I can’t complain, my life is busy with a lot of fun and exciting things. I’m suddenly feeling the OMG need to blog about all that’s been going on before I forget it all, and I really want to blog because as much as some people may hate it, I sometimes enjoy having this space to just journal my adventures. It’s just getting harder and harder to put words to internet when everything continues to move at a rapid pace. So I want to rewind a bit and start recapping from where I left off.
Driving back from Oregon was a breeze since Jen took the wheel. THANKS JEN! We hit some big traffic and realized it must be a little funny to see our van all AU-ified on a major highway.
(photo Mati Gershater)
Besides traffic, the trip back up was pretty uneventful. We dropped Leah off to visit Lydia, who is a friend who went to AU and lives in Seattle who I don’t see often enough 
. My insane travel schedule paired with her late hours doesn’t make it easy, but I hope to see her in the near future to catch up. John picked us up after we got the car washed (the car wash guy was great at getting all the washable paint off!) and we decided to take Jen to Brave Horse Tavern, one of Tom Douglas’s newer restaurants. It was really great having my former roommate get a chance to meet my forever roommate as I see a lot of similarities in them. I was wild and slightly insane in college.
(scanned picture from an album Catie gave me forever ago, um sorry Cathleen, you look like your sick of my antics over there in the background)
My teammates reminded me of some hilarious yet kind of shocking-to-me-now moments while we were reminiscing over the HTC weekend. Poor Jen lived with me through many of these incidents, if she judged, she did so quietly, if she objected to my behavior she never let me know, and if she was ever mad, she’d barely show it (she only used to kind of get pissed when my stuff was all over the room, though I tried to keep it to just my side). She was the calming effect I needed in my life, I think I was entertaining to her. She also helped keep me in line without mothering me. We’d stretch together, go to bed at a reasonable time together, and get up and go for runs together. If I could wish to have any other life-partner besides my husband it would probably be Jen. John and she are similar in my mind because they’re both such solid people. I’m still a little crazy but in different ways now, I have John to help keep me grounded, he has me to keep things interesting.
Anyway it was great that we all got to talk and that Jen is still the same awesome person she always has been. It felt late by time we got back to the house and I’m pretty sure we just made plans for the next day and then all headed to bed. John and I went to CF in the morning and when we got back Jen was ready to start the day. I took her to Portage Bay, a favorite Seattle brunch spot, where she found out that the pancakes there are unbelievable. We then went to Fremont where I showed her the troll
the people waiting for the bus
and then I found my way to Bhy Kracke Park to show her the view from there and show her where John and I got married. We then headed to the Space Needle, because you have to do touristy stupid stuff when you visit a different city:
haha! This is the now FREE photo download you get when you visit. Ahh memories of being employed to take pictures at the needle…
After that I dropped her off in the market so she could explore and so that I could get to my physical therapist appointment.
This is when Laurie (my PT) told me that while she’s proud we did so well, I need to back off. My calves were in bad shape, and so we focused on that more than my knee which also wasn’t feeling 100%. She definitely helped loosen them up and then I did stretches and had some e-stem done:
She told me no running for three days and no hills for at least a week. Hmm, that wasn’t exactly going to work with my plans to go hiking, but I told myself I’d go easy. I picked Jen up after my appointment and we then went home, grabbed the dog and then lunch at Essentials and headed out to Mount Si so I could show her some of beautiful trails that WA has to offer. We weren’t feeling very up to it, so we only got about a mile before turning around. Soli had fun anyway, she got a case of the crazies and went stomping through the water trying to rip out trees and pick up huge sticks.
Once we got home we went out one more time to get Pho and then get Jen to the airport. Her vacation was ending, but the next part of mine was just beginning. I still had to pack for France and get on a plane the next morning! More on that in my next post.