The gift of gratitude

Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude. 
Denis Waitley 

If gratitude is a gift, then ya'll are about to get a whole bunch of presents from me. Because in the spirit of the season, but also as a gesture that should be made more often, here is a abbreviated list of things for which I am thankful. 

I give thanks for the new community that I have in Portland, from my friends that now live in the neighborhood, to those that live all the way out in Kenton. I am grateful to have come in contact with all the lovelies that I have and to have the support of my friends as I embark on a variety of emotional journeys.

I am almost everyday thankful that my stomach is not as weak and pained as it used to be. By all accounts I have a finicky stomach but if you all just knew how much worse it could be. (Shout out to those of you who do). 

I am eternally grateful to have been blessed with a family that is a: still around. b: very supportive. c: very handsome (I's got to get these genetics from somewhere baby dolls). But even more this time around, I am thankful for the way that my family and I got to grow closer over the past year and to be there for my grandmother as she was sick. I am thankful to see my immediate family this upcoming holiday season, I can't wait. 

With appreciation, I view the relationships that haven't made it because in the long run they will help me fine tune what I want and need and are great growing experiences. 

I appreciate, the fine food of the town in which I live.

Same for the shovel that helps me conquer blackberry bushes, plant veggies and bulbs. 

I really appreciate my roomies, who are a generally well meaning and kind block of people living far too close together. 

I appreciate the friends that aren't close by. It is a wonderful thing to have community all around the country but my how I do miss them. 

I am truly grateful for the people that I work with because work is only bearable when you do it with good people and am so happy to have a job that not only pays the bills but settles me down on the most anxious days and lets me be creative. 

If I have not mentioned some things that I should clearly be thankful for, don't you worry kiddos, this is an abbreviated list right?  a good thanksgiving. Eat your heart out. 

MIA

So, I've basically been missing in action for the past few weeks. The thing is, that both my phone and my computer went down at the same time. At said time, I entered into a technological void.

In truth, It wasn't that I had no access to the world of technology (I had a borrowable, roomie computer and many people with phones around) but none of that was mine. Soon, I returned to the land of cellular phones but it was not such a quick process to find the right computer. After much deliberation, I have my "new" macbook pro off of the apple refurbished web site. I can only describe it as buttery. Everything is so fluid and beautiful, it makes me wonder how I made it through the two past years without a mac. This, simple and intuitive, design is what I am made to use. I think I'm in love.

So, what has happened in the past couple of weeks? So much... My sister, and most ardent reader, Katelyn, visited and then skipped town. We went to the highest point in Portland, to the famous international rose testing garden (where they breed new types of roses and keep roses from all over the world), to the gorge for a beautiful hike, on many a run and bike ride. We put fall crops in the ground for the garden and we made sun dried tomatoes and harvested a boat load of grapes and asian pears from my back yard. Also, we went on my personal favorite September activity, swift watching.

Now, if you have been reading this blog for some time, then you have already heard of swift watching but if you haven't you can read about it here. Make sure to check out that picture. It is beautiful. Since, I went with Katelyn, I have gone one more time with Alex- the gentleman that I am dating- as well as some friends and coworkers and I plan on going again on Friday. This year, I will get the most out of swift watching.

Outside of that, I have been getting sweet mail from friends and loved ones. Alex went away for a week and sent me three pieces of rad snail mail. Natalie, who lived in house for the month of August, sent a beautiful handmade card, and Rachael sent a sweet postcard from NH. All in all, it's been a good mail week (not to mention I got a computer in the mail).

Work has me by it's talons for the next couple of weeks. Today will be my 9th day at work and I have 5 more days to go before my break on Tuesday but believe you me, Tuesday will be a sweet lazy day.

Running is getting more intense as we prepare for the longest of our pre marathon runs on Saturday. It will be a 20 miler. But, right after that we go into tapering and I am, as of yet, undecided about what will follow the marathon. Maybe a half in December? Maybe for the winter, I will transfer to an indoor exercise program. Back to yoga perhaps... There is plenty of promise about, as the air grows crisp and fall approaches. Anything goes.

Sorry for the helter skelter fashion of this post. I avow to update more concisely and frequently in the near future.

All the best sweet ones.

Richmond: The final hours

I haven't updated you! You know nothing about what is going on in my life! How will you live yet another moment without finding out all the sweet deets?!

I know. Life is a constant challenge. I am tired but here I am plugging away at the ol' blog. Trying to make you people happy.

I miss Portland. There I said it. It's almost true. I am excited for the last day and a half of Richmond before Portland becomes a reality for me again but I miss my roomies, my friends, my plants, the boy I'm super excited about. I miss having a regular bowel movement and my regular running partners too.

Wanting everything is hard. I want 100+ degree weather and crazy humidity and I want the beautiful serene of 80 degree Portland and biking everywhere. I want my friends to all live in the same place and I never want to have to leave my family... BUT I want my space. Quiero hablar espanol but I don't want to have to learn. I am lazy in wanting and filled with desire. What to do, what to do? Enjoy what I've got and work towards obtaining these wants? Deny what I've got and all earthly pleasures? Expand my garden, go for runs, and be a regular, employed member of society (boring but probable).

Since I've been in town, I've spent time with the Grams (shout out Mamaw- I love you dearly), spent time with friends, cooked out, watched fireworks, went on 7 mile runs in near 100 degree weather, ate huge breakfasts, gossiped viciously (well not viciously but with great enthusiasm). Eaten frozen greek yogurt, slept fitfully and attended a wedding.

Still to go are walks along the riverside, a huge brunch as part of a lady date, eating out at a crappy restaurant in the airport with my friends who are flying in as I get ready to fly out. Getting more frozen greek yogurt in my belly, visiting with friends not yet visited with, getting a ride from a cousin I haven't had a chance to speak with and little morning time with my parents. This is an ideal world.

Adios Chiquitos.

Held up

It's been a while since a blog update. I've been hanging out with that boy, Nick, some, starting my first day of work, and hanging out in parks.

Ups
1. I really enjoy dating this one and we flew a remote control airplane on a date the other day.
2. It seems like the people I'm going to be working with are really cool and I can wear whatever jewelry I want (good because I have a nose ring in right now).
3. The weather's getting nice!

Downs
1. That boy is leaving Portland in October anyways (there's no one out here for me).
2. Work is a pretty long commute from my house. About a 40 minute bus or bike ride.
3. There's no downside to nice weather.

What to do? Enjoy things while they last? Take some chances? Get really strong from biking at least one leg of my work journey every day? I don't know. Those all sound like decent options actually. Sorry, I've been held up from posting by life. I actually don't know what to write about to y'all right now. Hope this will tide you over.

Weekend "Adventures"

This obviously, isn't a picture of me (unless you readers who haven't met me believe me to be a 7 year old boy, then believe what you want). But, this is about how I looked like yesterday while learning to fly a kite. A short run, is good for ascent, is what I learned.

Why did I go kite flying you ask? I went as an adventure for the weekend. I was supposed to go canoeing with a boy that I met last week as a sort of date.
Unfortunatly it ended up being to cold to canoe so we flew kites at a local park when it got warmer. It was magical.
This picture and an article on flying kites are brought to you from http://www.dailycandy.com/kids/san-francisco/article/82847/Tips-for-Successful-Kite-Flying.

Aside from our kite flying adventures we went to a show on Friday together, out to get lunch the next day before my time at the Restore. We met up and watched a movie in the evening after the Restore and regrouped again for brunch and kite getting/flying adventures the next day.

We spent all morning hunting for a specific article of clothing at the mall, collecting a couple of kites (the first few places we went didn't have any), and getting chicken samples from the Mall's food court. Did you know you can do that?! I had no idea. It was weird to be in a mall but kinda fun to be there ambling aimlessly, looking at people, and eating free food. Afterwords we successfully tried to fly kites and then hung out with my roomie Sauce.

It feels like Romance is in the air. Though if could just be allergies. Don't get too excited people.

All the best,
Rachel

One out of Three

I made it to Black Sheep for the first time since I've been back in town. I still love it- though, the service was a little sullen today at lunch. I aim to go back for more of the stuff I adore (breakfast and dinner are also spectacular). Here are pictures of dessert. The most important aspect of any meal).

 

This chocolate creme brulee was called a "Tar Pit" and had little animal crackers sinking in the muck.

Cute and tasty.

Nutella cake with coffee ice cream. Pretty much as good as it sounds.

I also got to ride my bike again today. Oh sweet, heavenly bike riding. Is there anything better? I really can't think of even one thing. Then again, I haven't been on a date in over 4 months-so I can't even remember the sweet bliss of romance. Speaking of romance. Take your dates to The Black Sheep. They may, love you forever.

Train Fat

I went for a 15 minute run today and it was one of the hardest runs that I've done in a good long while. I see you, thinking "15 minutes, that's nothing". and not even a week ago, I would have agreed. That was before I gained all of this train fat from sitting on the train for just over three days in a row. That's over 72 hours of straight sitting people. My body is not used to moving anymore. Fortunately, I'll be hitting up a "Poor Man's Yoga" class this evening as well. So, hopefully we can get things back into working order. 

This train ride was a strange'un. In some ways I expect a cross country train to be filled with antiquity loving, beautiful hipsters, all wearing retro shoes and sunglasses. Besides followers of the scene, I expected patient, elderly travelers who drink their fill of overpriced wine in their sleeper cars and romance one another like they've just fallen in love. Suffice to say, my expectations were not met. 

This cross country train was all business. At least on the first leg of my journey, most of the people that I encountered were either coming or going to Wilson, ND. There were men going there with guaranteed jobs working where the oil is being drilled. There were people rushing there in hopes of getting jobs pertaining to the oil boom and there was at least one person who was commuting to Wilson to work as a waitress. Word on the tracks is, there's so much money to be had in North Dakota that people can afford to buy cars after working for only a few months. People are getting jobs as drivers, station builders, and  pipe layers. even gas station workers are supposedly getting about $18.oo an hour in Wilson. 

It's a strange thing to become an accidental part of a migrating flock. I felt like we were doing something that Americans have been doing forever. In the past we were going to pan gold, or to pick fruit. Instead, of heading west, Now we were heading to the center to drill oil. Luckily, the first leg of the train wasn't overly crowded so it wasn't hard to come by sleep and a good stretch during this bit of migration.

The second leg, from Chicago. was far more crowded and less migratory. By that leg, I was over trains and ready to get home and take a shower. Now, if you read my last post, you know that I am home with Mamaw and my older sister, clean showered and ready to do some yoga.

Here are a few pictures from the journey.

We actually did get to leave the train sometimes. Here on layover in Chicago 

Blue skies and sunshine are a magical thing coming from Portland in the winter 

 A bit of fencing at the Milwaukee station.

In the flat brown stretch. There was a lot of this. 

Frozen River

Every once and a while the flat lands gave us some busted dumpsters, buildings, and cars.

Snow in a way that we never see it in Portland.

The Big City

This past week I visited San Francisco. I spent some good time with the little sis, and some sweet but fleeting moments with the elder of us kids too. I went on an impromptu date, ate so much delicious food, checked out downtown Oakland, and spent a few nights with a good friend from back in school. I also got to see a bunch of cool things and experience what a beautiful city San Francisco was.

Here are some pictures for your enjoyment.

The sisters in front of the "golden" gate bridge

Delicious pastry I couldn't resist eating a bit of before photographing.

The view from Buena Vista park (you can kinda see the bridge in the distance)

A buena vista park bench

Coit Tower, where I met my impromptu date

A mural of naked people I stumbled upon

A "yellow tree" with yellow leaves walking away from the famous part of Lombard St.

Don't park here, I guess

The Tenderloin area had awesome murals

Mural in the Tenderloin

Same mural

The kind of close together housing that I miss about Richmond

A shop sign on Haight Ashbury

A carousel in The Golden Gate Park

Store in Haight Ashbury

I think this is a eucalyptis log

Plant in Golden Gate Park (everything grows there)

One kind of San Francisco architecture.

The view from some famous pier where there are sea lions

Giant Yoda statue made out of Legos

I'm about to turn in for the night. Trying to wake up and go to a morning Yoga class tomorrow. We'll see if that happens. Trying to be productive with my free time these days.

A little walk in the sun

Sickity sick is how I would describe my last 5 days. I've been real, real, ill.

However, three and a half days of antibiotics and my energy is back. My, lymph node is no longer incredibly large and covered in some scary looking grey-brown film. I can swallow food without incredible amounts of pain, and water with none. I can walk around my neighborhood and run into my fellow neighborhood mates (some of which are pretty cute). Which is exactly what I just did.

I don't have Strep or Mono and truth be told, no one knows what I have. But, I am on the mend and that's really all that I care about right now. Hurray for modern science! Hurray for healing! Things are on the up and up.

I'd like to make a quick shout out to my dad who was in contact with me from the beginning (convincing me to go to the doctor), Mamaw for checking in with me, my friend Natalie who came and kept me company while I was sick and to my roommates who did much the same. But, out of them, a special thanks to Travis who came and checked in on me when I couldn't leave my room. Also, shout outs to everyone who offered to bring me soup. I truly appreciate having this community of people that care here. It means so much to me.

Date night

So, as I mentioned last post I was getting ready to go on a date with a man that I met at the Restore. I forgot that you all might enjoy hearing about how it went. So here, a little but hopefully not too late, it is.

This was my first date ever with a stranger. Up until this point I have only ever gone out on dates with people that I have spent at least a few hours with in a group setting i.e. : a show, a friend dinner, a series of runs, or just regular friend hang out time. But, when I met this guy at the restore and gave him my number, I decided, in with the new and all that jazz.

We started off the evening by biking over to North West Portland for sunset to see these famous birds, the Vaux Swifts, all fly together in this crazy conglomerate to a chimney where they roost. Here's a post with a picture of what we watched.

After that we could have gone our separate ways but we decided to get some food. So, we went to a strange sushi bar where the sushi chefs make these little plates of sushi and put them on a conveyor belt for you to pick up if you want what's there. We tried a variety of things that I've never tried. Salmon eggs, sea weed sushi, spicy tuna rolls were all on that list of new things. It was a pretty fun and certainly novel experience.

After that we could have split up. We'd been out to see this amazing natural phenomena and we'd had dinner but then we went to get a drink from a bar. So, we bike back from the North West of Portland along the riverfront in the evening which could have been a date in and of itself it was so beautiful. We stopped at a bar that I pass all of the time on the way to the restore but that I'd never been to (in with the new eh?) and had a drink. He can only drink a glass of red wine because he has some liver problems but I did learn that he owns a distillery, makes whiskey, and makes specialty mead such as, fig mead and blackberry mead which is pretty awesome.

After this the night was no longer young but since I'd told him about the big persimmon trees, blackberries and roses that we have in our yard and about some of the stuff I've been doing in my room as little instillation pieces (some close ups shown below) I gave him a brief tour of my house. Then I kicked him out. It was pretty close to 1:30 in the morning at this point and I was so sleepy.

Tea bags stuck to this piece of wood I have leaning up against my wall

Close up of some tea bags.

Still, in the end, my date ended up being a seven and a half hour date. At least next time we hang out I won't be on a date with a stranger.

Things, Things, Things: We live in a material world

Well, since I've returned to Portland I've pretty much worn at least one thing a day that I brought back from the east coast. Here are a few of the treasures that I picked up back home

Earrings that I stole from Mom. They were broken so I replaced that top bit. That's why they're mismatched.

A blouse that I bought at Rumors, a Richmond Boutique.

Another pair of stolen earrings

A book that my friend made. It honestly didn't photograph very well but is awesome.

Tonight, I have a date with a boy that I met at the restore. Well, nothing is set in stone, but I think there will be a date tonight and I'm planning on rocking some of my east coast fashions.

Shout outs to Mom for hooking me up with all those sweet earrings, to Rumors for being such a positive and steady Richmond force over the past few years, to Terrance Edwards who designs sweet products which you can find at here, and to the Habitat for Humanity Restore for bringing people together.

Slacking on the Sched.

Hi all, and by all I mostly mean, Katelyn- My one most dedicated blog follower.

Sorry for letting you guys down on the blog schedule. I know that I've missed my past two updates. Things have been happening for sure but for some reason, I haven't been on the computer as much to let you know about them. The biggest reason for that is actually because in my free time I've been reading a book called Shantaram. It's a good book but I've been reading it with special fervor because it's due back to the library when I'm on vacation so I know I need to get it all read before I leave and it's like a 900 page book. All of my extra time focus has been going into this book. Sorry all.

Besides all of that reading what have I been doing with my time?

Enjoying the nice weather for one. It's been warm enough to wear short sleeves pretty much every day this week.

Going on a couple of dates for another. Since last Friday I've gone to a Cajun food place, had a home made dinner date, and gone to see a movie with the same boy.

Going to some music shows. Found a band I really enjoy besides the one that I always go to see, And, And, And. They're called My Autumn's Done Come. I really enjoy the fact that Portland really does have a show to offer every night of the week that is usually free or under $5 to see. I mean, I'm not going every night of the week but I have been to 3 shows in the past 3 weeks. It probably doesn't hurt that I have a crush on a band member.

Aside from all of this, I've been working and trying to maintain a clean home. Today, Wednesday, has been nicknamed Cleansday by my roomie because I try to at least clean the linolium floors that we have every Wedensday. Today, I cleaned the bathroom, except for the shower and am working on a wipe down and floor cleaning of the kitchen.

I'm also avoiding sugar (that doesn't occur in fruit) this week. Boy, is that a challenge for me. It makes me realize how much of an addict I am. I had a dream about brownies last night! For goodness sake, brownies!

I'll try and update tomorrow so you don't feel too left behind on the happenings of my life. Then, I'll be back on track.

Thanks for reading. Shout out to Dan, who I know reads this blog on the regs too. I appreciate it.

Day of Rest

Today is my Sunday. I slept in until10am. Walked around downtown Portland and made myself some easy leftovers for brunch. Now, I'm just talking to my buddy online.

Let me just say I deserve these moments of sloth. I cleaned like a crazy person yesterday. Floors;bathroom, kitchen, living areas; cabinets, oven, microwave, toaster, refrigerator. I even cut the front lawn. Then I had a dinner date where I made some ridiculously delicious beans and rice. Went full on out with Tomatillos, an heirloom tomato, avocados, and cilantro. Those are all things that I might not always add to my beans and rice (depending on the budget). I'm just gonna say it once. It was some butt kicking beans and rice. For sure.

I wish I'd taken a picture of it so you all good have an idea of what went down :). I'm always happy with my beans and rice but I am downright proud of this round.

I hope you all have made some delicious food for yourselves recently. I think I'm going to make some savory pies sometimes soonish. I will take pictures of those.

Off Early

Yay! I got off of work early!

I was pretty tired today because I stayed out a bit too late last night. After climbing with my roomie (and my first ever motorcycle ride). I had an alligator jambalia on my date and then we went to a house show were a decent band was playing. It was really loud. So, I did go home with a bit of a ring in my ears. Still, all together a good date but in the end I was just out a little bit past my bed time so when things slowed down at work today, I was out of there lickity split.

It's beautiful today so I think I'm going to try and enjoy that a bit.

Fun Plans

Today is beautiful.

I'm going to try and conserve money by not stopping by this garage sale that I saw being set up on my way home from work and instead I'm going to spend that money ($4) on renting shoes for tonight as I'm going climbing with my roomie tonight.

Another fun plan that I have set up for tonight is a date! That's right folks. I'm out and about in the dating world again. Wish me luck finding some cute sweeties :). I'm just joking. I don't need luck.

Hope you all are doing something fantastic with your Friday.