Going Coastal

This morning we woke early before the sunrise!

Then hit snooze ten times.

Then woke up again while the sun was rising, hit snooze another five times, and finally rolled out of bed at 8am.

Whatever.

We dressed, packed our cooler, and headed for the coast. Cannon Beach was our first stop on the list. It was still chilly, but we walked the beach out to Haystack Rock. I resisted taking off my shoes until we came to a stream outlet and I was forced to either get my socks wet or brave the cold sand. It was indeed cold.

Out by Haystack Rock is a tide pool that we wandered so that we could "ooo" and "aaah" at the few orange and purple star fish that had crammed themselves halfway under the large boulders. We took a path off the beach at the end of town closest to us and made our way back to our car, stopping for ice cream as we meandered through the little town.

We headed to Manzanita, south of Cannon Beach and had a good walk along the sand dunes there. Its nothing like Florence, but the dunes were still pretty. We walked through their tiny town as well and took a moment to stare at real estate fliers that we have no business staring at. Alex got an Americano at one of the coffee shops and we used the public restrooms (far inferior to those at Cannon Beach) before making the drive home, which I slept through.

It was a nice day for the beach. I never expect to be terribly warm when I head to the coast, so the fact that I never lost my jacket wasn't disappointing. Really, its my own fault for wearing capris and mesh shoes.

Time to check on the sweet potatoes I'm baking for dinner. I'll update when I do something else of interest, or next Sunday; whichever comes first.

Spring Dream

I cannot tell you how excited I am today; life is simply brimming with possibilities!

This past week I completed my Winter term. Today I complete my last day as an Office Manager. From now on, I have weekends to schedule how I see fit. I am beginning my journey as a mathematics teacher. Spring has begun. This week, I cannot say that I have nothing to write about.

Spring is a tumultuous time, however, and with these changes occurring in my life, it shouldn't be dull to say the least. Winter is a time for forgetting what warmth is; forgetting what it feels like to be barefoot. In the winter you have to force yourself to imagine that a world where you might feel tepid breezes on your skin is simply a world that you once dreamed of, but that never really existed. Denial is the only way to endure a cold season.

But Spring, oh Spring! Denial is useless in the Spring. Nature teases you with glorious sunshine, warmth on your face, the wonder of wearing sandals, and then the harsh disappointment of the return of the oppressive cloud cover. The coming days will see bitter icy rain coupled with intensely serene, blue skies; pairings of drear with joy. Tumultuous is the only word I can think of to describe Spring. One can't help but feel minutely bi-polar in the Spring, especially one as warmth dependent as this native Southern Californian. Spring is sadistic.

At some point before my move to Oregon, I had this image of cooking bread with Alex several times a week. Of being kitchen companions that made wonderful whole foods together daily. Then I arrived and realized that we had a tiny kitchen and schedules that almost never overlapped. Then we moved again, and while the kitchen was an improvement, our schedules still had little in common. I have night classes, he has day classes, we both work on Saturdays and Sunday suddenly became the day to "take care of business". My dreams of a garden that we could tend together, evenings cooking and then cleaning the kitchen together, and weekends planning meals at the Farmer's market and being our creative selves to organize and maintain our living space... in the spring, they seem possible again even if they are completely impractical.

A girl can dream, can't she?

I long for a bright, open, and airy kitchen in which to spend my new found freedom. A space that lets the outside in to be enjoyed, but allows me to experiment with gluten free flours. I desperately want to bake. I have these visions of garlic potato bread, peanut butter cookies, cornmeal pizza crust, and sweet potato pancakes. Just like every other Spring Break, however, the days are quickly disappearing before my eyes with only one batch of sub-par peanut butter cookies having been baked, most of which were subsequently thrown out.

This isn't to say that I haven't been productive, though.

Alex and I have been doing some spring cleaning. We went shopping last Thursday and bought ourselves new threads for the coming career shifts in our lives. Wouldn't you know it, but they wouldn't fit in our drawers or closet. Today we took two paper grocery bags and a laundry hamper full of clothes to a place called Buffalo Exchange (a rather trendy place that selectively buys your old clothing if it fits the proper criteria of color, season, style, and size they are looking for). We only made twenty bucks on the endeavor, but that bought us a lunch out. The rest of the giant heap was donated.

As long as we've cleaned out the closet and drawers, we might as well clean the whole bedroom, and if we're cleaning the bedroom we might as well catch up on our shredding and filing, meaning we might as well clean the office... you get the picture. We also had to find our tax information since Mom sent me an e-mail this morning about it. Its never a good sign when I get a "reminder" e-mail from Mom. We're still trying to track down one of Alex's pieces of documentation, but the goods should be in the mail by tomorrow morning combined with gifts for my parents and sister... and a chandelier. Don't ask.

The evening is almost upon us now. If I manage to cook or bake anything worth while this week, I will certainly post recipes.

Happy Pi Day!!

What would the world be like without Grandmas?

The world would be devoid of "good morning" e-mails wishing me a Happy Pi Day.

It has come to my attention that the celebration of Pi Day began in 1988 at the San Francisco Exploratorium. On this glorious day, the staff of this establishment marched around one of its circular spaces and then consumed fruit pies. A little bird named Wikipedia told me this today. And Wikipedia was sent to me by Grandma.

My Grandmother is one of those hip and with-it ones that stays connected via e-mail, orders her knitting supplies online, and knows what a Google search is and how to conduct one. She's pretty darn tech-savvy if you ask me, and while I have my daily routines of checking the web comics I follow and reading all the facebook updates that have come in overnight, she likes to see if Google has done anything neat with their logo today.

Because of Google, my grandma learned about Pi Day today. And who did she think to contact first with this information? Her granddaughter with the degree in math. That has to be one of the best ways to start a Pi Day. Ever. Not only did she make sure I saw the Google logo, but that I also click on it to get the articles that go along with it. This was how I learned about the origins of Pi day. And, in fact, at 1:59 (notice the time this was posted) it will be the Pi minute of the Pi day.

This is terribly exciting! I even plan on going on an excursion to find gluten free pie with which to celebrate! And wear my Pi shirt while doing it. If only I could hang my irrational number clock today (a gift from the same wonderful grandma) to increase the festive feeling.

Thanks Grandma! And Happy Pi Day to all!

After posting this I realized there was no time stamp. I waited 5 whole minutes for nothing. Well, nothing but the satisfaction of knowing that I uploaded this blog at the Pi minute of Pi day.