It Happens to Men Too

My husband called me today to give me a good laugh.  He took his dry cleaning into our old neighborhood cleaners in Portland and was asked a question about his weight.  I can relate, as I'm sure most women can.  Women get asked these types of questions all the time.  "Whoa it looks like you've put on a little weight.  It looks like you've lost weight.  Do you want some jelly with those rolls? How many cookies have you been eating?" No? No one else has been asked that last question?  Well I have.  I love cookies and sometimes it shows.  HA!  But anyways, this sweet lady at the cleaners has a memory like an elephant.  We haven't lived in Portland in over four years but she remembered my husband quite well.  She looked at him while patting her belly and said, "Ohhh, it looks like you've lost a bit of weight since I last saw you.  No more belly."  HAHAHAHAHA This brightened my day.

A Little Rest and Relaxation

Last year the rainy weather got the best of us so we decided to take a weekend getaway to a resort called The Boulders, located in Carefree, Arizona.  We loved it!  After an amazing time, we decided this was a trip that needed to be repeated at least once a year.  Usually we don't like to repeat our vacations but for some reason, this place is different.  If nothing else, it's great for a quick weekend retreat to escape our crummy Pacific Northwest weather and recharge.

Keeping our promise to one another, this year we planned four wonderful days at The Boulders over Mother's Day weekend (oops).  Luckily, our mom's understood (next year we will be sure to plan the trip another weekend).  Needless to say, the trip was amazing!  We were even asked if we were on our honeymoon which is a question I always love getting asked. When I responded that it was just a vacation, the people looked at me inquisitively and said, "You're not on your honeymoon?  But it looks like you guys still really enjoy one another."  Although it made me feel really good, I couldn't help but feel a little sad that our society views relationships in that way.  Just because it looks like you enjoy one another's company it must mean you are newlyweds? No wonder the divorce rate in our country is so high.  I can't imagine being married to someone who wasn't my best friend and favorite person to hang out with. Yep, we still like each other and Yep, we LOVE spending time with one another.

We didn't do much while we were there which is what we enjoy most about this trip.  Its truly a vacation to decompress and soak in some vitamin D which we did quite well.

Oh ha! I almost forgot. We did have something happen that neither one of us had experienced before and would be okay never experiencing again.  At the end of the trip, we boarded a shuttle to the airport. My husband and I were seated in the very back row of the crowded bus.  Two seats in front of us sat a kid and his mom on the right side and a group of people directly across from them on the left.  They all faced each other while we faced forward towards all of them.  All of the sudden, with no warning whatsoever, the kid starts projectile vomiting all over the bus and the people across from him.  BLEHHHHHHHH!  So gross!  I kid you not, once he was finished, about three other adults right next to us started gagging and dry heaving.  It was like a chorus of people about to vomit.  Holding our bags on our laps and picking up our feet, my husband and I sat squished next to one another trying to breathe through our mouths and hoping no one else would spew.  I'm happy to report that we got off the bus vomit-free!  I'm pretty sure we were the only ones though.  So glad we chose the seats that we did.

Here's some of our favorite pictures from the trip.  Ahhhh Arizona.  We love you so much - even with the vomit express.  Until next year.....

At our favorite restaurant - "Alberto's" - Too bad he was in Italy this trip.   Maybe we'll see him next year.

Pretty much the equivalent of an Arizona pigeon.   So much prettier than ours.

Bunnies everywhere.

Pretty clear why they call it "The Boulders".

Heh heh heh 

I love rocks.  

Maybe we'll actually golf on this beautiful course one of these trips.

Until then, it's all yours bunnies. 

Ian's not amused by my incessant picture taking.  Note the sunscreen in his hand?  Yes, we were very responsible.

Black Mountain.  Our dream home will be built there someday.

Goofing around on "The Gilli-monster".

I look in control now, but I'm about to hit the bottom hard.  Ouch.  There's a reason kids where diapers.

As evidenced by Ian's arms and giant grin, he enjoyed the slide - and unlike his wife, he actually landed on his feet.

Carefree town square - Population 2,500 + 2 more.

Be careful where you step.  These guys are all over the place. 

Look closely.  That's a hummingbird.  I love my new camera.

This guy lived outside our casita.  Again, I love my camera. 

More rocks.

One of two pools.  This one's our favorite.

View while floating in the pool. 

My favorite view.

Scratch that.  This is my favorite view.  ( Ian.  Not the bald big guy. ) 

Ian's favorite view.

Fat and happy.  See you next year!

Let's Let it Go and Move On

We all have moments in life that we aren't proud of, but we learn from them and move on.  Or at least we try to as long as the people around us will let us.

Back in my Junior year of high school my cheer leading squad had a sleepover.  The seniors on the team brought a case of Mike's Hard lemonade to the party.  As most people know, "Hard" means alcohol.  And of course, if you were caught drinking there were strict repercussions.

Growing up, I was never exposed to alcohol.  My parents didn't drink.  Or at least not in front of me.  I don't have a single memory of a bottle of wine or can of beer being consumed in my house.  I had no clue that "Hard" meant alcohol so I grabbed a bottle, along with most of the other girls, cracked it open and took a swig.  Within a couple of sips I knew something was wrong and put it aside.  This didn't taste like any lemonade I had ever tasted before so I looked at the bottle a little more closely and read the alcohol content.  Yep.  I just drank my first alcoholic beverage (aside from the occasional champagne toast at a wedding) and I was going to pay for it big time.  Long story short, the school found out and most of the cheer leaders (myself included) were suspended from the team for the remainder of the football season.  Luckily, the football season only had three games left so the suspension was short-lived, but the ridicule has been on-going.

It has been 11 years since this happened, yet my friends won't let it go.  Even the one's who didn't go to high school with me but who have heard the story time and time again, love to razz me about it.  I can't remember the last party I was at where it hasn't been brought up by one friend or another.  They all think its hilarious to give me crap about it.  Which in fairness to them, it is a little funny.  I was dumb, naive and just plain ignorant about alcohol.  It wasn't one of my finest moments and something I would really like to move past.  I can handle a little teasing but it seems like this is the longest running joke in history.  To this day its something that I am extremely embarrassed and ashamed of and I am reminded of it at almost every social event.  No matter how hard I try, the people around me won't let me forget it.

Just last night at a party, a friend, brought it up yet again.  He made some crack about "Did you know there was alcohol in Mimosas? hahaha" and proceeded to say "just wait until the reunion this fall.  I can see it now.  That's totally going to be a 'remember when' moment."  Then it hit me.  He's totally right. I can see it too.  The entire venue laughing and saying "hahaha she's so dumb.  How did you not know there was alcohol?  Everyone knows there is alcohol in "hard" lemonade. Hahaha what an idiot."  I've heard it all before.  Countless times. But its getting old.  This has been going on for 11 years now.  I can only take so much teasing about something that is truly one of the worst memories I have.  Now, with the realization that it will most definitely be brought up again to my entire graduating class, I don't know if I even want to go to the 10-year reunion anymore.  I was on the fence before, but now that I'm sure I'll be ridiculed by everyone, I'm not sure its worth it.  I know my husband would be excited if I told him he was off the hook.  He doesn't remember anyone from high school anyways.  I guess I better make up my mind pretty quickly.  Tickets go up in price June 1st.  By the way, where did the time go and when did we get so old?

Just Another Tuesday

Sheesh!  The past few weeks have been a whirlwind.  It feels like I haven't had much time to think let alone update any blog posts, so I apologize to those that enjoy the weekly read.  A lot has happened this month so I have plenty to post about.  Now I just have to find the time to get this thing updated and hopefully keep you reading for a while.

Today was an interesting day at work.  I work in downtown Portland right across the street from City Hall so needless to say, I get my fair share of protest activity.  Its quite annoying.  Not that it usually impacts me directly but its frustrating to no end that we have almost weekly protests going on.  What a waste of the city's time and money having to monitor these.  It wouldn't bother me so much except that after being up close and personal with these protests for almost five years, I've come to the conclusion that half of these protesters are just PSU students who have nothing better to do and don't even know what they are protesting.  The majority of the rest are just whiners who are mad that everyone doesn't make a million dollars and wants the rich to support the people who don't have jobs.  Now, before you gasp that I just made that statement, I know that some of the protesters know exactly why they are protesting and some are actually protesting for a good cause.  However, from my experience that is not the case with the majority of the people in the protest line and it is a complete waste of time and money.  Yep I said it.

This is what my view looks like quite frequently.

View from my office

On my way to get lunch.  One of the main reasons I opt to take naps on my lunch break rather than heading out into the streets of downtown. 

Ewww! Did I Just Find an Animal?

Last night I did something that I thought I'd never have to do again.  Unclog the shower drain.  GROSS!  I thought when I got married this was one of those implied chores for the husband to do?  Don't get me wrong.  He's cleaned the drain on numerous occasions and always pulls his weight around the house with other chores, so I really can't complain.  Actually I'm really lucky.  I usually don't have to ask him to do anything.  He just does it.  Because of that, I figured I would step up.  It was my turn.  After all, it was my hair.

For the past few weeks we've been ignoring the growing puddle of water in our shower.  Well, not completely ignoring it.  I dumped Draino down there a few times but it didn't do much.  Do you know if Draino can go bad?  I think it can.  This Draino looked like milk that had gone bad.  It had big white chunks and everything.  I've never seen any other bottles that have looked like this.  Totally weird.  Mental note:  Don't buy Draino from Winco.  Its right up there with meat.  You never buy meat from Winco.  Now there are two items not to buy.  Meat and Draino..... But anyways, the Draino would sort of work for a few days and then it would back up again.  It got to the point where by the end of a shower, you'd be standing in two inches of water.  This had to be fixed.

So last night after I was already sweaty and gross from a workout, I figured I would take a stab at unclogging the drain.  I gathered up the Draino, snaking tool, a plastic bag and rubber gloves.  I was ready to go in.  I fed the snaking tool down through the holes in the drain as far as it would go (our drain cover isn't removable so this was quite a challenge.  Those holes are really small)  As I began to pull it back up I had to put some muscle behind it.  It was really clogged.  What's in there?  I pulled again, and "Clunk, clunk".  What is that?  I peered down through the holes and could see a solid ball of hair and who knows what else.  Yuck!  Then it dawned on me.  "Gasp.  What if that's an animal?  Like a rat or hamster or something? The last family DID have three boys.  Maybe they thought it would be fun to see if the hamster would be able to make his way back out? Uhhhhhhhh huh huh huh. Please, oh please, don't be an animal."  I had to stop myself and come back to reality.  How would an animal be stuck in our drain? And how would I be able to lift it up with my flimsy snaking tool? And if it was an animal, wouldn't we have noticed the smell by now? I guess it's within the realm of possibilities but what are the chances? C'mon Emily.  Pull it together!.........So back to the challenge.  It was so solid that it wouldn't fit through the holes to come out.  I pulled again.  "Clunk, clunk, clunk".  Damn.  I'm not going to be able to get this out.  Then I'll have to explain why we still have a clogged drain AND why there's now a tool stuck in it.  So I started vigorously shaking the tool back and forth at an attempt to shake the solid hairball off.  It actually worked.  I was free!  Phew!  Now to try again.  I fed the tool back through those tiny holes and pulled up.  This time it was coming up with much more ease.  I pulled out a huge long clump of hair and slime.  I held it up and stared at it with pride.  Victory!!! ......Then the smell hit me.  "Hooooork. Hooooork. Hooooork".  The gag reflex was in full effect.  All of the sudden the bathroom door swings open and my husband asks "Are you alright?  I could hear you from downstairs."  I turn and proudly hold up my accomplishment.  "Look, hoooork. what I, hooooork. Found, hoooork!"

The smell was awful.  But the drain was unclogged!