Long time no post...

Finals are finally over :)

This term was a real biotch. But I passed my classes and I've applied for spring graduation :) Whew!

My brain is still resting up. It's very tired of making sentences. Grammer is so overrated lol

Can't rain all the time

You know life sucks when you to have to choose between finishing homework, sleeping or showering. Since I'm just going to have to shower after tomorrow's swim class, I'm choosing homework then sleep.

I forgot my new Asics at home. I have three other pairs of shoes here, but they've ran a combined 6 marathons and two are from 2006. There's no way of getting the new pair before Thanksgiving break on the 25th - three days after a half marathon and five days before the Seattle Marathon. So I get to choose between a pair of shoes that hurt my back, a pair of shoes that hurt my arch, or a pair without real laces.

At least there's only 2 weeks until Thanksgiving break, and 4 weeks until Winter Break :D

Yes We Can!

I am speechless. Overjoyed and speechless.

To make up for the lack of my own, President-elect Barack Obama's words (full acceptance speech transcript here):



If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer.

....

And to all those who have wondered if America's beacon still burns as bright - tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from our the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity, and unyielding hope.

....

This is our chance to answer that call. This is our moment. This is our time ... to reclaim the American Dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth - that out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope, and where we are met with cynicism, and doubt, and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people:

Yes We Can.

So over this

I remember when Bill Clinton got ripped apart for getting a $600 haircut. John Edwards too.

Please stop saying every criticism about Palin is sexist. Talking about who wears what is silly and should be reserved for the LiLo ilk and the OK! cabal, but it's not sexism or ageism or racism or socialism or capitalism.

Now "Who's Nailin Palin", yeah sexist. Saying that my student body president is not qualified to lead the free world just because he makes executive decisions for 4 times the population of Wasilla, not sexist.

Oh, and while I'm at it, please don't use words like fascist or socialism if you have no idea what the hell they mean. "Spreading the wealth around" and supporting a war does not make a whole political doctrine. Does anyone still believe Martin Luther King Jr was a communist? If you heard that Obama was into dadaism or McCain was kafkaesque, would you believe that too? (Although Palin, yeah a little orwellian. Doublethinking like it's cool.) (btw, not sexist.)

Off to take a nap and kick some cyborg essay ass when I wake up....

If you're bored, then you're boring

Life's pretty dull and stressful right now. I guess I'll appreciate taking such a heavy course load now by the time spring term rolls around and I can slack off instead of stress out. But for now, I'm not a happy camper.

Last weekend was really nice. I went home to Cow-town for the unit's birthday ball. Friday night got drunk and played Mario Kart until 3 in the morning. Saturday was the ball. Good times, good friends. My feet still hurt from bar hopping my high heels :S Sunday I helped Chris pack up the last little bit to be moved to the new house.

Hopefully I'll be going home this weekend too to help Chris get everything unpacked. We need to pick up a few things for the new house. Mostly some new lamps but we've been needing to do that forever. We've been using the same ol' stumpy lamp since 2002. Now we'll finally get a floor lamp for the living room and some paper lanterns for the bedroom. (Right now there's this fugly round white lamp hanging from the ceiling on a black chain circa 1985. So that's coming down.)

Not much to report for training. I've been so busy with school work and life that there hasn't been much going on.

Not much going on with TTC either. I was really disappointed about not being pregnant last cycle. I think I got my hopes way up with the Clearblue Easy monitor. But it just wasn't meant to be.

I'll try to post some pics soon, but for now, back to the grind. I have one last paragraph to hammer out, then a final proof read and I'm calling this essay done. Then I get to start on another that's due on Thursday - joy!

La Petite Mort

Naps are proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy :)


Last night at 1am I suddenly realize - aw crap I have work in the morning. At 6am. Shit.

After a short-staffed, crappy shift, I got back my room to read about the movie Tetsuo - Ironman. Metal fetishist salaryman penis drill. W. T. F.

I gave up and took a three hour nap. aaaawwwwwwwmygawwwwwwd, that ranks up there with sex and Paris food :)

Took a break from studying to waste more time: http://www.babynames.com/namelist/9660878

We're not pregnant yet, just doing some thinking ahead.

Really wish I was going home this weekend :( Oh well, just 9 days until I do get to see Chris. And he said something about going up to a recruiter's Birthday Ball in Portland. Two balls in one year ~ yay! Hopefully I can borrow a friend's dress (red halter top, so sexy!) and make up for the lack of pictures last year :)

Sick Sunday

I'm really sick of trying to memorize kanji and looking up all the kanji I don't know in my reading. Why can't we just write everything in kana and call it good?

I'm sick of reading about welfare rights in the 60's. I was raised on WIC and Foodstamps, I got free lunch in school. I can't count the number of times we either had the power or the water turned off when I was growing up. I get that bad things happen to good people sometimes and you have to do the best you can. I completely understand that dealing with the government is a confusing, time consuming abortion of a system. There's just a limit to my empathy. I used to think of the 60's as a bunch of rebels and hard-liners, no matter what you believed in you stood up for that and didn't back down. Now I'm starting to think they were just a bunch of whiners that had life too good in the 50's and never learned that life isn't fair.

I'm sick of waiting to know if I'm pregnant. I want to know right now what's going on. I'm trying be patient and wait until Thursday or Friday to test. I feel like one of those sappy chicks from the commercials.

I'm sick of trying to figure out swimming. I learned there's such a thing as over rotation. What the crap?! Everyone says rotate rotate rotate - but don't rotate too much now. How much is too much? How in the hell do you know these things? I need to stop being such a punk and just go to the UO tri club for some coaching.

I'm sick of kids who think they're too cool for school by "properly" pronouncing names from Akira. When I speak English, I use English pronunciation of things; when I speak Japanese, I use Japanese pronunciation. "My name is Rebecca" is pronounced differently than the Japanse "rebekka desu" (with the R sounding more like an L or a D than a back of the throat growl, ruh-BECK-kah verses leh-behk-kah). "I watched aKIra" is going to sound different than "akira mida". I don't go around calling myself "leh-behk-ka" just so everyone call tell I'm special because I took a Japanese class. And I almost made the mistake of calling the character Roy instead of Ryu - the horrors! Only losers watch the dub :P I've been watching this movie almost as long as some of you have been alive, get off my junk. And stay off my lawn you damn whippersnappers!

I'm actually sick. Yesterday I started out planning on doing half of my favorite loop, but by the time I made it Autzen I felt like poopy. My other runs after the Portland Marathon felt good. Slow and sore but really good. By the time I made it home yesterday, I could tell that cold I felt coming on has arrived. I was standing in line for my post-run breakfast burrito and my nose dripped onto my tray. Ewwwwww. If I was still out running, I could have dealt with the situation and moved on, but non-runners lack a true appreciation for the snot rocket. Now I'm a fully functioning mucus factory and just walking up to my room makes me want to take a nap. I'll get out and try for at least a mile in a little bit. Maybe.

Busy mofo

Ug ~ too much homework! Who in the hell signed me up for 17 credits?? I should punch them in the face >:/

I spent 3 hours last night writing a draft for a 3 minute speech. Then I get to class this morning and I find out that it's not due until next week. Arrrgg!! (The syllabus, class and speech are completely in Japanese=good times.)

Today I left swim class early (besides feeling like a major cold is in my future, I'm getting really sick of being the last one swimming. Seriously. Every drill and every workout DFL. And not by a little bit, I'm talking being last by at least 25 to 75 meters each and every time. Everyone in class will be standing at the far wall waiting for me to finish humping door knobs.) With my extra 15 minutes I had to choose between getting something for lunch or showering. Seeing how I've only had a cup of yogurt at 10am and it was now 3pm, I went with smelling like chlorine for a chicken ceasar salad.

I still haven't got my financial aid (and I owe over $6k so loans are kinda important), I need to talk to my counselor about graduation, my room is a malestrom of hate and discontent (looks like my hamper and book bag got into a smack down), I'm behind on my reading, I have two tests in Japanese next week, and I'm sure there's plenty I'm forgetting about :P

Whew! I feel a little better for bitching :) But seriously, I really need to go shower

Zzzzzzz

Portland Marathon was good, but now I'm super sleepy and behind on my homework. I'll try to get some posts up soon (if I can get through my Japanese studying tonight)

Back to sleep for me...

Rainbow

Another beautiful rainbow over Eugene....

Godwin's UCMJ

Why is it, that whenever you try to debate something with a military member or spouse, they always resort to the "fighting for your right to say that" bs to make their point? This must be a new form of Godwin's law.


For example, I some how got involved with an email discussion about one of McCain's ads. I have no idea who these people are or how they got my Yahoo address, but the discussion was quite interesting until a Marine wife spoke up. Here's her email in it's entirety so that you can get the full effect of the longer the post, the closer to one the probability of bringing fighting for your freedom becomes (the highlight in red is my doing):

FOR ONE...ALL OF YOU OPINIONATED JACKASSES STOP INCLUDING ME IN YOUR FUCKING EMAILS...I DON'T KNOW A SINGLE ONE OF YOU YET I HAVE GOTTEN ALL THE BITCH SESSIONS YOU HAVE BEEN PASSING AROUND AND I AM TRULY SICK OF READING IT ALL...THIS IS A PRIVATE EMAIL AND DON'T LIKE RECEIVING EMAILS FROM PEOPLE I DON'T KNOW...AND THEN WANT TO BITCH ABOUT THINGS THAT ARE GOING ON IN OUR COUNTRY...IF YOUR PISSED AND UPSET ABOUT WHAT IS GOING ON IN THE COUNTRY THEN SPEAK THE FUCK UP...A GROUP EMAIL TO A BUNCH OF PEOPLE YOU DON'T KNOW ISN'T GOING TO CHANGE ANYTHING...THAT'S ALL YOUR BITCHING IS ABOUT IS CHANGE...WELL GET OFF YOUR ASS...STEP AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER AND GET OUT THERE AND START MAKING SOME CHANGE...AND IF YOUR FOR OBAMA AND PLANNING TO VOTE FOR HIM YOU BETTER KNOW WHAT YOUR VOTING FOR!!!!! IF YOU THINK HE IS WHAT THIS COUNTRY NEEDS YOU ARE VERY MISTAKENLY WRONG...SURE HOPE YOU ALL LIKE PAYING MORE TAXES AND LIKE THE GOVERNMENT IN YOUR BUSINESS WITH EVERYTHING CAUSE I SURE AS SHIT DON'T...YOU ALL ARE A BUNCH OF SOCIALIST LIBERALS...I FOR ONE AM FOR MCCAIN/PALIN JUST LIKE THE MANY MANY OTHERS WHO ARE AND I LIVE IN A MILITARY TOWN...FOR ALL OF YOU WHO OPPOSE THE WAR...TO FUCKING BAD...WHAT HAS BEEN STARTED NEEDS TO BE FINISHED...IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SUPPORT THE TROOPS THEN GLADLY STAND IN FRONT OF THEM...YOUR SORRY ASSES CAN BE SHOT AT INSTEAD OF MY HUSBAND, MANY FRIENDS AND FAMILY MEMBERS...THEY ARE DEFENDING YOUR FREEDOM WHICH APPARENTLY YOU DON'T APPRECIATE...IF YOU DID INSTEAD OF SENDING POINTLESS EMAILS YOU COULD TAKE A VETERAN TO LUNCH OR DINNER...PAY AND SAY THANK YOU FOR WHAT YOU HAVE DONE...I AM A MARINE WIFE AND I STILL TELL THE OTHER MILITARY MEMBERS THANK YOU FOR WHAT THEY DO!!!! YOUR LIVES AREN'T AT RISK...YOU AREN'T THE ONES MAKING A DIFFERENCE...AND THE MILITARY RISKS THEIR LIVES CAUSE THEY BELIEVE IN WHAT THEY ARE DOING...NO ONE HAS FORCED THEM DO JOIN AND GO TO IRAQ...YOU PEOPLE TAKE THE BACK SEAT TO EVERYTHING...IT'S PEOPLE LIKE YOU THAT HAVE MADE THIS COUNTRY AND SOCIETY WHAT IT HAS BECOME!!! I TRULY FEEL SORRY FOR YOU!

SIGNED A MARINE WIFE!

STOP INCLUDING MY EMAIL ADDRESS IN YOUR BITCHING!!!

I also have to point out she ironically "sure as shit" does not like the government in her "business with everything". That's pretty funny because last I checked, being a Marine is government job - in fact probably one of the most micromanaged government jobs you could possibly have. I know my husband is a Marine all day everyday in everything he does, so I guess her husband is only a Marine when he feels like it.

If no one has forced your loved ones to volunteer for military service or asked them to go Iraq - "cause they believe in what they are doing" - if you're so happy, then why do you need reassurance and ego stroking from the rest of us? Do you expect Chesty Puller to give you a high five every morning when you show up for work? If you think the rest of us are aren't worthy of your protection and precious time, by all means go be an accountant. Better yet, go live in a cabin in Montana then you'll never have to be subjected to ungrateful hippies ever again.

Off to finish my latte then eat lunch on my elistist liberal arts campus....

Beginning of the end

This morning I moved back to UO for my final year. I'm so excited - and today has gone so much better than I could have hoped for :)

My work schedule is perfect. I have great shifts doing my two favorite things - barista and dining room. I work the opening barista shifts on Mon and Wed (my class schedule is all day Tue and Thu, and Fri afternoons). Everyone has to work one weekend shift and mine is Sunday nights, which means that I get to spend Friday night, all day Saturday and most of Sunday with Chris when I'm home. The dining room shift is mainly keeping the dining room clean and stocking shelves. Sounds kinda crappy but I love it because I don't have any mutha uckers messing with my shi :) No customers, no bosses, no coworkers. As long as I keep myself busy and stay out of trouble, no one bugs me for 3 whole hours. Hells ya.

My new room is absolutely amazing! Last school year, I shared one of the smallest double rooms on campus (about 140 sqft). This is a picture of my old room (and for the record my side is the left lol):

This year, I have a single room with a sink. There's so much space I have no idea what to do with myself! lol I'm still unpacking and getting settled, but here's a quick shot of my new room:

There's also two big wall lockers which can't be seen in the picture. Along with a dresser and vanity sink/medicine cabinet, the storage space is practically tripled what I had before. All the furniture and fixtures are brand new. I can still see the contractor's markings on the wall and smell the new laminate smell in the drawers. This may not sound like much, but the UO housing has been compaired to dungeons by the Princeton Review. My building was featured in the opening scene of Animal House; the dorm room they lived in before joining the frat was how my room once looked. The new updates are greatly appreciated!

Not to mention there's an elevator in this building so we didn't have to lug all my stuff up 5 flights of stairs. The laundry room is on the same floor so no hauling my clothes down to the basement. There's a tub in the shower room (although I haven't actually tested it out yet, it's nice to know the option is there lol). I can drink the water that comes out of my tap too, unlike the gross shared water fountain in my old hall.

And omg - the view! I can actually see Autzen Stadium, which is about a mile away.

In about a month when the trees lose their leaves, the view of the stadium will get even better. I wonder if I'll be able to see the big yellow O?

My old room didn't have a horrible view. Being able to look down on Hayward Field was great:

But for the most part all you could see was the roof of the covered walk ways below and the brick wall of the other building. (Sorta unrelated, but there's talk the Eugene Marathon will actually start and finish on Hayward Field. Kick ass! Although I'll probably only be walking the half this year depending on when I get knocked up, should still be a lot of fun.)

So far, there's a couple downsides to my new room. One, just two outlets for the entire room and none by the sink. Two, I now live right above the chow hall. Nice because it's much much quieter than my old room (no people standing below my window fighting at 2am or annoying people singing over the loud speakers at Hayward Field), but not so nice because I can smell everything that's cooking. Today was chicken strips, cheese sandwich and french fry day - drool! Tomorrow night is bbq chicken.

After I got moved in, Chris stayed with me for most of the afternoon. He made sure my computer was up and running, got everything arranged just right for me and helped me put up some strings of purple lights around the room. We went out to lunch then bought my books and some supplies, then sat in my room and talked for a while. He wanted to spend the night with me, but we couldn't leave Hank outside alone all night (it's been cold and I'd worry, plus Hank gets really anxious if he misses a meal). But now there's enough space in my room that both Hubby and Hank-dogs can come stay :)

Obviously, I'd live in a cardboard box if that what I needed to do for my degree. I no joke lived in a tent in my parent's backyard two summers ago*. To just have this opportunity to be at UO is an immense blessing. To have this space to live in on top of everything else is so much more than I ever could have asked for.

* In order to graduate at the same time as Chris, I needed to take second-year Japanese over the summer. Unfortunately, Oregon State does not offer second-year Japanese summer term; I'd have to attend either University of Oregon or Portland State. That same summer, Chris was in OCS at Quantico, Virginia and I was responsible for the pets. Our families live in Portland and my parents agreed to have me and Hank stay the summer with them, so back to Portland State I went. Unfortunately, my brother was also living with my parents after returning from Japan and my sister has my old bedroom. My options were to sleep on my parent's couch, sleep on my sister's floor, or pitch a tent in the backyard. I opted for the backyard.

Home! (for now)

Yeah, those socks just kicked your ass ;)

I'm so glad to be home!

The trip to Yellowstone was fun. This was my dad's first major family trip, so he was really in to it. It was my 4th time in the park (June '89, September '96, and June '97) and so much had changed, especially Mammoth Hot Springs. Some of the old paths I remember were completely covered because there had been so much growth, but now so much of the springs were dry and inactive.

Very nice to visit Chelsi and Colt too. They took us to a yummy distiller for dinner then a tour around Boise. So much more than I thought there'd be. We might have to come back for some skiing on winter break :) Chris and I stayed with Colt's mom in Boise. She's awesome and we had some great conversations about everything from politics to feng shui.

Chelsi and Colt also just got two russel terrier puppies, lots of fun chasing around after them. Their cute little puppy smell and noises - awww! Chris and I had been talking about getting a blue heeler puppy because Hank seems like he needs a little friend. We'd name her Clemintine - Hank and Clem awww! But after spending the night with the puppy crying (they hate being separated in the kennel) and stepping barefoot in a pile of puppy poop, I think we're okay without having to go through all that again lol

We got home from Yellowstone last Friday, then we had to be back in Portland on Saturday. I was supposed to run the Champoeg Half on Saturday morning, but I was a lazy lump in our house. After being here there everywhere for the past 6 weeks, being home in my own bed feels so damn good.

Sunday morning, Chris's mom completed the 1 mile walk in Portland's Race for the Cure. She was so worried that she wouldn't be able to finish or that she'd be the last to cross the finish line, but of course, she did fine :) Last year on her birthday, she didn't think she could walk two blocks from a parking garage to Old Town Pizza. So for her to do a mile is great. I think we might have her talked into going for a 5k next year.

On the TTC front, no luck this month :( (btw, that's Trying To Concieve not Terriorist Training Camp lol) I was 3 days late and super excited, but nope. Must have just been out of whack from the trip or something. Boo.

To help us, we bought a Clearblue Easy ovulation machine. Not knowing when to do the doing was stressing us out more than using a kit (we're a little type A lol). Plus, we both agreed we would have paid $200 to be pregnant this month, so spending the money will be worth it. Tomorrow I get start peeing on a little white stick 10 days a month - good times :)

Tiny Fey/Palin on SNL

In case you missed it:

Leaving...

We're off to Yellowstone :) Tonight we're headed up to Portland to drop off Hank with my brother. Tomorrow we'll drive to Boise to see our friends Colt and Chelsi before they get married. I'm not sure what there is to do in Boise, but Colt has promised to show us around downtown. Hmmmm. I think I'd better take Apples to Apples just in case lol Then we arrive in West Yellowstone to meet the rest of my family on Thursday.

Getting a little worried about the up-coming marathons. My long runs have been lacking recently. The weather's been pretty darn hot, so I either squeeze in a short run before the sun goes down or get up early for a longer run. I've been having some major trouble sleeping lately (my brain won't shut off before 2am even with sleepy pills). I'm not much of a morning person anyways, so getting up early has been next to impossible.

I'm taking a break from triathlons. When I got out of the water during the PDX tri, I knew that it was time that triathlons and I see other people. Just feeling a little burnt out and frustrated. My first year running I only did 3 races as well (an 8k mud run, and two road 10k's), so doing only 3 triathlons this year seems about right. Maybe next year I'll up it to an Oly, then the year after that go for the HIM.

For now, just gotta focus on getting those long runs in and finishing school. I'm taking 17 credits this fall and probably another 17 or 18 in winter. I'm trying to set up my schedule so that I can return to OSU for my last term and that I'll only have to worry about transferring one more class before graduating from UO next spring. I'm pretty excited about my fall schedule. I'm taking the required 4th year spoken and written Japanese classes, and for my electives a cyberpunk film class (we're watching Akira!!! wooooot!!), a history class about the US in the 1960's, and an intro to fencing PE class. I'm going to be one busy bee, but spending only 6 months away from Chris instead of 9 months will be very much worth it.

I need to finish putting away the dishes before we leave. Boo. I hate dishes.

Couldn't have said it better myself

From this month's Runner's World:


But why feel pain at all? “It’s an amazing thing for people outside of running to get their heads around: Why would you put yourself through something you know is going to hurt?” says Atkinson. “A lot of runners say, ‘That’s part of the allure.’ Pain is not just a necessary evil; it’s a fundamental part of the process,” he says. “It’s part of the reason you go out there. You want to feel your lungs burn a little, to feel your quadriceps get fatigued. It’s part of feeling that you’re alive out there on a run.”

For many runners, the urge to suffer represents a turning away from society’s obsession with numbing pain or medicating every discomfort. “Many people are coming to running at a point in our cultural history where they’re saying, ‘I’m not satisfied with this anesthetized way of living,’” say Atkinson.

Long-distance races can also serve as a rite of passage, says Atkinson. “You go into a race with a sense of self, and in the process of encountering this really uncomfortable pain and suffering you’re forced to look in the mirror and find out, What defines me? Am I a person who perseveres? Am I able to endure?’” he says. “You may emerge at the end as a qualitatively different person, and that’s something you carry over to the rest of you life.”

hmmmm...

Is it just me, or does Sarah Palin remind anyone else of Paulette from Legally Blonde?

Every time I see Palin, I swear she's about to break out some bend and snaps...

Friday

I decided that doing the Portland Tri a week after Hood to Coast just wasn't cool enough. I needed to do something to increase the bad-ass factor, so I got four staples in my head.

Friday morning, we were packing up and getting ready to leave Corvallis when I needed to put one last thing into the trunk. We have one of those bike racks that mounts on the trunk, so I had to use both hands to lift the trunk open because the rack and bike are so heavy. I packed up what I needed to pack, then without thinking, I reached up and pulled the trunk closed. Something suddently slammed into the back of my neck and I fell over in the drive way. I curled up on the pavement holding my head and crying. After a moment, I got a hold of myself. I figured that laying in the drive way crying isn't going to do much good no matter how bad it hurts, I need to get in the house. I sat up - only to find blood streaming down my head into a pool on the pavement.

Oh. Fuck O_O

It took me a couple of panicked moments before remembering head wounds are going to bleed like nobody's business, this probably just looks really bad but it's nothing to flip out about.

By this time the neighbor across the street (who just moved in and we haven't had a chance to introduce ourselves to yet) comes running over to me and Chris comes flying out of the house. And now blood is coming down the side of my head too. They're trying to figure out what happened and what's bleeding. I look up at the bike on the car and realize that it was just the teeth on the gear ring that chomped my head. The same thing that recently happened to my leg has now happened to my head. Now I've completely calmed down, whatever is bleeding isn't hurting at all and I'm more annoyed that this happened when we're already running late than anything else.

Chris gets me a wet wash cloth to clean myself up and a baggy of ice for my neck. We assure the neighbor lady that we're going to go to the ER and everything's going to be alright. We get Hank-dog into the car and leave the house. I tell Chris I don't want to go to the ER because I don't want my hair messed up. (btw, my head's still bleeding and I'm on my second wash cloth because the first one is full of blood. I'm also annoyed because Chris grabbed the good wash clothes, not the old stained-up, crappy ones. What was he thinking, right? lol) Chris thinks that I must have brain damage and convinces me we'll just make a quick little stop in the urgent care center to see what they have to say.

Urgent care is just blocks from our house and they already have all our info on file, so we're able to be seen by a doctor with no waiting at all. The nurse gets the blood cleaned up and the doctor puts the staples in (no shaving my head - yay!). I was doing really good - no pain, nausea, light headness, ect - until that last staple. Suddenly I got very pale, clammy and felt ready to throw up and pass out. I felt better after just a few minutes, but the doctor made me lay back for a long time and had me do all these weird tests (like sticking my tongue out) before they said I was okay to leave. I guess no brain damage after all lol

Finally, we get on the road to Portland. I pick up my wetsuit from Athlete's Lounge. Because I need to keep my stample dry no swimming in Hagg Lake like I had planned. Poop. We get over to my in-laws and unpack the car. Taking the bike off the rack I finally figure out that the pedal must have been what hit the back of my head. We wash my hair to get all the dried blood out. Chris lets me take a nap before heading out to the wedding rehersal. (The care sheet from the ER says to have someone wake me up every few hours to make sure I know who and where I am lol)

I know absolutely no one at the wedding rehersal and Chris is only there to help reherse the sword arch. When everything was done, I told Chris I didn't want to go to the dinner too. The staples were beginning to make my head ache, plus I'm normally very shy and today I just wasn't in the mood to make chit chat with strangers (even if it mean free food and booze).

Their church was a couple blocks away from where Chris and I were married, so we walked over and took a couple of pictures in front of St Mary's. When we get back to the car, I discover that we don't have any Tylenol with us. The only logical thing: stop at the Crystal Ballroom for drinks and dinner lol

I had 3 lemon drops (I've been craving them like crazy lately) and Chris had 3 pints of Terminator Stout. Even after playing the most pathetic game of pool ever (30 minutes and we were no where near being done), Chris still wasn't good to drive. So we decide to walk down to the waterfront. On the way there, I spot a bar with $1.75 Jello Shots - heck yes! But the first bartender decided to go on a brake the second I sat down at the bar, and the other one was too busy chatting with some guys to serve me a drink. Boo to you Scooter's. We decided to leave, I'm thinking Huber's or Rialto, Chris says he wants more Terminator. We start walking towards the other McMeniman's on 10th, when - huzzah!- the street car comes along. We run to catch it like we're a couple of high school dorks. A few short stops later and we're back in front of our first apartment. We take a couple of pictures then head into the pub.

Chris is busy calling other Marines to try and get the sword arch squared away. Apparently not everyone had a sword, so they decided that all the Marines - both enlisted and officers - would use the officer sword. Chris was trying to find enough SNCO swords for those who needed it, but he was too busy talking to be doing drinking. When I got to the bar, I ordered him a pint and me two shots and a rum+coke. He was still talking. So I ordered another shot. Still talking. A vodka+7up. Finally, Chris gets off the phone (which is good because I'm pretty sure the bartender was getting close to cutting me off seeing how I'm the size of a smurf and I've had 5 drinks and no food or water in about 30 minutes).

We decide to start walking back towards Burnside, when - huzzah! - Max comes along. We jump on for ride down to the water front. Chris sees the cinemas by Pioneer Courthouse Square and decides he wants to see a movie. We get off at the next stop so he can look up what's playing on his iPhone. He finds Tropic Thunder starts in 2 minutes at the mall. So we run down the street to the mall, run up the escalators, he gets the tickets and I get the popcorn. We get settled down just as the last of the trailers start rolling.

Funny freakin movie! I don't want to spoil anything, so go see it lol

All in all, a pretty crazy but awesome day :)

My weekend...

What were you up to??

On the road again

Van 1 after our last leg - Kim, Jeff, Jessica, Dan, me, and Brian.

I'll try to finish off the Hood to Coast recap soon, but for now, we need to get back up to Portland. Technically we were supposed to leave this afternoon but we've decided to stay in Corvallis one more night for a little extra down time. Packing for this trip will be very interesting too. Not only do I need to take the ass-load of junk for the triathlon, we also need to take the butt-ton required for the dress blues. As a fun bonus: his uniform can't touch anything or be folded for fear of wrinkles, dog hair contamination, IPs, ect. Fitting everything into our Passat with the dog in the back seat - good times :)

Tomorrow I'm picking up my wetsuit and heading out to either Hagg Lake or Blue Lake to get used to the suit and get in some more open water swimming. Later that night, Chris is part of the sword arch in a friend's wedding, so we have a rehersal to attend. Saturday is the actual wedding and packet pick up. Sunday morning is the Portland Triathlon (my legs have been trash after Hood to Coast, so doing the tri should be interesting lol). Monday we're having a bbq with my family. Tuesday Chris meets with the OHSU doctor for the first time and hopefully get everything squared away to get the steroid injections.

A little update on Chris's back: he's been doing much better. He stopped taking the ibuprofen (the stupid doctor had him taking 800mg 3 times a day for almost 5 months) and started running again (even though the stupid doctor told him he should never run again because it pounds the body too much, like the people working desk jobs never have back or knee problems durr!). Basically he's doing everything the doctor said not to do and he's feeling a lot better. He still isn't 100% better yet (which is why we want to proceed with the epidural steroid shots), but he's not crawling out of bed every morning doubled over in pain anymore :)



Later gators!