Turkey Time in PDX

A wonderful week in Portland came and went! I apologize for the delay in posting... I managed to bring back a lovely cold and body ache, and I'm just now starting to feel like moving.

The trip began with a bit of drama. I felt like I was so prepared. I had everything all neatly packed, and even had time to go to the salon for a pedicure and eyebrow wax (I know, I know - high maintenance) on Friday before I left, so I was feeling totally ready. Saturday morning, I woke up, grabbed my bags, and did a last minute check for my boarding pass and passport. My passport?? Where was it?? I was frantically looking everywhere. I knew I had put it in my purse the day before, but I had changed purses for the trip, and now, it was in NEITHER. Not in my carry-on, not in my pocket. Not anywhere. I was so upset, totally crying, and definitely not sure what to do. I checked on-line to see if a resident permit would get me through customs, but in my panic didn't have the patience to look at anything for too long. Finally, I ended up grabbing my birth certificate and praying that between that, the electronic copy of my passport that I had on my computer, and my resident permit, SOMETHING would get me the heck out of this country. I put on my coat, grabbed my suitcase again, picked up my purse... and found my passport right under my purse. I had never picked it up. Oh my goodness! Total heart attack!! Calm after finding the passport, I made my way to the airport. I ran into a co-worker from WHQ, and talked to him the whole time while I waited for my flight. I swear, I think Nike keeps that direct flight from Portland to Amsterdam going, so I always run into someone. :)

Once we had boarded the plane, I was pretty excited, because I had both my seat, and the other seat in the section all to myself. Always nice on a long flight. A not-so-nice thing - the two hour snow delay that we had... the wings of the plane were frozen, so we had to wait for either the de-icer or for the sun to melt it. The sun did its work faster. :) Finally, we were on our way. I was pretty excited for the actual flight, because I had lots of things to do... I had forced myself to finish the book I was reading, The Other Boleyn Girl, because I downloaded the movie and wanted to watch it on the plane. Book = spectacular. Movie = not-so-much

I finally arrived in Portland at about 2pm. Sean was at the airport waiting to greet me. It's always a little weird for the first few minutes, but then things are right back to normal. The first thing I bought in Portland? A Pumpkin Spice Latte at Starbucks. Oh, how I have missed you! :) Sean's nephew, Zach, was playing in the Washington High School state quarterfinals that evening, so Sean and I made our way to Vancouver for the game. I have to say that it was honestly the most exciting high school football game I have ever seen. It was tied 14-14 with 33 seconds left. The opposing team was about to make a field goal, when... the kick was blocked, and Zach's team ran it all the way down the field for a touchdown! Wow! So exciting! We went to Applebee's to watch the Oregon State game after that, which was another exciting finish. I managed to stay up until about 10pm, which was great considering the time change.

Zach's coach gives the team a pep talk after the amazing finish

The next morning, I started waking up at about 2am... that's the tough part about flying west. My body thought it was lunchtime already and was wondering why the heck I hadn't eaten yet! I managed to stay in bed until about 5am, and then I finally got up because I knew I was driving Sean crazy with tossing and turning. :) He humored me and got up at about 5:30, and we walked to Starbucks for... you guessed it. What a sport! He went out to Pumpkin Ridge to play golf, and I drove to St. Helens to see my amazing friend Leslie, her husband Justin, and my godson Samuel. Sam is getting so big - he's the size of a three-year-old height-wise, but he's only one and a half. Considering his father is 7 feet tall, I think he might just have his dad's genes. :) Les and I did the stuff we usually do in St. Helens - went to Wal-Mart, baked cookies, and hung out. It was great! :)

Les and Samuel... yes, folks, he is only 18 months!

That night, Sean and I wanted to have some of his friends (that are now my friends too!) over for dinner. I decided to try out some of my Italian cooking skills and made gnochhi. Fabio would have been proud! :) I also made chicken parmigean just in case the gnochhi didn't work out. Both turned out fine, so we just ended up with full bellies. My friend Suzie made amazing little pumpkin cheese-mini-cakes, and we all just enjoyed catching up. Our friends Amy and Tony brought over their kids, including Kayley, their new addition, who I hadn't met yet. Again, it's amazing to see how fast these kids are growing! We had a great time! :)

Tony and Brady (he's 3)

Amy and Kayley (4 months)

Monday was a work day for me. I got to see Michelle Middlebrooks first of all - she picked me up at 6:45am because she gets to work early and I needed a ride. Having time to chat with her made it worth it to get up at the crack of dawn (and besides, considering the fact that I woke up at 2 am the day before, I knew the chances were good that I'd be up that early anyways!) I love going back to work at the main campus... it's so big and impressive! I definitely will appreciate what I have when I'm back! :) Work is not really work for me, considering many of my friends and mentors also work at Nike. Trust me, I got plenty done, but I ran into many familiar, friendly faces in the process. It was great catching up with old and new friends.

Tuesday evening, I got to hang out with my old running buddies - Raelee, Michelle, and Cristina. Cristina needed to put her little one to bed, so she came a bit later. While we were waiting for her, we decided to go to Nordstrom so Raelee could help me pick out some new makeup (I think the last time I did this I was about 18 years old - um, yeah, time for an update). I think having your girlfriends with you when you are picking out makeup is pretty much the counter girl's best case scenario. When you are constantly hearing "Oh, yeah, that looks great on you!", how can you refuse to buy something!?! I ended up buying every single thing that the girl put on me, and almost even bought the ridiculously expensive brushes (Raelee had to draw the line on that one... she told me to go to the drug store, which I did... they were less than half the cost there!). After this extravaganza, we went back to Raelee's, where she made us a very yummy dinner and the girl talk commenced. It was so good to see everyone, and I'm really looking forward to a visit from Raelee and her boyfriend Andy in May. :)

Me with the girls post-makeover

Wednesday, after work, Sean and I had a reservation at a place I've always wanted to try, Paley's Place. It was everything that I had hoped, and more. I love places that use crazy ingredients and put together unexpected things... it's so fun to try, but I never do it when I'm cooking for myself.

Thursday was Turkey Day!! Sean and I got up early so we could hit the gym before pigging out, and then made our way to his mom's house in Vancouver. We did all the cooking this year in an attempt to take some of the stress off of her. I made a lot of my mom's recipes, which were well-received. Afterwards, we played the Wii, which I had never done before. I had a lot of fun! :)

Sean loved getting his fingers all gooey with turkey guts!

Friday, Sean was all over Black Friday. I was not so excited, but tagged along anyways. And, guess who spent all the money? Yes, that's right. I was doing my part to stimulate the economy while Sean watched me with a smile on his face. But the sales were SO GOOD! I couldn't help it! I ended up buying an extra suitcase to bring everything home - yes, I bought THAT MUCH! Let's put it this way... my suitcase on the way to Portland weighed 50 pounds. On the way back, one suitcase weighed 50.5 pounds, the other weighed 54 pounds, and I had a huge backpack that I'm sure weighed at least 30 pounds, but I took it as a carry-on, so they didn't weigh it. Yeah. Out of control!

I got to see my wonderful friend Amy on Friday afternoon... it was pretty much the only few hours we were both in town, as she had been in New York with her family for most of the week. Her husband dropped her off downtown on their way back from the airport. It was so nice to see an old friend and catch up. We went to Pioneer Square, where they were putting up the tree. We even got seranaded by Christmas carolers.

Amy and I at Pioneer Square

That evening, Sean went to the state semi-finals for his nephew (which was a total blow-out), and I went and had dinner with some friends from way back - Kayle and her husband David, and Renee and her fiancee Abe. Kayle made a great dinner for all of us, and it was really nice just catching up. :)

Saturday was a nice day... I got to see a few more friends in the morning - my two buddies Skye and Katie, both of whom I used to work with. I went to Skye's house and got to see her adorable little girl, Maren, and Katie brought her newborn, Owen. I treasure these friendships so much. I am so blessed to have such great, level-headed, supportive friends.

Skye's daughter Maren - a total doll!! :)

After that, Sean picked me up and we ran a few more errands, and made it home just to watch the big Civil War game - Oregon State Beavers v. Oregon Ducks. Sean was a Beaver, so that's who we were rooting for. I think they were actually predicted to win, but it was kind of a blowout. The Ducks just looked taller and stronger. We still had fun though - it's nice to have normal kinds of dates sometimes, instead of all the time having these crazy vacations. I mean, don't get me wrong, meeting in Italy was fun, but it's not reality. :)

Sunday was a day of sad goodbyes. These trips always go by way too quickly. But, the good news is that the countdown until my trip home for Christmas is really short - as of today, 22 days.