Ragnar Relay Completed!

This summer, I was asked by Dave's sisters to participate with them in a relay race up in Washington called the Ragnar Relay Northwest Passage. So I started running in order to be in shape by the time the ace came around. Well, from the time I said yes to the moment it was time to race went VERY quickly! I made a countdown to put on the wall in my room... it went from 80 days to seven in no time! I ran three legs in the race (as did all all the other 11 racers on our team). The legs were 3.4, 4.2 and 4.3 miles long. We decided that our team name could be "Steve Prefontaine is Oregon's Jim Morrison" or SPOJM for short. Our team's start time was at 10 am, and we ran through the night until the evening of the next day. My easiest leg was probably the one at 4am, since it was nice and cool outside :)

I'm still sore, but it was totally worth it. I've never done anything like it, and I hope to get a few other races in before the end of the summer!

Our team put together a team photobucket, so here is the slideshow we have so far, and we have been adding pictures from everyone's cameras.

LIfe changes so fast!

This time a week ago, things were going along as they always do. Granted, everyone else around me was preparing for their changes, but it never really hit me that their changes would cause a sudden shift in my life. Alissa made it home safe from Guatemala on Tuesday, even though she was a day late getting back into the states. Emma moved back to her parents' house is Beaverton to live there while working at Intel for the next 6 months. Sarah moved back in her her parents as well, and is taking some summer classes. And Dave is gone.

Dave accepted a job commercial fishing in Alaska for the summer. He left on Sunday and won't be back until September. I miss him so much already! I have been able to talk to him every night since he left, but once they get out on the water, it won't happen as often. So I've been keeping myself busy.

I have joined at 12 person relay race team for the Ragnar Relay Northwest Passage. I've been training hard for it, and am really nervous/excited for it. I'll keep you updated on how it goes!

The World of Coffee (yum!)

Since beginning my job at Coffee Culture, I have been learning about all the different elements of the coffee world from where the beans are grown and how they are roasted, to latte art and barista competitions. I have been "geek-ing out" on YouTube watching how to make latte art well, how to steam milk well so that good latte art can be made, and just today, I found a video on International barista competitions (on CNN.com of all places).



What I found most interesting about this video is the end when they mention that there is no big prize money, but that there are a few prizes put up my sponsors of the competition. These people do it for the sake of making really good tasting (and good looking) coffee drinks! I think I'm becoming one of them :)


These are some drinks I made at work a few weeks ago. The one above was a latte and the one below was a mocha. I'm getting better! Next time I get the chance I'll have my phone with me to take any pictures of masterpieces :)

Movement

So the end of April is coming, and with that, there is a lot of change going on! Jackie came to visit for her spring break and we had a blast! Even though I had to work still, we found time to go out and about and have some fun! We went to the beach one day and did long drive up the coast. We spend a lot of time with my "family" here, the Nan Ham Fam. It was great and I have a feeling Jackie had a ton of fun!

It was really nice last weekend (right after Jackie left, of course) and Dave and I had the chance to ride our matching bikes around Corvallis, and down to Willamette park, where I proceeded to get really sun burnt :)

So now I'm moving... it's been stressful, so stressful I'm now sick in bed. I'll keep you updated on that!

The hangerouters... chippendales edition

The group that does elf-yourself during christmas time has many other videos where you can put people's faces in the video and they can look really funny! Dave and his dudes call themselves the hangerouters, and I thought it only appropriate that they become Chippendales!

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Can't keep Up!

Wow... I see that I haven't written in a while. Just got back from California a few days ago. It was so much fun! It was a great way to spend some quality time with Alissa before she was off to Guatemala for an internship. I took her to the airport on Thursday afternoon. It was probably one of the harder goodbyes that I have had to do... so far. Next up is Dave, and I don't even want to think about that. He is going to Alaska for the summer...

I am working on moving out of my current house, and to a less expensive, more friendly environment. I hardly spend any time here anymore because I don't feel welcome here. That's too bad. My friend Chris and I plan to move in together. He wants to move back to Corvallis, and is currently homeless, so were are trying to get this done ASAP. Problem is, I can't afford to pay double rents... especially if I am trying to save money by doing this, so I have to wait until my place is filled before moving out. I'm really excited for it though... living with Chris is going to be a blast!

I'll keep you updated on the living situation... Still working. I have had my hours bumped up to 38-39 a week, so once i move I might actually have some spare change to play with! Yay! (I hate being poor).

Hope all is well with everyone else!
Peace!

Settling into the groove...

So work is keeping me busy. I am finally adjusted to my crazy schedule, so I now have time to play and get things done without missing my bed too bad.

We went on a trip to Sisters and Bend two weekends ago with a big group of our closest friends. We all got dressed up for a themed party we threw called rednecks vs. ski yuppies. Let's just say that we are way better at being rednecks than yuppies in our group of friends.

Valentine's day was on Saturday. Dave made me breakfast (it was sooooo good!), and then we went on a fun bike race together called an Ally Cat. It's like a scavenger hunt, only on bikes at night. It was way fun! One of the things we had to complete was "getting married" at the courthouse. We had to take off our front wheels of our bikes and exchange them when we exchanged our vows. We even got an unofficial marriage license. Haha. After that we met up with a group of our friends and went to one of our favorite bars, called the Crowbar.

I work about 35 hours this week. Yay! Hopefully it won't wear me out too much.