Of course it will be a quick one

Ok so just a quick note... try to give a lowdown on all of the big happenings lately:

October 14: Go to Ringlers downtown with John, Andy, Amanda, Geoff, Dominique, Vin, Michael, British guys, etc. This is the night John ends up moving to my house for a week or so. Found out John was a Christian too, we were both reading the 4th Left Behind book!
October 15: Watch the Northwestern game in the morning with John, both of us were feeling sick so the day was pretty worthless. Biggest event of the night was going to Barnes and Noble to buy the 5th Left Behind book.
October 18: Stay home sick from work for the first time ever... ugh I had the worst cough for that whole week!
October 19: Went for a run (shouldn't have done that but the cabin fever was killing me), then went to Old C with John, Korey, and Marie... the RCGs were there too.
October 21: Went to Henry's, then Aura with John, his friend Jose, and Jose's roommate.
October 22: Went to Brazen Bean, Bar M, then Aura with John, his friend Jeff and Jeff's wife Rose.
October 23: Went to church with John for the first time.
October 26: Went to Quarterlife, the singles group at church, for the second time ever (yaaay day shift!) and the first time for John. Met my friend Katie at Elmer's when we went for food. The White Sox win the World Series!!!!!!!
October 28: Went to Voodoo Lounge downtown, met guys in a bar and gave them my number for the first time ever, both called the next day so weird! Then went to a foam party at Baraccuda with Marie, Andy, and John. Wore my cute Halloween costume... soooo fun!
October 29: Went to Aura with Tim and John... Tim's favorite holiday is Halloween, it was excellent. Make a special call to work, talk to Bryan and tell him to come out with us next week.
October 30: Went to church with John and sat with the QL crew!
November 2: Quarterlife again, this time went to The Freshman afterwards for food.
November 4: Addy's in town!!! We go to Russell Street with Danny, Morgan, Steve, Andy, Geoff, Michael, Rachel, Tim, and John. Then we were gonna go home, but we decide to go to Henry's. Then we were gonna go home, but we decide to go to Aura. LOL. Super fun night!!! Although it did end up with me in the closet -- must work on the closet episodes. And there was a great burrito... Adds will love that one. ;-) Paged Bryan to see if he still wanted to go out with us the next night, then sent pages all night telling him what he was missing out on all night. That pager has got to go.
November 5: John and Tim are worthless! We go to Old C with Bryan, soooo not fun. Then I go home and cuddle with Adds... always fun!!
November 6: The first time Tim joins us for church.
November 7: The first date with Bryan, though I didn't know it was a date at the time. Kicks of my Bugatti's OBSESSION... I love the staff there, I don't know what I'd do without that place!
November 8: Second date with Bryan, go to Old Market Pub which doesn't cut it so it's back to Bugatti's for us!
November 9: QL, followed by Chili's where I officially get Katie's and Bonnie's phone numbers!! LOL it's like I'm a guy.
November 10: PCG downtown with Tim and John... can you tell this was a great week?
November 11: CHRIS TOMLIN!!!!! AHHHH!!!! It'd been over a year. And Matt Redman and Louie Giglio, too fun!! What an awesome night of worship. :) :) Then I met up with some QL'ers at a pool hall, and John and Katie and I come back to my house and talk until 6 AM!
November 12: John and I take Katie out for a night on the town, Joe joins us! We go to Aura (OF COURSE!!) and have a super fun night. LOVE IT.
November 13: Watch the first Harry Potter movie with Bryan.
November 14: Bugatti's night, of course. And it's Bryan's birthday, so his cousin and cousin's girlfriend, and his brother, and John and Tim join us at Bugatti's. Then we go to Old C and Brent and Deborah join us. Very fun night!! And it was the pre-party planning meeting for my party that Saturday.
November 15: Harry Potter marathon... which actually is just a lot of talking.
November 16: QL, dinner at Chevy's afterwards!
November 17: Andy cooked me dinner and we watched 2 episodes of the OC at his house!
November 18: Pre-party planning... Addy and I went shopping for cute PJs, then John came over to setup, then Marie came over to help prepare stuff, then Brent, Tim, and Bryan came over just to say hello and be obnoxious. And Roommate Brad was there too, he's always fun!
November 19: Pajama Party!! Mitch DJ'ed, John had his lights going, and sooo many people were there. Friends from tons of different groups, the neighbors, etc. A really really fun night, this has been all the talk all week.
November 20: Chill with Addy and Bryan... so cute.
November 21: Bugatti's night, what else? We're "regulars" now since we've gone 3 Monday nights in a row!
November 22: Thanksgiving Extravaganza at Brent and Deborah's, so fun! FABULOUS food and then some interesting Nintendo and whatnot...
November 23: Thanksgiving Eve Service at church, then out to Cheesecake Factory with a bunch of QL'ers!
November 24: Thanksgiving! Charles makes a wonderful meal and then we watch movies together, a lovely day.
November 25: Ended up at Bugatti's with John and Tim, planning the next party, which will allegedly be a Christmas Party December 17. Don't know exactly what the dress-up rules will be yet, but I love theme parties so I think I'm always going to make people dress up. It's just too fun!

Okay so there's the lowdown on my life... only I feel like I didn't really tell you anything about my life, just what I've been up to with my crazy-busy-ness. And I didn't even get to tell you about stuff like who I've been to lunch with or what I've been thinking or feeling or how much God has been absolutely blessing me and being amazing lately (not like He's always not). So maybe next week if I get some time. :-)

Blaaaaah

Okay, this is offically my 200th blog! Not bad for about a year and a half of blogging... that's like one for every other day. Of course my rate is way slower now, but I'm a busy little day shift bee now! My three favorite Portland restaurants are Bugatti's, PCG, and Russell St. I just decided this today. By the time Thursday rolls around, I will have been to all of them in just 7 days -- I think this is probably a first even for me. I'm so proud. :-) Everyone always talks about living downtown, and yeah, it'd be awesome... but really, I go down there at LEAST once a week, and I only have to wake up at 6:30 to be at work by 7... why would I want to wake up at 5:45 or something crazy like that? BARF. So yes, life is good... been having some HIGH QUALITY Quiet Times lately which makes me a very very happy girl. :-) :-)

My how time flies

Oh my friends, it has been so long. I'm sorry I am so bad about writing... I maybe should just retire my blog. I've been soooo good about journalling lately. Like I say, when the journal is really good the blog is really bad and vice versa. I've had a lot of clarity added to my life lately -- that is a GOOD THING! I feel calm, relaxed, and at peace. When I was first changing jobs I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off... I was always busy and had no time to myself. This past week has been such a blessing in many ways... I have been sick, so every day (other than perhaps a walk) I have been at home and just relaxing! Looots of journaling and QT, and spending time with a friend who is staying with me for a while which is fun too. I so love just sitting and talking to people for hours, hearing stories about their lives and backgrounds and the way they think. It's so interesting to me! What a joy. Northwestern football is making me very happy and it's awesome to have the White Sox in the World Series! I love fall... everything about it just makes me feel warm and cozy. Ahhhhhhh happiness!

Good Morning! :)

Okay seriously every time I sign in to blogger it tries to get me to do the AdSense thing. But don't worry... I won't do that to you guys. ;-)

I know, it's been a while. I can't believe we're already on Wednesday!! When did I last post? Must have been Friday. Friday night Andy and I went out to Urban Fondue... yuuuum so good. Definitely had a really nice night, DESPITE the harder-than-usual Portland rain we encountered. Saturday I went to Wal-Mart as mentioned, then Fuddruckers (sp?) since we were down in the "Tigard part of town". Saturday night Andy cooked rack of lamb for me, Amanda, and Geoff... yuuuuuum! Very tasty. Then Amanda made an AWESOME AWESOME two layer / swirl cheesecake... Andy said "tastes like one of those things that you'd eat at a mom and pop little pastry sthop". Definitely yummy. And lots of wine, which was fun. Sunday morning I went to buy a new bed with Marie (for her not me) and then lunch at Chili's and then a quick stop to Bed, Bath, and Beyond. Sunday evening was church with Andy and Charles, and then Andy and I went to Russell St. BBQ since it's open again!!! Woo hoo to that. Soooooo good. Then we watched the OC at his house... oh, how I heart the OC. Monday I didn't do ANYTHING after work!! I talked on the phone for about 3 hours, but other than that spent the whole night by myself. I was so proud. Tuesday night I went to the grocery store with Marie and then Red Robin.

Oh, and I went on this HORRIBLE run yesterday... I ran my normal path but it was killing me... my left shin was not playing nice! Maybe cause I haven't run in two weeks... :-) But I can't help it... I was recovering from climbing and then got SUPER busy. Need to making running a priority. But there have been walks and trips to the gym, so it's not *SO* bad. I was hoping to run again today but it's kinda rainy out, so it better clear up by around 4.

Lots of meetings today and tomorrow, but I like it cause the day goes by very quickly.

Addy -- you are too cute. I know you're busy with school and all of that fun stuff... I miss you too! The tickets to Chris came in the mail yesterday!!

Oh, and one more thing... pretty much all of the things I was complaining about the other day either were resolved or at least I stopped being so upset about them. Resolved, mostly, which is awesome!

Ad Sense

I'm thinking about putting AdSense on my blog. That means you'd see the ads like you see in your gmail when you read my blog. But I'd make money when you read my blog. Hmmmmm what to do? Weigh in people with comments. I wish I was as cool as Craig (craigslist Craig) and not a sell-out. Haha.

Well, it's Friday! Woo hoo!! And I've been pretty good about doing at least some updates all week, so yay for me. It's been a good week -- busy, as expected, but I got everything done. And this weekend I will definitely have some down time (though not tons of it) which I'm totally looking forward to.

Had an awesome conversation about God last night... I love talking about God and I love talking about me, and this conversation combined the two and it just made me soooo happy. I was such a huge fan. I remember when I used to go to lunch with Katrina and she'd ask me so many questions and it was just awesome. It's times like this when I wish I'd gone on staff with GIV or become a youth pastor -- it's like I feel like I'm applying everything that I've learned over the years. I remember going to lunch with Katrina last year and how much fun that was!!! Oh man... so exciting.

Happy weekends people. I get to fix my neighbor's computer, go out for fondue, go to Walmart, have dinner at Andy's, and go to church. Should be a GREAT one!!!!

Frustrated!

I'm having kind of an irritated afternoon. Nothing is really going the way I want it to.

Vents...
1. I miss my old job. I could make a list of pros and cons about the old vs. new, but there are a lot of things (perhaps especially the people) that I miss about my old job. Maybe I'll make a list and then I'll probably feel better.
2. This is sort of related, but I'm very annoyed because two of the somewhat major reasons I took this day job have now evaporated, which makes me mad. I guess I shouldn't let other people have such a big impact on my life, but I've never been selfish in that way. Maybe I should be.
3. I was involved in this conversation at lunch that I found very annoying. I mostly just sat through it and didn't talk, but it made me uncomfortable. It felt very petty to me, like some sort of junior high rivalry. I know that wasn't the way it was intended, but it was infuriating.
4. Realistically I know I need some time to myself. I might have some of that tonight, but it's unlikely. I'm starting to feel clostrophobic which is bad because it means I will push others away for a longer time than if I'd just done the right thing and taken a night for myself this week. Maybe I need to be more strategic about making sure that I keep one night (Monday - Thursday night) to myself each week.

Those are all of my major vents... I'm sure I could make up more but those are the ones I HAD to get off my chest. Thanks for listening!

Wednesday

Yes, it's Wednesday. Should be the first day of work but instead it's already half over!!! Kinda fun sometimes.

So this weekend was awesomely fun... Doug came Friday morning and we went to the wineries/vineyards for most of the afternoon. Yay to that! Lots of fun. Then we grabbed some dinner and watched a movie and had some more... wine. :) Saturday morning we got up and got ready for my BBQ, then people came over and we ended up just making a whole night of it, the neighbors came over and it was reasonably fun. Kind of a crazy night and very emotional in many ways, but it was actually kinda cool. Sunday morning I talked to Doug and decided dating was definitely a no go! Surprising and kind of sad in some ways cause I really had expected it, but it was a good decision overall. Then my aunt and uncle came and I gave them the grand tour of the house, then we went to lunch at Henry's. After that Doug and I walked around downtown for a while, then went to church with Andy and Charles, and then went to Helvatia Tavern with Andy. Fun day! Hmm let's see. Monday I had lunch with Andy, then went to the mall with Amanda and then talked to Tim for a loooong time. Tuesday I went for a walk with Marie, went to dinner with Tim, and then played Magic with someone's who's name is being kept anonymous to protect his or her identity. It's been a good week. Today I had lunch with Alex and am having dinner with Andy. Thursday is lunch with Andy and Amanda and book club. Friday is undetermined for lunch and then dinner wtih Andy. Saturday is probably lunch with Tim and then dinner with Andy and Amanda. BUT Friday and Saturday could change if Russ comes to town. BUSY WEEK... I need to slooooow down. But I'm loving it. :-)

Who I Am Hates Who I've Been

No not seriously. I just feel like these lyrics are awesome. Story of my life lately! Good song. By Reliant K.

I watched the proverbial sunrise
coming up over the Pacific and
You might think I'm losing my mind,
but I will shy away from the specifics...

'cause I don't want You to know where I am
'cause then You'll see my heart
in the saddest state it's ever been.

This is no place to try and live my life.

[Pre-Chorus]
Stop right there. That's exactly where I lost it.
See that line. Well I never should have crossed it.
Stop right there. Well I never should have said
that it's the very moment that
I wish that I could take back.

[Chorus]
I'm sorry for the person I became.
I'm sorry that it took so long for me to change.
I'm ready to try and never become that way again
'cause who I am hates who I've been.
Who I am hates who I've been.

I talk to absolutely no one.
Couldn't keep to myself enough.
And the things bottled inside have finally begun
to create so much pressure that I’ll soon blow up.

I heard the reverberating footsteps
sinking up to the beating of my heart,
and I was positive that unless I got myself together,
I would watch me fall apart.

And I can’t let that happen again
‘cause then You’ll see my heart
in the saddest state it’s ever been.

This is no place to try and live my life.

[Pre-Chorus x2]
[Chorus]

Who I am hates who I've been
and who I am won’t take the second chance You gave me.
Who I am hates who I’ve been
‘cause who I’ve been only ever made me...

So sorry for the person I became.
So sorry that it took so long for me to change.
I’m ready to try and never become that way again
‘cause who I am hates who I’ve been.
Who I am hates who I’ve been.

Life is Good, Eternal Life is Better

I have that song stuck in my head. It's by Stellar Kart... never heard of them, but the first time I heard that song it was a really meaningful time -- ask me the story. Rich and Rufina are on their way over I assume, we're going to go to lunch. I think I'm going to recommend PCG, but there are lots of good places to eat downtown. I have so much to blog... I could write forever. Or I could write secret emails to you Andy... :) Seriously. I started this blog with the intention of making it one of those epics where I pour my heart out to the world... but I'm not in the mood for tht right now. Maybe tonight if I have time. For now though, just enjoy your Sunday. Kelly LOVES Sundays because Sundays are church days!!!!! :)

Hello my friends...

Okay this will be a quick one. Last weekend was GREAT... finally got my summit of a glaciated peak, so I can join the Mazamas (www.mazamas.org). Woo hoo and stuff! Very exciting... I almost teared up when I reached the top, and those of you who know me (Christine and Addy) know that I'm "stone cold" and don't cry for anything. It was such a huge accomplishment. I was thinking that even graduating from Northwestern wasn't as huge an accomplishment as this... the only other day I've maybe felt as proud was the day I got INTO Northwestern. Anyway, it was amazing and awesome and cool and makes me want to keep climbing.

I've spent lots of good time with friends this week... dinner with Tim, a movie with Marie, dinner at Andy's, Vin helping me with my house, chatting with Kristie the neighbor, Chevy's with Amanda. It's been absolutely amazing. And Doug comes tomorrow, then I'm having a BBQ Saturday, so the friend time will just keep going. As much as I feel totally lost sometimes, I kind of like not having responsibility and not having to worry about what's happening next in my life. Life just sort of goes along, you have to just enjoy the days and have fun and not worry too much about what comes next. So yeah -- life es good. Wow that is so Julius. Anyway, things are good, I'm happy, that's about it. I'll give you a better update hopefully after the weekend! Oh yes -- and I do love the new job, in case you were wondering.

And my next door neighbor is AWESOME -- he helped me fix my lawnmower and he is just awesome, so is his wife. I'm so blessed to have such awesome neighbors. And I found out yesterday that she went to a Bible study in the morning, I'll have to see what that's all about. Yay! Huge shout out to everyone who helped me with my house this week -- it looks totally amazing. It's what I've wanted my house to look like for months! It's all come together, and I'm so glad Doug and my aunt and uncle are coming to give me a kick start in getting it done. "Get er done" as my new work peers would say.

Soul Searching

So lately there have been a lot of men in my life, telling me they like me or think they like me or whatever else. I've been overwhelmed. I've been struggling. I've been learning a lot about me, these men, who people are, the way the world works, and a lot of other stuff. It's been good, but challenging. I've been close and far from God all at the same time through it all. He's definitely been challenging me and pursuing me every day. I've been challenged to be honest and straightforward with myself and others -- I think the hardest piece is being honest with myself. I'm very good at playing tricks on myself, but I also know myself well enough that I can easily look at myself and see what I'm doing. Why I'm trying to protect myself and those around me. But really, I need to make sure that I'm doing everything I can to not hurt my friends.

I've been challenged with sharing my relationship with God with people who in a million years probably wouldn't have guessed I was a Christian. I don't have a whole ton of Christian friends here, especially with working nights. I hope that changes, and that was actually a big driver of going to days. So I tend to be a little bit more personal about my faith than I was perhaps at school or other times. I want to have a "live out loud" faith, but I have struggled with that.

I had the joy of going to church with Andy on Sunday. It's so obvious to me how God is pursuing me! Our pastor came back from his 6 week summer vacation, and it was one of the first times that I've been in Oregon for "3" of something -- he sings a song every year about his 6 week vacation, and this was the 3rd year I've been here for that song. The airshow that we had over the weekend was another 3rd of mine. Wow, hard to believe it's been so long! Anyway, so back to church. The pastor started a 10 week series on Marks of a Christian - the overview was Sunday, and he used 1 John as his text. He pointed out 3 essentials -- faith, obedience, and love. He said that most Christians are pretty good at 1 or 2 and struggle at one of the others. But, to be a Christian means to be growing in all 3 all the time! It's painfully obvious to me that I always have struggled most at the obedience part, so I'm really trying to be more obedient. There are some decisions I made a month or so ago that were hard but I've been doing okay with them so far, so I hope that continues. I also think I've really been somewhat stagnant in faith and love... those are strengths of mine but I want to build on those! I've been reading 1 John kind of over and over since then, and I have been just absolutely floored a lot... there's so much in that text, and for as many times as I've read it before and as much highlighting as there is in that particular book of my Bible, there's so much more to learn! I'm so excited for the next 9 weeks as we delve deeper! And I just so adore my church, there is always something that I'm absolutely challenged with there. That to me is one of the most important marks of a good church -- feeling like a sermon is personally challenging you, like God is speaking to you!

This is a somewhat sporadic blog. But it's all of these thoughts I've kind of been cooping up for a long time. Now I just want to share so much. I finally had my Kelly time tonight. I went for a walk with someone who I hope will turn into an even better friend tonight... I enjoy walking and talking, and she said she wants to do it more, so I hope that happens! Then after that I made sure that I didn't see any of the "boys". I actually talked to all of them on the phone, and really want to see some of them, but I can't. I needed to focus on me and God, and have that time alone. I needed a BIG chunk of it, and I haven't had that in enough time. I function much better when I've had Kelly time and Quiet Time. I feel much less confused, I know what I want, and I know some of the hard choices I have to make and hard conversations I have to have. I question Doug... as sure as I was that he was the man who was created for me... I have strong doubts about that now. I was talking to him today and just really really wondering. He will be here in about 10 days, so we'll see how it goes. I am leaving my heart open, but again with the guarding. ;-) Some other doors have very much been shut, but one particular door that I thought would have been shut before it was open has not been. One of these guys that allegedly likes me hurt me very much several months ago. It wasn't entirely his fault, but I've very much held it against him for a long time. I watched a movie with him the other night, and was VERY guarded at first. But, then we got into conversation... I learned a lot about his life, his background, the reason he makes certain choices, his faith, etc. And I shared a lot about mine. It was just good to talk, and I know that he cares a lot about me. So that's made me think -- and again challenged me very much.

I love being challenged. It's hard, but it makes life interesting and it makes me grow. I've not grown a lot in the past year or so, but I've grown VERY much in the past 3 months. I hope this continues. I like the woman I'm becoming, and I realize how young I am and how much time I have to continue to make choices that will shape who I will become.

So, this has been very KELLY. It's very much me, my thoughts, my feelings. The way I think a lot of the time, when I'm being truly honest with myself. I don't share that often with you guys, very rarely in fact. But you read my blog, so hey, you might as well know who I really am. I might end up taking this post down, but at least some of you will get a flavor of the real Kelly. Especially some of you who don't know me as well. I'm almost scared for you to see this... but I want you to know. And honestly, I know you care enough about me that knowing me more will be only a positive thing.

Thanks for reading, and more than that, thanks for being my friend.

The First Weekend!

So, the first two days of my new job were awesome. I think this job is going to be really good -- very challenging and a completely different direction than my old job. I'm really looking forward to it! The first two days were actually a little slow with online trainings and stuff, but I think that will go away very quickly. We'll see. So then Friday night I went over to Vin's, and had a great great time! I had a nice chat with Geoff and I also sat down and talked to Dominique for the first time in a long time. There have been many boys coming into my life in interesting ways lately, so it was cool to tell her the whole story! Then my sister's boyfriend Charles called and was upset, so that kind of put a damper on things. That really upset me more than it should have, but I went home at that point and talked to some other friends to just kind of vent and undwind. Saturday morning I picked Andy up from the airport and TRIED to go to Russell St. BBQ, but it is still closed from the fire. Boo. So then I came home and got a LOT done around the house and yard and kinda chilled until about 10 when I went to go watch a movie with a friend. Had a really nice time there, and then came home and slept. Today I really really want to mow my lawn if I can convince Vin or someone to help me with that, and maybe the BBQ too. We'll see. Then I'm going to church at 5 and then YIKES have to get ready to work tomorrow morning. Ew ew ew. I miss my Mondays and Tuesdayas already! But I still love being a normal person, I can see a difference in me already. But I can't stay up until 4 or 5 AM like I have been this weekend. Silly night shift friends. Hehe. I had something else I was going to say but I completely forgot it, so maybe another blog later if I remember. :-)

Wedding Pics!

Okay, didn't want to make you wait. Here are a few pics from Laura and Randy's wedding!

Labor Day weekend!

It's been a GREAT weekend in Chicago. :-) Of course. Who would have expected anything else?

Friday night was awesome. The last night of work on my job -- sad but nice. Went out to dinner which was great, and got to see everyone one last time. Went for a run about 4:30 AM, definitely tripped and fell. So embarassing! But it was dark out so I have a sort-of excuse?!?! Hehe. Great night at work. I heart my job... very very scared about moving to the new one. Praying about that...

Saturday afternoon I came in and Tim very graciously picked me up. Then we went to Duffy's downtown for Stacey's going away party. We got to see Jennifer and her fiance Steve, Patrick, Emily, Kathleen, Stacey, Mike, Chad, Nikki, Hart and his girlfriend Becky. That was 11 of the 15 high school group friends right there! The pics above are from Saturday night -- the first is me and Tim, the second is me and Kathleen.

Sunday at the wedding there was of course Laura and Randy, Jen, Anthony, Hart, Tim, Emily, Jennifer and Steve, me, Patrick, Hart's girlfriend Becky, Nikki and her boyfriend, and Andrew Ellis! So that added another 4 people from the high school group... The wedding was absolutely lovely, lavendar which of course I ADORED. IT was a super fun time, great dancing, great food, great catching up with friends and watching two great friends get married! I thought they also did a wonderful job of blending their Catholic and Jewish faiths. I'll post wedding pics tomorrow. I love this pic posting thing!

Monday I got up and my parents and Christine came to visit, YAAAAAAY. So much fun! We went to Noodles for lunch (YUM DIDILY YUM DUM). Then we drove around somewhat randomly and then went to Woodfield. Weird, haven't been there in a while. We spent about 5 hours together, it was great to see them. Ugh, I should have taken a famliy picture. Boo to me. THEN Erin Birk came and met up with me at the mall!!!!! Yaaaay I had so much fun with her, she is so much like me in so many ways and it was good to catch up. I really want to convince her to move to Portland -- I'd have a climbing partner in crime which would be awesome. Patrick too. Both of them have expressed an interest in it so that would be totally awesome. (an interest in both climbing and moving.) So anyway, great times. Then I came back to Tim's house (he and his family have been SO kind to let me stay with them all weekend) and chatted with him and his parents for a few hours, then watched some TV with Tim. I should have called my friend Joel right at 6 PM when I got home, we'd talked about getting together but I just didn't really think of it. About midnight I go upstairs to go to bed, and he's online so I IM him. He was my mentor (boss?) my internship 4 summers ago, and we liked each other at the time though never did anything about it because of work. We haven't seen each other in 3 years (we worked at different facilites but the same company the summer of 2002), so we really wanted to see each other. So he finally convinces me to see if Tim is still up, so I ask Tim if it's okay if I go out and just stay out until the morning (so I don't have to wake anyone up coming back in). He says it's fine, so Joel comes to pick me up about 1 AM and then we go to his condo in Schaumburg. It was REALLY nice, he'd just redone it and he has great style. So we put a movie in but really are just chatting for a few hours... then we finally kiss, 4 years later. Hehehe, it was great. It was a really nice evening, good to see him. He says he's going to come out to Portland, but he is fickle so I doubt him. He says in his own online profile - ".....Oh and I never do what I say I'm going to do. I'm unreliable as a friend." So we'll see. All the same it was a good night.

This morning Joel drove me home (to Tim's house) and then we had lunch and chatted. Then I took a little nap and then I woke up and went to dinner with Patrick, then just drove around Palatine, etc. Great night, and a great end to a great trip. I'm looking forward to coming home to Portland tomorrow!! YAY YAY!!!!

The only people of the 20 high school friends in "the group" that I didn't see this weekend were John, Aileen, Julius, Kaley, and Heather. Not bad at all! - actually I think the best we've done in 4 or 5 years.

So much goodness!

First of all, hi Marisa. :-) I'm so excited when I find out people read my blog!!! Especially when I blog-stalk them too!

So I had an amazingly wonderful weekend! My last long weekend. Tear. So on Saturday I slept a few hours and woke up at 1:30 feeling wonderfully refreshed. Went to a BBQ at my boss's boss's house, which was goregous and had a great backyard. Cool to hang out with some work people and just really great conversation. That night I came back home and kinda had a lazy night. Rented a movie and went to bed early like the true dork that I am.

Then Sunday I woke up and spent most of the day with Andy... we took a drive around Portland and went to a farmer's market and found a new gellato place! Then I went to church and then I went to a BBQ at Geoff's house. I met his friend Amy from California who is SUPER cool -- I wish she lived here.

Monday morning I woke up and randomly checked the "free" section of Craigslist -- the 4th item on there was a free lawnmower! YAAAY! So I call the guy up and end up going over there to get it. He even gave me a free weed whacker too while I was there. My lawn is DEFINITELY going to thank me for this. I haven't gotten to use it yet, that will have to wait until I get back from Chicago and have more time, but I think it's going to work out just fine! I also saw an add for a really nice $20 gas grill, so I had emailed that guy about that. He and I arranged for me to pick it up at around 7:30 PM. So then I met Geoff and Amy at Portland City Grill before her flight left. I had a great time with them and then headed back this way to get the grill. The grill guy was SUPER nice, had just sold his house and moved into a condo, so basically just wanted the grill to go to a good home. So we stuffed it into Jake, and then I went and met some friends at Macaroni Grill for Brandon's birthday! We had a great time and I had a lot of really good conversations that night. I'm such a sucker for great conversation!

Tuesday morning I had my Remicade. The greatest part was there was PATIENT BINGO! Apparently the hospital has it every Tuesday at 1:00 PM! How fun! So this cute 80 year old man volunteer guy convinces me to play... first I said no, but then I re-evaluated my IV bag and how much longer I had when he came back to get me to play. So I turned to channel 75 on my TV and this woman volunteer lady was calling out the bingo numbers, then if you won you called her extention and they sent another volunteer over to check your card. Needless to say I didn't win, but that's probably good... I'd feel kinda bad when I was just there for 3 hours. I'm happier than people who are in the hospital for who knows how long get to win. Then Tuesday evening I met Amanda at Red Robin for a house discussion dinner... it went REALLY WELL! I'm so excited for her to move in, we got everything worked out logistically and I think as roommates we'll work out really well. We both really need our space, and there is plenty of room in my house so that we'll both be able to do our own thing. We talked through a bunch of different scenarios so it looks like it will work out well. And I talked to Charles, my sister's boyfriend (who lives in Portland), and he said he will help me paint the house. All I have to do is buy the paint! I will probably take him out to dinner or something too, but he is so super friendly. And he said that he is going to start coming to church with me too (he thinks) so I will have a new church going partner now that Addy is gone (she left on Saturday... I guess I didn't make that update... very sad. I almost cried, and as Addy, Christine, and Charles will attest, I am "stone cold"). Then Tuesday night Vin came over to catch up and then help me with my lawnmower and BBQ a little, but I think he'll have to help me more in the future.

Doug is coming to visit in September, I'm very excited about that! I don't know what the future holds for us, but I'm excited to at least hang out with him. We've been challenged by distance for years, but it seems now that he realizes that if he wants us to have a real chance he should move to Portland. He said that, which was quite interesting. Don't know really what to think about this, but I'm guarding my heart and praying about that to see what is in store for us. I think I'm going to have a BBQ the weekend he comes to try out my new BBQ and let him meet my friends.

I bought a new computer this morning... mine has been unreliable with the battery for almost 6 months and the DVD/CD drive stopped working in January, so I've had my eye on prices for a while. Dell has some REALLY good deals, so I bought a new Pentium 4 with a 17 inch flat panel for $430 this morning. It will be so nice to have a new computer that I can depend on and have at home when my work laptop is where it should be -- at work. I'm also scheduled to get a new laptop at work in about a month, so it will be nice to have all new machines! Wow I'm a dork. I was reading my old blogs a week or so ago about how Jenn had encouraged me to fast from theknot.com, and I did an entire internet fast. I am thinking of doing that again sometime soon.

I only have two more nights left at my current job... I will miss it soooooo much. I know there are a lot of exciting new challenges and opportunities ahead, but I'm very scared. This will be a great thing for my social and personal life, but it's scary to go to a new job where I have no idea what to expect, esepecially when I was really finally getting good at my old job. I'm trying to get as much "negative" feedback as I can from co-workers this week so that I can improve as I step into my new job. Yaay for challenges and the unknown.

Laura and Randy's wedding in Chicago this weekend, yaaay! I haven't been there in over a year, which is crazy to think. Stacey is having a going away party Saturday night, so I'm going to go to that. Then the wedding on Sunday, and then my parents and sister are coming to visit Monday. Tuesday is open but I'm hoping to have lunch with Grant and then maybe catch up with who knows who else. Please let me know if you'll be in Chicago and/or available to see me that weekend! I guess it's not and/or, more of an and. :-) Wednesday I come back around noonish and then have the rest of the day off and then start work Thursday MORNING. Yikes, I don't even know how to work in the morning. Oh, and I'm veeeeery slow and irresponsible and a procrasinator, so I haven't secured anywhere to stay yet in Chicago -- so if I can stay with you please let me know. :-) I'd be very grateful.

Wow there is just so much to update... this is what happens when I'm so bad about it. I'm trying to improve, and I think I'm getting a little better, but still not what I used to be. I'll keep trying guys. :-)

I'm here again

Hmm. So there's a picture of us coming down Hayden Glacier on Middle Sister from about a month ago. Now that Blogger has made it so much easier to add pictures, maybe I'll start doing it more often. It sure is handy to be able to post pictures. Maybe I'll take some of my house too... the reason I've been procrastinating so much on that is because I'm not QUITE all settled in yet. I still am waiting for Amanda to move in and get the whole place finished up. YAY for people moving in. I'm so excited for it to finally be settled and for us to be living together, should be good. Anyway, just checking in. Had a nice little chit-chat with Doug today, don't entirely know what to make of it but I think the moral of the story is that things are good with us, we'll see what happens when he comes up. Hmmm.

Holla

Okay what's up party people? I was just reading some of my old blogs and they are so cute. I'm so glad I blogged my last quarter of college, it's great reading about how much fun I have. I so miss GIV. Only 5 more nights of work left, then I start the new job and my "new life". Hmmmmm we'll see how that goes. :) So in 10 days I'll be in Chicago... YAY so exciting!!! I haven't been there in over a year, which I just absolutely can't believe. Seems so insane to me. Gosh, the last time I was there was for Jenn and Matt's wedding. Insanity. Hmmm, and this time is for Laura and Randy's wedding. I'm good at going to Chicago for weddings. Get married and invite me to your wedding! OH and Doug is coming to visit me!!! Yaaay he hasn't been to Oregon in almost 2 years. He's coming in September so it will be great. Woo hoo.

Yay for amazing conversations. :-)

Andy hates Ikea

Seriously. He like, despises the place.

Okay, that may be a slight exaggeration. But he definitely hates Ikea shelves. Specifically, the shelf titled "Lack". He believes it stands for lack of quality.

The problem started in April, when he moved into his new townhouse. The previous owners had above-mentioned Lack shelves in his place, both in the living room and at least one of the bedrooms. They were also crooked (I do not blame Ikea for the crookedness), so Andy had to remove them and remount them. Ikea does not provide any way to mount these shelves, so he purchased some special nail/screw things (I can't remember what they're called) and put them into his wall and they're okay. He still hates them though.

Doug, however, happens to like them, and had always spoken highly of them. So the last time I was in Seattle, I stopped into Ikea and bought some for myself. Then I conned Andy into installing them for me. :-) Seriously though, for the record, he volunteered. So he came over Tuesday night to put these puppies up, and they were giving him quite the problems. First the screws or whatever that he brought over weren't the right ones. So we made a trip to Home Depot to get better ones, and it was still a bit of a challenge. Anyway, after a good while, he finally did it for me and I was happy. YAY! Just don't come over and try to tug on my shelves. Hehe. :-)

I'm a horrible storyteller. :-( Some people are just AWESOME story tellers... and it makes all the difference. For example, this guy Doug I work with -- amazing. Me -- not so much! I'm going to work on that -- any ideas how?

Two weeks in a row?

Oh my, scandal! Blogging two weeks in a row. :-) I love it. So here's the lowdown on what's happened so far this weekend (cause the weekends are longer than the weeks, and who really cares what happened at work?).

Saturday I slept until 4:30 PM... I didn't MEAN to... I was on the phone for a few hours after work, and then I set my alarm for 12. I must have accidentally turned it OFF outright. Boo. Anyway, happily, I had told Addy to wake me up if I was still sleeping when she got home, so she did. I sort of rolled over in bed and of course my computer was in bed with me, and Vin was saying to get up and go to the BBQ joint in Northeast that we all love. Well THAT got me excited! So I got up and took a shower and put on some clothes, and Andy came to pick me up. Then we met Steve, Vin, and Mike down at Russell Street BBQ... but it was BURNED DOWN!!!! Boo. Okay, so not really burned down, but it had had a fire and is closed for a while until they make all of the repairs needed for the fire. It was definitely gutted. Boo to that. So then we decided to drive to Fremont since we were right over there, and we had dinner at a little cafe type place on Fremont. It was decent, but definitely NOT as good as BBQ. Oh well, live and learn. It was an experience anyway. Then I came back to see what Addy was doing, but she was gone (I found out later she was working out) so I chatted with Andy a while and then went to Vin's and had an actually really good chat. When I came home Addy was here so I chilled with her for a while. Good times, good times.

The next morning I woke up and went to MORNING church with Addy... you should all be so proud, she was. Haha. Yay for being up before 5 PM on a Sunday. Then Addy and I had a yummy lunch at Chili's and then went to the apartment to lay out. I got a lot of sun... probably the tannest I've been since Cabo. And I'm still so pale. I just don't care this summer, there has just been too much going on with the new house and crazy jobs and everything else! My skin will thank me when I'm 50. :-) So let's see, then I helped Vin with some stuff and then just kind of bummed around the rest of the night. Don't even remember what I did, but I know that Addy duped me into watching Brat Camp which is the WORST show ever. Tivo is a bad bad thing for that girl. Just kidding Adds. :-* Anyway, then we both went to bed at like 11 PM.

Monday morning I woke up around 10, and started hanging pictures and stuff around my house. Then Andy came over and worked from my house for the afternoon, so much fun! It was a fabulous day. Then we were supposed to go to Widmer but Amanda was being shifty again and Steve backed out, so Andy and I decided to go to Chevy's instead. I heart Chevy's. Then halfway through dinner the shifty girl calls and her family plans had actually been cancelled. So she got to come to dinner with us, yay! It was super fun. Then I get a call from Addy saying that our friend Dave, who's been in Russia for two years, is coming over and I better get home. YAY DAVE!!!!! So I go home and Addy is making cookies for work and we kind of tidy up the place a bit. Amanda was really tired so she went home, but Andy came over so Andy, Addy, Dave, and I all hung out for a couple of hours. So much fun. I heart those guys. Then I talked to Doug online (SURPRISINGLY good... very mushy actually. don't know what that's all about yet, but he's going to come visit in September. guarding the heart....) Anyway, Addy and I talked about Doug and boys and life and all sorts of goodness, then went to bed around midnight (though I made myself stay up reading until 2 so I could sleep late).

I woke up this morning about 12, so that was GREAT. Good girl. Now I can sleep until about 2 PM tomorrow, which is perfect for work. Today I went to the grocery store and got some sandwich stuff and dinner stuff. I've been on a sandwich kick lately, I'm enjoying it. I've been scrapbooking and organizing music most of the rest of the day. I'm thinking about going outside and talking to the neighbors, but I kinda want to wait until Adds gets home. We'll see. I also want to go for a run, but I'm waiting until it gets a little cooler outside for that. :-) Then Andy is going to come over and help me hang my shelves tonight, so that should be excellent. Don't know what else I have in store for tonight but perhaps I will inform you later on tonight. Or sometime during this week if I have time.

Only 10 more night shifts left until I go to my day job!!!!!

The Dinner of Shifty People

So last Tuesday night I went out to dinner with Amanda, Andy, Addy, and Steve. GREAT dinner! I had so much fun. We went to Outback and had a great time. We told all sorts of hysterical stories about very shifty people. It started with Amanda's cousin, who has been dating a guy for about a year and a half. Then all of the sudden she gets a call on her cell phone from a woman asking why her husband bought her flowers? Apparently this woman had been suspicious of her husband for a while, and then saw a flower charge on the credit card bill so called the flower shop and found out the delivery phone number and called Amanda's cousin. The woman was actually pretty nice about it when she realized Amanda's cousin had NO idea. Shifty. And the people have a kid and the woman is pregantn and all sorts of shiftiness.

Oh, so let me back up. The whole "shifty" word got started when we were supposed to go to dinner last Monday night at Widmer, cause they are cool and have happy hour Monday nights. Then I hear this rumor that Amanda is being "shifty" (Andy's word, not mine) and is talking about not going. So I send her an email called "shifty girl" and find out she has an alleged meeting and can't go. So we reschedule to Tuesday night.

So then after Amanda tells her story, I tell mine. I won't tell all of the details to protect the innocent (ME), but apparently the last people that lived in my house were quite scandalous. The next door neighbors had SWAT teams on their porch on two different occasions, the husband spent some time in jail, they were apparently loud all of the time (the spouses yelling at each other, the kids yelling at each other, the dad yelling at the kids, etc), and they were just a little crazy sometimes. The neighbors have apparently all been asking each other if this house is abandoned. But now I've met more of the neighbors and they're all VERY nice. Everyone in the neighborhood waves all the time, and the next door neighbor helped me move my cable from one wall to the other (he used to work for a cable company), and they're all just SUPER nice. As much as I would have thought I would have wanted to live in a more modern "trendy" house, when I walked in this place just felt like home. And it really has been. I grow to like it more and more every day! And I love having neighbors who are real people and kids playing in the street (though you have to be careful not to run those critters over) and people to give me advice about watering my flowers and all of that good stuff. It's so great! Happiness.

So anyway, that was most of the shiftiness. Andy said "this has been the dinner of shifty people" which I thought was a perfect blog title! And so it inspired me to blog for once. :-)

The Cheating Blog

I just wrote a huge long email to a little listserv I'm on, so I'm going to cheat and copy and paste most of it to my blog... in good news, you'll get a very honest view of my life right now. In bad news, it's still cheating!

I feel like this is going to be an epic email... we'll see. :-) To
summarize, the last email I wrote to you all was on February 7th, when
a potential switch to normal hours hadn't worked out, I was hoping to
go to GC next year, I was "psuedo-dating" Vin, my friend Addy was
coming to visit, and I was packing the same lunch every day.

Sooo... lots of big news since then! The hiring manager from the
group I interned with (who had openings in February that I wasn't
interested in) basically created the PERFECT job for me... he knew
what I was interested in doing, and put some things together to get me
what should be a good fit for me. SO, I'm moving to days (normal
hours, normal days, everything!) the second week of September!
Praise! It is a 12% paycut, but I'm looking into getting a roommate
so that will help out financially.

There's still a possibility of me attending Indy GC next year, but I
just saw on the Greek IV website about a WEST COAST GREEK CONFERENCE!
Praise again! It's in LA in November so as soon as more information
comes out about it I'm going to sign up to volunteer. I'm assuming
they'll need tons of volunteers since there aren't a whole lot of West
Coast alumni, so if any of you want to come, please do! How fun would
that be?

I'm definitely not psuedo-dating Vin anymore... I went to Cabo for
"spring break" with some Delta Zeta's and Lambda Chi's in March, and
it was really nice to get away and spend some time with people I've
known for more than 8 months. They helped me unload and refresh, and
Vin and I have been friends since then.

Addy no longer has to come visit me anymore, because she has an
internship in Portland for the summer so she is living
with me! In the house that I bought about a month ago! With my
sister! Yes, it's all true. I found the perfect house early in May,
and closed on it June 29th. It's got 4 bedrooms which is too big for
me, but it's perfect with 3 of us in it now. My sister was hired as a
"summer hire", so she gets to work nights with me! So it's great, we get to work together and hang out, and she got to come to Portland for the summer. What a blessing!

As for lunch, I had reverted back to my old ways of buying lunch in
the cafe, but now that I'm a poor homeowner (I really think homeowners
are poorer than college students!), I'm back to trying to pack again.
I'm doing better all the time.

In April I took a class on the basic skills of mountaineering, so I've
been really into hiking and climbing this summer! The class was
GREAT, challenging mentally and physically, and I got to meet a lot of
cool people. Last weekend I climbed Middle Sister, which is one of
the 16 Major Northwest Peaks (volcanos!), but we only got to 9600 ft
of a 10000 ft mountain. BOO. There was a really steep pitch of snow
that was exposed on both sides to major cliffs, and the snow was too
mushy to put protection in. So we didn't risk it, we turned back and
kept in mind that the mountain will be there another day, but if we're
not around to climb it that won't do us any good. It was still an
AWESOME trip and so much fun to see some of my class friends again!

Life without Chicago food

YAY I'm so glad to see that I had two readers the first day I wrote. WOO HOO!!! Makes my day. :-)

So, IN ADDITION to CPK, we also have to live with Panera, Noodles & Co, and Steak and Shake. Those are the ones that make it the hardest for me... but of course there are things like Max and Ermas, Cheesecake Factory, Giordanos, etc. that would be nice to go to every once and a while too. BOO.

I talked to my realtor, sounds like everything is going well with the house.

Magic: The Gathering is this LAME-O card game... I've heard of it for years, but never played it. I kind of got "tricked" (not intentionally) into playing it at a friend's house, but it honestly turned out to be really fun. I've found out since then that a bunch of my friends play or have played it in the past, so it's kinda cool to chat with them about it. It's one of those things you kind of keep on the DL that you enjoy, but hey, it's a blog... I spill my guts here!

A quote for the OC fans...
Seth: So when you lost your virginity, I was playing Magic: The Gathering.
Ryan: You're still playing Magic.
Seth: But not as much.

Anyway, thanks for staying tuned. I'll try to be a little better about updating... maybe I'll make a once a week goal? That should be reasonable.

Hello party people!

Okay, so here are the major developments in the last few weeks:
- Christine is still here, everything is fabulous and wonderful.
- Addy moved in full time this weekend so we're all 3 here and one cute little happy family.
- We move into the new house OFFICIALLY next Wednesday, I can hardly WAIT!!!
- Home Depot is going to be my demise.
- Andy threw a FABULOUS dinner party.
- I'm going to Sears and Best Buy today to buy a fridge, washer, and dryer.
- Alex threw an awesome birthday party for Vin.
- I started playing Magic: The Gathering (this is where you get to mock me for the next, oh, about 12 years)
- CPK is coming to Oregon!

Okay that's all random stuff, not major developments, but just what I'm thinking about at the moment I suppose. I'm writing sitting amongst boxes in the living room... yay packing. Packing is SO much more fun when you "get" to do it instead of studying for finals. Not when packing is the actual chore.

Hello

Yes, I'm still here. Very stressed-out and overworked lately, but I think it's mostly my own fault. I'm getting more excited about work and taking on a lot of different things which is cool but it's also causing a rukus because I feel like work is taking over my life, not to even mention the house stress that I have. Here, I'll make a list of my stresses and praises for you all to enjoy:

*Stresses*
- Constant paperwork, etc. related to my house
- Business in preping to move (calling movers, breaking lease, packing, etc.)
- Overworking myself at "real" work
- Not having enough time / dedication to be working out the way I should be to prepare for a climb I have coming up next week
- My sister being here for the summer and adjusting to her needs
- Big life decisions

*Praises*
- My sister and Addy being here for the summer to enjoy spending time with and also to have support me when I move
- A possible shift to a day job
- My new house, once I'm all settled in in July/August
- Amanda considering moving in with me this fall
- A possible business trip to So Cal! (man, haven't been there in about 9 months!)

So, there are always constant praises in life, but sometimes it just seems like the stresses weigh them down. That's rare for me (which is a praise in itself), but I need to learn to better compartmentalize work better. I think this weekend I'm going to really enjoy Saturday off, then spend half of Sunday relaxing and half working on personal things (cleaning, paperwork, etc.), then work all day Monday (I have a class), then Tuesday finish up personal work and errands and maybe enjoy a movie in the afternoon. Then I have 2 and a half days of work before my first big climb!

Miss y'all! :-)

My life is in shambles!!!!

Yes, so that is a little melodramatic, but Rooms will understand. When it seemed like nothing was going our way, we would yell that "My life is in shaaaamblesssss!"

Seriously though, I feel like I'm all derailed. I'm still "happy" (as evidenced by my post March 24th posts), but I'm not really on the right track. In the last 6 months I've been drinking way way more than I ever have in my life, and I feel like I've been on a downward spiral and I've come to the end of that road. I'm just not a fan any more. NO GOOD can come of drinking. Yeah, it may give that temporary high, but I'm just not that into it anymore. I want so much more... I want all of the things that I love and adore, and it seems like I'm losing them because of drinking. So the drinking is going to stop and the fun is going to start. The fun is going to be getting my life back in order. The fun is going to involve lots of hanging out with my sister (who's here now), Addy (who will be here this weekend and then again starting in late June until September), hiking, and moving to my new house. The fun is not going to involve a lot of alcohol. The fun will also involve a lot less Vin, who MANY MANY people seem to think is a bad influence in my life, and I guess I'm finally starting to wake up and realize that if all of my friends are saying something, *maybe* I should listen. I've definitely heard it from a lot of you. So we'll see how that goes. Just chill out, maake subtle changes in my life, and see how that all plays out. So that's the super high level summary of my current deal... I'll let you know what happens this weekend!!!

Of course there will be pictures

Okay, so I think I'm actually going to wait to post pictures until July when they are MY pictures of the way my house looks with me in it, not with these other people in it. They look like they're living in 1894 with how formal it is downstairs. Which is funny because I met them and they're not really that type of people. Anyway, there will be pictures eventually. It really is the greatest house ever.

So, what else? Oh, yes that is exciting that Addy would live with me when she graduates, that'd be like the coolest thing EVER. I'm in the hospital right now getting my medicine, which is cool that I can actually be online at the same time. Actually, I'm not getting my medicine yet, I'm waiting for the pharmacist to mix it and the nurse said he's new so it's been a little slow today. Then I'm going to go home and make lunch because I am STARVING. But for now... just chillin'. Don't know what my plans are for tonight, maybe go to a BBQ place in Northeast that Andy says is really good. We shall see!!

The Pile Comment

Oh yeah... "I was a pile" is NOT Pacific Northwest slang, it's Northwestern Delta Zeta slang. My rooms and her best friend invented it in the fall of '03 and it's caught on ever since... basically just means I was worthless and did nothing, but I'm sure you caught onto that from the context clues.

I bought a house!

So yup, that's the HUGE news!!! I have been looking, and I was planning on putting an offer down on a particular house Thursday, but Wednesday night Andy was in at work and we just glanced through the listings one more time and found 2 more places to check out. So I asked my relator if we could go by these two places after the one I wanted to put an offer on, and they were both great. The first was a townhouse that was very modern, very well taken care of, very ME. But, I didn't fall in love with it. It was nice, but not everything I'm looking for. The second was a single family home, built in 1993 that I fell in love with immediately. It's the first house that has been absolutely everything I ever wanted in a house, and some added things I didn't even know about. It's PERFECT. Not "perfect except for a 2 car garage" or "really nice and good for me", but it's just perfect. Flat out I'm in love. So I made the offer last night and they accepted today!!!! Assuming everything goes okay, I close June 29th! It's going to be the BEST summer ever, Adds and Christine will be living with me and be able to help me get it all set up, plus I'm hoping Amanda and Dominique will come over for many fun girls nights. :-) I definitely have to be so grown up now... I'm looking at fridges and washers and dryers and lawnmowers. And I have my own shed and dog run and garden and all of those outdoor things. And 4 bedrooms... for me. Hmmm... definitely going to need some roomies even after the summer, but I'm sure I can find some fabulous peeps! Hopefully when Adds graduates she'll come back and live with me again!! There are just so many possibilites for roommates and lots of goodness. Plus with 4 bedrooms there's always room for out of town guests... :-)

Yaaaay I graduated!

Woo hoo for me, I officially completed Mazamas Basic Climbing Education Program! My first climb is June 11th, it will be Mt. Ellinor in Washington. I'm also planning on doing Middle Sister in July, Broken Top *sometime*, and hopefully South Sister in September. Hopefully I end up liking this mountain climbing business. But if I HATE it after the first couple, I can always just quit... nothing says I have to do it. My big concern is my knees, they've been killing me on the descents lately. So I didn't hike this weekend, and my knees are feeling better. I need to be VERY diligent about stretching and icing them. So hopefully I'll get a hike in this weekend (maybe just a short one? not sure...)

This weekend I slept all day Sunday, then woke up and went to Old C with all of my boys, minus Andy which was sad. Then Vin, Mike, and I went back to Vin's hot tub for some fun (woo hoo!) and then I met up with Andy at my house. Great times! Monday I did errands, laundry, cleaned, studied for my final, and then went to class. Tuesday I was a pile and did nothing other than look at houses all day, I napped and read in bed and generally had fun. Tuesday night Vin came over and I made him tortilla soup for dinner and then we talked and watched Alias and had a bottle of wine. Awesome night. Today I did an errand for Vin and then napped before work. Good times all around. :-)

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!

*happy*

Guys... this won't mean the same to all of you, but I'm happy, really truly happy, for the first time since I've moved to Oregon. I need to remember that not everything is always good or easy in life, but I am in the place that I love to be. I love to be single and independent and very happy with who I am, and that is what I am now. That's what gives me the happiness that I so long for.

There's so much to say... I'll sum it up with just a few random musings for now, and maybe get into more details soon.
- Amanda and Vin went on a first date last Wednesday, and a second date this Friday. YAY for them.
- Hmm I'm talking to Russ right now and he disagrees... he says I'm not happiest when I'm single. I'm going to have to muse on that for a while. I said to him: I mean, I need to be happy with who I am BEFORE I can enjoy dating someone. And it takes a while for me to get to that place after I date someone. So that's an interesting caveat. Certainly the times I'm most unhappy are when I'm lonely, which has happened when I was first an RA and when I first moved here, and also when I've broken up with someone (Julius, Doug, Vin).
- Okay will have to muse on that one more still, but that was a good first thought. And I know that a lot of you enjoy the blogs that are about ME and what makes me me, and not about what I've been doing.
- Okay now Russ just said: "just remember, you're an awesome woman. God loves, and the rest is just details about chemistry" What a wise man. I knew I picked good friends!
- Random musing #2: why are all of my closest friends always guys? Vin, Russ, Andy? Exception is probably Adds... interesting. I miss girlfriends. I have a lot of wonderful girlfriends, but the people I always tell everything too are guys. Hmm.
- CABO IS AMAZING. I need to go back.
- I had been craving unloading all of my "Oregon drama" on the NU peeps, and it was so what I needed. After doing that the first day, I felt so much better and just GOOD again for the first time in a long time. The whole trip in general solidified my happiness I think.
- I decided to stop analyzing everyone's relationship with everyone. I will still listen, give advice, and share information where necessary... but the analyzing was what was killing me, because it's pointles. What's the point of analyzing "why did she say that she likes guys with glasses?!?!" or "did he say that he likes dating engineers?" etc..... NO GOOD CAN COME OF IT. Life goes on, and things happen for a reason, and analyzing things before they happen really makes no difference other than creating unncessary drama, which I'm not a fan of.
- 2 good friends of mine here said today that they'd consider going to church with me sometime. They were both kind of random and I didn't really even intend for that to happen or be the question, but it came up. That gives me so so so much joy... it kind of reminds me how good God is, cheesy as that may be to many of you guys.
- For the first time in my life I gave up something for Lent this year. As a child it was never really mentioned, and then in high school I kind of realized it was the "Catholic thing" and then in college I knew a lot of people who gave something up but I never wanted to. I've always been jaded by "rules" and by people who do things just to do them, rather than for real. And this year is probably as far as I've been from God in 4 years, but God and I have connected in interesting ways in the last 3 - 6 months. I decided that I wanted to give something up, for real, to really do it, so I gave up coffee. Y'all know how much I *adore* Starbucks, and so it's been a challenge (not to mention working nights). The first week or so, it wasn't a big deal, but the second week I started craving occasionally just wanting a Frappacino or something. I just kind of pushed it aside, but then in the next few weeks I started doing the right thing and thinking about the REASON I had made the choice and about the sacrifices Jesus made for me and all of that good stuff. I've never been able to get so excited by Easter... to me, Good Friday has always meant more because that was the day Christ died for my sins... and this year I'm SO EXCITED. Yes, I've had this very real worldy thing to remind me... but that was the intent. To remind me, get me excited, and remember the excitement of having a living God. I almost went to 24 hour starbucks at midnight tonight, for the record. I can't WAIT for after church tomorrow when I go to Starbucks!!! :-)
- Okay sorry for that rant. But you're my friends, so you should know the real me, and so I'm telling you all of the inside info. :-)
- Best memories from Cabo: Costco, Lindsey the Canadian BINGO queen, the little Mexican gnat that Dena tried to swat away and then kicked out of the bathroom, Jason, Martini Jungle, the Jungle Bar, Cabo Wabo, El Squid Roe, The Shrimp House, Dena's "boyfriend" and his mother and grandmother, The Nowhere Bar, the awesome restaurant where the waiter was in love with Dena, alumni challenge, meeting people from Sunset High School, chips and salsa every day, not getting sunburned even when I tried, the bouncer beatdown, tequilla shots, playing connections and kings, Jennifer Garner being the cut-off for who's hot and not, conversations in the lobby until 5 AM, playing in the pool and hot tub and on "Shamu", Jason, seeing Russ on the way there, and just literally having the all around best vacation of my life. Let me know if you want more details on ANY of that!!!
- I'm so happy and blessed to have the friends I have, around the country and in Oregon. I have people I can tell EVERYTHING to and that really understand me and want to be my friend. Vin is probably the first ex-boyfriend that once we've broken up, really wanted to stay me friend. I'm decent friends with Doug and Julius, but not in that same best friends way as Vin, where we absolutely get each other and are a part of everything in each other's lives. And Andy of course is amazing... we are getting to that point where we reveal more and more about ourselves to each other and are becoming extremely close, and I so adore that. I love spending more time with him and talking to him non-stop, and he literally I think is the most kind and giving person I've ever met in my life and I appreciate that so much.
- Anyway, I'm talking to Doug online now which is cool, just chatting about life (seems to happen a lot these days, but at least I'm understanding life as a 20-something better now), but I'm getting ready to go to bed. Allegedly I'm getting up in 7 hours for Easter church. I really like 5 PM church better, but I'm going to sushi Easter dinner with Vin, Mike (his brother who I'm sure you'll hear more about now that he lives here), and his mom (who I met in October). So tomorrow's agenda is church, STARBUCKS, grocery store, Easter brunch, Easter sushi. And maybe actually getting a run in there sometime if my ankle gets better (I twisted it running in Mexico). Alright. Sweet dreams, thanks for listening, and honestly, thanks for being such an amazing friend! :-)

Trip to Brazil

So we use the Outlook calendar system a LOT at work. We all have it set up so you can see other people's calendars, and we use it for all of our social stuff in addition to of course our work meetings. So we planned out this trip to Brazilian BBQ in Seattle a few weeks ago, and Andy made the calendar invite and called it "Trip to Brazil". So the big joke for a few weeks was that we were going to Brazil. It's been fun! Anyway, so tomorrow I got home from work, watched The OC, went running (great run!), took a shower, and went tanning. Then I met up with Amanda and walked over to Andy's (he lives super close to us too, we feel like it's college again! I'm never moving...). Geoff and Vin were at Andy's already, so we hopped in Andy's car and headed north. I tried to sleep a little bit in the car ride up there but of course that didn't happen. But I did get to rest and got to chat with everyone some. So when we got there, we went to Pike's Place first off... yaaaaaay I love that place! Then we went and got food at one of the stands across from Pike's, then went to Seattle Center and went to the carnival near the CN Tower or whatever that thing is called... oh, the Space Needle I guess. Anyway, we chilled there, did the bumper cars and a kiddie coaster, laughed it up. Then we went back to the grassy area by Pike's and rested for a bit before dinner. Dinner was GREAT! Super yummy food, drinks, laughs, good times galore. I was a little tired so admittedly I was crabby, plus my tummy's been bothering me lately because my Remicade is due Tuesday. So that was a little rough, but other than that dinner was good. And Geoff once just kinda rubbed my back and asked how I was doing, which for some reason made everything okay. I love how guys can sometimes do sweet little things that totally cheer girls up, even if the girl is not interested at all. Friends are so great! And I love that guys are "fixers". The car ride home was weird... Amanda and Vin were sitting next to each other and got in this big deep discussion (sort of, really it was the same as Amanda and Geoff on the way up), but it was SO AWKWARD for me and Andy. Geoff was sleeping, and every time I tried to get in the conversation I was rejected (like 3 or 4 times). Vin was trying so hard and flirting and the rest of us were just sitting there. And I was in the back with them, and Andy was up front driving, and it sorta sucked. So after that we were all pondering what to do, and I was annoyed with Vin having sat on what felt like a first date because he was trying so hard, so I was just going to go home. It was awkward and no one knew what to do, and we all wanted just Vin and Amanda to go watch a movie, but they didn't want to and so finally I was going home and Amanda walked me home and then she asked me if I would do something else. It's a long story, but we finally decided to go to Old Chicago! I told him that he was being annoying before we got there, so he was nice to all of us and we had a GREAT TIME there. It turned into a sweet night, and it was awesome. And after 36 hours of being up (maybe 30 minutes of sleeping on the ride home), I went home and slept for 10 hours!! Gooooooood.

Vin called me at like 9:30 this morning, and wanted to go running (we had planned a 5 mile run today). But I didn't answer until he called back at noon... and by then he was sick. But he'd gotten a lot of errands done, even though he claimed to have been sick all morning. He didn't know what to do being all alone for a whole morning. Anyway, so we decided to get lunch, so he came over and collapsed on my couch to take a nap... so I watched the rest of 24, which he sort of got into. Then we went to Red Robin (formerly RRGBAS, Red Robin Gourmet Burgers and Spirits, THERE'S an acronym for you!) for lunch. Then we went to REI so I could ask out REi boy, but to no avail... he was there, but much too busy with customers. I don't think there's a chance for that until I rent something again. Oh well, at least I did get a new hiking book! Yay! Then since I've promised Vin for months I'd take him clothes shopping, we went to lots of stores and made him SO CUTE. I fixed his hair like 6 months ago, now it was time for the clothes. So now he's a little hottie... hehe yeah right. But he's cute, and looks pretty good. Amanda will be impressed! After that he taught me how to drive stick shift... yay!! I got really good and tooled all around Hillsboro and Beaverton. Good thing because we're switching cars tomorrow so I need to know how to drive his. Then we went to Chipotle and got dinner and then I came home. It was such a fun day. I love shopping with him, he's actually a lot of fun to be in a mall with. The 2 times we've gone to malls it's been great. So yeah!! Goodness all around. Amanda called and we were supposed to hang out or go to the hot tub or something tonight, but it just never worked out. Hopefully tomorrow or Tuesday... I'm keeping my fingers crossed! When I go to Cabo next week I'll miss my friends... I'm so happy to be able to say that!!! It's so great to have not no one, and not just Vin, but lots of people to miss. But yaaaaaaaaaay to Cabo with the girls! Woot!!

Andy and I had a great conversation tonight. I love that he and Amanda live so close and that we can hang out and all of the goodness that I miss SO MUCH since college. I can be happy again!!

Quick family update... my parents are doing well. They put their house on the market and are thinking about moving to either Texas or Chicago, more likely it will be Texas. I'd love it to be Chicago because then I could see all of y'all when I come home for Christmas and stuff, but I'm guessing Texas which will be cool too. Anything is better than Iowa, right? (sorry McCracken) My sister is a Gamma Phi at Iowa and LOVES IT. She's kind of at the top of the heap at Iowa rather than just a face in the crowd at Wisconsin, if that makes sense. She gets like straight As and is in honors organizations and all of that cool stuff. She's of course still getting all of the guys and also almost fluent in Spanish and Portugese, and hopes to move to Brazil. :-)

Drama, drama, drama!

I can't believe I haven't blogged since Sunday! What nonsense. But it's been a BAD WEEK. Definitely some very highs and very lows, which to mean equals a bad week overall.

Monday during the day I went tanning, took a nap, relaxed, etc. I had planned on a hardcore run on Monday but Vin convinced me to let him make dinnner for me, so I finally agreed. He made Italian (of course), some sausage and pepper dish with the sauasge that I bought for him when I was in Seattle on Valentine's Day. It was a great night, we did lots of talking and it was absolutely wonderful. We chatted a lot about Amanda and how he liked her, etc. She called me to go into the hot tub with her while I was there, but I couldn't since I was at Vin's, so she invited me to watch Sex and the City with her and Polly the next night.

Tuesday I met Andy for lunch at Macaroni Grill! Yum!! I love that place and it was GREAT to be able to talk to him and discuss everything under the sun, including group dynamics and lots of girl stuff. It has been determined that I am the group information sink, and that I have all of the power because I have all of the information. I'm all about that! :-) Tuesday I also went tanning and running and stopped into REI to chat it up with my REI boy but he wasn't working. Boo, especially after I worked up my nerve!! Tuesday night Vin got done with work at 5 and we went over to Northeast to look at a hot tub he was interested in. On the way out there we saw Mt. St. Helens blow up a bunch of steam/ash... sweet! It was so cool looking. We had just come out of the tunnel and I'm like "there's our mountain! (referring to Hood)... and there's our other mountain (Adams)... and there's our other mountain (St. Helens)... woah, that mountain is smokin'!" Very amusing. The hot tub didn't cut it, so then we came back home. Amanda and I had arranged to go to dinner at Chili's before SATC, so she stopped by my apartment at 7:30. I was hoping to kind of feel her out for Vin a little bit, see what she thought. But it turns out, she'd invited Polly along, which was cool because I like Polly a lot. So we were chatting, blah blah blah, and Amanda and I both had a margarita... then she says "I think I have a crush on Vinnie". Oh man. I made a face, which was my first mistake. She was like "WHAT?!" and finally I told her that "he's interested". Well that brought up all sorts of questions, and we were talking and I was sort of answering them, but then sort of out of nowhere (in response to a question, but I probably could have answered it without this) I told her that we'd dated. She was like "yikes, I need to end this now, nothing's happened, this is fine". We talked a little more, it was weird, and then we just dropped it. Then we went to Krispy Kreme because Amanda and I wanted a donut, and then back to my house to watch SATC since I have it on DVD. Oh, and we stopped by her apartment on the way to grab some milke - it looks just like mine! Has my dining room table (exactly, only darker wood) and my couch (almost exactly), and just in general has a very similar feel! After we watched it I called Vin to just chat, then I realized I didn't know what to do about Amanda. So I got off the phone with him and went to call her, and her phone ran in my apartment! I was just getting ready to run her purse back over to her (don't know if I mentioned it, but she lives in my building) and she knocked on my door! Ha! :-) So she came in and we chatted... and she's SO good at reading people, so she got my very honest, very brutal reaction. We ended up actually getting really personal and emotional with each other, really hitting it off very well. She decided she didn't want to get involved with this, since I told her it might be weird for me and she didn't want to ruin our relationship or anything (way more complicated than this, I'm just giving you the very high level overview). So we decided to be honest with Vin, and I called him up and told him that I ruined his life. He wasn't happy. He talked me through the reasons I told her I'd be hurt, and I said I'd fix it. So I wrote her an email and asked him to come over so we could just talk about it. He came over at like 12:30 AM or something crazy... and was there until almost 2. But he was sweet and definitely made me feel better. So that was that.

Wednesday I decided to follow up my email by meeting Amanda for lunch and making sure she knew I was okay (sort of) with the whole thing. I mean, I am okay with it, especially on a logical level. I just don't know what it will be like. But she couldn't do lunch because she had a class, and Vin was waaaay stressed out at work and way mean. I'm not quite sure why he was nice the night before, but whatever. Anyway, so I finally went to bed (after like the WORST morning ever, and I know I use that phrase too readily, everything's worst or best with me, but this actually was a particularly bad morning). I did actually manage to leave the house to go tanning though, but couldn't bring myself to run. Ugh. So annoyed. So Amanda told me she'd meet me at work at 5, so I got up early for a Wednesday and came over here and talked to her for an hour. It took an hour to convince her that everything, including my own life, will be easier if she'll just give Vin the chance she would have before we met. So she finally agreed to. Thank goodness. It strikes me as very odd though, that a girl I barely know cares so much more about me than my alleged best friend does. Hmmmm??? Maybe it's just a function of he is REALLY REALLY into her. There's been a lot of conflict with me and Vin this week, he's been all over the place, saying he'd pick me over her, then putting ultamatiums on our friendship, then saying everything was okay... ugh. I dunno. I know, too much info for the blog. But then Amanda and I ran to Wendy's and got food, and I paged Vin and told him it was fixed.

Thursday I woke up at THREE to go to Vancouver and then Gresham to look at 2 hot tubs with Vin. Got them looked at and BARELY made it home by work at 7, but it's all good. Luckily we gave ourselves that extra time to do it. There was a lot of reflection and discussion of Amanda as well as my own relationship with Vin. Whatever, at least it's all out in the open now. Because of said hot tub trip (#2 of the week) I had to miss dinner... boo. So I was STARVING by the time lunch rolled around, yum. I also got a drunk dial from Vin about 12:30... SO FUNNY. I've never had such an amusing conversation from him... he kept saying "but why do you want to get off the phone with me". LOL. He didn't even remember it this morning.

Friday I got up at 4 to go running as usual... but I ran into Amanda on her way home from work and she persuaded me to go the pool instead (not that it was hard). So we sat around the pool and talked for about an hour and a half. SO FUN!!! I seriously love that girl, she is so great! We did NOT talk about her lunch date with Vin today, and that was ideal. I'm glad she didn't bring it up... I wanted to, but it was more important to me to just have some quality time with her WITHOUT freaking Vinnie involved. After the sun went behind the apartment we went in the hot tub for a few minutes... because WE actually have one, unlike Vin. So YAY for us. After that I went to Qdoba with Vin and got his take on the date... hopefully I'll get her take either tomorrow or Sunday. Tomorrow we're going to Brazil (AKA Brazillian BBQ in Seattle) and Sunday is hiking and girl's night at PCG!!!! I can't wait! :-) So lots of Amanda fun for the weekend. In some ways, I really do hope that they work out, because I adore them both so much. But she points out lots of reasons it will be weird, so we'll see. I could definitely see her as a roommate in the future, so my biggest hope is that that just might work out!! :-)

Drama, drama, drama!

I can't believe I haven't blogged since Sunday! What nonsense. But it's been a BAD WEEK. Definitely some very highs and very lows, which to mean equals a bad week overall.

Monday during the day I went tanning, took a nap, relaxed, etc. I had planned on a hardcore run on Monday but Vin convinced me to let him make dinnner for me, so I finally agreed. He made Italian (of course), some sausage and pepper dish with the sauasge that I bought for him when I was in Seattle on Valentine's Day. It was a great night, we did lots of talking and it was absolutely wonderful. We chatted a lot about Amanda and how he liked her, etc. She called me to go into the hot tub with her while I was there, but I couldn't since I was at Vin's, so she invited me to watch Sex and the City with her and Polly the next night.

Tuesday I met Andy for lunch at Macaroni Grill! Yum!! I love that place and it was GREAT to be able to talk to him and discuss everything under the sun, including group dynamics and lots of girl stuff. It has been determined that I am the group information sink, and that I have all of the power because I have all of the information. I'm all about that! :-) Tuesday I also went tanning and running and stopped into REI to chat it up with my REI boy but he wasn't working. Boo, especially after I worked up my nerve!! Tuesday night Vin got done with work at 5 and we went over to Northeast to look at a hot tub he was interested in. On the way out there we saw Mt. St. Helens blow up a bunch of steam/ash... sweet! It was so cool looking. We had just come out of the tunnel and I'm like "there's our mountain! (referring to Hood)... and there's our other mountain (Adams)... and there's our other mountain (St. Helens)... woah, that mountain is smokin'!" Very amusing. The hot tub didn't cut it, so then we came back home. Amanda and I had arranged to go to dinner at Chili's before SATC, so she stopped by my apartment at 7:30. I was hoping to kind of feel her out for Vin a little bit, see what she thought. But it turns out, she'd invited Polly along, which was cool because I like Polly a lot. So we were chatting, blah blah blah, and Amanda and I both had a margarita... then she says "I think I have a crush on Vinnie". Oh man. I made a face, which was my first mistake. She was like "WHAT?!" and finally I told her that "he's interested". Well that brought up all sorts of questions, and we were talking and I was sort of answering them, but then sort of out of nowhere (in response to a question, but I probably could have answered it without this) I told her that we'd dated. She was like "yikes, I need to end this now, nothing's happened, this is fine". We talked a little more, it was weird, and then we just dropped it. Then we went to Krispy Kreme because Amanda and I wanted a donut, and then back to my house to watch SATC since I have it on DVD. Oh, and we stopped by her apartment on the way to grab some milke - it looks just like mine! Has my dining room table (exactly, only darker wood) and my couch (almost exactly), and just in general has a very similar feel! After we watched it I called Vin to just chat, then I realized I didn't know what to do about Amanda. So I got off the phone with him and went to call her, and her phone ran in my apartment! I was just getting ready to run her purse back over to her (don't know if I mentioned it, but she lives in my building) and she knocked on my door! Ha! :-) So she came in and we chatted... and she's SO good at reading people, so she got my very honest, very brutal reaction. We ended up actually getting really personal and emotional with each other, really hitting it off very well. She decided she didn't want to get involved with this, since I told her it might be weird for me and she didn't want to ruin our relationship or anything (way more complicated than this, I'm just giving you the very high level overview). So we decided to be honest with Vin, and I called him up and told him that I ruined his life. He wasn't happy. He talked me through the reasons I told her I'd be hurt, and I said I'd fix it. So I wrote her an email and asked him to come over so we could just talk about it. He came over at like 12:30 AM or something crazy... and was there until almost 2. But he was sweet and definitely made me feel better. So that was that.

Wednesday I decided to follow up my email by meeting Amanda for lunch and making sure she knew I was okay (sort of) with the whole thing. I mean, I am okay with it, especially on a logical level. I just don't know what it will be like. But she couldn't do lunch because she had a class, and Vin was waaaay stressed out at work and way mean. I'm not quite sure why he was nice the night before, but whatever. Anyway, so I finally went to bed (after like the WORST morning ever, and I know I use that phrase too readily, everything's worst or best with me, but this actually was a particularly bad morning). I did actually manage to leave the house to go tanning though, but couldn't bring myself to run. Ugh. So annoyed. So Amanda told me she'd meet me at work at 5, so I got up early for a Wednesday and came over here and talked to her for an hour. It took an hour to convince her that everything, including my own life, will be easier if she'll just give Vin the chance she would have before we met. So she finally agreed to. Thank goodness. It strikes me as very odd though, that a girl I barely know cares so much more about me than my alleged best friend does. Hmmmm??? Maybe it's just a function of he is REALLY REALLY into her. There's been a lot of conflict with me and Vin this week, he's been all over the place, saying he'd pick me over her, then putting ultamatiums on our friendship, then saying everything was okay... ugh. I dunno. I know, too much info for the blog. But then Amanda and I ran to Wendy's and got food, and I paged Vin and told him it was fixed.

Thursday I woke up at THREE to go to Vancouver and then Gresham to look at 2 hot tubs with Vin. Got them looked at and BARELY made it home by work at 7, but it's all good. Luckily we gave ourselves that extra time to do it. There was a lot of reflection and discussion of Amanda as well as my own relationship with Vin. Whatever, at least it's all out in the open now. Because of said hot tub trip (#2 of the week) I had to miss dinner... boo. So I was STARVING by the time lunch rolled around, yum. I also got a drunk dial from Vin about 12:30... SO FUNNY. I've never had such an amusing conversation from him... he kept saying "but why do you want to get off the phone with me". LOL. He didn't even remember it this morning.

Friday I got up at 4 to go running as usual... but I ran into Amanda on her way home from work and she persuaded me to go the pool instead (not that it was hard). So we sat around the pool and talked for about an hour and a half. SO FUN!!! I seriously love that girl, she is so great! We did NOT talk about her lunch date with Vin today, and that was ideal. I'm glad she didn't bring it up... I wanted to, but it was more important to me to just have some quality time with her WITHOUT freaking Vinnie involved. After the sun went behind the apartment we went in the hot tub for a few minutes... because WE actually have one, unlike Vin. So YAY for us. After that I went to Qdoba with Vin and got his take on the date... hopefully I'll get her take either tomorrow or Sunday. Tomorrow we're going to Brazil (AKA Brazillian BBQ in Seattle) and Sunday is hiking and girl's night at PCG!!!! I can't wait! :-) So lots of Amanda fun for the weekend. In some ways, I really do hope that they work out, because I adore them both so much. But she points out lots of reasons it will be weird, so we'll see. I could definitely see her as a roommate in the future, so my biggest hope is that that just might work out!! :-)