Done....& In Progress.

Completed:
Plane Ticket to Tanzania!!
Tentative Pre-Students Travel Plans.
Phone Unlock for International SIM Card.
Travel Vaccinations & Testing.
Travel Prescriptions Picked Up.
Summer Housemates/Cat Sitter Secured. (Arriving tomorrow)
Half Utilities Paid Ahead.
Other Half Set up for Online Payment.
General Outline for Tanzania Course Developed. (& For 2 other courses.)

In Progress:
Basic Swahili Lessons.
Getting to Know Students.
Researching Articles for Tanzania Course.

Happening. So surreal. Dreams & prayers....and 15ish years of a calling...all in motion. Amazing.

Blasts from the Past

You know how people choose words to represent their year? Well, I've continued to feel like my word or intention of the year tends to choose me...and this year is proving to be no exception.

Last year, the word evolved and presented itself as "grace." This year I'd sort of wondered if it wasn't going to be a bit more about settling...as in settling more into life, myself, the future, my career & finances, slowing down physically, etc. And while it does seem to be about that....it also has really been presenting this aspect of reconnecting with the past also. 

Case in point:

1) I returned to search out the career that I always felt was more my calling....and doors opened...as in flew open. But I had to reconnect to the past and what mattered to me then in order to move forward into the future of what those dreams could be....

2) I mentioned last year that while on a running date, I literally ran by a guy from my hometown. We shared mutual friends through two sources and so he and I hung out a few times with one of those connections (who also lives with his wife in Portland). That particular mutual source actually was an old love/long time best friend of mine and I am so in love with his wife and him together. I've had the opportunity to hang out with them (the couple) and the guy I ran by several times in the last year, but we all just reconnected again this spring as well. I honestly so love being in contact with my old best bud, am continuing to look forward to building a relationship with his wife, and totally enjoy the great moments out with them as a couple!

3) This story continues as on a lunch date last month with the guy I had run by, I also saw a friend of mine from my middle school days when I used to live in Eugene. It had been 12 years since I'd seen her the last time (again when I randomly ran into her in Portland). She and I were finally able to meet up for lunch last Friday and caught up briefly on the last 10-20 years....amazing! We've both had interesting turns in our life stories in the last five years but agreed that we are much stronger people because of it. It was fun seeing an old blast from the past and we're planning on taking her kiddo to the zoo one day this spring.

4) And there's more....In 8th grade, my family and I moved to the coast where I also finished high school. Almost 70% of my 8th grade year was spent with my buddy who lived down the street. I called his mom my second mom and she drove me to all sorts of events. I have SO many memories from my five years on the coast with this first brother-from-another-mother: shooting hoops in the gym, learning to shoot a gun up in the woods with his parents on my 15th birthday, homemade ice cream, camping with his family during a basketball tournament, going to church youth group, sharing my boyfriends as his other best friends. (Most my good friends were males until I hit my junior year of high school....) He met his now wife when we were 15 and they've been married & parents since we were 19. If I'm totally honest, he's one of my friends that I am most proud of and the two of them remind me so much of a younger version of my parents. I was able to visit them in 2009 when we were stationed in Louisiana and he and his wife were stationed in Alabama....but then somehow life got away from us. And even though they've been stationed in Washington for the last 2-3 years....it wasn't until way earlier this month that we saw each other again. Yet, I saw them again yesterday for the second time this month when I stopped at their place for dinner after a trip to Seattle....and it felt just like old times albeit now with more life and responsibility. And truthfully, I really hope to fit in a few more trips in the next year and before they get orders to a new location. It feels SO GOOD to have reconnected.

5) If you haven't noticed, beyond having just plain male friends, I also tend to try to transition guys I have dated into friends. While I recognize that not everyone operates this way, I've been fortunate to turn some unrealistic romantic partners into wonderfully supportive friendships, although I don't have the opportunity to see many of these friends much due to distance and life circumstances. One of the guys who taught me so much in my mid-20s however has been a great minimalist supporter over the years...and after not seeing him for almost ten years, I will be getting together with him briefly on Saturday.

6) I've already mentioned stopping by my old college housemate's house and visiting with her, her hubby, and their four kiddos on my recent trip to Bend. In that case it had been four years since we'd last seen each other in person.

7) Oh and that wedding I'm going to in Canada at the end of this summer? Again....an old high school friend who I only get to see every 2-3 years usually. There are only two of us from our hometown who are invited/going and since this other guy and I are also family/church friends, it'll be great to see him. Ironically he, his wife, and kiddos live locally....but we really only reconnect when our mutual buddy is in town or involved. :) 

I also have a feeling that the reconnections that I've mentioned aren't going to be the only ones. While this influx of old connections could be totally coincidental, I also do find it interesting and can't help but wonder if there is a bigger lesson I'm supposed to be recognizing out of it. Regardless, I've been enjoying the process and am looking forward to more visits ahead. And maybe just maybe, as I move toward this notion of "settling," perhaps this other underlying lesson is that sometimes it's good to be reminded of who you were before the rest of life happened.... :) 

Early April Explorations

I'm lounging in bed this morning researching PhD programs, giving my housemate the opportunity to use the main space in the house for her video conference call, and daydreaming about hiking for Earth Day. The responsible side of me decided not to head to the Gorge this morning in order to save gas and time...especially since I'm heading to Seattle on Saturday and hopefully back to Central Oregon the weekend after. Sometimes making the sensible choice isn't the most fulfilling one though :) but it does demonstrate that I'm trying to slow down still too. :) Instead, I intend to finish the weeding that needs to get done and hopefully do some other yardwork that needs to happen also.

Since I'm not heading out into the wilds today however, I thought I'd finally post some pictures from the fun explorations that the dogs and I did as the term was starting. The first week tends to take a lot in terms of admin type of stuff but also is slower in other ways, so it allowed for great flexibility to get the dogs out and about and enjoy some parts of the local outdoors that we haven't explored. Both of these spots were about 30 minutes from my house and were so neat to check out.

SELLWOOD PARK & OAKS BOTTOM REFUGE:

In my dreams, I will eventually move to Sellwood or SW Portland....and on this particular day I fell even more in love with this area....

Crossing this lil bridge reminded me so much of our old treks in Louisiana

River beach access! The dogs LOVED it here! That's downtown PDX in the background.

Non-fenced in dog park. Roxi did great and this accessibility made me love Sellwood even  more...

Oaks Bottom 

There's a lot of history and controversy with this empty building...

The trek around Oaks Bottom Refuge...great running trek.

LOVED IT!

SAUVIE ISLAND "HIKE":

Technically we were trying to do the "hike" aka walk to the Lighthouse, but I ran out of time and also had just kayaked to the lighthouse so didn't necessarily see the point in needing to get to it this day. We had a blast walking stretches of the beach though and then trekking along the trail. There are wildlife/bird refuges out in this area too so it was pretty incredible to see so many birds stopped on their migration patterns AND to see all the calves running around the fields. Roxi was so excited in the back of the car as the calves ran along. 

It was a pretty overcast day but it was great to have patches of sunshine break through. The dogs loved being able to be in the water and we did a couple of miles along the beach.

One of the neat things about this stretch is you can watch ships and barges traveling along the Columbia River (which separates Oregon and Washington, so that's Washington state across the river...) We also had a seal swimming along side us in the river on the way back.

I absolutely loved seeing all the plant life and was so mesmerized by these... They looked like dead branches along the shore but are actually root systems that have plant off shoots coming up out of them seasonally. Amazing how nature works :) There were so many parts of this trek that made me see new aspects of nature that I don't normally get to enjoy.

The "trail". We ran part of this but mainly just strolled along :)

Those cows!

One of the bird areas. So incredibly neat!

It's always a lot of fun to explore new nearby areas. We didn't cover a lot of miles on these treks but they really filled our souls right up :)