Celebrating my 7th Annual 29th Birthday in Ireland

I recently returned from my first trip to Ireland. My original plan was to only visit Dublin since I had such a short time in the country, but I ended up heading to the west for a day tour. Here's everything I did, along with some photos... I remembered my camera this time!

The Night Before Day 1
Since my flight was scheduled to leave early the next morning, I decided to stay at a hotel near the airport the night. While my room at the Red Lion wasn't luxurious, it was clean and comfortable and only $60. You can't beat that.

Day 1
I hopped on the hotel shuttle at 6am for a quick 5 minute ride to the airport. My flight to Dublin (connecting in Chicago) left on time which was great, but when I got on the plane I discovered that I had a middle seat, which was NOT great. Oh well, a 4 hour flight wouldn't kill me.

I arrived at Chicago's O'Hare Airport which I am convinced is the most confusing airport in the world! I checked the departure screen and saw that my Aer Lingus flight to Dublin would be departing from Gate T5, but my ticket said it would be departing from M8. The only problem is that I didn't see any signs for a "T" or "M" concourse. Luckily I had about 5 hours before my flight, so I didn't have to worry about rushing.

I walked around for a while, still confused about this whole T5/M8 stuff until I finally realized that T5 stood for TERMINAL 5 AKA the International Terminal. I booked it over to the air train and rode to Terminal 5 with plenty of time to spare. Sure enough when I arrived, the departure screens in this terminal showed that my flight would be leaving from gate M8. Whew!

Unfortunately since I had to go outside the secure area when I left my arriving terminal to get to my departing terminal, I had the pleasure of going through airport security AGAIN. The line was long, but moved pretty quickly and soon I was sitting patiently at my gate to wait about 4 hours for my flight to Dublin.

After about 30 minutes, my stomach started growling so I decided to get something to eat. That's when I discovered that there are NO restaurants in the International Terminal once you get past security, just little kiosks serving cold sandwiches that have probably been sitting there for days. Yuck! I knew that if I wanted something hot, I would have to exit security and then go through the whole process again. Since I still had about 3 hours left I decided to bite the bullet and go for it. I went out, ate some pizza (which turned out to be the worst tasting pizza I've ever had... in CHICAGO for pete's sake!) then went back through security again for the third time. I was an expert by now!

I boarded the flight to Dublin around 6pm and while I was hoping to get a window seat, I ended up with an aisle. I can never decide which one is really better. On the one hand, it's easier to get some semblance of sleep if you sit by the window because you can lean against the wall. On the other hand, you have quicker and easier access to the bathroom if you're in an aisle seat. Inevitably every time I sit by the window, the passenger in the aisle seat is one of those annoying people who falls into a deep sleep the minute the plane takes off, so then if I want to go to the bathroom, I either have to wake them up or climb over them.

Anyway, the 8 hour flight to Dublin was uneventful aside from a bit of turbulence. Luckily each seat had its own on-demand video screen so I was able to watch a few movies to pass the time. I think it should be a law that EVERY plane have a video monitor at your seat, no matter how short the flight is. It really does make the fact that your crammed in with 300 other people a bit more bearable.

Day 2
After the overnight flight from Chicago, I arrived in Dublin around 8am...exhausted since I didn't get any sleep on the plane. I grabbed a cab to my hotel, the Castle Hotel in downtown Dublin. It is a reasonably priced, beautiful Georgian era hotel. Unfortunately, check in wasn't until 2pm, but the nice receptionist Gillian noticed how exhausted I looked and told me that I could wait in the parlor and she would let me know as soon as my room was available. I had to wait about an hour before Gillian came out with the most beautiful thing I had seen so far in Ireland... the key to my room. I unpacked and settled in for nice nap.

A few hours later, after a long nap and nice hot shower, I headed out to do some preliminary sight seeing. The hotel was located about a 10 minute walk from O'Connell St, which is really where you want to be for touristy stuff. The first thing I discovered is that you do NOT want to try driving in Dublin for two reasons:

Difficult Navigation AKA Where are the F**king Street Signs
Dublin likes to mess with you by not having easily noticeable street signs. They aren't anywhere near the street where you'd expect, but up high on the corner of the buildings and look like this:

Once you learn this, it's a bit easier, but if you're not prepared, you'll spend a fair amount of time roaming around wondering where you are.

A Street by Any Other Name
Dublin streets must get bored easily and want a change of pace, because a lot of them decide to up and change their names with no warning. (Of course I'm sure there's some logical method to this madness, but I was unable to figure it out).

Your best bet in Dublin is to walk or take public transport. Walking is perfectly safe as long as you remember which way to look for oncoming traffic. People in Ireland drive on the left. You wouldn't think this would be a big deal, but trust me, your brain is wired to automatically look in the direction that you THINK the cars should be coming from. Luckily, Dublin city planners realized this, so you'll see signs like this to help you out:


When I first saw this, I thought, "What kind of idiot doesn't know how to cross the street?" Then I promptly almost got pancaked by a huge bus while looking the wrong way, so yeah, those signs are handy.

After getting my bearings, I headed over to Trinity College to walk around a bit and explore. Founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I it's the oldest university in Ireland. It's also home to the Books of Kells, a manuscript containing the four gospels of the New Testament created by Celtic monks around 1200 years ago.

Moving on to the Old Parliament House which served as the seat of both chambers of the parliament of the Kingdom of Ireland for most of the 18th century until the parliament was abolished in 1800. In 1803 the Bank of Ireland purchased the building from the government to use as its new headquarters. The building still functions as a bank today. I went in there to get some change for the €50 note I got from the ATM earlier. I wasn't sure if I was allowed to take photos, so I didn't risk it. I have since seen photos on the internet, so I assume you can.

Then on to Temple Bar, a very touristy area with lots of pubs. Basically if you're in college and come to Dublin, this is where you'll be hanging out. Despite the fact that it's pretty much a tourist trap, it does have an interesting history.

By the 20th century the area suffered from urban decay with most of the businesses and homes being abandoned and shuttered. In the early 1980s the Irish Transport System decided to buy up the buildings and demolish the whole area to build a bus station. While this was in the planning stages, the purchased buildings were rented out at very low rates which attracted artists, performers, small shop owners and the like. After a few years, the National Trust of Ireland decided that demolishing everything to build a bus station didn't really make a lot of sense. The bus plan was abandoned and the government set up a non-profit company called Temple Bar Properties to oversee the regeneration of the area as Dublin's Cultural Quarter.

By this point the jet lag was starting to get to me, so I headed back to the hotel bar to get some dinner and retire for the night.

Day 3
I woke up early and went downstairs to enjoy the nice breakfast that was included with my hotel stay. Unfortunately I was still feeling a little "jet laggy" so I just had some cereal and juice. I decided not to risk trying the full Irish breakfast which consists of eggs, bacon, sausage, beans, tomatoes, and black or white pudding. And no, black or white pudding is NOT chocolate or vanilla pudding. It's a type of sausage. If you're curious, look it up, but don't say I didn't warn you.

Today I was going to use my Hop On-Hop Off ticket to explore a bit more of the city. I really liked this touring option because you buy a ticket for €15 and it's good for 24 hours. You can hop on and off whenever you like. Here's what I saw today:

The General Post Office: served as the leader's headquarters during the 1916 Easter Rising. You can still see bullet marks in the columns.

House Number 29: Dublin's Georgian House Museum. All the rooms are furnished as they would have been during the years 1790-1820. The virtual tour on their website explains the house in much better detail than I ever could and it has better photos.

St. Stephen's Green: I took a nice stroll around this park for about an hour.

My last stop for the day was Kilmainham Gaol. This jail was opened from 1798 to 1926 and leaders of the 5 Irish rebellions were detained here and many were executed.

After a quick jaunt back to the hotel for a nap, I grabbed a slice of pizza and headed out for the Musical Pub Crawl. This is a 2.5 hour pub crawl led by two professional musicians who perform while explaining the history of traditional Irish music. This was by far my favorite activity during the trip and here are some things I learned:

• How to tell the difference between a "jig" and a "reel".
• Musicians learn their instruments from a very early age, and some never learn to read music. Everything is learned by ear.
  
• Sean-nós (Gaelic for "old style") is a style of unaccompanied singing. This is quite a change from the "lively" Irish music post people are accustomed to.
• If you see people clapping along to the music during a session, chances are they are tourists. The appropriate way to keep time with the music is by tapping your feet since it doesn't distract the musicians the way clapping that starts and stops does.

The pub crawl ended around 10:30pm and I headed back home to rest up for my adventures tomorrow.

Day 4

Today was the day that I would be taking a tour to see the Cliffs of Moher on the west coast of Ireland. I headed to the tourist office to meet my tour group around 7:30am. The tour was operated by Paddywagon Tours and while our bus driver/tour guide was very entertaining, the bus itself was very cramped and uncomfortable... especially if you have long legs. Of course, the entire tour was only about $50 so I can't complain too much.

We drove across the country and stopped in Doolin, a tiny village that just happens to be Ireland's traditional music capital. Unfortunately we only stopped there for lunch and didn't have a chance to listen to any music.

Then it was on to the Burren to see the limestone surface that supports Arctic, Mediterranean, and Alpine plants all in the same area due to the unusual environment. Most people took a ton of pictures here, but for some reason I thought it was a little boring. It could have been because I was irritable from the cramped bus ride.

Finally it was on to the pièce de résistance, the Cliffs of Moher. The scenery was breathtaking. I'll just let the photos speak for themselves.

Unfortunately, riding in a bus across the country is exhausting and riding back home is even more so. I would definitely sleep well tonight!

Day 5 - The Final Day :-(

Since this was my last day in Ireland, I decided to take it easy. I had heard about St Michan's Church which offers tours of their underground crypt (with real mummies), so of course I had to see it. The guide was a quirky, yet very knowledgeable guy named Peter. There are 4 mummies on display: a 400 year old nun, a Crusader, a thief, and the unknown. Unfortunately photography isn't allowed in the crypts, but I was able to find this excellent documentary video on YouTube:

And that brings us to the end of my birthday trip to Ireland. I was sad to leave, but have added Ireland to list of repeat vacation destinations.

A New Year and a New KJ

Ok, not really. I've decided not to make any resolutions this year b/c I always end up breaking them. I am going to restart the Couch to 5K training sometime soon and hopefully this time I'll be able to make it through the first week without breaking anything.

On to more exciting news...

For once I decided to do something fun for the holidays. I went to PARIS (France, not Texas) to celebrate the new year and had a blast!! I took the Rick Steves' Paris in 7 Days Tour. I probably could have done the whole thing by myself, but I'm lazy so I decided I needed something with a set schedule to keep me motivated. UNFORTUNATELY I forgot my camera, so any photos you see in this report were not taken by me.

Day 1 - Dec 23, 2009
I worked a full day and then rushed home to get packed. Yes, I waited until the day I was leaving to start packing. My goal was to get everything in one little carry-on. Yes, one week's worth of stuff in one little backpack. I'm proud to say that I succeeded (I did take THIS photo):


How does she do it? Simple... I don't take a lot of stuff. I brought a shirt for each day of my trip and 2 pairs of jeans (plus sufficient socks and underwear). I extended the wearing life of the jeans by wearing leggings under them. Also, I was going to Paris, not the Sahara desert which meant that I could go to a laundromat if I needed to (and I did!)
Moving on...

I flew from PDX to SFO to BOS and arrived early on Dec 24, 2009 (Day 2) and checked into the Hilton Hotel at Boston Logan Airport. This is where I stay every time I go to Boston b/c it's so convenient. I had grandiose plans of going out and exploring the city but it was cold and I was tired, so I stayed in and watched TV instead. Lame, I know.

Day 3 - Dec 25, 2009 -Christmas
Nothing too exciting. I checked out of the hotel at noon and waited around at the airport for my flight to Paris at 5:30pm. Luckily I had my new iPod touch to keep me company. The flight left on time and was uneventful, but not great. I sat in the very last row in front of some bitch who reclined her seat all the way for the entire trip. This wouldn't have been so bad if not for the fact that my seat did not recline.

Day 4 - Dec 26, 2009
Arrived at CDG around 6:30am. Got through passport control and customs pretty quickly since I didn't have to wait for any bags. I had booked a car to pick me up since I was unfamiliar with the public transportation system and knew that I would be too tired to try to figure it out. The driver wasn't there when I walked out the exit, so I called the company and was told that he had gone to the wrong terminal. He showed up about 5 mins later and apologized and I was on my way to the hotel.

I stayed at the Hotel Duquesne Eiffel located at 23 Avenue Duquesne. It was a lovely little boutique hotel within walking distance of the Eiffel Tower. It was also close to many metro stops, pharmacies, restaurants, laundries, etc. A great location over all. I shared a room with another tour member so I wouldn't have to pay the single supplement. She was a very nice lady from Memphis. The room was small, but comfortable and the staff was very kind and helpful. I will definitely stay there again when I return to Paris (as long as I can afford it).

So, I checked into the hotel and took a nap. The whole tour group met up together at 3pm in the breakfast room downstairs and after some introductions and chatting (members were from Texas, Wisconsin, DC, New York, Oregon, Washington, Missouri, Illinois, and I'm sure I'm forgetting a couple of states) we boarded a bus to take a quick evening tour of the neighborhood.

Later that evening we had dinner at a little restaurant called Cafe le Bosquet. I had a mixed salad with warm goat cheese, duck with pureed potatoes, and a tarte tatin (upside down apple tart). It was delicious. We went back to the hotel to get some sleep before starting...

Day 4 thru 9 - Dec 27-31, 2009

Since I have a horrible memory, there's no way I'm going to remember what we visited when, so I'm just going to list everything we saw on the tour and my thoughts on it. Just a warning... there's a very good chance that I will confuse some of the neighborhood/place names, so please don't use this as tour itinerary.

Sainte Chappelle - a Gothic cathedral located in the Palais de Justice complex built by King Louis IX to house precious relics he had purchased from the Byzantine emperor. Very beautiful. I especially liked the stained glass windows which you can see in this 360 deg. Quicktime video.

Place de Vosges - the oldest planned square in Paris built by Henry IV.

Basilica of the Sacred Heart (Basilique du Sacré-Cœur) - This church is located at the top of Montmartre which is the highest point in the city (with a much better view than the Eiffel Tower in my opinion). I'm not a religious person at all, but for some reason medieval churches are my favorite sites to visit. I think it's because they're so freaking huge and monstrous and I spend the entire time wondering how in the heck they were built.

Me at the top of Montmartre overlooking Paris
Photo: Diana Petterson

Montmartre Neighborhood - This is a quaint neighborhood where many impressionist artists lived in during the 1900s when they were all broke and couldn't sell any of their paintings. Now it's where tourists go to see modern artists who probably have a bit more luck selling their wares. It was also the home to the famous entertainer, Dalida. What? You've never heard of her? Strangely enough, most people haven't. According to our tour guide she was the equivalent of Elvis and Madonna combined in Europe, but never became famous in the states.


Chateau Versailles - There are no words to describe how beautiful and enormous this estate of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette is. It's very easy to understand why the starving French revolutionaries were a tad pissed off when you walk through the grounds. Gold and riches are everywhere. The only thing I did not like about our visit was the fact that it was SO CROWDED. Everything seemed to be rushed and I didn't really get to spend as much time in each room of the palace as I would have liked.

O'Brien's Pub - Of course I couldn't make it through 7 days in Paris without having at least one pint of Guinness! I went here with a few of my other tour members (Lanaé, her mom Linda, and their friend Anne). I had an awesome time, but unfortunately partook in way too many alcoholic libations and ended up with a horrible hangover. This meant that I was NOT able to visit the LOUVRE. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I went all the way to Paris and did not visit one of its most famous attractions because I was hungover. HOWEVER, I justified this by declaring that I now had an excellent reason to return to Paris!

Pere Lachaise Cemetery - This was my favorite, favorite, favorite site and it wasn't even on my official tour. It's like a peaceful oasis in the middle of a very hectic city. I think I spent about 4 hours just roaming around reading all the gravestones. A lot of people don't realize that in addition to all the famous people (Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf, etc) buried here, it's also just a regular old French cemetery for normal French families. It was a welcome respite from all the crowds I had encountered thus far.


This takes us to the end of the tour. I'm sure I forgot some things and I've convinced myself that I need to keep a travel journal for my next vacation rather than try to remember everything that happens.

Edited: Oops, remember when I said that I was sure I would forget some things?? Well, yeah I completely forgot to mention NEW YEAR'S EVE!

We started the day by visiting the L'hotel des Invalides which is a complex of buildings all related to France's military history. It was initiated by Louis XIV as a home and hospital for aged and ill war veterans. It is also the burial site for several famous military heroes, the most notable being Napoleon Bonaparte.

View of Les Invalides from Eiffel Tower
photo: Gérard Ducher

Tomb of Napoleon
Photo: Willtron

Following the visit to Les Invalides, I broke off from the tour group and headed to Pere Lachaise cemetery (described in the list above) and then headed back to the hotel to take a nap. Then I took the Metro to find something to eat and ended up at a little bar close to the Richelieu-Drouot stop on Line 8. It was called the Tavern Bar (which I thought was a little repetitive) but the food and beer were good and the service was friendly. I even saved my receipt so I can go back there again when I return to Paris.

Later that evening the whole group got together for a delicious New Year's Eve meal followed by a river cruise on the Seine. A few people wanted to go to the Eiffel Tower to see the light show, but our tour guide warned us that it could be dangerous because it got very crowded and often attracted less than desirable individuals which in turn would attract many police officers and things could get ugly. She told us that we were free to do whatever we wanted, but that she would not accompany us. Since I was in no mood to deal with crowds or "ne'er do wells" I decided to head back to the hotel. Adam and Suanne, a couple on our tour celebrating their 30th anniversary, invited everyone to their room which had a excellent view of the Eiffel Tower.

View from Adam & Suanne's Room
Photo: My crappy camera phone

When the clock struck midnight we rang in the New Year with a vodka toast... and I was sad to realize that I had come to the end of my vacation in Paris.

I was up early the next morning and decided to take the RER to the airport to save some money. At first I was worried b/c I had only dealt with the Metro system and the RER would involve a whole different ticket system. Imagine my delight when I discovered that Paris public transportation is FREE on New Year's Day!! (I don't know about other holidays).

I made it to the airport in plenty of time for my return flight, but unfortunately because of THIS DOUCHEBAG, security was extremely tight and everyone had to have their carry-on hand-checked before they got on the place which delayed our flight for TWO HOURS! Oh and then the de-icing machine wasn't working which delayed us another 2 hours and then our plane just completely fell apart or something and we had to go back to the terminal. Ugh, long story short... my flight that was supposed to leave at 1:30pm didn't take off until 9pm. Thanks goodness this was at the END of my vacation, otherwise I would have been very, very cranky.

Needless to say I loved every second in Paris and can't wait to go back very, very soon!

Geez, can't a girl just get some damn exercise??!!

So yesterday was supposed to be my 3rd day of the Couch to 5K thing. It didn't go so well b/c about 4 steps into my running portion, my ankle gave out. I'm not sure what is wrong with it, but I went to the urgent care center to have it checked out.

Edited: Well it turns out that I sprained my ankle. It has now started swelling a bit so I'll have to stop the Couch to 5k thing until after the first of the year. I have a holiday trip to Paris planned for next month and I don't want to risk re-injuring it. Sigh.

I can't believe I'm doing this...

As of 7:30am this morning (11.01.2009) I am training to run a 5k race. Not run/walk, but RUN... as in the whole thing. The last time I ran any considerable distance was, let's see.. um... NEVER. I don't run. It's just not my thing.

In order to make training easy, I'm following the Couch to 5K program; which, as its name suggests, gets you off the couch and running a 5k in 9 weeks. Here is the website if you want to read more about it:

Couch to 5K

I had my first session today and managed to make it through without dying, passing out, vomiting, or crying. I'm going to try to run every other day, but the only problem is deciding what time of the day I want to run. I'm thinking early morning before work, but that means I'll have to be on the road by no later than 5:15am!

Monthly Update

When we last met our fearless heroine, she had just joined the local gym. Well, since then I'm proud to say that I've visited the facility a total of ZERO times... but wait, I have excuses!!!

First, I had to recover from the extreme soreness caused by the trainer from hell, aka the Sadist. That took about a week. Then it was "that time of month" (ladies, you know what I'm talking about) and strenuous workouts were just not in the cards, and finally the pièce de resistance... kidney stones!

That's right, earlier this month while I was enjoying a lazy Sunday hanging out at home, reading some Agatha Christie, I noticed a strange pain in the my lower back. At first I thought it was some sort of cramp related to the functioning of my lady parts, but after a few hours the pain increased significantly and began to move around to my abdomen. Around 9pm, I decided that I would make an appointment to see the doctor the next day, and around 10pm I was calling a cab to the hospital.

By the time I arrived, I was to the point where I couldn't sit or lie down without pain, so I paced around the waiting room for about 30 minutes (felt like 12 hours) until they put me in a room. Of course once I was in the room, I had to wait a little longer to actually see the doctor and to make matters worse, the nurse wasn't permitted to give me any pain meds UNTIL I saw the doctor.

Finally, the doctor came in and assessed that yes, I was actually in pain and shortly thereafter, the nurse added pain meds to my IV. I can't remember the name, but I do remember that it was only marginally effective. I paced around some more and then was sent to have a CT scan.

About an hour later, the doctor came back and informed me that I had one kidney stone making its way from my kidneys and one still in my kidney (luckily this one was teeny tiny and probably wouldn't cause any trouble). He gave me a prescription for Vicodin and before I left the nurse gave me a shot of some much more effective pain medication. I also don't remember the name of this medication, but I know it started with a "D" but it wasn't Demerol. I do know that it was awesome. Seriously, I'd give up my first born for a shot of this stuff if I were in pain.

I headed back home to wait around until the stone passed. So far, I've either passed it and not realized it, or it's still there. Luckily as long as it's not moving, I'm not in pain. I'm due for another CT scan on Monday, so hopefully it will be good news.

Ouch, my aching... everything

So, after being a lazy slug for the past few years, I decided to man up and join a gym. There's a 24 Hour Fitness located a few blocks from my house and I got a great deal on a 1 yr membership ($199 which equates to about $17/month). I stopped in yesterday for my first "fitness evaluation" with a personal trainer. He put me through a few exercises to determine my strengths and weaknesses. The consensus was as follows:

Strengths = NONE
Weaknesses = EVERYTHING

I do walk a lot since I don't have a car, but that's about the extent of my exercise routine. Evidently this is not sufficient, unless my goal is to have the body of a 90 year old woman. I'm embarrassed to say that even after a few simple exercises, my poor legs were so wobbly, I was worried that I wouldn't be able to walk home. I made it, but it was sloooow going.

My muscles were pretty sore afterward, but nothing compared to how they felt this morning. As long as I'm standing up, I feel fine. Unfortunately, daily life sometimes involves activities like bending and sitting which is now causing every muscle below my waist to feel like it's on fire. I've tried to do a few stretches and I walked about 3 miles this morning, but everything is still sore. I know that it will subside after a while, but it still SUCKS.

Not so smart

Earlier last month I decided it would be a brilliant idea to open a new checking account with a credit union here in Portland. They were offering a 3% APR on the account as long as you met certain criteria (one electronic transaction per month, use your debit card at least 12 times & accept electronic statements). I was perfectly happy with my old credit union, but the lure of 3% interest was too hard to ignore. So, I opened the new account and change my direct deposit info for my paycheck along with my payment settings for the various bills I have. How did it go? Well, I'm not sure of the technical term, but I believe "complete royal f**k up" would be a good way to describe it. I won't go into all the gory details, but my brilliant plan ended up causing 2 overdraft fees totaling $54. Of course, $54 isn't a lot of money, but it's $54 that I now can't use for debt repayment. Ahhg!!!

On top of all that, I realized that it was absolutely stupid to open the account in the first place because I never keep any money in my checking account! If I stick to my super tight budget, which does NOT include overdraft fees, I'm usually left with about $100 at the end of the month. That's only after bills are paid and doesn't include the 12 debit purchases I would have to make to qualify for the high interest.

I still can't believe that those yahoos at the credit card company are going to be able to earn interest on an extra $54 this month.

Dear Mother Nature... WTF??!!

104 degrees... in Portland, Oregon? Are you serious?

Ok, I suppose I shouldn't complain about the heat. My condo has remained around 79-80 degrees through all this and I DO have a portable air conditioner that my friend AJ gave me. Even with the 100+ temperatures, I haven't had to resort to using it yet.

Hopefully Portland will be back to her depressed rainy self soon!

On the bright side, the high temperatures have made me reluctant to go outside, which in turn means that I can't go out and spend money. Not spending money = more money to pay off debt!

Excuse me, now it's 105 degrees...

Update

So, how's the new job going, you ask? Well, you didn't, but I'm going to tell you anyway. It's going GREAT. This job is seriously the highest paying, lowest stress job I've ever had. I think the best part is that I have very little contact with clients. The most stress inducing part about my last job was the constant worry that I had forgotten to do something for a client's account or that I had screwed something up IN a client's accounts. Another problem was bringing work home from the office... not necessarily physically bringing paperwork home, but just the whole feeling of something being left unfinished and having to worry about it until the next day. At this new job, when I leave work, I leave it... period. I know that when I go on vacation, I won't have to worry about getting calls from the office and I won't have any work on my desk when I get back. Awesome!

Why yes, it's another job

Well, since I haven't updated all of my fans recently, I guess it's time for a new blog entry.

In my never ending quest to work for every corporation in the Portland Metro area, I will be starting job a new job on May 4th. This will be the 4th job I've had since moving here in June of 2006. I will be leaving my position as a Senior Registered Client Service Associate and starting as a Senior Registered Client Associate with another local investment firm. I feel much more prestigious without the Service part of the title. Normally I wouldn't have left my current company, but the offer I received was too good to pass up and will allow me to work on a trading desk again. I like trading desks!

My last day at my old company was April 30th and my coworkers were kind enough to give me a nice sendoff on Friday. Although there were aspects of my former job that I didn't enjoy, I will certainly miss my coworkers very much :(

So, that's all that's new in my neck of the woods. Later, peeps!

Visit back to Ochlocknee...

After living in Portland for more than 2 years, I finally made it back home to visit my mom over the recent MLK, Jr. holiday weekend. The last time I was in my hometown of Ochlocknee, GA was for my dad's funeral in May of 2006, so this visit promised to be a bit more cheerful.

I flew out of Portland on a red eye to Atlanta and made it to my mom's place around 1pm the next day. I would have been there a little sooner, but I got lost driving from the Valdosta airport... gimme a break, I hadn't been there in 2 years!

Here is a list of the exciting things I did during my visit:

1. I caught up on some soap operas that I hadn't seen in a while. The best thing about soap operas is that you can stop watching them for 10 years and when you start up again, the SAME characters are still there... with the same plot lines!!

2. I drank sweet tea and ate fried okra and boiled peanuts. These are three things that I can't get easily in Portland.

3. I went out to dinner with my mom. Normally my mom's idea of going out to dinner involves eating-in at the local takeout place or going to a buffet. This time I insisted that I did NOT want to go to a buffet. I wanted to go to a real "sit down, order from a waiter, and stay seated while the waiter brings your food" type restaurant. My mom said that we could go to Ryan's Family Steakhouse. When we got there, I discovered that it was a giant buffet. Grrr! My mom insisted that going to a sit down restaurant was "too expensive" and that the "food here is really good". I just sighed and started piling my plate with all I could eat delights. As we ate, this was our conversation:

Me: "Why are you eating grits for dinner?"
Mom: "Oh I think that's rice."
Me: "Um, it doesn't look like rice."
Mom: "Oh, then maybe it IS grits...
Me: "What does it taste like?"
Mom: "Um, I think...."
Me: "Mom, grits and rice taste NOTHING alike."
Mom: "Then I guess it's grits... or maybe rice."

Later
Me: "Why didn't you get any meat?"
Mom: "I didn't see anything I liked."
Me: "You couldn't find any meat from their entire 'all you can eat' selection?"
Mom: "No, not really."

Still later:
Me: "Why didn't you finish the okra?"
Mom: "I didn't like it very much. It's kind of cold."

So, if you're keeping score, my mom had something that may or may not have been grits (or rice), no meat, and cold fried okra. The only thing I saw her completely eat was the mac and cheese and seriously, how hard is it to screw up mac and cheese? The cost of this all you can eat extravaganza?... $12.95 per person. I promise I did not rub this in her face. (Oh and in case you're wondering, I had some chicken, the mac and cheese, okra, some bread and a dessert).

I've already decided that during my next visit, we're going to a real restaurant even if I have to drag her to one kicking and screaming.


4. I saw my friend Candace who I've known since kindergarten. We only got to spend a bit of time together b/c I got lost driving to her house and ended up in some stranger's yard. Now that I think about, I'm lucky he didn't come after me with a shotgun. I decided to bring my mom along since we were going to a part of town that I wasn't really familiar with (come to find out my mom wasn't familiar with it either). The worst part was that there was no cell service so I couldn't call to get directions. Anyway, we finally made it to her house around 8:30 and hung out for a while and caught up.

My flight back to Portland was little more eventful that I would have liked. It started when I missed my connecting flight in Atlanta and had to wait for another flight that wouldn't leave until the next morning. Rather that sleeping in the airport, I decided to get a hotel room. I stayed at the Hilton which to my relief had a BAR. Unfortunately I was forced to drink Guinness out of TUMBLER glass and Jameson out of a shot glass and on top of all that I had to pay sales tax on it!

Whew, I'm glad to be back in Portland!

Bringing in the New Year

Well, it's officially 2009 and I welcomed it in true party girl fashion by sitting around in my comfortable bathrobe, surfing the internet, and falling asleep by 10pm. Yeah, that's how I roll. Since the new year is upon us, I guess it's time to make a list of all the resolutions that I'll end up breaking by February 1st (oops, there goes #5). So without further ado:

KJ's Soon to Broken Resolutions for 2009

1. Save more money
   
2. Eat healthier
   
3. Be more social
4. Learn ASL
5. Stop being so cynical & pessimistic
6. Get married and settle down with a couple of kids.
   
7. Kidding about #6, just wanted to make sure you were paying attention.
8. Work harder at getting out of debt
9. Read more
10. Visit home more often
    

Here's to a better 2009!

Long Overdue Update

Since I haven't posted anything since October 26th, I figured it was time to write. Here is some stuff that has happened over the past few months...

Trip to Yosemite
-----------------------
I traveled with my friend D. to Yosemite National Park over the Columbus Day weekend in October. It was my first time visiting the park, as well as my first time camping. I was ashamed to discover that I am a complete sissy when it comes to "roughing it". We stayed in a little tent cabin in Curry Village. A tent cabin is basically a tent with wooden floor. It looks like this:

We decided to stay in one with no heat because it was cheap. At first I didn't think this would be a big deal since we would have plenty of blankets and sleeping bags. Besides, it wasn't even supposed to be that cold. I was wrong... it was freeeeezzzzzing. I'm usually okay with the cold, but I realized that while in Yosemite, I was cold all the time. It wasn't like I slept somewhere warm and then got bundled up to go outside where it was cold. It was cold everywhere. Even when it started to warm up during the day, I was still cold. I'm getting cold just thinking about it! Here is a photo of me freezing on the first night:

Anyway, enough complaining. Here are some other photos that highlight the beauty of Yosemite:





























We did a lot of hiking... a LOT of hiking. As for wild animals, I saw 3 bears, 2 deer, a skunk and some birds. I had a great time, but by the time we left on Monday afternoon I was exhausted. It didn't help matters that the breakfast sandwich I ate that morning made me queasy for the whole trip back to San Francisco. Luckily all I needed to make me feel better was a nice hot shower once we got back to SF. Then all was right with the world. The end.


Thanksgiving 2008
-----------------------
A few months ago I discovered that a fellow student from my small east coast college had randomly moved to the Portland area. We got in touch via Facebook and she invited me to her place for Thanksgiving. It was nice to have a home cooked meal rather than the crap I would have concocted for myself. I hung out with her family (husband, 2 kids) for the entire day. I even fed the baby (and did a damn fine job of it, if I do say so myself). I also had the pleasure of listening to an exciting story about dinosaurs, motorcycles and magic treasure hunts courtesy of her 3 year old daughter. I will have to bring my toddler decoder ring with me next time though, because I had a bit of trouble following the plot. The dinner was delicious (there were even pre-dinner margaritas!) and my friend was kind enough to send me home with leftovers!

Well that's all the news for now. I'll try to post more often, but I won't promise anything. When you live life on the edge like me, it's sometimes difficult to find the time to write a blog post.

How my mom found out about Sammy the Snake...

Last night I inadvertently revealed Sammy the Snake's existence to my mother. Why is this a big deal, you ask? Allow me to give you a little background on the issue of my mom and snakes.

My mom is afraid of snakes. I don't mean she thinks they're a little icky and doesn't want to be around them or have one as a pet. I mean she absolutely cannot stand the sight of them; no snakes in real life, no pictures of snakes, movies about snakes, drawings of snakes, etc. She doesn't know why she has this phobia, but she suspects it comes from being surprised by a snake while walking home from school when she was a young girl.

Because of this, when I got Sammy back in November of 2006, I thought it would be best if I kept that fact from my mom. I sent photos of the Sammy to my brother with explicit instructions to "make sure you don't tell mama about the snake." I knew that if my mom did ever attempt to fly out to visit me in Portland (very unlikely, as she's also afraid to fly) I would have plenty of lead time to move Sammy to another location if necessary. I felt that there was no sense in making her worry unnecessarily about me being devoured in my sleep by my man-eating cornsnake. I kept the secret for almost 2 years, until last night...

I called my mom to tell her that I had just booked a flight home and would be visiting in January. While we were chatting, she joked that she'd have to start cleaning the house so it would be ready for my arrival. I told her that she'd better hurry up because she only had about 3 months. She replied, "I guess I should start by getting rid of all the rats and cockroaches." I said, "You know what'll help get rid of those rats?? Snakes!" She laughed and began making noises indicating her extreme disdain for snakes.

Somehow the conversation turned to a news story she had heard recently about the owner of reticulated python being killed by the snake. From there our conversation went like this:

Me: Well, mama, a reticulated python is a very large and powerful snake. Usually when you hear about people being killed like that, it's because they try to handle to snake alone rather than having someone there to help them. Even though it's a pet, it will still act on instinct and a lot of people take that for granted or they don't realize how strong the snake really is.

Mom: I don't see why anyone would want to own a snake, especially one that's so big.

Me: Yeah, I would never have one that big since I live by myself. I don't have to worry about that with Sammy though since he won't grow to be any longer than.... uh [to myself: Oh sh!t, oh sh!t, oh sh!t!!!!]... ahem, cough, cough, cough....

Mom: What? Who is Sammy?

Me: Oh, nothing. [At this point I tried to think of a way to change the subject and of course I drew a complete blank]

Mom: What are you talking about? Who is Sammy.

Me: [Sigh] Sammy is my snake.

Mom: [Silence]

Me: He's a cornsnake

Mom: [Silence for a few more seconds] I hope that's a snake made from corn.

Me: No, it's a regular snake.

Mom: You do NOT have a snake.

Me: Yes, I do.

Mom: No, you don't. You're just messing with me.

Me: Yes, I really have a snake. I've had him for about 2 years. His name is Sammy.

We went back and forth for a bit longer until I finally convinced her that I did indeed own a snake.

Mom: How big is he?

Me: Oh, about 2 feet long (he's really about 3.5 ft).

Mom: Is he poisonous?

Me: No.

Mom: Are you sure?

Me : Yes, I'm sure. Cornsnakes aren't poisonous.

Mom: How are you sure what type of snake he is? Where did you find him?

Me: I didn't find him. I bought him from the reptile store.

Mom: You PAID for him??

Me: Yes, I bought him from a pet store.

Mom: [Huge sigh] Where do you keep him?

Me: In a glass cage.

Mom: Are there locks on it so he can't get out?

Me: Yes, I have 6 locks on the top so he won't be able to escape.

Mom: Do you ever take him out of there?

Me: Yeah, I have to take him out to feed him and I handle him every once in a while.

Mom: What does he eat?

Me: Mice.

Mom: Oh, God! So you have mice, too??

Me: Yeah, but they're already dead and frozen. I just thaw them out when it's time to feed him.

By now, I knew that she had suffered enough, so I told her I would talk to her later. I asked if she'd like me to send some pictures of Sammy. Believe it or not, she said, "NO!"

My New Toy

In an attempt to start making more meals at home, I decided to purchase this nifty little gadget from Cuisinart:


It's the Griddler, Jr. (GR3) and it ROCKS! It's similar to the George Forman Grill, but made from better quality materials. It cooks everything in a jiffy (ack, did I just say "jiffy"?) and the grill plates snap off for easy cleaning.

If by chance someone who has never met me is reading this, let me explain a bit about my relationship with cooking. To put it mildly, I hate it. No, seriously, I really hate it. I get hives just thinking about it. So, if I can manage to put together meals like the following without tearing my hair out, anyone can. Trust me.

Meals I Have Made with My New Griddler , Jr:

Grilled marinated chicken breasts with green beans and mashed potatoes (ok, the potatoes were from a box. Sue me.)

Roast beef sandwich on ciabatta with horseradish mayo and white cheddar.
Grilled asparagus with hollandaise sauce
Grilled pears (I didn't even know you could grill pears!)

I've only had it for 2 days, so that's pretty darn impressive for me. I thought about telling my mom, but decided against it. I'm afraid the shock of me cooking would be too much for her to handle.

Back from SF

I returned from my World Class Customer Service Training Seminar in San Francisco a few days ago, and I'm now ready to go out into the world and give our clients the same level of service I was giving them before. I was already awesome so I see no need to change now.

Despite the banality of the seminar itself, I did enjoy meeting other CSAs in the company and getting ideas and tips for operational type stuff. As far as the customer service stuff though... I got that down pat already.

Since I flew down a few days early, I had a chance to hang out and explore the city a bit. I went to a neat opera concert in Golden Gate Park with my friend D and his friend M. Here is a photo of me absorbing the culture:


As you can see, I'm wearing sunglasses because it was uncharacteristically sunny in SF during my stay. I actually wanted to see the fog more, especially that day since I was wearing a sweater and it was hot. Of course the fog rolled in immediately after the concert was over. Just my luck.

All in all it was nice little vacation :)

Oh, I almost forgot...

The All Blacks spanked the Springboks this weekend... on the Springboks home turf! That makes it sweeter. Check out the awesomeness:

Damn it's hot!

I'll admit that 98% of the time I love Portland's weather. I love the dreary, overcast fall and winter as well as the low humidity, mid 70 degrees, blue sky summers. Unfortunately once or twice ever summer, Mother Nature decides to be a royal pain in the ass and stick us with a heat wave. Since Thursday the city has been sweltering with temps reaching 100+. The heat is especially hard to deal with because most houses (including mine) do not have air conditioning. I do feel grateful to have north facing windows since that means that the sun never hits my place directly, but when you have a couple of days of heat like this, it just kind of hangs around in the air. Right now the temperature in my unit is a toasty 84 degrees... not horrible, but not comfortable either.

Sammy is suffering as well. I woke up this morning to find him using his water dish as a pool. Snakes will often do that to cool off or if the humidity is too low in their terrarium, but this was the first time I've seen him do it. I wish he had stayed in there long enough for me to take a picture.

Luckily tomorrow is supposed to be back to normal with highs in the low-mid 70's. I don't think I've ever wanted Monday to come sooner.

On to other news...

I successfully passed my Series 31 and 65 exams earlier this month. It was a relief to get that out of the way. Now I will be able to participate in revenue sharing with my team at work. The more revenue we generate, the bigger my paycheck. Oh yeeeeaaaah! Also, I have been invited to attend a customer service training seminar in San Francisco next month. It's basically supposed to teach me how to do the job that I've been doing for the past 11 years, but for a free flight to SF, I'll deal with it. The seminar only lasts for 2 days (a Tues and Weds), but I'm flying down there earlier to make a 5 day stay out of it.
Should be fun.

Hilarious T-shirt

While walking home today after watching Australia triumph over South Africa in a Tri-Nations game, I saw a young woman wearing a t-shirt that read:

SHAKESPEARE HATES YOUR EMO POEMS

I dare say I guffawed.

When I got home I did a google search for "Shakespeare hates your emo poems" out of curiosity and my experience today was made more hilarious when I found the comments here:

Don't laugh at me for being emo


PS. Hopefully we'll see an All Blacks/Wallabies Final in the Tri-Nations tournament.

Add butterfish to the list...

Last Thursday I stopped by the Heathman after work to have a drink before heading home. Of course "a drink" turned into "3 drinks" but that's no big surprise. After drink numero 3 I decided that I was hungry and ordered the seared ahi from their bistro menu. The bartender told me about a new menu item they had recently added called miso butterfish and highly recommended it. Now comes the point in the story where I should mention that I'm allergic to fish. Well, some fish. I know that I can eat tuna with no problem, but I stay away from shellfish and most other fish just to be safe. Of course sober KJ would have said "actually I might be allergic to that, so I'll just stick with the tuna, thanks." Unfortunately we were dealing with her evil, stupid twin, slightly tipsy KJ who thought it was a fabulous idea to order the butterfish. So, that's what I did.

I took the first bite. It was delicious. I'd go so far as to say that it was the most delicious thing I have ever eaten. The bartender looked at me with a "so how is it?" look and I gave him an enthusiastic two thumbs up. I took the second bite. Yep, still delicious and most importantly I didn't seem to be having any sort of reaction. This was good. Then the barback walked over and commented that he had also eaten the butterfish that day and we agreed that it was delicious. I continued to happily munch away... until I got to approximately bite #5. That's when I started to notice a slight scratchy feeling in my throat when I swallowed. This was not good. I laid my fork down for a moment and waited. Then it happened. My throat continued to itch and now my lips were starting to itch and swell. To my great dismay, I was allergic to the butterfish.

I know that seafood/fish allergies can be very severe and cause anaphylactic shock that can lead to death if not treated in time. Luckily that has never happened to me so I don't think my allergy is that severe. At any rate I knew that if I were to go into anaphylactic shock, it would happen very quickly and in fact probably would have started already. Also the symptoms I was having were very similar to the symptoms I had during my previous yellowtail experience, so I wasn't too worried. Just to be safe though, I decided to go home and take some Benadryl. I paid my bill and started to head out when the barback noticed that I hadn't finished the butterfish.

He said, "oh you didn't like it?"

I replied, "it was delicious, but um I think I might be having an allergic reaction, so uh, I gotta go." and then I rushed out.

As I was leaving, I heard the barback relay that information to the bartender.

I walked home slowly; keeping an eye out for ambulances and police cars in the event that I needed to flag one down. Luckily I did not.

I made it home safely and stayed awake for another couple of hours to make sure I could still breathe. When I was satisfied that I was not going to die in my sleep (at least not from the butterfish) I called it a night and went to bed.

The next day my throat was still a bit itchy and my lips were still swollen, but I was alive. I decided to stop by the Heathman just to let them know that I didn't die overnight and they could still count on my patronage despite the fact that their bartender tried to kill me. The other bartender and the barback had a great time pranking the bartender from the previous night by telling him that I had spent the whole evening in the emergency room. They guilt tripped him for a good 5 minutes by reminding him that "she didn't even know about the butterfish until you recommended it."

Man, that butterfish was delicious.

A little more furniture...

Well, a rug and an ottoman:


The ottoman is a nifty storage ottoman from Bed, Bath and Beyond. It even has 2 mini ottomans inside!

I got the rug from Fred Meyer of all places.

Big thanks to my co-worker, Carol who drove me around the burbs on Sunday so I could go shopping!

Where's Sammy?

Can you find Sammy in this photo?


There he is!!

America's Birthday + Baseball = FUN!

Since July 4th usually involves big crowds of drunk people and sitting around for HOURS waiting for a fireworks show to start, I usually end up staying home (b/c of my aversion to crowds of drunk people and waiting around). This year though, I decided to bite the bullet and go out to watch a baseball game followed by fireworks. I met up with a few friends around 6:30pm and we all bought general admission seats to watch the Portland Beavers compete against the Tacoma Rainiers. I didn't realize it until mid-way through the game, but this was the first time I've seen a baseball game in Portland and I forgot how much fun they can be. Even better was the fact that it was Family Feast Friday with hot dogs and ice cream sandwiches for only $1. Unfortunately beer was the regular inflated price of $7, but the cheap hot dogs made up for it... I had 3 (hot dogs, that is.)

Since I'm not a sportswriter, you can read about the Beavers' awesome comeback victory here:

Beavers Send Fans Home Happy with Dramatic Comeback Victory

After the game, PGE Park put on a nice little fireworks display. I recorded a few seconds near the end on my cell phone. The video is poor quality, but you can still tell that it's fireworks.

Sammy Update

As mentioned in one of my previous posts, Sammy has now passed into the full fledged "OMG, that's a SNAKE" stage. I tried to take some photos of him this afternoon right before his weekly feeding, but I discovered that hungry snakes are not very cooperative and don't like to sit still. That being said, I was able to get a couple of decent pics. And here they are:

Although he's a big guy, I swear he isn't as gigantic as he looks in this pic! My arm is small and the photo was taken super close up.

Unfortunately you can't see his head in this one b/c he was just starting to burrow under the substrate in his terrarium:

Next time I'm out, I'm going to try to get some fancy looking decorations to spruce up his snake condo. It's looking kind of blah in there.

Avenue Q

Last night I headed to the Keller Auditorium to see "Avenue Q", the 2004 Tony award winner for best musical. If you've never heard of Avenue Q, the best way to describe it would be like Sesame Street for adults. Since I love Sesame Street, I was sure I'd enjoy it.

Unfortunately, I didn't.... for one simple reason:

The puppet handlers were on the stage rather than being hidden away like they are on Sesame Street. You wouldn't think this would be a big deal, but it was seriously annoying. It was a pity too b/c it was a very funny show. I just couldn't get over the puppet handlers being on stage.

Here is a performance of "It Sucks to be Me." Like I said, funny stuff.

Two years

Hello, Blog Readers (all 2 of you). I apologize that I haven't posted, but I was dealing with some extremely slow internet access for a while. Actually, it wasn't even mine. I was scamming a weak signal from the church down the street. To assuage my guilt, I rationalized that Jesus is a pretty cool guy and he would want me to have internet access. Anyway, it was slooooow, so writing and posting a blog entry would have taken about 2 hours. Thankfully, as of last Wednesday, I have speedy, LEGAL access that I'm sharing with a neighbor down the hall. So, on to the post...

June 20 was the 2nd anniversary of my move to Portland. I celebrated by drinking at the Heathman Hotel bar and going to sleep around 8:45pm. It's okay, you can be jealous.
(Editor's Note: I am a complete and total ASS! June 19th was my Portland anniversary. June 20th was my parent's wedding anniversary! My only defense, is that by the time I went to sleep on June 19, 2006, it was probably already June 20th. Yeah, that's it.)

My new job is going well. I'm finally starting to clean up a lot of the stuff that was left behind, but there are still a couple of new problems that crop up every now and then. To add to my fun, I have been informed by my compliance department that I am required to get 2 more securities licenses: the Series 65 (Uniform Investment Advisers Law Exam) and the Series 31 (Futures Managed Funds Exam). The material is extremely boring, so studying has been difficult b/c I keep falling asleep. I'm going to go ahead and schedule the exams and cram a couple of weeks ahead of time. Hopefully this will be enough to pass.

In other news, I am no longer caring for Zen and Lucy, the cats I've mentioned in previous posts. Their owner came to pick them up at the beginning of June. They were super sweet cats, but I can't say that I will miss cleaning the litter box, getting said litter stuck to my feet when I walked across my floor, and dealing with cat hair. So, now it's just me and Sammy. Now that the cats are gone, I'm able to take him out of his terrarium more often. He responded this afternoon by taking a big dump on me. I don't know if that's a good sign.

Speaking of Sammy, he is much bigger now. He's moved from cute baby snake to "oh my G-d, that's a snake!" I'm very proud.


Unfortunately, I have some exciting Series 65 studying to do, so that's it for now.

Long time, no blog...

Yikes! I haven't posted on this thing in a while. Since I don't have a lot of time this morning to write out a long entry (and you probably don't feel like reading it) I'll give the bulleted version.

Stuff That Has Been Happening

• I'm still taking French class. There are only 5 people in the class, all women. My covert plan to meet a hot guy trying to learn French has been thwarted. I'm joking of course.

• I finally saw my first live rugby game. It was about 20 degrees outside and I froze my ass off, but it was fun. Unfortunately, the team I was rooting for lost. I don't have any pictures b/c I would have had to take my hands out of my pockets to take them and that wasn't happening. The many shots of Jameson Irish Whiskey I drank later at the post game party helped warm me up :)

• I resigned from my job on Monday, though I'm still staying through until the end of the month. I'll be moving to another job at a well known international brokerage firm as a registered sales assistant. Although I enjoyed my job at my current company, there was some trouble with me being able to keep my securities licenses while I was employed there. Basically b/c of the type of company it is (investment adviser vs broker dealer) they can't put me on their books as a registered representative and after 2 years my licenses will lapse and I'll have to take my exams all over again. I would prefer not to do that, so when this position with a broker dealer came up, I took it. I start on May 1st. I felt guilty about leaving since my current company is in the middle of their quarter end reporting and consequently, very busy. It would have been easier if I disliked the job and my coworkers, then I could have just said, "I quit! See ya!" Oh well, I've got to look out for number 1 and I'm sure they'll find a replacement who's almost as good as me... almost. I kid.
  

Well, that's all for right now. I'll try to be more proactive and update this thing in a timely fashion in the future.

Mais, bien sûr je parle français!

I've decided to start taking French classes again. I figure foreign languages are the one thing I'm actually somewhat talented at, so I might as well go for it.

Starting at then end of March I'll be studying at the Alliance Française here in Portland. The classes are small and affordable (unlike a regular college class which would be crowded and expensive. Seriously, PSU, $450 for a Level 1 French Class? Sacre bleu!)

I promise I will not start wearing a beret and eating smelly cheese, but I may not be able to control myself from peppering conversations with occasional French phrases.

Furniture has arrived

The new loveseats were delivered by two young strapping lads on Friday as scheduled. Here are some photos:

I have to get some pillows or something to add a bit of color, but for now I'm just happy to have somewhere to sit.

New Member of the Family

No, I didn't get another snake (but don't tempt me). It's a baby. No, it's not MY baby. It's my brother's baby. Well, it's he and his wife's baby. She's the one who did all the work, after all. Presenting Miss Chloe Louise:



Luckily for my brother and sister-in-law she seems to have mastered the sleeping thing.

ETA: For the love of G-d, people, look at her foot. I don't care what her birth certificate says, there is NO way this child is 8 lbs. That foot is the size of the average newborn head!

Tax rebate? Ohhh yeaaah!

For the first time in about 10 years I will not owe Uncle Sam an exorbitant amount of money in April. In fact, I will be getting back a nice chunk of change in about 2 weeks once my Federal and State tax returns are processed. (Yes, I know it's not good when you get a refund b/c it means that you gave the government an interest-free loan, but I don't care, it's still money.) I'm using it to buy some decent furniture for my condo since I got rid of the crappy West Elm sofa that I bought last year.

As I'm sure you're curious, here's what I'm getting...

Two of these loveseats from Macy's:


I was originally going to do a sofa/loveseat thing, but after measuring I decided that the sofa would overwhelm the room. They'll be arranged like this:


The rectangular objects on each wall are my bookshelves. I had them pushed together as a room divider and placed next to my bed, but I decided that made things too claustrophobic, so I've opened up the floor plan a bit. Sammy's terrarium is on top of the shelf on the left and I'm putting my new TV on the shelf on the right. I also need to do something about the ugly white horizontal blinds on my windows b/c they completely kill the room. I'm thinking maybe some bamboo shades or something like that.

I bought the loveseats today, but they won't be delivered till the end of the month, so I have some time to do more planning.

Christmas is for Casanovas. Who knew?

Since I despise traveling during the holidays, I stayed home in Portland this Christmas. I'm not a big Christmas person to begin with so I decided to spend the day watching a movie and then having dinner by myself at my favorite bar. Unfortunately, after taking the Max all the way there I discovered that my favorite bar had the audacity to be closed on Christmas. So, I left and walked around for a while trying to find a restaurant that was open. Aside from a few Chinese places (I wasn't in the mood the Chinese food) everything was closed. Dejected, I started to walk back home.

Heading down Broadway, I discovered that the Heathman Hotel Bar was open so I popped in there. The Trailblazers/Sonics game was on so I sat at the bar to watch. It didn't take long before some middle aged guy started talking to me. He was from California and spent most of the time alluding to how much money he made. Oh, and his father used to manage the Heathman hotel and he had met a lot of famous rock stars who had stayed there "back in the day."

Naturally, there's nothing I love more than a man who brags about himself especially when he does it loud enough for other people at the bar to hear. Of course a catch like that must be married, so I didn't get my hopes up... but then he revealed that he was going through a divorce... his second divorce. It took all my willpower to not rip my clothes off right there, but I remained strong. I decided to finish up my last drink, which he had bought for me and head home. (I usually don't accept drinks from strangers but it was already poured before I had a chance to refuse and there's no sense in wasting good bourbon.)

He excused himself to go to the restroom and I signaled the bartender to make my escape. I quickly paid my tab, leaving a decent tip because it has been my experience in the past that people who brag about their riches are usually shitty tippers and I felt bad for the bartender because she would be stuck listening to him for the rest of the night... unless some other lucky girl took my place.