Proof That I Do Other Things [besides blogging]

Drawing...


Climbing...




Dinner...
Alas, I have no pictures of this great yumminess....

She Makes Me Happy

Ahh... I'm looking back through pictures from the fabulous places I've been, hardly believing I was there. Here and there I pull a few out to draw, or tell myself I will draw. I keep coming across pictures of Miss Courtnay Smith. She makes me smile, so I thought I'd post a few pics of her to make you smile, too.

Maybe I Should Learn Chinese

Last night I was looking through Tracy's roommate's Art History book and, while reading the title and museum that houses a particular work of art, I discovered one of my favorite things to say.
Beijing.
Say it out loud. Right now just do it. Ah hahahha!
I just sat there and said it for probably 30 seconds. I really don't even remember what the piece was, or why I was reading it out loud, but it was fun.
And maybe now I should go to bed.

Things that Make Me Happy

[Sort of like "Things that Piss me off" only better]

-Beautiful red fall leaves.
Indicators that snow is on the way.
-Tender purple guitar fingers.
It means worship through song all day long.
-Those hilarious letter combinations for benefit of bloggerites everywhere who hate spam.
Is it weird that they make my day?
-Being in PJ's after noon.
This is becoming a trend. Not a bad one, I don't think...
-Making an appointment with Dr. Crandell.
I defy you, back pain!
-Pineapple juice.
Alas, not in liters, like I drank in Europe, but in smoothie form, which works when in Portland.
-For spell check that wants to change "bloggerites" to "flowcharting".
How. What. Why. It reminds me somehow of Kim Lee and people's sketch yearbook quotes.

Today's Headlines in the Allison Times

-Mt Hood Covered in Snow
A beautiful white dusting of the stuff has covered it peak to foothills. In September! I know!

-The Secret Society Expands
In an unlikely place: the Portland Rock Gym. Crystal Humble, 2 years at RavenCrest (plus 5 years on staff), dated Ben Thomas. Cami Potter, brother Brent Potter attended Capernwray and T-hof with me, also knows people from my church and from Multnomah and Janice Rae. So crazy.

-Girl Cheats Unnecessarily while Climbing a 5.8
Rosie, I can't climb without you.

-Dehydrated Muscles Pump after One Rout
So I tried an over-hung 5.9 that I should have been able to do, and found, when I finally quit and descended onto the blue carpeted floor, that my forearms were totally pumped.

-Girls Excited over Long-distance Calls
It being Pamela's birthday and all, and me having a boyfriend in South Carolina, we had a lot of those today.

Memo: Post for all my ex-coworkers + Rose

After my return from fruit-starved Europe, I recalled my love of smoothies. Pretty much I lost my creativity (and my Bibo menu memory) and have only made one kind since I got home. Sort of a Sussex (Point and say "that one, with the strawberries and banana." Really. Is it So hard to say. Sooo-sex? NO. Come on people.) sub strawberries for blueberries.
But today, I had a moment of enlightenment.
Who remembers the Thailand? Who remembers that I was practically the only one who liked it? Haha.
Yeah, so I was sitting there thinking about how stupid it was that I had 2 bananas and about 10 blueberries. I thought about it after I had made the drink and then sat, lamenting the fact that I should have made a Mobile or a Panama City, even. Then... then I remembered how Kisha hooked me on the Thailand. That would be good with some blueberries.
So now I have a sort of hybrid Charlotte-Thailand.
Soooo yummy for my tummy.

Window Gnomes

I just found this picture in my pictures from the Winter School York trip.
Had to post it.
Gnomes are so cool.

[I believe that's lil' Kim's finger.]

Contending with Mediocrity

As I drove down Fremont on my way home, in the usual evening crawl, I stared half unseeingly at the populous around me. Some in their cars, some leaning on bus stops, some on bikes, some walking, slowly gaining on their destinations. They looked bored and tired in the wind, complexions dulled by the dry, lusterless palette of the almost autumn. I felt the same. I started to dismay at the thought that this is what I was made for, and this was all there will ever be - sitting in a car, watching the light change from red to green, no yellow in between. I shook myself and the moment past. I then began the inner dispute that has more than once held court in my mind, the one that wonders whether or not God will want me to be one of those people who is called to stay in the same place, doing the same thing, driving the same streets their whole life. Could I love it? Could I live it passionately? Could I live it visibly defined by love? I don't know how it could bring Him glory, but I can't see but through a distorted glass - like a foggy, textured window in a bathroom - not the way He sees it.
And that's okay.
There really is more than I see.
(Thank goodness)

"God is saying 'freedom to dance, freedom to sing, freedom to go'. Worship now, worship now - Worship your God. Freedom in liberty."
Gideon (Valley/Victory) by Jason Upton

Oh What's in a Name

Main Entry:
endeavor
Part of Speech:
noun
Definition:
attempt
Synonyms:
aim, all out, best shot, crack, crash project, dry run, effort, enterprise, essay, exertion, fling, full blast, full steam, go, header, labor, lick, one's all, push, shot, stab, striving, struggle, toil, travail, trial, try, try on, undertaking, venture, whack, whirl, work

Main Entry:
extemporize
Part of Speech:
verb
Definition:
improvise
Synonyms:
ad-lib, dash out, devise, do offhand, improvisate, invent, knock off, make up, toss off.

I think that about explains it.

Oh the Spedious Passage of Time

It has been a year, ladies and gentlemen. It has been a year.
We ought to have a moment of silence - it is a birthday here.

And, as we are all quite able to conclude from the generous quanities of evidence, the Blank Page as it was, is no longer so. Not by any means. So, as a new year is unleashed upon us, there is a host of new opportunities for versified details of life to emerge, but certainly not on any sort of Blank Page.

This will be addressed as promptly as possible.

Night Time

I feel like I should post.
Not sure why. Probably in honor of Janice's now neglected blog that once was so frequently posted upon.
But it is most certainly bed time, and I am a noodle of limpness, lying flat out on my bed with Stuart on my lap. (What would this lazy person do with out a computer that can be used in bed rather than at a desk?)
I need to go to bed and to try to sleep as long as I can because there always seems to be something sneakily trying to steal my sleep; dreams, twisted sheets, too warm/too cold, alarm wake ups, neighbor's cars blasting music.
Is that Josh Vaisanen's guitar I hear, melodious in my happy ears? Ahhhh... tragic that it is only a cd and not his talented canadianess down the stairs, past the bathroom and across the hall from me.
But it is something I can fall asleep happy to.

Are You Sitting Down?

We are now official owners of a microwave.
I can't really quite believe it.

Clogging In My Brain

New Orleans
School, Art history?
Being bored
Lexicology
Posting
Spider web dreams

Allison Loves the Beach

...and photoblogging. So if the statement "A picture is worth a thousand words" is true, I apologize profusely because this is the longest collection of posts ever.

My favorite picture and Attempts at being creative (while sitting on the beach)

Lovely people (aka my family)

Boats (fishing, things that live in the water)

The beautiful Pacific Ocean (and things you can do in it)

Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream

I was riding a bike through some grass and shrubberies on a dune that was, surprisingly, in the Lloyd district. This was no ordinary bike. It was about the size of the tricycle I rode when I was 4, but the difference lies in that it was no tricycle - not even a bicycle, really because it had no wheels. Some sort of smooshy substance was under the seat and it squashed on the ground in such a way that I was able to still pedal and make forward progress. This bike-ish contraption, me and Gabe Haw (on a regular little bike) proceeded, quite painfully, until we came upon an old Jetta with a couple in it who volunteered to swap with us. (So that we could catch whatever it was we were trying to get to or capture or meet or whatever, I don't recall.) I was singing the books of the Bible song when they came upon us, and so - in an attempt to make the situation of singing a random song less awkward - I asked the woman if she knew the books of the Bible in order. She did. Only... in elvish. Yes, elvish. How does my sub conscience come up with that? Perhaps I don't really want to know. Anyway, I didn't really believe her, but when Gabe and I got into the car, I discovered that it most likely was true, judging from the amount of books on tape in aforementioned language. Can you believe it?
Does this make me a nerd even in my sleep?

!Attention!

As I learned from our experience and trauma when Janice went away for a week, I am posting to warn you all that I will not be posting for a week. My family is taking our annual trip to Lincoln City, followed immediately by the annual church camp-out at Ft Stevens. Pretty much it's gona be an awesome week.
Hope you all post a lot for me to read when I come home. ! hehe

Where My Girls at

Somehow I got the shaft on "Sister's Weekend" at Mt Hood this weekend. The Kriens and Koerper sisters were there. And ... me. (Tracy had to work and pack. Siiigh responsible people. I tell ya.)
Picture taking got a mite neglected amongs all the laughs, games, on film "interviews", eating, cooking (mmm truffles) and everything else, sad to say. But we got a few good ones.





Ronda and Rachel were there, too - no idea how they aren't pictured. Not that they aren't loved... but... as I recall, girls night involved less than ample clothing *caugh* and uh... we're just leaving all that out. *big grin*

Thursday's Fun

Thursday my boys (Adam and Gabe) and I went up to Mt Tabor to fight the hot weather and to fight the greatest enemy of the summer (bordom) and do some ice blocking.
Here's a couple of pics...

I Am a Viking

Today I got in touch with my Scandinavian roots ... sort of. I had orientation at Portland State University where people were standing around in black and green wearing Viking emblems and saying things like "be proud you're a Viking!". I would have been more scared, but I was raised knowing that I am part Norwegian.

So here's the damage:
English 312 - Comedy and Satire
English 384 - Contemporary Literature
Art History 290 - Modern Art
Anthropology 301 - Culture and Ethnography.
And none of them starts before 10am. Oh heck yes. I am so excited.

The Week with Josh [in pictures]

At the Dining Table with a Monk

Closely trimmed hair, eyes clear and interested, he sits in the chair barefoot, camo shorts and a brown t-shirt that reads "Honolulu" (orange robes in a messenger bag on the back of his bicycle). He tells me about guiding others in meditation and his meeting at Starbucks in half an hour, verifying his faith in playing tennis with his dad. The culture of West and East clashing noiselessly.

Typical Bloggings. Daaah.

I feel like I should post. Not because I actually feel the need to update anyone on my life (it, for some reason, annoy me when I find myself posting in the form of 'yeah so today I did...'. And also because the general population should be smart enough to guess from my last post that some one rather special is in town so I'm busy.) but more because I'm sick of seeing that short little post at the top of my blog, and because for the first time to day I'm actually awake. Dang it - I'm blabbing about what I did today. No. Gr.

Good bad feelings:
-painful skin on the back of my knees and end of my nose means that I spent yesterday at the Oregon Coast with my beautiful friends.
-tired/sore eyes that come from watching a movie Capernwray style with a laptop and headphones.
-dirty, blistery feet are the result of a hike/walk with Josh up on "my mountain" today in the beautiful sunshine.
-slightly sore back means that I have done a lot of riding in cars, which, in turn, means that I have been going to a lot of fun places with people I love this week.

Have I, Perhaps, Mentioned to Anyone that...

Josh is coming tomorrow?
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!
If I were Janice, I would say I'm peeing myself.
But I'm not, so I'll just say that I'm SUPER excited.
Heee :D

Rosie, the Cyclist

Laughing at the first attempt:


She confronts her fears!

Doing Doing Doing

What am I doing?
Aparently nothing. It really feels like I've been doing a lot of nothing recently. Especially today.
Nothing nothing nothing.
Oo no wait !
I read a chapter and a half in Genesis. Yessssss.
Something.