Hazy Shade of Winter

If there's one thing that visiting Florida always reminds me of, it's my overwhelming hatred of hot, sticky weather. Holy Jeebus, was it ever hot there this weekend! It was actually 93 degrees with 60% humidity yesterday. Yuck! It never ceases to amaze me how much people in Portland complain about the weather there: how it's too rainy and cold most of the year. I will take 60 degrees and drizzly over 90 degrees and torrential downpour any day.

I was supposed to fly back to Portland yesterday and start grad school this morning, but due to some technical issues my flight was cancelled and I was forced to leave today instead. So, here I sit, crammed into the window seat of my airplane next to a seven-foot tall basketball player who won't stop squirming long enough for me to get comfortable (and he's totally hogging the arm rest!). It's funny, yesterday when my dad was driving me to the airport I told him that I didn't want to start school the next day. I said, "all I need is one more day off before I start. That would be perfect." Well, I guess the moral of the story is to be careful what you wish for, huh?

Soon I will be home again, and it can't get here quick enough. Facebook updates have informed me that Fall has come to Portland already. How exciting! I've been dreaming of cool weather, pumpkins, and hot tea all weekend. Looks like I'll get my fix sooner than expected!

Thanks for the Memories

We all get older. We may not necessarily all 'grow up', we may follow different paths entirely (or still be searching for our paths), but time affects everyone the same. This weekend I attended a wedding which, for all intents and purposes, was as much a sort of high school reunion as it was a marriage reception. I saw people I haven't seen or talked to in ten years, and I reconnected with some that I haven't spoken to outside of Facebook in almost as many. It was really nice. Some people have done amazingly well at life so far, by all measurable standards. They are married, have great jobs, wear nice clothes, own cars, mingle like champs... You get the idea. Some have let their vices define them, unfortunately, and have hit a sort of standing pattern until the next phase of life finds them. Then there are those of us who fall somewhere in the middle. We are the ones who are on the cusp of being grownups, able to fit in and converse with both sides of the spectrum, because just as we are nearing respectable futures we still relate to the people we were just a few years (months?) ago.

I missed my high school reunion, but the wedding filled whatever void my absence there might have created. I get it. It was truly wonderful hanging out with all of my friends, and in a way channelling who we used to be: the outcasts and/or the 'cool' kids on the periphery. And there were dinosaurs! Dinosaurs are awesome.

Now, time to get back to real life and start grad school in the morning. Nothing like the thought of Univariate Statistics to sober you up.

My Baby's Got a Secret

Okay, it's 1:22am and I have a confession to make.  Remember that inspired blog I wrote a while back that was all about how I've become a morning person and started a garden? Well...

After one week of enjoying my newly found morning-person-ness, I quickly fell back into my old habits.  Case in point, I'm still awake right now.  In fact, for the past three weeks or so I've been staying up until at least 2:00am and fighting with myself to get up in time to run out the door for work in the mornings.  And the garden? Well, it's pretty much deceased at this point.  I'm chocking that up to a lack of consistent watering (all four of us work different, long hours so it's hard to keep a good watering schedule) and the crazy high temperatures that we've been experiencing in Portland over the past few weeks. Whatever the cause, our stuff is definitely not rocking right now.

I am not disheartened by this information, though. Nope, not at all.  It's just another in a long series of life lessons.  In the general way, I've tended to live my life moving from one extreme to the next.  For instance, I thought I might secretly be a city person, so I up and moved to New York.  Turns out my body and mind craved more nature than the Big Apple was able to provide. Then I thought I might be more into the old-timey, rural lifestyle so Chris and I moved into my grandmother's old house in a small town in Central Florida. Yeah, that turned out to be more creepy than anything.  The experience, if nothing else, taught me that I am not a fan of what the kids call 'country dark'; I was pretty well convinced that every bump in the night was some sort of country bumpkin serial killer trying to break in and... Well, you know.  So, in a kind of inspired compromise, Chris and I moved out here to embrace the city-meets-nature wonderment of Portland.

See, I wasn't at all lying in the other blog.  I actually do want chickens, and I would love to have a beautiful garden and fruit trees.  I just now know that the missing link to making that equation truly fantastic was a well-paid, talented expert to do all of the actual gardening for us.  You know, someone who can actually be devoted to the well-being of our veggies and fruits and water them regularly.  See, I learned something!  Yay!

Regarding the sleep schedule issue, I am pretty well at a loss.  I think some people just aren't meant to get up early, and I thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster that I've chosen a career path which can potentially allow for a semi-flexible schedule.  Really, it's for the benefit of everyone involved.  Just ask Chris, you do not want to be near me that early anyhow.  I'm a cranky wench.  No lie.

Anyhoo, I'm going to try to get some sleep now, by the light of my computer monitor.  I think I've also become an internet addict, but that's a subject for another post.  Until then, toodle-oo!

Everyday

For no reason whatsoever, despite the fact that I am not at all a fan of the group, I woke up this morning with Dave Matthew's "Everyday" playing over and over in my head. I've been feeling absolutely rejuvenated the past couple of weeks, ever since we got back from Seattle.  Wait, when did that happen?  Maybe it was more like a week and a half ago.

I have to be honest, Seattle as a destination was pretty okay.  The food was good, but the ambiance everywhere felt... How should I put it?  Borrowed.  The whole time we were there all I could do was name the other cities that it reminded me of: San Francisco, Chicago, Asheville, Lincoln, etc. The food was great, the people were as was expected (BTW, the comedian was totally right!), and the company was fantastic.  The trip helped to remind me that I absolutely married the best and only man in the world for me.

As some of you know, the trip to Seattle was sort of a birthday surprise.  I use the word 'surprise' very loosely since Chris told me he was wanting to take me there and then asked me to make all of the hotel and restaurant arrangements for the weekend.  I have to admit, at first I was a little taken aback by the proposition but Chris new exactly what he was doing.  He knows that I love the planning almost as much (or more) than the actual trip.

There's a kind of thrill that I get from making a decision and seeing it go well. Maybe everyone else feels that way, I don't know. Before we left, I created a bookmarks folder full of restaurants and places to visit.  I can say, with a strong sense of accomplishment, that 80% of the plans worked out brilliantly! We may not have visited the Space Needle (sorry Mitch), but we did have one of the best meals of my life at the Tin Table restaurant. Seriously, Chris and I ate through literally half of the menu as we sat and talked for hours. I also highly recommend The Pink Door (awesome italian food and burlesque shows), Cafe Flora (best breakfast I've had in a long time), and the Experience Music Project museum.

Anyway, suffice it to say we had a fantastic trip! I knew that I needed to get away, but I didn't realize how much my body and mind needed that reboot. I feel completely recharged and ready for the next phase of life. Bring it on!

Honky Tonk Badonkadonk

So, tonight I was in a bar with a friend of mine, and a local lady-comedian who sells handmade greeting cards approached us, totally plastered. She told us that she's moving to Seattle in a month, to which I casually mentioned that I'm visiting there this weekend for the first time. Then she proceeded to tell me (BTW, she's easily 30 pounds heavier than I am), that I'm "going to F-ing LOVE Seattle, because bigger, curvy girls like us can TOTALLY get laid there!"

...Yep. Awesome.