Vacation! Its finally here!
7:06 a.m., Wednesday: up at an ungodly hour to catch a direct flight to Logan from PDX. Me and my back-up MacBook battery are chilling out in a forward cabin window seat - lots of homework to do on this flight. But right now, I intend to ignore all of that. Malcolm Gladwell's latest is calling my name.
See you on the East [coast] side!
Headed to Salem, MA to see some dear friends on a long overdue vacation next week. Which means I'll be in Salem for Halloween. Score!
Equally as awesome: we're doing a group Alice in Wonderland costume, and I get to be the Mad Hatter! Totally wanted to be the Hatter last year, but didn't get my act together in time. I ordered this hat online while I was in MN this past week, and it was waiting for me when I got home tonight. Tough to get a good pic; trust ne, it's even more awesome than this pic shows.
Also awesome: that washer/dryer combo in the background. As I type, my post-travel laundry is in the wash, and I'm not even home - on my way to karaoke for a friend's 30th.
HOW COOL IS THAT?
This flight was supposed to take off 32 minutes ago.
Even though I can't get a dog because of it, I really do have a freaking awesome job.
Pandora is super cool. I can't believe it took me until this week to realize it.
They are going to make me turn off this phone in a few minutes.
It took me less time to bounce back after a 4-year marriage than it did a 2-year dating relationship.
Exit row seats rock.
Also, I'm all bounced back now.
Three weeks. That's how long I have before the second class in this graduate certificate program, Course Design & Evaluation, begins. That's three weeks of reading whatever books I choose (on my list: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close; Outliers; The Other Queen; The Omnivore's Dilemma (finally!)), writing Christmas cards instead of papers, and generally doing whatever the heck I feel like doing.
I really enjoyed this first class, Principles of Training & Development. I learned a lot about adult learning styles - how to anticipate what they are for a given audience and how to address them in training - and motivational strategies, I got a nice introduction to intercultural and ethical considerations for training, and I've already been applying what I've learned to my work. I worked my ass off and got an A+ on my third paper. I met some fantastic people, and will be seeing several of them again in the next course.
But until then, I'm just enjoying that my time is my own again.
I've heard it said
That people come into our lives for a reason
Bringing something we must learn
And we are led
To those who help us most to grow
If we let them
And we help them in return
Well, I don't know if I believe that's true
But I know I'm who I am today
Because I knew you...
Like a comet pulled from orbit
As it passes a sun
Like a stream that meets a boulder
Halfway through the wood
Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
But because I knew you
I have been changed for good
And now whatever way our stories end
I know you have re-written mine
By being my friend...
Who can say if I've been changed for the better?
I do believe I have been changed for the better
But because I knew you
Because I knew you...
I have been changed
For good
from Wicked, Original Cast Recording
I know it sounds silly - and futile - to hold a rally to protest an initiative in another state, especially after that amendment has already passed.
I'm not the only one who thinks so:
So why did I drag myself out of bed and downtown for Portland's Prop 8 protest after just 5 hours of sleep Saturday morning?
Prop 8 passed, yes. The people of California have spoken. But the way I see it, the denial of civil rights to gay Americans isn't something that should be up for a vote. It should be an assumption, a truth we hold to be self-evident, if you will, that all of us are created equal, and that the right to marry the one you love - with all the privileges that marriage currently allows, and for the same cost - falls under those unalienable ones of which our founding fathers wrote: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
I'm not alone in that feeling, either:
And it was for that reason that I was energized at the protest, and proud to be standing there with my friends and folks from my community, gay and straight, coming together to say that while this particular battle was lost, the fight against closed-minded bigotry continues.
I was looking through my blog archives yesterday and I came across my old Friday 5's posts from last year - man, I can't believe I forgot about those! If you're new to Friday 5's, here's how it works: I tell you five things that made me happy this week, and then you tell me five things that made you happy this week. (I like to keep things simple on Friday afternoons.)
Without further adeiu, Friday 5's for 11.14.08:
1. Scoring an A- on my first back-to-school paper (for my Principles of Training & Development class). [I wanted an A+, naturally, but I'll take anything in the A range.]
2. Peanut butter & jelly. Not the sandwich - the amazing dessert at Noble Rot. We had dinner & wine there Monday to celebrate LT's birthday early (Doug had to go out of town this weekend and is missing her actual bday celebration tonight), and the entire meal was delicious - but this dessert, oh wow: peanut butter bread pudding, marionberry jam, and peanut butter ice cream. be still my tastebuds - so, so good.
3. Seeing the Dark Knight again, this time at Laurelhurst ($3 tix!) - I so totally dig that movie!
4. Craft night at BT's! He made some delicious chili, there were a bunch of super cool people I hadn't met before all engaged in different crafts, and I even got a little bit knitting done. Looking forward to this Sunday's "crafternoon" at Naomi's, too!
5. Being Franchesca's guest at Grandparents & Special Friends Day @ Woodstock Elementary again this year (here's 2007's event) - seriously, few things make me feel more special than to have my dear third-grade friend invite me to this event. [Check this out: They were in gym when the event started, and I was super impressed to learn that she can climb to the top of the rope!]
photos from last night's revelry:
11:01 p.m. ET
just before the acceptance speech.
at first I called them hope cakes, so as not to seem overconfident. at 11:00 ET they became victory cakes. and yes, they were supposed to be blue, but Whole Foods' blue food coloring is made from blueberry extract. which is actually purple. [false advertising: that's not change we can believe in.]
Happy Election Day
June 2008:
October 2008:
