Weekend Wedding

This weekend, one of my good friends, Danielle, married her best friend Peter. They met the day of graduation about 4 years ago and pretty much have been together since. He followed her to Roseberg and she in turn followed him to Hollywood. They currently reside in Culver City, California where she works as a newspaper reporter and he as a video editor. I have learned a lot from their relationship and strive to have the same calm, loving and humorous relationship as they do. I'm glad I have a good example to add to my collection =)
So, it all started around 2:45pm on Friday driving down to Eugene. I headed out a bit later than I hoped for, but got some pretty pictures a long the McKenzie Hwy.





Danielle, early on, had sent me a link to the lodge we were staying at, Eagle Rock Lodge and I thought it looked absolutely beautiful. I was definitely not prepared for how I would fall in love with it.







Not only nature, but where we stayed. Here is the lodge and below was our room.





And, not only was the room large . . . it had a tub! So guess what I did the first night? Yup, took a bath and read. It was sweet!
The next day was Saturday, wedding day and we had a lot to get done. Breakfast was at 9am and the hair dresser was to come at 10am. Not only that, we were to make all the bouquets and flower centerpieces, as well as decorate all the table with table settings and the like:




Finally, with a little help from the boys, we got everything done and it was off to pictures and finally, the wedding!






This is are little beer foam man!



Then time for throwing of the garder:


Guess who got it?


All in all, it was a great weekend with a fantastic wedding included. Everyone was friendly, super nice and laid back. Danielle was a great bride, taking charge and NEVER acting like a diva. Everyone was so helpful and it made the day run smoothly. Here to hoping my wedding is just as calm and wonderful as this one!

Portland in the Sky

Oh Portland, how I love thee. Let me count the ways.
I had a pretty good weekend. On Friday, I just chilled at home, picked up a bit and went to bed at 12:30. That is rare in my case. After getting up from a full 9 hours of sleep, I decided to make a bit of Bear Mush (Whole Food's Cream of Wheat) and start picking up my little apartment a bit. Sunday, my aunt and uncle were going to come visit to see where I live, so I wanted it to look nice, plus it just needed that.
After an hour work out at the gym and a shower, Isaiah came over after work, took a shower and we headed out to The Old Spaghetti Factory. Still a celebrating staple in my family. When I was younger, I'd always order the Spaghetti with Mushroom Sauce, a Shirley Temple and Vinegar and Oil as my dressing for my salad. Yup, I kept up the tradition with the Mushroom Sauce, but this time just drank water and of course, three slices of their sour dough bread! At the end of the meal, one always gets ice cream. I passed this time but to my surprise, Isaiah had some spumoni ice cream. My my. Here are a few pics.




Now, on to Sunday. Sunday, my aunt and uncle came to NW Portland to get a tour of NW, the Pearl, Downtown and the OHSU Tram. First we started off at Tea Te Chai for some te. My uncle and I got Rose Petal soy latte, mine was iced. My aunt got the Forest Park Latte (which consisted of dried blackberries, strawberries and raspberries) and pop went with the Kiwi Bubble tea. Then we proceeded on our walk. I told them about the houses and when they were built, the history of the area and we were even lucky enough to see one of the toy horses on the side of the street. Finally we were able to meet up with my mom and we hopped on the street car all the way to OHSU along the waterfront. The round trip is 4 dollars each. Not great, but not bad. It was pretty exciting to be that high, and I think I expected it to be a ride that went fast and twirled, but oh well =)





After that, we hopped back on the Portland street car and headed to Cupcake Jones for some cupcakes.
Mari got the mini Strawberry with Chocolate

Mom got the mini Strawberry Lemonade

And I got the What's up Doc, or Carrot Cake. Mom and I shared that cuz it was Jumbo.

After that, we went to Cool Moon for some ice cream cuz both my dad and uncle wanted some lime Shorbert. Then, we headed home. After ward, I just chilled out at home and got ready for my Monday morning, and now, here I am.

At least I tried, right?

I promise the post after this will be less depressing.

So early this week, Monday evening to be exact, I auditioned for the musical Chicago over at McMinville. If you didn't know, (as I did not) it's a 1 hour drive. A pretty drive but still, an hour. I did not know what to expect since the ad was very vague: bring dancing shoes and music. Ok. Also, I haven't auditioned in almost ten years, let alone audition in "the real world". All of my auditions for musicals had been in high school where you know what your competition is and you know your director and you pretty much know what part your going to get. I kind of got that sense when I stepped into the theatre. McMinville, like Albany, is a small beautiful, transport-to-the-past kind of town and it seemed like most people already knew each other. So that's intimidation #1. Intimidation #2 was that most of them looked like dancers. Ok, not the "Center Stage" dancers, tall and lean, but the dancers that can do the splits. Ok, completely intimidated. I've danced in heels, I wear heels, I LOVE heels, but dancing 'Fosse' style in heels was very new to me. So that was our first audition, dance. We followed choreography for the first number. I almost fell over a few times cuz I'm not used dancing that style in heels. I was pretty proud of myself for actually learning it though. I did mess up at the end because there were some turns, but I figured I'd get it with practice. So yeah, that was the dance and I must say, not the best, but NOT the worst.
Next came singing auditions. Most auditions I've been to we've had an accompanist, a miracle person how seems to know the music ahead of time, or at least that's what it seems. This one? Could barely make the tune out. That totally messed me up. I was about the 4th one to go (thankfully!) and I was bad. Not because I can't sing, cuz yeah, (toot horn) I'm pretty good, but mix nerves with a bad accompanist? Disaster. The musical director had me do some scales, which I thought was my saving grace, and i was done. Next, I had to sit through the whole rest of the 20 girls. I must say, they were pretty horrible. I wasn't saying I was the best. There were 3 categories, really good (about three girls fit into that), good with potential (about 4 of us fit into that) and BAD, so bad the poor girls can't hear the notes (that was the rest of them). So with those odds, I felt pretty confident for at least a call back. At the end, they called a few people to the stage, the real dancers, and we could all leave. Call backs were to be Wednesday and to check in. Ok so I had all Tuesday to ponder things and they had another set of auditions that day as well.
Come Wednesday. I've already planned on taking the half day to take my aunt and uncle to Mutlnomah Falls. I am to call the theatre at after noon to find out if I made the call backs. I wait. It's 12:15. I wait. I don't want to call in front of anyone. I wait. We get to Mutlnomah Falls and off to the restroom for us. When I get out, Isaiah is on the phone (which means we have reception) and my uncle is seated. I take this opportunity to call. I ask if I've made the list. "I don't see your name here, no. I'm sorry". I thank him and say good bye. Honestly, I'm surprised. I wasn't *that* bad, seriously. I wasn't amazing either. I'm disappointed only cuz it means failure, it means rejection, it means I wasn't good at something . . .
Isaiah gives me some words of comfort and hugs. He tells me I'd already decided that whatever the outcome, it's a win win and yeah, I know, but I can't shake of the rejection. He tells me that so many stars out there weren't discovered even though they had the talent and people wonder why they weren't discovered sooner. That's true, but yeah, I don't want to be a star. A friend tells me the dancing is tough! Yeah, that's true too.
But still . . . why?
I didn't want the audition to mean anything, but I guess it does. The musical itself is a symbol. It's one of the first lines my boyfriend said that made me like him. "Hey, Chicago, I liked that movie". It's the movie that gave me chills when I saw the trailer. The opening act gives me chills. It was the musical that I thought would help me express my sensual side . . .
But no, rejected . . . But at least I tried . . . I guess.

Sunday Matinee

As mentioned in the previous post, this weekend was full of events. Saturday was exciting with the hike to the farmer's market and a day of baking and friends. Sunday was full of driving and play watching.

One of my best friends, Kelly, was in her second play at her local community theatre.

Yep, that's her. She doesn't like photos of herself, but she does like vectors and I feel she does wonderful artwork. She's done a few of me too. *I totally swiped this from her.*

After a kind of emotionally rough and charged morning, I got dolled up in my sunday best and headed out the door, hopped on the I-5 south to Albany, Oregon.



I actually used to do the I-5 drive quite a bit. For about a year and a half, I'd drive to Eugene from Portland almost every weekend. It got annoying, but what got me through it was taking pictures. Yeah, probably a bad idea, but I'd just leave the camera on and push the button. I'd usually have no idea what I'd get until I got home, but I do have some pretty images from my drive during that one year.
I've arrived in Albany with early, thankfully ready to see Nickel and Dimed.

My criticisms for the play was that it was long and there were too many actors playing too many characters. It seemed that each actor could not delve into their characters because, they had to move on so quickly to the other one, they felt rushed. And that's all I'll say. But man, the sets were FANTASTIC. I was only able to take a few pictures of that cuz well, the sets changed every 2 minutes or so!




Afterward, we went out to dinner at a Mexican food restaurant and Kelly was kind enough to let me puke verbally at her in her home turf. Sometimes, you just need a friend.

I've been to Albany many times before, we've even filmed there in the dead of night and I still find it very beautiful every time I go. It's like stepping back in time with its old churches, old theaters and old style streets fronts.

Saturday BBQ

Saturday was quite the eventful day for me and I must say, I'm pretty exhausted and haven't yet been able to catch up. It all started at 7am ... I decided to wake up with Isaiah (he needs to be at work by 7:30am) and get an early start to the day. My plan was: gym-hour work out, shower, walk to the farmer's market at PSU then take the Portland street car back home (or close to home.) And the plan worked out.

I decided while at the gym, I'd walk all the way to PSU. Let's see, I think that was about, oh about 1.8 miles? Usually I jog that much, but it was quite tiring. When I hit the pearl I saw Braille Graffiti.



I'd seen this before and it made me laugh, so I thought I'd take a picture. I decided to take pictures of my adventures so here goes.


This is the 405 over pass looking toward NW 23rd.


This is the same spot, but looking toward the Pearl.

A shot of my walk down town.

Here is our beautiful downtown public library. If I could, I'd hang out here all day, buuuuut it kind of smells cuz the bums decided it's a great bathroom.


And here is the Old Church. I LOVE photographing old churches. I'm not a religious person, but there is something about ancient churches that I find so beautiful.We performed here last year for my Caroling concert. It was built in 1883 and now is a nonprofit historical site used for functions.
Can you see that detail?


Now I've reached the farmer's market.


Time for some baking!

Cherries, Blueberries, black-raspberries and raspberries.


This is me making Lemon Curd. Unfortunatley, since I was rushed, I didn't measure out the lemon well enough and I think it was too sugary. Oh well.


And finally:


Cherry Crisp and Triple Berry Crisp! Bon Appetite.