Visit from a friend

Christine & I with Dr. Kataria August '10 @ the Laughter Yoga Conference

Since I've had a little friendship theme going on here: One of my best friends, Christine, was in town for two weeks, visiting from New Hampshire. She moved back home to NH a year and half ago after being unemployed in Portland for a year. I have missed her dearly. She is much more of a social butterfly than I and so had a cram-packed schedule during her two week visit. I had lunch with her, breakfast another day, went to church several times with her at Unity and luckily got to see her numerous times before she headed out this last Monday. We had a few people over, in her honor, for a potluck at our house this past Friday. Mostly folks from our 2009 Mazamas BCEP (Basic Climbing Education Program) group, which is where we became such good friends.* The hold outs at the end of the potluck ended up at a bar due to Chris' allergies to my cat. :P But we had a fun time watching Chris and Tiff sing Karaoke. Dan and I even had Jello shots! I haven't had one since college. They were actually designer Jello shots that one of the employees was selling to raise money. Their dodge-ball team is going to nationals! I had strawberry champagne (so much lower alcohol than most) and Dan's was margarita. Here are a few more photos:

Being Witnessed

My post on friendship garnered a good bit of response yesterday, on my blog and Facebook. I felt the love and understanding from friends. Thank you. As I said in my comment, I felt virtually {{hugged}}. I also heard from one of my childhood friends regarding the post. I won't go into detail. I'll just say that things are good. We are good ... But it got me thinking ... Why do we take this weird step of posting our lives for the world to see via the internet, on a blog? We have the technology now to do many things, but that doesn't mean we should do them just because we can. As my mom always said when I wanted to do something, because others were doing it, "If your friends jumped off a bridge would you jump too?" It made me wonder for a split second, is it a good idea to allow yourself to be so vulnerable, in such a public way? I have a friend who works in IT and does not allow himself to have any online presence, even to the extent of once removing himself and his email address from an E-vite I sent. My father will not order anything online. That is obviously too extreme for me. I already have LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook accounts (among others) and order stuff from Amazon regularly, but is it a good idea to allow yourself/myself to be so vulnerable, in such a public way, even if there is the possibility of directly or indirectly hurting others?

Reflecting on Friendship & EFT

Clearly writing and posting was easier during the 30 for 30 Remix challenge since I haven’t posted much since it ended. My original intention was to share my inner journey and the 30 for 30 seemed like a good way to break in to blogging on a regular basis and also expose myself a wee bit, albeit in a different way. I enjoyed the 30 for 30 and feel like I got a lot out of it. Recently, I've had a lot going on in daily life and internally. I thought about writing here and steered away from it multiple times, but I'm feeling up to sharing a bit of my journey today for some reason, so here it goes …

In March, I participated in four days of Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) training with Alina Frank through EFT Universe. Emotional Freedom Technique, often referred to as tapping, is an acupressure/meridian based technique created to help release negative emotions stored in our energy system. The belief is that “the cause of all negative emotions is a disruption in the body's energy system.” During the training we did a lot of partner work which I’ve continued with some people from my class (Thanks Rebecca!). Basically, I am continually amazed at how things from our childhood can affect us so greatly, even when we think that they do not or should not.

I had a pretty good childhood - full of family, a healthy dose of sibling rivalry, playing in the sprinkler and riding my 10 speed to the creek with friends. Softball, Girl Scouts. No abuse. I was a decent student and in honors classes much of the time. The biggest issue, in my mind, had always been my move across the country - from South Carolina to Oregon just before High School started - but even now when I look back on that I am happy I moved. The move to Oregon helped me become the person I am today. Yet, what has come up in my recent past and reared its head, again, in the training, was something always in the back of my mind that I never focused on much: My female friendships, from the time I was young, have been fraught with difficulties. 

A Few More Finds

Here are a few more thrift/consignment shop finds from the last few months. The basement lighting just does not do them justice!

 Toile'ish inspired linen shirt - Coldwater Creek

A Symphonic Outing

I completely forgot that I was going to the symphony with my mom today. Oops! But we talk often enough that she reminded me yesterday. I had to rearrange some things, but it all worked out and we had a great time. Not only had I forgotten about it, but this particular show was a Sunday matinée instead of the regular 7:30 pm show, so I had to miss the Hawthorne Laughter Club as well. Note to self: The parking and traffic downtown is much worse on a Sunday at 1:30 pm versus 7 pm. It took almost 20 minutes to go three blocks to get into the parking structure! Luckily, we made it in the door before they closed them tight and started the performance.

We usually get a packet of tickets and go to 5 or 6 shows a season. Today's show had Sergei Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 1 performed by 23 year old Natasha Paremski and finished with Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony. Natasha nailed the concerto, which was written and premiered by Prokofiev when he was only 21. Guest conductor, Michael Francis, was filling in on the spur of the moment as the other visiting conductor had to cancel. I loved this guy. He told us a little about the music and composer. I always like a conductor who chats a bit prior to the performance. This is one of the reasons I love Jeff Tyzik and the Pops performances so much. Bonus: Michael was funny.

In Portland, you can wear pretty much whatever you want anywhere, even to the symphony, but we always dress up a little. I see it as one of my few opportunities and hate to waste it! This is what I wore today:

Asian Mandarin Collar Jacket - thrift find; Black slacks - Gap Boy Fit Trousers

New haircut

Anyone who was following me during the 30 for 30 read that I was growing my hair out (from really short) and it was driving me crazy on and off. Well ... I finally got the weird mullet grow out trimmed off the back and it looks and feels 110% better. Yay! A hair cut is always a sure thing for picking up my spirits. I think that is one reason I continually grow it out and cut it off. :D

Below are photos of my haircut and my outfit from Friday. I posted a photo from the 30 for 30 so you can remember what my hair looked like before.

Finally! Some finishing thoughts

Life was a little crazy there for a bit. I was sick for an entire week and then immediately had some training that took me to the Seattle area. My laptop is on the fritz, so I was not connected during my training, plus I've been playing catch up on the rest of my life. Today I decided that it was high time I share what I learned during the 30 for 30 Remix Challenge. The fact that I got a haircut today (stay tuned for photos) and that the sun was peaking out when I got back home this afternoon helped. I got to take some photos outside! Of myself and the blooming spring flowers. Woo-hoo! Anyway, hear are some of my thoughts ...

Spring had arrived and with the flowers comes what us Portlanders call 'sun breaks'. Here's
 hoping for many more between now & the 4th of July (that's when our summer actually begins)