Achievements with a Sour Note

It has been a rough couple of weeks, lately.  We are both still finding it difficult to tap into our “motivated greatness”.  Who can blame us, though – with an exhausting schedule of juggling rotations through the MRI lab at the hospital, work, the gym… and then homework?  It just doesn’t sound quite as enticing as cuddling on the couch to unwind and catch up with Thursday’s comedy block on the DVR.

For all Melissa’s hard work, however, she got her little ol’ picture in the little local paper.  She spent her weekend of work at the Klamath County Library demonstrating Border’s fancy e-reader, the KOBO, during a community workshop. She now knows everything you could ever wonder about the KOBO, in case you’re interested! (you can come see her yourself at Border’s on 6^th Street!)

And, although the weekend is approaching rather quickly, relieving our little minds of having to ‘cram’ for quizzes for a day or two, it has brought with it a somber mood.

Melissa’s precious little firecracker of a Grandma was the unfortunate victim of a stroke. Although her spirit cannot be broke so easily, we ask for you to send your thoughts and wishes along for the best recovery that we can hope for!

WE LOVE YOU GRANDMA!!  Xoxo

I Think It's A New Year!

“A new year started and all I got was this lousy new year” or at least that’s how it seems.  New years aren’t really all that exciting when you spend them in Klamath Falls.  Celebrating our 4^th New Years, me and Chad rang in 2011 cuddled on the couch watching some skinhead-vampire-zombie creatures turning everyone into demons, while intermittently going out in the sub-freezing garage to kick around the heater to try and keep it going.  Yes, Happy New Year, indeed.  Off to a great start.

If that wasn’t fantastic enough, we had a day to recover from our 2 am night before we found ourselves dragging backpacks into a fishbowl classroom, where we got to watch an enthralling video about MRI magnets that had to have been made around 1990.

That Wednesday was my birthday, and I had a refreshing day to myself – off of work while Chad slaved away at GNC – and was able to clean house before we fell too far into stress and homework that we lost half of our possessions beneath a scattered wardrobe and an inch of dust.  It went well, and was a rather laid back week, considering the coming onslaught of weeks ahead.

Chad's Bigger-than-your-face Pancake

Friday we set off for an adventurous birthday retreat, planned by Chad.  He managed to keep me out of the loop for months and I had no idea where we were zipping off to!  We found ourselves in Portland before the end of the night, however, our jaws on the floor after hearing about the $33 per night required valet fee.  So much for fine print – we just didn’t know Portland norms.

We enjoyed food-network –personality favorites at Podna’s BBQ, and Stepping Stone café (where Chad ate a pancake bigger than his face…almost) and were driven mad trying to find our way around town and out of Powell’s (putting my Klamath Falls Border’s to absolute shame!). We enjoyed a “Beyond Bizarre” late-night tour of Portland, where we got to experience the insane midnight clubbing culture of Portland’s streets, heard about some famous hauntings, and got a complimentary (and Delicious!) voo-doo donut.  We also got to  see and try some of the most expensive chocolates we’ve ever seen – supposedly from “Switzerland”.

M and C looking for Ghosts on the Beyond Bizarre Tour

By the time Sunday morning came, we hauled our luggage across the street to our car, spent with trying to figure out maps and babbling about directions.  Frustrated, and accepting the demoted title of “small-city people” in place of our “big-city” claim, we picked up a farewell box of Voo-doo donuts and some Seattle’s Best before heading South.

As we headed home, we took a trip down memory lane.  We dropped by Albany and Corvallis, where Chad and I first moved in together.  We stopped to take a picture of our first apartment, knowing it would probably be the last time we saw it.  We drove around our old stomping ground, remarking on all that has changed in the however many years since we left, reflecting on all the complaining that we did when we lived there, too.  It felt oddly comforting to see it all – the green campus of OSU, the yuppy little electric golf carts zipping around, my old work place – even the dreary skies and rain were the same!

            I couldn’t help but wonder, as we drove the long empty highway back to the 5, whether someday Klamath Falls would be the same way for us someday – coming back years down the road and feeling a sense of homeliness. Enjoying the sights and the memories of all the complaints said about this truck-stop in life.  But the thought quickly vanished as the rain turned in to snow, we lost our radio reception, the temperatures dipped to the low teens, and we rounded the hills towards the view of the “lake”.

            Perhaps Klamath will be just that – a truck-stop – but nonetheless we are here for another 5 months.  And, if we’re lucky, we’ll at least be able to look back on Klamath as “that truck-stop that got us to Australia”. 

At our last meeting with the program director, we were told that the needed documents are with the DOJ awaiting a final sign-off before we can continue forward.  I guess they have to make sure that the state of Oregon has legal claim to us in the contract Australia has to sign.  Apparently, when you’re dealing with things on the State Level, they take a bit longer than any one concerned would like them to!

We’ll keep on plucking away at this ‘2011’ business, and hope everyone else does the same!