Monday, August 27th, 2012
Central Park East - 6:30ish

Good morning!

Back to the grind today.  I shouldn't call it "grind" - I like what I do.  Well I came home from Oregon Saturday night.  Got home at around 1am after a day of flying that was much better on the way back than on the way to (Bear peed twice on the way to Oregon - once on the floor of the Denver airport and once in his carrier - resulting in him being pee-soaked upon arrival at PDX).

I posted 2 pictures from this morning that don't quite hold a candle to some of my favorites from my trip that I posted below.  While in Oregon, Brian, Sofie, Bear, and I went from Coast to Hood and back again while enjoying ridiculously good food and entirely too much alcohol (Oregon beer is just better - I stuff myself with Deschutes Mirror Pond Pale Ale every time I'm home - it's disgusting...and shameful).  Bear and Sofie were in doggie heaven - beaches, cool weather, flowers to dig through in the backyard, beetles to eat, mountains to climb.  In addition to all of that food, between running and hiking, I covered over 50 miles in 12 days at home - not badddddd!!  Bear and Sofie were along for every hike - Bear toughed out a 9.1 mile hike at Mount Hood like the tiny champ he is.  He also fell off that log in the above picture and into Burnt lake - earned some big boy stripes.

I'd have to say, though, the highlight of my trip was getting to be with my family a lot - (with the exception of Sarah & Grandma Clark, I feel like I never get enough of Sarah and Grandma Clark).   The best day was the fish fry/yucca drinking day at my Aunt Jeanne and Uncle Keith's house out near Salem.  I don't know if I've ever known such warmhearted good times as hanging with Keith, Christopher, and Aunt Jeanne.  That was the most fun I've had in a long time.  Keith had caught a LOT of brown and rainbow trout all summer, seasoned it up with some lemon and other good stuff, and grilled it in foil....oh so delicious.  My cousin, Christopher and his roommate and roommates gf Wesley made this wonderful/deadly drink in a glass gallon jar that you pass around to one another (true hillbilly BBQ wouldn't be complete without a huge jar of icy, citrusy booze complete with all of our germs!).  Another highlight of that day was helping my Uncle Keith choose the music to put on - choosing between "mix," "damn good mix," "summer mix," and the like.  LOL.

Fantastic trip.  Was hard to say goodbye and head back to NYC.  When I got onto that jam-packed M60 bus back to 125th in Harlem and heard an Indian guy screaming into the phone behind me, and delighted in the beautiful sights and sounds of Queens *sarcasm*, I was actually feeling pretty happy to be back.  

Another funny thing I saw while I was away was that my other set of cousins in DC, Chris and Dan, were off to college.  When I saw the Facebook picture of them both setting up Daniel's dorm room, I got a wave of nostalgia for my college days.  I'm so excited for them to have the privilege of the experience of college - not everyone gets that chance.  I don't know if anything will ever again be as fun, hard, and wonderful as college (but I guess I can hope - no...grad school is not as fun).

Happy to be back to little dogs, big park.

Seize the day!