Changes & Happenings of Late

BAH! Where does time go?! Blogging has been the last thing on the list which means that I've barely logged in over the last week or two. It's good to be happily distracted and busy, but my head just sort of feels like it's in that "constantly treading water" state. ;)

So what's been going on?

Well a lil of this:

---New Housemate: who is awesome. He moved in just over a week ago and honestly I'm really hoping that the next few months go just as awesomely as this first week. He's also just out of a relationship and just coming back to the local area after working overseas on assignment for the last six months. He's also ironically a veteran, so far accepts & respects my lil household quirks, and while he hasn't spent much time in the outdoors--he's got the motivation, speed, and gear for it. It's sort of like being able to meld the best of both worlds of what I've been looking for--someone to split my household bills AND a new outdoor/fun partner. M works full-time but on a 3-4 days a week shift so he's also got some free weekday time which is awesome. He's up for just about anything (McMenamins soaking pool, dragging me out for Saturday evening pitchers of PBR with his friends, dinner & a rental, organizing the garage, drinking coffee, and trying to convince me to do the Warrior Dash....) Oh and yesterday I took him on his first official hike...and he totally kicked my butt when he turned the hike into a trail run and left me wasted behind--ha! The dogs are still getting used to him, my parents thought he was great when he started trying to help dad fix stuff around the house and told them some of the nerdy details about his tech job, and while not what I would have expected for the next 6-7 months..I'm pretty stoked about having him here!

Yesterday's First Hike of the Year:

--Family Brunch: Hosted the extended family for brunch two weekends ago and my parents also happened to come up that weekend (as they now stay with me whenever they come north now that Granny's been relocated and they can no longer stay with her). I made a french toast bake (that didn't really turn out cause the strawberries I subbed in made it too runny), sticky buns, and baked oatmeal. The family also brought quiche, coffee cake, fruit and mimosa fixings. SO nice to have the family here and get to spend time with everyone---I love being able to do this more openly now. ;)

--Cancelled my online account...about two weeks back. Yup. I decided that the online medium of meeting people is not the right one for me because I'm more apt to gauge attraction to others based on seeing how they work in their natural context. Plus I kept feeling like most the dates I went on were wanting more of a real long term relationship and I'm still not quite there yet. Ironically, I'm still getting emails...and I might go back to it at some point, but I feel like the minute I opened myself up to the potential of dating, my social life increased ten fold AND I started meeting people through more traditional venues. Which....

--Saturday. I spent at a tea house with my gal N in the morning...and then the rest of the day was mainly reserved for someone I've just been getting to know. A friend of a friend who is very respectfully taking things slow--not necessarily for me but also because he's cautious. He's VERY different than most the guys I've dated/hung-out with in the past...but for some reason, there's something I like about it. It might not go anywhere but right now, I'm just happy where it is. He'd offered to let me drag him out hiking on Saturday but we got rained out, so lunch turned into a movie (with pre-movie video game racing while waiting! :)...and I made it thru the entire movie without getting antsy which is pretty unheard of for me in the last few years) which turned into dinner. He's gone most of the actual week for work, so in some ways it naturally forces us to get to know each other via text...and to only really spend limited time together on the weekends....but I like it this way. 

--Work. Luckily last week was exam week which meant limited prepping, but I have grading to try to get thru today and tomorrow still. This week is Alcohol & Drugs, so it sometimes leads to some interesting conversations and redirecting. On Thursday of last week, I also braved 5am to commute with some coworkers for a Nutrition conference in Corvallis. It ended up being different than what I expected (it focused mainly on Whole Grains rather than all nutrition), but we still got some interesting information out of it, especially regarding probiotics and celiac disease. And it was nice to be in a learning environment with fellow individuals passionate about the current state of health in our nation. Oh...and should I get accepted to the MSW program...my boss already talked to me about staying on as an online instructor for the year until I could re-integrate upon it's completion--have I mentioned how awesome my boss is?!

--Other happenings: met my girls for Happy Hour last Monday, my "recovery" Insanity DVD kicked my butt in a way that usually doesn't so it forced me into extra rest for a few days this week, Anna's shedding like crazy which means vacuuming multiple times a week currently, filed my FAFSA finally, and having someone else around makes me have to eat more (especially since he also cooks-ha!). Still have a to-do list to get through but it'll all get done on time!