ok, I'm a slacker...

...and I haven't really blogged regularly. Oops! Here are the happenings:

--I am running a 5K on 9/20/08 with my neighbor, Lisa, and a bunch of co-workers/friends. I organized the group, so I figure it's enough to make ME not back out. Lisa and I started week 1 of 9 of the Couch-to-5K plan this week. Not too bad....yet! I'll try to fill you in next week. In the mean time, I started this blog for the participants. I like to think I am clever.

--I took a few weeks off from going to Weight Watchers meetings and felt like I gained a whole crap-load of weight. Really, I gained about 6 lbs. Not too bad, considering the amount of crap I ate. I guess 20-something days on the river actually DOES counter-balance SOME eating of the junk food. Anyway, I joined Weight Watchers online because it was too difficult to get to the meetings every week. I think I like the online stuff better - but really, truly believe that I'm at an advantage because I went to the meetings first. -3 lbs last week - go me!

--We are going to Josh's family's reunion tomorrow. I will attempt to report later.

--We got a new dishwasher. And table and chairs. And we picked out laminate flooring and carpet for the WHOLE house. And I am excited about ALL of it. It will be like we have a brand new house!

--We might need some muscles to help move our furniture into the garage for the new carpet. I will keep you posted if I need your help.

--Alison is moving back to Minnesota and I desperately want to go visit and go sing karaoke and attend BBQs. But we just bought all of that stuff and I have to finish my semester and I can't afford it. Sigh.

--Vegas in October!

i used to be good

Josh is out camping this weekend with his high school buddies and I am home alone for the weekend - by choice. It's been really nice. We've been running around like crazy for the last 2.5 months camping, rafting, and visiting with family, etc. and it's really, really nice just to sit around. Even cleaning things out of the closet is relaxing...how pathetic is that? Anyway, I decided to take out my guitar this afternoon and played for an hour and a half. I sang all of my old songs, which aren't quite as fun as they used to be, mostly because all of my old songs are angry and mean and sad. But I sang them anyway. And after awhile I realized that I have a DVD of a performance that I did at Java Jim's Music Theater in Indiana back in January of 2005. So I popped it in and it kind of made me sad. I mean, I watched it and I realized that I used to be pretty good. I used to sing and play like crazy - like it was my whole life. And it was. And now, my guitar comes out every now and then and when I play it's nowhere near as good as it once was. But it's weird because it doesn't necessarily make me want to go out and play those songs again. It just makes me want to show it to everyone to prove to them that I once did that and I was really good.

So....anyone want to watch it?

goal

I've decided that when I reach my goal weight I will let myself get a new tattoo.

Also, I'm selling my car. One of you should buy it.

old bfs

This has happened to me twice in the past 6 months or so...and it's kind of fun. Last night an old boyfriend contacted me via facebook. I thought Mike was pretty much awesome. We dated on and off for about 8 months, and HE broke up with ME about 3 times throughout that time period. Last night we got home from a weekend of rafting, of course, and I had a message from Mike. It was something like, "I'm reevaluating my life and was thinking about you." Does that mean he was thinking about me and how much he fucked up? I kind of hope so, to be honest. Mostly because I am so so so so so happy and content with my most fabulous relationship now and hope that he sees that I am awesome. Am I a bitch because of this?

The other time was when I was at POST Academy in March and Justin contacted me to ask why he was "doomed to be single." I quickly reminded him that HE dumped ME. It was the epitome of "High Fidelity." And I liked it.

Honestly, I think the only reason I am writing this is because I drank a few beers and made pina coladas...and when the pina colada mix ran out, I made strawberry daquaris. Soooo...I am a little intoxicated. But it's still fun to think about how awesome I am :)

Another addiction

I can't stop watching these videos from a The Weepies Video Challenge. Some of them are really cute. Claire, I think you'd enjoy watching these....

http://www.imeem.com/weepiesvideochallenge

I am jealous of Alison's tattoos...

...and now I want a birdie. It's my sister-in-law's fault. She said, "I think we should commemorate my trip to Boise by getting new tattoos!" I said, "I have enough." Then my mom said she is thinking about getting one. WTF?! Now all I've been able to think about is getting a new tatt. And all I can think about are Alison and her fab birdie tatts on her arms. I want one above my hip and am thinking about a combo (somehow) of the three of these:




Ideas, anyone??

Miranda = Bad Ass Rafter (part 2)

I went swimming. It wasn't a long one, but I went swimming.

We went up to Riggins the weekend after Memorial Day for another river adventure on Salmon River. Josh's sister, Adrianne, and our friend Marti came with us and we all vowed to try to plow through four cases of beer throughout the weekend, which ended up not being a problem, even with my ONE beer that I drank on Friday. We rocked Shorts Bar (campground) on Saturday night, more than you can ever imagine. We deserved it though.

Saturday morning we awoke and made our way up to Spring Bar to get the rafting day started. We scouted Lake Creek and Ruby along the way and determined the best route through the huge rapids. We put in a little while later with Josh rowing the blue boat with me on the back, and Marti rowing the yellow boat with Adrianne on the back. The water level was super high - I think it was around 48,000 cfs or something crazy like that, so you can only imagine how big the rapids were. We came up upon Ruby, and Josh managed to hit the sweet spot. We rowed through the biggest waves I've ever seen - I felt like I was on the ocean. (Marti and Adrianne missed the big waves but still had a good ride.) Josh and I celebrated our magnificent run through Ruby with a beer, and the grins on our faces didn't cease....until we turn the corner and saw Lake Creek, in all its glory. Holy shit. HUGE.

When we got closer, Josh questioned his line. I never knew exactly what the plan was. Josh went for the right run, in hopes that we would skirt the gigantic hole under the bridge. Every few seconds, explosions of water would erupt - like grenades hitting the water, right on our line. There was no backing down. I placed my half-drunk beer in the pocket of my life jacket, which has always been a safe spot for such drinks. For a second, it looked like we would make it on the right line, then one of those explosions happened right underneath our boat. One moment we were in the line and the next moment we were headed right for the biggest hole I've ever seen. It made Lochsa Falls look like nothing.

Josh gave two big pushes, and the boat went straight to the wave and then to a 45 degree angle. I knew where I needed to hi-side....straight to the oar stand. I made another Super Woman leap to the oar stand, and suddenly, I was under water. I was only under for a few seconds, but couldn't figure out how, when I had leapt toward the right oar stand, ended up on the left side of the boat when I came up. The boat made it over the wave and Josh began celebrating. Then, he looked around and noticed I was gone. Somehow, I managed to come up out of the water right next to the boat and my go-go-gadget arm held the side of the boat and the spare oar while Josh looked around for me. He grabbed the throw rope and looked again. Haha, I was right there the whole time. He pulled me into the boat. Adrenaline pumped through my veins so hard I probably could have run a marathon....or maybe a mile. The funniest thing to me is that when we reviewed the pictures taken by a lady on the side of the road, it turns out that I didn't fall off the right side of the boat at all. My only explanation is that one of those explosions happened next to me and a wave shoved me to the left side of the boat. I'm including my favorite pictures. You'll notice that it looks like I'm trying to bring Josh down with me. Neither of us remember that.

As for the beer can, it was squeezed together so tightly in the middle that it made a perfectly flat center. The ends, however, were still perfectly round. I wish I had a picture of that....these will have to suffice....

Miranda = Bad Ass Rafter (part 1)

These posts have been a long time coming. If you don't care about my rafting experiences, the next few months will probably not be worth reading.

Memorial Day weekend I went with Josh, another friend, and the friend's cousin (and douchebag) up to the Lochsa River in Northern Idaho. The boys all ran the Lochsa River at a crazy high water lever (~14,000 cfs) while I drove along the river and video taped their adventures. Jealous that I didn't get to ride along on that trip (we were all worried about the level), I explained that I wanted to ride on the back of the boat the next day. Josh said I could, and the next day was sooooooooooooo fun. The waves were HUGE and Lochsa Falls was even bigger. The ride on the Lochsa River on Sunday went something like this:

Josh rowed while I sat on the seat at the back of the boat. I was decked out in my new dry top, dry pants, and fancy helmet. Though the river is not generally the place where you try to look like a fashionista, I looked pretty cute. Really, that doesn't matter, but I thought you'd appreciate it. Josh and I were able to launch with 22 other Cataraft boaters, including guru, Ted Day. It was pretty cool to look up and down the river and see only Cats! We started coming up to Lochsa Falls (at that level, the water is HUUUUUUUUUGE....I cannot reiterate this enough) and Josh turned to me and the following conversation ensued:

Josh: "I think I want to run it." (Translation: "I want to hit the guts of that gigantic hole down there that is flipping 1/2 of the boats that go through it.")

Me: "Ok babe, just do it."

Josh: "If I do, we're probably going to flip."

Me: "Go ahead. No one is really ever ready to flip, but I'm ok with it."

Josh: "Don't make me regret my decision."

Me: "DO IT!"

So he did. But when we came up to the Falls and Josh realized we were a bit too close to the raft in front of us and couldn't push as much as he would have if there were no one in front of us. It felt like slow-motion as our two Cat tubes punched the hole and jerked us around on our seats. The, the boat started to turn 180 degrees. Josh was out of his seat and his legs dangled in the water below. The current was so strong that it sucked him right under the boat and he went swimming. He was gone and I knew I had to do something....but what??? I took a flying, Super Woman leap to the front bar of the boat, near the place Josh had just been sucked under the boat, and held on for dear life. The gigantic wave rocked the boat back and forth for what seemed like an eternity, until suddenly, the boat turned back around and, ever-so-gracefully, spit me out over the wave. The boat was upright. I was still on the boat. Josh was nowhere to be seen. (Turns out the camping douchbag was good for something - throwing the perfect rescue rope to my man.) I managed to get into Josh's seat while an observer held the boat on the shore. I returned the oars to their proper place, and after securing the spare oar to the side of the boat (it was hanging by one tether), I rowed through the next rapid and found Josh waiting in another boat for what he thought would be a flipped boat and a swimming girlfriend.

For some reason, I can't figure out how to embed the video within this post....so follow this link and watch our adventure in the yellow Cataraft at 2:27 and in slow-motion at 7:02.

Parts 2 and 3 soon to come!