Here Are Some Photos

My friend Aaron has a web page with some photos from our snowshoeing adventure. Check them out:

http://picasaweb.google.ca/ogie.aaron/Tumalo109#

Hopefully I will be savvy enough to post photos of future adventures from my own camera sooner than later.

Where Are the Photos?

I arrived home from work on Tuesday dirty, stinking and exhausted.  I was excited to find a little box containing the small electronic for which I have been yearning for at least the past year.  I finally purchased my very first camera.  It is a Sony Cybershot, which came highly recommended to me by several people.  I immediately, before showering or even calling my Mom to let her know I made it out alive, began charging the little battery that came with the camera.  I felt excited about finally being able to capture photos of my beautiful surroundings here in Oregon.

The next day, I went for a little hike in one of my favorite parks in town in order to introduce it to you all.  I forgot to even take the camera.  

Thursday was a warm, beautiful, blue sky day.  I decided to give in to my hatred of snow and snowshoe up Tumalo Butte.  From the top of the Butte, I could see for miles and miles and miles and miles and...miles.  It was absolutely beautiful.  I could see little people the size of ants skiing down Mt Bachelor.  I was so close to Broken Top Mountain and South Sister, I felt as if I could jump across and land on them.  I could see Bend, Mt. Jefferson, and Three Fingered Jack Mountain to the East and North.  I could see the lava fields, Paulina Wilderness Area, and Mt Thielsen to the South.  I could see countless mountain ranges, buttes, and valleys that I can't identify.  Absolutely beautiful.  Halfway up the Butte, I decided to snap a few pictures of my smiling friends trudging through the ice and snow.  The pictures were a little dark because we were in the trees.  And then all of a sudden, the camera displayed, "Memory Full."  What the heck?  

I could only laugh at myself when my friend explained that I needed a memory card in order to be able to take and save more than six pictures.  Only me.  Only me.

The good news is that I smiled the entire way up the Butte and the entire way down and for hours after the hike was all over.  I no longer hate snow.  I by no means like it, and I don't hate it.  The blue sky helps tremendously.

And Another One Begins

2009.  It is the dawn of a whole new year.  I brought in 2009 alone, in someone else's house, on what I like to call a vacation from my own reality; a vacation from society; hibernation, same as most smart animals.  Out with the old; in with the new. Farewell to the past; all senses set on the future.  What to take with?   What to leave behind?  And, what is it time to recover?  Ah yes, I have been reflecting on my 33 years of living so far.  I like having a birthday so close to the new year.  It makes beginning a new year literal.  Year 34 begins.

Have I mentioned lately that I hate winter?  I'm trying to decide if it is just me using, "I hate winter" as an excuse to be miserable, or if it truly is winter that brings me down.  I think it is winter because I am really not that miserable.  I have been cracking myself up lately (with laughter), and having relatively positive thoughts about what I can do to shake the winter funk.  I bought a camera, finally.  I can't wait to begin using it.  Creative expression is on my list of things to bring in to this new year.  My second ever love, Lucho, helped me recognize the importance of having a creative outlet.

Another concept on my list of "bringing in" is creating each day with intention.  I am realizing that change is one of the only things that motivates me.  Once I begin feeling settled, I instantly get antsy and begin seeing opportunity every where I look.  Nothing seems to be good enough as it is.  The house is too big, too cluttered.  My job is too cold, too hard.  My debt is too high, too restraining.  It is that suffocating feeling I have come to know all too well.  I need to leave (fight or flight?).  I need to find something different to do, something new.  It is too cold and too snowy and too grey here.  So, am I running away from something?  Or is everything that I need right here for me to learn to appreciate in a way that makes it enough?  Or do the seasons impact my psyche this intensely?  Or is my spirit truly so free that two years is the max for my settlement?

So, the intention with which I am creating each day will be all about what is next for me.  A great man, (my favorite boss ever) Mark Earl, once wrote to me, 

For you, I think the quest is more fun than the finish.  Some people like packing & planning for a trip, some people like the travel itself, some people like being there when they arrive, & some people like it when they come home.  

He wrote that way back in 2004 and I think right now, in this brand new year of 2009, for goodness' sake, I get it.  He is exactly right.  I can accept that.  And I am going to create 2009.  I am not going to let life just happen to me this year.  No, no.  I am going to plan for more change.  I am going to travel, explore, and create.  The winter has only just begun and I feel the blues from last winter returning.  If it happens once, perhaps it is a coincidence.  If it happens twice, it is time to take heed.  If it happens three times, shame on me.  If my outlook on Pacific Northwestern winters doesn't change in this second winter, I am going to change things up and seek warmer climates before the third.  

I am going to fight through the winter and plan for my flight.  Who ever said one has to choose between the two?