Under the Skin

I am approaching having lived in Upstate New York for four months. And as such, I’m starting to notice things about New Yorkers. These are just general observations, and do not mean that every New Yorker is this way, but, living about them in their rural world with almost everyone about having been born, bred and lived their entire within the same 30 mile radius, I’m making generalizations. Further, I must clarify that I love living in New York. I really do enjoy it. It is perhaps one of my favorite places that I have lived (Colorado still wins). But, there are things I’ve noticed. First, Upstaters tend to be short. I know, I know, I’m short. But I’m not the only one to make this observation. I admit fully that I am short, but I feel less short. I’m 5’1’’, and generally, people around me are fairly similar heights. My mother, only about 5’5’’, says that she will sometimes even feel tall in grocery stores when compared with those around her. I don’t have an explanation for this, but m...

More pictures! For the enjoyment of all. We all love pictures of babies, especially of babies that we love, and personally, I love this one. The above is the happy daddy! Sarah holding him Me Holding him He's ready for his close-up Uncle Caleb with the little one. Caleb says that he identifies with the little guy for many reasons (making labor difficult for their mothers with huge heads and the mean ways that doctors try to get those babies out, and huge heads that don't fit in hats among them) and is already telling him secrets and whispering things that he won't tell us what he's saying. He says that he will be the best uncle ever and a favorite. It's the grandpa! I think he's pretty excited to be a grandpa! He doesn't like life in his crib, as he would much rather be held, but that's not quite possible all the time.

So, my mom posted this on facebook, but here he is, my nephew. I suppose the only people who visit this blog anyways are the Hatches, so here's welcome to the family I guess. His name is Adam Samuel Russell (on his US citizenship) and Adam Samuelovich Russell (on his Russian citizenship, which isn't existent yet). He was born on July 5th at 4:23 am and weighs 8 lbs 6 0z. He looks a lot like his mommy, but he has the Hatch head, and doesn't fit into newborn hats. The hat that he's wearing is a 3-month hat. He also has hair! It's kind of light brown, but you can't see it in the picture because he doesn't like his head touched or his hat removed. This picture is Sarah holding him, but there are all the other pictures too, they're just on my mom's camera.

So, good news all around! 1) My computer is still dead, but here's the story. My hard drive failed. Irreparable. So, I bought a new hard drive (a bigger one, I use to have a 60 GB, now I have a 320 GB). I bought a SATA, and I needed an EIME or something like that, but that will be remedied shortly. I can return the SATA for a full refund, so yeah. It's getting there 2) I had a promising interview with a medical personnel temp agency on Tuesday. They think they'll be able to find me something in Med Records or medical reception. They sent my resume to the VA Clinic in Rochester, and we'll see what happens with that. 3) I called Prometric today. They're the company that manages the Nurse's Aid licenses for NY. It's not a sure thing, but my application for my Washington State registration to become NYS certification, has apparently been processed and a "certificate" was mailed on Wednesday. I think that sounds like it was approved. So, there...

So, my faithful Acer 2480, Windows XP Media Center Edition, kicked it on me. On Monday, I pushed the power button, and unfortunately, I got the lovely Acer splash screen, however, after that, nothing but the black screen of death. I am probably too self-reliant. I like to fix things myself. Computers included. If I don't know how, I will go and figure it out. So, I embarked on a mission. This mission included, but was not limited to, buying Avanquest Fix-it Utilities, external hard drives, trying to repair with XP recovery console, loading Linux and trying to rescue my files, all sorts of stuff. I got everything safely off of the D, but the C (which for a long line of reasons is not backed-up) had screwy file allocation, which I think--now that I've sorted through a lot of online info, and played with the computer-- is probably what caused the inability to boot up anyways. There are many, many things that I must rescue from said C drive, so after a successful rescue mis...

So, the job search is not complete. I haven't heard back from hardly anyone. And in the meantime, I am freelance writing. The pay is not great since I'm not well-known or anything like that, but the choices are 1) stay home waiting for a call making no money 2) stay home waiting for a call making measly money. I think I'll take number 2. I don't think that the problem with employment is because of the downturn in economy. I think that Upstate NY is just a stagnant economy. Always has been, always will be. They don't really get ups or downs here. It is, however, a summer resort, so maybe as we get closer to summer, seasonal positions will open up. Maybe as we get closer to summer, I'll get a call from one of my applications. All the same, we'll see what happens.

So, a little over a week ago, I returned home from college. I would here post all the pictures I've taken of New York State since getting here, but I'm not quite sure what I did with the adapter that gets pictures off of my camera and onto my computer. I think I might have put it in a box that didn't come to New York. At least I remembered the one that recharges my camera, and I have approximately 145 picture-taking-spots available on my camera. So, we'll just have to get them off the camera later. All the same, it is wonderful. I know that a lot of people find Seattle to be a beautiful place. I do beg to differ. I find it a dreary, ugly, terrible place to live. And you may quote me, as someone who spent 8-9 dreary years living there. But back to business. I have decided to add Upstate NY, particularly Canandaigua Lake Resort Area (where my family now lives...not because it's a resort, just because it's where they live, but it happens also to be a resor...