[sharonpdx]

{blown away}

No metaphysician ever felt the deficiency of language so much as the grateful. 
Charles Caleb Colton

You never cease to amaze me, friends.

Often, when i'm having a rough day, I come to my blog and I reread the comments you have written.  I'm amazed at the wonderful things you have to say - surprised, and so grateful.  Thank you for your words of support and encouragement on my last post.   Onwards and upwards.

____________

Back in town today after three days in Portland.  Our company has contracted with Cadence Management Corporation to provide Project Management training to some of our corporate staff, and I had the opportunity to attend the session this week.  What an amazing body of knowledge there is around this subject!  Our presenter,  Cadence Vice President Jay Christensen, PMP, moved at a fast clip - it was clear he had so much additional knowledge to share than could be gleaned from a two-day session.   Despite the fact that it barely scratched the surface on this exciting discipline, the seminar was intensely hands-on and thorough;I learned a great deal and feel more confident as a team member and a team lead on my various projects. 

Had a chance to get out of the hotel and have some fun in the evenings on this trip, too... my colleague and friend Heidi introduced me to the Hawthorne District in Southeast Portland and drove me around looking at apartment complexes.  We couldn't get inside any of them, but I fell in love with the area just looking out her Jeep's window.  Spent the evening relaxing at the Barley Mill Pub - because Heidi is convinced they have the best tater tots in all of Portland - so fun!  So lucky to have Heidi in my life.

On Tuesday, my friend (Jeff) Davis took my colleague Judy and I out on another adventure exploring the area.  We headed back to Hawthorne... Davis originally planned to take us to Barley Mill {Heidi, he totally agrees with you about the tater tots}, but upon hearing I'd been there the night before, steered us to Doug Fir.  Oh my gosh.  Absolutely love this place!  Very chic, very mod diner and lounge with brown leather banquettes and suspended globe lighting, this place does up the live music thing almost every night and is attached to this super cool boutique hotel, the Jupiter Hotel.  rock on ... definitely my most favorite place in Portland yet. 

After dinner we hit Kell's Pub, because Judy had seen it on the Food Network.  Which is a totally valid reason to go anywhere, as far as I'm concerned.  It was so cool to see the town with Davis!  He relocated to the city from Denver two years ago and is pretty involved in the Portland music scene, himself... more on that in a future post. 

Every time I'm in Portland on business it gets harder to leave - the city just makes me happy.  And in just one month, I'll be back, this time with my mom - my goal: to show her everything that I love about Portland in just three days.  Oh yeah - and, find an apartment.  That, too. 

{it's final}

the divorce, that is.

Got the decree in the mail yesterday.  Two sheets of paper, the same two sheets Jerod and I completed and mailed to the courts last month, with one addition: the signature of the magistrate at the bottom of the second page.  Official decree that the marriage is irretrievably broken.

I wonder if the sting of those words lessens over time?

August 26th.  Exactly 3 months to the day after I arrived here in San Diego.  All in all, the divorce took just five months and one week from the day he told me it was over.  Perhaps the longest five months of my life.

Recently, I reread a book called The Big Love, a witty debut novel by Sarah Dunn.  In the novel, the heroine recounts the story of a dinner party with friends as they discuss whether the divorced gal Cordelia has any "deal-breakers" - any things she can think of that would automatically dismiss a man as a potential date.  It is one of my favorite scenes.

"I don't watch television," said Victor.
"Honey," Nina said to Victor, "you watch television.  You watch baseball."
"Does that count?" said Victor.

"That's my point, said Nina.  "A person can say they don't watch television, when actually they do, just like a person can say they don't have requirements, when clearly, on the face of it, they do."

"I suppose I'd have trouble with a drug addict," Cordelia said.  "Or a felon."

Nina looked at Cordelia.  "Well, you've been through it once already," she said.  "I'm sure you're not in any hurry to do it again."
"Been through what?" said Tom.
"Marriage," said Nina.

"I don't know," said Cordelia.  "I liked being married.  And I like being single.  What I didn't like was getting divorced.  That I could have done without."

Amen to that.
_________________

August 26th was a good day, still.  Went with my parents and sister to Belle Marie Winery for a wine tasting.  My favorites: the Merlot, Raspberry Champagne and Viogner.  Was wonderful to spend the day with family.   Got a little tipsy off the champagne, which was fun, too.

 

Returned home to find the divorce decree in the mail, and then recognized the end of that life chapter in the best way possible: opened a bottle of Belle Marie Merlot, made pizza and had family game night. 

Five months later, it is final.  And all is well. 

thinking of you.

you wake up - late.  you didn't sleep well because the bed in the hotel is crap.  the power goes out while you're showering, and at first you think phew, at least I was done shaving my legs before the lights went out - but then it strikes you that your hair dryer is not battery powered, so you have to present the morning's session with your wet hair pulled back in a ponytail.

and then, your friend Andie sends you an email with a link to this:

{urban craft uprising}

holy cow.  Andie writes, I know this is in Seattle but it's right up your alley - and she is so right!  Plus, it's in early December, so this may just work out to be one of my first weekends in the Pacific Northwest.  I hope so, because I'm so going to this!

and check this out - she also discovered a crafty group that meets in Portland regularly: {the church of craft: portland} - rock on!

even more gratifying than having such fun things to look forward to in Portland is any day, good or bad, that includes an email with these words:  just thinking of you! A.

so grateful.  so blessed.  thank you, my friend.  and thanks for turning me on that other brandston song, too, that one is also so up my alley {wink, wink!}!

{times four}

coming soon, a post about the Andy Warhol exhibit I saw this weekend at the San Diego Museum of Art...

but, tonight, live from Phoenix, Arizona, comes this super fun list I stole from Lesley's blog.  Sorry, folks, but it's late and I'm wiped and I just liked this.

{Things you may not have known about me..... times 4}

Four jobs I have had in my life:

1. the chick who stands at the top of the water slide and tells you when you can start sliding down (Wild Rivers, baby!)

2. I worked at Starbucks.  For three days. 

3. Movie ticket counter girl - you know, I'm sure I had actual job titles at these places, but I can't for the life of me remember what they were...

4. Oh and who can forget: I was the Party Bear at Build a Bear Workshop!  best part time job I ever had, ever.

Four movies I have watched over and over

1. The Talented Mr. Ripley

2. Sliding Doors

3. The Perfect Murder

4.  The American President

Four places I have lived:

1. Nutley, New Jersey

2. Whitestown, New York

3. Fort Collins, Colorado

4. Laguna Hills, California

Four TV shows I love to watch:

1. Prison Break

2. Windfall

3. Anderson Cooper on CNN

4. Anything gossipy on VH1

Four places I have been on vacation:

1. Paris

2. Maui

3. Breckenridge, CO

4. Boston, Mass

Four of my favorite foods:

1. chinese food

2. watermelon

3. gyros

4. tomato, mozzerella and basil salad

Four places I would rather be right now:

1. it's frickin' 106 degrees in Phoenix.  anywhere!

2. downtown Portland

3. in a bookstore.  any bookstore. 

4. in Shrewsbury, Mass, with my friend Maryfrances, because she just had to put her dog down today and I'd like to give her a hug. 

Four things in my refrigerator

1. in my hotel room here - PF Chang's brown rice

at home -

2. Naked Juice

3. Amy's Organic Spinach & Feta Pockets

4. string cheese

Four things I have in my car

1. curriculum from our Preschool and PreK programs

2. the radio tuner thing for my iPod

3. clothes I need to drop at Goodwill

4. parking stub for airport parking

ok, now you play!

{for your listening pleasure}

so so cool - my girl Andie sent me this song yesterday and I'm totally addicted it!  She's a SoCal gal herself (though she finds herself in sticky South FL now...) and she just knew I'd love it - rock on, A, you were so right.  I find the beat and the lead singer's voice intoxicating - but you've got to listen to the words, they are hysterical! 

check it out for yourself

{earthquakes & sharks}
by: brandston 

...Drove up to San Diego
Saw a sign for Mission Beach
And so, went way out deep into the ocean,
Saw a shark and had a stroke.
Back in the ambulance I go,
Had a dream about a girl I used to know,
She said "I got to warn ya bout Mexico and California."

Earthquakes and sharks to start us off,
If Chupacabras ain't enough,
Black widow spiders and killer bees,
There ain't no shade, there ain't no trees.
Black bears and heat, polluted air,
There's traffic jams beyond compare.
That's all I got to warn ya bout Mexico and California...

why do I keep counting...

...the number of photos on this layout?

{click on the layout for an up-close view}

there were 13 there when I created the layout on Sunday.  there were 13 there when I finished the layout on Sunday.  there were 13 there when I scanned the layout on Sunday.  but, today, now that I can finally post the layout ... I keep freaking out that I somehow wound up with less than the baker's dozen required. 

can't explain it.  I've decided to chalk it up to fatigue brought on by a lovely summer head & chest cold and the different types of medications I'm randomly choosing to treat it with.

and yep, that's Jess & I in Boston, with one of my favorite photos of Maryfrances up in the top right corner...

_____

Back in town after a Team meeting, All-Hands corporate meeting and Department meeting in Portland, OR.  Man, that's a lot of meetings!  But it was a fun time... it's lovely catching up with my friends and colleagues... and watching my teammate Frances (name has been changed to protect the innocent) consume something like 5 glasses of wine and get a little crazy on us last night! 

For many months now, our department's Editor, Megan, has sent weekly Random Writing Tips  which include, at the bottom, Random Writing Questions (RWQ's), Random Jeopardy Questions (RJQ's) or Random Quote Questions (you see where the acronyms are going by now, I trust).  Memorable answers to these questions have included: the Dow Jones Industrial Average; mincemeat pie; Froebel's gifts; and, .82 mach.  (That question: what is the maximum airspeed a pilot can legally and safely fly a Boeing 747 with the landing gear down?  I spent 90 minutes online tracking that answer down, finally finding it on a pilot chat board.)

Last May, after months of fierce competition, I was crowned the Queen of Randomness of the Education & Training Dept.  In lieu of a formal coronation ceremony (because I don't yet office in Portland), I ascended the throne amist a flurry of congratulatory mass emails and received my crown via royal post, wrapped in hot pink tissue paper. 

Having not yet had the chance to celebrate with my subjects, I wore my tiara for the last day and a half of meetings.  By last night, they were literally trying to pull it off of my head - because, as Connie put it, "it's staring to blend in to your head and look... normal there."  tee hee.  What can I say?  Royalty suits me. 

{i dare ya!}

In late July, the effers challenged scrapbookers to a four week Last Scrapper Standing event - four Fridays, four dares, four hundred and fifty plus scrapbookers competing as the list dwindles down to just... one.

Of course, I couldn't resist the challenge.

The first dare challenged us to confine all of the journaling on our page to the photo itself - tell your story on the photo, and nowhere else on the layout.

{click on the layout for a better view}

I combined my own writing with rubons from 7gypsies and stickers from Making Memories.  The journaling reads:

ok, so here's the story so far.  Once upon a time, there was a boy who asked a girl to marry him, & she said yes.  But, not so fast, for this is a cautionary tale.  Four years later, the girl discovered the fine print at the bottom of the marriage license: Warranty Not Included.  So she headed west, to California.  But not even sun and surf can mend a broken heart better than time. 
                        What will happen to our heroine next?  adventure.

Two hundred scrapbookers were selected to continue - was a pleasure to see my name on Friday morning's list.  And so, I continue for another week.  Dare #2 is to use 13 photos on a layout - looking forward to working on it today in between laundry & packing for Monday's 7:00 a.m. flight to Portland! 

{wink, wink}

updates abound:

supper at Lesley's was amazing...  I had such a wonderful time celebrating with her and her family and her neighbor.  And the food - wow. You all would be so proud of me, blog readers!  I ate oysters - not one, but two!  {still didn't like 'em, even after the second one, but I tried 'em!  right, Mike?}  I ate with chopsticks {see G, I'm practicing!} - and actually got the food into my mouth!  {this thanks to the excellent instruction by Lesley's amazing friend, Bea, whom I love...}  I finally, finally ate dungeness crab legs!  {these I loved.  loved so much I actually cut my hand on one of  the legs trying to crack it!}

know what else I loved?  Lesley's daughter, Jillian.  This girl... man, you should meet her.  She's the most unique, real, down to earth, funny gal I've ever spent time with.  And she's barely been alive for a decade!   She asks questions (what is a blue state, Sharon?) with the innocence and ignorance of a child, and yet comprehends complex answers enough to converse about the topic for another five minutes.  And, out of nowhere, the girl will just crack you up!  She'll say something, and then add to it a tilt of the head, a hair flip and, out loud, a little "wink, wink" - in a way that makes you forget she's only eleven.  And no, I don't just love her because she calls me "Sharon - the one with the beautiful eyes" {though it is totally why she's my new best friend - Jill, flattery will get you everywhere!} - I also love her because she can sing every single line to every single song of the Wicked soundtrack.  Including Defying Gravity, my personal fave.  And, she'll skip ahead to Defying Gravity when she learns it's my favorite song, even though Popular (her fave) was next.  What did I do to deserve this girl? 

Jill - you rock, girl.  Keep it up.  I can only begin to imagine the delight and spunk you'll bring to the world over the next eleven years.  So thrilled to call you my new best friend {wink wink!}

Lesley (and Mike, Bea, Jillian, Jordan and Justin): that was such fun - thank you for an incredible time!  Let's do it again soon! 

___

Spent the early part of this week in Vegas, attending the American Society for Training and Development {ASTD} Designing Learning Certificate Program.  What an incredible experience.  First of all, because it's ASTD, you know the trainer's going to be amazing.  And she was.  I learned so much from just watching her.  Plus, for me, to get to be on the other side of the training experience was a gift in and of itself.  As a trainer, sometimes you get a group that just clicks - you watch, professionally removed, and see they get along well, they enjoy their time away from the training together, they connect on several levels and form the beginnings of friendship right there in the training room.  I feel so lucky to have been a part of one of those amazing groups this week, and look forward to continuing the relationships I formed with trainers from backgrounds and industries so different from my own: trucking, international banking, engineering, even the Navy and MIT.

And because the group got along so well, this was one of my favorite trips after-hours, too - instead of spending the evenings working or exploring the area alone, I had a chance to hang with some really cool people, try out some great restaurants at the Bellagio and at Wynn, do a little shopping, spend a little time at the blackjack and roulette tables (no, no gambling for this gal, I'm just there for the free drinks) and even sing along at a dueling piano bar! 

Walked away from this experience with tons of ideas on how to apply this learning to my work; several new contacts;  a few new friends (one of whom actually lives here in SD); and even a new nickname: tangerine. 

If you're good, I might even tell you the story on that one sometime...

do we have a winner?

My friend George is contstantly telling me he's a genius.  I tend to immediately disagree with him when he tells me this, if only to avoid watching his head get any bigger.

But, over bowls of Pho Thai on Thursday night, he did have a genuis moment.  Relating the events of last weekend's Punk Rock Craft Fair, I showed him my fabulous "crafty whore" pin.  Later, as we discussed my aspirations of roller derby fame and my months-long quest for a killer roller girl name - he suggests: crafty whore.

Ok, if you saw that coming, I apologize - but my mouth dropped open in shock - why didn't I think of that? 
______

Writing tonight from Corona, California - about 1hr 15 minutes from my parents' home in Del Mar.  I'm here for training, but in a fun stroke of luck, my friend Lesley lives just a few miles from the center where I'm working!  So, tomorrow night, we'll be celebrating her birthday together over a seafood dinner - and, undoubtedly, a few bottles of wine...  so excited!

yeah, man, that's the {good stuff}

{the good stuff}

peaches

Old Navy tank tops

Erica putting her mad cooking skills to use again - seriously, sis, while you're waiting for this acting gig to take off, you should open a vegan Thai place.

cinnamon sugar toast

Law & Order reruns

Suzanne getting all proactive on us and snatching up tickets for Live when she's here in October... rock on, the annual concert tradition survives moving two time zones apart

the entire Wicked soundtrack

getting the Starbucks mug I've wanted since May for $3.99 on clearance

John Frieda luminous color glaze

saying the phrase cross-mojination baby, yeah! with Jessica and then dissolving into laughter.  yeah, baby, that's good stuff.