didn't use very many words

drank coffee and then drank some more coffee

In between drinking coffee I was able to catch up on some internet TV, fill out some more paperwork for school, went to the library, and to top it all off ( I think this was the best part) I was able to visit a friend at work. I guess you could say today was just another day of Livin the Dream.

Besides today, a lot has been going on in life. Currently, I am in the first part of my travels, staying with some great friends in Seattle, WA. I am off to my next destination in less than a week and I am excited because the place I am going is 1) warmer than here 2) I get to be with my best friends and 3) it is my first time in traveling there. So what place is this? Hawaii! After that I am going back east. When I am done being footloose and fancy free, I plan on starting school at Portland State University, but with my track record there is a slight chance my path could be redirected. So that being said, I plan to reside in Portland, Oregon and continue to take in the Northwest.

I'll keep you posted on my days! and hey maybe I'll even upload a few pictures.

I would add a picture but...

It has been a handful of months before I have updated this. I know it's sad. But I'm back on the late night schedule. I starting to think after the past two weeks my body actually prefers less sleep. It's kinda neat but at the same time I'm fearing the moment of crash.
I'm up late tonight working on my second job. Yes, I said it... second job. It's actually a sweet deal that allows me to make some extra cash and accomplish one of my life goals. I am writing a book. Okay so it's not an ordinary, let me share my life story, kind of book, it's a study guide for the TOEFL. For all of you not familiar with that acronym it stands for Test of English as a Foreign Language. The study guide is geared toward college students on college topics. It's a silly job but it's a good mix up from what my real job is. Sometimes it's real nice to write and not have to talk. I'm considering on taking the TOEFL, seeing as I'm writing a study guide for it. The fear of failing at the English language is kind of frightening, and possible embarassing.

Other happenings in my life...
I'm moving in t-minus a lot of days. Actually I don't have a count down. I just know it is going to come sooner than I realize and I'm not going to quite packed when it happens. That's a lie, because I don't have much to pack.

Summer is arriving in 5 days (not actual summer, but summer camp summer) and I'm excited slash stressed. I have quite a list to accomplish, but as I continue to learn: the show still goes on and kids still have probably one of the best weeks of their lives. I'm going to try to have the best summer of my life. That might be hard but I think it is doable. I'll just work less and work less. No not really. My job is what will make my summer great. I get to hangout and coordinate medical people and their families; I get to go running and not worry about getting hit by a car; I get to jump in the river instead of a pool if I want to; I live in an outdoor mecca.

I would add a picture of this place and myself but I haven't downloaded any new pics worthy of posting. Maybe next time... hopefully it will be sooner than later.

I Forgot to Mention...

I need to refer to a previous post, but I'm not to sure which one it is... but I saw antelope! I didn't think it would ever happen but it did. Not only did I see one, but a whole pack (or is it herd?) of them. Anyway, they do exist along with the eagles and the cougars that live out here too.

The Sound of Rain is Great

It is the 1st day of March. It is raining. It is also very cold and I'm ready to say hello to the sun again. I'm reading a book and it talks about saying goodbye. For someone who doesn't do well with change, it gives a great perspective on the word and what it could mean . By the way, that "someone" is me.

"...if you do not say good-bye, then you cannot say what comes next. And what comes next is always hello." Robert Benson

Are we there yet?

When I say "are we there yet?" I am referring to Spring. I am ready for it to warm up or should I say I am ready for my core body temp to warm up. The groundhog did not see its shadow last Friday so Spring is supposed to come sooner... if the tale is true.
So I have not posted in a while, maybe because I have not worked a night shift in a long while. Those late night shifts gave me something to do when I got home... they are soon to start up again. So what have I been up to, besides anxiously awaiting a rise in temperature? I have been practicing my dance and skateboard skills; eating cookies; developing a real passion for climbing; practicing my medical terms; getting ready to start up running again; enjoying playing guitar hero; drinking coffee, and frequently getting to visit Portland and Bend and enjoying my friends there too.
So that is a short summary of my life these days. On a serious note spiritually the Lord is teaching me the realness of His goodness, that I'm not self-sufficient, and my walk with him depends on faith. I think those will all be life long re-occuring lessons, which leads me to I NEED HIM. As much as it doesn't make sense a lot of times, I need Him.
Okay so the next time I update this I'll probably be coming off a late shift. Until then God Speed and keep those hands warm. Oh and if you are looking for a quality map check out Raven Maps; quality maps!




After being stuck behind the 2nd round-up this year, I began to think to myself again, "are you joking me right nos?! Where do I live?!?"

AHHHHH..... FALL

Recently I have started taking deeper breaths because fall has officially come around and things have slown down dramatically around camp. I think it helps that I have spent the majority of September off, catching up on some well needed rest. But I am writing this at about 1 AM so maybe I rested too much thus causing me to not be able to fall asleep quickly, or maybe it's just me. Can one get too much rest? Is that "too much" considered lazy? Who knows...
Welp, I did it. I have officially lived somewhere longer than one year, and the looks of it is I just might be here a few more. I say "might" because that allows God to take me somewhere else, but I'm 98% committed to being here. It's hard and I have wanted to leave a whole lot but for now I'm certain this is where I'm supposed to be. Never did I think I would be living in the desert, 2 hours from a decent town and good hospital. I live in a town named Antelope, still I have yet to see one. When I do, maybe that will be the sign that I'm done here. It makes me laugh that I live in a place where I have to worry about getting mauled or eaten by a mountain lion when I go running more so than getting hit by a car... weird...

aren't photo boths fun?

16 Days Later...

Pictures from the 4th of July. Two words... awesomely windy! Other than being 27 and 16 days old my summer is going whelp... it's going. It's all those little moments that have made summer note worthy, like running when you know cougars are watching you. Where do I live anyway? Oh ya, in the high desert, called Antelope, Oregon. Wanna come and play? Oh and we have a sweet new skate park that is also note worthy. And if your interested in maps, I just got a few more to add to the collection.
Why is it when you stay up a few hours past when you should have already gone to bed, you get hungry again? And another one, are donuts really that much worse than a bagel with cream cheese? I don't personally think so and they taste better too. The final question, what do you do when a boy brings you ground beef as a surprise? Yep, deep I thinker I am... but not so deep I have all the answers.

THAT SUCKS!

So I just wrote this amazing entry (I'm probably exaggerating about the amazing part), but somehow my fingers (notice how I blame my fingers and not necessarily my whole person) navigated away from the page and WHAM there it went... picture, words, and all (the all being the time it went into it, and emotion too, but there was not much of that seeing as it is past 1AM)!
So like last time I wrote, I had a late shift, couldn't quite fall asleep, so I decided to write a bit. But I don't think I want to or better yet, can remember what I just wrote so I'm just going to attach a picture or two. So enjoy the pictures and maybe some other time I will add more words.

Welp...

I guess there are still incidences these days when people still need to tie up there horses.
The picture is almost as random as stumbling across this lil guy in the middle of Portland. I love who ever did this was probably out just to make someone laugh; I'm real sure their mission was accomplished by me alone.

Just got off work. It's 1 AM. I have the late night hunger pangs, but really I know I need to go to bed. But of course I'm not tired so hence this entry of not much but a random funny picture.

Apples and Peanut Butter

Before writing this, I sliced myself an apple and scooped myself some peanut butter (is that a compound word?), but like every time I go through this process I am always left wondering if I scooped myself enough pb ( I'm avoiding typing it all out now in case it is a compund word) to make it through the apple slices. I always manage to serve myself too little pb, leaving me scraping the pb off the plate with the last slices. What is the perfect ratio really? I guess it's very dependent on the circumstances; size of apple, your craving for pb...the list could go on. It just goes back to this, and really it's applicable to everything, not just apples and pb: what is the balance? Ahhhh.... life. To explain it in terms of a round object dipped in creamy goopy stuff is a fun tangible way to think of it. God is good, isn't he? That he gives us stuff like apples and pb to equate with life? Now that I made you think , probably not, but definitely laugh (don't think I don't know your laughing at me right now, cause I'm laughing at me right now), I'm going to steer this into another direction.

Currently, I am trying to adapt to the cold. I honestly don't think that will ever happen completely for my person, nor do I think I ever want it to; I enjoy the heat too much. Aren't seasons great? Yet again a great example of something tangible to equate with life. Anyhoo, the holiday season has made me stoked to see people I don't see quite often, thankful for those that I do, and cherish people in my life that have loved me well... once again, God is good!
I'm going back to Colorado for Christmas and it will be good; intentional is the word I'm going to deem as the theme to my trip. Set the bar high for myself I am.

Okay so a few recommendations from the meeks:
If you haven't seen Finding Never Land, you should. It's been added to my list of greats which include, Billy Elliot and Smoke Signals.
Music wise, I have been quite hip to jazz music lately so I'm going to say Stan Gehtz Quartet, and I'm also going to stick with Sujfian Stevens - great music!
And my cereal recommendation is Paul Newman's Blueberry Pecan Crunch, for cold, and for a hot bowl of goodness I'm going to stick with the traditional pipping hot bowl of oatmeal with raisins and bananas.

Like all good things this too has come to an end. God speed and good balancing!


Hey Mader - do you remember the pic? SWEET!

Christmas in October

Maybe you expected a differet title, like "The Past 3 Months" or something to that sort, but instead you get this: "Christmas in October". Let me tell you it doesn't matter what time of year it is you can make it like Christmas... all you need is people, food, music (Jesus is for sure there too!). So then you may ask "why?". Welp my roomate is getting ready to go to Africa for the next 3 months and we wanted to make sure she celebrated it sometime this year and let's be honest, like I mentioned before it is a great reason for food, music and people, and add Christmas to the begininning of those words and it makes them 10 times better.
As for myself, I am doing real good. I love what I get to do and where I get to live and the community in which I get to do all of it. I'll write more later, gotta go on the "after Christmas dinner" walk.

People Are Better Than Sites

Random thought: It is a weird thing to come to the point in life where you catch yourself talking about health benefits with your friends...

Every year in Oregon the "Hood to Coast" is ran by hundreds of people. It's an intense 197 mile relay road race, with up to 12 people per relay. It averages out to about 3 legs of 6 miles each, and the majority of the race takes place during the dark hours... unless your real slow and then your time between night and dark are the same. An average team runs it in about 24 to 28 hours. This year the first place team ran it in about 20 hours with a team average of about 5'30" per mile... if that is the average that means there were miles ran faster than that! Crazy!
Witnessing this has been just one of the few things I have gotten to do since my "time of transition" has begun. In all, I will have gotten to go to five states and been blessed by great time with some of my closest friends and my family. The finish of the "Hood to Coast" happened in Seaside, OR and it was an amazing time of refilling and fellowship with two amazing people, Alaina and Brandon. Not to mention the most intense ping pong matches I have ever played.
I am currently in Colorado getting to hang with the fam and see some super rad people. Then I am off to Cour' delaine to visit some more amazing friends.
If there is one thing I have learned about myself (don't worry I'm pretty sure there is plenty more I have learned..maybe that will be my next blog) I definitely don't travel to site see, but to people see. What a blessing it has been to be able to do so.
So if any of you are wondering if I miss California, I do, mainly the people and the produce, but more so the people.
Oh and one last thing to think about... in life I find that there are two kinds of people: winkers (those who wink at others) and winkees (those who receive winks), which one are you? I would love to know. Could one be winkless (one who doesn't give or recieve winks)? and would it be possible to dewink (take a wink back)? This might be a no brainer to some of you, but do blind people wink? Go ahead laugh, but it's a serious question.
Oh and if you really want something to ponder: Do the stars in the universe out number the grains of sand on earth?
Ahh the great mysteries of our lives.... God speed in your thinking... what is the speed of God anyhoo?

14 Days...

and I'm not counting. In 14 days I will have my car packed up, tuned up, and headed up north to Antelope, Oregon. If strawberry season was still in full bloom here I would have a box somewhere amidst my valuables. But since we are now headed into peach season, and other round plump fruits of sorts, maybe I'll take some along for my journey. I wonder how many peaches I could eat in 9 hours? Hmmmm. That would be one messy drive.
I bet you are aking yourself (maybe not), "why in the heck is she going to Antelope, OR?"
Whelp let me explain...
First off I have to admit I didn't really think I would actually move back to Antelope. (I lived there for a year previous to living here). As the end of spring approached and what I thought was the end of my involvment as property staff I found myself still interested and excited to the possibility of a position posted by Wildhorse Canyon. I honestly thought I would be going back to school or living in the city again. There was not a bad decision I could make for the fall. All my options were amazing and I couldn't go wrong. So when one is not faced with right or wrong decisions (that makes up 90 percent of our lives) listening to what God puts on your heart is key. And needless to say God continues to put the ministry of Young Life property on my heart and I couldn't be more excited to live, work, and serve along side more amazing people than those in the canyon.
I have 3 weeks between positions and I'm stoked for the time off. I'm going to Colorado for the majority and then I'm planning to hangout in the Northwest.
So now that you might be caught up on my life I plan on posting some pics of fishing in the San Francisco Bay in a few days. God Speed and safe driving!

The Tradition of the Birthday Donut 

Fireworks go BOOM 

Usually I'm good with coming up with some kind of title, but I'm fresh out on this one. Summer is in full swing here at camp and honestly I can't believe how fast it has gone by. It's a good bad thing. So right now besides watching it rain (we have had a freakishly wet June) I think I have finally made myself sick on strawberries. Two key things when eating lots of strawberries: don't forget to breathe and don't forget to chew. It's great living in a place where strawberry stands are more common than McDonalds.
My nephew came out and visited this past week and it was rad that he came out. He is only 12 and it is always a great reminder of what a great place I get to live and work in.
Movie recommendation of the week: X-MEN
Music reccommendation: Kings of Convenience
Whelp I'm off to go try to find a cure for rainy weather and a headache... I know for sure the solution is not strawberries.

THE SUN HAS ARRIVED!

Isn't this awesome?! 

The New Doo