The Cheating Blog

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Life without Chicago food

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hello party people!

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

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

Hello

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

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

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

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

Miss y'all! :-)

My life is in shambles!!!!

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

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

Of course there will be pictures

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

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

The Pile Comment

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

I bought a house!

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

Yaaaay I graduated!

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

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

Hello

Wow, not too much to report. Spent last weekend on the mountain (Hood). Snow skills practice on Saturday, in the rain/hail/snow/wind. YUCK but so much fun. After that we went back to the Mazamas (www.mazamas.org) lodge and sat around the fire, had a great dinner, and then went to a pub in Government Camp for some beer and pool. I lost every game but had a GREAT time. Then we got back home around 11:00 and I stayed up until 12 or so talking, then woke up the next morning at 6 for the hike. If you go to http://www.timberlinelodge.com/ and look at the trail map, we climbed to about 200 ft above the top of the highest ski lift, so it was a decent trek. One day I WILL climb to the top of that mountain! :-) Anyway it was an AWESOME weekend, except for about the last 1000 ft down when my knee was KILLING me. I was soooo slow which was sad. The next day in my Mazamas class I was still hurting, and everyone could see because I was favoring one leg. A friend who is a physical therapist in my group took a look at it and recommended icing it, some stretches, and orthoidics. So I need to look into that.

Then I worked all day Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, plus my regular nights... it's been a long week. :-) I'm definitely looking forward to a (short) 3 day weekend coming up. Just 15 more hours of work left for the week!

Do you even read the title?

I know. I suck. I never post.

But anyway, things are great! I made an offer on a house yesterday, I won't hear back for sure until Saturday. They had several offers so they're countering another, though they haven't rejected mine yet. We shall see... :-) My mountaineering is going well, though taking over my life. Just 3 more days and then I will not "have" to do all of these conditioning hikes. I still should and hopefully will do a lot, but I'll be more flexible to hang out with my friends. I have met a lot of cool people and really enjoyed this class though! I'll just be glad to take a breath of fresh air!

Addy and Christine will be here for the summer, SO excited about that. Amanda has already declared my house will be the place for girl's fun this summer. I so hope that's true. Perhaps when Addy and/or Christine move out this fall, Amanda can move in for a while until she buys her house. That'd be perfection. We shall see! :-)

Tis all for now... more tomorrow maybe.

A blast from the past

"With love there is always a way
You can let it ruin your nights or you can live for the day
I stand here as living proof
That the good guys will win after all that they lose"
~The Madison Predicament

Lyrics from a band... a guy I knew from high school. Pretty interesting. Makes you think! :-) Makes me think, at least.

A little blog fun...

Because that last blog was so heavy, I thought I'd lighten it up a little bit!! I think numbers 10 and 11 are my favorite. :-)

1. PORN STAR NAME: (Name of first pet / First street you lived on):
Dusty Eagle Glen

2. MOVIE STAR NAME: (Name of your favorite snack food / Grandfather's first name):
Cheez It Ann

3. FASHION DESIGNER NAME: (First word you see on your left / Favorite restaurant):
Memories Portland City Grill

4. EXOTIC FOREIGNER ALIAS: (Favorite Spice(Herb) / Last Vacation Spot):
Cilantro Cabo

5. SOCIALITE ALIAS: (Silliest Childhood Nickname / Town Where You First Partied):
So So Evanston

6. "FLY GIRL/BOY" ALIAS (a la J. Lo): (First Initial / First Two or Three Letters of your Last Name):
K. Ro (interestingly, a lot of people call me this)

7. ICON ALIAS: (Something Sweet Within Sight / Any Liquid in Your Kitchen):
Diet Coke Water

8. DETECTIVE ALIAS: (Favorite Baby Animal / Where You Went to High School):
Lamb Palatine

9. BARFLY ALIAS: (Last Snack Food You Ate / Your Favorite Alcoholic Drink):
Cheez It Tequila Sunrise

10. SOAP OPERA ALIAS: (Middle Name / Street Where You Live):
Elizabeth Overlook

11. ROCK STAR ALIAS: (Favorite Candy / Last Name Of Favorite Musician):
Reese Tomlin

12. STAR WARS NAME: ( First 2 letters of your first name and the first 3 Letters from your last name makes your first name. First 2 letters of your mother's maiden name and the first 3 letters of the city you were born in make your 2nd name):
Keson Daton

Hmmm

So, this is rather interesting. I will blog about Vin because he doesn't read my blog, and I am safe. The happy news in all of this is that I am still happy, because I am so well grounded and finally became happy for the right reasons. But, I did finally learn the lesson so many people have been trying to get me to see for so long. I needed to make my own mistake though. It's very apparent that Vin puts girlfriends ahead of friends. I knew this for a long time, and I never necessarily thought it was the *wrong* choice, just an uncommon choice that most people choose a time or two and then decide is probably not the choice for them. So I decided Vin was worth being friends with anyway, and when he wanted to spend time with me, he would. So for the first few weeks of dating Amanda, Vin and I barely spoke (granted he was out of town, etc.). The last few days, when he thought Amanda was not so into him, he was around me and talking to me all the time. Quite obvious that I'm the "backup". That inherently isn't a wrong thing, but the thing is, I've just decided that I don't want to be a part of that. I don't mind being friends with Vin, but I don't want to be that close to him, there's no reason to be close to someone that wants to be close only when it's convenient. He also wants to be close to only talk about him, never talking about me. There's just a whole mess of things that I'm not fond of and don't want to be a part of, other than hiking, watching Alias, hanging out with our mutual friends, etc. I appreciate his company for certain actvities, but I'm no longer interested in being in the little world.

What I have found light in is of course *God*. But He remains constant, so that is of little surprise. When I'm properly focused on Him, my happiness doesn't come from things that can let me down... and I made that mistake when I first moved here (the second time). Spring break refocused me on Him and me realize that I'm not interested in finding happiness in other places. Every time I continue to do that, He reminds me why that's just not cool, and not so much going to work. Yay for that. But I've also found happiness in real friends... namely, Andy. Of course there are Dominique, Amanda, Geoff, etc. and other people that I spend time with and really appreciate, but Andy really is a rock in my life and absolutely amazing. He totally watches out for me and I appreciate it, and that's all I'll say here. Another really awesome person is Mike, Vin's brother... who in a way also watches out for me and makes sure that I'm making good choices. I definitely appreciate that. In the midst of amazing friends, I've got Christine and Addy moving here for the summer, I'm looking at houses, I'm so enjoying my job (though admittedly not the hours), I adore my mountaineering class and the challenges it's presenting me both physically and mentally, and I'm just happy. Mountaineering is a cool sport, because though it's very much built on team trust and skill, it's also individual. Long hours of physical conditioning, running, hiking for 8 or 9 hours in a day, being up on the rock alone, etc. Though you may have someone to chat with on a hike, or friends cheering you on climbing up a tough rock face... you're doing it. It makes you think, and for me it makes me pray and be about God and trust Him to push me way further than I've ever been before. I like that. I can't wait to do more climbing this summer and get to know Mazamas people much better.

As for the man situation, I don't know. Don't know where I'm going with that in life right now. There are several people I'm interested in, but what do I want? Do I want to be single? Do I want to date? Do I want a serious relationship? I'm not really sure... usually it's either be single or want a relationship, but this is the first time in my life I've ever been able to say I just have no idea. Russ thinks I'm happiest when I'm dating, and that's made me ponder for a while. Vin says the love of my life is still looking for me... but he's the hopeless romantic. I'm just kind of the truster in God and what He wants in my life. I just normally like to have more control over it. AH HA... this is one of those "God moments" when God is just like BAM Kel, this is what's up... He's making me trust Him. Unexpected, because I haven't been acting like I'm ready for a challenge or trial, but apparently here it is, in a very unexpected place. Didn't realize that's what this was about, but I think it is... hmmmm... okay sorry that was weird, a total ephiphony right in the middle of the blog writing. But y'all are my friends, I'm sure you're into that. I know that God has the best plan for me, so I guess I'll for REAL give it to Him instead of just saying "I'm not dating anyone" and playing the little game I play with Him so much. I'll just let it be... not try to have positive or negative control over it. My, this will be fun... and a challenge. :-) I'll have to come back to this blog to definitely remember my thoughts on this one!

Happy reading... and I really do appreciate all of you reading. My blogs are so sporadic, not nearly as interesting to read as someone like Ryan's who is a great writer, but they are very me. Either very IE style and describing my days, or very Kelly and just laying it out there on ya. So thanks, my loves.

YAY!

Well y'all, sorry I don't post as much anymore. I used to do it at work, but I'm actually enjoying my job and getting stuff done now. And I'm so busy on my weekends that I'm just not having time. Saturday I went on a hard hike that kicked my butt... and loved every minute of it, if you don't count those 5 minutes that I was thinking "I'm quitting mountaineering, I'm not cut out for this". I learned this weekend that it takes the same amount of energy to climb Hood as it does to run a marathon, and that made me feel good about myself. It's like I'm training to run a marathon... woo hoo! :-) That just makes me happy. Then Sunday was hardcore rock climbing all day... and I made new, non-work, friends!! It was super cool, one is a consultant who went to Penn State and one is a physical therapist who is from Portland. And I met a lot of other really cool people, and I was just so happy to have finally made some new friends. We're going out for Chinese some Monday before class. Yesterday I hung out with Vin's friend James, who's a pretty cool guy. And of course I looked at houses (man it's so hard to choose a house), had lunch with Andy at Thai Orchaid, and went to class! YAY. I miss my readers though... you guys are the best. Anyway... more soon I PROMISE. :-)

A short update

I know it's been a while... and I found out a lot of you actually do still check my blog. Not really much to say. Life has just been GOOD. Doing lots and lots of hiking and rock climbing because of my mountaineering class, and in the midst of that trying to find time to look for a house! My sister's moving out here for the summer which is SUPER exciting, and everything is just fine and lovely and dandy. Not too much else to report though! I mean, I could go on and on I guess. I'm just HAPPY. :-) I totally love how life is just such a series of ups and downs... this is such an up month. So, I will report back tomorrow night on more details about all of this stuff. Just wanted to get you a little excited!

*happy*

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

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

Trip to Brazil

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

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

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

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

Drama, drama, drama!

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

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

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

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

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

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

Drama, drama, drama!

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

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

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

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

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

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