Playa dreams and jelly.

... and here I am, awake.  I tried to sleep, got in a few hours maybe before waking myself up by talking in my sleep about "water dripping in through the roof of the tent".  I'm having Burning Man dreams on the regular lately.  Part of me longs to be out on the playa, with its spectacular sunrises and sunsets, it's vast open emptiness in contrast with the buzz and hum and burn of the city that emerges from the dust each year.  But, the other half of me breathes a sigh of relief at being home when I think of the dust, the heat, the dryness of that place... and of all the work it takes to get out there and survive it.  This weekend, we're going to visit Treeman, where we will cook delicious food, climb old trees, take a bubble bath in his clawfoot tub (we have no bathtub at our place... the hot tub helps but it's just not the same!), and be lazy like it's our job.  I can't wait.

I worked a 12-hour shift last night, and was pleasantly surprised to find that I really liked it.  Sure, waking up earlier and hardly even seeing my Honeybunch before going in at 7pm was a little rough... but it was really a pleasure to get to know my patients while they were awake.  I felt like I had so much more information to work with, such a greater understanding of the "big picture" surrounding my patients' current illnesses.  What a difference four hours makes!  Of course, by the end of it I felt like I'd been beaten with a baseball bat... but not so much more than I usually do to deter me from wanting to work 12's on a regular basis.

Tomorrow my To-Do list is as long as my arm, and includes making jelly from the fallen apples provided by my mom's trees, and finishing the green pepper jelly I have cooling its heels in the fridge.  I've never made (nor tasted) green pepper jelly, but Honeybunch claims to like it, and having bought a giant box of green peppers for ten bucks at the farm down the way and filled the dehydrator twice over already, I need to do SOMETHING with them besides munch on them with hummus.  I am not planning to add green food coloring, however.  I think that awful color is the main reason I've never tried the stuff!