I'll be gone a few days

I'm heading out camping for a few days, so I'll be gone through next week.

I am sure I'll have stories and photos to post when I get back.

Who Let The Dog(s) Out

So you may remember an earlier post about my cat rescue… well seems I get it all from my mum.

I spoke to my mother yesterday, seems she had quite an exciting week. First with a bird rescue, she ended up dropping the bird off at the vets, after keeping it in the house overnight. The following day, as she was driving my brother somewhere, and running a little late, she saw a dog on the road. She pulled the car over, and got out to get the dog. My brother, being the teenage boy that he is, was making a little fun out of my mum for doing so. Her response was, she couldn’t leave a dog on the road, as it might get hit. – this is a live dog by the way, if you hadn’t figured that out already.

Well they were already a little late for wherever they were headed, so my mum drove to the local police office to drop the dog off, only to be informed that the town police office no longer accepts lost dogs (doh!), so she’d have to take it to another police office. Well she didn’t have time for that right then, so instead she took the job to our old neighbours (old as in they used to be our neighbours, not as in their age). They agreed to take the dog to the vets to check for a microchip, while my mum took my brother to where ever it was that they were supposed to be.

Turns out one of my brothers friends was also in the car, so they had to drop him off somewhere so he could walk home (apparently he had offered that as a solution, so they would gain some time). After getting to wherever they were supposed to be, they then made their way back home, and picked the dog up from the neighbours on the way. As she was driving through the village, she saw someone who she thought might know who’s dog it was. He suggested that it could be Sarah’s dog down the street, so off my mum went to Sarah’s house. Well it wasn’t Sarah’s dog, but Sarah’s boyfriend thought it might be David’s dog, who lives at the end of the street. So back in the car they went.

The dog then jumped into the front of the car, which startled my mum, so they so they again pulled over, and my brother attempted to get the dog into the back of the car. All of a sudden the dog ran off down the street… there was a couple of lads walking towards the dog… turns out they were his owners. My mum was quite relieved.

Once she got home, she found out from my dad that the vets had called, so she called them back, to check that she’d given the dog to the right folks, turns out that she had. Thank goodness. The lady at the vets also said, that name sounds familiar, my mum then mentioned that she’d dropped a bird off there the previous day…

My dad’s response to all this was “I knew you were up to something, but I had to idea what”.

The Rose

Don't have much time to write today, so instead you get a photo of a rose, taken at the rose garden last weekend.

Summer Solstice

I had such a pleasant weekend. It was very low key. Friday, I ended up going to bed early (I am starting to get old, being in bed before 11pm on a Friday, not sure what's up with me). Saturday we got up and went out to get breakfast (we try and get up before 10am every weekend day, so we can go out and get a scrumy breakfast) before getting our weekend errands out of the way.

We spent the rest of the day being lazy.

A friend of ours was having a Summer Solstice party Saturday night, so we headed over there.

It was a lot of fun, they have a pool in their backyard, and had lit the yard up with lots of candles. We drank, and chatted then had a swim in the pool for a bit.

I met some really great people, and had conversations about all types of things. I really do enjoy meeting new people and learning about their stories. I love to hear the different points of view that people have. We got talking about luck. Did you know that statistically certain birth months are luckier than others. Apparently May and July are the luckiest… I was born in July, and I have to admit, I do think of myself as being a lucky person. This comes from a book called Quirkology. It caused quite a discussion. I believe that people create their own luck to some extent, I also believe people have more influence over their bad luck than their good luck. I think far to many people attribute poor decision making to bad luck, as they don’t want to take responsibility for the decision’s they make. But that is just my opinion.

We also got talking about the “Book of Questions”. I’d never heard of this things, but turns out I was the only one at the party who hadn’t. People started rattling off questions, it was quite fun to see the different ways people would respond to a situation.

The intent of the party was to celebrate Summer Solstice. I am not pagen, nor were most of the people at the party, but I think it was a great excuse for a party. We were not the only ones to be celebrating. Back in the UK thousands of people gathered together at Stonehenge to celebrate.

Last Friday

Last Friday I headed up to Mt St Helens with the wbf and his dad.

It was such a gorgeous day.

Beaver Lodge - first time I've ever seen one of these.

Beaver Dam - Also the first I have ever seen.

A view of the mountain taken from the hummocks.

Get your Pride On!

This past Sunday was Pride Festival here in Portland. I walked in the parade again for the 3rd time.

It was a blast.

About 125 people from my work showed up and we walked through the streets of Portland. There was a great turn out, both of people walking in the parade, and people on the streets.

American Idiot

I mentioned in my post yesterday that if I hadn’t have broken things off with the idiot boy, I’d have been married for a month now, and that I'd post about him soon... well here you go.

I’d known for quite a while that he wasn’t really good for me, but I wanted to keep trying to make it work, I believed I was in love with him, and that, that alone was worth fighting for. However, when my parents paid for him to go back to the UK with me for a week I started to look at things differently. There is something about being back with family that makes you reconnect with your values. As mentioned my parents paid for his ticket, they fed him everyday, put a roof over his head, my mum – although sick with the flu – drove us around to many of the tourist spots, so that he would have a good time. He didn’t once say thank you to them. He never really said thank you to anyone for anything. It was as if he believed it was just what he deserved, and he shouldn’t have to say thank you.

A lot of his behaviour came from the way his mum brought him up. His parents were divorced, and his mum is the one who he lived with, till he left home. Some of the stories he told about his family and life back in Indiana, were for me, very hard to believe. In fact much of what he said was hard to believe. I could write a whole blog about the stuff that happened to me, but no one would read it, because its so depressing. He was so full of drama. He would miss the bus, then call me and tell me what bad luck he had, then the same thing would happen the next day… I am not sure why he never realized that if he got to the bus stop earlier, he wouldn’t miss the bus. But that was him, it was much easier for him to blame it all on bad luck than to admit responsibility.

He was going to school, and working in the restaurant industry, he just couldn’t keep a job, so I was paying all the rent, bills, food and buying his beer – never a thank you. I would be tired because of my job, I’d get home and have to listen to how hard his life was. The days where I came home after a rare good day at work, 5 mins after walking through the door, I’d be exhausted from listening to him “vent” about how hard school was, or how hard his job was. He never asked how my day had been.

I know a lot of this sounds small, and perhaps not a big deal, but after a year or more it takes its toll. While we were in the UK, we went out for a couple of drinks, he wanted to stay out later, but my dad had arranged for us to go down to London with him early in the morning, the train left at 5:30am. I didn’t want to stay out past 9:30pm out of respect for my parents. He got really angry, finally when we got home, he stormed up the stairs, my mum said goodnight to him and he just ignored her. When I went up there, he started yelling, telling me how much he hated England and never wanted to go back. About how he couldn’t be himself in front of my parents because he couldn’t swear in the house. I mean, seriously, since when did swearing become part of someone’s personality. I saw a side to him that night that I hated. I didn’t sleep at all, and actually spent the night on the floor, I wanted to be as far away from him as I could. The next day, I had to act civil as we were the whole day together in London, and I knew he probably wouldn’t get the opportunity again.

At some point I ended up falling down the steps of the Tower Bridge and badly sprained my ankle. Instead of asking if I wanted to go catch the train and go back home, he requested to go walk around more. Me being the stupid person I can be at times, said ok, and hobbled around London for another couple of hours.

Luckily he was flying back home the next day, and I stayed with my parents for another week and went on vacation with them. He called every day, but of course never asked me how I was, just prattled on about how tough his day had been.

Needless to say, when I got back I broke off the engagement, and he went back to Indiana for a month. During that month he managed to persuade me to try again. No surprises, I said yes. The next two months became painful, he couldn’t get a job, so I was paying for everything, he couldn’t get himself out of bed to go to school, and ended up failing more classes. I had set myself a goal, I would try to make it work till he was scheduled to be done with school, which was October. We didn’t make it past August.

I went out with friends one Friday night, and had a really good time. He woke up around noon, and we got into a discussion about if I was seeing someone else (that was a daily conversation at the time), I didn't really want to get into it again, so it ended up in an argument. He ended the argument by saying that he was going to kill himself. I didn't take him seriously to begin with, but then he went to the bathroom, locked the door and started running a bath, I could hear him rummaging through the drawers. So I broke into the bathroom (it is one of those locks that with a screwdriver you can unlock it from the outside). He was trying to pull apart a razor blade.

We talked for probably a couple of hours, and I managed to get the razor blades out of there, and hid them. He then said he was going to go to a hotel to do it, so he left. Shortly after he called back, I mentioned to him, about his friends and family back in Indiana, we ended the call. He then called back saying it was his friends birthday, so he couldn't do it today, then he came home. He was still talking about doing it another day though. I called the local police office, as I didn't really know what to do. I was 50/50 whether he was serious or trying to manipulate me. The police came, as they were talking to him, I stood around the corner and listened. He lied and said he didn't know what they were talking about, that I had just made it up because I wanted rid of him. I was stunned. He game round the corner as they took him off, and saw me, he called me a liar. The police took him to the hospital to see the counselor or whoever.

I called every hour, to the hospital to find out what was going on (the police came at 4; it was close to 7 before I found anything out). In the meantime I went over to Juanita’s, knowing that I didn't want to be home when he got there, and also that being on my own was not the best thing at that time. I got to speak to him at about 7; the hospital released him, as he was not a danger to himself. He told me that if I didn't go home he would kill himself. I told him I was not going home, he also told me he was "stranded at the hospital", he wanted me to call him a cab (he was at St Vincent’s, how do you get stranded at St Vincent’s, it's a short walk to the Max), wait at home for him and pay for it. We ended the call, and Juanita and I went out for a drink and something to eat. My phone battery was almost dead. I received several messages and texts from him, before the battery died. One asking if he was locked out.

So I came up with a plan that we would drive back to the apartment to unlock the door then drive away, thinking that he was still at the hospital. I went to unlock the door, but he was already home, I saw him, and ran away. I ran for no other reason than I didn't want to hear what he was saying. Well I got a little confused and ran to the drivers side of the car, which not only confused myself, but also Juanita, she was ready to just pull me in the car and drive away... it was quite funny really. Jason looked a bit confused too. Apparently, after my battery died, he had told me that he had found a way home. Oh well. He called be about 50 times last night I think, and a few times the following morning. I don't even answer, as I have nothing to say to him, and I am not interested in hearing what he has to say.The next couple of days, he continued to call me and leave me messages, to see what was going on, I still had nothing really to say. I think I received about 150 calls and 50 texts from him over the weekend. I stayed with Juanita for a couple of nights, and the past two with a guy called Ryan from work.

Tuesday, I went to the apartment, as he was at school, and started packing everything up, to move it into storage. I just wanted to get everything out of there; the cats were still there as I was sure he would not do anything to hurt them). He was still threatening to kill himself on a daily basis, at one point it was because I did not leave the Xbox with him. He also wanted me to give/lend him some money so he could "enjoy' the next few weeks…
That was all just last September. He had since moved back to Indiana, and in March moved back to Portland, but I don’t answer his calls, I have no desire to have him back in my life at all.

As mentioned yesterday, since all that, I got together with the wbf, changed jobs and moved back down town, and so much happier.

Happy Days

I’ve seen a couple of people this week that I haven’t seen for a while, and they both commented on how happy I am looking at the moment. It got me to thinking about how different my life is there year compared to last year.

This time last year I was in a job I didn’t like, I was living in suburbia and I was engaged to a guy who drained every ounce of energy I had. I have to say the worst part of those three was the guy. We’d got engaged after only 8 months of dating, which is not something I ever thought of myself doing. To be honest, I felt a little pressured to say yes, I did compromise by giving us a relatively long engagement, however, if I hadn’t have broken things off I’d have been married for a month now.

I'll post later about the idiot boy, it may make an interesting read.

When I think back to last September, which is the month my life started to turnaround, it was a horrid month, but I think that sometimes it takes something bad, or painful to change things.

My life now better than I ever thought it could be. I am doing a job I am really good at, and I feel that I can make a difference, even if its just a small one. The team I work with are a lot of fun, and even though I have only been working with them for about a week, we are able to talk about things openly and get into some really great discussions.

I love my new apartment, and living downtown, although the weather has been quite horrid lately, I still get myself out of the apartment more and walking around downtown, than where I previously lived.

And then, there's the wbf. He makes my life seem so easy. I don't have to pick up after him, as he is very will house trainined, so the house is tidy most of the time. I can go home and talk about my day at work with him, and he does the same, but its not a tiring experience. We also love each other so much. Sickenly so at times, but it makes me happy. He makes me smile!

I just feel so darn lucky to be me right now :)

Crash(ing good time)

What with the new job and getting the apartment sorted out ready for the wbf’s father arriving this week, I really have been neglecting my blog.

I’ve actually been quite disconnected from the rest of the world the past week. For one thing my cell phone hardly works, the battery lasts for all of about 30 mins, I can’t access text messages or my phonebook. It’s quite pathetic. I am waiting on getting a blackberry through work, which should be here this week, then things will get better. I’ll even be able to write and post blog posts from it, so I’ll have no excuse.

As well as my phone not working, I haven’t really be logged in much from home the past week, I have no idea why, I just was busy doing other things I suppose. Its not that things were especially busy last week, but the new job really had me tired out.

The weekend was spent running errands and spending time with friends, so it was both productive and fun. Friday we had happy hour with some friends from work. We went a place that I am pretty sure I’ll not go to again. It was one of those places that likes to mix strange ingredients together, but it doesn’t really work. Instead of having Bloody Mary on the menu, they had Anemic Mary… made with celery juice rather than tomato… they had a vodka cocktail made with lavender… I am ok with trying new combinations, but these really didn’t taste good.

Saturday, we managed to get up at a decent time, went for breakfast then headed on to IKEA, we needed to buy a sofa bed/futon for our guest bedroom before his dad arrives. We found the one we were looking for, as well as a couple of things to help us out with storage. This Saturday was the Rose Festival in Portland, and we wanted to do our best to avoid the downtown craziness, so we then did a couple of other errands before going back home to take a nap and sort out our purchases.

We had plans to go out for dinner with our neighbour and his friend, we headed out to a place called the Kennedy School, it’s a really cool bar/restaurant. It is a school building which has been made into a hotel, restaurant and bar. The school itself shut down in 1975 due to the poor condition of the building and the cost to put it back into shape. I am not sure when the hotel opened, but it was a lot of fun walking around. Some of the classrooms are hotel rooms, others are bars, or function rooms. We ate dinner then headed back to our neighbours, for a couple more drinks. We always end up there until late, time just seems to disappear when we are with our neighbour. We had a blast though, I haven’t laughed so much in such a long time.

Sunday, didn’t really get off to a good start, we went to Goodwill to drop off some stuff, and as we pulled out of the parking space, the wbf and the guy in the space behind us pulled out at the same time, and the wbf’s car took the brunt of the damage. The tail-light is smashed, the bumper has a bump in it, and the trunk is now misaligned. Not much fun really…

The rest of the day was spent cleaning house, then we did our regular Sunday Soprano’s Session, we started season 2 yesterday. I am really getting into it, Tony’s mum really is a piece of work.

Blue Energy

Sorry, I just had to share this...
Blue Energy

I am not sure what's funniest, that this was supposed to be a breakthrough, or that they believed a kidnapping had happened...

As a friend of mine said, they should have gone to Bush with this, he would have bought it.

Raindrops

I am in the cafeteria at work again today, and its freezing. Doesn’t help that I was soaked by the wonderful Oregon rain this morning, and my jeans are still wet around the ankles.

The rain doesn’t really bother me a whole lot, after all I am from England, so I am sort of used to it, I just don’t like being cold. I should have brought my blanket in from home, and a heater, and perhaps a hot water bottle. As I already said, I am in the cafeteria, and am sitting right by the windows and doors, so just as I get warmed up a little bit, someone goes and opens a door, and I get a draught again. Not the good type of draught either, I’m telling you a beer would be great right now, even if it is only 9:50am… its noon somewhere right!

I have decided I’m going shopping tonight, I want some new shoes, I haven’t bought any new shoes yet this year, which is quite crazy, as normally I am buying a pair every month, not sure what’s been going on. Oh, now I think about it, I’ve been on a bit of a jewelry kick this year, that’s where my $’s have been going. I’m thinking of buying some flats, I don’t actually own any, I normally wear heels or trainers. I really want some green ones.

I started looking online just now for some green flats, and I have seen a bunch of green heels that I like… might have to do both, and why are all the ones I really like so expensive… I must have expensive taste…

Just got an email from my mum this morning, and looks like they are buying a new home… it looks really nice. Now I am even more excited about my trip over there this summer! I added a countdown at the bottom of my blog, that’s how excited I am.

Dreams

I’ve done it again. I had some great blog post ideas, and of course didn’t write them down… I’ll learn my lesson one of these days, and write them down, as of course I can’t remember a single one of them. I am sure they were fabulous too, but guess we’ll just never know.

So, now I have a dilemma, what should I write about today?

I am sitting in the cafeteria at work right now, in fact I am going to be here all day long, informing employees of some changes that are going on. I’ll be here all day tomorrow too. I am going to end up eating a bunch, all I can smell is coffee and food. They have really good brownies here, but I am trying my hardest to refrain.

I have finally picked my dates for going back to the UK, just trying to find a good deal on flights. I am going to be there from the 16th August till 6th September. I am already really excited. Its going to be great to see my family again. This time I am going to be able to meet up with a bunch of friends that I haven’t seen in at least 10 years, for some its closer to 20… I am curious to see how all that goes. Thanks to facebook I’ve been able to reconnect with so many people that I went to school with.

I go through periods where I have bad dreams. Some of them are so ridiculous they don’t really bother me, others are quite realistic. I had one such of those dreams on Saturday. The wbf was hanging out with the boys so I was home alone. I dreamt that I heard lots of dogs barking downstairs, (quite odd as I don’t have dogs), then I thought about the cats, and got up, grabbed my robe, and made my way towards my bedroom door. As I got close someone came barging into the room, staggered to the bed, then pulled himself up, and started yelling at me. I was terrified, he lunged towards me as if he was going to hit me, but instead just grabbed me, he was yelling something, but I don’t know what. Then I woke up.

I was terrified even when I woke. I lay in bed for a while trying to calm myself down, finally I realized only way I could go back to sleep was to check the house, so I got up, and took a look around, of course there was no one there I knew that already. I saw the wbf’s car outside, which meant he was just at the neighbours house, so I got dressed and went round there for a while, we listened to some music for a bit, then went home. It was much easier to go to sleep with him there.

Normally my dreams are just crazy and fun, but about once a week I have one that’s just horrid. Do you remember your dreams? Do you have bad dreams?