Oh, my...

So much has been going on! It's craziness folks, I tell ya.

So Mt. St. Helens blew its top today... it was pretty minimal though, so we're good for now. When I first heard it could blow I asked some people at work what happens, and they said it sort of stinks. You're not supposed to drive, because it gets in your car and gets it all yucky. I guess that you have to get up on your house and like snow shovel it off too, otherwise your roof collapses. And you have to hose off your street and driveway. And they open fire hydrants at work so people can hose off their cars, because the windshield wipers won't even move. Nuts dude!! But Jake is fine and nothing serious has happened so far. They say it could blow again so I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens. Good times for sure!

Here's the *BIG NEWS* -- Doug and I officially broke up. This happened actually almost 2 months ago, but so much has been up in the air and just generally happening since then that I didn't really announce it until now. I went to LA for Labor Day (post break-up) and it was nice to see him, but we've both been insanely busy since then and hadn't talked much until this week. We had a great phone conversation today, talked about what went wrong and how we let it go wrong. I know some of you are probably quite surprised by this, some of you probably aren't at all. I am sort of in between... the last 6 or so months with him has been a little bit of a rollar coaster (and I KNOW that people like Rooms knows this), but there were some things that were great. All in all though... I'm very happy. Oh, and for those of you wondering who broke up with who -- I broke up with him, but because I knew that he wouldn't be able to break up with me. So it was VERY mutual. He has a hot date with some girl to Disneyland this weekend so I'm really happy for him. It's nice that we can be such good friends. He's amazing.

Ironic note -- it was almost exactly a year ago that Doug and I started dating -- It was October 3rd by date, but it was this Friday (tonight) by time. Right about this time (9 PM) I was seeing my beloved Mr. Chris Tomlin at the Passion Experience Tour Fall 2003 (along with my dear friends Keith and Rachel), but in about an hour I would have been headed back to Portland to meet Doug who was driving down from Seattle. Insanity I tell you. I definitely wish I could be seeing Chris Tomlin right now rather than be at work, but the good news is that he will be in town in about 3 weeks!!!!!! YAAAAAAY!

So I've been enjoying my newfound "single life" in crazy ways... I've actually been going out. I kid you not, you would all be SHOCKED by some of my insane choices in the past few weeks. But I've been having fun for the most part. Last Friday I went downtown and stayed out until 4 AM... it was a super fun night. The week before that we went to a club downtown... I really enjoy dancing. It's really a toss up if bars or clubs are more fun. I think bars but clubs have their place every now and then. I've also gone to Portland City Grill (this amazing bar/restauraunt on the 30th floor of a building downtown) for Happy Hour a few times -- I LOVE that place. Sometimes it's stellar not working Mondays and Tuesdays, especially when you have other S6 friends you can hang out with. If you come to Portland I promise to take you there.

This weekend marks the second weekend in 7 weeks that I'll be working Saturday night (not bad for someone who is supposed to work Saturday night every other week). So that's fine, I need to recover still from last weekend. Sunday I may go to tango lessons downtown and then I'm going to church with a new friend of mine and some friends of his, and then maybe this other woman I know from work. Not sure yet, that's kind of up in the air. Monday I'm watching Kendra's husband's little brother and maybe meeting up with this person I met on Craigslist. Tuesday my Bible study is finally starting up again so I'm very much looking forward to that. Hopefully Monday and Tuesday I will get some chores done!! I've really been slacking on actually getting stuff done around the house, so I need to get on that. I can't believe it's OCTOBER already.

Yeah, I don't even know what else to talk about, I've been so overwhelmed with all of the craziness lately. I've joined a book club, so that's super fun. The first book was really easy and enjoyable, this book is much more intense. I'm having a hard time getting into it, but maybe I'll be able to do a better job this weekend. I also have been trying to do a lot of scrapbooking, which is going okay. I really just need a weekend WITHOUT plans where I can be hardcore about staying in my apartment and getting stuff done -- yeah right, like that's ever going to happen with me. Maybe I can just make better use of my time when I do have hours by myself. During my work week, I tend to get up, talk to a few people online, read email, watch whatever I Tivoed the night before, eat dinner, and then go to work. So I'm usually not getting much done then. Maybe I can be better about that and start making use of at least 30 minutes of that time. We'll see.

That's all for now... nothing to rant about or anything lately, but I'm sure I'll think of some stuff soon!