On the Road Again

I'm sitting in an airport.  Yes, again.

This time I'm headed for the Midwest, Indy to be exact.  I'm going to spend some time with a friend, check out a new city, have some fun and see what is out there.

I don't even have a return ticket right now.  That's a little weird.

I said goodbye to my sister for who knows how long as she will be back at school before I get home.

And she's going to be a college senior.  Crazy!

Summer here at home appears to be winding down, but where I'm headed it's still going strong.  The temps will be mostly in the 80s and 90s, but might drop into the 70s for a couple days.  And the humidity.

I can barely contain my excitement.

For now my plans include movies, karaoke, college football and some out of state road trips.  Who knows, I may even make it to Chicago.

I'll try to keep you updated, but I make no promises.

Hole in the Knee

I'm a bit of a klutz.  Some on my "accidents" are just ridiculous: burning my butt, stapling my fingers together, splitting my head open inside a stump, and scratching my entire body in berry bushes are just a few episodes.

Last night I added to my list.

I was walking with friends to dinner.  The pavement was rather uneven and apparently I wasn't paying close enough attention to where I was walking.

The next thing I knew I had twisted my ankle, fallen, scrape my knee and foot, and torn a hole in my jeans.

Let's have a moment of silence for the torn jeans.

Although I suppose people do pay big money for destructed jeans, and these were a sale pair, so I just got myself a great deal.

But still, sadness.

Now excuse me, I have to focus on where I'm walking.

I'm sitting in an airport about 2 hours from home, and by the time I take off from here I'll have spent 2.5 hours here.  Not my favorite thing, but it's saving someone a round trip and this ticket was actually cheaper.

We did San Diego.  And we did it well, especially for only having 2 1/2 days.  Plus both of us were exhausted.  Her from a week-long work event and me from too much travel and stress.

We packed our days and promptly fell asleep before the nights really got started.  And we were okay with that.

We saw Balboa Park (including the Zoo, a few gardens, and the photography museum), Coranado Island, and the Gaslamp district.  We ate a lot of really good food.  We did some shopping.

If I get my act together I might share a few photos and some more details about our time.  If not, you'll just be left wondering.

I make no promises.

For now, I'm going to enjoy a nice blended beverage, let my computer charge, and wait for my plane.

Lost dresses, Rush Limbaugh and everything else preventing my ability to focus

It is currently 11:11pm and my dad, brother and I are scheduled to leave the house at approximately 5am.

This drive across the state (yes, again) will be the first leg of a 7 day journey for me.  We're starting with a celebration of life for my grandmother, who is still clinging to the earth, while all of the family is in town.

Unfortunately life (jobs, kids, etc.) can stop forever.

After a couple days with the fam, I'll catch a plane for San Diego (via Seattle and Los Angeles) for a few days of fun and sun with my good friend K-dawg.  We lived together (in a one bedroom apartment) back in the land of the Rockies.

As of now, all I have planned/packed for the trip are a couple books and my outfit for tomorrow's event.  I know, I am so on top of things.

In the midst of getting my room organized and putting clothes, which is how I prepare to pack, I misplaced two dresses.  I'm pretty sure there somewhere in my room.  I think.

It's either exhaustion or hunger talking.  I had a late lunch--pizza meets a pulled pork sandwich--which was so amazing delicious.  Then a mid afternoon milkshake, but since then have consumed nothing.

Brilliant, eh?

And of course, here I am blogging when I should be packing.  But there are important things to do online.  Like looking at Rush Limbaugh's wedding pictures on facebook.  (That was me last night.)  Why I spent minutes of my life on that I'll never know.

The time I've lost.

(BTW, thanks for your kind words about my grandmother!  I really appreciate it.  And it's nice to know there are people who get what we're going through.)

Right Now

As a digression from my last post, I want to talk about things I love right now.  Some I have and some I have/will experience.  Enjoy!

Things I have that I love:

I got new glasses and I'm in love with the frame, clean and quirky all in one.

Image Source

I just happened to stop by Nordstrom (and the MAC counter) last Friday.  As my mom says, "Nordstrom is crack."  I saw this new collection on display and snatched up two eyeshadows (the greens) and a lip glass (in red).  The lip glass is pretty much perfect and I love the concentrated color of the eye shadows.

I always struggle to give people gift ideas, but this year I knew I wanted a watch.  I didn't have one I liked wearing and I hate depending my phone to tell me what time it is.  This watch was perfect.  The white will go with everything and it has just a touch of bling.

Things I get to do:

Image Source

I'm headed to San Diego on Sunday for a few days of fun in the sun with a good friend.  I've been through the city, but I've never explored it.  I can't wait!

Image Source

Indianapolis, to visit another friend in about 2 weeks.  It's a place I haven't been and a friend I haven't seen in forever.  What I'm really excited about for the trip is going to the Tennessee/Oregon football game in Knoxville.  105,000-ish people dressed in orange, a day-long tailgate party, I just can't tell you how excited I am.

Also, this:

A few beautiful things I've seen recently (and probably already shown you).

Even though life is rough, there are good things in my life too.

Anywhere but Here

Life feels a little upside down right now.  There is a lot going on, both good and bad, and I'm having trouble feeling present.

I want to be with the good, the chance, the leap of faith I'm planning on taking.

I want to be with the bad, the fading, the family gathered together.

Instead I'm here, home, with my father and dogs, preparing to go to work in the morning.

My grandmother is dying of Alzheimer's.  The family has mostly gathered together.  And it's hard not to be there.  Even though it's also hard to be there.

As I said yesterday to my mom and aunt, watching my grandmother die is really difficult, but her death itself will be a relief.  This is a woman I haven't had a real conversation with in about two years.  A woman who read voraciously, loved to teach, and dreamed of the ocean.

And the leap of faith, I'll explain that later.

For now, I'm going to bed so I can wake up early and go to work.

A few exciting things:

• I went to a jazzercise class today.  Seriously.  My friend, the hostest with the mostest who I stayed with last summer in Costa Rica, wanted to check it out and invited me to tag along.  We were the youngest members of the class by at least 30 years and probably the least coordinated.
• I went in to touch up my roots and trim the ends of my hair.  I ended up with two colors of highlights, beautifully straight hair, and freshly shaped eyebrows.  It was my first experience with waxing and so far, so good.
• I bought a plane ticket, actually tickets.  One to fly home from the east side of the state on Sunday (yes, I'm driving back across the state tomorrow) and another to see my friend Sam and Indianapolis at the end of month.
• Also, I'm going to San Diego in a little over a week, after going to my friend Jordan's wedding.  (Unless my grandmother, who's in the end stages of Alzheimer's, passes away first.  But that's a story for another time and it's own separate post.)

Now excuse me while I go to do some laundry.

Orcas Escape

I'm a little behind on the posting, mostly because I didn't have internet access for over 5 days last week.

I know, crazy.

Actually it was kind of nice, except for the mass of emails (mostly junk) that awaited me when I got home.

But because of that I never blogged about my camping trip.  You know, the one that happened a week and a half ago.

So I'm telling you about it now.

I have a friend that I share a birthday with (I actually know of 4 other people that share my birthday, including my blog friend Amy) and we had been throwing out ideas for how to celebrate.

Originally we talked about skydiving, which I still really want to do, but then I realized I was losing my health insurance on my birthday, so we put that idea on hold.

Instead we ended up settling on camping on Orcas Island.

If you aren't familiar with the west side (of the Evergreen State), we have some beautiful islands, called the San Juans.

I had never been out there (a crime!) and decided it was a time for a visit.

So we headed out for a quick visit, not quite 24 hours.  One thing I love about the trip...ferries!  Even if the ride did cost an arm and a leg.

The weather, in case you couldn't tell, was gorgeous for our trip.

So gorgeous that we got to check out some amazing views from the top of Mt. Constitution.  This picture is of Mt. Baker, and the city below it is where I live.

The view at the top was pretty much 360 degrees, a lot of mountains including into Canada.

Even when you weren't at the top of the mountain, the island provided very beautiful views.  Here's a shot from walking around after a very delicious dinner.

I can't get enough of all the water.  Back when I lived in Colorado, water was the only thing I really missed.

The only unfortunate part of the trip, besides its brevity, was my failure at packing well.  This may or may not have been due to waiting until the last minute to pack, but somehow I ended up with only a semi-functional camping chair.

Gold star for me.

That aside, the trip was amazing!

Say Hey!

I have another post planned with lots of real words and stuff, but until then you should enjoy this video.

I've been grooving to Say Hey (I Love You) for a few weeks now, but the music video is even better.  If this doesn't make you smile and want to dance, we probably can't be friends.

And that just makes me sorry for you on so many levels.

Thanks to Laura at Everypath for reminding me of this awesomeness!

A Little Vacay

First of all, I'm alive.  I made it back from the lake, even if I didn't really want to leave all that sun and water.

And maybe the tannest I've been in my entire life.  Without burning.  At all.  Sunscreen is my friend.

Those hours spent mowing also seem to have paid off, awkward tan lines and all.

I got to enjoy some wonderful weather, some not so wonderful weather, and some really delicious dessert.

One night my friend, CC, her cousin, and I went into town for dessert.  The resort restaurant has ridiculous desserts.  Huge and delicious and semi-famous in the area.

While originally we were just going to share the sundae, in the background, we read the description of the cheesecake and decided to get that as well.

But really, two desserts for three people isn't terrible.  Unless one of the desserts is 6 lbs. of cheesecake (with fresh huckleberry sauce).

It looks normal in the picture, I know.  Both the desserts are actually supersized.  You could have a goldfish in the sundae bowl.

I know I tend to exaggerate sometimes, but I'm not this time.

But it was so worth it.  Plus, I was swimming, kayaking and even dragging a floating dock around, so I figure I worked it off...eventually.