The First Full Day

Jet lag has totally done a number on me! What can ya do, though?
So far so good. I took it easy for most of today which was really nice since I haven't been able to do that the last couple weeks. Let me take you on a little tour with me:
This is where I live. It's a 200 year old house. I live with a bunch of people and I'm not too sure if I've even met all of them yet. I overhear a lot of conversations though and I have no idea what they're saying.






Here's my room. It was all set up for me when I got here. :) This will work just fine for me. The weather here has been very summer-y and I love how bright the room gets when I open the windows up all the way.















The Ergolz River is right by my house. I went for a walk in the evening and it was a very pleasant view.



















It looks like the trip to Lithuania is still a go. I'll be leaving for that at 4am on Thursday morning.
Craziness!

I tried to leave but they wouldn't let me....

So, after pulling an all nighter and getting everything boxed up and packed in suitcases, I was finally at the Portland International Airport. I had a great lunch there at Stanford's with my family and some friends and soon it was time to say goodbye and go through security. As usual, I hate goodbyes and all of these ones got me choked up a little bit.
My plane ended up being delayed about 20 minutes. In the meantime, I called my phone company and canceled my cell phone service. After boarding the plane, I sat down in my seat for a couple minutes and then promptly fell asleep. I was half-conscious when we started moving. A little bit later, I woke up and noticed that the plane had left the gate but we were still on the runway. I figured we were waiting for a couple other planes to land or take off and so I fell back asleep again. I woke up a little bit later and noticed we were still on the runway.

"What's going on?" I asked the lady sitting next to me.
"Didn't you hear?" She looked at me perplexed.
"I fell asleep." I said.
"The steering mechanism for the plane is broken and now we're having someone tow us back to the gate so they can work on it and try to fix it." She told me.
"What? Seriously? Unbelievable!" I exclaimed. "Well, at least it happened on the ground rather than in the sky."

I suppose I don't know why it should surprise me the slightest. Once again, my coincidental misfortune syndrome strikes again!

They wouldn't let us get off the plane. After an hour of sitting, the air stopped working and I decided to get up and walk around so it wouldn't feel so stuffy.

"How long is this going to take and how long will they keep us on here?" I overheard a passenger asking a flight attendant.
"We're not too sure, sir. If we need to get a new plane, we'll need a new crew and that could take at least a day." The flight attendant answered.
"They don't plan on keeping us on here that whole time do they?" I interjected.
Both of them smiled.
"We'll probably be underway soon." The flight attendant answered. "This has happened a couple times before."
"How very reassuring." I said wryly.
And we laughed.

2.5 hours later, we were finally on our way!
It's already sucky enough to be on a plane for 12 hours or so...but to also be on there for an additional 3 hours when you're not flying anywhere isn't exactly my idea of fun.

Though, the flight did go by pretty fast and I was able to make my transfer in Frankfurt, Germany just fine.

So, here I am now in Switzerland safe and sound and really tired!
I can pull off the whole walking zombie thing pretty well.

I Heart Portland ALWAYS

I love this picture I took down in Pioneer Square a couple months ago. Portland is such a great city and I will miss it dearly....the places to go, the food to eat, the good meat, the things to do...along with all of my kick ass friends and family.
Love you all!

Packing It Up

I can't believe the time has finally come! It's a little surreal, but what a great feeling it is to take a risk, have an adventure and try something new. I'm so glad I had the chance to consolidate and get rid of so much stuff in December. This time around, packing is a little less painful.

Hammock

I love hammocks. They are a lot of fun to hang out in when it's a beautiful day outside. A couple of weeks ago, my housemates put up their hammock in the backyard. Since June's been so insanely crazy for me and I've barely been home, I haven't had the chance to enjoy it. After all my running around on Wednesday, I got home in the afternoon and was marveling at the beautiful day. Even though I had so much stuff I still had to do, I decided to put it off for a little bit longer and go lay in the hammock for a little bit. Once I was there, I couldn't help but wonder "Why in the world haven't I done this sooner?"
I get so busy sometimes...too busy at times that I forget to take the time and just enjoy a beautiful day. My time in the hammock was short lived, but I'm sure glad I did it. I took a short video:

Old Faithful

This is my little tribute to my car Myrtle. She's seen me through the last 7 years of my life. She may have become an eyesore or may look like she has leprosy (compliments of my friend, Katie), but she has been so good to me. I part with Myrtle on great terms and she will be donated to a non-profit organization.




With all my gratitude, here's to you, Myrtle.

:)

Rose Garden

Earlier this week, I went with some family to Portland's fantastic rose gardens at Washington Park. Everything is in full bloom. You have to go see for yourself! I was really happy I had my camera. It's hard not to get a little trigger happy. :)





You are completely enveloped by the fragrances.













Beautiful.








I loved being there with my niece and nephew. Their joy at all the different varieties of roses and the colors gets to be contagious.











Childlike wonder at its best.










One of my favorite moments was when my nephew talked me into rolling down the hill with him. You are never too young! heh. I forgot how fun rolling down a hill was. I used to do it all the time when I was a kid.

Music and Fine Wine

On June 16th, I had the privilege of playing down in the wine cellar at McMenamin's Edgefield. Todd Bayles accompanied me on accordion and Skip von Kuske played the cello. I had an absolute blast! Thanks to everyone who came out and listened!

O Canadaaaaaaaaa!

Yes....it's true. It's not always snow and igloos up in Canada as you can see.
I went up to Canada to do a couple gigs in Fort St. John, B.C. I had an awesome time up there and was able to do a little R & R as well.








I stayed at a farm....










....made some new friends.










I played at the Lido Theatre. This was very cool to see:










I have to admit, It is a little odd to see a theatre- sized poster of yourself hanging up.
I used to live in this town and would go see movies at this theatre when I was 16.... before it was converted into a performance hall. Now here we are 11 years later and all of a sudden there's a poster of myself instead of a movie poster.
Crazy.













I love this picture. This was taken from my view as I was getting ready to do a soundcheck.
It was a really great gig and a very special crowd.













So, I went to use the bathroom there and realized that the top of the walls are all lined with sketches of movie stars. Imagine for a moment how odd it is be doing your business and having it feel like you're being watched.













The view as I headed back to Portland.

Finally!

Yes....it's been a very long time coming, but the time finally came. The cd is finished and I had a cd release party on Saturday, June 7th. Thanks so much to everyone who came out for it!

Here are a couple pics from the night:

Road Trip Part 6 - Destination Texas

The air conditioning was not on and I discovered that I am not a hot weather kind of woman.







After a while, the heat begins to get to you.


















Welcome to Texas










So you basically got a short condensed version of my road trip to Texas. It was a pretty laid back relaxing trip which was nice for me since everything's been so chaotic as of late. I was in Austin, Texas for just a day and a half and then flew back to Portland.

Road Trip Part 5 -The Carlsbad Caverns

The Carsbad Caverns are truly a great wonder. We took an elevator about 1300 feet below ground and walked around in silence taking in the incredible sight and listening to the constant sound of dripping water.




This was called the Lion's Tail exhibit. Can you see it?
The way they had everything lit up was perfect.















Pictures do not do these justice.
Seriously!










Do you remember going over stalactites and stalagtmites during science class in elementary school? Can you remember which is which? Are you smarter than a 5th grader?

Road Trip Part 4 - New Mexico

Welcome to New Mexico.


You want to talk about the middle of no where? This is one of those places. The landscape was the opposite of the northwest that's for sure!



It was H-O-T.








There was a lot of construction happening. Sometimes we would pass through these tiny towns and I couldn't help but wonder why anyone would want to live there in the middle of no where.










From the freeway, we spotted this old cobblestone church that looked really cool and decided we'd go explore it. That's the one great thing about roadtrips...the spontaneity.
This church was an old catholic church called The Santa Maria Mission.











There were these old weathered steps nearby.






















Yee-haw!











Next to the church, was an old run down one room house...with no roof.













Here's a picture from the inside.
Exciting, eh?











After our exploration, we were back on the road again.

Road Trip Part 3 - Utah

Welcome to Utah.


I wasn't expecting it to be so green, scenic and beautiful. It was a great drive.



One thing we kept coming across were these things called pickled eggs. They looked absolutely disgusting and tugged at my gag reflex a little. When ever you'd move the jar, whatever sediment was at the bottom would stir up and swish around the eggs. It was the perfect thing to make you lose any appetite you might have had.





We were almost to Moab, Utah when we realized that our gas was just about out and that there wasn't any gas station anywhere nearby. We stopped at a rest area and ended up hitchiking to go and get some gas.







Along our hitchiking way, a tumbleweed came along. I had to get a picture of that. A tumbleweed is a sure indication that you're in the middle of no where.












Luckily, a gas station was only a couple miles up the road and we were in mormon country, so there were nice people that helped us out. :)
Soon we had our gas and were on our way.















We were on the edge of Moab when all the red rocks appeared along the horizon. These are amazing.









The Colorado River runs through Moab. We ended up taking a boat tour at sunset. It was pretty spectacular to ride upriver in the canyon surrounded by all the red rocks. When the stars came out and it was beginning to get dark, seeing the silouhette of the canyon against the twilight sky left me pretty awestruck.