Long Update - aka I'm terrible at keeping up with this thing

Dear god, I can't believe it's been 2 1/2 months since I wrote anything. I would say I've been busy - and I have for the past few weekends - but come on; I have a friend (Jen) with two kids under 2 and she writes every day - sometimes more!

If you want the truth, I haven't written because my life is pretty sad and boring. Yes, I keep busy, but I do everything ALONE! A few weeks ago I went to a really nice dinner ($75 for just me!) ALONE and a couple of nights later I went to a show at the Paramount ALONE. All the hiking I do - ALONE. Horses - ALONE. I need more friends.... and a boyfriend.

Okay, enough self-pity. So, what have I been up to? Well, the last 3 weekends have been good. On the weekend of Aug 24th I went to Dallas to see my best friend Nicole. We had a great time. Went to a bar and flirted with boys, went to her artist friend's studio and threw pottery (course I had to forget my freakin camera for that one), went for a run and a swim and played Scrabble. All that and the only pictures I have are of us playing Scrabble and me looking like shit with no make-up. Of course Nicole looks gorgeous - but that's because she sleeps in her make0up. lol j/k Nicole always looks gorgeous. :)

It's Rocko the pottery dog. (Notice the clay on his ear - that was me. :)

The next weekend I went to Klamath Falls, OR to see an old high school friend that I hadn't been in touch with for 10 years! He's getting a divorce and going through a rough time so I went down to just hang out and cheer him up. He warned me that Klamath Falls is a red neck, white trash town but I thought it was okay. I mean, yeah, there was a lady on her Rascal Scooter with a Confederate flag and a raccoon tail tied to it in Fred Meyer but..... Oh, and there was a wind catcher in someone's yard that was a monster truck in red, white and blue. But redneck, nah. :)

Dave and I did do a nice hike to a pretty lake and I was feeling the slightly higher elevation. I was breathing hard but my heart rate was really low. I need to get more altitude training. (More on why later.)

One thing that put a damper on the weekend was that Dave has claimed Jesus as his savior and believes that anyone who does not believe the Bible is the true and ONLY word of God is going to hell. Now, for those of you that know me, you know how WONDERFUL I thought that was. So, we just avoided the subject the rest of the weekend and watched movies; I watched more movies that weekend than I have in the last 3 months combined. Blood Diamond is great btw.

Then last weekend I drove to Moses Lake for a family reunion. I rented a Honda Element through Flexcar because it looked big enough to sleep in. Not only is it big enough (I fit my double Aerobed mattress in the thing!) it's built for sleeping in. There's a sunroof over the trunk area that's obviously made for star gazing as you fall asleep. It was awesome! As ugly as I have always thought those boxy things are, after driving one and camping in one, I would totally buy one!

After the family reunion I drove to the Lake Kachess campground and crawled into the back for a nice snooze. I cooked some oatmeal and some tea and headed out on the Rachel Lake trail. Man, was it a good one! It climbs gently for the first 2.5 miles, gaining only 700'. But as soon as you hit that 2.5 mile mark you start climbing and gain another 1200' in 1.5 miles! And most of it looks like you'd be getting face fulls of ice cold water if you did it in the Spring. In fact, a couple of times I got confused and started climbing the dry creek beds until I hit an impasse and turned around to find the real trail.

The lake was beautiful and the fish were jumping like crazy. I cooled my tootsies and read a magazine for a bit and then started the descent. Thank god I had the foresight to bring trekking poles because it would have taken me twice as long to get down if I hadn't had them. As an added bonus, my triceps got a hell of a workout. It's two days later and my entire body is still sore. Now THAT'S a good hike!

Oh, I also went on my family's annual river raft trip at the beginning of August. (Man it has been a long time since I wrote!) I'll do a separate blog for that one since I have a million pics to post.