Friday, November 25, 2005

Pumpkin Pie Season

Hello out there. Time to catch up the days...

30 years!!! First, I have to send a happy b'day out to my sister Jennifer. She hits 30 today, but still looks damn young. Gives me hope that in two years and two months, I will still look damn young too. Anyway, happy b'day you opinionated and dramatic sister of mine.

Daniel-san is crying. It's time to wax on and wax off and send a solemn goodbye to Pat Morita, aka Mr. Miyagi from the Karate Kid movies. Every person my age has to admit that they watched the first two movies over and over in their kid years. The third, not so much, and the fourth, well, Hilary Swank went on to bigger and better things clearly. I'll prune a Bonzai tree tonight in your honor Mr. Miyagi.

Screw the lines. Thanksgiving is over and I refused to go shopping today. I think I might take the advice of a smart coworker and buy everything online this year. Shipping is generally free during the holiday season and I won't have to deal with impatient jerks and traffic. Oh, happy belated Thanksgiving to all. Hope most of you have the day off like me. I will eat lots more pumpkin pie today.

Hey, I suck at poker. After spending Thanksgiving afternoon with Justin's family, we headed to my dad's for dessert. The guys are all big into poker, so we sat down and played. In a particular hand of Omaha (some kind of poker), I had what was equal to 4 Jacks with an eight (kicker?) between my hand and the flop. Well, I folded. The whole combo thing didn't make sense to me. I quickly learned through their uncontrollable laughter that I would have schooled them all. I have a feeling I won't live this down for quite a while.

Heater I.V....I am sitting in my house right now with a sweater and my Northface fleece on and I am still freezing. It is about 42 degrees outside, but totally wet and rainy, so it makes it even colder. In order to beat the cold, my current plan is to invest in one of those tall portable outdoor restaurant heaters and move it along with me everywhere I go, just like a hospital I.V. drip. I won't even care about the weird looks from people on the street...at least I'll be warm.

RENT! Hey, RENT came out this weekend. I plan to see it by Sunday if I can manipulate people into going to see it with me. This may be hard, but I'll be persistent. I'm hoping I like it, but we'll just have to see about that.

Man, I slept well...Monday night, I put in a few hours by myself at my agency's Community Receiving Home. This is a foster home that we have for kids who get pulled out of their homes (usually because of meth busts) so that they can stay in their sibling sets and not have to sit in DHS offices for hours on end while a suitable home is found for them. I had two sets of siblings ages 1, 2, 4, 4, and 7. The oldest kid was pretty aware of why he was in the foster home, which was a little heartwrenching, and his sister just kept saying, "No, mom is at home," even though mom was in jail. The two year old would only call me mom, and the one year old cried if I tried to put him down. Their realities are pretty different than they should be at their age, and that really bothers me.

Hmm, I am out of here, but here, have a quote I like...

Youth would be an ideal state if it came much later in life.

I have it posted in my senior book, and I still agree.

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Game #11: LOSE

Oregon State 14
Oregon 56

I've waited too long to post the final score of our losing season, but the mourning has to stop at some point. Oregon managed to slay us in the Civil War, even with those ugly uniforms that:

1) Look like they have polka dotted shoulders from far away.
2) Appear like a kindergartener took cheap yellow tape to mark the numbers on the backs.

Apparently, the better looking uniform doesn't cut it in the decision process for winning anymore. It worked for the Dallas Cowboys when I picked them as better dressed during Superbowl XXX in 1996. Of course, my huge crush on Deion Sanders that year kind of solidified my choice too.

My dad (a Duck) found it completely funny to call with this joke some time in the third quarter: "Hey, my TV screen is really foggy right now. Can you look at the game on yours and tell me if we (the Ducks) are winning?" Oh, ha ha. (Oh, if you missed the game, it was super foggy on the field and you couldn't see a damn thing.)

So, no bowl game for my first year back in Oregon. No pride in beating that green and yellow team. This was hands down one of the most unexciting seasons we've had in a long time actually.

Rest in peace 2005 football season. I'll keep my hold on hope for next year.

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

My New Codename

As promised, my friend Jamie has morphed my name on his blog from Single Forever to (Not So) Single Forever. Besides being proud of my new codename, I enjoy how he describes it all (and gives evidence that my name has officially been adjusted):

Last Friday, I caught up with Single Forever, who unfortunately gentlemen, is not single anymore. She's hooked up with a lovely bloke by the name of JT (although his initials are actually JS) and he went to the University of North Carolina so we talked a lot about college basketball on Friday as we watched the Blazer game at the pub before going back to Scooter's to catch up with some more old friends.

...Tomorrow, Rivjuando and Soule Sista, will be joining (Not So) Single Forever and yours truly for the Death Cab For Cutie concert at the Crystal Ballroom. It should be a blast, if their new and past work is anything to go by.

And a note to Jamie, it's been fun having you back in Portland. I highly advise that you put in for one of those severance packages and completely relocate to the area. Look, the sun is even out for your last few days here. Isn't that incentive enough to become a permanent foreigner? I'll be waiting patiently.

Me VS Hell?

Last night, I read this on a church billboard in the Sellwood area:

START LIVING FOR GOD TO BEAT HELL

Hmmm, is it just me, or does this kind of scare you out of ever wanting to step foot inside their church? And how exactly do you beat Hell? Are they asking that I figuratively whack Hell with a big white baseball bat? Am I in a win/lose competition with Hell? Wouldn't defeating Hell completely corrupt the society we live within AND the land that God helped to create, thus essentially beating God instead?

Let's try something a little clearer and much less fear based next time Mr. Billboard Designer.

Sunday, November 13, 2005

Shopgirl

I went and watched Shopgirl on Friday with a couple friends and really enjoyed it. Jason Schwartzman's character in particular, is absolutely hilarious, and I love most everything Steve Martin takes part in.

A great factoid about this movie is that the lead singer of Red House Painters, Mark Kozelek, plays Luther, a lead singer on tour with his band and Jason Schwartzman's character. He contributes several songs to the movie as well, but they were hard to find online and in iTunes because this guy sings with several groups, and the soundtrack for the movie has been purely reserved for the score. The best song, Carry Me Ohio, is actually by his group Sun Kil Moon, and I found it while surfing through a good 60 tracks by all his different bands. This song now holds rank as the FIRST song I have ever purchased from iTunes...I am joining the ranks of the legal downloaders, sheesh.

Alright, go see Shopgirl...you'll like it.

In the meantime, I will be increasing my collection of songs led by Mark Kozelek...I love his voice.

Game #10: LOSE

Oregon State 20
Stanford 17

This should have been a freebie, our guarantee for a bowl game, but, no. We lost our QB in the second quarter, Serna missed three field goals, and our season is likely to wrap as a losing one next week when we play Oregon at Autzen Stadium for the Civil War.

Of course, I'll still watch, but talk about a heartbreaker.

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Not Exactly Feng Shui

I bought a book today. Wait don't get too excited...it's not exactly a mind bending, long and drawn out piece of work. It's called:

The Little Book of Wrong Shui...How to drastically improve your life by basically moving stuff around. Honest.

It's one of those $5.99 pocket books that I would typically NEVER buy. But tonight, while on an extended tour of Borders after a stop for dinner at I Love Sushi with Jessica and Jamie, I picked this thing up and everything in it had me cracking up. If it doesn't make you laugh, you have no sense of humor. That, or I can only blame my head cold... it has clearly gotten the best of me thanks to my many overlapping doses of Sudafed and Ibuprofen over the last three days.

Anyway, here are some of the shorter wise ideas from Wrong Shui. I'll post some longer ones some other day when my head doesn't feel like it has 100 balloons holding it up:

Conversation Piece: To encourage conversation, always have one fewer chair than there are guests at a dinner party.

Mind the Gap: Removing the occasional floorboard from your home will help generate in you, and in those who visit, a heightened sense of awareness of your surroundings.

On Reflection: A mirror on the bedroom ceiling reflects badly on you. Likewise satin sheets, remote control lights, and a baby oil dispenser on the headboard.

Arumortherapy: If your workplace lacks atmosphere, position a different rumor about your colleagues in each room.

How to De-clutter Your Home Without Really Trying: Leave an open window when you go on vacation and when you return, you'll find that the problem of a cluttered living space will have resolved themselves.

Alright, I am going to bed.

Sunday, November 06, 2005

Game #9: WIN!

Oregon State 18
University of Washington 10

I have to admit that I slept through 90% of this incredibly uneventful game. All of our points were scored on the 6 record field goal kicks by Alexis Serna..and there was almost not a TD in the house until UW decided to get one in during the last 1.5 minutes of the 4th quarter. By the end of this game, the crowd was gone and the players were asleep. But I guess we got another crucial win for bowl game contention. Truthfully, I was much more captivated by the REAL game that was played between Cal and U of O yesterday. Zzzzzzzz.

Thursday, November 03, 2005

Hey, It's November!

Let me start with a big 'love ya' to Kimmie who says she retreats to her office on bad days and reads my blog to cheer herself up. Kim, you are grrrrrrreat, and I hope that November 9th holds some good news for you. Either way, I'll be there for you. M'wah!

Okay, on with the show...

The world traveller returns...So my buddy Jamie has returned to the United States for the final leg of his five month vacation, so I am pretty excited to get to see him a few more times before he heads home to the land of Vegemite in two weeks. On November 16th, Jamie, myself, and two of his friends head to a sold out Death Cab for Cutie show at the Crystal Ballroom! Have I ever mentioned that every time I talk about Death Cab, I have little pangs of guilt for when I was with Mike and hated them FOR YEARS and bitched every time he played them? Sorry dude, I shoulda reckonized.

Two is better than one...It may be a little premature, but hey, mark your calendars NOW for January 7th! Kim and I are planning a joint bash to celebrate our 26th and 28th birthdays. Hers is the 5th and mine is the 11th, and those are both lame weekdays, so we figured we should reassign and enjoy ourselves smack in the middle of them both. We did a smaller version last year with about 20 people, and it was a blast, so stay tuned as we develop a plan for our celebration. It is likely to start in the morning with cheesy girl time and pedicures and then evolve into party time by nightfall. Yeah, that's all we have so far.

The Civil War...Okay, mark your calendars for this too. The Civil War is on November 19th this year, and I plan to do nothing other than bleed orange and black the entire day. The current plan is to head to the McMenamin's Mission Theater to watch the game. Both Beaver and Duck fans are welcome to attend. Last year, my friends here called me in Utah to brag about how much fun they were having...jerks. I haven't been in Oregon for the Civil War in four years, so the fact that I get to watch it with a bunch of good friends this year is pretty high on my list of reasons to be happy.

Damn darkness...The whole daylight savings thing has really messed with any chance of me driving home in daylight. It sucks for a couple reasons...

1) I can't see where the cops are hiding because it is too dark to see the on ramps, so...
2) I can't speed home anymore. Doesn't that suck?

In addition to the lack of light on my commute home, the INSANE amount of rain in the morning and evening has been a nightmare. I feel like my car is on waterskis...an occasionally thrilling feeling, but come on, hydroplaning for an hour on I-5 twice everyday is hardly fun.

Two is better than one, part II...Okay, most of my friends already know, and I don't write much about the subject anymore, but I don't feel the need to hide that I am happily using the word boyfriend to describe a certain guy. His name is Justin, and I won't jump the couch and annoy you all, but he's pretty damn great, really. I met him on my Max Crawling night...he's the eighth grade classmate who thought my shoes were cute. Well, he's more than that, but I'll shut up now.

Alright, gotta go eat some dinner, give my big dog a bath, and get some case notes for work done. I was going to go to the gym, but I haven't been there in so long, I can't remember where it is. Really, that's my excuse.