thanksgiving day in june

i'm feeling a bit negative today, complaining about work on a monday when i need to just be thankful that i have a job in the first place - and a great job at that!

so, i'm deferring to an earlier blog post (here) that was meant to remind me that "every day is a good day." in honor of that, i'm going to try to post something every day that i'm thankful for.

day one:

i am thankful for my job, especially at a time when so many others do not have jobs. yes, some days are frustrating, but the bottom line is that i'm well compensated, i work with a great team, and i look out at a vineyard for goodness sakes!

life is good.

oh, internet

the power of the internet literally astounds me. on one hand, i think it's fantastic that we can look up anything we want about anyone or anything in the world and have answers within seconds.

on the other hand, i think it's sad how we're all so connected electronically that it takes away from actually connecting with people in more personal ways. we all carry cell phones around like they're a third arm, but do we actually ever call anyone on it? and if someone does call you, do you answer it? do people still stop by each others houses just to say hi and have a cup of tea? do we remember anything that is going on in someone's life without being prompted by facebook to remember? i think not. the internet completely takes away any and all brain activity that existed in pre-internet life. i, for one, can barely remember 5 phone numbers now. why is that? it's because i don't have to.

it's also scary how someone can post something about your or your company that is so completely misrepresentative of the truth. but at least the comment box lets you reply in real time and hopefully clear up whatever the misrepresentation is. i can't imagine being a teenager today, though. imagine if all the clique-y mean things that happened in high school extended into the wider online world.... how awful. anyone can say anything they want at any time - which is not necessarily a good thing.

in all honesty, sometimes i wish i grew up in the 60's and 70's when rotary phones were still around. wouldn't it be great to go out to eat in a restaurant and not have your whole table on their cell phones checking facebook? socializing in person... what a novel idea!

goals before 30

in three days, i'll turn 29, which means there is still a lot to do before i hit the new decade.

i can't say that 28 has been bad, that is for sure. the last year brought a lot of changes. in fact, it was my last birthday which saw chad flying back to nz (not the best of birthday presents, but hey...). the fact that we got married, he and fife are now in oregon, and he is working as viticulturist is pretty fantastic!

so, with that, here are some things i want to accomplish within the next 368 days:

1) run the cascade lakes relay and the portland marathon (training in progress)

2) sell the house in nz; explore options for buying here in the valley

3) start a 401k (i.e. finally be a responsible adult) - plus some other financial goals

4) buy a nikon d90, keep reading photography books and blogs, and see if we can't create some acceptable images!

5) go to nz for dane and julia's wedding and christmas with the douglas clan

6) book trip to chile and peru (even if the actual travel doesn't happen until after my 30th birthday)

so, now that this is all out in public, i'll be held accountable!

the abbey brewery

chad asked me the other day what i wanted for my birthday and i said that this might be a good opportunity to get the abbey (home) brewery going (because, really, what girl doesn't want a bunch of buckets, hoses and a carboy for her birthday?). i started reading the complete joy of homebrewing last night to get myself psyched up. i bought that book a couple of months ago, but since we didn't have any equipment yet, i hadn't done anything with it. this could yield some interesting results...

we joke that we're going to call it the abbey brewery since we met at an abbey. this would make a nice label, would it not?

i ♥ ray

i'm sitting at my desk at work right now listening to ray lamontagne and thinking about how relaxing it would be listening to him while getting a massage, taking a bubble bath, or something else equally indulgent. damien rice used to be my go-to guy for this genre of music, but ray has really stepped up this year. there's something about his music that just lets all the day's stresses lift out of your body and leaves you in a relaxed state of bliss. if only he would come to portland so i could see him live, my year would be complete!

speaking of relaxation, it's power yoga time again tonight. yippee!!

i have some pretty incredible friends

people truly amaze me. while sometimes - i'm being honest here - they can be annoying, rude, and just generally drive me crazy, there are many, many people in this world that truly inspire me - my friends.

let's start with my friends from college - yes, all of them are beautiful, smart, driven and doing amazing things in life. but i specifically want to mention dr. jamie sage (dr. wachtor before she got married last year). she and i did our undergrad together at ferris and then she went on to become a dentist and today graduated (again!) this time with her degree in orthodontics. she has been in college for eleven years - ELEVEN YEARS! she is one smart cookie and i'm so excited and proud to know that she has accomplished something so great.

then there's my friend lindy, who is moving to mexico in a week where her husband is going to work with the state department. if i had one regret in my life (and i don't really believe in regrets because it was always what we wanted at the time), it would be that i left the opportunity to work at the u.s. embassy in bangkok in 2003 and never again got to follow my dream of being in international relations or diplomacy. i will be living vicariously through lindy and travis. i am so excited for them (and very excited that they will have a guest room, a pool, and a 30 minute drive to the beach!). vacation anyone?

while we're on the academia topic, let's also mention my friend carolyn who started her phd in economics last year. let's also mention that she just spent several years living in france working for one of the biggest french banks. currently, she is going to school, practically living at the library, and planning a wedding at the same time.

there are so many more people i could mention, but then this post would be a hundred pages long.

it is truly amazing to have met so many wonderful, smart, driven people in my short years on this earth. i love the power of social media and that it allows me to follow them, vicariously, in their exciting life adventures. i only wish we were all closer so i could see them more than once every 3, or 5, or 7 years or so.

stretching and strengthening in a dimly lit room

i am at peace with the fact that i will never be able to do this move (above), but i still love power yoga all the same.

in all my inflexible glory, i get to do the half series in a dimly lit room with wonderful soothing tunes in the background. while we all balance on one foot and reach our arms forward and our foot backward, and we shake while we try to hold ourselves in place, i find incredible peace. i can stand in warrior pose feeling the strength in my arms, rooting myself into the mat, and finding power in my soul. it is one hour of my week where i can take my time breathing in and breathing out, slowly stretching, feeling my muscles unwind... and working some muscles that would (i am ashamed to admit) not get worked otherwise (boat pose with arms open wide to one side, obliques burning, is one example).

in short, he who invented power yoga is a genius.

summer is... here?

well, here i sit on memorial weekend watching my husband assemble a bbq grill and my dog dig holes... while it is raining. i am in long pants and sweater. this is not the way it should be! we weren't living here last may, but we hear this is not normal for this month. only time will tell.

at any rate, here is a photo of the new grill and of our pooch contemplating all the juicy steaks that will be cooked on it...!

on the road again... i start running again on saturday!

for those of you that don't know, i have signed up again for team in training, this time to do the portland marathon (yes, the full 26.2 miles - i must be insane). i am doing it for a reason bigger than myself - to raise money for the leukemia and lymphoma society to help people like our honored teammates emily, karin, mark and caleb. caleb was diagnosed with burkitts lymphoma in july 2007 at age 9. thankfully, it is in remission, but not without him having to go through chemo and all the awful things that come along with it. unfortunately, 7 months after he was diagnosed, his mother was diagnosed with cancer. nine months after that, her mother was diagnosed with cancer. what a horrible thing - i just can't imagine.

i bet you didn't know that blood cancers are the leading cause of death of children in america. the leukemia and lymphoma society (LLS) gives $1 million a week to fund blood cancer research. in fact, they funded the research of a doctor at OHSU who created the drug Gleevac. people who were previously told they weren't going to live very long are now able to take a little orange pill. this one little orange pill targets the bad cells as compared to chemo which can't tell the difference between good cells and bad cells. that all happened right here in Oregon.

there are 11 support groups for people with blood cancers in the portland area, including a group for young adults and another for spanish speakers. funds from LLS support these groups.

LLS also has a co-pay assistance program, which means a patient can get up to $10,000 from LLS to help pay their medical bills. LLS can contributed $15 million per annum to this program.

they have a program called first connection which pairs up cancer surviors with newly diagnosed patients for information and support.

finally, LLS is involved in advocacy. because of their efforts, health insurance in Oregon now has to cover your standard care if you participate in a medical trial. previously, insurance companies wouldn't cover medical trials.

and so, for all of these reasons, i am running a marathon on 10/10/10. i would appreciate your support by tax-deducible monetary donation at my fundraising website. my goal is to raise a minimum of $1,250 and my friend kim has gotten the ball rolling with the first $50 donation. $1200 to go!!! please help me help LLS.

nikon d90 - i have my eye on you

one of my goals for 2010, aside from doing my "running trifecta" is to save up money to buy this guy:
a nikon d90 dslr camera

oh, and to learn how to use it! i just bought a book on amazon called "understanding exposure" and it sounds like i'll get another one for my birthday entitled "the adobe photoshop cs4 book for digital photographers."

for a long time, i have secretly coveted beautiful photography and pored over photography blogs on a daily basis. i will be the first to admit that i've never been the "creative type," but i'm very excited to start a new hobby! thinking long term, i eventually want to learn film photography and have my own darkroom - but that may be a few years down the line.

every time i go into portland and see the urban area in all its splendor (and the folks up there that definitely aren't afraid to express themselves), i wish i had a camera in hand. same goes for living in beautiful oregon wine country - the green hills, the vineyard cycles, the people working hard in the fields - it's an absolutely stunning place to be. oh, and of course, the coast, where fife likes to run wild on the beaches and chase after seagulls. my camera phone just ain't doin' it anymore!!

speaking of which, here is one of the wee girl at cannon beach this last weekend:

so, watch this space. maybe you'll see some photos here sooner rather than later!