long way home

so i made it out of portland, which in and of itself is a miracle if you watched the news and knew it took me over 4.5 hours to drive a normally hour drive. So fortunately I made it out of portland but not quite out of farmington, nm. recap... got into the small freezing plane in denver to quickly touch down in farmington then head to az. so as we're decending to farmington there's alarm like beeping noises going on, which i should have been worried about but wasn't. then we get told that we'll be quickly switching planes then heading on for the last leg. we're in farmington at 1 p.m. waiting in a then we couldn't leave b/c of "mechanical" issues. then another plane was supposed to leave to showlow then to phoenix, but it was delayed then we find around 5 p.m. that they've cancelled our plane and that we're rescheduled to fly out the next day around 1 p.m.

So after a lil' persuasion and words from my mother a plane was diverted to go to our destination as well. the inablilty to rent a car to drive to az with my new found friends, kimberly and was quite astonishing as well. ryan flew fm alaska enroute to get rigging and on the raft for his 25 day river trip down the canyon. needless to say i was super jealous (and continue to cross my fingers for karen's permit to come through, which i'm ready to quit my job at any point or place in my life in order to go on the canyon.)

back to the story... kimberly, fm austin, was headed home to see her folks for none other than Christmas day as was i. the whole ordeal was a traveling nightmare. ryan kept looking at me and saying he was wondering when the cameras were going to come out and say we've been punked. i kept humming the twilight zone song. there was miscommunication between the tower and the front office. my mother found out info 10 minutes before the people at the counter in new mexico did. it was a mess after they then said we would be reboarding b/c a flight had been diverted to take us to our location. we moved the whole 30-50 feet to find out that the old man with the security badge would have to recheck all of our bomb infested bags, since we hadn't opened any of them, and which took him a good 20-30 minutes to go through. it was a joke, then we had to wait for him to accompany the woman at the small security check where we all got frisked and yet none of us beeped when we walked through the metal detector. so word to the wise... they're throughough in farmington. ain't no bombs gunna get through them there. obviously they forgot that the planes that come to the airport can't even leave because of "mechanical" difficulties.

after we get on the plane there's a sarcastic co-pilot/flight attendent man that rudely kicks the kind couple (that i chatted with for hours that were also waiting since noon to get on their plane around 1 p.m.) because they were waiting standby. i grasped them in the lil plane and told them i was sorry. it was like a horrible Christmas gone wrong. with the 3 of us, there was too much weight and they got booted off. feeling selfish and greedy, i still kept to my seat but was inside so happy to be able to come home, especially since i was the first one in my family to fly in EVER to my small town. i was the favorite this round. so they de-ice us and then we sit, and sit and sit and sit. we're waiting for the tower to let us go and then we find out that the pilot will be over his minutes if he goes to our location as well. so jerk face sarcastic man tell the 3 of us we're going to have to get off and wait till tomorrow. i was PISSED! they got us a hotel room at a weird smelling hotel and we headed for the mexican restaurant. so needless to say my Christlike attributes were not shining through and i even thought maybe this was the night to begin to drink. i decided against it since it was so close to jesus' celebrated b-day.

so my father is the hero of the trip and of Christmas... and to think some people don't believe in Santa. Mine has been my father, so my kind father left at 9:30 p.m. at night to head across the rez to get me and my 2 new friends home for Christmas. he got in after 1:30 and we left the following morning by 7. we piled our stuff in the oldsmobile since we weren't sure if the flight would make it the next day. at noon on Christmas day we got in and we made it. it was wonderful to be with my family and as always was a quick trip. luckily by next Christmas i'll be able to use vacation leave and stay longer.

the only good thing about farmington, new mexico in my book was this gas station. hopefully there's less teenage pregnancy there.

I made it out from portland and now i'm leaving denver heading to farmington then flying home!

Captain Bad and are heading to portland. no snow today hopefully he'll protect my plane from leaving the airport tomorrow morning

I snow shoed to work today in case You're confused i do still live in oregon. I haven't showered since saturday and i only had two hours of electricity yesterday and it popped back on when i was leaving out the door. We'll see if it will be up when i'm home. Cross your fingers for me! I also really want to make it home for the holidays so do some rain dances and send it my way!

I'm pretty sure the goal was to move away from snow

I love the bird family

they pulled me out in a Jiffy and now i'm safe at home and soon to be warm in my bed. It was nostalgic to sit in the middle part of a jacked up truck listening to country music. i felt i was back in high school again. they came with happy faces,,.offered extra coats,,,had flashlights cardboard and snacks if needed. can you ask for better people? doubt it. word to oregon buy some plow trucks salt and that gravel stuff utah has.

The Only easy part of tonight

safe and sound at a truck stop. i learned the hard way that my snow driving skills are different than ice driving skills. i'M waiting for my church peeps to help tow me out of the dirt shoulder off the side of the road. luckily the vow man was kind enough to give me a ride here when i wouldn'T pay the 250 To have him pull me out. i'M watched over in case you didn'T know

moral dilemma

so i've had huge issues on whether i cut a christmas tree or not. it seems a waste of a tree. but i folded when my friend taylor invited me to come with his family. i couldn't help it if the tree was raised on a tree farm to be cut. i justified the act by supporting a local business in these hard economic times. also they even had a tree shaker to shake the needles off. i'm sorry but that's cool. i also wanted to look like griswalds. and i cut it myself and it's an exceptional smell in my home. i'm sorry i do love it.

holiday & b-day recap

so while my parents visited my lil sister in hawaii for thanksgiving... me the worker (not the favorite), that can't use any vacation leave till at least april but not really until the legislation session is over here in oregon, luckily had some visitors from the slc.

tanya and spencer graced my presence sunday before thanksgiving and let me be that family-less person during the holidays that bums food off people they don't know. it worked out great. i had fun and ate great.

my pre-birthday dinner dessert was waiting for me to grant my golden wish... unfortunately all was lost when as i looked at my candle after closing my eyes to say my wish in my head i was heartbroken when spencer stole my birthday wish.

the worst part of all of it was he did NOT feel guilt for stealing my wish (who does this?)also he reiterated that he would do it again in a heartbeat to see the look on my face again. my face of disappointment? disgust? disheartened? i had to edit my reaction for sensitive viewers.

the adventurous part of the weekend was my first trip to canadia. i've always wanted to know what the big deal is with the maple leaf so i got a taste of vancouver b.c. this was pre-border crossing. the canooks had no issues in letting us in but the 3 hour wait to get back in the us was well ridiculous. let's just say there needs to be a policy change and don't you worry i'll be sending a letter... i've crossed the mexican border numerous times and have never had such issues. are we scared of canada because all their people have health care or something? honestly.

anyways vancouver was urban and had a good feel. it's chill with a taste of being foreign. the population was diverse and when you hear french it's just melodic. also give me a crepe with nutella and you completely sell me. we had fun walking around which included meeting jesus modern dance peeps in the streets and going to an art museum that had a big feminist exhibit that made the both of us feel like squares. it was a little too out there for me most of the time. some stuff was great. don't get me wrong... but other art was so distasteful and was degrading to me as a woman to have to say my gender should be respected for what it was trying to portray.

good news of my birthday is that i won in scratch lottery... then spencer won too (both our first time ever winning...this is another reason to love canada)

vancouver is not complete without going to stanley park. rain didn't stop us from appreciating the totem poles and we didn't seem like lazy americans because we actually got out of our car. edward abbey would be so proud. kind of....

spencer was yet another victim of having to play my game of recreating a face from the totem pole. i've done this with petroglyphs to works of art. lucky for me i always pick the calm looking faces and give my friends the embarrassing ones to do. convenient eh?

excellent time. wouldn't you say?

p.s. be ready to see this a lot of this symbol in the next few years. they're hosting the olympics yet.

on the road again

i've been lacking in the blogging world... so only pictures from my drive today through eastern oregon. i have more to catch up with later but this is all you get tonight. bend to pendleton... there's so many places i wanted to stop but i was following my co-worker and didn't want to get lost on a county road in bfe. it was a beautiful, clear, warm december day. eastern oregon gets points for the sun.

i love the sun. and i heart silosthis country store had a sign for african baskets for $25... continuation of rural randomness...

Golden Birthday !!

What true good friends :) it's official it was my golden birthday yesterday

rural randomness

so i've been traveling in eastern oregon since tuesday. i've been in john day, burns, christmas valley and am in lakeview tonight. randomness has happened already. i ran into an old friend, rhys, in john day at the grocery store. i knew rhys from moab, knew he moved to the valley and i ran over to the grocery store before the whole town closed at 9p.m. for a bit of leche and low and behold i walk past an isle where i see a man restocking shelves then walk backwards and both of us realized it was each other. WEIRD! i lost his number and was going to email him and say... hey i'm in your hometown, but we ended up catching up instead. crazy.

picture two is from a bathroom in a courthouse that we had a meeting. i guess there was a problem of air freshening stealing. the best part is that the can was positioned where i thought at first, it said do not move. luckily i realize you could move it and obviously use it but couldn't REMOVE it.

tonight i ate at a delicious diner called patty's (shoot i think). it was retro, it had picture/poster of an elk in a frame and ducks flying on the wall. the best part was that they had smash burgers. i promptly took my camera out and snapped a photo to send to my friend smash. the waitress questioned me why i did that and after a swift explanation of smash's love of retro and connection of her name, she gave me a menu to send to smash. so i snuck it to the truck and then she changed her mind and then decided just to give me pages inside. so i have the whole menu of love to send to smash love, lakeview oregon. now that's freaking customer service and i don't have gross fingerprints of others.

other rural fun that i've encountered is some shady men at breakfast gave me the 411 on how to drive where and when and told me i could get a 3 bedroom house at the same price i'm paying for my one bedroom in salem. i think they're trying to lure me into burns, oregon. i hate to break their hearts but that is NOT happening.

also i'm grateful that i still have a phone that is a tri-band.yes, my friends in the digital only world, i had analog ONLY in burns last night. thanks again analee for your phone! my phone is still possessed in this extended network area. it will get used to it. all i have to say is thank goodness for wireless! i'm even in a hotel that used to be a training center, then a rest home and now a hotel. if that ain't rural, i don't know what is... meth labs that are now homes to many in slc? hmmm.... CHANGE is good eh?

back to being me

so i had off monday since i was traveling east today for work during the holiday. i decided to be normal me again and went mountain biking. i got some advice from a website and a quick stop at santiam bike shop. i have a secret crush on a worker there now. (which has been much needed... secret crushes help liven any day and days to come.)

i went down to mary's peak, outside of corvallis. luckily i saw the sun, multiple times which gained some points for oregon. it was a good progressive hill up. then i got onto single track...oh happinesstrue confession...i got tired and had to walk at times.

at the observation point, i was so surprised no one else was there to see the fog with me.

from what i hear, you can see peaks and great views when it's clear. so maybe next time eh?

things i learned from my bike ride.

one the forest is gorgeous and i'm not scared of it on my bike. two. i can't wear my chacos anymore at least this time of year. my toes got cold. three. i'm not as skilled in damp conditions. the trail is so moist and mushy. i'm clearly a dry desert girl. i was not prepared for treacherous slippery roots. they may have won this time but next time i will conquer them. or i may buy a road bike. don't judge me. i didn't want to go meet counties i'll be over looking like a domestic violence victim, like last year at school, not pretty. four. mtn. bikers in the northwest are used to tight squeezes between cut logs, two trees, jumps off of roots to damp ground, be able to brake quickly to carry your bike over a tree that has fallen over the trail, etc. i have little to no experience in these areas since i rarely rode my mtn. bike if it had been raining anytime recently in utah or az. i said out loud multiple times, "honestly! who does this!" and "you've got to be kidding me!" during the ride so needless to say, i'm glad i was alone this ride of introduction.