A small update.

So... Stuff has happened since I last spoke! Nothing really awesome for the general public, but a couple of things that are pretty awesome for me, and I'll even add photographic evidence, to boot!

First off: I got new bedding. For those of you who don't know my every intricacy, which I believe counts everyone out except my cat, I am REALLY picky. Not about food (except bell peppers...they can just DIE), but about anything that will reflect my personal "touch". So basically clothing, jewelry, posters and paintings, placemats for my kitchen table, and bedding. You know, the normal stuff.

Regardless of how crazy this makes me sound, it still brings me back to the fact that I have not bought bedding in many, many years. I find something I like, teeter on the edge of getting it, and then REFUSE. Well, I finally got the bedding of my dreams (for now) from IKEA. I bought it while I was still on vacation, but it came back home with my parents, as I didn't want to lug it on the plane. It is the stuff to the right, and it has every color I love (teal, dark purple, and lime). It's also incredibly soft.

Next thing: I saw Depeche Mode in concert! This was absolutely amazing. Never did I think that a bunch of 48 year olds could be so active and limber on stage. Sure, I felt a little molested after frontman David Gahan gyrated against his microphone stand the first couple of times, but you really get used to that. My friend and I had great seats, and it was basically a whole lot of fun.
The day started horribly, though. I had gotten the day (Sunday) off of work, which meant I got out at 8am (an hour late) Sunday morning and was supposed to sleep hard and fast before the concert, which was at 8pm in Phoenix. I couldn't. My work night had me all wound up, and I spent the next four hours completely miserable. I finally fell asleep at noon, only to wake up at 3:30pm and get ready. We were on the road (more or less) by 6 after a couple of snafus that were unexpected.
And then I drove.
And I drove.

Two hours on I-10 later, we were in Phoenix. I was a tidge grumpier than I should have been, mainly from the driving. There is NOTHING on I-10 except a bunch of blowing dust and signs announcing said blowing dust.

Once there, however, it was quite obvious that things were going to be great. They played a lot of new songs, but out of sheer obligation to their fans (I was of the younger generation that was there), they also played a ton of their older songs. My favorites were "Enjoy the Silence", "It's No Good", and of course "Personal Jesus" (done at the very end after their third encore). As for their new songs, "Wrong" and "In Chains" were great, too. The night ended with me riding strong on a concert high, and I returned to Tucson feeling quite warm and fuzzy.


Yesterday was a double-feature. I got off of work at 6am and showered, then had to drive out to the East-Central side of Tucson for a dentist's appointment. I got there incredibly early, so I sat and read for a while. Once in, however, I had...well, as much fun as one has at the dentist's office.

The dentist seems to be, for me, more awkward than an OB/Gyn appointment. Why? Well, you and your gyno already know that there's going to be uncertainty and discomfort. Your dentist, however, comes in smiling and talkative. He or she asks questions that elicit answers. You answer to the best of your ability, and then he or she asks you to open your mouth. You do, but then what? As your friendly dentist is busy scraping and scaling away at your teeth and gums, he (my dentist was male, so I'm going to stop the ambiguity) continues to ask questions! Questions that, again, elicit answers! So what do you do? What DO you DO?! Do you try to answer with hand gestures? Surely, he should NOT be looking at your hands as he's got those sharp objects in your mouth. So you try to speak. I found the "b" sound to be the hardest to do around a full pair of hands. The rest of my appointment involved me desperately trying not to bite the fingers off of my dentist in a vain attempt to converse.

I can happily say that there is nothing wrong with my teeth, though. Hooray! He says that I have straighter teeth than most people who had braces, and that I have very clean, nice teeth with great bone structure. Sweet.

I then got to go home and wait a couple of hours for my annual employee review. I was not looking forward to this, mainly because things like this make me nervous. But it turned out to be good. I got told that I was an asset to the team, and various other cliches. I got smiles from both the supervisor doing my review and my hospital administrator. I left feeling good.


After all that excitement, I decided that I should go home and go to sleep, as I hadn't in about a day now. Upon laying down, though, I realized that all I wanted to do was read Shutter Island, my most recent book of choice. I started reading it because the movie is coming out, and I want to see the movie. Two hundred pages later, I finished the book and went to bed. If the movie is anything like the book, it'll be great! Now I just have to wait until FEBRUARY for it to come out. BOO!

And here I'll leave you. Until next time, lovers!

Big storms yield bugs.

Pretty much all of yesterday was consumed by a grand scale storm.

For those who do not live in Tucson (or the surrounding regions), this storm was called a monsoon. We have a whole "season" where we are supposed to be completely obliterated by them. I mean this in the literal sense. There are high winds and loads of thunder and lightening. There's supposed to be so much rain that our streets, which were built under the suspicion that it's always dry in Tucson, flood over. As far as I've seen, the only benefit to this is that you have to learn creative ways to get around town. But the true beauty of monsoons is not the intriguing tree pruning done by the elements. It is not having to caulk your wagon and float it across rivers that are literally waist high. It's the fact that we're getting water, people. According to various sources that I've found, Tucson's water table has dropped up to 200 feet in certain places over about half as many years. Now, obviously one monsoon isn't going to do much. But a whole season can really make or break us for the year.

The problem with this year is that we've only had a couple of real storms. It's been incredibly dry with record heat waves. For Tucson, that means about 115 degrees. Basically, this summer has sucked.

But back to the story of the storm. Yesterday at about three in the afternoon, I awoke to a cracking sound that must have originated directly above my apartment, and for once I can say that it wasn't coming from my leadfoot upstairs neighbor. I dramatically threw open my shutters to see...nothing clearly. Sheets of rain were pouring down my window, and from what I could make out, my car was being pelted by fat, happy raindrops. I left the shutters open and allowed myself to be lulled into a blissful sleep. When I woke up, it was still drizzling, and when I finally got into my car to leave, it seemed that the rain had finally drawn to an end. It turns out that it had not, as I later heard it drilling down onto the walls of my work. It had, however, stopped when I got out of work and headed home. I rolled down my window to enjoy the humidity and drove off.

What I did not realize was that with large rainstorms in the desert comes gnats. It dawned on me slowly. First I noticed a swarm hovering in an oddly symmetrical, columnar fashion around one street sign. Then I noticed that they seemed to be hovering in the same way around EVERY STREET SIGN THAT I PASSED. As I was finally starting to get nervous about the impending pestilence, I rounded a curve in the road and smacked right in to a wall of the creatures. It was at this point that I rolled up my window, humidity be damned.

There are many reasons why, if anyone ever wants to visit this state, they should NOT visit in the summer. The obvious one would be the heat. The next one is the possiblity of being swept away in a huge storm. But what you should really be afraid of, dear reader, are the gnats the size of hummingbirds. Just remember: you've been warned.




(P.S.- I'd just like to take the opportunity to say that the above photograph was taken by yours truly...)

Cause for alarm.

A cruel reality is coming home completely exhausted and then realizing that your alarm clock is broken. What is even more distressing, however, is running to the store under the illusion that you'll be able to go in, grab an alarm clock and leave without using any brain power whatsoever.

I entered Target after waiting for two miserable, slightly incoherent hours for said store to open. I showed great restraint by walking past all the shiny baubles that I would normally stop and gawk at. Finally, I reached the VERY back of the store where they hide their electronic devices.

Ladies and gentlemen, I tell you this in all honesty: they have alarm clocks that let you record messages. They have alarm clocks that display the time via projector onto your wall. They have alarm clocks that you can dock your iPod into. They have alarm clocks that tell you the weather. They have princess alarm clocks with towers that will impale your hand as you search desperately for the 'snooze' button. They do not, however, have an alarm clock that runs off of battery and wall plug-in that will show you the time and allow you to dial into your favorite radio station.

During my tiny existential crisis, four or five Target employees came and asked if I needed any help. What they didn't realize was that I was far beyond help at this point. Instead of continuing to stand, slack-jawed and pondering my own reality in public, I sheepishly grabbed the simplest alarm clock they sold. I ejected myself from the store as fast as I could and went home to teach myself how to use my shiny new gadget.

I honestly haven't had this much trouble choosing the right product since I witlessly decided to just "run by Walgreens for some toothpaste", but that's another story entirely. As for now, my BRAND NEW ALARM CLOCK (!!!) is set and ready to wake me up for another day of work.

The never-ending why!

You may be wondering, "Why, Brenna? Why a blog?" Don't worry; I'm wondering this as well. It boils down to this: I have nothing better to do with all of the thoughts that filter in and out of the spongy matter in my head. Because of this, I figured, Why not? I might as well share with the rest of the world.

And do I honestly think anyone will read this? No, not really. Either way, now I can take my pseudo-witty quips and compile them, instead of letting them sit and fester.

Besides, I'm also doing this so that it's easier to talk to Robin while she's in Japan.