Me and my knobs

I bought an oak bedroom set on Craigslist (are you getting sick of hearing that yet?) last month and when I purchased the furniture, it was my intention to add hardware to the drawers. There are four pieces in the set with a total of 19 drawers, all of which have a smooth front and no knob or handle. The overall quality is good, but the set looks pretty dated. But I think with a little bit of hardware "bling" from Home Depot, it will give the set a facelift.

(Okay, I had to add this aside. Is is completely tedious and boring for me to be writing to you all about knobs? I mean really, is that entertaining reading at all? No? Huh. Well, hrmm. Okay, I'll see if I can spice the post up a bit...)

So last night I went to Home Depot with a drawer in hand. And apparently an unchaperoned female in a home improvement store is somewhat odd. Especially if she's carrying around a drawer with her. It seemed to make me quite popular, and there were a couple people (okay, men) who were more than happy to take a pause at the knob aisle to help me with my drawer hardware selection.

This is the handle Bachelor #2 and I thought would look the best:



















The finish of the wood doesn't look that yellow with my bedroom light, but the dark finish on the handle is a nice compliment to to the natural tones of the wood.

A patient at work today complimented me on my hands. Wasn't that nice? I told her that one day a few years ago I looked down at my hands and realized they looked just like my Mom's hands did when I was a kid. The only difference is she keeps her fingernails longer than I do. Isn't genetics an amazing thing?



















But I digress. This was my second trip to a store solely for the purpose of purchasing hardware for my bedroom set and I was not going to leave empty-handed (was that a pun? If so, I think it was pretty funny, har har har), so I purchased 23 of these suckers for my bedroom set. And here they are.



















Here's the funny thing. Now that I've spent hours in Home Depot comparing colors, styles, and prices, and have even conferred with strangers about what hardware I should purchase, I can't bring myself to drill holes in my drawers. What if I install all 23 handles (that's 46 holes to drill in my furniture) and I discover that I don't like them after all?? What if I just pop into some other home improvement store and see BETTER handles just moments after I've ripped open all those little packages, drilled my furniture into oblivion, and thrown away my Home Depot receipt???

And it's in situations like these that I realize that if picking out knobs is one of the most major decisions I have to make at this particular juncture in my life, I've really got things together.

The end.

(I think that post ended better than it started, don't you?)

Tuesday evening

On my way home from work I kicked my way through the freshly-fallen leaves on the way to my bus. The fragrance of fall and the glow of the setting sun on the leaves was a lovely contrast to the office. After I got off the bus I meandered to my neighborhood, stopping off on Main Street to pick up a coke slurpee and do a little window shopping. When I got home I called a friend to make plans for the weekend and cooked myself some dinner. Now that my plans are set and the dishes are cleared, I have the evening ahead of me. I think I might take a dresser drawer to Home Depot and shop for knobs for my bedroom set. Or maybe I'll give myself a manicure. If all else fails, I can peek at the to-do list in my pocket and get some groceries.

What strikes me about my evenings is that I have a wonderful freedom that I hope I never take for granted. Just a few years ago my evenings were full of studying, homework, memorizing, and paper-writing. And the last two years my evenings have been booked for rehearsals or performances. Now my evenings are my own and when I step out into the twilight after work, I can do whatever I want. It is a wonderful feeling.

The dining area

My roommate and I went shopping on Thursday night and got some cool curtains for our living space. These ones looked really nifty in the package and I was very happy with how they looked once I got them ironed and hung up in the dining area.


























And this afternoon someone from (yes, you guessed it!) Craigslist came by and delivered a beautiful piece of art, a framed mirror and a coffee table. The artwork went up in the dining area and I really think it makes the space pop. Oh, and there is my $40.00 dining set from another Craigslist adventure.


























The chairs need to be refinished at some point, but the seats are wide and sturdy and the table is a nice scale for the small space. I also like the way the plant we have adds a little bit of division from the living area.




















So the dining area is officially checked off my list, leaving just the living room and bedroom to complete.




















My roommate volunteered to paint my bedroom this week, so I am concentrating my attention on doing little things around the apartment. This morning I installed magnetic latches to the cabinet doors in the kitchen and bathroom, since the doors tended to hang open and look untidy. And since the sun was shining so brightly today I washed the outside windows on the balcony and tried to wash the balcony floor. It was too big of a job just for a girl with a scrub brush and bucket, though, so I think I might ask the apartment manager about the possibility of power-washing the balcony to get it really clean. Then I can put a small patio set on the balcony and enjoy the morning sunshine on crisp days like today.

I will hopefully have updated living room pictures soon. Keep your fingers crossed that I find a terrific TV/media stand sometime soon. :)

Sneak peek

Okay, yesterday's post was kind of cruel. How dare I go on and on about my Craigslist bargains and then not show you what I actually purchased?? Well, I dug my camera charger out of the vortex and snapped some shots for you to see what I've purchased.

Here is a great piece of art that a nice lady delivered to me last weekend. It's actually one of a set. This is one side of my living room and the other one is on the opposite living room wall. This evening my roommate and I went shopping and I found some great red curtains that coordinate with the red in the paintings. Very cool.




















This is my new favorite piece of furniture. It's a swirl ottoman I bought last week. I drove from Bellevue to Ballard to pick it up only to realize it wouldn't fit in my loaner car. So, I bribed two very good friends of mine with dinner and we picked it up together last weekend. I gave it a cleaning with my parents' steam cleaner and it looks fantastic.


























Last night's Craigslist expidition took me to the suburbs of Issaquah, where I purchased a fantastic curtain and bedding set. I snapped a shot of the drapes so you could see the pattern. It is such a beautiful print and when the rest of the bedroom is put together I think it will be my favorite place in the apartment.


























Oh, and remember the Ikea lampshade that I was so sad to leave behind in Germany? Well, I packed it in a box and shipped it home, and now it is paired with a $4.00 lamp base from the Redmond Goodwill. The fancy energy-saving flourescent lightbulb was even included in the price, and I couldn't be happier with the reincarnation of my sweet lamp.


























My roommate and I are enjoying a bottle of wine after our successful evening shopping trip. Between Goodwill and Ross we both managed to find enough deals to warrant a Thursday-evening celebration. He declares that I am his personal Martha Stewart and I won't refuse the title. I am having a ton of fun decorating our home.

Super saturation

Sorry guys and gals, I can't write anything more about work right now. I honestly have been more busy doing that reception job than any other gainful employment I have ever experienced. And when I finally get back to my apartment in the evening, it's hard to sit down and coherently write to you about all of the fun/weird/horrific/zany happenings inside a radiology clinic. So, let's talk about my apartment instead, hmm? :)

I have created a monster "to-do" list for my apartment, since making those types of lists seems to be the only way I can organize myself and actually get something done in a reasonable amount of time. Although the list is way longer than my arm, I do think things in the apartment are coming together and my roommate and I have settled in quite nicely. Tonight I started decorating my bedroom and I picked up a great bedding and curtain set I found for sale on Craigslist that is the first step in transforming my bedroom into a lovely, feminine retreat. I am almost scared to take "before" photos, so hopefully by this weekend I can get my room painted and looking camera-ready for you.

The living room still looks pretty bare, thanks to a couple of Craigslist misses and the lack of trunk space in my loaner car, but there are some new pieces. Once I unearth my camera charger from the vortex box of electrical cords from my move, I will snap some pictures of the other Craigslist treasures I have found for the common living space.

So, are you starting to sense a theme here? Yes indeed, I do believe that this entire apartment will be furnished and decorated thanks to Craigslist. I love the bargains and the ease of the internet format without the fuss of actually going to garage sales and thrift shops. I also think it's great to buy things second-hand, which makes me feel like I am doing a very small part to reduce consumption and waste. And an additional bonus is that I get to meet and talk to all sorts of interesting people.

So work is crazy, my apartment is a masterpiece-in-progress, and I also auditioned for a local opera company yesterday evening. If I am selected for the company, I will have fairly steady work as a singer from January through April, so keep your fingers crossed that they pick me! It would be great timing, since it looks like the radiology clinic is needing help for quite a bit longer than they originally intended. Whew, so that pretty much covers all that's going on with me. How are all of you? Wasn't the weather just fabulous today? When each season rolls around I always think it's my favorite because of all the new things it brings along. I definitely think fall is my favorite season because of crisp, clear days like today with bright sunshine and blazing leaves on the trees.

The white lab coat

I wear a white lab coat at work. I have three of them. They have my name written on the tag and are washed and ironed by our linens guy who comes in twice a week. Lab coats are really comfortable, cover up anything I might have spilled on my shirt at lunch, and are something I never thought I'd wear to work. Ever. Heck, I never even had a lab coat in school because I never took chemistry.

Anyway, working at a radiology clinic has taught me a lot of things. I want to get up on my soap box for a few moments today to share a few things I have observed and learned since coming to the clinic.

1) A shockingly large amount of the patients who come in have no idea why they are in our office.
On a daily basis I meet patients who can't tell me what type of procedure they're having done, and their excuse is "well, the doctor just sent me here, I don't know what I'm doing here." First of all, that is completely untrue. A visit to our office requires a physician's referral, meaning the patient would have had to MEET with a doctor and have an examination in order to receive a referral for imaging. Then, most of the patients have to schedule their own appointment, meaning they have to tell the scheduling office exactly why they need an appointment. Finally, all scheduled patients are called by our office 24 hours in advance to be notified of the protocals for their specific procedure. For someone to not know why they have an appointment for a medical procedure is unacceptable.

1a) In conjunction with this, all adults should have a thorough knowledge of their medical history and be able to fill out basic health history questionaires without difficulty. They should also be aware of the medications they are taking and, if they can't remember these things, always keep an updated list of these things for the physician's office to photocopy. Patients often become cranky with us at reception because they are unable to answer the questions on the health history forms we give them to fill out. This is a frightening, and somewhat pathetic, trend.

2) Everyone old enough to work anywhere should be trained in basic first aid and CPR.
I have been working at the clinic for only about a month and in that time there have been a few medical emergencies. A child has choked on a piece of candy, being saved by another patient in the waiting room who was quick enough to realize what was going on and gave him the heimlich manouver. His mother sat there in shock, frozen and unable to help her own son. And last week, a technologist went into diabetic shock and had to be taken to the hospital in an ambulance. These are things that can happen in ANY work environment, but in a place where our patient volume involves well over 100 people moving through our office each day, it automatically increases the chance of something like that happening. These emergencies made me realize that in order to be a good citizen, we ALL need to know basic first aid and CPR to protect our fellow citizens who may someday need our help. Just think about this: what would YOU do if you were at the grocery store, or shopping mall, or in a parking lot and the same thing happened? We should all be prepared.

3) Children need to take care of their parents.
The youngest patient who has come to the radiology clinic since I started was 2 weeks old, and the oldest was 96 years old. I see children being cared for by parents, grandparents, and even siblings. And I see a lot of older patients being escorted by impatient, frustrated and cranky children. I find it an interesting juxtaposition, because so many of those parents that dedicated their lives to taking care of their children find themselves struggling later in life, and the children just never grow up. Let me ask you a difficult question. If you are an adult and your parent needed help using the restroom at a radiology clinic, would you help them? Or would you leave it to two strangers? I have seen grown children on both sides of the spectrum, but the adults who see their senile and frail parents as inconveniences make me more than a little sad. Thankfully there are also many families who rally around the senior members of their family, which helps take away the sting of the children who seem put-out and detatched.

I could add to this post for hours, but that's enough soap box talk for today. I feel a bit like a cultural anthropologist now that I see so many hundreds of patients come through our office each week. It has opened a window into human nature that I never thought I'd see at my age. I'll tell you what I mean in my next post.

The Temp

I think by being a Temp I am living out some sort of subconscious fantasy of mine to see what it's like to put myself in someone else's shoes for awhile. Or maybe it's more like a long-term practicum, where I get to "try on" a bunch of different jobs to see what suits me best. I didn't really consider temporary employment in this light when I registered at a staffing agency in September. But what I'm realizing is that temp work gives me an opportunity to see and experience a variety of jobs, situations, and people that I may never have experienced if I had received a full-time, permanent job last summer when I got back from Germany.

My first temp assignment was to help a transportation company shuttle all of Microsoft's employees down to Safeco field for their annual company meeting. I was a route supervisor and, armed with my t-shirt, clipboard, and walkie-talkie, funneled about 350 employees from my stop onto charter buses going downtown. This process was repeated by dozens of other people manning bus stops all over the area, because I think over 12,000 people ended up going to the meeting that day. I lovingly referred to this job as "herding nerds," because my assignment did indeed involve a bit of herding. Mainly it was a lot of fun to casually chat with people as they were getting on the bus, and observe the varying attitudes towards the company's "mandatory" attendance policy at the meeting. I also talked to people from more countries than I could name, making me realize what an enormously global employer Microsoft is for this area. Although it's something I never thought I'd be asked to do, I had a lot of fun working this event.

My second temp assignment was at an engineering firm in one of the large towers in downtown Seattle. The receptionist was out and the office needed a one-day temp to help direct incoming telephone calls. After being escorted to the assignment, I was put in the care of the office manager, who gave me a VERY thorough training on how to use the phone system. After the first 45 minutes, I was left to fend for myself at the front. I must admit that the whole day gave me a vague sense of deja vu, as if I was watching an 8-hour version of "The Office." It had been a long time since I had been in that type of office environment (pretty much 180 degrees from a theater, if you were wondering), and I found the inter-employee mingling and everyone's extreme interest in "the temp" up front sort of funny. The assignment itself was very mundane, though, and I am very glad I brought a book with me. I know the workload would have been heavier if I had been trained and staying for more than just a day, but that assignment made me realize that a front desk job that strictly involved managing calendars and answering the phones might make me crazy. On the plus side, though, it was nice to be downtown among the hustle and bustle of a lot of people. The restaurants in the building were also fantastic. :)

My third and current temp assignment is working the front desk at an extremely busy radiology clinic in Kirkland. There are six full-time people working the front and they are recruiting to fill a seventh full-time position. I am working during the interim while one of the ladies is recovering from surgery and while they do the open recruitment process. It is by far the most hectic, stressful, and demanding job I have ever had, but I have to admit that the time absolutely flies when I'm at work. I think my co-workers are really fantastic and I hope I keep in touch with them after the assignment is over, but I don't want to be considered for the permanent position for several reasons. The physical location of the front desk is facing a wall, meaning I don't see daylight or breathe any fresh air the entire time I'm at work. Also, due to the very high volume of patients coming in and the lack of full-staffing, the receptionists never take breaks besides their 30 minutes for lunch. Finally, I just don't feel drawn to the medical environment. I don't have any problems with the customer service side of my job, but I feel that in order for me to be happy working at the clinic on a permanent basis, I should be more genuinely interested in the procedures the clinic performs and feel a draw to want to help the patients on a deeper level than helping them schedule an appointment or fill out paperwork.

I've been at the radiology clinic for about a month and I expect to be there at least a couple more weeks. In my next post I'll tell you a few stories about what it's like to wear a white lab coat.

Three Months

My Mom pointed out to me today that it's been three months since my last performance at the Landestheater in Germany. On Tuesday, July 15th I sang my last show and when the curtain went down that night, I had no idea that three short months later my life would be so different. Never in a million years did I think I would be sitting in this chair (sturdy, wood, from my parents' attic, needs refinishing), in this room (super-affordable, great location, awesome roommate, totally my own space), in this state of mind (very single, confused about my future, living day to day and finding joy in the little things). Isn't it funny how life turns out that way?

I have a long-term temporary assignment at a radiology clinic that has been a fascinating experience. I've been compiling some great stories for you and will hopefully have the energy to share them all with you soon. But since I'm still recovering from my cold, I think it's better to go catch up on my sleep. So I'll leave it at this: I never thought three months ago that I'd be wearing a white lab coat to work and that I'd be this intimitely familiar with MRIs, CT scans, ultrasounds, and X-rays.

Sick day

Well, the insanity of my life finally caught up with me. I'm staying home from work today with a monster head cold. Luckily I was able to fend it off long enough to sing a performance with the Ladies' Musical Club yesterday and I think the show went well. I have another performance this coming Sunday and I'm positive I'll be better for that gig. However, in my pre-cold haze, I forgot to get my application turned in for the Met auditions in two weeks, which needed to be postmarked by yesterday. I am really mad at myself, but I just don't have the energy to crawl out of bed, print out my application, resume, and headshot, and then convince a US postal worker to backdate my packet. I had a note written to myself to get it done last week and I was too distracted with other things. But, on the bright side I still have two more years of eligibility to enter the contest, and I haven't been diligently working on my arias lately, anyway. So, maybe it's all for the best. I'm still bummed, though.

Last weekend was definitely a distraction of the best kind, even if I did miss a deadline. I had my 10-year high school reunion down in Olympia and it was a lot of fun. It was nice to go back in time for a couple days and see how my classmates turned out. And then on Sunday after the reunion activities were finished, I packed up (most of) the remaining stuff from my parents' attic and brought it up to Bellevue. I even bought a new bed, a leather chair, and a dining room set, so my apartment is starting to look like an actual apartment. Maybe after a long nap (12 hours of sleep last night was apparently insufficient to my headcold) I'll have the energy to actually unpack a box or two. Or maybe I'll just look for a good novel and spend the day in bed. After all, those boxes aren't going anywhere.

Kitchen before and after

The kitchen is done! Whew, it feels great to have a clean, spiffy place to putz around to prepare and eat my meals. I don't have a lot of before pictures of the kitchen, but I have some "during" photos.

Here is my Mom scrubbing the hard-to-reach areas of the kitchen, while my Dad takes on the scary fridge coils. I went in for round two later with water and a cloth and managed to get the rest of it clean.

























Here are my parents about two hours later, painting the kitchen while I continued to wash walls and light fixtures in the common areas of the apartment.

























And, here's what it looks like now! The walls, ceiling, and cabinets all received a fresh coat of paint. I replaced the hardware on the cabinets with shiny chrome knobs and my parents loaned me this wonderful piece of art. I think it really coordinates well with my beloved kitchenaid mixer and my new bistro set.

























That's right, isn't this little bistro set adorable?? It's a Craig's List find and fits perfectly in the kitchen. The purple collander adds a nice touch, as well. And the kitchen floors are now clean enough to eat off of after about 30 minutes of scrubbing last night.




















I also hung a decorative bowl over the sink to bring out the colors of my mixer. I found it at an estate sale and think it's a nice accessory for the blank space.

























Oh, and are you wondering what ever became of the dingy vent with the greasy fan?

























After much scrubbing from all three of us, this fan moves more air than I ever thought it could. It's like the chrome icing on my cute kitchen makeover!




















I'm not sure what's next on the list. This evening my roommate finished painting every other common space in the apartment, including the ceilings, so it's about time to think about getting some living and dining room funiture. Then I need to tackle the issue that I'm still sleeping on my parents' air mattress and two of my suitcases are still packed. But it's all coming together, folks!

Bathroom before and after

Wow, check this out!



























Here is a before and after of my cute little bathroom! If the side-by-side comparison doesn't strike you, let me refresh your memory with a shot of what the walls looked like before my Dad painted:

























Eeew! That is where the mirror is supposed to be. The "original" paint color was back there and looked even more hideous than the other parts of the bathroom. Dad painted that, too, so I wouldn't get the heeby-jeebies when I looked at the mirror. And the light fixture was given a good scrub and polish, as well as all of the hardware in the bathroom.

There is one guy in particular who likes my new bathroom. Do you see him?

























I think his smile says it all, don't you?

Sweat Equity

I want to say thank you to my friends and family who have been such a great help to me in the last several weeks. My subtle cry for support on this blog (and my not-so-subtle cries on the telephone) were answered with e-mails, phone calls, and visits and it really helped me get through what I hope is the worst of my difficult transition right now. And since you were so kind to me, let me try to begin to repay you by showing you a gratuitous shot of the cutest baby in the entire world with her Daddy:

Ah, I needed that. Okay, back to blogging!

My family is a pretty kooky bunch. We are a whole team of optimists who can see the good in just about any situation. Our particular specialty is falling in love with real estate that has "potential." (For those of you who didn't catch the meaning of the quotes, that means "fixer-upper", or "house that will take a LOT of work.") I have apparently caught the bug and recently moved into an apartment that hasn't seen a lot of TLC in MANY years. However, it is in a fantastic location, the rent is inexpensive, the rooms are large and bright, and my roommate is really nice, so I was willing to sign on to the lease despite the apartment's flaws.

At first the aparment just seemed like it needed a good cleaning. But once we all got started (oh yeah, the whole family got their hands dirty), we all realized we would be investing a large amount of sweat equity to make this apartment sparkle.

Check out the ceiling in the kitchen. My Mom got started scrubbing around the vent, but I can assure you that every surface in the kitchen was this dirty. (Oh, right, I should warn you that the following photos are only going to be increasingly graphic and disgusting. You might want to put down that snack.)

























After we realized that there was some sort of ventilation problem in the kitchen, we took down the kitchen vent to find this:

























Egad, that's disgusting. The outtake vent was in the same condition and took about an hour to clean. Oh my goodness.

























But the kitchen wasn't the only room that seemed to be having problems. The baseboard heaters were obviously also filthy and the walls had not been cleaned or painted in several years.



















We tried about four different cleaning products on the wall before we found something that actually cut through that dusty, sooty, carbon release from the heater: Mr. Clean magic erasers! I love that man and his products! Do you think he's single? Maybe he'd take me out on a date and bring me a bouquet of magic erasers...



















The first week in my apartment was fairly chaotic. I carpet camped in the living room for three nights and I still have to finish fully unpacking my clothes. But I did manage to get the kitchen cabinets cleaned, lined with contact paper, and loaded up with all of my kitchen stuff. Then today my parents came back to tackle the two problem rooms: the kitchen and my bathroom.

Here's what we found on the floor under the fridge. The ironic thing is, the refrigerator is packed with groceries and STILL rolls in and out like it's on rails. I have no idea why no-one thought to clean back there.

























Because really, you can't expect a refrigerator to do its job when it feels so sooty and disgusting. Bleah.

























So about half the day was spent in the kitchen with my parents and me washing the rest of the surfaces and my Mom and Dad splitting the painting duties. I need to put a second coat on the kitchen cabinets and install the new hardware I bought and I should have some pretty dramatic "after" pictures for you soon.

Another third of the day or so was spent in the bathroom. I scrubbed every surface with cleaner, but I couldn't cut through the soot that was apparently caused from a former tenant burning a lot of petroleum-based candles in the bathroom. Gross. This picture is after I was done cleaning and had taken the mirror down and the hardware off for my Dad to go in and paint.
























After two coats of paint, the bathroom looks completely new. My Mom and I also washed the walls and ceilings in the common areas to prep them for painting and I washed all the ceiling fixtures and replaced burnt-out lightbulbs. After they left this afternoon we all felt a great sense of accomplishment. The apartment looks much lighter, brighter, and CLEANER than I'm sure it has looked in a very (very) long time.

I'll post some pictures of my bathroom tomorrow or Tuesday when I get the hardware back up. In the meantime, does anyone want to send a massage therapist to my apartment to give me a backrub? Scrubbing and wringing out rags all day has made me tired!