Wednesday, October 27, 2010

A cat's life

Life is hard. A cat's life isn't.




Seriously, how did they get so lucky? I mean, right this second, they're both curled up next to each other on the couch, Ozzy in his nest and Hendrix in a yoga position.

Ozzy's major obsession is this blanket made by my friend Michelle — and in his defense, it's super warm and soft. So he often looks at it — pleading — until I form it into the perfect nest-like structure. Then he'll climb inside and sleep for hours at a time.

The highlight of his day. Aside from d-i-n-n-e-r.

Maybe we can trade lives one day.

Of course, it's telling that I'm home at 3:26 in my pajamas, and have been for hours. Lay off, I worked for about 9 hours on Saturday sitting at a volleyball tournament while I was deathly ill. And I didn't get home until 10 p.m. last night.

A cat's life, mine isn't.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Pining

Around this time last year (actually it was closer to Halloween, since I vividly remember laughing at costumes roaming the streets), we were right here, enjoying the fall weather in Newport.


For some reason, the changing of seasons makes me pine for traveling. We live in a state that I like to call "the best state for weekend trips." Seriously, where else can you drive three hours and get to Crater Lake, drive a few hours south and hit California, drive north and take in lighthouses and adorable coast towns, and drive inland to check out volcanos and high desert?

Or we could sit next to an icy cold creek near a campground at Crater Lake...


Or show off your tan lines after getting stranded on Wizard Island...thanks hiking boots. The tan line is still there, by the way, a wonderful reminder that Oregon doesn't get enough sun to make it go away. I may have it forever.

Either way, I want to welcome the season. Fall sports makes life hard for me. I work nearly every night of the week, and Fridays are especially tough. With the long days and difficult work, weekends are becoming lazy and blah for me. I don't. Do. Anything. Because sooner rather than later, Monday will return. Everybody's weekends start around 5 p.m. on Friday. Mine starts Saturday morning when I roll my dead body out of bed.

And the best part? The weather has been awesome. Unprecedented even. As I look out the window right now (in my pajamas as I wait to suit up to cover a soccer game at 7 p.m.), the sun is shining, there's a crisp breeze, wispy clouds accent the bright blue sky and trees are changing colors, though barely.

Yet, here I sit, just knowing I've got to go back to work all night. Then get up early again tomorrow.

As soon as this fall season is over, we're out for a weekend. See, I don't want to take a real vacation when I only have 10 days of those to give, and I'd like to get home in the next fiscal year. But in Oregon, day trips are easy. And cheap.

I'll go anywhere with a yurt. Soon it will be too wet to use our tent, but the yurts will be well prepared! Most people want to sit around in fall, but I want to welcome it with driving all over this beautiful state, seeing how different climates prepare for cooler weather.

In the meantime, we're going to make an apple pie and make some yummy, slow-cooked food. I've got to celebrate the seasons changing some way, since pumpkins on a shared balcony isn't exactly the best idea. We need our own porch, big time.

But I'm pining to drive through the Willamette National Forest to take in the short window of leaf peeping we have here in Oregon. On the other side of the forest? Bend. My current obsession of travel. I must get there.

I must learn to nordic ski. I must take a starlight canoe tour given by a group that serves desserts and hot chocolate and teaches about constellations. Or snowshoe, I could do that by snowshoe, too (yes, Bend tour guides offer both those options for a great price). I must visit the obsidian flow at the Newberry Crater. I must eat at the Deschutes Brewery, and taste-test their craft beers we can't get in Coos Bay. I just want to see the Three Sisters in person.

Go ahead and google image search Three Sisters Wilderness. I'll wait. Jealous? Me too.

All this? Spurned simply by being over-worked, under-compensated and pining to hit the trails.