Just in case you're still reading....

So just in case anyone is still reading, I'm so sorry!!

I promise I'm still here and still alive, and I still love you all...in fact I'm still wanting to blog; it's just this pesky work and staring at a computer all day long that has kept me from being proactive on this site. Ok, ok, I'm sorry - I admit it - perhaps feeling a little distant and lonely for comments but I promise I'm NOT begging for sympathy comments ;) Honestly just working too much and not being lazy couch Erika NEARLY ENOUGH!!!

That said, it is my sincere promise to you to never go another 2 weeks without posting again in the future. Deal kidarooskies??? Deal! :)

Love and miss you all!!!

ps-the rents are out here now and Clay and I have been having a great time with them - I promise pics and stories galore to follow!! in the meantime our bellies are definitely full, Clay is definitely wondering why I don't cook like my mom (in both quality and quantity), I am trying to pull my dad to the MS darkside a little more and more each day, OH and they fixed my freshcape hood!!!!!! Oh yeah, and we've seen some cool sites too...... but HELLO - my hood no longer talks to me when I drive down the road!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D :D :D

A Tale of Three Hospitals

The first hospital is the happiest of 3: George Maxwell Groves is here! Baby George, the first boy grandbaby for the Chet and Rise, was just born out in Texas! This makes Clay a 4 time Uncle and is baby #3 for Shirley and Mike and they seem like total pros!! :) Have I mentioned yet how excited I am to meet all of the summer babies yet??? Because I AM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The second hospital takes a scarier turn. Those of you who know my brothers know they are gluttons for adrenaline - Josh and Kerry being the firefighters and Jake being the cop/air force kid. Even Kerry's wife Mac works on LifeFlight and in ER's - they are all so amazing and work so hard to do so much good for so many people (well that and save cats from trees and eat donuts). So when my mom called yesterday I didn't expect it to be about Josh going to the hospital. Having been around firemen for 15+years now (or is it 20 Kerry???) with (Thank the Lord above) no major injuries, it's all to easy to forget how dangerous their jobs really all are.

So sure enough, Josh got caught in one of those dangerous places yesterday morning while working at Dekalb - here's an article about it. Josh is doing ok now but here is what I've pieced together from the story: he was in the basement of a 5600 sq ft house with his partner - no doors, no windows - could barely see his partner's flashlight 24 inches in front of him. While in this less-than-desirable situation, they got tangled up in all of the wires hanging down from the drop ceiling, when they both ran out of air and got lost in the dark, smoky basement. They finally made it out of the house but they were in pretty bad shape and had to be taken to the hospital and put in a hyperbolic chamber for a few hours.

Talk about a small world - a really great former coworker from SunTrust (rare, I know!) Helen's mom is the nurse at Crawford Long Hospital where Josh and the other firefighters were taken. Crazy, huh? So it was great reassurance that she had heard about the fire and her mom remembered Josh and said they would be ok and that Josh wasn't just being macho :) Turns out a few days rest and one hell of a sore throat and lungs later - they should be ok. So please just get some rest Josh!!

So now for the third hospital - I promise this one is lighter....needless to say - Toto, we're not at Seattle Grace Hospital anymore !!! So there are many, many lessons I've learned out here and trust me when I say finding all new Doctors has certainly proved to be a huge lesson learned! You see, it turns out there are things you just sort of just know after living in a city for decades - such as which hospitals are the friggin county hospitals.

That's right folks. Erika picks out her doctor based on a nice looking hospital in the local medical neighborhood, one associated with the University of Washington with a dedicated woman's clinic, doctors who all went to reputable schools in the past couple decades, and of course one that takes my medical insurance. It's funny how the silly things like "welfare hospital" weren't on my radar during my search... You see - LESSON LEARNED!!

So I leave work early the other day, have my directions on hand, and head for my appointment. I admit as I got closer to the hospital the neighborhood got sketchier, but I rationed that's probably not unusual for a hospital with sirens blaring at all hours and sick people in and out on a constant basis. So here is little Miss. Peach finally pulling up to the building according to their directions and it is definitely a massive structure - but seriously folks - did you have to have me come in where the first sign I see is "KING COUNTY MEDICAL EXAMINER OFFICE"??? Ok. Strange. Seriously. This place is a little creepy. But I finally get to the parking deck - and 25 minutes later I finally find a parking spot. My original thought in this crazy parking structure is a figure 8. But after driving around nearly tossing my cookies after countless loops, turns, dips and dives it definitely turned into a "Drunken octopus" super-quickly. Yikes folks. Dizzily I finally make it up to the main level of this looney bin where I find a maze of not-so-healthy wheelchair patients who appear to be randomly-wheeled-out to smoke among the incoming traffic. And as much as I hate to say it, 'tis just a foreshadowing of what is to come.


After weaving through the smoking wheelchair obstacle course, I make it through the next strange course in county hospital through the rotating doors (warning: don't touch anything!), hop over the sleeping homeless people and around the translators trying to usher the undocumented patients out the exit door. Stop. Where's this nice "women's clinic" I read about online?? Ahh...past the white-dyed beehive lady wearing the red blazer at the information counter and around the bend. SURELY the scenery gets better (and CLEANER) around the bend. RIGHT??? No such luck - unfortunately the picture is no prettier. This is the dirtiest hospital I've ever been in. I mean absolutely no insult to Harborview at all - but suffice it to say that I would never choose Grady to go get my annual checkup, either. I find the "women's clinic" on the ground level and there I wait carefully in line with other women - none of whom I think were in my situation.


Needless to say this waiting room had the most multi-cultural group I've seen since moving to Seattle. I also think I threw them off by even having insurance. So after the fiasco of signing in with that pesky insurance card, I sit down where the only thing louder than all of the various languages being shouted all around me was the one in my head telling me to get the heck out of dodge (where of course my concern was if i'd have to pay as if i were a no show, so i decided to stay against all odds). So I finally get a call for my name (at least a close-enough Japanese version of my name) and after verifying my last name once behind locked doors, I follow the nurse to the exam room. She didn't speak engrish very well......... turns out I was the only one in who knows how long to actually go for an actual yearly preventative check-up - so much so that they couldn't even find the paper work to do so!!!! Crazy!! So first of all I threw them off by even HAVING insurance - let alone being PROACTIVE in my healthcare - they didn't even know where the patient history forms were people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HELLO???????????

Not only that but by the time the Dr. got there she and I were talking for awhile (which, by the way, wouldn't you know it, she was actually really awesome) she noticed the nurse had only given me a sheet - not even a gown!! She then says "I know were county, but we're not that bad!" But how was I to know based on what I had seen so far?? Right before I finally left thank goodness the Dr. came back for a quick signature on some old records at which point i asked if i needed to wait for the nurse (no, surprise surprise ) - "you can just leave", she says - "exit that way". Wow. I found a bathroom on my way out, (it turns out no sample required at county, folks). Wow again. Thought I had to go - turns out county restrooms make that feeling climb right back up inside you faster than white climbs on rice. Thanks, but I'll just head out and hurry home for a shower instead. I raced out as fast as I could, still in one piece, thank goodness!!

An eye opening experience folks. And remember all of you Atlanta folks - the next time you are looking for a regular doctor - you might want to look somewhere besides GRADY!!!! ;)

Bring It On, Crawford Boys!!!

So it didn't take Sherman to burn down Seattle - it merely took a paint and woodwork shop that caught on fire and quickly spread over 100 acres in downtown back in 1889. I won't spoil the underground tour for you since I know you're all going to come visit and get all of the juicy details in person, but long story short, this fire is quite famous up here, and basically for good as much as for bad it recreated the city from underground up back in the late 1800's. This fire was close to the waterfront in a district known as "Pioneer Square".

Dating back for some time (although I'm pretty sure not all the way back to 1890), Pioneer Square has embraced this fire history and appreciation for its firefighters (yea!). So as a girl with several firefightin' brothers, I have to appreciate that even before 9/11, this city was celebrating and embracing (let alone actually paying half-way decently) their firefighters. Woohoo! Enter the "Fire Festival" which is held each year - Clay and I just had to attend, and I'm so glad we did! My only complaint is that we had to do so sans any Crawford boys to help us truly appreciate all of history and camaraderie with first hand experience - so I expect you all here this time next year boys!!! Don't worry Jake - they even allowed a few cops around, including some tshirts with the comforting phrase "if you can't stand the heat, become a cop".


There were kids activities, bands playing all day, about 2 dozen historical fire trucks and ambulances, the free for admission fire museum, the normal fire/ems/jaws of life demonstrations, the fire dept pipe and drums corps, all sorts of vendors with every possible fire-associated memorabilia to buy, a beer garden (turns out EVERY festival out here has one of those complete with the make-shift chain-link fence walls, and, depending on the neighborhood you're in, perhaps a creative sign strategically placed on the outside such as "tourist zoo, please feed"), and the main attraction - the firefighters challenge!



The challenge was nothing short of intense - teams from up and down the west coast competing against each other for a spot in the finals in Vegas. I had heard it referred to as “the toughest 2 minutes in sports” and first thought it was merely marketing, but after watching them climb a 5-story tower, hoist, chop, drag hoses and rescue a life-sized, 175 lb "victim" in under 2 minutes...well....needless to say Clay and I were both impressed! They had both male and female teams (ok there were only 2 female teams - and surprise, surprise - they had an extra minutes to do the challenge); and both 5 man teams as well as 2 man tandem teams. So what do you say Josh and Kerry - a Crawford tandem??? Come on boys!!!!! :D If you're looking for sponsors let me be the first to lay down my wallet. Of course I also saw the team of Air Force boys who supposedly do nothing but compete professionally with professional equipment and are paid to do nothing but train and compete all year - so Jake maybe that is your calling for your next assignment in the AF??? You could probably beat Josh and Kerry anyways.... Hmmmmm or maybe no Crawford could win regardless.................


Have I spurred any of you three on enough yet???? ;)


ps-mom-totally random - but the OU Duck was there so I had to get this pic just for you!! :)

Day 2 with the Out of Towners

So you'd think I'd be used to this by now, but I'm still embarrassed & ashamed when my guests wake up before me... Well not only were Elaine and Megan out later than us, but they were up way before us of course too. (Thank goodness there is a coffee shop right outside my lobby downstairs since I'm not a coffee drinker - talk about an even worse host!!)

At any rate, once I was finally up we headed for the market - an absolute must see of which I will NEVER get tired - no matter how many visitors come to town!! Sure, I might not want to ride the monorail or pay to get to the top of the space needle each time, but I would never pass up an opportunity to go to Pike Place - it never gets old!

Why you might ask? Well here are just a few reasons... OF COURSE the flowers. So beautiful, so bountiful, so CHEAP, so gorgeous!! For example, all of these are $10 or $15 each!!! Elaine and Megan were blown away as are all of my visitors - myself included!!

Ok, now I would rather cut off my left pinky toe than eat seafood, but apparently it's impressive to others and I guess it's fun to watch the fish get thrown around.... As for food there's plenty more that I WILL eat. ESPECIALLY the fresh produce. It is so fresh and so delicious, this weekend I just tried a local organic fruit farmer's smoothie...yuummmmmmmyyyyy!!!

Next comes the music - sometimes surprisingly good (such as the cellist playing classical this week), sometimes simply weird (like the guy wearing a sailor's outfit, playing guitar, playing a harmonica, and singing all while hoola-hooping- who at times switches it up to spin a second guitar on his nose while playing guitar and hoola hooping), but always random and entertaining. Well this week was extra-special for the southern girl as somehow some good ole' fashioned bluegrass managed to migrate out NW!! :) Enter the "Ballard Ave Jug Buskers" - note Clay's favorite part of of the bass played with an upside down tub, a broom handle, a string, and a glove with duck tape wrapping it up for easy movement up and down the string to change the pitch. Brilliant! Of course I not only tipped but bought a CD - dad I'll have to share it with you!! Perhaps you can learn a few tunes on your banjo for next time I come home!! :)

Next we met up with a friend of Megan's who lives here in Seattle too - Amy and she was super too, of course!! We all did more walking around the market, to the local shopping district, and then the girls headed for a fairy ride to Bainbridge (yea!) and Clay and I the exhausted little puppies tucked out tired toes between our legs and went home to do some boring work (well that and the BEAUTIFUL sweet pea's and sweet williams which we bought for only $5 per bouquet and Clay so sweetfully carried in our handy dandy backpack - thanks mom and dad those backpacks have come in more handy than you'd know!!)... So it's back for another work week as we await the next exciting weekend!!

All in all a superb weekend - it's always great to have visitors to remind us to get out of the house and to do all the fabulous touristy things there are to do around here!!

Love and miss you all, e :)

Our First Overnight Guests at the Condo!

It's a family member... it's a long lost childhood friend - NO - it's a SunTrust Recruiter and her buddy!!!

That's right folks, Elaine Emmons and her Vandy Career Center friend Megan (oh no - or is it Meghan??) came by and we all had SUCH a fantastic time!!! They were our first official guests to stay overnight, travelling from Portland (where they visited family) all the way to Canada.

The 2 Southern ladies arrived on Saturday night, but before I continue, I must give you some background... If you'll remember back a few days, all of our furniture and boxes arrived at the condo exactly one week and 2.5 days before their arrival. Add to that my insane work schedule and Clay's obsessive need for neatness, and...well..it's pretty much a recipe for disaster - right???? RIGHT.

Ok, fine. I took off July 3rd in a desperate attempt to rid the condo of unnecessary shtuff shipped 3,000 miles cross country. 48 hours, 2 fireworks shows, 2 FULLY STUFFED, PACKED, and LOADED Freshcape Car-FULLS of boxes for charity later, and well - the place was at least presentable to guests.

Enter Elaine and Megan. Great to see Elaine, and just as great to meet Megan. (BTW - Megan, Seattle and its residents loved you as much as you loved it!!! MOVE HERE DARNIT!!!! ;)

Ok, enough of sounding like another Crawford woman I know, on with my story. So our guests sat sipping wine in wonderful awe of our views as we discussed their overall plans for their Seattle visit (always nice to have someone appreciate the views we pay way too much for - in fact, I've decided that lining up guests to do so each month for the next two years will help ease the pain of rent, so all potential visitors please sign up now!!!) First on the list? A view of the Needle. Check!!!! Right from our condo!!!! Sure, we could go to the top, but cloudy skies don't exactly warrant the $16 per pop to do so...

Next up? "Well," Megan says, "my research says to visit some park . Have either of you heard of some park of all statues?" "Ahhhhh," I say, "You mean the Olympic Sculpture Park?!?!" "Why yes!", Megan says. This was the really cool part where I got to walk her to the balcony and say - "it's right there!!!" Check, check!!! How cool is that?? We also walked down to check it out first hand (much to Clay's appreciation as he's been begging for me to get my arse off the couch and walk around there for weeks now). It is definitely a nice walk, but I have to say the status leave a lot to be desired. Seattle has a lot of ugly statues! The only one that was mildly interesting was this one to the right. We can definitely see the large red thing in the back right (turns out it's an eagle), but we can also see the random spinning ampersand which seems so bizarre. Reading the plaque explains it as an ode to Love and Loss: think of it as a crossword puzzle - there are two benches facing each other (the two L's), a table in the middle (the O), the two S's come down on the left and the V and E to the right. Kinda cool. I guess. At least you would think so if you saw the other statues. Everything is relative, right?

Next we headed to dinner. Now I've walked this path a hundred times but apparently walking it with strangers DEFINITELY pays off as strangers come equipped with both cameras and encouragement for Clay to stand underneath his namesake sign which is only 2 blocks away (and I walk past several times a week)!!!!!!!!!!!! This is one of my faves since moving to Seattle - thanks Megan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry ladies - this man is taken!!!

In return of convincing my Claybie to display the gun show for the camera, I went to a DISGUSTING (for me only ;) ) seafood restaurant. They all liked it which made it amazing for me too :P Heck. I'm feeling generous. Mom here's a pic to boot. But pretty much you should no longer expect anything for Christmas. hahahaha ;)

Overall it was a great day and we had even more great times on Sunday before the girls headed to their next adventure, but those stories and pictures will have to wait for the next blog entry. Stay tuned folks!!! :)

Celebrating Indepence Out West!! :)

Oh wow - I've always loved the 4th, but Independence Day '08 in Seattle was Wonderful!! :)

Don't get me wrong, whether it's because things seem bigger when we're little or because hookups into the PTC fire department got us front row seats each year complete with firemen antics all day, Peachtree City fireworks still seem the best to me (the 4th just isn't the same without begging for warm coke from other families or getting to see Kerry lead his team to victory year after year in the Keg tug-o-war). However, the lightshow over Elliot bay came pretty darn close last week! You see, Seattle has many celebratory displays throughout the city and two of them just happen to be visible right from our very own condo!!! The first (and the main) sighting being the barge out on Elliot Bay which had a spectacular show that drew an immense crowd of both in-person onlookers on shore (a la PTC) as well as boats GALORE on the bay.


Add to that the spectacle over Lake Union which was on the opposite side of the balcony yet still at least 50%+ visible - and - well - suffice it to say we were owning Seattle Fireworks!!! :) Our only problem was in the whiplash we got trying to go back and forth between the bay fireworks on the left and the lake works to the right - such a good problem to have! Clay was the genius who finally figured out that if you stand just so on the balcony and get one of the guest bedroom windows in your field of view for the main display, then you get a reflection of the lake at the same time! What a smart kid I'm dating. (Although Kerry you might be at a disadvantage so I promise if you join us next year we'll rig up a set of mirrors just for our one-eyed friends :) )

So the only other downside to being out here is that we weren't in the midwest with the rest of my family. During the entire lightshow, my thoughts and prayers were with the Crawford clan in Peabody, Kansas where everyone was celebrating Grandma and Grandpa C's lives and scattering their ashes where they truly felt most at home. I wish I could have been there and I love and miss you all!!

So overall BLOT?? I'm taking reservations for 4th of July 2009 now!! Any takers yet?? Rosie? Glee? Crawfords? Robertses?? :)

ps- I hear they shoot off fireworks from the very tip top of the Space Needle for New Year's - so I'm planning to throw a party for that to take advantage of the views while we got 'em too! Come one, come all!!!

You call this a "BEACH"???

Wow. Just when I think it can't get any weirder, it manages to do just that. So I already told you about the Washingtonian warped sense of thunderstorms and good pizza, but I'm afraid last weekend just might take the cake. Enter Seward Park. (or as Clay likes to say - "remove the d and you'll have a better description of the place")

It all began with a simple dream you see - a dream for a little thing called sunshine and a crazy accompaniment called water. Seattle has just as much water as Atlanta has pollen, Waffle Houses, or heatwaves; so surely this is a simple dream, right??

My huge project at work finally went live on 6/29, so on Sunday afternoon I was thrilled to have a few hours off and some beautiful sunshine to boot. I had done my research and this southern girl was bound and determined get some sun on my pale self. Clay was such a trooper, following me blindly just as eager for a reminder of back home.

Sucker.

I swear it looked better online, I swear!! Turns out a "beach" to people up here doesn't necessarily mean "sand". This "beach" was nothing but GRASS!! Add to that the 15x15 roped off "swimming area", signs up everywhere warning against "swimmer's itch", and the "bathhouse" that I swear reminded me of nothing less than Auschwitz, and well - needless to say - I'll never return to one of Seattle's city "beaches" again!

I know, I know mom - I hear Alki and Golden Gardens are the only true "beaches" up here, and rumor has it they might actually even have real sand. Still, I'm guessing the real ticket up here is to either own a boat or find a friend who has one and is happy to have friends that want to join in and chip in on gas ;) So...DJ and Courtney....you ready to move out west yet or what?? :)

Love and miss you all (and real beaches!) terribly!!!