Perpetual Darkness

I wish I wasn't standing in the dark.
I try and light a candle, but the draft won't allow the wick to catch flame.
My flashlight turned on, but the batteries died as soon as I pointed the illuminating light towards the shadows in the corner.
I would wait for daylight, but there are no windows in this tiny dungeon I find myself in and I cannot find the key to the door that I have been pounding on day in and day out.

Turn on the light switch you say? Stop batting away my hand.

Its all dangerous in its own way.

I am back up next to the fire again, warming my hands.
While I was enjoying the warmth, it found life of its own and crept up behind me; circling me on all sides.
If I was to turn and run now I would probably make it with but a few minor burns. If I was to stay here it is quite possible it would completely engulf me.
Problem is, I don't know if I want to move.

Ten things you didnt know about me

My smart ass defiant streak started young when my mom told me not to touch the hot curling iron so I picked it up and kissed it instead.

I had my 15 minutes of fame, er, well more like 5 minutes (so that means I have 10 min left, right?) modeling Halloween costumes/lingerie on AM Northwest, a local television show.

I love peanut butter and banana sandwiches (even if I haven't had one in ages).

I am deathly afraid of sharks.

When I was in first grade we were asked what it was we wanted to be when we grew up and I wrote that I didn't want to be a doctor because I didn't like helping people (now I am looking into being a counselor? Ha!).

I flew on my first airplane at the age of 16. Los Angeles, CA was the destination.

One uf my biggesst petsy peevez is mizpellings

I once slept in the back seat of a rental car in a hotel parking lot near the airport to save myself $110. I then "freshened up" in the same hotel's bathroom in the morning.

I would rather pay the sticker price than have to deal with the headache of hassling with a salesperson. If its too much, I walk away.

I have been to 33 of the 50 states in the US (WA, OR, CA, ID, MT, NV, NM, CO, AZ, HI, AK, AL, FL, NC, VA, WV, MD, NY, NJ, ME, NH, MA, TX, OK, LA, AR, TN, KY, VT, IN, IL, MI, UT). I once was in a race with a former co-worker to see who could get to all 50 first, but lost interest after completing my Texas-Oklahoma-Louisiana-Arkansas tour. If I am going to be paying money and using vacation time I am going to go to places that I like! Why I have made Hawaii my destination of choice for my past two real vacations :)

Undergrad No More.

Its a weird feeling. Graduating from college. Being finished with a seemingly life long goal. But to be honest, it doesn't even feel as if anything has changed. I am supposed to be "educated" now, right? Not to say that I didn't learn anything in my years at the university, but I think that the most important thing that I learned was a poignant life lesson that I hope to instill in everyone: Don't go to private schools unless you are prepared to pay for them in the end. While all my credits from The Art Institute did transfer to WSU so they were not wasted per se, had I gone to WSU the entire time it would have saved me thousands of dollars in the end in tuition costs.
Now I stand motionless in the wind. Graduate school? What would I study? To take a break means student loan payments will be due June 7th, but not knowing exactly what I want to do makes it difficult to decide on a school, let alone be happy and willing to add even more debt to the pile.
I do love Psychology and what it intails. I think I would do good in a counseling setting, maybe in an elementary school or something to that effect. But shouldnt I KNOW if it was something that I REALLY wanted to do? Maybe I should just continue to work my way up the ladder at my current place of employment..
There are no guarantees after I finish grad school anyways..
But will I be happy with simply a BS?
Decisions, Decisions...

Hiking up the Mtn

Today, B and I ventured up to Silver Star to explore the sights (well, it was more exploring for me, he has been there many-a times before) and I have to say, very fun!
Wildlife was everywhere: Bunnies, Quails, Deer, Bears, Bigfoots.. (ok, well maybe some of those are exaggerated but they were all mentioned and all but maybe two of them seen), oh and bugs! Lots of bugs...
It took about an hour to get there, and that was riding with the madman driver, but after I got over my carsickness we started out on the trek.

Talk about a steep climb..
The first stretch was quite the workout, but once you got to the top it leveled out and became quite easy.

Yes, you are seeing that right, there was snow! And yes, he is about to throw that at me >:)

Well worth the walk up the mountainside. Mt Hood from a viewpoint on Silver Star (sadly, we didn't have time to make it to the top). Why is it I always end these things with me wanting to go back to finish?
Maybe I won't this time...

A Sunday Afternoon Downtown PDX

This last Sunday I found myself with the day off and nothing to do. It was a beautiful day, so I packed a lunch and got the little family into the car. Where were we going? Well, that was undetermined. I just drove.
And, like what normally happens when I just drive, I ended up downtown Portland.
I was unaware that the Rose Festival was going on, so the three of us walked the waterfront, explored Saturday market and ended the outing with a stop at one of my favorite Gelato shops (absolute fav is Parsis' on Fremont).

(its rather difficult to get a shadow shot of a dog, especially one that wants to walk in front of me at all times. From left to right: Le Char-Char, Me, E)

Making up for lost time

I have been out of the office and thus away from a real computer since May 9th. Being that today is now May 18th, I have some catching up to do Blog wise. And oh, do I have things to talk about!

Just you wait >:)

An Oddly Positioned Sign

As I was exiting the bathroom at Anchor Bar in PDX last night (not a place I would ever recommend, don't get me wrong) I noticed this sign by the door:


Epidermis is simply the outer layer of skin and if I WAS headed to the beach and not back to my table far, far away from the beach, I should hope that I wouldn't be FINED or sent to JAIL or BOTH for simply wearing a tee-shirt. Since I was in a drunken bar, in the womens bathroom, I expected the sign to discourage drunk driving or going home with anyone you would possibly find outside that door.. but this? I guess confusion over it simply shows the sobriety of the reader.

Sept 11 all over again?

(photo taken from Jason McLane's camera phone in New York City)

It came as a shock to many New Yorkers when they looked up to the sky and saw a low flying plane which looked like Air Force One being followed closely by an F-16 bomber. It shocked people to the point that 911 call centers were jammed with calls, all thinking they were experiencing another terrorist attack. Sure, it has been almost 8 years since the fateful incident, but its not something that is going to be easily erased from one's memory and what else were the people to think was happening?
Come to find out this was not a terrorist attack. It was actually staged by the US government as an artistic photo opportunity. They wanted pictures of Air Force One being chased by a F-16 with the New York City scape and the Statue of Liberty in the background. Naturally something as public as this was surely going to draw a lot of attention, but New York City officials were specifically told to not inform the general public. This leads me to ask the question: Why?

Why would you not tell the public?
Why would you risk causing mass panic through out the city and possibly the country?
Why would you spend $300K+ to charter the two aircraft during a recession?

Its almost as bad as telling everyone in the city to not ride the subway because if they do they would most certainly die of Swine Flu...

(More here)

A Short Comparison

Moi in Ester Short Park (can you tell that I am sitting on my hand in an attempt to not get myself wet sitting on the wet bench?)


And Mr B in Ester Short Park (can you tell that not only could he care less about getting himself wet, he is literally asking for it in one of the worst possible places?)

It was a rather fun day in the park, if you cannot tell :)

Please don't do this on my 50th Birthday...

My mom turns the big five-oh on Sunday, May 10th, but in order to give her her own special day (May 10th is also Mothers day this year) we decided to throw her a surprise party the week before. Generally speaking, I would say my mom has a good sense of humor, which was greatly required in order for her to get through the party and on this day it was no exception.

My step dad brought her to the "oh so secret" location, the community center in Woodland, where my sister and I had decorated. One half of the room was sunny and colorful with glitter and balloons, the other side was dark and dreary. I blacked out the windows and hung black streamers from the ceiling over where we intended for my mom to sit. We brought in a wheel chair and put fluffy black cloth around the bottom of the chair just to enhance the darkened effect. There was also a antelope skull (fake in this instance, altho I am sure we could have came up with some real ones) and some large black widow spiders placed along the window seals and the wall. Classic "over the hill" signs were on the wall and 50 years! banners were also hung from the ceiling.
He then brought in an IV and a saline sack, attached to a fake medical chart with all her "old age" symptoms. A family friend dressed up as "father time" and brought over a "goody sack" for her filled with an array of things such as polygrip, gas X, centrum, and much much more.
Lets see what else..
-Exaggeratedly large, thick framed glasses
-A fire extinguisher next to the cake
-Hearing aides
-A GPS button that will allow people to be able to find you when you are lost
-AARP magazines
-Dentures and associated glass for soaking

A little exorbant for my tastes, but she seemed to get a kick out of it.
Apparently he didnt do anything for her 4oth birthday and she let him know that she was a little disappointed by that so this year, he spared no expense.
Think maybe she learned her lesson?

Motivational Posters

The sad thing is that these are true to life. Where are we going as a society? :)

Some funny pictures

Sent to me today via email, my two favorites:

Talk about ingenuity!

Four Generations

This last Sunday we had the rare occasion of getting a majority of our family together to celebrate my mom's 50th birthday party (read about that here).
This is a shot of four generations of the Warren Family. Aren't we beautiful??? Say yes!