Cleaning Spree

Just finished a major cleaning spree.... I love it when you get on a roll and just roll with it. Now its time to get to bed for one last day of work before a three day weekend.

Soooooooo ready for the three day weekend....

Living alone

For the past 8ish months I have lived on my own. All in all it has been a great experience. When I first came to the Portland area, I lived with my grandparents while I searched for a job. Once I landed my job and got on my feet, I got my own place, a little studio close to Beaverton. While living on my own I learned a lot about myself and I'm thankful for having the time to live on my own. I proved to myself that I can be wholly self-sufficient. I can pay my bills, feed myself, take care of my own things, and all on my own! I will never wonder if I can live on my own successfully... because I've done it. While I'm very excited to have a roommate coming this weekend, I'm also grateful for having had the time to be on my own.

Some challenges of living on your own: 1) Figuring out how to cook for one. You end up eating variations of the same thing over and over again. I've learned exactly how much pancake mix will make only enough pancakes for two servings. 2) There's no one (except by phone) to talk to when you get home. While it's great to have time to yourself, you don't realize how nice it is to have someone ask about your day until no one does. (Except your great family who checks in by phone daily....love you guys!) 3) You're the only one doing the cleaning. I'm not going to lie, I'm looking forward to sharing the chores again. Although on the flip side, you only have to clean up your own mess which is nice.

I guess with having a roommate moving in this coming weekend I am thinking more about the past months of being on my own and also thinking about the things I have to remember about being a roommate. Like you have to remember to close doors again. And you can't just leave your stuff lying around. And it is important to do your dishes (which I'm pretty good at even living on my own).

All this talk about being a good roommate has caused me to feel the urge to clean up a little in preparation for my roommate's upcoming arrival.....

Arrested Development

I'm obsessed with the DVDs of the TV Show Arrested Development. Quite possibly the most genius show ever written. It's unfortunate we only got three seasons. Now that the Olympics aren't on in the evening, I've been watching all of Season 2 and I'm blown away again. If you are looking for a hilarious TV show to watch on DVD, rent or buy Arrested Development.

Note: If you don't get or don't like the humor on the TV show The Office then you may not enjoy Arrested Development. If you are a fan of The Office, I would be shocked if you didn't find Arrested Development to be up to par. Also note it is important to watch this show from the very beginning because most of the jokes are built upon and simply won't make sense (or be funny).

That's all for tonight. I'm still working on the pictures of the apartment. No more promises on when they will be up, but they will be up sometime.


UPDATE: Just realized this blog is starting to look more like a movie/tv review blog. I'm going to get a little more creative... any suggestions?

Broken Promise...

Yeah, so no pictures of the apartment up yet. Sorry. Please don't hold it against me. I still have to install the software to pull down the pictures from my camera and I went to do it this evening, and I think I went do it sometime earlier (probably at my studio), but I didn't install it. Now of course I need to track down the CD. Hopefully tomorrow, we'll see.

On another note, I've been receiving multiple postcards from across Europe lately. My new roommate is currently traveling in Europe and is sending me postcards from each of her stops. So far I have one from Barcelona and one from Nice. If only I could be sitting on a beach in Italy right now...

My new roommate will be coming back to the States and will be moving in this weekend. While I've enjoyed living by myself, I'm really excited to have someone to talk to while I make dinner, someone to watch a tv show with here and there, and just someone else to hang out with every once in a while. And while I know my mom loves our daily check-in (it's a requirement for me to call and let her know I'm home safe and sound at night) I'm gathering that she'll be relieved that I'll have someone who will wonder why I'm not home if for some reason I'm not home at night. =) Love you mom - thanks for caring!

Best things of my week and a movie review

These are the five best things about my week:

1) We have hired a temp at work to help me out. Things have been kinda crazy at work and a lot of things are changing, not to mention my job is a dual role position (HR Specialist and Assistant). While now I'm in the position of having to train someone how to do many of the duties I am accustomed to taking care of, I'm so very thankful to have the help.

2) I have purchased a couch! Maybe that is kinda sad to be one of the five best things of my week, but I now have almost all of the necessary apartment furniture taken care of. I am pledging to get pictures of the new apartment up sometime later tonight or tomorrow. (It is finally in good enough condition to be photographed.)

3) I have great friends who helped me get the couch from Ikea today and then move it upstairs into my apartment. Much thanks to Crystal and Joel for their help today.

4) A check from the Natural Gas company came in the mail the other day. I had forgotten I had to pay a deposit at my old place for it. My new place doesn't use natural gas at all. It's always great to get unexpected money in the mail.

5) I got to meet up with a couple friends multiple evenings this week which was great. Tuesday evening I had dinner with Crystal and Michelle. Michelle is a good friend from my high school days who now lives in Florida, so it was a special treat to see her. We laughed and laughed at all kinds of things and reminisced. Maybe I'll make it out to Florida one of these days soon...

And now for my review of the movie Housebunny (I saw this movie with one of my friends from church up here - she had gotten two passes to a sneak preview of the movie and she asked me to come along.)

If you saw Legally Blonde, Housebunny is a dumbed down version of that pretty much. It had a few funny moments, but it was pretty predictable and nothing I would recommend paying to go to at the theaters. Possibly worth renting if there is nothing else that looks good. They checked people at the door for cameras and wanded you down before you could go inside. Unfortunately, with the exception of how the main character remembers the names of new people she meets, the only thing I'll remember from this movie was the security to get in.

Calculus and the Olympics

One of the things I remember from my college Calculus class is discussing the rate of change in equations. I know, I'm a little (some would say very) nerdy, but I thought Calculus was actually pretty interesting and strangely useful. But that is beside the point. I'm starting to see how the rate of change in my life is always changing, but the constant is that there is always change. I've just moved into a new place (I promise I'll get pictures up once the whole place is totally put together), things at work are changing (in good, exciting ways) and I'm continuing to meet new people and experience change in this exciting period of my life. I love Portland, but moving here and settling in has been a major change. My life in the past year has totally changed, and while I really love the changes, it hasn't always been easy. The interesting thing is that my life has gone through, and will continue to, go through varying rates of change. Sometimes things change very quickly. Other times it is a very slow change. However the overlying reality is that the pieces of my life are always changing.

I've been addicted to the Olympics lately, in fact, they've kept me up way too late this past week or so. I don't know what it is about them, but I absolutely love it. I have actually waited to hook up my cable at the new place for the sole reason that I know I wouldn't watch a bit of anything besides the Olympics. I totally admire the dedication and commitment the Olympians have for their sport. Not to mention all of the years of hard work just to get to that point, and so many of these athletes are committed to sports I honestly didn't even realize was a sport. Did you see the trampoline last night? Crazy.

So that's what I've been thinking about and doing lately. Tomorrow night I'm going to go see the movie Housebunny with a friend (she got free tickets and for some reason her husband doesn't want to see it with her). I'll give you my review soon; I don't have high hopes so we'll see.....

Two little rants...

Today I was informed that someone misses hearing me rant. I guess this is a great venue for ranting.... so here are two rants for my friend who misses my rants (you know who you are).

First rant: it is so stinking hot! I mean, I love Portland (more on that in a minute), but when it gets hot here, it makes me wish I could just sit around eating popsicles all day. However I can't. So instead I come home to a NOT AIR-CONDITIONED apartment. Thank goodness they installed the blinds the other day or else I would be hotter than Hades in here. Note: right now it is only slightly cooler in my apartment than I imagine the temperature of Hades. Also please note the slight sarcasm (it really is close to the temperature of Hades).

See the thing is, in Portland it only gets hot enough to need an air-conditioner for about 2 weeks of the year. So that means we don't have air-conditioners. Which is fine approximately 350 days of the year. Today, like a good citizen who lives only a mile from my place of employment, I rode my bike to work. The to work part was nice and cool, but the to home part was not so cool. Okay, I'm starting to get sick of this rant, or maybe I'm just losing it in the heat.....

Second rant: I absolutely love living in Portland! (Are you surprised? This is actually going to be a positive rant, which might be an oxymoron, but I don't even care...) I just moved into a new apartment that is very close to work and everything I love about this city. When I first moved to Portland, I thought I would really rather live in the suburbs where it is quieter and what not. But after being in the suburbs for about 5ish months, I had an epiphany one day. I realized that everything my days consisted of was downtown (or close to it) and this city really isn't all that big and intimidating. So I decided to move closer down in. The added bonus is I live close enough to walk or bike to work. I'm super close to a Trader Joe's, my gym, my church, PGE Park, and lots of great restaurants and shops.

On a side note, the other night two friends and I went a checked out a brewery that is about a half a mile from my place over in the industrial area by my place. It is a Pyramid Brewery called MacTarnahan's - it was really good. We sat outside on the patio and enjoyed the evening (this was before the heat wave). If you come visit me, I promise we can go.

Okay, back to the rant.... did I mention I really like where I live? This evening, because of how hot it is, I had no desire to make a warm dinner. All I wanted was a salad. But of course I didn't have all the things to make a salad. So I just jumped in my car (my car has air-conditioning) and drove a little over a mile to Trader Joe's to get a salad and a couple other things I needed. I was back to my place in 15-20 minutes and enjoyed my cold salad. That's the kind of thing that I love about living down here. I'm so close to all the things I enjoy the most.

Hope you've enjoyed these two rants, especially you (you know who you are)!

Under construction

I'm working a little bit on the design and look of my blog, so don't be surprised if you come back and it looks different a couple times. I'm trying to settle in on what I want it to look like. You can let me know what you like, what you don't like, and we'll see if I listen or not! =)

I had a nice weekend back in Medford. It's always nice to be back in the hometown. I will be sure to post some wedding pics later this week. Okay, now I'm back to watching the Olympics while unpacking / getting ready for the week.

Bachelorette Parties & Sticker Shock

It'll just be a quick post today, but wanted to get on quickly. I've had a great day with my mom and Brooke (well, Brooke's been doing bridesmaid stuff, so haven't got to see her a ton today). My mom and I went and window-shopped downtown in Medford and then in Jacksonville. It's always fun to go look around. And today I was only looking thanks to my car being in for a new timing belt and brakes (hence the sticker-shock of the day). My wonderful mom has been listening to me as I moan about paying for maintenance on my car - one of those great things in life that you have to do, but it always stinks.

The Bachelorette party last night was a lot of fun - here are a few pics of the belly-dancing. (That's right, we did belly-dancing! It was actually a great fun thing to do for a Bachelorette party! Good job Brooke and Rachel!) I'll have to get some of the pics from the sword balancing part of the evening from someone else to post later. My camera's battery started dying at the end of the evening. Enjoy a few pics of the party and the luncheon today!

Thank you Shannon for teaching us bellydancing.... I think I still need a few more lessons!

Cupcakes from Saint Cupcake in Portland!!! Yum...

Lauren opening the champagne for the mimosas. Totally shot the cork into the neighbor's back yard and we fortunately caught her reaction.

Headed to Medford!

Two very dear friends of mine, Brandon & Lauren, are getting married this weekend and so I'm headed to Medford this afternoon. Once upon a time, as three Jr. High girls, Lauren, Brooke and I were having a sleepover. And as Jr. High girls do at sleep overs, we were up late talking about our crushes. Unfortunately at the time Lauren didn't have anyone to crush on, so Brooke and I got out our Middle School yearbook out to find her someone. Would you believe we picked Brandon for her?!?!? I know, it's crazy, but I like to think that Brooke and I had a special part in their love story =). I'm heading back this afternoon in order to be there in time for the Bachelorette party tonight and a luncheon tomorrow - it will be a great weekend. I'll get some pictures up when I get back.

As an added bonus, I get to have two good friends, Carlos & Michelle, ride with me to Medford today. Carlos and Michelle now live in Florida, so it will be great to have 4 1/2 hours to catch up with them! I'm looking forward to a day off and some time back in Medford this weekend, I haven't been down there since Memorial day, so I'm excited to get back to my hometown.

She's blogging? And what about puzzle pieces?

So for a bit of time (usually while lurking through looking at other's blogs) I've thought about blogging. However for the longest time I was convinced I really didn't have anything interesting to write about. I mean, I don't have cute kids to dote on, I'm not on a crazy world travel adventure to blog about, and I really don't lead so exciting of a life that it seems anyone would really want to read about it. But then one day I realized that at the very least I could blog as a way to scrapbook, or record, the things going on in my life, so that one day when life is very different then it is right now, I'll remember it. I haven't set a goal for how often I will blog, and I set no real expectations with respect to this blog for myself (well I've maybe set a few, but nothing I'm going to publicly declare here). Lastly, I decided to blog for my mom. She loves checking blogs, but swears she will never blog herself. At the very least, I know my mother will check my blog faithfully. (Love you mom!)

Okay, now that I've established why I've decided to blog, I guess I should explain my title. I will admit that one of my expectations for my blog was coming up with a good name. It had to at least resemble some sense of creativity or thought. I've always really enjoyed doing puzzles, in fact, I probably enjoy them a little too much, I become totally engrossed. Which is probably why I don't do them too often. I have also on occasion come to view my life as a puzzle. I don't really know what it is going to look like at the very end, but I'm totally into figuring it out and working hard to piece it together. It is really exciting to see how it all comes together! I have often wished the Lord would just show me the big picture, I wish He would let me see the end result, because I seem to think that just like having the picture of what the puzzle will look like eventually, it would be easier to put the pieces of my life together that way. But I think the Lord has a different idea in mind.

So the short of it is, this blog is about all the different pieces of the puzzle that is my life, and how they come together. It is about what I'm thinking about, what I'm reading about, what I'm doing, what I wish I was doing, what I'm planning, and whatever else comes to mind. I hope you enjoy watching this puzzle come together!