BW3s

Oh yeah, and Geoff is still obsessed with BW3s!! Every time I ask him where he wants to eat... BW3s. Haha. We went there for lunch yesterday. Hilarious!!

At least he's started calling it BW3s like the cool kids. :)

Men vs. Women

I'm sure Geoff will be thrilled that I am using him as an example for the whole world to read about, but I am only doing that becuase he is a very typical guy.

Why can't men and women communicate effectively?

Yesterday I found out that when I get upset or feel hurt by Geoff about something, he feels like he's "in trouble". He always kinda shuts down when I get angry, and I have always taken that as him not caring about what I'm upset about. Instead, it is really just because he feels like he's "in trouble", so he just becomes kind of sheepish and silent. I told him that the difference between me just being upset vs. him being in trouble is he will occasionally do things that make me angry or disappoint me, but I know he doesn't mean to and he doesn't do them because he just doesn't care. For example - a couple of weeks ago on a Sunday, he was supposed to do a double shift, but he ended up getting his schedule changed. He thought he told me and he made plans to hang out with Eric for a couple of hours. I called him to make plans for after work... and he was already with Eric. I was upset because he had just made plans with Eric without even mentioning to me that he was done with work early... but I knew it wasn't to make me mad or because he didn't care what I thought. It was a honest mistake, and I knew that from the beginning. I was still hurt by it, but he wasn't "in trouble" because of it. I'm not sure if this is making any sense because I don't think I'm explaining it well, but it was a very good revelation that we had. Now I have to work on findnig a way to express to Geoff when he does something to disappoint or anger me without making him feel punished. But at least I know not to take his lack of response to my being upset as not caring... he's just feeling punished. Interesting

Then, both a friend and I had similar experiences with our respective boyfriends last night. I don't think guys understand our need to plan. Actually I think Geoff does... but it's kinda stupid because he thinks I need to plan every little second of every day. Not true, but just be considerate! If a plan has changed, let me know so I can make my own decision on what to do. Last night, Geoff said he was going to call me when he had a movie picked out, then didn't call for over an hour... I finally called him and was like "uh, hello?" He said that they decided not to go see a movie so he just didn't call.. it seemed totally normal to him. I was like "what if I wanted to be doing something else, I've just been sorta waiting for you to call..." and he got all defensive like I was demanding to know what he was doing or something. I just didn't want to be sitting around waiting for him when I could have been doing something else. A friend of mine asked her boyfriend what time he was going to be coming home from work, and he took it as "why do you always twist my arm to come home so early?" Really, she wanted to run a couple of errands and wanted to see if she had time to do so before he got home!

I am writing all of this not to say guys suck in any way, or to say girls suck. I just think it's SUPER interesting the differences in communication! I think within each relationship you learn the specific little things that can become issues, and it only gets better with time... but the gender differences will just always be there. I guess understanding the other point of view is a big piece of it, and I'm trying to get better about that. That's why I was SO excited to understand that Geoff has this feeling of being "in trouble". No wonder he reacts the way he does. Yay for understanding. :)

My life, lately

I just had a great meeting at work! When work is fun and good it makes me VERY happy. It's odd how much work affects my mood. When it's bad it doesn't really hurt my mood, but when it's good it makes me really happy! Geoff notices too, I will come home from work bouncing off the walls if I've had a good day at work. He loves it when I'm happy and silly.

So my latest hobby - BIKING!! I bought a bike a couple of weeks ago and it is awesome! I love biking. The other night Addy and I rode to Target, then rode to Chipotle, then home. 8 miles round trip, 52 minutes total of biking. It is SO much more fun than running! And definitely gets my heart rate up and makes me sweat. She bought me shorts at Target cause she is the best roommate ever... come to think of it, I haven't checked my computer at home lately, I think my away message still says that. But anyway, yeah, I love it. Plus I'm still swimming, so I'm going to do a triathalon next spring. YEAH!!!! :)

Geoff is obsessed with BW3s. I introduced him to it last Thursday and we have already been 3 times. Crazy man. Oh well, good thing I like it too!! :)

Hood to Coast

I feel like I've already written about H2C. But this is the post-race entry!

IT WAS AMAZING.

Seriously, so much more fun than I ever would have imagined. I'm DEFINITELY applying to do it again next year - the applications are due in mid-October. Who wants to be on my team? So far I "allegedly" have Geoff, Eric, Addy, Patrick, and Christine. We'll see who else joins. My big thing this year is going to be working on my speed so I can try to get down to 9:30 mile times! I have a year - it should be doable.

My first leg was leg 12, I ran it around 10 PM. It was SO fun running up 39th street in SE Portland, people were sitting outside their houses cheering us all on, they had written on the sidewalks things like "just one more hill" "lean forward on this hill" "keep going", etc. So fun! Then I turned left onto Hawthorne and got to run through a really fun part of town with lots of bars... everyone cheered and said encouraging things, and once you get to the Safeway - it's all downhill! :) It was a great run, and it was fun running and seeing my entire team at the end of the run (since it was one of the van to van exchanges!)

The second leg was 24 - flat, short, and boring. It was a 5 miler, I ran around 8 AM so it was light out but still cool... perfect! Each mile seemed to take FOREVER, but I was making good time (around 10:30 miles, good for me). When I got in, the other guy wasn't there so I had to wait for 6 minutes (seemed like eternity) for him to come take the baton. Darn! But he came and then I got to eat and pretend to sleep.

The last leg was 36 - last leg of the race! The first 1.25 miles were uphill... I wanted to walk but my van hadn't passed by me yet so I couldn't. ;-) (there is a joke at H2C that says "no walkin' 'til the van passes" - you don't want to look bad in front of your team, so you have to at LEAST run until your van goes by). Well, the van hadn't come by and I was finally at the top of the hill! Woo hoo! Then it was a pretty steep downhill for 1.5 miles... that was okay. I like downhills. But I had to hold back a little because I knew I still had 2.5 miles to go after that! So I got to the bottom of the downhill, and ran a boring run through town... it was HARD and I wanted to talk so badly. I just kept thinking "our team has run 195 miles and no one has walked yet, why would you start now?!". I also thought "don't you want to be able to say you RAN the entire time on H2C?" So somehow I miraculously finished without walking! WOO HOO!

Near the finish line I could see Geoff and Eric there cheering me on - that was awesome! Then I saw and heard my team... once I passed the real finish line, I waited for my team to join me, and we ran across the big finish banner finish line together and had our team name announced (The Pinheads, we came in around 821st place). Then I picked up all of the finshers medals for the team and we had our team picture taken. After that I got to see Geoff... he hugged me even though I was all sweaty and gross! I teared up a little bit because I was tired, dizzy, and overwhelmed. But I was mostly okay. We went to get some food... Geoff said I had to eat so I got a piece of pizza which I ate approximately 3 bites of before I gave it to him. Then we walked to Jake (Geoff and Eric brought me my car!) and drove to the van to unload it and get my things, and then Geoff took me to McDonalds because I was STARVING by that point. Then I passed out in the back seat and slept all the way back to Portland.

SO MUCH FUN. CAN'T WAIT FOR NEXT YEAR!

Notable moments:
- our van getting yelled at by a cop to "SLOW DOWN"
- me failing in my navagation skills and going 4 miles out of the way while our faster runner was running (that was the same leg we got yelled at on, imagine that)
- the 4 ugliest blisters of all time merging into one giant blister on leg 36
- waiting for 20 minutes for Shannon at one place, then finally going on and seeing her up ahead... how does she run faster than we drive?!
- team 963 always being right in front of us, team 693 - slightly confusing!

Not Milk!

I just encountered this new webpage called Not Milk! It tells you why you shouldn't drink milk! I love it... check it out... http://notmilk.com/

Hood to Coast

I'm freaking out about the relay. Here's the link for those of you that want more information - http://www.hoodtocoast.com/dev/ - it's the largest relay race in North America! But, the reason I'm freaking out is because I'm a SLOW runner, and we only have 32 hours to finish the entire course. Assuming we average 10 minute miles, we don't finish in 32 hours! Assuming we average 9:30 minute miles, we finish in just over 31 hours. I RUN 11 MINUTE MILES. There better be some people on our team running 8 minute miles or better to compensate for me. YIKES. It will be a MAJOR bummer if we don't finish on time... you don't even get a finisher's medal if you don't complete the course by 9:00 PM Saturday night, and MONTHS of training has gone into this race, for 12 people.

Okay I'll try to calm down now... sorry, and thanks for letting me vent.

I love lists!

Seriously, lists are great. And Excel and OneNote just make them even greater. I'm currently working on an awesome color-coded camping list. My friend Kristie and I were talking about lists, and then we started emailing back and forth all of our favorite lists. YES, we are such engineering dorks. I love it. Let me know if you need any lists, I probably have what you're looking for. List making is so grand.

Quote of the day: "I might squish the Crohn's right out of you!" (Geoff, when I asked him what would happen if he stepped on my stomach). Haha.

So yeah, life has been slow. Today we're going to test drive cars after work, I can't wait! My mom was in town last week, that was grand... Geoff was on vacation though, so that was sad. He was way stressed and boring for like weeks before vacation, but now he's back to being super cool awesome Geoff. YAY!

Quote of the Day

I just called my insurance company because I couldn’t access the online site, and when she fixed it she goes “great, we’ve taken care of getting that taken care of for you”. AWESOME.

Weekend was boring... did yardwork, cleaned the house, etc. Mom was like "oh, don't go to any trouble for me". Yeah right... that what kids DO when their parents come to visit! Clean the house so the parents think they're perfect and neat! Which of course I am... I just wanted to make sure everything was EXTRA perfect. ;-)

Woo hoo, meetings cancelled for the rest of the day! Now I can do things like renew my drivers registration!

4th of July Week!

Well, it's been fun! :)

Last Friday I went to the Waterfront Blues Fest downtown - the last time I did that was in 2003, crazy to think of how long I've been in Portland! Saturday I woke up early (and woke up Geoff's parents by calling them at 7:30 AM, ooops) and went to the beach with his family! VERY fun day... his mom and stepdad asked me a bunch of questions about my hopes and dreams, my family, why I like Geoffrey, etc. It was awesome! Plus I got to hang out with his cousin and stepsister who I adore! He joined us around 3:30 and we all played in the water for a while and then read and went home around 8 or so. Geoff and I went to Olive Garden that night because we like to eat! Sunday nothing super exciting happened, I had a good run but other than that it was a low-key day.

Monday night I met Geoff at his apartment, then went over to his parent's house. I watched TV with his cousin and stepsister while he helped his stepdad with the boat. I said the words "sketchtastic" and "pre-lesbianism" which the girls thought were SO funny... I just randomly said them, like I had actual uses for both and didn't think anything of them, but they caught on and loved it. Around 9ish I took the girls to Coldstone to get some ice cream... on the way back I could swear I saw lightening... and they thought I was crazy! Then Taylor eventually saw it, but Rebecca thought either we were on drugs or it was fireworks. So Rebecca started pointing to actual fireworks you could see and was like "ooo, look, lightening". Haha very funny. So then when we turn onto Geoff's street, Geoff calls and asks if we're still there... nope, not so much! Trevor (his brother) wanted ice cream too. When we get back, we find out what Trevor wants and go back to Coldstone for him. But on the way we pick up his girlfriend Kristy. Right before we picked up Kristy, we saw a strike of lightening in the sky, and FINALLY everyone thought I wasn't crazy! Haha. So we brought back the ice cream and Kristy and went downstairs for a few mintues... Trevor and Geoff and Gary were down there relaxing. Geoff and I left pretty soon after that... by this time it was 10:30 or so! Fun day!

Tuesday was slow at work. I met Geoff for lunch at PF Changs... I was crabby which was unfortunate but that's okay. Then I worked from home in the afternoon and he took the afternoon off. He took a shower and watched some TV at home and then we went to the moorage and met his parents. We went out on the island from like 4:30 - 7 and then took the boat back to the moorage and went to where they had put blankets and stuff so we could watch the Vancouver fireworks. Gary grilled hamburgers for us. The problem was it was FREEZING. It was about 60 out and soooo windy. We had a few blankets and things but not nearly enough! I had brought fleece pants which I was thankful for, but no sweatshirt. Geoff and I had one blanket for over and under us, which Taylor wrapped us up in like a "taco". We had a big taco joke... we're weird... but that's okay. The fireworks were good, though it was cold, and we packed up quickly afterwards. But then traffic was STOPPED getting on I-5... it took FOREVER to get home, I finally got home around 12:30.

Wednesday and Thursday Geoff and I went up to Seattle (I switched my days off this week to match with his). We got to see all of PLU (where he went to school) and the store he started working at and ex-girlfriend's houses and everything! ;-) Then we went to IKEA and dinner at Brazillian BBQ, yuuuum. Thursday we went to the Museum of Flight and then to Pike's Place and Red Robin on the waterfront, then took a ferry to Bainbridge Island. From there it took us almost 4 and a half hours to get home - UGH to construction. Geoff is amazing and wonderful though and he drove so that I could sleep. See why I love that man!? Here's the fun trivia of the day - you know that bridge they always showed in physics classes, the one that twists and turns and then breaks apart? That's in Tacoma, which is where Geoff went to college! We drove over the replacement for that last night! Who knew? Very exciting! :)

This weekend = yardwork, house cleaning, and general getting ready for Mom - she comes next week!!!!

I am a freak!

I was trying to decide if I should take a nap or go to the gym today. And I just couldn't decide. And I know people hate making decisions for other people, so I typed "decision maker" into google, and came up with this: http://www.sylloge.com/5k/entries/162/

I asked it if I should take a nap, and then green top bug was chasing along quickly... and I was totally cheering for it, cause I want to take a nap... but I thought the red bug would catch up... but it did not!!!!! YIPPEEEEE NAPTIME!!! :)

House of the People and Superman

Yippie I finally thought of some somewhat entertaining stuff to post! I don't think I've ever blogged about this before, but my house is dubbed "The House of the People", or HOT-P for short. This came about last year when I was painting the casa last year. I wasn't doing the best job, but wasn't too worried about it because this house doesn't have to be perfect. I want it to be a place that people feel comfortable coming to. The House of the People is named like that partly because so many people have lived there: Addy, John, Christine, Brad, not sure who else... but lots of people have spent the night, and I just love having people in and out. And so many people have random junk there, like just using it as storage space.

Plus a lot of people have been involved with painting and/or other home repairs. I feel that they deserve a shout-out at this time, sorry if I miss any people/reasons:
Andy - the fateful hanging of the IKEA shelves
Vinnie - hanging blinds, helping with the cable
Tim - installing towel racks
Charles - painting the living room / dining room
Eric - painting the baseball room (now veggie bin)
Geoff - painting the baseball room, mowing my lawn
Me - not a whole lot!
Christine - painting the living room / dining room
Gary - moving my cable, fixing my ghetto craigslist free lawnmower
Christie - helping me with my roses
Addy - unpacking the kitchen

See what I'm saying!? I love it!

The other topic I have is that I went to see Superman Returns last night... good movie, although I thought it was a bit slow at points and long, but that might have been because it was almost 3 hours long and it was 10 PM on a Tuesday night to begin with. So this morning I told one of my coworkers that I went to go see it, and he started asking about if it was good for kids. I was like "uhhh....". He asked if it was violent... and I said no, I didn't think so... but it might have been! I (a) don't really pay attention to violence and (b) don't necessarily know what is and isn't appropriate for kids. So I kind of thought back through and described to him a few parts that wouldn't give away the movie. Then he asked me about language, and I realized I had NO CLUE if there had been even one bad word in the movie. Clearly it wasn't excessive, but I don't remember any bad words, but there totally might have been! It's so funny that I don't even notice or pay attention to violence or language because I don't have kids. I told him next time to tell me AHEAD of time if he wants me to review movies for his kids. ;-)

Bored out of my mind!

Now, I realize that it has been some time since my last post, but I assure you you have missed NOTHING. I'm bored. Incredibly bored. Seems like all through April and most of May I was incredibly busy and having fun and doing stuff and couldn't get time alone with Geoff to save my life... yeah, those were the days. I always think I want free time and I forget that I get bored when I have free time. So I need to start a project, or something. I might start scrapbooking again... that's always fun, and will be even more fun if Addy is around to join in on it! Or, I might just start being more hardcore about the gym. In January and February I spent a couple of hours a day at the gym, so even though that puts me home and done with showering and dinner around 7 PM, that might be worth it. ANYTHING might be worth being more busy. And this weekend didn't help, I didn't have any real plans so I just kind of putzed around. I did do some mopping and vacuuming and cleaning, but not enough. Wow I can't believe I'm writing a whole paragraph about being bored. This must be fabulous. The point is that today I'm going to start being busy! I'm going to the gym after work to do arms and hopefully get at least a short run in... then I'm going to go home and shower and probably grab some food. Then I have a QL leadership meeting, and then we shall see. Maybe I'll buy a puzzle, for some reason doing a puzzle on a sunny hot day sounds quite fun! That or the scrapbooking stuff is coming out tonight... or I have a new book I need to start. But something will happen for sure and then I will be busy and have plenty of more entertaining things to talk about!

Small children in the laundry chute!

YEAH, it's finally been done. I've always joked about putting someone down my laundry chute, and last night we finally did it! Taylor, Geoff's 13 year old cousin, not only went down but also UP the laundry chute. It was sooo much fun. She stood on the dryer, then on Geoff's shoulders, then pulled herself up and out. Then later she lowered herself down onto Geoff's hands... pretty much all by herself! She only let me hold her hands for a brief moment when she had to let go and was a little scared. That girl is so great!

So this weekend was fun... went to happy hour Friday, then Cars - GREAT MOVIE! Definitely go see it. Then Trevor, Geoff, and I went up to La Center to gamble... sketchy people man. Very sketchy. Saturday we watched Italy vs. USA, finished painting Addy's room, and then went to Vinnie's birthday party. Sunday we went to breakfast, then I did a bunch of chores, then we went to Geoff's parents house for a Father's Day BBQ. Yaaay I love campfires. We made s'mores and I made fun of Geoff's stepdad who calls them sh'mores. Who puts an H in there? Silly. :) It was good times. I actually took a poll on s'mores vs. sh'mores yesterday and then reported out when we went to Geoff's parent's house again last night. Then they made even MORE fun of me for being like Geoff's grandmother who loves taking polls. They're like "oh no, we've found Oma #2!!!" It was pretty funny.

Good times.

FRIDAY!

Awesome. It's Friday and there's only about an hour left in the day. LOVE IT! :) I'm meeting up with Bryan, Kendra, and Kristie for happy hour at Bugatti's at 4. It will be grand. Life is grand.

I wrote my life story in an email today. I was writing my friend Jenny and just kept on writing. It was quite long. So I copy and pasted it to Carrie and Geoffrey. I am a writer of LOOOONG emails, and this was the longest I have ever written. Anyone who's ever received an email from me will know the significance of this! So that was fun. Carrie and I normally email every day, several times (I feel like I blogged about this recently) but she is gone running a marathon today. So she "pre-wrote" me several emails yesterday and had times on each of them, about when I could read them. The first one at 8:15, second at 9:15, etc. It was good, I liked that I couldn't read them too early. I love email. I love writing and reading and all that is good in the world.

I had a terrible run yesterday. My shins were in a lot of pain and it wasn't fun. But then I had a great workout at the class I take at the gym, so that was quite enjoyable! Woo hoo and stuff. :) I'm a little sore in the thighs today... I'll take that.

After happy hour I'm going to clean a little, and then see Cars with Geoff, Eric, and Trevor. Yippee!! Tomorrow we're going to finish up the painting and clean up some because ADDY MOVES IN ON SUNDAY! Yay I'm so excited it's finally here. It's going to be awesome! I love having a house full of people!

A rant and some other commentary

So, I applied for this American Airlines credit card a few weeks ago, because you got 25,000 free miles AND a free companion ticket as part of a promotion for their 25th anniversary. All is well and good, and I have great credit... but I get this letter saying they can't verify some of my information, so they need me to send the following: a current pay stub, a current bank statement, and an original copy of my home phone bill. The first two, no problema. The third request, HUGE problem. Not only do I not HAVE a home phone (really, who does these days?), but I don't get a paper bill for my cell phone. So I wrote them a letter and included a printout of my cell phone ebill and the other stuff they requested, hopefully that will be good enough. I was really excited about this card, so hopefully it works out! There was no phone number or anything to call which was disappointing, but oh well. What can you do? I don't like being discriminated against for being young and single though!

I email my friend Carrie probably 10 times a day, telling her anything and everything you can think of. A lot of times I think of something good and random that the blog readers would appreciate, but then I think it will be TMI for the general public. So I send it to her. Here's an example... we have free tampons at work. I think that is a huge benefit, tampons are expensive! Are you all freaking out though? We talk about a lot of other stuff though - pretty much anything goes and I LOVE it. I tell her everything about Geoff and everything else random in the world. Actually you guys should probably really appreciate her because it's preventing me from telling you a ton of gushy details about Geoffrey - barf!

I'm debating if I should go run or go to lunch with friends at noon. I think if my meeting gets done by about 11:40 or so, I'm going to do lunch. If it gets done closer to noon, I will go run. I'd REALLY like to go to lunch, I haven't seen a lot of these peeps in a while. But I love running too and I'm not getting to run much this week. Although I COULD run tomorrow and just do double workout (lunch run and after work body works class). Actually I love that idea! Hmmm... yeah, my schedule is open tomorrow. Maybe I'll make that magic happen. Still depends on when I get done with the meeting though. I definitely can't run after work because I'm donating blood this afternoon. Ahhh rough choices. ;-)

Blogger is back!

Okay people, it wasn't even my fault that time! I tried 2 or 3 times to blog last week, and it just wasn't happening! Blogger was down, boooo.

I think I am allergic to work. I don't sneeze all weekend, and then I come in and I've sneezed 5 or 6 times already today. I sneeze a lot at work. It is odd.

Gosh, so I don't even remember last weekend really... oh okay. Friday Kendra and I went to Bugatti's for happy hour, then worked on my garden, then saw the Break Up with Kristie. Good times! Saturday I ran an attempted 8 miles... but only got 5 done. I had no lung capacity... NOT so good for that half-marathon training. Booo. Then I went to the Starlight parade with Eric, Trevor, and Jenny - super de duper fun! I have never been before, it was a great time! I want to be in the One More Time Around Again Marching Band - so me, right? Haha. I feel like Laura would join it with me if she were here. ;-) Sunday was work on the house day, Geoff and Eric painted the baseball room. In exchange I did Geoff's laundry for him - I know, you're thinking WOAH, doing the laundry? But I would MUCH rather do laundry than paint, and guys laundry is shockingly easier than girls. I was a fan.

Monday was Remicade day - thank goodness for that drug. It is such a miracle for me, it takes a few days to kick in but my stomach has felt way better the last few days. Tuesday I met Geoff and Kyle at the pool... I did 2700 yards. They'd already played an hour and a half of raquetball, so Geoff swam a whole 100 yards... wow. But he is definitely faster than me. GRRRRR to that man and his athletic abilities! We also went to Outback and ran into Tim there, so when he was done with dinner he came over and has a nice chat with us, it was good to catch up!

Wednesday started family time... Geoff's grandmother, Aunt Lulu, Uncle Mike, and cousin Taylor (13) came in. So we had pizzas and a lot of time looking through pictures! Geoff's grandma talked to me for a long time and spent time showing me pictures and stuff, it was great! Thursday was more family... Geoff's stepsister Rebecca (15) joined the mix, so we had taco night (omg these people are crazy about their tacos, they hyped them for like a WEEK... it was awesome!) and worked on the pictures some more. I LOVED hanging out with the family! Friday was Geoff's brother's graduation party -- I met ALL the grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, church friends, etc. It was great. There were a lot of people to meet, but I got to spend a decent amount of time talking to a lot of people and it was just fun! I had to leave early for my half marathon which was sad, but such is life.

The half on Saturday was GREAT!!! It was a really fun race! You can see results and pictures at www.helvetiahalf.com... it went by so quickly and was just a great race. I can't wait for next year's... and in all honesty, it made me want to consider training for the Portland Marathon. Because I have Hood To Coast though (wait did I even tell you I was running that? Yeah, I am), I need to train for speed for the next couple of months. Then I will run Pints to Pasta (a 10K) in September and Run Like Hell (another half) in October. Then I will have another year to focus on the endurance for the Portland Marathon in 2007. I hate running. It sucks. But fun races like that make it worth it! The other day during my lunchtime run (Wednesday) I kept saying "I run because I can. I run because I thought I couldn't. I run because it's hard. I run because of the challenge."... I spent like a good 10 minutes of my run saying stuff like that, to motivate me because it was sucking. I am thinking about making a list for you guys of reasons why I run... but I think it will be LAME and EMBARASSING. Some of the things I was coming up with were definitely stupid. But we'll see.

Saturday I went to Geoff's brother's graduation, and then more family time. We had a grand old time, we played Bocce Ball with like 10 people, it was super fun! We kind of had to make up our own rules for teams and stuff! Very good times. And Taylor, Rebecca, and I played this little Superman game where we jumped onto couch cushions... YEAH pretending to be a teenager!! Hehe. Then Geoff and I took Taylor, Rebecca, his brother and girlfriend to Over the Hedge. It's even funnier the second time around! Haha. What a great night. Oh, and Taylor and Rebecca are going to be around the whole summer -- YEAH!!!!!

Physically and emotionally draining to be around that many people for that long though! I love people but I also need to refuel and recharge. So I stayed in bed and relaxed until about 2 Sunday, then ran a couple of errands, then went to Trevor's house for a BBQ. It was good to chill with Trevor, Jenny, Eric, and Kyle, and Geoff joined us much later after work. Really fun day. After that Geoff and I kind of chatted a little about our exhaustion from the week... it was hard on both of us, he had to deal with his whole family and do a lot of work for the party in addition to his physically demanding "real" job. And I had to deal with meeting a lot of people plus the physical and emotional demands of my race, so we were both just overwhelmed! It was hard because I couldn't totally be there for him and he couldn't totally be there for me, so we were both a little frustrated... but we had a great talk and it was good. I have to work hard in this relationship, because relationships DON'T come easy to me (I'm way too selfish)... but it is worth it for him. It's really the first relationship I've ever WANTED to work for. He doesn't have to work that hard... but he told me last night - you work on the small stuff, I'll work on the big stuff. So it'll be okay. :-) He is wonderful to me and for me. I love every bit of how hard I have to work and I know God is changing me and that I am learning. So yeah, just an awesome weekend overall!!! Ready for another great week... gonna beat Geoffrey in a swim race tonight (yeah right). ;-) Can't wait for the pool tonight though!

Hi, my name is Kelly and...

...I have a problem doing lame surveys (X means yes)

This is for your entire life:

Smoked a cigarette - X

Drank so much you threw up - X

Crashed a friend's car -

Been in love - X

Been dumped - X

Shoplifted - X?

Been laid off/fired -

Quit your job - X

Been in a fist fight -

Snuck out of your parent's house -

Had feelings for someone who didn't have them back - X

Been arrested -

Gone on a blind date -

Lied to a friend - X

Skipped school -

Seen someone die -

Been to Canada - X

Been to Mexico - X

Been on a plane - X

Been lost - X

Gone to Washington, DC - X

Swam in the ocean - X

Felt like dying - X

Cried yourself to sleep -

Played cops and robbers -

Recently colored with crayons -

Sang in a group karaoke - X

Paid for a meal with only coins - X

Done something you told yourself you wouldn't - X

Made prank phone calls - X

Laughed until some kind of beverage came out of your nose -

Caught a snowflake on your tongue - X

Danced in the rain -

Written a letter to Santa Claus - X

Been kissed under the mistletoe - X

Watched the sun rise with someone you care about -

Blown bubbles - X

Made a bonfire on the beach - X

Crashed a party -

Gone roller-skating - X

Ice-skating - X

Any nicknames - X

Favorite Drink - Water

How much do you love your job 1-10 - 8

Birthplace: Houton, Texas

Favorite vacation spot - Mexico

Ever steal any traffic signs -

Ever been in a car accident - X

2 Door or 4 Door - 4 Door

Favorite Salad dressing - Ranch

Favorite pie - Peanut Butter Cup

Favorite number - 9

Favorite movie - The Saint

Favorite holiday - Christmas

Favorite food - Steak

Favorite brand of body soap - Ivory

Favorite TV show - House

Toothpaste - Crest

What do you do to relax - Read, sleep, or run

What do you do when you are bored - Watch TV

What time is it? - 3:05 PM

Yay blogger is back!

Sad, yesterday my blogger was acting all funny and I couldn't post. And I was all excited to tell you that on Tuesday I DID officially get my stitches out and I was able to run Tuesday! I ran 2 and a half miles with Geoff and it was AWESOME. I loved every minute of it. I'm already back to my slacker ways and thus did not run yesterday... so I'm going to run today instead. The plan today is run during lunch, body works class after work, and swimming after class. Yeah crazy insane workout day. And I will probably love every minute of it. Well, that or hate it.

My friend Carrie and I email back and forth A LOT every day... we probably average 10 emails each (20 total) to each other each weekday. Yesterday I sent her a message around 11:20 AM and got nothing back the rest of the day. We saw each other last night and were both like "what happened to you?"! Apparently her last email to me didn't send so we both thought the other just wasn't replying. And we both thought about emailing the other to be like "you okay?" but didn't want to bug the other person. It was just pretty funny!

Geoff and I have this creepy thing where we will want to do the exact same totally odd thing at the same time. Last night it happened for the third time this week... it was about Dairy Queen last night. We were driving along and I said "man, I wish they would just build a Dairy Queen right there"... and Geoff yells "HOLY CRAP!" I immediately knew he'd been thinking the same thing, which he confirmed. But how WEIRD is that... who just randomly has this intense craving for only Dairy Queen, nothing else, at 10:30 on a Wednesday night that's not even hot out? At the same time as their boyfriend. We are scary.

Memorial Day Weekend

Alright, so here’s the big long-awaited weekend update.

Saturday morning… wine tasting with Julie, Geoff’s mom. It was a pretty amazing day overall… I had a LOT of fun laughing and joking and drinking with both of them. Unfortunately, I was drinking red wines while she was drinking white, and not only do red wines have higher alcohol contents, but they have a lot more of them in Oregon. (Geoff’s stepdad says I just don’t hold my alcohol as well!) But she would taste like 7 wines and I would have like 15 or 20 to taste! Don’t worry I didn’t even taste all of them… but still, I was much more intoxicated then she was and definitely said CRA-ZY lady things to her. I kid you not, if I was her I would have been like “get away from my son now”. Luckily she is more filled with grace than I am! So it was actually totally okay. Then we were supposed to have dinner with his parents, and Geoff was like “no no, you’re going home”… and I was QUITE upset about that. So we had our first fight, or drunken rage if you will. Poor Geoff. But we went to Olive Garden later and it was quite possibly one of the finer dining experiences in my life.

Sunday I pretty much did nothing. Geoffrey and I went to Olive Garden (yes again, I was craving!) and to the mall, and that’s about it. He had to go to work that night so I napped and made brownies and watched TV and ate leftovers. Easy boring day.

Monday was fun! I worked in the morning which was nice, and then Monday afternoon we went to a picnic with Geoff’s parents. The picnic was great. Julie was so funny… when we got there I was sitting with her and Gary and Geoff were playing football, so Julie’s like “let’s go try some wine… because that’s what we do”. So we did. It was good but not great. The picnic was pretty fun, the people who’s house we were at for Easter were there, I like them. Very funny folk! Oh and then Julie and Gary were being really really funny on the way home too! We were hysterically laughing. Then Gary was talking about Trevor’s graduation and how family starts coming in on the 7th, and his daughter comes in on the 8th… then the party is on the 9th and the graduation is on the 10th. So Gary was like, it would be great if you guys were around as much as possible that weekend, we’d love to see you, Kelly especially you it’d be great for you to be around earlier in the week so you have as much family time as possible especially before the big crowd hits. Definitely come over even if Geoff can’t, etc. I was like Geoff doesn’t need me to come over either! He was like yeah, but he won’t come without you. Super nice. Apparently Gary likes me, which I actually didn’t know at all. So yeah that was really fun. And then we went to go see Mission Impossible 3 with Eric, THAT was a good movie! I haven’t seen a movie that good in a long time, I loved it!!!

BEST NEWS OF THE DAY: I *might* be able to run today. Not for sure, but I go to the doctor and she’s supposed to take out my stitches. So barring any bad news I might get, I’m running 3 miles after work. I’d love to run more but know that’s probably not best, so I’m taking it easy to begin with.

Productiveness, yay

Hmm, so I have nothing exciting to share today. I've been trying to make my blogs more about random ruminations than about my life, but today you get my life.

So yesterday I went to NW Jeep to get my oil changed quickly after work... then stopped by Starbucks to steal Kyle's keys to give him his skimboard back. He works at a SUPER busy Starbucks so it was a quick transaction, he gave me the keys, I made the switch, and then gave the keys back. Very Alias-like. :) Then I went to Target and got some cleaning supplies for my big cleaning extravaganza that Geoff and I are having on Sunday. Then to Home Depot to pick up some "celery sprig" green paint by Behr that we are going to paint the guest / baseball room with. YAY can't wait to paint that room! Then I went to Tracy's for Stacey's Pampered Chef party! Very fun! After that I met Geoff and Kristie at the gym and did arms and back... woo hoo for lifting when I can't run. And only 4 more days until I can run again!!!!

From the comments you guys have left me in previous posts, especially in 2005, I know you guys like to hear my heart in my blog. And I've always said that my blog shares more of my heart when my journaling isn't as good, unfortunately my journaling has been really great lately! God and I have been amazingly close. It is really cool the way God uses Geoff to remind me of Him, I love it! So yeah, nothing profound from the heart... but I am thinking about you guys and will try to come up with something for you!

Embarrassment and Toilet Flushing

Interestingly, these two topics are NOT related (at least for the purposes of this post).

Here is an interesting thought I had the other day... think about the emotion "embarrassed"... there is no way that another person can really have an affect on that emotion. For example... if you are happy, someone might have been the cause of that happiness, or someone might be able to make you unhappy. If you are angry, another person might have caused that anger or could help you to calm down and release your anger. Same for love, sadness, etc. Most emotions I can think of. But embarrassed... that is just a very personal feeling, YOU feel embarrassed. Even if someone says "oh, that's no big deal, don't be embarrassed"... that doesn't really change the feeling. I just thought that was super interesting. Thoughts?

So we have three main buildings on the campus where I work... the first two have had automatic toilet flushers for years (I know this because I have previously worked in the first two). However, the third (where I've worked since September) has not... until Tuesday. It was interesting because Tuesday morning I had a staff meeting and used a different bathroom in the third building and it had automatic flushers. I thought "STRANGE, I didn't know they had them anywhere in this building!"... but then later that day I was using my normal bathroom and they had the automatic flushers in there too. They were NOT THERE ON MONDAY. Who sneaks in in the middle of the night and changes all the toilet flushers, on a Monday night? Very odd.

Running, how I long for thee....

Seriously! Who knew how obsessed I was? I had no idea, but it's really driving me crazy not to have any physical activity. Though I did get to go to the gym with Geoff yesterday and lift. I love lifting... except with Geoff! Mr. Former College Athlete is freaking psycho! That's okay, when I can swim and run I will get him back... he has to put up with my grueling cardio workouts if he thinks I will tolerate his crazy strength days. Muhahaha. ;-) Seriously though, it's good times. He AND Kristie joined LA Fitness with me yesterday, which is super exciting! I love having gym going partners! I think Addy is going to join with me too when she moves up here. YEAH I love it! 7 days until I can run again... 19 days until the half marathon... 5 months until Geoff's 21st birthday... (oops that one doesn't quite belong)!

So when I first hear a song, I rarely like it, no matter what genre, etc. But if I hear a song many times I almost always like it. I'm a very visual learner, and I love to know the words to a song, so if I really want to like a song for whatever reason I will listen to it on repeat while reading the lyrics. I'm doing that right now with the song Frontline by Pillar -- it's Geoff's favorite song. I'm loving it!

It's not like I'm walking alone into the valley of the shadow of death
Stand beside one another, 'cause it ain't over yet
I'd be willing to bet that if we don't back down
You and I will be the ones that are holding the Crown in the end
When it's over, we can say, "Well done"
But not yet, 'cause it's only begun
So, pick up, and follow me, we're the only ones
To fight this thing, until we've won
We drive on and don't look back
It doesn't mean we can't learn from our past
All the things that we mighta done wrong
We could've been doing this all along

Everybody, with your fists raised high
Let me hear your battle cry tonight
Stand beside, or step aside
We're on the frontline

And we'll be carrying on, until the day it doesn't matter anymore
Step aside, you forgot what this is for
We fight to live, we live to fight
And tonight, you'll hear my battle cry
We live our lives on the frontlines
We're not afraid of the fast times
These days have opened up my eyes
And now, I see where the threat lies

We've got to lead the way

I have a lot of TV to catch up on -- I have the 3 final hours of Grey's Anatomy, 2 or 3 episodes of Alias, and the final episode of The OC to watch. Plus Geoff and I are going to watch the 24 season finale tonight... can't wait! I've heard nothing but good things. I saw an article about it on CNN this morning but I was smart enough not to click on it.

When it gets to be the last few weeks before my Remicade, my stomach often starts acting up. Such is the case at the moment. 13 days until Remicade again, and my poor little tum-tum is already being meanie. How's that for baby talk? LOL... okay seriously, but it's just not cool! I actually am surprisingly used to it so it doesn't bother me that much, but it's just like the constant nag. I don't know how to best describe it. I just wanted to air my grievances!

I love Weekends!

Well, this was one of the best weekends I've had in a long time! :) Good times all around.

Friday afternoon I took a nap and then hung out with Geoff for a little bit... ahhhh good times. :) Then Addy came up, yippeee!!! We met up at Chili's for dinner - I ate too much. I need to stop doing that, I've been eating a lot too often lately. I was doing so well on the eating-train pre-Geoff, but I have gotten into a rut lately. BOO, need to break out of that. So after that, Addy went back to my house and looked at some stuff (AHEM Adds...) on the computer for a little bit, and then Brad called and asked us to go hang out with him, Kristie, etc. at this dude Wes's house. So we went over there and played pool, darts, etc. and just hung out. We stayed until like 2 AM which was pretty late cause I was soooo stinkin' tired! But it was a fun night.

Saturday morning I slept waaaay late and then went to Mexican food with Addy. Yummers! :) Then I got to sort my mail and stuff and pack for my weekend getaway with Geoff. It was good to get caught up on mail and stuff like that for once! Then Geoff came home from work and off we went to Astoria! When we got there we went out for this FABULOUS dinner at this place called Baked Alaska. We had spinach dip as an appetizer, then Geoff picked out this great drink for me, yum good job Geoff! Then he had ribeye and I had tuna. Ohhhhhh man it was so good. For dessert we had the half baked Alaska which was a cookie cooked in a skillet with ice cream on top and drizzled with chocolate sauce with brandy around the side (dude brandy is STRONG, yikes). Then we decided to buy Monopoly so we played that all night... I am the master of Monopoly so clearly I won. That made him mad because he is as competitive as I am, but it also made for a good game because we were both hardcore. We were trash talking each other the whole time, it was so great. And we were drinking wine which was fun too. I heart wine. Oh and we prayed together for the first time Saturday night so that was really special and wonderful! I have been wanting to do that for a long time and Geoff promised me we could this weekend so we did. YAY!

Sunday morning we had this FABULOUS continental breakfast - I had a Belgium waffle and he had biscuits and gravy. Yuuuuum. Then we went to a cute little Lutheran church in Astoria, it was great. Well, it was mostly great. It was fun at the beginning, but they were doing their confirmation so they had everyone give a little testimony... this one woman was from China and had moved here and went on and on and on (and was crying the whole time) about her story. It was sweet but she literally talked like 15 minutes. Definitely would NOT have happened at Sunset (my church). Anyway, then the pastor gave a sermon that I think I have heard like 100 times - the Bible is good, it is God's word, you need it, it will help you, yay. Wow, cynical much Kelly? Luckily it was short and sweet. I like churches that challenge me... but I also like going to different churches, so that was good. Plus we sang hymns which I like doing, it was great!

Then we went to the Astoria Column, which is the BEST view at the coast allegedly... it was pretty stinkin' awesome! We climbed to the top and could see everything. It would be even better on a totally clear day! Then we found the Astoria Sunday market and walked around there for a while... then we got some food and ate it up... yum, good times man. Geoff then talked me into seeing the daVinci code... he enticed my by promising I could have popcorn, that man knows me TOO WELL! I actually fell asleep a little at the beginning, so strange. I've never fallen asleep during a movie before (at least at the theatre). So weird. But it was a good movie, Geoff said it was much better than he thought it would be. Then we went to the outlet mall in Seaside on the way home. Geoff got chocolate covered espresso beans and a new NIV/Message parallel Bible from the Christian Outlet there. I am excited for that one... we chose it together because he didn't have the Message but I recommended that one because I have the Message Remix (with verse references) but wanted that one. So we will share both of them! Yay I'm excited. Then we drove back to Hillsboro and had a lovely dinner at Macaroni Grill. The best part was in the middle we saw LIGHTNING! And heard THUNDER! It was so sweet. But only for like 5 minutes. :( After that we went back to my house and watched the pilot episode of Alias together. And prayed together again! Geoff says we can pray together every night, yay to that. :)

So it was a fabulous weekend, lots of good (NEEDED!) couple time! It was so good. And now we're back to our normal week of being social butterflies... :) Geoff has basketball tonight, his brother's birthday party is tomorrow, Quarterlife on Wednesday, I have a Pampered Chef party on Thursday, Geoff has men's meeting on Friday... then Saturday will be wine tasting with his mom! :) Which will be fun... but do you see what I'm saying about no alone time? Sunday he is off until 5 so we'll be able to go to church and spend time together then too. Woo hoo, only one week "apart" this time. :)

Have a fabulous week everyone!

Date Night!

Ya know, I've had this blog for two years? It's pretty fun reading back on the old entries. Wow, 1/12 of my life I've been blogging. Awesome... 20 more years to go and it will be half my life!

Yesterday after work I went and met Geoff at Chipotle for a few minutes while he had lunch, and then I went home and napped for like 2 hours! Tried to nap anyway, it didn't work out so well but what can you do? I have really been having a hard time sleeping lately, it's super annoying! I used to have a hard time sleeping quite often but the last few years I haven't so much so it's weird. Grrr. Anyway, then I woke up and did a few things online and had a nice bit of Quiet Time with God, it had been a few days so it was very much needed! Then I took a shower -- remember I had that mole surgery thing Tuesday so this was my first shower since Monday. DUDE it was an awesome shower. My hair was disgustingly dirty before that and it was so nice to take a shower and get cleaned up! Oh man it felt good. Then I got all pretty... girls, you will relate to this... you know how sometimes you can do all of the same stuff and you just look different? Last night I had one of those nights where you just feel like you look really great, which was exactly what I was hoping for but not expecting! So then I went and picked Geoff up at 8:45 (we've been planning this date since May 2nd, but it turned out he had to work late that night because of some dumb work stuff that's been happening). He looked fabulous... we were quite the cute combo last night! I wish I had pictures, but someone (ahem ERIC) wasn't at home to take them of us. Just kidding. :)

So then we drove downtown to the Melting Pot and just had a fabulous lovely dinner. I won't bore you with the details, but it was definitely the best, nicest, most romantic and intimate date we've had. It was only our 3rd actual date date (which is hysterical for dating for 2 months and seeing each other every day during that time) but it was fabulous. We had a great server (Robbie) and bartender (Doug). Woo hoo for that. Then we went to his house and chatted about a lot of stuff -- it was cool, there were some things that I've been feeling and thinking about lately that I didn't think he was, and he was TOTALLY right there with me. That definitely reassured me and made me feel better and just totally relaxed and at ease with everything. Ahhhh, love... :)

TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF - The Survey

Name: Kelly
Birthday: February 19
Birthplace: Houston, Texas
Current Location: Beaverton, Oregon
Eye Color: Blue
Hair Color: Blonde
Height: 5'7"
Right Handed or Left Handed: Right
Your Heritage: A little over 1/8 German, 1/128 Native American, Hungarian, Irish, and a lot of other stuff I don't know. I am a 5th generation Texan, so when I was little I'd always do school reports on Texas when we had to study heritage!
The Shoes You Wore Today: Black strappy sandals
Your Weakness: McDonalds fries and chocolate shakes!
Your Fears: Snakes!!!
Your Perfect Pizza: Cheese pizza from Giordanos
Goal You Would Like To Achieve This Year: Running a half marathon
Your Most Overused Phrase On an instant messenger: LOL
Thoughts First Waking Up: I'm tired!
Your Best Physical Feature: I hate this question. Eyes?
Your Bedtime: 11 PM
Your Most Missed Memory: Roof parties with GIV exec
Pepsi or Coke: Coke
MacDonalds or Burger King: McDonalds
Single or Group Dates: Single! But only cause I never get 'em... I love my group dates!
Lipton Ice Tea or Nestea: I have honestly never had iced tea in my life.
Chocolate or Vanilla: Chocolate
Cappuccino or Coffee: Cappuccino
Do you Smoke: No
Do you Swear: Rarely
Do you Sing: To the radio in my car when I'm alone (and sometimes with Geoff), yes!
Do you Shower Daily: When I work out absolutely. Otherwise I will often shower every other day. I hate showering. Mostly because I'm lazy and hate having to brush my wet tangly hair afterwards.
Have you Been in Love: Yes yes yes!
Do you want to go to College: I have been!
Do you want to get Married: Yes... :)
Do you belive in yourself: Yes
Do you get Motion Sickness: No
Do you think you are Attractive: Usually
Are you a Health Freak: Sometimes
Do you get along with your Parents: Yes!
Do you like Thunderstorms: Love 'em and miss 'em!
Do you play an Instrument: Yes, the flute.
In the past month have you Drank Alcohol: Yes
In the past month have you Smoked: No
In the past month have you been on Drugs: No!
In the past month have you gone on a Date: Yes, finally! :)
In the past month have you gone to a Mall: An outdoor mall, does that count?
In the past month have you eaten a box of Oreos: No, but I had one mint oreo and one oreo covered marshmallow (it was good!) and cookies and creme gelato!
In the past month have you eaten Sushi: No but I've been craving it the past few days... ya know how it is with sushi, when you want it you want it!
In the past month have you been on Stage: No
In the past month have you been Dumped: No
In the past month have you gone Skinny Dipping: No
In the past month have you Stolen Anything: No
Ever been Drunk: Yes
Ever been called a Tease: Yes
Ever been Beaten up: No
Ever Shoplifted: Accidentally once (I'm pretty sure). My mom and I were shopping for puffy paint at Tuesday Morning in Houston many years ago. We went back in to buy more and I'm pretty sure I accidentally put a tube of black puffy paint in the bag of stuff we already had and not in the basket. I don't know how or why I think this or why it's such a vivid memory but it just is!
How do you want to Die: This is weird, but I have this like "daydream" of being stabbed... it's not really a daydream, it is weird, ask me if you want to know more. But that is not really how I want to die. I'd probably say old and in my sleep.
What do you want to be when you Grow Up: I have no idea.
What country would you most like to Visit: Thailand
In a Boy/Girl..
Favourite Eye Color: Hazel
Favourite Hair Color: Brown
Short or Long Hair: Short
Height: 6'2"
Weight: HWP
Best Clothing Style: Preppy
Number of Drugs I have taken: None
Number of CDs I own: 40 maybe?
Number of Piercings: Just my ears - left twice and right once. I think I might get the right one pierced again because it is weird having the left twice.
Number of Tattoos: None
Number of things in my Past I Regret: Who knows?

And this week's update too!

So Monday I worked from home half the day... I had one meeting in the morning and then I went home. That was a mistake work-wise... I have a lot of reporting type stuff that I do on Mondays and it was SUPER slow doing it on the wireless! ARGH! But it was cool because Geoff had the day off so he was at my house watching TV while I was working. I left work because I had to go to the DMV... Geoff went with me and I got the ALL TIME WORST drivers license picture I've ever had... BARF. Then Geoff and I went to Costco and got some lunch and met up with Eric so Eric could use Geoff's card. Then we went back to my house and I did some work... had a little temper tantrum cause I was all tired. Geoff said he had just been waiting for it all day, cause he knew I was tired. I was just SO frustrated from the slow work stuff... it took an hour and should have taken half of that! GRRR!!! But I snapped out of it -- that was good, I usually don't -- I we went to Meier & Frank so I could buy these new pants Carrie has and I wanted. Then we went to the POOL! at Geoff and Eric's apartment! This was the first time I've been swimming with Geoff, it was so much fun! Then we had a leadership meeting for our young adults group... Geoff had to leave early to go to basketball, but it was an interesting meeting. Frustrating in some ways, but I think it might have been the start of making some positive changes for the ministry, so that was exciting. After the meeting, Eric and I went out for ice cream, which was awesome. We got to catch up and I shared a lot of stuff with him. We have a really great relationship! Geoff joined us after basektball and we pretty much just told him that we'd been talking about him all night, which was true. Eric asked very direct questions about the nature of my relationship with Geoff, and Geoff and I were totally honest with him. :)

Another cool thing about Monday night was that in the leadership meeting we were all talking about what God has been doing in our life lately. I said that I thought God had been molding me lately... like when I had my little work temper tantrum, normally I would have stayed in a funk. But God has been helping me get out of those things lately. Geoff said that God is teaching him stuff about timelines... like work related and personal life. After we had ice cream with Eric, we spent some time talking about that stuff -- and realized how much it overlaped! When God is molding me, he has generally been molding me for Geoff... to make me a person that is even more perfect for Geoff. I always figured that I would have to eventually find a guy who could put up with my emotionalism... I didn't think that God would actually CHANGE my emotionalism for a guy. But Geoff thinks that God's been molding him for me too... giving him much more patience/tolerance to be able to deal with when I'm freaking out or upset about something. It was just awesome. As far as timelines, Geoff is waiting to get to be store manager which should happen sometime soon but he's having to wait. On the personal level... he told me he wants to be married to me, but he is having to wait because he really thinks it's not the right time yet. And I agree with him totally... I am having to be patient in the same sense. So it was just awesome and great to see how much it totally overlapped. Geoff is fabulous and God is VERY good to us.

Tuesday I had a mole removed... I had had it removed at a surface level about a month ago, but it came back abnormal (but non-cancerous) so she wanted to go a little wider and deeper in what she removed. I thought I wouldn't be able to run that day -- but it turns out I can't run OR swim for two weeks. Omg, I am going SO NUTS with this already. ARGH!!!!! And my half marathon is just 3 weeks and 2 days away... that only gives me about 12 days to prep for it before it happens. But what can you do... better to make good decisions for long-term health. And there have been plenty of other runners that have had health issues effect them right before races. It's okay, just frustrating. So I met up with Geoff, Eric, and Kyle at Starbucks after work (I worked about an hour late) and then Eric and Kyle had to leave so Geoff and I went to Best Buy and just wandered around before dance. Neither of us wanted to go to dance, but you can't miss a class or you get too far behind. We were both pretty frustrated during dance because Geoff hadn't been there and didn't know the steps, and I had been alone so I didn't remember the steps. We're both very competitive so we want to be perfect all the time, so we get mad at ourselves when we screw it up! So we were a little testy and left right after dance. No one came to watch House with us because we were being mean... mostly Geoff to be honest, but that was only because I knew he was more upset than me and we can't both be upset at the same time, so I had to just get over it! So Geoff and I got Chipotle and watched House all by ourselves.

Yesterday I did some laundry, cleaned my room, and took a nap before Quarterlife... yay! I love getting stuff done, it's the best! Then we had Quarterlife... this guy Matt Singley (www.mattsingley.com) spoke and he is freaking AWESOME. I love it when he speaks, he is really cool and people really enjoy him. He also has Crohn's, so I like being able to talk to him about that! After Quarterlife I ran by Target to make a quick return since I was in the area, and then we went to Red Robin with everyone for dinner. It was pretty funny because we had planned on Chevy's... but everyone wanted Red Robin so there was an overtaking. I liked that, I like spontenaity! (is that spelled right? I don't think so). Anyway, it was cool. MAN there were lots of couples there! In the past few months there have been very few QL couples... 4 total at any given time... but last night there was me and Geoff, Carrie and Mark, Vin and Dominique, Vanessa and Scott, and Kyle and Jenny. Weird! And that was just at Red Robin... there were only like 6 or 7 single people there. Such a big change from the old QL days. But yeah, it was good. Then Geoff and I spent some time together going over questions from this book we have of questions for couples. :) We haven't done that in a while so it was pretty fun!

Geoff and I were SUPPOSED to have today be date day... no time spent with anyone else, which we have only done ONCE since we started dating (isn't that crazy?!). But he has to work late... we are doomed! Oh well. :) We still might go on a date, just won't be until 9 PM. The plan was fondue but that's awfully late to start fondue sine it's so slow. I don't know. In exciting news we are going to the coast this Saturday and Sunday so we will finally have some alone time!

The long awaited Vegas update...

Sorry this has taken so long to post, I have been sorta avoiding it because I knew it was going to be a super long entry and just really wasn’t in the mood to write for so long to be honest. Plus I haven’t been feeling very funny this week for whatever reason and I wanted this to be a funny one. But I’ll give you what I have.

Thursday
Okay, so Thursday I went home after work and took a quick nap because I knew it would be a long night. Then Geoff came over and I chatted with him for a bit before the girls came at 6:00. When they came, Geoff took us all to the airport. When we got there we checked in and grabbed some food. This is when we took the first set of pictures – they’re on facebook – send me an email and I’ll send you the link if you don’t have facebook (anyone can view facebook pics now). Then we got on our plane and sat down… but there was a hydraulic leak or some nonsense, so they told people they could get off or stay on, whichever they wanted. We all stayed on which is funny cause there is a picture of us being like the only people on this plane. Except this highly intoxicated individual who will forever be dubbed “Chinese cell phone man” because he had a BLUE Razr that he thought only texted in Chinese. Since we were all texting the boy toys back at home (really only 30 minutes away since we were still in Portland) he thought we were the texting experts so he asked us how to change it to English. I tried and couldn’t get it to work, but Stacey has a Razr so she made some magic happen. He is totally forever indebted to her! Anyway, our plane leaves and arrives about an hour late but otherwise no issues. We get to the airport, take a shuttle bus to our hotel, and Stacey and Carrie check in while Katie and I find a bathroom. Then we go up to our room and start to put on clothes to go out in, since we want to make the most of our time in Vegas. I look for my wallet to grab my money and stuff… um, can’t find it. Anywhere. Yikes. So Katie tells me she’ll go talk to the front desk with me to find out the name of shuttle companies, etc. and Carrie and Stacey go out. I feel bad because I don’t want to deprive Katie but she was being really nice to me. So the hotel gives me the phone numbers of like 7 shuttle companies and I call them all and come up with nothing. Then I go back upstairs and look some more, again can’t find the wallet. Freak out a little. Think about calling Geoff to wake him up. Become more rational and opt not to (it was like 2 AM and what was he going to do anyway?), just go to bed instead.

Friday
Wake up at 7 AM… way too early! Stacey, Carrie, and Katie go eat breakfast while I call the airline, credit card company, bank, follow-up with a few shuttle companies, etc. Find out that I need to file a police report to get back on the airplane. Then Stacey and Carrie go shopping and Katie and I hit the pool at like 9:30 AM – it’s still shady out! We FINALLY get some sun around 12 when Stacey and Carrie come back. I had been planning on going to the bank to withdraw some money around 2 or so, but Carrie offers to let me borrow money for the weekend – perfect! We order some drinks and lunch and have a lovely afternoon at the pool! So we stay at the pool until like 5… yikes it’s a long day! Carrie and Stacey go to a fancy dinner and a Cirque du Soleil show, and Katie and I dress up a little and go to Margaritaville (where I’m carded and rejected because I have no cards to show…!) and then have coffee in the Bellagio. Then we decide we want to take a little nap before we meet up with Carrie and Stacey at the MGM at 10:30… so we head back to the room around 9. Carrie and Stacey show up around 9:30 and they take a nap too… but we all sleep until around midnight and then decide we are NOT going to Studio 54 that night. 7 hours in the sun definitely takes it out of you!!!

Saturday
Again wake up at 7ish, yuck! Carrie, Katie, and Stacey all went shopping and I planned to go to the police station or wherever to file my police report. I talk to the front desk and they say I have to take a cab to the courthouse – yikes! Not to mention I don’t have any money, so I need to wait for the girls to get back. So I go to the pool instead and talk to Geoff for like 2 and a half hours on the phone. I didn’t mention it before this, but I was also on this medication that I wasn’t supposed to be out in the sun with, so I found kind of a shady spot and just chilled while on the phone. The girls came back around 11 or 12 and we had some drinks and lunch again. It was like 108 and I was just miserable… I had a towel over me a lot of the time, reapplied sunblock all the time, and literally went in the pool ever 5 minutes. At 2 PM I gave up and just went inside and napped and rested. Carrie said she would go to the courthouse with me, so she came in around 4 and rested for a bit and we left about 5. We got a cab from the front of the Paris (our hotel) and took the nice little trip down to downtown Las Vegas. We get to the courthouse and get out of the cab… then we talk to the security guy who tells us we are the wrong courthouse! Grrrr to the hotel and the cab driver! There is a woman there who tells us she knows where the correct courthouse is and that she happens to work there and she will drive us there. Uhhhh sketchy but we are desperate. I ask Carrie if she’s okay with it, and she says yes, so we go to this lady’s car. She has a Chevy Malibu which reminds me of Whitey (my old car for those newer blog readers) and a super cool sparkly Razr phone – so she must be okay, right? We get in the car and she drives us there, swipes us into the employee parking lot, and pulls us right up next to the door where we need to go and tells us everything. Seriously we never would have found this place without her! The best part was when we got out of the car she says to us “and don’t get in the car with strangers anymore!!” Too funny! Her name was Jamie, so I’d just like to say a huge shout-out to Jamie in Las Vegas. We get to the courthouse and check in with this nice police officer named Zach, who tells us it will probably be about a 35 minute wait and then about 20 minutes to process me. Bummer, but not unexpected. Then I pointed out to Carrie how attractive Zach was… and Carrie decided Zach was perfect for Stacey (the single one in the crew). Hmmmm good point! So we are plotting and scheming about how to get Zach together with Stacey. Meanwhile, there is a guy sitting to the left of us that is texting and also writing up a statement. Then he gets a call and we learn that his wife has stolen $465 dollars from him, he can’t feed the kids, the wife is on drugs and they’ve been separated for 3 years, he only has 1/8 tank of gas in his car, and payday isn’t for 2 more weeks. He actually seemed like a decent guy, he was talking about how he wanted the marriage to work but he didn’t want his kids around drugs, etc. He wanted to give her a chance but couldn’t because he needed the money so badly so he had to file the police report. Then this woman bursts in and starts screaming about how she’s been “frauded and embezzled” (what?) She is HYSTERICAL about how she has paid for this condo for a week, she paid like $1200 a month ago and her friends came 4000 miles from Florida to go with her and then she has no place to stay and it’s horrible and Zach needed to take action!!! Zach was like “ma’am… calm down….” And after like 20 minutes finally got her to leave – it was a civil case, not criminal, because the company just went out of business, that’s all. There was no intention to defraud. See, I got a little lesson there! Then Zach comes out of his little window to get some food, and rolls his eyes at us, so I strike up a conversation with him a little bit. So then he likes us, as though he didn’t before! Then this guy from Illinois comes in, he’s been playing in an annual poker tournament for the 4th year in a row and he had $1300 in travelers checks stolen from his pocket. Finally it was my turn to go give my disposition or whatever, and so Carrie takes the opportunity to go talk to Zach and ask him to text Stacey. He does and Carrie also asks him to go out dancing with us, but he is not allowed to associate with riff-raff like us (seriously he can’t go out with people he meets on the job or anyone in their party, and he’s a very law abiding sort of guy so of course he really doesn’t). Who am I kidding, I wouldn’t have either. I also show Zach my police report and say “if you were a bouncer would you let me in with this piece of paper saying I’m 21?” And he says “y’all are cute enough that you don’t even need that silly police report, I’d let you in anyway!” So anyway, then we hail a cab (second time I’ve done that in my life, thank you very much!) and we go back to the Paris. On the way home, we call the girls and tell them to order us room service. When we get back we enjoy our room service and get dressed and ready and it is grand. I feel MUCH better after how fun the courthouse was and was just relieved to have my police report. So we head on out to the MGM to go to Studio 54. It’s not open yet so we wait in line, and while we are doing that I call and cancel my credit card. We get to the front and the bouncer is like “uhhhh go talk to my manager”. So I do and he’s like “no. that could be anyone’s piece of paper, you’re not coming in”. Great… so I convince the girls to go anyway and I call Geoff to “walk me home” on the phone. I was just gonna go upstairs and watch TV or whatever but he was like “NO, at least gamble a little bit!”. So I sit down with him at a Slingo machine and put $5 in (I had $15 that was in my pocket instead of my wallet that I’d been holding onto). I played 5 cents… nothing… another 5 cents… nothing… another 5 cents… and I got some good stuff! Geoff was like “how much did you win?!” and I was like I dunno, it’s still adding up. The two guys next to me (who were quite attractive) were like DUDE, your first roll?!?! I said noooo it was my third. ;-) Anyway, it ended up being $41.60, so I cashed out and felt happy that it was quite the good night.

Sunday
Woke up around 9… finally slept a little later! We had to take our final showers and everything and get all checked out by 11, so we did all of that and then decided to get some breakfast. We walked over to the Bellagio and found a café there (Café Bellagio, if you will) and it was the BEST meal I had all weekend! It was really tasty! Stacey asked about our highs and lows from the weekend, I said my low was losing my license and my high was the courthouse experience! After that Stacey and Katie went back to the pool and Carrie and I walked around for a long time! We did a little gambling (maybe a couple of dollars) and bought some presents for the boys and just did some random shopping around. Carrie got Starbucks and we just had a nice talk. Then we met the girls back at the pool… I stayed in my clothes and in the shade due to my weird medicine that was literally making my skin tingle… it was driving me NUTS! About 5 we decided to go inside, I got some cookies n crème gelato… I loooooove gelato. Seriously it is so good! Then we were like “hey, we’re just sitting around, let’s go to the airport and see if we can get on a standby flight”. So we took a cab to the airport… which was honestly way better than the shuttle, that’s going to be the new way to go. With 4 of us it was only $4 each instead of $5 like the shuttle, and it took like 10 minutes instead of 30 because of having to stop at every hotel on the strip! So we go ask about standby… she says we’d be 5 – 8 on the list but we can do it. Well, we’re already at the airport so why WOULDN’T we? Carrie and Stacey go to the bathroom to change clothes before they check their bags, and Katie and I go ahead and get on standby so we can go through the extra security since I just have my police report. It’s actually no big deal at all to go through the extra security… actually it was pretty funny. First we go through this puffing machine that puffs air on us and then test the air for bomb stuff… then we go through the normal x-ray, then I have to have my bags totally searched. The guy that was searching was totally nice and funny… it was great. We chatted it up… and then he got to the teddy bear in my bag… and I was like “dude, don’t make fun!” Then he showed Katie who was sitting a few feet away, and she laughed, so then he took it and held it up and waved it around for the whole airport to see! Too funny!!! Then he saw my makeup bag, which I said I needed to make me look pretty, and he told me he was quite sure I was beautiful all the time… awwww.. ;-) So we get to the gate and everything is fine. I talk to the gate agent and he tells us that the flight has checked in full and we’re not getting on the plane. Boo!! But we create this whole strategy for who goes if one person can go, two people, 3 people (we would only have 2 go in that scenario so one wouldn’t be left behind), and of course if all 4 of us could that’d be great. So then just before 8 they call “Kelly Robinson”!!!! So I run up there and check in – I was the only one who got on standby, and since I had to work earliest the next morning I got to go! Stacey went with me and I handed her Katie’s boarding pass, which I still had (yikes if I had kept that)... and then I got on the plane, exit row aisle seat. SWEET! We’re all set to go and we push back and move towards the runway… and then the flight attendant call button starts going off nonstop. So we have to go back and they start running tests and then they tell us we all have to get off so they can do more tests. Argh! I see Stacey’s face when I get off the plane 45 minutes after they thought I took off – priceless! It was so great. Anyway, they were all thrilled to see me back cause they missed me and their ride arrangements weren’t working. About an hour later we ended up getting back on the plane and taking off, just about an hour before the original flight. But I got to PDX about midnight and Geoff was there waiting for me… yay.  So we pick up Stacey and Carrie’s bags (they were checked onto that flight in case we got on standby) and loaded them into Jake… Geoff washed Jake for me while I was gone, yay! And then just sat and talked for a while and waited for the girls. We picked them up around 1:15 and it was like a Vegas reunion. Best part – Carrie and Stacey sat next to Chinese cell phone man on the way back… too funny! That dude was great. We drove back to my house and dropped everyone off and thus ends the Vegas trip. Whew!

100 things about me... updated!

I was re-reading old blog entries, and I decided to update the "100 Things About Me" Post... since some of it isn't true anymore. :) (anything with a --> is the update)

100 Things About Me
1. I am very anti-pets (this stems from being allergic to most animals) --> really only semi-anti-pets now... I'm not allergic to dogs anymore and they're totally growing on me!
2. I'm a Christian (and I will never forget all of the God-talk Jenni and I had during tennis sophomore year of high school)
3. I like martinis... my favorites are cosmos and apple, or any from Portland City Grill
4. I adore red wine, especially since I've moved to Portland. --> I have even joined a vineyard now... I love going wine tasting. :)
5. I was a cheerleader in high school.
6. I've lived in Houston, Chicago, Iowa City, and Portland
7. I'm a fifth-generation Texan, my great-great-grandfather was even a judge in the REPUBLIC of Texas.
8. I like preppy clothes... Banana Republic and J Crew are my faves. --> Sort of true... my favorite thing to wear is really polo shirts, jeans, and flip flops. Just boring!
9. I'm a Republican, but a very liberal Republican.
10. Beauty and the Beast is my favorite Disney movie.
11. I went to Florida for spring break every year from kindergarten to sophomore year of high school except two.
12. I love playing X Box, but I only have 3 games and they're all at least 3 years old. --> I got a 4th! Dance Dance Revolution! I really rarely play X Box though, but it's fun!
13. I have learned, especially recently, that I know myself VERY VERY well, better than most. --> I don't know if I know myself better than most, but I do know myself well.
14. I love camping... both real camping and the "go to an RV park" kind.
15. I love Chinese food, but I really think Thai is the new Chinese. --> Oh man I LOVE Thai food!!
16. I met James Van Der Beek when I was 17.
17. I'm obsessed with reading the message boards at theknot.com. Not the wedding related (WR) stuff, but the NWR postings on the Planning and Ettiqutte (P&E) board. They're all about the acroymns on the knot. --> Yup, pretty much still love the Knot, but I am fasting from it for the rest of the month of May actually.
18. I get irritated when people use bad grammar, and even more irritated when they spell grammar grammer.
19. My favorite movie is The Saint.
20. I really love TV shows on DVD, even though they're probably one of the more pointless things in life. I need to get the new Tivo that is $400 but lets you record all of your Tivoed shows on DVD.
21. I've been driven in a stretch Hummer limo to many places in Chicago.
22. I was on the park district swim team from 5 - 8th grade.
23. I was "supposed" to be a lawyer, everyone else in my family is.
24. I love how close my sister and I are becoming. --> Awesome!! We have become really close, and it's amazing.
25. I really like living alone, but even more than that I like having the "right" roommate... Michelle, Dena, Addy... I've been lucky roommate wise. :-) --> Brad is cool too!
26. I have been to 49 states. --> Never been to Vegas though, but that's changing tonight!
27. Breakfast food is one of my favorite types of food, especially at Walker Brothers in Chicago. --> and Hales in Portland!
28. I worked at a store called Card and Party Outlet for 3 years in high school.
29. I love technology.
30. I don't believe in love at first sight. --> But pretty soon after that!
31. Lately I much prefer buying stuff for my house than new clothes.
32. I want to run a half-marathon one day. --> Are you kidding me?!?! One day is in 30 days!!!! I didn't even know I had this goal, and now I'm going to do it? I guess I'm now saying I want to run a marathon one day!
33. I've wanted to get my tounge pierced since freshman year of college.
34. I've been in and out of love... but it's debatable about how many times.
35. I have Crohn's Disease.
36. I was a big fan of the 90's Chicago Bulls. Fair weather fan, if you will.
37. I love SUVs.
38. I absolutely adore my apartment. --> I absolutely adore my HOUSE.
39. I thrive on being around other people.
40. I have never been skinny dipping.
41. I like Chris Tomlin way too much, but not for the reasons you'd think.
42. My mom is the person I'm closest to in my life. --> Geoff is now...
43. I can't STAND Oregon drivers.
44. I was a big fan of Hello Kitty in 7th grade when it was popular.
45. I've owned 2 cars. ('Scort and Jake)
46. Greek IV was by far my favorite college activity.
47. I had a crush on Joey Larocca from 5th grade probably through the end of high school.
48. I've never done a "beer bong" or "keg stand", but that shouldn't surprise you.
49. I love my major - industrial engineering.
50. My second cousin is an identical twin who has a set of identical twins and a set of fraternal twins.
51. The number one place I'd like to visit is Thailand. (woah, Jenni, that is so weird... maybe we should go together!)
52. I was a lifeguard one summer, and hated it even though I had wanted to be a lifeguard for about 10 years.
53. I did the best in my class on almost all of the simulators in drivers ed, including the stick shift one.
54. I know nothing about wine, and only what Vinnie has taught me about beer, which is enough to get by. --> I know some stuff about wine now!!!
55. I was in a sorority with 100 girls.
56. I'm actually really shy, although most people don't believe that.
57. I love bike riding. --> I need to buy a bike, because I want to do a triathalon!
58. I don't like shopping with other people.
59. I spend hours at the library and bookstores. I got in trouble for staying up late at night to read when I was younger.
60. My parents just celebrated their 25 year wedding anniversary. --> Well, 26 and a half years now.
61. When I start dating someone, I tend to fall very hard and fast.
62. My favorite TV show of all time is Friends.
63. I love brain teasers.
64. I might get my MBA one day.
65. I'm probably much too reflective of a person.
66. My favorite dessert is cake. --> chocolate cake, if you will. ;)
67. I played the flute for 8 years and took private lessons. Since college I've played only a few times, except when I was in orchestra at church last year. My flute actually is in Oregon with me though.
68. I love skiing.
69. I hate Arizona. (Don't hate, Hart)
70. I think any city smaller than Chicago is too small... so much for Portland
71. I have 20-15 vision or something like that, but I wear glasses with just prisms in them for when my eyes get tired (I have some weird muscle thing that I don't really understand)
72. I have never had a cavity.
73. Chipotle is my favorite fast food.
74. I have never been overseas, but I've been to Mexico several times and 3 Canadian provinces. --> I have been to Spain and Belgium now!!!! :)
75. I love waterparks and amusement parks.
76. I like going for random drives.
77. The three food establishments I miss most: Panera, Steak & Shake, and Noodles. --> OMG Noodles is coming to Portland!!
78. I've been climbing and repelling thanks to gym class in high school. --> Yeah, that and the fact that I go to indoor rock gyms, took a mountaineering class, and have summitted several mountains!
79. I call one set of grandparents Mimi and Gaggy and the other Mommom and Poppy.
80. I sleep in a queen size bed.
81. I have two ear piercings in my left ear and one in my right.
82. I love water sports, but don't get to do them enough.
83. I would rather have the internet than cable or a dishwasher.
84. I really love cooking, but it's no fun to cook for yourself. --> I hate cooking. Who am I kidding?
85. My current favorite three shows are ABC Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, The OC, and 7th Heaven. WHAT? Seriously though, 7th Heaven is my new addiction. I don't even like TV that much but Tivo makes you watch more TV, and it's nice to chill for the hour or so I have between sleeping and work. --> My favorite shows now are probably 24, House, and The OC
86. My favorite vacation of all time was to Yellowstone. --> My favorite vacation of all time was DEFINITELY to Cabo last year!!
87. I really want to go on an Alaskan cruise.
88. I get my hair cut sporadically on a whim, never planned out ahead of time.
89. I love my birthday probably more than any holiday.
90. I would rather be cold than hot.
91. I'm very hardcore about God and what I like to call my "personal relationship with Jesus", but I can't stand the terms 'devout' or 'religion' (and even 'Christian' is questionable... too much negative connotation).
92. I've had my heart broken.
93. I started as a computer engineering major in college.
94. I tend to find happiness no matter what the circumstances, where I am, or who I'm with.
95. I was never grounded or given detention.
96. I have a good relationship with my parents and family.
97. I got waitlisted to Duke.
98. JetBlue is my favorite airline.
99. I loved my internship with UPS.
100. Vinnie and I broke up tonight. Way to sneak that in there, huh? But yes, I'm okay, blah blah blah... I'll be fine. It's a long story, and I'm sure I'll post it, or at least parts of it, tomorrow. It kind of came out of nowhere, neither of us expected it, but I'm not that surprised by it in a lot of ways. Again, I'll explain tomorrow. --> I have the most fabulous boyfriend in the world. :)

See, I'm being consistent!

This is my third update in 3 days. It only takes 21 days to create a habit, ya know. ;-) But I am not going to update again until at least Monday... expect a good update that day, it will be the Vegas update!!

Yesterday I was supposed to meet Geoff at REI at 4:00 PM to get my $50 back from the GPS I just bought 3 weeks ago that is now on sale. I was still on the phone on a phone meeting at 3:50... and 4... and 4:15, 4:30, 4:45. Then I FINALLY was off the phone... I felt so bad! :( Poor Geoff, but he was so sweet... he waited and walked around the mall and got himself a smoothie and everything. I finally got there just before 5, and he had already sent me a text asking if I wanted to get Chipotle for dinner. It was like he knew how bad I felt about being late and instead of being mad he was NICE! Who does that?!

After REI (I got my 50 dolla, and I also got new hiking pants, a new sports bra, and a FABULOUS Marmot waterproof breathable jacket that I've been waiting since January 2005 and was on clearance), we went to Chipotle and grabbed some dinner. Then we went home so I could change clothes quickly before church because I was hot and disgusting... then we had Quarterlife, which was lovely as always. I was excited the normal A/V guy was there so I didn't have to run the Powerpoint, but the speaker actually asked me to anyway, which made me sad cause I couldn't sit by Geoff. Geoff was doing the announcements... and after he announced the speaker, he came and sat next to me in the back during the talk. Out of nowhere, he didn't even know I was sad I couldn't sit by him, he just wanted to sit by me that much! How sweet is he?

Wow, this is like the blog of nauseating Geoff details. BARF!!!!

So after Quarterlife we went back to REI to pick up Geoff's car, and he went to his apartment to grab a few things and I went home. I ran into Christie the neighbor who I haven't seen since Easter, and I started chatting with her for a long time... she was telling me about a friend of hers who's having an affair, among many other random things. We were still talking when Geoff came over to my house about 30 - 45 minutes later. Christie finally got to meet Geoff, she says she loves him and totally approves. We were talking to Geoff for a while, and he seemed friendly and wanting to talk to her/us, but just kind of weird. Finally I was like "wait, what took you so long?" and he showed us he had bought ice cream... I ruined his little surprise! Oh boo to me. Oh well... I did laundry and packed and he read Sports Illustrated online and then we had ice cream and chatted. It was a lovely evening.

Okay, to reward you for getting through all of that, here is something funny. I was in a phone meeting this morning and this finance guy gave this total random number about something... and then the guy who was running the meeting said "wow, did you have to stand up to pull that one out?" OH MAN that was sooooo freaking funny. I love it. :)

Have a fabulous weekend everyone! I love ya!

The omelet man

So, almost every morning I go downstairs to get an omelet for breakfast at work. I usually have meetings starting at 7 AM so I generally get to work a little early and then go downstairs to get my brekkie! The added bonus of going down before 7 is that it's ALWAYS the good omelet man. If you go down around 7:30 or so, it may be him but he may have already changed shifts with the not-so-good omelet man who doesn't cook the omelets all the way through, and that's just sketchy. So, this is just a shout out to my omelet man. I think I may love my omelet man more than my boyfriend. ;-)

Yesterday after work I went over to Geoff's and we took my car to go visit his mommy... I LOVE Geoff's mom, she is seriously amazing. We are going wine tasting over Memorial Day weekend, so I took her a map of the vineyards and kind of showed her the places I am planning on taking her. She was all excited, she asked if she could keep the map. Then Geoff and I went to Panda Express and then back to his apartment. He took my car because he was going down to SE Portland for a certification test for work and my car gets better gas mileage. I visited with Eric for a while and then it was time to leave for dance.

I get in Geoffrey's car... and start it up. Um, yeah. As I'm driving away, I realize the speedometer doesn't work. Neither does the radio, or the turn signals, or anything. Hmmm, fun. So I drive to dance sloooowly (it's not too terribly far away) and then ask Eric what the deal is! Yikes! Everyone's making fun of me for first of all driving Geoff's car, and second of all because I BROKE IT! But the odd thing was when I was turning it off, I kind of had to jiggle the key to get the key out, and the radio popped on. So I kinda had a feeling it would be okay after dance. More on that in a minute...

So at dance, I was all alone... how fun is ballroom dancing alone!? I had been giving Geoff crap about it all day, because our instructor is this goofy little guy who thinks he's funny but really is not. Example: "what's the difference between East coast swing and West coast swing? About 3000 miles... heheheh" It reminds me of my dad! But anyway, I danced with the instcutor and it was FUN! He was teaching me all of this new stuff and I got to be the person he demoed dances with and everyone clapped for me! Plus I got to dance with Kyle and Trevor which is cool too. Kyle is 6'5" so it was CRAZY dancing with him, yikes! So dance was much more fun than I had anticipated!

I get back in the car after dance and it was just fine... everything worked, which was good. So I drove to my friend Stacey's birthday party... it was fun! I'm going to Vegas tomorrow with Stacey, Carrie, and Katie, and we were all there. Woo hoo! We got Stacey a gift card to Tiffany's, she was SUPER exited about it. I got more detail from Katie on her relationship which was exciting... we're going to try to sit next to each other on the plane so we can talk even more, our relationships are very parallel to each other. The significant others were also all talking to Geoff about making sure he picks us up from the airport on time Sunday night, etc. They are all so protective of us which was great. It was just really cute. Fun birthday party!

Then we came back to my house to watch House and Boston Legal... this was the first time we didn't watch it at Eric and Geoff's. My Tivo was a big hit... everyone loved the "do-do, do-do, do-do" noises it makes. The guys were just having the greatest time with it. You probably had to be there but it was QUITE amusing!!

T-35 hours until the plane for Vegas leaves!!! :)

Hand-holding Envy

I've told that story about the little girl holding my hand to a couple of people, and it seems like people wanna get their own hand holding stories in. Patrick commented "When i was like 6 i went to Ohare with my dad because he worked there and I toured the airport. When we were walking out, I was holding the hand of some random dude I thought was my dad til i realized my dad was walking next to me on my left. it was weird, perhaps he was trying to kidnap me. but my dad was like yo why you taking my kid." And my sister said "a little girl threw sand at me the other day at the beach, and then came and sat next to me. Does that count?" Yeah, I guess so.

For the record, I wasn't trying to kidnap anyone!

Shout-out to Jenni and Patrick who are reading and commenting!

So I got this sketchy postcard in the mail from what looks like my high school, saying they are creating an alumni directory and to please call them to verify my information. My mom had already told me that my sister got one, so I called them up yesterday. First of all, it was clearly some sort of company that may or may not have been contracted by my high school to get the information. The guy kept pronouncing the name of my high school wrong, and then he would like throw in the name of my high school mascot which just made things weird! So he gets all of my info, including work info and email address... and then asks if I would like to reserve my hard-cover copy of this book that will have information from 1907 - 2006 including pictures. I was like "uhhh how much dollas this gonna cost me?" and he's all "oh, it's just two easy payments of $49.99". WTF?! When did this become an infomercial? I was like "uhhh no thanks". He was like "well how about the soft cover? It's 10 dolla less and ya gotta keep track of your friends". Yeah, I do buddy... thanks but no thanks, I'll pocket the $90 and send my friends a postcard instead. Iffy at best.

Last night I SKIPPED A RUN. I don't remember the last time this happened, at least not without good reason and not without the ability to make it up later in the week. I don't have time to make it up later, and I took a NAP instead. What a scandal. I love it. Since I'm going to Vegas in two days this is going to be a low mileage week anyway, so whatever. It was fun!

I went to Carlyle, a quite yuppie (yuppy or yuppie??) restaurant in NW Portland last night with Andy (with Andy last night would probably be/sound more correct). Anyway, they have $1 martinis with the purchase of an appetizer on Monday nights - 1 appetizer = 1 $1 martini. So we each had an appetizer and a drink. DUDE! I have never had a regular martini before... wow. Strong. But good, and I had a burger that was pretty tasty. I would go there again. Then we went to Oba! because they have $3.75 drinks during happy hour, but only during their EARLY happy hour. Sad. But I still had their queso dip... DUDE I think that is my new favorite food. It is going to be my downfall. I think I need to go on strike from french fries for the rest of the month too... they are bad Bad BAD! But yeah, so we had a couple of drinks there and chatted it up and just had a grand old time!!!

I was telling Geoff that I was going to this place and then for some reason I thought of fondue. I told him that I'm going to take him out for fondue sometime, and he said "I love fondue!"
I said "Not as much as meee!! I actually own 2 fondue pots too."
He said "That's cuz you have more money than you know what to do with. How many times do you actually make fondue then?"
I said "Meany! I only bought one, one was a gift. And you know me too well. And I do NOT have that much money!"
He said "Ha! Thought so. We should actually make fondue some night. That would be good."
I said "I love that you know me so well. We can make fondue whenever you want."
He said "How do you think I know you so well?"
I said "I don't know why, but I know you do. You were so right about never using the fondue pots"
He said "Well that was an easy call. My guess is that they are still in the boxes somewhere too, or in a cupboard way in the back."
I said "Yeah you know me too well."

Totally busted. In my defense, I have used one of my fondue pots once, and the other one I only got for my birthday in February. So they're not totally useless. Andy has two fondue pots, and he's never used either one! He says it's a yuppy thing to have fondue pots... but I don't know about the never using them part.

See, now that blog was better. Still told you the story of what I did yesterday, but I made it (in my opinion) much more entertaining.