My superpower? Drug resistance.

Yo, guys. This sucks. I took one Restoril last night to sleep, and it did nothing. This is the 30mg dose, mind you, which is apparently the highest dose they make, and absolutely nothing. The pharmacist and doctor both even warned me that it was a really high dose and I should immediately get in bed when taking it. I took it at 8:30 or 9pm, sometime around there, and then we laid in bed for a while and then turned the lights off and absolutely nothing. The last time I remember looking at the clock it was 3am, and we had to get up at 7:30. I have no hangover feeling today, no side effects at all. It's like I never took the drug.

What. The. Hell.

WHYYYYY? I am displeased. This was supposed to be a Super Sleepy Time Cannon Drug for me, and nothing! I didn't want to take anything else, just in case it proved to have some weird interaction with my system and I accidentally murdered myself or projectile vomited or something, so I had a horrid night. I finally got some sleep after 3am, but it was all broken and terrible, and then we got up. UGH.

I am going to try it one more time tonight, and if it doesn't work tonight then I'm going back to my wonderful mixture of Ambien and NyQuil. At least that works sometimes.

Also, there was a burning bus on the I-5 express lanes this morning (that site is where I found these pictures), so traffic was an absolute nightmare. And the server at work is being fixed, so I can't really do anything useful. I should've just stayed home.

All the white stuff is fire-retardant foam, NOT snow.

Exciting!

I want a cupcake. Or a pumpkin spice latte. Or chocolate. SOMETHING.

WAAAH!

I will get over my complainy-ness soon, but right now I am unhappy and the world must know!

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I think I saw a hit and run yesterday...

Yesterday after work I made the foolish decision to try taking I-5 home. I-5 itself wasn't really the mistake, though, trying to take the Mercer St exit off Aurora (Hwy 99) was. It was hideously backed up, because the Great Mercer Fixit Project, which has been going for roughly a million years by now, is such a miserable failure. I don't know who thought it was a good idea to turn Mercer, which had been a large one-way with all lanes going toward the freeway, into a two-way road, but I hope they get bludgeoned to death with a trash can full of used cat litter.

Further, they screwed up the lights, so now all the traffic going through this particular intersection before Mercer gets horribly snarled up. The exit coming off of Aurora has a light that lasts approximately 10 seconds (I'm not kidding), and so many people run the red light on Mercer that there isn't any room for exiting cars anyway. Every time the light cycle repeated, we were lucky to get 1-2 cars out of the lineup. I spent a lot of time sighing.

Anyway, I was sitting there on Aurora, not even to the exit yet, when I happened to see someone being a douchebag. Two carlengths ahead of me, from the lane to my left, he had wedged his SUV into my lane, and since he hadn't managed to get very far in due to the heinous traffic, he was blocking all the cars behind him in the lane to my left. This apparently did not sit very well with whomever was driving the car behind him. I don't blame the guy for being pissed, since this kind of behavior makes me scream incoherently in my head at whomever's doing it, but he seemed a little overly irate.

I was staring in boredom straight at the two vehicles when the SUV finally crept over a bit into my lane (the light had turned and we'd moved up by a car or two, whee). Mind you, the exit lane is a single, not a double, although it does later split into two lanes. The guy driving the car behind the SUV had evidently reached the boiling point, and made as if to go around him to get onto the exit, but there wasn't enough room, so he kind of smashed along the left side of the SUV as he went around the guy and I guess cut him off? I don't know what happened. The SUV juddered a bit from the car banging into it repeatedly, and then after the car had disappeared I saw the SUV's door open and the guy inside it kind of half step out, then he rapidly got back in and slammed the door, and went... somewhere. I cannot fathom where.

There was nowhere to go in those exit lanes, unless the tiny parking lot to the right of them had an outlet. The whole problem with the backup was that the exit was gridlocked from the awful traffic. There was no way to go forward (unless Psycho Dude just drove OVER all the cars in his way, but I didn't see a string of smashed vehicles), and I didn't see them in the parking lot when I got up there. So either there is an exit from the parking lot and the hit-and-run guy managed to get into it and then flee from it, chased by the other guy in the SUV, or they both disappeared into thin air. I have no idea. At any rate, it was very exciting.

We had a really dedicated hobo at that exit. Usually the hobos will remember whether traffic is really moving or not, and won't bother canvassing the same cars multiple times, but this particular hobo was very motivated (or couldn't tell that we were still the same vehicles owing to the gridlock), and he went back and forth probably 5 times before finally giving up on us. I was kind of impressed. Not impressed enough to offer anything, but still. I suppose that makes me sound uncharitable, but it's hard to care when I've read articles about how the hobos are making more than I am and I can actually see them wearing shoes and coats that are nicer than mine. So no, I'm not supporting your chosen career of panhandler. Buskers are different. I have no problem with people who actually do something for their money, like those who play instruments in the market (and do it well).

In other news, a few days ago when I was dropping Patrick off for work, I happened to notice that since the light had been getting lower and lower (autumn does that in the north), the outside lights on this building in Pioneer Square were still on, and they looked pretty cool. I asked him to take a picture or two of it for me, and this is what resulted. See why we worry when it doesn't rain? We have plants everywhere here.

As usual, click for bigger ones. I love how the ivy climbs over everything. Even in the city, you can feel like you're inside a forest. Yay, plants!

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Diary entry for August 17, 2012

Dear Bloggary,

What a day! I am so glad it's Friday. I am, however, sad that my back is in no condition to fight the crowds at Costco in order to meet The Bloggess (linked to on the right), or She Who Loves Poorly Taxidermied Warthog Heads. Alas.

I'll have you know, Bloggary, that were it not for excellent brakes in that car of mine, I might not be here writing this. I was going along 165th on my way to Aurora when ZOOM out came this car from my right, barely ten yards away. I slammed on my brakes and skidded to a stop, honking as I did so. Whatever imbecile/senile person/degenerate was driving that thing didn't even look my way. And mind you, this was close enough that I was almost certain I was going to T-bone it. I was definitely awake after that...

Traffic (owing to roughly nineteen bazillion stoners going to Hempfest, which is OF COURSE located across the street from my work) was positively ghastly once I got near lower Queen Anne this morning. It took an hour and a half to get to work, which is barking mad. Usually it takes 20-30 minutes. I was not pleased.

My back was exactly the same degree of horrible as it's been lately, but I take some comfort in knowing that it isn't drastically worse. It will actually be weird being pain-free eventually (I'm being optimistic here and assuming it's something easily fixable). I've gotten pretty accustomed to this feeling. I guess it's true what they say, and you really can get used to anything.

I was doing a bunch of calculations today, and I spent a lot of time thinking snarkily how I KNEW those stupid pH calculations they made us do in college were a total waste of time. Like how much of X do we need to add to Y to get a solution that's got a pH of 6.8?

In the real world, we use a pH meter and add either HCl or NaOH, depending on whether we want to go up or down. None of that namby-pamby figuring out how much of some bullshit we need to add to some other bullshit to get the correct pH.

College inorganic chemistry calculations, I scoff at thee.

To be fair, perhaps in the actual field of chemistry that matters. But it sure doesn't for biological stuff, at least in my experience. Anyway, I felt very science-y today. Tons of math will do that to a girl.

Bloggary, our wild blackberry vines finally produced some berries! We have some growing on the side of our yard, and this is the first year they've put out fruit. Normally people around here try to get rid of them, because they're kind of like a weed, but I see free fruit when I look at them, so I wanted them to stay, and now I am being rewarded! I got nine little blackberries off of them, and I bet they're good. I'm saving them to share with Patrick when he gets home from the opera tonight. The one we tried before was very tangy and flavorful. I guess that's the difference between wild and domestic varieties. The same seems to be true of wild strawberries and raspberries (I found some of the latter on the last hike we took, along with wild blueberries).

It's supposed to be ickily hot this weekend and then start Ye Olde Massive Fall Cooldown as we head into the end of August and the beginning of September. I'm not complaining (very much), since the rest of the country has been simmering in its own juices, but I won't be sad to see our heat go. I despise sweating.

I remain hungerless, at least for now. You'll be pleased to note, Bloggary, that I have made an effort to eat things even though I don't feel like it. In fact, I had a nice Thai dinner just last night with my darling spouse. Stuff still tastes good. I just don't have any of the usual hungry feelings. Really, if it wasn't so debilitating, whatever is wrong with me would make a spectacular diet aid.

The MRI was fine. The girl administering it evidently thought I said I wanted to listen to whiny country (what I actually said was, "Anything BUT whiny country.."), so I was treated to a half hour of that interspersed with ads for pickups and a western wear Goodwill-a-thon. Oh well. I'm sure you know the type of music I'm talking about, Bloggary. Irritating crap like "Mah dog died an' mah truck won't start. She took mah money and she broke mah heaaaaart." Even making up whiny country lyrics makes me shudder. Excuse me while I go bleach my brain.

Right, that's done. Oh, and I almost forgot: yesterday I witnessed magic! Or what might as well be classified as such. My passenger side car window miraculously rolls down (and of course back up) again!

Holy Butt Pancakes, Batman! I still can't believe it. I was sure the motor was burned out, since changing the fuse didn't work and it's been not functioning for at least a year and a half. Wtf, window?

My best guess so far is this summer's heat making whatever was congealed on it and sealing it shut melt off finally, and my worst is, I don't know, hummus or gnomes or something. Whatever it was, I officially declare it awesome. It hath saved me money.

Well, Bloggary, I guess that's about it for tonight. I'm gonna go lie around and read Catching Fire for the twentieth time. At least it's something I can do lying down, right? Sigh.

Smoochies,
Adra

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[Slightly less] horrible [than previously thought] hazmat spill on I-5

There was a hazmat spill on I-5 going into Seattle a little while ago. Apparently it's 2 gallons instead of 50, which is nice, but it's still nasty, corrosive stuff. The news has info on it here.

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