The Wind in My Hair

I went running tonight. And it felt GOOD. REALLY, really good.

And, even though I DID not look like this...

I also did NOT look like this...

...THANK GOODNESS!

Burnt Bridge Creek

One of my goals for the summer was to hike whenever I could, wherever I could. I don't know that I'd qualify this as a hike, but friends most definitely agree that it is a hike, therefore, I suppose I will. There are so many wonderful trails and get-aways at hand here in and around this wonderful city. Today, I decided to venture across the river into Vancouver, WA. I was on a mission to try the Burnt Bridge Creek Trail, also apparently referred, in part anyhow, as the Ellen Davis Trail. It was a nice trail, but the beginning and end were filled with mosquitoes. I attribute this not only to the prolific amount of them in the area due to the wet, cool spring and early summer and then a big heat boom to hatch all those little buggies into horrid, flying, bloodsucking annoyances. Yes, I dislike them that much. Anyway...tangent aside, I enjoyed the "walk/hike" and will definitely visit the trail again and do a different segment of it.

I encountered this unusual tree...

...this nice little open meadow area...
...some cute flowers (I'm a sucker for flowers)...

...the Burnt Bridge Creek, of course...

...AND, the ever elusive and very rare speckled tree. It was grand!

And this is the area that I blame all those bloodsuckers on...

...some nice standing water.

There you have it. Try it, but take bug spray. Or, you can look real classy like I did and just keep smacking yourself!

Play Ball Beavers

What better way to celebrate America's Birthday than by enjoying America's favorite pasttime?! I headed down to PGE Park to enjoy a Portland Beaver's Baseball game followed by some fun fireworks! And, Portland loves her baseball.

The stands are beginning to fill up!

The PGE Lightbulb

Lucky, the Beaver

A good game (Portland beat the Las Vegas 51s) followed by great fireworks.

Hope you all had a fantastic, fun-filled 4th of July and remembered why we were all celebrating our Independence Day!

Klickitat Trail Adventures

A bonus of working with amazing people is that I also get to be friends with amazing people. And a bonus of being friends with amazing people is the opportunity to go on amazing adventures.

In light of the long 4th of July weekend, I whisked away with Cindy and Megan. Our destination was the Klickitat Trail north of Lyle WA. The goal was to hike the trail, have lunch, commune with nature. And we did. The section of trail we were on mostly hugs the Klickitat River. It was nice to have the sound of water all along the hike.

In addition to the sounds of water, there were sounds of Katydids, birds and encounters with other wildlife....or remnants of...

...nice shedded snake skin mustache, Cindy!

In the hiking book that Cindy got the trail idea from there was mention of this pipe that has mineral spring water gushing...you can see it below...yep, that rusty old thing. Once upon a time people bottled and tried to sell it. It didn't go very well.
Cindy and Megan both tried it. I did not. I don't regret that decision and Cindy and Megan were still alive on the hike back, so I don't imagine they regret their decision either! :)

We also passed an abandoned dry ice factory, now home to Swifts.

We passed under a large felled tree.

Saw some local wildlife...

...and then some more.

Thought these rock formations were pretty interesting. Man made or natural?

View up river.

The three of us.

Down river view.

Feet in the water.

At the end of the trail.

On the hike back we ran into more local wildlife. Look hard! There is a momma turkey and close to 10 of her little ones. (If you click on the picture it will enlarge!)

On the drive back we got some pretty amazing views of Mt Hood, in all its glory! In the picture below you can see Hood River and the Columbia beneath Mt Hood. There were massive amounts of windsurfers and kiteboarders on the river.

Windsurfers.

Crossing the Columbia we came across the Bridge of the Gods and stopped for ice cream! I had an amazing blackberry milkshake. Yummm!

It was a beautiful day and great start to the long weekend!

I've lost my focus...

...now, to try and find it.

Yes, finding my focus is something I'm going to aim for. I even made a list (novel idea for me, huh?!) to help me focus. I always sort of lose my sense of focus in the spring and summer and fall, hmmm...do you see a pattern? I sure do. Okay, well maybe I lose my sense of focus year-round, with varying peaks and valleys, with the most difficult time to focus being at season changes?! I have a few close friends and especially a few previous roommates that would most likely second that.

I get this odd sensation of energy, have a hard time staying still, search for new, different, exciting things. It lasts for an indeterminate amount of time. Slowly the physical energy dissipates, but the internal, psychological energy remains with an eventual decrease in intensity, but this peak I've reached and then come down from has changed me. Changed my soul, my being if you will, ever so slightly. Most often there is a revelatory ring to the psychological and internal energy that I experience. Sometimes this isn't a new revelation, sometimes I am just merely revisiting a previously experienced revelation. But with renewed energy. Renewed zest. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, this is all accompanied by this lack of focus.

Right now, I have a hard time focusing on much. I sit down to watch a television show or movie and soon find myself wandering away. I try a household chore and get distracted rapidly. I am bad at keeping in touch with friends, even the ones I see daily. It's pretty bad when I feel like I haven't said boo to the friends I work with at the end of a day, or worse, the end of the week. Let alone friends in a different zip code. Oy.

My apartment looks like it has been picked up by a small child, tossed around and left in shambles on the front lawn, once that child has been distracted by the next big toy. Okay, it doesn't really look that bad, but it could look better. I walk and hike, that is good and focus worthy. Truly though, that is prime time to not focus. I can let my mind wonder as I wander. I try to write and am successful at varying degrees (heck, I've started and stopped this post at least 3 times). I read, in short bursts. I lose focus at work or am easily distracted. I find that I want to call someone, but who, and then when I do, what to talk about. Mainly because this jumbled mess in my mind is just that, a jumbled mess, only to come out as a jumbled mess and quite probably as an incoherent mess. But it all makes some weird, tangential sense in my brain.

I stay up late, and couldn't even tell you why most of the time. I am tired, but not, during the day. Lay down to take a nap and even get distracted from doing that. Music is refreshing to my soul. I listen to a lot of it these days. All kinds. Often times I turn the television on as the 10 o'clock news comes on and wonder where the evening has gone. Monday turns to TuesdaytoWednesdaytoSaturday, May to JunetoJuly and we are nearing the middle, even of that month. It feels like it was just January, the new year, and before I know it, Christmas will have arrived once more.

I was always told that time moves faster the older you get. I had no idea how that would ever feel. Until now. I can't even explain it. And the sad thing is that I am guilty of wishing my days away. As I get to work in the morning I wish it would be the end of the day. On Monday, I wish it would be Friday. And then I want time to stand still, or at least creep by, from 4:30 Friday until 8am Monday. It seems to go faster, even than the week days. Wow. And the years, how they have passed by so quickly. I've called Portland home for 9 years. That feels crazy. That feels unnerving and comforting all at the same time. Before I know it, I will have called Oregon home for more than half of my life. I'm already standing at calling it home for 1/3 of it.

So now, in light of my ramblings, and only a small glimpse of the craziness in my brain I am aiming to live more in the moment. To focus on the now, which I generally do, but will do so with more effort. I will do those hip exercises so I don't experience pain when I hike in the peace of nature, I will read and write more, with focused intent. I will attempt to keep my environment free of clutter to assist in keeping my inner person less cluttered and more at peace. I will focus on the people in my life and on bettering myself as a person. I will fo·cus (–verb to concentrate: to focus one's thoughts) on life.

What helps you focus?! I'd love to know.

July 1st

I really should NOT still need to use a space heater in my bathroom on July 1. Really. Brr....
And, the good news (hear the sarcasm in my voice) is that the National Weather Service is predicting a cooler and wetter July than normal, which if the first day of the month is indicative of anything, they will have predicted correctly. And then, the Farmers Almanac predicts a cool August. Feels like summer has been cancelled for Oregon.

June Poem of the Month

What Makes a Dad


God took the strength of a mountain,
The majesty of a tree,
The warmth of a summer sun,
The calm of a quiet sea,
The generous soul of nature,
The comforting arm of night,
The wisdom of the ages,
The power of the eagle's flight,
The joy of a morning in spring,
The faith of a mustard seed,
The patience of eternity,
The depth of a family need,
Then God combined these qualities,
When there was nothing more to add,
He knew His masterpiece was complete,
And so, He called it ... Dad

~Author Unknown

Cooper Mountain excursion

Mt Talbert is one of my favorite places to hike. Discovering this glorious place also opened a door, a website in reality, to Cooper Mountain Nature Park. Both places fall under the jurisdiction of Metro. When looking at their website I came across this newest destination. The reason I hadn't made it before today? It is a long way (or at least feels like a long way) from my place.

Today, I had grand plans of waking up at 4:30 am. Yes, as in the morning, as in the sun hasn't technically risen. Crazy, I know! But, I really wanted to go to the Tigard Festival of Balloons and see the hot air balloons launch at 5:45am. I was kidding myself. With as tired as I was and as early as I didn't go to bed last night, I promptly turned the alarm off when it sounded this morning. Then I woke up at a decent hour, well, that could be debatable. Is 6:45 on weekend decent? Maybe. Better than 4:30 regardless.

Anywho, after doing some stuff around home I decided I would still venture out to Tigard. To go see the balloons, already launched. I decided to kill two birds with one stone and tackle both the festival and this new hike. They are both on the same side of the river, and not all that far from each other. When I arrived at the Balloon Festival there were no balloons in the air, so I kept on moving, heading towards my next destination:

Cooper Mountain

It is gorgeous!

There are daisies!

Everywhere!

Lining both sides of the trail.

There are more flowers.

And, funny looking horns

(listening horns, not for yelling-as a sign reminds)

And more flowers, all kinds!

And, birds!

To listen to through the listening horns.

It was a nice, hot (summer has FINALLY arrived in PDX) hike and I had a great view of some amazing wildflowers blooming when I was on my way home.

Ah, sweet rejoice for new places.

Next year I will attempt to be more successful at arising at the early hour of 4:30 to see a balloon launch. Really!

Embarking on a new adventure

One. More. Day. One more day. Thank goodness! And then, the real adventure begins....

I love what I do. I truly do. Right now I want to change things up a bit. So, after contemplating for a year or more I have decided to embark on the new adventure of Hospice volunteering. I had considered this option more than a year ago, but the training (28 hours of it) wasn't working into my schedule very well, or at all. The hospice program I am volunteering with only has 4 training sessions a year and with 2 different types of schedules. Last year, I happened to be out of town for 2 of the 4 quarterly trainings and then the other 2 didn't work with my work schedule. So when my chance came for this year I took it. I started training last week. I was in training Tuesday/Thursday night and all day Saturday. Ditto for this week. And now, I am tired. But excited. With one more day left of training, I see the light at the end of the tunnel. It's promising.

Then the real adventure begins. There are many different things I may be doing. I could be a respite volunteer, a friendly visiting volunteer, a vigil or bereavement volunteer, among a few others. I will get my first assignment 2-3 weeks after training, or as soon as I clear my background check, TB test and all the other loads of things that have to be checked off a list. Then a whole new experience will begin. Granted, I have lots of experience with people who are near end-of-life, have helped take care of family members and just in general feel comfortable around elderly people, my old soul and all. And yes, they have said that the majority of their patients are elderly. I guess I sort of envisioned younger people scattered in with cancer diagnoses, etc. And, yes I may work with someone younger, but there is lots of talk in training of working with patients who are elderly, some with dementia, etc. I have loads of experience with that. Loads.

The training has been interesting, somewhat of a refresher for me, but with (mostly) dynamic speakers. All sorts of things from M.D.'s to chaplains, Social Workers, Nurses, etc. I have had many take-away points from these sessions. A few of my favorite have been: in discussion about dementia-- there was a statement made that someone heard in a training-- instead of thinking of "Around the World in 80 Days" think of "Around the Day in 80 Worlds"- CLASSIC! It fits a lot of my days currently. An LCSW also stated that, "Do it now. Forgive now. Work on resolving issues now (not at the end of your life)." We were also asked, "What would your last words be?" and he more important question in my brain, "Who would you want to hear them?/Who would you speak them too?"

I am looking forward to the humbling and very privileged ability to serve those who are in their last months, days, and hours and the family and friends surrounding them. It is amazing. Really, breath-takingly amazing.

Dear Dad,

I love you! Thanks for all of your unending love and support. Hope you have a fantastic day!

~Steph (me)

Taken Father's Day 2009 at Denver Zoo