calling in sick. ie: i have no excuse to not post today

so for the first 3 years i worked at good ol' CPCC (Cascade Park Care Center), I did not use one single sick day. not one. (refer to prior posts to see how long i had my last non sick streak, broken this year) it was mostly cuz im very healthy, but also because im the only speech therapist there and its near impossible to get an oncall speech therapist last minute and so basically my peeps dont get therapy and its just crappy. so i just never called in sick. but since we got another part timer, i can finally call in. which is lucky cuz i got horridly sick a few months ago. but its nice for days like today, when i have a pretty crappy cold, which would normally never keep me away from work (my philosophy was always, if i can manage to get up and walk around, im fine to go in to work). but since i know i have a backup, im calling in dang it, cuz im blowing my nose and hacking every 2 seconds and i just dont feel well. also, since i worked yesterday with this nasty cold and one of my patients said "ew you are sick. dont come in tomorrow, i dont want your germs". ya super nice of her. haha. no really its true. im learning that staying home is sooo not just about feeling icky, but not getting medically vulnerable people sicker. so im home. and figured itd be a good time to post. now, peeps SAID they want more pics, so....um..ok. i guess i will. so theres a pic of big ben there. i just had to put that up and pay homage to the good ol favorite caldwell childhood tune by roger miller (eng-uh-land swings like a pendulum do, bobbies on bicycles....yada yada..the tower, big ben....yada yada. if you dont know the song, look it up and listen. its a great one) anywho we flew to london and then had enough time to go do a quick tour of some sites before our train through the chunnel to paris (ya, that "tube" or subway thing sure is handy and quick) so we went to westminster abby, parliament, etc. it felt sufficient cuz those things are cool to see, but not things you just want to sit and stare at and reflect on life like in the alps or the national gallery. so i was ok that we did a quick tour, although was a teeny bit sad to not get to see buckingham palace. but i suppose it looks just like the pics. anywho, so we then took the train to paris which was pretty cool, although obviously you cant really tell you are under water. you are just in a tunnel. anywho, we went to paris, had a couple of days there including the louvre (see the pic. and in case yall didnt know, i really love self inflicted pictures. did i already post that somewhere? see i cant remember what ive put here, on facebook, or on my family website, so forgive me for not doing the research and possibly repeating myself) we also happened upon mass at notre dame which was pretty rad and i got some video but that felt funny. but i heard the bells of notre dame and yes its an absolutely incredible building and i enjoyed being there. my buddy and i wanted to see different things so i went to the rodin museum (an amazing museum with most of the sculptures outside in the gardens (including the thinker and other very intriguing works)), a very small and uncrowded monet gallery in a cool old house (which i absolutely loved. mostly for its out of the way, non crowdedness. i couldnt stand the huge crowds around the mona lisa and other paintings in the louvre, which is why i didnt spend much time there. i think its ridiculous, cuz they arent even that incredible. sorry, leonardo). anywho i just wandered around paris and enjoyed hearing the little tikes in the park speaking french. we then met up again to go to the eiffel tower at night which was truly awe inspiring and worth every minute of the wait. we decided to go to the top and i highly recommend it, but only in an off season. the ride up in that lift is pretty freakin rad and exhilerating as you see paris get bigger and smaller at the same time. its crazy. so it was a pretty amazing day. next morning, we flew to venice. i spent my birthday there and had an amazing time. and i must say i agree with rick steves-if theres one city where you dont try to "see the sites" but just wander around and get lost, its venice. call me crazy, but one of my favorite parts of our trip was getting up early and running around the cities (oh, we didnt actually stay in venice, but just outside it. so heres a pic of the cute street that i ran up in the morning) k i think this post is gonna get boring quick, so ill try to be a better summer upper. from venice we took a train to geneva, switzerland and stayed there a night, then took the train in to interlacken the next day. wow. indescribable, that train ride. thats when i fell in love with switzerland. we found an absolutely adorable little bed and breakfast in this cute little village and then train/bussed/cable carred around and enjoyed every single second of the pristine beauty. oh, i forgot to mention, in the geneva train station, i told my buddy i was just gonna go look at the watches cuz we had some time. ya, long story short, i sprinted up the stairs to the platform with my amazing new swiss military watch just as the train was pulling away, and my poor nice travel buddy whit was standing there with my stuff. luckily there was another train in an hour and guess who should ride on it with us, but the whole dang swiss military i swear. ya the train station was full of them and they freakin had their huge guns and everything. i couldnt get close enough to see what watches they were wearing though :) so switzerland was my favorite place on earth. period. oh, and yes due to some miscommunication, i missed the cable car back to our little village but a very nice swiss man gave me a ride back and thats a whole nother story. so the next morn, i had to fly out to london cuz i had a 5k tree-athalon (fun run) id registered for and tickets for wicked. so my buddy stayed in switzerland and i headed out. the 5k was the funnest ive ever done, met some great people, got my best time ever and loved it. wandered around london, LOVED the national gallery, watched the brits in trafalgar square and all the excitement there (amazing street performers, soccer kids, etc), got last minute tickets to "stomp" which was thoroughly enjoyable. and then, sadly, flew back to the states the next day, sunday. and was back at work monday morning. so that was the trip. and now my plan is to have at least 10 days just in switzerland and austria next year. so there ya go peeps. ps ill have you all know i did not NOT repeat an outfit and also did NOT check a bag (at whit's request, but im sooo glad i didnt, it worked much better, but id definately do a backpack next time as the rolly wheels of my carryon are annoying in train station booths, etc). so im a pretty expert packer, as you may ascertain from this experience. k thats all.

oh, and....

ok so apparantely the pics dont show up the same in the blog as when you post them....so ignore my "top left, top right" descriptions in that other post. i suppose you can just figure it out by looking at the pics. you are intelligent people.

pseudo "europe trip post", more to come

so for those of you who are dying to see pics from the trip (thanks for caring, dana and anne) i will post some quick ones here and then be more thorough later cuz im about to keel over from exhaustion right now. so heres one from each city- top left, murren, switzerland, where i absolutely want to live NOW!! so incredible, like a fairytale, then top right, london-trafalgar square, right by the national gallery, my fave part of london, where i saw incredible paintings including THE monet ive always wanted to see, and many others i didnt know i loved, then bottom left, eating pizza in venice, bottom right, me and whit (my travel buddy) when, after much research and an expensive cab ride, we arrived bright and early at the paris branch for church, and ummm...no one was there. not a soul. there was the plaque with the church name on it, and big huge locked doors. so either they all went inactive or changed the time without letting the website know. anywho, good times. ill post more later peeps, i promise. but it was the best vacation of my life, fyi. :)

three rad weekends in a row and facebook

ok frik i just gotta do this dang post. i wanted to wait till i had lots of time to make it good but that so is not happening so you'll all (the two or three people that may read this) have to settle for a substandard post. all in all, i had three totally awesome, fun, challenging, unique weekends in a row. and i joined facebook and i got 130 friends in less than a week. i love technology. anywho, so the 3 weeks ago, i got to drive to idaho for the big caldwell fam reunion in island park. got to spend lots of time with the whole fam, play H ball, a rad new game i learned on a pool table, and just enjoy the pristine environment. fairly uneventful, but thoroughly enjoyable. the following weekend was the portland to coast relay. ya that needs its own whole post. basically my team of 11 other ladies and i walked (speed walked, mind you, which can be more tiring and soreness inducing than i ever would have imagined) 127 miles from portland to the coast (umm, hence the name) in relay fashion. it was a huge event and super fun and our silly GPS system literally tried to guide us STRAIGHT OFF A CLIFF! seriously people, i know i just said i love technology, but come on GPS, dont try to kill us humans. it was very comical cuz it did not tell us to turn anywhere that there was actually a road even one time. it was always into the trees or something. ya. so im over GPS systems. (ya, of course it reminded me of the office episode where michael drives the rental into the lake. one of my fave office moments of ALL time) anywho, we successfully made it in 29 hours. so it was fun. then the next weekend i flew to SLC, and drove to poky for the half marathon there. that was fantastic, a great event and im getting better at not spilling powerade on the volunteers as i run by and grab and drink. then i got to go hang out with my sissy and nephy and bro in lawy and help them pack and eat all their food so they didnt have to pack it (its reasonale to have chicken and spaghetti and sandwiches for dinner right?) oh, i cant believe i forgot to mention how i got a free upgrade from a crappy little tin can car which i booked to a rad big nissan Xterra. ya its fun to be single and use my powers of flirtation to get cool stuff. ok so that never happens. i think he felt sorry for me cuz when the nice concierge girl asked if i wanted a bottle of water i responded with "yes, please, im starving!". ya. im retarded. i couldnt remember the word for really super extra thirsty and so thats what came out. anywho, that was my AWESOME weekend trilogy and i think i may keep the streak going cuz right now i gotta go pack cuz im flying to london tomorrow morn for a fun little european tour!! yay. k bye.