good guys out there? 

I'm lucky I don't have to worry about that.  I have a great guy all to myself! 
 

Us being awesome at my friend's "Wiggin Out" birthday party