Hello

Wow, not too much to report. Spent last weekend on the mountain (Hood). Snow skills practice on Saturday, in the rain/hail/snow/wind. YUCK but so much fun. After that we went back to the Mazamas (www.mazamas.org) lodge and sat around the fire, had a great dinner, and then went to a pub in Government Camp for some beer and pool. I lost every game but had a GREAT time. Then we got back home around 11:00 and I stayed up until 12 or so talking, then woke up the next morning at 6 for the hike. If you go to http://www.timberlinelodge.com/ and look at the trail map, we climbed to about 200 ft above the top of the highest ski lift, so it was a decent trek. One day I WILL climb to the top of that mountain! :-) Anyway it was an AWESOME weekend, except for about the last 1000 ft down when my knee was KILLING me. I was soooo slow which was sad. The next day in my Mazamas class I was still hurting, and everyone could see because I was favoring one leg. A friend who is a physical therapist in my group took a look at it and recommended icing it, some stretches, and orthoidics. So I need to look into that.

Then I worked all day Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, plus my regular nights... it's been a long week. :-) I'm definitely looking forward to a (short) 3 day weekend coming up. Just 15 more hours of work left for the week!

Do you even read the title?

I know. I suck. I never post.

But anyway, things are great! I made an offer on a house yesterday, I won't hear back for sure until Saturday. They had several offers so they're countering another, though they haven't rejected mine yet. We shall see... :-) My mountaineering is going well, though taking over my life. Just 3 more days and then I will not "have" to do all of these conditioning hikes. I still should and hopefully will do a lot, but I'll be more flexible to hang out with my friends. I have met a lot of cool people and really enjoyed this class though! I'll just be glad to take a breath of fresh air!

Addy and Christine will be here for the summer, SO excited about that. Amanda has already declared my house will be the place for girl's fun this summer. I so hope that's true. Perhaps when Addy and/or Christine move out this fall, Amanda can move in for a while until she buys her house. That'd be perfection. We shall see! :-)

Tis all for now... more tomorrow maybe.

A blast from the past

"With love there is always a way
You can let it ruin your nights or you can live for the day
I stand here as living proof
That the good guys will win after all that they lose"
~The Madison Predicament

Lyrics from a band... a guy I knew from high school. Pretty interesting. Makes you think! :-) Makes me think, at least.

A little blog fun...

Because that last blog was so heavy, I thought I'd lighten it up a little bit!! I think numbers 10 and 11 are my favorite. :-)

1. PORN STAR NAME: (Name of first pet / First street you lived on):
Dusty Eagle Glen

2. MOVIE STAR NAME: (Name of your favorite snack food / Grandfather's first name):
Cheez It Ann

3. FASHION DESIGNER NAME: (First word you see on your left / Favorite restaurant):
Memories Portland City Grill

4. EXOTIC FOREIGNER ALIAS: (Favorite Spice(Herb) / Last Vacation Spot):
Cilantro Cabo

5. SOCIALITE ALIAS: (Silliest Childhood Nickname / Town Where You First Partied):
So So Evanston

6. "FLY GIRL/BOY" ALIAS (a la J. Lo): (First Initial / First Two or Three Letters of your Last Name):
K. Ro (interestingly, a lot of people call me this)

7. ICON ALIAS: (Something Sweet Within Sight / Any Liquid in Your Kitchen):
Diet Coke Water

8. DETECTIVE ALIAS: (Favorite Baby Animal / Where You Went to High School):
Lamb Palatine

9. BARFLY ALIAS: (Last Snack Food You Ate / Your Favorite Alcoholic Drink):
Cheez It Tequila Sunrise

10. SOAP OPERA ALIAS: (Middle Name / Street Where You Live):
Elizabeth Overlook

11. ROCK STAR ALIAS: (Favorite Candy / Last Name Of Favorite Musician):
Reese Tomlin

12. STAR WARS NAME: ( First 2 letters of your first name and the first 3 Letters from your last name makes your first name. First 2 letters of your mother's maiden name and the first 3 letters of the city you were born in make your 2nd name):
Keson Daton

Hmmm

So, this is rather interesting. I will blog about Vin because he doesn't read my blog, and I am safe. The happy news in all of this is that I am still happy, because I am so well grounded and finally became happy for the right reasons. But, I did finally learn the lesson so many people have been trying to get me to see for so long. I needed to make my own mistake though. It's very apparent that Vin puts girlfriends ahead of friends. I knew this for a long time, and I never necessarily thought it was the *wrong* choice, just an uncommon choice that most people choose a time or two and then decide is probably not the choice for them. So I decided Vin was worth being friends with anyway, and when he wanted to spend time with me, he would. So for the first few weeks of dating Amanda, Vin and I barely spoke (granted he was out of town, etc.). The last few days, when he thought Amanda was not so into him, he was around me and talking to me all the time. Quite obvious that I'm the "backup". That inherently isn't a wrong thing, but the thing is, I've just decided that I don't want to be a part of that. I don't mind being friends with Vin, but I don't want to be that close to him, there's no reason to be close to someone that wants to be close only when it's convenient. He also wants to be close to only talk about him, never talking about me. There's just a whole mess of things that I'm not fond of and don't want to be a part of, other than hiking, watching Alias, hanging out with our mutual friends, etc. I appreciate his company for certain actvities, but I'm no longer interested in being in the little world.

What I have found light in is of course *God*. But He remains constant, so that is of little surprise. When I'm properly focused on Him, my happiness doesn't come from things that can let me down... and I made that mistake when I first moved here (the second time). Spring break refocused me on Him and me realize that I'm not interested in finding happiness in other places. Every time I continue to do that, He reminds me why that's just not cool, and not so much going to work. Yay for that. But I've also found happiness in real friends... namely, Andy. Of course there are Dominique, Amanda, Geoff, etc. and other people that I spend time with and really appreciate, but Andy really is a rock in my life and absolutely amazing. He totally watches out for me and I appreciate it, and that's all I'll say here. Another really awesome person is Mike, Vin's brother... who in a way also watches out for me and makes sure that I'm making good choices. I definitely appreciate that. In the midst of amazing friends, I've got Christine and Addy moving here for the summer, I'm looking at houses, I'm so enjoying my job (though admittedly not the hours), I adore my mountaineering class and the challenges it's presenting me both physically and mentally, and I'm just happy. Mountaineering is a cool sport, because though it's very much built on team trust and skill, it's also individual. Long hours of physical conditioning, running, hiking for 8 or 9 hours in a day, being up on the rock alone, etc. Though you may have someone to chat with on a hike, or friends cheering you on climbing up a tough rock face... you're doing it. It makes you think, and for me it makes me pray and be about God and trust Him to push me way further than I've ever been before. I like that. I can't wait to do more climbing this summer and get to know Mazamas people much better.

As for the man situation, I don't know. Don't know where I'm going with that in life right now. There are several people I'm interested in, but what do I want? Do I want to be single? Do I want to date? Do I want a serious relationship? I'm not really sure... usually it's either be single or want a relationship, but this is the first time in my life I've ever been able to say I just have no idea. Russ thinks I'm happiest when I'm dating, and that's made me ponder for a while. Vin says the love of my life is still looking for me... but he's the hopeless romantic. I'm just kind of the truster in God and what He wants in my life. I just normally like to have more control over it. AH HA... this is one of those "God moments" when God is just like BAM Kel, this is what's up... He's making me trust Him. Unexpected, because I haven't been acting like I'm ready for a challenge or trial, but apparently here it is, in a very unexpected place. Didn't realize that's what this was about, but I think it is... hmmmm... okay sorry that was weird, a total ephiphony right in the middle of the blog writing. But y'all are my friends, I'm sure you're into that. I know that God has the best plan for me, so I guess I'll for REAL give it to Him instead of just saying "I'm not dating anyone" and playing the little game I play with Him so much. I'll just let it be... not try to have positive or negative control over it. My, this will be fun... and a challenge. :-) I'll have to come back to this blog to definitely remember my thoughts on this one!

Happy reading... and I really do appreciate all of you reading. My blogs are so sporadic, not nearly as interesting to read as someone like Ryan's who is a great writer, but they are very me. Either very IE style and describing my days, or very Kelly and just laying it out there on ya. So thanks, my loves.

YAY!

Well y'all, sorry I don't post as much anymore. I used to do it at work, but I'm actually enjoying my job and getting stuff done now. And I'm so busy on my weekends that I'm just not having time. Saturday I went on a hard hike that kicked my butt... and loved every minute of it, if you don't count those 5 minutes that I was thinking "I'm quitting mountaineering, I'm not cut out for this". I learned this weekend that it takes the same amount of energy to climb Hood as it does to run a marathon, and that made me feel good about myself. It's like I'm training to run a marathon... woo hoo! :-) That just makes me happy. Then Sunday was hardcore rock climbing all day... and I made new, non-work, friends!! It was super cool, one is a consultant who went to Penn State and one is a physical therapist who is from Portland. And I met a lot of other really cool people, and I was just so happy to have finally made some new friends. We're going out for Chinese some Monday before class. Yesterday I hung out with Vin's friend James, who's a pretty cool guy. And of course I looked at houses (man it's so hard to choose a house), had lunch with Andy at Thai Orchaid, and went to class! YAY. I miss my readers though... you guys are the best. Anyway... more soon I PROMISE. :-)

A short update

I know it's been a while... and I found out a lot of you actually do still check my blog. Not really much to say. Life has just been GOOD. Doing lots and lots of hiking and rock climbing because of my mountaineering class, and in the midst of that trying to find time to look for a house! My sister's moving out here for the summer which is SUPER exciting, and everything is just fine and lovely and dandy. Not too much else to report though! I mean, I could go on and on I guess. I'm just HAPPY. :-) I totally love how life is just such a series of ups and downs... this is such an up month. So, I will report back tomorrow night on more details about all of this stuff. Just wanted to get you a little excited!