'Tis the Season

Its that time of year again, for parties, eating, drinking, spending time with family and friends. It always comes with mixed feelings, as I am grateful for the friends I have here, but always miss my family, who are so far away.  I have met lots of new people over the past couple of months, and am feeling that my surrogate family is expanding.  I am very fortunate to have so many wonderful people in my life.  Both those that I know in person, and those that I have met through the virtual world.

I lived in the US for almost 8 years now (It will become 8 on Jan 5th).  My first Christmas here was spent alone, in my small apartment in downtown Portland.  I remember being unable to reach my parents by phone, as they were on vacation in South Africa, and sometime in the evening the power went out, so I was all alone in the dark.  It was quite possibly the worst Christmas I've ever had. 

Since then I have invited friends over to my house every Christmas day, and have had anything from 2 people to close to 20 stop by.  It makes Christmas feel like Christmas to me, if I am able to open up my home, cook for people and share the day.

I could of course go back to the UK for Christmas, but now I have made my own tradition here.  It might not be a conventional Christmas spent with family, but my friends out here in the PNW have become my family.  I still get so excited about Christmas day that I wake up around 4am (as you can imagine, my husband is not really impressed by that).  I try and stay queit as I make my way downstairs and start to prepare the turkey and trimmings.

Then around 8am, when I can stand it no more, I go back upstairs to wake up the husband.  He cooks a wonderful breakfast, and we have memosa's, eat then beginning the gifting process.  Presents are pulled from under the tree and placed in the relevant piles (myself, hubby and of course the cats :) ).  We make our way through, topping up the memosa's as we go.  Then its time for me to get back in the kitchen.  By now the Christmas music is blasting.

As our friends start to show up, the party begins, with food and drink to spare, we have a merry time, drinking, talking, dancing, drinking, dancing, drinking sleeping.

Other than Christmas day it's self, my favourite holiday moment, is decorating the house.  I have boxes and boxes of Christmas decorations, and put up several trees.  I love going through the ornament boxes and finding all those memories. Ornaments that my mum and I bought when I was going through a rough patch in life, and my mum was there to support me.  Items from my childhood, decorations off the family tree from 30 years ago.  We were recently able to add to the collection, ornaments from Ryan's childhood, there are homemade ornaments in there, one's that move, and ones from his grandma. 

As bittersweet as Christmas can be, it is certainly a time when you remember loved ones, it's a wonderful occassion to be surrounded by family/friends.

Friends

My nana had this poem embroidered and hung in her living room:

Make new friends,
but keep the old.
One is silver,
the other is gold.

I used to like it as a child, and now as an adult I am drawn to it even more.

Throughout my adult life I have moved around a lot and have had many opportunities to make new friends.  I've never been very good at keeping in touch with people though.  I have a tendency to disappear, then pop back out of the blue.
The friends that I have had most of my life are luckily for me very forgiving and when we get back in touch in many ways it's like we've never been apart.  Some life things may have changed, but somehow we seem like the same high school friends.

I have done the same thing to many of my blogging friends, and this post is dedicated to you.  Thank you for taking me back.  It's been a fun week reading through your blogs and catching up.

Really?

While trying to do anything but work today, I came across this Mail Goggles

Seriously… what else is google going to start doing for us. Does it realize that it’s a corporation and not our best friend. Friends are there to prevent us from drunk dialing our ex’s or latest crush, they are there to advise us not to send that message, to confiscate our phones when needed. I realize that friends are not always right there when we write that drunken email. But you know what, they are there the next day when we realize what we’ve done, they are there to give us support to deal with the repercussions and to laugh with us about the whole thing.

I think it’s a little silly that google provides us with “Mail Goggles”. I mean don’t get me wrong, if you really have no will power when inebriated or otherwise and need a piece of technology to prevent you from doing something you’d later regret, and you aren’t able to cope with the consequences of making a mistake, then well, I guess this is the thing for you, but what are you going to do when google isn’t there for you…?

Across the miles

Caroline has been back in England now for about two weeks, making contact with people she knew years ago. I myself wrote recently about moving around from place to place, and the effect that had on keeping in touch with friends. It made me wonder about how we do make friends and then keep in touch.

Childhood friends, if you don't live nearby, for the most part seem to change as we all do and then lose touch. Does that happen if you don't move? Do you then change in similar ways? I've heard of people whose friends date back to the first day at school, but in my experience, moving means that we change in different directions. I've made friends, good friends, as an adult, but even when keeping in touch, they move off in different directions. Not all, it must be said. I do have friends dating back many years but often not the people I thought were "best friends". Then again there are others who barely keep in touch, but when you do meet up it's as though you had never been apart.

I knew as soon as I met one person that, in spite of quite an age gap, we would like each other and 15 years later we are still great friends. Now that we only occasionally see each other face to face, we chat online or make Skype calls every few days. What is that connection? Will we be able to keep that bond even after I move away from the area, as I will no doubt. She won't move, she never has - we are so very different in many ways and yet such good friends. Would we have made that connection if we had first met online?

And what is exercising my mind today is whether we can keep friends via the internet just as easily as if we were close by. Even more, can we make real friends over the internet? I know of at least one couple who have successfully developed a lasting relationship after they first met on a forum. But how? I've always believed in a sort of "chemistry" that occurs when you meet as it did when I met that colleague. Is there an equivalent chemistry that can be sensed online in a different way? Do we even have the same persona online as we do in real life?

I don't know the answers but I have found that, after a time, I do feel I have formed an idea of what people are like through chat, emails, blogs. Or am I being totally naive?

Yummy/Scrummy

Last night after work, we stopped by the Hotel Monaco to see a friends photographic art exhibition. His photo's are incredible, and if you are in the area you should go and check it out, his work will be on display I believe until August 31.

Once home I made a scrumy lamb dinner. A person at work raises lambs, and I bought half a lamb from him, last night we ate scrumptious lamb steak and a vegetable medley. The vegetable dish that I make in one of my favourites, as it's so easy and tastes so good. I chop up a variety of vegetables (carrots, onion, mushrooms, potatoes, celery, bell pepper), place them in an over dish, cover them with olive oil, white wine, herbs and garlic, then stick them in the oven for over an hour. They taste so good.

For some reason I am very tired this week. I am not sure if its due to the busy weekend, work, emotional roller coaster or what. Realistically, its more than likely a combination of all the above, and some other things that I just can't think of right now. I am fueling myself with coffee, and hoping that helps. I think the excitement of going to the UK is also adding to things.

I spoke with my mum this morning, we are trying to get plans all worked out, so that I actually get the best out of my time there. I want to see my friends, but I also want to be able to spend some quality time with my mum, dad, brother and granddad. Its my brothers birthday while I am back too, and I have no idea what to get him, I mean what do you buy a 17 year old that has everything?

Make New Friends

I saw a friend of mine last night. She is such a fantastic person.

Have you ever met someone and after 5 minutes, you feel like you've known the person forever. I had that with this friend. I met her when I moved into a new job last year.

It wasn't my favourite job, it was a large department, with many talented individuals, but not a lot of team spirit. As I moved into the group, I was pretty much on my own. My manager at the time was too busy to introduce me to anyone, so I did that myself. In that process I met her.

She was/is my rock. She is so positive, smart, together and fun. We bonded right away, and helped each other navigate the challenges of this department. She also was there for me as I got out of my engagement.

Although she has had many of her own challenges over the past year, she keeps on smiling, and keeps a positive outlook. Ensuring that she makes the best of the situation. Well, in a month or 2 she is going to be moving away to the mid-west. I am excited for her and her husband for the opportunities. But I am going to miss her so much.

My Nana had a embrodery stitch thing in her house, which said:

"Make new friends

but keep the old

the new are silver

the old are gold"

I believe this is also a song, which I vaguely remember singing at camp. I brought this up with my friend as we were discussing her move, and she remembered singing it at camp too.

Zoom

Wow, seriously, its been almost a week since I posted… I can’t believe it. It really doesn’t feel like that long. The past week has zoomed by. Thursday was a hectic day at work, Friday, well I am not sure what happened to Friday – it just seemed to come and go.

Saturday, was a great day. I ended up at the Flugtag here in Portland. Oh my gosh, it was packed. We ended up just watching it on the big screen, there was far to many people for me to be comfortable and relaxed in a place I’d be able to see it proper. But, even by the big screen there was about 5 thousand people. The people that make those plane (things), and then run and jump into that stinky river, have to be crazy. I am however, pleased they do it, as it is so much fun to watch. I didn’t get many photos, but I did get a couple, and when I get home I’ll get them posted (although that may not be until tomorrow).

After Flugtag, we headed to one of my favourite Portland bars, Kelly’s Olympian for a few bevies and to meet up with the rest of our friends. Kelly’s is a great place to people watch. Every type of person ends up here at some point, and its not just the people watching I like. The owner of the bar, has a motorcycle collection, and there are bikes and other bits of memorabilia hanging from the ceiling and walls.

Later in the evening we went to go see a couple of lasses singing at a local bar, we’ve seen these girls before, and I think they are brilliant, Beth has a great voice. Then, at some point it was time to leave the bar, we watched some Flight of the Concords, at our friends house, then headed home.

Sunday was the normal routine, breakfast, groceries, Sapronos with dinner, however, there was a slight variation when we left the house to head for the Clark County Fair, to see Queensryche – not the music I normally listen to, but it was a whole lot of fun. The people watching was great!

Monday, like Friday is lost in a blur, which takes me to today, which is a relatively normal Tuesday… so that’s the high level account of what happened while I was gone, it went extremely fast.

We Are Family

Well here I am again, stuck not knowing what to write about. It's been a little while since I was here, however, I know by now, that once my fingers hit the keyboard something will come.

I went to a(nother) happy hour last night, to meet a friend of mine who was in town for the week from The Netherlands. It was great to see him again, and there was a good turn out. We had quite a lot of fun. We met up at a Brew Pub, which of course only served beer and wine. I really enjoy drinking beer, but it doesn't like me so much. It normally messes with my allergies... but last night it did not. So after a few beers I was having a pretty good time.

This afternoon, I am planning on heading down to the Oregon Brew Fest at the riverfront. I volunteered at the event a couple of years ago, and still have a bunch of beer tokens left over... so they'll be getting all used up today and tomorrow. I just hope my allergies continue to stay at away, so I can enjoy it.

On another note, my mum just sent me such a lovely message. I am going to be over there for 3 weeks within 3 weeks, and I am really looking forward to it. My mum, is also looking forward to "taking care of me". Even though I am 29, I still like to be taken care of by my mum. Of course that doesn't get to happen very often as I only see her once or twice a year... but still... I love my family oh so much, and I really enjoy it when I am over there with my mum, dad and brother.

See, I knew I'd be able to write a post, once I got started :)

Life

Well its Sunday, and almost the end of another week.

This past week has been a crazy one. First off with Ryan and I breaking up, and I've just been really busy - which has been a blessing. Tuesday night I went to Eddie Izzard, oh my gosh, he is just so funny. In case you don't know who Eddie Izzard is:

The above is a clip from a previous tour, but its one of my favourites.

Beside seeing Eddie this week (he made me laugh so hard by the way), I went to see Willy Wonka in the Park (which I already posted about), Friday it was a happy hour with some folks from work, and the first night that Ryan and I have been out at the same place since we broke up. We have many of the same friends, so its probably something that will happen more often.

It was actually remarkably ok, it was only awkward for the first couple of mins.

Last night it was girls night, we went to a place called Montage, its one of my favourite places to eat here in Portland. It's cajun food. The mac 'n' cheese is my favourite. They have what they called Spold Mac - its basically a combination of Spicy Mac and Old Mac (Old Mac being yesterdays mac), but it is so tastey. By the time the night was done, I had a good buzz on, and done more than my fair share of laughing. Its always good to get out with a group of girls.

I don't have the photo yet, but one thing I like about this place is the way they wrap your left overs. They make your left overs into foil creations. Mine was made into a swan last night, they also make flowers, snails, swords, trees, crabs, giraffes and goodness know's what else. As soon as my friend gets me the photo, i'll be a posting it. (the photo that is posted is not mine, I stole it from Helen Y)

Today, I'm going to be off to help one of my best friends pack, she'll be leaving the state soon, and although I am happy for the opportunity that's come her way, I am sad that she'll be leaving. She's a wonderful person, and I'll miss her very much.

The Candy Man

Last night I went to go see Willy Wonka in the Park with a couple of friends. It was even better than I expected - and rather random.

We headed down after work, to the Rose Garden where the show was being held. There's an amphitheatre there, and it was a beautiful evening weather wise.

The cast was a combination of adults and kids.

The set, although it looked simple upon first glance, was actually incredibly put together, there were many combinations which could be created from turning bit around, or flipping pieces up and down by hinges - very cool. We weren't able to take pictures otherwise I would have posted some. After all a picture tells a thousand words.

The kids were so cute, and when they were playing the part of the umpa lumpa's they were just brilliant.

There were some weird, and funny parts though, for which I really do wish I had pictures, as I know I can't do them justice by description alone. Do you remember the part in the movie, or book where they are in the candy boat, and its all psychedelic. Well in this case it was achieved by the umpa lumpas walking round the stage with sign like things in there hands - ranging from Inca mask type things, to kites, to posters with tasselike thingies. It was quite bizzare, and I couldn't quite figure out what was going on.

Then, do you remember the part where Charlie and his Grandad take a sip of the floating bubble stuff...? Well, that bit was very amusing. Of, course with this being outside, there was no way to use lines to make them fly... so instead... they had life size dummies of Charlie and Granddad who flew about the stage attached to poles... Oh my gosh, it brought tears to my eyes.

Now, I may sound as if I am dissing this show, I really am not. I really think they came up with creative ways to make this work and tell the story on an outdoor stage, but it was quite humorous.

When it was over, all us girlies walked back to the car singing and dancing to the Candyman song... yeah - we really can't sing.

Man Eater

I have been having a serious lack of fun lately, too much work and not enough play makes Caroline a sad sack.

However, on Friday I was able to go out for dinner and a couple of drinks with my friends Meghan and Sandra. Its been a while since we all got together. We used to be good at meeting once a month for girls night, but the 3 of us are so busy. Meghan with her full time job, school and arts and crafts, me with my 2 jobs, ally program and arts and crafts, and Sandra with all her stuffies. We all have boyfriends too, so that doesn't help us on the spare time front.

Anyway, we decided to go have a nice dinner, so we headed to the NW 23rd area, and walked to the first place we saw. The waiter came over with our food menus, and more importantly, the martini menu. There was a martini called a Razz-a-tini, it was impossible for me to say this without doing a small shoulder shrug/jiggle, I am not really sure what it was, but it was amusing. I of course ordered that, with the jiggle. Meghan was after a Mandrini, however when she ordered it, it sounded more like man eater. (Not sure how she managed that, but the waiter nicely picked up on it). Sandra, boringly, order a cosmo. Off he went to make our drinks.

We started the whole catch up stories, the poor waiter had spent quite a long amount of time freshly sqeezing orange juice for some lady while we were busy selecting our drinks, just as he was about to begin ours, she came over and brought it back, it wasn't sweet enough... the poor guy. Needless to say, we then asked for ours to be freshly squeezed, and promised him we wouldn't send it back. Maneater, and freshly squeezed became the buzz words for the evening.

It finally ended up with the waiter telling Meghan that he would add some freshly squeezed man juice to her drink, no sooner did this statement leave his lips, than he went bright red, and declared that "well that didn't come out right!".

Yup, thats what happens when you let the 3 of us out of the house.

(Night) Swimming

I have an amazing friend, well I have lots of amazing friends actually, but I want to tell you about one in particular today.

Her name is Michelle Macy. I find her amazing because she set her mind to doing something, which I would find impossible. Michelle has been swimming for a long time, and a couple of years ago she set her mind to swimming the English Channel. She put in long hours training, swimming in the freezing sea in Alaska, swimming at night, taking freezing cold baths, to allow her body get used to cold water temperatures. Last September, she achieved her goal. She swam the Channel in 10hours and 2 mins. I don't think I could even sit in a bath for that long, never mind swim.

She swims because she finds joy and purpose in the water. She raised an incredible $2,500 which she contributed to University of Minnesota Cancer Research Center. Her goal is to raise $50,000, and I know she can do it. She'll achieve this goal via Macy Swim for the Cure cause.

For more information go to www.macyswim.com

Good Luck Michelle!

Saturday Night

I didn’t get to post anything yesterday, as I was tired from the night before. The wbf and his housemates had a party on Saturday night. I headed over there in the early afternoon to help them get set up, although in the end I didn’t really do much, I just observed. It turned out to be a really fun night.

One of his housemates is in a band (the same band I went to see on Wednesday), so there was an all night jamming session going on in the basement. It was so much fun! They were great. Especially considering that most of them hadn’t met each other till that night, and certainly hadn’t played together before. I love going to parties at this house. There’s 4 guys living here including my wbf, and it is very much like a fraternity house. When there is a party here, there is such a wide range of people who show up, professionals, artists, musicians, models, unemployed, the 20 something’s and the 50 something’s. The conversations are interesting in so many ways, either because they are life stories, or just plain weird.

I was dancing away to the music, and my wbf comes over, seems we’d been invited to go to a hot tub at someone’s house… I looked at him, and said “hot tub”?, he said “yes”. I was confused, my thoughts ranged from a hot tub, is that a bar near here, or do they mean a proper hot tub. I don’t even know these people, what will I wear, I only have what I am wearing now… oh that’s the point, they don’t want me to wear anything… then I looked at my wbf, and said “erm, no thanks, not today! I am not really into people seeing my wobbly bits”. He just laughed, he knew what I’d say, but thought I’d get a kick out of it. I am quite a shy girl you know.
I went back to my dancing.

I then met a lovely couple outside, they’ve been married for 34 years, and are still very much in love. They were adorable.

It turned out to be a late night, I think we got to sleep about 5am, and typically, woke up at 9:30. The place was a mess, beer bottles, plates, glasses, food everywhere. However, with 4 people helping out, the clean up went pretty quick. The wbf and I then headed over to my place, and watched Manhatten, a Woody Allen movie. It was a nice lazy day.