The week of voluntary service

This week, I believe, I have done the most consecutive volunteer work that I've done since high school. This is what happens when you work very little. I have learned how to open and operate the Mt. Tabor Visitor Center run by The Friends of Mt Tabor. I learned how to and did, clear ground and plant trees with Portland's Friends of Trees. That was really fun and I'm trying to do it again in the future. And then, I also, am going to do my time at the Habitat for Humanity Restore this afternoon. I feel like such a productive (and underemployed) member of society!

Next week, I work 4 days and the week after I work 5 so it'll get back to normal soon. But for now, watch out, because I might just sneak into your neighborhood and do
 some good. Mwahahahaha. ok I'm bored.

Here are a couple of pictures I stole off of a friend that went with me to the Friends of Trees planting

Out in the middle of the 'burbs planting & relocating trees

This is Maryalice (my newest friend) and showing off our muddiness after planting. 

On the up side, it looks like it's starting to get back to regular 40's and low 50's temps for early winter. Hip, Hip, Hurray! Shout out: Maryalice for coming out and volunteering with me (and unknowingly letting me steal her pictures). 

Road Running: a recycling of topics

Recently, I've had a lot of time on my hands so I've really been stepping up my exercise game. I'm on my third day running this week and I've already gotten a yoga class out of the way too. It's so invigorating to be getting in shape and exercising on a regular basis. I got so caught up in all the daily exercise, I almost forgot that I have an actual, planned 5k on Sunday. Luckily, they send out reminder emails or I might have missed it. Actually, it's on my google calendar so I would have gotten a reminder email from google about 15 minutes before the race was set to start (maybe I should update my alert preferences).

Besides that I've also been updating/practicing some basic math which I've mostly forgotten. I'm starting with the really basic stuff but, hopefully once I've got things solidly remembered I can move up into slightly harder stuff. If you are looking to learn something for free online I have to recommend the Khan Academy. You can learn all kinds of subjects there. I'm also looking into re-upping on my Spanish knowledge and have signed up for an account on livemocha.com but I so far am a little intimidated by trying to remember and learn another language so I'm sticking with the math.

I've got another week of near freedom coming up in which I will be volunteering with at least 2 maybe 3 different organizations (That would be a personal high for me). With one of them I think I'm even going to get free breakfast and lunch. Who said being underemployed is a bad thing?

After these 2 weeks it'll be back to the grind for a while which will be good for the money situation but, maybe, bad for my math and Spanish skills.

Later kids

The give and take of it

So Halloween has come and gone. I ended up not getting a picture of my exact full blown costume but I did get one picture (thanks to my friend Marika) which shows you a good approximation of what I did end up looking like.

Cruella-Lite. I'm not wearing my real dress or using my long cigar

but this is pretty much it.

Since Halloween it seems like a whole lot has happened. I guess it has been almost a week since my last post.

Firstly, despite my lack of Halloween candy eating, I did go to the dentist only to find that I have approximately 1,000 cavities. I was flabbergasted to say the least. Up until this point I've had perfectly good teeth with not a one cavity. It's kind of a bummer since I hate to end a positive streak and really it's only been this year that I've really come to be responsible about taking care of my teeth by both brushing and flossing on a super regular basis. So, it seems like the worst year for my teeth to fail me. Oh well, what are you going to do? I'm going to drill 'em out and fill 'em in, is what I'm going to do. I've already gotten some of them filled and I go in again on November 8th (the day after my birthday :( whomp, whomp).

Secondly, I met a boy on Halloween, well I've met him before but I really talked to him on Halloween while I was out at a show. He invited me to this lecture series that he had organized.

It was about food issues, especially in relation to where we live in Portland and it was really interesting. He also inspired me with his go-getter nature to look into more things that I can do in my community and now I'm going to volunteer with a tree planting group called Friends of Trees

If I like the organization I may look into being a community or team leader of sorts for a following planting season. Go get it, I guess.

I don't want to keep starting my paragraphs with numerical placements, so on top of all that, I have been planning my birthday party. This is something about which I am very excited. I am almost too jazzed up to sleep at night because of all of the planning and and anticipation. I'll just give you a quick menu peek here.

A) pigs in a blanket

B)home made tomato soup and Italian seasoned bread

C) Butternut squash Mac n' Cheese

D) roasted carrots

E) Something green

F) Honey Cake and cinnamon-coconut ice cream.

Don't worry, I'll take some pictures for you all to salivate at.

Also, I invited a cute boy to my birthday dinner. He works at the Restore and I just met him yesterday but he left me his number when he left the restore in the afternoon and we had a long text conversation immediately after. So, I think he's pretty interested in me. We'll see how he fields my friends at my birthday.

Not the least important but maybe the furthest in advance, I am working on a trip to San Francisco in two weeks. It wouldn't be a very long trip (I'd probably get to San Francisco on a Sunday evening and leave on a Thursday at some point). But, I've been meaning to visit a friend down there for a year and now that Katelyn is down there I just can't resist the trip! Travels Hurrah!

Wish me the best of luck on everything coming together appropriately from dental work to travel plans. I hope you all are staying healthier in the mouth than I, and are having just as much fun this week. All the best to you all. Thanks for reading.

a whole lot

Last time I updated I felt like I had nothing to tell you and this time I feel like I have so much to share.

As you may know, last week I trained as a server. Monday was my first serving shift and Thursday is my second. The exciting thing that I learned at my first shift is that I'm going to serve the weekend after next. What that means from a monetary viewpoint is that I'll be earning at least twice as much that weekend than I usually do in just tips add that to my base of minimum wage and I'm going to be sitting pretty.

That's big news for me but still kind of boring. What's exciting right now is that Jon-Mike and Jackie are in town and staying at my house. That means I get a whole lot of hang out time with them (some of it we're sleeping but what can you do?) which is awesome. I'm so happy to have them here with me. I only wish that I could be a slightly better tour guide for the beautiful city of Portland. Since I've been working or volunteering every day that they've been here I have fallen a little short on that front.

Tonight we're going out to get some cheap brews and I'm looking forward to actually taking them out on the town.

Hope you all are having a great week so far too.

milkshake

I'm not eating an official milkshake but I am slurping up something delicious that's pretending to be a chocolate banana milkshake right now. Other than that I don't have a whole lot of excitement to report on.

I bussed today and made myself some tips. I host tomorrow and Sunday. Jon-Mike and Jackie are supposed to head into the area sometime in the next two days. and Sunday night there's going to be an Easter/Passover themed friend dinner. Monday is my first day serving alone. Tuesday I volunteer at the Restore, Wednesday I have off (hurray!), Thursday I have my 2nd serving shift and then Friday I start hosting again for the weekend. It's going to be a delightfully busy week. Hopefully I can step up to the newly busy schedule I now have. It's going to be different than I'm used to. I also have a hankering to start an art project or at least do something creative and I've got my regular running to keep up as well.

So, that's what's on my plate for the next few days. Hope you all are keeping delightfully busy and not getting too crazy.

End of training

Today was my last day of training as a server for Slappy Cakes. I even took the two last tables under my own name (got my own first bad tip too). I'm pretty excited because I'm working 5 days next week and two of them are serving shifts. That seems like it's going to be a pretty good deal for me. I'm certainly looking forward to it.

From training I went straight to the Restore and then did a bit of a bike ride for cross training. Tonight, I'm getting together with my friend Marika and, possibly, her boyfriend, Mathew. We're going to eat some dinner and then go out to get some cheap brews. It should be pretty good.

Things that I am thankful for as of late are having friends to hang out with, good weather, and plenty of work. It's been a pretty good week (I know it's only Tuesday but I have tomorrow and Thursday off this week so it's the end of my work week).

Hope you all are having a swell time from wherever you might be reading this.

Thursday

My big news for today is that I'm going to have a visitor come April. Daniel Wood, a loyal follower of the blog and dear friend will be gracing Portland with his presence for several days at the beginning of April. It is really nice to have someone (excluding family, who are nice too) come and visit me. It's funny that when he comes out, I'll just have been getting back from the East Coast so we will both be adjusting to Pacific coast time at the same time.

Other than that a hiccup on the training front. It seems as though I may be getting some mild shin splints. I maybe, should have been more careful before I essentially tripled my weakly mileage. I was just so excited! It's OK though. After tomorrow's long run I've got a couple days off and then I'm going to start replacing my shortest runs with bike rides of equivalent time spans. I'm also not going to increase my mileage at all for the next couple of weeks. In fact, due to the bike replacement it will actually fall a bit. Then, I'm going to make every effort to run on people's lawns instead of on the sidewalks. Hopefully all of that will put me in good working order.

Today was my first day as a volunteer at Habitat for Humanity's Restore. It went well. I'm hoping that having two jobs won't get in my way of being able to volunteer when they need me but I'm not going to go around turning down any work.

Other than that, I just drank some sleepytime tea and am about to zonk out. Hope you all have had a good night.

Getting Social (plus crepes)

Look at what I made!! Cheesy Crepes, Sautéed kale, and heirloom tomato slices. Delicious. You can tell by my obsession with food that I am still not totally flourishing on the social front but good news on that note. Things are getting better.

That's right. I'm on my way to no longer lonely. This week I made a serious effort to be proactive about my social situation so.

Monday, I had coffee with a potential friend. A friend of my friend Amber (thanks lady for the connection). It was a good meet up. We talked for hours and I think that he was very sympathetic to my social plight.

Tuesday, tonight, I went to a $3 movie with my friend Cory. He just moved here too and stayed in the Hostel with me. So, we're kind of in the same situation.

Wednesday, tomorrow night, I have no plans.

Thursday night I'm going to go to a track where the Oregon Road Runners Club has people meet to do workouts. It will be good to meet some other runners.

Friday I'm volunteer setting up wedding dresses for a program called Brides against Breast Cancer. It is only a couple hours but it will take me to a totally new part of town and that will be exciting. Plus, I'll get to meet some fellow volunteers and hang up pretty wedding dresses. What could be bad about that?

Saturday and Sunday I work and will be in contact with other employees of the restaurant at which I now work.

This adventure is becoming less lonesome bit by little bit.