I'm at work right now but I have nothing to do. nothing to do. just waiting for someone to call me back to clarify something before i can begin matching route numbers to passenger information. i wish i was home right now spending time with paul or doing something useful...like organizing or writing letters. i have so much that i really want to get done. i've been so lazy.
i'm getting so sick of staring at a computer screen all day long. but i think i'll be doing this for at least another year. i think i'll be continuing on in GIS, which i love and hate at the same time. there are three gis jobs that i interviewed for in the past week and they all went ok. 2 of them i think i have a very high probability of getting. which would be a good thing because they're both part time. they're both city jobs.
this weekend is the portland greek festival. i think paul & i will be going and then next weekend head up to seattle and possibly also vancouver, bc to poke around and visit steve. an adventure. we wanted to drive through the olympic peninsula too, since i've still never been there, but there's just not enough time in 2 days. it's kinda sad though. even though i had so many big aspirations for the summer, i feel like i didn't really get anything done or do anything fun. yah, i worked in alaska for over a month, but i didn't have any time off. and now that i'm back home i haven't even been hiking. it's depressing. maybe if the weather is nice paul & i can go to bagby hot springs this weekend. i've always wanted to visit there, and it's not that far from my house. there's so many neat places to go in clackamas county.

congratulations (!!!!!!!) to the couple in Connecticut who just got engaged the night before last.
the outdoor wedding is 30 days away
on my birthday

A Fantastic Wedding!
Well, it's over. My best friend is married! And off on her honeymoon in Costa Rica right now. Everything was so perfect. Well, that's not completely true...it wasn't perfect, but no one noticed the imperfections. The missing veil, the change in procedures during the ceremony, those turned out fine. The funnist thing that happened (which the bride doesn't even know about and will probably learn about it here) was when I was helping Nicole get dressed in her gown. There were about 30 buttons down the back of her dress and I was slowly latching them up. I got to the third one from the top and the ivory silk covering the button fell off in my hand as I was trying to hook it on. If the photographer had noticed me right then I think it would have been a very funny picture because I was in shock but trying not to show it. How are you supposed to tell your best friend that her dress that she had custom made was broken before the wedding and before the photos? I just keep patting Nicole on the back and telling her I only had three more buttons to go and then she would be all finished. Meanwhile her future mother-in-law and I were whispering behind her back and giving each other looks asking each other for help. How can we fix this? We need to find some superglue! We tried are hardest to just push the fabric back onto the button, but it wouldn't stick. So I secretly handed the fabric off and continued buttoning her up, meanwhile, pointing at the broken button to signal to other people to help us fix this but to not tell Nicole. The metalic button was glaring at me and looked horrible. But when I finished I then realized the good news. Nicole's dress had a little cuff at the top and that one button was the one being covered by the overlying material. We were saved. I'm sure no one even saw it or noticed. Nicole looked so beautiful and amazing!

No wonder I'm tired. I just realized that I worked 50 hours last week. But that's great, because this week I'm only working 30.

For All Friends Still In Chicago:
Check this out, it looks really neat. Jamming With the Man: Allen Stringfellow @ the DuSable Museum of African-American History.
10:00am - 5:00pm September 21, 2004 - March 18, 2005

People keep asking me if I miss Chicago. The truth is: not really. Not at all. The only thing I actually miss is the aspect of taking classes. I want to keep learning. I've been eyeing the local community college course catalogues. I think it would be fun to take some electives...maybe art-related.
Today I found out about MIT's OpenCourseWare. I can take classes for free! The only problem is that I don't have the internet at home....hmm. Maybe I'll spend a lot of time in the area public libraries.

Pefect Weddings
My cousin's wedding last Sunday was so great. She looked absolutely perfect in her wedding dress and everything was so elegant. The food was amazing, the atmosphere was good, and everything was simple and sleek. The ceremony was held in my front yard on the grass, with a backdrop of big trees, ferns, and greenery, including one magnificent cedar tree. I live in a historic house (1905ish) and so we got ready on the top floor, where my sister's and my bedrooms open up with french doors out onto a balcony overlooking where the ceremony would be held. As the guests started arriving we could peek out and survey the scene from above. Once the guests got settled, my sister and I decended the stairs and walked out the front door down the steps to the grass first as the two bridesmaids while two violinists played, then after a moment my cousin followed down the aisle to a peaceful acoustic guitar song to meet her soon-to-be-husband. It was so great, so lovely, it made me smile.

It's still hard to belive that my best friend is getting married in less than a week!! Today I went with Nicole to her final dress fitting. She looked absolutely amazing and completely beautiful. Since her wedding is on Saturday and no one has seen the dress, I'm not going to describe it, but it's so perfect for her, just like my cousin's was perfect for her body and personality. I can't believe that this Saturday is her big day....it's come so soon! I'm so excited. With all of the little details that Ethan, Nicole, and her family have put into the wedding, it's very genuine and impressive. And perfect. I really don't think it could get any better. :o) Now to just perfect my toast!

Help a Researcher Out!

Peter Saunders is a graduate Psychology student at RMIT University, Australia. He is currently conducting research into blogging and is looking for any bloggers who would be willing to complete a questionnaire on the motivations and outcomes for blogging. You can go to http://weblearn.rmit.edu.au/surveys/blog/for more information & to take the survey.

Hey, this is me.

Oh!

Another advertisement for something to do this weekend (for Kate and Nathan who seem to be the only people who read this) that I mentioned about a month ago. I can't go since I have a wedding to be in, but I'll repost the info, since I think it's really cool:

THE GLOBAL PORTLAND FESTIVAL
Hope Begins when Fear Ends
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2004
Noon to 6:00 PM
PSU Park blocks
SW Park between Jackson and College Streets
What would it be like if we all walked with a greater trust of our neighbors and with a greater feeling of connectedness and openness to each other? The day after September 11 is our day to rebuild -- a time to celebrate the common humanity which brings us together. To eat, dance, sing, connect, and thrive. Come celebrate the diverse communities of Portland as we unite this September 12 for a one-day event titled "The Global Portland Festival: Hope Begins when Fear Ends."

SPONSORED BY:PSU Multicultural Center and Community Language and Culture Bank

Frenzy
I feel like my life is in overdrive right now. There's not time to do anything. With sleeping 8 hours a night and working 40 hours a week (48 hours this week to make up for missing Monday) there's barely time to eat & shower it seems. I don't know why this is, but I've been so agitated. I want to do so much: read, beadwork, photography, organizing my room and scrapbooking, crafts, bike, tennis & more. But I haven't even had time to do any of this stuff. As it is I still have boxes full of junk from college waiting to be unpacked, my room is a mess (still!), I haven't finished my graduation thank-you notes, and there are letters that I desperately need to write to people. Everything I need to do seems to be in shambles.

And on top of it all is applying for jobs. The issue that looms over my head constantly: employment. Scary. Yesterday I finally got around to applying to three GIS jobs with Metro, the City of Hillsboro, and and independent company. The Hillsboro temporary part-time position I have a pretty good shot of getting it (I think). Cross your fingers. But do I really want to trek out there each week? And it's not even more than 6 months. But at the same time I think at this point in life I would enjoy working half time. There are so many volunteer positions around Portland that I really want to be involved in, but the way I'm living now it just seems impossible. We'll see. There are about 10 more jobs that I really want to apply to in the next two weeks, non-GIS related, more in the education/community/non-profit sector that really interest me. It's just a matter of finding the time to sit down and tweak my resume and write cover letters for each individual place. Sometime between the wedding at my house this weekend and Nicole's on the 25th I need to find time to get down to business.

The other things that I really want to do are to bike more and explore the city using public transportation. Working at TriMet I get free rides everywhere, but I've actually only been on the bus twice in the last month! It's hard to pass up an offer for a ride to and from work that is 8 minutes by car, than taking the bus which is 60 minutes. But if I combine biking with the bus I might be able to get it down to 40 minutes, or just plain biking the whole way would also probably be around 40 minutes. But with no time already, it's hard to give up an hour & a half a day just to bike to work, plus I don't have an adequate bike lock at the moment. I think what I need is a bike buddy to hold me accountable to bike with each morning. That would be fun.

I actually post for once and blogger ate it up. Of course, ironically, it's the only time I didn't copy and save my text before I published.

This Weekend
The Belmont Street Fair is on Saturday from 10am-5pm. Although Saturday is going to be majorly busy for me I hope I get a chance to go. Maybe in the morning...anyone want to join me?

Also, on the 19th is the CarFree Street Fair.

The world cup qualifier game was fun to watch, even though it got mean with lots of shoving and there was a stupid ref. Gilette Stadium is pretty nice. I visited Cambridge, Mass for the first time and toured the MIT campus after having lunch with Sudeep. I slept a ton and went to bed early before everyone else, missing Michael's visit with a gift of chocolate peanut butter ice cream (my favorite!) at 1am. I also did not get to go swimming due to the weather. But all in all, it was a nice relaxing weekend in New England. I wish I could have stayed longer.

Labor Day Weekend Vacation
Here at work I'm drinking Kefir for the first time (although I've always been curious) and I just checked in for my flight tonight online. This weekend is off to a great start. Here are my plans for Connecticut:
On Saturday after I arrive in Connecticut we'll drive straight to Boston and meet up with Sudeep for lunch. Then we'll be going to two soccer games: U.S. Men's National Team vs. El Salvador and then Revolution vs. San Jose Earthquakes. I'm excited!
Besides hanging out with Paul I'm also looking forward to swimming at Michael's house, getting a tan, and playing badminton. :o) I need a break.

Thoughts for the day:
David's Bridal sucks and so do the majority of politicians, especially mean ones (which at the moment happens to be Zell Miller).