The Night We All Went Crazy in the Korean Ghetto

Andy asked me to make that title. He cracks me up... he was soooo funny last night and today. :-)

So here's the lowdown on the weekend... BEST weekend. I so need a day shift job. My life would improve by 1000%, no joke.

Friday I worked from home in the afternoon, which enabled me to get stuff like laundry done. Good stuff. Then I went to REI in Hillsboro for an awesome new hydration backpack that I wanted. It's soooo sweet, definitely helped me out later in the weekend. After REI I went for a quick run (decent run, not the best of the week though... and at the end of the run a bird pooped on my hand, ew). Then I jumped in the shower and Andy picked me up and we went to Crate & Barrel. I got a wine cork thing and martini glasses... YAY for non-crunchville. We were supposed to drive the like 20 minutes back to Andy's house, but Vin wanted to go to the REI in Tigard (down near C&B) so he went there with Geoff and we met up with them there, since it was like right next door to us. That makes 2 of the 3 REIs in the whole state of Oregon that I went to in one day. Then we headed downtown to Rock Bottom for some beer and food... yum. :-) Steve met us there and then Amanda came later. It was the first time I met Amanda and she was totally fun! After Rock Bottom we headed to Uptown Billards to play some pool... made up for how good I was Monday night by being WORTHLESS Friday. So sad! But, Amanda and I won 4 games in a row by default because the guys kept scratching. After pool I was soooo tired but I wasn't driving and I was kidnapped and forced to go to Vin's house to watch a movie. We "watched" Chasing Amy and by watched I mean I slept through the entire thing. Then we went home at like 4 in the morning and I couldn't fall asleep until 6 AM. BOO to that, since I had to get up for hiking the next day. But Amanda lives in my complex AND in my building, so that was cool to find out that I have a neighbor!

Saturday EVERYONE woke me up at like 10 AM. Andy, Kristie, and Vin all called... what the heck? I was sooo tired. But I got out of bed because Andy said he was feeling better than he had been the night before and he wanted to go hiking. So Vin, Andy, and I went up to Angel's Rest which is in the Columbia River Gorge area. It was a good hike, not too hard but definitely challenging and gorgeous at the end! So worth it... but I definitely need to get into better shape. Oh for the record, I went to Hillsboro REI in the morning before hiking because I exchanged the backpack I got for a different one that I eventually decided was better (the boys gave some good input at the Tigard REI). Anyway, when we got back we all went home to shower, and then were going to meet at 6 for dinner. But I needed to rent crampons and an ice axe so Vin and I went to the Hillsboro REI to get them. Turns out that they don't rent them in Hillsboro, but I did start talking to the rental guy who I've rented stuff from before... he's SO CUTE!!! I'm so smitten. So we went to Chevy's with Andy and Steve and the guys gave me such a hard time about REI Boy. They told me I had to go back to ask him out, they said I should just walk in and ask about crampons and an ice axe, and when he said they didn't have them say "oh, well that's okay, I really just was coming back here to ask you out for coffee." So cheez whiz if you ask me!! But I went back with Vin, and apparently he was following us kind of around the store and then stopped and looked at something for two seconds when we stopped and then walked back. Vin says he was definitely checking me out. But I couldn't randomly ask him out out of nowhere, so we left. Sad. I'm hoping to go back Monday or Tuesday to get in a conversation with him and ask him out for real. If not I'll have to rent some more stuff, which won't be a problem. Anyway, then we went to Vin's to drink / play x-box / etc. Amanda and I played drinking checkers which was fun and then we all played never have I ever... YIKES. Funny though, maybe freaked Andy out a little bit. Then I was so tired so I went to bed on Vin's futon and everyone else watched Top Gun.

This morning I woke up around 8:30 or so, no idea why so early. But Vin got up around 9ish maybe so we chatted for a few minutes and then got ready to go up to Mt. Hood for a day of tough snow fun. We had to stop by Portland REI (Read: 3/3 in the state of Oregon in one weekend, yikes!) to get my crampons, ice axe, and trekking poles, and then got lunch at Quiznos. Then we spent about 5 hours on the mountain... about 2000 feet of elevation gain over about 2 miles. WOW, kicked my butt. So worth it though! I learned how to self-arrest using an ice axe and I also got a good workout in. Hopefully I'll be ready for BCEP (my climbing class) by the time it starts by the end of the month. Lots of running, hiking, and conditioning are going to be necessary for that. I just haven't hiked a whole lot before the last 2 months (not like I've done that much in the last 2 months either) so I need to start being more hardcore!! We had SO much fun though, did a lot of chatting and lots of goodness. Then we came home and went to I Love Sushi (sketchy name for a sketchy place) with Andy and Daniel. Yum for sushi! Weird after hiking all day but it was good just to eat. That was when we all went crazy in the Korean ghetto... the sushi was a Korean run place in a Korean strip mall, and then we were all just nuts and crazy! Especially me and Vin, the ones who were sunburned, sore, and tired. Vin says I am a pansy, slacker, and wuss... that all came out about several different things at the Korean place. I think hiking, working, and eating wasabi, respectively. And then Vin and I chased each other and practically beat each other down for shotgun in Andy's car... that was amusing as well. I promised Andy a funny blog tonight after he made the hysterical night we all went crazy in the Korean ghetto comment, so here ya go. ;-)