Rain Rain Go Away

I doubt the rain will go away.... so I will. I've been contemplating a move for a few years now and I think now is the time to make it happen. I love the Pacific Northwest. Oregon has been my home for over 30 years. BUT, its driving me nuts - literally. I'm not sure if I can handle one more Oregon fall/winter/spring. You can't even separate the seasons, because what it boils down to is, 9 months of gloomy, grey, rainy, cloudy sadness. I'm over it!

I think its time for me to pack up my things and head south for the winter... and summer and spring and fall. I just need to find a job (yes, small detail). But, the question is, do I still move if no one hires me? That's my biggest hang up right now. I love my job in Portland. Its about as perfect as they come. I teach my favorite subjects, my kids love, my administration loves me and the pay is pretty darn good (for teaching, that is). I'm also torn because I'll be leaving all my friends and family for the great unknown. The great this is, I have some amazing friends in Arizona (like my long distance bff, Suda - I heart you!) and with as much as I go down there, its actually starting to feel like home.

So, if you live in Arizona and you know anyone looking for a high school social studies teacher - okay, fine, I'll teach math too (begrudgingly)... send 'em my way!

Home?

V.I.P. for life

It's my favorite thing to say when people ask how I'm doing...

"Life is good."

I have some of the best luck in the world. I attribute most of it to the idea that good things happen to good people. Sometimes I'm shocked at how well things always seem to work out for me. And I think some of it also has to do with the people I surround myself with. I have the most wonderful people in my life - some old friends, some new friends, some that have been in my life since I was a kid and some that I knew right away they'd be in my life forever. I'm a firm believer that if you surround yourself with good people, good things will happen for you.

I often think about something my neighbor said to my family when I was about 13 years old... he was Native American and had blessed my family with a spirit to watch over us and take care of us. He said that we had great energy as a family and we deserved to have someone protect us. I honestly believe this is true. And I do believe in karma. Be a good person, smile at everyone, be compassionate and life will be good.

A re-cap of my weekend:

Thursday night, around 10:00 pm or so, Suda tells me that tickets the McDowell Mountain Music Festival - which we had been planning on going to for months - were now $55. We went back and forth and in the end, decided that we may not go to the show. I would still come to Phoenix, just for some sun and hanging out with my long distance bff. Around 10:30 that night, I couldn't sleep and was playing on Facebook when up popped this status update from MMMF "First person to respond to this wins 2 VIP passes for Friday night". I comment back "ME!". Low and behold, I had won 2 VIP tickets for Suda and I. Just like that, we were going to the show and not just going, but going VIP style! Free food, beverages, t-shirts, private deck, etc... This is how things work out for me.

So, Friday was spent partying like a rockstar with Suda, Mocha and Andrea. Saturday was spent laying around watching the PCRFU DII Men's playoffs with Suda, Kelly, Chelsea, Jersey, Rosey, Rudy and most of the Portland Pigs. Sunday was spent playing rugby for the Lady Blues, then hanging out with Jack, Dingo and Kessans. I left Sunday night with a huge smile on face (albeit, super sore from hooking), looking forward to my next trip back and just thinking how much I love my life.

Its not like I won the lottery or something, but its these little things that happen all the time that make my life so much more exciting. Whether its winning free tickets to a concert or house sitting in paradise or someone giving me an airline ticket so I can have an epic weekend with a great friend. It just seems to work out. And I don't take things for granted. I appreciate every little thing that happens in my life and I know that as long as I continue to be a good person, my life will be as good as I want it to be.

So... how's life? LIFE IS GOOD.

Pics from the weekend are here: McDowell Mountain Music Fest

A "Terrible" weekend

Well, I had every intention of riding my motorcycle from Las Vegas to Portland this weekend... but after talking with Jim & Mark of Bi-Polar Racing (they had just driven the same route a couple days earlier) I decided not to ride it. They said it snowed on them through a couple of the passes and that the wind was really nasty. I hadn't thought about the wind factor. The good news was, Jim and Mark live in Vancouver, WA and had plenty of room in their trailer for my bike. And, they offered to take it home for free. The decision was pretty simple at that point to let them take it back and for me to use my FREE ticket (THANKS JERSEY!) and fly back home.

The rest of the weekend was KILLER though! Dragonfire was racing their Class 1 car in the "Terrible 250". I flew in to Las Vegas Friday morning and hitched a ride to Primm, NV (which is in the middle of nowhere, in case you wanted to know). The shuttle dropped me off and I was told to just go behind Buffalo Bill's Casino and find the car. As I walked behind the casino, there hundreds and hundreds of cars and trailers and people everywhere. I was supposed to find the Dragonfire car in the maze of Contingency. But, as luck would have it, they were RIGHT in front of where I walked out. The car was just getting ready to head into Contingency - so Todd told me to jump in and steer the race car. A few people asked me if I was racing - kind of funny. And then they let me drive the Teryx for a bit too (once I figured out how to start it). The Teryx is REALLY fun to drive!


The entire day was spent going through Contingency and then heading back to camp to get the car prepared for the race. After we (and by "we" I mean Darren and Jack) got the car ready, Jack and I went over to Buffalo Bill's to ride the roller coaster. I screamed the entire time - Jack said I was yelling incoherent jibber jabber. Afterwards, my cheeks hurt from laughing so hard. His hurt from laughing at me the whole time. We got back to camp and everyone was pretty tired from the day, so we called it an early night, eagerly anticipating race day.

There were 2 races taking place on Saturday - one that started at 5:30 am and then us starting at noon. So, at about 5:00 am, we were all woken up to the cars and trucks getting ready for the early morning race. These things were LOUD... and, we were parked at the staging area. I finally rolled out of the trailer around 7:00 am, and had a front row seat as the cars came through the pits all morning long (and by front row, I mean they were about 10 feet away). Hans arrived with my bike at about 10 am - so we just unloaded it and stored it in the trailer until the Bi-Polar guys could take it back to Oregon (THANKS HANS and THANKS JIM!!).

Around 11 am, we all headed out to our pits while Todd and Jack made their way to the staging area. I was with Hans at Pit #1. We pulled in, set up the flag just in time for the 1st place Trophy Truck and Class 1 car to come FLYING by us at mach speed. It was super loud and super dusty. Dragonfire came by about 25 minutes later (they had a staggered start), but they didn't need anything, so they didn't even slow down. 2nd lap was the same. Finally, on lap #3, they had blown a tire about 15 miles from us, so when they came in, Hans had to change the spare out and I had to get Todd's intercom working again. They were only stopped for like 3 minutes, but it was enough to get our heart pounding.

We packed up our pit and headed back to camp just in time to see Jack and Todd pull in to camp. They finished strong and I think they ended up 7th overall. Needless to say, I was impressed. To see these cars and trucks up close, going 100 mph is friggin RAD!

So, even though my whole goal for the weekend was to ride my motorcycle back to Portland and I didn't do it, I still had a great time. I really enjoy this desert racing scene and hope to be able to do more in the future. Everyone was so nice and it just seems like they're all there to help each other out. Just a great group of people.

ps - this was our sweet set up for the weekend.

I have a bunch more pics from the weekend:  Terrible's 250 - Dragonfire Racing

Wish me luck! Las Vegas to Portland in 2 days...

I am new to the motorcycling world but its safe to say I'm diving in head first. Last summer, a good friend of mine took me to Mexico on the back of his BMW R1150GS - we rode about 2500 miles from Phoenix all the way down to Barra De Navidad, then back up to Yelapa. That's where he dropped me off for the summer and where I became completely hooked.
(side note: if you're interested, I have some great pics from that trip - Mexico Road Trip 2008)

Since then, we've done some smaller trips around Arizona, down to El Golfo and Rocky Point. But, all of this was done on the BACK of his bike. It was cool for a while, but it wasn't long before I got the bug to get a bike of my own. And thus the seed was planted.

Now, I learned to ride a motorcycle when I was 4 years old, but its been a good 12-15 years since I've actually ridden by myself. So, I took a 3-day safety course run by TEAM OREGON (which was an AWESOME course and I would highly recommend it to anyone!). Afterwards, I felt pretty good about myself.

Like I said in an earlier post, over spring break, I bought myself a 2005 Yamaha FZ1... Its a beautiful bike, so shiny and pretty and FAST. Probably more power than I should have gotten for my first bike, but "go big or go home", that's what I always say. I took it out for a 4 hour ride to Bartlett Lake and Fountain Hills. That's all the time I've spent riding a motorcycle in 15 years. 4 hours.

Which brings me to my upcoming adventure this weekend... I live in Portland and my bike was purchased in Phoenix. So, for the last 3 weeks, I've been up here while my bike sits down there. NOT COOL!

I was supposed to have my motorcycle delivered to me this weekend by the same good friend down in Phoenix, but it turns how he has to race in Las Vegas on Saturday (in the Terrible 250)... now what's a girl to do? Well, if you're THIS girl, you fly down to Vegas, get on his chase team for the race, then ride the motorcycle back by yourself (in 2 days).

So, that's what I'm going to do this weekend. And I'll totally admit that I am pretty friggin' nervous about the whole adventure. Part of me thinks it's "at par" for what I do... but then another part of me thinks I might be getting in over my head. I am riding 1100 miles, by myself, through a few mountain passes, a little desert and a lot of open road. Lucky for me, the weather is supposed to be gorgeous, so I don't have to worry about that - its all the other factors that I'm stressing about.

Oh yeah... have I mentioned that its going to be an EPIC journey!

Mountains + desert + open road = HELL YEAH!!!

I can't think of a better way to break in my new bike...

OUCH!

I don't remember hurting this bad after a rugby game... I knew it was going to be a long day when I wanted to take a break halfway through THE WARM UP LAP - not a good sign. And, is it a bad thing when your fingers bend all the way back and touch the top of your hand? Cuz that happened about 30 minutes into the game... and today, the palm of my hand is bruised and I can't bend my fingers. Pretty sure something isn't right.

Then I went and got a little lazy with like 5 minutes to go in the game - I ended up on the receiving end of a huge rib-crushing tackle. I don't remember Erica being that fast... It wouldn't have been so bad but all of my weight and her weight came crashing down on my left ankle. I now have a ankle that's twice the size its supposed to be.... oh and I still have gravel in my knee too.


(you guessed it, these pics are NOT from the game I've been bitchin' about... these are from Berkeley last fall - where I also got my ass kicked.)

WOW - this could quite possibly be the whiniest posting of all time! Sorry, let me change gears...

We won the game, and that's really all that matters. I think the score was something around 42-10. And then we finished the night off with a fairly successful fundraiser. Everyone on the team chipped in and did a killer job. The men's team bought a ton of auction gear and in the end I think we raised about $2000. SWEET!

Sunday, I woke up to Reily and Keegan searching for Easter Eggs. Then helped Chris make breakfast - he made Capt'n Crunch french toast, I made Monte Cristos for everyone. I'm not sure what to think of the Capt'n Crunch french toast, but you better believe the Monte Cristos were off the hook! We finished Easter Sunday off with giant prawns, filet mignon, grilled veggies and my special German potato salad.

Aside from the broken hand, jenky ankle and gravelly knee, I'd say this was a pretty good weekend.

Blog'in it on up...

Okay, since I have been photo-blogging for a couple years now, I thought it might be time to add some words to all those pics... Those of you who know me, know that I'm not the best wordsmith and my pictures tend to speak for themselves, but heck, why not give this a try.

So, to get you all up to date about what's going on, I just bought a new motorcycle (well, its used, but its new to me!). A 2005 Yamaha FZ1. Turns out, my uncle Todd has the exact same bike, except his is blue and my baby is BEAUTIFUL SILVER. The plan is to take this baby all over north and central America. Hopefully it won't be by myself, but if no one else can do it, then you all know that I'll go it alone... WHICH MEANS - if you or a friend (who isn't super sketchy, is quasi-reliable and more importantly is a fun person with a little adventurous side) is interested in joining me, please let me know!

BTW - here's a few pics of my baby:



This is from my first ride out to Bartlett Lake...
Same day... this time in Fountain Hills

Yeah, its really pretty! I just can't wait for it to come to Portland... if all goes well, I'll be riding it in 10 days.

Well, there you have it - my first blog. And for those of you who haven't seen my older pics - you can check them out on picasa.