Feeling Fantastic!

For those of you who may read my blog and are not facebook friends, this blog is about my not so typical Saturday night... the first Saturday night of my 5 weeks off from school for summer break. I will be adding a bit more info that I left out of the original post on FB and what not too. Enjoy it!

So far my summer break is off to an amazing start. Had a great time with the guys on Friday night gaming, and get to go game with my new group tonight, I'm so excited! But let's talk about last night....

Stef came to town and wanted to go dancing. Now, years ago this is something I did on an almost nightly basis, at least 4+ times per week. As I have gotten older I have also done much less of going out clubbing and dancing until the wee hours of the morning, however last night was an exception. I have to say that the new meds I am on are doing their job, I have my energy back. YAY!

First of all we went to dinner somewhere new to both of us, the Sapphire Hotel. I always like going somewhere new here in P-town you never know what you are going to get. This meal was INCREDIBLE! Oh, as a background the last several times Stef has been out here to go out we have been to restaurants where you get no utensils to eat, so this was a nice change... eating with forks! Anyway, we started off with drinks. I had a drink called "Going Up", pepper infused tequila, cilantro, and their house made sweet & sour. OMG... seriously like the most AMAZING drink I have had in a very long time. She had "Room Servie", their house specialty marionberry margarita.. a bit sweeter than mine but equally delish!

Then came our appetizers, bacon wrapped dates stuffed w/ blue Stilton, and salmon & corn cakes, both were spot on. She had the shrimp and risotto cakes and I had the hanger steak w/ sweet mashed potatoes and a pomegranate glaze. Seriously absolutely fabulous. We topped it off with dessert and 2 more drinks. Their cinnamon sugar bread pudding and some sort of mascarpone chocolate mouse cake.

Needless to say we were stuffed and I completely blew my anti-inflammatory diet. It was well worth it! I can't wait to go back again and try some of their other items at happy hour prices.

From dinner we headed out to the local lesbian bar for some tunes and dancing. Not much going on there, the music wasn't all that great especially when the DJ decided to have a mini Michael Jackson tribute and played 3 of his songs in a row. That is about the time I was ready to leave. We danced to a couple of songs, watch the girl who was wearing a tutu dance with her friend (I think it was her birthday), and then headed over to the Embers where we would be assured of great music, drag queens, and who knows what else.

After finally giving up looking for a parking place and paying the $6 fee to park in the lot across the street from the Embers, we headed in and the music was pumping, dance floor was crowded so we headed straight onto the floor. It wasn't long before I was approached by a very cute young woman who asked if Stef and I were a couple of course this took a few times because the music was so loud I couldn't hear her. I of course said no, then she proceeded to tell me I was pretty and wanted to know if she could dance with me. "Of course!" gosh, who wouldn't want to dance with someone who just told them they were pretty. hehe *blush* We danced a bit more and noticed this rather strange little man who kept moving around the floor trying to grind on random women, there was a rather intoxicated group of people where it looked like one of the guys and his girlfriend exchanged bottoms (she was wearing his shorts and he was wearing her skirt), can't forget about the girl who was wearing what appeared to be ONLY a track style jacket with no bottoms (NONE... like no underwear or anything... it was rather disturbing!), then there was the crazy shirtless jumping in the air falling on people around him guy, and of course there were drag queens.

Dancing for about an hour we decided to go watch some of the drag show. Ahhh you have to love these men who put on more makeup than a rodeo clown and can sometimes make fairly convincing women. The whole lip quiver, skimpy outfits.. it was very entertaining. We headed back to the dance floor after a brief stint watching the queens.

Out on the floor again was creepy dude #1 who was trying to grind against anything (male of female) that would let him. It was quite entertaining as I kept spinning Stef away from him and yet he still didn't get the hint. Then I began to elbow him every time he got close to me. There was a rather intoxicated girl that he started to grind with until her un-intoxicated friend stepped in and told him to back off, it was rather amusing. Finally he found another intoxicated girl who was apparently as horny as he was. He backed her up to the back of the dance floor where they began heavily making out. Oh, I almost forgot, the whole time on the dance floor creepy dude kept rearranging his unit and grabbing himself. ICK! So, their making out led to hand down each others pants... right on the dance floor! Seriously, these two were wasted, couldn't' stand up on their own, he now had his package out of his pants and was trying to get her pants low enough so that he could bang her... ON THE DANCE FLOOR!

This was all just too amusing not to watch and at one point there was a decent size crowd of us just kind of pretending to dance as we watched this happen. I actually said to Stef at one point, "This girl needs a good friend," I mean who would let their friend do this with a stranger??? Anyway, their mutual exploration of each other went on for some time until a random girl decided to pull drunk chick away from creepy dude which left him trying to stand up and put his willy back in his pants. At this point I flagged security and told him about the guy who was getting closer to both Stef and I with his Mr. Johnson still sticking out of his pants. It was at this point we decided to call it a night.

Not bad seeing as it was 2 am, I wasn't feeling tired at all, and had been dancing off all those extra calories from dinner. Dropped Stef off at her parents, and got home by 3. Ahhh what a night!

Stef also wrote up a little dity about our eventful evening and I wanted to add some of what she said. Apparently she thinks I am a boob smothering, boisterous, biznatch. Not really, those are my own words and I thought it summed up what she said here: "Of note on the drive to the restaurant and every drive after that is that Amy is a VERY vocal driver. There are play by plays, there is cussing. As much as Zachary talks I imagine this is the type of driver he will be. ;)"

She also added the following about the drag queens: "Afterwards we took a break and watched a Drag Queen show. There were 3 notable acts 1) the skinny one dancing to Disturbia whose dancing looked similar to an epileptic seizure 2) the SUPER creepy Cher-like one. He was in a full see through body suit except for a speedo. Not a pretty body mind you. He just looked stoned and super creepy, to the point that Amy was trying to bail on the show. I forced her to stay against her will! 3) the one that was actually pretty good. He had tall boot, flowing (combed) hair a cute hat, bustier plus bikini bottom. Such a good job I truly wondered where he put his penis. Very professional tuck! ;)

And her final words: "Another couple random situations of the night 1) there was this white chick dressed like Pocahontas/ Indian Princess. At one point she got into the cage and did some dancing and I was thinking how that's not very politically correct! 2) There was a guy in a kilt OR as Amy thinks the girlfriend/ boyfriend swapped shorts/ skirt - he was dancing bent over while she was 'riding him' and slapping his ass.


Oh I forgot to mention about creepy dude, as we were leaving I said to Stef, "He really was rockin' out with his cock out." (giggles) It was prefect! :)

Overall a lot of eyes popping out of sockets and laughter. I'll always feel comfortable at Embers because I can do whatever and not be the weirdest! ;)"

I must admit that yes, I too will always feel comfortable at Embers or ER because the people tend to have fun in those places and aren't so caught up in the "scene". Just good times!


A side note about school, just got my grades and I now have an A,B,C for the term. I am not thrilled with the B (in Speech) but will accept it, and am ecstatic about the C. Getting the C means that I didn't fail the final and that I actually understood the problems. I have to say I really was worried that I was going to fail the class or get a D and have to be on academic probation. Math is and always will be a struggle for me. Thankfully though I only have ONE term left to take of math. Hip-hip-hooray!

Peace, love, and chicken grease!

There's always next year...

This seems to be my motto lately. I am getting pretty good at missing events that I have been wanting to go to (being out of town, or having something else going on or being sick). Let me go back a couple of weeks to get ya'll caught up on what has been going on.

First off, I am almost finished with summer term. This coming week is finals and I will be so happy to see summer term end. That will mean that I only have ONE... O-N-E term of math to go. YIPEEEEE! I cannot tell you how much that means to me. In my women's studies class we are doing a group presentation for our final. My group has been studying Wicca. I have learned a lot this past weekend about witches, witchcraft, and this quite interesting religion.

Let's see next is the dreaded health chit chat. It's funny, it really is true that the older we get the more we talk about our health. Mine seems to be good news or at least I have gotten some answers. I started seeing a Natural-path. She has me on this really wonderful (read: I HATE) diet to figure out what foods I am allergic to. At this point I cannot eat any of the following: wheat, dairy, soy, refined sugars, fake sugars, tomatoes, potatoes (with the exception of sweets potatoes), nuts (except coconut), eggplant, and well... those seem to be the major restrictions. I will just say this, spelt bread isn't horrid, however gluten free cereal and almond milk is NOT the same as any "normal" cereal and cows milk. I have also been OFF of diet Pepsi for over 2 weeks! Who'd a thunk?! So far I have been having a bit of headaches come and go due to the lack of caffeine but not enough to cease functioning.

On the good side of the health issues, she (my new Doc) tested me further for thyroid issues and we have found out that I have a not quite uncommon autoimmune disease called Hashimoto's Thyroiditis. The kinda crazy thing is is that htere is no real cure for this yet, just experimental stuff. She has me on some remedies and I think they may be working. Yay!

Ok, now for the more fun stuff! I apologize that this blog is becoming so lengthy, this will teach me to not update it more frequently! This morning I woke up at 4 am to get to the MAX by 5:30 (riding my bike there), for the hour long ride to downtown Portland. Katie and I rode in the Portland Bridge Pedal. 3 different routes crossing either 11, 8, or 6 of the cities bridges. Due to my health issues, being sick so much I haven't been able to ride my bike much in preparation for the ride and only made it across 2 of the bridges. It was worth it, kicked my ass but fun.

Next year I shall complete the ride, which brings me to the title of my post... There's always next year!

Summer break wrap up...

With the end of spring term I decide that I wanted to take advantage of the week off before starting summer term. First up on the plate was heading to Eugene to visit a friend who I recently got in contact with via Facebook. Ahhh the wonders of the social networking sites. Somedays I love them and others I just think they are the biggest time sink and waste of time ever. However, in this case, FB was my best friend. I got to see Meg after not seeing her for over 6 years. What a fabulous time we had. I got to play with her ponies (ok so just petting them and taking their photos, and bringing them in for the night) it was great. Sometimes I do miss having a horse but then again not having them is a lot better to my non existent bank account.

We went and had some fabulous drinks, this pepper infused margarita was the BEST, at Lava Lounge. I had a fab burger w/ mushrooms and brie cheese. YUMMMMO! Spent a lot of time just relaxing, playing with the dogs, and catching up. At the end of the trip Meg decided to give me a brand new tent and air mattress.. this came in useful later in the week.

Tuesday was the Hillsboro Farmers market in downtown Hillsboro. I got to ride my bike down there and meet up with friends where we had some more yummy food, picked up some fresh rhubarb and strawberries, and some vegan chocolate truffles (they are incredible!). I decided to try making a strawberry rhubarb pie... it turned out very good, but the crisp I made was better. Overall not bad for my first attempt.

Wednesday my aunt and I took the dogs to Seaside. Her dog had never been to the beach before so this was a momentous occasion. What I thought was going to be a grey day turned out to be quite lovely over in Seaside. There was amazingly a lot of people there for the middle of the week. Tiger loved just laying in the surf (I will post a pic later).

By Thursday it was time to just relax, as Maggie and I had been on the go all week and were a bit tired. We were also gearing up to go camping. This is something that I haven't done since I was a child. More on the camping trip later as it is past my bedtime and school starts at 8 am with Math tomorrow... bleh!

Goodnight my friends!

It's here! It's finally here!

The "it" that I am referring to is actually a couple of things. First off, summer seems to be peaking around the corner with temps getting up into the 80's and 90' all over the state. The recent bout of nice weather has had me out enjoying my bike. Thanks to Crazy Kate who picked Betty (my bike) and I up and took us out for a nice ride.

The other "it" is the end of my second term of school. I can't believe that the Spring term has got only 1 week left until finals. The term has been pretty good, and I will def miss a couple of my Profs. I will once again be taking 15 credits during the summer term and of course there is a math class.... I swear that will be the bane of my existance! :P

Memorial Day weekend came and went. I got to spend it at the Oregon coast visiting my parents. It was a great time and gorgeous weather! We spent a night in Newport and the following morning was a minus tide which meant killer tide pools.


So not the most creative blog ever, but hey... at least I made an effort! haha :P

Enjoy the pics. :)

It's over for another year...

Ahhh April 16th has marked the end of tax season, now I can really focus on school and some sleep.. or can I? After last nights end of tax season party I was excited to sleep in today, but then I woke up with a nasty headache and all I have wanted to do is sleep all day! Ugh, I hate days like that. I haven't even opened a book, which I need to do! That's what this weekend will be for I suspect.

So let's see where was I when we last met? It was coming to the end of winter term at school. I did well in my classes getting to 2 As and 1 B. Not bad for not having been in school for long. I just found out last week that my grades earned me a spot on the Dean's list. Woo hoo! That was a bit exciting for me. This term in school I am taking Sociology, Personal Health, Math 65 (Algebra), and US History 203. I have 2 of the same instructors which makes it nice. So far I am enjoying all of the classes, yes even math. I have a "math friend", makes going to class a bit more fun.

I am quite excited as spring is def in the air. I am going to purchase a bike this weekend so that I will start getting out and enjoying the outdoors. I am quite excited. Honestly there really isn't much going on. Maggie has been on thyroid medication now and her energy levels have gone through the roof, just like she was a pup again. She drives me crazy some days with the dang red ball, but I love her she is a great companion.

There you have it a bit of an update which pretty much most of you who read this already know. I just felt the need to post! :)

Cheers!

Small update

My first term back to school is quickly drawing to an end. This is dead week and boy am I feeling dead! I have been trying to keep my bedtime to 10:00 pm as 6:30 am comes FAR too early. My life has pretty much been work, school, homework, sleep, rinse repeat. Weekends have left little time for playing my newly acquired Wii, but I do love it! I need to get the Wii fit since I can't really afford the whole gym thing. On that note I am planning on purchasing a really cool old fat person bike from REI. I am sooo excite about getting it, I think that may happen this weekend. Back to the school thing, so far I have confirmed that as long as I do well on my final project in writing and get at least an 85% on my math final I will have 2 A's, I am not sure about History, that is a solid B if not an A if I do well on the final. I am totally crossing my fingers.

Maggie has been doing well although me being a picker and mother hen, noticed something funky going on with her ears last week. She went to the vet, had her ears shaved, and has a fungus on her ear tips. Not sure what it is caused from, she is on meds now so hopefully it is gone in a week or 2. She also has been diagnosed with almost non existent thyroid. Just like her mom she gets to be on thyroid meds. Lucky us! lol Other than that she is still my happy go lucky, "let's play with the red ball" Maggie.

That's it for now, hope all is well with you in blogger land!

Cheers!

RIP Grandpa

About 30 minutes ago I got a phone call that my mom's dad passed away. Anyone who knows me, knows that the relationship I had with him wasn't the best especially the last several years. I haven't actually seen him since 2004. Maybe that is why I am so torn up. Death really is about closure. I know that in his last years he wasn't himself, suffering from dementia. He just wouldn't have known who I was. I feel so guilty that I didn't go see him. I was actually mad at him for the things he said to my mom and about her. I know that he didn't understand what he was saying, it was still just hurtful. I hope he knows that I did love him, I am sure he did.

He always told me to find a good cowboy to get married to. He was a cheap man, financially. I guess that is what happens when you live through a depression. He would always send me $2 bills when I was a little girl for my birthday and Christmas. The not he included in it would say "No booze, pot, or cigarettes". Which is a bit ironic as he both smoked cigarettes and drank.

He would come to my horse shows and watch me ride. I know he was proud of me. He built his own house, the one my mom and her sisters grew up in. He lived in it until he had to go into an assisted living home. He took me to my first horse race in Grants Pass. We ate cold pork and beans out of a can for dinner.

Grandpa Dave, you were loved and I hope you are at peace now.

Love,

me

Life is good

In short, yes, life is going well.

1) School- busy as usual. Only have 4 real weeks of class and then finals week. I only have one final test and that is in Math. I have a bunch of papers due in writing, but that is easy for me so I am not too concerned with those. Then I will have another 2 papers and a ton of reading to do for history. Guess I know what I will be spending a majority of my weekend doing!

2) I bought a used Wii. Yes I finally gave in to the urge. I am so excited to play. Although I bought i last Sunday I haven't had time to play.. school and work keep me pretty busy during the week. So, if anyone wants to have a Wii party come on over on a Saturday or Sunday. :)

3) Work- Yikes! We are in the full swing of things, let me tell you! Busy busy. It's hard for me to remember those days when I didn't work or have classes to attend. It's a good thing this is my 4th year doing the accountant gig. I work for such nice people it's great!


Those are pretty much the major things that have gone on sine my last post. Honestly I lead such an exciting life, please don't be too jealous. ha ha ha :P Maggie is adjusting to me not being at home as much. Poor girl, I think she has developed quite an anxiety disorder. What with my pit stops at home at lunch and in between work and school, she has no idea what's going on.

Next on my purchase list is a wicked cool bike from REI. I am so excited especially now that the weather is warming up and it is actually sunny. YAY!

Cheers everyone!

Broken record

I knew that going back to school was going to be a lot of hard work especially given that my first term back I am also working full time. Talk about sounding like a broken record... wake up, go to work, go home for a snack, go to school, home for dinner, bed. Rinse repeat. Sometimes I am lucky enough to talk with friends on the phone as opposed to only via chat and yet sometimes, VERY rarely I get to SEE them in person! To all of you who have been checking on me. I have had to enlist those of you who are on my chat list for help is making sure I am not online after 10 pm. It is so easy for me to want to stay up late but boy 6:30 am comes far too early!

Math has been successful so far. We just had a big test and I didn't study (bad me!) but still got an 86/100. I am pretty pleased with that. This past weekend I was holed up reading a book called "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl". For anyone interested in wanting to know more about slavery and what a person would go through to become free, READ THIS BOOK! I am really loving history. I have always liked my history classes and learning about history but I have also realized just how much grade school & high school history has been sugar coated. Sad really.

I can't believe that midterms are next well already. Yikes! Where did the time go???

In other news... oh wait, there really isn't anything else going on in my life. HAHAHA :P Magster is learning to deal with me being away from the house so much. I try to spend any spare time I have doing stuff with her. Heh, I am making it sound like she is a human or something. Oh, I do get to go to the coast this weekend. Although I am tempted to say I can't go because my History midterm is Tuesday and since I don't have any free time other than weekends to prepare for it, I am not sure I would have enough. Guess I will have to see what happens.

Good luck out there in blogger land.

Cheers! :)

Homework, school, and hiking

Well week #2 of school is down, going into week #3. I have successfully managed to make it to all of my classes and now work on time. It is quite the adjustment and I am feeling a bit like a broken record. Work, home (eat & change), school, homework, sleep, rinse repeat. I have also had my first math quiz and got an A. Yay me! hehe :) All is moving along quite nicely. I just didn't anticipate how much reading there would be, especially in my writing class.

Had a super weekend. The weather was absolutely gorgeous even if it was a tad on the cool side. I managed to get to the Hawthorn area for shopping and a bite to eat on Saturday. I have found this place that sells lotions and oils and stuff that you can get scented. They have a HUGE selection to choose from, I went with Thai Tea this time. Yummo!

Sunday was supposed to be my homework day although it was far to nice to stay in. K invited me and the Magster to go with her and 4 other friends on a hike. I was told it was just a short one, wouldn't take to long. I agreed since I really needed the exercise. Between the 6 humans and 4 dogs it was quite a fun time. We went to Sauvie Island where there is a rather easy hike, especially if you are in decent shape. It is 7 miles round trip and very pretty. Views of Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Adams, Mt, Hood was even visible. At the end of the trail, after 3.5 miles, was a cute little light house. We stopped and had some yummy cookies that K had made for us as we enjoyed the view. Overall it took about 2.5 - 3 hours. I am sure feeling it today! It was well worth it though. Thank you Miss K for sticking with my out of shape ass! :) I would post pics, but I was a complete idiot and didn't have a cf card in my came... I did have an extra battery though! Arg! :P

After going hiking yesterday I am even more determined to get into way better shape. I am def in need of good hiking shoes, backpack, first aid kit, water container, and a different jacket. I guess those are going on my list of items to by when I get a paycheck, well that and a bike. :)

That's about it for now...

-Cheers

It's a New year!

Greetings out there in blogger land. With 2009 having snuck up on me I figure I may as well try to let those of you who are actually interested in my life know what is going on. So many things have happened since we last met. Let’s begin…




Dec 8th I got to go see my very favorite group, Nine Inch Nails.. Can I just say how much I <3 Mr. Reznor.... Anyway, it was SOOO cool as he allowed real cameras and video cams in to the concert. I took my camera and got some pretty nice shots, but I wasn't too sharp as I had forgotten to take a second battery and the first one died before the end of the first set. Darn it all! However Mister Ed was able to get a lot of it on his video cam so I can relive the night over and over and over. Thanks Mister Ed for the concert! I had a fairly perfect weekend as we also went to Kell's... my very favorite restaurant in Ptown and the night before we went to Montage my second favorite place to go.



Oregon has seen one crazy winter. I am not the first to let you all know this. Many a friend had their holiday plans ruined or at the very least deterred due to the lovely copious amount of snowfall that we had. I for one was due to visit my parents in lovely Florence, OR the week of Christmas. My plans however were delayed by about a week when I was finally able to make it out of town. I know some of you tried driving in from The Dalles to Portland taking anywhere from 3-6 hours…. So happy that wasn’t me! Then again there was also those who drove from Portland to Salem in a whopping 3 hour trip (normally like 45 mins to an hour tops for those of you unaware). Yes, the snow played a bit of havoc on us here in the Pacific Northwest. From reports I read it was like the largest snowfall in 50+ years! Crazy! All I can say is that I am quite happy it s over, for now it seems. I could never put up with that amount of snow for the amount of time we had it, year round. YUCK! I much prefer that pretty white stuff to stay up on the mountains!

Moving on, I did make it to Florence. It was a great little trip. I lucked out and it didn’t really rain much at all. YAY! I made it back to Portland to pick up a friend then head to The Dalles for New Year’s Eve. WOW… all I can say is that I am sorry. Someone (that would be me) had a wee bit too much to drink and may have done some crazy stuff. Now here is the best part of me being under the influence of alcohol, I remember EVERYTHING! Unlike some people who tend to not remember what they did or said whilst intoxicated. You see this is why I am sorry. I remember EXACTLY the things I aid and did. Oh boy do I ever remember. Those of you who were there know who and why I am apologizing.  We will leave it at that! :P hehe

With 2009 underway I managed to appreciate every last second of free time that I had as now, well let’s just say there is no such thing as free time. Not only has school begun. YAY. Yes, I still hate math. History is always cool, and well writing is writing and I generally really like it. I have also started working as of this week. Back to the accountant’s for the duration of tax season. My day’s pretty much start at 7:30, work, lunch, work, dinner, school, homework, bed… rinse repeat. I am realizing just how much time I don’t have anymore. It has been nice though being so busy again.

There you have it, not really anything too exciting, just enough for me to bore you with! Hope everyone’s 2009 is off to a great start!

Cheers!