Trip to Pullman, October 2008

I left McMinnville at 6 AM so I could have more time to be in Pullman and go into Cleveland and use the resource room before they locked it up.  I have never driven to Pullman through the gorge between Oregon and Washington on I-84.  It was a pretty drive.  It was a clear day so I saw Mount Hood in the distance.  Not a lot of cars were on the road that morning going east, so the miles flew by fast.  I got into the Tri-Cities around 9:30.  I stopped to pee and to get gas because the car that I have doesn't get as good as gas mileage as the Intrepid does.  I got to Pullman around 12:30, parked and went into the house.  People were home...I expected people to be in class.  I brought some of my stuff in and visited with Erika.  She was studying for a test she was to take in a few hours.  We walked up to campus.  I went in the Bookie to see if they had any new stuff.  I got a few things and walked to the resource room to look at binders...similar to the one I will be turning in soon.  I walked home and waited for Erika to return.  We hung out a bit and dad arrived around 4:00.  He came over to fix Doug's car.  Doug came over a few weeks ago and the alternator was busted in it, so he drove the Intrepid home.  We went down to the Ford store and they did not have what we wanted.  So we went to the hardware store for some pieces.  Dad ended up getting it working and we went out to Taco Bell for dinner.  We stopped by Hastings because dad wanted to look at some magazines.  I've been up since 5:30 that morning and my body was letting me know it.  I was soo tired and needed to slow down.  I hung out with Erika and Dad for a while.  Me and Kari decided to drive over to Becca's since she was hosting a party.  All I did was hang around and talk to people, I was too tired to do anything else.  I got caught up with Shannon, Nickey, Brenna and talked to people I didn't know.  Bri showed up after work and the party had since died down completely.  Becca was passed out in her room and everyone else made it up to the ZZU.  I went home with Bri, talked and hung out before walking up to Monroe with Julie.  I got bored and tired and we finally left and came back.  I was so tired so I crawled into bed with Erika.

The next morning dad woke us up at 8:30.  Told us some stuff and then he left to go back home with Doug's car.  I can't remember what he told us, I was half asleep.  We didn't get up until 11 when Bri decided to come in and jump on us.  We decided we were hungry and went down to Dissmore's and got some doughnuts, bananas and chocolate milk.  After I got ready to go to the game.  Everyone was too hung over or didn't want to go, so me and Kari walked on over.  We got in around 2.  I could not believe the great seats we got.  Usually the seats we sat in would be completely gone two hours before the game.  I let everyone know where we are and we saved seats.  We had several people come up to us and tried to take the seats.  A girl came up to me and told me that her and her friend needed to sit in our saved places.  I told her that my friends were coming, she said but we're much cooler than your friends.  I said no, and told her to go sit somewhere else and pointed to some other seats.  She then said that she snuck in a flask and it was in her boobs, then told me that she didn't have boobs.  She reeked of alcohol and was slurring her words.  She got bored of me and left somewhere else.  Everyone finally came and the stress of saving seats was finally over.  I didn't know how much longer I could save them.  Above us, several rows up were eight people with the letters BURN UCLA painted on their stomachs.  I failed to realize right away what that meant.  Then I remembered the wild fires in Southern California.  The game started.  UCLA scored the first three plays into the game, that kind of hurt our morale, it wasn't looking good for us but it changed.  That would be the first and last time they would score any points.  We scored 27 points and earned our first Pac-10 win in a year.  We aren't last anymore.  Me, Nick, Nickey and Kaitlin rushed the field just to say we did it.  I walked home and hung out for a bit before going over to Kaitlin and Ashlee's.  We ended up going to Valhalla dressed in our costumes.  Me and Ashlee left and went over to the women's rugby house and hung out there for a while.  We left and walked home; played some flip cup and I went home and went to bed.

The next morning I woke up around 11:30 and went over to Kaitlin and Ashlee's because Erika was too busy to hang out.  We watched TV and talked about stuff.  Later on, I picked up Erika from her meeting and we went out to Cougar Country for dinner.  We got home and walked the cat and then went back over to Kaitlin's for movie night.  We watched Georgia Rule (frickin hilarious!) and Freedom Writers.  Very good movies.  I would suggest you watch them if you haven't.  I stayed over there until about 2, went home and went to bed.

Got up, packed my stuff, met with Kaitlin at the art parking structure to see the "secret place".  Packed the car, got gas and left Pullman.  Got to Portland and stopped in Clackamas to pick up my dress for Lauren's wedding.  Got home around 8 ish.

Beach Trip 2008

One day this summer (I believe it was a Wednesday) around 11 a.m., my dad called me from work. He asked me if I wanted to go to the beach. I asked today? Aren't you at work? Yeah...I am but I can leave. Get some stuff ready, get your mom and come get me at work...I'll meet you near the front door. I thought it was a little late to be thinking about driving to the beach and back.

Me and mom got some stuff together and drove to Olympia to get dad. I drove the entire way there and back. The weather at the beach was cold and cloudy but we didn't mind. We got to the beach about 3ish and drove out to the water. We got out and dad started looking for nose cones, the tops that come off of bottle rockets. The beach was littered with them after the fourth. After, we spent a little time making a sand castle. We went to the jetty and decided we were tired and drove back to Olympia to get dad's car.

It was a quick trip the the beach and wished we would have picked a better day to do it. But we had fun anyway.

I thought I'd try out my new camera at the beach. Here is my mom and dad at Ocean Shores, Wash.

Apple Cup

November 2005, Seattle, Wash. (Space Needle)

Because of Hurricane Katrina, another rival was created between the Cougars and the Huskies. For two weeks, money was raised for the victims of Hurricane Katrina and placed in two pots. Who ever had the most money at the end won the right to have the Space Needle host their school flag and the top painted in their school colors. The picture gave away who won the contest.

Plus the 98th Apple Cup was hosted in Seattle that year, an added bonus because the Cougars dominated Seattle by defeating the Huskies 26-22. Basically, we took over Seattle, dominated the symbol of the Emerald City and we made the Huskies cry. So far the best Apple Cup I've witnessed.

Friends

This was taken in 2005 at Lauren's house, the place where we spent most of our childhood hanging out and being kids. We were over there during spring break and wanted to catch up. Rebecca and Nicole couldn't come. Surprisingly enough, the four of us excluding Barlow, all went to Washington State University and lived less than a mile away from one another and never really hung out the 4 or 5 years we were there. Lauren graduated in 2006 with a degree in Movement Studies, Amber graduated in Winter of 2006 with a degree in Communication, Brandon graduated in 2006 with a degree in Neuroscience, Me with a degree in Sport Management and a minor in Leadership Studies in 2007 and Lindsay graduated in 2006 from Western Washington University with a degree in Recreation and Leisure Studies. Rebecca graduated with a Criminal Justice degree in 2006 from Gonzaga University and Nicole decided to do a few years at a community college while working at Starbucks. She still has a few courses before she is done. I really miss those carefree summer days we spent at Lauren's house as kids.

No Power on Chrismas ('05)

Every Christmas since middle school, we always celebrated Christmas at our house. People would arrive at 9 a.m., eat breakfast, open stockings, then open presents, hang out for a while, they would all go home, come back around 4 or 5 for dinner, we would play games, eat dessert and everyone would go home.

The day before Christmas we always cleaned house like crazy people and then for a reward on Christmas Eve, we (as our family of five) would open our presents. The grand finale would be mopping the floor at midnight...so it would stay clean and no one would walk through it until morning.

On that Christmas morning, I awoke to the sound of the electricity going off. It does indeed have a sound. I heard dad get up and call my grandmothers. I just groaned. I was so upset the power went off on frickin' Christmas. Both my grandparents had power at their house. Grammie's house wasn't ready for people to come over and neither was Grandma Karen's. Some how we talked Grandma Karen into having people over. We took all of the presents and food over to Grandma's house and did our normal routine.

After dinner, we were joking around at the table waiting to decide whether to play a game or not and Erika just reached over into my area and pretended to eat my head. It was weird. It was the first time she showed her personality in a long time. She was going through a rough patch.

The whole time we were home for break from college, the power went off once...on Christmas.

Tony's Pizza Box

Instead of writing about random things or events...I am going to start picking one picture and talk about what I am doing in it, why I took it (if not in it), occasion, the people in it, the place we're at or not at, if it's a holiday or a special day...etc.

The first one I am going to start with is....the lovely picture of me in a Tony's Pizza box. You are probably wondering why...? 

Well, first off...my mom met up with Larry Sutton, one of my sister's friend's dad. They sat next to each other at the 2005 REF auction in Rainier. My mom mentioned to Larry that I was coming home in May and needed a summer job. He suggested that I get a hold of Camp Cascades and fill out a job application. I have been to Camp Cascades once before...for a 6th grade field trip back in 1996. We used the waterfront, water slide and one of the lodges for a bbq. She shared the news with me and so I filled one out...couldn't hurt right? I sent it in the mail and was called to set up for a phone interview since I was still in Pullman until May. I had my interview and when I got home for summer vacation I was called by Larry about what my job would be. The job sounded pretty straight forward but there was a catch. The catch was I had to actually live there even though I lived less than fifteen miles from the camp. Lame.

 My first day there, which was the middle of June, I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I knew absolutely no one except Larry and Alisha (who was helping out that week). I felt like I didn't belong and really didn't intend to make friends. I was there to make food and get paid. That's what happened for a while. Then I found out I could act like myself since most of them were hard core church people and really had no personalities. So I was the "entertainer" for some reason. Every Sunday we made pizzas and this is what I did when we weren't working. Which I got yelled at a lot for being off task. However, we laughed a lot, which got me through it until I got to go back to Pullman, my savior.