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kohawkrachel
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Name: Rachel
Location: Juneau, Alaska, United States
Birthday: 8/31/1982
Gender: Female
Interests: social justice, volunteering, reproductive rights, women's health, female solo artists out of NYC, racquetball, reducing my consumption, peeking in tide pools, trying new beers.
Expertise: Awesomeness.
Occupation: mental health clinician
Message: message me
AIM:  kohawkrachel
ICQ:  45223734
Member Since:
11/15/2005
 True Lifetime
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| Frequently when I have something to do after work, something that might detract from our typical schedule I'll tell Coupon the night before. "Ok, tomorrow after work I'm doing this and this and that, so I won't be home and you're on your own for dinner . . ." etc.
What inevitably happens is that Coupon wasn't listening. He'll call me the next day and say the usual "So what's the plan for tonight?"
My first response was to sigh and say to myself "I seriously just told him the plan last night!" And then I decided that was negative thinking that wasn't productive. I decided instead that I could reframe it as, he likes to talk to me most days. He likes to call me and hear my voice.
It carries me through -- at least until next time. 
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| Wow, I've been meaning to post, but honestly I didn't have anything worth posting about until this weekend.
First, a heartbreak of a kind. My Little Sister, is 12. She lives with her dad who single parents. I think he's sort of hands-off, but not intentionally - more of a "I'm not quite sure what I'm doing" kind of way. Anyway, she and I make plans to get together yesterday just yesterday. Then her dad calls.
Her dad tells me that she got caught stealing this past week at the local Wal-Mart. She was with a friend who's gotten caught before and he thinks she probably gave into peer pressure. She's also failing math and though she's still doing ok in other classes not as good as she used to.
My heart fell a bit. I am honored, though, that her dad wanted me to know. He wanted me to be aware, not to discipline her, not to chide her, but to know in case if came up and so I could get her to talk to me or whatever. When we got together for a walk on the trail that goes around the airport I tried to hint at things, but she either didn't take the bait or was trying to not tell me.
I asked how parent-teacher conferences had gone and she told me she didn't know that her dad had gone. "Well, did he tell you how your teachers said you were doing?" "Nope!" Hmmmmm, it feels fishy and I don't like that. I wish she felt she could be honest with me.
Then, I asked how other things were and she said "fine" a few times. *Sigh* I know that just because I'm her Little Sister doesn't mean she won't do anything bad ever. And I know that I am not in her life to discipline here. I want to keep our relationship fresh and current so she hopefully feels like she can talk to me. That's all I can really ask for.
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That being said . . . I've signed up as Team Captain for a Bowl for Kids' Sake team. Our team name is The Freudian Slips and if you'd like to donate (anything works!) let me know via private message and I'll send you the link to our page! And thanks to @ShamrockLover who has already donated!
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And then there was today. Holy weirdness. I saw my ex, the felon from the previous city I lived in. Last I heard from him he was in Minnesota reportedly finishing up his Bachelor's Degree.
Today I'm in the grocery store self-check-out lane and it's the kind where there are two on each side with a wide "aisle" between them. So, I'm waiting for one of the four slots to open up and there is a guy who looks an awful lot like my ex. I watch his mannerisms and he acts like him too. His hair looks like him, his feel and shoes look like him. Finally a slot opens up and he's STILL checking out by the time I'm done, so I get a few more good looks in and decide it's him. I said his name and he turned around and he's the same weird guy he was then.
Apparently he got a job with the state. Now, we're the capital, but there are certainly state jobs elsewhere, so I thought maybe he was travelling for work. Nope, he lives here now. He stays he works for the Department of Labor in data processing after he got his BA degree. Well, good for him. Though my heart was racing a good while after and I just really couldn't believe it.
The ONLY and I mean, ONLY thing better about this ex than my current boyfriend was he was more giving with affection and he got me off better. Now, he had TONS of cons. He was convicted of a felony at 18, had at least two legal issues going on in the 6 months we dated, and was just not . . . super honest about everything I don't think. He's nice enough, but had weird syntax in his speech and weird mannerisms. He's just strange. I don't miss him at all, but because I have a hard time letting totally go of people I've dated I've always been curious about how he's doing. Has he cleaned his life up or gotten into more trouble. He was my "bad boy" and I didn't knowingly date a bad boy. He was the most drama-filled guy I'd ever dated. It's weird to think he lives here now and I could potentially run into him again. I sort of WANT to run into him with Coupon on my arm. Is that snarky of me?
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Oh, and I finally got some Girl Scout cookies today. No one asked me to order any. Sad!
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Oh, and @PennyLumpkins, you'll like this! I finished Freakonomics at the gym today and started my next book More Letters from Penthouse (yes, the magazine). It's basically people's letters of their sexual exploits they wrote to the magazine. It ends up reading like erotic and got me so hot I had to come home and get myself off. Hadn't done THAT in awhile!
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| I never feel like I have any time to write, and then when I sit down, I feel like I have nothing valuable to contribute.
But then I realize you all have no clue what my days are like unless I tell you. So here's what I'll tell you:
- Coupon and I are working out 6-7 days a week. There's a Biggest Loser competition I'm participating in and the winner will take everyone's $50 . . . for a total of $1650. It would be awesome to win!
- Volleyball starts up in less than a month and I'm soooo excited. We have a few people from last year returning, but most of our team will be people who didn't play last year or are totally new to my agency.
- That brings me to another thing -- work is going pretty well. We had a tree-day training last week and that was obnoxious, but not too shabby. Though it means other work had to be put off it is always nice to have time out of the office. I get another day out of the office this week. We have a new guy starting tomorrow and another guy starting before the month is up. Then we'll be fully staffed. First time in a LONG TIME! The nature of our work has a lot of turnover, but we had some unexpected glitches in the last year that had people leaving us before we (or they) expected. *Sigh* The good thing is our new people seem to have really good experience, a good interest in staying here, and some even have experience living in AK before, so they're not afraid of a little wind and rain!
- I'm being good about reading too and am reading on the recumbent bike (and sometimes treadmill). It makes it slightly less boring for me and keeps me up on my reading. I don't always get to read though -- when Coupon makes me to intervals there isn't much time for reading . . .
- I'm not seeing a change in the scale yet, but I am in some clothing fitting . . . it's a good sign and I hope I see more of it soon.
- My Little Sister and I have been baking, saw the new Alvin & the Chipmunks movie and this Friday saw Lunafest. Great films again this year. If Lunafest is in your area I urge you to check it out. So empowering to see great films that were made for, by and about women. Some were a bit mature, but she's a pretty mature gal, so at intermission I picked her brain about the obstetric fistula one and the transgendered kid one. At the end we talked again about if there were things she had questions about and the bad words some used. She's so smart. She told me that she liked all the movies because they taught her about other people's lives and "human nature." I was awfully proud of her global 12-year-old view. It was also a great way to give her permission to talk to me about girl stuff. She lives with her father only and hasn't seen her mom in quite awhile. She has a grandmother in town, but I'm not sure how much they chat about girl stuff. At any rate, I want her to make sure she has someone to talk to when she needs to about anything and everything. Oh, I even won a door prize! It was a print of a water color with lots of purples and swans (not my style) and done by an Alaskan artist, so I gave it to my LS and she was thrilled!
- We're still hoping to get LASIK or ICL. We've gotten a few quotes and ICL is about double the cost of LASIK, so of course that's what they push. Maybe that's the route we should go. It is reversible and I can understand why they would say we're not great candidates for LASIK, but at the same time, it's just a LOT of money to fork out for your eyes. We'll see. We're hoping to use our free Alaska Airlines flights for that.
That's about all I think of for now . . . really trying to do better!
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| 2011 has been a good year.
It's been my first full year of living with Nick.
It's my first full year in this city.
It was a great year for traveling!
We moved into a wonderful house this year.
We met new people through our tenants and co-workers.
We did some home improvement together and didn't kill each other --- yet.
I gained a niece.
I made more money that I expected to because I've had some good on-call months.
I caught up with my reading.
I didn't do so hot with my Xanga posting, but I hope to get back more regularly in 2012.
I continued to donate $25 almost every paycheck to Kiva.org and now I'm getting repayments of over $120 each repayment day. It's stinkin' addictive and I love that I'm helping people.
We have a freezer full of halibut, salmon, crab, deer and moose meat to be thankful for.
I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, a wonderful New Year and I'll see ya back here soonish!
xoxo
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