It’s been a pretty quiet day today. Other than finishing up some Apex stuff, and finally getting around to eating some of that birthday cake, Andy and I decided to make tonight our weekly pizza/movie day because we’ll probably be out later tomorrow evening (and Saturday is our usual day to do said pizza/movie set up).
HERE IS A PICTURE OF THE PIZZA I JUST MADE:
So while I’ve been prepping the pizza (Jamison family recipe, of course), I also managed to do a lot of:
Writing Stuff
I finally got cracking on “Mimicry”! It’s been a long and exhausting week in writing terms, but at long last my Critters gauntlet is over. Now I can get back to building up my self esteem so I can actually write something without my inner editor yelling “It’s CRAP!” the whole time.
Figured editing was a good place to start, since my idea well has been a little dry for the time being. It’s probably simply because I haven’t been reading as much, because of the move, and because we don’t have a couch or anywhere suitable for reading besides the bed, which is fine for the most part, but still not where I tend to read. I am in the process of remedying this lack of literary fuel. Afterall, it is one of the Five Golden Rules of Writing (Read, Write, Edit, Submit, Repeat).
Anyway, started on editing. I’ve been retyping the whole story into a new document for this draft, because it helps me to evaluate the flow of the text and helps me to make even fairly large edits without feeling like I’m trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. So far, I’ve got about 6,000+ words edited into draft 2, and about the same amount to go. It’s huge, I know, especially for a short story, but I figure I’ll shoot it off to the WotF contest first, and then see what my options are from there. Until then, I’m just worrying about making it the best story I can.
Gotta say, though, I’m really loving this project. It’s been a while since I felt really proud of a piece of writing, but this one is definitely making its way into my heart. This probably means it will never be published, but ah well. At least I’ll have a fun, unpublished story to look at every now and then when I pull it out of my files. If nothing less, I’m having a blast working on it.^_^
So yesterday was Andy’s birthday, and my interview day, so it was insanely busy. Probably the busiest day we’ve had since we moved out here.
First half of the day was devoted up updating some new images for the Apex T-shirts, researching DA contest set-up, while simultaneously getting cake stuff from Safeway and baking said cake. I also ironed my interview clothes and Andy’s khaki pants so we could both look nice for dinner out. Printed off a copy of my resume, got directions, got ID stuff together. Oh, and forgot to eat lunch. Lol.
Second half of the day, starting at 2:00, we headed downtown for the interview. We got there about forty-five minutes early, so we hung out until 2:30 before I headed in. The interview itself went really well. It was a group interview for the placement agency (not for a specific job), but it was very comfortable, and I’m glad I didn’t underdress. The CampusPoint staff seems really friendly and helpful, so I’m looking forward to working with them.
After the interview, I met up with Andy (who had been wandering around downtown Portland during the interview), and we strolled around trying to locate the three Indian food places that he’d picked out as possible birthday dinner spots. It was still pretty early, and a lot of the places didn’t serve dinner until 5:30, so we hit up Pinocchio’s happy hour for some drinks and appetizers. I love going there; it always makes me feel so rich and chic. Probably helped that we were both in formal-wear (I was in a femme powersuit lol), so we actually fit in with the business crowd there.
After that, we strolled (a little dizzily because we’re lightweights) over to India House at the corner of Morrison and 11th. That place is fantastic! The vegetable pakoras and the chicken tikka masala were unbelieveable. So delicious! We both ate a ton.
Full, happy, and no longer dizzy, we headed back to our car and went home. Watched two episodes of The Office in the hopes of making room for the cake (which I frosted when we got back), but we were still way too full to eat it. So that’s a task for today! ^_^
It was a lovely night out on the town, and since my parents had footed most of the bill, it was money-stress free! I am definitely starting to see why people love Portland so much. The downtown is just beautiful, with so many trees and parks, etc., and walking around is just fun.
This weekend we’re heading out to the coast to check out some of the small towns around those parts and to watch the sun set over the Pacific, which Andy has never seen before. Should be fun! ^_^ Maybe I can even get a little sun, because I’m so insanely pale right now. And when I notice that I’m pale… you know it’s REALLY pale. Blinding, probably. ^_^
So today was a little smoother than others in the long run. This morning I started out in a bummed mood, but that picked up pretty fast when I saw that one of the placement places I submitted a resume to actually got back to me! Yay! It’s amazing how even that much takes a huge load off my shoulders. I’ve got an interview with them this coming Thursday, so hopefully they’ll like me enough to push me on employers. ^_^
Got some more t-shirt work done for Apex today, too! Check them out here: Zazzle.com
Or for a sneak peek, here are some of the T-shirts I designed for them:
Le sigh. Feeling relaxed is so nice. I’m going to go continue feeling that way.
At last, like a cold drink after wandering in the desert, we’ve got our internet all hooked up and running. In fact, it’s a heck of a lot faster than any internet service I’ve ever had. So nice! ^_^ I’ve felt completely helpless without being tapped into the system, sad though that may be. Trying to get back into the swing of things (like paying credit card bills/balancing the funds (OUCH) and trying to find a job (ugh)). But then there are the fun things, too, like updating this blaag and watching hilarious South Park episodes online without having to wait every five seconds for more of the video to load. Much fun!
Also linked back into the Infernal Apex Minion Army at long last, which is a delight. Glad to be back to work at long last. It’s been driving me nuts this last week being so out of the loop. Cleaned out my submissions IN box, also, which was good, so now I’m all caught up and ready for this week’s batch. Also updated the guidelines on Guidevines For Writers. Maybe this will help clear up some of the guideline confusions I’ve seen filtering into my inbox.
Besides all that, Andy and I have been slowly trying to bring a little hominess to our apartment (which up until now has looked like a Sims house built from scratch without rosebud (therefore, no furniture)). Sunday we went to IKEA (see previous post) and bought a small dining room table with four chairs and a bed set (frame, mattress, linens, etc.). We were happily surprised at how easily it all came together! It’s like legos for adults! ^_^
Very pleased with the results. I LOVE this table. It makes me happy. ^_^ Plus, it’s nice having somewhere to sit, besides the floor.
Made dinner last night and tonight, first two home-cooked meals we’ve had in the last week or so. Feels good to have some slightly more substantial food in our stomachs.
Writing Stuff:
Not too much, sadly. Have two stories out circulating, but I’m not expecting too much from those. As for “Earthbound” (which is the current editing project), haven’t touched it since moving, but hey, I guess that’s to be expected, right? Still, I feel rusty and out of writing shape, which makes me borderline grumpy. Also need to crack the whip and get to tweaking “Mimicry” which has also been sadly neglected.
In fact, making a list of the projects I need to work on may be a good starting point. The two aforementioned titles being primary, followed by other various projects. Hmm… Gotta make the time.
And we’ve arrived safe and sound in Portland, OR! It was a long drive, and we had to push it a little to get in at the right time for checking in, but we’re alive and we’re starting to settle into our apartment.
Yesterday we drove into Portland at about 9:00am (after getting up at 5). After checking in, we drove down to the local Walmart to use our gift card from Andy’s old bandmates. It’s always so shocking how much random stuff you need when you first move into a place (like toilet paper, and soap). Plus, we had the compounded issue of not having any toiletry stuff, since we figured it would save us space to leave it behind and buy it here (which it probably did). We ended up buying a little more than we probably needed, but now our bathroom has a lovely pale green decor (based off the melon hand soap we bought XD!) At home, we started unpacking and putting things in their places. Realize, though, that we have no furniture, so we basically just put away dishes. The TV is conveniently stacked on top of an empty box full of packing trash. We have no internet/phone/or cable TV yet, so we watched a Futurama DVD while reclining on our floor (because we have no chairs). The apartment is pretty barren right now, but it’s large and beautiful. Andy took some pictures:
We called it an early night, after having frozen pizza (on the pizza stone! YAY! First use!) and red sangria (yum! ^_^). Note, we still have no official bed, so we slept on the air mattress my parents gave us. We also have no sheets/pillows/etc., so I used a sweatshirt for a pillow, and Andy used his house robe for a blanket. Lol. It was interesting, even if we didn’t sleep like rocks.
This morning, we woke up pretty early, so we had breakfast and then decided (after getting directions from HQ (my mother)) to head to Ikea to get the bed set we’d been eying for a while. Let me just say that Ikea must be run by the most evil geniuses in the world. The way they make you walk through all their beautiful, chic display rooms just to get to what you actually came in for: brilliant! It was like walking through an enchanted forest with fruit trees you’ve been warned not to approach, but darn it all, once you get near them, you just can’t help yourself! Let’s just say we spent a little more than we originally planned. (Parental units: don’t worry–it wasn’t that much more than we planned.) We did get the bed set/mattress that we’d been eying, and that was in total a little cheaper than we’d anticipated, but we also got a dining room table (small) with four chairs for uber cheap ($129 for the whole set). Since we have no other seating in our apartment, we figured that might be a good investment, plus it was on our “top priorities” list. (Does it sound like I’m justifying? ^_^)
So now we have a lot of assembly work to do at home, but at least we feel like we’re moving in the right direction. I’ll be glad when the rooms aren’t totally empty.
Then after that, we grabbed lunch and headed to downtown Portland to walk around, which is where we are currently (public wifi is a beautiful thing). Don’t know exactly when we’ll be getting internet access at the apartment (hopefully ASAP), but I’ll keep you updated even if I have to come all the way downtown again. (Bummer, right? ^_^)
So here’s a short update from Yellowstone National Park! Still two days (today and tomorrow) shy of arriving in Portland, but the trip is going well. We stopped in Rochester, NY night #1, then headed to Fremont, OH for night #2. Night #3 was spent in Fairmont, MN, and then we got here (Gardinier, MT) last night. Shoving out early this morning (it’s 6:50 here), and checking out some of the sites.
Highlights (or lowlights) so far:
* Our caravan had engine trouble. Had to break off the group-trip earlier than expected, which was a bummer.
*Got mooned by a pasty white butt in NY, somewhere past Albany.
*We’ve been keeping count, and we’ve been passed (going +65mph) by 9 Priuses (Prii?), and we’ve seen 4 Previas (Hi Aaron!)
*Stopped by Niagara Falls. Pretty cool, but those Swiss waterfalls really spoiled me.
*Drove the scenic Iron Mountain Road up to Mt. Rushmore, saw a donkey (^_^) and two deer on the way. No buffalo (though the sign said: “Do not approach buffalo. They are dangerous.”). Andy was disappointed, but love the drive. Mt. Rushmore was also pretty cool.
*Drove through the Crow Indian Reservation and heard some of the Crow language. Very cool! ^_^
It was only about a 1 km walk (it was labeled on a sign like everything here, that’s how I know) to the Aare Gorge (Aareschlucht) from Riechenbach. We thought about taking the little railway tram that goes to it, but I was getting my second wind, and I was enjoying the exercise. This was when we discussed how we wanted to speak other languages, and how we were kind of glad there weren’t more American tourists around, as we both concurred that they are the most annoying (the loud, almost shouting slow English at people, as though that will help; refusing to speak a foreign language; finding cultural differences (like small fridges) annoying, etc.). This was about when we decided to work a little more on our French, since Andy’s had six years and I’ve had five (both include individual years of 7th and 8th grade, which technically is only French 1 together). Besides, we’d been relying on that for all written instructions and signs anyway.
We bought our tickets (ouch, another 15 francs together) and headed off on the trail. We actually went the opposite way as my family did the first time through the Aareschlucht, from the restaurant (where the path lead us) to the other end, which seemed to make sense since the numbers of the attractions were actually going in the right direction (1-13). Andy really liked it, and I loved it too. We spoke a lot of the time in French when we could manage it—Andy speaks French better than I do, but I can usually understand what he’s saying and respond accordingly—and English when we couldn’t.
At the other end of the gorge, we were really warm (because we went from the really cool, damp beginning of the hike to the end, which was muggy and hot) so we bought a previously-known-as Solero Shots! It’s not called Solero Shots anymore—starts with a C I think—though there were Solero popsicles, so the company is still around, just maybe sold the drink part. It was a lovely walk down memory lane, and Andy enjoyed it. Then after another brief pit stop, we headed down the road toward the sign that said “Aareschlucht Ost” which strangely led us down across a foot bridge over the river Aare to a solid rock wall with a handle-less door set into it. It looked like a utility tunnel, or like something the DARMA initiative (LOST) would have. I noticed that the sign next to the door said something like “stops on demand” and Andy noticed the buttons, one with an arrow pointing upward with the words “Aareschlucht Ost” and one with a down arrow with another town name under it. He hit the one with the up arrow and the button lit up. I tell you, it was like Riven. We stood and waited, not moving, and then all of a sudden (which again, was vehicular luck or divine intervention) there was a cool gust of wind and the sound of a train rushing past the open window (which we didn’t realize was open behind the meshing until then) and then the handless door slid open with a hiss, revealing the open doors of a train. We boarded, showed the conductor our ticket (which thankfully covered the cost), and off we went, zipping through the tunnel back to Mieringen.
As we rode the train first to Luzern and then made the five-minute connection for the train to Meirigen, we saw the real mountains coming into view. It was stunning! Even having been here before, I can’t even get my head around how beautiful and majestic it is here. It still takes my breath away. Andy was loving it, too.
First Glimpse
He’s probably never seen anything quite like this before—even though I have, it’s like the first time for me, too, because this time, I have to organize everything and get us from one place to the next. It will be an adventure.
Rode the train to Meiringen until the Brieg stop, then we (the other two Hasliberg couples as well) disembarked with the well-wishes of Margirit the Untours organizer, and climbed on the bus that would ultimately take us to Reuti. The other two couples are staying a town or two down, in Holfhof or something like that. I’ll check tomorrow. At any rate, Andy and I end up being the last Untours people on the bus, with a whole bunch of locals (or if tourists, German speaking-tourists). At one point, I really worried that we’d missed the stop, because it seemed like the bus was starting to go back the way it had come, but just when we started to panic and plan our backup steps(take the bus back to the trains station and then take the train to Meiringen, and take the cable car up to Reuti), the bus turned back down the way we were supposed to be going.
We finally got off at Reuti, but then we were left alone. The bus had apparently been a few minutes early, so the caretaker (Jacquiline Strieche?) hadn’t had a chance to get to the bus stop yet. But before she came, we had another little panic attack about what to do next, where to go, how to contact people, where we could find a phone, etc. It wasn’t “panicking” so much as serious “O.K. we’ll figure this out.”
Mountains Across from Reuti
Luckily we decided to wait a few minutes to see if she would come. She did, and we made our greetings, etc., and she and her friend led us back up to the Pollux. I used a bunch of the Swiss-German phrases I’d learned because it seems a waste to say in English what I could say in Swiss (such as, the Weather is Beautiful), etc, which it was, by the way. As I told Andy on the way up, “At least we came in on a clear day so you could see all this awesomeness, even if it gets all socked in tomorrow.”
The Pollux is just breathtaking. It’s unbelievable. Even 100x better than the pictures made it out to be, and the pictures made it look lovely! Our view is to die for, the apartment is not only pretty modern, but beautiful and simple. Andy and I just about fell over when we saw how amazing it was. It really is a fantastic place to stay—we both were almost giddy trying to communicate with Jacquiline. Her English is a little rusty, and my Swiss is atrocious, so I’m rather impressed that we managed to overall communicate. To tell the truth, her English, even rusty, is millions of miles ahead of my Swiss, which I’m starting to realize although incredibly useful (see below), it is completely insufficient for any kind of extended conversation.
Me and the Living Room
Bedroom
Back Balcony
Balcony
After Jacquiline got us settled, Andy and I decided—after some discussion—not to try to squeeze in Riechenbackfalls today, since we were both jetlagged and it was getting later in the evening for the Swiss (it was about 4 o’clock by now), and we weren’t sure if there would be time to go down by the lift, go to the falls, actually SEE the falls, and then catch the lift back up. We haven’t been taught how to read that insanely complicated book of schedules yet, so we decided to play it safe and just walk a little around town. Jacquiline had pointed out a little grocery shop just a little ways down from us, so we dropped in there to pick up some supplements for the small food stuffs Untours provided in the apartment (which was exceptionally nice!). The lady who runs the place speaks—again—better English than I do Swiss, though perhaps not quite as fluently as Jacquiline. Then again, who knows? She just seemed more willing to trust our faulty German skills. She was incredibly nice and very helpful. We managed to scrape out a question about the wine selection (actually knowing that vise vie meant white wine and reuss vie means red wine), and what she would suggest. I used my catch-all phrase for the second time today: I understand a little Swiss-German, but not well. I’ve also been using “Ish guet” a whole lot, because it’s easy to remember, and because it fits my mannerisms—otherwise I’d just be saying “sure” or “that’s fine” or “cool” which doesn’t translate as well. We also picked up some lemon-citron icecream that looks exactly like something we got here when I was last here. At least, I don’t recall seeing it anywhere else in the U.S., so it must have been here.
Then, because of the heat, Andy and I headed back up to the apartment. It has been a difficult afternoon, because we’re both exhausted and want to sleep, but while I’ve been trying to fight it off by planning tons of things and looking and maps, etc., Andy has been accidentally dozing wherever he so much as sits down. I’ll call out “Andy wake up!” every time he disappears into the bedroom or up into the loft and the apartment gets really quiet. Then I’ll hear a groan and he’ll get up. He’s doing a little better now, mainly because he isn’t letting himself sit down or lay down. He took some more pictures, though which is great.
Night View from Balcony
I still can’t get over our insanely perfect view. We definitely did not have a view even that good in Meiringen.
We ate around 6, cheese, bread, red wine, and jam. It was super tasty. Even though Andy disliked the cheese at first (he felt it tasted too much like parmesan (which granted, it did a little—it was very strong), once he realized it tasted very good with the wine, he ate a fair amount of it. The bread was absolutely divine, also. However, due to the lack of sleep and the fact that we haven’t been drinking much, the one small glass of wine each made us both rather dizzy and low and behold-! more tired. ^_^
Since then, we’ve just been trying to stay awake. I think tomorrow after the orientation, we’re going to try to hit up at least Riechenbachfalls and maybe the Aerschlucht if we’re really on our game. A hot berry Sunday sounds good now—it’s cooled off significantly from the swealtering heat of earlier. Reuti is still sunny, but Meiringen is probably in shadows now. Maybe we’ll try to watch Shrek 3, which the hostess has, in order to stay awake until 9. I think it will be a challenge.
Lots of odds and ends. Did dishes almost all day. Admired the thunderstorms. Andy brought home the first disk of season one of Stargate SG-1, and we watched the pilot. We were not amused. Andy says decisively: “It sucked.”
TUESDAY
Set up a financial tracking system on my computer, which is really nice to have, but also very depressing. It’s painful to see how much we owe in loans (just for me!). Then we went to the bank, and then did grocery shopping.
Which meant I could actually try a new Orange Chicken recipe from Cook’s Illustrated. Well, it’s not exactly “new”–my mom has made it for the family before, but I’ve never tried it on my own. So! I decided to give it a try, and here are the results:
It was goooooood! ^_^ And spicy, too!
Then Andy and I watched the first aired episode of Stargate SG-1, and were slightly more amused than when we watched the pilot.
WEDNESDAY
Today, we did many things. First, we went and saw Get Smart, which was fantastic! It’s the first movie since Lars and the Real Girl that we actually didn’t regret spending money to see. The film got off to a slightly rough start, not for any fault of the film itself, but because the movie theater was having difficulties getting both picture AND sound to work. Thanks AMC. But they fixed it pretty quick, so that was good. It was a fun movie–the only thing we could think to criticize was the choice of Madonna/Justin Timberlake’s awful new song as part of the sound track. Blech. But otherwise, the film was fun on a bun!
Then we picked up packing paper for his mum, grabbed an accordion folder for finances (which we actually did BEFORE the movie, because we had time to kill), and we finally got Andy some new clothes, because he doesn’t have too many. We also need to do laundry sometime… ^_^
Then we went over to Mom (Slater)’s house for a cook-out. First, however, we had to take pictures of things to sell on Craigslist (Piano, anyone?), and then we polished a silver tea tray with two tea pots, a creamer, and a sugar dish. It was much more work than we anticipated getting all that tarnish off. We have both decidedly chosen NOT to own silver in the future. ^_- Then we had hotdogs, hamburgers, and sausage for dinner which was yummy, and then Andy got his butt served to him in a seven game series of Brawl against his bro John (John was Donkey Kong; Andy was Ike).
After that, Andy and I headed home to watch Hot Fuzz which we’d gotten in the mail (Netflix rox!). The movie was often interrupted by random phone calls, first from Andy’s bro trying to get a ride to a friend’s house (even though Andy would have to drive all the way over back to his house and THEN to the friend’s house, and THEN back here) until that got straightened out, and then from my mom while they stood in line at Disneyland in California. Those butts. They had a “fast pass” for some Screaming Rollercoaster, but they had time to kill, so they figured they’d wait in line and go once and then if they liked it, they’d use their pass to go back almost immediately.
Eventually, we got to watch Hot Fuzz, and wow! It was so much fun! I had somewhat low expectations of it, because the ads made it look so stupid, but since we had seen and liked Shaun of the Dead, we thought we’d give it a try. And it was awesome! ^_^ I haven’t had that much fun with a movie in ages. Again: a movie we could not find fault with. It was fantastic; Andy thinks it is his new favorite movie. ^_^ Good times! We’ve had a string of amazing movie luck today, so I expect we’re due for a bunch of really bad ones soon. ^_^
Also, had root beer floats, which are awesome.
TODAY
Will update about today later, when more has happened. Will be going out to lunch with a one Miss Kelly Almond, and am muchly looking forward to that. ^_^ TTFN.
“Mawage is wot bwings us togeder tooday. Mawage, that bwessed awangment, that dweam wifin a dweam… And wuv, tru wuv, will fowow you foweva…” —The Princess Bride
That’s right! You lucky folks who actually check this blog for all the lastest up-to-date (sort of) Maggie news, you heard it here first (sort of!)…..
I am now officially a Slater.
And to make up for the fact that facebook/myspace/etc. were all informed first, rather than here, I’ve made special arrangements for you and only you to have the first sneak peaks of the snap shots of the ceremony! Continue reading “Mawage”→
