Sunny Friday Homework Avoidance

I'm presenting a powerpoint Tuesday on clay formation and geological history of the area surrounding Helena, Montana. I'm working on it now, which seems a little paradoxical since I'm blogging. I feel so sleepy when I try to do school work. I wish I was an exercise and movement sciences student. Isn't all of their homework, running in place and punching the air while shouting "YOU CAN DO IT!"?

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Tiffani and I looked at a couple homes today. We're in the market. We've made offers on a few houses and none of out offers have been accepted. After only 6 weeks of looking seriously, we're getting to the point where we don't get our hopes up just because we make an offer. I'm trying not to picture the house with the new colors on the walls and our furniture. I'm not imagining my pottery studio out back in the pole barn I intend to build, or deciding which southeast corner of the yard I'm going to build my catenary arch kiln. No, I'm just sitting here avoiding my homework, wondering why Gus insists on sprinting into the laurel out back every time a squirrel runs across a telephone wire. There aren't any telephone wires in the backyard of the house we just made an offer on. There isn't any laurel either. Luckily the person that is flipping the house planted a dead asian pear tree. . . weird, I know. I'll dig it up, first thing. But I'm not doing that this time, imagining all the great memories we'll make in our new home. No, I'm just chillin, waiting until it's late enough to start drinking; cause it's friday!

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Gonna kayak the middle fork of the White Salmon river tomorrow. It's solid class III boating. It will be a step up in both Todd's and my paddling skill level, assuming we make it successfully down the river. I'm very excited, the weather should be great and the river is running at runnable levels. Maybe we'll even shoot the waterfall.

Not a bad way to spend a day

At work today we continued construction on this rock wall. The stones
were harvested from the wall in the background.
Lots of chiseling means lots of hammering, which in turn means lots of
fatigue. The fatigue feels good, though since the payoff is so
immediate. It's cool to see it come together.

Ah the boring life

I realize I haven't posted anything in awhile. Sorry. I've been boring lately with the exception of a nice little kayaking trip. I rented the parts I don't own and Todd and I headed to the Clackamas. About two thirds of the way down the river I broke my paddle in the middle of a class 3 rapid and had the pleasure of testing my "combat roll". Don't worry, I have a roll. We finished out the day and drank some beers. I'd like to go this weekend, but it looks like I'll be in Seattle. Holla if you'll be there and we can grab a coffee.

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peaches

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New boat, and cheap!

Sedation dentistry still sucks

Yesterday I skipped work and went to the dentist. It had been awhile since I visited a dentist and I admit that I was terrified. I tried to ride recklessly through every puddle of broken glass on the side of the road, but to my dismay, I arrived safe and sound. They were waiting for me and as I entered the front door, the mailman was taking their outgoing mail. I hoped like hell he would simply toss me in his bag like a rogue letter addressed "return to sender". I walked back to the back and the nurse was very nice. She asked if I was on any medication or whether I had taken an allergy pill that day. I said "no, but I took a 24 hour pill last night, maybe we should post-pone." It turns out that wasn't a problem.

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Because it had been so long since my last visit, my mouth was a wreck. I brush every day. I think about dental floss daily. I had 8 cavities. A couple of those were actually old cavities that had bad fillings. Nonetheless, my face feels like a had a fist-fight. The cool thing is that they knocked me out. No, literally I was sedated. I remember vaguely the lovely feeling of sedation traveling up my arm to all the right places, and then I remember clumsily attempting to load my bicycle into the trunk of Tiffani's car, flopping into the front seat and trying to talk. We went to Jamba Juice, cause Tiff said she thought it would hit my spot, but really I think she was craving some comedy. When she handed it to me, not only could I barely hold onto it, but I couldn't get my lips to grasp the straw. You try sucking on anything after both sides of your mouth are shot full of numbing agents. Very confused I flopped down on the couch and slept for what seemed like minutes. The pain in my face is what woke me up. I called the dentist to see if I was aloud to take anything for the pain(thinking advil) and they wrote me a prescription for Vicodin. Tiff brought it to me and I took some, the pain went away and I slept most of the rest of the day. I woke up at some point, had some conversations, played a video game I think and then went to bed. It's all a daze.

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Today I managed to wake up in time to go to work, went worked very little on account of having to return some trees to Sauvie Island and went to school. The face still hurts, but I'm dealing alright thanks to my advil substitute.

Half a sunburn

I haven't written a song in months. This is perhaps longer than I've ever gone without something new. I guess I don't have much to say. The thought of playing guitar is not very appealing to me. Some snippets of lines have been gathering in notebooks and sketchbooks, but without an impetus to create I'm finding myself resigned to waiting this dry spell out. I half hope that I'll feel like playing guitar soon. I've even been tossing around the idea of selling a guitar to buy a kayak.

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The weather here in Portland is amazing lately. I have half a sunburnt arm. We went kayaking yesterday and I ran out of sunblock after applying it to most of my body. It's pretty burnt and the fact that it's such a small part of my body makes it all the more apparent.

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My mom is undergoing the procedure that she has been waiting for. It seems like she's been waiting for so long, but I guess it's only been about 4 months. If all goes well, she'll be healthy and happy in Boise in less than 100 days. That would mean that Leisa gets to go home too. That would make her so happy.