North Bend

So I was talking to a friend the other day, and it has been mentioned that I don't really like to talk about myself. I don't. Which got me to thinking about myself, my life, my home town and whatnot, yeah...now it's all about me! Just kidding, I still don't like talking about myself.

But it made me remember so many good times from back home. Sights, and sounds that I had forgotten. Riding my bike into town to go to the RiteAid next to QFC, and when QFC used to be called ShopRite. The baseball fields next to the elementary school where I watched my brothers play their little league games, the HUGE blackberry bushes that seemed to grow everywhere and take over everything. When they tore down the golf course to build the Si View development. The park up in Wilderness Rim, Brewster lake, Rattlesnake Lake/Ridge, the water shed, The outlet mall, when they built the Safeway, playing in the woods, playing tag or other games with the crazy neighborhood kids, the treehouse at the Martinell's, Mitzel's before it became Denny's, the barn on the way to Snoqualmie where the Senior class always painted their year, playing down by the river, tubing down the river, swimming at the pool, my softball games, voice lessons at the Edvalson's, riding my bike to Opstad Elementary, Dead Man's Hill, the bus stop, Scavenger hunts, the easter egg hunts up at the park, and finding eggs months later, catching tadpoles, The MarT cafe, the old movie theatre, when the library was in that old building across the street from where it is now, working on the homecoming float, volleyball practice, working out in the weight room, playing under the bleachers, having classes upstairs, the Milk Barn, the train station and the bowling alley, driving to Issaquah to go to Target for school shopping.

I know none of this makes any sense to any of you, but it was so good to remember these things, it makes me really want to go back and visit, it has been 7 years since I've been there, and I know things probably don't look the same anymore, but I think it would be fun to go back.

That's how I roll

Okay, it's been a while since I posted last, this is so like journal writing, I do good for a few days, and then I don't write for a LONG time... although I am happy to report that it has only been a matter of weeks, not years. :)

Kelly is leaving for her Carribbean cruise next Saturday, I am so excited for her, she is going to have a lot of fun! It is gonna be weird not having her here though. Five days after she gets back, I leave for Portland, and then the day I get back, Kelly and I are flying to California! Heck yeah baby! Honestly, who can say that they are going to California for a burrito? We can. So stoked!

Read between the lines

A few years back, a man asked me a question.

My answer was "No".

We haven't spoken since.

Now what I don't get is that this guy all of a sudden is trying to reconnect with me. Seriously, I have no desire to see him, talk to him or anything of the sort. I have been ignoring his attempts, but I am just so confused. It's been three years since I turned him down, no contact since, and now he decides that it's a good idea to try again? Honestly.

Oh yeah

Okay, we didn't actually get around to going to the IMAX thing, delayed until further notice. I DID however get the opportunity to go to General Conference for the very first time. Very exciting, granted you end up watching it on the TV screens, just like you do at home, but we don't have TV, so it totally beat out listening on the radio. Really, it was really neat to be there, and I ended up seeing a girl I grew up with from Washington that I hadn't seen in seriously like 7 years. Good times.

Last night I was kinda bored, I had read a few chapters in my book, washed the dishes, cleaned the kitchen, and really just needed to do something, get out of the house, anything. So I went for a walk. Anyone who really knows me will tell you that this is no new thing, I walk everywhere. When I lived up in Logan, I would walk to the temple (a couple miles away), Smithfield (a couple towns over), I walk a lot. I really don't plan out where I walk to or for how long, I just go.

So I set out from my apartment and headed east, I usually go west, I decided to be different. I walked down 3rd avenue, past all the letters in the alphabet, up into Federal Heights, I saw some really really big houses, some small, seemingly out-of-place houses, modern ones, victorian ones, 70's ones, giant ones that resembled those you see in movies at Christmastime, all sorts of houses...you get the picture. The weather wasn't too bad when I'd left, slightly crisp so I had a coat, but not bad considering it had snowed earlier that day.

The higher I got into Federal Heights, the colder it got. And soon I realized it was snowing. great. Oh well, I kept going. A car stopped and asked me directions to some building at the University, unfortunately, I had no clue as to which one it was and couldn't help them. I rounded a bend in the road and looked to my left. I was kind of surprised when I saw the University Medical Center standing there bold as can be. I didn't realize I was quite this far east. I did get a pretty awesome view of the valley, so that was nice, but I decided to head back in the direction of home. I wandered down through more neighborhoods with more intense houses and somehow connected back to 3rd avenue without realizing it. I looked at my phone for the time (I don't wear a watch...that's another story) and saw that it had only taken me about half an hour or so to get there, I felt pretty cool. Then I realized that the "coolness" was probably just the fact that I was freezing out in the falling snow. I'm brilliant.

Whale of a tale

Today I will be fueling my inner 7-year old boy.

Yes. I have one.

It's the part of me that is fascinated by dinosaurs, sharks, whales and other various non-adult female things.

So tonight I am going to see the Under the Sea documentary at IMAX.

Yup. Eat your heart out.

I'm paying for this?

I left class early today.

I had to.

I was losing precious I.Q. points

My teacher doesn't know how to pronounce anything correctly, which irritates me a lot.
It is across not acrosst. It's italian not eye-talian. It's institution not whatever the crap you tried to make it.

On that note, I am going to go enjoy some italian food with my roomie!

What's in a name?

Along with my face, my last name also starts conversations.

My last name is Fairbanks, and there are quite a few Fairbanks' around, especially in Utah. I never had this problem when I lived in Washington.

When someone hears my last name, the next question they ask generally starts like this,

"Fairbanks, really? Are you related to.....(insert name here)"
"Yes, I am"
I usually do not know the person they are asking about, but really, all Fairbanks' are related. All of them.

So therefore, yes, I am related to the sculptor.

I get that question most often. When I go to the store, when I go to the Temple, at work, at school, everywhere.

No, I have never been to Fairbanks, Alaska. Thanks for asking

Maybe when I marry Snifflehopper Smith*, I won't get those questions anymore. :)





*see www.courageousinsanity.blogspot.com

In the face of danger

I have one of those faces.

You know, the ones where someone looks so familiar and you can't quite place from where.
Or the face that you could swear sat behind you in that Advanced Campus Wildlife class in college.
Or the face of that distant cousin you can't quite remember the name of.

Yep. I have one of them.

Almost daily, I have someone come up to me and say something like,

"Did you go to school down in Delta?"
"No"
"Are you sure?"
Am I sure? Of course I'm sure! How would I forget something like that?
"Yes...quite sure"

Or...

"You look exactly like my.....neice, probation officer, therapist, cousin, husband's sister-in-law, pharmacist, bus driver, best friend's sister", go ahead and pick your favorite one, I've gotten them all.

People often confuse me for my roommate. With this particular mix-up, we've decided it's because of my face. She has the original and I have the copy-cat because she doesn't get the "I know you!" comments. I'm so unoriginal.

Mash the Bag

My friend Heidi gave me a "start" for Amish bread last week. The bread turns out to be of the same sort as banana bread, a sweet bread I guess you could call it. The "start" is contained in a gallon zip-lock bag, it looks like sticky pancake batter. There is a paper that tells you what to do each day, and the majority of the days tell you to simply "Mash the bag". So you mash this sticky batter-in-a-bag each day as it bubbles and ferments and looks positively disgusting sitting on your kitchen counter. Today was the day to add a couple of ingredients, I hoped rather than believed that it would make the blob look any better. My hopes were dashed. Much like the blob in the classic Steve McQueen movie, my blob merely grew in size and stickiness. How did the Amish think up this bread anyway? I can imagine that some deeply procrastinatory (yes, that is what I said, procrastinatory) Amish girl was making bread one day, got halfway through making it and decided to stop. She put the nasty mass of batter in a bag and left it on her counter. Her mother found it and told her to take care of it, to cover her tracks of laziness she came up with this crazy story about how it's a special bread where you only have to "mash the bag" a couple times a day and 10 days later you add stuff and make the bread. Gross. I think it's weird. Then again, I'm the one following through on it, so what does that say about me?