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.

No news

There's not much new to report here. Life is boring,and testing whether
I can update from my blackberry is the most interesting thing I have to Do. Real update soon. Today I went to crater lake.

Saying goodbye

This was my last day in Yakima. Tomorrow I make the big move down to Klamath Falls. Because I have no one to drive a U-Haul for me (I just don't feel safe driving one, particularly if it's towing my car, and there's no room in the front of one for my cat carriers), I had to do one trip down to Klamath a few weeks ago and had to condense down to what would fit in a car. My mom and I traded cars because hers has a lot more room than mine does, and it was still quite a feat.

I gave a lot of stuff to Goodwill and contributed several boxes of household items to a friend's garage sale and even then took more bags than I remembered to count to the dumpster. I had to throw away most of my food (a lot of it perfectly good, but that I couldn't donate because it had been opened), all my cleaning supplies and various things that I just realized as I packed up the car today would NOT fit. I also had a trip to the recycling center this week where I learned that a lot of types of plastic, as well as ALL glass items, are no longer recyclable here. I feel absolutely awful knowing that there's what felt like an entire dumpster full of stuff that will be in a landfill forever because I live in a place where I can't recycle everything or because I couldn't get the help I needed to move. I'm not a hoarder (although I am a bit of a pack rat), but I keep stuff around just because I try to be pretty "green" and hate the idea of something lying around a landfill if it might have use to someone or if I can find a place to recycle it. But I just reached a point in my packing process where I didn't give a shit anymore. The sad thing is, I didn't own an unusual amount of stuff. It all had a place and could be put away. I just owned what any adult who's been on her own for nearly a decade would own. And it turns out that's a LOT. A lot that will have to be replaced when I find a new job and move away from the parents. Again. I own far too many books for just one person, but I love books. There's not a place here I could really donate them and I will NOT throw books away. Maybe someday if I really have to pare things down I'll give them to the library, but I love books and will read (or re-read) every one of them.

Tonight I'm staying in a hotel, while my poor cats stay on their own back at the apartment, because a friend took all my furniture this morning and then I foolishly packed all my blankets and sheets away. I have a very long drive and thought I'd be better off if I got a comfortable, relaxed sleep than if I tried to sleep on the floor sans blankets. Went on Priceline and got an amazing deal on a room, so I'm quite proud of myself.

I'm quite cranky at the moment because I'm in pain from trying to lift very heavy trash bags/boxes and having to do everything myself (other than the furniture, which I had help with) made me feel rather alone and frustrated. I'm feeling much more sorry for myself than is really called for, but I think if this ever happens again, I'll definitely suck it up and learn to drive the damn U-Haul.


I'd be lying if I said I'd miss Yakima, but I'll definitely miss some of the people I met here and I'll miss my apartment, which I actually really loved. A friend from work had just started to invite me out with a group of her friends, who are really cool people, and I'm sad that I didn't get the chance to know them better. One of them, a man from Mexico City who works for Univision (I think...) helped the work friend and I move all my furniture to her apartment today. As we drove in the U-Haul, he kept saying goodbye to various things in Yakima. I won't miss the town itself, although there are interesting things about living here, but I'll miss the people I didn't get to know better. And I certainly still miss my job.

Now I'm off to find a vending machine, have a cup of tea and try to enjoy my last few hours before I have to get up and spend 8 hours in a car with two cranky cats.

Pictured at the top of this post: The wiener dog races in Ellensburg, Wash., about 40 minutes from here. One of the more entertaining things I did in my first month in Yakima last year.

Daily project

As my time in Yakima winds down, I'm finally getting a few leads on the job search front, but still need to fill the daylight hours. Yesterday I came across a recipe for homemade bagels and thought I'd give it a shot. It's not like me to be so ambitious, but I love bagels and they're expensive, so I figured that learning to make my own could save me money. The results were quite pleasing to my eye and tastebuds:

How I feel about what I just did ...

I can't really explain here, but if you ask me on a more private setting, I'll tell you what this photo refers to.

Two months of unemployment

Sunday will mark the two-month anniversary of my lay-off. There's not much news to report.

Now that I know I'm moving back in with my parents and will be off the hook for rent for a month or two, I'm a little less stressed out about living on unemployment money. I don't really want to go back to Klamath Falls, but it's easier to at least know what's happening. At this point, I almost hope that it takes several more weeks to find something new so that I have some time to settle in a bit before I have to move again.

The problem I'm having now is finding three jobs per week to apply for. It's required, but there just aren't three journalism jobs being advertised per week. There are plenty of jobs I am not qualified for, but I don't want to just apply for things I wouldn't be offered any more than I want to apply for things I wouldn't take.

At this point, I'm starting to accept that I may have to look in another field. There are ways to use these skills in other ways.

The freelance writing thing hasn't panned out yet. The Web sites I've applied for are mostly looking for how to articles or opinion pieces, which isn't what I want to do. They're not looking for journalistic pieces.

In the meantime, I'm spending much more time online than I should, simply because I'm trying to avoid the last bit of packing I still have to do. it's at that point where everything left is just little stuff lying on the floor and knick-knacks, or stuff that has to go to Goodwill and it's just a pain in my ass.

The fun thing that I've done this week is go to the Mariners home opener. I've been a fan of Ken Griffey Jr. since I was a kid and I wanted to see him come back to Seattle. It was a beautiful day and a friend who also went to the game met up with me afterward (I crashed at his place) and on the way home, we ran into a mutual friend and went out for a beer with her at Pike Place Brewery. It was a perfect Northwest sort of day.

Thank you, MSNBC ...

I'm not entirely clear on how this got past the censors, except that this is what a movement is calling itself, and I'm aware that it stoops to the intellectual level of a 13-year-old boy, but I laughed my ass off.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy