Let's see: bruised and mildly abrased knee? Check. Circular abrasion at base of 4th toe on right foot? Check. Welts and stipple bruises on inner forearms? Check. General over all soreness and mild arthritis in hands? Check. Semi-permanent grass stains on feet bottoms? Check.

Am I referencing a new authorization at SFHP? Nope. Was I attacked by a roving band of flu-ridden lemurs? Nope. Just another 4 hour long grass volleyball doubles session? You bet.

Won 4 out of 5 games yesterday with the help of Dan. Hadn't played in 3 months. Couldn't be happier. ;)

So yesterday I thought I was experiencing my first earthquake. Not long after I got into the office, my whole desk began to vibrate, as did those around me, for about 10 seconds. There was no "rolling" sensation as is often the description for the earthquake sensation, but there was off and on shaking -- desks, chairs, through the floor -- for a couple hours. I was thinking to myself, if this is how the warning shock is going, this might be HUGE.

I then went to a coworker's office to ask a question and saw out the window that a clump of construction workers was steadily drilling an enormous support pillar into the ground not 100 yards from our building. There was no noise somehow or it would have been a lot more obvious.

0 for 3 on experiencing earthquakes and counting -- albeit trepidatiously.

Turning to lighter subjects, Alexis is in town for a workshop this weekend. I made Steve's PB Fudge for a potluck last night and it was a huge hit (there are a lot of really big fans of peanut butter out there). And Sunday is supposed to be a sunny 73 degrees, so we might get to play some volleyball. ;)

Follow ups to the last blog: *Dawn of the Dead: Traumatizing. Bloody, scary, nihilisitic. Upside: seeing it in a city. Should a zombie virus break out, I wouldn't be stuck in a house in rural Connecticut with hours of anticipation and terror. I'd be a zombie in about 5 minutes, quick and painful. Grrrrr. ARrrrrrgh. I dreamt about zombies all night, but not nightmares; just sort of a constantly playing encyclopedia of zombie life. Noah's name shows up in the credits just after the severed head, for those of you who might decided to see it or, sometime in the far future, rent it.*My federal tax return has already been direct deposited into my bank account. Modern technology is marvelous. It only took 10 days!!*We never did go rock climbing and the Golden Gate Park excursion is postponed -- we wanted a sunnier day.

Big news: For those of you who might be appropriately surprised, I received a voicemail from a good friend (whom I knew in high school) who works in a small shop in Noe Valley (one neighborhood over from where I live) that MEG walked in today. I have not seen or spoken to Meg in 5 years. I'm told in the vm that she lives nearby. I have yet to hear the details.

It's been an exhausting weekend. Love to you all.

I have some down time at work so I thought I'd update the ol' blog. Job negotiations continue (vaguely, in the form of resume requests) and look promising. In the meantime, I am learning lots of interesting medical terminology and becoming enlightened to all the weird things that can go wrong in a human body...

This promises to be a hefty blog. I've been so out of touch. First of all, I am officially a fully functional US Citizen. Translation: for the first time ever I did my own taxes. Did my federal online for free, did my states (both states, including partial residency forms) and sent them off return receipt. I'm proud to have passed this Byzantine, daedal, elaborate, gordian, intricate, involved, knotty, labyrinthine, abstruse, dare I say recondite if you will milestone. ;)

Second, Happy 2 Year Anniversary to Mom & Steve, which took place on St. Patrick's day. And Happy St. Patrick's Day to the rest of you and all that good blarney. I avoided the big urban SPD activities -- not being all that into the beer holidays -- for the most part, though I did wear green to avoid being pinched, and I join my pals at a local bar, where a small clump of us raised a toast (which involved everyone else raising a car bomb -- a glass of Guinness with a shot glass of baileys dropped into it, meant to be chugged before the baileys congeals -- and me clinking their glasses with my substitute drink, which was my fist) in good spirits.

This weekend is looking pretty exciting. I'm expecting a low key day tomorrow, but Sunday Leslie has invited me as her guest to a friend's birthday festivities, namely, indoor rock climbing! I'm very excited to try it. After that, I've made plans to finally see some of the hallmarks of Golden Gate Park, First, the Conservatory of Flowers, the oldest glass-and-wood Victorian greenhouse in the Western Hemisphere and home to more than 10,000 plants from around the globe. They say the west side has an exhibit about plant pollination featuring 800 live butterflies that flit about among the visitors. Next, the Japanese Tea Garden, one of the only surviving attractions from the Midwinter fair, the expo that took place at the inception of Golden Gate Park in 1894 -- formerly just a bunch of sand dunes. The tea garden is a complex of paths, ponds and a teahouse featuring native Japanese and Chinese plants, with lots of hidden sculptures and bridges. Interesting side fact: Makato Hagiwara, the Japanese gardener whose family took over the garden from 1895 to 1942, also invented the fortune cookie! Finally, the Arboretum, a 70-acre "horticultural extravaganza" with more than 6,000 plant species. The coolest part of this one is supposed to be the garden of fragrance, whose signs are entirely in Braille.

Before I embark on all that good golden gorgeousness, though, I have dues to pay. My friend Noah was a post-production assistant on a movie in LA which is opening tonight. Unfortunately, that movie is Dawn of the Dead! Zombies get to me, man, I can't explain it, and sure as heck wouldn't go of my own accord, but you have to be loyal to your friends, especially when their name's in lights. There's a decent sized posse of us going, so hopefully that will be enough of a bubble of safety to keep me from being tweaked for week. If you get any late late night calls from me tonight, however, please be aware that I am not drunk dialing, rather, telephoning in terror. ;)

Good news -- Betsy, one of the RNs here, broached the topic of me working here -- not only this job is available, but one deemed 'project coordinator' as well. I'm hoping I can up my salary a little bit but I'm really excited that they're initiating; it's a good sign about my performance and I also just kinda like it here. Keep your fingers crossed (esp. salary wise...) but don't get your hopes up -- got to play it safe in the crazy SF job market. ;)

Working for SFHP is great. Check out http://www.sfhp.org for more information. Every one is very laid back and nice, and the work is interesting. Most of what I do is fairly confidential or I'd go into greater detail. ;)

San Francisco's weather has been amazing -- sunny, clear skies during the day and cool and breezy at night. I hope the East Coast is lightening up its reign of climatic terror.

By the way, I've noticed when I go to my blog website that when it first appears the scroll bar is missing. If you click the "refresh" button at the top of your internet screen (on the tool bar, it's the icon that looks like a piece of paper that has two circular arrows on it) the screen will refresh and the scroll bar usually appears.

I'm off to stroll around on my lunch break...stay in touch!

So many updates...so little time. Chad is here and it's great -- things are going truly well. He's been applying boldly like no man applied before -- Brooks Brothers, sure, since he worked there in Santa Fe, but Saks 5th Avenue, Pink, Burberry, and even Armani! We took a day off to work on resumes, then hit the pavement today. Chad interviewed at Certified (the agency that got me my recent job) and then we walked to 5 other agencies where we dropped off our resumes, occasionally filled out applications and computer tests, and just generally tried to make it clear that we were human beings with faces and hopes. At the very last agency, Jackson Personnel, they took one look at my resume and whisked me off to the back to take no less than 5 skill tests...and then offered me a job starting tomorrow!! Apparently a local San Francisco Health Charity was looking for a temporary admin/clerk who was 'familiar' with medical terminology, but in the absence of that, they figured a Phi Beta Kappa would do. I pointed out that my mom is a registered nurse, so I got my fill of medical terminology. ;)

I think that's everything -- I'm very excited to work for a charity, even if only temporarily...