The Solstice Parade

This past Saturday, in the Fremont neighborhood (affectionately known as "funky Fremont"), Seattle held its annual Solstice Parade in celebration of the first day of summer, which is also the longest day of the year.

It was very fitting for the parade to take place in Fremont, as it was the funkiest thing I've seen in quite some time. I will spare you pictures of the nude cyclists, and some other "talent" that I'm unsure if Blogger would appreciate, but wanted to share some of the parade. Anyone can be in it; you are supposed to register ahead of time, but it was evident that you can also show up and jump in the street if you wanted.

Robots

The Pink Ladies (and some gentlemen)

The Love People

The Kitty Mask

The Egyptian(?) Dancers

Bush Guzzling Oil

The Bird-Man

Politics Everywhere

Hittin' the trails...

Hiking in Washington

The past 2 Sundays I have hiked in the mountains. The first Sunday, we went to Rattlesnake Ledge (no snakes, I asked) and hiked approximately 9 miles, 3 of which were in deep, packed snow. What happens when you hike with a group of guys? You risk your life.

Before hiking, group photo opp! L-R: Donald, Jesse, Brian, Richard, Alfred (twins, yes), Kjell (prounounced "Shell"), and me across

On the edge

Pretty Washington

More pretty Washington

Me & Jesse

Questioning how much further I can go...

Apparently, I went further...the first gate through the snow

Notice the guys have sticks in their hands now. At the first sign of snow, I picked up the perfect nature-made hiking stick (who needs to pay $100 at REI?) to help trek through the snow. The guys decided this was brilliant (because it was, thank you very much), and proceeded to gather their own sticks from the trees around us. And, that is how I saved our lives. The sticks proved quite useful, especially on the way down.

Mount Si--Hike #2

Our second hike, yesterday, was much more jungle-esque than the first...

This is not what the trail looked like the majority of the time...this was the entrance to a historical viewing point.

Jesse & me at the top of a cliff. See behind us? Yeah, you can't. We were literally walking in the clouds.

Richard & Jesse up in the clouds

Cloudy, cloudy

Still cloudy...this was the guys trying to climb to the very tip-top cliff when it was freezing cold, cloudy beyond visibility, and starting to rain. I waited at the bottom of this section.

All in all, fun times hiking. At this rate, I'll be in excellent shape by the end of the summer!

Best Grandma Ever

I have the best grandma ever. Really, I'm convinced. I got to see her a few times while in Texas. She has moved to New Braunfels, a town between San Antonio & Austin, to live with her niece, Barbara, and Barbara's daughter, Kim. Barbara and Kim are taking AWESOME care of Grandma, for which I am eternally grateful. If there are diamond tiaras in heaven, these two will get big ones.

Pics from my last visit to see Grandma before heading back to Seattle...

Isn't she CUTE?? (By "she," I mean Grandma, though really, we both are!)

Grandma & Barbara

Me with Kim's adorable wow-ser puppies (they're Schnauzer-Westie mix)


Grandma & a wow-ser--seriously, who's cuter? It's tough to say, but I think they're trying to decide here...

Kim grows all kinds of flowers...here's one like I'd never seen before...

I especially like the color of this one...

Grandma's OLD (emphasis on old) piano

Amy lives only 45 minutes from New Braunfels, so of course I had to stop in and get some Sunshine-n-Amy time!

Anticipate my next post...I went hiking for the first time (first "real" time in my opinion) yesterday. Highlights to keep you on the edge of your seat:

It was me with 6 dudes. I had the idea that saved all of our lives. There was "deep snow" for approximately 3 miles of the hike.

My not-just-a-blog-friend friend

Today, I met someone for the first time. Jessica has been a faithful blog reader since she found me via Kari's blog. She had found Kari's blog accidentally while perusing the blogger site. After reading Kari's blog for awhile, she introduced herself and Kari thought it would be nice to let me know since I was new to Seattle, where Jessica happened to live. So, since September, Jessica & I have emailed on a regular basis, attempting to correlate our schedules so we could each have a new Seattle friend, but to no avail.

I moved away to Texas and we never met. When I told her I'd moved back, we resumed our usual "What's your schedule this week?" conversation and actually found a mutually free time.

So I popped over this morning and had a lovely chat with Jessica, and a lovely playtime with her adorable two year old daughter.

And I have a new friend. Fabulous. Thanks, Kari!

random is a 4-letter word

Looks like people are still checking this thing. Thanks, y'all.

I talked with my advisor a few times and we decided I should be reinstated in my doc program for the summer. So we got paperwork expedited and here I am. Registered for Human Learning in Educational Practice, College Student Development, and Culture, Gatekeeping & Learning Morale in Educational Settings. I couldn't be more stoked. I've heard good things about all the profs. One is the Director of Student Services for the College of Ed, one is a genius from somewhere crazy cool, and the other is a visiting prof from UCLA. I have my work cut out for me.

I'm continuing on the job hunt. Things are really encouraging in this area, as I keep getting interviews and encouragement from those I interview with. The last close second I got has actually offered to serve as a reference for me! I am confident the right position will come along at the right time.

While I was gone in May getting readjusted to 95 degree temps, Seattle got colder. I really think it did. It's mid-JUNE and I wore 4 layers the other day. They're saying it's 10-15 degrees colder than normal. We're talking mid-upper 40s in the morning and "heats up" to about 52. In mid-JUNE. Some Seattlites have warned me that every few years there really is no summer. Well, I figure that would just make being in class instead of outside easier. The glass is half-full nowadays, so I'm choosing the silver lining.

Jesse & I went salsa dancing the other night. He takes classes and is quite good, actually. Then there's me. He's been trying to teach me stuff, and I'm actually a fairly quick learner. Yet, there's still a large chasm between our skill levels. So when he dragged me to the CENTER of the floor for the FIRST dance the other night, I thought, "I'm going to pass out right here in front of all these people. It would be embarrassing to suck at the dancing part, but no, I'm going to create a new level of embarrassing by simply going unconscious." I felt every eye on me as I followed him out there...everyone waiting, anticipating, the greatest laugh of their lives (okay, maybe the week). And to my great shock, I didn't pass out. I didn't fall or trip. We actually had a nearly flawless dance. I like surprising myself (and probably Jesse, too).

I changed my cell from Verizon to AT&T. This is exciting because approximately 95% of the people I know who are in the States use AT&T...so I'll save oodles of minutes. Yay!

You know, living in Seattle, I have to use a dayplanner to keep everything straight and show up where I'm supposed to be. I've always been the person who buys the planner, usually writes stuff in it, and then don't look at it to see where I should be or what I should be doing. The writing it in there seems to make it stick in my brain so I need to actually use the planner. However, in Seattle, my schedule is so wacky and inconsistent that I actually use it. And have a whole new level of accomplishment in my life.

The end of this random post.

Human boomerang

I wonder if anyone is even still checking to see if I'm blogging, it's been that long.

I am a human boomerang. After one month minus one day in Texas, I left and moved back to Seattle. Want to hear about the drive? I knew you did.

So, I started out leaving Denton at 5am on Wednesday, May 30. After an uneventful 13 hours, I arrived in Denver where I spent the first night. I left Denver at 6am on Thursday, headed for Twin Falls, Idaho. About 30 minutes north of Denver, my check engine light came on. I started to hyperventilate...here I am, alone in the middle of the country and my engine light is on. Is the engine going to fall out the bottom of my car at any moment? I have no idea.

I made it to Loveland, CO, the next town and stopped at the Hampton Inn. The front desk attendant gave me directions to her car mechanic. It was now 6:30 am, so I had a good hour and a half before the mechanic opened to let panic set in as I wondered how much time & money this would require to fix. Rather than wig alone, I invited Marcy & Jesse into the situation. I am blessed with comforting people in my life, even when I wake them up before dawn.

At 7:30 am, I saw the garage door of a mechanic down the street open and made a run for it. The mechanic hooked a scanner to my car, came up with what he called a minor code, and assured me that the issue was not going to affect my driving. I looked him in the eye and reminded him that I was alone and driving to SEATTLE, about to go into states like Wyoming & Idaho where I might run into 8 other people on a good day. He assured me I could go on my way.

I went on my way.

About 3 hours later, just west of Cheyenne, WY, the engine light came on again. I couldn't NOT check it. I just couldn't. So, I stopped in Laramie, WY at the first hotel I saw. A woman there pointed me to Walmart. Walmart pointed me to a local mechanic. He hooked up the same scanner and got the same minor code. He cleaned an air filter that was the size of a dime and assured me that would solve all my problems. I drove to Twin Falls with no further issues.

On Friday morning, I was rejuvenated. I was going to be in Seattle by that evening, and my engine light had not come on in several hundred miles. Everything was fine.

Until...

About 50 miles east of Baker City, OR, the light came on again. It had been 1000 miles since the light had been on. Something had to have triggered it. As I stared at the mountain range I was about to have to cross, and looked around at the lack of populace, I decided to stop again in Baker City. A third mechanic in a third state got the same minor code. He told me to mentally prepare myself that the light would come on again before I got to Seattle, but I did NOT need to stop and have it checked.

I left Baker City, and sure enough, about 4 hours east of Seattle in Yakima, WA, my engine light came on for the fourth time. I called Marcy & Jesse and told them I wasn't stopping, so if they didn't hear from me in a few hours, send a search party to Yakima. I turned the music up and drove.

And arrived safe & sound in Seattle.

My check engine light stayed on for two days, and then hasn't been on since. Mystery.

Now, I'm back. Registered for summer quarter. Have a job interview next week. Reunited with friends. Seeing how this whole relationship thing is supposed to work. Back to layering my clothing and wearing a hood full-time.

Feeling like my sanity is back.