It's like that one episode of Friends...

This reminded me of that one episode of friends where Chandler bets Ross that he can't name all 50 states in 10 minutes. Ross disagrees and takes on the bet. He can't do it and ends up not being able to eat Thanksgiving dinner because he is so obsessed. This episode is probably on my top 20 list of favorite episodes because everytime I watch it I have to list all 50 states. Anyway...how many countries can you name in 5 minutes. It's hard...

52

Wear Denim with Purpose!

In one of my classes there is an assignment to participate in a political action project. One that is being advertised on my campus is Denim Day. It is the one I have decided to participate for my project but it is easy enough for anyone to participate in - for an assignment or not!

Denim Day was created to raise awareness and educate the community about rape and sexual assault. In 1998, an Italian Supreme Court decision overturned a rape conviction because the victim wore jeans, reasoning the jeans were so tight the victim must have helped her attacker remove them. People all over the world were outraged. Wearing jeans became an international symbol of protest against erroneous and destructive attitudes about sexual assault. In the years since that ruling, hundreds of thousandsof people have worn jeans on a designated day in April as a visible sign of protest against the myths that still surround sexual assault. By wearing denim on April 23rd, you can take a stand against rape, support of survivors and break the silence that surrounds sexual violence. This year, we celebrate the tenth anniversary of Denim Day in LA, and in addition have launched a national campaign, Denim Day USA. Make a social statement with your fashion statement; wear jeans with a purpose!

To learn more about Denim Day, and to sign up as a participant, please visit www.denimdayinla.org.

The Shack by William Young

Even though I am super busy, some how I finished a book that was in no way school related. YIPEE! I am not going to tell you much about it because I don't want to give away the story. It's good - really good. Read it.

Okay - I will be a little nice and tell you what the back cover says...

"Mackenzie Allen Philips' youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend.

Against his better judgement he arrives at the shack on a wintery afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack's world forever.

In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant The Shack wrestles with the timeless question, "Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain?" The answeres Mack gets will astonund you and perhaps transform you as much as it did him."

Long Day

Today was my first day at my mental health clinical rotation site. It was a really good experience and I can already tell that I'm going to enjoy this place. It's not easy, in fact it is really hard. Not that the work we are doing per say, but the emotional factor. We are in the heart of Old Town which is "home" to a lot of homeless. The old hotels in the area have been bought by the city or other organizations and are used for transitional housing and "apartments". Never in my whole life have I been face-to-face with poverty as I was today. We (my fellow student and I) went to visit some of our "clients" in these hotels. The rooms are tiny - they were described to us as the size of parking spots, and that wasn't much of an exageration. But more importantly is the people we met. These people are genuine, honest, and just plain ol' friendly. They were just so excited to talk to us and have someone listen to their story. And while this is my mental health rotation, I couldn't tell you who had a mental illness.
It was an eye-opening experience, and I'm glad I get to keep doing it for the next six weeks. So for these next six weeks, probably on Tuesday and Wednesday nights you'll probably get to read about this journey I'm on, and what I'm learning about and from these awesome people I get to interact with.

i LOVE portland!

The weather this weekend was sweet and almost summer like. And if you are a true Oregonian you take advantage of the sunny days. I am a true Oregonian. Carina and I hopped on the MAX Saturday morning and headed down to the Saturday Market. I didn't really know what to expect but it was a great time. It reminded me of Corvallis' fall festival only bigger, more crowded and with a whole lot more variety. I found this really sweetwrap-around skirt on sale for $5 and couldn't resist. On the way back we realized we missed a whole section. Oh darn! we'll have to go back. :)

From there we walked down to the river front and spent time taking pictures. There is a fountain for people to play in and it was a very popular spot for kids and adults alike. At one point a bride and groom showed up to get pictures with it. Carina and I weren't wearing the proper clothing to join in and really didn't want to spend the rest of the morning trying to get dry, so we just enjoyed watching the little kiddos run through it.

There wasn't really a plan after that except to walk around downtown Portland, do a little window shopping, and eventually catch the MAX again and make it over to Lloyd center. With all the walking around it almost got too hot, but it was nice. At Lloyd center my goal was to find some professional clothes that didn't look too fancy, and not spend a fortune in the process. After going to a couple of stores with not very much luck we were about to leave (even my backup store of Old Navy came up empty - you have to be at least 5'6" to fit in their pants height wise and 5'6" I am not). But we passed by this store that was having a massive sale and their clothes were just what I wanted. Score! :)

The only blip in our day came when it was time to get back on the MAX to head out to IKEA. As we neared the station, the MAX was waiting but there was no driver, no riders and a sign that reported it was out of service. A Trimet guy said that in order to catch the MAX we would need to go down to the 7th Ave. Station and catch a bus to the Gateway TC. It turns out that there was a MAX car that malfunctioned on the banfield, which caused them to have to shut the power down on one section of the tracks. It had only happened a short time before so there was going to be a delay on how fast the buses could be pulled off other routes and directed to where we were. Carina and I had no problem waiting, because there wasn't any place that we really had to be, and it was sunny. Other people were not so patient. It was really hard not to laugh at those who thought this was a conspiracy by Trimet to "ruin their day", and the guy who kept repeating, "if this was an emergency situation we'd all be dead by now!" After about 45 minutes a bus showed up and we were on our way. We decided to postpone the trip to IKEA for another day.

Even with the transportation trouble, weekends like this one having me consider something I never thought I would. I might like to live in Portland after school. During my last semester I will be doing a senior practicum in the area of my interest. It will be like a 7 week internship with a local hospital. There is a relatively high percentage of students who receive a job offer from this site. Right now, I am not planning on applying for a job in the city, but if one is offered to me through my senior practicum I will probably take it. I really like living in the city, and I didn't think I would.

[I mentioned that Carina and I took pictures this weekend, and I have to appologize for the lack of pictures on this post. My camera cord has decided to take a little vaction and I don't know where that is. Sad day!]

TGIF!

This week felt like it was really long. On Tuesday, my day started with an exam and then sitting through orientation for another 6 hours. Wednesday, when I woke up it felt like it should be Thursday, but it was not so. Even though it was a long week it was still a good week.

.:1:. I do not have lectures anymore for my mental health class. The test on Tuesday was the final, and the rest of the semester will be spent at my clinical site.

.:2:. I passed the lecture part of my mental health class and I can go on to clinicals. I didn't have any doubt that I would pass, but there were some people that didn't pass the class. That means for them to continue in nursing school they have to take this class over again, which I think is good but at the same times still sucks for them. I am entirely grateful for the study habits I have and for the intensity in which I study (probably picked up from my mom).

.:3:. Wednesday night was really fun. Carina and I went out to dinner at Typhoon for Thai food, and then went to a young adults/college student bible study that we found through Mosaic. The food was great. I really liked the teaching - we watched a Nooma video by Rob Bell about prayer and then discussed it. And the group of people were pretty cool. After the bible study was over I learned how to play Mario kart. I suck at this game but it's still fun.

.:4:. It's SUNNY and WARM!! And part of my clinicals today allowed me to be outside for most of the day. It was sweet!

.:5:. Have I mentioned that I love baseball and baseball season has started? Because I do and it has. It's very relaxing to turn on a baseball game on at night after a long day. Even if the Mariners aren't doing as well as I would like, it's still fun to watch the game.

.:6:. I have some really fun plans for this weekend. I have to write a paper, but I also get to go off campus (last week I was on duty), and I'm planning to go to Saturday Market tomorrow. It should be lots of fun.

.:7:. New epsiodes of Grey's Anatomy start in 13 days! :)

.:8:. We've been having kitchen cleanliness issue, but this week the rules finally worked and I get to cook in a CLEAN kitchen. You have no idea how much that makes the living situation better.

.:9:. I talked to Madre on Tuesday and it was just really good to hear here voice and chat.

.:10:. Tricia (from www.cfhusband.blogspot.com) got her lungs and she is doing really well. Even though I don't know this family, it is just so awesome and encouraging to read about their journey.

What's going on

Today I finished up the classroom portion of my mental health class, and started the orientation process to my site (Macdonald Center). I don't go there until next Tuesday, but I learned a bit more about it today. Macdonald Center is in downtown NW Portland, but a lot of what I get to do involves going to peoples homes (with a trained staff member and my clinical partner). The mornings are spent in a church, eating and talking with people off the streets, and the afternoons are visiting people who live in the old downtown hotels, forming relationships and meeting their health care needs. Building relationships, meeting people where they are at, and just loving them is what I am most excited about. A lot of my fellow students are in hospital settings and will never see the same person twice. I consider myself to be awesomely blessed. The book I've been reading ("The Irresistible Revolution") talks about love being the greatest and most important part of Jesus' ministry, and using that love to reach people is what we are called to do. I get to do that this semester!! :)
I haven't had a chance to go down to the facility yet, but clients from the Macdonald Center came up to our campus last week for my other class. We were learning about foot care and the clients offered to come up and volunteer their feet so we could learn. We washed their feet. And while I was supposed to be learning, God was also moving. Washing someones feet is humbling. God is so in this semester!

Sweet Lou

Before I started studying today I decided to turn on a baseball game. A commercial came on that I found to be very funny and very well done. When I started watching Mariner Baseball, Lou Pinella was the coach, and he lost his temper with the umpires quite a lot. I mean he went all out...kicking dirt, throwing bases, getting in the face of the umps yelling and screaming and getting ejected from the game. I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of this, but I always thought it was kind of funny watching a grown man loose his cool. Anywho...on to the commercial...watch for yourself.

1 Hundred

Congratulations to you! You have stuck through my other 99 blog posts of rambling and sometimes nonsense, and you have finally reached my 100th blog post! Exciting huh?! :) In honor of this event I've decided to make a list of the 50 things I love because I like lists, and I don't really have anything better to blog.

I love...

...Jesus. I don't really understand His love for me and I'm still learning to love Him, but it's there and is probably the most important thing I have in my life.

...my family and friends. My family are my friends and my friends are my family.

...it when I start laughing and can't stop. When things that shouldn't be funny just keep getting more hilarious.

...the smell of crayons.

...that feeling at the beach where you dig your feet in the sand with your back toward the ocean and feel like you are moving backwords as the waves roll in and out.

...getting on the I-405 on-ramp to go over the Fremont bridge at night and seeing all of the beautiful lights of Portland.

...laying down in the tall grass at home during the summer and staring up at the sky.

...the way little kids can make you feel - like you are the best person in the world.

...my mom's rolls the day after Thanksgiving or Easter, warmed in the microwave with butter on top.

...going skiing on Mt. Hood and coming off the lift on the magic mile and being above the clouds.

...inside jokes that when you try and explain them you wonder why it was ever funny.

...daffodils, especially the little ones.

...music and finding lyrics that describe my life.

...the feeling of coming home after a long time of being away.

...getting really good hugs. The ones that last for more than just a second and feel sincere.

...fall when it is warm in the late afternoon and the leaves are all pretty red, orange and yellow colors.

...when the moon rises and looks really big, and orange. I know that the orange color comes because the light has to go through a whole bunch of pollution but I still love the way it looks.

...the feeling of accomplishment after finishing and turning in a big project or paper.

...the feeling of relief after coming out of a test and knowing I did well

...baseball. The whole game is just good.

...the crack of wood bats at baseball games. The bat being wood is important, because aluminum bats just don't make the same noise and, therefore, don't evoke the same feelings .

...lobster.

...the 10 extra minutes of sleep I get after pushing my snooze button.

...riding horses, especially when they run.

...the imagination of little kids and hearing them try to explain things.

...cracking peanuts and finding three inside one shell

...quoting scenes from Friends in everyday conversation

...singing.

...making up my own recipes.

...coming out of a movie theater, feeling like I got my moneys worth and wanting to go watch it again immediately

...finishing a difficult run.

...french fries dipped in vanilla shake. It's yummy.

...reading books that are in no way like text books and don't have anything to do with school.

...occasional lazy days when I don't have to be anywhere and don't have anything planned.

...fun shoes.

...having a baby fall asleep in my arms.

...Indian and Thai food

....finding photographs that are breath-taking, awe-inspiring and capturing.

...watching people hip-hop and ballet dance. I know that these types of dance are very different, but I can do neither and therefore it makes them cooler.

...the feeling of excitement right after I've purchased something that I know is awesome and before the feeling of guilt for spending money sets in.

...undisturbed snow when everything is white, peaceful, and beautiful (and when I don't have to go anywhere).

...the excitement of a the crowd during a close sports competition.

...Mac's really big ears. It's really a big stress reliever just to sit and play with them.

...facebook and youtube.

...McMinnemins Black and Tans. Perfect balance of warm chocolate-y brownie goodness, cookie deliciousness and cool ice creamy-ness.

...finding cool and unique places in Portland that seem kind of out of place but fit at the same time. There are a couple that have become my favorite.

...the adrenaline rush I get from jumping from high places. The zip line at least 75 feet high, the log walk 60 feet in the air at camp Ida-Haven, bridge jumping, repelling from rock climbing walls etc.

...standing on the beach and being able to see forever.

...the smell of books and bookstores. Powell's bookstore in Portand smells especially good, in my opinion.

Tidbits and Ramblings

Two posts in one day! I think this is a first for me. Anywho, in the last couple of days there have been random things that have made me really happy and other that have made me wonder.

I had a friend drop one of her classes (the one with the not-so-great-professor) because she wants to be able to spend more time with her kids, and just slow down a bit. She dropped the class before a class presentation, so obviously she wasn't there to give her presentation, but yesterday she got a grade for it. She got an A with comments like "focused presentation" on her grading sheet, while other friends of mine (that did give a presentation) got B's. She wasn't even there! I don't know how that works, and it can kind of give you a clue to the ridiculousness of that class.

I got to go grocery shopping last night with the ability to spend more than $30 for two weeks worth of groceries. You have no idea how happy this made me. I allowed myself to get ground beef and Tillamook cheese. I don't think I went insane, but my bags were heavy and it took some maneuvering to get all of it upstairs to my kitchen. It was awesome, and if you don't believe me, just ask Carina.

Before I left for spring break I neglected to see how much I had due this week. Yesterday I realized I have 2 large papers due on Friday, a presentation on Thursday, a large class discussion to participate in, and a test to study for. So while it was nice not to have to do homework over spring break, it is making my life insane this week. Last night I cranked out a 10 page paper - I stayed up until 3 AM but it got done. Tonight I'll write another one. I don't think it will be as difficult though and I might get to go to bed before 2! :)

I have been reading this blog about Nate, Tricia and their daughter Gwyneth for a couple of months. Tricia has cystic fibrosis and is waiting for a double lung transplant. A couple of days ago they thought they had found lungs for her in Texas but they turned out to be "no good". But Nate reported this morning that another set of lungs in Texas might be a match, so they are waiting again to see. Their story is incredible and Nate does a much better job explaining than I ever could. I encourage you to check out their blog and be praying for them!

Spring Break pt 4 - The Highlights

I've been so super busy that I haven't had time to blog the highlights of Spring Break! It was awesome, not that I did anything extraordinary but it was a break from school!

*1* - Being Home! I've noticed that when I do these it always works out that a highlight of being home is just being home. Getting to hang out with fam and the dogs is just fun and relaxing.

*2* - Getting to see Kevin play some baseball. I didn't get to watch as many games as I would have liked to, but he's really a good player. It's even more fun to watch him play now that he's on a team that is good.

*3* - Getting to hang with my sissy a couple of times. Actually I got to see here THREE times while I was at home, and if you know my sister and what her schedule is like this is impressive. :) She is super cool.

*4* - Spending time with friends. I got to go to lunch twice. The first time it was with Uncle George and Madre, and the second was TJ and Madre. :) Each time it was a trip to McMinnemins, but they are yummy. And then all the coffee dates!

*5*- Not having to think all that much about homework. And on the occasion when I did think about it, I didn't do anything more than just think. I didn't even look at my notebooks! [I'm paying for it this week, but that story will come at a later blog post - hopefully, if I have time.]

*6* - Church at FCF. Even though I've found a church that I really like up in Portland, it is always good to go back to FCF. The worship was a workout and really good words were said.

*7* - I got my taxes done! This may seem like a weird highlight, but the stress of not having them done was pretty big and having them done is awesome. And I don't have to pay as much money as I budgeted for!

*8* - Getting to the opportunity to help Mikaila. She had to move, which is not always the most fun thing to do but it was made SO much better by watching the Mickey B concert. He's great. And Mikaila is so organized, packing wasn't bad either. :)

*9* - Haircut! I love getting my haircut just because it is a change, and I like simple changes. And I still love the change a week later.

*10* - Major League Baseball season has officially started. Technically it started a couple weeks ago when Boston played someother team (who exactly is escaping me at the moment) in Japan, but on Monday, the Mariners had their first game! I love baseball!

That is a little picture of my week off, but now it's time for class and I have to run! :)