So.

Life.

The last post I made of any substance was a big move, marriage, baby, and home purchase ago.

As of about 20 hours ago, I have another big change. I am no longer a journalist. The mixture of sadness and relief is hard to describe. It's a bit like leaving a bad relationship when you are still in love but know that the other person doesn't want the same things and will never give you what you truly want or need.

The news this week was full of stories about Pulitzer winners who have left journalism in search of anything that will pay the rent. People who love what they do but wanted to get ahead of the layoff notices and avoid joining the ranks of the unemployed.

I may not have a Pulitzer, but I'm now among the industry refugees, fleeing a job I once felt passion for to find financial stability and skills that can transfer beyond a current employer.

My husband and I have known for years that having two people working in journalism wasn't sustainable if we wanted to be homeowners and raise a family. The birth of our daughter six months ago cemented that. A big part of the issue is our hours. As a copy editor I work nights and coming home at 11 p.m., but getting up at 6 to take care of the baby was exhausting. I wanted to be home in the evenings not only to sleep, but to make sure I could put my baby to bed and spend time with my husband. When my husband covered night meetings, we were paying babysitters in addition to day care that costs as much as our overpriced rent.

On top of that, the writing on the wall is getting more ominous. Our paper laid off two reporters shortly after I returned from maternity leave, and the industry seems to be trending toward centralized copy desks. There's no evidence that our company is planning that move, but my sense of job security was getting worse.

It's increasingly obvious that while those of us still crazy enough to work in print journalism are passionate about what we do, our industry doesn't love us. We're expected to continue to do more with less as the powers that be seem more and more clueless. None of us went into journalism to make money; but there's a difference between not wanting to be rich and wanting to pay rent and eat something other than top ramen for dinner. We want to have families and if not buy homes, drive reliable vehicles.

Journalists once joked about leaving for the "Dark Side," but it's no longer a joke. I hope print media get it together and stick around so that someone is still holding the government accountable. I still believe in the Fourth Estate; it just doesn't believe in me.

Monday, I begin a job in the communications office of a local school district. It has the lifestyle changes I wanted; I'll be working 8-5 and so will be able to put my baby to bed every night and get to bed at a reasonable hour. For the first time since we've known each other, my husband and I will have all our evenings together to cook dinner, cuddle in front of the TV, maybe do some housework. But it also has something far more important: stability and the opportunity to expand my skill set. I could have stayed in journalism another few years, adding more multi-media skills that while fun, don't help pay for my baby's day care or guarantee I'll still have a job the day after I learn them. But in my new position, I'll be able to really develop in a way that will make it possible to move on when I need to without having to relocate. I've never felt job stability as an adult; it's an exciting feeling.

This is a test blog to show a friend how YouTube embedding works. Nothing to see here, and I'm guessing noone is here to see it.

Holy crap, it's been a while. I should start blogging again. I always say that, and never get around to it. It might be nice to get back into writing of some sort. Right now, I'm here because what started out as a Facebook status about insomnia got too long. Good thing I'm off work today. Awake all night again. When I went to the walk-in clinic after two nights of insomnia a couple of weeks ago, I got an Ambien prescription, but I don't want to take it more than absolutely necessary, which means work nights only. No sleep tonight. Finally got bored and got out of bed. I have an appointment with a primary care doc tomorrow, which probably won't do much short term, but I'm going to ask for a referral to go get a sleep study. At this point, I'm sure that 90% of what's keeping me from sleeping is being nervous about whether or not I'll be able to sleep, but part of it is that my brain won't wind down. It's like trying to have a conversation with a preschooler with ADD in there. I'm not stressed or depressed or anxious (except about the sleep issue) and life is actually pretty great, so I'm not worrying about anything at night, but my brain's like, "Hey! Remember this funny thing you read today? Or that thing that douche on the Internet said about politics? Or that cute puppy you saw? Oooh! We should buy a treadmill!" I just need to figure out how to make my brain turn off. I know I'm not supposed to use the computer or watch TV, but reading seems to make it worse. Any non-fiction that would teach me something is too stimulating, and anything with a plot keeps me up because I want to keep reading. I'm sick of it, though. I'll go to any kind and any number of doctors to figure out what my issue is. I thought a few days of Ambien would get my rhythm back to normal, but the problem becomes that the stupid Ambien is habit-forming. I don't know if that's what the problem was tonight, but clearly, there's an issue.

Happy New Year

First, I'm posting because I'm going to give this "365 Days" project a shot. Here's my first shot of the new year. I can't seem to embed the photo using the Flickr link, so click here. That's Ty's cat, Jasper.

Our big transition began three days before we rang in the New Year. Ty accepted a new job as the education reporter for the Tri-City Herald and we will be out of Klamath Falls by the end of January. I will have to stop working for newspapers, at least temporarily, and we have no idea what I will do as my main source of income when we get there, but I'm excited for the move. I'm sad that I might have to leave newspapers, but I plan on doing a lot of freelance writing and hopefully some day I can either come back to journalism as a reporter or just write in my spare time. It's a nice idea.

Ty found out about the job four days ago, and our living room is now a maze of stacks of boxes and suitcases. We're trying to live with the boxes, which are going in the basement tomorrow, and make the house presentable for the real estate listing, while recognizing that three weeks is a lot of time to make new messes. There may be some interesting meals in our future as I try to use up all the random ingredients that can't go to the food bank.

Tonight my mom invited us over for dinner, knowing we're trying to pack and clean the kitchen. I haven't had time to cook a nice dinner in weeks, so I made a nice meal of Indian food and we had good conversation. It's been fantastic living in town with my parents but not living WITH them (although my parents are pretty awesome, so living with them wasn't a problem at all, it's just different to be able to have my own space and just have nice visits). I'll miss them, and I'll miss all the friends I made at the Herald and News, but this is a really exciting time for us. Scary, but exciting.

It wouldn't be us if the day went exactly as planned

Last week, Ty and I left on a long-needed vacation and went down to visit several family members in the Bay Area. The trip had been planned for a while and we were really looking forward to it. Sunday (Oct. 30), we spent the afternoon at Open Studio (an event where you can go to the studios of several different artists and purchase art) and had a lovely Indian dinner with Ty's Uncle and his husband and some of their friends. Before we went to dinner, Ty insisted on taking a side trip to Target to buy a new tripod because he'd forgotten to bring his.

Monday (Halloween), we grabbed coffee, took some photos at Twin Peaks, and set out to find City Lights bookstore, an old haunt of Allen Ginsberg's in North Beach. After a slight adventure involving unnecessary treks up and down giant hills, we got back to the car nearly an hour after the parking meter ran out. I thought the fact that we didn't get a parking ticket would be the best surprise of the day ...

All weekend, Ty had been telling me there was an overlook at the Presidio that he wanted to take me to, so we headed that way, only to find it was completely fogged in. We couldn't see anything. No water, no Golden Gate Bridge. Nothing. We kept driving and came upon a beautiful beach with a view of the bridge above the fog. Ty suggested stopping to take photos.

On the beach, we each played around with our cameras and Ty suggested putting mine on the tripod so we could use the remote shutter to get photos of us together. After a few "test shots," he handed me the remote ... and then pulled out an engagement ring and asked me to marry him. If he didn't remember that I said, "Oh my God," a few times before saying yes, I probably wouldn't be able to tell you what I said. I did, after a few seconds, remember to take a few photos.

To answer the obvious question: The proposal was not the point of the trip. We planned it months ago, and Ty decided about a month before that it would be a great place to propose. What he did not know (and doesn't believe) is that for some time, I had been just-for-fun fantasizing about a San Francisco proposal and when we were on the beach, I was thinking "Wow, if he was going to ask, this would be the perfect place." So in the end, even if we didn't wind up exactly where he wanted to be, I loved it and the moment was so close to exactly what I would have wanted that when he actually asked it took me a split second to realize it was actually happening. Everything, from the bridge and ocean in the background of the photos to the ring, was exactly how I would have planned it if given the option. So in the end, the adventure getting to the bookstore and the improvising of a new location were all part of a wonderful day.

After making a few phone calls to parents and grandparents (which took some time because my iPhone decided to chose that moment to stop working for the first time,) we went to get lunch and then headed up to Marin County to visit my dad's brother and his family. We played basketball with my cousins (Juila is 13 and shares a birthday with me. Nick is 8) and then headed out with them and their parents for some trick-or-treating. It was awesome to get to share the proposal with some family in person. My aunt said she had goosebumps when we told her the story.

Day three of our vacation, we were planning on heading up to the Napa Valley to see my dad's sister, but first, I insisted on going to the overlook where Ty had originally intended to propose. It is beautiful and although it would have made for fantastic photos, I don't think I could be happier than I am with the beach proposal.

Love

(After I make a dirty joke about a bed commercial)
Ty: "My girlfriend, ladies and gentlemen."
Me: "You love me."
Ty: "I like that you keep having to remind me of that."
Me: "You're stuck with me."
Ty: "Are you saying there's no way out of this?"
Me: "That's what I'm saying."
Ty: "Sounds like a challenge."

We're so nice to each other. :)

Two more days ....

Ty's been in Kansas since Thursday. He went out for his sister's college graduation and I couldn't go because I'm going to a family reunion in Indiana next month. So since Thursday, Bugsy and I have been hanging out alone. This means I have to take him for his walk at 5:30 in the morning (as soon as the sun comes up, he instantly thinks, "walk!" and won't let anyone sleep until he gets what he wants) after not getting to bed until after midnight. I'm exhausted and very grumpy, but mostly I just miss Ty. I had Friday and today (and tomorrow) off work, so I've really just been at home alone. I haven't had this much time to myself since I moved from Yakima and while it's been nice to have the time to myself to watch bad Lifetime movies and other girly shows without judgment, now I just want him to be back. Poor Bugsy will lose it when he gets here. He really doesn't understand why Ty's not here. He spends a lot of time looking out the window waiting for the jeep to pull into the driveway.

Sad week.

Friday night, I came home after a long day at work. It had been a stressful few days and I was ready to get in bed with Ty and relax. I needed to give my 14-year-old cat Nala some medicine and called to Ty to ask if she was in the bedroom. He said yes, and when I walked up to her, I saw she had passed away. It was a rather traumatic way to end the evening. Ty was great and helped me put her in a box (and in the morning, we took her to the vet to be cremated), but I was too upset to sleep and had to work Saturday. Getting through that day at work was awful. I knew Nala had some health problems and that she was getting up in age (we had her twin sister, who did not live with me, put to sleep a few months ago), and I always hoped she would die at home so I wouldn't have to put her through the trauma of riding to the vet in the car, but I also wasn't expecting to be at work when it happened. I don't even remember if I interacted with her that day. Ty said when he left for work in the morning, she was lying on top of me purring while I slept, but I don't remember seeing her other than to give her her morning medicine. I've had Nala since she was born. In fact, she was born on my bed while I was still in it. I was away in Eugene for about six years of her life, but for every other day of the rest of her life, she slept in bed with me and always, if she was sitting near me, purred loudly enough to make it hard to hear the TV. I'll miss her.

Adventures in dog ownership

Saturday, Ty and I got back from running errands very eager to make sandwiches out of some challah he bought from our favorite bakery while on his morning walk with Bugsy. I asked where the bread was -- we keep it on the counter but he sometimes freezes it -- and he insisted it was there. That's when we saw the empty bread bag on the living room floor. At first, it was just annoying that he cost us $4 and we didn't get to eat any of the delicious bread, and the bakery was closed by then.

Over the next 24 hours, we had other reasons to be concerned. Bugsy began to show signs of intestinal distress, including gas so horrendous it could be used to make biological weapons. He looked bloated and was clearly uncomfortable, breathing more deeply and panting more often than normal. So, we made an appointment at the one vet in town open 7 days a week. He got an x-ray to make sure his intestine wasn't completely blocked and $150 later, we brought him home with some pain pills to just wait for it all to come out. By the time we woke up today (Monday), he seemed back to his old self ... except for one thing. My first thought when I saw him this morning was, "why is he orange?"




Ty left for work before I woke up, but he wrote a note explaining the dog's new fur color. An empty container of paprika and a white leather chair tinted the same orange as the dog's fur.

I called the vet and was told to just wait for it all to pass.

The closing line of Ty's note?

"We may need to rethink how we organize the kitchen."

50 book update

I'm barely hanging on for the 50-book challenge. But I do have two more to add to the list.

1. Game change by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin. This is an "insider" book about the 2008 presidential campaigns. It's mostly unsourced, so it's hard to tell how much is really accurate, but a lot of the stuff about the Obama campaign is information I've read in other books. A lot of the book is dedicated to the Democratic primary and is about how much Hilary Clinton really thought she was going to win. There are lots of details about how the Edwards campaign imploded and how Obama's success surprised the other candidates. Then there's a section on the McCain campaign and the lack of vetting and preparation before choosing Sarah Palin as VP. I realize you have to take unsourced books with a grain of salt, but it's pretty entertaining and I've read multiple chapters in single sittings.

2. Conversations with Myself by Nelson Mandela . This is a collection of letters, journal entries, autobiography transcripts, and transcripts of conversations that Mandela wrote/had during his time in prison. It's fascinating. I'm finding it hard to piece together Mandella's real story from the little fragments, but it's quite interesting to read about his mindset as recorded during the actual prison stay. I plan on reading his actual autobiography, "Long Walk to Freedom," later in the year. Don't be fooled by the fact that Amazon is listing this as by Nelson Mandela and Barack Obama. Obama wrote a very short prologue and definitely should not be listed as a coauthor.

New Year's Resolution

Things have been pretty normal around here. Not much to blog about, really.

This year I resolved to take on the 50-book challenge again. I've done it a few times before, but never while holding a full-time job. But, it's something I'm trying because the piles of unread books in my house are growing at an exponential rate. Neither Ty or I can resist a bookstore, and if there's a sale at Borders, we wind up adding to the pile and subtracting from our bank accounts. He's trying it too, and at the moment, while I should be working on book #3, he's sitting next to me making an admirable attempt at reading "Walden."

I'm cheating a tiny bit by including books that I started toward the end of 2010 in my total. So, here are my first two:

1. "Obama's Wars" by Bob Woodward. I love Woodward and have read most of his books since the Bush administration. He tends to just present a ton of information with no real point-of-view, so his style can be a bit tedious. But I liked this book, which is about the differing opinions within the military and administration on the war in Afghanistan. It's as much about the "war" of opinion than the actual war. Worth a read if you like politics but don't want to read obviously biased books.

2. "The Girl Who Played With Fire," by Stieg Larsson. I decided to read this after working for months on "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" last year. The main problem I have with these books is the strange syntax. It's very obvious that they're translations and I'm not sure if the problem is the translator or that Swedish itself is hard to translate to English. But Ty read an article last year about Larson that said his syntax is strange even in the native language. He starts off slow -- I've found that the first 100 pages or so of both his books were pretty boring -- but the pace picks up throughout the book. After reading at most 50 pages or so at a time, I read the last 200 without stopping. There's a nice twist at the end and there's some more mystery added (and explained) to the story of the main character. It's good enough to make me want to read the final book in the triology. Also, Larsson has an obsession with mentioning full brand and model names of products on every reference. It's like he's being paid for product placement. It would be like if instead of just referring to my phone as a phone, I referred to it as my "red Blackberry flip from T-Mobile" but called it that EVERY TIME I mention it.

3. "The Big Burn" by Timothy Eagan. Technically, I haven't finished this yet, but I'm more than halfway done and have two days off work without plans, so I will probably finish today. This one is about devastating forest fires in the Northwest at the start of the 20th Century and how they shaped the people and the land. It's also about the early days of the Forest service. It's just a good story. Eagan has a talent for making non-fiction read like a novel. I'm not liking this one as much as I liked "The Worst Hard Time," but it's definitely a good read.

Next up: "Conversations with Myself" by Nelson Mandela, "Ford County: Stories," by John Grisham (I know, I know. I like the type of pointless airplane books Grisham writes. I like something I can read in one night and not have to think about); "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell, and "World War Z" by Max Brooks.

My friends

The only good thing about having been sick? Every time I came home early or stayed home all together, my cats slept right next to me, keeping me company. Tonight we're all doing well, but I'm still enjoying the purring and cuddling.

The summer

I keep telling myself I'll blog more, but I never do. I recently wrote in a real journal for the first time in years and told myself I would start doing that more often. But I didn't. I've been missing writing lately and need to start trying to get in the habit again. It's hard when I have to be careful about political commentary and don't really like writing fiction.

The arrival of cool weather seems to be signaling that summer is over. I have slept with my windows closed for the last week and it doesn't seem like I'll need to open them again. We had some warm weather, but it certainly seems to have been a mild year. Summer was fun, though. After some of our mutual friends moved, "Kansas" became the default host of all parties, since he owns a house in the neighborhood most of our friends/coworkers live in. There were lots of barbecues (Meaning, I spent a lot of time eating nuked boca burgers while everyone else declared whatever meat our friend Terry had cooked to be "his best barbecue ever"), and lots of games of Apples to Apples. Kansas and I did some traveling together and are hoping to take another short trip the weekend of my birthday. I'm really happy with the way things are going with the relationship and while there's still new territory, I'm excited to see where it goes. It's been just about a year now and I'm so grateful to have someone so awesome.

The past few weeks have been tough -- I caught some type of bug and for two weeks had virtually no appetite, lots of trouble sleeping, and pretty bad nausea. After two trips to the doctor and two blood tests, one of which I have not heard back on, I still don't know what was wrong, except that I had a slightly elevated white blood cell count, but today I'm feeling really well. I started to feel a bit better Sunday but today was the first day I had some energy and ate three real meals. I'm knocking on wood hoping it continues, but I think whatever it was is out of my system now. I called in sick to work or left early several days and was tired of not working.

This weekend, a bunch of us are going to an area fair, which should be a lot of fun. After that, I have a week and a half of work before taking a few days off for my birthday trip and then another week of work before I get an entire week off. Kansas' parents are going to be in town the first few days of my vacation, and I'm getting nervous about meeting them. I've never met a boyfriend's parents before, so I'm trying to stay relaxed about it. Should be an interesting time.

Tofu's big adventure

So this weekend was interesting. Saturday was a day that started out very sad and ended very happy. In between, I discovered how awesome it is to have a boyfriend who will give up half of his weekend to do something nice for me/my family.

On Saturday morning, I was out running errands with Kansas and generally having a pretty good day when my mom called to tell me our dog (a 7-pound mini dachshund named Tofu Smart Dog) got out of the yard and was MIA. She'd driven around the neighborhood looking for him and a few people she saw out on the street had seen him, but no luck. The Humane Society had already closed for the weekend.

Kansas and I went home and walked around the neighborhood, which includes quite a few steep hills, for about an hour handing out our phone number to people who were outside and asked them to look for him. We didn't find him and came home. My mom was really devastated about losing the dog (the gate somehow was left open). Kansas and I went out again for a while before coming back to help hand out fliers. Mom and dad and two of their friends divied up the neighborhood with us and we walked around knocking on every door to hand out fliers. We put them up on posts and in paper boxes and on car windshields. A few people had seen him, but the reports of just where he had been seen were varied and indicated he'd run up on the mountain behind the neighborhood. He'd been gone for about 9 hours. At this point, it was dark and cold and we couldn't do anything. Dad bought us pizza and Kansas and I, both completely exhausted, promised to get up in the morning and hike up the mountain to look for Tofu. I was pretty confident he'd be all right and that if he wasn't in someone's house, he'd be able to find his way home and that he knew I feed the cat on the porch late at night (he likes to lick out the cans).

Kansas went home and my very sad parents went to bed. I was about to turn off my TV and go to sleep when I heard a far-off, quiet, familiar bark. I was watching a show with a dog in it at the time, so I wasn't sure if I'd really heard anything. I got up and went out into the main room, where the doggie door is, and called the dog's name. He didn't come, but I heard a bark again. I decided to look in the front yard, and as soon as I opened the door, a VERY tired, limping little dachshund ran into the house. His paw pads were scraped up and he was starving, but he was home. My parents were of course overjoyed. I sent Kansas a text message (that he didn't get until the next morning) and we stayed up for a bit with the doggie, who ate about half his body weight before passing out on my dad's lap.

Sunday, I drove around the neighborhood with my odometer set and if Tofu was really seen everywhere people told us he was, he covered about 3 miles on those teeny little legs. Even I wouldn't have wanted to make that walk up those hills.

What I wouldn't give to know what he really did that day.

Life is good

Winter in Klamath Falls is awful. Snowy mountain passes make leaving town a treacherous prospect and the sense of isolation can be stifling (I just want a decent place to shop. But it's not worth a 2 hour + drive through snow to get to Medford).

This year's not so bad. There's no snow yet, which makes it possible to leave town (although the lack of more than one consecutive day off puts a damper on things). But I remembered something. This town is ugly in the winter. It's brown and drab and while the sun is usually out — a nice change from the Willamette Valley — everything at eye level is just boring. A few feet of sparkly white snow helps things. So I'm missing the snow. And it's only a little bit because of the $400 snow tires I bought that won't be paid off until after the legal date to remove them.

The tediousness of winter aside, things are good here. I don't make much money, but I still love my job and am in the profession I want to be in. The job itself is stable. I'm lucky.

Things are going well with my new relationship with "Kansas," (the nickname a friend came up with for my boyfriend). Having technically been single my entire life, referring to someone as "my boyfriend" still feels foreign, but it's definitely a great thing. The relationship is at a place that's very comfortable for me now. Trying to work spending time together around our very different work schedudules is difficult, but I think sometimes that makes the time we do have better. Tonight is one of the nights when I wish we could be together. We won't have any time away from work until this weekend (fortunately, a long one for me), and I can't wait.

The other day, Kansas and I were in the store and somehow the topic of astrological signs came up. When I explained my very amateur analysis of the differences between Libras (me) and Virgos (him), he said, "How do we get along?" I can't think of any ways we don't. We still have much to learn about each other, but there's nothing yet that I'd describe as a negative. There are things we disagree on, and things each of us finds weird about the other, but it's all good for now. The things I'm still learning make me more interested. Lately, the little things are making me the happiest. It's a feeling I'm still not quite used to, but one that makes my day better. I'm in danger of becoming one of the happy people I used to hate, and I'm a little flummoxed by the fact that I'm this happy in Klamath Falls, the place I spent my life trying to escape.

Three months.

Three months since my last post and the high school reunion, which now seems so far off. Three months past the end of my first 90 days of work. And just a week or so until my six-month anniversary at said job. Maybe I'll update more often.

When I moved back to Klamath Falls, it was supposed to be a very temporary situation. I was going to find another job and crash rent free to save up my unemployment. I never expected the paper here to hire me, seeing as how they had JUST hired a reporter and copy editor and I knew the budget was tight. Then somehow, there was an opening. So I started work less than a week after learning about existence of the position. Thing 1 that wasn't supposed to happen here.

Around the time of the reunion and my last post on here, I started spending time outside of the group setting with a coworker I'll call Kansas (nickname courtesy of a Facebook friend who remembered nothing I told him about Kansas except his home state/alma mater). By my birthday in late September, we were dating. While we've never really had an official "what are we doing" conversation, it's definitely been a relationship for about two months now and a few days ago changed our Facebook statuses, which apparently makes it "official." It makes me feel about 13 years old to get all excited about Facebook, but I suppose changing your relationship status is the easy way to tell all your friends you're officially off the market. The LAST thing I would ever have expected was to move home and find a boyfriend. After so many years of being single in Eugene, I come back home and find a great guy. Weird how things work out.

Being in a relationship is a new thing for me, and while I'm happy and excited about it, it's a strange adjustment after so many years of being single. I'm quite comfortable and am interested and excited to see where things go from here.

Other than that, there's not much to report. Between work and time with Kansas, there's not much time for anything else. Living with my parents has a few stresses, but financially it's the best option as long as I can stand it. They're not at all controlling and my dad is a good enough cook to make up for about 99 percent of the things that irritate me.

10 years

On Friday night, I went to my 10-year high school reunion. I'd been debating since high school whether I'd really be willing to go but when I found out that it was this summer and I knew I'd be living back in my home town, I decided to go.

It really was a far better experience than I'd expected (I must say, I think I look far better than I ever did in high school and a few people commented, so I had a somewhat shallow boost of self-esteem). The turnout was small, but I liked (or at least got along with) all but two of the people who came. I enjoyed chatting with everyone and it was interesting to hear what people are up to. I am in contact with a few people from Facebook or MySpace, so I knew what some of them have been doing, but had a good time talking to those I hadn't been in contact with. Some of the guys in particular are doing things completely unexpected. One guy is a stay-at-home dad with a young daughter — the absolute last thing I'd have predicted for him 10 years ago. It's amazing how many people from my class now have multiple children, but it seems that parenthood changed people for the better. One guy's wife was going around apologizing to people for what a jerk her husband was in high school, (He really, really was. In fact, he was the one person who on the day of the reunion I thought about and hoped he wouldn't be there) and when I talked to his wife for a minute she mentioned how being a dad made him a much nicer person. And told me something about him that I won't repeat here but that made me smile more than just about any news I've heard all year.

One of the girls I was kind of friends with back then but haven't seen since gathered up some liquid courage and told the guy who'd tormented her in high school about how awful he was. He was rather inebriated and didn't seem to believe he'd been THAT big of a jerk, but he did apologize to her. The conversation was entertaining to watch and I was glad that she did it. It probably felt good to get that off her chest after so long.

Saturday, we had a family picnic and while only about 10 people showed up, all with their kids, I did enjoy seeing the people I talked to there. I'd been wondering about this reunion for years and of course wasn't as wealthy or skinny as I'd hoped to be, but the people I really wanted to stick it to weren't there anyway and I realized how little any of that really matters now. In a discussion with some other classmates about who we disliked, no one even remembered the person I'd had the most trouble with, which oddly made me feel better. The 10 years went by so quickly but the reunion was a reminder of how long it has been. Going to the reunion did bring a sense of closure and I'm happy that I went.

The routine

I'm settling into my routine, such as it is, at the new job. I have split days off and work strange hours, so it's hard to find time to fit in other activities. Fortunately, my coworkers are all great and we hang out together a lot, so my social life revolves around other people who understand the weird schedule.

A week ago, my best friend Kim and I went to Crater Lake. She'd never been there, so the original plan involved hiking down to the shore to take the boat tour. Because I didn't pay enough attention to know which side of the lake to go to to purchase tickets, we missed out on the tour, but thought we would hike down anyway. I'd never seen it from the shore. "The hike can't be THAT bad," I thought. "I'll take it easy on the way up and my legs will hurt tomorrow, but it'll be OK."

The downhill part of the hike went well. It's a gorgeous hike and the weather was cooperative. The lake definitely looks different from that perspective and it's interesting that the deep blue color is just as intense from the shore.

The hike back up did not go as well. I'm out of shape and knew I'd have to stop a lot walking back up the hill (a mile-long STEEP trail that is a 1,000-foot change in elevation, or, according to the sign at the top of the hill, the equivalent of 150 flights of stairs), but I had a strong reaction to the altitude. The shore is at 6,100 feet or so and the top of the trail is about 7,100. Almost immediately after starting the hike my pulse was far faster than it's ever been and I thought I was going to pass out. I even got a bloody nose, which has never happened at all. I found myself hoping that if I did collapse, the next person to walk by would be capable of running up or down to get me medical help. They aren't kidding when they say it's strenuous. Of course I realize this means that I need to do much more cardio work at the gym, but I was amazed at how difficult it was. It's really quite unfortunate because the view from the shore is amazing, but I don't know if I'd ever want to do it again without training specifically for that activity for a long time.

I did get some great photos.

New Job

I'll be in Klamath Falls for quite some time. About two weeks ago I started working as a copy editor at the newspaper here. The job came up very quickly — I heard about it very soon after they decided to hire someone and was offered the job a few days after applying — but I'm happy with it. It's good experience and I'll get a lot of great clips out of it. I wanted to stay in Oregon and spending a couple of years living low-rent still within a weekend trip of all my friends and family makes me happy.

The job is great so far. I've got a lot of training to do, but I think I'm doing well and my coworkers are great. Everyone is really nice and most of the reporters and other copy editors are close to my age.

Tonight I went downtown with my friend Jill, who is a reporter at the paper. It was "Third Thursday," when all the businesses stay open later and there are food booths and live music performances all over. It was fun to get out and walk around. The weather finally turned nice again after two or three weeks of nothing but rain and gray skies almost every day. It's very unusual for it to rain here, let alone that much.

For now, I'll be working split days off, but that's OK with me. I'm happy to have found a job in journalism and to be back in a newsroom with other people who want to talk about politics and grammar. It's fantastic.

If the clouds ever go away, I'll take a picture of the gorgeous view of Mount Shasta as seen from the newsroom window. The newsroom in Yakima was in a basement. Having any view at all is a vast improvement, but I'm particularly fond of this one.

Update

Things are going slowly since I moved back to Klamath Falls. I've realized that few newspaper jobs are in cities where I want to live, and having to choose between a job I'd love and a city in which I'd be happy is difficult right now. I don't have to pay rent for a while, which gives me the ability to be a little picky. I'm starting to think seriously about what my other options are.

This isn't the most exciting town and it's a hard period of adjustment being back here again, but it's kind of nice. I do actually like my parents and enjoy spending time with them even if the town is boring. Yesterday, my dad and I went to Crater Lake. It is nice to live so close (about 60 miles) to one of the most beautiful places on Earth.