My Life - 2008
Wow, it's snowing today! (At least, it was yesterday when I started writing this entry that I'm just now finishing :P) Looks like Portland is getting its requisite one day of snow per year (though the weather's actually supposed to stay cold for a few days, with more snow possibly on the way). I was planning to do some Christmas shopping, but I'd rather not drive, since Portlanders have no idea how to drive in the snow, as this (sad but true) video demonstrates: Slip 'n' Slide!
So since I'm basically stuck in the house today, I might as well get around to something I've been planning to do for awhile, anyway. I haven't updated my Live Journal much in the year of 2008, with only three entries, and all of them were fandom related (new Gravitation tracks, fanfic updates). There have been a few changes in my life, but I never got around to making entries for any of them, so I've decided to make a "year in review" type entry where I catch up on the things that have happened in 2008. Plus, picture dump! Enjoy!
Back near the end of last year, Josh was injured at work. He soon found that it was a hernia that would require surgery to fix. He had the surgery in January, but was still unable to return to work for several months, and with restrictions, at that. It seems that he was re injured at some point, since to this day he still has various types of pain, but the doctors can't find what's wrong with him. Now I've become the man of the relationship, since I do all the heavy lifting....sometimes we get strange looks, since people find it unusual for the girl to be carrying all of the bags out of the grocery store when there's a "big strong man" walking right beside her carrying nothing. It seems that other people mind it more than I do....
In March, one of the more significant events of the year happened. At that time, I was the assistant manager of my department. My manager, who had worked at the company for 10 years, decided to leave Uwajimaya to pursue other job opportunities, leaving the manager position up for grabs. I had only been the assistant manager for about a year, and had been working at the store for the least amount of time out of any of the assistant managers, so I thought I might not have too good of a chance to become the manager since there were others with more experience than me. I applied for the job, anyway....and I got it! It was a bit scary at first, since my lack of experience meant I didn't have all of the knowledge that others might have, but things are much better now, and I feel more comfortable in the position. In June, I hired my own assistant manager, which was a big help, since it provided me with some assistance (as the name of the position implies :P).
Also in March, Josh, Tara, and I took our annual trip to Sakura Con (my....8th trip? Josh's 10th....holy crap, we've been doing this a long time o_O) Unlike last year, we didn't do any cosplay this time. However, we did come up with a fun game for jaded congoers such as ourselves who spend half the time rolling our eyes at all the hyperactive otaku around us. The night before, we came up with a list of things commonly seen at cons (glomping, Narutards, crossplay, etc.), and then put those items into squares in a bingo format. At first, the goal was to just get a regular bingo (across, up/down, or diagonal), but we achieved those so quickly that we tried to go for blackout by the end of the weekend. Below is a scan of Josh's card:
Josh almost got blackout, but was foiled by the fact that Manry apparently only attends Kumori Con, not Sakura Con (click on the link if you dare, but don't say I didn't warn you....let's just say there are some male crossplayers who don't give a damn whether their bodies are feminine enough to play female characters o_O)
In May, Uwajimaya Beaverton celebrated its 10th year (Uwajimaya as a whole celebrated 80 years). We had a festival, and I always like to use the festivals as an excuse to dress up ^_^ This year, a coworker of mine brought in an Indian style outfit, shown below:
The front
The back....I was trying to imitate Light's pose (thanks, Zhi, for editing it in ^_^b), but I turned my head the wrong way ^_^;;
In April/May, Josh and I made a major purchase: we signed the paperwork for our first home. We had been searching for awhile, and finally settled on a condo in a new complex. It wasn't exactly in the area we wanted (we would have preferred to stay in inner SE Portland, but ended up having to go out near 122nd), but the areas we liked best also came with prices we couldn't afford, so we had to compromise a little. It's a pretty good size for us, with 1400 sq ft. and three bedrooms, giving us one master bedroom, one office room, and one guest room. Below are some photos of the place we bought:
Front view of the condo.
Part of the living room, including (fake) fireplace.
Other side of the living room (and me :P), taken from dining area.
Kitchen.
Master bedroom (with Josh and Leopold).
Office room (also houses majority of manga)
Guest bedroom (err....not sure why we just took a picture of the curtains ^_^;;).
Since we had to wait for the lease to be up on our apartment, we didn't actually move in until June. I hope not to move again for awhile, since this was our fourth move in three years:
First move, August 2005: Each of us moved from our respective parents' houses into our own apartment.
Second move, August/September 2006: After having lived there about a year, the landlady told us that recent inspections had proven that our apartment did not meet current fire codes (something about how the bedroom was on the inside and had no windows leading out), so we had to move to a different apartment within the same building. That was fine for us, but hard on our cat Leopold, since he would continue to go to the old apartment, and we'd have to drag him kicking and screaming back to the new place.
Third move, June 2007: I have the details about this in a previous entry and a follow up entry, but the short version is that the apartment building we were living in was sold to be turned into condos, so we had to get out quick (only gave us thirty days notice....thanks, guys). We barely found a place on time, but it was a pretty nice one. However, we had to sign a one-year lease, which meant that the talks we'd had about buying our own place would have to be put on hold for awhile.
Fourth move, June 2008: Moved into our condo. Yay ^_^ Like the second move, this one has also been hard on Leopold. Since the neighborhood we live in now it not quite as nice as the previous ones, we've decided to make him an indoor only cat, whereas before he could go outside if he wanted. We thought he might be OK with it, since when we first got him he didn't really seem interested in going outside and stayed inside for a whole month, but apparently now that he has a taste for it, he doesn't want to give up his outdoor privileges. He's often seen staring out windows or doors like this:
(Come on, cat, it's snowing outside, you wouldn't want to be out there anyway!)
I tried getting him one of those cat leashes so I can take him outside with supervision, but I've yet to successfully get him into the harness (he's a master escape artist, and can easily struggle out of the most secure embrace :P). We've also considered getting another cat to keep him entertained. After all, at our last apartment, he seemed to have fun with the other cats in the complex. Interestingly, the lady living below us had three cats that all had the same coloring as ours. Since there was a tree by the back porch that served as a cat stairway, he could go down to see them, or they would sometimes come up to visit:
"I don't know who to shoot....which one's the real Leopold?!"
I once tried to get a picture of all three of the neighbor cats below:
Since they all looked like Leopold, Josh and I gave them the names of The Evil Twin, The Clone, and The Doppelganger (though I no longer remember which is which).
I guess there wasn't much point to those pictures, since I took them last year, but I just wanted to post more kitties ^_^ I guess the conclusion here is, we may soon add another kitty to our family!
At the beginning of August, Josh and I attended a family reunion for his father's side of the family in Montana. The last time we had attended was six years prior, shortly after our engagement. I had some interesting firsts on this most recent trip....first time riding on and driving an ATV (I started to feel a little motion sickness after awhile, though :P), first time visiting a prison (Josh's brother is currently serving time), first time eating squirrel (tastes kind of like turkey), and first time shooting a gun. I fired a BB gun a little bit at the camp site (shooting cans off a log), and on the last day of the reunion, Josh's father took us out to shoot with a real gun (some kind of rifle....I know nothing about guns :P) in the woods. We set up some paper plates and sandwich boards with targets and gophers drawn on them, and shot away. According to Josh's father, I had surprisingly good accuracy for someone who had never shot a gun before (must be due to the first person shooter games ^_^;;). We were about 25~30 yards away from the targets, and I could usually hit them (though not always in the spot I was aiming for). The last round I shot, I was aiming for a plastic bottle, shown below:
I shot at it four times before it fell over. At first, I'd assumed that it meant I hadn't been hitting it, but in actuality, I hit it all four times, but the the bullets had just passed through without knocking it over on the first three shots. Though I can shoot pretty well, I don't think I'd ever want to go hunting, though. I'd feel bad shooting at an actual living creature.
In September, as I did last year, I once again donned the Hello Kitty costume in the Beaverton Parade. It was a bit easier than last time, since I got to ride on a float part of the time (which is good, because I was starting to get dizzy from walking in that damn thing). After the parade, I engaged in epic battles back at work:
In November, I made a purchase of something awesome: a kotatsu! If you don't know what it is (though if you've seen anime, you've probably seen them), it's a heated table covered with a blanket to keep the warmth in. Josh and I first experienced one up close last year on New Year's Eve at my (now former) co-worker Kayoko's place. It felt so nice, we decided we had to get one for ourselves. We sell them at Uwajimaya, but they're really expensive (even the smaller size is over $400). However, there's one day a year when employees can get an additional discount beyond the regular employee discount, so I bought it on that day. It's sooooo nice! Below is a picture:
(LOL, my living room is such a mess). Right now, we just have a fleece blanket over it, but we want to buy a nice quilt or something soon so we can get the full effect of it, since the fleece blanket doesn't retain too much heat. Though sitting on the floor can be a bit hard (that's what growing up 'Merican will do to ya :P), putting down cushions helps, and the warmth makes it totally worth it, especially with this cold weather we've been having!
Well, that pretty much covers the major (and some minor, but amusing) events of the past year for me. Probably forgetting some things, but that's what I get for trying to recall a whole year in just one entry :P It shouldn't be very long till I make another personal entry, since there's a special day in my life coming up very soon. Hopefully I'll post about that in a timely manner ^_^ Look forward to another long, babbling entry!