Rainier hike

Fall is here - it's raining like crazy and the news is talking about snow in the passes. It's okay though. We had a great fall and really nice weather up until the past couple weeks. :) This weekend Adam and Laura were in town from Atlanta and we spent Saturday hiking at Mt Rainier. We hiked the Skyline trail from Paradise. It was challenging but really fun. It even snowed a little. The colors of the dead grass and flowers were really pretty against the snow and blue skies. It was cloudy off and on for much of the hike, but we had really great views on the hike up and then as we neared the end too. In the middle we were walking through clouds. I've been hiking at Rainier several times now but each time I am in awe. The mountain and the surroundings are so beautiful. Here are some shots from the hike:

Dusting of snow

Adam in the clouds

Joel & Rainier

Colors from Paradise

dogs and floods

I took Kenzie to the dog park this morning so she could do some all-out running and I could stretch my legs to get rid of the soreness from the soccer game. She is such a funny dog. When Joel and I got her she was the most timid, scared dog I had ever seen. Of course she is still like that when she meets new people, but at first she was even scared of other dogs. Not so anymore. It is cool to see her being an outgoing dog because it's a big change. Today she even went up to a doberman, and she played chase with a lab. Dog owners are really funny. Some dog owners are totally relaxed, not even really paying attention to what their dogs are doing. Others are a little nervous, and if your dog goes up to theirs they watch it really closely. Some people are talkative and some say nothing when the dogs are playing. I'm mostly quiet but the most common thing I get asked is what kind of dog Kenzie is. She is a mutt of course, but I tell them what I know. The lady I met had a mutt too and our dogs got along well.

I was sick last week for a couple days, either with some random virus or with swine flu. Who knows. I didn't go to the doctor because it wasn't that bad, so I'm sort of doubting it was swine flu. This week though I am feeling much better. Today I'm off from work and my task for the day is to put together a go-box of important documents and things the Joel and I will need to take with us if we have to evacuate because of a flood this winter. The latest I've heard about the possible flooding is a 1 in 3 chance of flooding. Our house is about 1/3 mile from the river and although it's not expected to actually flood on our street, we could get sewer backups or other problems that force us to leave our house. We are going to move as much stuff as we can upstairs and out of harm's way, but in the end if we have to pick up and go we'll need to have the basics with us. It's not a fun task but I've got to do it. After today it's supposed to rain basically for 10 days straight, so the flood season is about to begin. Wish us luck and hopefully the preparation will be for nothing!

powerless

I have been thinking about what it means to be powerless. To be in a situation that you have no control over. To feel that no matter what you do in the end the outcome will be the same, or that you could disappear it and would make no difference. On several walks lately I have gone down to the river to watch the salmon. There are many fishermen as the salmon runs are large this year. The salmon really are amazing - they "smell" their way back to where they were born after spending years out in the ocean. But all around the river there is trash. Beer bottles and paper cups and bags of chips and candy wrappers. It's one thing to feel powerless in the face of something natural, something that makes you feel powerless because the detail of how those fish find their way home had to be created by something so powerful I can't even comprehend it. It's another thing to feel powerless in the face of humanity and the misery people create on this earth. I feel angry, I feel sad, but most of all I feel like no matter how much trash I pick up there will always be more. This is a small thing, and there are other things going on that are work-related. I know I have to be proactive, that the absence of positive feedback does not necessarily mean that no good has been done. But what I've realized is that I only feel powerless if I define my own self and my own worth by other people. There are things I can control and things I can't. My dad has told me before that I should take care of the things I can control and not worry about the things I can't. So it's hard but each day I'm going to try to do that a little more. It will probably always bother me a little to see people toss trash on the ground, or go off the trail in a park where you aren't supposed to go, or express anger without being willing to listen. I can let it bother me a lot or I can move on. I'm just doing my best.

time for fall

I haven't updated lately, mostly because I've been so busy. After Jennifer's wedding, Joel and I spent consecutive weekends visiting the Columbia Gorge with friends, camping at the coast, and hanging Sarah and Jose when they visited for a friend's wedding. What a wonderful time I've had. Here are some photos of all the fun. :)

Alison, Jennifer, and me

Columbia Gorge

Multnomah Falls

Mt Rainier from Sunrise

Me, Sarah, Jose, and the mountain

Mt Rainier with clouds

I have more photos of Jennifer's wedding, the Columbia Gorge, and Mt Rainier too! :)

in the meantime

I have been a blog-slacker for a variety of reasons but mostly I've just been busy. This week I am in Charlotte for Jennifer's wedding so I have more free time than usual and thus time to blog. I took a redeye Saturday night and spent most of yesterday hanging out with my family, looking through my old boxes from the attic, and being really tired. There was also a really crazy thunder storm - over 3" in just one or two hours! The creek in Freedom Park flooded, and this morning Mom and walked along the creek and saw tons of debris. There was tons of plywood, big boards, and even a bundle of about 20 2x4s that had been washed down the creek. Someone must have showed up to their construction site this morning and wondered where all their supplies went! Our walk was nice but it was so humid and I am not used to being so sweaty after just walking - I'm a wimp about it now. :)

I had fun going through boxes in the attic and found my treasure trove of old Hornets autographs, including an autographed photo of Muggsy Bogues! Sweet! Mom said we used to drive all over Charlotte to get those when the Hornets first came. I also found some old newspapers that were interesting, including from all the notable sports victories of my childhood (Carolina basketball '93, Braves '95, etc) and from Hurricane Hugo. Hurricane Hugo was 20 years ago September, which is so hard to believe. I have some very distinct memories from Hugo and I found the story that Dad, Mom, and Sarah wrote about it afterwards. I remember sitting in my parents' room with the weather radio and seeing a tree fall up the street. I also remember sitting in the hall eating bread and hearing a tree fall on our roof, and then moving the gerbils (hamsters?) into the living room with us so they would be safe. :) I remember walking around the park and standing on top of the picnic shelters that had collapsed, and then walking up the street to see the trees that had fallen. I think two or three trees had fallen including the Utsey's and all the Dads had their chainsaws out and were cutting them up. Of course I remember the bad things too, like a brick wall falling on me when we were cleaning out next door, and getting stung by bees because they were all stirred up. We lost power for almost 2 weeks and I remember that when it cut back on, all the lights in the house turned on and I jumped out of bed I was so excited. :)

Time to go run some errands with Mom.

Oh thank heaven...

Today was 7-11 and when I was surfing the net this morning I discovered that it was free Slurpee Day! Those who know of my love of Icees and all slushy beverages would know that I got very excited. Joel and I were going to the Sounders game so we went quickly and took Kenzie on a walk over to the 7-11. The free Slurpees were only 7.11 oz but it was quite delicious anyway and free is good! The day got even better because we went to see the Sounders and they beat the Dynamo 2-1. The second goal was a really sweet bicycle kick that everyone just went crazy for. I have watched at least one game of most pro sports and I have to say that soccer is definitely one of the best. The games go by so quickly and it's so exciting. Maybe it's more exciting since everyone is extra excited about this being the first season, but the fans of soccer are really into the game too. We have been standing for most of both games that I've been to but it's worth it. Tomorrow Joel and I are playing our first soccer game on a new co-rec team. I am really excited and really hoping I can keep up. I haven't been doing a lot of exercize, but did run 4 times this week in a desperate attempt to start getting back into shape. I think I may have to play the whole game since they are short on women, but I'm sure it will be okay. I am just happy to have found a place to play.

another trip

Well here I am again in Auburn, sitting at home enjoying the day off for Independence Day. I had a wonderful time visiting Charlotte, Pennsylvania, and New York over the past two weeks, though I did bring back a bit of a cold. First we spent time in Charlotte, and got to see my friend Bekah get married. It was a beautiful ceremony and there were a lot of Covenant friends there to catch up with. As always with that group there was plenty of laughter and seeing everybody there really made me happy to be there. I also got to see other friends who live in Charlotte and North Carolina now so it was a great visit. I could definitely see myself fitting right back in if we ever choose to move back to Charlotte.

Part of the reason we spent almost two weeks on vacation was that we wanted a chance to visit my grandmother in Pennsylvania. We saw Grandmother in Durham the day after we got to Charlotte, and then on Monday we left for the farm to go see everyone there. It was hard to believe I haven't been up there in four years. Even harder to believe is that while we were there Joel and I celebrated our fourth anniversary! I think we really qualify as "old marrieds" now!! :) At the farm we got to see everybody, though they were very busy with the hay since the weather had cleared up after two weeks of rain. They worked until 9 pm several days but we did have a chance to go get ice cream, and to have a cookout on our last night there. The farm is one of my favorite places. Not only do I get to spend time with family and of course hear many stories from my uncles, but it is a very relaxing place (of course that is because we didn't do any farm work!). I have so many great memories of feeding calves, swimming in the pond, many 4th of July picnics and softball games, and much game-playing with my cousins. I'm really glad we got to visit there too because we spend some time with Grandmother at the retirement home where she lives now. She seems pretty good but I know she misses living on the farm. She was pretty sharp when we were there and beat us at Scrabble and Uno. :)

At some point when planning our vacation it occured to Joel (or me, not sure) that we should try to visit New York City while we were so close. So we ended up planning for almost two days there. We took the bus from Philadelphia to NY, which worked great and was super cheap too! The first day we saw the Brooklyn Bridge and ate at a great pizza place in Brooklyn before we dropped our stuff off at a friend's place where we were staying. We rode the subway all over and headed up to Central Park. We were sort of pressed for time the whole visit since I wanted to see so much, but I'm glad we got to see a little bit of everything. Central Park was very beautiful and HUGE! I can see why New Yorkers love it so much because it was a break from the crazy crowds that were everywhere else. It was a bit rainy but it was still one of my favorite places. After that we walked down Fifth Avenue to see all the posh shops. We saw Rockefeller Center and Saint Patrick's Cathedral, and met up with Camille to go have dinner. She took us over to Grand Central Station and luckily knew how to navigate through the crazy crowds there. We walked through Times Square and had dinner at a brewery near there. Times Square was completely overwhelming, though they have actually closed some streets off so there was more space to move around than usual. They have put lawn chairs out in the street which evidently many New Yorkers hate, but I thought was really funny. I had heard they closed off streets since it is a city planning strategy motivated by some experiences in other cities, so it was cool to see the experiment. It was a bit weird because most people seemed to be staying on the sidewalks even though the street was open. Finally we headed over to see Hair. The music was really great and it was fun to see a show on Broadway!

The next day we got up early and took a ferry out to see the Statue of Liberty. I think seeing the Statue may have been my favorite part of the trip. I never realized that the statue is so huge! It is so striking and I can imagine how amazing it would have been to see that as one of the first sights when you entered America coming from Europe or other places. We visited Ellis Island too. After we went back to Manhattan we walked through the financial district and saw Wall Street and the Stock Exchange, and visited Tiffany's. Afterward we walked over to the World Trade Center sight which is now a really massive construction project. We rode the subway up to the Empire State Building and walked down 34th Street to see Macy's and a lot of other shops. By this point we were getting *really* tired so we saw the NY Public Library then rested in a park for quite awhile. It was our 4th anniversary so we decided to have a nice dinner before catching the bus back to Philadelphia. We ate at a nice Italian restaurant and then caught the bus back.

We had a really great trip overall and got to see so many friends and family. Whew, just typing all that has made me tired. It's good to be back here to sleep in my own bed, but it made me sad to leave after having such a wonderful time. Such is life traveling between two coasts!

More photos are here.