spruce

I wish I could always be the woman I was yesterday.

After I got settled in at work, I headed for a 4-hour seminar the Forensics department was holding for high school and college students interested in job shadow and internship opportunities. I am going to serve as a kind of "administrator" for the program - receiving applications for the seminar submitted online and orchestrating enrollment. I sat in on this, the first of many periodic presentations, in order to provide some critical feedback on how to improve the seminar in the future. Not to mention that I love learning more about forensics and I dream of someday joining that department.

At the end of the 4-hour block, I met with a crime scene technician and a criminalist to complete evaluations on the students who attended. Back at my desk, I compiled the notes I'd been taking throughout the presentation and emailed them to the Sergeant of the department.

By then it was 2:30pm, so the rest of the day flew by. I finished up some errant projects that had been floating around on my desk and even managed to get plans for a January Scentsy party underway. It dawned on me late in the day that I had promised to make breakfast for the following day's executive staff meeting. I filtered through AllRecipes and decided on two dishes.

After a quick MAX ride home, I narrowly missed catching the bus that would take me closer to the grocery store where I needed to pick up some last minute ingredients. So instead, I started hiking down the long hill toward the store, my legs moving faster than I thought was possible. I was chilly due to being slightly underdressed, but I felt great! Alive!

I soon trudged further down the hill to home, my arms heavy with bags of groceries and lovely gifts I received at work. My two babies, Oliver and Aurora, greeted me at the door (scratch that; they were asleep on the couch, oblivious to my arrival) and I got to work. The first order of business was to clean up the kitchen so I could make it a mess again. I simultaneously did some laundry, texted my family to thank them for the fabulous package they sent, and set out all the ingredients I needed.

For a couple hours I worked on the two breakfast dishes I had chosen: cranberry pecan coffeecake and a vegetable cheese strata. I'd never made either of these items before, so I focused hard on avoiding any fatal errors born of carelessness. I completed the coffeecake prep and popped it in the oven. While that baked, I did all the prep and assembly for the strata, which I was going to cook in the morning. The coffeecake finally finished and I let it cool for a few minutes before nervously plopping it out upside-down onto a pretty plate. Glory be! This was a gorgeous masterpiece of deep scarlet berries made soft by the heat, crispy pecans, and a golden glaze of brown sugar.

The cell phone photo may not do it justice.

I poured the strata mixings into a prepared baking dish and it looked alright to me. I'd never even seen a strata before, so I didn't have much to go off of. I secured it in the fridge and did a little bit of re-cleaning in the kitchen.

...wrote a note to Husband and climbed into bed with The Shining - which has been scaring the bejesus out of me each night. A productive day, followed by a productive, yet relaxing evening at home. I'm happy. The spirit of the holidays has infused me and I'm able to see the good that saturates my lucky life. Here are some grainy highlights, in no particular order (actually, I guess it's alphabetical in terms of how I named the file):

"cats" - (striped Aurora and tuxedo Oliver - best friends forever)

"immersion" (new blender - best kitchen tool ever!)

"jesse" (husband. love of my life.)

secondarily "mexican food" (from Cha Cha Cha Taqueria)

"rainy" (Oregon - the land I love)

lava balls - day 1

An email arrived in my work inbox on June 5th advertising a cabin that belongs to the friend of a coworker. The 2-bedroom wood cabin is located in Sisters, a 3-hour drive from Portland in a charming little spot in central Oregon. The outrageously affordable nightly price prompted me to start planning a trip within 30 minutes of receiving the email. Road trip!

I didn't tell Jesse where we were going, though when he asked if he could bring his surfboard I said yes to throw him off. We departed less than an hour later than planned, and drove south toward Salem. Not long after turning off the main freeway, I revealed our destination. "Sisters! I love Sisters," he said. "I have five of them."

After a 70-mile drive through thick cloud forest, drenching rain and past lovely, churning creeks (and Camp Attitude, of course), we reached the straightaway to Sisters. The small town consists of a bustling little main street, lined with shops, restaurants and llama farms. We decided to check out the cabin before venturing further.

I was told the little hut would be surrounded by big, luxurious mansions and was thereby frightened that the place might be a bit too "rustic" for my tastes. Not in the least! The sweet cabin was small but inviting, surrounded by birdhouses hung in trees, mounted on fence posts and propped on tables. The living room housed a wood-burning stove that I couldn't wait to utilize and the open kitchen featured a breakfast bar and nearly every kitchen tool one might need.


We dropped our belongings off and drove back into town to try out the legendary Sno-Cap Ice Cream. The smell of freshly battered onion rings wafted out the door as we waited in a line stretched around the front of the building. Jesse prompted me to order an indulgent root beer float...possibly the best I've ever had. We finished up and headed back down the road we had taken into town. We reached the turnoff for Jack Lake, my excitement growing in anticipation of a moderate hike to a gorgeous alpine meadow filled with more wildflowers than I'd ever seen, with a quick, cold stream flowing through its center.

We wound around the mountain, climbing higher and higher. At one point, a gorgeous female black-tailed deer appeared directly ahead of us on the side of the dirt road. She confidently stared toward us for several minutes, before calmly walking into the forest. I thought she was trying to communicate with us, but I wasn't quite sure what she was saying. In retrospect, I should have tried harder to discern her message.

We finally reached the parking area and stepped out into the very crisp mountain air. We located the trailhead next to a quiet, silvery lake. The surrounding forest showed obvious signs of recent widespread fire. The whole scene, save little bursts of new green growth, looked like a black and white film. Thin, scorched tree trunks leaned against one another, eminating a horrible, soft screaming noise. We climbed up the path, frequently having to jump over, roll under or hike around fallen tree limbs. We encountered increasingly large snow drifts and a huge outcropping of rock that Jesse was able to "boulder" and climb.


Shortly thereafter, my Piscean intuition kicked in and yelled at me to "Stop!" Jesse and I had a brief discussion about the high likelihood we would loose the difficult-to-spot trail and spend the night in these awful, haunted woods. I agreed to go another 10 minutes in the hopes of finding that seemingly imaginary flower pasture, but we lost our courage and turned back after only a few moments. I have seen way too many episodes of “I Survived” and “I Shouldn’t Be Alive” to make such an elementary mistake and a grievance against my instincts.

I was thoroughly relieved once we made it off the mountain and back into town. We drove to the Three Creeks Brewery in Sisters and tasted their mega-sampler. Wow. I’ve tasted a few beer samplers in my day, but this one was outstanding.

Back to the cabin. Jesse taught me how to play horseshoes (flip the wrist, get good speed and height) and we cooked maple-rosemary skirt steak, baked potatoes and corn on the cob for dinner. Heavenly! He proceeded to kick my butt in Trivial Pursuit and we browsed a local birding guide while relaxing after our meal. Sisters was proving to be the lovely, needed escape from suburban life that I had hoped for.