1/21/11 Toast

The Chinook Book is awesome. What is even better is getting it for free. What is even better is getting the additional online coupons for free too! Man the Crafty Wonderland was good to me this year.

Tonight Jason and I went to Toast, a restaurant just blocks from my house. We eat out quite frequently, thank you Jason, and we have had some great food, some ok food, and some food not that great and super expensive. We've had excellent service and places we will not go back to again.

Toast is a small locally-owned place that did a great job in all the categories. Plus I had a coupon! The man who sat us was very friendly and brought us some house made Parmesan bread sticks in a delicious marinara sauce. We started some fun juice drinks and crab cakes with hunks of crab that were so large they surprised us. They were also not super heavy and oily tasting. They were scrumptious, served over greens with slices of blood oranges. Jason had the chicken and I had the lamb stew. Both out of this world in flavor and good portion sizes for the cost. He had the pear trifle with vanilla bean pear sorbet for dessert. Our server was great. When Jason was done with his drink it was refilled for free with some more ginger ale. We were checked on frequently so as to not feel ignored, but not so much that we felt like it was too much attention. It was delicious and I would highly recommend going there. You can be casual and feel right at home or dress up a little and not feel totally out of place. Good times.

I am thankful for Toast.

kk

1/20/11 Fertile Ground

The Fertile Ground Festival happens annually for two weeks around this time of year. It is a chance for people to show new work and get feedback from audiences. It is pretty fun to see all the different things local people have written and come up with. This is my first year performing in the festival and I'm pretty excited about it. I will be in a reading on Sunday. But that's not what I want to talk about here.

Tonight I went to a show called Mr. Darcy. It was just a short one-woman show that was a snippet of a larger show to be mounted in the fall. It was all about how "Books Save Lives!" and the woman goes on to explain how books help people in a multitude of ways. She acted out some books from her youth and really did a great job. It was very funny and I am excited to see what they come up with for a full length production later this year.

I am thankful for the delightful show I saw this evening. What a great concept and so much fun.

kk

1/19/11 The Man in the Moon

Wow the moon is big and bright and beautiful. I always like when it is rising and it looks gigantic next to the horizon. And when it is bright orange or yellow that is even better.

We've been having way too much rain for my liking recently. I am not against the rain. I don't mind it normally. But I need to it not to be happening all the time. Especially not during the bulk of my summer. Tonight the sky was clear, well mostly, and I could see some stars and this beautiful moon. I like how it is always changing. Depending on where it is in the sky it looks like a completely different size and color. It waxes and wanes. It is up at night and sometimes it is up during the day. We have a children's moon, a harvest moon, a new moon, and a blue moon. We have lunar eclipses where the sun hides the moon and solar eclipses where the moon hides the sun. It's pretty amazing. Not to mention the tides being tied to the moon's movement. Yeah, I think I'll keep it.

I am thankful for the moon.

kk

1/18/11 Revisiting an old friend

When I was going through the Interpreter Training Program at PCC I found something that helped me. The program itself is very hard, grueling, and in a way, mean. You only get negative feedback. When you ask for things you are doing right the response was "if you don't hear about it, assume you are doing just fine." This is a pretty hard way to learn. It's stressful and hurtful. The program puts out quality interpreters but it is still a hard two years to come out the other side.

What I discovered was yoga. I would go in the morning before class. I can't believe the change that I felt inside. It is hard to quiet my mind. It is going all the time. But to take the hour and focus on breathing and body alignment and not the negative things, or the pressing things, or the homework or worry of whether or not I was going to pass the class or the program, was extremely helpful. I felt like a much happier person. I have not done yoga since the program but have always missed it. This quarter before I start work I am taking a yoga class at school. It is so nice to come back to it. I really must continue.

I am thankful for Yoga.

kk

1/17/11 MLK Day

Today is Martin Luther King Day.

I am thankful for what he stood for and what he asked us all to strive for. I believe in his dream on the grandest scale. I pray that we get there someday. As a nation, as a people, as a world. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

kk

1/16/11 Bread and Cheese

Tonight was my first read thru with the cast of Lend Me a Tenor. On my way there I realized I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast and as I was running early, I stopped at Albertson's for some dinner. Nothing really appealed to me. So I decided to get my traveling staple. A loaf of French bread and some soft herbs and chives cheese. Delicious. It reminded me of traveling through Europe. Can't wait to do that again.

I am thankful for the foods that remind me of the places I've traveled and the things I've seen and experienced. Today it was French bread and cheese.

kk

1/15/11 Prom

Tonight I went to the Awesome 80's Prom on the Portland Spirit. I have several friends working in the show and was able to go with a friend of mine, Erin Shannon. We got all dressed up. She sleeves were very big and poofy. She crimped her hair and put in a big bow. We put my hair in hot sticks and put on fun makeup. Unfortunately it was pouring down rain so our hairdos kind of fell. But we still had fun. We got our prom picture taken, ate some good food, and danced to some fun 80's music. The DJ came over and gave me the microphone and made me sing "Total Eclipse of the Heart." Now, this is a very long song. And I didn't have a video prompt for the words. I do not know all the words. I am also still sickly so I don't have much of a voice. So I think I probably did a horrible job. Luckily another friend of mine helped me out with the words. And the song was actually playing so when you couldn't hear me at least it wasn't all instrumental. Ha! But I had a very fun time.

I am thankful for my fun night out at the Awesome 80's Prom.

kk