More for 2010...

Man. Jogging without an ipod/music is laaaaaame. :) It is about as much fun as watching paint dry. It is a pretty good time to think about goals and new years resolutions for 2010 though, because there is nothing else to do! ;)

1. Worry less :) I don't feel like a major worrier, but I have my moments or topics that I have a tendency to think about too much at times. There is no need to make a big deal out of something unecessarily. Things just tend to work out the way they are supposed to.
2. Become a better listener. Talk less.
3. Become a better sailor... practice or more classes or both!
4. Get in really great shape and stay that way!
5. Complete at least one duathalon and then take it from there ;)
6. Oyster urban adventure race in the fall! so fun and will be my 2nd annual. Maybe I will travel for others as well... but it is a REALLY big advantage to know the city.
7. Go to Europe with my best travel buddy. ;)
8. Get others to feel comfortable opening up to tell me anything and everything. This will go along with being a better listener.
9. Floss daily ;) was good about this for most of the year and the past few months it dropped to only a couple times per week...
10. Don't sweat the small stuff.
11. Be trusting, but not naive. This is a tough one.

to be continued....

2010

The new year is approaching quickly and it is time to start thinking about what I would like to accomplish in the next year. This is all the further that I have gotten on this right now, so I won't be sharing any goals or desired accomplishments at this time. The first stage is the contemplative stage. ;) I have also been thinking about a bucket list. I guess I have never really written these things down and it has always been more of a "oh, I'd like to do x..." in passing. But I think that I need to start writing these things down and start crossing them off the list!! Otherwise I won't remember them and it would be tragic to neglect something that I really wanted to do at one point because my brain is getting older and more forgetful :) My first goal for the new year is to have a shiney new attitude and just get my old fun-loving, goofy personality totally back! I have had a difficult year emotionally and I have been more negative than I ever have been in my life.... and I am sick of myself! I think that my outlook has been improving over the past couple of months and I have been smiling, laughing and cracking jokes more like my former self... which is the person that people want back in their lives I'm sure ;) So that's a start ;) Here is my short bucket list so far:

Bucket List
1. Travel to all continents (except Antarctica) :)
2. go to Italy with the person I love
3. ride part of the stages of the tour de france
4. Christmas in NYC and the macy’s parade
5. ice skate in Rockefeller center
6. scuba dive on the great barrier reef
7. go on a sailing trip around the Mediterranean
8. drink a pint of guiness in ireland

Fall foliage

Fall is here. And as quickly as it came on (seemed like overnight!), it seems to be leaving us. As you leave work in the evening and the temperature is in the high 40's... the sun has already set... it is inevitable that winter is very close. Time to start hibernating!! Hopefully the winter will fly by so that the amazing Oregon summer will be here before we know it. These pictures might help keep fall alive a little longer...

Change

There are times in life when change is very exciting, refreshing, welcomed and enjoyed. I think that these times come and go, no matter what age you are, and vary depending on where you are in your life. There are also times in life where you feel like everything is out of control, changing in ways that you do not want (or NOT changing in ways that you do want!), and you just want to be able to influence SOMETHING.... ANYTHING... that is going on. But no matter what you try.... say... do... the situation remains beyond your influence. These periods of time are very difficult, and at best tolerated by the person experiencing them. Luckily, most of us have people that love us, that we are close to, who help us get through the tough times. These individuals are priceless during these uncertain times. It is also very helpful when there is a goal in sight, to help you get through the rougher times and help keep that positive outlook and a place to focus your energy. Step back and see the forest through the trees.... which can be hard to do when every direction you turn seems to be an endless sea of trees. It won't be like this forever.

Thank you to the people who are there and support me. You know who you are, and I love you for it. :)

The list

I have a list of places that are very special to me. The more time that passes from the time that they became a special part of my life, the more I worry that I will forget about some of the locations. What better way to remember them than to write them down. In no particular order they are:
Oregon, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, Massachussetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisana, Florida, Texas, California, Nevada, Puerto Rico, St. Lucia, St. Kitts, Dominica, Barbados, Antigua and last but not least, Paris, France. 18 states (counting peurto rico) and 6 countries. I really hope that this list doesn't end here... but who knows what the future holds. I wish my crystal ball would come off the back-ordered list ;)

While I'm at it, might as well get down one of my favorite quotes:
"To love someone deeply gives you strength. Being loved by someone deeply gives you courage." ~ Lao-Tzu

Gravel is my enemy!

Road biking observations:

1. Avoid gravel at all costs! Road bike tires are very squirrelly in gravel!! My eyes bug out of my head and my heart instantly jumps by 50 beats per minute when I feel the side to side movement of gravel with my wheels. Yikes!!
2. If you have a small bike frame, be careful of the foot/wheel combo... I have hit my foot on my wheel while turning and almost ate it sooooo many times.
3. Do not ride parallel to max tracks (or street car or whatever kind of tracks may be running through the middle of the lane). I haven't tested this out recently, but from childhood experiences trying to go up curbs at a suboptimal angle, I have already learned my lesson. :)
4. Two water bottles are better than one.
5. Remember to flip the brake lever down after putting your front wheel back on or your front brakes won't work ;) Duh.
That is all for now. :)

August travelin'

Here are the lovely ladies of las vegas! We participated in many rounds of mojitos, some slot machines, cirque de soleil, and general merriment. When I went to bed sunday night I had slot machines ringing in my ears. After a quick weekend trip down there, we are recouperating and I am getting ready for my cruise to Alaska this coming weekend. I am super excited to a) be away from work for a week! b) be traveling to a state I have never been to before and c) see some crazy humpback whales. I hear it is a beautiful trip!

I'm a sailboat racer!

I love to be out on the boat! It's so beautiful out there... sailing along... no ugly motor noises... it's very peaceful and relaxing. And even more awesome when there is a lot of wind and you are heeled over using people's body weight as ballast. So fun :) Here are some more pretty pictures of boats. It's crazy how close we were sailing to each other.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ViewSlideshow.action?&collidparam=86375235105.294932740805.1247290169667

Top 10 things I love about the tour de france

10. crazy fans standing on the sides of the street
9. some of the boys are cute :)
8. sexy cyclist legs
7. the sprint finish
6. the word "peloton" (french: little ball or platoon)
5. trying to figure out that whole wind thing
4. the polka dot jersey
3. I love watching the group split to ride around the roundabout, and them rejoin each other in the middle. It looks super cool. I love it.
2. watching the french countryside pass by as they ride
1. thinking about how insanely fast they are riding!!

Biking to work is fun!

I commuted to work by bike today. It was super fun! Kind of a nice and relaxing way to start and end the day... particularly since it was so beautiful out. A nice easy 5 mile commute each way. Not too dicey at all. I was relatively certain that I would probably survive. :)


Quote of the week:
"I'm not listening. My brain blood is all in my boner." - Jack Black, Year One

I borrowed that picture from the internet.

quote of the week

Courtesy of "The Hangover"

"Rainman took over the casino and he's a reTARD."

-OR-

Stu Price: You do know counting cards is illegal, right?
Alan Garner: Counting cards isn't illegal. It's frowned upon... like masturbating on an airplane.
Phil Wenneck: I'm pretty sure that's illegal too.
Alan Garner: Maybe since 9/11 when everyone got so damn sensitive. Thanks a lot Bin Laden!

Funniest. movie. ever.

Or maybe in the past few years ;) Enjoy!

Bike shoes

Oh boy! Today I got myself some bike shoes, new pedals and a little computer so I can see how slow I am going ;) As this is my first pair of clipless pedals, naturally we did a few laps in the parking lot. My bike sales helper lady thought I picked it up really fast... so off I go!! MLK is a very scary road for people with new clipless pedals! I believe it went a little something like this:
OH MY GOD, that car is totally going to run my @$$ over!!
F-BOMB!!!!!!!!!!
BRAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
.......... TIIIIIIIIMMMM-BEEEEERRRRRR!!!
hahahahaaha and I am on the pavement :)
So I got that out of the way. I survived... with the only war wounds being a bruised left palm and a slightly bruised ego. Nah ;) We all saw that one coming!! hahahahahaha

lazy sunday

Today I biked a marathon!
Then I ate an entire restaurant. :)
Pretty soon I'll be ready for an ironman. Ha ha.... no :)
I feel like my legs could have gone all day (that's what she said).
My ass and wrists are hamburger. Seriously.
I'm beginning to realize that cycling is a very underappreciated sport!!

It's official!!

I have now officially completed my American Sailing Association course and have my certification!!

That's right. You can call me skipper.
Skipper Sarah. Awwww yeah.
Come and sail with me!!

Spontaneous is my favorite!!

Last Thursday began my long weekend out of the Willamette Valley... my first in quite a long time, particularly for being the lover of traveling that I am. After cancelling the trip to mexico, we were just going to hang out in northern CA and see some sights. The weather had other plans for us though. Upon arrival to sacramento thursday night we perused the various venues that we were entertaining for our long substitute vacation for los cabos. Napa... wine testing. Yummy, right? Rain. Tahoe... rain and snow. Great America/Six Flags? Rain. Hmmm... problematic. Guess we are going further south? Santa Barbara? Rain and FIRE! Grand Canyon? 12 hour drive and 90 degrees. Las Vegas... maybe.... but that was too many days for us non-gamblers. But all I really want to do is lounge around in the sun and read my book. Hawaii? hmmm.... it takes the same amount of time to get there as Cabo... and the three day hotel and flight package was just a little more than Los Cabos (minus the all inclusive portion... minor detail)... so 9 hours before the flight leaves we book our 3 night trip to hawaii. Crazy? yes. Fun? Even yesser :) 70-82 degrees and sunny. None of this northern california rain crap. I didn't leave Oregon to go to a rainy place on vacation :) I LOOOOOVE being so spontaneous about stuff like this. It makes life so exciting and fun :) I wish life allowed for doing things like this more often!!
this is a picture from the beach right outside our hotel. Needless to say I did not pack a swimming suit for northern california, so that was the first task upon our arrival. After that there was a lot of lounging in the sun, reading, relaxing and general overall happiness. One afternoon we were walking along the beach and I saw 3 boys playing frisbee (only minutes after I said I wanted to play frisbee), so I invited myself to play with them. They were in the navy and stationed on O'ahu. Of course they were. Military boys. Seriously. We played for quite a while and they invited us for a drink. We had a lot of fun ;)



I have to admit, it was a little bit hard to be somewhere where there are so many happy couples around. It makes me miss having "my person", whoever that may end up being. Happy, strolling along life with "my person." In Waikiki :) and lots of lots of other places. That's what I want. Is that too much to ask? ;) Enough about that. The whole trip was wonderful and of course, went far too fast.... but I don't think I have ever really been ready to come home from a trip, even after a month. There's a challenge for myself... travel and stay away long enough that I am homesick and ready to come home. I wonder how long it would take...

The remainder of my pictures are on the kodak gallery, I can send out invitations to view them upon request :)

Swine flu? What a buzz kill.

First of all, I think this has got to be the best hat ever :) Secondly, SERIOUSLY? SWINE FLU? I have a feeling all this hysteria about the swine flu is being blown out of proportion. I don't think it is going to be the crazy pandemic that the media, CDC, and WHO are making it out to be. We'll see... but hopefully I am right! In the meantime the swine flu ruined my trip to mexico!! BOOOOO for the swine flu! I was not afraid to go to mexico, but i guess that my employers probably would not be very happy if I got stuck and quarantined in mexico... although that doesn't sound too bad to me right about now ;) I guess now instead we will go to tahoe for a few days... shack up in a casino hotel, pop a few bills in the penny slots and enjoy the view. There will be wine tasting in napa and boardwalk walking in santa cruz. That will be fun too... hopefully I will survive waiting a little longer for the sunshine.

random thoughts

The sun is coming. It should make for some great sailing this sunday! Unlike last week when it was pouring down rain and my britches were totally soaked. Brrrrrr!! On the drive home I took off my wet pants and drove home in underwear and wrapped in a blanket. Ha ha Hopefully there is a little bit of wind to accompany the sun. This will be a nice little warm up for my upcoming long weekend in mexico! I can add another country to the list! I haven't tallied in a while... zimbabwe, australia, england, netherlands, france, belgium, germany, italy, vatican city, greece, austria, costa rica, honduras, canada, puerto rico, st. martin, antigua, st. kitts, barbados, st. lucia, dominica and the upcoming mexico. 22. Soooo many to go.
Something that I have been thinking about a lot is from a book I am reading called the geography of happiness (obviously I love to travel). It is a rather obvious statement.... but only after someone else puts it in to words for you. Happiness and trust are inseparable. Hmmmm.... very interesting. Very true. It does seem that it would be difficult to be happy if you don't trust your friends, employer, significant other, or any other person in your life. Discuss amongst yourselves ;)

Ahhh.... Portland

What a day!! The nicest day of the year by far and I have the photos and the mild forehead sunburn to prove it. The day started out with some strolling around the waterfront. I definitely wasn't the only one with that idea. There were a ton of happy people walking and riding in the 70 degree weather and sunshine. Now this is what I'm talking about.
I don't know who those people are :)




And then the first sailing class in the late afternoon!! So many new words for me to learn.... hopefully I will pass the quiz next week. We got out on the Columbia and the wind died. I made a reference to Tommy Boy and I don't think that my instructor got it.... uh.... was there a niner in there? At least there weren't any little kids on the dock yelling at us that we were fat... but then I would've gotten to say, "You better pray to the god of skinny punks that this wind doesn’t pick up, cause I’ll come over there, and jam an oar up your ass!!"

my friend Kyle

This is my pal Kyle. He got a piggyback ride while we were at the zoo. He looooooooves my puffy coat :) Yikes. I should've worn some make up. ha ha

Spring fever

It is time for the weather to start warming up. I can handle the rain, but no more 40 degree weather!! It is time to get out and start being outside without freezing your butt off. Springtime means that it is time for:
1. ultimate frisbee
2. sailing lessons!! (pictures to follow)
3. spanish class
4. hiking
5. wandering
6. BBQs (weather permiting)

I am just so excited about the sailing lessons I signed up for today. It may be a little cold and wet with some difficult weather... but I think that will just make me a better sailor!! YAY!!!

bring it, spring!

February always seems to be such a dreary month. Good thing it is so short!! The days are short and dark (although they are noticeably getting longer!), everyone is sick, there are mid-winter blues going around... it's hard to stay positive in february. I'm ready for the transition to warmer weather, being outside more and of course spring league ultimate frisbee!! One very sad thing though coming with the end of february... the end of the "girls next door"... so sad. It is such a fun show. I think that it is over march 1st :( guess I will have to find a new guilty pleasure...

Somewhere

Somewhere there waiteth in this world of ours
For one lone soul, another lonely soul --
Each chasing each through all the weary hours,
And meeting strangely at one sudden goal;
Then blend they -- like green leaves with golden flowers,
Into one beautiful and perfect whole --
And life's long night is ended, and the way
Lies open onward to eternal day.

-- Sir Edwin Arnold

Smile search update

I am making progress on the finding of the smile. It's really too bad that sometimes finding your smile depends on external sources and not just what you can do for yourself.
Idea recap with progress:
1. start a blog! ha ha - I put a few posts on here... nothing earth shattering yet... guess I am still trying to get the hang of it.
2. january boot camp... hurts so good. - I can feel the booty tightening up a bit ;)
3. make some fun and funny new friends and give the oldies but goodies a ring - hmmmm... no new friends but definitely hangin' with the old ones
4. go wandering... even in the cold. It's all about layers. And gloves. :) - check on this one... wandering around the waterfront and downtown despite the crazy wind.
5. take a big fun trip! - gotta figure out where and how to make this one happen still...
6. try out a new restaurant/bar every week - cute little bar within a one blocks stumbling distance from my house who have an awesome cheese plate!
7. do an anti-snow dance so that this stuff will stop! where did the rain go?? :) - it has been super sunny and nice here lately. I have a beautiful view of Mt. Hood while I am driving to work in the morning and equally beautiful view of Mt. St. Helens on the drive home. I love the pacific NW.
8. shoe shopping! - I got a few new pairs... now I need to be cut off!

Progress.

What I want

I don't want to live my life all by myself. I want to share my life with someone wonderful. I want to come home to someone at night who wants to know how my day was. I want someone who loves to be a total goofball idiot with me and just likes to dork around. I want someone to cook and eat healthy with me and doesn't think it is psycho to weigh your food. :) I want someone who wants to go out to dinner with me and occasionally wants to share a dessert! :) I want someone to travel the world with and who will smile and laugh with me. I want someone to wander around with me. I want someone who wants to sit and watch the girls next door with me and wants me to sit and watch football with them. I want someone who wants to kiss me when he looks at my cute smile. I want someone who wants to touch me and hold my hand. I want someone who knows that I will think that they are the best and feels the same way about me. I want someone who can sense if I am bummed out and wants to try to make me smile and laugh again, and I will do the same for them. I want someone to wake up next to every morning and snuggle up to me before we get up to get ready for work. I want someone who thinks of me as the first person to share exciting news with, funny stories, random comments, even sad things or problems because they know I will help them get through it and be there for them. This person will be my best friend and the best S.O. a gal like me could ask for. I want a lot of other wonderful things... but now I am really just starting to feel greedy. Ha ha
Is this all really too much to ask for?? I would hope not, but maybe I am just a dreamer. :)

Put the cell phone down!

It seems that we have become a society who would rather communicate via text message or email than talk to the person sitting next to us. Ever notice how it takes about 0.5 seconds for everyone to frantically turn on their cell phones after the plane lands? Or that annoying little light while someone is sending text messages during a movie? Is it really going to kill you to not be in touch with someone for a brief period of time while participating in certain activities?
And the people with Iphones are the worst!! FYI: you will NOT die if you don't come in to physical contact with your iphone for more than 10 seconds. Put the iphone DOWN. :)
Here are some times when you should not be on your cell phone:
1. in the bathroom. I've seen people in public bathrooms using their phones. Finish your business, wash, then use phone. :)
2. while eating dinner with someone else!! how rude!
3. while you are working out. You can't focus on your physical fitness for one hour without using your cell phone?
4. while you are ordering food or coffee or any kind of other service that involves human interaction.
5. any time that using your cell phone distracts you from something that may cause harm to other people!

We need to put the phones down more... life is passing right before our eyes because we are too busy looking at that little screen.

Wanted: my smile!

I love to smile.
I want mine back.
I have had a few unexpected bumps over the past few months that have temporarily taken it away... and I'm ready to take it back! Bring back the toothy, goofy smile to my face! It is a brand new year. Now I just have to figure out how to get it back and make it happen.
Here are my ideas so far:
1. start a blog! ha ha
2. january boot camp... hurts so good.
3. make some fun and funny new friends and give the oldies but goodies a ring
4. go wandering... even in the cold. It's all about layers. And gloves. :)
5. take a big fun trip!
6. try out a new restaurant/bar every week
7. do an anti-snow dance so that this stuff will stop! where did the rain go?? :)
8. shoe shopping!

I think that is a pretty good start. Time to get my butt in gear.