We're All Mad Here!

Today was spent at work. I will not bore you any further. However, it may interest you to know that I am recently devoting my time to the following things rather than Facebook/Hulu/laying around doing nothing: Reading, painting, listening to good music, studying, and being happy.

One of the two things that fall under that category today is the book "When You Are Engulfed In Flames" by David Sedaris. I would just like to say that I am extremely upset that I have never read anything by this author before. I always heard good things but you know how life goes- this and that is always on the list and somethings you just don't get to until two years down the road. So for those people that would love to read a very sarcastic and cynically humorous book, I would definitely recommend it.

*I would also like to apologize to Ashley for stealing this book out of her room while she was at work. I will return it eventually.

The second of those things is sponsoring a child through World Vision. Nate and I made the decision to sponsor two little boys from Bolivia and Guatemala. This makes me very happy for many reasons. First of all, it makes me love Nate just a thousand times more because when I picked two children out and told him to choose one he replied..."Well, maybe we could have both...?" It also makes my heart burst with happiness that I can do something, even if it's just something very small, to change the life of another person in such a positive way. I send in $35 a month and Gelver and Ever Francisco get a chance at clean drinking water and a better education. I hope that some day I get to meet them.

Now I am off to study French, listen to silly music, and sail the night away on the Odyssey!

Molly Moon's and a Bucketful of Sunshine

Yesterday turned out to be one of the most grand adventures! Jessica and I piled into my car with two bikes (don't ask me how) and headed up to Fremont to play in the sunshine. While waiting for Erica, a friend and local Fremontian, to get out of class, we went to a Mexican restaurant and shared a delicious veggie tostada. It was probably one of the more elaborately colored restaurants that I have ever seen which, mixed with the scrumptious food, was the perfect place for a quick lunch. After that we headed over to Molly Moon's, where they make their own ice cream and waffle cones. Fantastic. Two devoured ice cream scoops later we were on the road to Erica's, set up the bikes, and headed to dowtown. We basically careened down a giant hill of traffic and death to make it to our first destination- Gasworks park. We proceeded to climb on the old machinery labeled STAY OFF, sit in the grass and make daisy chains, and had a rather alarming encounter with two very angry raccoons. Next, we walked our bikes (because we couldn't ride them...fail) up Troll Ave to visit the epic Fremont Troll. We spent the rest of the day winding through little vintage, art, and random shops just passing the time and enjoying the company and wonderful day. We had lunch by the canal and had an extremely grueling trip back up to Erica's house. Let's just say that I think I'm going to make better use of YMCA membership before I try taking that route again.

Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday...

Okay, I promised myself that I would actually blog and it has been almost a week. Gold star. So after work on Saturday, Nate and I headed up to Bellingham to visit Ashley which was definitely worth, despite the grueling two hour drive. Though I suppose I shouldn't complain too much because I'm certain that I slept at least half the way there. So we spent the evening eating mexican food at Jalapeno's and watching some of Ashley's sailing team partners devour fish bowl margaritas, which was entertaining to say the least. Side note: I would also just like to speculate that people need to stop thinking vegetarians want lettuce in everything they order. Especially iceberg. Come on people, let's face it- everyone enjoys some carbs and grease now and then. Anyway. So the next morning, Nate and I went to Mt. Baker for some skiing. It turned out to be pouring down rain but we stayed for a couple hour and appreciated the actual snow. I knew it existed somewhere. Spent that night making disastrous cream puffs with Ashley and then woke up and went to Baker again. This time there were seven inches of powder and it was absolutely INCREDIBLE. Pat, Nate, Ashley, and I were all super excited and embarked upon our adventure to the fated Chair Lift #5. Needless to say, the day was amazing and ended with me draining my savings account on a brand new pair of Dynastar Exclusive Legend Powder Skis. Sooo sweet. Tuesday was our last day, so after a night of tossing and turning every which way on Ashley's couch, Nate and I hopped in the car and took Chuckanut Road home. For those who don't know, this is the scenic route and absolutely stunning. It's like a little piece of the San Juan Islands, my home away from home. Overall, it wasn't Mexico but it was definitely a wonderful spring break vacation and everything happened like it was supposed to.

Finding out where home is.

Today was a particularly draining day. But amidst it all, I found out where and with whom my home really is.... But that's another story. My day is as follows: I woke up and six and eventually willed myself (or rather got sick of Nate harassing me) to get out of bed wayyy past my alarm. Went to work, which was fine and rather sunny and ended up being able to leave early. Had a lovely afternoon with Nate at Home Depot, perusing the flower department countless times to find exactly the right combination of floral things for his mother's hanging basket in honor of her 46th birthday. Spent some time at home with Dylan and mom and dropped some laundry off. Regrettably, my mother will end up washing, folding, and ironing just about every shirt, crease, and maybe even sock in that pile. She can never just wait for me to get there and let it be. Anyway, she's wonderful and I appreciate her very much. Spent a night at Patty's (Nate's mother) house with her and Debbie, playing quarters and eating vegetarian pizza. There were many harassing comments about my habit of picking off just about every disgusting vegetable on that pizza. Which was pretty much every vegetable. What...? Vegetarian suggests a lack of meat, not an excess of vegetables. All in all, I'm drained and can't believe I'm still up writing this (probably only for Mimi's benefit). Tomorrow is my first day at my new job. I'll write more actually interesting and thoughtful things next post. Promise.

Oh! I also have an AWESOME new picture of hanging on my wall, courtesy of my mom. It's one of Van Gogh's sunflower paintings. Yay for having an obscene amount of Van Gogh artwork flooding my room.

Day 1...

In an attempt to curtail my recent* addiction to Facebook and Hulu, I have decided to devote my time to recording the events and happenings around me in writing. Hopefully, I will follow through and I will actually post, rather than pretend and secretly feed my addiction to Desperate Housewives in the next tab over. Oh, dear little Macbook, how you both enlighten and enslave me.

The name of this blog is appropriately named after my favorite book by Lewis Carroll, as you might have noticed already. Sometimes, I feel like I really am Alice and I really do belong in that strange, strange place of Wonderland. The mad logic somehow makes bucket loads more sense than most people or most things to me. "If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what is wouldn't be, it would. You see?"

*Recent being a very loose term in this situation.