The Final Countdown

Finished writing my first final paper last night, and I've got another final paper to write and an integrated curriculum to create this coming weekend. Winding down after school and work tends to involve anything but writing. Hoping to change that this summer, especially with T-minus seven days left at work.

I got back from class tonight at around 9pm and it was still quite light outside. Sunlight tells the seasons in Seattle, not the weather. I'm really looking forward to getting out camping this summer, especially with the possibility of four-day weekends. I've sorely missed getting out and taking pictures. Leaving the city and hitting the trails with my camera will happen soon, very soon.

As for hiking and camping later in the summer, I have an idea for a really fun weekend. Find a campground 5-10 miles in, and call it base camp. I can spend 3-4 nights there with my extended weekends this summer, but friends who don't have the luxury of 4-day weekends can hike in and just stay for a night or two. With a base camp, we can go on day hikes to peaks or lakes in the area, without having to lug our full backpacks with us. I can see heading up with a buddy on Thursday afternoon and spending Thursday through Monday up in the Cascades, while more friends come on the weekend to meet up miles from civilization.

Waxing Philosophical and Pet Peeve #1

Does time exist?

I'm not so sure anymore. If the entire world were the color red, we would have no concept of red (or color?). Can the same be said of time? It is all around us, never ending, never stopping, never slowing down or speeding up. Why do we have a concept of time? We even have concepts of time slowing down and speeding up! The sun rises and sets, people grow older, and email boxes fill up--but wouldn't those things continue to happen without any concept of time? Hmmm...

In other news, I found quite possibly my biggest pet peeve this weekend.

My most amazing days are when I have absolutely nothing planned, or no expectations for whatever is going on, and outstanding things happen. Maybe I'll be on a little motorcycle ride and just want to zip around for a bit, and I get treated to a perfect sunset. When I got surprised on my birthday with a trip to the Oregon Coast... and all my friends were there.

On the flip side, when I have expectations and nothing happens, it is the pits. Even though I still had a fun weekend, at some point in my Friday night, I distinctly remember Jessica inviting me to a cheese festival, and thinking that would be the best way possible to spent a sunny Saturday evening. I had planned on either going to a Cheese festival with Jessica, or hanging out with Andrew who called me Saturday morning, saying he was in town.

When the BBQ finished up around 6pm, I gave Andrew a call and we talked about either hanging out or heading to the cheese festival with Jessica. I call Jessica and leave a message. Dink around on the internet for the next few hours, get a little bit of writing for class done. I'm not very interested in drinking, but give Andrew a call to see if he is just hanging out at the Montlake house for the night. Voicemail. No call back. Blah. Turns out he was just hanging out playing rock band with the guys, but at the time I called him they were out kicking the soccer ball around Montlake. Double-blah.

Monday rolls around, and I meet up at Sarah's to carpool to class. Sarah and I are waiting outside her house for Natalie to show up. Sarah ends up calling Natalie about 10 minutes after we are supposed to leave and Natalie says, "I'm not coming to class today, whoops, forgot to call you guys" ... grr!

Being stood up sucks. Even if it means you stay in Saturday night when you probably should anyways, or that you get to class on time instead of ten minutes early.

In My Free Time...

Week and a half of no posting, I'll get to it in my free time.

"I'll get to that in my free time" has become a running joke between my boss and I over the past few weeks. The saying means there is no way in hell we'll get to whatever you want us to do. Nobody at the office has had free time over the past two months, but I will in three weeks... gave my three-week notice this week, WOOO!!! Boss left on a 2 1/2 week vacation on Thursday, so it will be smooth sailing into my summer classes at UWB.

What's that? How was my Friday night? Spent dry heaving at 3am outside Jessica's little sister's house, how was your Friday night?

Must have had a good night up until that point. Yup. If I remember correctly (big if!), we walked over to Pies & Pints around 9pm or 10pm with the intention of playing some pool. Next thing I know, it is 3am and I am trying to go to sleep in the grass outside her sister's house. We did switch bars at one point, and I think today's headache may have to do with the fact that we switched from pints to pitchers at the new bar.

The day after a good spew is always very reflective for me. Why did I drink that much? I honestly didn't mean to, and I don't remember acting belligerent, but as soon as Jessica and I got back to her sister's house and sat down, my intoxication spiked. I excused myself to the couch on the front porch and was literally a second from ralphing into the bushes below when Jessica came outside to send me off. I tried to hold it together, but the only thing I could think of was the warm liquid steadily collecting in my mouth: the tell-tale sign that I am about to puke my guts out. I don't even remember saying goodnight, but I darted off around the corner and went to town on her sister's (eventually cozy) grassy yard.

The sight, smell and even thought of alcohol made me sick today. The fact that I was hosting a BBQ and was offered a beer two dozen times didn't help. We spent some time watching a Ninja Warrior marathon (it is as cool as it sounds), but a commercial popped up and it had two cartoon characters puking. I felt the bile start to creep up my throat and had to change the channel back to Family Feud. I was having a rough "morning," but when Jeremy stumbled in at about 1:30pm looking and acting 10x more hungover than me, I started to feel better.

I'm looking forward to Jessica's recap over at her slowly deteriorating blog, I hope her morning wasn't as bad as mine... but if it was, I hope she blogs about it! I recall winning all the pool games, and now she has to be beer bitch the next three times we meet up... at least I think that is how the bet went?! She moved from Juneau to T-town this weekend, so those meet ups will occur frequently! Although again, it may be a week before I touch any alcohol.

Free time at 2am on a Sunday morning. This shit is whack.

Eat Your Heart Out

...literally...



Pork Chops. 1/2lb of fake mac and cheese. Green beans.

That's meal, baby!

Funniest Post of 2008

Not my post, but this post last week from Gordon Greene over at Uncle Chuck and Friends had me in hysterics. Here is a snipet that still has me laughing a week later. He's talking about his pot addiction in terms of Britney Spears (or any generic big girl) and her ho-hos:

When she's fighting it, every night that fat chick thinks, "Nah, I shouldn't eat that. It's bad for me." And then she thinks, "Well, maybe just one." And then she thinks, "Nyum nyum nyum nyum. These are so delicious. I'm so fat. Cry cry cry. Nyum nyum nyum."

LOL!!! Gordon hit it on the freaking nose!

Then Friday afternoon, while everyone is sitting around at work waiting for the weekend, Cayne decides to comment on my post about Jessica, Secrets, Death and Poker:

Be aware that this post has lead me to speculate wild facts about your friend Jessica! In lieu of receiving the actual secret revealed I'm jumping to random conclusions, including but not limited to: -her contracting the bird flu after an unfortunate recent meal at the local KFC... -her taking a photograph of a mysterious high level international criminal, resulting in a contract being placed on her head, and entering a witness protection program that's required her to change identities and move far far away. -her having started a recent affair with a popular politician which has lead to receipt of death threats from said politician's significant other. -Recent mysterious bug bite has lead to discovery of random super powers. ...

And Cayne... for the record, you are right. One of those is close... very close.

Thanks for the laughs!