Anniversary!

Wowie! This is 4 years of my blog!! I started it to keep in touch with the Michiganders during my post-college road trip. I can't believe it has been 4 whole years. Amazing that I stuck with it, amazing how the time passes, amazing how much I have done during the duration of this blog. Yay for life!

All the Haps

I have been mostly busy with work and fencing, but I have found some time to take some pictures. Today, I went on a bike ride, took my camera and failed to photograph anything... Oops. Anyway, here are some recent ones:

Springing into Summer on the streets of Portland! This used to be my commute to work, so I knew it would be good for a picture when I saw these trees blooming elsewhere. Last year, I rode my bike through one day when about half the petals had fallen and it was windy. The petals where swirling up and falling down all around me. It was like magic!

The sidewalks of Portland are starting to look decidedly summery, too!

Last weekend, I went with a friend to visit the "waterfall" in Oregon City... Turns out it is an industrialized waterfall, hijacked by a dam. Kind of a fascinating place. Of course, I had to take a picture of the sign forbidding missiles.

Yeah, it smelled like sulfur, too.

Brunch at a new spot, Bar Carlo. It was SO yummy, it has pool tables and it's really close to my house! The only weird/bad thing was that, though they have "Bar" right in their name, they don't know how to make a Shirley Temple, my current drink of choice!

Wiener

I saw the Oscar Meyer Wiener Mobile today.

Discovery

I found a place to get yummy Cajun food in Portland! It's a little food cart on Hawthorne and 43rd-ish called Po House.

The proprietor is a lovely guy, Daniel, I think he said his name is. As you can see, he is very proud of his mascot.

Happy

This post is simply to say how very happy I am right now. I know that some of this may be the weather talking, sunny and 70 (which is, I think the most commonly held ideal), but there is a lot of good going on in my life. Earlier today, I was surprised by a call from Kallie (a friend from college), who I hadn't spoken to in about 2 years, and getting caught up with her was a way to get some perspective on where things are right now.

1. I have some wonderful people in my life. In my day to day right now, I am lucky to enjoy the company of my delightful housemates. They are great even if they drive me crazy sometimes, truly kind and fun people that I am glad to have fallen in with. Also Kyle, who is amazing and makes me laugh and is thoughtful and introduces me to new things and people and is incredible at random stuff, including Hedgehog Launch. Of course, there is my family, too. My parents finally visited; it was great to see them and spend time with them... and not just because of the free dinners and fancy desserts. I caught up with Caita a little bit today as well. I am still surprised that we have a lot of genes in common... must be the "awesome" ones that we share and not the personality determining ones. Andrea. What can I say? Somehow she manages to take good care of me emotionally and handle the best friend-type phone calls while still being the most overscheduled person I have EVER encountered in my life. Slav and Beth, well, they won't like being grouped in together so much, but they are both great long distance friends who make my life better and have put in the considerable time and effort required to be included on my sappy list of "thank you so much for existing."

2. I spend my free time fencing, knitting, socializing, reading and watching free movies. Yes! All this is awesome and makes me happy. Here is the progress on the endpaper mitts.


3. Kitties!

4. Looking ahead. I have been accepted to my first (and only) choice for graduate school, the University of Vermont. I am expecting this to help me get the career portion of my life more on the happiness level of everything else. I am excited and scared, a combination that usually yields good results, or at least good stories.

5. Stuff. Yeah, have I ever denied it? Stuff makes me happy some, too. I am still loving my soft and cushy new bed. I have a magenta and glitter hula hoop (thanks mom!). There are lots of other more necessity-type things that help, too.

So, yay! Thanks fate.

Summer?

The bubblers are on.