Quit playin' games with my blog.

THE BLOG. SHE LIVES.

I am getting kinda tired of starting my posts the same way... i.e. - apology for the appalling lapse of time between posts, obligatory excuse for my absence, and incredibly well-intentioned promise to do better next time... which I have no doubt is received with a "yeah right" and audible sigh. It's okay. I agree.

Or maybe you only look at this thang once a month. And in that case, I'm right on time!

In case you haven't noticed, I have not posted since River Wolf. That post was a zillion miles long, and if you actually read all of it, I am equally thrilled that you care enough about my life to commit 3 hours to scanning that story, and thrilled that no one (to my knowledge) converted to Mari-ism after the detailed description ofhow the world was formed by aliens and the complex mythical creature/dimension interactions through that whole vortex thing. I do, thankfully, feel that I have recovered from that experience overall, and honestly don't ever really want to tell that story again. If you ask me,I will say, "READ MY BLOG."

I will divide this post into short sections for your convenient perusal:

1) BIRTHDAY.

I turned 26 in December. 26. Late Twenties. Still mid? Either way -- Highlights from the day:

- I babysat, and the 4 year old threw up on me. Full-on vomitiousness all over my adorable birthday outfit (probably an unwashed t-shirt, jeans, and the 1 hooded sweatshirt I brought out west). "All over" may be an exaggeration. Enough to spark my gag reflex is all I know...

- MINI ICE CUBE TRAYS! Leslie may have given me the best (and audibly assailant) birthday gift ever. Let me clarify that the trays themselves are not actually mini, but the ice cubes that they make are!!! Crushed, tiny ice cubes are a decade-long proclivity of mine, and it's not stopping any time soon. Ihave about 4 trays a day on average. Judge me.

- Twilight Saga's "Eclipse" viewing

[notice how I move on quickly from that? you're welcome.)

2. SKIING!

Take 1: Lez and I went up to Portland again before I left Oregon for the holidays. We headed over to Mt. Hood with some Portlandian friends (who are expert skiers I might add) and I managed to convince Leslie that: no, she does NOT hate skiing with a burning passion and she will love it once she tries it again in the context of beautiful Mt. Hood and fun friends (including a bonafide ski instructor -- which is clearly not me). She gave it a valiant effort... only took out 1 child... which compared to my skiing disaster with Taylor in New Zealand, is a step up!!!! :) Tay, I kid. You and Lez can battle out the "who hates skiing more" debate some other time. We took zero pictures of the day, but here's what Mt. Hood looks like from Portland's perspective, thanks to Google image.

Take 2: The weekend after, I decided to take myself on a mini birthday vacation and head down to Mt. Shasta in northern CA to ski for the day!! Mt. Shasta is a 14K footer, HUGE MOUNTAIN, and I was stoked. I was armed with a front-wheel drive Saturn that weighs about 100 pounds, thrift store ski attire, sunglasses for goggles, and a willing heart. Too bad that doesn't really cut it when there is a massive whiteout and you drive in THIS for 2 hours trying to make it up to the ski resort.

When I got to the parking lot, and couldn't even see the ski lift that was about 200 yards away, I knew I had two options: turn around and go home, or die on the mountain... with no cell service or skiing buddy to put my body back together during its inevitable disintegration.

I chose option 1.

3. PORTLAND SHOPPING. We found some diamonds in the rough. Check 'em out:

obviously, my favorite aisle in Powell's city of books.

a warehouse of weird.

yes, that says "romeo"

I almost bought that sweater for real.

all connected in one glorious piece.

one piece. acid wash.

"it's beginning to look a lot like vampires"

On the next episode of my mighty-mighty-blogtone: Christmas/NYE in NC.

And as always...

Peace and Blessings.