Haines and more

I realized that I've been slacking on my blogging lately. I mean, since I last wrote, I have been in Haines for ten days and back to Seattle. Alaska was awesome. Which, come on, we all knew would be the case. I decorated, hiked, watched football, ate... it was grand. And I realized that as much as I love that place, it's ok that I'm not there right now. Sure, I'd love life if I was living in Haines, but that doesn't mean that I can't love it since I'm living in the greater Seattle area. So I hereby declare that I am going to work on loving life more in Seattle rather than wishing I was somewhere else. You heard it here first.

Oh Seattle

I joked about dressing in all my Seattle sports gear and calling myself a masochist for Halloween. After this weekend, I kinda wish I had. I spent the weekend in Eugene with a bunch of Duck fans and went to see the Ducks slaughter the Huskies on Saturday. It was fun enough, but just about every time a Seattle sports team leaves the field/pitch/court my heart breaks a little because we usually just lost another game (of course our main court team got taken away, but don't even get me started on that...). It almost makes me wish that I lived in New York where I could cheer for winning teams and not feel like a sell-out. But then I remember that I will never be a band-wagon fan and maybe, just maybe, we'll do better next season. In a way, cheering for Seattle teams year after year is a little proof in my life that I really do have hope for the future.

October Madness

10 days ago I took off in the car with my mother. We knew a few stops, but had some playing to do in between. We ended up going to Eugene that first night, a place I hope to never see again. Then we went to San Francisco and played tourist for a few hours and hung out with Stefanie, the intern who lived with my parents my Freshman year of college. We were at a bar in downtown San Francisco when the Giants made it to the World Series. It was pretty sweet. Then we went to Huntington Beach via Merced. I got to hang out with Erica (friend from HS) and her husband Matt, which was fun. We went to the beach because my dad had a conference down there. Two nights in the Hilton on the beach? Yes please! My mom and I went out to a bar that night for dinner and I got carded, which led to me receiving a free dessert. Best getting carded that's ever happened to me. And as long as we were only 20 minutes away, we went to Disneyland for my birthday. 25 on the 25th, and I must say, my birthday was indeed golden. And I have pictures of me and many Disney characters to prove it. The next day we went to Ruby's on the pier. It's over 1800 feet from the road next to the beach out to the restaurant, and it's all alone out there. Pretty rad. Walnut Creek and my Godparents were calling our name, so next we headed back up to the Bay Area. It's always good to see Scott and Nancy. We spent a couple days with them then went on to Bend to see Scott, Alissa, Owen, and Josh. Those boys are super fun. And my brother and sister-in-law ain't so bad either. We were there for three nights then headed back to the Seattle area today.
My mom and I drove 2713 miles and spent about 42 hours in the car. Good times.

I just think this is cool

Because it's never to late to follow your dreams. check it out

October

October is nearly half over. I have done just about nothing exciting. I have worked on school and hung out with people. Maybe the second half of October will bring a little bit more excitement.* It is my golden birthday this year afterall...

*hint: I know it will :)

Use less

Have you ever wondered how useless is like use _ less... like dude, that information was useless, you should use less. Yeah.

useless information

I woke up this morning trying to figure out how to spell the word that describes those small open sores in your mouth. Not because I've had one recently, just because I knew it rhymed with anchor. Turns out it's canker.

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I've been getting emails from Old Navy Maternity for a while. I am not pregnant, nor do I plan on being pregnant. It just occurred to me today that I should hit unsubscribe at the bottom of the email.

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My dog will only pee if someone is watching her. It makes mornings colder than they need to be.

hardcore

I went camping on the Olympic Peninsula with Sean, Jamie, and Kevin this week. It was a typical peninsula fall week... i.e. raining and suuuuuper cloudy. We went for a little hike in the clouds one day, but Kevin and I decided that we didn't have enough of the clouds, so we kept going up while Sean and Jamie went back down to get the car and meet us at the top of the trail. We ended up hiking 10 miles. Now, 10 miles on its own, not too bad... 10 miles in the windy rain, getting a little more hardcore... 10 miles in the rain in Chacos, borderline stupid... 10 miles in the rain in Chacos with the crazy stomach cramps, just another day in the life of Kate Maxwell. I'm just that cool.

Fast food to the MAX

On Sunday, I was fortunate enough to get to hang out with my good friend Ingrid Harper. I rolled out of bed around noon and she came over shortly after. Following doing not much of anything for about an hour, we decided that we should go to Dick's (more affectionately known as Richard's) to get some cheeseburgers and chocolate shakes. It was tasty.

Then, after a few hours of watching stupid TV and movies, we decided to go to church then grab some dinner with some friends. We decided to wait until after church because we weren't super hungry, aware that we could be starving by the time that church finished. Well little did we know that the new youth pastor was being ordained and installed at that service so it lasted a lot longer than average. Thus, at 9:00 rather than the normal 8:00 we were starving and wanted to eat as fast as possible. If one finds oneself in the U District in need of food ASAP, where does one go? That's right, Richard's. So we ate at Dick's again.

We went home and then watched a couple more movies before deciding around 2 AM that we were still hungry. So we did one anyone with the munchies at 2 AM would do. We went to McDonald's. We were really hoping for some good fast food breakfast, but were informed that McDonald's only serves breakfast after 4 AM. So naturally, we had chicken nuggets instead.

After returning home for another hour or so, I was still totally craving the fast food breakfast, so we went to Jack in the Box where breakfast is served all day. I got my sausage and egg biscuit as well as some french toast sticks. We also stopped by a Red Box so we watched a good movie. Life is good.

That's right. Four fast food stops in twelve hours. I really am that awesome. And oddly enough, my stomach was totally fine after all that junk.

The best part of the McDonald's experience was when a dude got out of the car in front of us. I was jokingly hoping that he would have to pee. I figured that it would be hilarious if we saw a guy pee in the bushes while going through the drive thru at 2. But he just adjusted his pants and sat back down. Then the dude on the other side of the car opened and I was hoping that dude would have to pee. I then said, "take a pee, take a pee" but Ingrid pointed out to me that he had already gone pee based on looking at his pants. But he continued to the bushes anyway where he wrenched multiple times. So rather than seeing a drunk dude pee in the bushes, we saw one puke in the bushes... and that was the most eventful thing of my weekend.

TMI? Part II

So yesterday I went in for my colonoscopy and endoscopy, basically meaning that the doctor stuck a camera in both ends... I've heard that the worst part about this procedure is the prep. Well, I mostly agree with that, because it was, in fact, horrible. However, I'm going to have to go with the worst part being when they thought I was out and couldn't feel anything, but still felt that little camera snaking it's way up my colon. That was quite possibly the worst thing I have ever felt. Luckly, I fell asleep like I should have been after about 10 seconds... Still, that's not right.
They didn't see anything abnormal except for a little excess bile in my stomach, which apparently could be causing some of the discomfort. They also are going to do a few biopsies of stuff they took out, whatever that means. So that was that. Now I'm back to waiting.
I'm still eating whatever I want, but am more aware of what upsets my stomach. For example, I can no longer have Cheetos or pizza from Little Caesar's. The list is a work in progress.

'nother sweet weekend

This weekend (if you can call Tuesday-Monday a weekend) I went to Oregon with my parents. It was pretty much awesome. I read some Harry Potter. I took some naps. I played with my nephews. I flew some kites. I put together some puzzle. Good times.

sweet weekend

This weekend I went to Mt. Rainier with Karuna and Becca. It was pretty much awesome. We totally lucked into a campsite (or God had a plan...). We hiked, we ate, we burned stuff, we slept in the woods. All in all, a good time.
In other news, the eating gluten is going fairly well, aside from the sporadic stomach cramping, desire to lay in the fetal position, and need to run to the bathroom...

My true love

I have owned a few kayaks over the years. I always thought my true love was my slightly used blue wilderness systems tempest 170. It turns out that I am a fickle person, as my true love has changed to this one...



and Tika likes it too

Murphy

For better or worse, I was the owner of a '95 Subaru for the past two years. It hauled my stuff up to Alaska almost two years ago, hauled it all back a month ago, and took me and my kayaks many places in between. But I sold the Murphy. I just didn't like him anymore. Because with Murphy, whatever could go wrong, would go wrong...

TMI?

I get to have a colonoscopy and endoscopy on the 26th of August. So I'm gluten free for another 2-3 weeks, then going on a gluten tour of Western Washington for 2-3 weeks, then don't eat for a day... should be good times... hopefully they find something that can lead to something other than the bullshit diagnosis of IBS*. But I get to wait at least another month to find out. I guess this is why I moved back, because if I hadn't it would be yet another trip back and forth... But I wouldn't mind being in Haines for the summer... if only...

*After talking with friends, we have agreed that IBS is what doctors say you have when they know something is wrong with your digestive system, but can't tell you what it is. "Oh, you have stomach issues but don't have Celiac, Crohns, food allergies, or a parasite of some sort? Huh. It must be IBS."