The Views

Sarah's snow boots - don't worry she has thousands of dollars sunk into snow equipment and not a pair of actual boots to speak of!

It really is THAT exciting!

So ready.

Snow bunnies.

The bullet - designed for speed.  She hauled on that thing!

That's one cute snow outfit.

The idea was to get the snowshoes in the picture. 

So, I'll do it myself. 

Judy and Dan's excellent snow shoe adventure

Maybe he's hot?

This view was awe-some!

This would be the time when we rock out.

Worst ice skating in-motion picture ever.  She doesn't really have any spinal injury, contrary to this picture.

I just leave people in my wake...fallen or otherwise, it's like they're not even there, to me.

This guy!

Whoa.

hello, gorgeous

Thankfully he's good with a map.  Can't you tell?

And pretty decent at taking my picture.

I require lots of photographs.

The 2.2 seconds spent trying to help someone.

Injury sustained during Jungle Speed.

Random picture.  I think I forgot to put this with my bday pictures. Anyway,  personalized balloon, how cool!

My new lunch box courtesy of my friend, Amy, from the land down undah!

Speak of the Devil....

Last weekend, was the long awaited, most planned for event, I have ever been a part of.  This event was the all-powerful Sunriver trip 2K11, the motto being, "Characters Welcome."  Let's meet our cast of characters.   There was myself: the planner, the organizer, the scheduler.  Hey, I can say whatever I want, it's my blog and I have creative liberties right now.  I also played the role of the cook.  Then, there was my cousin Jason.  He can best be summed up in two words - Jim Halpert.  He is so funny.  He also played the role as Judy's life saver on many occasions throughout the weekend.  Then, there was Sarah:  the originator of this idea, friend, confidante, support person to Judy, who very much needed that outlet, and appreciated it!  Brandyn:  Sarah's boyfriend, snowboarding aficionado, and mega-laugher.  Dan:  Brandyn's friend, the thinker, the philosopher.  Erin:  friend.  Sick.  Good sport.  Kevin:  Erin's boyfriend.  (I'm not technically sure what their status is, but by the way they were longingly gazing at one another and stealing kisses all weekend, I'd say they are boyfriend/girlfriend by now.)  Beer snob.  Twenty-three.

  And this is the story of 7 strangers...picked to live in a house...and what happens when people stop being polite...and start getting real....

  Jason and I arrived first to Sunriver, which apparently is a really big place.  The last time I went to Sunriver I went with Dick and Kelli Garbutt and I was like ten, so people had a bit of a misconception when I said "Yeah, I've been to Sunriver before."  I mean, at ten, it seemed like a fairly quaint place.  What do I know?  Anyway, the day we are set out to leave, everyone (sarah and Jason) are inquiring about directions and what not, and I'm just very que sera sera about everything, which I could see was not sitting well with them.  Regardless, Jason and I got into Bend earlier than planned and did the grocery shopping that we needed to do.  Somehow we ended up getting all twisted around and ended up in Old Mill District.  I'm pretty familiar with the Ol' Mill, since that would be where I would hang out when I would go visit Kylen back in the day, so I was able to successfully navigate us out of there.  Even so, it took so prodding to get Jason to acknowledge that I was the one who got us back on the right track.  You know how men hate that.  Then, we were off to Sunriver.  On our way, Jason asks me if I have directions to the front desk, to which I reply, "We'll find it."  This apparently was not the vote of confidence he was looking for, and immediately started chuckling in astonishment saying, "Do you know how BIG Sunriver is!?  This could take hours!"  Oh, doubting Thomas, it was not even that hard.  We pulled off onto the Sunriver exit and lo, and behold, a glowing sign "MAPS" lay directly in front of us.  Hallelujah!  I am saved by the map, and forgo, any further ridicule from others.  We get checked in relatively easily, and begin setting up shop.  I'm that person that likes to unpack everything.  I like to use the closet space, the drawer space, and the shower space.  I like to be organized.  So, naturally, I staked out the master bedroom.  I know some people on the trip were aghast by this choice, although I have no idea why it surprised them, but let's look at it from my angle.  I just broke up with someone a mere three days before the trip we were supposed to be on TOGETHER, I almost didnt come, I don't want to listen to other couples having sex, or making out, or doing anything that might make a bed creek when I'm in that state.  Therefore, I secluded myself away in the upstairs bedroom.  I thought it was best for everyone, and I further, think I should have gotten a little enjoyment out of the trip, and if that was going to be what made me happy, then why stand in my way?  Plus, whoever is there first should get to choose their room, that's the way it works.  Sorry, if I didn't fill you in on the rules beforehand, I just thought everyone knew that.

  Friday night went off without a hitch.  It was pretty low key since everyone was gearing up for the next day's activities.  Everyone that is except Dan and Brandyn who apparently were up until 4 a.m.  I was up until 2 with Jason and Sarah, and I thought that was plenty bad enough!  Saturday morning came with a text from Jason, "Wake up fool.  Five inches of fresh pow!"  Yet, there was a brief moment of stress as there hadn't been a solidified plan on Friday night and so everything was sort of helter skelter Saturday morning.  Sarah and I were trying to coordinate with Jason and Brandyn and Brandyn wasn't getting out of bed until right before we were ready to leave and then suddenly he wanted to go, too!  Sarah ended up driving to the Mt. with Jason and I and we went tubing, while Jason hit the slopes on his snowboard. Around noon, Brandyn and Dan showed up and informed of they had some stops to make, apparently there was a pressing need for a neon pink, green, and yellow beanie, giant breakfast burritos and Four Loko.  Who knows?  Sarah and Brandyn took off for the slopes and I don't know what Dan did.  I went to have lunch at the lodge and ran into Jason, which was crazy with all the people in there!  So, we got to have a bite together, which was very rushed and quick as I had a snowshoeing tour to get to.

Dan met up with me for the snowshoeing tour and I was very excited.  The tour was lead by three old forest service dudes who were very pleasant and accommodating.  Thankfully Dan was there to help me get my snowshoes on correctly.  Do not ask me how I messed that up, but you can ask me how awkward it was to have a boy you barely know put snowshoes on your feet.  I can see how someone could misread the situation and apply some Cinderella fairy-tale nonsense to it, but not with this modern gal.  I felt supremely awkward having someone correctly put footwear on me.  I probably haven't had anyone help me on with my shoes since the age of 5.  Very interesting experience indeed.  Then, the tour began.  We started off this 100 yard incline, which was in thigh high deep snow.  I am thinking to myself, uhhhhhh, this is going to be a long tour.  Just then the guide turns and says, "Hmmm...I think I went the wrong way."  That's comforting.  We hiked a bit more and then were able to cut across and find the path we were supposed to be on.  It still wasn't easy, but it was much easier than thigh-high deep snow.  They stopped at several points along the way to tell us about the wildlife, ecology, climate, and general facts about the Deschutes.  I loved it so much, I proceeded to give pop quizzes to the other house guests for the duration of the weekend.  What?  I just wanted to share the knowledge....

After a long day on the Mt. we headed back to the house, whereupon we were going to make some dinner and enjoy each other's company for awhile.  Once we got there, Sarah, Jason and I decided to hit up the ice skating rink.  I could not believe that ice skating!  What a rip off!  $13 bucks!  The rink is about half the size of Running Y (K.F. Represent!) and they needed to bust out that Zamboni stat.  The ice was way too choppy to really enjoy ice skating.  I was not a fan.  We stayed about 30 minutes and decided it was time to head back and make some dinner.  We made chicken and steak fajitas and Sarah made the rice.  We set up a nice little fajita bar, and had a family style meal together.  This, by far, was one of my most favorite moments of the night.  I love getting people to sit down around the table, it is so comforting to me.  Must've been the way I was raised ;o)  Erin even remembered a game from one of my favorite movies, High-Low, that I said I always wanted to play with family someday.  The game is where everyone goes around the table and says what their high of the day was and what their low of the day was.  I think everyone had really good, thought-out answers, but Brandyn won me over when he said his high and low came from the same can of Four Loko.  Well, that's just plain funny.  Had I had an award to give out, he would have gotten it.  Although, everyone had genuine high-lows.  I appreciated everyone humoring me in this game.  After dinner, we celebrated Kevin's big 2-3 with a round of "Happy Birthday" and then cake that Erin had made for him.  We went on to play Partini, and Jungle Speed.  Erin dominated everyone in Jungle Speed and I do believe there was only one wound sustained and that went to myself, as Sarah and I literally wrestled for the totem.  Ridiculous.   See kids?  That's what happens when you play games and alcohol is involved.  Take it from me.  I know.

Sunday morning was a bit harried, as we were all trying to get out of the house in a timely manner.  We were due out at 11, but I know that Erin and Kevin were still packing up when we left around 11:30.  I hope they got everything squared away, I was pretty concerned about it.  But, then again, there were several reasons for them not getting out of there on time, so hopefully it wasn't too big of a problem.  Or, any problem at all!  Jason and I had made a plan to stop at the Willamette Pass to try out some cross country skiing.  By the way, Jason is a Leo and I am an aquarius, this is the same combination as my sister and I, and I do believe it to be one of the absolute best astrological combos there could possibly be.  Jason gets stuff done!  When Sunday morning came, he was all over it finding activities for the day.  I so appreciate that in the Leo.  They just figure it out and then go for it.  Love it!  So, we concocted our plan, while Sarah pushed her Costco snack-packs on us, which Jason duly noted and was very thankful for post-cross country ski trek.  And, we headed out.  We got to the pass and found the nordic center, got our skis, and headed out.  Neither of us had ever cross country skied before and it was an interesting go there at the start.  We were really kicking ourselves for not watching some more youtube videos on the strategy and motion of cross country skiing.  I'm sure it was designed to be much more graceful than we were.  Regardless, we did it, and were able to successfully ski for about an hour, and covered around 2 miles.  I even came down a very big hill.  Jason got that little gem on video, I'm hoping to upload it to here someday.  I was scared to death, but I lived to tell you the tale.  You're welcome.  By this point in our trip, however, we had sufficiently debriefed the weekend and talked about just about everything there was possible to talk about, so I thought now would be a good time to give Jason an ecology pop quiz. "Hey J, do you know why there is so much lichen growing on these trees?"  "What's the most important thing to remember about the lichen?"  "Do you know what kind of trees these are growing up here?  You know how I know?"  Finally, all he could do was laugh and say, "You really digested that information from your little tour yesterday didn't ya?"  I tried to stop after that.

All in all, it was a great weekend.  I hope that we can make it a tradition and keep our group growing and growing.  And, I hope I get to soak up some winter sports before it all melts and goes away.  Boo.

Today's list:  Activity recap of the weekend
1. Snowshoeing
2. Cross country skiing
3. Tubing
4. Ice skating
5. Playing board games
6. Drinking (in moderation, of course)
7. Hot tubbing
8. Cooking
9. Driving
10. Having fun!!!

Stay tuned next week to a feisty, perhaps scathing, editorial on the state of education.  It's going to be good.

...and the greatest is love...

Well another Valentine's day, or as I like to think of it..."Happy Single's Awareness" day, has come and gone.  If there is one day of the year that I dread, it is this day.  The day I have to go to the dentist?  No problem.  The day I have to go see the gyno?  Not even close.  The day I have an IEP meeting with district personnel pouring on the pressure?  Nope.  Valentine's day takes the cake.  You know, it wouldn't be so bad if people just took it in stride, shared their love with each other or whatever in a modest way, but it's such a show, a production of the flowers and the chocolate and the romantic dinners.  Blah.  Why can't couples do this for each other not on a designated day, all-at-once, so that people not involved in wonderful relationships feel badly about themselves?  I think worst of all, it just seems like this exclusive club...only people with significant others can get into.  Oh, I know, everyone always says, "Well, but it's a day to show how you care about all special people in your life."  Let's face it.  It's a day for romantic love and this year I was not a member of the club.  Last year, well, last year was great.  Thus, making this year's single awareness holiday doubly hard to swallow.  Staying true to my New Year's resolution of positive thinking (which is sucking the life out of me by the way), I did my best to comfort myself by having friends over to dinner and trying to keep the focus on them, not on me.  This worked fairly well, at least until the dishes were cleared and the company had left.  Then, the typical valentine's day darkness settled in and I had to go to bed immediately.  

At least I was able to scratch together a pretty cute meal for my friends.  In the past, I have been more on the "anti-valentine" kick.  This year, I was on the "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em," kick.  So, I made Cupid's chicken tamale pie, with roasted asparagus and tomatoes, and for dessert I served pudding on cloud 9.  Yeah, pretty cute.  I know.  My friends appreciated it more than any boyfriend ever would probably.  I should look at it that way.  I think Sarah (one of my dinner guests) was just impressed that I thoroughly cooked everything this week.  Last week, I served her stuffed acorn squash with uncooked rice.  It was a little on the chewy side to say the least.  She humored me and ate her portion, however, which is why she continues to get invited to dinners so I can try all these recipes I want to try.  All recipes, that are, presumably gluten free for her benefit!  Overall, I think both of my dinner guests enjoyed the menu and were very appreciative.  And, for that, I thank them.

The past weekend was pretty low key.  I got to do a lot of resting and sleeping.  Friday night was a stay at home night, which was wonderfully relaxing.  Saturday night I met a friend, Tall Paul, from Portland at the brew fest.  He brews for Bridgeport and I'm still kind of confused about his role at Bridgeport because I thought he would have to be working at the brew fest.  Apparently, it's run by volunteers?  He hung the signs at the Bridgeport pouring station, which he was quite proud of.  I was confused because he's very tall, and the signs were nowhere near being straight.  All in all, it was a very fun evening.  I had forgotten how much I enjoyed spending time with him.  He just has a good energy.  He is not high strung, or seemingly stressed out.  He's just chill.  Laid back.  Fun.  He laughs all the time.  It's just easy to be around him.  No work required.  Man, I miss that!  I had so many laughs, and enjoyed getting to meet some of his friends.  They were all very kind and did a nice job of striking up conversation, which I always appreciate!  The funniest thing of all was how early this crew retired.  Back in the day, my friend would have wanted to party all night.  When he said he was ready to go home at midnight, I could not believe my ears.  Wow!  Somebody is getting old...and it's not me.  I've always been old, and I can sleep at any hour of any day, so I was fine with turning in early.  But, to hear him say he does his partying from 5-10 pm now absolutely scrambled my brain.  I'm still actually trying to get my head around it.  It was a terrific night and I'm so glad I left my house to go hang out.  Oh and by the way, if women wanted to be serious about meeting men, they would hit up brew fests.  That place was a mecca for men.  Note, I am not saying a mecca for stunningly attractive men, but men, nonetheless.  Speaking of, I saw another old high school friend at the brew fest.  Good ol' Brian Mahoney.  That was a blast from the past.  I had a great time talking to that guy.  We chatted for several minutes, and I ended up running into him later at The Jackalope.  I hadn't been to the Jackalope since my college days.  I remembered that place as being really fun and having a good vibe.  It still seemed fine...but they could really use a shuffleboard.  That's all I'm sayin.  I was pretty amused with myself for playing pinball against one of Paul's friends because I played on the machine with a broken flipper and I still beat that guy.  He had a perfectly good machine, with 2 working flippers!  Also, he kept insisting the reason he wasn't good at it was because he wasn't good at games from the 70's.  Get outta here...   (Insert diabolical laughter), I love winning.  Sunday brought the Truffle Shuffle.  My favorite race day out of all the year!  It literally is a shuffle.  There are so many people that do this race, and it is confined to a tiny path, with runners AND walkers, so you definitely don't get to move very fast.  This was my second annual race with my friend Sarah, and all went off without a hitch.  At the end of the race, everyone is rewarded with a truffle from Eugene's premiere chocolatier, Euphoria chocolates.  I went with the mint truffle this year.  Delicious!

Today a student said, "Judy is the nicest teacher I'll probably ever have."  Hahahahaha. Yeah, probably.

Well, the big weekend is upon us.  This weekend we are heading out to Sunriver to play in the snow.  I'm pretty excited about it.  Sadly, I don't think Vince will be able to come up, and that puts a slight damper on my plans.  It's better that I just start planning for him not being there now, so I can come to terms accepting it.  It should still be fun, just might not be as fun as I had planned it in my head.  Oh well, you know me, with all my big ideas!  Hopefully, someday I'll have a guy who shows up for everything...and won't that be something!?  So, be prepared next week to have loads of stories, and pictures from the trip!

Today's List:  Things to get done before the trip:
1.  Sell old college course books
2.  Get the car serviced
3. Grocery shopping
4. Pack
5. Organize my room
6. Workouts
7.  Pedicure?
8.  Sleep
9.  Eat
10.  Pray

My birthday week....in color...

Hi friends! 

Everyone's so excited to be at MY party

Party planner extraordinaire

They make you wear a ridiculous hat. 

Woo!  Flaming volcano!

I did not choose this hat. 

Classic Abe. 

All my party peeps. 

Aw how cute. 

Time for cake?

Beautiful chocolate cake with peanut butter mousse.  Oh my gosh. 

The cake is on fire. 

I did not get them all out in one blow.  Pathetic. 

Delish. 

The curls have fallen a bit, but I love it. 

Let's get the party started people!

So ready for Bingo.  

Bacon mints and bacon flavored gumballs.  Marina discovered one of my loves this weekend.

The bacon mints were awful. 

Yet, everyone must try them. 

Hat store!

Jestered up

Viking maiden

Birthday cake hat for the birthday girl!

Aw, cute!

So excited for fascination.  Blackout!

Oh...who won the ping pong tourney?  I did!