*thanksgiving*

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

updates later, and this belated thanksgiving to all those people in my life who make it more than worthwhile. thank you for everything you do.

go now, and live

just came across this... and like it. a lot.

down by the river

had a great week last week! it's so much fun doing acupuncture - i love it! have met some really wonderful people at Awakening Lotus, the patients are great and there are some interesting cases. Signed papers over at Tri-D and am excited to get started there! Lots of the learning the ropes this coming week before I head east for tgiving!

it's been a beautiful last few days and bjorn and i got to hiking on saturday - we went up to washington to hike the Lewis river trail. it was so pretty! a pretty mild hike, but awesome river with some raging falls - it was so great to get out and enjoy the autumn!

today was a good catch-up day for me, tied up some loose ends and have just 2 patients to treat tonight!

i am getting SO excited for thanksgiving, mama has already started food shopping and i am sure the baking schedule will be published soon :P i am excited to bake, to see the new kitchen, to see my family, to see old friends and to show tim DC! so much to do!

i'm feeling supersonic/give me gin and tonic/you can have it all, but how much do you want it?

what a week.

what a fucking amazing week.

i am not even really sure where to start. (at the beginning?)

monday i went for an interview for an acupuncture position that ended in me treating 2 patients - it was so much fun! loved the center, and joey - the woman i would be sub-contracting for and covering her patients while she's away - is awesome.

then clearly election night, in my opinion went the way i had been hoping (minus that nasty prop 8 passing thing in CA, ugh) and bjorn and i went over to jake and jackie's to bite our nails in anticipation! thanks for the invite guys, it was super fun! :)

then friday is really where everything got exciting - went back to Tri-D fitness and therapy - where i had interviewed a couple of times, and met with the owner and they were great and really want me to have a position there as well. it's a neat place where i would be doing both bodywork and acupuncture - but treating mostly motor vehicle accident patients and athletes, so ideal for me and wanting to do orthopedics! so, i haven't officially accepted the position but will do so tomorrow. and then friday afternoon joey called me and asked me to cover her patients - so i treated 5 people, and rebooked for next week (to see me, as joey will be away).

ok, so i know i am all over the place, and maybe you can't hear the smile in my writing. i don't even really know how to explain how it feels to be doing what i've been thinking about for SO long... to be doing something I LOVE DOING and getting paid for it. i mean, really? you can do that? ha! it's just awesome! i am on such a high, i can't even tell you. at some point i will try to sit down and write something more coheseive...but right now, so pumped.

got to meet up with zach last night for tea (and beer) - we went to PCOM together and he graduated maybe a year before me, and is living here in portland with his wife, and has a practice - so it was cool to catch up and i think we're going to set up a trade!

oh, and i quit the stupid spa job as of today!

so for all of the above and more life is good right now, and only getting better...

i'm a happy girl this week.


oh, links to my 2 places of work: Awakening Lotus Healing Arts Center, and Tri-D Fitness and Therapy

VOTE!

this is going to be a crazy day for this country, one way or the other. i am not much one for politics and have never been particularly involved. however, i do believe that the right to vote is an extraordinarily precious freedom despite many of my objections to actual politicians. i think that the right to vote is part of what defines america and should be something we all do with pride. whether you love this country or hate it, if you are an american citizen, please use your VOTE to speak your mind - it is your voice.

while i don't think our system is perfect and there is potential for fraud and disenfranchizement, don't be disheartened, please VOTE. it's important. to quote rachel maddow:

"It's one thing to worry about the vote being stolen. About whether or not our votes really get counted right. It's one thing to worry about partisan Republican efforts to purge voters off the rolls who rightfully belong there. Those things are worth worrying about. But the lines at voting places. There's no wondering about that. If you are confronted with a long line on election day, your country needs you to commit to stand in it. If you are an employer and your employees are late to work on Tuesday or have to leave early in order to vote, your country needs you to cut them some slack. If you're an elections official, your country needs you to have contingency plans to your contingency plans, and frankly probably a stockpile of paper ballots under lock and key to turn to if the lines are so long as to be disenfranchising. And if you are a politician, your country needs you to abolish this poll tax, to make the right to vote equally available to every American regardless of our ability to pay whether that payment is in cash, or in time. No matter who gets elected it is time to fix this election season, this election system once and for all. Too many people bled for this right for us to see it squandered."

see her clip on 'the new poll tax' here

luckily, standing on line is not a worry of mine, as oregon does ALL of it's voting by mail. originally i had some issues with this, it just didn't feel right - no going to a polling center, standing in line with others all out to vote, no having my own election booth and filling out a vote, depositing my ballot and getting an "i voted" sticker... seems odd! but, the more i have thought about it and in line with rachel maddow's thought on the new poll tax (i.e. the time it costs to stand on line...etc) i think i like this voting by mail deal. oregon was the first state in the US to go to a vote by mail system in 1998 - this system has significantly reduced the cost of elections and truly allows all registered voters the chance to vote, despite their physical condition (if they are unable to stand on long lines or are in a hospital, etc), work requirements (maybe they can't afford to take the time off work to vote, despite going early - the lines might still be long) or any other unforeseen circumstances that may not allow a person to make it to the actual voting booth. no, voting by mail is NOT perfect - but it does allow for the greatest number of registered voters to actually vote. and while everyone may not agree that voting by mail is better, in the very least election day should be a national holiday - so we can all take the time to exercise our right to vote not at the expense of our jobs.

while i have my views on the candidates and certainly have a preference for who should win this election, i want EVERYONE who CAN to VOTE. no matter who you vote for. please, CARE - this is our country, and while it is not perfect, it is ours. apathy gets us nowhere. so please whomever you support, whatever your reasons for voting - JUST VOTE.