Early this morning the Social Workers presented the Front Desk with a bag of bagels and a container of shmeer. We at the front desk munched on bagels and shmeer throughout the day. At the end of the day, there was one bagel and a little shmeer left, but all of us had had enough. My supervisor gave me the bag to take home. I had a better idea: I would present it to one of the panhandlers I would meet on my walk home.

For the first time ever, I think, I did not encounter even one panhandler one my way home from work. I passed through several of the popular spots, too. There wasn't even anyone in front of Dick's Drive In. I wondered if there was some event going on. I wondered if there had been some major police sweep.

I gave the bagel and leftover shmeer to Phillip when I got home.

I work in a unique clinic. It is a primary care clinic and it contains specialty care clinics within itself. It contains its own pharmacy and its own lab. I've built up relationships with patients. Some talk to me about their new boyfriend or girlfriend - or their attempts to find one or the other. Some talk to me about their latest illnesses. Some need to talk because they've just been reminded that even in the 21st century, some prejudices remain. Some break down in tears in front of me because they knew some of the people at the scene of the Capitol Hill shooting. Some come into with a chip on their shoulder, and nothing can please them. Some have changed their attitudes over the months, some have not.

I archived "1st Hill, 1st Cache" tonight. Phillip left the decision up to me. When we placed this cache, last May, I somehow never thought we'd someday have eight cache hides. It seemed like all the good hiding spots around us had been taken. The cache turned out to be more popular - both in frequency of finds, and in favorable logs - than I'd thought it would be. I didn't realize, when we first hid it, how popular the cache would be with out-of-town visitors going to conventions downtown. (It makes sense, though.) It remains, as of today, our only geocache to have a finder from outside of North America. As I wrote in the archive log, we may someday hide another one in the same park. In the same note, I also invited anyone else to hide a cache in the park.

We were in contact last night with a geocacher who logged a DNF for "1st Hill, 1st Cache." He described all the places he'd looked - which included the cache's hiding spot. I walked to work this morning and checked on it. It's been muggled for the second time. Part of me wants to archive it, part of me doesn't. It's been a popular geocache, but also a problematic one.

I went to the Welcome & Nurture Committee meeting last night. I was dreading it a little, but I actually got a lot out of it. My attitude may be changing. I'll see.

Phillip and I spent an enjoyable afternoon with my parents, my brother and his wife, and my sister and her husband. I read my (still untitled) Gladden T Hart story. (Writers' Group is this Sunday, and I don't have anything written yet.) Afterwards, Phillip & I went to the bookstore in Black Diamond and redeemed our Christmas gift certificates. I bought two books: The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler, and Bee Season by Myla Goldberg. I'd been having headaches all weekend, and when we got home on Sunday, I went to bed at 6 in the evening, and slept until the alarm clock woke me at 5:30 in the morning. That sleep did me good.