Shooting stars

2002-11-19 - 8:17 p.m.

So today I started in the PICU. I didn't really do too much today, mostly I just rounded with the team, and even then, I didn't do much. I was so tired today, and my eyes were bugging me all day. I need more sleep. But who doesn't?

And today was the first annual Rx Bake-Off. I entered a pumpkin dessert. I know, it needs a name. Maybe that was its problem. How about...Pecan Pumpkin Pleasure. Well, it gets points for illiteration anyway. I thought that my dessert was very yummy. In fact, in my oh so humble opinion, it was the best dessert there. Of course I didn't try the winner, but what do you expect, they covered it in coconut, yuck! So maybe it wasn't the best, but geez, my dessert came in dead freakin' last. I have to admit, my feelings were a tad hurt and I am a tad bitter. But I don't think I showed it. Except everyone else left theirs to be grazed on throughout the rest of the day while I took mine home where it would be truly appreciated.

I need to get my hair cut. It's getting longish. I'm thinking I don't need to go anywhere fancy. Anyplace that will chop off an inch should be ok, wouldn't you think? I don't like going to haircutting places. I liked the last lady that cut my hair, but she just moved. Most of those haircutting people yack away the whole time. I don't go to get my ear yacked off or to answer endless questions about my life, I go to get my hair cut. But that's not as bed as those dental hygeinists who yack to you and ask you questions while they have the suction thingy in your mouth or something.

Oh, last night was the meteor shower. It's supposedly the best one that's ever going to happen until 2099. 2099. I'm thinking I might just miss the next one. But who knows. Maybe they'll have extended the human life expectancy considerably by that time and I will see it after all. But the thing is there are meteor showers every year, it seems. I didn't stay up to see this one, but I'm pretty sure I will see another meteor shower some time within the next couple of years. Stuff falls through our atmosphere rather regularly really. I remember the first meteor shower I ever saw. That one was truly amazing. I was camping with my family up at Virginia Lakes. The campground there is around 9,000 or 10,000 feet in elevation, so you can imagine the air is pretty thin and you can see a bazillion stars. Plus its miles and miles from the nearest town and then many more miles to the nearest city, so light pollution is basically zilch up there. I'm trying to remember how old I was the first time we went up there. We were introduced to the place by family friends and we went up there before they had any kids. Their oldest kid is 12 years younger than my brother who is 26. So that means that it was a little more than 14 years ago. So that would make me...a little younger than 9. Let's say I was 7. So the meteor shower peaked at two in the morning or something like that. My mom and brother opted to stay in bed, but my dad and I got up to watch it. We went out behind the campground to a clearing and stared up at the night sky. It was cold, but I was sitting in my dad's lap and he was keeping me warm. And every 15 or 30 seconds there was a shooting star. And sometimes they'd come in bunches. Ah, now there's a nice fuzzy memory.

Wanna hear another meteor shower memory? This one is much dorkier. I blame it on hormones. Stupid puberty. Ok, so I was past puberty, I was 18, but I had a crush on a guy in my school. Yup, Kevin. I thought it would be so awesome for he and I to go out and watch the meteor shower together. Only, of course, I was too shy to actually ask him. And I hadn't told anybody in the world that I had a crush on this guy. Meanwhile, Azuma, (yes, the same Azuma that I'm still friends with and still keep in contact with) had a crush on me, and I knew it. But I think we were fairly clear that that was going nowhere, but he still had his hopes. I liked him as a friend, but I wasn't interested in anything more than that. Azuma and Kevin were best friends. So I asked Azuma if he and Kevin would like to go watch the meteor shower with me. Only I was too embarrassed to go out with two guys, so I asked my best friend of that time, Erin, to go with us. I drove the four of us in Bob out to the middle of nowhere, as far away from light pollution as I thought it was sane to go, and then we threw a tarp down on the ground and the four of layed down on it. We saw a lot of meteors, but I was too shy to actually talk to Kevin and Erin thought Azuma was a big dork and would hardly deign to talk to him and Kevin (I'm pretty sure) spent the whole night wondering why in the world he had agreed to come along. So that memory leaves me with more of an awkward, embarrassed feeling.