spring 2009 is here

ive been so busy ive barely had time for the internets!!! it's so sad 'cause so many exciting announcements have come by the internets in the past few weeks - friends having babies, buying houses, getting engaged - so much excitement! so much happiness! maybe Spring is really coming soon...

i know i have thought this every winter of my life because i've lived in the northwest my entire life, but seriously, this was the longest winter of my life. long, dark, cold, frozen. the short days and the harsh winds are ridiculous. i'm surprised people don't like, kill each other more up here. just 'cause they are cooped up inside with the same people for five months. but of course, it's too cold to really want to do or plot anything so we are all still here. it is also lonely. there are no beach volleyball games. there are no ice cream socials. just saying.

i was walking around at "lunchtime" (which for nurses is more like a very short break that you take if you can manage time between your patients being... welll.... anyway) - I was walking around, and I realized that it (Friday) was the first day of Spring. I had on my hat, heavy scarf, wool peacoat, gloves, and long johns/scrubs combo (i was just looking soooo hot you know, like that real nice marshmellow look where i'm like an undefinable blob in a woman's coat) and I was like thinking, "Pshaw! Spring! Whatev! That last gust of wind was like at least 40 mph" - but then I noticed a tiny, tiny sprout shooting up from the beauty bark in front of the Generic Medical Outpatient Building A. There was just one there, and then a few yards down there was a group of three tiny, fresh, bright green shoots. I just stood there looking at them for a long time.

I'm sure the medical assistants and lab technicians sitting behind the mirrored window glass of Generic Medical Outpatient Building A were like, whoa, that girl is a dork, just standing outside in the freezing wind staring at our ugly beauty bark next to the parking lot. But I didn't care, I wanted to remember what Spring looks like, what the tiniest hope and first start of renewal must feel like. Before I went back to my fluorescent lights and waxed linoleum floors and beeping monitors that know neither night nor day nor summer nor winter.