The Day Shift Week!

gosh, it's been so long since I've written! y'all must be duying to hear what's going on in my life... yeah right. I guess since I've been so busy working days I haven't had time to update you at 3 in the morning as is my typical habit. So this will be a long update on the entire last week.

Saturday: Went snowshoeing with Andy, Vin, and Steve. We were going to hit up Mirror Lake... but surprise, no snow! Mirror Lake is an awesome lake, easy hike (~3 miles) that has a gorgeous reflection of Mt. Hood. But, It's only at 4000 ft and there wasn't really any snow until about 6000 ft. It's just been such a warm winter here (it's been in the 60s for the past week or two). So instead, we drove to Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood and just ran around and did some crazy snowshoeing there. We had to watch out for the snowboarders and skiers, but it was super fun! Saturday night we went to Salvador Molly's for Khoi's birthday party. I had a rough night since I hadn't slept since Friday at about 5 PM (other than an hour here and there when I could) and it just wasn't very good. I tried one of their famous habanero poppers (if you can eat all 5 with the sauce you get your picture on the wall)... I had about half of one with sauce, then I had about 10 glasses of water, cried, and was miserable for an hour or two. So that just didn't help the situation, not to mention the fact that the boys were all being nuts. After that we went back to Vin's and watched The Italian Job. Dominique, the COOLEST girl in Portland, sat next to me so we could be sheltered from the psycho boys. It was actually a pretty good movie and I ended up being in a much much better mood. :-)

Sunday: Went to morning church... ACK! I'm so used to evening church with no kids, no parking volunteers, and not as many people! But the worship and the message were AWESOME so I could tolerate the kids and the busyness! Yikers though... but speaking of the message, it was TOTALLY one of those weeks where you just feel like God is like "KELLY, this is for you... so listen!" And I was like "yeah God, I definitely get it. I'm with You on this one". So that just made me way way happy. Sunday night was my winter party for work, which Vin went to with me. He was all poopy about it and not wanting to go with me, but we ended up having a lot of fun and doing a lot of really good talking. It's really cool to have him as a friend and to finally have stopped playing my games and started being straightforward with him. Why do I ever play games? I know it's definitely not good for me... I'm too straightforward of a person to start with the game nonsense. Anyway even though I didn't win any of the prizes, I still had lots of fun and a great night!

Monday: Monday was my first day on day shift for the week... ohhhh so fun! I had dinner with Dominique at Thai Orchaid and it was GREAT. Seriously that girl is amazing. It was so cool to find a female here that I can totally relate to in so many ways. I was able to share things with her that I haven't had anyone to share with, and we totally bonded. I hope we become much better friends and that she introduces me to more of her girlfriends. I used to get along with guys better because I thought there was less drama and emotionalness -- WRONG. Guys are just all out to get the girls (and guys have pointed this out to me lately) and so it's not always that great to be friends with them. They're just in a big race for the ladies... UGH. Gag me with a spoon. So girlfriends are totally on my agenda. After that I had a "hot date" with this guy named Nathan... totally fun! He's a great guy, went to Wheaton College. I won't give too many details yet, but we went out for coffee and then went downtown to Henry's to play a game of pool. Totally fun night! When I got home at 11 I went for a 2 and 2/3 mile run with Vin -- farthest I've ever run in my life!!! It was so cool, I was soooo proud of myself! Maybe this hiking thing will work out after all!

Tuesday: Worked during the day again.. MAN I'm so into that! It's great to have something to do during the day. Then Tuesday night I met Geoff for dinner at Chipotle... I'm a huge Geoff fan. He's definitely a cool guy to hang out with, and I found out that his friend Tanya is taking the same Mazamas climbing intro class that I am in April. YAY for other climbers!! That got me all excited. Then I was supposed to go rock climbing with Vin, but he wasn't feeling all that great. So we went back to his house and he reminded me of some of the knots that I had forgotten about since my adventure ed (aka Crunchy 101) gym class that I had taken my junior year of high school. Then Andy came over and we chatted for a while... Yaaaay for Andy. HUGE fan.

Wednesday: WORK! YAY FOR WORK, seriously. I got so much done this week, and I'm just totally excited about having worked normal hours. I can't believe how much happier I am and better I feel. Right after work, Vin and I dashed to Red Robin for a light dinner, then went rock climbing. It's now almost 48 hours later and my arms definitely still feel it! Vin says you're just not used to using those muscles at all and after 2 or 3 times it gets better. I wish I had a climbing partner that I could go with Mondays or Tuesdays... I'm going to be on the lookout for that. It was definitely lots of fun. Then we came back to my house to meet up with Andy and watch the last 3 weeks of Alias that were Tivoed. And we all had a glass of wine, which made me happy because I'd been craving one all day. Yum. Made me tired though, so I fell asleep in the middle of the last episode, still have to catch up on that.

Thursday: Worked again, of course. After work, I went for a run with Vin... NOT a good run. We ran a decent distance but I just wasn't feeling it and got all whiney on him. He says (and I know) that I need to learn to just suck it up when I'm hiking/backpacking/climbing/running. It's not "easy" for anyone, and for some reason I've always thought I was the only one that struggled. What I am is the only one that WHINES about it non-stop. I just need to learn to deal with it, know that it gets easier with time, and I need to suffer through the next few months/years and it will start to get easier. The whining is just making me be an unfun workout partner and then I won't have anyone to climb with, and that's just not cool! So that's my goal for the weekend -- NO WHINING. Those of you that know me well know that will be difficult for me. ;-) After that though, we ran to Red Robin (yes again, Vin found some new burger he likes) and then I went to work for a few hours to do some stuff on shift. Then I went and read my mountaineering book at Vin's where he was available to answer all of the questions I had. Definitely learned a lot about rock climbing (just so happened that was the chapter I was on, cool!).

Friday: Had a great morning of work... met with my second level manager for well over an hour, he's great! Then I got some sweet work done on a project I've been working on... so I'm feeling really good about my work week. I just got so much done this week. This afternoon I'm working from home so I can get some laundry and stuff done that I've just been getting way behind on. My apartment is a mess so Monday and Tuesday are being devoted to cleaning, bills, taxes, errands, etc. I'm going to have to be way hardcore, especially since I'm going on vacation in a few weeks... YEAH! This afternoon I'm going to REI to get a new day pack and then to Crate & Barrel with Andy to perhaps spend my gift certificate that I have there. I'm excited to see him, it's been a while since I've really chatted with him. Tonight's plans *hopefully* include running with Vin if I didn't drive him too nuts last night, and then Rock Bottom downtown with the whole crew. And our crew is expanding... YAY! I invited like 9 people, which is way more than I normally have. That makes me smile lots. And the great thing is, it's all people I really want to hang out with. YAY FOR FRIENDS! :-) Tomorrow we have a hiking trip planned for 11 AM... we're going to Angel's Rest, which is near my favorite waterfall in the Columbia River Gorge. Sweeeeet... should be a good, not too challenging hike. Sunday Vin and I are going hiking on Hood... we're just going to climb up basically one of the ski lift areas... he wants to let me practice using crampons and ice axe techniques, and he wants to do some more challenging conditioning, hence Hood because of the steepness. It will be tough on me but I'm looking forward to it. It's one of the reasons I really really want a new day pack though, so I can get one with a hydration system that will make it easier for me to drink lots especially on the move and at high altitude. Sunday night is Portland City Grill with Vin, Andy, and Dominique... yaaay for my favorite place with my favorite people. See why I like day shift? I can feel good about work and have fun with friends, and that makes for a VERY happy Kelly. :-)