Courtenay Brown

Of course I am #1

Europe’s “The Final Countdown” (which some of us know from Superweek… day 17, stage 17!, and many more know it from magic shows) would have been an awesome theme song for me this week. Amazon, chemistry class, grad school applications, 2009, Seattle – all are almost over for me. My last day at work was this past Friday, it was my only day of overlapping with the new temp they hired, so I had 8 hours to teach him everything I have learned and developed over the past 6 months. I wouldn’t say it went particularly well, and I’ve actually had nightmares the past two nights about how I am a mean person, so I feel really bad. Phrase-of-the-day was a tie between “you might want to write this down” and “no. no! stop! stop pushing buttons!”. Ugh. I’m not sure if he hates me but I kind of hate myself for getting frustrated, and I am having flashbacks to giving little kids riding lessons and asking them, exasperatedly, why on earth they were scared and to please just buck up, stop crying, and fricking ride the pony, honestly, what is the problem here, etc. I sense a new year’s resolution coming on…

Tomorrow is my chemistry exam. As you can see, my preparations are thorough and dedicated and I have clearly locked myself in the house with no disruptions or breaks or distractions. Yeah right! Yesterday I planned to do lots of studying but instead I trained until early afternoon, then Ben and I had to go do errands of the “omg we are leaving Seattle on Tuesday and basically not coming back, there is so much to do, and shit meanwhile it’s Christmas” variety, which were actually incredibly productive but took way longer than expected. Ben had this electric guitar that he got when he was 12 and he wanted to trade or sell it and get an acoustic one, so we went to two different music shops to see what they’d offer and to try acoustic guitars, but Ben isn’t particularly good so it was this furtive little dance of him playing really quietly and/or waiting until other shoppers or employees were not nearby to hear him, plus he had to keep telling me to shut up when I asked if he was playing Led Zeppelin (he wasn’t, he was playing Sublime and House of the Rising Sun, which I knew, but doesn’t everyone learn to play Stairway to Heaven on the guitar?!). I was his valet of sorts, which was funny because all I know about guitars is that my dad is really good at them, but I guess I was helpful. He got one! He likes it. It was also my favorite guitar too, out of all 1 x 10^2 (i.e. 0 (is less than or equal to) guitars (is less than or equal to 200)) we looked at. I decided I want a mandolin or a violin, I played viola in middle school so I think I could learn. We also went to Trader Joe’s to get some things for my brother (they don’t have TJ’s in Hawaii) and to the book store to sell books and to this foam store to get foam for our handmade bike boxes, which Ben the Engineer and Ben’s Dad the Contractor are very happily constructing out in the garage as I type (men and their tools… the garage is a freezing cold mess but they are having a blast), and to the bike shop, and to Essential Bakery to get a snack.

Then we got home and I studied for a whopping half-hour before some friends came over, and since it’s winter, obviously this was the perfect time to sit in the hot tub outside for 3 hours. Today I am a wreck. My legs are jelly! Thank god I planned a day off from running. I’m going to get on my bike later (as a break from all my diligent studying) and in the interim I am pounding the nuun and going out and standing in the lake for 1-2 minutes at a time to try to flush out the stagnant blood in my legs. The water is frIGID after the week of below-freezing high temperatures we’ve had. It all seems to be helping, and I’m riding the trainer so I don’t have to spend an hour psyching myself up to ride outdoors, and I have my new favorite show to watch, “True Blood”, so I’m looking forward to the workout!