Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Alyssa & Ryan's Wedding 09.05.09

I drove south to Grants Pass during Labor Day Weekend for my friend Alyssa's wedding.
Hands down, it was the best wedding I've ever been to.

The bride-to-be



Darla


Gina

(I love how tan I look.)

Adrienne


The bride


Tri Delta girls


The wedding party


The groom


Margaritas, tacos & burritos for dinner


Later that night...


I can't believe I was able to convince Ronda to do this.
But then again there were a lot of margaritas.


Quote: If you would be loved, love and be loveable. - Benjamin Franklin
Song: True Companion by Marc Cohn

Portland To Do List

So I started this list when I first got to Portland and have made a few modifications and cross-offs.

In no particular order:
  • Ride the Max drunk
  • More drunken rides on the Max with Logan & Jen, but esp. with Logan since he gets SO embarrassed by rowdy behavior.
  • Concert with Estee in Seattle
  • Visit Katina’s Deli in NW Portland and take a picture in front of it. 
    • Logan randomly found this one afternoon during his lunch break downtown. Apparently, it’s in a slightly ghetto area. What a surprise on that one. Maybe they’ll give me a discount.
  • Learn some cooking from Jen, esp. Mexican food
  • Get some amazing donuts. There are basically donut and coffee shops everywhere, but I need to get in on some of the good action.
    • A co-worker suggested Sesame Donuts because it’s awesome and they even have some of my fav Greek desserts.
    • There’s always VooDoo donuts as well. They have a $5.25 cock & balls donut and people even get married at the shop.  Haven’t had the cocks & balls yet. Donut that is.
  • Cook for Logan & Jen
    • Probably breakfast because that’s my specialty
  • Portland Zoo to see the 11 y/o sea lion named Julius
    • He bit a zoo worker who ended up at the hospital.
  • Go to Forks, WA
    • I don’t think I even need to explain this one.
  • Oregon Beach
    • See the rock that is in The Goonies
  • Go to Astoria where Kindergarten Cop was filmed (that’s right, Kindergarten Cop) and go across the bridge into Washington. "It's not a tumor."
  • Camping/hiking with Alyssa and Ryan or see their new place
  • Tri Delta event with Paula in Eugene
  • Local Tri Delta event with my roommate Nicole
  • Dinner with pharmacy classmates
  • Go to Vancouver, BC
    • I don’t think I need to explain this one either.
  • Get in the snow
    • This will make it my 4th time in snow ever. 1st in Yosemite in May – very slushy. 2nd time at Kirkwood “trying” to ski. 3rd time during last visit to Oregon in October – snowed while I was driving and I thought I might die.
  • Find a cheap local movie theater because I watch way too many movies and am a broke college student. <-- $3!
Quote: Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It's perfect when it arrives and puts itself in our hands. It hopes we've learned something from yesterday. - John Wayne
Song: Life In Technicolor by Coldplay

Friday Night Randomness

I decided to stay in for my first Friday night in Portland. I was mentally exhausted from working at the hospital and phsyically exhausted from all the moving. I was watching a movie when my roommate Nicole and her friend Brandon came in with a bunch of grocery bags. Apparently Brandon thought that it would be amazing to have fresh squeezed juice. Oranges were on sale at the grocery store and he bought as many as he could with the money in his wallet - 30 oranges. I just had to document the moment.


Brandon went looking for a glass to squeeze the orange juice into. He then realized that he might need something a bit bigger like a bowl. 


Brandon was proud of his work and couldn't help but to hijack my camera afterwards.


























Quote: What the f*ck?!
Song: Beautiful Disaster by Jon McLaughlin

School, Orientation, 1st Day

Excited for my first week:




























From August to May, I'll be spending the majority of my time at the VA hospital in Portland and a little in Vancouver, WA. I did my infectious disease (ID) rotation first and I learned so much, but I just have to share this one with you --

So I did rounds twice a day with an ID team of all women - one attending, two fellows, two residents, a med student, my pharmacist, and me. One my first day, we go into this patient's room. He has a foot ulcer because for some reason he was riding in his scooter barefoot and his foot scrapped against some gravel.

Doctor to the patient: "Did you feel it when it happened?"
Patient: "I didn't feel anything."
AWKWARD SILENCE AND PIERCING GLANCE FROM PATIENT
Patient: "I'm quadraplegic."

O.M.G.
Mental note to self: Always read patient's chart before opening mouth!
Kind of messed up, but funny too.

A view from the sky bridge connecting OHSU and the VA that I walk over every day














A closer look at the tram that takes people from OSHU to the waterfront













Not surprising that it's raining already













The views from the 9th floor of the hospital













You can see the Ross Island Bridge on the left of this one













The Willamette River, a tributary of the Columbia River













Quote: Messing up. It's what makes a person. It's how we learn, where we find joy. And the things you don't plan for are things you never see coming. - Grey’s Anatomy Season 3, Episode 19, “My Favorite Mistake”
Song: One Step at a Time by Jordin Sparks

A Day of Epic Fail

On August 22, the same day I broke my ass, was the day Logan and Jen invited to go catch a movie in the park. We were going to go see Blue Hawaii with Elvis in the rose garden amphitheatre. I met them at their place beforehand to have a few drinks. I told them what happened earlier in the day and they, of course, handed me extra rum and Cokes. Once we were sufficiently drunk, we grabbed the fold-up chairs and dinner packed by Jen and started to make our way to the bus. From the bus, we caught the Max and I got busy making fun of the other riders much too loud espeically to the dislike of Logan. Our stop was at the Oregon Zoo. From there we were going to catch another bus to the Rose Garden.

Optimal words: going to. It actually didn't happen. After we waited awhile, Logan checked his PDX Bus application on his iPhone. As it turned out, the bus line we were going to take ended at that time the week before. I couldn't believe that we made all the effort especially with carrying the fold-up chairs and weren't going to get to use them. I thought it would be a good idea to just set up camp in that spot. Set the chairs out and eat dinner, but no Logan had too much to drink and needed to use the potty. Ridiculous really. What was even more ridiculous though was when I dropped my phone. I'm not exactly too sure of how it happened, but one moment I had my phone in my phone and the next I didn't. I blame it on the rum. At least it still works I guess.






















It's a good thing Jen didn't drop her iPhone because she got some pretty good pics of the night. I liked the picture names best of all.

"Waiting For The Bus That Never Came"





"Katina Entertains Us"


"Good Sport"

Quote: He's a natural born world-shaker. - Cool Hand Luke
Song: Wheel of Fortune by Ace of Base

UNLUCKY BREAK

So I got keys to my new home bright and early on an August Saturday morning. After I checked out the place with the renter, I started moving in my stuff immediately. Because I packed my car to the brim, literally, I ran out of towels and blankets to cushion pieces of furniture. I decided the next logical step was to use some of my sweatshirts and clothes, which happened to be a nice fit if I do say so myself. Since my clothes were all over the place, I thought it would be good to give them a wash. Plus, my closet doesn’t have any doors, so I want to keep things even more tidy than normal.

I went to go check out the laundry situation. My new roommate and I have to share the washer and dryer with a veteran who lives below us. I go down the stairs to basement which in the sunroom next to the kitchen. There was some extra shelving down there, which is great because I have a lot of stuff, and there is a door leading to the storage room with the laundry machine. I proceed to get my clothes and detergent together, throw them in the laundry basket, and start down the stairs. I’m almost at the bottom when WHAM! my ass meets the stairs.

I don’t even know what happened, but, yes, I fell down my basement stairs the very first day I lived in my new place. Not even a whole day had passed. Kinda sad. I know.

So how did this happen? I’m still wondering myself. Did I slip on some water or a banana peel? Nope. Did I lose all sense of balance in my body while carrying a laundry basket? I hope not. Am I a klutz? I don’t think so. Was it the magical combination of me practically running down some super dusty stairs wearing worn down flip-flops with no traction? Probably. I mean, what is the probability of this happening with any normal person (a.k.a. not me)? I would say 0.1, but with me, oh, about 1.0.

Somedays I really feel like Martin Short in Pure Luck. That day was like a summer during middle school all over again when I tripped on a sidewalk and broke my foot. Yes, you heard me right. I was spending month in the summer at my best friend’s in Antioch. We were just walking along and talking when I came across a sidewalk, a half sidewalk to be exact. I think I may have been chewing gum too which was a dangerous combination for me. I apparently didn’t lift my left foot high enough. My foot was bruised and hurt pretty bad. The next week I returned home for the summer and it still hurt. My dad thought that was weird and took me to the doctor. Turns out I not only fractured bones in my foot, but I broke some too. I wasn’t even cool enough to have a cast and crutches. I was forced to wear one of those super cool blue shoes even into the beginning of the school year. The only luck I had over that injury was the fact that the volleyball coaches had pity for me during tryouts so I made the team.

So did I get lucky with this injury? No way Jose. That shit hurt. After a week, I finally saw a doctor and the people at urgent care just thought I was drug-seeking despite the huge bruise and the x-ray results. If I were looking to do something in order to get drugs it really wouldn’t be breaking my ass. Hello - I work in a pharmacy. It still hurts every now and then, especially the days after I go on long runs.

This is why my friends, especially Logan, joke with me that I should have my own reality show. Original thoughts for the name would be “Unlucky,” which would be picked up by some network like The Discovery Channel or A&E. I think people would watch the show. I mean I would. Then it would pick up and become a cultural phenomenon like The Deadliest Catch or like a car crash you just can't take your eyes off of. Or maybe I should just live in a bubble. Anyway, at the next visit to my surgeon’s office, I mentioned this to the nurse. He, of course, laughed knowing my medical history and then suggested “Unlucky Break” since most of my injuries include broken bones and it has stuck with me ever since.

Quote: Life is not to fear. Life is to enjoy. – Third Eye Blind
Song: Someday We'll Know by Mandy Moore featuring Johnathan Foreman

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

SNOW! 12.29.09

I've only experienced snow one time so far in my life. In college, after a long year I went to Sugar Pine near Yosemite in the middle of May. I was wearing jeans and a T-shirt when the snow started to fall. It stuck to the ground but was soon super slushy and wet because of the previous day's rain. I built a 4-inch snowman because I couldn't make a snow angel really. I wish it had snowed before Christmas so I could claim a white Christmas, but it was kind of cool all the same.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Drive, Move, House

OMG! Was the drive, moreover haul of crap, up to Portland a long one. 10+ hours about worrying whether or not my futon was going to fall off my roof was exhausting. Not to mention the final trek up the “hills” to my new place. I don’t know whether hill is the right term though. It’s not like the small rolling hills of California of imagine, but a never ending steep climb like the streets of San Francisco. I’m just glad I made it though. My friends joked with me that knowing my luck I would end up breaking down in the middle of the freeway, cause multiple car accidents, have my things strewn all over the road, get to the side of the road to call for help only to realize I have no reception, and then get mauled by a bear coming out of the woods only to leave me barely alive but with many a broken bones and open wounds. Yes, that is exactly the type of thing that might normally occur to me – but I made it!

My new home. It looks a little bare now, but that's because I just moved in silly!









The walkway to the house.











The side porch leading to the apartment downstairs.











The living room.










The kitchen.

















The dining room.











The sunroom/my new office with stairs to the basement/laundry.











The back stairs.











The yard next door.









The bathroom. Of course, the tiles match the oven.













A sneak peak into my rommate's room.

















My new room - that's all I'm showing, but I must say I'm very excited about my new queen size bed.










Quote: I am not afraid...I was born to do this. – Joan of Arc
Song: Destiny by Zero 7

Sunday, October 18, 2009

More Twifans Blogs from my Spring Break

This is a photo from the set of Bella's house taken on Friday before they shot for the night. My fav. was after this shot some older guy was sprinkling leaves all over the yard to give it a more realistic look.



Since I didn't get any car photos on Saturday morning, I decided to swing back by Bella's house on my way to the border. It was about 8 am on Sunday morning and there were already local cops, crew members, and locals hanging around. I went over to get a few pics of the cars. If you look closely at Charlie’s car his license is a B.C. plate. Isn’t someone supposed to notice these things?
Going back to my car, with my camera in my pocket none the less, this 6’4” guy comes walking up next to me in between myself and the house with an umbrella. He was all like you can’t take pictures of Bella’s house. Did I mention my camera was in my pocket? And why would I want to? I already got pictures and that morning the house was covered on all sides with black screens only exposing the top foot or two of the house. I just think it was funny that I got an escort though. Like my short legs could outrun his or my arms could stretch around the umbrella to get a pic of the house like I’m Inspector Gadget or something. It was too early for evasive maneuvers anyway.

So my my escort mentioned how pictures of the house were already up online – duh! Why the black screens anyway? Like people wouldn't be able to guess where they set was since there were still trailers and road signs. It makes me wonder what they are going to do with the house after shooting ends soon. After all, aren’t they planning Eclipse for August? I wonder if they will transplant the house to another location or just build yet another.

I had fun just seeing the locations. It makes it all the more real.
Jacob's house and garage. I like the goats the best though. American Pie 7 was filming just around the corner from this location in a park lodge.
I was a bit bummed that I missed the cliff diving scene shooting by a day. This was probably the easiest shoot to find.

I'm not sure how much this school will resemble the last. I didn't see much brick. I guess we'll see.

So meeting fellow Twilighters in Vancouver was great. I met these two girls, Lisa and Strother, from Virginia at Bella's house on Friday afternoon. They spent some major time in customs after they flew in and guess who was there too - Michael Angarano (Kristen's current bf) with NO baggage. He came to spend the weekend with Kristen after she had a long week of filiming. Did he really say at a different hotel though? Hmm. I guess it's good they're both over 18. And why stay at a different hotel? There's all this talk about major crowds outside Kristen's hotel but there were only around 10 at most during certain times of the day even after filming has been going on for over a month and sometimes there was just me. I don't think I look intimidating. I'm actually surprised more people weren't out there. It's WAY better than waiting next to the sets in almost freezing weather. I can say that for sure.


I was also been mentioned in some of Twifans creator Alison's blog:

We had made tons of "stalker" friends outside our hotel. Twilight fans are the nicest and dedicated fans I have ever encountered. I bet most people would say the same. Robert says "resourceful", Kristen says "physcotic" but whatever! My favorite friends I met were Kat...she has been blogging on her since I told her about Twifans! Go Kat. Stephanie and her wonderful Dad...yes the elusive Twi-Dad. He was an amazing stalker day and night. And the crazy Virginia gals, Lisa and Srother! I will tell of our tales of stalking as we go.

Most of them were foreign exchange students that didn't speak very good English but loved them some Twilight. This is when I met Kat. A California gal like me that had driven 16 hours straight to visit Vancouver before the Olympics? Come on Kat I wasn't buying that one. You were a true stalker extraordinaire. (lol! That's why I love Alison. Maybe I should invest in being a paparazzi though if this pharmacy thing doesn't work out.) Kat and I exchanged cell numbers and decided that 2 heads were better than one and we could help each other and that is exactly what we did the rest of the week.

So we found Bell's house and we hear filming starts for the first time that night. We are excited like kids going to summer camp. Kat, Srother, Lisa, Me, and my girls. We have water, snacks, and collapsible chairs. We are in for the long haul. We are determined and resourceful and cameras are ready. What we weren't ready for was the freezing tempatures and sneaky security people. And when I say sneaky I really mean complete douche bag but I will get to that!

Quote: Death is peaceful, easy. Life is harder. - Twilight (movie)
Song: Decode by Paramore