I am... hm, 80 percent done with my Christmas present shopping? Ish? This makes me feel accomplished.

Of course, I still have to wrap it all and put it all together and whatnot, but hey, mostly done is mostly done! I feel prepared and rather pleased with myself.

On that note, I am sending out Christmas cards this year! If you want me to send you a Christmas card, feel free to reply with your name and address (comments are screened) and I'll do my best to bring you tidings of holiday cheer and such. For my family that read this... don't worry, you're probably already on the list. :P

I feel so adult and accomplished!

On that note, game night tonight, and other awesomeness. Nathan bought Assassin's Creed 2, so I'll be watching a lot of that while I try to finish my blanket. Lots of stuff going on at work (can we say OVERTIME, and lots of it?) which has culminated in me being given an unexpected and quite appreciated raise (YAY). Plus a recent trip to Seattle which was absolutely amazing, as I got to see everyone there again and catch up on what is going on in life and computer games. And there was Sunday brunch, which means everyone came over and there was good food and fun conversation and lots of laughter, plus I got to see Tara's baby who was an adorable carrot. And Matt and I were very lazy together, and it was beyond good.

In conclusion, life is, indeed, good.

-Beth

I went out and cut my hair yesterday - it's shoulder length and layered now. I really like it, actually, which surprises me a bit, since I wasn't going to cut it this short. But I went a little shorter so I could do the Locks of Love stuff, and I'm actually really happy with where it is. Hasn't been this short since probably 8th grade! I keep playing with it; I'm probably driving people nuts. :D On the other hand, it can't be TOO much of a drastic change, as it took my roommates about four hours to notice it...

The snow didn't stick around (the first stuff never does), but today we've got really windy weather and some rain coming, which makes me just as happy. Have I mentioned how much I love living up here, in a place where there are trees and weather? It makes me gleeful to watch the seasons change. Even if it is now pitch-black when I get out of my class at five.

I MAY have had ice cream for breakfast today in celebration of it being Friday, and it MAY have been Moose Tracks and it MAY have been delicious. I can neither confirm nor deny.

-Beth

Snow!

That is all.

-Beth

It's now dark when I drive into work. Hurrah for changing seasons? It's also returned to the coat, gloves, scarf, and hat ensemble time. Fall! Whee.

Life continues. Matt came out to visit, which was amazingly awesome despite the fact that three of us got food poisoning and several things were broken. Oh well, before all of that happened, he and I managed to go out to Idaho together. Red Lobster date night went fantastically, and we stopped at Cabela's on the way home so I could get my crazy winter hat of the year (tm). It is Das Hat! ...Even though I think it's more Russian than German. Yes, I named my hat. Mark and Caroline will know exactly which one I am talking about. It is a great hat and it keeps me toasty warm. It also makes my inner child rather gleeful because come on, it has earflaps. Really. Das Hat is obviously the best hat ever.

No snow yet, and the temperatures have decided to swing back up after dipping down into the thirties already. So the leaves are all turning colors, and things aren't too cold yet, and Halloween is next week and I have no plans at all. I must be getting old.

-Beth

I survived the ending of the play, hurrah!

I then did the best thing ever: took a day off. Since I worked on Labor Day, I got a random day off this month, and I saved it for this past Monday. So after spending all weekend doing play related stuff, instead of having to wake up and go to work on Monday morning, I got to sleep in, do laundry, go grocery shopping, and dink around on the computer. Then I went to class and met up with Chris for Monday Night Football. All in all, an excellent Monday - guaranteed to make this week seem shorter!

I had an eye doctor appointment yesterday, too, for new contacts. For the first time since I started wearing corrective lenses (uh... fourteen or fifteen years? 1994 or 1995, I think...) my prescription has not gotten any worse! I could be (gasp) stabilizing now that I'm all grown up! The good news with that is that if I remain stable for long enough, I become a candidate for surgery to fix my eyes, something that I have never before been able to do. Not that a) I can currently afford it or b) I like the idea of people using knives and lasers on my eyes, but hey, the possibility at least exists now, which makes me pleased. We'll see - in a couple of years I might not have to worry about contacts. Which would be cool, to be able to read the clock by my bed when I wake up.

Other than that, it's almost October, and it took til this week before the weather realized it. It went from record breaking heat to high of sixty degrees in the span of, oh, three days. Seriously, this city has problems with the weather. But I'm looking forward to a lazy weekend spent curled up on the couch with my blanket, crocheting, and laptop, and no mention of anything play-related. Hurrah, having a life again!

-Beth

So I think last night was officially the last night this year I'll be sleeping with my window open. I woke up all warm and toasty under my covers, and then made the mistake of getting out of bed. After dancing around barefoot on cold wood floor and putting on clothes that felt as cold as they do when camping, I shut the window and decided that it is officially fall.

Then I used my heater on the way into work, walked across frozen grass to get to work, and open up the news webpage to see the "by the way, freeze warning is in effect". Gah, stupidity. Window is officially shut.

-Beth

Shiny new phone is shiny! And also complicated. But mostly shiny. I am pleased with it! I feel as though I have joined the modern world once again.

The play is about to take over my life again for the weekend. Nathan is out sick, so it's maybe a good thing I won't be spending too much time at home! This is what I keep telling myself.

There are vague plans being made for both Thanksgiving (possibly on the east coast?) and Christmas/New Years (San Diego and Seattle, though the whens of that are also very vague). Possibly also for January! This makes me pretty excited, all things considered - I like having stuff to look forward to. Of which, I get to see the boyfriend in October, and that's making this month go by really slowly. That's the problem with looking forward to things... time never seems to speed up when I want it to!

At the moment, though, life is great, though busy. Between work, Latin class, and the play, August flew straight by and September is threatening to do the same. But I've stolen some time here and there to get a bit of writing done (which I'm very pleased with) and I feel like my good old self again. This is good!

Oh well, back to work. Rehearsal tonight, then performances again all weekend, and then the work-week starts and I get three days off of the play (just work and class and game!). I missed Monday night football this week (and it was the Chargers too, drat it all), but next week and hopefully on all Mondays Chris and I are making plans that involve football, television, and good food. Which is a wonderful idea!

-Beth

The play is taking over my life, but this is unsurprising. Next year if I do this, remind me that having tech week happening right around class starting is not the smartest decision I could have made.

Anyways, I'm really enjoying things, even if they are busy. Mark and Caroline visited last weekend, which was a ton of fun. There was even Pig Out in the Park that weekend, so it worked out well for all. Latin class is a blast and I'm really enjoying it, and the play is starting to wind up for performances (start tomorrow), which means my schedule will calm down at last. Hurrah!

I came home from rehearsal last night still wearing my stage makeup, and Michelle says, "Blue eyeshadow looks great on you, you should wear it more often." Nathan said, "Now I know what you're going to look like in five more years." Talk about mixed signals!

-Beth

One of the many reasons I love this city, and Washington in general:

I recently completed my first year of working at Gonzaga. To mark said fact, the Staff Assembly gave me an anniversary present.

It's a survival kit.

Nalgene bottle, pocketknife, red LED flasher, whistle/thermometer/compass, survival shears, flashlight and - the best part - a silver space blanket. And I mean, I've owned all this stuff before, but how awesome is it that a) I was given a new kit and b) my place of employment basically says "Yes, we know you're going to go off and play in the woods, we like you enough that this is our hint to COME BACK TO WORK ALIVE."

Awesome. Clearly I am living in the right state. I love the Pacific Northwest.

-Beth

So last week, the temperature dropped from being 102 degrees to with a low of 80 to 65 degrees with a low of 50. When did October get here? When are fifty degree temperature differences in a week okay? Gah.

I spent a relatively uneventful weekend, which was really pretty nice, and have a very busy week ahead of me. Play practice like usual, and then it's off to Seattle for Evening in the Park. Hurrah! I have been looking forward to this for over a year. It's going to be awesome.

-Beth

August is an insanely busy month at work, and boy have I been feeling it! I'm already looking forward to September... is that a bad sign?

I have officially signed up for Latin class and bought my books. I'll be taking Latin 101 this fall, just for fun to get back into it. Hopefully I haven't forgotten everything; I'm really looking forward to it.

I've been productive! Signed up for class, started filing paperwork, started planning Thanksgiving vacation (looks like I'll be in San Diego for almost a week, which will be nice), got car insurance finally figured out and done, finished the World of Darkness game I was running and made a character for the new superheros game Nathan will run, cleaned my room... all sorts of things! Plus there's the play practices heating up for opening in September too. Busy busy busy!

It's pouring rain right now, a nice change from the 100 degree weather we've been having. We've been getting some rain and nice thunderstorms; it's nice to not have to water my garden at night!

-Beth

The camping trip was GLORIOUS. Absolutely fantastic. We had a great time. Chris and I drove out Friday afternoon and met Matt there. Matt, being wonderful, had reserved us one of the last remaining spots, and despite roots making the tent area rather uneven, I don't think there was a better spot that we could have chosen.

We spent Friday evening goofing off at the site, where we fought with the white gas stove and emerged triumphant with taco goodness. Then we took a hike down to the beach, where we wanted around for an hour or so in the water, and then back up to camp, where we hid in the tent and watched the lightning as a storm passed pretty much right above us. It poured, it thundered, it lightning'd, and we were fine in the tents. It was great.

Saturday we woke up, made breakfast, cleaned up breakfast, packed up lunch, packed up all needed supplies, and hiked back down to the beach, where we set up chairs and claimed a table for the day. After we blew up the inner tubes and put on sunscreen and sat down with our books, we looked around and realized no one else was at the beach. Matt quickly determined why with a glance at his watch: 8am. Apparently we all wake up really early camping. Something to do with natural light, I'm sure...

We played football in the water, the boys went at each other with inner tubes and learned why headbutting each other is actually not a good thing, we floated and ate cherries, and sat around and read. By three we felt like we'd spent a whole day at the beach, so we packed up and hiked up to camp again - it had been a lot easier on the way down! We proceeded to spend the rest of the day lying out on the grass, reliving childhood on the playground, playing Phase 10, and having dinner.

Sunday we again woke up early, had breakfast, packed up, and left camp... all before 8, again. Matt had a longer drive back, so we decided to call the weekend good and head home from there - I dropped Chris off in town around 10, and was home myself by 10:30, so not a bad drive at all. I then had to deal with all the cleanup, which can I say is a lot easier when you have several siblings to help!

Now it's back to the regular work-week... A bit of a disappointment over how great the weekend was!

-Beth

I went home at lunchtime today so that I could switch my laundry, so I have clean clothes to pack when I get done with game tonight. Imagine my surprise when, on the way back to work, I enter into an alternate dimension. One in which it is possible for it to be 90 degrees and sunny, and also pouring down hail the size of marbles at the same time.

Alternate dimension is alternate. Also, Market Street is gone. When did that happen again?

-Beth

So after two years of talking about it, the camping trip is finally a go.

Next weekend, Matt, Chris and I are going to be camping on Lake Roosevelt, out by the Grand Coulee Dam. I have most of my gear ready to go because it'll be a busy week until then. It's been an experience, getting the three of us to plan this by email, a bit hindered by the fact that none of us really have much camping gear. I thought I had a really nice set of camping pans, but I can't find them anywhere. Then again, since most of my stuff is packed up in the basement, I couldn't do as thorough of a search as I wanted...

Anyways, through various borrowing and begging we have acquired things like tents and a camp stove, and all of us having sleeping bags and pads. I'm in charge of food (we camp so we can eat!) and it will be FANTASTIC. I'm already looking forward to it.

I have all my checklists going, too - this is me and my organizational bent. I'm really grateful that I know what I'm doing from so many Girl Scout and family trips! This isn't my first camping trip with no "adults" - the road trip to Zion with Mike and Patrick was, back in... 2004? - but it's only the second one, so I feel a little odd to think that really, if I forget it, Mom's not going to be around to remind me and check if I've packed it!

Still, I think we'll manage pretty well. I've got the food covered, Chris is bringing the tents and the stove, Matt's getting there early to camp out a site for us... and all of us have done plenty of camping, so it's not like we have no idea what we're getting into. Still, I like my lists, and the fact that I have enough background and experience in this to know what I'm doing. It's been... wow, since the summer of 2005 since I've gone on a camping trip? No, I take that back - I went with Grandma and Grandpa in the camper out to the desert with Cory and Kim back over Christmas break in 2006. Far too long, either way. This shall change that!

How to tell I'm just a little excited about it. If we manage this one, it means that we know we can do it and that we'll be able to keep on doing weekend trips until we all have enough time off to actually pull a long trip.

-Beth

Last night I made green bean casserole, and it was delicious.

This is a success on two levels:

1- I made a green bean casserole, and it was delicious! I love green bean casseroles and have never before attempted to make one, much less have it turn out successfully. Win for cooking!

2- All the green beans in said casserole came from my garden. Hurray! It's useful!

As you might be able to tell, I'm very proud of myself.

-Beth

So, it's official: when I turn on my car's AC, I no longer smell the desert. I am quite saddened by this.

Otherwise, though, the fourth of July was great. Matt drove out from Seattle - he got in Thursday night and left around one this afternoon. On Friday we went out mini-golfing with Nathan and Michelle and then out to dinner at Red Lobster, and on Saturday they both left for Montana so we had the house to ourselves. We promptly spent the rest of the weekend lazing around on the couch - he played some video games and I read my For Better or For Worse comic books. :P We're such dorks. It was ridiculously nice to have him around, even though we weren't doing anything and no one was over... Probably BECAUSE we didn't have anything to do and no one was over, so we got to just hang out together and kind of revel in the fact that we were in the same place. It was really fantastic beyond words.

Last night we went to dinner at Chris' place, where we played bocce ball and I was downright awesome. I apparently have talent at underhanded throwing of heavy softballs, who knew? Then we all went to GU and found the perfect place to watch fireworks, and afterwards Matt and I went home and collapsed. And today we spent another lazy morning together reading and video gaming and just enjoying the fact that we can sit together and do different things and still be perfectly content with the other's company. It was nice. Really, really, perfect.

Of course, he had to go back to Seattle after noon, but while he was here, perfect. We've decided that this time next year we'll be in the same place. We don't know where that will be - here or Seattle - but we've decided to make a decision, even though it'll be a tough one to make. But we've been dating for a year now long-distance, and by next year it'll be two, and... we'd like to be in the same place. Rather a lot.

But for now - it was one of the best weekends I've ever had. Going back to work tomorrow is not going to be easy! At least tomorrow night is OOT rehearsal, and I'll find out what part I'm going to play this year...

-Beth

To follow the music theme of the past few posts, I now have the soundtrack to the new Star Trek movie, and it is fantastic. Especially the track entitled "Enterprising Young Men".

I just had a nice lazy weekend - we did a barbecue on Saturday night that was incredibly tasty and provided me with leftovers for lunches for most of this week, and we went to see Star Trek again on Sunday since Michelle hasn't seen it yet. It was just as much fun the second time around.

I didn't get too much done, though. Oh, I cleaned, and I got everything done that I meant to get done, but it was nice to finish all the needed things and still have a great deal of time to sit back and dink around on the internet or play some games or write. I'm very pleased with my writing at the moment - I've got lots of ideas and I've been able to actually write some of them out again, like I did back in college. It's the first time this has happened since I moved up here, really, and I'm greatly enjoying it.

I've also started playing Assassin's Creed on Shiny, which, can I say... SHINY. It's a great game and a lot more in-depth than I thought it was from watching Nathan play through it. Thought pickpocketing is HARD. That is so far my least favorite type of mission, but I'm only in Damascus for the first time, still... hopefully I'll figure it out soon!

Auditions for Old Orchard Theater are tonight. I'll show up and see how embarrassing the play is this year (it can't be worse than last year), see when the rehearsal/play schedule is, and if they need someone my age in the cast. If so, I'm in, if not... oh well. No big deal!

I'm also thinking of signing up to take language classes this coming semester. I'll have to okay it through work, of course, but I'm 90% sure I'm going to do it. The question remains, what do I want to take? Latin, to relearn everything I've forgotten from high school? Or French or German, two languages I am also interested in? Decisions, decisions...

-Beth

In other music related news, the Dueling Banjo song? Makes me want to learn how to play banjos just so I can randomly do that and be awesome.

Yes, I really might be a dork. How could you tell?

I have more games for my computer now, courtesy of awesome boyfriend. I expect to spend much time playing them in the near future - if I get enough sleep to justify wasting time on the computer. Note to self: do not wake up at 7am, go to the dentist at 2:30pm, and then go to work at 5:30pm. When you're done with your eight hour shift, waking up the next day for your normal morning shift is Not Fun.

-Beth

My commute to work, including finding parking, is exactly two repetitions of the song "Blue on Black" by Kenny Wayne Shepherd on my iPod.

What you may deduce from that statement is that I love both my city and greatly enjoy that song. It's only a little stuck in my head, and I'm only a little pleased that my commute is so short.

-Beth

I think that lazy weekends are marvelous things. I'm sorting through my books and cds and movies today - I've forgotten some of what I have because I don't have enough bookshelf space for everything. I have one big bookshelf and one small one out in my room, both crammed full. The tall one even has the books stacked in neat piles rather than standing up like they normally do, just so I can fit more on it! I've got another small one in my closet that's stuffed with paperbooks double-parking in front of each other... and I STILL have two more boxes of books that I keep under my bed because there's nowhere else to put them!

Considering that I left 90% of my books in San Diego when I moved up here (the benefit of having siblings who enjoy reading the same series as me is that I at least know they went to good homes!), I think I can safely say that I greatly enjoy reading. When I have a place of my own I'll have to get at least another bookshelf to put everything out on! As it is now, I just don't have room for anything else crammed into this room, so in boxes under the bed they shall stay.

Another thing I have decided I'm going to get when I have room for it (read: when I have my own place) is a filing cabinet. AT the moment, I keep important papers and notes and things in one of two places, and while I have things pretty decently organized (this is me, after all), I keep thinking how much easier it would be if I just had a single filing cabinet with hanging folders, rather than stacks of folders and envelopes piled on top of each other.

I know, random post. Oh well, it's what was on my mind. Also randomly, I have discovered the comic series Fables, and it is beyond fantastic. Once I have money I shall begin adding it to my already full book collection! It's such an innovative idea, and really well done. I blitzed my way through it after getting one at the library to test it out, and I'm very glad I did. The concept is, fairy tale and fable characters are real people exiled to New York when their other-realm Homeworlds are conquered by the Adversary. Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty have monthly meetings to complain about their ex-husband, Prince Charming. Boy Blue is Snow White's assistant, and she's the assistant to the mayor of Fabletown, Old King Cole. The big bad wolf is the Sheriff, and he's not allowed at the Farm, where nonhuman fables like the Three Little Pigs and Sher Khan and Reynauld the Fox live. It's great, I love it.

And on that note, Chris is coming over to do lunch and hit the library and the bank (errands and hanging out, it's a great thing), so time to get going to be productive. Hurrah!

-Beth

Summers seemed a lot more exciting when I was a kid, somehow.

The weather's turned warmer, which is great, and my garden is doing AMAZING. I plan on eating homegrown salad next week. I go out to weed very thoroughly once a week, which means I'm getting a bit of a tan, and yesterday I started to thin my carrots. It somehow hurts my soul to pull up perfectly good growing things that will one day be tasty, because I stressed for so long about how nothing was going to grow. It's like killing tasty snacks! I object to such a thing. Next year I will not plant so many seeds assuming that only half of them will grow. Next year I will plant them spaced apart and assume they ALL will grow, which means it'll utterly fail because that's how karma works. Oh well, details.

Nothing much is planned for June - maybe a trip to Seattle around Father's Day, but all the exciting stuff seems to be happening in July and August... 4th of July holiday, a camping trip with friends (hopefully, we're trying really hard!), Evening in the Park. June seems kind of like a dead month at the moment. Do dentist appointments count as excitement? I hope not.

-Beth

At this time last week, I went and chopped ten inches off my hair. So far, no one I have not pointed it out to has noticed on their own. I think this is a sign that I still, in fact, have long hair. But I'm pleased with my haircut. It's sort of a staggered cut, going from shorter to longer around my face, and still long enough to pull back, which was exactly what I wanted. I'm very pleased with it, and am contemplating going back to get another couple of inches wacked off because I had forgotten how much easier it is to have (relatively) short hair. Also because the cut is still longer than I thought it would be, but that's a better problem than the other way around! We'll see if I decided to do that - I'll wait a month or so first.

-Beth

Matt was in town this weekend. Aside from the bbq and outdoor game session of glory on Sunday, on Monday he took me to see the new Star Trek movie. Now, bearing in mind that I was raised on Next Gen, not the Original Series, I have to say that I thought it was a fantastic movie. It was both good Star Trek and good movie, and yes, there are differences between those two. And the lines! Oh, wow, the writing of one-liners was just unbelievable. Enough witty references to the old without completely overdoing it, and enough rewriting of the new without utterly beating up the past. Excellently done.

Furthermore: Mr. Lucas, you should be hiding under your covers somewhere weeping, because THAT, Mr. Lucas, THAT is how you make a prequel movie to revitalize a beloved franchise. Successfully. Gah. Why couldn't the Star Wars prequels have been half as good? Really.

In conclusion, it was a great movie, which I highly recommend. It also had a soundtrack that I think I will save up to get as my next "splurge" purchase, because the music was simply wonderfully awesome, so much so that I was pulled out of the action or pretty scenes or whatever to go, "Wow, this is awesome music".

-Beth

And on this day, I have conquered the kitchen. And by that, I mean that I have successfully managed to make a very tasty shepherd's pie from scratch. As those who have had to put up with living with me can attest, my attitude and ability in the kitchen can best be described as "spastically enthusiastic" - which is, I occasionally get stuck on the idea of making something, but otherwise tend to just eat whatever's in front of me.

The latest of that series of "things Beth wants to learn how to cook" was shepherd's pie. I got some ground beef, realized that there was ground beef in shepherd's pie, looked up the recipe, tweaked it to compensate for not having enough ground beef nor any beef broth, and ta-da! I have created tasty tasty food. I so approve of this newfound talent.

Though the recipe was labeled "Easy Shepherd's Pie", and I greatly disagree with that. It required a pot, a skillet, AND a casserole dish, and make me learn how to make real mashed potatoes. This does not equate with "easy".

Bah. It was a good reward for surviving a trip to the doctor's office for a physical, though. And now I have leftovers for lunch for the rest of the week! Win #2.

I really am quite proud of myself. It's kind of silly. I should have waited to make it for a day when Michelle was at least at home - Nathan doesn't eat potatoes (silly man) and I don't even know if Michelle would like the pie either. So it was me in a big empty house making this big casserole. Oh noes, leftovers!

-Beth

On the way back home from San Diego (which was an AWESOME trip, by the way), I looked down out of my plane window as we flew over town, and went, "Hey, I recognize where we are! I know what road that is! ...THAT'S MY JEEP!!"

So yeah, we actually flew right over the house and I saw WTB sitting on the curb outside of the house, forlornly awaiting my return. It was kind of really great.

Also, driving home late from the work meeting that was last night was absolutely cool. Big white glowing full moon drifting through the clouds behind me to the south, lots of lightning flashing through the clouds ahead of me to the north. I went to bed watching the lightning out of my bedroom window. It's the little things that make me happy.

-Beth