After returning from my vacation up north, I felt refreshed and ready to make some changes in my life. I was excited about starting to do things for myself, things that make me happy. It's sometimes very easy to fall into our busy routines, to get caught up in our responsibilities and we let the days and weeks slip by so easily. We start forgetting to nurture our relationships with friends and family, but most importantly, we forget to nurture our own souls. One of the reasons why I love to travel is that it gives me a chance to take a step away from my daily routine. It offers an opportunity for a fresh perspective, new experiences, and inner reflection. I was able to take the time to ask myself, about both the small and big things in my life: what am I doing?, what do I want to be doing?, and why am I not doing it? Since my return, I've been addressing these questions...
One thing I had been unhappy about lately was my happy-hour-outings, too-busy, cubicle-bound, post-college weight gain. I'm finally doing something about it, and picked up my activity level a few notches. At least five days a week, I'm either walking at the beach, going for a run, working out at the gym, or taking a yoga class. It's been going really well, and the results are slowly starting to show. I've also been wanting to go camping and hiking more often, but rarely get around to planning any trips. These are activities that I love, and wondered to myself why I wasn't doing more of the things I loved. So, I put together the Leo Carrillo trip, and we had a great weekend away. And I've purchased two books, "Day Hikes on the California Southern Coast" and "101 HIkes in Southern California", and plan on putting it to use at least once a month. These, among other things, are the changes I've been making in my routine, and my life.
I've been praying when I wake up,
stretching in the morning,
eating healthier,
checking things off my to-do list,
taking my vitamins,
practicing patience,
doing the things I love,
nurturing myself,
And it feels good.
Thursday, April 27, 2006
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Another six cents
As you'll remember, the gas station I drive by everyday was $3.09 yesterday.
Today, it is $3.15
Another day, another six cents. I should've filled up before it goes up again tomorrow.
*how depressing*
Today, it is $3.15
Another day, another six cents. I should've filled up before it goes up again tomorrow.
*how depressing*
SO EXCITED!!
I cannot contain how THRILLED I am by the wonderful news I received last night! One of my oldest and best friends, Kate, just got engaged to her now-fiance, Brian. I'm so excited and happy for them!! YAY!
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Time to dust off my cruiser
The gas station I pass every morning on my way to work:
Monday: $2.97
Tuesday: $3.03
Today: $3.09
*chokes* HOLY CRAP! Uh, maybe it's about time I use my bike and walking shoes more...
Monday: $2.97
Tuesday: $3.03
Today: $3.09
*chokes* HOLY CRAP! Uh, maybe it's about time I use my bike and walking shoes more...
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Names
During our homemade gnocchi dinner conversation Sunday night:
"I love how we have a human named Kat and a cat named Chicken here." -Kent
HaHa.
"I love how we have a human named Kat and a cat named Chicken here." -Kent
HaHa.
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Squirrels are Evil
I had a WONDERFUL time camping this past weekend, although I could've done without two things:
1. Our loud, obnoxious, trashy neighbors (check out the crap they left in the fire ring on my photoblog) and
2. Those nasty little squirrels
Now, I had nothing against squirrels before this weekend. When we first arrived at the campsite and saw them skittering around everywhere, I actually thought they were kinda cute. Hah! I totally retract that thought now. Why all this animosity towards those innocent furry little guys, you ask? Because they're not innocent, they're nasty little rodents! So this is what happened...
We'll start the story by saying, I heart my tent. After years of camping and bumming off of friends' gear, it was my first big purchase when I finally was able to afford my own gear.
So onto the squirrel part...
I put one little bag of food, containing oranges, bananas, and bread into my tent. I did hesitate at first, but after further consideration, decided that I was not in bear country and one little bag in my tent would be no big deal. We had all gone to the beach for a few hours on Saturday morning, and upon returning for lunch, found our campsite littered with trash--the squirrels had ripped through our trash bags and spread it everywhere. They had also gotten into Meghan and Liam's tent, which also had food, and ate our brownies, cheetos, and bread. Worst of all, they had tried to get into my tent by chewing on the zipper (which is now ruined and my tent cannot open or close). When that attempt was unsuccessful, the squirrels decided they would just CHEW A HUGE HOLE THROUGH my tent to get to the bread. It was quite upsetting to see my lovely year-old, only-used-three-times tent with a big HOLE in it! Damn evil squirrels. Lesson (quickly) learned, however: never leave any sort of food in your tent, even if you're not in bear country. Luckily, REI is fixing the damage as we speak, so it's not the end of the world.
We had been having rain on and off here lately, but our camping weekend was sunny, warm, and beautiful. As a result, I have a very bad raccoon-eye look going on. Everyone keeps pointing it out to me, like I don't already know I look ridiculous. So, aside from the squirrel issue, we had a great time. Hung out at the beach for a while, Pat & Shelby went GPS treasure hunting, played frisbee. After lunch, we took a hike up Nicholas Flats trail, which was much steeper and much longer than we had anticipated, but had great views of the ocean and green mountains.
1. Our loud, obnoxious, trashy neighbors (check out the crap they left in the fire ring on my photoblog) and
2. Those nasty little squirrels
Now, I had nothing against squirrels before this weekend. When we first arrived at the campsite and saw them skittering around everywhere, I actually thought they were kinda cute. Hah! I totally retract that thought now. Why all this animosity towards those innocent furry little guys, you ask? Because they're not innocent, they're nasty little rodents! So this is what happened...
We'll start the story by saying, I heart my tent. After years of camping and bumming off of friends' gear, it was my first big purchase when I finally was able to afford my own gear.
So onto the squirrel part...
I put one little bag of food, containing oranges, bananas, and bread into my tent. I did hesitate at first, but after further consideration, decided that I was not in bear country and one little bag in my tent would be no big deal. We had all gone to the beach for a few hours on Saturday morning, and upon returning for lunch, found our campsite littered with trash--the squirrels had ripped through our trash bags and spread it everywhere. They had also gotten into Meghan and Liam's tent, which also had food, and ate our brownies, cheetos, and bread. Worst of all, they had tried to get into my tent by chewing on the zipper (which is now ruined and my tent cannot open or close). When that attempt was unsuccessful, the squirrels decided they would just CHEW A HUGE HOLE THROUGH my tent to get to the bread. It was quite upsetting to see my lovely year-old, only-used-three-times tent with a big HOLE in it! Damn evil squirrels. Lesson (quickly) learned, however: never leave any sort of food in your tent, even if you're not in bear country. Luckily, REI is fixing the damage as we speak, so it's not the end of the world.
We had been having rain on and off here lately, but our camping weekend was sunny, warm, and beautiful. As a result, I have a very bad raccoon-eye look going on. Everyone keeps pointing it out to me, like I don't already know I look ridiculous. So, aside from the squirrel issue, we had a great time. Hung out at the beach for a while, Pat & Shelby went GPS treasure hunting, played frisbee. After lunch, we took a hike up Nicholas Flats trail, which was much steeper and much longer than we had anticipated, but had great views of the ocean and green mountains.
Friday, April 07, 2006
Camping!
I'm going camping and am so excited! Heading up to Leo Carrillo State Beach this afternoon to spend the weekend with Meg, Liam, Pat and Shelby. Should be a good time!
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Invasion
Funny thing happened last night.
I came home, and just as I sat down on the couch, the blinds behind me rustled noisily. At first I ducked, thinking they were going to fall over me. Nothing happened after a few seconds, when I looked up to see a bird flapping and hovering above my head. This unexpected invader scared the daylights out of me--I ran down the hall screaming, pounded on Jake's door, and told him that THERE WAS A PIGEON IN OUR APARTMENT! He woke up from his nap, amused at this occurrence, and came out to take pictures. How it got into our place? We had no clue. How we were going to get it out? We were even more clueless. Jake grabbed a broom, I grabbed a swiffer mop, we opened our front door--and so began our attempt to get the bird out. 15 scary, hilarious, and frustrating minutes later, it was still inside, flying from the living room to the kitchen, back and forth and everywhere but out the door! To our rescue came two girls on our doorstep: a 6th grader and 9th grader selling candy for their soccer team. They've apparently had experience with getting birds out of their own home, and were more than willing to help. The older girl, JoJo, grabbed the broom from Jake and started chasing--and whacking--the poor tired-out pigeon, causing feathers to fly everywhere. We ended up popping the screen off the kitchen window, and the bird finally exited out of it during the last chase. According to the girls, having a bird in your home is good luck, and may be a sign that money will be coming in soon, which is a fun idea to entertain. If nothing else, it provided us with an eventful evening full of laughs.
I came home, and just as I sat down on the couch, the blinds behind me rustled noisily. At first I ducked, thinking they were going to fall over me. Nothing happened after a few seconds, when I looked up to see a bird flapping and hovering above my head. This unexpected invader scared the daylights out of me--I ran down the hall screaming, pounded on Jake's door, and told him that THERE WAS A PIGEON IN OUR APARTMENT! He woke up from his nap, amused at this occurrence, and came out to take pictures. How it got into our place? We had no clue. How we were going to get it out? We were even more clueless. Jake grabbed a broom, I grabbed a swiffer mop, we opened our front door--and so began our attempt to get the bird out. 15 scary, hilarious, and frustrating minutes later, it was still inside, flying from the living room to the kitchen, back and forth and everywhere but out the door! To our rescue came two girls on our doorstep: a 6th grader and 9th grader selling candy for their soccer team. They've apparently had experience with getting birds out of their own home, and were more than willing to help. The older girl, JoJo, grabbed the broom from Jake and started chasing--and whacking--the poor tired-out pigeon, causing feathers to fly everywhere. We ended up popping the screen off the kitchen window, and the bird finally exited out of it during the last chase. According to the girls, having a bird in your home is good luck, and may be a sign that money will be coming in soon, which is a fun idea to entertain. If nothing else, it provided us with an eventful evening full of laughs.
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Friends
"These books are my friends, my companions. They make me laugh and cry and find meaning in life." -Jeod in Eragon by Chrisopher Paolini
I feel the same way about my books, and it is why I enjoy reading so much. They are not only stories, but friends...
Eragon was our last book club read. Attendance at the meeting this past Sunday was pretty low, and I think it was partially due to the fact that some people couldn't get into the book and didn't finish reading. Those of us that did finish and came to the meeting thought it was an overall enjoyable read, although it had some serious flaws and was nowhere near being a great book.
I feel the same way about my books, and it is why I enjoy reading so much. They are not only stories, but friends...
Eragon was our last book club read. Attendance at the meeting this past Sunday was pretty low, and I think it was partially due to the fact that some people couldn't get into the book and didn't finish reading. Those of us that did finish and came to the meeting thought it was an overall enjoyable read, although it had some serious flaws and was nowhere near being a great book.
Monday, April 03, 2006
Giving up
Okay, I think I'm giving up on the idea of fully recapping my Pacific Northwest trip. Instead, you can enjoy the pictures on my photoblog, and I will just list my favorites of the trip here:
1. Powell's City of Books, Portland: I'm a big book nerd, and this place is tons of fun for readers like me. There's not only aisle after aisle and room after room of books, but the books are both new and used so you can bargain hunt, and I do love bargains! Haley's mom gave us a $50 gift certificate, so we were able to get a couple of books each, which was wonderful.
2. Costello's Travel Caffe, Portland: I really wish I could transport this travel-themed cafe down to Southern California, because it is the next best thing to ACTUALLY traveling, and I would spend so much time there. Two walls of the cafe have flat screen TVs on them, showing a different destination each day (we went there twice, and they had scenes from London one day and from Prague the other.) They also have nightly events, including things like showing a foreign film, live international music, or spanish conversation night. The food and dessert was great, and so was the atmosphere--it made me feel like I really could have been in the midst of traveling in some foreign country--I just loved it there.
3. Oregon Zoo tour, Portland: I haven't been to a zoo in about ten years, and I'm so used to looking at marine life that it was a nice change to see some terrestrial animals. And boy did we get to see them--up close and personal. An aquarium friend was able to get into contact with someone at the zoo for me, so we were given a behind-the-scenes tour by one of the keepers. It was AMAZING being able to get so close to the sun bears, polar bears, tigers, leopard, otter, and steller sea lions. AMAZING.
4. Oregon Coast drive: Mesha drove me up and down the coast, and it was beautiful! I'm so used to the over-developed coastline here, and it was refreshing to see the stretches of untouched coastline there. I was *crossing my fingers* and hoping to see whales--or even A whale--during my trip to the coast. We did see the spout of one from a lookout, but couldn't find it again when we drove down to get a closer look. And we missed one spyhopping near the tidepools by a couple of hours. So, I had no luck in seeing whales =(
5. Eating good seafood, especially Tidal Raves in Depoe Bay, OR: I wanted seafood, and I got seafood. Clam chowder, steamed clams, fresh fish, crab cakes, crab cocktail, fish and chips, seafood pasta...mmm...
6. Pike Place Market
7. Seattle public library: again, it's cause I'm a book nerd, and the architecture and design of the 10-story building was just so cool.
1. Powell's City of Books, Portland: I'm a big book nerd, and this place is tons of fun for readers like me. There's not only aisle after aisle and room after room of books, but the books are both new and used so you can bargain hunt, and I do love bargains! Haley's mom gave us a $50 gift certificate, so we were able to get a couple of books each, which was wonderful.
2. Costello's Travel Caffe, Portland: I really wish I could transport this travel-themed cafe down to Southern California, because it is the next best thing to ACTUALLY traveling, and I would spend so much time there. Two walls of the cafe have flat screen TVs on them, showing a different destination each day (we went there twice, and they had scenes from London one day and from Prague the other.) They also have nightly events, including things like showing a foreign film, live international music, or spanish conversation night. The food and dessert was great, and so was the atmosphere--it made me feel like I really could have been in the midst of traveling in some foreign country--I just loved it there.
3. Oregon Zoo tour, Portland: I haven't been to a zoo in about ten years, and I'm so used to looking at marine life that it was a nice change to see some terrestrial animals. And boy did we get to see them--up close and personal. An aquarium friend was able to get into contact with someone at the zoo for me, so we were given a behind-the-scenes tour by one of the keepers. It was AMAZING being able to get so close to the sun bears, polar bears, tigers, leopard, otter, and steller sea lions. AMAZING.
4. Oregon Coast drive: Mesha drove me up and down the coast, and it was beautiful! I'm so used to the over-developed coastline here, and it was refreshing to see the stretches of untouched coastline there. I was *crossing my fingers* and hoping to see whales--or even A whale--during my trip to the coast. We did see the spout of one from a lookout, but couldn't find it again when we drove down to get a closer look. And we missed one spyhopping near the tidepools by a couple of hours. So, I had no luck in seeing whales =(
5. Eating good seafood, especially Tidal Raves in Depoe Bay, OR: I wanted seafood, and I got seafood. Clam chowder, steamed clams, fresh fish, crab cakes, crab cocktail, fish and chips, seafood pasta...mmm...
6. Pike Place Market
7. Seattle public library: again, it's cause I'm a book nerd, and the architecture and design of the 10-story building was just so cool.
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