sparkerly.com

Home again, home again...

Huzzah!  I'm back from Portland with a bit of a sunburn (natch) and a lot of R&R under my ever-expanding belt.  It was a fun trip and, just like all of my illogical fears, my office did not explode without me.  Phew!  In fact, while there was a pile of stuff on my chair when I got here this morning, it wasn't the mountain of crap that I was expecting.  Even though my hearings did not go over as well as I thought they would (or should have), everything is going to be ok!

Here are some things I learned on my trip:

• Never wear that green shirt for anything but yard work or bumming around the house ever again.  Especially do not take pictures of self while wearing that shirt. 
• Always rent a car when your husband is 6' 6" and your hosts drive a 1994 Saturn sedan and a 2005 Toyota CRV.  He will not fit!
• If you are staying with someone for 6 days and nights, get a hotel room for at least 3-4 days, both for your sanity and that of your hosts.
• Beer festivals, wherever they may be, are awesome.  Beer festivals that include 80 different craft beers, including watermelon beer, toasted coconut beer, several raspberry beers, and (my favorite) a dark hefeweizen are even awesomer.
• Your tall husband will not fight someone just because that person is taller than he is, no matter how many times you tell him he should.  He just will not do it.  Because he is lame.
• You can get sunburned when it is cloudy and 65 degrees at the beach.
• The Tillamook Cheese Factory is, perhaps, the best damn place on the planet Earth.

We actually took a lot of pictures, which I will try to post later this week.  I visited my friend Rachel during this trip and she told me that I need to post more pictures on my blog, so I will try to take her advice.  Of course, when she told me this, I said that I already knew I needed more pictures, but it's just too hard to get them from the camera to the computer... there are so many wires (there's 1) and it takes so long to upload them (it takes, like, 5 minutes) so, really, you can see why I wouldn't want to post a lot of pictures.  Yeah, we'll see how that goes.

Now, get back to work!!

Vacation Schmaycation

We're going on a trip!  Tomorrow evening, Joel and I will head out to Portland, OR to visit Joel's brother and his brother's husband.  I'm sure it will be a very fun trip and I already have researched a ton of stuff to do (including a BEER FESTIVAL, about which I almost peed myself with excitement when I found out it was happening the weekend we're there) and I'm excited to see my brothers-in-law.  So, that's that... except... I'm filled with dread about it.  Not the trip itself, because I think that will be fun, but I'm filled with dread about what will be going on here while I'm gone.

When we planned this trip all the way back in April, I had nothing going on.  Just business as usual.  However, May, June, and July have just been SLAMMED and it doesn't show any signs of slowing down.  Add this to the fact that I inadvisedly scheduled two hearings first thing in the morning the day after I get back, and you get an anxiety-ridden Carrie who just knows that the shit-storm facing her when she returns may not be worth the actual taking of the vacation.  I'm going to do my best to just let it all go, but it's hard.

This may have to do with the fact that the last time I went on a trip to Portland, I got fired from my job 3 days after getting back.  I doubt this will happen at my current place of employment, but the fear still lingers; the fear that I'll have forgotten something really important, something that only I can take care of or I'm the only one who can remember or I'm the only one who knows anything about it because I forgot to write notes or tell someone about it... because apparently I'm the center of the office universe and nothing can be done without me.

But, this isn't true at all!  There are very fine people here who can pretty much do anything I can do (better), but the worry is still there.  The anxiety about it is just sitting in the back of my head, smoking a cigarette, waiting until the most inopportune time to bust out with a panic attack.  I don't know if I'll be able to forget about what's happening at the office while I'm hanging out at the replica of Stonehenge, but I'm going to give it my best shot.  I think the beer will help.  And I hear Oregon has some pretty awesome wine country, too... maybe it won't be so bad after all?  In fact, I think I have a solution: never come home.  Right?  No?  Damn.

See you in a week!

Apparently there is no end to this trend

 

Things that are Awesome

I saw this thing months and months ago, but I don't think I ever posted it.  If I did, I'm sorry to repeat myself.  But I was reminded about it when I was looking at a site called the Daily What and I thought I should point you over to it, in case you haven't seen it before.  What is it?  Behold: