Sunday Funny

I spotted this as I left the market and got such a good laugh out of it. The car looked like it had two green horns!

dawn

The corners of the horizon were starting to glow a bit and the silhouette of the trees could be seen sharper in the east as I drove to the gym this morning. There wasn't a morning chill as it was already a balmy 50° making it easy to believe it would actually get up to 85° this late April day. As I made the short drive to the gym I was suddenly overwhelmed with a sense of Israel. I can't pinpoint what it was, maybe the sky ripe with anticipation of the coming day, the colors reminiscent of the many mornings we set out at the break of day in similarly 'warm' mornings. Isn't it funny how random things will remind us of a place or person or time. By the time I left the gym the sun was almost over Mt. Hood and lighting up the sky, that feeling of Israel was gone leaving me 'homesick' for Israel.

Isn't it grand to be 1 year old!?

Saturday the clan got together to celebrate Easter, David's birthday and Zachary's 1st birthday. Here are a couple pics of the birthday boys!  Saturday was Zach's first taste of chocolate - do you think he liked it?  Notice the funky hairdo? That is the mad styling of frosting! You just gotta love it! "King" David celebrated 32 years but he wasn't about to be upstaged by his nephew at 1 years old and stole his special bib. 

Sloshy Soggy Good Friday

Pulling into the driveway of the office building I was faced with two large fire trucks. At first I wasn't sure that I would be able to get by them to access the upper level parking lot where I prefer to park. Once I squeezed by I started to wonder why they were there. The Easter Seals organization was going to sell tulips in the lobby today, could it be for that? The elevators have been on the fritz for awhile maybe one of them had decided to quit between floors with people in the car? That was a more probable scenario than the tulip sales. Being the ambulance chaser type I was hoping that I would be able to see whatever disaster had brought the fire brigade to the office. As I waited for an elevator everything seemed somewhat normal. One elevator was locked but appeared to be in use for moving but no one was screaming to let them out. The elevators were not the problem. Julianne got on the elevator with me and asked which floor, I said, "3rd please." She responded, "Oh, you're going to have a fun day!" Quizzically I asked, "How's that?" She explained a pipe had burst on the 4th floor and had flooded all the floors below. As she finished telling me the elevator doors opened and we were affronted with the damp thick smell of wet plaster. The presence of the fireman was now explained. I walked down to my office and stopped dead in my tracks at the hallway intersection just before my office door. The hallway down to the other side of the building was lined with garbage bins, the ceiling tiles were mostly gone, and water was streaming out of the ceiling. Bryan's office at the end of the hallway looked like monkeys had gone crazy with fire hoses; the water was running down the windows like a car wash. As you walked down the hallway the impression of your foot step filled in with water leaving mini glistening pools in shoe shapes. I felt badly for the media team as they were the worst hit on our floor, but nothing seemed to be damaged or lost thankfully. I must admit, I found the whole scenario quite amusing. The smell was more than most people could handle on my team and by 10 am there were only three of us left, by 2 pm I was the sole representative for my team at the office, everyone else chose to work from home. As a perk for staying and having to endure the smell and noise our manager brought in treats from Grand Central Bakery and the Operations team treated us to pizza for lunch. It is going to take awhile to get back to normal. The affected staff have been relocated to temporary offices with their belongings scattered around. All in all, it was anything but a dull Friday at the office.

My trip in pictures

Cultural Lessons

Friday Janelle and I decided to take our studying to the beach. It was a beautiful day and I had been craving the beach and thought in central California I might have a chance of being warm at the beach. We found a spot around Bodega Bay and staked out a spot not too near anyone with a big log that ran parallel to the beach so we could use it as a back rest. It was great for about a half hour. That is when the Hispanic family decided to have lunch just a few feet in front of us obstructing our lovely view of the ocean. There was wide open sandy beaches for quite some distance beside us either way, so why did they choose to plop down right in front of us? Janelle and I were a bit mystified. I made the comment that "We are in the midst of a cross-cultural lesson, but I'm not getting it." And I still don't get it. What made it more amusing is that after they had finished eating lunch they started wandering off, but left their stuff. All the guys had congregated for a game of soccer down the beach away from people, and several of the women were down there watching. Two kids were left to keep watch over their belongings which we helped out with when the seagulls attacked and the kids were playing down by the water. Can anyone explain this behavior to me? I'm really quite curious.

Janelle received some other cultural lessons during my visit. Apparently the concept of using honey to sweeten coffee was new to her. What was really new was malt vinegar and dousing french fries with it. I don't think she believes me that it's really tasty. Honest J - it's really good! :)

Girl seeks sun!

It always happens about this time of year. I develop a need, an overwhelming need, a compulsion, a driving desire, to see the sun. Unlike my brother who actually likes the drab overcast drizzly days I crave the sunshine. I crave it with a ravenous hunger. And not just the sun but sun and warmth. Don't get me wrong, I am a proud Oregonian, it is just the time between end of February to the beginning of July that I have a hard time with. I chalk it up to being born in Southern California. While I only lived there for my first two years, those early years are a very impressionable age and I believe all that sunshine imprinted my genetics with a need for sun. Further proof is my brother, he was born here in Oregon in March so it stands to reason that he loves the drippy days, that was his first experience in life.

This year I am going to soak up the vitamin D in Santa Rosa, California while I visit with two of my roommates from the Israel trip. I'll be staying with Janelle who lives just a short distance from the last house where my paternal grandparents lived. I haven't been back in over a decade so I am expecting some weirdness/sadness on that front. One day we are going to visit St. Helena and one of my food Meccas - the CIA - the Culinary Institute of America. I was hoping to take a morning cooking class but I dilly-dallied too long debating whether I should spend the time with Janelle and Debbie or take advantage of being in the area and take the class. Procrastination is the thief of opportunity. The class was full by the time I went to sign-up. Another place on the must visit is Bouchon Bakery owned by Thomas Kellar of The French Laundry fame. For the next few days I'm going to imbibe in the foods I enjoy and forget about my allergies, well, almost all of them. There is no food so tempting that I will knowingly eat bananas or mushrooms, it isn't worth the hospital trip. Yes, I'm a foodie and while the area is known for it's wine, I plan on enjoying the food. Most of all I'm looking forward to seeing Janelle and Debbie, just hanging out laughing and having a good time, being away from work and a computer, snagging some of Janelle's pics from Israel and ohh-ing and ahh-ing over Debbie's scrapbook.

The next five days are going to be great!

Better yet, I got bumped and stayed an extra day! I don't know how Janelle put up with me for so long. :) Love you J!

Don't Should on Yourself

The obnoxious ringing won't stop and my brain wakes up just enough to command my hand to reach out from underneath the warm fluffy covers and grope around for my cell phone - the source of the noise. Successfully finding it's target my fingers start pushing in hopes of hitting a button that will stop the intrusive sound. This is alarm #1, it's 5:50 am. I have ten minutes to deny the fact that I have to get up before the next alarm. Suddenly and all too soon a strobbing yellowish light is lighting up my bedroom. I squint my eyes to block it out and bury my face deep into the pillow. Once again the hand is sent on a blind journey hunting for the button to make it stop. This is alarm #2, it's 6:00 am. The trouble is this alarm clock's snooze button only grants a mere 5 minute reprieve. The hand will be sent on a journey to find the snooze button no fewer than 5 times, often more, before I acknowledge the reality that I must get out of bed. It isn't until alarm #3 at 6:30 am, emitting from my cell phone once again, that I start taking measures to force myself out of bed. Throwing off the covers so that the chill of the room wakes me up, turning on my bedside lamp, and maybe sitting up which makes it a little bit harder to fall back asleep... but not impossible. No one would ever call me a morning lark, not by a long shot, I am a night owl to the core. But there is something wonderful this morning - it is a Friday morning which means tomorrow is Saturday which means I get to turn off all of my alarms and sleep in.

I am particularly excited for this weekend because it will be the first in well over a month (maybe two?) that I do not have anything planned, no obligations, nothing dictating how to spend the time. My entire weekend is at my discretion. I can do whatever I want. As I start to think of how to spend these precious two days an impossible list quickly grows in my head. It is a list full of "must do..." "want to..." and "should do..." items. But Paula gave me some great advice many years ago:

"Don't should on yourself!"

So this weekend I'm going to take care of the "must do's" - laundry, paying bills, mending my suitcase (since it is going to be pressed into service this coming week it really is a must), send Bethie her birthday package, homework, and sleeping in - and if I have time and feel so inclined a few "should's" might get accomplished as well but it will not be out of a sense of guilt or obligation. I will not should on myself this weekend.

Cake Pops

This weekend was chock-a-block full of things that needed to be done: mid-term exam, homework, personal reflection paper, bills to be paid, birthday package that needs to be put together and mailed off (two months late already), bathrooms to clean, laundry, and the list could go on. But the most important thing this weekend was a baby shower for a co-worker. So forget all that other trivial stuff - I spent the weekend making cake pops for the shower on Sunday afternoon. Aren't they cute!! Thanks Bakerella for the inspiration!

Now for that mid-term...

Refrential Rainbow

I thought this was pretty amazing. Can you guess what it is? I know it looks like some sort of science experiment. Actually, it is a graph of the Bible's cross-references. The whitish-gray lines are the length of chapters in the Bible, each color represents the distance between references. Pretty cool, huh?!

Concoction

Did you know that taste buds have memory? They do, I'm convinced of it! While remembering the trip to Victoria, BC on which I took the picture below my taste buds started salivating. They were remembering something. It wasn't the high tea at Butchart Gardens, nor was it the beer battered fries at the Sticky Wicket Pub (which the Pelican Pub at Pacific City has much better ones). What those little buds were remembering, screaming for, was the strangest concoction I've ever imbibed at The Next Chapter bookstore & coffeeshop in La Conner, WA. I can't remember the name of the drink, but I remember asking what was in it and thinking that it sounded so strange that it had to be tasted. It was a combination of Coke, espresso, fresh squeezed orange juice, a slice of orange, and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Weird? Yes! Absolutely! I wasn't sure what to except and after the first noxious sip I questioned the choice of trying something so peculiar. I was tempted to dump it but the after taste was strangely good. I took another sip and my face involuntarily winced at the bitterness, but again after the initial shock the flavor was good and my taste buds were asking for more. It was a compulsion to keep drinking despite the initial taste, but it grew on me too. And as the ice cream melted it became very tasty. I have not attempted to recreate it - not yet that is - I think it may need to be attempted very soon. Have you ever heard of such a drink? Any guesses on proportions? It needs a good name... hold on, I'm going to try and make this thing and see what it inspires.

Update: I have since attempted to recreate the drink. It wasn't good. The coffee was leftover from the morning, the orange juice was from a container, and the ice cream was to little. It wasn't good, but it wasn't bad. I'm on the right track.

A life of its own

Elana walked into my office to ask a question about IQR and halfway through her sentence she pauses, looks quizzically at my bulletin board, and then asks with a confused and excited voice, "Is that your picture? I mean obviously it's yours, it is on your board, but that's not a postcard it's an actual photo isn't it?" Stumped at what she was getting at I offered a tentative, "Yes, it's a photograph. I took it up in Victoria, B.C." After my answer Elana squealed "I have that picture! It sits on my mantle with this light that hits it just right so that the flower looks like it glows. I always point it out to everyone who comes over. I even used it in a photography class I taught. You are the artist!!" Honestly I was a little confused but as we continued talking she reminded me that I had submitted it to the Lake Oswego Festival of the Arts several years ago where she had purchased it. What a wild turn of events that I met the person who had purchased one of my photographs. To add to the coincidentalness she lives in the neighborhood that I grew up in. Elana made me feel like a celebrity and a real artist which was very fun. But was nice to know that my photo was being enjoyed and appreciated.

Still Pals

Carol and I - still friends after all these years.  The friends who sticker together stick together!

Carol, Dave "Shoe" & me

Hanging out at Mt. Tabor park after the Western Seminary Alumni BBQ.  Carol's kids were getting a bit squirlley so we went to the park so they could run around.  It has been eight years since I finished classes, seven years since Shoe graduated, and Carol, we aren't sure when she stopped taking classes.  It has been a few years but we had a great time being all together again.  We were just missing Summer, Terri and Andrew, and Wayne for a full reunion.

Changes in the wind

I was walking back from the mailbox flipping through the few pieces of mail that had accumulated over the past few days since I last checked my box and thought, "I need to get a duplicate key made for Kate." And then it hit me. Like a wave overtaking me and knocking me over. My life is about to radically change - and I panicked. Kate isn't just coming to stay for a visit she is moving in, indefinitely. My home will no longer be just mine. My routines will have to accommodate someone else. My way of doing things may have to bend and become flexible. My life is going to be shared - no more hiding away in my home. Is this all a bad thing? No! I had to ask my self do I want to back out or change my mind about Kate moving in? No! Am I going to have to be less selfish and less self-focused? Yes! And that is a very good thing. Life is going to be very different this fall, but I'm looking forward to it. Just remind me of that the next time I panic. :)

So long Israel, I'll be back...

The Israel Tally
Scrapes and bruises: beyond count
Bandages used: gobs and gobs
Pitas consumed: more than I care to remember
Earrings lost: 1 pearl earring at a youth hostel in the Negev
Sunglasses lost: one pair which is now sitting at the bottom of the Sea of Galilee
New friends: 32 fantastic people
Places visited: dozens upon dozens upon dozens, or so it seems
Pictures taken: around 1,300
Regrets: oddly enough that I didn’t take more photos

Hello All!
I’ve returned from my Israel sojourn in love with a new part of the world. We spent about 15 days on the move exploring Jerusalem, Galilee, Foothills, Wilderness, and the Negev. Each day’s itinerary was packed and we zipped through it at break-neck speed. Carl Laney was a superb teacher making clear the Biblical significance for each place we stopped and helping us to see past the pile of rocks to the vibrant place it used to be. It was more than I could take in at the time but now that I’m home and processing pictures, talking about experiences with people, and reading my Bible it is beginning to sink in what an incredible experience it was to spend the month of May in Israel. I feel very blessed to have been able to take advantage of this opportunity and for the amazing people I spent the time with, especially my three roommates, they definitely made the time richer (and more hilarious). All this fun and I managed to get an “A” in the class as well.

I’m working on selecting the best pictures and putting them together in an online album. I’ll send the link along once I’m done. I won’t subject you to viewing all 1300 pictures I took over the last three weeks unless you ask, at which point I will gladly share them all – the good, the bad, and the plain ol’ ridiculous.

Back from Galilee

We spent four days and three nights in the Galilee area at Ein Gev and we are all sad to be back in Jerusalem. The accommodations were so nice at Ein Gev and the food was great but the best part was being able to swim in the lake of Galilee (yes, it has been down graded from a sea to a lake - it can sympathize with Pluto) but Israelis call it The Kinneret. We only have a few more days left and two more tests. I'm very sad to be leaving and seeing the time come to a close. I've loved the group of people I've been traveling with and I've learned more than my brain can handle. But there is so much more that I want to see and experience and learn. I've decided that this is just the first visit, I'll be back! Enjoy a few pictures from Galilee! The red head on the boat with me cruising the lake is Kate, one of my roommates - she is one wacky wonderful gal!

Quick stop back in Jerusalem

We got back last night from a three day trek around southern Israel and the desert and wilderness area.  We got to swim for a little over an hour in the Mediterranean Sea!  Awesome!  I had so much fun!  But the heat really got to me.  I was very disappointed that I wasn't able to swim in the Dead Sea but considering that the Med Sea burned my leg and just the little that splashed up on me while dipping my toes into the Dead Sea it was a good choice not to try.  We took our 2nd exam today and I missed one which makes me so mad because I had the right answer than over-thought the question and changed my answer.  So frustrating!!  We head off tomorrow for a four day trip to the area of Galilee.  I've come down with a nasty chest and head cold.  It was probably inevitable considering the grueling pace we keep, the lack of sleep, and the close quarters with my sick roommate.  I'm tired, very very very tired - but having fun and learning tons!

Fun in the Wilderness

Pastor Rick McKinley preached recently about having a theology of wilderness.  Today I saw the wilderness of Israel and it was desolate and barren and painful.  

I fell not once but twice today in the wilderness.  Ouch!  Check out the bruises!  It adds a little color to the monotone color of the desert.

Bedouins watching their goats.  The Jericho of the New Testament.  View of the Wilderness. And the wilderness again.

I've arrived

Snuggling up to Ben Gurion at the airport which is named after him.








Soldiers guarding one of the gates to the Old City of Jerusalem.

One of the old gates that would have led up to the temple mount but is now overlooking the Muslim cemetery on the east side of the wall. But in my opinion is the most impressive looking.

This is me in front of the Western Wall (formerly called the Wailing Wall)

We went through Hezekiah's tunnel today. It is about 3/4 of a mile and gets very very narrow at some points and has water from ankle deep to mid thigh and ceilings that are very high to very low. I can't tell you how many times I hit my head.

View of a street in the Arab Quarter of the old city.

Triple the goofy goodness!

Yup! That's me, and me, and me! I am one of six "real customer" models for Haggen's newest ad campaign. I was picking up a few groceries one day at Haggen's in Tualatin when the checker who is always there asked me as I was paying for my groceries if I'd want to be in an ad for Haggen's. My response was, "Sure, why not?" She took my name and phone number and that was it. I was having lunch with my mom one day about a month later when I got a phone call to set up my photo shoot. They had to remind what was going on. I spent an hour getting my make-up done and several photos taken. Wish they would have paid more attention to my hair as it looks so flat and thin in the photo they chose. I guess there is more ad material to come, some sort of coupon booklet - look for me in the "natural/ organic" section! I'm not sure I like the idea of using my 15 minutes of fame on Haggen's but it's been fun and the little extra cash and the groceries I was able to buy at their expense for their comparison savings has been very helpful!