Old

I don't feel old. Sometimes however, I am rudely reminded that, in fact I might as well be dead because, "Basically after 30, your life is over."

Ahhh, teenagers, aren't they jerks? Clever, surprising, wonderful, unruly, jerks? Most all of the ones I deal with are that sort.

One of my classes does not shy away from reminding me, constantly how very old I am. One of these lovely students sings a song, I have no idea where it's from, about a nursing home fire...the chorus of which is (I'm not kidding) "Old people burning, Old people burning."

I thought I'd share this artistic rendering of what thirty really means.

Oh, and while playing taboo with the class this was one of the conversations that took place.
Student one, giving clues: When you're thirty you are...
Student two, grinning widely and guessing: OLD!

Again, I know everyone is jealous they don't work in a high school.

3 day weekends call for some day drinking

This is a picture from last Sunday. My dearest Portland friend and I had a drinking day.

It was a warm dry-ish afternoon and as we walked to to bar, already a few drinks in...gin and tonics with fresh grapefruit and Old Tom Ransom Gin...we came across this handsome fellow sunning himself on the front steps.

(Quick note: the same dear friend bought me a bottle of this AMAZING gin for my birthday, seriously, it's so good I want to ration it. It tastes like cardamom and malt and oranges. It's the only gin I've ever wanted to sip.)

It was a great day...she is my favorite drinking partner and our exploits for the day included offending the bartender, making friends with drunk guy we had previously scorned, eating take out thai food at the bar and strangely winning back over the bartender we had previously alienated. Later we drank wine, made brownies and played Wii bowling. Warm, silly and happy, in the last hour we were joined by her fiance and the whole time we were surrounded by our furry four legged family members, three dogs and a cat.

Her friendship reminds me that in life I am blessed by both family I was born into and family I have created. The very first time I hung out with her, I knew I had lucked out...almost five years later I am still convinced.

Ode to the Columbia River, again

A conversation...

...with a man who didn't immediately like my dogs. (GASP!)






Me: Ruby, move!
Him: Oh, she's okay. I'll just scoot over.
Me: Ruby, move it!
Him: I told her she could get on the couch.
Me: You told her?
Him: Yes, I told her she could get on a couch if she was a good girl.
Me: And not a bad girl?
Him: No, she had to be good, and not annoying.
Me: She's always annoying.
Him: She said she'd be good.
Me: Hmmmm, okay, but she's in my spot.
Him: Well, I'll just move over.
Me: So, I'm moving, and you're moving so she can sit beside you on the couch?
Him: You can sit on the other side. There's room.

For the record, she was a perfectly behaved girl and I'm pretty sure she likes him better than me...this might be why.

Don't look at me!

Being the center of attention is hard for me. I am not attention seeking and sometimes even talking about myself in front of a group of people makes me want to crawl behind something and hide. As a general rule, oversharers or attention seeking personalities irritate me. That's not to say I don't talk to people, there are lots of people to whom I whine, bitch, moan, and ramble. But, things that are truly important are not what I want to discuss with a large group.

This relationship I have found myself in is important to me. I am so excited about it that it scares me. When things scare me, or I get overwhelmed, I tend to retreat into myself to process or protect whatever I'm excited about.

I don't generally overshare with strangers or acquaintances. I don't like my shit out for all the world to see. (Yet here I am "discussing" it....stupid irony.) In other words, the idea of changing my relationship status on facebook from "single" to "in a relationship" is equal parts stupid and scary to me. But, I did it to make someone happy. (He doesn't know this blog exists, not yet.)His reasons for wanting me to change it seemed more sound than my hesitations. My favorite crazy friend (who immediately knew that changing such a thing was not done independenly of my own volition) reminded me that relationships are about compromise.

In response, I asked her, "What the hell do I know about such things?"

What I do know is that the interest from people around me is warm, friendly, and should be taken with more grace than I can generally muster up. I also know, that for as happy as it made him (even if I don't understand the reason) it was a minimal gesture.

Now suck it up Sara and deal!

Flat Stanley

I'm not a big fan of deadlines. I often choose to ignore them, especially when it comes to projects and cleaning. But, I generally have good intentions.

This is a picture of Flat Stanley. This particular version of the paper-doll traveling geography project phenomena comes from the niece of one of my best friends. I got her the week before Christmas. In the first week I took her to a Blazer game, the Portland Sat. Market and took her picture in front of one of Portland's many bridges.

I should have sent her on. I even have a priority envelop already addressed to Flat Stanley's next host...but, instead she got left in the Tri-Cities after Christmas. For two and a half weeks this would be world traveler was holed up in a closet in a 9 year old's room. Alas there was not even a single photo to authenticate her time in that exotic locale. I got her back (and a needed pair of tennis shoes) and took her out again. With me apparently she's on a sports kick, she was taken to a Winter Hawks game, rode public transportation and walked along the Columbia at the site of one of Lewis and Clark's stop-overs.

I really do like this project, and always get a kick out it when I see people with Flat Stanley dolls (this has actually happened to me about three times) but it is a lot of work for the people involved and a lot of trust by that teacher that these projects will in fact be successful. Okay, now to find a way to print the pictures, write in the journal and send the stupid (but brilliant) project out into the world (or at least to her next stop-over in San Fransisco).

Why my job is better than yours...

because really are there any other jobs where seeing a singing, ukulele playing, happy teenager sporting an angry mohawk is completely normal?

Resolutions 2011

I have a dear friend at work. She teaches in the room next to mine and her desk is next to mine. She's super smart, an awesome teacher and I sorta couldn't stand her when we first met. I honestly couldn't belive anyone could be that perky and real...oh no ladies and gentlemen. She's also genuine. As you can imagine, if I didn't like her so much, I'd pretty much hate her.

She asked me this morning about New Year's Resolutions and she was talking about them not in the traditional (exercise more, loose a ton of weight) sorta way (I mean I do have those) but as a list of fun things you would like to do this year.

Of course I've been pondering this all day....here's what I've come up with.
1. Learn to knit, actually do it...knit socks.
2. Go to the Braun Brother's Family Reunion (Ragweed in Idaho, be still my heart)
3. Visit the Newport Aquarium
4. Go camping
5. Blog more consistantly
6. Take a fun art-type class
7. Learn to make mole
8. Go to a professional soccer game
9. Organize a few poker parties
10. Learn to play Settlers of Catan
11. Go hiking in 5 new places

This list (like most other aspects of my existence) is a work in progress.