07/28/10

The majority of this week I've spent eating baked potatoes and watching Wildlife Specials or playing Clockwords in my pjs. After feeling disgustingly lazy, I will roll over and nap or bike to a coffee shop to read/do pre-calculus homework. Don't judge me, I'm embracing unemployment.

I had a phone interview yesterday. After a sweaty fifteen minutes, I made it to the next stage. An interview for tomorrow morning with Springbrook Software has been locked down! Around 10 am pacific time, think of me. Esp Bonbon! I'm hoping since it's her birthday, her good thoughts will bring me luck. When you blow out those 29 candles, mind using that wish on me?! Happy Birthday Bonbon!

I currently have a shade darker than pale tan...that's splotchy and uneven. Last weekend, I went to Sauvie Island and laid out on the beach with Bryan, Lizzy and Morgan. Everyone playing at the beach seemed to bring water toys, umbrellas and coolers. I packed a bath towel, short shorts and a book. Somewhat ill-prepared. Morgan lent me some SPF 30 that I, unfortunately, applied haphazardly which resulted in me looking slightly like a candy cane. The beach had a mountainous view (that seems like it should be an oxymoron. And I'll admit, it was only one mountain) and a relaxing breeze. Decidedly more pleasant than Florida sun beaches. After sunning, we went back to grill chicken-dogs and drink cocktails.

07/21/10

I think I'm becoming somewhat of a pre-cal wizard! I aced my first exam (sigh of relief) and am counting down the days to the final. My study buddy, Glen, asked me yesterday, "How is it you get this stuff?!" HEY now! This fall I'm thinking about stepping up to the big leagues...Calculus.

Last week, I met up with Amy at the Kennedy School, which is this quirky abandoned scholastic gem house that has been converted into a pub/bowling alley/movie theater/soaking pool/restaurant. We had a beer at the Cypress Room Bar and Amy was great. She reminded me of Tina Fey a bit, but her house was sort of a dud. It was just a little tiny and lacking for the inconvenient location and month-to-month rent. Friends instead of roommates? Yes! I was feeling a little glum on my bike ride back that night...and a little butt blistered (I think my bike seat needs a few adjustments), but the following day I finally found home. I officially have a roof! And my new house is perfect. Mary Poppins even thinks so! I move in at the end of this month to a two-story, brown house with a large front porch and lavender growing in the yard. I'll be living with two other females and a "tiny" kitty. Oh, and did I mention I'll be living on Prescott Street? Bonbon and Popeye, we're neighbors!...just a few thousand doors down. I'll post more pictures after I move in and unpack a few boxes.

I have an interview next Monday at a non-profit organization and a couple of other job possibilities are in the mix as well. Hopefully, by the end of next week I'll have employment figured out! And a new dress to boot?!!

Bryan and Lizzy took Ben and I out to Miss Delta for dinner last Friday as a thank you for watching the little brutes. While there I gorged on hushpuppies, fried okra, red beans and rice, and a sandwich! That's right, for the very first time (outside of Subway/Quiznos) I ordered a sandwich. I ordered a BBQ Pulled Pork Sammich over Meatloaf! Shocking, right! Was I possessed? We ended the night with date cake (mmmm, date cake--picture Homer Simpson's drooling love-affair with, well all food) and rhyming brain teasers.

Saturday night, the handsome foursome (I'm not sure this needs clarification--Bryan, Ben, Lizzy and I) had double feature, double-date night at St. Johns Theater. We started the night with popcorn and Inception and ended with Hot Lips pizza-by-the-slice and Twilight. Both amazing choices, just sign on facebook for validation. After numbing our brains with glittering, hyper-dramatic wolfvamp teenagers, we joined Sara at the Alibi for her goodbye party. The Alibi is this kitschy, gussied up tiki karaoke bar. And it's amazing. The cocktails come with little umbrellas and everyone is wearing a lei. This place is pricelessly absurd. Unfortunately, they don't have mine and Ben's duet (Summer Wine, a Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood song) so the patrons of the Alibi missed out on our angelic voices. Drats!

Ben had Monday off due to his new wonky work schedule. We finished our puzzle and watched too many episodes of Buffy.

07/13/10

Have I mentioned lately that the real world is tough? I'm too soft for it. I have blubber around the mid-section and scrawny arms. I want to be a baby bird! I don't need soaring wings; just a little nesting. So basically, yours truly experienced the cruel cruel ways of the corporate microcosm. I was swallowed up and spit out by the big, bad bugs (aka, valley girl with blonde hair). Tired of me talking in an anology? Let's get to the dirt. I am no longer employed with Income Property Management. According to my manager, it's good and bad news! Except, I'm still unsure what the good news is. Last week, I was informed that a replacement had been found for my position. Yay!!???? Basically, a girlfriend of someone at the company came in looking for a job and left with mine. The receptionist position was only unofficially mine, and now it's hers. I've been kicked to the curb. After my unsavory reaction, my manager offered me a few hours this week to help bring in a little income while I job search. Since the shock has worn off, I'm actually kind of excited! I've applied for some really cool jobs, and honestly, who wants to do mail for six hours a day? Really, that's all IPM had to offer me: repitious mail sorting and dirty dishes. Not for me!

I finally decided to part ways with my current roommates. I just hate Bentley (the Beagle). He urinated on my new books! I can take destroying my boots and eating my cat's food, but desecrating my books is too far! Those are sacred. So, I am still on the quest for the perfect house to move to. The last few I've check out have been duds. For example: In one of the houses, my bedroom had slanted ceilings, no closet and my favorite part, had "f*** the pigs" punk rock, paint job. Uh, not so much. I didn't even complete the tour of the rest of the home. But, I'm hoping tonight my living situation will get squared away. Details if it pans out! A little spoiler: 33 year old Amy, two fat cats, and NO BOYS (sorry guys, I just miss tabloids and chick flicks). Keep your fingers crossed!

While visiting the Tillamook Chese Factory, Ben and I picked up a country musicians puzzle! Basically, every day we age. Are we somewhere around 65 and retired? In any case, we are puzzle machines!

07/11/10

As promised, here is a link to some pictures from my parent's visit to Portland.

http://picasaweb.google.com/103925975217911764309/PortlandParents2010#

07/06/10

My enthusiasm with pre-calculus has dropped. Instead, I spend each lecture, twice a week, punching numbers into my calculator and sobbing. I guess my math brain is a little rusty. I will admit, the left side has been pretty lazy post-high school. Seriously, do you remember what a function is? Luckily, I have Squid to get me through! Yes, yes, her name is Squid. She has dancing toast tattoos, wild hair, heavy industrial nose and ear piercings,cat eye glasses, and a knack for pre-cal! And when she isn't available, I have Glen, the high school, mowhawking rower! He keeps talking about "when he goes to college" and I silently wonder where he thinks he is. Also, I find it slightly odd to be studying with someone who isn't 21. He's a 90s baby!

My parents visit to Portland started out slightly Odd Couple-esque, minus the bickering. I couldn't tell you played the part of Felix or Oscar. Due to bad weather on Thursday, their Dallas flight was delayed causing them to miss their connecting flight in Denver. Denver sleep over! They arrived Friday around brunch. The three of us stood around and watched the luggage go round and round on the conveyer belt. All sorts of suitcases, but none of them my mom's.
Felix Ungar: Where's my suitcase? Oscar Madison: Your suitcase? In the trunk. Felix Ungar: No. Oscar Madison: No? Felix Ungar: No. Oscar Madison: Did you look good? Felix Ungar: [holds his arms apart] The trunk is this big. It takes about a second and a half to look in there. Your 1927 piece of cardboard is in there, but my suitcase isn't.
Papa bear had a bad reaction to Portland and spent the first weekend sleeping with NCIS on in the background and a sinus infection. Mom and I took advantage of having no y-chromosome and spent a day shopping at the Portland Farmer's Market and the Tigard mall. Saturday evening I tried taking mom out for a nice dinner. That nice dinner ended up being: walking out of a restaurant and taking her to a restaurant that no longer exists to a restaurant that was closed to finally making it to pizza. Good ole pizza, the perfect back up of a back up!

Luckily, the string-of-bad-luck curse wore off by the Cooooolinary (Culinary) Tour of Portland. A tour guide took us to some hot eating/drinking spots in the Pearl district. Any Portland visitors, definitely get tickets to this! You will get to sample lavender chocolates and wine, truffle salt, orange tomato soup, Hot Lips pizza, IPAs and Pearl Bakery croissants!! We finished the night with Peter Sellers cracking the Shot in the Dark case at the Laurelhurst Theater.

We spent the 4th of July weekend hiking and touring the Hood River, Mt. Hood and the coastal areas. My legs are sore and my parents completely wore me out. Apparently, hiking vertically up for 3 miles can make you a tad winded. Pop got dressed for the hikes like he belonged in the outback; garbed in airy khaki, a hat and his walking stick. I kept getting him confused with Wally.

For the past two weeks I have been pretty, pretty princess and eaten majestically. No joke, my stomach has never been happier. We decided that Double Mountain in Hood River, the food carts, Timberline Lodge at Mt Hood, Cup and Saucer, Lebanese dinner with Bryan and Lizzy, Voodoo Donuts, Gravy...oh it was all the best! Really, the Ackers know how to eat.

Highlights: The Lavender Farm, OMSI @ night where the only kids present were adults drinking beer, touring the Tillamook Cheese Factory & Cheese mail, game after game of Mah Jongg (Ben even got a win in!), the Brie factory petting zoo, Farmer's Market berries and cherries, MY BIKE!, the "30-more minutes" hike and basically it was the most jam-fun-packed couple of weeks. There are tons of pictures, I promise I'll post a link soon.

Also, for those curious: BEN IS STILL ALIVE! Papa bear didn't growl nor eat him. And believe me, there were plenty of opportunities and remote hikes. In fact, the parents meeting my boy went great! The whole trip was fantastic. So good that we're already planning NW adventure #2!

Back to School; To Prove to My Dad That I'm Not A Fool

I have my backpack, my books and Adam Sandler stuck in my head. I get to join all the other night school babies for number lessons and functions every Tuesday and Thursday night. Is it nerdy that I'm actually excited about going back to school? Or that I've spent the majority of my morning flipping pages in my pre-cal book? Of course this gung-ho-ness (did you know gung-ho is actually a word and not bumpkin vernacular?) and the glamour of lectures is going to wane about thirty minutes into my three and a half hour class.

My allergies have been killing me lately. Most mornings I wake up with swolen eyes, congested nostrils and half of my windpipe closed off. It's awful and I've found that eating peanut butter can be deadly when you can't breathe through your nose and smacking is inappropriate. The remedy to this allergy nuissance is to overdose on antihistimes and then sleep for fourteen hours like you're Sleeping Beauty. I feel great today! And even better after Oatmeal Cookie Ben & Jerrys!

My landlord is kicking us out by August 1. His wife is pregnant and they want to reclaim the downstairs. They're going to be in for a big surprise since it's going to take a lot of hacking and gutting and money to clean the place up. Needless to say, I'm ready for adios Garfield Ave! I've found a house on craigslist that sounds charming and perfect:

"This NE Portland 3 bedroom 1 1/2 bath home is a few blocks off of MLK and conveniently located between Alberta and Killingsworth. There will be three of us in the home, the other housemate has lived here for about a year, and I've been here for about a month. We're looking for a fun fresh start with you in this wonderful house, so here's a little bit about it: The house is stucco, older (1930's) with minimal yard of its own but additional semi-communal space shared among the friendly neighbors (their houses are owned by the same folks as ours). There's also compost in the back and a garden plot if you're so inclined. Overall it's in fairly good condition with wood floors through-out, living room, dining and kitchen nook. There is a full basement with W/D, tons of storage space for boxes, bikes, surf boards or whatever. There is space for some additional furniture, wall hangings, etc. There are also two kitties that lives in the house, Bean and Squeak. Both pretty independent. Bean is into the play and Squeak is into the love. The room for rent is upstairs and rather beautifully large with a window nook plus two more windows for plenty of light. It's the master bedroom and has lots of room for a sitting area, art station, yoga corner, whatever you like, in addition to the usual bedroom things. There is a 1/2 bath upstairs (perfect for those late night bathroom runs) and another bedroom currently occupied across the hall."

What do you think? Perfect, right-- hardwood floors and some little kitty pals for Tinga! I'm doing a meet and greet with the housemates on Thursday to see if we'll be a good match. Keep those fingers crossed!

NxNW

Have I mentioned yet that MY PARENTS ARE COMING TO VISIT!!! About time, don't you guys think?? I'm so excited. I get princess treatment and fun padre time for almost two weeks! I have lists and lists of things that I want to do with them. And they have lists and lists of things they want to do. Really, my mom bought a guide book to Portland. The list is long and is definitely going to take more than one trip (fine by me). I'm really hoping that the sun will cooperate. Make a shining appearance.

Lately all I've been doing is eating at the food carts (Brown Cow, Brown Chicken!!) and playing Red Dead Redemption with Ben. Work wears me out. I just want to eat unhealthy food, take naps and go to bed early. I've aged due to this job. It's alright though. I compensate for my lazy dinners by bringing my lunch (imagine a middle schooler's sack lunch) to work and hiking on the weekends. Last weekend Dane, Ben, Perry and I hiked up to Wahclella Falls. It was beautiful and I got blisters on my heels. After our hike we went and payed a visit to ole Herman the Sturgeon at the sturgeon and trout breeding plant. Ben and I made a game out of feeding the trout. Although it was a wash, Ben bought me a pair of cat and mouse food chain earrings. Pretty adorable (both Ben and the earrings :)

Ben is slowly learning to cook. His first successful meal: the omlette. And as the guinea pig, I can definitely give it a two-thumbs up review!

Bryan's birthday was yesterday and Bob's is on Saturday. It looks to be a birthday bash weekend. Hopefully there will be party hats and streamers. By the way, have I mentioned lately that I'm happy?