the sisterless summer.

(Photo by: Jeremy Okai Davis. Taken in my kitchen window.)

Yesterday was a happy day, all of the Strannigan sisters were in one place for one afternoon. We celebrated the return of Candyce with fatty foods & cocktails at Claim Jumper and it was glorious.

Today is a little bit sad.
Candyce heads back to Salem (but will be back this weekend!).
Danielle & Krispin left for 2 months in China, and just when I was getting used to the whole hanging out with my married sister all the time thing. You can read about their adventures, however, on their darling little blog.

My left arm / shoulder is terribly sore from intensely playing Nintendo Wii at my new favorite place, The Tanker. They have free popcorn bowls, a free jukebox (with Band of Horses and Gogol Bordello), and free Nintendo Wii.

My (awesome) roommate has an (awesome) art show opening at Sugar Gallery on June 5th. If you live in or near Portland, you should attend. No, really, you should.

I am dog-sitting this weekend. Not sure how I feel about it, but I think it will be good for me to lay low with my new lil pals Frodo and Gandalf. (yes, you read that correctly.)

Sasquatch Festival was fun - for the one day I went. With a 5 hour drive on each end, and lots of hours in the sun/rain/sun with loud music - it was quite exhausting. It was good to see the cold war kiddos, as well as the delta spirits and a surprise appearance from Sam Owens (well, it was a surprise to ME, anyway)! The girl from Mates of State ran over my foot with her stroller and I STILL get giddy when I see Ben Gibbard. Oh, the idols of our youth!

And lastly, I am sad to report that I am not going ANYWHERE this summer. Well, to be specific, I'm not going anywhere international. Because of a number of reasons...mostly work-related...I am not able to go to Kenya this summer. :( My little heart longs for Africa and travel and little African babies, but for right now I have to stay here. My hope is to go later in the year, when the job stuff settles down.

In the meantime, however, God is good because I do get to hang out with little Somali babies right here in Portland. I'm taking over for Danielle with her Somalian refugee family and today is my first day with them on my own. I think we are going to an indoor pool with a water slide. Not exactly my cup of tea (I hate water), but the girls adore it. I'm a little bit nervous, especially as their mother terrifies me. Honestly, there is nothing more frightening than a Somali woman in all of her glory & wrath. We can just hope that I am not the recipient of any of that.

So, here's to the beginning of my sisterless summer. I was worried that it would be boring and lonely, but I must say its shaping up quite nicely. Candyce is only an hour away, I live next door to some of my best friends, I have Penelope, and now the Somalis.

And of course, I still have the month of August to look forward to, when the Strannigan sisters will rule the world. Or...at least the greater Portland area?

when flying used to be fun.

I just read an article about American Airlines that bummed me out. They will now be charging a $15 "Checked Baggage" fee for any and every bag that you check. The only way to avoid this fee is to carry on your luggage. But with all the ridiculous airport rules these days, this seems nearly impossible. Specifically the rules applying to liquids. Call me crazy, but I simply cannot fit my face wash, foundation, perfume, shampoo, conditioner, toothpaste, lip gloss, hair spray, lotion, and moisturizer into one measly ziplock bag.

In any case, it got me thinking. Do you remember the days of airports being glorious and exciting places? When you could walk about freely and wait for your loved ones anywhere you please? When people didn't look at you and assume you're a terrorist?

Granted, I've flown a lot in the past couple years. I hardly remember what it was like to have a good time in the airport. I remember whenever either one of my parents would fly somewhere - I would get terribly excited to pick them up. I'd wait right by the door (where they were exiting off the plane) and try my hardest to look down the corridor to see them. I loved airport reunions!

And now, we circle around and around the terminal in our cars - being careful not to stop for too long or else you will hear the shrill whistle of the guards who are out to ruin your day (or let you park for more than 3 seconds). We put our toiletries in little ziplock bags and have them inspected for explosives. We take our shoes, belts, jewelry and jackets off to go through metal detectors manned by really grumpy people. We hope and pray that our bags dont weigh over 50 lbs or we will pay a hefty fee.

And heaven forbid you lose your ID whilst on vacation! I did that once and it was not pretty. They make you wait in all sorts of special lines and give you special stamps and they scrutinize you and distrust you. Its really quite terrible.

The moral of the story is: I hate airports. I hate flying.
And this is just one more reason why.

trunk doors, 'tinkerbell', & tacoma

My weekend was lovely. The sun was in full force in the Pacific Northwest, with temperatures as high as 90 degrees (!).

I attended Danielle's college graduation on Friday night; which was long and arduous (Sorry, sis. You were great...the graduation was a snooze fest). Dave and I played the role of supportive parents (while Krispin played the role of supportive husband), due the fact that my parents couldn't make it to the ceremony. They couldn't make it, because Danielle decided the day BEFORE graduation that she was going to walk. Go figure.

We traipsed out to Hillsboro for cherry limeades and fatty foods, although I went for the Straberry Limeade and Krispin tried the Cranberry Limeade. I think Cranberry wins.

Saturday morning, the whole fam brunched at the Bread & Ink. I am teaching my family the supreme importance of Saturday brunch. Thankfully, Portland is a brunch kind of town. My current favorites are the Cricket Cafe and the Waffle Window at Bread & Ink.

And Saturday afternoon I took a mini road trip to Tacoma. I went up for one night, to hang out with Kelly - as she was in town for her sister's graduation. Its only a 2 hour drive and Kelly is one of my dearest friends - AND my parents let me trade cars with them. I got to take the miata! Let me tell you, nothing sounded more glorious than a 2 hour drive in the sunshine in a snazzy little red convertible. I donned my cutest lil red sundress, borrowed some sunblock from a hippie in a gas station, and hit the road.

About 15 minutes into my drive, I realized it was a bit warmer than I expected. My dress was sticking to my back and my dress started to show signs of 'persperation'. I drank two bottles of water (which were really really warm by the end of the drive - like drinking hot tea! without the tea, of course), listened to the music loud, and dreampt of stopping for an iced americano.

I decided to hold out until the Tacoma area to get my iced americano. That way I could change my clothes, so as not to be a sweaty mess when I arrived at Kelly's parents house. I finally arrived at the blessed Starbucks (its Tacoma, I had no other options). I was indeed a mess. I got out of the car, embarassed of the state of my once-cute, now-soaking sundress. I went to the trunk to get out my change of clothes. I put the key in the lock, turned the key and the trunk opened - right as I pulled the key out and realized I only had HALF of a key. It broke in half! And the other half was still in the key hole.

If we're being really honest, this is the moment when a number of choice words flew through my infuriated little brain.

I bent over, in disbelief, to inspect the damage. The right strap on my sundress decided to diasattach itself from my dress. More choice words in my head. I go to the ignition, hoping and praying that the half key will magically start the car. I have no such luck.

I walk into Starbucks, bewildered and with a broken dress. Its 90+ degrees, but I put on a jacket to look (slightly) less disheveled. Thankfully, I had a change of clothes and Starbucks was delightfully airconditioned. I called the locksmith and was given the mind-blowing estimate of $200! Considering I'm not 'well-off' by any means, I did what any NORMAL person would do -- I paid Dave Reichle gas + food + friendship fees (equalling about $70) to drive the spare miata key up to me in Tacoma.

Kelly and her dad were kind enough to pick me up (I was 10 minutes from their place), take me to dinner, and Kelly and I lazed about and watched a Top Chef marathon. Dave and his friend Aaron showed up at 10 pm or so, handed me the key, and we went to celebrate at a local Mexican restaraunt. This resulted in one of the better nights I've had in ages. We sang karaoke with the crazy locals (large barefoot women in camoflauge and one man-ish looking lady with Lucille Ball makeup and a teal sweatsuit who went by "Tinkerbell" and only sang really slow Madonna songs), we danced, we ate food, we had a margarita.

Needless to say, it was good to see Kelly. I love that girl to bits. And, the drive home was much more pleasant due to cooler tempteratures. No back sweat!

because I never seem to grow tired of lol.

more cat pictures

Happy Friday. :)

There is a man at my work who eats a Healthy Choice brand frozen dinner for breakfast every day. More specifically, he eats the Garlic Shrimp & Pasta frozen dinner for breakfast every single day.

I'm not going to lie, the smell of shrimp and garlic is not something anyone should have to deal with at 8:40 in the morning.

why saturday was the best day of my life:

1. I moved into my new (and awesome) apartment!
2. I bought a new (and awesome) bike. Its a vintage Schwinn and its yellow and zippy.
3. My dad bought Reichle & I lunch at McCools where we attempted to drink mint juleps and watch the kentucky derby (However, McCools doesn't serve mint juleps and the derby hadn't started yet. Oh well, I still got a French Dip out of the deal.)
4. I magically got into the Tim and Eric show for $14 (6 dollars under face value).
5. Ran into my good pal Jeremiah after the Tim & Eric show, and he bought me a PBR at the Backstage...where we saw Tim and Eric having beers with Stephen Malkmus and one of the guys from the Shins. (Side note: I've had "Think about your dad" stuck in my head for days now.)

The sun has been shining in Portland, and that is a beautiful thing! I adore the area I live in, and Danielle called my room "magical". I live next door to Dave, and joey, and Chris...and they are some of my favorite people in the world. I've been drinking boatloads of iced espresso, which is just grand.

All in all, I'm just beginning to feel settled. I'm getting the hang of the job, I'm getting more involved with Truly a Polar Bear, I'm working with the Somalis on a regular basis, and Tick Talk Radio is going well. I keep busy, this much is true.

Oh, and we've been hanging out with this crazy/amazing family. The father is Indian, the mom is American. Their daughters are absolutely gorgeous, and I am just taken with their 6 year old, Arunika. She's tiny with huge brown eyes, long black ringlets, and she's missing her two front teeth. The kid is just mesmerizing. When you hear her story about how they had to kill their "wooster" because he was fighting with the other "wooster" you'll know what I mean. And the mom makes amazing Dahl and Lamb Korma and I drank buckets of home made Mango Lassi.

Lastly, thank you for all the reading suggestions! Its so lovely to actually have time and energy to read. I have quite the list, so it may take me awhile to get to some of them...but I really do appreciate the input.

Good night,
Lindsay