This is what’s left of the annual nurse’s gala that we went to last night. I was one of three finalists for the Outstanding Graduate Nurse for my hospital. I know you’re on the edge of your seat, so I’ll just let you know right now that I didn’t win. But I can still put “finalist” on my resume, right?

We got ourselves all fancied up and drove downtown to the convention center. It happens to be right next door to the Toyota Center, where the Rockets were playing in a playoff game, and Minute Maid Park, where the Astros also had a game. Obviously the traffic was not ideal. We realized we didn’t have cash, so we had to drive around to find an ATM. Easier said than done when you’re not used to all the one-way streets and lack of parking that is downtown. We ended up having to park seven blocks away in an “event parking lot” where a guy on a bicycle with a little carriage behind him asked us if we wanted a ride to the game. We opted to walk. Once we were there, it was quite nice and I am grateful that David got to meet my coworkers. I’m also grateful for the delicious chocolate fondue dessert they served, even though it kept me up past my bedtime.

When we came home our living room looked like this:

So the painters did finally come, even though they sure are taking their time getting everything done. We accidentally set the house alarm before going to sleep and had a rude awakening this morning when the painters set it off on their way in. They basically kicked us out, so now we’re staying with my in-laws. When we went home this evening to pick up some of our things, it looked like this:

It’s covered in primer, and now we feel like we’re living the scene in E.T. when everything is white and covered in plastic. We’re just missing our space suits.

In other news, I’ve missed three days of triathlon training due to previous commitments, so this morning I picked back up by going for a run. Afterward I went to give blood and I had to be deferred because my hematocrit was low. (It seemed high to me, although as an oncology nurse my views of blood counts are a little skewed. Cancer patients have notoriously low blood counts.) I was disappointed, but this is probably for the best because I have been inordinately exhausted all day, in fact it’s taken me this whole time just to work up the energy to write this post, and imagine what I would have been like if I had been deprived of a pint of my oxygen carrying life fluid. I rescheduled for Thursday, so hopefully by that time my red blood cells will have recouped themselves.

Thanks for tuning in to this edition of my haphazard life, and hopefully I’ll be back soon with pictures of our finished living room.