Blog Challenge Day 10

What you wore today.

Well even though today was Sunday, I had to go to work. (For those friends keeping track, it was not my usual weekend...I'm working 3 in a row.) But it was a perfect opportunity for all you non-lab friends to see what I wear everyday. Luckily since I do not work with patients I get to wear pretty much the clothes I wear all the time...but with khakis. Jeans apparently aren't "professional" looking, but the rest is kind of fair game. There are rules but they're flexible. I could wear scrubs to work if I wanted, but I don't. I have one pair and they make me look like I am wearing a tent. Skinny people look good in scrubs, chubby people look either like they cut down a mu-mu or they stuffed themselves into something that looks uncomfortable. I opted for my current favorite outfit...a t-shirt and hoodie (with khakis, of course). My cousin Katey told me one time that only I could put on a t-shirt and jeans and make it look like an outfit. When I find something I think looks good I wear the hell out of it. I purchased a sweater earlier this winter and I thought it looked so good I now own four all in different colors. But, since I work in a laboratory the lab coat is always the finishing touch to any outfit you wear in.

I'd like to think I make this look good. :)

Keirsten doesn't seem to think so....

Blog Challenge Day 09

Your beliefs.

So let's start with the typical answer. I do believe in God and am a Catholic. I'm not going to get all preachy about what other people should believe because I also believe that everyone has a different fit for religious beliefs. I took a religions class in college and that led me to believe that all religions are ultimately searching for God and that we are probably all looking at different aspects of the same God. It's like the story of the blind men who are "seeing" an elephant with only their hands. One man feels the leg of the elephant and says, "An elephant is like a tree." Another man feels the elephant's trunk and says, "An elephant is like a snake." A third man feels the elephant's side and says, "An elephant is like a wall." Without being able to see the whole of something it is hard to describe it.

I also believe in lots of other things. When I was little I believed in unicorns and mermaids. I could've probably debated you about it. Now as you grow up some of your beliefs change and others dies away entirely. Those mermaids and unicorns were eventually replaced by a belief that there is life on other planets, that all people are ultimately good inside but situations turn them to bad choices, and that chocolate can make you feel better when you are homesick or have your heart hurt. I believe in the spirit of Santa and that everyone deserves a present at Christmas and that you should search for that one present they don't even know they wanted. I believe in love at first sight but also think that you may feel it without the other person knowing. There are millions of beliefs that I could write down but the most important one is that I believe that no one should feel alone in this world and if you do feel alone just call or write someone, anyone who knows you because you are important to each person you know.

Blog Challenge Day 08

A moment.

What kind of moment could it be. There are so many moments in the day that you could choose from. I'm going to give you the moment in my day that I spend day dreaming. It's usually at break when no one else is in the break-room to talk to or sometimes while I am reading my cultures and it's a really easy bench. I put my brain on autopilot (pick up the stack of plates in one hand, flip through them like your dealing cards, take a whiff of what's flying by, do a coagulase, call it Staph aureus and move on) and think about what I would do with my yarn store.

It was originally in Cannon Beach and I would imagine that I would put my "Back in 10 minutes" sign up in the window and walk down to the elementary school to pick up my kids. I think I mentioned earlier in the blogs that I am an Idealist. That's a personality type that romanticizes almost everything. You can find out what you are if your bored here. I can fully imagine most anything which usually leads to disappointment. See I will imagine exactly the type of top I am looking for and go shopping and be upset that no store we go to has seen inside my mind and set it on a rack for me to purchase. Or I see exactly the type of tile I want in my bathroom with the new tub, counter and heated floor and end up under a pile of debt.

But back to the yarn store.

It now is mentally located in the town I live in and I even have my eye on a newly remodeled little space that has a "Lease" sign in the window. I make lists of what I would sell, what sort of classes I would offer, and of course draw up my store multiple times. There would be an area with tables and chairs and comfy sofa chairs with a coffee table for people to work on their projects. Lots of shelves with storage all stuffed with yarn for knitting and crocheting and roving for spinning. I even have the yarn all separated by weight and wash-ability because I'm a Type A person. There would be a spinning wheel in the window to entice people in and twinkle lights in the windows year-round. I would decorate the windows for all the holidays, even putting fake snow on the spinning wheel at Christmas. I'd play all sorts of music and offer the CD's for sale as "What's playing". I would offer classes for beginning knitting and crocheting. Mom would do the classes for beginning spinning and weaving. We would have weekly "Stitch and Bitch" nights where everyone would get together and work on their projects. We'd expand the classes as people asked for them. I even have a name for it, but I need to trademark it first. I'd love to be able to get up at 7 or 8 am and have time to get ready for work cause I wouldn't open the store until 10.

I am currently buying lottery tickets weekly.

Blog Challenge Day 07

Your best friend.

I'm kinda afraid of this one. I have a lot of friends that are probably hoping their name will be here. Okay hoping is probably a stretch, but at least are probably reading this thinking their name will be here. At least two of you are also a bit upset that I never had initials of all my peeps under my senior year book photo. So here it goes.

My best girl friend. That would have to go to Nicole. She saved me in the 7th grade from being a lonely loner the whole rest of my school life. I had no friends because my old friends from 4th and 5th grade had turned on me and had spent a pretty lonely 6th grade year eating lunch in the classroom with my teacher. We became glued to each other when her friend started to turn on her and ultimately moved to another school. We had known each other from much earlier cause she was on my bus route. My house was close to the beginning of the route and hers was the last. I saved her a seat everyday faithfully. In high school we had a pretty expanded group of friends and the two of us still stuck pretty close. After high school when most everyone moved away I was still only a 30 minute (in Nicole's case 15 minute) freeway drive away at CWU. By the time I was in my internship 4 years later she was working at one of the hospitals I interned at. She was at my 21st birthday when my parents took us all out in a limo to Red Robin. She was living in an apartment in town that was close enough to the bars that we had quite a few wild times when I actually learned how to drink when I was 23. She was there when my grandma died and I needed a shoulder to absolutely bawl on. I cried when she said she was moving away. I was elated when I found out I was going to be her maid of honor at her wedding. I flew to Las Vegas to be that maid of honor and keep her from freaking out that her hair had frizzed into it's own galaxy. I was ecstatic when she told me she was pregnant and a little sad that we now lived so far apart. I threw her baby shower and kept her from killing her parents. We still talk on the phone at least once a week and though I don't see her as much as I'd like, it still feels like she lives two streets away at times. She's my adopted sister and full time best friend.

My best guy (technically) friend. That would be Eric. He's the only guy that ever wanted to take me to a dance in high school. He is one of the strongest, bravest guys I know. When I had an online semi-stalker he email the dude and scared him off good (I have no idea what he said). He made every high school moment a hundred times more funny, crazy, and memorable. He has a personality that makes you want to be a part of whatever it is he's doing. He's the guy you want to take to your class reunion. He's a great dancer and an amazing dresser. He's the only guy that's ever wanted me to have his kids. If I could marry someone like Eric that's straight...well, who wouldn't want to marry their best friend?

My best friend as an "adult". That would be post-high school, and that would be Dez. After a very rocky beginning to college, I found out that I had a roommate that was my identical twin. That wouldn't be Dez, but Kayla. We even sounded so alike on the phone that my Mom had trouble telling us apart when she'd call. We were CRAZY when put together. It was sad when she wasn't coming back the next year but she left me with something even better...Dez. She was from the same town as Kayla and we ended up as roomies the next year. Without Dez I would have had maybe one or two other friends in college. She was someone who showed me how different life could be when you didn't live at home. I knew nothing about cars, she had a 69 Chevy Chevelle Malibu that she had fixed up. Who knew guys did double takes when two girls were riding in a hot car? I knew nothing about how to live with someone besides my parents, she and I worked out a living arrangement and budgeted so well that I wish I still had that apartment and tiny bedroom. I knew nothing about how loud one person could blow their nose....okay it wasn't all roses. I had a better time at college than I would have if she hadn't been there. We've done fun road trips (driving up to the outlet store on a whim? sure!), major life moments (you're getting married in less than a month? sure!), and had great times (wanna try a Buffy the Vampire Slayer drinking game? sure!). Dez did more than just put up with me and for that, she's one of my best friends.

I am sure that I still won't get off scot-free for this one. :)

Blog Challenge Day 06

Your Day.

I got up this morning when my alarm went off at 4:30 am. I let my dogs Ariel and Toby out of their kennels and carried Toby into the bathroom with me, while Ariel snuck into Mom's room. Got my shower and got all ready for the day. Mom drove to work while I snoozed and we listened to Josh Groban's Illumination CD for the hundredth time. Got to work around 6:30 and put my stuff in my locker and put on my lab coat. Found out that our Micro set-up guy was sick today and it would be just me and the girl that has been training in set-up for almost 3 weeks and gave her notice 1 1/2 weeks ago, so doesn't care much about her job. I also had to help the person who is training on the urine/stool culture bench and release all of the cultures that she puts in hold. My supervisor was training a student from our Medical Technology program on the respiratory/wounds bench, so it was me manning the phones as well. I managed to get a procedure written for her on our new oxidase slides in the morning as well as working on another project about monthly maintenance cards that I need to finish by the end of the year. I realized before break at 9 that I needed to do the daily temperature readings and reminder culture papers to send up to the floor because our temporary set-up girl (TSG) didn't know how. Got my morning break at 9:30 and had coffee and a muffin and got to knit on a hat some. Released cultures when I got back from break and worked on getting a few cultures ready for sending to the University of Washington for various things like sensitivities and organism identifications that we don't perform. Our media order came in around 11:00 and I helped TSG find out where it needed to go and verified that we got everything we were supposed to. Made copies of the shipping orders and sent them down to materials management. Continued to release cultures from the urine/stool bench. Went to lunch around 12:00 and trekked down to the cafeteria and got a chicken salad and a roll. At lunch I helped one of our students who wanted to learn to knit get started. She thought maybe she had learned how to knit before, but then after a while decided it was maybe crochet. I told her I'd bring crochet hooks tomorrow and we'd try that. Again helped out my trainee on the urine/stool bench and got most of the rest of the cultures released when she went to lunch. Started humming random classical tunes and our evening micro tech said, "Sing it girl!", so then I really got into it. Told her about the greatest baby toy ever by Baby Einstein the Take Along Tunes. I've bought one for Nicole and Melinda and have one hid away for myself. Her step-daughter is expecting and she thought it would be a great gift, so I got online and printed out a page so she could find it at the store. Mom came by and said that she could get her hair cut today and what would be the best time, 3:30 or 4? I said 3:30 cause I thought I could get off on time (I am supposed to be off at 3 pm). Sat down with my trainee and really plugged through the cultures she had questions on. Got a phone call from the floor about something I had to pass on to the Chemistry department and communications had gotten crossed. Straightened that out with Chemistry and we found the paper that had been tossed in the Hippa bin when it should have gone to them. Called the floor back and explained what happened and ironed out all the wrinkles. Called Mom in Hematology and said, "Go get your hair cut and come back for me." Finished the bench with my trainee and got on to doing the pending lists and other end-of-the-day paperwork. Found out TSG hadn't reported or finalled any of her C. diff rapid tests all day. Also found out she had received a TB culture and hadn't informed me, so late in the day that I didn't have time to set it up. Picked up the papers we have to send to Infection Control and bid my co-workers adieu around 4 pm...only an hour overtime. Clocked out and went up to the parking lot to wait for Mom. Stood around for about a minute thinking maybe I could pull out the hat I'm knitting on and leave the yarn in the bag so I could stand there and knit when Mom pulled into the parking lot. We vented all the way home about what drove us crazy that day. Got home and found my Burpee seed order had come. Yea!! Starting seeds indoors again in February for my garden. Got some comfy pants on, turned on Ellen and got on my elliptical. Mom went out and tended to her chickies. After she got in she started making a lemon meringue pie. I worked on some homework, studying for taking my Specialist in Microbiology test to cover the 36 credits of continuing education I need every 3 years, and to add some more letters after my name. Mom started a chicken breast on the Foreman's grill and boiled some water for noodles. I came over and helped finish up dinner which was tomato bruschetta and chicken and spaghetti noodles with browned butter and Myzithra cheese on them. YUUUUUMMMM. Mom cooked the lemon pie and I came down on the computer to print out some stuff to help the student who wants to learn to crochet. I searched around for the right size hooks to take with me tomorrow and Mom came down in the living room to watch TV. We watched a couple of episodes of How I Met Your Mother, me knitting her typing on her book on her computer. I remembered that I hadn't blogged in a while and came over and read through a couple of other blogs and then sat down to type this.

And now I am going to bed. Ready to do it all again tomorrow?

Blog Challenge Day 05

Your definition of love.

My definition of love would be finding someone in the world that you fit with perfectly. You don't have to change and neither do they. No compromises short of tonight we have Chinese, tomorrow it's Italian. They enjoy the things you are interested in and your interested in the things they like. You wake up each day and think, "I am so lucky." They can bring up new ideas and problems without having to be worried that your gonna freak out. You can be assured that they will be there beside you when your old and can see what you only think you look like. You can pretty much stop speaking cause they'll say "What do you think about..?" and you say, "Yeah I was thinking we should." They love unconditionally with a love that is given away freely with no thought of return but is a hundred times more filling if it is returned. You feel better when they are with you and lost when you are apart. You know each and every day that you are important to at least one other person in this lonely world.

Maybe that's why I am single...

Blog Challenge Day 04

Hey I am getting pretty good at this daily blogging thing!

Day 4 -- What you ate today.

BOOORING. Today I ate a peanut butter and jelly covered English muffin and coffee for breakfast. Some Tarragon Chicken Salad, a slice of homemade bread with butter, a clementine and a 100 calorie pack of "yogurt" covered pretzels for lunch. (The "quotes" around the yogurt indicates that we all know it's not really yogurt around those pretzels.) And *sniff sniff* I will be having BIG breakfast for dinner. That's bacon, eggs and hash browns. Yum yum.

What did you eat today?

Blog Challenge Day 03

So in addendum to Day 2, I was informed that I do have a first (and only) love. I have the marriage proposal to prove it written down in my senior year book. He was the only guy that took me to any dance in high school and he is still the life of the party and the most amazingly cool guy I know. That's right my perfect accessory, my best guy friend, the one, the only....Eric. ;)

So, Day 3 -- Your Parents.

I have an interesting parentage. I was informed in college that until people get to know me, whenever I referred to my parents people always thought Mom and Dad. Well that second term was not thrown around much in my house unless my Mom was going to do something handy, that a Dad should do. As in "Dad's going out to build a deck." My parents were always my Mom and Gram. I still pitted them against each other as any kid would their Mom or Dad. I'd go ask Gram "Can I have blank?" and she'd say, "Go ask you mother." So I would find Mom and ask "Can I have blank?" and she'd say, "What did Grammy say?" They fought like real parents. They had different comforting styles. Mom would rub your back and offer advice when you cried. Grammy would say "Knock off that crying!" Which would inevitably make you cry harder. So, yea, I had REAL parents. You see, I was conceived by artificial insemination. My Mom was getting older and didn't have a husband, but wanted children. She saw an article about how career women were having children by artificial insemination and the rest is history. I have a biological father somewhere on this planet but I will probably never meet him. That's cool cause I had the most amazing childhood ever and I wouldn't change a thing. I knew every day how much my parents wanted me and growing up with that kind of security is a rare thing. So if I had a glass in my hand, I would raise it....to my Mom and Gram!

Blog Challenge Day 02

Your first love.

Hmmmmm. That's a hard one. I would be honest saying I probably have never been truly in love with any one person. But for first loves of other things, that could be easier. My first love for a long time was dance. I took dance lessons from the time I was 3 until I was probably 2o and did tap, jazz, ballet, hip-hop, you name it. I stopped dancing at my old studio when traveling back and forth to college became stressful. Then I danced with the dance group in college and even choreographed and performed in a tap dance for their spring show. I went back and danced with my old studio for the last year and a half, but it wasn't my first love anymore. My current first love is knitting. I have completed quite a few projects last year including an awesome felted messenger bag, fingerless mittens and multiple pairs of slippers for Christmas presents. I also started plenty of projects that are ongoing and am currently obsessed with knitting socks. (Daydreamed a little about them at work today...) I still have plenty of time for other firsts. We'll see when they find me.

Blog Challenge Day 01

Introduce myself.

Hello, my name is Caroline but I go by Carrie. I don't think that I was ever called Caroline by my mother unless I was in trouble...but no, not even then. I do claim "Sweet Caroline" as my song since good times really were never so good without me ;) I am a Pisces which means I am constantly re-examining my life and second guessing myself. I constantly search for who I "truly" am, which changes year by year. I like to knit and garden and imagine things to make my house more beautiful that ultimately eat my money up. I would love to travel more, but who wouldn't. I am currently obsessed with the new Doctor Who with Matt Smith and the new Josh Groban album, but okay just Josh Groban in general. I am a microbiologist that loves what she does but sometimes drags herself into work when she'd rather be at home knitting. I love reading a lot and just recently was hooked on reading all of the Hunger Games series. I do not own a Kindle. Yet.

A Challege from Melinda...

So, Melinda posted this challenge, and I think it sounds like a pretty good idea. Granted these won't be day by day, but I'll give it my best shot. Plus she knows I can't help but take up a challenge. Here are the blog challeges by "day":

Day 01 - Introduce yourself
Day 02 - Your first love
Day 03 - Your parents
Day 04 - What you ate today
Day 05 - Your definition of love
Day 06 - Your day
Day 07 - Your best friend
Day 08 - A moment
Day 09 - Your beliefs
Day 10 - What you wore today
Day 11 - Your siblings
Day 12 - What's in your bag
Day 13 - This week
Day 14 - What you wore today (isn't that a repeat of 10?) Whatevs.
Day 15 - Your dreams
Day 16 - Your first kiss
Day 17 - Your favorite memory
Day 18 - Your favorite birthday
Day 19 - Something you regret
Day 20 - This month
Day 21 - Another moment
Day 22 - Something that upsets you
Day 23 - Something that makes you feel better
Day 24 - Something that makes you cry
Day 25 - A first
Day 26 - Your fears
Day 27 - Your favorite place
Day 28 - Something that you miss
Day 29 - Your aspirations
Day 30 - One last moment